"Born in the U.S.A."

Off we went to the good old U.S. of A this past Saturday! My ma and pa and I had ourselves a trio reunion as we rode in the BMW down to Ogdensburg, NY for some cross-border shopping! I sat in the front of the car, which was a deviation from the usual trio set-up of me riding in the back. You may recall that this was the case for those 4 summers in between school years when I didn't have a car, nor was I driving.

Anyway, the goal of this day trip was to load up on stuff at good prices as the dollar was near parity and Dad needed a tank of gas. I had in mind the wonderful soda pop and breakfast cereals that the Americans seemed to stock so much of. Specifically, I was seeking Black Cherry Coke, Vanilla Coke and if I was real lucky with the Gods smiling down on me, I would find Tahiti Treat or Tahitian Treat or C-Plus Fruit Frenzy (what it was re-branded as in the end).

Upon arrival in Ogie, NY, we headed immediately for the Price Chopper. This was a prudent move in hindsight as we were still early enough to capture an item that had not even crossed my mind. This one thing had pre-occupied much of my spare time in 2009, so it was relatively surprising that I was taken for a surprise that Sat morning. Staring me at the face in the Bakery section of Price Chopper was freshly made, large donuts, in all the flavours and concepts one could dream of. Just rows and rows of the gooey soft dough shapes protected in freshness by glass cases! It was then that I exclaimed to myself, "America, land of the donut; these Americans don't f*** around when it comes to satisfying their fried dough cravings." All at once, I felt shame for being associated with a culture that endeared itself to people for serving coffee and donuts, while turning around and selling partially baked, flash-frozen baked goods at all their establishments. Yes, I am calling you out Tim Hortons, you bastion of corporate greed and excessive concentration of the donut market. So a big up yours to Tim Hortons and grocery stores in Ottawa who chose to get out of the fresh donut business and give me old, stale donuts baked in Southern Ontario Central Bakery Warehouses that are already 3 days old when reaching my local stores.

And kudos to American Chain Price Chopper. Now, there is a Price Chopper that exists in Ontario but the association between the two is not clear. For instances, on the Price Chopper website (.ca), it says they are Sobeys owned. The reason this matters is that I am trying to determine if this is the same store as it pertains to product offerings and departments - of most interest to me is, you guessed it: Bakery for the donuts.

After spending $40 at Price Chopper, we went over to the local Wal-Mart where we enjoyed ravaging American capitalism in the form of processed foods even more. There I was to find lots more breakfast cereals than our equivalent Wal-Mart had. Also, I loaded up on the pop I had described above. I noticed overall the store was better laid out than the Canadian Wal-Marts. Things were labelled and clear and there was more space between aisles and such. Now, you may say that Ogdensburg is a small town with cheap land, but I will reply by saying that Barrhaven isn't exactly the priciest piece of land around.

I also splurged on the $1 travel items section, where I found such things as toothpaste, hand sanitizer and first aid kid plastic cases. Only in America, baby.
You will see some enclosed pictures of my exploits. Unfortunately for my audience, the donuts were long gone before I realized I should have documented them with a photo. They were just so goooood!

As for the soft drinks, the appeal here was not the price (although cheaper than back home), as it was more of a situation of availability. You see, cherry and vanilla coke are not sold back home. IN the end I struck out on 2 of my wishes as I couldn't locate the Tahiti Treat and the Vanilla Coke was all sold out at Price Chopper and not available at Wal-Mart.

Actually, the truth is that my first stop at Price Chopper at noon saw lots of Vanilla Coke on the shelves. I tried to play it to smooth, however, by saying I'll come back for it after seeing what Wal-Mart offered, knowing that their prices were better. Well their prices were better but they didn't stock the Vanilla Coke.
So, I had to haggle a bit with the other 2 members of the trio to go back to Price Chopper. Reluctantly we went, as my mom and dad lectured me on the merits of being healthy, and not drinking so much bad soft drinks. I am not sure my mom understood the concept of stocking up; I was not going to go home to drink this all in one shot.
Anyway so I sashayed myself up to the store confidently only to discover an empty shelf. I returned with a s***-eating grin on my face and proclaimed to my wide-eyed parents, "Well, the people of Ogdensburg have spoken - there was no more Vanilla Coke."

