Sausage Party

More often than not, the weather around my birthday is shit, and this year was no exception. An e-card I got from Nick pretty much sums it up.

I have to plan my birthday a month in advance if I want people to actually be able to make it out with all the family reunions and other engagements that tend to go with the x-mas season. This year I planned a sausage party, a quasi-potluck affair where people were to bring their favourite sausages and cheeses. Apparently it wasn't immediately clear that the sausage should be precooked but, with that cleared up, there was a ton of kielbasa to go around.

Despite the close to 20cm of snow that kept a lot of people trapped at home, the turnout wasn't bad. For once it wasn't the day after hangover that kept me out of commission the day after my birthday celebrations, but the revenge of the massive quantities of spicy salami consumed.

All that said, I'm left with a ton of leftover meat, and gruyere and gouda to snack on while sitting around playing Civ IV, spotting online boxing day deals, and reading (next up is the newly gifted The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins). Besides all that, I've got nothing on the go until the traditional New Years Eve fondue again at my place; I don't think there are many that can claim to have a much more relaxing holiday season.

The Last Hurrah?

This needs to be the last snow storm of the winter. I don't think I can handle another without a heavy dose of summer first. Enough of the bloody noses from the dryness. Enough of the shoveling. Enough of the scraping off the van every time I want to go out. Enough of the no sandals, shorts and t-shirts.

The plan is/was to go out for dinner and drinks for Carolyn's birthday tonight, but if the snow doesn't stop dropping soon I doubt there will be much of a turnout, us being the only one's really within walking distance of Uptown. I don't mind driving around town in this weather, but then not everyone can be as cool as me driving around a soccer mom mini-van that sits out of the snow at least a little bit more.

Hopefully things shape up for St. Patty's next Saturday. The luck of the Irish has to be better than my own right?

Capitalizing on the Spirit of X-Mas

After looking on and off at Digital SLR cameras for over a year, and moreso since the dollar hit parity with the US, I couldn't pass up the deal on my new Digital Rebel XT.

For the most part I had done all the research comparing the entry level SLR models months ago, so it only took a little more reading, and an assuring e-mail from px about the performance of his, albeit higher end, but comparable camera.

Also impressive was that I got the camera in the mail one and a half business days after I confirmed purchase online, despite the number of units (1000 of my camera model alone) they must have been shipping out. Mark one in favour of the efficiency of a big box chain I suppose.

I've barely scratched the surface on its function use so far, and have been extremely impressed. I've expertly captured (lucked into) some nice shots already, but I'm sure there will be plenty more to come, so I'll hold those back for now, and wow you all with some outstanding birthday shots on my old camera.

Despite only a few of the people 'maybe attending' showing up, the birthday was a blast. Rounds of shots, with not a single prairie fire consumed, NTN trivia, a rumble in the streetside garden 5 feet from the bar, and a scarf not more than 6 hours old (a gift from the girlfriend no less) lost and presumably donated to a homeless man. The hangover didn't even really bring home the fact that I was another year older this time around.

X-mas around here was, as expected, a low key affair. But New Years is going to put an end to all the relaxing, a trip to a friend's cottage for a few days ironically is going to be the least relaxing part of my holidays. Though it should provide some great opportunities to play with my new toy. A lengthy photo post here should follow.

Happy New Year.

"..shorter of breath, and one day closer to death."

Yes friends, its that day of the year again. Late December, the most important birthday of the year. No uncertainty or fictitiousness about this one, unfortunately.

I'll be spending my day playing games, and making sure to not be heading uptown on an empty stomach. The night will undoubtedly be spent drinking, and fielding questions about if/when/why/why not I'm going back to school/work; questions that I've been hearing all to often lately. I suppose if I'd just make up my mind it would make things a lot easier. Perhaps I'll just go with lying to people for the night. In any case, I'm sure the questions will be met with abrupt responses, so if you're reading this ahead of meeting me at the bar tonight, you've been warned. If you're not reading it till after you've talked to me tonight, you know why I was that way.

