Various things

Well well well, what a whirlwind couple of days last week, life has been extra busy of late, and I haven't posted a thing at all. On the upside most of the people who read this were involved in many of the things so no one is out of date.

To start with, I guess a week and a half ago I got a second piercing, this time in my ear. It is certainly a non-standard piercing, and after the fact I found out that many regard it as one of the more painful piercings. So to say I'm suffering my own foolishness is fair, but I think it looks pretty good. I don't have a picture yet (because my camera is having smashed screen issues...) But here is the Wikipedia link on it, it is formally known as a rook piercing.

Next up on my busy schedule was the David Usher concert on Thursday night. The opener was good, I'm not as hyped for her as I was for NLX, but Pascale Picard was still really good. Her drummer was sweaty as sin in his awesome tweed jacket, and her guitarist nearly rocked himself off his chair while one handed playing from the frets while doing some freaky shit on a mini mixer board. We also couldn't help but tease the base guitarist. I know the old adage of the base player doesn't get the girls, but this one could have tried a little harder. He actually reminded me of me when I was heavier, and if I had slightly longer shaggy hair. It was the golf shirt that was his end, if he had just opened a button or two, and rocked the neck of his guitar in beat with the music he was playing he would have had a chance...

The middle band was that girl who didn't win on Rockstar, and with good reason, she came off as 100% poser. I don't think she was really a fit for the crowd, but when someone has to come out and announce your imminent arrival and demand that the audience throw up the devil horns for you, you really are struggling. Besides the 'horns' (which is how real people refer to them) are only thrown for merit, not on demand. But it was okay, because she seemed to have her hand locked in some sort of death grip horns position on the microphone, when she wasn't touching herself sexually (seriously...) I also think her parents were in the front row...

Finally David Usher came at the end. They had a broken opera singer (The macbook kept crashing and it had the samples) but they still did a fair rendition of Black Black Heart, and otherwise he was his usual awesome self. They had a good mix his stuff and some Moist, as well as some new stuff that isn't out yet, and a great cover of Gnarls Barkley's Crazy. I realize I've said more about the non-headliners, but David Usher is a really great performer live, and he put on a great show, I guess you had to be there. :) On a side note he has returned like the prodigal son to Toronto from New York, so that's good to hear that we've repatriated a Canuck.

Friday, For some reason I can't recall anything of note on Friday, and I don't think that nothing happened, but I can't, something minor did happen, but it fits into a Sunday story, so I will save that for further in this post.

Saturday was fabulous, so it started with the Enbridge CN Tower Stair Climb. As usual for this endeavor I got up before the crack of stupid. The reason being two fold, the first is that all the registration and waiting area's get crowded, and I like to get in and out quickly. The other is that the tower itself gets grosser and grosser as the day progresses. So I just don't like being there too late, as the various slimes and smells are disgusting. So around 5:00 AM I rolled out of the house, and by 6:49, I was driven, parked, registered, waivered and at the foot of the tower.

Now in the past I've done this climb typically in about 50 minutes. The best time I've ever had was about 46, and the worst about 52. So I knew I was in better shape now then I've ever been, so I knew I could do better then 46. I was hoping for about 30-39 minute, I thought that was fair. I couldn't have been more wrong.

My new best (and probably last for a while) time for conquering the CN Tower is... 20 minutes and 41 seconds!!! (Yes that deserves 3 '!')

If anyone feels inspired, The United Way will still take donations for a couple more weeks, and you can post-sponsor my climb here.

I also made two personal firsts on this trek, it was my first time up the tower without stopping for a rest, and my first time I could actually fit in the free t-shirt at the end. I kept telling myself I'd take a break at some future milestone, but then I'd get there and say, wait a second, I feel fantastic.

I returned home pretty jazzed before Erin was out of bed (around 8ish) and I'm afraid overwhelmed her with my energy level. She caught up later in the day, but I did try to get her going from 0-60 in 30 seconds, and she was (and rightly so) still half asleep.

Once Erin got her day in hand, including a nice lunch and breakfast, and a trip to the gym. We gallivanted about shopping, we actually left the house to look for two specific things, and ended up not getting either of them, one of them was new glasses frames for me, and we didn't even get to the store :)

Erin did get some nice clothes though :) and we went shopping for leather jackets, and found them to be rather favourably priced, but Erin wasn't perfectly satisfied with the fit, and the jacket I wanted to try won't be in stock in my size until later this week. After that we had a great night at my grandparents, we even drove my parents, it was a funny trading of places. That night I pretty much wrapped up design on the website for the Voice Lab, I still need some content, but the keys are there.

After a long Saturday, Sunday was more relaxed. We slept in, ate late, and relaxed. Around 11:00 we headed out for a few more errands, the big one being Half Life 2: Orange Box. This was really the extended story of Friday, it isn't so much a good story but a story of me being stupid. On Friday I went to EB on the way home to pick this up, and they were sold out, so I went to a Walmart, and with game nearly in my grasp I balked. The "Orange Box" was hardly an entire box made of orange, but a marketing nightmare of graphics barfed on to a case. So I didn't buy it, talk about books and their covers, but I didn't. So Saturday, after rewatching the trailers, specifically for Portal I smacked myself upside the head, and went out in search of it. The Orange Box being the other thing that we didn't get while shopping Saturday, and it wasn't without trying, I turned Mississauga upside down trying to get it, and failed.

So Sunday, I returned to the same Walmart in Oakville that I had my brain failure on Friday, and I got it. In that moment of weakness I also bought the prequel to River Tam Beats up Everyone also known as Serenity in HD. God I love that show!

We also got new shoes for Erin (I tried and failed, but I know what I want now.)

We also went to Chudleigh's (the orchard not our MPP's) to pick apples, it is probably the last time we go this year, the trees are pretty much done, and the apples that remain weren't the nicest, but it was nice to walk the orchard in such beautiful weather.

We returned home where I gorged myself on Portal (WHICH WAS FREAKING AMAZING) and also mowed the lawn for the first time in three months. (not that I'm a lazy gardener but it didn't grow at all in August or September.

I also made/made up a kick ass new soup. I call it lamb soup, I had some lamb bones from the organic quarter lamb I bought last year for making lamb stock from, and I also had some stewing meat. So I said, lets do something with this...

Starting with this recipe for stock, I cooked that for a good number of hours until it was lambalicious. Then I strained it, added back the meat bits (that was fiddly as I had to pick them off the bones.) Then I added a cup of white wine, and some carrots and parsnips cut into rounds. Cooked it for about another 20 minutes, and presto! It was probably a little fatty for a diet, but it tasted great! We had it with our tomato-basil trout, spinach, and some yam. Other then the soup all light, and including the soup all delicious.

We ended the weekend with a little King Kong on the HD-DVD. All and all a great couple of days, and I'm pooped!

I will try and write more, and in smaller bits as I go.

ps Yes Mom, I will be your friend on facebook :)

pps no I didn't really proof read this...