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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Kyle's LiveJournal:
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| Thursday, November 2nd, 2006 | | 2:54 pm |
Three months away
Last post was on July 21st? what sort of insanity is that? That's three months that have gone by without so much as a boo from yours truly. I doubt it was that boggling or concerning. I would imagine most who don't use Livejournal who were checking in on me even notice anymore - so this post is only for my own edification in order to put to rest, and raise anew, the issues I spoke about in my last missive... The house is officially ours. This happened on the First of November. Not as big a change in mentality as I thought as I have been thinking this way for, oh, 4 months now. I do not have a job. That's a little scary. I did not get the office manager role so I quit, they offered me a customer service rep position and I didn't like what I had to do for a living, the people I was doing it with or where I was working. So bye bye Baker Hughes... let's hope I can finally find something that really sparks my desires and goals. I want a career damnit, not a job. So I am 22 resumes into the pile of businesses in Calgary and we'll see what comes of it. We have a new vehicle. A black sporty four door ford focus. Marie-Claire was in a minor accident (no injuries) with the honda and they declared the honda to be a write off. I will have to go check the canadian tire she left it at to see if it is still there, because if it is I need to call the insurance company and ask them if the car is still ours to repair if we want. it's still worth something, even if it is just a tax write-off. I like the new vehicle, but it is more coming out of the bank than we had previously. I hope that we don't suffer for it. And that, as they say, is that. I could write more about Crucible and how it feels that the game has become a success. I could write about how I enjoy being the sole Storyteller of a game and the sole proprietor of the world I have created. I like the fact that the players are starting to feel comfortable in their characters and I am over the moon that my four game opening gammut is almost complete. I wish there were more players in the game as I would really like to see it reach the 100 mark by December, but if that isn't possible, then I just hope that the game grows in excitement and energy if not just in people. In 5, 4,... | | Friday, July 21st, 2006 | | 9:15 am |
As of September 30th, or sooner, I will know which path I am going to start walking down professionally. My boss is leaving for the greener pastures of "not Baker Hughes" after four years with the company. That would mean there is a post directly above my own for me to take a shot at. I am being honest with myself about this. I don't think I have much chance. I think that though people know and respect me at work, those in power don't have much desire to see me move on from the post I am in currently. I haven't been able to personally figure this part out. I've never had much trouble moving up in a company before now. In every job I have ever had I always managed to secure a promotion - and I have had a lot of jobs. 13 completely different companies in fact. I don't know why it is with Baker Hughes that i am having trouble breaking out of the mold I have been put in. My boss isn't the element holding me back. She's thrown her recommendation into the ring every time I have applied for something different, and the potential for "her" job is no less different. On Monday she informed everyone that she was leaving and every day since, including Monday, we've talked about aspects of her job and what she does on a daily basis. There's more knowledge in my head from the last week than I have had to learn in the last year. In order to put my best foot forward I have decided to take two classes in the fall at the University of Calgary. Business Management, and Interpersonal Communication Skills. I figure they will be cake walk classes, but do require me to spend 6 hours at the University every week on Monday and Tuesday nights. There will be reading and homework to do as well. So add into that mix the fact that I am starting a LARP in August on my own. A larp I am trying to actually market in Calgary and attract the attention of new players. Where am I going to find the time for all of this? It'll mean taking a hit in other areas, for sure, as my professional life and my main hobby start eating up more time - but I am cautiously optimistic that it isn't going to fall apart. I will, probably, need to take on a co-storyteller however, after things get going, just to ensure that the game is being properly managed. If it is to hit 100 people there needs to be good administration skills to handle sheets, characters, money and players, let alone the site, the world and downtime actions. And in other news our home will most likely not be out of Tenancy at Will until midway through August, which means we will have three months of interest to pay on the principle before we can start paying the interest on Our Own Principle. For those of you who are unsure what Tenancy at Will means it is the limbo between purchasing the home and legally owning the home. This typically only happens with new condos, so it wouldn't be surprising that you hadn't heard of it before. After a condo has been completed the land needs to then be broken down from the entire building into its smaller units. This can't happen legally until each of the units has been completed. And given the nature of well, nature, and construction its never clear when a unit is going to finish so they have to hold off on the legal separation until it's essentially done - and when it is physically done - you move in. | | Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 | | 2:41 pm |
