Long Winded

This weekend didn't really feel to me to be a good writing weekend. So, what I did was last night, I just saved a draft of an entire outline of what I did this weekend so I could write about it at work. Today, I only have four small filings to look after for today and one slightly bigger one for tomorrow morning. So, I think I'll have all sorts of time to complete what I did this weekend as the day goes on. I didn't really grab many pictures from over the weekend, but there are a couple down the way, so I'll start the streak up again here and now of posts with pics.

Alright, so I think I'll get started this piecing together of the giant puzzle. Well, it really isn't a puzzle, it's just gonna be quite a bit of writing today. It's a good thing that after I wrote that first paragraph, I did what I needed to do for today. Woo hoo!

Okay, so Friday night was gonna be a quiet one for me... or I was gonna die trying. Ha ha. I needed to do laundry really badly and I wasn't gonna let too much stop me... unless it was a damn good offer. Jeff had MSN messaged me about possibly going out with the lads, Benny & John... but I didn't think that was at all gonna happen.

I got all my laundry started, but I then noticed that I didn't really have a great deal of laundry to do exactly. It was only a couple loads... but it still needed to be done. I was hangin' out with Chris as Jen was still sleeping upstairs. We were having a few beers and then she decided to get up... we could hear her through the floor upstairs, with her heavy steps. She's a really big heel walker. She came downstairs and whined that she wanted to get a new outfit at Old Navy... and whined, and whined and pleaded that I took her. I couldn't say I was really keen on going out anywhere, but I did finally realize that I needed to get to the Sunglass Hut in Chinook to see what I can do about my broken sunglassses.

We piled into the car and braved a bit of the tail end of rush hour traffic to get down to Chinook. She shopped for ages in Old Navy and finally got herself an outfit. I tried my best to help her out picking something out as she was a tad slow and I didn't really want to hang around in there, as I find it's a bad store to hang around in. After she had finished up, we went down to the Hut and I checked to see what my options were. The girl there said I was still within my warantee, by a week, so I should call Nike and if they can't do what I need, I can replace my shades by paying half of what they're worth, which is $90. So, now I know.

I finished up my laundry when we got home... Chris had to work Friday night at the hospital, doing his electrician stuff... so I was pretty much by myself. To no surprise, Jeff didn't call me back when I was out or back at home, so I knew I was in the clear for doing nothing all night. I just bummed around the house, Jen took off around 8ish to meet up with Tony to go to A Bar Named Sue, supposedly meeting up with others to make for a good night.

I packed up and went to bed around 10ish... seeing as though I wanted to get up for the England match in the morning. Unfortunately, by 11pm, Jen and Tony arrived back at the house, awfully early, which sent Costas nuts 'cuz Jen was home, squeaking his stupid toys... which made it kinda tough to get to sleep, but evenutally I nodded off. I was about ready to toss the stupid dog off the back porch... I had some pretty evil thoughts when that squeak-toy was being squeezed.

Saturday morning arrived at 6:30am... when the alarm went off. It took me a moment to finally realize why I had my alarm going off at that hour, but when I finally clued in, I was pretty quick to jump into the shower and get into my England shirt. I was out the door just before 7am, with the idea that there shoudl be somewhere playing the game in Kensington. I walked down to Kensington Road to find that none of the bars were open, let alone showing the match. So, I had to run back home and climb into the car to find somewhere else to go. I quickly drove down to 17th Ave... thought the Rose & Crown would have it... nope. The Ship & Anchor had it, but I couldn't get in the door after 7:15am. I thought maybe Shanks would be open... drove all the way down to Heritage... nope. Another bar on the way advertised World Cup Soccer... nope. Only replays. So, drove back into the core... I heard someone say Drum & Monkey... sure enough that was open. I did manage to finally get in there for the second half, which the only goal (the Paraguay own goal) was scored in the first half. Nevertheless, now I know what's going on for matches. I got a pint in as well... hey, everyone else was!

The result for England was a positive... they got the 3 points, which is key, but I guess the general consensus is that it could have been better. They could have scored a few times, but sadly, that wasn't the case. From the second half, I thought Lampard's strikes towards goal were the better chances. I won't really buy too much into the weather being a factor, although it may have been hard, but both teams had to deal with it.

