Important Memos for the Mind

1. Don't tune an expensive stereo with mixed CDs... especially ones that you didn't make. It may not be common knowledge to everyone out in the world, which is fair enough, 'cuz even common knowledge is hard to come by... but if anyone knew anything about burning CDs, mp3s or anything like that... is that there will be different recording levels, different burning levels, different mixing levels... there are so many possibilities out there that you'll be made to look like a twat when you're wondering why when one song sounds so good and you have to adjust the levels for the next song on the CD. It's almost like wondering why the sun isn't in the same place when you get up everyday at the same time.

As the point was brought up... yes, you probably have a great ear for tuning stereo equipment for bands and yes, that probably means you can make any one song sound really, really good... but if you want to stand at the mixing board all night with random mixed CDs making every song sound its best (granted it's halfway through when you're finished tweaking)... go right ahead.

2. Don't debate in a bar with an over-the-top loud stereo going. A debate should not include the phrases, 'what?!?' or 'eh?!?'

3. Heavy metal music is not the way to make money in a redneck bar. Sure, it sounds great on huge speakers, really loudly... believe it or not, there's only a minority of people in a small, redneck Alberta town who actually enjoys it. No surprise though when the minority becomes the majority in a place where the bulk of the staff and regulars who make their way to the jukebox are metalheads and the vacant majority doesn't show up anymore. I don't know too many country music fans who enjoy metal... and vice versa as well.

Day was long today... didn't make it out of the office until 8:30pm. Think Devin and I got ourselves far enough ahead though. We should be in good shape for the morning. Probably will go in early tomorrow as well. Just to make sure we're alright for tomorrow.

Picked up the new Yeah Yeah Yeah's and Placebo discs today... since yesterday, I forgot my bank card at home and wasn't able to. The Yeah's disc is pretty good... not as punky as Fever To Tell, but that's not a bad thing. Meds (the Placebo disc) is very much like Sleeping With Ghosts, but I didn't quite find the catchiest tunes the first time around, unlike Ghosts.

Well, thought I'd chime in... the stereo thing kinda bugged me. But I'll laugh... and laugh... and laugh. Damn CD just won't keep the same levels.

Very Quick...

Was here at the office until 8pm...

Had beers until 11pm...

Back here at the office at 7am. It's gonna be another long one.

Canucks & Wild tonight... dunno what I'm gonna do for that, if I make it out in time.

Red Light

I am here so early this morning... and I may or may not actually need it. I'm thinking its more than may not... it's more than likely that I may. So I'll keep this fairly short.

As it turned out, I didn't stay too late... nothing else came in, although there was threats that it might happen through the e-mail. Although by the looks of things, a doozy came in after I had left. And it looks like Devin did a half-ass job at looking after that one. Way to go, Devin!

Did meet up with Barb last night... went up to the North West and hung out around there. Went and took a look around Chapters and the local music shop in Crowfoot before hanging out, having a bite to eat, watching the Canucks (win!) and playing some pool. It was pretty obvious that the red light was still on, I was sort of looking for any change there, but it wasn't to be. No big deal, we had a pretty good time, very reminiscent of our last outings out and about. Didn't get out of Schank's until 11pm... dropped her off and headed home. There isn't any analyzation necessary, 'cuz... again... the red light was on.

I'm beginning to think that the DVD drive in my laptop licks some serious balls... I finished watching Waiting here at the office, as I obviously didn't take it back last night. So, I didn't have to wait too long to see the end of it.

And... well... I best get cracking. Lots to do...

Calm Before...

Early Monday afternoon... a couple hours until quittin' time and I haven't seen much of anything come in... as in any of the big filings that I am expecting to file for the end of the week. It only means that the shit storm that's gonna happen before Friday just gets bigger and more daunting after each passing hour.

These filings can take upwards of 11 hours to complete, depending how big their financials are and if they are including their technical or annual report as well. We've had one of our smaller annual filings come in, but Devin is going to look after that this afternoon. That should keep him busy.

Well, much like clockwork it seems... when I make a mention of Barb and not hearing from her for a while, she seems to make contact not long after. First thing this morning, not long after making last night's post, she sent me a text since she hadn't heard from me in a while.

Hook... Line... and Sinker.

Yeah, to no surprise I fell in again... but I found it was a good idea to put that foam matress on the bottom so the landing wouldn't hurt so much. Ha ha. Nah... I told her that I was going to look for a TV in town that will show the Canucks/Kings game tonight and invited her along if she was interested. She said she was after she finished classes today and possibly writing something else... so we'll see. I'm not exactly prepared for any such outing, but that's okay... no need to dress up for going to watch a game at the bar. I'm also probably thinking into this way too much... especially just to write this post. I shouldn't be thinking anything like what it probably isn't... but I'm just rambling in my typing now... so please excuse most of this paragraph. Ha ha.

That's the plan though... go find a TV for the game tonight. It's a pretty clutch game (as they all will be) for the Canucks and I feel the need to support my team again tonight. I'm not giving up on them like other people have... *cough*Louise*cough*

Well, just as I got into writing this... one of my annuals came in for me... so I must be off again. At least I did some sort of a post today. Didnt' think I was going to...

Re-Affirmation

Another evening... another scrached up DVD from Royal Food. How friggin' lovely.

Tonight's unfinished feature... Waiting. How appropriate... as I will be waiting a while to actually finish watching the movie. I did finally find some of my CD repair gunk... but that didn't seem to work and my patience is pretty much done for the evening. So, I will continue chatting with my Sis and finish this pint of Guiness while listening to Clap Your Hands Say Yeah.

The Colorado/Edmonton game is almost done... then I can update the hockey pool through tonight's games. There isn't a lot of hope for quite a few teams now. The top 4 teams are pretty much the only ones who have a chance at the whole shebang now... the top 3 actually getting money.

So, I thought I'd come on here and Blog a bit. It's been a little while since I've written two posts in a day... especially since I neglected it through the really busy days at work. I don't think this week is gonna be much different, to be honest. I looked at the list on Friday and saw my arch-nemesis' name on the list for their big filing this week. I know I have long hair at the moment... I think I best shave it off before I pull it all out. It'll hurt much less... but the pain might quell the frustration. Let's hope Devin can get his act together and we'll fly through this week with little to no stress... minus the arch-nemesis of course.

When I was sitting at the bar watching the Flames and Stars play with Benny, he had asked me if I'd texted Barb at all lately. And actually, no... no I haven't. I hadn't had the urge to... hadn't thought of any crappy reason to get in contact with her... and really, just haven't thought about her too much at all of late. With an impending move to think about... a trip to Victoria in April to see Tegan... I don't really want to spend my time thinking about a girl who won't call me or anything like that. I hadn't put her number back in my phone and quite frankly, just don't think I will until she shows some interest in the sitation. Yeah, I like her and all... but meh... its just like other girls at other times. I'll forget about them sooner or later.

I thought I'd add that to the post tonight... I know I haven't mentioned it in a while. When I look back, I want to make sure I know what I was thinking. Ha ha. Maybe one day I'll look back at this when I'm in the same situation... we all know it'll happen again... and remind myself that I can do these sorts of things over and over again. A lonely state of affairs, but a reaffirmed one...

Lack Thereor...

Motivation levels are down today... it's looking like a real nice day outside too. I would actually like to toss around the ball in the warm air outside, but Benny is out having lunch with his brother and I don't think Jeff is much of a ball player. Calgary plays the Dallas Stars in 40 minutes... don't know if I can be motivated enough to head to the pub to watch it, but it's looking more and more likely that I probably will. There isn't much else going on today... Mom & Dad are heading into town to do some shopping... haven't heard much of anything from anyone... just gonna finish up some laundry, have a shower and see what's gonna happen.

Yesterday, Benny and I headed to the Deerfoot Meadows shopping centre to kill some time before the hockey games started on Hockey Night in Canada. We walked around contemplating, for too long possibly, about what to eat. We took a look in SportChek, Future Shop, Best Buy and all sorts of stores. I managed to pick up a copy of 12 Monkeys on DVD... one that I've always wanted. I also picked up The Back Room by the Editors and the Tragically Hip's Hipeponymous (finally!). It was a retail therapy kind of day. After yesterday's rant... a little bit of therapy calmed me down a bit.

Got home in time to watch Disney's Chicken Little... Dad had rented it when I was out and wasn't expecting me home to watch the hockey games, so he rented a couple flicks. Chicken Little was actually pretty entertaining... very well done... and a good waste of just over an hour. Ha ha. It finished in time for the end of the first period of the Leafs/Habs game and just in time to watch Coach's Corner.

After the Leafs/Habs game, I headed to the pub to watch the Canucks lose to the Oilers. What a disappointment that was... but to the Oilers credit, they looked more desperate to stay in the playoff hunt than the Canucks and the Canucks just got burned on stupid little mistakes again.

And then it was home to bed. Was exhausted... didn't feel like doing anything else.

Blah.

An Insensitive Nature

Insensitivity... it's not just for monsters anymore.

As I'm growing older, the cliche of growing colder is becoming more and more true. I am beginning to care less and less about other people's strife and becoming more and more selfish. It's pretty fair, in my personal opinion, to say that I have been chilling my emotions towards strife, pity and charity for some time now. I just don't have it in me to bleed my heart for a lot of causes other than my own nowadays.

Sure, there are some problems with this... there are some instances of late, that I should be a lot more sensitive to. Someone's bad news just doesn't faze me anymore. I try to let it, just to make sure there is still some warmth in there to maybe give to someone at the end of the day, but... I think I generally fall short more often than not.

Of late, I have forgotten recent issues and happenings and have made related jokes... which, agreed, probably come out in bad taste. But I am getting so cold, that there is even little guilt about the whole thing and I just keep on rolling along as to think nothing actually happened. My laughter seems to quell all guilt. Actually, my laughter does seem to cure a lot of problems. Just gotta laugh.

I would like to think that laughter is both my weapon and salve in the world. It can hurt as much as it can heal.

If there is one thing that really freezes me faster is public self-pity. I mean, 'oh woe is me' is so old now. Unfortunately, the media and such has engrained it into our culture, so much so... I think it's almost a fad to publicly cry for yourself. On TV, amongst your friends and within your family.

