Juicy Fruit Solved!!!

Ok.... due to popular demand I will now divulge the solution to the Juicy Fruit Mystery!

BUT WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you have not read the Juicy Fruit Mystery posting... I urge you to read it first before reading the solution to the gut wrenching, spine tingling, eyebrow raising, and butt licking tale!

Here's the original posting for your mystery quenching pleasure!

Ok.... so now for the solution. Here's how it happened.

I came home to Erin's place late the night before the ass-affixed Juicy Fruit was discovered.... and here's your first clue.... I was chewing Juicy Fruit gum!!! Crazy eh?

I was trying to be quiet in her appartment so I quickly sequestered myself to the washroom to brush my teeth and get ready for bed. For those who don't know Erin's apartment, she has a very LOUD fan that auto-annoyingly comes on when you turn on the lights. So I brushed my teeth in the dark, peed in the dark.... and here's the next very important piece of information... I threw away my Juicy Fruit gum into the toilet with a light toss. Well, I have never pretended to be Shaquille O'Neil and as a result I did not get "nothing but net" ... instead I got "everything that was rim." And as most intelligent adults will report, Juicy Fruit gum sticks to toilet seats!

Fast forward to middle of the night when Erin's bladder wakes her with gentle cries of "Erin you gotta pee girl!" Picture it... the half asleep girl installs herself on the toilet seat in the dark, not noticing the almost imperceptible squishing feeling of gum on her butt in her half-asleep state. And then voila! The Juicy Fruit gum is then unknowlingly transported into the bed, later to be found by me several hours into the future during my pseudo-waking state.

So there ya go! The Juicy Fruit mystery has now been solved. Thanks to everyone who postulated solutions to the strange observation! A special gift was promissed to the guess that came closest to the real story. Unfortunately, no close guesses had any meaningful personal identifications or signatures, so in good conscience I cannot issue the very valuable prize. Instead, it will be replaced in the prize vault for our next interactive Blog posting! Stay Tuned!! (*laugh*)

Do you know how hard it is to find someone who likes the same music as you?

I love you! You know who you are! (And No...this is not directed at Alex!!!)

My Dad is great!

I just spent two days of working vacation with my Dad. We had fun working together laying out his new book. And we went to New Garden TWICE! YUM!!!!! Special thanks to Erin for making a beautiful dinner on Tuesday evening. It's was yummalicious!

Doesn't it sound like me and my Dad are focussed on food? It's not too far from the truth hahaha

Thievery Incorporated!

ok... news on my thief! He's been arrested for Fraud (not theft ... darn). Eight months ago he did the same crime and got 90 days in Quinte Detention Centre! So, look for the same here I figure! Yeah! Despite all the damage and loss of contents, I feel somehow happy that he's been arrested. Also, I did recover most of the CDs that were stolen too. The police handed nine of them over to me yesterday.

So, I think this story has come to a conclusion now. Now I have to decide when I should install a new stereo in my car, whether or not I should install an alarm in my house (since I am now paranoid!) and whether or not I should pay $500 to fix the body work on the car. Hmmm.... The $500 seems like such a waste! I could buy an iPod with that!!! (*laugh*)

Any cash donations or advice is much appreciated ;-)

Merry Christmas Everybody!

I had one of the best Christmas' that I can remember (and for those those know me that's not saying a lot because my memory actually is quite poor... LAUGH!)

I comitted myself to sending three days and two nights on lovely Wolfe Island with the Merry Clan! It started off in style! We hit the Toucan for a couple drinks the afternoon of Christmas Eve and we were late getting into the Ferry lineup! DOH! We walked onto the Ferry and luckily the nice Ferry people took our car over on a later run.

Christmas as the Merry's was fun. We had food. Lots of food. Drinks. Lots of drinks. And Euchre! Lots of Euchre! Mrs. Merry was the card shark I tell ya. Over the two nights she won seven of eight matches!!! I was very fortunate to be her partner for six of her wins! So needless to say I was in the good books this weekend (haha!)

It was really fun hanging out with everyone. Julie impressed me with her culinary skills! The brunch on Christmas Day was awesome! I got to mee John's GF Brooke who was very nice, and I went over to Andy and Catherine's place too. Mackenzie their daughter came out for a walk with Erin and I and we "held the moon"... it was full and awesome looking! That's a special treat!

I had dream accomodations too. I had my own little apartment while I stayed there. Very cool. I enjoyed myself a great deal and everyone made me feel at home. Needless to say, a "thank you" card will be in the mail shortly.

