Dragonfly On Bay Street

My second Toronto day this week yesterday, this time in hopes of touring a few breweries. The original goal was to hit up Brick in Waterloo, but that was thwarted when I discovered they only do tours Saturday afternoons. Mark and I headed down and headed to The OverDraught for lunch. We both had a Bass on draught and I enjoyed the DownPatrick Irish Stew quite nicely. From there it was immediately down to Steam Whistle where we caught the tour in progress, and what a tour it was. I highly recommend it, very informative. I enjoyed it so much I almost wish I liked their beer, which I unfortunately do not.

Headed towards Amsterdam Brewery, which gave new meaning to "from the sublime to the ridiculous". What a ridiculous experience that was. We showed up, the angry young man behind the counter just directed his head towards some taps in one corner against a wall of windows and said "drink samples, someone will be there later." So we drank samples. Some kid shows up, says he doesn't know what he's doing, but he'll show us around. In his defence he did his best, but he was right about not knowing what he was doing. Coming over from Steam Whistle just accentuated the point. After the four-minute tour he told us to enjoy some samples (which we had already done, and one was enough), then we headed over to drop off some coupons we had. They actually attempted to charge us $6 for the tour, which wouldn't have happened, and then asked us if we wanted samples. *sigh*

Closed the night at Tequila Sunrise on Adelaide. Good mexican food, with a nice chorizo filling in a soggy taco and boring refried beans, but a great black bean soup. I shall continue my quest for great Mexican food in Toronto.

Today's Random Links
Venice, Italy recreated in Lego.. insane..
Top 10 strangest home gadgets
An assassination simulator
Base jumping game
Nintendo art

Monkey Chant

Yesterday was an entertaining day, as a Blue Jays game often is. Paul, Mike, and I started off at Yorkdale where we hopped the TTC to Long & McQuade at Ossington. It was my first time getting to sample the Martin and Taylor guitars, as my previous jaunts have always been to Steve's, and they don't like it when you play the expensive guitars. Preferred the Taylor I tried in that price range, but realized I don't think I'd trade my MUCH cheaper Garrison in for either, which is saying something.

Met up with Rob and Rodimus Mark (don't ask) for lunch at the Elephant & Castle, where I enjoyed the Stuffed Yorkshire Pudding on recommendation of my hosts. Very nice, although the music and poor beer selection would make it a difficult place to return to. As appetizing as Biz Markie and "fresh" Blue tapped in 1987 sounded.

Off to Sunrise where I found Glenn Kotche's "Mobile" - I'm loving this album. All percussion based, probably not for everyone, but an interesting listen in that "Conet Project" kind of way. World's Biggest Bookstore, then MEC, and off to Big Daddy's for happy hour. I tried the Escargot and a Brick Honey Red this time, both were good. Finally over to the Silver Snail and finishing at the Jays game.

So, of course, the Jays game always comes with a story. We were about seven rows up from the Orioles dugout, and took it upon ourselves to be the resident hecklers for the night. The key to heckling is not only being funny, but picking your moments so as not to become obnoxious to those around you. A good heckler makes the game a better experience for those around him, not worse. I like to think our efforts were part of the reason the Orioles did so poorly as we were somewhat merciless to at least a few of the opposing players. This man simply became "BRIIIIII-ANNNNN", and grew quite angry and disoriented because of it. This man was dubbed Tony the Tiger due to his black and orange striped gloves, and was greeted with "THAT PITCH WAS GRRRRRRR-EAT!" any time he took a first strike. Finally, the man to meet the brunt of our evils, Kevin Millar was redubbed Goldilocks and appeared to get so angry at one point that he stopped throwing free baseballs to the children around us AND kicked his bat. Fun.

We totally need to go to more Jays games. Although I was sad that they no longer cared what I'd do for a Klondike bar, because I was willing to do a lot.

Children In Bloom

I vote for Katharine McPhee's dress.

Today's Random Links
Two women accepted a front door breast exam?!
Lance Armstrong plans to run the NYC Marathon
Get yourself on the 'Alias: Season 5' DVD set
Choose the '24: Season 5' DVD box cover

Rick Picks the Playoffs: 2006 Edition

As I usually do, here's my first round Playoff picks. I want to pick Edmonton, but I'll say Yzerman can help hold them off. But I want to pick Edmonton.

OTTAWA over Tampa, 4 games
CAROLINA over Montreal, 5 games
NEW JERSEY over New York, 6 games
BUFFALO over Philadelphia, 6 games
DETROIT over Edmonton, 7 games
DALLAS over Colorado, 5 games
ANAHEIM over Calgary, 7 games
SAN JOSE over Nashville, 5 games

Yeah, that's right. Anaheim over Calgary. Stop drinking the Kool-Aid, the team can't score.

Today's Random Links
Patent to force you into watching commercials?!
'Alias' creator discusses his biggest regrets

Play With Me

Ok, some non-internal hockey pool action for all y'all, since I can't get my stuff straight when I'm in charge. I'm going to collect all the NHL Playoff pools I can find here - so far, three:

Future Shop's $20,000 Playoff Hockey Pool

eBay 2006 Playoff Hockey Pool
Group: overanything
Password: moocow

Sportsnet Playoff Fantasy Hockey
Group: overanything
Password: moocow

Molson Canadian Playoff Bracket Championships
Group: overanything
Password: moocow

Gillette Pick 10 Playoff Edition
Group: overanything
Password: moocow

Get registered and such, I'll add groups soon.

