DarrylDot.org

Big time changes

Darryl — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:44:32 +0000

Hello everyone (or whoever actually reads this)!

In the past month, I have:

- completed my time at St. Anne's and Holy Family in Saskatoon,
- moved to Watson as pastor there (plus Englefeld and St. Gregor),
- got a new Soft-Coated Wheaten Terrier puppy named Chloe (!!), and
- as a result of the above, built a fence with some great help from David and a couple of parishioners.

I was originally planning to get a dog in the fall, allowing for more time to build a fence and move in and unpack. Then Fr. David texted me on the day that I moved in, saying that the same breeder that Neulla came from had one more Wheaten puppy available. Would I be able to come into Saskatoon on Monday to look at the puppy?

Well, the thing about "looking at the puppy" is that one never merely looks at the puppy. Invariably, puppy has a new home. Even though most of my home was still in boxes. Her name is Chloe, which was one of the top-ten most common baby girl names in Ireland a couple of years ago... and I needed an Irish name for an Irish dog.

Aside: I was originally thinking of getting a male Wheaten, who I would then name Wil(ly). Get it? How about now? :-)

The parishes are going along fairly well. It's summer, so there isn't a whole lot going on, and this has been nice for allowing me to settle in. I do have two funerals this week, though, which makes it a bit busier for me. Next week I will start some holidays with a trip to Regina to take in the Roughrider game. Then it's off to Nipawin for my 15 year high school reunion and a little event known as Elaine and Brendan's wedding. Since I'm preaching, does anyone have any good stories that may have a theological application? :-)

Oh, and finally: I updated the blog software to WordPress 3.0.1. If you notice any problems, please let me know.

Photos of the new place and puppy.

- Darryl

New iPad

Darryl — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 05:05:11 +0000

So, back when the iPad was released in Canada near the end of May, I decided to go down to Future Shop to check one out in person. Of course, they had been sold out for a few hours by the time I got there. But I was able to check out a display model and found it to be a neat little device. Specifically, the iWork apps seemed to work fairly well - and what appealed to me most (besides the ultra-slick web browsing) was the possibility of syncing my documents to a very portable device. The iPad in the store worked very well. So I went home and after doing a bit more reading, I placed an order with Apple.

After a week, I got a note from Apple that my iPad would be shipping by June 18. Today, I checked out the Future Shop website and lo and behold, they had several in stock! So I cancelled my Apple order and bought one in store. It's the 32GB wifi version.

So far, I've been impressed with the intuitive nature of the interface. I've been typing this entire blog entry on the new device. It's not as easy as a regular keyboard... I'm finding my typing to be slower than on a normal keyboard. So I'm undecided about whether I'll want a Bluetooth keyboard or not. But it works in a pinch for doing basic data entry. The Apple case I got is also great for holding it at a 30 degree angle for typing.

I haven't had a chance to play around with it much more than that (I did pick up the iWork apps though). But hopefully this device continues to work well for my needs!

Cathedral Building Progress

Darryl — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 02:42:11 +0000

This is really cool: a webcam has been pointed to the construction of the new Saskatoon cathedral.

The image auto-updates every 30 seconds.

http://www.scs.sk.ca/holyfamily.html