The Subways Kicked Ass!

Talk about rockin' out... the Subways had it in spades. It was quite possibly the best show I've seen. The tiny MacEwan Ballroom, on the third floor of the building housed the kick-ass energy poured out by the trio from England. Billy, the lead singer, was absolutely on fire... hyper as a motherfucker too. I even got a high-five with him on stage... flippin' cool. He was jumpin' off the drum set and jumped into the crowd once... I mean, wicked.



A set that included a few new tracks and all the favourites from the album, Young For Eternity. If you don't have that album and like to rock out, it's definitely one to get.



I had taken Chris, as he was really the only one readily-available to go. I was pretty sure that anyone else wouldn't really have enjoyed going. I had given Chris their CD to listen to and he did all day, as I was out playing a game of slow-pitch with the Hooligans. By the time I had gotten home, he was actually pretty pumped to see them as he really like the album.

We got to Mac Hall in great time last night to get ourselves a drink or two... or three in my case... before hand. What I wasn't aware of was that it was being staged upstairs in the ballroom, instead of the main hall that I saw Arcade Fire and the New Pornographers in. Upstairs, we found a line-up of youngin's hanging out before the doors opened, but it wasn't long before the doors were open. We went in and found the beer garden, as the Den was shut for a private function, which looked like the Canadian World Junior try-out camp functions were happening there as well.

Chris and I were the only one's in the beer garden for quite a while, as the youngin's were not of age to be drinkin', which made me, at least, feel quite old. We had a couple beers and I wasn't able to sit down at all. My lower back was just killing me after playing ball during the day. I mean, it was really, really stiff and sore. I'm sure all the running after Costas on Saturday (the story posted below) didn't help at all either. I had a few Guinness and Chris had a couple beers as well before heading upstairs into the ballroom. We each picked up a t-shirt and took our spots at the front row, just to our right-side of the stage. I was pretty sure Charlotte was gonna be on that side of the stage, as she's on that side in every picture I've seen of the band, so why change now?

The opening act was pretty solid. The Tracks, which I do believe was a local band from Calgary, were not too bad. They had the unfortunate trouble of one of the subs not being set-up properly for the first half of their set, which was solved... but couldn't really save their set. They had sort of blown their load in the first two songs, I thought. They used up their best material in the first two tracks and just couldn't really keep the crowd's enthusiasm, except for the three girls, who obviously knew the band... whom also seemed rather slutty.

During the opening act, I had a decent little idea. I wanted to see if I could send a message to Basil through the band, since he'd be seeing them in Portsmouth later on in August. I didn't really have much goin' on there, but I had one of my business cards to write on. Knowing that Chris had a pen in his pocket ('cuz you never know when you might need a pen), I asked him for it and wrote a message on the back of the card. I was chatting with the security guard who was standing at the same side of the stage for quite a while... he was a pretty good guy. Didn't catch his name, but we chatted for quite a while anyways. I ended up handing him the card and he'd see about getting it to the band for me.

Then the Subways came on to a huge applause from the, maybe, 300, probably less, crowd in the building. What a show they put on (as stated before, of course). I got something like 50+ pics of the show, which you can find on my MSN Space in a slideshow. And for all you fans out there, I even got a small video clip of the show, which is pretty awesome. It's actually a little spot from one of their new tracks...



In other news, yes, I played ball yesterday. A huge win for the Hooligans, 24-6... and that was even being short a few people and having to take an automatic out for being short a girl. Otherwise, it was a pretty good game. I played pretty well in left field, making two sliding catches on my knees and I went 4 for 5 at bat, batting from both sides of the plate. I scored every time I was on base, which should be obvious seeing what the score was.

The weather was sure funny yesterday, which may have caused some injury. It was super-warm for the best part of the game... then all of a sudden, this wind gusts up and was really cold and had the air of a storm coming. Well, my leg muscles were sorta seizing up and I guess, sort of my back as well... but I didn't think my back would be this bad. It really didn't affect me until after the game was over, but when I was getting in and out of the car for the concert and such, then really started to seize up on me.

With this sore back, it did make the concert kinda hard, but I was standing or leaning so, it wasn't too big of a deal. I was sure happy to get to bed last night, that's for sure. This morning was still tough... I slept alright, maybe because of the beer, but getting up was extremely difficult. I haven't been moving too quickly today... just been sorta doggin' it, despite getting shelled in the ol' e-mail inbox. Crap!

Tonight, the Royals have a doubleheader... I'm gonna try and stretch it all out tonight when I get home. Get on Jen's exercise ball and see what I can possibly do to my back to make it feel better. Then I might try and OD on Tylenol or something. The two aspirins I took this morning didn't really do anything for me... so... we'll see.

