The Bongos... The Bongos!

I have a tiny monkey playing the bongos in my head this morning. The day yesterday took off from a good productive trip into town to a drunken night at the Elbow River Inn Casino. The new one, not the old one.


That was the view on 11th Avenue and 11th Street in Calgary yesterday. Somewhat of an overcast day, not as warm as it was on Monday. The wind was up and it was cooler than normal, but it was certainly refreshing.

Julie came and met me in Langdon and we went and found some lunch at a panini place on 11th Avenue. It was only about 3 blocks away from where the picture was taken anyways. It was the first time that I saw Julie since being back... only took a month. Ha! It was good to see her and she was quite helpful for the day. I bought her lunch then we took a tour of downtown Calgary. I was able to pick up my temporary drivers license (YAY!), exchange my £50 and €10 and deposit some more money into my account so I can pay off my airplane ticket home on my VISA.

On the tour, I was also able to pick up a couple CDs that I wanted to get. The Arcade Fire's debut EP and Billy Corgan's new CD, The Future Embrace. I'm listening to the Arcade Fire as I'm typing this. It's quite interesting... it gives me a pretty good perspective about where their CD, Funeral, came from. I also showed Julie a whole bunch of CDs and bands that she should really look into. Franz Ferdinand, the Bees... just to name a couple. I can't really remember any more at the moment.

Also, while I'm writing this, I have Dewey, my Mom's lovebird parrot on my shoulder. She just got finished humping a pot or a pan underneath the oven. Silly bird...

Sorry for the backlighting... I just used my webcam to capture the moment.

Anyways, I should move on. I had talked to Kelly as well earlier, since Julie had to be at work for 6pm and well, I was gonna need a ride to get back home, so I tried to plan a beer with him. I had called him again to see when and where he was going to end up for the afternoon, kind of hoping that he would want to go up to the Northeast, then I could catch a ride with my Dad.

Suzanne, from the neighbourhood ball team, wanted me to throw the ball with her last night so she could work on her catching. She'll be playing first base in this weekend's tournament, so I thought I'd help her out.

Instead, Kelly wanted to go into the downtown core and go to Joey's there to meet Jim. 'Alright,' I thought to myself. I was pretty much throwing caution into the wind, pretty much knowing that if I sat with them I wouldn't be getting home in good time.

Julie and I sat down to kill the last bits of time, but couldn't really think of much else to do, so we parted at about 4:30pm and I was on time to meet up with Kelly. Actually, I was quite early. Kelly was late as per normal and I, shockingly, had to endure 15 or 20 minutes of enjoying the scenery by myself. Damn, eh?

Kelly eventually showed up... then Jimmy showed a little later. 'Twas a good couple hours of drinking and then it all went somewhat downhill when the new Elbow River Casino made it into conversation and well... both Kelly and Jim are big gamblers from time to time. Since Kelly was my ride, I felt mildly obligated to join in the fun. I took the ride there in Jim's BMW M3 "the Mojo"... that's good lookin' car both inside and out.

The Elbow River is quite a big place. Tons of VLTs and slot machines and quite a few tables for pretty much anything. The three of us found a Blackjack table in the non-smoking room to sit at, play and drink some more. Well, it was safe to say that no one won anything. I probably lost $150 in the end and Jim probably lost a few hundred as well as Kelly losing more of Jim's money 'cuz he had no cash. Ha ha ha...

I finally made it home... uhhh... gonna have to check the MSN records, 'cuz that'll give me a good indication of time, one second... just before midnight. I was chatting with Justin and Julie when I got home... and doing quite well despite my drunkeness. I also warmed up the dinner that was left on the stove... yum! That was pretty much my night until almost 1am.

Then getting up at 8:30am this morning, only a small set of bongos going off in my head, which I've now rectified by having some eggs on toast and a cup of coffee. I chatted with Justin again this morning and he has his own Blog site to complain with. I'll recommend that you get in with him on the ground floor, 'cuz I'm sure he'll get better and better with his writing and therefore it will become exceptionally eccentric and funny. Just you wait and see!

The Arcade Fire's EP is done... I should go put in the Billy Corgan disc, but I don't think it's what I want to be listening to when I'm still waking up. It could possibly be a tad too heavy for my liking this morning.

Today, I'll probably do up the roast that's in the fridge. I was supposed to cut it up yesterday and cook it, but didn't get around to it with all the travelling around. My Mom didn't leave me a list of things to do yesterday, probably because I only got a couple things done yesterday that she left me on the list. I wasn't gonna start dinner before going, that would have been a little silly. I did water her plants and give Dewey some fresh water in her cage, but digging up trees and dinner weren't in my plans for the day. They could be though today... we'll just see.

Anyways, if boredom hits again, I might have another run at the news. It did spark a comment or two before, so it'll be good to see again. Later y'all!