Posts from — June 2008

Just got back from sunny, beautiful Victoria where I was fortunate enough to go for business. I went with my co-workers Jill and Jana for the WestGrid Retreat. It was a lot of work to organize but definitely worth it! We stayed downtown at the Coast Harbourside Hotel (highly recommended) and this was the view from our balcony.

It was so nice to be back in Victoria and by the ocean. Not much had changed since we left (in 2002), except for the UVic campus, which has about 7 new buildings. It was so nice to walk across campus and reminisce of the good old university days.

Got to visit a bunch of friends who are fortunate enough to still live there. Saw Alix, Andrea and Samantha (soon to be a mom, so exciting!) as well as my old boss Patrick.

The traffic there was amazing. During rush hour one morning we had only 3 cars in front of us downtown at any stoplight and there were times when we were the only car on the road. Anyone from Calgary can appreciate what a nice feeling that was for a change.

It helped that the weather was incredible while we were there. Our scheduled freed up one day and we were able to walk around the harbour and even get a bit of shopping in. I would have loved to stay longer, but we all had a tournament to get back to in Calgary. I’ll write about that tomorrow!

So as most people know Lindsay and I play LOTS of ultimate. Some would say too much Ultimate… Anyway, we’d like to claim to be the most successful ultimate players in the family. Unfortunately we can’t have that distinction (although, Lindsay did get distinction at University, ask her about it).

As most Canadian Ultimate players know the UBC Women’s Ultimate Team won UPA College Championships this year. How cool is that right? For those not in the ‘know’ it’s the equivalent to the NCAA basketball tournament…. but in Frisbee.

Anyway, my cousin, Val, caught the winning point for the championship. How cool is that? I’ve included a link to the YouTube highlight video below. At about 2:22 in the video she catches the point. I especially love the way she catches it like it’s no big thing… and then gets mobbed by the team. Classic.

[youtube Zg4_P20rVa0]

Or you can watch the whole game here. If you fast-forward to approximately 1hr 17 minutes you can watch the winning point.

Exciting day planned for tomorrow — Garage Sale!

Our community is having a “Parade of Garage Sales” so we thought we’d join in. So, if you are looking for some cheap crap, come on over.

Willow is tired of her play area in the basement being full of useless stuff.

Afterall, one man’s garbage is another man’s gold!

Huge thanks to the Topper’s for an amazing event they put on this weekend. They organized a fundraiser for the Calgary Hospice Society and it was a huge success and a ton of fun. They managed to raise over $1000!

Everyone dressed up as super heroes (everyone, except those of us who skimmed the email and missed the part about dressing up) and lined up at the start gates. There was a 2 hour time limit to complete the course, which consisted of following maps and collecting clues to discover a secret location. It was about 10km, and the instructions said it involved a light jog through Bridgeland and Renfrew. However, we should have known better that the course was laid out by Adam and Julie (two really speedy, good runners) and it was a little more than a “light jog”. Add in the fact that Jeff and I are super competitive and had to finish as close to first as possible, and it extends beyond a light jog. We were one of the first teams back, but didn’t collect all of the clues and therefore didn’t win. They gave away some amazing prizes and Jeff walked away with a fancy PDA. Great work Team-o-Sill! I’m sure we would have come first if we had Scott’s brains, but he was late to arrive from his ultimate game (I think tardiness is also a side effect of Temocil).

There was a BBQ to follow at their place. We were supposed to go to the surprise party for Rob that I mentioned in my last blog, but running in the sun all day without water gave me a wicked migraine…I imagine it was a great party, and it’s not very often I turn down an offer for a night of Rockband with a fun group of folks!

Since Lindsay posted about her work last week I thought I’d post about mine and both of these are meat market related.

1) I’m dealing with a Cow Knee at work right now.  And by Cow Knee I mean an actual knee of a cow.  The first knee that we received was actually kinda cool.  It basically looked like a roast with a huge bone through it.  Nothing gross at all.  The second knee was a little grosser…  It looked like the first knee but 5-7 days old and starting to rot and smell.  Not so nice.

2)  I thought i’d post how hot I look at work right now.  I’m working in a clean room and you have to get all suited up in a bunny suit.

It was a super long week for me as I was trapped in a 10′ x 10′ booth for 3 days…but it was worth it now that the weekend is here.

The booth was at the Global Petroleum Show. Cybera had a booth as we are trying to engage industry (ideally Oil & Gas) to do some pilot projects with our company. Days are very long when you have to talk to people all day and repeat yourself over and over. The most popular questions over the week were:

1.) Can I have a pen or a candy? (people love free swag)

2.) What booth number are you? (7 buildings, around 6000 booths, but we kept getting asked…5156 was the answer)

3.) What do you do? (what’s research and innovation–those were 2 words on our exhibit and through everyone for a loop….the questions mostly came out in conjunction with question 1).

4.) What’s your number (phone, not booth)? (Ok, maybe this question didn’t happen, but it was close. Talk about meat market! The ratio of men to women was NOT even and I felt like I was selling more than project management most of the time, and I’m sure Jana did too). If you are single and looking to meet an oil man, head to GPS.

We had a super fun filled day, more details tomorrow!

There are 3 more birthdays this week!

Happy birthday to Dr. Rob (Tuesday)

Liesl (Wednesday)

Tim (Today)…Tim’s a guy who knows how to celebrate his birthday. Last year he was in Greenland and today he’s in Dubai!

Big birthday wishes going out to Amanda and Aubree today!!!

Man, we’ve been busy here at the Sill Household. Between being responsible parents (to our Kitty), ultimate and my company we’re keeping busy.

What I never told you about my company?

Don’t be offended because I haven’t really told anyone. Although, Lindsay has been telling lots of people. I know. I’m shocked too that I own a company. Although, President Jeff Sill, does have a certain ring to it doesn’t it?

Ok. back to the whole company thing. It’s named Dynamic Blogging Inc.

What does my company do? Good question!

In a nutshell, I create blogs and place ads, banners, links, etc. and get paid for it. It’s a bit more to it than that but really that’s the break-down of the whole thing. (TheSills.net has no ads or monetary value, although, it might in the future. why not?).

Why did I start a company?

Two reasons.

1. To receive that tax breaks that corporations get.
2. To make myself take this blogging thing a little more seriously. It’s amazing the number of people that are making a living (crazy living) off the internet in one way or another.

I was just at a conference in San Francisco to learn more and and expand my knowledge on a different technique to make money online. I could probably figure it all out on the internet but a two day crash course really catalyzed my knowledge. (good word huh! I’m a president now that’s why the big word!)

Why didn’t I tell anyone I was doing this?

I wanted to see if this really worked on my own without the added pressure of having people check up on me. Now that I know that it does I feel like I can tell people.

Where can I learn more about this?

You can visit my newest blog which is blog4money.ca. It’s a blog that shows people how to actually make money by blogging. I have a ‘Beginners Guide’ if you want to try this too. Be warned that it does take a bit of work but once it’s up and running it’s a nice little passive income. Or if you want just ask me some questions next time you see me.

Since Mike was making fun of me for posting about kittens, I will follow it up with a more manly post (just for him)….

Congrads to Bruce on winning this year’s hockey pool. As you can see by this photo, he must be texting in his picks, as he won the pool all the way from Dubai! To add to the story, Dr. Rob picked Bruce’s team in his absence. Not only did Rob pick the winning team, he also picked a losing team…Dr. Rob sadly put all his effort into Bruce’s picks and ended up finishing last himself. What a nice guy!

I finished 3rd after Philly crapped out, and Jeff finished 7th (which is a pretty good finish for Jeff in a hockey pool!)