Less Than You Think

So Sunday brought about the early birthday dinner with my family over here after following weekends were proving difficult for the gang to get together. Since it was my choice I decided to introduce the family to West 50, not terribly far from the new office here. Everyone had a good time, the food was quite nice, and people seemed to be enjoying the different beers. Mary and I split the Smoked Paprika Dusted Crispy Calamari and it was excellent, served with a mild lemon yogourt dipping sauce. I'm loving yogourt dipping sauces as they offer health benefits, and I'm really not finding a loss in flavour from sour cream or mayo based sauces and dips. I moved on to the Mexican Enchilada Burger with Chorizo Sausage and their featured soup, a Thai Beef and Vegetable. I believe amongst the rest of the gang there were: Spring Roll Sampler, Spicy Thai Chicken Satay Pizza, Cuban Roasted Pork Sandwich, Grilled Chicken Breast Sandwich, and Olaf's Schnitzel. No disappointments this time, as expected th kitchen is churning out quality food regularly now. There was too much beer flowing to recall what everyone had, although I do remember I tried the Niagara Eisbock, Warsteiner Premium Dunkel, St Ambroise Pale Ale, Belhaven 70 Shilling, and for dessert, St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout. My thanks to my parents, Kim, and Jeff for covering the night on behalf of my pending 33rd, it was great fun.

Yesterday, however, not great fun. Sunday night I stepped on my guitar case and sliced open the bottom of my foot on the latch, making it hard to walk. Got to my car and found the windshield washer fluid frozen again, regardless of promises of "anti-freeze". Almost ran out of gas on the way to work after taking a northern trip to Hockley to research a location for a future golf tournament I'll be organizing. Took over an hour to get back, but happily stopped at Starbucks on the way. Proceeded to spill my first expensive drink since I started here on the floor of my car, and then realized when I arrived I'd left my key card at home and couldn't get in. Long day.

Perhaps not as long as the drive home Friday night during which, for the second time, my bladder did not outlast my commute. Much like the storied drive to Ottawa many moons ago I was stuck in the nasty traffic on Friday night and realized there was no way, going stop'n'go along the back roads, that I would make it to a bathroom. Thankfully, I had my two 1.5L bottles of water with me, one of which I had emptied already. So, yes, I proceeded to fill it with nary any shame nor discretion. Filled it. 1.5L. Heck, at least it gave me a story.

Time to work..

Shades of Grey....

So did anyone happen to actually watch the NHL All-star game last night? The first hockey All-star game in three years seems to have been met not with anticipation, but rather a complete sense of indifference from the masses. Over the course of the last week I have listened to hockey analysts from all over weight in on how the game is nothing more than a joke and really means nothing to the players or the fans. I guess I would have to agree with this as I felt my time was best served elsewhere while the best and brightest from the NHL fired puck after puck at those poor goalies. So I guess the question here is show the NHL even bother with the game and festivities or move on with the much more important season games.

Does any have an opinion one way or the other? Or, like me, do you simply not care.

Its seems that all my hockey lust has been directed to my duties with the ECHL fantasy hockey league that Rick and I are running this year. Now the zonk-trolls would have you believe that I have blown a gasket so soon into the season, but in reality all is well for me. I have enjoyed answering emails all day and look forward to running the games each night. Rick has been a big help stepping in to handle the one thing that I didn’t want to do, which is the trades and waivers and he has been managing the site up till now. Its been a real learning experience having to figure out how everything works, dealing with the different GM’s and their tendencies and finding the time to manage all that needs to be done (we get on average around 20 emails a day). But in the end I feel it has been worth it and I’m glad to have taken on the challenge with Rick. I’m hoping that in the coming weeks we will be doing a little more for the league as well with upgrades to the website (the zonk-trolls will have a new place for hockey banter) and daily blogs that outline the events in the games. For those that frequent OA.com and haven’t a clue what I’m talking about check out the ECHL website for all the details on the ECHL fantasy league.

Driven To Tears

The rumours of my demise have been.. wrong. It would be nice to make up some excuse about how I've been working long hours with no time to post, but that's lying. I've been coming home to crash and either play Guitar Hero or watch television, for the most part. Apologies.

The good news is I'm loving the job so far. Elements of it seem odd, and I've never worked for such a large company with such established ways of doing business. Oddly, nobody in the entire marketing department - comprising half a floor - seems to have more than 18 months tenure, including an average of three months or so in my direct group. What that likely means is that the flow of ideas that should have taken place hasn't, and I'm somewhat free to be creative and do things my way within reason. I'll detail more of what goes on as time goes forward.

In other news, I present some rules of the road I've earned in my first 12 days of driving to and from Mississauga:

• When selecting a lane - one occupied by a truck, one by a car - pick the truck. They go faster.
  
• Women drive sports utility vehicles.
  
• Sports utility vehicles, by and large, seem occupied by people who can't drive. Logically deduce at will.
  
• Starbucks will soon serve granola. I know this because I tried it. What does it have to do with driving? I ate it in my car.
  