As for the breakfast cereals, I splurged. In my cart was the foreign to Canada, Rice Krispie Treats (known as 'squares' when they were in Canada) Trix, Cocoa Puffs, Fruity Pebbles, Shredded Wheat squares with frosting, Apple Jacks etc. Yummy
Pa was getting restless and ma had just dropped big coin on clothes for the toddlers so to close out the day in Ogie, NY, we went to the cool place in town - McDonalds. Now, even here, the race between Canada and USA wasn't close. Not only did I get bigger portions for my Chicken Nugget combo meal, but I got it all for less than $7.
It was damn good too.

We drove back and I was a happy lark with all my stuff. In conclusion, I really do value the American experience when it comes to eating and shopping. Good job USA.
I also would like to say the people are quite polite and friendly. I am not sure if this is a small town effect or what but people are just generally very chill. I detest the negative stereotypes that the media tries to perpetuate about the spirit of Americans. Perhaps I have not seen them at their worst, but these people at their best are just dandy.

I will be back to Ogie, NY! My first time was a full-fledged success.

p.s. THe cereals I came home with were: Fruity Pebbles, Cocoa Puffs, Trix, Shredded Wheat (lightly frosted), Apple Jacks and my most beloved, Rice Krispie Treats.

On the left and right side of the Macaroni Cheese is the Canadian version and American version respectively. They taste different too

Catching up on past promises

It has been a while since I made up an agenda of topics to discuss on my blog. Some of these I did intend to follow up on. See below.

Baseball:

-Omar Vizquel has signed a 1 year contract and will be back for 2011 with the White Sox, but how much more after that. Already the talk is negative with the articles I read framing it as such that this would be a nice year to transition into coaching. Bollocks! Vizquel is at 2799 hits and must go for another 200 games or so to get those 201 hits.

-Jamie Moyer at 268 wins is so close to the magic mark of Hall of Fame acceptability for a pitcher. 300 wins and you are an automatic inn as the feat is getting more rare and rare. But he has hit a stumbling block with his arm. It appears he may need career ending surgery. I thought Moyer should have gone for Tommy John surgery at the mid-point of the season and aimed for a longer recovery time. He opted to try to go without surgery.

-Trevor Hoffman is the only closer to ever reach 600 saves, topping out the season at 601. For a while, it was looking dicey if he would get to that mark, as he had lost his job as closer and the confidence of his manager. In the end he got there, but his margin for safety is only down to about 50 as Mo' Rivera of the Yankees will look to close in and surpass this record. Not surprisingly, Hoffman is done, as the Brewers declined a $7.5 million option.

-I am watching like a fly on a wall the ongoing negotiations that are going on with Jeter. I think both sides realize they have to come to an agreement here. It doesn't make sense for Jeter to leave a place where is value is so much more than anywhere else. His sponsorships and media coverage is tied to being in the New York market. The Yankees on the other hand don't want to risk a fan backlash and in this season where Jeter will hit the 3000 hit mark, why part company? For as storied a franchise as the Yankees are, they have never had a player in uniform get to 3000 hits!
I say Jeter should accept if the Yankees come up with 3 years at 21 million per (his rate the past years). Jeter should be guaranteed to be the starting shortstop for at least one more year but then be open to changing positions in 2012.

Summer Road Construction:

-God d amn the gov for doing this big stimulus road construction season all at once. Ottawa looked like we were building the city for the first time. Carling was the bain of my existence in the summer and I don't even use the road; however, it impacted the parallel Richmond Rd quite a bit. Also my runs to the Coliseum movie theatre were encumbered by this delay.

Baseball hats:

-At last I have figured out the Lids system for ordering hats! They have free shipping to any store in Canada (unlike last year when they wanted to charge $20). Thus I ordered two hats (Buy 1, Get 1 1/2 off), a Blue Jays and an Expos one in size Medium. They are pretty nice but I may try a Large next time. See pics below.


Who I met recently:

-Tom Green, at a fund-rasing show for Rene Ficher, a man who lost his ability to walk in a hockey game. Tom was totally chill and made us all laugh. I get the feeling he is pretty unlike his persona when he is off stage. Good local boy. See pictures.