| | Monday, June 12th, 2006 | | 11:07 am |
A new Requiem Game
Crucible This will be a modern night's Vampire: The Requiem Game based in Calgary, Alberta. It will run once a month starting in August on either the second or third Saturday night of the month. The game will start at 7 and end near Midnight. The entirety of the game time from 7 to game is called will be in-character with no time-jumps or downtime instances. Two weeks later on the Friday there will be a "coffee" meet that shall serve as the downtime action, political maneuvering time. This will be the opportunity to attempt those things you would like to do with your character throughout the month in a face to face setting with the ST. Characters 'can' die and most likely will through the use of other’s backgrounds and merits. Cost to play is five dollars per person as long as there are 15 people playing and the cost of the hall remains at 75 dollars a night. I have several intriguing character concepts already developed for those people looking for something to play, but there is also opportunity to bring in an outsider new to Calgary. Wander by http://cruciblecalgary.proboards77.com to see what I have currently in place for the game, and see the future site at http://cruciblecalgary.com that my lovely wife has in the works. I am the storyteller and can be reached at wkkgould@hotmail.com | | Friday, May 5th, 2006 | | 4:15 pm |
Green Guns A-blazin'
Is this just me or is this Marketing Gone Awry? Sure, young lads need to learn the ins and outs of flying ooze. Ropey jets of warm, sticky and salty fluids hurtling through the air get caught up in all kinds of weird and strange places. Getting the pump action right and understanding your own natural kick back response are good experiences a boy can have at as early an age as possible. Learning how to get it out of clothing is also a needed life lesson for young men. And certainly, after getting a full facial from a young lad a girl will doubtlessly pursue her own vengeance, and what better way than through the Hasbro Oozinator? You may think I am making this up, but I am not the first to suffer a little size jealousy after seeing the green gun in action. And of course there is the price which is nothing short of easy on the pocketbook. But don't just listen to me rant and rave about the wonders of water gun technology, read a few other critiques as well.
fastest draw in the west. | | Wednesday, April 12th, 2006 | | 10:23 am |
Reporting from the week
I had a dream last night
that I was on the boat to heaven!
And by some chance I had brought my dice along. And there I stood, and I hollered someone fade me, but the passengers they knew right from wrong.
And the people all said sit down, sit down you're rocking the boat. And the people all said sit down, sit down you're rocking the boat. Or the devil will drag you under, by the sharp lapel of your checkered coat, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down, sit down you're rocking the boat.
Guys and Dolls at Theatre Calgary on April 8th, the 24th year after my wife's birth - to the day - we went and saw theatre in the first balcony, first row, centre. And I am pretty sure she loved it. She mouthed along to almost every song.
Check, Check 1.
Check, Check 1.
Check, Check1...2.
And that was their best song. best song by far. Thomas, Jill, Mark, Ted, Lyn, JD, James, Lee, Fa-Linn, Jeff, Jeff, Jason, Chris, Chris, Josh, Derek, Jeremiah, some chick named Barbara and random friends made on the spot by M-C were all at the Broken City where we had a not-half-bad time - but it was mostly because M-C was having so much fun.
Brunches. Brunches were tasty and filling and filled with good conversation and good people.
And that was the weekend. | | Thursday, March 23rd, 2006 | | 2:36 pm |
the hidden part of the test.
 | You scored as Immortal. Your death will never happen, not by any diseaese, accident or action by someone else. You will neversilently pass away in the night from old age, and will be forced to watch the people you love slowly age and fade away. So be happy, just don't be murdered.
Immortal | | 100% | Natural Causes | | 67% | Gunshot | | 67% | Posion | | 33% | Stabbed | | 33% | Bomb | | 33% | Disappear | | 13% | Suffocated | | 7% | Drowning | | 7% | Suicide | | 0% | Disease | | 0% | Accident | | 0% | Eaten | | 0% | </td>
How Will You Die??