'Feel sorry for me.'

'I crave your pity.'

I've personally heard enough. I don't anyone to cry for me... so why should I for them? Actually, no... that isn't right. What I meant was... if I want to hear what's getting you down, I'll ask. Please don't lacquer it on me when I'm not ready for it... all you'll get is a deaf ear. If you want a caring ear, keep giving me the puppy dog, baggy eyes or maybe even the waterworks... then I might lend you my caring ear. Don't be a billboard of tears... I'm not a big fan of billboards either.

Use a mode like this... Blogging... to write and clear your conscious of your problems or concerns. At least here, you can choose whether or not to read it, whether or not to care... it's a win-win situation. Either you do or you don't.

I'll agree that you shouldn't bottle it all up, store it and then explode all at once. That is also not good for anyone.

See... now I feel better again... now that I let that out.

Don't Shoot The Puppy

No, I'm not dead... thanks to all those who asked. All of the none of you. Ha ha. Yeah, I'm still alive... it's a Friday entry, the first since Monday, obviously. I will tell ya one thing... man, have I ever been busy.

This has only been the week before the major annual filing deadline for companies with a December 31st Year End date... which you'd have to imagine there's quite a few... and we got absolutely swamped this week. There have been 36 filings so far this week, stemming well over 1100 pages of text, graphics and financial tables to convert from Word and PDF to HTML for EDGAR filing.

It's a good thing Devin has been back all week or else Shit Creek would have been a lot harder to paddle up. He's been alright with everything... but just alright. Granted, after yesterday, when we caught up to everything, it would be fair to say he was good enough for the job for us to get everything done. He certainly isn't the fastest kid on the block, but he does do enough to get the job done and that's really all I could ask of him.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday... I was in nice and early, around 7:30am and really didn't leave any earlier than 5:30pm... both Tuesday & Wednesday were closer to 6:30pm. It was just a matter of getting some documents done before the end of the day, so I could have the peace of mind that when I got into work the next morning, all I'd have to face is the shit storm that had arrived in the e-mail Inbox after I had left... ha ha. Fortunately, my tracking sheet that I developed at the beginning of the year has really kept me organized and should provide some pretty good information for next year and even the months to come. It'll sure be helpful to know which filings take 11 hours and which one's only take an hour and a half to achieve the same result.

Otherwise... there hasn't been a whole lot else going on this week. Oh wait... there is a little bit of news here and there.

Tuesday... I went to the Wildfire, where I met Jeff and Benny to watch the Flames and Wild game on Pay Per View. Had a bite to eat, a few beers... Jill had joined us later on and the two of us played some pool. The Canucks and Oilers were then on the TV after the Flames game had ended, which was awesome... the Canucks winning in Edmonton, grabbing a key two points, which made the evening even better.

Later on, I got a phone call from Jen A... I don't know if you'd remember her from postings last summer after just getting home, but she had finally got around to calling me after I left her an e-mail months ago saying to call me if she was about. She finally did. She had told me that she was looking for a roommate for her place down in Sunnyside, only blocks away from the Rec Centre where I play floor hockey... two blocks from the train and so on and so forth. She had told me a few details before I told her I would call her back when I wasn't sitting in the pub, rather the next day after she finished work.

Wednesday... called her back after I finished my late day at work. She had given me a lot more details... parking, laundry, rent, timing... it all sounded really good. Almost too good to pass up, really. It's gonna be fairly cheap, especially so close to the downtown core. I know the route to get to and from work and really, it won't be too bad when we move to the new office in Forest Lawn. So, there's a lot of upside to it. I do wonder what it will be like living with Jen though. She is a tad eccentric... and well, I was looking forward to a place, possibly on my own. But being that close to downtown and all the parks and what not, its really too hard to say no. I can get a new pair of rollerblades and finally hit the paths down around Eau Claire and get back into the habit of doing that.

That was really the only event for Wednesday night... I pretty much had an early night after watching the second Tomb Raider movie on TV. I couldn't really say that show made any of my Top 10 lists... it wasn't bad enough to be a raspberry and it certainly wasn't at all good enough to say I was proud to watch it. I'm not really a huge Angelina Jolie fan... she is good looking and she did occasionally get her kit off in some movies, so there is merit there... but for overall hotness... nah.

Just a side note, as I'm writing, I'm surfing... found a link to this when going through BlogExplosion... it's pretty dumb, but somewhat funny.

Last night was floor hockey night. After taking off from work, I found the pub in Sunnyside for a few beers, a few mini burgers and the first half of the Flames/Blues game. That was looking like a pretty entertaining game when I left it at 2-0 Flames.

Floor hockey was pretty good... quite a few guys came out to play. I felt that I played pretty well... everyone was pretty complimentary of the game. Had quite a few shots on me all night, so that kept it all pretty interesting. Went back to wearing the mask tonight... thankfully, I did... I did take a good shot off of it halfway through the evening.

Raced back in the traffic and fog to Langdon to catch the Canucks finish the Oilers off in a shootout last night. Had a few beers with it before the power went out in Langdon. We tried to wait it out in the pub, but even the security lights went out and that was it. Everyone had to go... shitty. So, I dropped Benny at his and took Jeff home... there we had a quick Rye and Coke before I headed home. It was just after midnight when I got home... knocked on the folks bedroom door to alert them of the lack of alarm clock they had and then went to bed.

So... here I am, Friday morning... got to work nice and early to catch up with you guys... put a few credits on the webpage to bring some readers to see it and now I should get back to work. There is a few things that need to be done this morning... and well... they should get done. It will make us all sleep better tonight, I'm sure.

Don't shoot the puppy.

As The Stomach Turns

This post will be written with the least amount of effort possible... I'm not quite feelin' it tonight.

Last night, topping off the evening with a can of Guiness, over top of the few beers while watching the Flames game really turned my stomach and only after the second period of the Canucks game last night, I just went to bed. The real shitty thing about that was that I couldn't fall asleep when I went to bed. Argh! My stomach was in pretty rough shape and just wouldn't let me sleep much at all. I may have dazed in and out of dreamland, but I know I woke up several times to toss and turn, only barely getting enough rest for this morning.

Coffee wasn't really the answer, although much of the discomfort had gone when I finally dragged my ass out of bed. A cup of coffee in a travel mug and a cup from Tim Horton's really didn't seem to do me much better.

On a positive note this morning, Devin did arrive back to work. He looked pretty drained and exhausted... as much as he was explaining his long two-week ordeal. Poor guy... but glad to have him back at work though. Got him right back into the groove to start taking his mind of it all a bit... he said it was certainly gonna help.

There was a little bit to do this morning... good thing, too. It got Devin back into the swing of things and it still kept me a tad busy, which took my mind away from the uncomfortable stomach. There were a few projects left over from the week before and after lunch, there was a big rush job that came in for proofing on Wednesday. I'm really hoping it won't take too long... just in case.

For lunch, I made the mistake of listening to my taste buds instead of my poorly guts and went to Taco Bell... as well as getting a slurpee. I know, I know... I shake my head at myself as well. Not to mention, Lee gave me a bit of shit too... as he does.

The day went by pretty quickly... did what I needed to do and came straight home and really, straight to bed. I just needed to close my eyes for a bit, since I didn't really sleep last night. I didn't actually sleep much at all before the house became noisy and couldn't make it to sleep anyways.

I did delete Barb's number off my phone again... just to make sure that I don't go over the top again this week. I want to leave the ball in her court, but well... I know me... coming up with "great ideas" on trying to see her, which do eventually fail, more often than not... why do I bother? I haven't really lost anything... yet... but it does get a tad tiresome sometimes.

Anyways... its another quiet night, sure to finish quite early again. Don't really fancy staying up too late doing anything... should get my rest for a possibly busy day tomorrow.

A Game and a Story

On the internet radio tonight... the Detroit Red Wings are in Vancouver to face my Canucks. I don't know if I will be able to write through the entire game, but we shall see. There's the radio, a pint of Guiness (which won't last the entire hockey game, I might have to refill), some MSN chatting and probably some more fun through the evening.

Still no score as it's still early in the first period. A penalty kill already done for the Canucks as I start to introduce my day.

Shit. Tomas Holmstrom scores... 1-0 Red Wings. I don't even get into anything yet and the bleedin' Wings score. Argh.

So anyways... up in decent time this morning, since I didn't drink at all last night. A few cups of coffee and a check at movie times and my morning was only groggy for so long. I gave Barb a call at around 11:30am when I saw the times of V For Vendetta at the Sunridge Spectrum...

Jason Williams scores... 2-0 Red Wings. The fans are already booing the Canucks as the now 9th place team in the West is seemingly playing like it. Shit, again.

I couldn't get a hold of Barb at all... so I did leave her a message and gave Benny a call. He was up late last night working the door for the Ladies Night at the Wildfire. But he was up before noon, the trooper that he is and he was good to go for the movie in the afternoon.

I showered and went outside to work on the car. When I changed the rear bulbs ages ago, I noticed there was some yellow gunk in the light socket, which seemed odd. So when I changed the bulbs initially, I cleaned out some of the gunk, but it wasn't enough. The rear light wasn't working, except when braking and signalling... so, I went out and cleaned out the rest of the gunk in the light and it seemed to work. I also decided to clean out the back of the car in hopes that I could find an envelope with movie passes in them. I didn't.

I went back downstairs after cleaning out the car and thumbed through a lot of my receipts and such...

Nicklas Lidstrom scores... 3-0 Red Wings. A power play goal on a 2-man advantage.

Anyways, I flipped through what I had and found a couple movie passes that Fred gave me around Christmas time. They were to expire at the end of this month, so it was sort of a no-brainer to use them today.

I still hadn't heard anything from Barb and was beginning to believe that I wasn't going to... so I went and filled up the car and picked up Benny at about 12:45pm. Unbeknownst, sort of, to me, was that Benny had read the Tales from last night and got one step ahead of me, before I was going to tell him that I invited Barb to come out with us, he had already brought it up in the car. Ha ha.

