Hey everyone, did you miss me??

Things have become more hectic lately, and I'm finding it harder to stay awake during the late evenings - that's when I usually do my blogging.

The boss has asked me whether I would be willing to put in extra hours for extra pay. It seems there are projects he wants done, and there simply aren't enough hours available during the day to tackle everything. So, he's resorted to bribing a few of his programmers to put in some extra time. The only unfortunate thing about this is that it's drastically cutting into the time I've been spending on my "secret project".

I'm about a month or two away from being able to talk about it here, assuming I get some time to work on it! When it's finished, I'm hoping I will be able to finally ease up on my after-hours programming activities.

On another note, the boss has been conscious that I haven't been making much effort to move my family up to Toronto. I had really tried, but found that housing in the area is 2-4 times as expensive as where I came from, and I'm only making 1/3 the salary as before. You do the math... So, my boss asked me straight out - am I actually planning to move my family to Toronto. My response, carefully delivered, was essentially "No, because I can't afford to on what I'm making". I quickly added that I wasn't looking for a raise - not until the timeframe we had agreed to during job negotiations. I simply stated that, now that I was more familiar with the city, it was physically impossible to move the family.

And here's where the conversation got interesting. The boss told me that he's had time to reevaluate his initial stand on telecommuting. It seems he's had an opportunity to judge my work ethic, and my worth to his organization, and has decided that allowing me to telecommute is probably the only way he's going to be able to retain me long term. So now, he's accelerating my "learning process" (he wants me to learn all I can about the core functionality of the company's software) with the ultimate goal of sending me home to my wife!

Truth is, this change of heart has as much to do with the newly introduced high-speed internet access and cramped office space as anything else. Heck, I'm currently working through a Terminal Server, with no need for any local files on my PC. If I can do that from the office, I guess he figures there's no reason I can't do it from elsewhere. And the office, while not physically "cramped", does have limited room for expansion. If I were to work from home, it would leave a computer and desk available for a new employee.

So, having said all that, I'm pretty happy with the prospect of being back "home", where I will be in the company of my wife (yeah, I'm mushy, but I really do love this incredible woman!) - and will be able to hop out of bed in the morning ready to hit the keyboard, without the 2-hour preparation/commute to face.

Speaking of that incredible woman, she's coming up to visit me this weekend! Hooray!!! And while she's here, we'll take the opportunity to visit our daughter in her new apartment. I can't wait...