So Christmas was awesome. (I got loads of Red Wings stuff too). Now I'm looking forward to New Years with Erin at Isaiah Tubbs resort in Picton! Fun Fun Fun!

The plot thickens!

I called Chumleighs and they bought three of my stolen CDs last Thursday. A unique combo that would never come into their store together. The Box-The Box (1984), Archive-You all look the same to me (2002) and Led Zeppelin - How the West Was Won 3 cd box set (2003). Turns out they bought 5 cds from the person. The lady at Chumleighs won't tell me the other two titles. Anyway, they got a piece of ID from the seller. They will not release it to me; only to the cops. So I'm in touch with Constable Jeff Dickson on this. I hope it works out for the best and at the very least the result will be that the thief is scared off from targeting my car in the future. More to follow.

The Best April Fool's Day Ever!

April 1st will be a pretty cool day! I'm getting a new roommate that day? Can you guess who? (*grin*)

I'm tired

It's been an eventful few days. Here's a recap in chronological order:

Thursday Morning: wake up to find my car badly damaged! JOY! Once again my car has been broken into by some local losers in search of my stereo and CDs. This time they really did a number on it. They took a crow bar to the front door and damaged the body quite a bit. The same crow bar was used on my power sunroof! DAMMIT! That's going to be expensive to fix!!!! They finaly gave up and went in the easy way: they broke the back window. While ripping out my dash they also damaged some interior electronic wiring because my map lights and dome lights don't work anymore. So, all said and done it's likely going to cost near $1,200 to fix. DOH! I was pretty frustrated that day. I may opt not to get it all fixed though. It's bad timing around christmas to get a bill like this. Special thanks to Scott who helped me garbage bag my back window. Stylish!!!

Thursday night: had my work Christmas party which was pretty fun. It was great to get Erin out and meeting my co-workers and friends. I had lots of fun at the party watching Erika dance up a storm as well. Man she's good! As usual, Erin was beautiful.

Friday morning: had the day off so instead of enjoying it, I spent it running around getting estimates to fix my car. Bleck! Got a parking tickey downtown. Was so frustrated that I locked my keys I the car by accident! (HOLY SMOKES can anything else bad happen to me?) However, I was then delighted to the MAX when I could easily break into my own car by smashing through two layers of plastic bag!!! WHEW! That was fun!!! Crisis averted! (*grin*)

Friday night: drive out to Ottawa with Erin to meet Ted/Patti and my Dad/Louise. We had chicken wings to die for at a restaurant called Local Heroes. Easily the best wings I have ever had in my life! WOW! I will definately go back! Then we hit the Ottawa 67s game. They played Belleville in the best OHL game I have ever seen in my life! Crazy eh? Final score 6-6 with 21 penalties called during the game!!!! It was a high scoring physical match up that sent the 9,000+ in attendance into a frenzy! If you are intersted here's the gamesheet. I was so excited! I really hope the LVEC in Kingston can generate that kind of excitement! Special thanks to Patti & Ted for letting us stay over at their place Friday night! We didn't go to bed until 4:30am!!!! OUCH! Breakfast was yummalicous!

Saturday Afternoon: Drive back from Ottawa after making a run for the Biggest Giant Tiger I have ever seen. I wonder why they don't have one in Kingston? Weird.

Saturday Night: Christmas party at Siobhan's and Cory's. Was lots of fun. I won my very first real-life poker game and took home $50 in winnings. Needless to say, I was dead tired after that night came to it's conclusion. Special thanks to Jen for driving and being the Designated Driver for the evening! You rock baby!

Sunday morning: Two hours of road hockey in -20oC. Need I say more?

Sunday night: fell dead asleep at 10pm. AWESOME!

Betablocka & Weeping Tile

I was at a very fun "all ages" concert that raised money for the Salvation Army last night. Betablokka and Weeping Tile (with Sarah Harmer) headlining. It was a good time. I was especially energized by the awesome encore which included a kick-ass cover of a dance tune by Outkast called "Hey Ya". You know the one I';m talking about. Check out the lyrics here

Check out Sarah's site.

Juicy Fruit is gonna move you! Win a prize!

Ever roll over in bed, snuggle with your significant other and swear you smell something like Juicy Fruit gum? "No", you say? Well, up until last night I would have been one of the billions of people on the Earth that would have responded in exactly that way.