He's not a big fan of me still pursuing Barb... and for good reason. We gave him a lot of shit for chasing Theresa and we did that for good reason. Friends all have great advice for each other, but its rare to take someone else's advice. You know, we do give each other enough information about what's going on with each of these girls... and granted, we're not players like some guys... so we've all gotta take this into account.

There is still some hope with me about Barb... I think there's something still there. I gave her a week off from me or vice versa. I mean, I really do like this girl... I do think she's something else. She gives a decent (or maybe even good) vibe each time I text her or talk to her, but she doesn't do enough to provide a GREAT vibe. You know, just a phone call here or there... but nevertheless. Benny doesn't approve... he was proud of me when I took her number out of my phone for Friday night and the week leading up. Anyways, as we were pulling up to the cinema, I told him that she probably won't be joining us at all... but that didn't really matter. In his silence I knew he was alright with that.

V For Vendetta is an awesome movie. The story was great... the action was pretty sweet... and Natalie Portman is so, so hot. The movie moved at such a great pace, the 2+ hours went by in a flash of excitement as the politically charged film interested me and wowed me in entertainment as it was dark enough to be fascinating and entertaining enough to be a Hollywood blockbuster. This will be a DVD purchase on it's release day.

The premise of the movie was pretty simple and has been built before... the scratches of 1984 were very apparent, but the work to fight against it was fantastic. 1984 had its greatness of engraining Big Brother into our minds and as much as V For Vendetta built the same government, the fight against it made for very entertaining and somewhat realistic story lines.

A movie best left without any thought of a sequel, for sure.

During the movie, Barb did text me back saying that she was at a practice for her recital tonight... which I didn't realize she had, so that was why I didn't hear from her. I declined to offer a reply during the movie though, I thought I would put it off for later.

After the movie, Benny and I grabbed a bite to eat at the Mall before heading to the Wildfire and catching the Flames and Wild game. There was when I grabbed my first beer since Friday night and got a chance to write Barb back to her text. I had expressed that it was too bad she couldn't join us, that she should let me know when she has time and that I was gonna have a few beers. It was about all I could do. I'm not too sure if the response that I got was good enough... but I guess I'll have to delete her number again for a week and see what happens.

The Flames beat the Wild, which isn't a bad thing according to the playoff picture... the Flames are sort of out of reach from the Canucks and their struggles... so keeping teams from nipping at their heels is somewhat appreciated. Although they have had the Ducks win and the Sharks win this afternoon, so the Canucks have their work cut out for them in these two periods, which the 2nd just started.

Pavel Datsyuk makes it 4-0 Red Wings early here in the 2nd.

So, here I am now... chatting online, listening to this disaster... oh wait...

Anson Carter makes it 4-1 on a two-man advantage and time left in the second penalty.

And it isn't before I finish writing that previous line that Markus Naslund makes it 4-2 on the same man-advantage. GO CANUCKS GO! If I am allowed to quote the crowd.

Well, now I can honestly say I'm somewhat excited again. WOO HOO!

Well, now that I've already reviewed my day, only in the second period... I'm sort of short of what to write about. I could go on about how I'm actually living through the itchiness of growing this beard. I'm actually enjoying the look of it... it's nice to have a little bit of depth on my face, in a design sort of way. With the length of my hair as well, it does sort of look like its supposed to be there. Lee has his full beard at the moment and it might look a little odd to see both of us with a full-type of beard, but he's had his for quite a while now. I'm just copying him, it would seem.

Halfway through the second period... and I think I might give the entry an end now. Continue chatting through the night. I have just cracked my second Guiness tonight, so I might sit back and enjoy that for a while. That was over an hour of writing tonight... that should be enough.

St. Patrick's Headache

Another quiet night in the house tonight... after a headache filled day from the Guiness filled evening... and did I ever drink some Guiness.

I picked up a case of Guiness at lunch, Lee and I had one can each before the end of the day. Fred wasn't in for most of the day and Ernest didn't want one, but we each spoiled ourselves and cracked one open. The afternoon was actually a lot slower than I thought it was gonna be, so the beer didn't have any effect on any productivity, 'cuz there wasn't much as it was.

After work, I paid my speeding ticket and then headed home to drop off the car... I decided to walk to the bar, 'cuz I knew that I was gonna get twatted and it wasn't too cold out in the Calgary area, so it was all good.

Pa had called me during the afternoon and was wondering if the Wildfire would be serving green beer (which I didn't know for sure) and that he'd meet me in there for a beer. He didn't show up for ages, so I was left to my own devices, chatting with Greg, flirting with Megan and drinking my Guiness.

Benny had gone down south to meet Jeff and Mike at Dixon's... sounded like it was rocking down there. I'm sure anywhere in town would have been rocking... one of the biggest nights of the year, I'm sure for all the bars and beer pushers. He didn't have the greatest reviews of hanging out with Jeff, probably one of the reasons why he came back so early.

In the end, Benny, Pa and myself sat and got pretty drunk... Dad left around 10pm. Played quite a bit of pool with an older couple, who I presumed were on a date of some sort. Dad and I played pretty well, but we had no finish in any of our games, so we took a pretty tough record out of that place.

After Dad left, Munden, another one of the local Langdon lads sat down with Benny and I and we were chatting for quite a while about playing ball in Calgary. He plays quite a bit of good quality fast pitch. so we got into some pretty good chats about ball and he might see what he can do about hooking me up with some playing time. There was supposed to be some sort of tryout/warmup today, but I didn't get a phone call from him... so who knows.

Munden and myself actually ended up going to the Station in Strathmore for a couple beers in search of some girls. There were quite a few in there when we showed up, but we didn't really make any head way in there. We did have a pretty good laugh in there though.

Then we were back at the Wildfire for a couple more and I think I took off at a pretty decent hour in the end. I didn't stay until close... I was getting pretty bored and the taste of Guiness was getting rather old and I didn't really fancy switching or anything, so I walked home.

So yeah... it was a headache that wouldn't end today, heaving up the water that I tried to put down to quell the headache and another trip to Strathmore with the ol' Man, then it was Hockey Night In Canada... and that was my Saturday. Nice & easy...

I certainly didn't fancy drinking at all today... I ended up drinking quite a bit of Grapefruit Juice tonight. Tonight at the Wildfire was Ladies' Night, with male dancers I think... so I didn't really feel that that was a place that I should have been hangin' out at tonight. Benny was working the door there, while Jeff was supposed to be working the bar... no jobs for me, however.

Tomorrow, I think I'll go and check out V For Vendetta... I'm really looking forward to seeing that movie. I did send Barb a text seeing if she'd be interested... she said she would be if we saw it in good time, 'cuz she has a choir recital at 7:30pm. I was kinda figuring on doing an early afternoon show anyways... so that might work. I'll see if Benny wants to go as well... he said he might be interested on Friday.

Tonight's MP3 Player Randomness whilst writing this post:
Lost and Found by Big Sugar
Throwing Off Glass by the Tragically Hip
Take Me Down by the Smashing Pumpkins
Vent by Collective Soul
Romeo and Juliet by Dire Straits
Cold Light by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs.

Happy Guiness Day!!

Happy St. Patrick's Day... and all that bollocks. Ha ha. Tonight, I'm not gonna pretend to be Irish... I'm not Irish, nor do I necessarily want to pretend I'm Irish. Sure, I might throw on the very weak accent and such for a laugh or two, but I'm probably not gonna dress up like a leprechaun and I'm certainly not gonna praise Roy Keane as a good footballer.

But I am gonna get wasted. And I'm gonna do my best to drink a lot of Guiness tonight. When in Rome... or when on Ireland's day, right? I think it's a nice gesture to drink it until you vomit... and that's what I intend to do. And then pretend to die tomorrow... that'll be the only pretending I'm gonna do. Woo hoo!

Well, it's the calm before the storm, me thinks, here at work. I thought I was gonna drown in a sea of filings today, but that doesn't seem to be the case. I had quite a bit to look after this morning, which wasn't as bad as I thought it might be and now its just after 11am and I have nothing to do at the moment. I am expecting a bigger document sometime this afternoon, possibly for filing today. It's kind of scary to think that this might happen... but I'm supposing that it is possible since there isn't a great deal else coming in at the moment.

I really should make a phone call in regards to this though...

It doesn't quite feel like it, but I've sure been busy so far this month. I guess without a helping hand for the last couple weeks, I have had to take the brunt of the workload, which is alright, obviously. I have been able to still post on here on the Tales and do all my Hockey Pool updates as well, so it can't be all bad. I am reaching a month's best in number of filings so far this month in 2006, but nowhere near the amount of pages converted. Yes, yes... I'm a little bit of a statistical freak.

I have done more pages this month than all my help has done this year... this includes Devin, Lee & Troy... also including the one day that Hideo spent with us as well. Ha ha. It's been quite the month, so far.

Last night, I decided to dive into a few beers before playing floor hockey last night. I sorta forgot in my plans to keep myself for tonight, that I was gonna play floor hockey and that I play better on a few drinks. So, after I got out of the office an hour later than usual, thanks to some terrible filings and an episode of the Simpsons, I headed into Sunnyside and just sat in the local pub there, which is only a few blocks away from the Rec Centre. There I had a decent plate of fish & chips, a few bottles of Keiths and watched the Hurricanes/Canadiens play, before they turned it to the Flames/Oilers game.

I didn't stick around for much of the Flames game, I had to get back to the Rec Centre so I can make sure that my pads didn't fall apart on me in the game. On the way back though, I did stop in to the gas station to pick up a bottle of Gatorade for the game, when I spotted the controversial cover of March's Playboy, with Jessica Alba.

'Well,' I thought to myself, 'I've begun to see the new issue on newsstands here and there and since she made a big stink about her picture being on the cover, there might be a little bit of value to it as well. Plus, it's been since I was in England when I last bought an issue... so what the hell.'

Did you know it's really tough to find a lot of stores that carry Playboy in England? And it's so much easier to buy it there too... it's much classier than a lot of those lads' mags that they sell... but they show a little bit 'more' of the female form, so then it's classed as porn. Go figure.

Nevertheless, I did manage to pick it up and was quite pleased with myself that I did find it before it was pulled for the new issue.

