It's the end of Jan now. RO is down in Las Vegas for the week. He's at the World Furniture Market buying for the store. Part of me wishes I was there. The other half of me is very happy being up in Seattle. I don't enjoy buying at all. On top of that, the time off is kind of nice. I forgot how much I like puttering around, doing my own thing.

January has hit the store hard. Sales this year are less than half of what they were last year-- and we just opened up last year!

Fortunatly we have some money left over from Christmas, so if this keeps up, we will be ok for a couple of months.

So Earin just left for her new job without saying good bye. She get's every 2nd weekend off, so hopefully we will get to see her then.

I'm tempted to move her stuff into the garage and find a paying room mate right away.

Earin has started receiving mail from Check-Masters and other fast-cash places. I hope she's not in too much trouble.

We've had another storm. Last night it took me three and a half hours to get home. I kept getting stuck half way up the hill behind cars that couldn't make it all the way, or were abandoned. It was very frustrating after the fourth hill.

Many drivers were frustrated. I overheard a couple of shouting matches between stuck and unstuck drivers.

Right now I am very happy that I sprung for 4x4. I had few problems dealing with the hills.

Earin isn't a great a room mate as we had hoped. She has only paid one month of rent since mid October-- she's had a number of ligitamite finiancial problems since she moved in, but I am still disappointed.

She's starting a new job next week and will be traveling a lot. The new job pays well, so hopefully she can catch up.

I'm officially a middle manager at my day job. It's affecting the way that I work. I'm trying harder to look like a good roll model-- though blogging at work obviously doesn't fit in that category.

The weather forcast says another bad storm hits tonight. This winter has had three bad storms so far. We are starting to label our past project deadlines by the related storm-- we worked on that during the flood. Jesse and I completed that during the snow storm. That was due during the windstorm, but we had to punt it to the new year.

Conversations I want to remember...

"I hate this Seattle weather"

"Then move to California. They have nice weather."

"Oh dear Lord no! My sister lives there. and that state is not big enough for the two of us."

I'm back. It was a good trip, but I'm glad it's over. I spent too much time with too many kids. They are very nice kids, but after you spend time with 12 or 13 of them, it get's old.

The friday after Christmas was my mom's family Christmas get together. In any year only about a 3rd of the cousins make it. Still, I talked to many people that I hadn't seen in over ten years.

On New Years Eve I drove back to Toronto to see my old friends. They are almost all married and with children.

Pancakes-- New Years Eve morning I had pancakes and sausage for breakfast. That evening I drove up to G&J's for dinner. There kids were sick, and not eating anything so they served them comfort food, pancakes and sausage, to encourage them to eat. So, I had my 2nd meal of pancakes and sausage in a row.

New Years day I drove over to J&J's, for brunch. Wouldn't you know it, but J&J made pancakes and sausage. I felt gross after my third straight meal of them.

Other than that, the kids are growing big. I only get to see them once a year, so I really notice the difference.

Toronto-- It's still growing. A huge number of hi-rise condo's have sprung up in the ten years since I left-- many along the Young Street subway. It's feels weird to see the miles and miles of new hi-rise buildings.