• The difference between 7:30 and 7:45 is about three stops on the 410.
  
• The difference between 5:00 and 5:10 is about 10 minutes out of the company driveway.
  
• Bob McCown rules and makes the drive home entertaining, no matter what Mark says.
  
• I am officially the last person alive who knows the left lane is supposed to be for passing, not cruising at the speed you feel comfortable at and to he!! with everyone else.
  
• After 45 minutes in the car I have to pee like a racehorse. My commute is one hour each way.

That's it for now, all true. I'm still researching whether Derringer on Q107 is, indeed, Bob McCown as I have always suspected. I'll report back with findings.

Ramble On....

Well it would appear that with Rick’s return to the world of 9-5 and my lack of anything interesting to say, OA.com has fallen upon hard times. I’m sorry that my posting has been few and far between, but let’s face the facts I really have nothing important to write about.

Now all that aside I guess I can ramble on for a little while in the hopes that it will provide some entertainment to everyone and break up the dull workdays that we all seem to face. About the best I can do is relate to everyone some stories that I have been reading in the morning newspapers and shed some light on recent topics that may spark some debates.

Okay here we go. This is an interesting article that I came across and I liked it because it spoke to me and reminded me of what it was like working while I was in school. Is a $10 minimum wage really bad for business? I’m sure like me many of you struggled at one point or another to make a living or possibly save for something that you really wanted. I can remember working all summer to try and save some money for university only to find that by September my efforts hadn’t amounted to much? But what really would be the price for another increase in minimum wage? Would the work suddenly disappear? Would business has to swallow the loss or would they simply learn to accept it and move on? I’ve always lived by the philosophy that a happy worker is a good worker and that the number one way to make someone happy is to pay them properly. So what are everyone’s thoughts? Should the government step in with another increase? Or maybe it should be up to the businesses to be socially responsible and make the adjustment themselves?

Now this one is for Rick (if he’s in any way a dog lover). Yummy: Pet shop owner creates beer for dogs from beef extract and malt. What’s better than a feel good story about a man that wants to share the wondrous effects of alcohol, especially beer, with man’s best friend. Now it does say that the beer will be fit for human consumption, but the question I want an answer to is will our resident beer-nut add it to his ever growing list of samples?

Well I guess that’s all I have for now. I hope this will bring you at least some entertainment today. Hopefully in the coming weeks I can post something a little more exciting and if we are all really good maybe Rick will find the time to fill us in on what’s happening in the corporate world.

Laminated Cat

A slight change of pace tonight, and I owe my beer-rating buddy blankboy some props for tracking down this beauty, courtesy of this site. For some reason it reminds me of something Kip will enjoy more than the rest of you, but I don't care, I think it's funny and it's all about me.

Anyways, the accusation is that Garfield comic strips become funnier when you remove Garfield's thought bubbles. Exhibits A through G:

There you have it - one crazy jackalope talking to his cat like it's a person. I wonder if anyone could utilize Photoshop to make Family Circus funny too?

When the Water Falls

My head hurts and I'm going to bed earlier than I have in years, but I think I'm enjoying the idea of being a 9-5er again. Day one was all about the information overload, but today was a bit more laid-back and easy to take. I anticipate really being in the swing of things by the end of the week, and ready to help do some damage. Finding the right route from Bolton to Hurontario and Britannia will be fun, although I'm finding that both Williams Parkway and Kennedy seem to be relatively empty compared to other routes. I even managed to figure out a way to cross paths with a Starbucks to assist me with my morning coffee.

This weekend I decided I wanted to get away and relax a bit prior to my correct assumption of an information donkey punch on Monday, so I convinced my wife, Rob, and Carrie to join me in a trek to Buffalo and Niagara Falls. Rob and I did some finger-work online and found a decent Travelodge within walking distance of the falls for $63 (not including the Dumb Mother... tax) and the weekend was set. We started out just after the crack of noon and hit lunch in St Catharines at Olson Foods + Bakery, which I had thought now had a full restaurant but was sad to find out did not. They did, however, have one Chocolate Crinkle Cookie left that I shared with the others, who did not share my enthusiasm for it as the greatest cookie of all time. From there we checked in and then shuffled off to Buffalo. I had been told of a great gourmet food, wine, and beer store and we darted off to see Premier Gourmet. While slightly seedy in appearance on the outside it offered great selection of all of the above. The food area had some great items you just can't find around here, such as serrano ham, and of course a massive selection of beer that you'd have no hope of finding in our Government-controlled monopoly. Same for wine and liquor which was housed in a separate area and seemed absolutely massive. Well worth a visit if you enjoy gourmet food or drink. Of course, I satisfied my lust for rare beer with a bottle each of:

Unibroue Éphémère Apple
Unibroue Quelque Chose
Unibroue Chambly Noire
Rochefort Trappistes 10
Rochefort Trappistes 8
Rochefort Trappistes 6
Stone Oaked Arrogant Bastard Ale
Rogue Chipotle Ale
Salopian Entire Butt Porter
Hitachino Nest Lacto Sweet Stout
Samuel Adams Black Lager

You know you're jealous that I get to drink something called "Entire Butt Porter". We then continued on to the Walden Galleria in hopes of getting dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, which I had heavily hyped to the gang en route. Sadly, a two-point-five hour wait thwarted these plans. Rob and Carrie decided to head back to the Falls while Mary and I enjoyed the mall before getting back around 11:30PM. We headed down to Clifton Hill around midnight to take in the evening sights, grabbed a $5 Little Caesar's pizza for dinner, and called it a night.