The games of floor hockey turned out to be pretty good... I got shelled in net, as per usual, but made a pretty good game of it all. This was the second week in a row that I didn't wear my mask in the game. I took a ball off the face, which only careened off and into the top corner of the net. That one hurt the pride more than anything else.

There were three games, two of them headed into overtime... unfortunately, I lost two of the three games... the second loss, in overtime, on a scramble in front... the ball just floating over top of me as I'm falling to the floor, lifting my glove to try and catch it or knock it out of harm's way, failing... all happening in that slightest of slow-motion moments. 'Nooooooo!' That kinda sucked... but it was overall, a good night for exercise.

The fog rolled in pretty badly on the drive home last night. Once I passed over Deerfoot Trail, the fog was already thick and low. Outside the city limits, where there is very few lights, it became much more of a challenge to see more than 20 metres ahead, but luckily the trip consisted of straight lines, with a few turns in lighted areas (namely, Chestermere), so I had no problems resuming normal driving speeds with little to no fear about veering off the beaten path and blazing new trails in any farm land or back yards.

I pulled into the Wildfire, as I was sure Benny was gonna be there. There was still some remnants of people in there, probably some of which watched the Flames game in there. Impact John was in there having a beer as well. Greg was testing out his brand new sound system in the bar, making sure the sub worked and all the speakers were at a level that only dogs can hear... ha ha!

Benny, a few beers in by the time I had arrived, had a real burr under his saddle with Jeff. Apparently, Jeff had come in with John and sat down at the bar with Benny and Benny was trying to break through the cold demeanour of Jeff. Jeff's demeanour casused by the constant ribbing, which was sort of inevitable given the circumstances of his mistakes... to which Benny later learned that he had a falling out with Jeff, unbeknownst to him.

Now, granted... I thought the falling out with both of us was quite apparent... Jeff doesn't call anymore, he didn't call nor show up when I saw him on Friday night before Benny and I headed out into town... he doesn't MSN... he just does everything without us. It was as plain as day to me, but I'm not necessarily fussed. I did ream him out a couple weeks ago and I still stand by everything I said... not that it seemed to make any effect on Jeff, except he know bears his soul to John instead of us. Ha ha. Now John, is getting rather aggrevated with him and agrees that Jeff still has some growing up to do. John actually thought that Jeff was the ripe old age of 23 or something like it, the way he's been acting. 'fraid not, John... he's older than both Benny and myself.

So, there was some interesting conversation brought up by Benny about the neighbourhood situation... I can't really be bothered by a lot of it, but Benny is still trying to figure it all out. Fair enough, they are (or possibly were) good mates beforehand. I'm wondering if this will all come to pass this weekend... who knows? Not me. I'm honestly looking forward to being out of Langdon... living wise. I'm sure I'll visit more often than I might go on.

And that was pretty much the night. I only stayed for a couple... heading home and to bed before midnight. And now I'm ready to get this party started with a can of Guiness for lunch, which I'm gonna go get right about now.

Nothing...

Not a lot to Blog about this morning... almost rather get myself started at work this morning. Got some projects on the go, a few to be finished tomorrow, one for Monday, one for today and a few that need to be filed today when I get the okay from proofing. How exciting!

I'm more than halfway through the biggest one I received yesterday, of 199 pages, and I want that one out of my hair first, just 'cuz it's so big and time-consuming. Then I can jump on the 92 pager that needs to be done for tomorrow. Yeah, its starting to get a tad exciting in here now... once Devin is back, then all will be well again and I can get him to practice a little bit more before the deadline.

Actually, yesterday... I went and paid the internet bill for the house. Dad had warned me that the women in the office there were pretty dumb, but I only took that with a grain of salt... he does sometimes embellish a bit, so I really didn't take that comment too seriously. Unfortunately, when I walked into the small little office space down on 52nd St. SE, the two women that were in there looked at me with the same awe that the little green men in Toy Story looked at Woody when he jumped into their claw game. It was quite an odd operation they had going there... no debit, no credit cards... only cheques and cash. I'm beginning to wonder less why the internet connection is so shitty out in Langdon.

Otherwise... had a $7 bill at the Wildfire, drinking Coke and 24 wings last night while watching the Red Wings and Ducks play on TSN with Benny. Made for a pretty decent night and then another relatively early night last night.

Off to play floor hockey again tonight... hopefully will have a little bit better of a turnout than last week. Should try and be there in good time to continue fixing my pads. There's still some more work to do. I'll probably stay relatively close in the area tonight, as the Flames play the Oilers at 7pm tonight... might catch the first period before heading over to the Rec Centre.

And that's that...

Welcome Back Kids!

Another early morning of Blog surfing is under way... another alcohol-free, quiet night completed, leading up to the big piss up on Friday. Welcome to Wednesday everyone... hopefully, it has been or will be a good day for everyone. Geez, I'm sounding overly chipper this morning. I really should knock that off.

I have about 7 surfing windows going on at the moment as I'm writing this post... every once and a while between paragraphs and/or sentences, I will flip away and earn my credits on each of the sites. Hey, it brings the people around, right? For anyone missing any of these surfing sites, click on any of these links... BlogExplosion, BlogMad, BlogClicker, BlogXchange, Blog Advance, Blog Soldiers and Blogazoo. All of these exchanges also make for good reading as well.

Well, one thing has come into my inbox this morning... it may keep me busy for a little while this morning, which won't be too bad. Hopefully, it picks up just a little bit more than how dead it was yesterday. Actually, this new one is over 40 pages with a lot of tables in it, so it should keep me busy for about an hour this morning... roughly. Woo hoo. Plus, it isn't due until tomorrow, so there's no rush on it either. Yay! That means I can continue doing this.

It was quite funny last night, Mom has just started a new job at a Trade Bindery factory, much like the one's I worked on in England. (Yeah, Sue... she's a Trade Bindery woman too!) She was going on and on about her first day working on the stitcher, which sounded vaguely familiar to the days on the Muller at BJ's. She spent her 10-hour day feeding thin newsprint into the feeders of the stitcher and it was a long day 'cuz the thin paper wouldn't feed properly and the machine would bung up and would have to be stopped to unjam and start again. Over and over and over again. (How familiar is this, Sue?) And then... the decollolates! So, so many of those. I just looked at her, agreeing in that way that you've done it all before and it's not like she was telling me anything new. Needless to say, she wasn't a big fan of the machine... her hands all bandaged up from all the paper cuts... yeah, been there, done that.

I tried to watch Hellboy last night... another failed DVD from Royal Food. This time I'll actually take it back after work and complain about it. I mean, how hard is it to take care of DVDs people? This may actually drive me to start downloading movies for nothing off the internet. Well, this'll all change when I finally get out of Langdon and I have a decent place to rent movies.

I copied some of my new music to my mp3 player last night as well. New CDs from Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, the Cardigans and Hawksley Workman all got shifted onto the digital hard drive. I think I'm now over 5,200 songs now on it. It does a pretty good job on random, I'll tell ya that. I just turned on my mp3 player now... listening to the Clap Your Hands Say Yeah album. It's certainly a different kind of album... it's got somewhat of a unique sound to it and a higher-pitched Michael Stipe (a la Murmur) type voice singing along. I am finding it very enjoyable actually. If you are looking for some to download, look for "The Skin of my Yellow Country Teeth" and "Gimme Some Salt." Both tunes are quite catchy, but they're definitely not commericial radio material... so you'll probably have to download them to hear them.

I did my best last night to resist the urge to turn on my laptop, find Barb's number and then send a stupid message. I keep lying in bed thinking of clever things to say and justification for me to say them. Could this ultimately be a sign of madness? I haven't yet decided if this is my heart talking to win her over or my head trying to sabotage any sort of idea of having her as a friend. The battles I have to go through are amazingly retarded. I shouldn't really have this problem, but I do. All the previous arguments from previous posts prevail and I am left at odds with myself on the gamble.

My latest great idea had myself sending a bouquet of flowers with a card with a longer message in it doing its best to convince... since text messages and phone calls can be so short. Will that sort of thing work?? C'mon people... this sort of thought process isn't public not to get your advice.

This morning, in the heavy fog, the drive to work was quite fun. Visibility was 20 to 30 metres at any given time. That was until I got into the Calgary City Limits, where the fog lifted to a higher altitude and you could see much better. After passing 32nd Street on 16th Ave., some of the traffic got out of my way and I saw what I thought was Racquel's Mustang... sure enough, as I sped up, it was her's so I waved hello and passed her, since Barlow Trail was coming up quite quickly and I needed to get into her lane. After getting to work, I left her a quick text to say hello... and then she actually called me back, 'cuz she really didn't know how to text. Ha ha. She's a really nice girl... always good for a hello or two at the bar.

Anyways... I think I better kill this post. Maybe I'll try and get something done this morning. That sounds awfully productive. Lee should be in any time now... granted, the fog may keep him from being his normal 5 minutes late, rather being 10... ha ha. So that'd mean I have 20 more minutes to myself. Woo hoo!

I'm gonna try and keep my Blog surfing windows open all day... see how many credits I can earn today. That'll be my mission. You know... besides the normal working missions.

Hear That Cracking?

Two hours to go... yawn!

I've run my wrists into carpal tunnel syndrome from playing on www.addictinggames.com. Try the Park Soccer... I think I played it for about 45 minutes, I can barely type this entry out. It has been sickly boring around here. I am almost beginning to regret taking an early lunch, which only lasted the normal half an hour.

I read my regular websites dry... I don't want to Blog surf... the news doesn't interest me... there is nothing on TV... I think I will just shrivel up into gray matter and be done with it.

Apparently we're moving in May into an office that actually has cable though... so when its slow we'll be able to take advantage of Sportsnet, TSN and the Score. Woo hoo! That may mean some baseball and football during the days... how excellent is that? Unfortunately, the office will be in the Forest Lawn area... so, maybe I won't find a place too close to work.

I'm gonna crack... or explode.

Removed Tuesday

Ahhh yes... Tuesday. No hair gel, unshaven, slightly tired... yeah, that's me in a nutshell this morning. I'm not hungover this morning, if that's what you're thinking... I was only on Pepsi at the pub again last night. A nice $2.25 tab... works for me.

