The End of an Era

Sad day for the St. Kitts crew - the end of the legendary 23 Almond.
That place had about the same notoriety as 1York back in the day.
But we sent it off with a very drunken bang, and almost everyone of importance showed up.


It seems like only yesterday that Cersy and I were tossing chairs and beer bottles into the pool...
And I can't even count the number of other amazing times we've had in that place.

The first annual 1 York golf tournament was also a wicked time, with J-Dub and Birdy taking the title in a 6-game playoff against Swampo, my bro, and I.


I even got to step onto the ice for the first time in months on Friday night. And amazingly we won the game with only a couple of out-of-shape subs. I was half-boozed and almost puked at the end of the 2nd period due to my lack of fitness lately.


Mint that shit.

The smoke between alseep and dreams

This years Top 5's
And I'm too damn lazy to write anything about my picks.
But I do suggest that you hear and watch all of the following:

Top 5 Albums

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

Top 5 Songs

5. Steve Earle - Hardcore Troubadour

4. Obidiah Parker - Hey Ya (Acoustic)

3. Josh Ritter - Thin Blue Flame

2. Coheed and Cambria - A Favour House Atlantic

1. The Von Bondies - C'Mon C'Mon

Top 5 Movies

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

and the new category...

Top 5 Pictures

5.

4.

3.

2.

1.

What's my age again?

Another birthday come and gone. This one was my 23rd, and I can't say I feel any older. Arbitrary numbers and math if you ask me.

This year my London boys and I broke the tradition of doing a big birthday combo weekend (Mike's is the 10th and Kozzy's is the 14th) and I spent Friday and Saturday night up north with the St. Catharines crew. The London posse is too spread out this year, plus we'd have nowhere to crash down here since the majority of people have moved back home or off to distant lands.


Erin's cottage is up on Black Lake near Minden, and we could only access the place by boat. I think roughly 20 of us headed up for the weekend, the notable exception being Cersdawg who has to prepare for yet another accounting exam.

I finally got my optometrist appointment done on the Friday morning, and my new glasses should be ready next week. Now I just have to go back for one more visit to have the doc ram contacts into my eyes and watch me fish them out, and I'm all set. Thankfully I'll be able to see the puck this year in hockey. I've never had contacts before, so I'm kinda curious to see what it'll be like to have my childhood vision back.

As soon as the appointment was done my bro and I packed up the cars and headed up to Orillia with the girls to finish off our shopping and grab some lunch. After a short delay (which my crybaby brother bitched about all weekend) we got up to the lake and Birdy shipped us over to the cottage in Erin's little aluminum boat. It turns out we were the first ones to arrive that day, and only a few of the guys who had spent the previous night up there were around to greet us.

Throughout the day more people showed up, and we hung around the deck, jumped off some cliffs into the lake, worked on our sunburns, and did a little fishing. My bro and I each pulled in a nice bass, one smallmouth and one largemouth, and we kept em to cook but never got around to it. They're currently sitting in our freezers. When I clocked the little mofo's over the head that night one of em had a crazy convulsion that made his body whip back and forth like crazy. I whacked him again quickly to put him out of his misery.

That night we got nice and loaded and I rang in my bday in style - passed out in a bed.

The next day was more of the same, but a few of the boys came up with the idea to stage a canoe race across the lake and back. Due to the number of guys and the lack of canoes, we did a time trial. Each team of two had to start from shore, curve around a dock at the other side of the lake, and come back to slap the deck with a paddle to stop the timer. I think 6 or 7 teams took part, one of them being my bro and I - the legendary MacCrae Lake Muckers. We drew the last position, and after some hilarious capsizings, and tight times, we took off and returned with the record of 2:14. I think 3 other teams were within 4 seconds of us.
Unfortunately my bro lost his brand new sunglasses as our canoe flipped over in the final stretch for the finish, but they were free anyway so I guess he can't complain.
Burt and Matty (who finished 2nd) then had a proper race with us after giving us about a 10 minute break, which was entirely too short considering my arms were jello ofter the first race. They spanked us handily and walked around like they owned the joint. Damn hosers.


My bro and Angela took off that day, and in the evening all of the boys had a hockey draft for the upcoming season of hockey pools. It was tough to do it all by memory, but I think I did alright. It's only a $5 pool anyhow. Unfortunately that draft took the time we had for a poker match, but nobody seemed to care anyway.

Another drunken night, another hungover morning, and we were headed for home. And after a stop off in Barrie for dinner with the parents and riff-raff (Ryan and Angela) we began the long drive back to Sarnia. We got lost in Woodstock after filling up with gas because all of the on-ramps to the highway were closed. So after a long struggle with the map and terrible detour signs, we made it back to a highway that later joined up with the 401.

I usually have an impeccable sense of direction, but I think I got all fucked up by the lights of a town nearby bouncing off the clouds. Made me think that the sun was setting there, but in reality it wasn't. And Jenn's useless with directions so we wasted a good 45 mins on that venture.