And here's hoping I'm actually functional enough tomorrow to go out and finish grabbing a few little gifts for x-mas so I don't have to go out at all this weekend in the madness.

Cheers.


Ticking away the moments that make up a dull day
You fritter and waste the hours in an off hand way
Kicking around on a piece of ground in your home town
Waiting for someone or something to show you the way

Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun

And you run and you run to catch up with the sun, but its sinking
And racing around to come up behind you again
The sun is the same in the relative way, but youre older
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death

Every year is getting shorter, never seem to find the time
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the english way
The time is gone, the song is over, thought Id something more to say

Home, home again
I like to be here when I can
And when I come home cold and tired
Its good to warm my bones beside the fire
Far away across the field
The tolling of the iron bell
Calls the faithful to their knees
To hear the softly spoken magic spells.
Time - Pink Floyd

Aftermath Redux

I'm happy to report there was no drunken frollicking in the snow associated with birthday drinking this year. I'd like to attribute it to maturity and better handling of my liquor this time around, but mostly I think it was the lack of snow.

The night was a blast. Lots of drinking, kissing cousins, and only one prairie fire to contend with. That one prairie fire came too early in the evening to be handled smoothly, but really there's no good time to take prairie fires.

Later in the evening, the night turned into a small highschool reunion, with another buddy of mine since elementary school showing up with a group of friends. Its funny how with some people the gossip and drama don't get left behind somewhere. I did my best to leave all of those things in the long locker lined hallways of my highschool, but for some people its good entertainment. I suppose looking in from the outside on those same situations has its own entertainment value, just not in the same ways.

And so another birthday is gone by, as is the associated hangover, and now its time for some poker to try to aid the coffers that have already been drained by the holiday season.

Sweet Sweet Freedom

The exams are gone, the lab work is done until the new year, with me pretending to ignore all the problems that have crept into that situation. The x-mas shopping got squeezed into a one day affair yesterday, despite having to fight with my 'pimpmobile' and its frequent stalls, and with the obscene number of people who take holidays from work just to get shopping done. Those kind are the worst, with their over-eagerness to throw away money, while pushing around and running into as many people as possible with their oversized bags of crap.

This year I pretty much managed to have a list of what I wanted to pick up for everyone on my list before I went out. The most difficult of course was shopping for the girlfriend; leave it to the holidays to really reveal your shortcomings as a guy and your ability to read subtle hints/remember details. The first idea that came to mind was the requisite gag gift. For whatever reason, my Simpsons boxers are quite amusing to the girlfriend, so I was going to try to find some Simpsons underwear for herself. Of course I was unwilling to spend much time milling around the ladies undergarment section of any store that might carry such things, and there's a distinct lack of gimmicky stores in the malls around here anymore, so I first turned to the internet.

Try typing in 'Simpsons panties' without the proper use of search strings in Google and see what comes up. eBay had a poor selection, and all the items were across the border which generally means risking a long wait on delivery. So it was off to the mall, not only in search of the gag, but a decent 'real' gift, as well as picking up the other items on my list. I found most of my list without issue, but of course the one item I decided on for the girl was nowhere to be found, and cursory searches of the women's intimates were fruitless. By cursory, I mean actually walking through the department, and looking for anything with cartoons on them, but not spending much time.

With the van stalling 4 times in the same parking lot, I decided it was time just to get my piece of shit ride home and wait for another set of wheels. I managed to regroup in the evening and pick up the outstanding items on the list, plus a new gag gift, thus concluding all my x-mas shopping in one day. Not quite down to the one hour dash like some, but I'll take it.

As for the panties, it turns out my girlfriend and I were on the same wavelength, as for my early birthday gift last night, I received none other than...well okay, not Simpsons panties, but, some shiny polyester Simpsons boxers. Between that and this glorious weather (see picture above and the distinct dominance of the colour green), I couldn't ask much more for the birthday. That said, there is still the birthday drinking to participate in tonight.