So, picture it... 7:15am -ish, roll over.... smell Juicy Fruit. First reaction is one of joy.... because you know just as well as I do, the best part of Juicy Fruit is indeed the smell!! So I think to myself... "Ahhhhh... Juicy Fruit is gonna move you" ... you know... the song... in a sort of half-dreaming state. Then I sorta wake up a bit more and mention to Erin that I think I just smelled Juicy Fruit. I chalked it up to a combination of two things:

1. She took a late night bath last night so she probably smells clean and fragrant, and


2. I was dreaming about Juicy Fruit in a half-awake state!

After a couple of minutes, Erin finds the answer to my problem: there a big wad of juicy fruit gum stuck to her ass!!! Boy did we laugh.... it was so hilarious!!!! So after laughing so hard my belly ached we found ourselves in the washroom trying to clean up and trying to piece together the complicated series of events that would make someone wake up in their own bed with Juicy Fruit stuck to their bum?

So, I thought I would make this an interactive blog posting!!! Are you up for it? If you're reading this it's because you probably know Erin or I, or maybe you know Erin AND I! Either way it's unimportant... and even if you don't know either of us it doesn't matter. But I'd like you to click the "comments" word below and write us a message on this blog with your hypothesis as to how this strange occurance could happen. (Don't forget to sign your name!) After one week, I will post the answer to the true way in which this strange phenomenon came to be! The person who's posting is closest to the true story will win a Mystery Prize! Ooooooooooooooooooooh-Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

Enter as many times as you'd like! No purchase necessary! Void on Wolfe Island!

Operation Rednose!

I had a great time last night volunteering at Operation Rednose with Erika and Darryl. It was a fun filled evening of snow, fish-tailling, anti-lock brakes, and incorrect addresses!!! On top of that there was the "all-you-can-eat" home made sweets table which just did me in! "Toucan for one" afterwards was pretty fun too.

For those who don't know Operation Rednose is a volunteer service that drives people home when they've been drinking. I'll definately do it again!

Eating Plato in the Bed!

I did something super fun last night... I spent an hour with Erin and we read a few pages of Plato's Theaetetus together. Truth be told "she" read it to me. We had a lot of fun discussing and interpreting this Socratic Dialogue.

Now some people are going to read this and think "holy smokes those two people are nerds!" Well, maybe we are... or maybe we aren't... you'll just have to pick up a copy of Theaetetus, snuggle under the covers with your best friend one evening, read it together and decide for yourself!

It's better than eating crackers in the bed... no crumbs!

Erin at da hockey game!

Yup.... she went to the hockey game. And you know.... she saw like 3x more people she knew there than me!!! She's Ms. Social! HAHA! Game was good. Tie game at 4-4. Kingston openned up a 3-1 lead after the first then basically fell asleep the rest of the game. It ended in a 4-4 tie. Brampton almost won it in OT during a 4 on 3 with 1:31 min left in the OT period.... it was like a shooting gallery! Yikes! Spezza did well in net.

Oh... and one little tidbit... Erin's wearing my favourite pants (*giggle*)

And back at Erin's place she was spinning some good tunes! Joydrop even. Do you know how hard it is to find people that like the same music as you? I won the lottery without even buying a ticket. (*grin*) Cool eh?

The Snow Princess has left the building!

I went to a wedding this weekend! It was absolutely tons of fun from start to finish. The ceremony was beautiful and the priest's homily was beautiful. He really made it personal and spoke a lot about love and how no one is perfect. He stressed the need to rely upon God to have faith in the fact that the bride chose the groom, and the groom chose the bride as much as God chose them to be together. So despite the natural ups and downs of a marriage, that it is God's will for them to be together. The words were beautiful. He also spoke on the traditional theme of never going to bed mad at each other. Which is something I really believe in. I don't think I have ever been to a catholic wedding, but I love the catholic masses so it was a wonderful combination of a wedding with a full mass. Erin my GF was the maid of honour and she was beautiful. She look classy in her dress and so did all the bridesmaids. The entire wedding party was impressively good looking. So it should be on such a special day.

The reception was fun! The food rocked, the tunes were a pretty good mix and I stayed 'til the very end. The speeches ... well ... I could go on forever on them, but I won't. Suffices to say they were the best set of speeches I have ever seen at any wedding I have ever been to. The thoughtfulness behind each speech was evident. The love and support found in these families in friends was tangible in the room that it just made everyone feel so good. It was truly a feel good wedding!