-Jim Watson, at the Remembrance Day ceremony in Carlingwood Shopping Centre. Jim is totally engaging and is the type of guy/politician to leave you with that warm fuzzy feeling after. I said Congratulations and wished him good luck on his term. He appreciated this.

-WWII veteran Len H. from Moose Jaw Saskatchewan. He said he was 15 and a half when he fought and if he entered the war in 1940 for instance, I placed him at about 85 today. He was a tall man who was still very mobile. He left with his wife. Len said that maybe a third of guys were under the permitted age of 16 when they enlisted. I thanked him for his service and he told me to, "Take care, son."

Sick of:

-I am absolutely sick of egg salad sandwiches at work for lunch but it is the most cost effective thing and probably healthiest unless I just start eating salad. There is a Subway now nearby so I could get into that. The foot long would be a bit too much in both food and money to have everyday. Unfortunately Subway got rid of the sub card and now have some points program.

The movie theatre on Tuesday:

-It is not as busy as I made it out to seem in the summer, when the crowds looked like evacuations from disaster areas and holdover groups from Canada Day downtown. I still try to schedule my show either really early (around 4) or late at night. But I ensure that the movie has been out for some weeks before I attempt. There is nothing worse than sitting scrunched in between strangers as I don't have the courage or ferocity to take the arm rests away from people, whether they are alpha males, emo hipsters or just little kids. Sometimes I get the drink and popcorn combo when I am there and that will substitute as my dinner. For some reason they charge $1 for adding butter to the popcorn but you can get 'butter flavouring' for free where the napkin station is. You just keep pumping the nozzle for more - unreal!

Movie rentals:

-I have settled on a place nearby work where I am renting my movies. Videoflicks (but not the same exactly as when I was little) is my place, and weird enough, there are many locations across the city but all unrelated to each other. I always get the same deal - 3 (non new-release) movies for 7 nights for $6. The only issue here is that this place is slow to move movies to the 7 day section. Movies that are still 1 day rental include 2008 titles such as Cloverfield, Bruno etc. Now, with a movie deficit of 40 titles to work through, that policy is just not going to cut it.

Around Ambleside:

-As the seasons change,some residents pass away and others who are a few years younger move in to fill their place. The big news here is that my building had the whole entire lobby re-done and it looks like a real nice thing going on. With the help of my dad, I finally got my bed up to respectability again. If you recall it had all collapsed on me one evening and for the past two months I have been forced to sleep on the mattress and boxspring on ground level. We put the supports back under the spring and mattress and raised her up. "Still no jumping on the bed, however!"

Haircuts:

-I am still going strong on doing my own hair. With the introduction of HST, I estimate I am saving big bucks. It is doubtful I will ever go back to getting my hair cut, unless I try to grow my hair longer. Buzz cuts for now, and for the interim.

Commute time to work:

-I am getting in in about 15-17 minutes and then a walk of 10 minutes. This ends of being a little bit longer than it took with the bus but the comfort level is much improved. Plus, I can blast Simple Plan to and from the office.
Area code:

New 343 area code coming:

-Apparently, Ottawa is getting a new area code - 343 - to be issued to those who get new numbers. To me, this is absolute horses hit. We are a small city and if anything we need to re-align the area codes. Ottawa and Kingston should not be sharing the 613Things have changed since 1960's ok. Just make a big switch and launch an information campign - All of Ottawa gets 343 and let the outlying areas use 613 as there will be enough to last decades and infinity beyond for these sparsely populated areas. I don't care if these people get weird phone calls for up to 1 year after from people trying to reach Ottawa people's former phone numbers. It is a sacrifice we all will have to go through. I can't stand the idea of having two area codes in the same region for a city of this size.

-Another option is to start purging unused fax, pager and cell phone numbers. Or rationing them off and charging families who have more than 2 cell phones, or individuals with more than 1 cell phone. Anything is better than 2 area codes.

Switch in milk consumption:

-I am on 2% milk now and loving every minute of it! See pics.

Recognizing our farmers' good work

This is a letter I sent to a farmer this past summer. I always say to myself how great it is that we get this local fresh produce shipped in to our grocery stores in the summer and I finally wanted to thank someone for it.

