Back To The Old Drawing Board

I guess I'm in one of the only professions that gets to use that expression in it's literal sense. And make no mistake, I do use it, several times a day. My other favorite thing to say when I walk into the office is "Hey, is there a draft in here?". Classic.

So I'm back in the workforce as of two weeks ago, at Modus Structures. On one hand I'm glad to be using my skills again, but on the other hand, I miss hanging out with the girls. It seems like Ashley's grown so much in the past two weeks. I wasn't planning on going back to Modus, but they've made some good changes there in the months that I've been gone, so I'm giving it another shot. There's still a lot that needs to change in the Engineering and Design department especially, but hopefully I can be somewhat instrumental in that process.

The biggest change is the addition of our shiny new office in Airdrie, as opposed to the barn that we used to work out of in Crossfield. This one has heat, indoor plumbing, and I'm pretty sure it's up to current building codes. It's also right down the street from my Dad's office, so we've been carpooling the days he gets out of bed in time.

Although working at Modus isn't my dream job, they've got potential, and so far they seem to be relatively untouched by the current economic downturn that has affected the job market in our industry. They've also been very flexible with our family during the events of the past year, and I feel I owe them for that. I figure I'll give them until our next child is born to get things to where they should be in our department, and if nothing changes, well then we'll have to re-evaluate.

You have to draw the line somewhere right? I've got hundreds of these.

Modus Operandi

Work has been busy lately, so the last thing I've wanted to do when I get home is even look at a computer screen, hence the long dark silence for the past couple of weeks. However, after threats of violence from some readers, I've decided to end the apostasy with some fab updates. This restoration comes not a moment too soon either as the amount of posts I've been meaning to make was reaching critical mass, and I found myself on the brinks of never having enough time to ever catch up to current events again.

As far as work updates are concerned, the big news is that my friend/chauffeur Paul has decided to leave Modus and pursue other career options. I've ridden shotgun with him for the past 3 years in our relatively one-sided carpool arrangement, so climbing back into the drivers seat again, might take some adjustment for me. He lives just around the corner from us, so I'm sure we'll still see each other often, mostly due to our relatively one-sided lawnmower borrowing arrangement.

In other work news, we moved into a new office a couple weeks ago. There are no sign of bee infestations, exotic spiders, dead mice, and no trace of paint fumes, so on those points it's got our last office thoroughly beat. The biggest selling point however, is the indoor plumbing. No more outhouse! The new office isn't a perfect setup by any stretch though, I'm pretty sure it doesn't even meet the building code, but it's better than the last one. The biggest issue is they didn't put an HVAC system in yet, so its dang cold some days and oven-hot on others. There's no exhaust fans in the bathrooms either, so what goes on in the bathroom, stays in the bathroom - for a long while. Thank goodness for Febreeze.

A large oilfield project we were going to bid on fell through last week, so a lot of the work I've done lately has been for naught. It's nice to see some of your efforts come to fruition every so often, so I give you the Airdrie Francophone school. It's one of the first schools I worked on designing here, and it's now occupied by students and teachers alike. There is another one just like it down in Okotoks and there are plans for many more of them around Alberta. They're not much to look at on the outside, but they are faster to build, far more economical and energy efficient than a permanent school structure, and they're guaranteed to remain mould-free. I just wish sometimes that the powers that be at Modus would put as much thought into their own facilities as they do their product.

Christmas Parties 2006

We held the traditional Bourne Family Christmas party on the 16th at the East Stake center. The event was again hosted by Graham and Leah. All the Calgary chapters of the Bournes and Jones were there as well as some Quists and a couple Spackman's. The Ganchar's couldn't make it due to illnesses, which was a bit of a bummer as they're the only ones with kids old enough (or young enough) to participate in a lot of the planned activities. Another damper on the day was the curtain in the gym being locked, so we could not enjoy the whole nasium for the games of skill. Nevertheless we had our food, folks and fun. As usual, we played the pie plate game for our gift exchange and, of course, had the festive pinata for the kids. After everyone Josh and younger had their chance gently poking and prodding the pinata with the stick, it was my cousin Kimmy, who is 10 and the only child in attendance younger than 16 but older than 2, who finally felled the beast. She nearly killed off half of her ancestors in the process, and she would have done it blindfolded. There was a plan to have one of those inflatable castles that you can bounce around in, but due to the lack of kids, it was cancelled. We ended off the night playing dodge ball and shooting some hoops "Bourne style", which means most shots ended up in the punch bowl. Fun times were had and it was great to see everyone together again.