created with QuizFarm.com |
| | Thursday, February 23rd, 2006 | | 10:20 am |
stunned looks
Last night was the start of something new. The start of 2 something news, but I just want to go into one of them. The Top Hat Society. James, Mark, Marie-Claire and I initiated the first outting of the Top Hat Society last night. It was in recognition of the new top hats we'd received in the mail. http://www.uniformalwearhouse.com. All four of us got all dressed up in Victorian finery and went to Eau Claire mall where we wandered the food court and then went to see Munich. I would write Munich off and most of that experience as dulldom, but the kernel of the idea has really stuck with me and the outing for next month will not involve a movie, but rather a coffee house and pleasant conversation. The real catch to the evening, that made it so amazing in my eyes was the proclivity we had to refer to each other by pseudonyms. James was Mr. Stoker, Mark was Mr. Wilde, Marie-Claire was Ms. Radcliffe and I was Mr. Dickens. I would have enjoyed more of a supernatural writers monicker but it fit for the time. When I got home I realized there are many Victorian writers of note and import and it is definitely a group I would like to push forward. It wasn't some sort of re-enactment thing. But it was definitely revelling in the clothes and the commeraderie that comes with being in a group, wearing something different. A lot of people gave us strange looks for wearing top hats around and being all dressed up - but a lot of those people were dressed in spandex and drinking from nalgene bottles. Marie-Claire says they were just runners, but they weren't running - so what's stranger at the mall? Four people in top hats or 12 in spandex. We should have rumbled. | | Tuesday, February 14th, 2006 | | 10:49 am |
| | Thursday, January 19th, 2006 | | 3:43 pm |
New Years tradition
It's been a few weeks and there is a memory I want to save so here it goes, into this electronic memory saver, and memory alterer. New Years was the party at The Goulds. I want to turn it into a yearly deal and it should be bigger, better, further from everyone, next year... but this year.... 2005. New Years this year was appetizers and cocktails. Our guests were scheduled to start arriving around 8pm though we had four or five there before 7. I blew two hours making sushi and the sushi was gone within two hours. Marie-Claire made bacon wrapped dates and almost smoked us out of house and home. In the aftermath of the party I have a fridge-freezer full of alcohol and nothing else. Attendees were great. It was the kind of party where people had enough in common to be easy talking to each other, but didn't know each other well enough to re-iterate conversations they'd already had with each other. The major topic of the night - World of Warcraft... well over half of the attendees played the game. In a room of 20+ people 14 played World of Warcraft. I think it was the sport of choice as ice-breaker. Instead of "How bout dem flames" it was "How bout dem warlocks". the rules to attending are you have to bring a specific alcohol and appetizer I request of you. This means that with 20+ people at the party i could have made any beverage you could order at a bar, martini bar, lounge or airport bar. I also had the right stuff to mix up a few specialties. If you want to know what one of those specialties is - then you will have to attend The Goulds New Year party of aught-6. The list of attendees: Jeff D, James I, Jeremie (three colleagues of his), Aaron, Lee, Lyn, Michael, Sande, Ed, Renee, Jeff P, Ryan, Dai, Mark, and others to be added as I dimly recall. The party started at 8pm and the last guests didn't officially leave until the next day though those that remained were all going about sleep just after 4am. An 8 hour cocktail party is rather unheard of. When New Years rolled around we were about 3/4 of the way through the boardgame Cranium and after the Champagne corks had been unloaded people were having too much fun chatting and commiserating again to bother going back to the game. I call that a good party - one that doesn't need a party game to be fun. There were a few die-hard gamers craving to finish Cranium (read- Sande) but they were placated with good conversation too. No one got "out-of-hand" drunk though Jeff P defintely took the award for most consumed - and loudest party guest. Glad to have him back next year though. A seasonal party. | | Monday, January 16th, 2006 | | 9:34 am |
a resolution
Saturday night I finally swallowed the tight ball of nervousness lodged in my throat, tuned my saxophone and performed. I played for well over an hour all the songs in my repertoire (which means I played them all about 3 or 4 times each). There was a crowd, but nobody specifically watching me. It was the best time I have had on a Saturday night in a very long time. Sweat soaked through my fedora in the hot little boiler room of Chinook Hall, a room I chose because it is never used for anything at game so I am essentially in a private room. Nevertheless all the heating and ductwork comes from the boiler room so people were able to hear me play some of the time. The rest of the weekend wasn't much to bring down the roof about, but it was awfully nice to break out the saxophone and start to play once again. a beginning. edited for proper location as informed by "anonymous" below... | | Monday, December 5th, 2005 | | 1:10 pm |