NewsFlash: Erin caught the bouquet!!! Pressure's on now!! (*laugh*)

There were also some really nice aspects to the reception that I thought were thoughtful additions. Probably the most impressive one to me was the table at the front of the hall that had old wedding pictures of parents and grandparents. I'm a pretty big fan of old pictures, so these were absolutely beautiful to me.

I was graced with the privilege of driving the bride and groom.... er... I should say husband and wife to their hotel at the end of the evening and I must take the time to describe Tiffany's (the bride/wife) beautiful white cape that she wore while leaving. Of course she had a beautiful white wedding dress also, but combined with this white satiny cape with a ruffle of snow looking material along the edge... she looked like a Snow Princess. She was absolutely beautiful and elegant leaving the building after all those hard hours of stress and partying (*grin*). It was my honour to be The Snow Princess' chauffeur (*smile*).

On a lighter note, it was great to finally meet Siobhan's husband Cory. I thought he was really cool. We had a good time together. Siobhan herself was quite entertaining that night. I was a big fan of the nine push-ups she did on the dance floor HAHAHAHA!!! Also, I didn't realize Jen had such a nice butt! Her dress was perfect at showing it off and several people made positive comments during the evening (*grin*).

In short, best wedding I've ever been to. That's cool.

I be liking da gym

I went to the gym four times this week. Yeah for me.

What a non-boring night!

Yesterday was one of those non-boring nights where some interesting stuff happens.

Right after work I hit the gym. Was a good little workout... head home. Throw on some new clothes and go pick up Erin. We were going for a drink and some dinner at the Toucan where her Posse installs itself every Friday.

Was cool to see this relatively large group of people drinking away at the front of the Toucan..... and it being Cheers-esque where everybody knows every body else's name when they come in the door. Oh of course, at one point a drink gets spilled and my cat-like relexes (Yeah sure!!!) from having been to the gym earlier give me just the right response in the critical timeframe and the beer barely misses landing in my crotch! Yeah for me, because I have plans of leaving the Toucan at 7:15pm to go see the Frontenacs Game and I don't want to go with wet pants!!! What would the riff-raff think! Previously near 5pm, I had left three messages on the machines of three buddies in an attempt to find someone to go with. I really wanted to see that game against Belleville.

Back to the Toucan story. It's a good time... we have burgers and beer. Also turns out the waiter/bartender used to live with me in the old 4th Vic days. WEIRD! He even remembers my name although he's too busy to chat or anything.

After the food has been consumed.... oh wait...must tell you about the sweet potatoe fries. Holy yummy batman! Gotta get them again soon! .... but I digress.... so, a promo rep starts handing out free half-pints of strongbow and Erin saddles up to one. On a side note, she looks quite nice in her skirt!!! (I saw the line!) In the middle of some funny story she completely spills her strongbow onto me! Oh Jeez! No cat, let alone me and my cat-like reflexes, could have gotten out of the way of the sweeping hand coming right at me. So I'm covered, the nice vinyl seat is covered and her skirt got some too.... boohoo. She tells me to go to the bathroom... but what the heck am I going to do in the bathroom.... stick my entire upper leg in the toilet? NOT! hahaha. So everyone has a good laugh and the party continues.... wet pants and all!

I did get one call during that time but it was from Mary and not from any hockey-loving friends of mine. Bastards! So, at 7:15pm I leave the bar and pile back into my car. As soon as I reach the car I realize I didn't pay for my food/drink! DOH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope Erin paid for me. Please please please! It's not my style to stiff people!

I reach the game at about 7:30pm with my pants still soaked from the Strongbow. (YUM!) I approach the building to be greated by the sound of the national anthem being played. I also see a HUGE lineup to get in. Takes about 10 mins and by the time I reach the wicket it's standing room only. Very cool. I'm not sure I've ever been to a standing room only game in Kingston. I probably have, but I'm just there earlier so I get a seated ticket I guess. (Editor's note: attendance over 3000!)

I grab the oblibatory 50:50 tickets, popcorn and Dr. Pepper. Find myself a spot and start enjoying life. Well, life became un-enjoyable very fast as the Bulls carried the play in the first and were up 2-0 by the end of it after 8-4 shots on goal.

During the first intermission I see Michelle from the Chem Lab at RMC. She's not very chatty though and I am alone so I want to be chatty. Oh well can win them all.

