Sake

I hate Sake... I have nothing good at all to say about Sake. Last night we had a "cinq a sept" which is a "five to seven" in English. Which is pretty much an after work party. I started with Beer (sleeman's) then everyone started doing mixed drinks and a few of us started doing shots. Well the mixed drinks were made with Sake. The shots were straight Sake.

Grrr. It's ok tasting stuff, don't get me wrong. But it just wreaks all sorts of havoc on me. And unlike Beer, Whiskey or other forms of alcohol, there never are any good Sake-drinking stories. Trust me, like a trooper I've tried, but nothing. Like last night, we drank, it ended up going past 9, let alone 7. Louis, Chaf, Marc-Andre and I were the last 4. Marc-Andre and I decided to go to Stash's after to get some food. Then I ran over to the Metro stop, in my drunken stupor. I fell asleep on the Metro, but woke up just in time for my stop, which is the last one anyway so it wouldn't have mattered. Then I took a cab home cuz walking wasn't a good idea. Tried to install some software on my iBook then went to bed.

Now I'm sitting at work, with a horrible hangover and despite the meal I had last night, breakfast this morning, brushing my teeth and chewing some gum, I can still taste Sake...

This sucks... Don't trust the stuff.

The Rest Just Before The Best

I can't believe it's already Wednesday night. The week is flying by. 2 more days of work then the weekend is here. Hurray!

2 days in a row of posts. I promised over a week ago that I'd give you some of the highlights of the Best of Montreal. I'll get to that before the week is over, I promise. But before that, a little update.

With all of the commotion (locomotion, locomotive, get it?) yesterday, there were a couple things I didn't get to write about. Well I could have, but I would have lost those of you with shorter attention spans... In addition to everything else going on, I got to check out the new Best Buy in town. That's right, there is finally a Best Buy in Quebec and it's less than 10 minutes from my place. How cool is that? That's comparable to opening a meth-lab in the north end of Springfield. It's a nice Best Buy. The one in Holyoke is bigger and better, but this is a start.

Yesterday, I also received notification that I "won the opportunity to buy Sox tix" for the June 4 game against Anaheim. That's cool. June 4 is Western Mass and since I "live" in Chicopee, I entered and for once, I won! So tomorrow I get to buy my tickets.. I can get 4. Anyone interested in claiming one or two of those should let me know right away and start puckering up!!!

Today, I got the paper and went to see if there was anything about yesterday's accident and sure enough there was. It was in the "Fast Track" section. I'm not lying neither. I'll try to scan it this week. Then at work, shit hit the fan in the US... They're short staffed and had some major site issues, so we offered to assist. I got a nice thank you from the SVP of Service in the US and the President of the company was copied it on. Good stuff. I'll use that later.

So tomorrow or Friday I'll go through the Best of Montreal. I would today but there's already enough to read and I'm not yet sure how long the BoM will be. Could be long, could be short, we'll have to wait and see.

Look Both Ways And Be Alert...

Cuz if a train hits you, it's gonna hurt.

That's right, I got to see the aftermath of someone getting hit by a train today. Woohoo... I'll get to that later.

This weekend was a 3 day weekend for us up here in Canadia. I think it was Victoria Day on Monday or something like that. So, like a good little Canadian, I went back to Massachusetts. 2 weeks in a row, talk about mileage.

Saturday, I headed up to the the Polish Hall again to witness the devestation from this year's Spring Fling. It was actually kinda quiet there. Though I tied a pretty good one on with Chad, Ikie and Shane Mitus. Good times. I got home, was feeling pretty good, got a hold of Dave and we decided to head on down to the 5A.

This return trip to the 5A was a little different. For once, we didn't know anyone working there. It was sort of a shock. But a good one. We had quite a system going. We were telling everyone I was from Canada and visiting Springfield. It seemed to work pretty well. So well one of the entertainers there said she'd come out drinking with us after work, but her friend, who happens to be in the Hell's Angels, had to bring her home. Note to self, do not use the Canadian schtick at the 5A any more.

I was pretty plastered after all was said and done. Wisniowka, Hennessey and Sam Adams don't mix well. But like a champ, I was up and at it first thing Sunday morning.

Sunday afternoon, we headed over to the Ludlow PACC to see Jan Cyman. They sounded pretty good. Decent crowd. As usual the fuckin' Zielonkas were bitching about the noise. Someone needs to straighten them out. The problem is no one at the PACC has the balls to. The spend their $20 a week. Not a dime at the bar and all they do is bitch. Tell them if they don't like it... don't come back. Maureen and Spike also came up from New Jersey. That was entertaining let me tell you. I left the PACC feeling dirty for the obvious reasons and felt that I needed to repent. So... Dave and I went back to the 5A! Where else? I felt much cleaner.. Though Dave pinched his finger on one of the barstools there... Someone better get a hivtest. But oh well, you only live once right?