Cheers!

NOTE: I think the Molson and Gillette ones are linked, but I haven't done my own picks to check yet. Start with Gillette since Mark had that one up first.

LATE NOTES: Cliff, you're not in the league on the last two. For those that didn't notice the last two (Molson & Gillette) use a similar interface but there are two separate games there. Just click the Register button in the image when you load them, you'll see what I mean. One is a player pick'em, one is a brackets challenge.

NHL Elite

This morning Rick and I had a rather long and drawn out argument about the fate of the Calder Trophy this season. Seems that, although we can agree on who is going to win it, we cannot agree that the individual in question is total deserving of the award.

Thus I have decided to bring the question of who’s going to win the major NHL awards to you the people. (Mostly because there has been a lack of comments on the site recently and I’ve got nothing better to do.)

So place your picks for the following:
- Calder Trophy (Rookie of the Year)
- Hart Memorial Trophy (NHL MVP)
- Lester B. Pearson Award (MVP Selected by the NHLPA)
- James Norris Memorial Trophy (Top Defenseman)
- Vezina Trophy (Top Goalie in the NHL)

And just for fun:
- Jack Adams Award (Coach of the Year)
- Prince of Wales Trophy (Eastern Conference Champion)
- Clarence S. Campbell Bowl (Western Conference Champion)
- Stanley Cup Champion

Information on all award qualifications can be found by clicking here.

Try and get these picks in soon (preferably before the nominees are announced). You can either email me with your picks or post them in comments if you don’t mind people seeing them before they make their picks. I’ll make another post when the awards winners are announced.

Get The Funk Out

Got my tickets! When Extreme died I thought my life experience goal of "See Extreme in Boston" was dead - turns out it wasn't!

Scenes From A Bar In Toronto

Man, life experiences can drain a sucker. You know you're getting old when one mid-week 3AM night can screw you for the rest of your days. Thankfully today is Good Friday, an important day for a Christian boy like me, but also a day I've had the opportunity to relax and catch up on a bit of rest.

Mark covered the concert end of things - great show, although I preferred the full-band Josh Rouse I caught a couple years back opening for The Jayhawks. It shall soon be time to make a list of what I've done and what I hope to do still. Coming up shortly shall be a repeat fishing trip up north, but this time, Mark and I will be camping overnight on a very small island with no power or modern conveniences to speak of. Like my own little Survivor episode, except instead of Elizabeth Filarski, I have to share it with Mark Maranzan. ._.

Folks, as a God-loving boy I would be wrong not to take a brief moment to remind you it's Good Friday, one of the single most important days/weekends in the calendar. If you're a believer, it's a good time to reacquaint yourself with one of the four main gospels, my pick being Luke. If you're not, heck, maybe read Luke anyways.

Today's Random Links
Read the Book of Luke online
Running replica of the Star Wars Landspeeder (Thanks, Rob)
Somebody send me some Ben & Jerry's Guinness-cream!
Self-shooting DEA agent sues US for video
It pays to read the small print, eBayers..
Happy Birthday, Apple. Love Microsoft.. ?
CSI Fans: Find the clues

Free Bob

Here’s a little bit of morning reading for all of you. Poor Bob the moose head has lived a troubled life as of recently. Now I’m not really sure what the government hopes to gain from trying to fine this guy, nor do I know why they wouldn’t return the head to him even if he were fined. All I know is this was good for a laugh this morning and I though I should share it with all of you.

Sun readers spearhead the fight to bring Bob home

Random Links:
Human smuggling ring busted in B.C.
Playboy's Indonesian office hit with violent protest

Under Cold Blue Stars

As many of your man know Rick loves to talk about his little life experiences that happen from time to time. It’s amazing what happens when you let go of your everyday life and do something that is uncharacteristic for just one evening.

Last night was somewhat of a first for me. Typically I live by the rule that Monday to Friday I work and fun is left for the weekend, but for once (I’m not altogether sure why) I actually let Rick talk me into attending the Josh Rouse concert in downtown Toronto. So as it was after I got off work at 6pm I grabbed the subway from Yorkdale and headed down to meet up with Rick, Krystle and Andrew. We were planning to start the evening with a quick bit of browsing at MEC, but unfortunately found out that it closes at 7pm so that was a no go. Another time I guess.

We had a nice meal at a small Thai restaurant on King St; I think it was called the Thai Princess, which was quite nice. I had the hot and sour soup, chicken satay, spring roll and red curry lamb. All were excellent.

From the restaurant we made our way over to the MOD Club Theatre on College St. Now Rick and I both looked up directions on google maps and felt it was not too far of a walk. Unfortunately we must have not paid attention to the scale because what we felt was a 10-minute trek was closer to 30 minutes. No matter. It gave us a chance to work off dinner.