So when a basket of peaches arrived with a stamp on the side of the carton, I knew I had my chance!


Edward Araujo
R.R. *
Kingsville, ON
*** ***

Dear Sir,

After picking up a 3 lb basket of Ontario peaches from my Ottawa grocery store in the month of July, I couldn't help notice your stamp on the side. I just wanted to express how much I enjoyed them - so juicy and tasty. I wanted to say how I really appreciate you and others in your profession.
Keep up the good work and have a nice end of summer.

Thank you
Anthony

I want to hear from you!

It appears as if my blog has some friendly, healthy competition with Uhrblock trying to get back in the running with his blog. He originally started it all but then betrayed the blogging community by joining some start-up that never really blossomed into anything - Twitter, it is called?

Anyway, I realize to beat the best I have to be the best, so my blog will maybe be a little more structured in format rather than jumping around from topic to topic - unless this is what my fans desire?!

Please let me know in the comment section of this blog your first name and how you know me so I know what sort of readership I have going these days. As always I promise not to change at all in content. If I offend you in any way, I apologize in advance, but I must hold nothing back when I get behind the keyboard.
Hope to hear from you in the comments!

Topics (and this could just be skimming the surface) to be explored in near future include:


-Another profile on Omar Vizquel with a sidebar on Ivan 'Pudge' Rodriguez
-My solution to watching movies
-The place a 'be rockin': how the movie theatre on Tuesdays turn into crowds resembling Katrina evacuations or Canada Day downtown
-My gripes with finding a good deal at places only to have supply exhausted before I get there to take advantage
-Congestion on city of Ottawa streets during this high stimulus spending construction season
-My steadfast commitment to egg salad sandwiches at lunch
-My commute time to work
-My Fall 2010 agenda
-Haircuts
-Baseball Hats for Expos and Jays
-My quest for Poutine around the city and how much I love it

More gravy

Last Sunday I had Jones, F.B and Simone and Sacha over for a pool and pizza night. Everyone had fun, including the lamp which simone toppled. One thing it did force me to do was to clean up my apartment. I swiffered quite a bit and put stuff away!
I really have learnt the key is to not put stuff off because it burdens you mentally I find. Just tackle s*&% as it comes up and hopefully things will be ok.


Baseball:

Ah the sport I love! I have been good to her but she has not necessarily been good to me. Without even considering the injury I sustained a few years ago, I have always managed to suck nicely at the sport. A slow, weak arm, a poor slap hitter, poor on ground balls. I do shag balls nicely though.
Unf. I am prob not good enough to play in the NCBL - the only league around town for baseball, but I still follow the Jays closely.

Regardless I invested nicely in two bats this year - my first maple and an ashwood plus bought a new glove. I broke in the bats when playing with friend Andy at beautiful Faulkner Field off Fallowfield Rd. This field is like what the pros play on, including a pond in the back of the field. Hopefully I can get out there again soon. In fact, a guy from work named Frank may try to get ol' purdy (who is now in Barrhaven) out and we could have fun. No word yet on whether Uhrblock will come. I think he is too busy tweeting or restricting access to tweets that is.

My interest in baseball also lies in buying a Montreal Expos hat from lids.com, which now offers free shipping to Canadian stores. This is much more appealing than paying $30 for shipping which was the case last year. I didn't buy it though.