Monday was more laid back... Quicky's, Episode 3 (which I'll comment on later this week), the mall and then back home to Montreal.

That brings us to today... I usually take the 8:12 train or the 8:30 train depending on how much I rush in the morning. Today, I didn't feel like doing anything, so I went to take the 8:30 train. Well, I'm waiting at the train stop, and the train leaving downtown was coming in. I heard a little bang, nothing unusual and I see the train stop short of the station. Didn't think much of it, might have broken down or something. Well the conductor gets off is looking around, then gets back in. I noticed there was what looked like a white bag in the front of the train. Maybe that was the reason for the train stopping. I didn't know. Well my train comes and once I got on, I looked out the window and it was a paper shopping bag with a woman's purse in it. Awww. someone lost their purse I thought. Well we get going and as we get a little further you can see an ambulance and a cop and a whole bunch of people. Hmmm things seemed a little sketchy.
It seems as though, what happened is this chick was walking towards the train station, talking on her cellphone, went to cross the tracks without paying attention and BAM. That can't be fun. The interesting part is the reddish tinge to the rocks on that side of the tracks now. I'll see if I can take some pictures. If not, well, here's the article for you all to read...

http://www.canada.com/montreal/montrealgazette/news/story.html?id=52970d5a-8012-4d22-8012-1fe577d8ca75

Home and Back Again

I guess I've been slacking off a little on my postings. Sorry but I'm sure you'll get over it.

I promised I'd write about the Best of Montreal last Saturday. That never happened cuz I decided to head back to Massachusetts early. The weather up here sucked and I had nothing better to do, so I went back Saturday afternoon.

Putnam and I headed up to the Polish Hall where we were greated by a couple huge shots of Wisniowka. They put a new roof on the older pavilion and were celebrating. Ikie bought us a shot and a beer and proceeded to call my old man a "cheap fuck". haha, things never change.

Sunday my mom and I headed back up there as we had to do the Basket of Cheer for this year's scholarship raffle. Well, in all honesty, she did the basket and I had the cheer. Then just as we finished and were having a couple drinks, Teddy, Witkos and Doug walked in half cocked and decided to share some of our drinking stories. Ah shit. My mom got a kick out of them, luckily they kept to the mild ones.

After that, I hit up Piccadilly in West Springfield with Heather to catch up on things. That was cool. I kinda get the feeling she's looking for something, but, that's a no no. Then later on, Putnam, Lea and I went to OTB for some Mexican.. Always a good call.

Monday was a productive day at work. So productive I didn't get out until 7ish. So instead of driving 5+ hours while tired, I stayed the extra night. We went again to OTB where I talked to Alison, one of the waitresses there. Her and I went to the Rolling Roc later that evening for some beers. She's pretty cool. A little on the tomboy side, but she's a fun chick and can hold her beer. Always a good trait!

Wednesday I walked back into a hornet's nest. Apparently our IT department hoarked up our computers and decided not to call me about it. So I spend the whole day dealing with that.

Today was much of the same. I decided against coming to Maynard for the whole week next week for that training as well. I'm pretty bummed about it as it's interesting stuff and would look real nice on my resume. But, being out of the office for a week with nothing going on, well... that won't work. But I still may come back for the weekend depending on who's around. We'll see what's shakin'.


Finally... I got my big ol' tax return back and spent a good part of it wisely. I bought a brand new iBook, which I'm writing to you with right now. I love this thing. It's cool, powerful and it's cool too. Did I mention... it's cool.

Today I also picked up an iPod Shuffle so I have something to listen to on the train ride into town every day. It was cheap enough and well, there's about 30-40 minutes of time every morning wasted by standing and waiting for the train to get from my stop into town.. Now I won't be so bored!

That's it in a nutshell. I'll check back soon.

J

Good Week.. Good Weekend (I Hope)

It's been a pretty darned good week.