The second period becomes a fiasco while a Bulls player turtles on a faceoff and the Kingston boy get 2 minutes for instigating, 5 for fighting and a 10 minute misconduct! OUCH!!!! Despite this huge disadvatage Kingston carries the play in the second period and outshoots and out chances Belleville. Why is Belleville winning 4-1 at the end of the second? Because Davis the Kingston Goalie has a bad night and lets weak goals go in. Jeez! Spezzza takes over.

During the second period I find this hilarious guy to stand beside and we chit chat all period about the game. I am especially entertained by the fact that he is missing his two front teeth! HAHA. Maybe he used to play hockey as a kid ;-)

During the second intermission I see KJ's aunt and she calls me by name when we say "hi". That was nice.

Third period almost a repeat of the second. It's all Kingston. But the final score is 5-2 Belleville. Final shots on goal 41-24 for Kingston in the loss. I guess you can chalk it up to one of those strange nights where the other team gets all the breaks even though you outplay them.

Um...as usual...I don't win the 50:50 which was over $1100 that night.

So, un-eventfully I went home and had a jacuzzi bath and was in bed at 11:30pm.

So all in all.... a nice non-boring night for the Hamster-Man!

Here's the pic! Wow... looks exciting eh? HAHA 

Yooooour Kingston Frontenacs!

I went to a Frontenacs game on Sunday with Sue, Wayne, Gegory and Bethany. Was loads of fun! The good guys won over the Ottawa 67's by a score of 4-3! It's a good preview game for my December 17th trip to Ottawa where I'll be seeing the Belleville Bulls vs. the Ottawa 67's. Coollio. I took a couple of pics. I'll try to post them tonight.

He really is GOOD!

A *good* time was had by all! A rockin' concert by Matthew Good and friends at AJ's Hangar which started out immediately with the crowd pleaser "Apparitions" accoustic with Matt by himself on the stage. The fans ate it up! He had a great mix of the old tunes and the new tunes. Despite being a little short at about 1 hour and 20 minutes (maybe I'm spoiled after the big and long outdoor Hip concert that I last went to), the show was awesome!!! Probably the most interesting bit of the concert was when Matt stopped in the middle of a song and took the time to whip out a few handouts to talk about Afghanistan and middle east stuff. He's a pretty Wold/Social Conscious guy. Check out his Blog. It's a cool read.

Erin, Julie and I timed it perfectly and came in 4 minutes before he hit the stage! Kudos to Erin how came out despite being sick with a cold! Bleck!

Here's a couple more pics! (click them to make them BIGGER)
 

Here's a pic that shows some crowd. 

House of Games

Erika says... "See this movie called House of Games"
Eric says... "ok...I'll post a note to my blog to remind me to see this movie someday"

Tada!

The Dream Date

Ever had a dream date? You know... the kind of date that goes off perfectly from start to finish? I've had a few I guess but I think I just had the best one ever last night. Yup.

Erin and I had plans to have a nice dinner at a Swanky Restaurant: Casa Dominca. I arrived at her place at 6:15pm dressed nicely (wearing a tie even!), and I walked in to a picture of beauty. Boy she looked good! She has this beautiful neckclass on too that just made her look so unique! Luckily I had brought my camera and she was nice enough to let me take a couple of pics of her at her place. We had a quick drink at her place before the taxi showed up. I opened the door for her to the cab. (My mom taught me that! That scores points on the romantic meter!)

Once we arrived at the restaurant I also scored another point on the romantic meter by pulling out her chair for her at the table. (Can you tell I was working hard here? Of course, she's well worth the effort!) It was a nice table for two by the window. Dinner was amazing. The appatizer was thrilling: a mixture of seafoods and topped by beautiful fennel and some yummy olives and little tiny toasted breads (I can't remember the name for them). It was so yummy! The wine was excellent and the conversation was wonderful. The neat thing about Erin and I is that we BOTH talk a lot. So when we're together we have the greatest conversations. It just goes on an on and time flies and we laugh and have such a good time. I love to see her smile.

Despite some slowness on the part of the waiter (the place was uber-busy due to the Queen's Science Formal), we enjoyed the dinner immensely. In fact the slowness was a good thing as it just gave us more time to talk. (*grin*)

Main course was yummy too. I have penne with feta while she had gnocchi. The food is always good at Casa Dominca. I've been there a few time and I am always really pleased with the food and the atmosphere. We skipped desert because Erin had a great idea: let's go for Bubble Tea!

So we walked up Princess Street during what had turned out to be a rare warm November evening. Hand in hand we made our way up the street. When we reached the corner of princess and barry I noticed the old paradisso restaurant was now re-opened by a new restaurant called Sol. (Maybe called Casa del Sol or Sol something...I forget). So that's when spontaneity took over and we decided to duck in there and have a drink. It was awesome.