I am also following 3 old timers in the twilight (and beyond) of their careers. They include Jamie Moyer, Ivan Rodriguez (39 years old) and Omar Vizquel (43 years old).
These guys truly inspire me as I-Rod and Vizquel are still hitting around .280 and both are within range of 3000 hits. I-Rod should hit 2800 by season's end with Vizquel only 20 hits or less behind. Both would have to play at least 2 more years I think to get it done. I-Rod is signed for next year buit Viquel will be combing the classifieds trying to find work. It is not the money at all - he is only making 1.375 mil, but it is the fact that teams don't want to give a roster spot to an old guy. Truthfully though, this guy can flat out play and is prob a better middle infielder than 3/4 of the league. Funny that Vizquel was always known for his glvoe, however, when he managed to rattle off almost 3000 hits. A first ballot hall of famer I say.
THe other guy I mentioned, Moyer, is a starting pitcher and is 47 years old! He has 268 career wins and is one of the few pitchers to win 100 games after the age of 40. Also he went to his first all star game after age of 40. Moyer's problem is that he has to undergo season ending surgery and will have to attempt a comeback next year if he wants those last 32 wins. Now, even if he does manage to comeback from an arm injury and the Phillies (or some other team) are willing to give him a spot, he has to be a starting pitcher and win on avg. 16 games for 2 years to make it to the big 300 plateau. The odds are against him but I would love to see him make it happen!
In fact, when I went to Philly to see a ball game, it was Moyer who pitched.
Other players to be watched are Ichiro who will attempt to make it to his 10th straight season with 200 hits. He is presently at 147 with 45 or so games to play. he should do it.
Also, Chipper Jones has to have season ending surgery for a torn ACL in his leg and this sucks cause Chipper was moving in on 500 homers (at 436 now). He will be hard-pressed to hit another 64 homers in the pro's at age 39, but his career batting average of .306 and personal accolades shoudl be enough to give him a Hall of Fame spot.

Nothing else going on. Saw Inception, Sling Blade, The Matrix sequels (finally).

I continue to seek someone to assist in helping the fine game of billiards/pool but I have given up on cold-calling instructors at algonquin. I will now be posting on craiglist. This should work out better (sarcastic tone).

One movie I did see that was hilarious in its randomness was Hot Rod with Andy Samberg. It was actually a touching story as well. I am going to for sure bring it up when I next see J.B. Yo Bower Bower.

My father's summer project continues to move along. I help now and then when I can but this man is amazing. At his age he puts up a beautiful project, does most of the lifting by himself. He truly broke the mold I think.

My donut search continues. I have contacted Carling Bakery who does wholesale donuts and they seem like an option to try out. While wholesale donuts usually can't be the best, it won't hurt to try them out; plus they are close to home. The downside again is you have to order ahead of time since it isn't a traditional storefront.

Remember I posted about CTV news having a competition to see what was the best chip stand? Well it turns out that Tommy's was featured on the news and it is the one I frequent. I score a large poutine with extra cheese for $6 and this can last all night. On the night I went to see Inception with Mark, I had this at lunch and I was good until 10 o clock, at which point I had some dark chocolate at home.
Anyway, after coming through over 800 comments, I compiled this list of chip wagons in the National Capital region and Eastern Ontario. You will never be without some yummy fries.

-Crispy Chips (Canadian Tire at Hunt Club and Merivale)
-Glen’s (Richmond Rd and Kirkwood
-Wes’ Chips (Arnprior)
-The Magic Fryer (Canadian Tire on Coventry)
-Calypso Water Park (Limoges Rd and Calypso)
-M & G’s Chipwagon (Bank and Sunnyside)
-Snack Shack (Wilfrid-Lavigne in Alymer)
-Pink Poutine Queen (Almonte)
-Fritomania (St. Joseph Blvd)
-Jean Burger (Wakefield)
-The Village/Town Fryer in Merrickville
-S & G’s (Carling and Maitland)
-Claude’s (Ogilvy and Cummings)
-Mom’s Kitchen (Alexandria)
-JP’s Chips (Baseline and Clyde)
-Chipmunk Chippery (Perth)
-Five Span Spuds (Pakenham)
-S & S Fries (Canadian Tire in Barrhaven)
-Fritz’s Fries (Manotick)
-Li’l Mom’s (Vars off of 417)
-Mike’s Fries (Carleton Place)
-La Patate Dorée (Eddie Street in Hull)
-The Chipwitch Wagon (Merrickville)
-Long’s Patate (Civic Hospital/Ruskin St.)
-Frenchy’s Fries (Pembroke)
-Willy’s Wagon (Almonte)
-Vanier Snack Shack (Deschamps and Hannah)
-Mom’s Kitchen (Alexandria)
-Double Decker Diner & Dairy Bar (Manotick)
-Tony’s (Richmond)
-Woody’s (Highway 7/Innisville)
-GJ’s (Trim Rd between 174 and St-Joseph)
-F & B Doghouse (South Mountain)
-Geatan Patate (Alexandria)
-Jack’s Mobile Kitchen (Rideau and Friel)
-Chantal Fries (Albion Rd. and Mitch Owen’s in Greely)
-Potato King (Carleton Place)
-The Jolly Fryer (Eganville)
-The Sweet Potato (Carp)
-Fryz Guys (Montreal and Blair)
-Glen's Fries (Canadian Tire in Kanata)
-Brian's Spuds (Arnprior)
-The In and Out Eatery (Perth)
-McCan's Chips (Quyon)

