June 27, 2004
In the Flesh
One thing that was unique about our cross-country move was that I got to meet Paul at Light and Dark in the beautiful mountain town of Canmore. Since I took up this (hobby? contact sport? obsession?) known as blogging, I had yet to meet one blogger, apart from my beloved wife, who took up the (blood sport? vendetta hit? word massacre?) hobby at about the same time I did...
It was weird and cool to meet someone else who could speak the blogging lingo and who knew all the same reference points in the blogosphere that I did.
Glad to have met you, Paul!
June 25, 2004
Here
My last couple of days...
Drive
Drive
Drive
Drive
Drive
Drive
Deal with extortionist movers
Unload Uhaul
Collapse in heap in corner...
More writing later.
June 16, 2004
First Stage, tomorrow
From Mississauga, Ontario, to the lovely town of Owen Sound, where big brother Kraut lives...
Going?
Soon Rogers is going to pull the plug on my connection so I'm gonna be quick.
The van's ready, the trailers packed and there's just a little bit left to do (not going to hand over a dirty house...well yes I am going to hand over a dirty house, but it's not going to be obviously dirty...)
I'm so tired from the allnighter that Rue and I pulled that I'm looking at the same things three or four times and still asking her very dumb questions that she's putting up with - that's my baby!
I've been assured by my moving company that someone will be out here, before 12pm to disassemble and then move our leather sofa - the last thing keeping me here in Ontario, land of the Humidex and Dalton McGuinty - dunno which makes me sweat more...
Bye Ontarians!!!
Going...
The truck came and loaded up all our stuff today...
After six months of selling the place, the pruning of the useless items accumulated in the daily droning of life and a last minute, no holds barred, throw the fucking thing in a box and tape the bastard, and we are now ready to move...aside from the fact that the couch can't fit thru the goddamn door without a professional tech from the manufacturer taking it apart first. We close tomorrow and supposedly the guy's coming before the house closes tomorrow.
A blood-curdling scream is brimming to the top of mind right now.
June 14, 2004
Kill, Kill you all...
So Rue's totally calm and unflustered about the sheer amount of crap that's still undone...
Well I'm not.
If anyone gets in my way today...ANYONE I'll punch holes in the wall.
I mean it.
June 13, 2004
Question
Do you tip restaurants for takeout?
I'm not talking about McDonald's or Wendy's here - I'm talking about a nice, sit-down restaurant that has a take out menu.
I phoned.
I placed the order.
I went to go get the order when it was ready.
I got handed the credit card slip when I paid for my meal and the "tip" and "total" boxes were unfilled. The subtotal above "tip" was the cost of the meal and taxes. I filled out "-" for the tip and just carried the subtotal down to the total box and then signed my name.
And waited to see the reaction: a momentary glance and eyes full of judgement. If I didn't already have my food in boxes, I'm sure the hostess would've spit in it.
Why do I have to tip for takeout. Eating in is different, I'm being served, and the wait staff can determine how enjoyable my meal is going to be. The delivery guy also deserves a couple of bucks if he's bringing food to my door. What did the restaurant do for me that I have to tip when I pick up food?
Am I totally out of line here? Comments people, comments!
June 10, 2004
Paranoia
...will destroy ya!
I've been striving very hard to be organized in setting up the move to Kelowna. I've made lists. I've checked stuff off on those lists.
A good friend of ours (Thanks Chris!) has brokered a deal on a place for us in Kelowna so we have a place to hang our hats once we hit town. We don't even have to blow any cash on a hotel upon arrival like I thought we would have to...
I even voted early to make sure that I got myself counted (not like another 18 days is going to change my mind about the upcoming election.)
And yet, I keep thinking I've missed something blatantly obvious, something big. Because of this, I've even stopped having that stupid dream about screwing up my final project for "Politics in Business" and that I'm actually 3 credits short and really don't have my degree - a regular rotating feature of my sleepy-time nightmare theatre...
Of course I've thought of everything, right? RIGHT???
June 06, 2004
Excluded
the mall
I'm returning with my one-year old daughter to meet my wife and two-and-a-half year old daughter who are at the Chanel counter. Usually my beautiful older daughter has a warm greeting for me when I reappear from these little independent shopping tasks that I carry out to speed our shopping trips.
My daughter looks up, spots me and her sister approaching...
...and screams at the top of her lungs:
NO! NO! NO! NO!
GO
A-
-WAYYYYYY!
Of course at that moment everyone in the store is staring at her, and then at me. Obviously the perfume counter is no place for Daddies. I shrug and say to my wife: "Next time, you guys go alone..."
June 02, 2004
Whither the Heckler
Is there any form of political animal lower on the totem pole than the heckler?
Especially when it's soon-to-lose Liberal Cabinet Ministers:
And that idiot John Nunziata (former Liberal MP and moonbat Mayoralty candidate) said on a local talk show this week that voter apathy would be a critical factor this time around. Sorry that was the last election. Nice to see you keeping up, John.
"They've been out of practice. Usually when you do a protest, you get other people to pretend they're ordinary people, you don't send out your own front bench to do the protesting. I think they're running short of shock troops. They look pretty desperate."
Regime change begins at home.
Ha Ha. Nice one.
Missing You Already
Because none of you have asked and I'm dying to tell you.
The number one thing that I will miss when the Kraut Caravan pulls out onto highway 10 headed north, then west:
One of the first true "Toronto" moments when I moved here 10 years ago was 6am peameal bacon on a bun at St. Lawrence Market. Damn it was good. And I'd never seen it before in the West.
The second thing I noticed was the much higher ratio of donut shops per square mile than in the west. That I won't miss that much.
The thing that I'll not miss the most is the Ontarian's slavish devotion to the purveyors of mediocre chicken, the unimpressive Swiss Chalet, whose advertising slogan reads thus:
Life should taste as good as Swiss Chalet
which, if true, would have me ending said life with a large mallet to the skull. Our neighbours in la belle province do it much better.
But I suppose I won't know what I miss most until we actually leave Ontario...
Butt Out!
Well, it's official. Toronto is now officially smoke-free.
Well it's better than the half-assed bar vs restaurant legislation that's kept me and my kids out of some of the finer pubs that have declared themselves bars to avoid the smoking ban until now.
Well, they've got me and my kids back, but I seriously doubt that I'll pay more in the long run than a clientele of dedicated puffers.
I have some other thoughts about freedom and liberty and all the rest of that nice flowery stuff, but the alcohol consumed earlier in the evening with dinner has, alas, deserted me.
I feel like a smoke. Damned I am that I didn't get Marlboros when I was in the States a week or two ago...
June 01, 2004
Carnival of the Canucks
is up over at Circadian Shift and for the second week one of my posts is included...
Thank you Jen.