Category: Personal

  • Time budgets

    A post about setting annual targets or budgets for hours worked, how I broke down the targets and analyze the data in PowerBI throughout the year. (continue >)

  • Power of Attorney: lessons learned

    Lessons learned being a power of attorney for a US relative (as a Canadian citizen). Fun with banks, investment firms and Apostilles! (continue >)

  • 2024 year in review

    Another year has flown by and I’ve been thinking about how last year went. In my 2023 year-in-review post, I wrote that I was ending the year on a high note, getting back into blogging after not writing a lot in recent years. I wrote 27 posts in 2024, but only 2 of those since… (continue >)

  • MVP Renewal for 2024/2025

    A long overdue post about my MVP renewal for 2024-2025 and a catch-up on why my blog has been so quiet since March. (continue >)

  • Planes, Trains & Automobiles!

    I’m home from a 3-week business trip, and I thought I’d share some of the travels as I legitimately had a “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” experience, although not as chaotic as the movie! I didn’t post too much about it while travelling, choosing to wait for my return home to share this. It was 3… (continue >)

  • 2023 year in review

    This is my annual post look back at last year, 2023 in this case. It was an unusual year in a couple of respects. Most of 2023 was a blur as I had a very busy client project that consumed a lot of my time and the year seemed to fly by. 2023 started with… (continue >)

  • Last Christmas…

    The title for this post is stolen from a post I read recently on LinkedIn, by Thomas LaRock, a fellow Microsoft MVP though one I’ve never met. The post gave me something to think about, or perhaps more precisely, helped focus some thoughts that have been bouncing around my head for the last while. I’m… (continue >)

  • 2022 Year in review

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    I started writing this post on December 31st, 2022, as I re-read last year’s post to see where my head was at then. I re-read every “New Year” post I’ve written here, all the way back to Jan 1, 2011. It’s fascinating to see the change(s) in mindset and priorities over the years. Ten years… (continue >)

  • 2021 year in review

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    It’s hard to believe it’s the start of another year. 2020 felt like it lasted forever while 2021 was a blur. I think 2021 was “2020 one” and 2022 is “2020 two”, which is what this pandemic feels like at the moment, that 2020 has never actually ended. Nearly two years into this pandemic people… (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2021

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    It’s that time again, a new calendar year has begun. This year “Happy New Year” has an entirely different meaning to most of us, after what can only reasonably be described as a train wreck of a year. I’m a day late in writing this post this year (even though I’m posting this as Jan… (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2020

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    It’s time to look back on the year 2019 and the last 10 years. I won’t say “the last decade” lest the mansplainers get their shorts in a knot about it technically not being the end of the decade. 😄 10 years ago, I was 4 months into my own consulting business. In 2019, I… (continue >)

  • In search of the perfect credit card

    This post is off-topic about a series of trials and errors in finding the right credit card for my needs. (continue >)

  • Prepaid Visa Card rip-off

    This post is a warning to those buying or receiving prepaid credit cards. Watch the terms, mine starts with $3/month charges to reduce the balance on the card after one year of activation. (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2019

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    Well, it’s that time of year again, and time to look back at 2018 and plan for the new year. This is the 9th year where I’ve been writing these resolution posts and it’s always fun to look back at what I thought the last year would bring. If I could describe 2018 in one… (continue >)

  • Surface Go – First Impressions

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    TL;DR summary: I like it! I have had the Surface Go for just over 1 week now. I had been interested in it since it came out and did a lot of research on my recent trip to Fargo comparing US prices vs. CAD prices and comparing the “unique” build configuration that Costco was selling… (continue >)

  • Touring the Old Post Office in Galt

    Last week was the official celebration of the opening of the Old Post Office in downtown Galt, Cambridge. Construction began in late 2015, restoring & renovating this as the latest location of the Idea Exchange (Cambridge’s library system). Today, I went on one of the free guided tours of the new space and it’s fantastic!… (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2018

    It’s the start of another year and that means it’s time to look back at 2017 and think about what I’d like to do in 2018. I always enjoy looking back at my previous year’s post to see what glorious things I hoped (or wanted) to occur this past year. Some of my highlights from… (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2017

    Will you look at that? The calendar says it’s January 1st. Holy Cow. I give up trying to write “time flies” in any new and innovative way, as I say something similar every year in this blog post! But, it did fly by, again, and it was a great year! It’s kind of funny re-reading… (continue >)

  • Tales of shopping for a new car

    So, I’ve been kicking around the idea of getting a new car for a while now. I was (past tense, as I picked up my new car tonight) leasing a Subaru Outback for the past 3 years. The lease was coming up to an end in July, however, I was already 20,000 km over my… (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2016

    I’ve heard that as we get older, time seems to fly by more quickly. I’ve certainly found that to be true recently, as 2015 seems to have vanished quite quickly. I’m writing this while sitting on my sofa, with a bowl of fruit and a cup of tea, my Christmas tree still lit up, reflecting… (continue >)

  • Diary of a day in jury duty

    A post about my day in jury duty. (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2015

    Hey, look at that… another year just whooshed by! Time for another post of what I resolve to do this coming year and how I fared this past year. What Happened in 2014? This past year was a fantastic year for me personally. My highlight was playing Pebble Beach, on my birthday last April. Simply awesome, it… (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2014

    I’m a little late with this post this year. It is that time of year when we review the year just passed and make resolutions for the New Year. What Happened In 2013? Well, a lot happened in 2013 but most of it was not business-related, so I’ll spare the details here!  I alluded to… (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2013

    It’s that time of year again – time for a review of 2012 and noting what to resolve to do in 2013. I say this every year – time flew by!  As my dad just told me, it seems to fly by faster the older I get.  It certainly does!  Today is December 31st and… (continue >)

  • New Year’s Resolutions 2012

    Happy New Year everyone! It’s January 1st, 2012 and it’s time again to review last year and make some resolutions for this year. The Year 2011 in Review Last year I started the year with a blog article about my resolutions, business-wise.  How did I fare? Well… some good and some not-so-good answers on that! Blogging once… (continue >)