Let's start with Wednesday... We've been hiring people left and right in the Marketing department. One of the most recent hires, this dude named Bernard is kind of an interesting individual. For instance, I've had to work with him on rebuilding the phone tree, but beyond that, I have no idea what the fuck his job is! Well Wednesday, Bernard, Marc-Andre (who is a director in the Marketing department) and I grabbed lunch together. We went to this place called Boris Bistro which was an outdoor place, rated one of the best terrasses (terrace for the rest of humanity) in Montreal. It was 'reasonably' priced for a nice lunch in Old Montreal. I paid like $30 for a Buffalo Steak, French Fries that were fried in Duck Fat, and Creme Brulee. It was the first time I had ever had a steak made out of Buffalo (or Bison) meat. It was nice and tasty. Service was good too, but it was pricey. Either way, while we were eating, Marc-Andre and I got to hear about Bernard's "life-decision" 5 years ago to never wear ties again. We also heard about how he never used to drink coffee until he spent some time in Italy and brought back an espresso machine. And not just any espresso machine... This one is hand operated and learning how to brew with it takes months to get it just right. He also told us that he goes to this specific coffee shop in town and how he has the guy there grind the beans to a specific texture so everything is "just right". Whoa... There's a dude with way too much time on his hands. But Marc-Andre and I will probable eat with this dude a few times a week going forward just for the stories!

Then came Thursday. The day of the "big meeting". There are a few moments in my professional career that I can say were truly rewarding. This was probably the most. The Sales VP, myself and our GM met to discuss what was going on. The stuff he started with is exactly what he's been pulling with me for the last 6 months. That got put to rest early on. It was extremely amusing to watch someone practically self-destruct. Kind of like in the 'Untouchables' where the dude got snuffed in the elevator and gangster wrote on the wall in his blood "TOUCHABLE". That was kind of the realization that happened Thursday. Going into it I was confident that things would change for the better, but I figured I'd have to do at least a little compromising on my part, but that wasn't the case. It was win win for me. The part that was even better was how his sales reps on Wednesday were all confident that it was going to be my head on a platter. Well next week is going to be a bit of an eye-opener for them. So that was the icing the on the cake.

What else? umm. oh yeah.. I'll be coming back to Massachusetts for meetings on Monday. I was supposed to fly into Boston but a flight from Montreal to Boston was like $900. The company would obviously pay for it, but it comes out of my budget and since I have P&L responsibility, I figure I'll drive for a fraction of that price. And when I drive, the mileage reimbursement means I'll make a couple of extra bucks. Works for me. So I'll probably leave sometime Sunday, hit up a few local establishments back home and go into the office first thing Monday AM. Pretty cool.

As for today... It's raining out again. I'm just going to take it easy. The Mirror, which is one of our local free rags (kind of like The Advocate) has their annual Best of Montreal ratings. They're kind of like the Advocate's Best Of The Valley or Best Of Springfield. I'm going to review them today and provide you with a summary of some of the more interesting findings.

One thing that's a little interesting is today's Gazette. I haven't read it just yet but you can bet I will in a few. The front page headline says "Sovereignty 'Quebec Paradox'". It also has a big graph telling me that if an election were held today 54% of Quebecers would vote for Quebec becoming it's own separate country. There's been all kinds of political turmoil and uncovered scandals talked about mainstream recently and as all this has been going on, the discussion of Quebec separating from the rest of Canada has gained some momentum. That could be good and it could be bad. Good in that I enjoy a little political turmoil now and then. Bad in that from what I understand, the only reason anything in Quebec is in English is because the rest of Canada speaks English. Quebec would want to become a 100% French speaking country. That would have some negative impact. Also... Unlike events down south 140 years ago, there'll be no spectacular battles or anything should Quebec secede. Canadians are too lazy to really give a shit. The one thing though, if that happens, my stay up here will be limited as I don't have any desire to put up with the bs that would ensue should that happen. I doubt it will, but well, we'll see. I'll keep you all posted on what transpires.

That's it for now. Check back later. I'll be reviewing The Best of Montreal!

The Stones!

Awww Yeah! So I just found out the Stones are playing Fenway this year. I need to score some tickets for that. I called Charles and JoAnn... Perhaps they are interested. That would be good times.

Other than that. Same old shit. Not much new to report. I took Andree-Anne and Jolyane out for beers after work. How's $95 for an evening of a few drinks and an appetizer. Outrageous.

After that, I got home, listened to Nick's show for a bit... Talked to Heather and Screwdriver Jill on the phone for a little while. Now I'm sitting around, chatting on AOL.. getting ready for bed.

I will be back the week of the 23rd of May, however, I'm flying so you that care to visit will have to come to Marlboro. I also might be back on Monday. These tard Canucks keep shipping me back. I dunno what's up.

July 9th is the big party in Chicopee. I'll be back, so all you cheap bastids that insist I come visit you every time I'm in MA, well, there's your opportunity. There'll be food and beer.