Went to the Wildfire to watch the Flames and Avalanche play last night. Man, was it ever empty in there... when we left after two periods, there was only 5 patrons (including Benny and myself) in there. Crap... it was so quiet. Especially since the Flames were winning, we were not having a great time, so we took off pretty early. Plus, Benny's guts were working against him and were poisoning the general vicinity that we were sitting. Ugh!

When I headed home, I had just signed on to the online radio a moment too late to hear the Dallas Stars' third goal to take a 3-2 lead over my Canucks... which the Stars eventually won 4-2. I really sort of wish I saw that game so I knew what to make of it all... but by the sounds of it, it was the Sedin twins and Anson Carter being the only threat in the game. Yikes... that's not performance. And now tonight, they're in Nashville to face the tough Predators. I'm fearing for the Canucks' playoff lives again... this is not the time for a slump.

I shut the radio off after the fourth goal went in... knowing that the Canucks would not recover (which I was correct to assume) and chatted for a little while on MSN. It had the makings of an early night with the mp3 player on. That it was.

I had also come up with the conclusion that if Friday (St. Patrick's Day) is gonna be a drunken disaster, instead of possibly leaving my phone behind, I thought I would remove (not without saving elsewhere) the phone numbers that would cause me the most trouble. So yeah, I got rid of Barb and TL's phone numbers and saved them on my laptop for future use. I really need to knock off those drunken text messages... so if I don't have the numbers to send them to, I won't be sending any. So that's my general idea...

Saying that... at 3:30am this morning, I got a text from Barb asking if I was still up. Ha ha... man, did I deserve that. My stupid phone though... it keeps making noise until I actually pick up the phone and look at the text. It almost sounded like I had 3 messages on my phone, but it was only one when I picked it up. I didn't dignify the text with an answer, I just wanted to go back to sleep. Her text wasn't quite as ridiculous as I think mine have been, which is kinda disappointing in a way... it would sort of absolve me a bit, but it didn't.

I think I'm getting to the point that I'm trying to hard in my head to justify doing anything with her... it really shouldn't be this way, but sadly, it is. I'm really sort of finding myself at crossroad after crossroad and there just isn't any path that is straight for a while. It'd be a lot different if I got to see her more often, then I think I could easily justify trying to chase after her a little bit more, but I don't have that luxury. Phone calls and text messages have the underlying creepiness to them, which I don't really want to reflect. Granted, if I don't keep in contact, there is even less of a chance of getting to see her.

Aarrrgh!

I'm going to try my best to keep myself quiet for the week. Try to remain unto myself for a few days and maybe see if she messages or calls me first. I have much doubt that she'll be out and about on Friday for the drink session that will ensue and I have much doubt that I will be in town that if she did call, that she could meet me. I'm really just at a loss... but will trudge on.

Also on the topic of trudging on... got word yesterday that Devin's Mom passed away on Friday. Poor guy... he's awfully young to have his Mom pass on him. So he'll be staying out in Quebec for at least this week, getting the funeral and estate dealt with. So, I'll be on my own for a little while longer in the EDGAR room... that's alright though, it still looks rather slow at the moment. I'm hoping he'll be alright to be back on Monday or Tuesday... the deadline looms and well, it'll be tough if he's not here.

Well, it looks like I have new bidders for my Rent My Blog space... guess I better check them out. Both sites will need their space filled.

Just Surfin'...

Monday morning... an extra-large, double sugar from Tim's and some Blog surfing. A great way to ease yourself into the week. I've got everything going at the moment... Devin's computer is running five auto-clickers and I'm running all my manual clickers to increase some traffic, although BlogXchange crashed on me for some reason. I should start that up again.

I'm actually fairly refreshed from what was another quiet end to the weekend. I'm slowly learning my lessons about not drinking Pepsi before bed. It is now keeping me up... probably one of those things I should "know better" about, but keep on doing anyways. It wasn't too bad... I think I slept a little bit when I looked at the clock at 2:30am.

There is only one new e-mail for me to work on this morning, so I am sort of procrastinating a bit. I'm still the only one in the office... Lee isn't in for another 15 minutes or so. Fred will probably be in at any time.

I am sort of counting down to St. Patrick's Day... the end of the week will bring some severe drunkeness. I really wish I had a camera again to document that disaster. Then again, we all know what happens when disasters occur... things get lost. So, I'll let someone else deal with capturing the moment.

Probably gonna make it a super-quiet week, if at all possible... leading up to the big event should involve cleansing the system of all other toxic chemicals... you know, just before pumping thine veins with more... much, much more.

Dammit... another dud on the Roll Up The Rim contest. I have won once... a free coffee, which is still sitting on my desk, waiting to be redeemed.

Yeah, anyways... unless there is a hockey game on that is worth watching, I think I might keep the intoxication to a minimum. Then again, I could probably go to the Wildfire and only do Coke's anyways... that way I can watch the games and not get drunk. Yeah, that's the ticket.

One thing I didn't think would have happened was my Blog taking a shit kicking on ratings. This whole BlogMad thing has really done me in. Ha ha. It's opening my eyes that the Tales are *gasp* below average.

Meh... it's not the biggest deal in the world. So there are people who don't enjoy me. They're not going to be the first... certainly not going to be the last... so, it's all good. Actually, if there is one thing I do enjoy... it's a good roasting.

Well, it's after 9am now... I guess I should think about doing some work this morning. I'm in no hurry to get anything done... the only thing (still) that has come in is only 5 pages long... so I'm thinking it'll only take me about 10 minutes to do. I think I'll get my orange juice from the car now... it'll be nice & chilled for consumption now.

Shhhh... It's Quiet In Here

Ahhhh... Sunday morning. I could have stayed in bed all day... I was in that comfy zone where as much as I needed to go to the bathroom, I didn't, 'cuz that would have meant I would be less comfy. Eventually though, I did find myself too disturbed by the ruckus upstairs that I felt the need to de-comfy myself and get up.

I'm just writing for the sake of writing this morning. There's nothing really to chat about or say, I don't think... so I am just gonna ramble on for a little bit.

I'm doin' some Blog surfing this morning, something I generally save for my working hours nowadays. I usually have a BlogExplosion window going in the background at work all the time and just hit the next number when I have a moment to spare or when my ADD kicks in. I have started surfing on BlogMad as well... that's a pretty neat system they have going on there. I've just loaded up the surfing window there too. I'll do that for a while.

Today, I'll suck it up and clean out my bathroom downstairs here... yeah, it probably needs it in the whole idea of cleanliness. I am, admittedly, quite bad for that sort of thing. If some things just don't fit into my routine of things to do, there's a pretty good chance that I just won't do it... unless prodded on.

I'm also thinking of possibly doing some graphic work again... I haven't really opened up Photoshop or my GIF animator for a while. I could probably use a new banner or two these days. Maybe go find one of the pictures you guys have sent to do up another header for the Blog. I do love the Sherpa in the grass though... that is such a cool header. I should really try to find something new to use though, it may be getting a tad stale. Does anyone have any pictures they'd like to see the Sherpa in? I'll accept them again... opiated@telus.net.

I have had thoughts of becoming somewhat of a recluse for a while. Turning my phone off, which has more benefits than not, keeping the alcohol consumption to just being at home and saving some money and maybe doing things that are a little bit more productive than getting wasted. Then I think to myself... well, how is that gonna be fun? I could possibly change the title of the Blog to Tales of Sober Recluse, but that just won't sell, me thinks. I would love to save a whole load of cash, get myself a new laptop and a place to live and call 'er spectacular... but that just sounds like hard work. Heh heh... it's harder work to keep myself sober than it is to live through a hangover... go figure.

I should really get to upgrading my PC as well... it's a slow junker now... it's what I'm writing this post on now... my laptop isn't plugged into the net and gosh, I'm just too lazy to move the 8 a foot and a half. It's Sunday for cryin' out loud. The PC is a tad old though... only a CD-Rom in it, eek... and you know, I don't even remember what's all in there to be honest. Its just a tad old. Since I'm running with some new PCs at work, it really puts this one to shame.

I think what I might do is go wishlist shopping... go see where my desired laptop is gonna come from. I do fancy another VAIO actually... this one is actually pretty good, even if Mark busted my sound card on it.

I guess I should make mention of the hockey game last night as well. I was really impressed with the new additions, Eric Weinrich and Keith Carney... they made everyone else on the ice that much more reliable, despite the 2-1 loss. Alex Auld played well again last night, I'm glad to say I haven't called for a number one goalie at the deadline, 'cuz I like this guy. The only real issue I had last night was the defensive pairing of Mattias Ohlund and Kevin Bieksa. The forechecking of the Dallas Stars was quick and effective, especially against said pairing. More often than not, the forecheckers would get Bieksa or Ohlund to spin around too many times, coughing up the puck and giving the Stars an opportunity to put one past Auld. Unfortunately, now that I look at the scoring summary, it was both Carney and Weinrich who were on the ice for both Stars' goals last night. D'oh! One was a powerplay marker, so they were only minus-1 last night. It's a shame that they couldn't put more past Marty Turco last night though, they had their chances, but they just couldn't seem to bury any of them. Anson Carter had a good night with the Twins (who played exceptionally well), but missed an open-net chance in the third which would have changed the course of the game completely. Oh well... we'll get 'em in Dallas... right guys?

Well, I think I might cut it off now... get to doing some of the things I should. Maybe I'll have somewhat of a cleaning type day. Sort out the basement a bit, including my bedroom. It needs a little TLC this morning, I think as well. I should look at the ol' finances again... got some bills to pay here soon, I think and then relax for the rest of the day. I need to get some socks on... my feet are cold.

Ill Sorta Saturday

Ugh! What an ill day it was for me today... Benny and I, after not getting a hold of Barb at all, went on a bit of a bender ourselves at the Wildfire last night. It wasn't an overly expensive night, but there was the right mix of drink to send me to illness this morning (or early afternoon).

