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After spending three days in Calgary, I came home with really dry and itchy skin. The hard water in the city did a real number on my skin. For a comparison, Calgary has a rating of 165 ppm of CaCO₃  while Vancouver has less than 3 ppm. The dissolved minerals in the water can leave soap residue on your skin which dries it out.

While my skin returns to normal, I’ve been moisturizing more as I once again bathe my genitals in the soft and nourishing mountain-sourced waters of the west coast.

I returned home to Vancouver this early evening. When I woke up this morning in Calgary, it had snowed overnight and a blanket of white misery covered the entire city. In fact, it was still snowing lightly and the snow was blowing sideways. When I was on my way to the airport, I saw two separate vehicles that had slid off to the side of the road. My Uber driver said he saw lots of accidents in the morning when conditions were even worse.

When I did get to the airport finally, I arrived only to find that my flight was delayed forty minutes. It wasn’t the best day to travel if you were in Calgary. I was pleased to land back home in sunshine though.

I was supposed to do most of my packing tonight, along with buying my grandmother a birthday card. Didn’t do a lot of packing and didn’t get the card yet. It’s super late and I still need to go to work tomorrow. I’ll have to leave work a bit early on Friday and rush home to finish my packing. As for the card, I’ll have to get it on Saturday I suppose when I’m in Calgary.

I just checked the forecast for Calgary while I’m there. It might snow on the last day I’m there as temperatures are supposed to go two degrees below freezing. My plane better be off the ground by the time that happens.

Meanwhile, it was hot enough to wear shorts today and it will be even hotter tomorrow here in Vancouver.

I’ve been wanting to upgrade my video card since July and I only was able to get a new one today. The stupid cryptominers have thrown the video card market out of whack. I still wound up overpaying for my video card by about $50 but whatever, I just couldn’t wait any longer.

I’m probably an idiot though as supply seems to be increasing again and price appear to be on the decline. I guess I could have waited longer but that’s time I could have been gaming. Stupidly, I only had one game downloaded on my computer that could take advantage of this new card. I went from playing on “medium” graphics settings on Overwatch to “ultra” settings. I think I reached a peak of 130 frames per second on “ultra” which is good enough for me.

I’m looking forward to downloading some more modern games to put this new piece of hardware to the test.

When I was in San Diego I used UberEATS for the first time. The two times I used it was after midnight when I was back in my hotel, hungry, didn’t feel like going anywhere, and wanted someone to deliver me food. In that respect, UberEATS was perfect. It’s a separate app that you need to download, not the one that you use to get around. Conveniently though, your Uber account works on both apps. The UberEATS app leverages a lot of the existing technologies in the other app, including seeing your driver on a map so you know how close he or she is with your food. The app is also easy to navigate and for the most part, you can even see pictures of the food in the menus.

Both times I used it, I chose Jack in the Box as it was the only establishment that was both open and desirable as a midnight snack. Jack in the Box doesn’t have locations in Vancouver and it’s also headquartered in San Diego which made it an attractive choice. The closest location was about a five-minute drive from my hotel. Each time, from the time I submitted my order to when I had food in hand was less than 30 minutes. I believe the longest part of that time was the app trying to find a driver that would accept the order and delivery. I imagine if a driver was right next to the restaurant and willing to take the order on, my food would have arrived sooner.

Once your order is submitted, the app keeps you up to date on the status. Once your driver is determined, it will update the app with the driver’s name and car. It will also tell you if your order is going from being “prepared” to on the way to your location. Once that happens, the vehicle will also show up on the map. Every step of the way, an estimate of when your food will arrive is available. This is helpful if you need to go downstairs in a large hotel with many floors.

I waited for my driver in front of the hotel and he or she just hands you the food and then drives off. It’s like a pizza delivery guy, except that no money changes hand, it’s all done in the app, even the tipping if you want. I was fairly impressed with the service. I know that many food delivery services exist back at home but none have the infrastructure of Uber behind it. At this time, I’d probably wait until UberEATS arrives in Vancouver before partaking again.

I’m headed to Calgary this Friday evening to celebrate my grandmother’s birthday. I’m pretty sure it’s her 90th, like almost positive. Uh anyways, most of my extended family will be there. Some of whom I haven’t seen for about five years. My parents are going and so is my sister and her husband.

I’m staying in a modest suite in a hotel with my parents. They arrive a day earlier than I do since they have more time on their hands. My flight doesn’t leave until 9:30pm on Friday so I’ll even get to do a full day of work on Friday, yay! Since the fancy celebratory birthday dinner is on Sunday evening, I’ll have to take a vacation day for Monday as I’ll be heading back home at 5pm.

Well, it should a fun and interesting weekend. I just need to survive this week at work.

Due to circumstances beyond my control this evening I found myself at IHOP for dinner tonight. I ordered a t-bone steak at IHOP, which I had never done before. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t great either. I wouldn’t really recommend it to anyone. Stick to the pure breakfast items.

I am a huge fan of Norm Macdonald and these jokes are definitely off-colour and have a strong possibility of insulting those with delicate sensibilities. Caution should be taken. Having said that, some of these are genius.