That's about it. Short and sweet tonight. I'm heading to bed cuz I have to be up in 6 hours. Peace.

The Old Dublin Pub. Notice the 5Aishness about it. 

The "sign" pointing you towards The Old Dublin Pub.  

The statue of Copernicus outside the Planetarium. 

Sunday Night Shite

Pretty good weekend. I woke up pretty early Saturday as you can tell, and was a little under the weather. I messed around with my Fantasy Baseball League teams then decided to get off my ass and do something.

I had to get those Mothers Day cards so downtown is where I was headed. But why just go there for shopping? Since I was making the trip, albeit not a long one, I figured I might as well do something else. I was thinking about maybe hitting up the Old Port. Now, Montreal is laid out on a grid, like most major North American cities. The Old Port, then gradually becomes Old Montreal which gradually becomes Downtown Montreal. The Old Port supposedly has some good stuff, including an IMAX theater. The only problem is that its quite a walk. And I didn't want to drive or pay for a cab. So I settled on going to the Planetarium, which was about 5 minutes from the Train Station.

But before that, I wanted to get lunch. Downtown Montreal offers quite a few choices. Once I left the train station, I headed up University towards St. Catherine street. I didn't quite make it there as I stumbled, once again, on the Old Dublin Pub. For those of you who remember your history, I stopped in there on St. Patrick's Day but it was too packed. Luckily at 11:45 on a Saturday morning, it was just me and some drunk dude. This place, on the outside, has sort of a Fifth-Alarmishness to it. It's settled back between a couple of buildings, painted a color that cannot be mistaken for natural brick, and looks damn sketchy. Sounds like my kind of place. The inside is much better though. They had a wonderful selection of beer on tap, and the burger and fries I had were good. They also have an extensive list of Single Malts.. I'll be going back there.

I had to expel some of the beer I injested so I stopped back in the train station since it was on my way to the Planetarium. Good thing I did, cuz I made a very important discovery... There's a card store in one of the wings of the train station. Sweet! Too bad I didn't know that earlier. So I got my card shopping done.

From there, I headed down to the Planetarium. The Montreal Planetarium is kind of shitty. It's just a Planetarium. Not attached to anything and it's not really near anything worthwhile. It was built in the late 60's, and not really modernized. Probably the least impressive of any of the Planetariums I've visited in my time, but it was still ok I suppose. I saw a presentation on the astronomy of the pharoahs. Semi-interesting. They've got a few presentations scheduled this year that seem like they'll be interesting, maybe I'll go back one day unless something better comes up.

After that, I went downtown to walk around the malls. Those things are like a maze. One day I'll figure them out.

Today was much less exciting. I did laundry, watched the Sox split a double-header with the Mariners and cleaned up a bit. Oh yeah I went grocery shopping too. Pretty amazing stuff.

And one thing I forgot to mention about Friday night... On the way home, I happened to go through Marche Centrale (Market Central) which is about 4-5 miles from my place. There's a building under construction there. They happened to put lettering on the building in the past week. That lettering reads "Best Buy". EUREEKA!!! Finally a Best Buy. Well it's not open yet, but I'm going to find out when. This is some of the best news I've had since moving up here. Maybe I can get a job there part time on the weekends just to get a discount. That would be cool, but, well, I'd rather spend my weekends doing something other than work.

That's all for now folks. I'm going to bed early tonight. I've had a splitting headache all day long. It sucks.

Pretty Wild Week

Good stuff! Wednesday my boss talked to my team and let them know that there was going to be quick resolution to the issues I brought to them and also let them know how much him and I appreciated their ability to work with such adversity, blah blah blah. Pretty cool. Thursday, in our exec meeting, Louis, who is the head of Marketing and probably once of the smartest dudes I've ever worked with, brought up that his team was getting the same exact crap mine was. Doh. So he's going to be in on next week's meeting also.

I also got a call from one of the consultants in our Maynard office, looking for some more information from me. Apparently, they're looking to add a 3rd call center and are looking at me and my operation right now. There's a pretty good chance that Montreal may be the site, which would be another big plus for me. And if we don't end up being that site, oh well, things are still fine. So that's definitely pretty cool news.

What else is there... Oh yeah, I was pretty bummed yesterday. I went to get some Mother's Day cards for my aunts and grandmothers only to find out that the 3 stores within walking distance of my office only carry Mother's Day cards to mothers from their kid(s). They also had some for grandmothers however they were in French which really doesn't help. So, today I've got to go downtown to see what I can find and mail them out on Monday. Not cool.

