Thursday afternoon

Well, I’m pretty tired of Calgary now, or at least of being away, so it’s good that I am coming back tomorrow.  Not much exciting to report.  The actual work I came up to do here didn’t go so well, lots of technical stuff that I prefer not to bore you with.  A few late nights.  Well, not late so much as long.  But all that is behind me now and I have left the office now.

Last night, I had dinner with my boss (CFO) at a fancy place called the Seven Restolounge, where I enjoyed a wonderful steak and mushroom soup.  Mmmm soup.  Tonight I’ll probably hit the hotel restaurant, the Keg.  This time I think I’ll have a steak.  Here’s their cooking levels to choose from:

BLUE RARE Cool, blue, all the way through.
RARE Cool centre, bright red throughout.
MEDIUM RARE Warm centre, red throughout.
MEDIUM Warm, pink centre.
MEDIUM WELL Hot, small trace of pink in the centre.
WELL DONE Hot, fully cooked throughout.
CHICAGO Charred outside, cooked to order inside.

I’ll probably go with the CHICAGO, well done in the middle.  I didn’t realize the way I like my steak was actually a Chicago thing.  Is it, fellow Chicagoans?

Calgary Trip, Monday morning

Last night I had dinner in the hotel’s restaurant…

The Keg Steakhouse & Bar

Great Keg steaks, a casual atmosphere, and friendly, knowledgeable service are the proud trademarks of The Keg Steakhouse & Bar. Our location offers a truly comfortable and satisfying dining atmosphere accompanied by a fun and casual bar setting.

I was feeling like healthy fare, so I just had a spinach salad with pecans, cranberries, goat cheese, mandarin oranges and a vinaigrette dressing.  A little too citrus-y for my tastes, though.  I also had half a glass of red wine, since that’s good for you.  Afterwards, settled back into the hotel room and went to bed.

This morning, no rush to get to the office… took a leisurely shower and got dressed, headed out for breakfast.  Nothing grabbed me along the way, but right near the office is a Tim Horton’s (Canadian version of Starbucks) where I got an iced coffee, a breakfast sandwich, and two dozen donuts for my Canadian friends.

Right now I am just chilling out here in the office with not a whole lot to do.  Figuring out what to do for lunch.

Calgary trip, Sunday

Here it is Saturday afternoon and I am on a United Airlines plane bound for Calgary, Alberta. I lucked out and got an empty seat next to me, so I can stretch out and have a wee bit of privacy.

The weekend was spent packing mostly, or involved with otherwise mundane activities, but on Saturday my brother came out for our informal movie night, and we watched the latest Alien vs. Predator (not bad for its genre) and one called He Was A Quiet Man with Christian Slater, which was surprisingly good. The main character reminded me of the guy from Office Space whose desk was constantly moved, eventually down to the basement, and who had his red Swingline stapler stolen. Only instead of burning the office building down, he brought a gun with him everyday to work and imagined blowing the building up. Anyway, it was an interesting exploration into the ability of people to change and I would recommend it.  Also, the special features include alternate endings!

And now here I am, with two hours to go on this flight, a charge of 66% on the laptop, a Layers magazine, two sci-fi books, and some ice water.

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Wrote that first bit on the plane.  Now I’m tucked into the hotel, and deciding what to do with the rest of the night.  I took a few pictures with my berry, which have been posted over at Flickr.  Here’s a few highlights…

The smoking ban in Calgary is apparently more stringent than Chicago’s. One of the few smoking areas outside the airport was covered with signs, and accompanying “graffiti”, like this one:

Interesting, since I work for said industry.   There are a bunch more in the Flickr set.

Also, here’s my room at the Westin:

Again, more pics in the Flickr set.

Alrighty, now I am off to figure out what to do with my free evening.  Love to all.

P.S.  Radiantreader - got your message, meant to call back, got busy, etc.   Let’s hang out when I get back ok?