Accolades
Officially no longer an ST anymore. I don't have to deal with character sheet issues. I dont have to finagle money from reluctant to pay players, I don't have to spend countless hours of my day determining feeding ratios and rules errata. I am done. My life can proceed from here and that chapter is now closed. I would like to thank Josh and Aaron for stepping up and taking on the role of authority figure. I'd also like to thank all those people who thanked me for doing the thankless job. A few memories on my part, I think, would be good to put in this journal as a way to look back and reflect. Killing Sebastian, Sabine and Michael Longlost. That was a big night. Salem witch trials and those three players were willing to step up and lose their longtime characters. Sebastian on the bonfire telling everyone to be better people and that his living sacrifice should serve as a cessation of the deaths, and Sabine joining him - not in the hereafter, that evil woman, but in the moment, out of love. Playing Remy Falvarque and ensuring that Mercutcio lived on past his first game and thereby changing the entire structure of the next year of game. Rewriting everything, making the game book-based and re-creating everyone's character sheets and worrying that the game would fail because of it. Finalizing all the new rules, taking the idea that Jeff would come up with and creating a mechanic to fit to it. From Feeding Rules to Domain to childer to countless other things - trying to make the game a concrete and realized procedure so that when I left people would know what to do. Spending every day trying to balance things between fair and fun, realistic and cinematic. Often failing but always trying. "Movie Night" with the mortals in attendance for the merchant of venice and keeping the toreador distracted for most of the night. And then the werewolf game, killing all of the players. Things I would like to forget is Dean and Jason Sallay yelling at me at how unfair I am and bring down the game as a whole - but then if I were to forget that I would not remember everyone remaining at the game piping up as a group and saying how firmly they stood behind me as an ST. Tyler crashing through a wall at the Barracks and the fracas that ensued from that. Editting letters, asking players to come to game. Fomenting countless plots with Jeff and debating incessantly about whether or not something should happen. And the character interactions. Charity making everyone fall in love with "something" at Ruth's house. The death of Thomas Lancaster. The signing of the Camarilla Accord. Duncan Andrews and Katy on the battlements taking potshots at Charity. Clearwater tipi park. Playing dog and slapping Jean-Reno in the face with a fish. Telling stories around the campfire and then the party afterwards. Absinth. Those first few games as an ST at Mount Royal trying hard to just watch things and make as few rules calls as possible. Coming to grips with playing an NPC and then having a complete blast finally playing a character and actually doing something - even though I totally boggled it. It has been an amazing time. I am glad that it is over because certain parts of it I just wasn't cut out for, but all things told, the botches, the feeding botches, the calling rules and writing rules and not to mention the players all made for a character enhancing, memorable experience. Thanks | | Monday, November 14th, 2005 | | 3:53 pm |
breaking the law
It's not really breaking the law, but it is the breaking of an oath I made myself. I made a character and attended Bloodties Larp for about an hour and a half on Saturday night. After six months of larping isolation with the exception of the Dominion flagellation Storytellership it took a great deal of forebearance to go to Bloodties. Granted, it was nice to see the smiles on people's faces as they looked genuinely happy to see me... but at the same time (and perhaps I am looking too deeply into this) the majority of them seemed smug in the knowledge that I had returned. I can understand that. It wasn't a great vibe to get off people, but it is understandable. Why did I decide to return? Well it was a counterbalance to a couple of other things going on with my life. The first is the fact that I have been playing a lot of World of Warcraft lately and did not want to sink myself into that time suck again that night and I knew that would happen if I let myself do it. The other was that I played my alto saxophone for the first time in a year Saturday night and suddenly desired a reason to practice it more. Well I found that. With the impetus to make a character who will toodle on his saxophone quietly in a corner during the game I have a reason to practice my saxophone during the month which will pull me away from World of Warcraft. Playing a character who's sole interest is in playing his saxophone and just getting by will mean I don't have to clambor into the politics or delve too deeply into the inner workings of the character. So the conclusion is... I am not breaking the law. I am not getting into larping to escape the real world - I am bringing the real world to the larp game. I want to improve my musical skills. Bloodties saturday night will be a performance night for me. I will spend less time playing World of Warcraft because I will have to dedicate time to practicing my sax. And I am not becoming overly involved or engrossed in the character because he serves a direct purpose that isn't about winning or gaining a level in something other than life. I can't see any failures in this... Can you? Breaking out of the mold. | | Tuesday, November 1st, 2005 | | 12:39 pm |
