Archive for August 2005

Holy Ikea Batman!

The 3/4 day of work was good today. We headed down for lunch with some of the finance people to a restaurant called the Touch of Ginger. I think it was Vietnamese, not sure though. I had a T36 on the menu, which turned out to be some rice noodles with some chicken. You poured this fish sauce over it. It actually tasted pretty good. I also ate with chopsticks for the whole meal.

I could get used to eating out to these different types of restaurants. I’ll try anything at least once. Going back a few days, when I arrived in Calgary on Tuesday, Elena, Larry and myself went to East Side Marios close to our places. If anybody hasn’t been there it is basically the same types of meals as the olive garden. You get unlimited bread and salad at the start and then they bring out your main course. The salad too is almost the exact same as Olive Garden.

So tonight I decided to head to Ikea to take a look around. I’ve looked on their website and picked out a few items that I think would look sweet in the apartment. When I arrived home that night too I actually received an Ikea catalogue in the mail. The Ikea gods must have sensed that I was coming and so they new the right time to send me the catalogue. Anyways, when I got there I was amazed at how much sweet ass stuff they have there.

The store layout is as such, you go upstairs first, walk around the show rooms of different furniture, layouts, etc. While going through the showrooms you write down the product #’s for later on. Once through the showrooms, you basically hit the warehouse, where you pick up your items in shopping carts. If you wish to pick up your own furniture, you can do that too.

I’m going to head back there sometime soon and actually buy some things. I’ll need to take somebody else with me though to help load the car up. I can get them to ship it for $59, but my cheap Ukranian is coming out in me.

Also picked up a microwave today…Horray I can actually heat things up! Now I should actually purchase knives so I can cut things properly.

Attack of the Train Zombies

11 Aug personal No comment

If anybody has ever been on a transit train here in Calgary, New York, or anywhere for that matter, have you noticed that people are basically zombies. It’s like they’re robots, with the mondane task of heading into work at 7:30, and getting off at 4:30. I’m sure I’ll turn into the same thing once you do it day in and day out, but right now, it’s still quite fun to take it.

When I phoned the movers to see when they would be coming in, they gave me the bad news that it won’t be till Monday. What the hell am I going to do until then. The asses also packed my computer, even though I specifically said to the movers, do not touch this pile, it is going in my car. Of course, when i get back from errands on Monday, they have it all packed up.

So thank goodness Pranger had an extra laptop at work for me to use. I would start to lose my mind if I didn’t at least have internet to spend the nights.

Phone also got hooked up today along with internet and cable. Cable is kind of useless without a TV and internet is useless without a computer. Previous I was stealing somebody’s wireless signal from somewhere in the building.

Well tomorrow is full day of work since I’ll most likely be taking Monday off when the movers come to unpack. Off to bed.

I’ve been countryfied

10 Aug personal No comment

You would think that with almost 1 million people in the city, they would have some decent radio stations. There are really 2 good stations that I listen too. CJ 92, which is a mix up KX96 from Brandon and Power 97 from Winnipeg. It plays some older stuff more often then I would like, but it plays lots of Metallica, which is good.

The other station is 105 country. Now a few years ago, I would say country was terrible, but after HOT 101 in Brandon switched to country, it’s kind of hard not to listen to it. Once I listened to it though, I didn’t mind it. Now don’t get me wrong, the old twangy stuff is still shit, but the new stuff I actually enjoy. So when I drive in the car now, I flip between 92, country, and the cd player.

Adding to the country theme, as my going away gift from Aynsley and Terra, I got a cowboy hat. They figured since I was heading to Cow-Town, I should try to blend in a little. The hat won’t get worn too often, but it will get brought out on occassion.

For a person who’s never been on a horse and has only been to a farm about a dozen times, this is a big step.

I’ve Arrived!

09 Aug personal 2 comments

So it wasn’t as bad drive as I thought it was going to be. Only 11 hours. Take into effect the time change it was really only like 10. I left Brandon about 8 am, grabbed a Tim’s on the way out and took off. This is the first time I’ve been west of Brandon in a long time. Think the last time was when we went to Edmonton mall as kids.

It was a little slow when it was only a single lane past Virden. But good news is that they are working constantly on dividing the highway, so there will be only a minimal amount of single lane highway. As I was driving there was a sand truck that turned into my lane so I moved over into the other lane (on coming traffic) and was beginning to pass him. I looked ahead and saw some cars coming, so I sped up a little. As I was turning back into my lane, I cop was coming the other way, started to put his flashers on, and signalled with his hand to slow down. What was I doing wrong? I guess it’s wrong to pass trucks?

After the highway finally went back to divided it was smooth sailing. At 110 km you go at least 120, so the time really flies by. I hit Swift Current around 1 pm and saw that it was just over 500 Km to Calgary. I figured what the hell, might as well make it in one day.

On the way into Calgary I missed the turn off and started to head into NE Calgary. Knowing that I missed the turn, I went down 52nd St E all the way down to where I was supposed to come out. All was good in the end and I phone Elena as I was driving. I met up at her house (while trying to navigated the Bridalwood area). After about 5 minutes, I finally found it.

So that’s the trip. Wasn’t all that bad. Now to try and get settled.

Hello and welcome to the mattkiazyk.com. I currently live in Calgary, Alberta, Canada where I'm a software developer. Boring! I know! But hey it's my life and I'm enjoying every minute of it.