After one of the slowest days at work... I went and met Benny down at the Riverbend Station. I was supposed to meet Randy, but he wasn't available after he double-booked himself and took on what he made plans with first. No biggie... I knew Benny was gonna go anyways, so it was all good.

The plan slowly came together whilst sitting at the Station... making plans with Benny is sometimes like pulling teeth. Heh heh. You just gotta tell it which way it's going and eventually you'll get there. Except with a lot less pain. The plan was to sort of take on a small pub crawl in waiting for a message or call from Barb to see where she was going and work it from there. First we'd have to get back home to Langdon for Benny to clean up a bit before heading out, which wasn't too much of a problem.

In review of this now, while sitting at the Station, I made the mistake of assuming. Yes, I went on and assumed something that I maybe shouldn't have and then it came back and bit me in the ass. I just wanted to interject here with this point, 'cuz I just want you to know that yes, I did make this mistake now and well... maybe I'll get you to guess what it was through the story.

So, a few drinks and a bite to eat at the Station and we headed back to Langdon. I headed home just to wait for Benny, in doing that, I caught a wee bit of a nap, which was really beneficial, I thought. Then around 8pm, we both came onto Messenger at the same time and decided to head into town.

I wanted to start at Joey's in Chinook Mall... wanted to check out the scenary there, but when we had arrived, there was already a good line waiting to get into the lounge, so instead, we went and checked out the mall. Benny wanted to stop in the Sunglass Hut to look at some Oakley shades, the Gas Cans, which he had been eyeing for the last little while. In there, we met an over-exhuberant, yet attractive sales girl, who in turn sold Benny a pair of white Gas Cans, which aren't too cheap, but he was satisfied nonetheless.

From there, we hit the Blind Beggar on MacLeod Trail, which isn't too far away from the mall. Dad and I had gone to this place a few times back when we were living together in my apartment in Victoria Park. It was just a quiet strip mall pub with a few TVs and pool tables and such, not too bad. There we sat and had a couple.

Then we went to go see if there was a line at the King's Head, which there was at about 9:45ish... and we weren't really in the mood to pay cover or stand in line, so we went to Taps, which was down Southland Drive, before Acadia Drive. There it was again, just a more quiet, strip mall pub and we sat and had a couple in there. By 11:30pm, I had given up on any hope of Barb getting a hold of me, which sort of irked me a bit, so we headed back to Langdon to finish our drinking excursion.

Once at the Wildfire, we had a fair bit to drink... my tab wasn't too bad at the end of the night, but Benny was also buying shots and stuff as well. What a guy! There wasn't a lot of memorable moments there in the pub... I was chatting with all sorts of people and having a pretty decent time. Then we went over to AJ's place after last call and had another beer, but that's all I could muster.

Oh yeah, got the car stuck in a snowbank too... that proved to be a funny rescue mission. Just before going inside at AJ's, Benny and I were waiting outside. So, Benny wanted to show me a few places in town and I ended up backing into a snow bank. D'oh! So, AJ pulled me out with his truck and all was well.

After the one at AJ's, I dropped Benny off and then made the mistake of picking up the phone. Yup... I sent a "why was I ditched text message" to Barb... at 5am... idiot... and then passed out. Now, here's what I assumed... I assumed since I texted her and asked her where the place to be is for the evening, I assumed that I was actually gonna meet up with her. There was no actual exchange of ideas here, although I did ask her to text me when she finished up work to see what was going on. Well, idiot me... assumed that yes, I was gonna see her and was pretty miffed in my lack of sobriety. So, yes... I texted her. D'oh!

So, I woke up 11am, with a searing headache... grabbed some water for it and it wasn't long before that came back up to say hello. Then I went back to bed, to try and sleep off the headache, which didn't work. I went back upstairs for some juice and a bun... which came back up. It was just an ill sort of day.

I pretty much spent it inside, only going out to get some juice for myself... I wanted to stay in and watch the hockey anyways, but I didn't know I was gonna be this way. Ha ha.

The game is over... its just after 11pm... I'm feelin' like an idiot, so I'll have to send an apology tomorrow, me thinks, and now I'm gonna head to bed 'cuz the Neo Citran I had is starting to knock me out. I think it'll be a quiet Sunday as well tomorrow... woo hoo!

Deadline Deals

I never got around to doing a post yesterday, mostly 'cuz I was caught up in the NHL Trade Deadline stuff. I pretty much watched it all day and had a Blog entry or two on the Hockey Pool Domain about the Canucks and other pool items. It was a pretty entertaining day, which I'm proud to say that the Canucks did some good things, Flip over to the other Blog if you have any inkling on what the heck went on yesterday.

Was also pretty hooked on Tim Horton's coffee yesterday as well... went for a couple extra-larges in the morning... made for a zippy kinda day. The shame of it was that the only thing I really did all day yesterday was watch the Deadline stuff appear on the net. There wasn't much work to be done. Lee and I pretty much bantered all day, making up trades on the fly, trying to wind each other up with fake fantasy trades that would never happen... what?!? We were both really, really bored. This is what we do when we're bored.

When I went for lunch yesterday, the snow that was forecast fell... and it was a literal white-out. Until I got back to the office from lunch. Then it was fine again. It was like no snow fell at all. Stupid weather.

The deadline came and passed, just like every other year... and then the day was past... just like every other day. I had brought my still-broken pads with me to go play floor hockey yesterday. I still hadn't sorted them out at all, but I thought there was no better time to do it while on the fly and I was actually getting excited to go play again.

After work finished, I got in the car and headed for the downtown core. I was going to meet Julie after she finished her last midterm for the week, but she started that at 4pm, so I had some time to kill when I got into the core. That was perfect, 'cuz I had to grab a few things, including some safety pins to repair my pads with.

On the train into the core, Barb actually phoned me up... returning my call from the afternoon beforehand, that was awfully nice of her. She was on her break in the middle of a double-shift and was again, just returning the call. I checked to see when she was done and she said 9-9:30pm and I told her that I would call her to meet up for a drink after floor hockey. 'Okay,' she replied.

I did my shopping in the core, picking up the new Cardigans CD, Super Extra Gravity, the new Clap Your Hands Say Yeah self-titled CD and the When The Sun Goes Down single by the Arctic Monkeys. I'll listen to them again through the day and maybe leave another post about them in the afternoon or something. I also got my safety pins, some shampoo and other bathroom necessities in my shopping trip. All in all, a pretty practical haul.

When I finished my shopping, Julie was already getting off the train at Victoria Park and then we met at Bottlescrew Bill's for a few pints before I had to take-off for floor hockey. She was heading up the same way and was nice enough to give me a ride over to the complex. In return, I was admittedly terrible to her, again... my sense of humour does tend to get away from me time to time. Then I can just be plain mean.

At floor hockey, I managed to pin together the one strap that Greg had pulled right out of the pad and found that he broke another one of the clips altogether and that the strap had to be tied on for tightening. What a fuckin' jerk... that's the last time he gets anything from me. I got everything together in time to start playing again. Not many guys showed up at all, there were even a couple younger girls who showed up for 15 minutes that played as well... that was worth a giggle or two, especially when one of them scored on Ernest, who resorted to playing goal in the lack of guys showing up. I had a pretty stellar night in goal, which was surprising since it was my first time in about a month. Just seemed to be in the zone last night... some good glove stops, an excellent breakaway stop and just decent positioning through the evening. I was pretty impressed.

Afterwards, like I said I would, I gave Barb a call and surprise, surprise... she's over at a friend's house getting ready to go to Cowboy's. Well... again, a tad disheartening. She was apologetic about 'ditching me again,' which I could I only reply that I'm keeping track of all of these instances and that I would be buying more chalk to keep on keeping track. What she doesn't know is that I don't really need chalk, I just need to open up my e-mail, where I get copies of all these Blog entries to see how many times it actually is. I haven't actually been counting, but I guess it would pretty easy to find out if I wanted to look back at it. She did invite me to join her and her friends, but I was still a bit under the weather last night, still a bit sweaty (though I could have cleaned enough) and I didn't have the shoes for it. I can't say I was up for a big night either, despite if it was with her or not. So, I felt I needed to decline.

You know, it's not that she's the worst person in the world... she doesn't have the eccentric properties of Naomi and she isn't cold like Ches was, she's actually got some really good personality qualities in her and we click really well (when she manages to find time to get together), but sadly, she doesn't find much time or she gets her arm twisted (the rubber one) to meeting up with her other friends and sort of ditches plans that are an hour or so later with me. She just manages to do this... I can't explain it exactly, but I try not to discredit her too much. It really sucks and all, geez, even as friends... but she is really cool, there is an air of I can convince her to come over to the lighter side of life and well... I'm not broken here yet. I might sound like a broken record from time to time, but this is really the only place I do it. So, nyah nyah.

Instead, I went to the Wildfire for one and a chat after floor hockey and then went home. Home nice and early and up nice and early as well. And here I am... ready to take on the last work day of the week. I'm gonna head down to the Riverbend Station after work and meet up with Randy for a beer or two. Talk some hockey and other miscellaneous shit... should be a good start to the weekend.

A Bow on the Letter

In review of a chat Baz and I had today on MSN, I have been continually weighing the options of going on and challenging the thought process of Barb to try and convince her that I am the way to go. It's a pretty fine line, that trying to convince someone to unhook themselves from being hung up on someone else and giving them a lift onto the coat hanger that represents you for the time being. It's a whole lot more sensitive than a hand down and a boost up... or is it?

After the whole text conversation last week, I've fallen into the trap of wanting even more of what I cannot have. Fuckin' stereotypes get me every time. I have come to the point in just writing as many of my thoughts down... most of them come in the sanctity of falling asleep, when the hamster goes out for his evening rip around the consciousness block. I try and capture a lot of my thoughts on my mobile phone, write some text messages not to be sent... again, not until I'm drunk of course.

I've tried to be dramatic, I've tried to be desperate, I've even told it like it is... in these messages of course. I can't really gauge what would be more effective... would telling it like it is be over the top? Dramatic and desperate aren't gonna work, I can tell myself that now... it is kinda fun to write though. Maybe one day I'll have some of them on the Scribblings site... they're a little more cyber-scribblings, but scribblings nonetheless.

