Double Oh Nine

True to most New Years around here, it was rung in with an oil fondue, some drinks, and some games. It was so laid back in fact that the 'new year' rang in in the middle of a round of Scattergories which none of us were really willing to interrupt for the sake of watching some balls drop.

In fact, by the time midnight rolled around, the majority of us were still too overstuffed from dinner to enjoy a glass of cheap champagne, or cake. Amazingly, with all the experimentation with foods in hot oil (apparently deep-fried deviled eggs aren't bad; '..I'd deep fry a salad if I could'), no-one ended up violently ill. The whole holiday season in fact was pretty amazing in its lack of hangovers which I can't claim to have accomplished in probably the last 10 years, granting that it doesn't take much when you're 15.


As usual, I've set no resolutions for myself based on New Years, as I could just as arbitrarily pick any other day of the year to commit myself to a promise I won't keep.

A broken boiler pump on our 65 year old heating system, and a couple computers to build and set up for my buddies' dad has kept me conveniently distracted from those goals so far. I'm not complaining. They've each had their rewards, the case of beer from the latter hopefully going a long way in getting me through the writing and editing of one of those goals.

Clearly that goal isn't this post.

Boxing Day Sales?

One of the more enjoyable parts of christmas for me is hunting some boxing day deals to get the most out of gift cards. This year though, I wasn't very impressed with any of the deals I saw; at least on stuff I was interested in getting. I blamed it on the economy; or just a better general memory for prices really not all that different to the 'huge sale prices'.

Whether its the economy and the shitty Canadian dollar, or artificial jacking of prices to make the 'sales' look good; the fact is prices are higher now than they were in September. At least computer parts, as I happened to have a list of prices for the parts to build a computer for Steve's dad from back in September that he asked me to update for him to find any deals this week. Overall, even at sale prices, an 8-10% increase in price since mid-September on technology that normally drops weekly as new stuff comes out.

So in the end, I ended up with no new telephoto lens for my camera, or new speakers for my stereo, or BluRay drive for my computer; just booze enough to ensure I see spots for half the day on Thursday.

Oh, and Carolyn loves her x-mas present, and will until she kills them.

Its doomed.

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.

Nickel and Diming

I hate x-mas shopping at the best of times. When I have little money to play with it only intensifies my distaste and difficulties with picking the right gifts for people. That said, I'm down to just my mom and Carolyn left to shop for, and still have 2 weeks to go. I tend to start my shopping early every year now to take advantage of the best online store/eBay deals I can find, but after a couple weeks, I can't take all the 'shopping' anymore and want to get on with the 'buying' and be done with it. It still has to be better than waiting til the 23rd or 24th.

Having gotten tired of the 'christmas cheer' from walks around the lights in Waterloo park this week (and watching, on multiple occasions, old people ignoring signs and driving their cars right down the main pedestrian pathway), we decided to go for a walk around in the Galt portion of Cambridge along the river. 9:30 on a Tuesday night, no record shops, but no people either; it was a ghost town. The rain I'm sure had a little to do with that (and made taking pictures less than spectacular), but with a major construction project on the main bridge, and the architecture school out for exams, the most activity was a lone patron and a bartender sitting and watching a hockey game in an old, run-down bar.

It was a welcome change from the blaring carols on the outdoor speakers at the park, or the mall easy-listening versions of the same tunes while dodging ignorant and impatient people who feel the number of bags they are carrying is positively correlated to their importance in society.

Oh, Hey There

I guess I've been lost in the tubes. I'd like to say my absence was due to shocking amounts of productivity, but that would be a lie. You have to be careful about when you choose to tell your lies after all. Between the endless rain and the lack of income of any kind, its been difficult to really plan to do anything exciting.

But, somewhat out of the blue, Carolyn's parents have given her permission to use their cottage towards the end of August, so we'll be heading up to the Bruce Peninsula for a few days. I say it comes as a surprise because, despite her being closer to 30 than 20, they still end to be very conservative and protective in their treatment of her. There is of course some level of control you have to be willing to accept living at home, but then there is above and beyond the call of duty.

In any event, we have use of the cottage for a few days, provided we take care of mowing part of the lawn/weeds, and staining or sealing some deck boards of some kind. I can only hope that the wet weather patterns in these parts don't follow us up there so we can actually make use of the few days vacation time.

Missing Pages

A couple months back my buddy Como mentioned an add-on for Firefox called 'Foxmarks'. Basically, it keeps a copy of your bookmarks online so you can keep them the same on multiple computers and have a backup should you do something stupid and lose them all.

Fast forward to me doing something stupid and losing them all; I installed the newest beta of Firefox over the old one, found that it wasn't compatible with some things I already use, and removed it. But when I uninstalled, it took all the preferences, including my bookmarks from the old version with it.

I've remembered about half of the bookmarks and managed to find them again, I guess the other half weren't important enough to remember anyways.

Now I'm using Foxmarks.

Also, thanks to Christielli I found out that this weekend coming is apparently the May long weekend already. The May 2-4 being a full week before May 24th is about as logical as the placement of religious holidays. No idea what I'm gonna do. Well, some idea.

Picture Show

Fin.

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.

Coon Lake

After the funeral on Monday, and some running around on Tuesday, Carolyn and I took off to meet up with some friends camping on Tuesday night. As it was we made great time for the typical four to four and a half hour drive to Algonquin, making it to the site near the far side of the park in a bit under 4 hours.

Driving the winding highway 60 in the rain after dark though was cause to slow down, and infact the two does that we had to stop for in the middle of the road ended up being the largest wildlife we saw the whole time we were up there. On my two previous trips into Algonquin park, there had been no shortage of moose sightings, but they managed to shy away from Carolyn for 5 days.

Despite a cool, windy and rainy weather system blowing through most of the time, we got enough of a break to get in some hiking and kayaking, and huddled around the fire with drinks to keep warm at night. Eventually the rain and wind was enough to start showing leaks at the seams, but having taken the van, I was able to clear out enough space in there to sleep comfortably. It ended up being so comfortable infact, that any similar car camping trips in the future will find me sleeping in the back.

There's a lot to be said for being properly prepared for a camping trip, and this time around was a much better experience than the previous struggle, but now its back to the reality of family drama in dividing an estate 12 ways, and finishing some semblance of a thesis.

Of course Carolyn noticed that this tree was well hung.

 

Old Lane Sign?

I've managed to deflect plans from going to Niagara Falls for New Years, which I had neither the money, nor particularly the energy for, to relaxing around here, playing some games, enjoying fondue, and drinking with friends. Getting smashed with friends is after all the point of yet another arbitrarily set holiday. New beginnings, resolutions, blah blah blah, there's really no significance to the day anyways, except that its the day of the Rose Bowl. And that's not til 5 which means I'll have plenty of time to clean up and sober up before I watch Michigan show that they really should have been in the title game.

In other news, the sasquatch has invaded the wooded areas of the Waterloo moraine. Sasquatch's girlfriend appears to enjoy taking pictures of sasquatch's moss stained crotch, and hitting him there with knees, or foosball table handles at every available opportunity.

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.