blah blah blah

Spent the w-end watching movies, eating cheese, running and helping out pop with his bump-out reno project. I also had two dinners with ma and pa. It was enjoyable.

I watched a couple of dvds from the library and have many more on the waiting list. Some of these discs are so scratched up by the time i get them, that i miss whole parts of the movie haha. Oh well it is free. That is why I think vhs is the better technology. I never get screwed around by the film quality (only once in a blue moon). Vhs is more durable I guess.

-Pressure continues to grow on Tim Hortons to switch back to freshly made donuts but I don't think it will happen. http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/future-of-tim-hortons-baking-system-uncertain/article1569626/?cmpid=rss1
With strong profits and expansion into the States, we can forget about it I think. I will try Carling Bakery and may give T om and Son's another dry but i find the freshness questionnable and the selection is poor at times since the order is botched and they don't have a lot of stuff. I believe they are windinw their business down. Not sure. I read on Ottawafoodies that Stittsville Bakery closed.

-Talking about when donuts used to be freshly made on premises got me to thinking about how Harvey's used to have fresh-cut fries, but got rid of them around the turn of the millenium. It is no wonder I think that with the sorry state of fries in fast food places, there has been a proliferation of chip trucks across our fair city. See below to see what I mean.

-There is an Arby's again in ottawa so I will have to go try their BLT, Curly Fries and a shake. It is in Kanata but they don't post their hours on website. On hazeldean rd it can be found.

-Here is a CTV website competition to name the best chip stand in Ottawa. I wonder if they have considered the Chinese man ina van near Tunney's Pasture behind the Beer Store. They have over 304 comments/suggestions so happy reading.
http://ottawa.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100730/OTT_Chip_Truck_Say_100730/20100730/?hub=OttawaHome

-I continue to deliberate over whether to enlist in espanol again. The price is $248 now with the HSt and such. Kinda steep I find for what you get. We shall see.

-Ambleside is looking better these days. Clean-up and such. Threw out a lot of papers and stuff that i hoarded over th epast 3 years.

-With the increased family size now I really have to send an e-mail around to my family to take stock of all the birthdays and anniversaries that exist. Hey, i won't recognize the day with a gift, but I'd still like to know!

-People are buying i-phones, i-pads and pens are prob next, but I don't care much. I'll stick with 80's/90s until the gov subsidizes me to switch.

That is all for now even though I am sure I am missing a bunch of stuff I wanted to comment on. Guess I don't have the energy or inclination.

Doesn't anyone say goodbye anymore?

Hello all,
What is new? Things have been stable at old Ambleside save for a collapse of my bed spring and mattress the other day and the incessant pigeon dropping on the balcony. Re: the bed, this is the result of a poor support frame or lack of. There is no underlying suppport on the frame and the couple of support pieces aren't even secured to the frame thus they shift and then give out on you. I will rectify this and solve the problem for good.

Otherwise, I bought a car (2010 Accent), went on a trip with papa ertl to the American Southwest and coached ball again in the Spring.
Last weekend I visited Aron in Guelph and had an excellent couple of days with JB in TO, the big city. We had a ball. St. Lawrence Market, Harbour Front, Philly's, Baseball at WestPrep, 7-11 Slurpees, AdBo, etc. It was pretty f***** TO.

As the fall approaches I will attempt to re-enlist in french training, a spanish course, possibly Big Brother, and classroom outreach. If I can do 1 out these 4 things, I will be a happy man.