After the match, I went straight home... found Tony & Jen on the couch watching the Producers. I had only seen the first bit with Jen when she rented it, so I sat with them and watched the remainder of the flick and had some coffee. It was still only like 10am, so it was still rather early.

A trip to Safeway later that morning uncovered a pleasant surprise... I found Black Currant juice concentrate (or squash, for my English mates). Hooray! The small bottle of it still ran me $7, but it was totally gonna be worth it when I make Snakebite & Blacks.

Jen took off for work around 1pm... she wanted to study a little bit more for school before she got started. And then I went to go see what Chris was up to downstairs. He wanted to head over to Home Depot to pick up something and that would be his only chore for the day. So, I waited for him to get ready by watching a little bit more of the World Cup upstairs... I think it was the Argentina/Serbia match that was on at the time and by the time he was ready to go, Argentina was already pretty much set with the win. So, Chris and I headed up to the Home Depot on 16th Ave, not far from the SAIT campus and then over to the liquor store to pick up some pre-drinking drinks. The plan being that we'd sit and have a couple Snakebites and then maybe go to the team BBQ or maybe head over to the Yardhouse to watch the Oilers game, to be decided later. It was a good plan. We picked up some Strongbow and a case of Sleeman's and headed home.



The Snakebite Crokinole Challenge was on... I brought out the board and mixed up a few drinks and we were off. I made up a makeshift table of boxes and we played on the front porch, while watching the world go by. Chris rather handily won the first game and I took the second game, by a much closer margin. We actually played at a reasonable competitive level... which made for tons of good laughs. The board is quite old and has its quirks, which makes it all the more fun. But once we got goin', our games actually lasted for quite a while each time.

By the end of it all, I had decided to skip the BBQ and watch the game with Chris. I knew if I was to go out with the lads that it would end up being a crazy-expensive night and with Chris at the Yardhouse, we may drink, but we'd only be paying for our own and it wouldn't be too crazy. When we showed up, we had about a half hour or so before game time, which was the plan, 'cuz we wanted to be sure we got a good seat that WE picked... not so much having our seating dictated by the number of people in there. Chris reckoned that we sat just away from Ashley's section if she was working... which she was, so we actually sat at the bar, which proved to be a very advantageous position... both for the hockey game and talkin' to Ashley. She had come over and said hello... she had done some homework on the World Cup and stuff like that and she was more than willing to tell us all about what she learned. By the time the game had started, there were people sitting in the seat separating myself and the drink pick-up for all the girls. Still, nevertheless, I got in the sly little smile everytime I could.

The Oilers pulled out a narrow victory, even after being the best team for all of the 60 minutes. It looked as if Carolina wasn't going to have any of it in the third, after tying it up, but the Oilers held on and took advantage of an Oiler bounce to win the game. To be honest, Chris and I did a good number, for a reasonable price, and the game is a little bit fuzzy... but I do remember it being a half-decent game to watch.

During the 2nd intermission, I remembered that I didn't do the little bit of dishes that were left in the sink. Chris had given me the peer pressure lines to leave 'em, so I did. So, I was gonna run over to Starbucks and just warn Jen that they weren't done. Unfortunately, when I got there, she was already gone. Natasha was sitting in there doing some homework and was actually talking to Jen on the phone. She had already been home a while and did the dishes... she was expecting some company, but appreciated the fact that I would try and cut her off at the pass. When I got off the phone, I invited Natasha over to join us when she was finished up with her homework... and she did.

Natasha was being quite odd on Saturday night. She would come over and say hi... not have something to drink... disappear for a bit and then come back, sit down hum and haw over a drink... and then finally, Chris decided to just get her horrifying shots and pretend that they were really good so she'd do them. Ha ha... evil. Chris had actually bought her a Prairie Fire (Tequila & Tobasco) and I managed to get her reaction on the camera when she did it...



Priceless. That's what you get for leaving, coming back, leaving and then coming back again. Oh we laughed and laughed... especially when I brought the picture out again. It was totally worth it all... even the stern talking to we received afterwards from her. Ha ha. The bill for Saturday night wasn't too bad... I thought it was gonna be a lot worse. Thankfully, we got taken care of by Danny, one of the bartenders there. He's a pretty cool dude.