The Ward Christmas party was held on the 8th up at the Chapel in Panorama. The food was worth the wait, Santa came and Emma got some goodies off him, and a program followed dinner. I believe the theme of the program was Christmas around the world and thus the Young men and their leaders were called upon to sing "Six White Boomers". It's a long song that should be sung with energy, and no one sings long songs with more energy than boys age 12-18, so naturally they were the perfect choice. It's good for them though. On a side note, our Stake was also responsible for the Nativity Pageant down at Heritage Park this year, so a lot of our Ward members were involved on some level in that production, including some of our youth. I always wanted to be in that when I was a kid, but we were a bit busy this year, so maybe another time. This was probably the last Christmas party we'll have in this Ward, as we'll hopefully be in Carstairs by next Christmas. It was fun and we really enjoy the people of Coventry.

As far as the Work Christmas party goes, we had the afternoon of Friday the 22nd off so we could head to the Crossfield Community Center for some beef on a bun and a raffle of prizes donated by all our suppliers and sub-trades. I ended up walking away with a $50 gift certificate to The Keg, which I'm excited about as I've never been there before. I don't know how I'm going to eat $50 worth of steak though. I got a bit of a chuckle out of our gift bags that were handed out as we left. I'm not big on company gift bags as they usually contain some fancy bottle of alcohol, or some specialty coffee, or a bunch of weird cheese. I was pleasantly surprised though, as our bags contained a 2L bottle of CO-OP brand ginger ale, CO-OP brand coffee, CO-OP brand chips, a small jar of Cheese Whiz, and various other items from the local grocery store. It was a nice gesture but I think they should have just spent the money on one nice thing, like plumbing facilities in the office.

Blackhawks Down

One of the consultants we work with has season tickets to the Flames and passed a couple along to the office a while back. Since all the other office staff were already going to the game, Paul and I got to take the tickets. Our seats were about 7 rows up from the ice, in the friends and families section, so we had a pretty decent view of the action. Flames played the Chicago Blackhawks and beat them 4-1.

Fully Fledged

We got some good news last week. Modus decided not to wait for the traditional three month probation time to expire to hire me on as an official employee. Last week they brought me on permanent, which means we're on the benefits plan, I'm eligible for bonuses, and I got a raise. We're an excited family as this comes at a great time for us. It's really busy there as I'm currently the sole drafts person but Paul should be back soon. This may mean a speedier departure from Calgary for us as we've been looking at possibly moving to Carstairs. If we do move to Carstairs, it will mean that all of my siblings who are married, have married people from small towns and then moved to that small town. Alison to Turner Valley, Heather to Cochrane, and Me to Cartstairs. Hopefully Trevor will marry someone from Australia or Greenland or some other far off place. Beeeoooom!

Modus Report

I've been working at Modus now for a few weeks and things are going well. They keep me pretty busy with the drafting side of things but it's nice that I'm not necessarily chained to my desk all day. I'm on site alot, checking things out and working with the construction supervisors, and that helps break the day up a bit. I wanted to post a picture of where I work to show how low tech it is right now. This is site 1 on the north end of Crossfield, where I work, and site 2 is on the south side of Crossfield where the actual construction takes place. If you're thinking, "Hey that looks like some kind of converted hay barn or something" you're right. My desk is right below that front window on the left. The barn area is where they paint all the doors so the fumes get bad sometimes, and there is no air conditioning so it gets pretty warm but it's still cool to draft in a barn. If you're also thinking "Hey, is that a porta-potty on the side of the building there?" you are again right. Even though it is our only facility, I never use it because there are people who work for Modus that live in that motor home behind the building there that have claimed it. I just go to the Shell station during lunch. It may sound bad but I think it's cool and I'm sure once the company gets more established there will be nicer facilities.

Modus Structures Inc.

School officially ended yesterday, I have a day off today but I'm back to full-time work on Monday for the rest of my life. I'm starting a new job out in Crossfield which is about 15 minutes north of Airdrie. The place is called Modus Structures Inc. and they design and manufacture portable structures for schools and such. I got the job through Paul from school who's been working there part-time for the past semester. Paul lives just around the corner from us so we'll be able to carpool out there together. Tammy and I are really excited about this opportunity. We've always wanted to move to a small town someday and if things work out at Modus we could potentially find ourselves out Crossfield way. The housing costs in Calgary are insane right now, and we're going to be outgrowing our house soon, so the hope is to be able to sell it and buy something a bit bigger but for less money. Gas prices are getting crazy now too so maybe we can cut the comute down to a walking distance as well. We feel very blessed and very grateful and look forward the opportunities the future may hold for our family.