It really hit me
I would just write in my hardbound journal about this, but it is something that I want people to know... They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. But everyone does. And in the world of Fantasy there wasn't a cover artist that so captured me as much as Keith Parkinson did. On Octber 26th he passed away due to complications with leukemia. The people I have spoken with about Mr. Parkinson were unanimous in their "who" queries and it was with a great deal of sorrow that I noted so many people didn't even know who he was. Well I do. And I want you to as well. Because if you are like me then it is because of the quality of his work that you have read the words of so many great authors. Orson Scott Card, Terry Goodkind, David Eddings, Terry Brooks, Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. He did art for D&D and was the inspiration behind Everquest and did the covers for those games. Those are just the things he did I can think of off the top of my head. And I get to thinking, "why has this hit me so hard? I never met Keith Parkinson. I never heard him speak." My only connection to the man was through his art on the cover of the books I loved. It is, perhaps, an indication of my dawning realization that the world moves on. Someone new will come along to put the art on the books the next generation will love. And that next generation has nothing to do with me. right out of the park. | | Monday, October 31st, 2005 | | 2:45 pm |
Porting Back In
It's relaxing to be back in World of Warcraft again. I finally feel like I have something to do in the evening. Sure it isn't a great way to wile away my time, but as opposed to wandering around feeling out of sorts, this is a great way to go. And the whole experience is really new for me too. Because I am playing Alliance. I hadn't really played Alliance as of yet and now I am. One thing for certain though, I am not really keen on the whole PVE thing. But that's where everyone is right now so those are the people I am playing with. My character is a gnome rogue named "Chixdigme" and he is the foil for one of Marie-Claire's comic strips. I am just trying to get him pretty enough gear for her to draw him up and put him in the strip. I have been enjoying the beauty of the Alliance side of the world, a place I had never travelled to before. Starboard to get out. | | Wednesday, October 26th, 2005 | | 12:21 pm |
Settling down to Earth
A few things have happened of late that I haven't taken the time to write about in here. Firstly I bought a hardbound leather journal and have been writing in there, so it has lessened the urge to write here, not that I suffered from a compulsive need to journal in my online format, I just had more personal thoughts, and rage-against-the-world statements that needed to be put somewhere lest I start yelling at random people, or worse, my wife. As of November 1st we will have 5% down on our first home. It will be built in March hopefully so it will be just in time to end our current lease at the apartment. It is a townhouse and you can see where it is located at www.eversyde.com. We were extremely pleased with this set of happenings that led us to this 1080 sq foot home with a 381 square foot basement. We had gone there a week earlier and seen the place but I had dismissed it in the hopes of finding something different. When that didn't happen we went back and spoke with the lady (Lena) who took us on a walkthrough and talked about the perks of the place. Things are much better when going through showhomes when you have a guide to talk about the pros and cons. Granted they are typically leaning things one way or another so you have to follow-up on them after the fact, but two things stood in our stead in regards to the place. Firstly, it was in our price range, and secondly it had everything we wanted out of our first home. (a garage for the honda, at least 1.5 bath, space for children, room to grow in it). The terrible thing was that the thursday we went in to see the place it was revealed that there were only 2 homes remaining and they were going fast. Why were they going fast? Because the next stage of the building of the community had not been priced as of yet and were expected to climb, at a minimum, of 20,000. That would have put the little townhouse out of our price range. But then we realized that the home, should we buy it, would immediately be worth 20k more because the homes down the way were selling at that price. And that will happen in only a month or so. All things considered we knew that this was the only opportunity we had to get into something new and something we felt good about. We researched the builder and M-C was able to only find one complaint period about the entirety of the company and we looked through the homes being built to see if they were at all lacking. And then we decided to get it. And I miss Larping. I miss getting to see everyone at game and PLAY. I have been