All told, a good weekend, and hopefully a good job. Ever the optimist.

All the Roadrunning

So the closure of tonight means the end of my time here and, as of Monday, my return to the 9-5 grind. I tried to fit as much as I could into the last week, including an eventful trip to Toronto with Paul on Wednesday. He took the Go from Hamilton in and met up with me at Chapters on Richmond for our first Peepermint Mocha of the day and off we went. We hit up Steve's to play some guitars and look for a microphone to finally initiate the launch of my home studio. Priced out a few things and decided to head to Long & McQuade to compare. The place was packed full of people, odd for a Wednesday afternoon, and Paul found himself captivated by a Les Paul Gold Top while I perused the store. In the end Paul convinced himself not to spend the money, but I dropped $100 on a USB microphone with a 30-day return.

The good news is the microphone doesn't need to be returned, it's great for simple recording here in the former office now studio. I rested it on the desk today and played and sang into it from my chair with two computers running beside it and the sound was quite clear and nice. So hopefully this shall launch the possible Blues for Pablo live acoustic EP I know you've all been waiting for with baited breath.

After our tour of guitar shops we headed to Volo in hopes of snagging a taste of the late Scotch Irish Santa Claws Christmas Cake Porter, which had sadly sold out in under a day. Thankfully, they somehow still had King PilsBock in stock and I finally tried it, while Paul sampled the Black Oak Nutcracker Porter. Volo, if you haven't been, resides in the former home of the souvlaki restaurant near Yonge and College that used to put a souvlaki dinner in the front window. It's a fine Italian restaurant with a severe beer addiction, but had a great atmosphere. Look forward to making it back for some grub.

We then caught up with Rob and Mark (not THAT Mark) for dinner at the Korean Grill House, as recommended by Mike. For those not familiar you sit across from a friend and between you lies an open flamed cone grill. For $13 you get an unlimited selection of beef, short ribs, pork, chicken, white fish, squid, salmon, ox tongue, and ox liver that you place on the grill with tongs and cook to your specifications. $16 will add lamb and shrimp to the meal. Paul and I, who were starved already, went ape-poo and ate like fiends while Rob and Mark behaved in a notably more respectable manner. Still, the food was good, the place looks nice, and it was a good time with friends.

I'm not sure if the mass of meat I ingested was to blame but the night that followed was demonic. I got a headache on the way home and crashed at 10:30, only to awake at 2:00 with one of the worst headaches I've ever suffered. This is notable because I've suffered some nasty-arse headaches thanks to migraines, going so far on one incident to slam my face repeatedly against a sign in Bermuda to alleviate the ache. This one wracked my brain and made me want to vomit repeatedly to the point we almost went to the hospital for a shot of painkillers. And Rick don't take painkillers. I woke up sapped of all energy after a somewhat surreal night. I don't know if the moral is eat meat in moderation, but I'm surely going to try and find out.

What A Year For A New Year

So did everyone ring in 2007 in style? Sounds like the vast majority of people selected a quiet night in, which is always nice. As we have almost every year in my recent recollection Mary and I headed to Craig and Cheryl's and met up with Pat and Denise there. Pat and Denise have missed out on the festivities the last three years or so after the two families bore five kids in that span of time and weren't able to leave them. Luckily the grandparents were willing to sit and the old gang was together again. Craig and Cheryl cooked up some nice spicy chicken and ribs, Pat and Denise provided a salad, and Mary baked up some cookies. As expected, I was in charge of strange beer. We tried the new Hockley Dark in the litre bottle and found it very watery and light in body, not so good. Moved on to the Fuller's 2006 Vintage Ale and I was the only person enjoying it, sadly. I can see how the bitterness would scare some folks off .. and it did.

I had picked up the Alphabet of Manliness during Boxing Day Shopping and we had a crying good time reading that over and learning how a suitable method of fighting is the "head butt to the ovaries", and that sometimes when walking behind someone your pants can fall down and you can accidentally stumble into them. It happens.

Sadly, one thing we noticed was how often we checked the clock for midnight. We're simply not as young as we once were.

So 2007 has arrived and I'm obviously scheduled for some big change this coming Monday. Did anyone make any resolutions or promises to themselves pertaining to the next calendar year? Do we wonder if Mark resolved to post more than once every 60 days? Do we wonder if Rob resolved to make his first post since I gave him the access?