Dda Grande Prix

Today the men of DeJong Design Associates were treated by Marvin to a lunch at Joey Tomatoes and 6 spins at the Go-Karts. The machines were a bit primitive but it was great fun. If I ever get a chance to go there again I'll have to remember to get car #66, it was the champions choice for speed. I've only been once before and it was at the same place so I'd like to try another place sometime that has better rides. It was a good way to end a pretty stressful week of school. This long-weekend is timely and the turkey dinners slated for Saturday and Monday are even more timely. Anyways, Thanks again to Marv for a great afternoon.

Dda Picnic in the Park

I stole some pictures off of Rhonda's website from the company picnic we had last Saturday at Bowness Park. It was a great time, I have lots of childhood memories from that park. We were there the week before for the Panorama Ward corn bust and both days the weather was great. Here's a pro looking photo of Dave and his kids that Rhonda took.

Part-Time Associate

Yesterday was my last day working on a full-time basis at DeJong Design Associates since I return to school on Monday. They would still like me to work there on a part-time basis as my schedule permits so I guess I'm not officially leaving. My school schedule keeps changing drastically and still isn't fully figured out so it's hard to say how many times a week I'll be able to go in to the office. I hope it works out because I really enjoy working there. The job is great and the people are great. I'm going to try and see if I can get any credit or anything for some of my classes since I've been working in the industry for the past four months and maybe that will lighten my schedule a bit. I am excited to go back to school but its a hard trade to go from working and making money to studying and doing homework. It's my last year though so I'll be back in the workforce before I know it. Thanks be to Dave for the hook-up and thanks be to Marvin for being so accommodating with my schedule during the past four months and now during school.

Dejong Design Associates

This week was my first week back to work since I left Encana. I'm now employed as a summer student at Dejong Design Associates. They're an architectural office located on the barracks just off Crowchild Trail. So far it's going fairly smoothly, I spend most of my time using a program called "Sketchup" to build 3D models on the computer. Unlike most of the jobs I've had (and I've had not a few), I didn't win this one with my good-looks and charm. My good friend Dave Walker happens to work there too and he's pretty much responsible for setting the whole thing up. I'd like to thank him publicly for getting me this job, but I wont. No, I think he's the type who would appreciate a personal thank-you, in the form of a lifetime of friendship, and by friendship I mean casual greetings in the hallway and a yearly Christmas card.

Retired

This past Friday (April 29) was my last day working at Simo Corporation. I've been working on and off there as a receptionist for the past 5 years and I can't believe that I won't be working there anymore! They're a smaller company that manufactures office furniture and I had really enjoyed working with the people there. My original plan was to start my maternity leave a few weeks from now - on May 13th - but I discovered that transportation to and from work would be a little complicated considering Mike starts a new job way across town this Monday and my sister Kelly, who will be replacing me at Simo, won't be starting full-time until after I leave, so I wouldn't even be able to catch a ride with her. Anyways, it all works out because there is about a thousand things that I still need to do before our baby arrives, so this will give me a chance to get them done (like prepare the baby's room for one!)

I am so grateful to my brother-in-law, Iain, for getting me the job in the first place (he is Simo's Marketing Manager) and to everyone there for liking me enough to let me return after I no longer wanted to work as a massage therapist full-time. This was a job where I didn't dread Sunday nights when a work-week was about to start because I enjoyed working with the people there and dealing with certain customers on the phone - the weeks just flew by for me. Kelly is already looking forward to working there more often because she loves the environment and the people there. I'm just glad that I will always be able to go back and visit, and I'm hoping to crash a few of their upcoming parties - like their Stampede BBQ this summer.

Encana

Last night was my last night working for Encana. It's kind of a bitter-sweet ending to my illustrious career there because money may be tight for the next while, but it will also be nice to be able to focus more on school and to somewhat have a life again.

The event passed with little fanfare but on Thursday, one of the guys on the dayshift, who is a baker, made an amazing cake for me and for Lana, who is also leaving. Last night, Lana and I and my friend Emmanuel, who also works there, went out for dinner to sort of say our goodbyes. The three of us had a lot of fun working together and I think Emmanuel is some choked about us leaving him. He and I have been good friends since before high school and it's been great to be able to hang out almost every night, make nonsense jokes, talk about old times, and come up with projects we want to colaborate on in the future.

I worked for Encana for about three years I think, and while it wasn't always the most exciting or fulfilling job, I am very greatful to them for employing me. They have been very flexible with my school schedule and working there has helped Tammy and I be able to buy our home, stay out of debt, and pay for tuition. Hopefully we can hold out for the rest of the semester and until I can start working a summer job....or until we can win some money.

Two Weeks Notice

I was given my two weeks notice last night at work. I guess with how busy they are getting they need to hire some full-time night staff, so those of us who can only work part-time are no longer needed. It's kind of bad timing but I'm sure everything will work out. I'll probably write more on this in two weeks.