going out to the afters but it just isn't the same when you weren't part of the stories that people were telling. I almost went to Twilight the other weekend but I felt sick and it was at a dog/cat house. And I have been seriously considering going to Imperium, but the issue there is that it's played at Ruth and Alan's and their home almost killed me once, and my asthma hasn't improved since then. I don't think I could play at Ruth and Alan's. It doesn't sound like they will be playing at a hall any time soon. And it will doubtlessly snow for the next game pushing everyone inside for the entirety of the night... so I couldn't just stay in the backyard if I wanted to play. And of course Dominion is ending soon, very soon, for me. I would like it to be this November but I have a feeling that I will be needed to stick around in some capacity while the new ST gets his feet under him, or until Jeff figures out what the hell i have been doing for so long. Either way, a lot of the administrative stuff is what I take care of leaving the management and direction stuff to Jeff. And I think that it would be best if I took a month off the game after I stepped down because I pretty much know every character's ability, discipline, attribute total and flaw - and that's not a good thing for a fellow player to know. Though I would like to play because I want to support the game, at the same time I also have a direct need to not addict myself to a character again, as I have done that in the past. Anyway, that is where I am at for a brief run down. I'd mention judo but I think I have written enough for one posting. Up up and away! | | Wednesday, September 21st, 2005 | | 1:08 pm |
| | 11:21 am |
Last weekend was a good weekend. I have to admit it. I enjoyed myself thoroughly. Friday night we went to the in-laws for dinner, which was fine, and a boardgame, which was okay... then we met up with James and saw 40-Year-Old-Virgin. We laughed inordinately throughout the entire movie and though I have heard a couple of "tasteless" reviews I thought that the movie was really well done and enjoyed the plot and the characterizations. After the movie we went to Boston Pizza and hung out and had french onion soup. I think it's a 'me' thing. Eventually we dragged ourselves home to bed - but not before making and confirming plans for the next day. Saturday. What a great day Saturday was. I was up super early - ok 10:10 (but that IS early) and James and I went and auditioned for "The Muffin Man". The Muffin Man? THE MUFFIN MAN. It's a B movie being shot here in Calgary and we won't get paid but went down and had a great time. I think my audition went very well - but they've only offered me the role of a "customer" so we will have to see how that pans out. I haven't heard if James got a part or not. He wanted to be the muffin man himself. www.themuffinmanmovie.com Check it out. During the auditions I had the occasion to meet The Man himself... Blaine. In simpler and more expressive terms, Blaine runs www.calgarymovies.com and while kibitzing with him about how much I dislike what Jess Nakaska has to say on a regular basis he informed me that he would be keen to have me write reviews for his site. I was shocked and honored and put it down on my to-do list. And now I have a column on his site called "Ink Blotting". I then went home and had a nap. 8 people later we had an uproariously good set of boardgames at the house and really enjoyed ourselves drinking beer and eating pizza. It was a group of friends that didn't typically meet up and had never met before - but everyone really enjoyed playing games at our place. Sunday was good. Saw Lord of War (which is what my review at www.calgarymovies.com is about) and had a steak dinner at the house with Marie-Claire's former roommates from when we started dating. Yup, a good weekend all around. | | Friday, September 9th, 2005 | | 12:42 pm |
Photography
www.flickr.com/photos/wkkgould This is where I have been putting all of my photos. I like the versatility of the program and the tags, descriptions and you can even put little boxes on the photo to draw attention to something special, funny, annoying or cute. Check it out. What's great is that people can reply to your comments and make little statements of "ooo, I remember that", or "that is damn cool!" Check out, as well, www.flickr.com/photos/darkdominion This is where I will eventually have every photo taken for Dark Dominion. The oldest ones went up first. Hard to believe the game has been going as long as it has and is still as interesting as it was when it broke out of the gates. Candid photography | | Wednesday, September 7th, 2005 | | 1:23 pm |
This Magic Moment
