Month: June 2021

On Friday evening I finally met my niece. She is almost six months old and because of the pandemic, this was the first opportunity for me to see her in person. It was a kind of surreal experience. I think most people have had much less human contact in the last year and a half but here I was on Friday, holding an adorable baby in my arms. It’s been years since I had a chance to hold a baby.

It must have been a surreal experience for my niece too. I was probably the sixth person (not counting nurses and doctors) to hold her in her entire life. Up until last Friday, she had spent her entire life living on Vancouver Island. During the same evening, she also saw my parents (her grandparents) for the first time. So many new faces and places to take in for her.

My niece only tolerated being in my arms for about a minute before she decided the situation was too odd for her since it wasn’t either her Mom or Dad who was holding her. It didn’t matter that my sister was standing right next to me and telling her it was ok. I hand to her over to my sister before she started wailing too much. That’s ok, I’m still a stranger to her and I’ll slowly win her over.

For six months or so, I’ve seen pictures of my niece but it was something entirely different when she was actually in my arms, kicking her powerful tiny legs, looking up at me with a slightly suspicious demeanor. I’m going to try to be the best uncle for her. I’m not sure exactly what that will entail but I will do my best to find out.

For the first time in almost a year and a half, Conan O’Brien did his TBS show with an actual audience in the seats last night. He’s said many times on his podcast during the pandemic that he misses performing in front of people dearly, so having an audience in front of him must have been beyond satisfying.

The timing of the return of audiences for Conan is fortuitous as he only has a handful of shows left before his TBS show ends its run. He’ll be going to HBO Max for a new show. There was originally some fear that he’d have to end his current show without any audience members in the theatre with him but thankfully that will not be the case. The show deserves a proper send off, with his fans in attendance.

I had a drywall dude come over to my apartment this early afternoon to repair the holes that were made when I had the baseboard heater installed and also to repair the crappy job that the original drywall guy did when I had my fireplace removed some years ago.

He was here for less than two hours but he needs to return one more to time to sand and smooth out the wall so it will be ready for painting. Now I gotta line up some quotes for the paint job.

The last phase of my home reno is to get new flooring installed. I currently have some terrible carpet in my living room and bedroom. It sucked when it was new and sucks even more some years later.

It’s gonna be a huge pain in the ass to get new flooring in but it’ll be better in the long run. It’ll be easier to clean and I won’t have carpet to trap all the dirt and dust. I’m thinking of getting a robot vacuum that can also mop floors afterwards. That’ll make things easier. That’s the long term plan. For now, my drywall still hasn’t even been repaired yet!

After receiving three quotes, I chose a contractor to repair my drywall. I didn’t go with the lowest quote, just the one that gave me the most confidence they would do the job right the first time.

They’re coming over to my apartment on Sunday. It will probably take a few visits to get it all done. I hope it all goes well. You never know when it comes to contractors.

As Conan winds up down his show on TBS, he brought back Sarah Silverman to talk about her many appearances on his various late night incarnations. As a bonus, they show a clip from one of my favourite times she visited.

I napped twice day, which I don’t think I’ve done in many years. I had to wake up early to move my car into a different parking spot because they were pressure washing the parkade today.

I napped in the late afternoon and then I napped again after dinner. Both naps were glorious and I felt much better afterwards. During my afternoon nap, I fell asleep with my phone in my hand and I didn’t drop it over the side of the bed. I’ve done this a couple of times now. It’s a neat skill.

I’m hoping I won’t need to nap tomorrow.

My sister, my brother-in-law, and my niece are temporarily moving back to the greater Vancouver area this weekend. My niece is almost six months old now and I have never seen her in-person and obviously never held her in my arms. These unfortunate circumstances are because of the pandemic. My niece was born during a pandemic, something which will probably be a trivia answer for her as she grows up.

I am excited to see everyone when they arrive this weekend but I think I’m gonna be a tiny bit more excited to see my niece in-person. She is definitely an adorable baby and I cannot wait to hold her.

As many of you know, I’ve been working from home since mid-March of 2020. It has been well over a year since I worked a day in the studio. In that time, I’ve only returned twice to the office: once in the summer of 2020 to pick up my personal items and once in the fall of 2020 to get my flu shot.

Depending on where you are in the world, some people have begun to or already have returned to work in an office environment. If you want to know something amusing, the original work from home order from my employer called for employees to work from for just two weeks. Obviously that order has been extended several times over the last fifteen months or so. The latest news I have heard is that, at least for my team, we will definitely spend the rest of 2021 working from home at a minimum.

There are already signs of what working back at the studio will look like, whenever that happens. Earlier this week, all employees of the Vancouver studio were informed that over the next few months of the summer, everyone is to pick a day to come back into the studio to pack up all their personal belongings and to clean up their desks. Last summer, there was a voluntary opportunity where employees who wanted to come pick up their stuff could. It was purely optional and it was solely for the benefits of the employees who may have been missing their coffee mugs, toys, and other collectibles.

This new mandate, however, is for the benefit of the studio itself. Management wants everyone to remove all their personal belongings and to clean up their desks because it needs to be flexible about who may or may not be at work on a particular day. It is most likely the concept of one permanent desk for every employee will be going away for most people.

I think it will take many months for management and facilities to setup the studio for employees to return. It will be a different environment, where many employees are only at the studio for part of the week.

Anyways, I have at least another six months of working from home still and I’m ok with that.

Both my parents now have their appointments booked for their second shots. My Dad has his on Sunday and my Mom has hers a week and a half later. The timing is great because in this province, casinos are opening up again on July 1, Canada Day. By then, both my parents will be at least two weeks post-second shot, meaning they will be fully vaccinated.

I’m not sure when I’ll be getting my second shot but it’ll probably be in July sometime. I cannot wait to be fully vaccinated. There will be a definite sense of relief.