The lights were low, the place was half full and we had a table where we could sit and talk. We ordered martinis! Sexy! I had a Cosmopolitan (girlie...yet yummy) and she had a sour apple martini. We laughed and talked and I enjoyed myself the the MAX! I fed her the cherry from my martini. WOW! She gave me half of her apple from hers. It was perfect.

Ok, that spontaneous interlude was wonderful but we had to get back on track: Bubble Tea. It was her second time there. I took her the first time a couple weeks back. It's a place I went to a lot a few years back with friends. I like it. It's yummy stuff and a nice place to sit and talk. We had spent the last few hours talking but we still had more to talk about and Bubble Tea's a good place to do it and the teas are more like a desert than a tea.... which is why we had skipped the desert at Casa Dominica. (*grin*)

After the tea, we walked home to her place. Which was decievingly close by the way (especially given the warm evening).

So, the perfect date continued but I'll spare you these details. (*evil grin*)

I have fallen for this girl hard and it feels great! I just know I will have many more Dream Dates with her in the future! I just know it.

Due to popular demand, here's a picture of me in my Monk Costume that I wore for Halloween. Sexy eh? ;-) 

I'm sick

Oh well... my streak without a cold has now come to an end. It was over a year I'm sure. I feel crappy-licious today.

Halloween was lots of fun this year. We went and enjoyed the festivities at Wolfe Island. I was a Monk with a real brass crucifix around my neck. I felt sinful playing pool and drinking beer while wwearing it. I'll have to go to confession this week ;-) Erin's Jack in the Beanstalk outfit won her Third Prize in the competion!!! (She also won Third Prize in the same competition last year with her pumpkin outfit! Do you think she's likes Halloween or something?) HAHA. Jen looked super-cute in her full-body cat leisure suit.

23 is my favorite number!

23 has always been my favorite number and when the 23rd of each month rolls around I always have some great positive vibes. It's always a great day. I make it that way. Well, yesterday was no exception. I had an amazing day with my new girlfriend. Her name is Erin. We got up early and went on a road trip to Ottawa where we met up with my friend Ted and his new, and beatiful, wife Patti! We went to Manotick to see the Third World Bazaar in its 6th year of existance. It's new to Manotick however. It used to be in Seeley's Bay. We had a good time and the place was loaded with people. That's good to see.

Afterwards, we trucked up to Ikea to brave the shopping crowds again. I have some house stuff to buy in order to replace the things I lost in the flood of 2004! (see below for more info!) I bought a coffe table, a rug, some dishes and other tiny kitchen things.

So, it was about 2:30pm by now and we parted company with Ted and Patti. Erin and I headed down to the market where we enjoyed what is probably going to be the last weekend warm enough to sit on a patio. I had a big beer! A garbage can sized beer as the waiter calls it. Hoegaarden. It's a Belgium white beer. Yummy. Erin and I had wonderful conversations while we were fighting off the hunger. We had barely eaten anything so far (we each had a bagel at 8:45am and that's it!). We had to hold out for 5:30pm when we were meeting up with my Dad and his GF, Louise, for dinner. So at about 4:30pm we head into the mall to look around for "sexy" jeans for me. (*laugh*). Man was it fun. This girl likes shopping and she fun to be around. I enjoyed myself a lot. We even found some sexy jeans in the Gap that might have worked had they not been defective with a big line through the front on one leg. boo hoo. Oh well, the sexy-jeans mission remains un-completed. A task for another day!

Dinner was yummy. We were starved! Erin and my Dad talked shop during part of the diner which was cool to see. I like seeing her in her element. My Dad's good. As good as ever.

After diner we dashed off to our car, first passing a bunch of fire trucks working on what must have been a small fire in a restaurant. Interesting! When we reached the car we kissed and we kissed in the cold air. We kissed like we were the last two people on the earth. I could only see and feel her. My surroundings were completely unimportant. When we finished a man stepped up to Erin and said "are you guys leaving?" HAHAHAHAHAA. Man that was funny, the guy had gotten out of his car and walked up to us while we were kissing HAHAHA! And a quick look around me revealed that there were probably another six or seven people walking in this parking lot. No doubt many of them watching us. (*grin*)

The drive home went by so quickly. I love talking to her. So as you can see from this posting, October 23rd, 2004 did an amazing job and cementing my connection with the number 23. Isn't life wonderful sometimes.