Thursday, September 1st, 2005. Here's a day that felt like forever. Up late on Wednesday trying to get the final bits of the trip put together. Up at 730 to take Marie-Claire to work. Jumped from her work to Safeway to get lunch and dinner for that afternoon and into-the-night's car ride. From Safeway to home to get all but one bag of bottles (I don't know why they were left behind, perhaps it was sentimentality on my part, or ninja-like obfuscation on theirs) and off to the bottle depot. I personally hate the bottle depot, but I like the money it gives me. Catch 22 that always ends with me thinking "oh well, how can it be as bad as last time? Oh man, wasps everywhere inside the place and a waspish man/woman annoyingly grating on my nerves about how amazing the Alberta centennial is going to be today... blather blather... Kyle not really listening... and then he's pocketing the 22.50 and heading to the car wash to have it sparkly for the trip. That takes little time and from there it is off to the dollar store for coin rollers to look at the clock and say ... ahh... 1145 - I have just enough time to make it downtown and pick up Marie-Claire... And every road into and out of her work is closed. I hate Alberta's Centennial. I then spent the next hour circling her work and calling her on her cell phone... finally, disgusted with my inability I went to the train station to see if I could catch her there. no luck there either... but what IS lucky (if you believe in that sort of thing) is the phone call I get from my wife who is home, while I pull into the parking garage. We get a few odds and sodds resolved and polished and throw everything into the car and by 2pm we are leaving town under sunny blue skies with small white fluffy clouds frollicking merrily in the daylight. The roads were clear, the music was decent and the company was perfect. I slept all of 20 minutes and drove just less than half the way there - and if I thought my wife wasn't big on being adventurous then I would have been proven wrong on the Coquihala when she passed everyone ahead of us at a cruising speed of 160. Arriving into Vancouver at 10pm there time we were proud of ourselves for stopping only twice during the entire trip. Friday - This post is short. Slept in, lounged to the point of not reading, not watching tv, not playing on the computer, but simply spent the entire day sloughing off the road and the last full year of work without respite. Friday Night, however, - Off to The Keg for tempura green beans and asparagus appetizer, french onion soup, prime rib and garlic mashed potatoes main course. Delightful meal. Excellent beverages served throughout. My apologies to those who did not feast as well as we that night. Saturday - another relaxing sleep on the concave mattress of death followed by an enjoyable home-made eggs and sausages and bacon and hashbrown breakfast. Then we were off to Granville Market where we delighted ourselves in eating new and foreign things, dropping an 8 dollar pita on the floor, sampling foods of varied richness and delight until we could stand no more and dashed off to the Granville Brewery for the taste testing of their home-brewed beverages. Four different 8 ounce drinks were set in front of us and we sampled and compared the flavor, texture and taste of each of them. All were in agreement that Pilsner is just a horrible tasting filth. Their Honey Ale was like Pilsner with honey stirred in but the Maple Brown and Guhtrezen were both suitable to tasting and getting drunk on. But the highlight was when our friend Ed picked up four boxes of fire caps which we delighted at throwing at the ground to start with. When that grew tiresome we threw them at each other's feet and slowly worked our way up to actually hurling them at each other and passing automobiles (though I was the worst offender of this). In the end we passed a bus-stop and I, with 12 of them in hand, hurled them at the ground as we passed smiling evilly and grinning maniacally at their shocked expressions and small jumps of surprise. We made our way back home to another home cooked meal of steak and potato and caesar salad. Delightful all things told. Our hostess, Rene, was a gracious and lovely host. That night we played poker for money (5 dollar buy in) and it lasted over three hours, that one game. In the end, I won, but it was through the best hands the game had seen. In the end, in Texas hold em it all came down to one hand. The flop was a queen, the 8 of spades and the nine of spades. The river was a queen ... and the jack of spades. By the time that last card was played Ed was all in and I had matched him. when everything was revealed Ed had the six and seven of spades - a flush! He thought he was taking the cake when I laid down pocket queens and had four of a kind. I think he suspected treachery and cheating, for he had not been there for the deal - but his girl friend - Rene, the lovely hostess, was there for the deal and had watched every card dealt carefully. Sunday- Breakfast at the IHOP and I have to stop ordering corned beef hash and hashbrowns. I HATE canned corned beef and I keep ordering it, on the mistaken notion that it would be the corned beef I am deliciously used to. I ate every morsel and we kibitzed down to a boardgame store where we bought Shadows of Camelot. I recommend the game highly. It's a very simple game with a great deal of rich and entrancing color. We played Shadows of Camelot and Cranium's Ziggity that evening after watching Ong Bak. We had eaten so well the three days previous that no one even brought up dinner that night. We left early Monday morning and spent a LOT of time on the road, despite having 180 km per hour audi pace cars in front of me. 11 hours later we had returned home, tired, but rested from what amounted to be a great and enjoyable weekend. But one thing we did do, every day, without fail, was drink vast amounts of beer and clamato juice. Just like any other. |
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