We made it the concert in time to catch the end of the opening band Strays Don’t Sleep. I kind of wish we had made it on time because I actually did enjoy what little we heard from them and would have loved to sample more of their work. Anyways the concert continued with a great set by Josh Rouse. I would best describe it a mix of soft rock with definite blue influences that made for a get mellow evening. Although I was not too familiar with his work before the concert, I do think an evening of live music was an excellent way to become more acquainted.

All in all it was a great evening and we didn’t even mind the long walk back. Somehow it just felt right to wander the streets talking. I guess every once in a while its good to simply let life take control and lead on.

+1 to life experiences.

Fill In The Blanks

A note to ignorant drivers:

The ____ing left lane is for ____ing passing.

That is all.

Today's Random Links
One year of beard growth in 45 seconds
Amazing album of entirely percussion

Second Hand News

I may not follow wrestling anymore but I suppose I'm still a bit of a knowledge base on the days of yore. Rob sent over this test and said he'd scored 67%. I managed 75%, but some of the newer and non-WWE/WWF/WWWF questions fooled me. Give it a shot, rasslin' fans!

Today's Random Links
Interesting '24' article - contains spoilers to those not caught up
20 Best, 20 Worst SNL alumni films

Nothing Gives Me Pleasure

Some random television related thoughts for everyone. This comes in the midst of my best efforts to rid myself of that electronic brain sucker, but like the worst of drugs, it continues to pull me back in with its dull evening haze. Until I can rehab effectively, I bring you the following observations. Comments remain welcome:

1. Deal Or No Deal will kill NBC, and they will deserve it. They watched ABC murder themselves with Millionaire and their multiple airings of absolutely nothing, and now they're doing it themselves. Three hours a week with precisely 30 minutes of content amongst all three episodes. I've never seen the pregnant pause beaten so badly in my life until I sat through an episode of that. The fact the girlies wear low cut tops and inexplicably lean over to open the cases doesn't change things.

2. Two years from now you'll forget the name of everyone competing on American Idol. Yes, even Chris. The only person I even care to see is Taylor, because he's an honest-to-God music lover, and last night's episode was an hour of my life I want back. But in the interest of saying at least something positive, Katharine McPhee is the hottest girl to ever appear on that show. And I love the fact she's a role model for young girls who ISN'T anorexic.

3. Lost is the best show on TV. It might be the best show ever on TV, but I think it needs to be this good for one more year before it bests 24 and Twin Peaks. If you don't watch Lost, but you watch one of the two shows I mentioned above, beat yourself about the head with a pole.

4. Shane does suck on Survivor, which is why watching him get the boot soon (I hope, I don't know) will be sweet. In the meantime, please enjoy his MySpace, and the fact he played an abuser on My So-Called Life once, and is a frequent star of Roger Corman's craptastic films.

5. How I Met Your Mother is the only watchable sitcom.

6. Godiva's is the only watchable Canadian production.

Today's Random Links
The Clock Shop.. Rated R for Unintentionally Coarse Language
Google continues to take over the world
You can appear on a McDonald's bag!
Vader on Wheel of Fortune

Roadblock!

I've gotta run, but I thought I'd leave these little links for fans of 'The Amazing Race'. Since it's not on tonight, let these little wonders hold you over:

And, yes, those are two of the currently competing teams.

Gone Like Yesterday

Today was my first annual physical in three years, meaning my use of the word annual was slightly incorrect. The good news is I'm down 40 pounds and seemingly perfect health. The ailments of the past are gone, save for these bruises on my shoulder from repeated upside down trips down a slide on Saturday.

With that out of the way, allow me to welcome you to my latest addiction: MySpace! Seriously, this thing is addictive. I've decided to use it to collect celebrities like trading cards. Check out the friends list, you know it's impressive.

Like the man says, I'm gone like a dollar at the end of the day. Dig it.

Today's Random Links
April Fool's from The Office: "The more you know.."
Pammy is to politics as Paris Hilton is to Mensa
Kip knows what they do in Rand McNally..

This Flight Tonight

This weekend is Network Wars 6.2, our little LAN party that occurs every two-to-three months. With 11 people at any given time I believe, with the exception of Rob's bachelor party, this is the largest one. It's also one of the strangest for non-gaming activity.

Those who know me know that I'm all about those little life experiences that only present themselves from time-to-time. After a large Swiss Chalet dinner I decided I needed a walk to burn off some calories and lethargy, and Paul and Mike decided to join. We were enjoying the night stroll and kept on going, finding a small forested area near my house by a school. At the end of this path was a youth park with a series of swings, slides, and assorted things. Obviously, I needed to go down the slide.

The three of us needed to go down the slide. Feet first, then head first, and finally lying on our back on our shoulders. Repeatedly. Then on the swings. In the middle of the night. We came back, snagged a few of our comrades, and headed back out. By this time it was iced over, and we did it again. An hour of generally behaving in a completely unsuitable way for people our age, but totally worth the effort.

Now, thanks to the "spring ahead" rule, it's 4:00AM. Time to sleep I suppose. The moral of the story is, should a slide present itself to you, definitely slide down back first. It's worth the effort.