I don't know... it may take some back reading, but I dunno... what I might be looking for is maybe some insight into where she's coming from here. In the end in a lot of male/female relation cases, all we want to do is get in each other's heads... wouldn't that just be the easiest thing in the world, eh? I'm sure there would be much less ado about any of the problems in this mixed up world if we had that sort of power. But in this one instance... just one... a little bit of insight would go a long ways.

If not some insight... maybe an opening line. An opening line to come across less-than-overbearing, yet persistant... appealing in a sleuthy kind of way. If you found Sherlock Holmes sexy... what sort of phrases from him would make your knees tremble ? Okay, that could be a little odd... but maybe it's the right direction... I don't know. I'm just thinkin' out loud again.

I was going to include some of my text message scribblings here... but I think I'll pass.

I also thought I would include what is one of my favourite R.E.M. songs of all time... E-Bow the Letter (from New Adventures in Hi-Fi). The confessions almost seem apt for this post, so I thought I would post it. I'd then know I'd always find them here.

Look up. What do you see?
All of you and all of me,
fluorescent and starry,
some of them they surprise

busride. I went to write this, 4:00 a.m.
this letter.
fields of poppies, little pearls.
All the boys and all the girls
sweet-toothed, each and every one a little scary.
I said your name.

I wore it like a badge of teenage film stars,
hash bars, cherry mash and tin foil tiaras.
Dreaming of Maria Callas,
whoever she is.
This fame thing, I don't get it.
I wrapped my hand in plastic to try to look through it.
Maybelline eyes and girl-as-boy moves.
I can take you far.
This star thing, I don't get it.

[I'll take you over. I'll take you there.]
Aluminum, it tastes like fear.
Adrenaline, it pulls us near.

Will you live to 83?
Will you ever welcome me,
will you show me something that nobody else has seen?
Smoke it, drink.
Here comes the flood,
anything to thin the blood.
These corrosives do their magic slowly, and sweet.
Phone, eat it, drink.
just another chink,
cuts and dents they catch the light.
Aluminum, the weakest link.

I don't want to disappoint you.
I'm not here to annoint you.
I would lick your feet
but is that the sickest move,
I wear my own crown, and sadness, and sorrow,
and who'd of thought tomorrow could be so strange?
My loss. And here we go again.

[I'll take you over. I'll take you there.]
Aluminum, it tastes like fear.
Adrenaline, it pulls us near.

It tastes like fear.
It pulls us near.

Look up, what do you see?
All of you and all of me,
fluorescent and starry
some of them they surprise.

I can't look it in the eyes.
Seconal, spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene,
cherry-flavored neck and collar.
I can smell the sorrow on your breath.
The sweat, the victory and sorrow.
This smell thing, I got it.

[I'll take you over. I'll take you there.]
Aluminum, it tastes like fear.
Adrenaline, it pulls us near.

It tastes like fear.
It pulls us near.
It tastes like fear.
It pulls us near.

To-Do List

Hockey pool updated... check!

Small filing for today converted... check!

Filing to be filed this morning... check!

Still to do:
Finish this morning's post.
Do the conversion of a somewhat larger filing.
Watch my e-mail inbox for the rest of the day.

Wow... what an unmotivated start to the day. Actually, I thought I was doing really well when I got up this morning. Well, sort of... I did hit the snooze button an extra time, without really realizing it, I think. But once I was up and about, I was doing alright. Showered, gassed up the car and was on my way in. By 7am, the sun had crept over the prairie horizon and was in plain sight for the first time this year... in my rear view mirror. That'll be a pain for a while, but at least there's light again in the morning. Woo hoo!! Bring on the spring!

Last night was a night at the Wildfire for the Flames/Predators game... woo hoo for the Predators. Benny came and met me and we had a few beers, ate and cheered on Nashville to their 3-2 victory over the Flames. Myself being the Canucks fan that I am and Benny being the Red Wings fan that he is... we make a formidable foe to most people in the pub cheering for the Flames. It's quite entertaining really... we take it as well as we give it too.

There really wasn't a whole lot to the night really... after the game had ended, we both took off and that was pretty much that. I had to gloat on the text messages when I got home, but that was the only stupid thing I did in a less-than-normal drunk state. I was doing pretty good after the night there.

Woo hoo!! More work just came in... how fantastic!

So yeah... again, it was a fairly low-key affair. Benny was talking about another low-key weekend... well, it'd be another for me, I don't think it was very low-key for him last weekend. I wouldn't mind getting away with doing very little this weekend. If it decides to warm up over the weekend, I would be willing to celebrate baseball's spring training with a little myself. After last season's wild throws, I wouldn't mind getting an early start on throwing the ball around the diamond a bit. Probably not going to get that lucky... I've heard that the weather is more than likely gonna turn for the wintery sessions again tomorrow. Joy.

Tonight... I forsee nothing. Maybe do a little more posting if at all necessary. Maybe try and get my goalie pads fixed tonight. I wouldn't mind getting out and playing again tomorrow. Plus, I kinda said I would.

Cheeky...

I got a question asked of me... Leon, my current RentMyBlog space occupier, asks, "What kind of renter are you? You didn't even plug my blog!" Now as much as I did answer it in the comments section, I almost feel that I should elaborate a little more clearly as to why I didn't plug his blog.

Did I even look at his blog? Sure I did... I wouldn't mind knowing what people passing and/or reading through my site may click on. Do I really care though? Not really... I think of the RentMyBlog program as a good way to generate credits to in turn, bring more readers to my site. I don't necessarily want to facilitate my time with a community spirit when I've got other things on my mind and to get off my chest. That's just me.

I don't think I've actually plugged a blog yet... this in turn, may be the first (or possibly the second) time I've plugged a blog on my site that paid me credits to have the space. Sure, I appreciate it when other people that I rent space from plugs mine... but I just want to get the logo out there. That's all I pay credits for. Just seeing my Sherpa with his craaaaaazy eyes here and there is all I want to have happen. A click or two is really good... even more is awesome. Generally, I'll pay for those clicks. Advertising is only that to me... advertising.

I didn't mention that I'd post a plug for anyone's blog on my listing... I just offer the chance to get known through the Sherpa channel. If you've got an interesting thumbnail, that's probably the best way you're gonna get yourself known. I try my best to write an interesting life piece most everyday and try and bring the reader down to the spot where the rental space is... if they click or not, is up to them.

"People are coming from far and wide... get your Blog known through the Sherpa channel!"

That's it... that's all I said. Not terribly misleading. I have a list of where people are coming from at the bottom of my sidebar... it should give a reasonable idea that people are coming from all over to see the Blog. I'm on a few auto-clickers and other manual-click exchanges. And like I said... the opportunity is yours to make an exciting looking thumbnail to attract new visitors.

Can you tell this sorta wound me up a bit??

Don't Send It!!

You know, I did a good thing last night... I wrote some text messages and didn't send them. Thank goodness for that. My mind was absolutely racing again last night... which I didn't forsee due to the Neo Citran and my hopes that it would knock me out right away.

With the comfort of some tunes in my ear, I sort of let my guard down to the hamster on the wheel and he just gave'er. That lil' bastard can sure run, I tell ya. So, I tried to over-analyze the Barb situation... think of things I could do or say, mostly say... which I was fortunate to type into my phone, just to actually see the words and not actually hit send. It made such a big difference. So, now they're all saved in my phone for when I get stupid drunk... decide to pick up the damn phone and finally hit send. At least I have the comfort of knowing that the things I wrote down are nothing I'd really regret sending, but would actually have to be drunk to send. I would know exactly what it says beforehand, so I don't have to wonder what the hell I had typed, 'cuz I never hit 'Save & Send' when sending texts anyways.

That was the bulk of my thought process last night... an episode of Corner Gas and a DVD of Crash that just didn't work (stupid Royal Foods in Langdon).

I think I am now 0 for 5 in the Rrrrrroll Up The Rrrrrrim contest at Tim Horton's. Dammit. At least the coffee is good.

Busy Monday

What a busy day... I wonder why I haven't gone to the store to buy beer. Oh yeah... yesterday's hangover has sort of ground that one to a halt for the time being.

With Lee already scheduled to be away, the call at 8:40am from Devin was a tad disheartening. Unfortunately, his Mom, back in Quebec, had fallen ill over the weekend and was admitted to an Intensive Care Unit and Devin was unsure what her status was... so, as he should, he left for home today.

Fortunately, it's only the 6th of March... unfortunately, the gray area which is timing of my Mini-Me's return is hazy coming up to the major March 31st annual deadline for a lot of our major customers. We have a pretty good guess that Devin will be away for this week for sure... the next is where we're flippin' coins. I can't be too sure, but for everyone's sake... including his mother's... that it's soon. He does need a little more practice before we get into crunch time.

So, in essence... today was a tad hectic. I really didn't know if I was coming or going this morning and it was until after 10am did I know where I was gonna sit in the office and what I was gonna do. It really didn't help that one of my clients decided to make up some filings as they went along that really didn't make any sense whatsoever. Not a big deal though... since they were in a big rush for them to get done, we're charging them through the nose for the effort. Woo hoo!!

Today shouldn't be quite so bad... unless everyone wants to start throwing new shit in my inbox. Tuesday is generally one of the more busy days in the EDGAR room... but at least Lee will be about. I have thus far this year converted over 3000 pages of Microsoft Word and Adobe PDF documents. It's gonna be a productive year...

Starful of Treelings

Good morning all... since I updated the weekend already, I'm really sort of left with nothing to go on. However, I did listen to the new Hawksley Workman disc, Treeful of Starling, all the way through again this morning and well... maybe some of you who continue to search for it on my site will want to read it.

If you're familiar with his previous works, which I'd imagine you are or else you wouldn't be searching for the new disc, Treeful of Starling takes a step away from his pop building blocks he had perfected with Lover/Fighter.

Starling is a very low-key, subtle disc which would make for good ballroom dancing. It was certainly nice as a Monday morning disc for the drive into work, especially if you're not looking for the stress that compounds from the traffic, annoying radio show hosts and/or the screaming kids in the backseat... all of which wasn't really a problem for me this morning, especially only since I manage to run into one of the three problems (and let me tell you, it isn't the kids!).

