State of the Bear

[chickenfeet]

I haven't been posting much at all and then only fragments so maybe an update is in order.

Since mid November I've been working on the expansion deployment of the provincial surgery wait times information system. In a nutshell, we are taking a system that reports wait times for surgery for a relatively small number of procedures and expanding it to cover about half the surgical cases in the province. Next fiscal we will do the rest. It's not especially complex as systems go but it's going into 81 hospital corporations and over a thousand surgeon's offices in a six month blast. It's very hard and usually I'm grey with fatigue when I get home.

Now I'm on vacation for a month (w00t!) and Kate is here and we are doing stuff. We now have all the Christmas goodies bought (solid and liquid). I've been restocking the freezer with Thai food. Kate has been enjoying being in a 'real city' and experiencing a 'real snowstorm'. Her boyfriend arrives tomorrow for a short visit. He sounds like a likeable young man (a little surprising since his father is apparently deputy director of Special Forces or something equally gung ho) so no problems expected in that quarter. It's fun having her around.

I have the Christmas food situation more or less mapped out. This will be a turkey free zone. I think tuna will feature on Christmas Eve and gravlax and prime rib on the day. This may be time to crack a bottle of the Leoville Poyferre '96 I have in the cellar.

I have discovered Civilization IV. On balance I like the changes from III. The graphics, of course, are much better but in general too, I think the gameplay has improved. I like not having to micromanage cities as much though this seems to be counterbalanced by more need to micromanage combat situations. Fighting wars has never played a big role in my civ strategies so this is a bit of a drag. I do miss the ability to manage trade that appeared in II and disappeared in III. My basic strategy used to be to create a civ that was so rich that it could outspend everyone else on research and build up an unassailable tech lead. I haven't figured out how to make that happen in III or IV.

We are in bookshelf positive mode though no doubt temporarily. Two six shelf six foot by three foot bookcases were delivered last week allowing an end, for now, to double shelving and the like. The rate of book acquisition shows no sign of slowing however. The Folio Society sucked me back in this year by offering a facsimile edition of Audubon's "Birds of America" as a bribe. I also couldn't resist some facsimile Blake.

I seem to be recovering from a cold that has been making me seriously grumpy. I do not like bleeding sinuses at the best of times but they seem inevitable at this time of year. The cold dry air plays hell with membranes seriously impacted by fifteen years of flying too much.

So it goes.

Comments

[ironed_orchid]

Glad to hear that Kate's visit is going well.

[lakme.livejournal.com]

Are you coming to my hospital to visit then? :)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I don't deal with hospitals directly very much. We have a team that does exactly that. I may be doing some program evaluation work at a few in the New Year though. Where do you work?

[lakme.livejournal.com]

Grimsby's hospital. Our wait time is really good, although we don't do that many types of procedures, the only one with a significant wait time is the TVT procedure and that's cause the kits aren't covered by OHIP. There, now you don't have to visit :)

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I'll have to check but I don't think that Grimsby is even included in WTIS at this stage.

[lakme.livejournal.com]

Probably definitely not, but at least I try to be helpful :) I just know we don't have much of a wait time being smaller, is all. But you should include us just for the fun of it, and then you can come and visit me and we can lunch or something :)

[stephiekeke.livejournal.com]

My doctor prescribed a humidifier for the bedroom to get rid of bleeding sinuses. It did help with the bleeding, but not for much else, such as congestion. But to not have to walk around with tissue stuck out of one's nose all the time was nice.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

We have two humidifiers running pretty much flat out.

[stephiekeke.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Then you got me. My sympathies, I hated the bleeding sinuses.

[melted-snowball.livejournal.com]

Hm. I wonder if I can blame mine on my flying habit (much smaller than yours, but still...). I'm sick of bleeding unexpectedly!

[frumiousb.livejournal.com]

Civ IV annoys me because they seem to have made it impossible to get by without being at war. My major strategy was to outculture everybody until they all adore me and then score a diplomatic victory. :) I've noticed that there are a lot more seemingly pre-set attacks in Civ IV-- fights you really can't avoid.

Hope that you enjoy your holiday-- I'm now off for 2.5 weeks myself. :)

[shezan.livejournal.com]

Léoville Poyferré 96, huh?

*covets*

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I bought a case en primeur

[tanuja.livejournal.com]

I was planning on roast leg of lamb for Christmas, but having read your post prime rib really appeals. I'll have to take a hike up to Queen Vic market over the weekend/Monday to buy some.

Leoville Poyferre '96? You're a very wise and fortunate gentleman.

Hope the bleeding sinuses sort themselves out.

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

I might have done lamb but with two Australian guests for dinner it seemed a bit "coals to Newcastle". I'm rethinking the L-P because of the guests. I have some really good Ontario Cabernet that may be more appropriate.

[frankie-ecap.livejournal.com]

Pleased about the good things and sorry about the sinuses. Hope they mend soon.