v35.0: Finally Friday

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

I arrived at work a lot earlier than usual.  In fact, I've arrived over an hour and a half early.  Recent events have made me uneasy and I'm having trouble sleeping so while laying in bed this morning at 5AM, I decided to get up and head into work so I can hopefully leave a bit early.

-slurp-

I'm tired but at least it's Friday!  The forecast here for today is calling for cold temperatures with the possibility of snow this afternoon.  A definite flip from the nice weather we had last week while I was on vacation.  Coming into work this morning you wouldn't know it was going to snow today; it is warm outside and it is lightly raining like a perfect spring day.  I can't complain though, we've had hardly any snow this winter (compared to previous winters I've lived here) and the temperature has  been fairly warm all season despite the Farmer's Almanac predicting a harsher than usual winter.  With summer just around the corner, I think we've seen the worst we're going to see for this season and the weather will only get better from here on.

-slurp-

I need to stop and write about the education system.  Specifically in-service days and random days off.  I was a kid once and I can't recall ever having as many days off school as kids today get.  My kids have an in-service day today which makes at least 3 (maybe 4) this year so far.  That is in addition to March break and all the other holidays.  Now I realize things have changed considerably since I was a child in school (Principals were allowed to spank and strap children back in my day) and I realize teachers need this day to advance their teaching skills but is it really necessary to have so many of them?  Maybe there seems to be more because I'm a parent and not a kid, but it really feels like kids today get a lot more days off school than I used to.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining (really), I'm more curious as to why.

-slurp-

Regarding my Roll-up 2010 page, I wanted to explain the Free coffees I've been getting.  If you've been following along you've probably noticed that I've gotten more Free coffee from Roll-Up wins than I've won.  This is because I typically buy a hot drink for my wife and kids on weekends when I go get myself a coffee.  This usually means I get 4 chances to win a free coffee instead of 1.  I only record my personal winnings and losses on the page but when one of my kids wins a free coffee, they usually give it to me.  Of course if I told them they could substitute that for any hot drink (Hot Chocolate for example), they probably wouldn't hand them to me :)  So if you're looking at the page and wondering how I got so many free coffees with only winning 4 so far, that is why.

-slurp-

For those of you who have been following along you'll note as of this musing, I've won 5 times out of 31 plays.  That puts me well under the 1 in 9 odds Tim Horton's advertises so I'm feeling pretty good about my winnings.  While I haven't won anything bigger than a Coffee yet, I'm still holding on to hope for the Rav4 or Cash prizes.  A couple weeks ago someone won the Rav4 at the same Tim Horton's I buy my coffee from every morning.  I was a bit disappointed because on the morning the Rav4 was won, I had to get gas before heading into work so I decided to skip my regular Tim Horton's for the one closer to the gas station on my way to work.  I was kicking myself when I found out that someone who bought a coffee at my regular location that morning had won the Rav4.  It could have been me!

-slurp-

Anyway folks, the purpose of getting in early today was to get ahead in work and get some things taken care of early.  I plan on releasing the next chapter of my novel today so keep checking my Untitled Novel page for that update.  This weekend I plan on spending some time doing some editing on the first few chapters to clean them up a bit.  The novel is far from complete but I plan on finishing it soon, I just need some motivation.  Until next time...

-slurp-

Cheers,

Al