There isn't a real catchy pop tune on here, which will make this disc sort of fade into obscurity... not that it made a big bang in the first place. Without any songs like Striptease or Anger As Beauty, Treeful of Starling will be generally enjoyed by the people who listen to Hawksley on a regular basis and go see his shows... there should be a general appreciation throughout his fan base of what he has accomplished on this disc.

There... that's all that needs to be said about that this morning.

Well, there isn't any plans for the week thus far... probably don't see any happenings at all in the near future. Probably just gonna be a nice & quiet week... rent some movies or something all week. That might be a good idea. I guess I'll find Crash, since it won Best Picture at the Oscars last night. I haven't seen it yet... so, it may be worth a peek.

Thirifty Weekend

Well, the weekend didn't quite go exactly to plan... but it didn't cost too much, so that was alright by me. Actually, most things happened during the weekend, but a few things were missed.

At the moment, I'm actually listening to the Canucks and Blues on the internet radio... Anson Carter had just scored to put the Canucks on the board, but still behind 3-1. D'oh!

Well, Friday night was pretty relaxed... went and picked up Julie at SAIT and we went to her's for dinner and a movie. We had rented the Constant Gardener, which apparently Rachel Weisz came up good for a Supporting Actress Oscar tonight. I'll tell ya, that movie may only be about 2 hours long... but man... that easily felt like 3 or 4 hours. There wasn't much for exciting moments on Friday night... Julie fell asleep halfway through the movie, so she wasn't too much fun... granted, the movie was pretty dry... as well as long.

Saturday, a head cold really kicked my ass... so I did nothing during the day. I mean, nothing. I think I had 2 naps as well as getting up really late. I watched a little bit of curling, went back to bed, got up, made a cup of Neo Citran, went back to bed... yeah, that was the most fun I had all day. I'm not really complaining though... I think that was just the kind of day that I really needed anyways.

The evening, however, was a different story. I called up Jeff and he said to get over to his, so I grabbed a mickey of Dad's new home-brew, went to the shop and picked up some mix and then headed over to the party. There, Jay and Benny were sitting with Jeff watching some National Geographic programs... heh heh. Well, my well rested self polished off the mickey just fine through the Flames game, some pool, some poker and a whole load of drama in the middle of the night. In our drunkenness, we aired a lot of what was going on lately... which was probably the right thing to do. Cooler heads were there, which was suprising... I always fear that when shit hits the fan, it makes a big mess. Fortunately, us guys, despite the soap opera feel, are pretty good about dealing with this sort of shit. I'm pretty sure I was home around 3:30am...

... only to wake up at 8am with a ginormous headache. Oh yeah, we polished off a bottle of tequila as well. That was a whole load of tequila as well. It was a pretty rough day today. When I got up, I only got up to get myself a drink of water and then go back to bed. Then I was up again at about 10am finally... still in real rough shape. I wanted to take off into town to meet up with Julie for the hockey game around noon and I did manage to do that.

I picked up a couple Hot n' Ready pizzas from Little Caesars and headed off to Julie's place and was there just about 12:30pm. We had to be at the 'dome for 1pm to sign in and get our tickets. We each received a t-shirt and instructions for if our name is called, we'd have to make ourselves known to the staff and then we'd go from there.

Well, after a lacklustre first period, I didn't find myself among the contestants for the Dodge Caravan, so, all we did was enjoy the free tickets to the Medicine Hat Tigers and Calgary Hitmen. The game picked up after the boring first period... the third period being the most exciting with quite a few goals scored including a Hitmen goal with eight-tenths of a second left to send the game to overtime and eventually a shoot-out. The Tigers won 6-5 in the shoot-out final... it was a pretty decent game where the best team on the afternoon won.

After the game, I walked Julie home and made sure her car started to get her to work and then called Barb. I had to leave a voice mail, again, but she managed to call me back as I was driving in her direction. Unfortunately, she had her folks call her and tell her to come home for dinner tonight and that pretty much nixed any plans. So, I headed home... and that was pretty much my weekend. Kinda shitty, really... but oh well.

Tomorrow, Lee is off again... so I get to work on his computers all day tomorrow. Get to do a little more SEDAR filing and try and get Devin to speed up his table proficiency on the EDGAR side. It shouldn't be too bad for busy quite yet... we're quickly approaching deadline day of March 31 for a lot of the annual filing... so we've got to really get everyone prepared for it. The first big deadline for me... it'll be interesting to see what the timing will look like by then.

As for anything else... I really have to get my goalie pads sorted out, I have to pay that speeding ticket and then pay the internet bill here soon too. I should really start looking for somewhere to live here soon... that'll be a good plan.

Welcome Newbie!

It's already March 3rd?? C'mon spring!!

A nice surprise yesterday, a one Mr. Thomas Hughes joined the land of the cyber-nerds by getting onto MSN Messenger... I haven't chatted with the ol' boy in ages. Sure great to hear from him.



To you, Tom m'boy... welcome. Don't let the crusties in your eye consume your vision... remember to blink and get fresh air from time to time.

Now, I'm not getting a lot of writing done, since I've got a couple Messenger conversations going at once. I wouldn't mind giving an update... but nooooo... I have to be proper social.

Let's see... after work last night, met up with Kelly down at the Bull & Finch in DouglasGlen... got some nice talent in there. I got an update on all the boozin' exploits of himself and the Odd Squad he keeps as e-mail buddies. Shit, I wanted to post a little bit of an e-mail he forwarded me in regards to a numbnut who doesn't understand the premise of being dumped. That was quite funny. It was mostly a few beers just to catch up... hadn't seen him in absolutely ages. I would have to do quite a bit of digging through the Blog to find out when I saw him last. It is in there somewhere, I'm sure.

After the beers, it was over to the Wildfire for some ribs and a beer... catch a little bit of the Flames/Blues game, but I wasn't really paying too much attention. Benny was about for one as well... the ribs I ordered were actually pretty big... surprise, surprise... ate and then headed off home.

By then, I was actually sauced up pretty well... shock horror. There wasn't much happenin' on the computer around 9pm, so I decided to shove off to bed. Just as I was climbin' in, my phone rang (with its most annoying ringtone or beep ever!) and scared the bejeezus out of me. I had left her a quick phone message on the drive between Calgary and Langdon... wanted to make sure that everything was cool and luckily it was all good. We chatted for a few minutes and I'm gonna give her a ring after the hockey game on Sunday.

Oh yeah... and the midnight text message from Jeff, bragging about his date... thanks for wakin' me up, jerk!

Well, it could be a busy one today... not too sure though... got lots to file this morning for the EDGAR room, but most of it is already done. So, that's cool... gonna go visit Julie tonight and watch some movies over at hers. Should be a nice & quiet one... and out of Langdon as well! And that's pretty much my plan for Friday... Saturday is still up in the air... hopefully quiet as well.

And yes... I'm well aware that the Canucks lost last night. Argh. Concerns are brewing again.

Any Ideas?

I really don't know how to start this post this morning, but the beginning usually goes a long ways... as it turns out, Tuesday night after the beers and the game, I wrote Barb a text message, which I kinda hoped I didn't in the morning. If I remember it a bit more... I think I had said that I wanted to spend a lot more quality time with her and that she was worth waiting through the long hours at work for and bits like that. Which is all very true... I won't deny that I meant any of that, but it was really putting a lot out there, which wasn't necessarily the best course of action.

Well, just as I had finished watching Domino and shut my computer down for the night, I walked into my room to find the little orange light on my phone flashing, meaning that there was a text message on there. I didn't hear it go off, since I was watching the movie, but there it was. I opened it up to see that Barb had texted me. It was really a nice surprise when I saw her name on the screen, not thinking about the drunken message that I had left about 24 hours earlier. Not until I opened the message, of course, to see that she had been thinking hard about my message from last night. I think my heart had skipped a beat right then and there in the shock of remembering that, 'oh shit, I did leave that message.'

As it turned out, I arrived just after the message had come in and when I was reading it, the continuation of her somewhat poor spelling and punctuation (ha, ha... sorry) came in as well. Of course, this wasn't going to end well in my favour... this I could have told you if you were to ask me what would happen in this scenario (when I'm sober, of course) if it were to happen again. I had a pretty good idea of what might happen, maybe not to the littlest detail, but I wasn't ready to soberly put myself out there, which then I would have looked at all the options available to me and made somewhat of an educated decision to do so. An educated decision would have been one of those, 'I'm fairly certain that the result will be in my favour' decisions. But no, the best-case scenario didn't happen and I put myself out there somewhat involuntarily (but even that's a stretch) and I'm gonna have to face the music on this one.

Now, in all honesty... it didn't turn out as bad as it probably could have. She's not a dumb girl... she's pretty on top of things and she wasn't quick to make any sort of decision on anything. Hell, 24 hours between messages means quite a bit in the nanosecond world we live in, so I give her tons of credit for that. She was totally honest and upfront with a few things, each making reasonable points, but the language she used was very open-ended, which means there is a chance. A good chance... but patience will be key here. I understand that completely and I don't want to stop hanging out with her at all... she's a really cool person.

There is a slight problem though... my mind works overtime on open-ended situations. I spent my time in the rush hour traffic trying to think of things to say. I'm thinking of things to say and do. I was even thinking of putting it out there, since well, I'm there anyways, that hey... this is what's gonna happen:

My mind is gonna race... there's a good chance that I'll be getting drunk again in the near future... and yes, I will probably write you yet another message in a dumb attempt to win you over. I thought I'd save the shock value and let you know that when I get stuck on (what I think is) a good idea, my good conscience is passed out in the corner of my head and my fingers will do the walking on my keypad, writing you that unnecessary, yet mildly profound message. Just to let you know...

Sadly, that would take about three text messages and well... probably not in my best interest again. I would just like to make sure that if I do anything of the sort, that I am sober for it... then at least I can account for my actions a little bit better than taking the blame for making stupid and irrational decisions that cause less than desirable decisions to be made.

I might need a little help on this one... a little push or something to get in my way to stop me... just don't know which way to go here. Any ideas?