One other thing I am trying to do is get better at billiards, pool in particular. My first attempts failed last year when the interest course I signed up to with the Ottawa District School Board kept getting cancelled, ironically for, well lack of interest in the course (not enough ppl). So in June I thought, ahaha let's be smart about this and go to the source, so I called up the board and asked for the teacher's info (phone number etc). Well the woman on the phone didn't like that idea too much so I was stone-walled in my first attempt. Next, I thought that this idea would be full proof. Since I knew the name of the teacher from the catalogue I did a trusty 411 search and found a couple of entries for B. McGraw. I rang up one of them and the number was out of service. I cursed society's transition to cell phones as the sole phone line for people (removal of home phone) as I may have lost out. Sure enough though, the 2nd of the 3 entries turned out to be the guy. He was nice and we struck up a rapport over a 15 min phone call. I left my info and was confident he woudl get back to me to arrange a private 1 on 1 session at the Broken Cue pool hall. We even agreed on a rate of $20 an hour with me paying for the table time. Surely, as weeks went by I never heard from him. I have given up now on him and will keep persevering in my quest. Next up: Craiglist!

I guess this experience reminds me that people are not as reliable or devoted as me. I truly do go down with the ship. A similar thing happened when I was searching for VHS at the Mendez Gift Shop in Vanier. I went there picked out some titles, then told the woman I had a list of ones I was seeking. She said, "Sure, give me the list and I will look for them!" Success I finally thought! But, she did not have a fax number. I would have to e-mail her husband from the kijiji link with the list. I did so immediately upon getting home but never heard from him! Shucks.

I continue to drive to work and feel bad for the poor naives who must bus. Of course, this will be me again one day and I will hate it. The issue is the same one that has existed since the inception of public transit: congestion in the vehicles during rush hour. I don't care for it. If I wanted to live in New York or Tokoyo, I would; I don't need the claustrophobic experience here.

I park at my Parkdale/Gladstone location and then stroll quickly/light jog into the office with my black leather bag.

THat is all for now. If you see my running with my black leather bag, don't hit me if I happen to not have the right of way.

Best

My Budget as a Country

The annual A-train budget is being released shortly. The budget talks of maintaining current programs (read: no new salary increase) with not much slashing going on (read: will not starve myself inside Ambleside).

The budget allocates more money to travel this fiscal year with trips to American Southwest and South/Central America in mind, while continuing a freeze on expensive leisure hobbies such as ski/golf. A used set of rollerblades may be added in, however. The current equipment for baseball, x-country skiing and skating will be used for the duration of their useable lifespan, as they are fully amortized by now and continue to be very serviceable.

The CRT monitor continues to be functional and will be retained with a backup CRT standing by. A donation of an LCD monitor was made the the Uhrbach island and this will be deployed when needed.

Possible technology funds to be released include a laptop. There seems to be no national interest in a portable music device like an I-Pod. Instead, Cds will continue to be milked in their dwindling years. Also in the entertainment budget, VHS movies will be pursued for their durability, affordability and convenience.

The largest part of the budget could be the need to replace an aging automobile called the Ford Escort. The attractive financing that exists right now is a strong incentive to upgrade.

Upgrades to infrastructure (Ambleside) will be put off likely for future years, except the possiblity of adding a dishwasher (something beneficial akin to having electronic health records).

For education, the budget includes money for personal interest courses such as billiards or spanish when time in the calendar permits.

For health, A-train country will continue to strongly invest in dark Lindt chocolate which apparently contains phenols and anti-oxidants and unclogs his arteries from all the junk food he eats. Also, there is the dishwasher suggested above which should result in a time savings and be a positive influence on health.

Charity will likely take another direct hit this year, with very little funding announced.

The defense budget is also non-existent as A-train doesn't have a gun.

The A-train country budget is unique as there is no debt on the books and it has a highly liquid asset base.

more gravy, drink it up boys

This weekend (or at least the Saturday) I went Canadian on everyone's ass, as I strolled downtown in the Escort, parked at the usual family parking spot (wink, wink, nudge, nudge, tap finger to nose) and then sashayed myself down to Confederation Park and the entrance to the Canal to take a skate. You have to keep in mind that this jabroni had not been on the canal for at least 5-7 years so I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know if there would be gangs present, or if I would fall through the ice into the frozen waters of the historic canal, only to never be heard from again. In fact, none of that ominous stuff happened and I am here today writing this blog. I will say that it was quite crowded unexpectingly since it was pretty cold and I went at 4 pm. However, expectingly, it was justified in being crowded since it was the first Saturday of Winterlude. One factor did not cancel out the other and the crowded won out. I always go for the underdog but it didn't prevail here.