Last night, on the otherhand, was an entirely different story. I worked until 8, got home and decided that I wanted to go out. So I started local. There's a pool hall/pub in the same complex as the Cinemas Guzzo so I check that out. That place is a shithole. It's the Teddy B's of poolhalls. So I had 2 beers, some nachos and left in a hurry. The nachos were actually ok, and the barmaid was cute and very friendly, but that couldn't make up for the rest of the joint. So I drove around looking for fun or trouble (they can be one in the same) and ended up going downtown to Crescent Street. What a blast. It's pretty fun in the winter, but as the weather has been getting nicer, so have the surroundings. I ended up in Sir Winston Churchill's which has quite the reputation. Tons of girls and they've all 'gone wild'. The only problem is that some were there for fun and others were there for money, if you catch my drift. And it's not always easy to tell the difference. Something to be careful about. I was there for a while, but didn't stay till closing as I had my vehicle and well, don't need a DUI. But I'll definitely be spending a lot of time down there this summer. Usually Finn, Leighton and I go to Portland for that, well, this is better and it's a 25-30 minute drive depending on traffic.

That brings us to today... I've been pretty burnt out. Last weekend was cut short cuz I worked on Saturday, and with everything going down at the office, I've been putting in some extra hours. Last Sunday was spent cleaning up and stuff. This weekend, I'm just going to relax for once. I do need to go downtown to get those cards, while I'm there I'll probably pick up a DVD or two and watch movies today and tomorrow.

Oh yeah, one last thing... Monday evening I got a call from the Gazette, which is our local English-language newspaper. I am a weekend subscriber, meaning I get the paper on Saturdays and Sundays. Well, they were running a promotion where, for an extra 5 cents a month, I can get the paper daily until the end of October. Perfect! The Saturday paper up here is equivalent to the Sunday papers in the US. The Sunday paper here is actually the smallest paper of the week. I bet you're all pretty excited that you have taken the time to read this paragraph.

Problem Resolution

Ah Tuesday it is. Well today I had "the meeting" with my boss about the crap I've been bitching about the last couple of weeks. I got exactly what I was looking for out of it. The one sales rep that has been the biggest pain in my ass... well his days are numbered. Whether his boss does it or I make his life miserable to the point where he leaves, that problem is solved. The bigger overall problem, however, is ongoing resolution right now. I have a meeting later next week I believe, me, my boss and the head of sales. Unfortunately for him, I've got all the cards. So we'll see how it pans out, but I'm feeling much better about it.

One thing that worked to my advantage is that my boss likes to go around and talk to all the employess to see how they're doing. Well, over the past 2 weeks he was told by a vast majority of my team that sales is out of hand and the only reason they still want to stay with the company is "me". That's some powerful ammunition. Cuz if that wasn't the case, he could simply replace me with someone that would just bend over and suck up what sales gives them. However, to lose the head of your Customer Service department, and 6 members of a team of 8, well, your operation pretty much shuts down. Again, he's smart enough and seems to respect me enough not to even have to come close to that, but if the thought ever crossed his mind, well, he's well aware of the ramifications of that decision. Cool cool.

It also looks like I'll be spending a whole week in Maynard later this month. There's a training the senior Customer Service staff in Maynard is going through and the SVP of that department has an extra slot that was paid for so he asked if I was interested. I jumped on it. It's for COPC Certification. COPC is similar to the ISO Standard for Call Centers. It's not as popular, but its another credential to put on my resume. So why not. They're going to fly me in and provide me with the company limo service for the week. Pretty nice. However, I may be in town a couple days before and a couple days after. If anyone is around and cares to pick me up at Blo-gan Airport or drop me off or whatever, let me know! I will try to see if we can schedule that accordingly.

Good stuff Good stuff. Other than that, I updated my Sports Blog with some insight. Now I'm watching the Sox. As if there is anything else in life. Still waiting for my tax return as well. I'm definitely getting an iBook. This PC is 5 years old and is literally on its last leg. There's an electrical problem which is what fried my hard drive in January and resulted in losing quite a bit of data. I was going to get a G5, but they're a little too pricey and with the iBook, I can take it on the road with me and even conveniently hook it up to my HDTV and watch the Sox in the comfort of my living room.

I'm still also thinking about a vacation somewhere this year. I haven't had a full week off without having to worry about work, or driving to the next gig, etc etc. So, I should have the vacation time available from work, and if I have the money, I'm probably going to do something nice, even if it's not a full week. I'm thinking either Europe or Cuba. We'll see! ;-)