Again the way home was a little sketchy for memory... but I'm pretty sure we did the pizza thing again. It's so convenient and after a few hours of good drinking, we do need a little bit of a snack to tide us over until the next day. I remember getting back to the house and sitting downstairs in Chris' half of the house... and we weren't there more than 5 minutes before Jen rang me and told us to keep it down. Yeesh... we didn't even have a chance to get loud at all. I didn't stay downstairs too long... I think I just finished up my pizza and took off.

I went upstairs, found the computer still on in my room and Julie was online on MSN. Since she's been at camp in BC for work, she's been workin' some really odd hours. So, I was drunkenly harassing her, not to mention being a tad... oh, whats the best word for it... suggestive? Yeah, that would work. I might just leave it at that.

Sunday morning at 8:30am... woke up to the cat pawing at my door looking to get in. I was more exhausted than hungover... actually, the hangover didn't really exist at all. All I wanted to do that morning was just stay in bed and keep to myself... even though Jen had already gone to work and the house was pretty much all to myself. I still wanted to stay in bed. I relented though... I think I stayed an extra hour, got up to watch some more footie and debated whether or not to go play ball with the Hooligans. Since I had actually said to Wayne the last Sunday that he could expect me most weekends, I thought I'd do as I say and show up.

I didn't leave for the 11am game until 10:45am... it doesn't take me long to get to the ball park, especially on a Sunday morning. It only took me a few moments to get up there... but even when I did get there, I was going to be a sub for the game anyways. So, instead of getting my cleats on right away, I kept score. The game was very close... the Hooligans just pulled ahead 6-4 when the rain and hail came in the middle of the 5th inning. The substitutions had been named, but since we were going to take the field as the away team in the bottom, I didn't get to play until the storm stopped coming down so hard. When it did finally stop... we resumed play and then the team decided to turn it up and beat the crap out of the other team. The scored finished up being 19-5... a few good scoring innings in the back half of the game... I went 2 for 2 at bat, getting caught in another rundown the second time on base... but scored a run on the double I hit earlier. I was actually pretty glad to get out and do it... especially, since I wasn't feeling too bad in the morning.

I had a missed call on my phone from Coach Tom... there was going to be a batting practice at the cages for 4pm... which wasn't going to be a problem. So after the game, I went home and died on the couch. I turned on the TV and sort of dozed off to the footie that was on, in and out of sleep until Jen came home from work just after 3pm. She was off to her Dad's place for a BBQ and birthday dinner. So, she wasn't home very long... in and out the door.

When I finally came to and realized that I should leave, I got myself together, put on my hat, grabbed my wallet, put on my jacket and went out the door. After I locked and shut the front door... guess what... I fuckin' locked my keys inside the house... AGAIN! This horrible sense of guilt began to wash over... as I had to call Chris, wake his ass up from his lazy napping and get him to pick the door open. He was able to give me an overview of how lock-picking actually worked, which was quite interesting. Maybe if I get myself a set of lock picks... when I get a couple more keys cut... and a can of WD-40... and I'll learn how to figit with locks myself. I do have a fear that my unsteady hand may work against me in those sorts of situations... but its worth a few bucks to try, since I haven't been very handy with my keys of late.

Chris got me in the house finally... I grabbed my keys and headed out to the cages. The team was giving me a hard time about not showing up to the BBQ on Saturday night, but I told it wasn't my best interest to be driving after the amount I had to drink after starting while the England game was live in the morning. Not completely true, but not completely false either. I was able to hit a few balls and hang out with the guys for a little bit, but it didn't last too long.

Then the highlights of the rest of the evening was signing up to Doyle's Room online poker... the site that Chris plays on all the time and played a few hands with some play money. I was actually doing pretty well until I made a dumb move and tried Jeff a game and lost to what I thought may have been a pretty major bluff. I was wrong... but it was only play money. If you want to find me on there, you can IM me there... my handle on there is osherpa.

That in total was my weekend... pretty long winded, I know... but that's what I'll do if I outline it for myself first.