Anyway, if you saw the dull blades on my skates before starting out on the rough and used up canal surface, you should have seen them after! They looked like butter knives - and not the blade, but the handles! In the second half of my canal skate, I could barely move at all as the blades were just so dulllllll. It served me right as the last time I had sharpened my skates was probably before Bush started his first term and I had done a lot of outdoor rink and arena skating in between. Ok, well, if you know me and what I get up to - yawn VHS yawn - you would call bullshi t on that since I hardly lace up skates, but still, there was that one summer of discontent where I went every Tues night to the Walter Baker to skate amongst the kids and families. I was their hero! I was their Stone Cold Steve Austin.

As I was saying, after dogging the last km of my skate, my rootie-poo candy-ass was craving some fat and sugar. What better place than the Beavertail stand, of which there was one every 500 m, conveniently located for all us jabronis. As luck would have it, the lines thinned out around dinner time since most people do not say, "hey cletus, lets go git us one of d'em Beavr tail thingies before we eats-us our squirrel for dinner." No, they try not to spoil their appetites.

My gain, as I got one quickly and a warm apple cider to go with it and just ate and drank in the middle of the ice. I went home and then turned slightly American and watched some wrestling tapes I had just bought earlier that day. I watched 1994 Royal Rumble with Razor Ramon facing I.R.S., The Hart brothers taking on the Quebecers ("we're not the mounties!") where Owen (RIP) famously turned heal, and the vaunted casket match between Yokozuna and Undertaker, which was hilarious.
Sunday I slept in long, exercised, laundered (clothes not money), organized my mental compartments and tried to do some reading and stuff. Also finished the movie Simon Birch.

Going back to the beginning of the weekend, I had lots of fun at my dad's 70th b-day party, hosted by Jones and FB. Happy B-day dad, what a milestone. You look great too and deserve everything you have today. The event was fun as Heidi put together a wonderful cake, which I appraised at $50. I also schmoozed Francois' parents and got caught up with my nieces.

Coming out of retirement

Ah s hit, hello everyone. It has been ohhhhh too long. I estimate from the 5 people who were at one point tuning in to my blog, there is no one left - one was probably a stranger in the U.S. who had to foreclose on his house and doesn't even have a computer anymore.

Welcome back to my blog. It may be a little more shoot from the lip than the previous version because I am going to have to work hard to bring up my ratings in the blogging world. We all know sex and violence sells so how about some of that? Nah, i can't! I'm the proud uncle of two nieces and one new nephew. Welcome to the big wide world Sacha Phillipe (insert 4-5 middle names) Blouin. But I suppose I can drop some F bombs every now and then. I am in cyberspace and you can't touch dat!
Although I am sure the draconian CRTC is working on that.

To start us off and get you in the right mindset, please view or listen to this youtube clip of the band Boston with their hit Peace of Mind. THis song will get you going in the morning and getting me moving anytime before 10 is a testament to its rhythm.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaR2JeqxQDY

Some of my recent endeavours include getting dumped for no reason, trying my best at work, not caring at all about winter/hockey/the Ottawa Senators, wasting hours on Plenty of Fish with no results, helping in an elementary school, writing scathing letters into newspapers (w/ a low success rate), and eating like an absolute garbage can. To offset this nasty habit, I am doing push-ups and then going down to play squash...against myself. I win every f ucking time! In between squash intervals, I run laps around the small court.It is pathetic. That is called winter time exercise.

Here is my biggest project over the next few days: driving to some guy's twin garage off of Richmond Rd to pick up some wrestling movies. I have dealt with Gary R. before and found him to be most professional, so I don't think he will whack me.





To close, I will say that the return of this blog is based out of self-deprecating humour and just a general Stone Cold Steve Austin attitude towards most aspects of life. Now, can I get a hell yeah?