Thy Flood Recedeth

Today's the day I submit my claim to the adjuster and the ball is rolling on a couple of items already: water heater is replace and furnace motor is being replaced today. Yeah! Can you say "heat"? I know you could!

I met a new girl

So, being back on the dating scene is interesting to say the least. It's not easy, but I didn't expect it to be. I met a very nice girl from town and we've had a few fun date: dinners, walks, playing pool. I'll get a pic of her soon (*grin*).

Here's a nice sunrise photo I took while coming into work today at about 6:50am. If you look closely you see a person rowing on the Cataraqui River. Nice. (Click pic to enlarge.) 

Happiness is in the Twillight Zone

Why aren't people happy in relationships? Why do relationships start off ok, and then after about 2 years, the end up not-ok? Why does the same person who was on cloud nine in month three of the relationship, find themselves looking for greener pastures at a later date?

It's like the Twillight Zone: it's just inexplicable.

I must rent that movie... um... er... what's it called... something like "19 months." I think I want to see that movie. It's a B-grade Canadian movie that has the premise that romantic love only lasts 19 months. It follows two people as they try to break up in the 19th month. It might give me some insight into why relationships go stale after a certain period of time.

OOOOOOOOOOOO Canada!

Team Canada pulled it off with a beautiful 3-2 win over Finland yesterday. I was so happy for them. A perfect 6-0 in the tournament is wildly impressive! I was at the Grad Club watching it and the people packed into the tiny room really charged the atmosphere. We counted down the final minutes in unison and at the end the group sang "Oh Canada"! It was kind of weird to me, I had never been anywhere where people spontaneously broke into singing the National Anthem, but it felt pretty cool! Reminds me of the old days at Queen's when we used to break into spontaneous choruses of the "Oil Thigh" (I don't know how to spell it in Gaelic... heck ... I'm not sure I even know how to spell "Gaelic." *laugh*) On our way home, the intersection of Division and Pricess was almost blocked with people celebrating the win while waiving Canadian Flags. I loved it and honked my horn the entire way by!!!

So, congrats to Team Canada. I'm happy for them. I'm glad that Canadians get to celebrate their participation in sucha great game this year, because the NHL may not operate this year due to contract disputes. SUCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

(Eric whispers... "Go Wings Go")

More Hip! Overall the concert rocked! The Hip played 26 songs in total including 2 encores.... over 2 hours! On the left of this picture you'll see Dan Aykroyd on harmonica for this song. This was the end of their last song in the set: locked in the Trunk of a Car. Awesome! 

Here's a shot of the crowd when the Hip was on. This is the crowd to my right. WOW! 

The Tragically Hip! 

The Crowd was huge! Estimated at 22,000 and I am right in the middle of it. This is shooting directly behind me away from the stage during Matt Good's Set. 

Here's a few pics from the Across the Causeway benefit concert hosted by the Tragically Hip. Here's a shot of the Matt Good Band. 

Here's a picture of the pile of junk now piled in my yard from the basement flood. I feel like trailer-trash now. UGH! 

I know how Noah Feels

Yesterday was Hell Day. I felt like Kevin Costner in Waterworld: I played in water and watched dollars signs evaporate! Kingston had a record rainfall: 137 mm. The previous record was 129 mm in 1979. Consequently, my finished basement was flooded with 8 inches of water. The sheer volume of water coming into the sump pump pit from the footing drain overwhelmed my sump-pump system. I have two sump pumps and they both could not keep up. I estimate it was coming into the house at approximately 4 gallons per minute! Crazy eh?! My belongings likely spend about 12 hours under water. After coming home from work at 4pm, I spent nine back-aching hours trudging through the water and trying to salvage everything I could. There's huge damage: the walls will have to be cut open and insulation removed, all the furniture is damaged, and the status of the major appliances such as washer, water heater and furnace is yet unknown. Joy! Luckily, my insurance company will cover it. So I'll be spending the weekend making lists and stuff. What a drag. I had the presence of mind to take some photos, so when I develop them, I'll post one or two here.

Bleck!