Once we arrived in Sarnia I was too exhausted to drive all the way back to London, so I crashed for the night and I took off in the wee hours of the morning for work. It was a surprisingly good day at work, which was a bonus.

I think NVP says it best in this pic... nobody likes you when yer twenty-three.

Premeditated mass murder/suicide

The following is a clip I came across of Dick Cheney's thoughts about Iraq from the long long ago: 1994



If that isn't enough reason to impeach the prick, send him to war crimes trials, strap him into the electric chair and send his ass to hell beyond... I have no fucking clue what is.

I other news, the biggest rat of em all has jumped ship on Dubya.
Karl "The Architect" Rove has decided to step down. The brain behind the worst and most destructive presidency the US has ever seen. Not exactly a flattering legacy...


Then again, we all know what 451 F means, and it seems that 50 years down the road that might not be just a fairy tale anymore.
Here's hoping that ain't the case.

Balint

Whenever I take a trip to my hometown, at the end of the stay I always find myself on the highway singing Podunk by the Foo Fighters. Terrible fucking song, and I bet 99.99% of the world has never heard it. Even fans of the band. And that's because it's only found on a few rare albums, one of which is the most prized CD in my whole collection, The Demo Tape.


Pretty much the main reason I wanna get a bulldog someday.
I'm gonna name him Clint.
And I'm gonna get a cat and name him Flicker.

Great names for animals.
And only the wittiest of people and most observant veterinarians will get the joke.

Anyway, I made an impromptu trip back to Barrie this weekend, and I had such a great time I didn't bother sticking around for more than one night. Hence, I'm back in London already on the long weekend.
I got together with a few friends and did a couple of things, but besides those positives I had absolutely no motivation to stick around. Some fat plug got all pissed last night at a bar because one of our chairs at the table was in his way, and we were only saved from a brawl by our new friend who was dubbed "Vesty". That's the kind of jerkoff you find in Barrie all the time - a fat guy who can't squeeze his gut into the ample space he had, so he resorts to violence instantly. Classy people up there, let me tell ya.

Next weekend a bunch of the St Catharines crew is heading up to the cottage for some good times and boozing. I'm really looking forward to it.

Plus I get my eye exam on Friday, so I can finally get new glasses. Not that my eyes have changed all that much, I just can't stand the ones I have now.

Never get transitions. Terrible fuckin things...

Stuck between stations

This past weekend was another busy one.

My bro and I each took the Friday off from work and had our girls down to Chatham for my cousin Eric's wedding. I had to race out the day-of to buy a new shirt because the dry cleaner's made my only white shirt even dirtier during the week, and it wasn't going to be ready for the Friday. But on the plus side, we dropped my uncles name at a store in downtown Chatham and got a 20% discount on the new shirt. Still, I hope they can clean the old one, otherwise I might have to burn the store down.

The wedding itself was at the bride's house out in the country, and it was a pretty nice spot. They kept the ceremony short, which we were all happy about considering the heat, and fortunately the rain held off for the day. The were calling for a ton of rain, but luckily it never came. After the ceremony my bro and I did our best to remember everyone's name in our family, and we introduced the girls to most of them. Then for a few hours we all socialized and had a few beers around the property before heading back into town for the reception.


Our table was right beside the bar, which was especially sweet considering it was an open bar. So we all got pretty drunk, but nothing compared to a few of my cousins, one of whom was hitting on our girls pretty hard. It was pretty funny, but eventually I had to step in and save them from his ramblings. And I actually got up and danced for a few songs that night too; a rarity for me.

The next day I caught an early lift with my dad and step-mom up to Guelph for the annual Hillside weekend. They spent the day at the show, but I spent the rest of the weekend there with my cousin Sean, and his buddies Trevor, John, Grant, and Mike. The same crew as every year...

The line-up was less than spectacular this year, but I did hear a few bands that were pretty good. Some young kid named Justin Nozuka was good, The Dears were solid but a little too noisy, Two Hours Traffic caught my attention so I grabbed a CD of theirs, Blackie and the Rodeo Kings had a full band for their set, The Immaculate Machine was pretty decent, but Emily Haines of Metric was a little disappointing and dark.

I was also introduced to a wicked band called The Hold Steady by Sean, who are pretty fuckin mint. And I also met a little girl from U-Vic named Lisa who was pretty cool to hang out with for the weekend. Maybe we'll meet up next year, who knows.

I stuck around til about 5 on Sunday, which is later than I've stayed any other year, but had to get home to London in order to drive Jenn back home, only to turn around again and drive another hour back home to London. Fortunately my dad lent me his car for all of this, otherwise I'd have been screwed. But that meant that I had to drive the car to Toronto right after work and catch a bus back home after he had the car back.

A lot of traveling, let me tell you.
And I'm still spending money like a trophy wife. Gotta stop doing that...