Times

After seeing the Statue it was a subway ride upto times square.  Its pretty neat, lots of things to keep the eyes busy.  For a guy with that has a cat like attraction to bright and shiny objects I was pretty wide eyed.  Especially when I saw the 3 floor toy’r'us with ferris wheel in it.  Needless to say I went in.  They have a huge selection of toys but nothing that I had to have.  There was a big lego empire state building and a giant lego pirate.  I also checked out the M&Ms store, Hershey Chocolate store and a couple nick nacks stores.  I got some premium mint M&Ms.  I’m expecting big things from them as they are premium after all.  There were a lot of small electronics stores that looked pretty shady.  I wouldn’t expect anything I bought there to work that long.  I also saw what was a small stall/store that was fancied up with mystical stuff for a pyschic.   Inside was an obese woman lounged in a chair in possibly the most unflattering pose possible.  I passed by in the morning and then again on the way back 8 hours later and she was in the same position.  If I was interested in getting my future read that would certainly keep me out of there.   yikes.   Anyways, moving on I walked up to Rockefeller Plaza.  Checked out where the rink and Christmas tree are in the winter and then went in to take the Top of the Rock tour.   Its like the Empire State building tour but without the two hour lineup and with a 360 degree view.  Completely unobstructed view of central park.  Pretty sweet.

That done I made my way over to the nearby St. Patricks church which is another neat Catholic church.   It was pretty nice but I think the one in Montreal takes it.  Such cool achitecture.

NYC via Newark

So instead of paying for a posh Manhattan hotel my company booked me a hotel by the Newark NJ airport.  At first I was kind of cranky, sure its not convienant but you really do save money.  Well they do at least and if I was paying I’d likely do the same thing.

Looking for Horatio for a Sunglasses off contest

But first a rant about the airport.  Since when did they get rid of the American Citizen line at the customs checkpoint at YYZ?  Having to wait in line with the other chumps is bullcrap.

Plants Named: Let the rejoicing commence

I know many of you have been sitting on the edge of your seat , anxiously awaiting the final verdict from last updates cliff hanger….What will he name the three plants.  Your wait is over.

Pico Bob

Clamity Ficus

Doc UmbrellaTree

Technically Pico Bob is Pico Bob the second as the first went to university with me and was involved in a tragic stationary car accident…he fell out of the car after graduation.   A terrible terrible day.

Name the Plants Contest

I’ve got three plants now and two have a name.  The third smaller one needs one.  So send in your submissions people.  The one plant will be named after the illustrious plant I had in university that did so well and lasted so long until the fateful move out of university when he fell out of a certain persons mothers car and then she had to conduct surgery.  He was never the same after that.

Visiting a Customer in Shorts

This week I was in Montreal. Bit of excitement when like normal I didn’t check my bag and go through security. They immediately pull out my two screw drivers which I had forgotten to take out. Since it was my magnetic multi head screwdriver I didn’t want to ditch it so I had to leave, head back to the ticketing counter and check my bag. Not a big deal right? Well apparently somebody took exception to me not checking a bag right away and then going and doing it later cause when I got to Montreal my bag didn’t. What’d that mean for me, it meant I got to visit my customer in shorts and tshirt, YAY. Which isn’t a huge deal normally cause I’m just in the server room/ phone room, usually with a phone tech who’s in jeans and dirty shirt. But nooooo, not this time, the friggin tech is in a dress shirt and pants. What the hell, I’ve never seen a tech dressed up before. Of all the times. Ridiculous. What made it worse was their AC was on and it was damn cold in there. Teeth chattering cold and I was in there from 9am till 3pm. Not fun.

Upon getting back I find my suitcase had been delivered which was great news until I tried to roll it. Apparently they had felt it necessary to break one of the two rolley wheels. Sour grapes indeed, next time I will check my bags up front. Geez.

I finish work , stop by the Keg for some food and head back to the hotel. I spot a neat old church on my way home and pop in. I love old churches, so much character. I check out whats neat in Montreal and map out two churches to visit the following morning.

First on the list was Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours. Built in 1771 its got some history with lots to do. I check out the main part of the church with the fantastic wood/stone work, stain glass and imagery, which not being catholic I was a little mystified at somethings but was still neat. From there you can climb to the tower and look out over Old Montreal. This brings you up and close to the angels that are on the roof which are also pretty cool. From the roof its a descent down into the crypt with a bunch of artifacts that were unearthed not so long ago with some old stonework and arches and earthen walls.

Next was a walk down through Old Montreal which sadly has way to many tourist junk shops. Seemed like a neat restaurant followed by a junk shop followed by a restaurant ad infinitum. Eventually I made my way to Notre-Dame Basilica which was much bigger and much more impressive. I was impressed by the Notre-Dame-de-Bon-Secours but Notre-Dame is very very impressive, I really wish I had taken my camera. Loved it.

To top er off I stopped on the way back to the hotel for a smoked meat sandwich.

Sooo Angry

All the teams but one dumped and several did it within a few feet of shore which had to have sucked.   They pulled their canoes up to the road and proceeded on foot to Kincardine which was 8km out.

Once there they met up with their support crews and swapped gear to start the mountain bike that would take them to Stoney Point.

There they had the orienteering course and ropes course.   The orienteering section they had to find flags marked on their map and retrieve the word.  For the ropes course they had to clip on to a rope (a la survivor) and follow it around , up , over and through logs.

Once that was completed it was back to the bikes to head to Greenock Swamp.  Let me tell you about this swamp.  When it was originally scouted last year it was dry and dense until you got near the lake where you could sink in and get a really smelly shoe.  That was last year.  This year it has rained and the swamp was super swampy.  One of the members on Three Wisemen was rumoured to have sunk in upto his neck at one point.

To get to the swamp teams had to ride their bike in to the middle via a nice and slick clay atv trail.  I bailed on it twice last year and it was only kind of wet.   Once at the cp, they’d drop their bikes and head into the various checkpoints with only one being mandatory.  Needless to say all the teams chose to do just that one.  As it was they were in there for a good 5 hours at least.    Once done they’d get back on their bikes and head to the Brant Tract trail where they did a series of optional cp’s on a mountain bike trail system.  From there they headed to Paisely to get in their canoes and paddle to Mikes Challenge at the finish line. Mikes challenge was an optional 70 squats for 10 points. (which all the teams opted to do amazingly).  Once finished they portaged their canoes the 500 or so meters to the finish line.

Rawwwwwwwwwk!!

Angry Seagull 2008 : Now with 50% more Angry

This past weekend was the Angry Seagull 24 hour Adventure Race and all indications were that it was a success despite the bastardly race organizers.

Power Outtage

As I write this post power is out from at least beyond burloak to past 3rd line below the qew.   Yet our hero is updating his blog during this thanks to the miracles that are the laptop and UPS.

How GM turns a simple key copy into an A** R*ping

How much does it cost to copy a key to your car?  If you said $5 you’d be wrong.  If you said $50 you’d still be wrong.  Try $132.  Thats right, to copy a key GM would like to charge me $132.