First day of class

The first day of class has come and gone. Both my sections of LART5-Fundamentals of Teaching Adults feel really good. The students seem to be pretty keen and I think that we can have a really fun time in class together and learn something all the while. The computer lab went well too. It seems that most people are very keen on the Online Bonus Question programme. That's a good thing! Intersting note, despite having about 70 students registerred in this University course, no one is from outside Ontario. I guess they'll market there next year

Kingston Whatchamacaulits

Ted and I went to a Kingston Frontenacs game yesterday. Exhibition against Peterborough Petes. Despite the fog, Kingston won 6-2. Was well worth it for $5! I might go to the next $5 game on Wednesday. It was a shame that less that 1,000 people went. We really do need the new LVEC in K-town.

Did you know that prior to 1988 the team was called Kingston Canadians? I think I knew that but what I didn't know was that before the adopted the current name they were called Kingston Raiders for one year. Eeek. That's a crappy name. I'm not a huge fan of the current name but it sure beets Raiders. I vote go back to Kingston Canadians ;-)

Camping Rocks!

So, I've been gone camping all week at Sharbot Lake Provincial Campground. Quick... POP QUIZ.... what Lake is Shabot Lake Provincial Campground located on? (**Insert Jeopardy theme here**) "Sharbot Lake" you said? Oh... no... I'm sorry thats incorrect... but we have some lovely parting gifts for you!

It's on Black Lake. A much smaller lake than Sharbot Lake, but right adjacent to in. Only a short four minute canoe portage to his Sharbot Lake. The weather was taylor made for camping. Sunny every day... highs between 20 and 24. Gorgeous. I squeezed in a little fishing which I haven't had time to do in years and I actually caught a bass on Thursday. Nothing of any size but still fun nonetheless! Relaxing is the word. Found some of the old faithful Kelly Striper's Worms at the Black Lake store too. I could never remeber their name.... now I do!

So, I'm back in town for the long weekend and I hope to run a bunch of last minute errands to organize myself for starting to teach next week.

Good News: The "A" Strikes Again!

I rock, if I must say so myself. I just obtained my 5th consecutive "A" grade in my M.Ed. programme at UoP. Yeah! Five courses down and eight to go. I'm taking a bit of a break for 15 weeks though to focus on a challenging teaching assignment at SLC this term:

1. LART5: Fundamentals in Teaching Adults in the Bachelor of Applied Arts Degree in Behavioural Psychology, and


2. The Coordinator for the Online Teacher Certificate Programme.

I'll start my 6th course at UoP in mid-late December. Just in time for Christmas!

Limestone City Blues Festival

I had a great time last night with Margaret. We went to the BluesFest grand finale in Market Square. It was packed! And it was smoking!!!! (the good kind of smoking.... not the *cough* *cough* kind of smoking). The closing act was awesome!!!!!!! Lonny Brooks! There was some quality music there! Now, I'm not really a blues aficionado (although I've listenned to enough of it in my day) and I know good music when I hear it. I knew it was going to be good from the second it started when Lonny's son came out and played a few tunes before his "Daddy" joined him: Wayne Baker Brooks. The guy's like Jimmie Hendrix only a bit more bluesy! WOW his guitar was awesome! The show had an amazing encore also when the entire band sat down in chairs and picked out some good stuff for another 20 minutes. Margaret and I were five feet from the stage for that part. Impresssive. Definately worth 7 bucks. Kingston ROCKS!

PS: Now I'm all itchy for my next concert. Sept. 12: The Tagically Hip! Yeehhaa!

Here's a picture of Riggs! He's an awesome dog! 

Here's a pic of MicMac and Cheyenne for your viewing pleasure! 

Bad news from The Doctor

So, I went to the doctor today to pick up my test results. It wasn't all good news. The kidney stones seem to be growing back. Ultasound shows two of them, small mind you... 3.5 mm each approx. So I've been put on a 2+ litre a day water diet for 3-4 months and we'll do another ultrasound. The ultrasound also showed two other surprising results... a gall stone 5.1 mm.... dammit! My dad had to get his gall stone taken out a 10 year ago... looks like I'm going down the same path. Second thing it showed is a slightly enlarged prostate. Very surprising since I'm only 35. Nothing you can do for that.

The blood pressure was still high today, so the Doc pulled the trigger and put me on meds. Valsartain (angiotensin II receptor antagonist). Low dose, but still pricy at $160 for 3 months! Bleck.

There was good news though.... my blood work was impeccable. Cholesterol was perfecto! Not eating fast food will do that to ya. Thank god for SuperSize Me two months ago!

Extreme Sports!

I came accross this photo that we used to have posted outside the lab at Queen's. It's friggin' funny. I miss the good old days of the lab sometimes.... oh well, I'm on to bigger and better things.

Random Scribblings

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