Wish me luck!

Saturday First, Subways After

Yeah, I'm gonna slam a couple posts together so I can have the Subways on top of the page for a day or two. Anyways, I sorta left off on Saturday, which was a wee bit of an adventure kind of day.

The mission, as per the Saturday morning post, to see Clerks II, was accomplished. Oh yes, I laughed my ass off. There were a couple bits, which were mildly offensive to the naive ear, which absolutely killed me... the racial slur bit even saw a couple guys walk out of the theatre, but my sides were absolutely splitting. However, I had said this to Chris on the way out, that I kind of wasn't expecting Clerks in Clerks II... meaning, the slow pace of Clerks in the second flick... more the pace of Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. Nevertheless, joining Randal and Dante some 10 years later made for some great dialogue and situations.

I'm thinkin' I'll have to get one of the Mooby's uniform shirts, if they're available online.



After the flick, Chris and I went back to the house and debated what we should do. Buy a wading pool for the front yard or look into a raft for next weekend down the Bow River. On the walk home, we were tempted by seeing both things. There were tons of people enjoying the warm weather on the river and not far from the house, there was a giant wading pool being filled up in someone's front yard... what great ideas! So, we grabbed some drinks at the liquor store and went home to price out said summer activities.

We priced out the rafts, which were damn expensive, so we resigned ourselves to more than likely renting a raft from one of the rental places around Eau Claire and there was a decent sized wading pool, inflatable, at Canadian Tire for $40... so, we jumped in the car and headed up to Canadian Tire in Westhills. Sadly, they didn't stock the wading pool that I wanted, but we did end up with a Badminton set for the backyard. We also drove down to Eau Claire to see what it would cost to rent a raft, but the Rapid Rent there was already shut for the evening, which kind of sucked.



We got home and set-up the net, cracked open a drink and started playing. The backyard poses some interesting challenges for badminton, including the tree from next door, the shed, the fences, the shrubs, the tree in corner of the lawn... yeah, it should be an interesting place for strategy.



I had talked with Natasha a couple times during the day, she wasn't going to see Clerks, but she was to come by after we got back from getting the wading pool to laugh at us. But that didn't happen at all. She was going to come by though and bake some muffins in our oven, 'cuz the one at her folk's place was broken. And then the evening got really interesting...



This little coil of shit ran away on us.

I had the back door to the house unlocked, since I was in the backyard, but it's a pretty shitty door, to say the least. Even if you close it, hearing the mechanism click into place, the wind can still blow it open. Talk about secure, eh?? So, in lieu of this, I thought I would put the animals in Jen's room and not worry about the door blowing open and the animals trying to escape. Well, that was a good plan... in theory.

I went upstairs and through the door, found the cat already in Jen's room and the dog was in the living room sitting on the big comfy chair. Well, I went to go grab him, but he darted out of the chair and with the backdoor open, he darted out. Well, I didn't think this was much of a problem, as Chris was back there and the gate was shut anyways. I raced down the stairs after him and yelling at Chris that he was coming down. Costas stopped in the lawn for a leak and decided to hide under the tree in the back corner of the lawn. He wasn't coming out. He's scared of me in the house at the best of times and at this point wasn't going to come out for Chris either. Great... so we had to flush him out with the hose, which was working. But when he finally made it out from underneath the tree, Chris wasn't gonna pick up the ugly skinbag and let him dart to the gate in the fence. Unfortunately, for us, the fence had been bent over, leaving a fair-sized gap between the bottom of the gate and the bottom of the fence. Small enough, in fact, for the stupid dog to squeeze through. We just watched him go. Chris thought about squishing him in the fence, but that wouldn't have done us much good maiming the dog, 'cuz Jen would still have our hides. So... he was gone!

Chris chased him around the back through the alley and I went around to the front to cut him off. The last time he did a runner on me, all he did was run around the block to the neighbour's house, two doors down. Nope, not this time. We got to the intersection at 9th St., and instead of cutting back towards the house, he continued down 9th St. and down to 1st Ave.. The chase was on. I started running after him and chased him for a few blocks. Around the schoolyard, through a couple more blocks and alleys. At one point I had sort of lost him. I headed back to the house, towards the schoolyard and all of a sudden he darted out of some bushes and all of a sudden we were running back towards the house. Well, he didn't stop at the house again. He kept going and I was already growing weary from the chase. I kept walking past the house and watched him disappear at the same intersection at 9th St.. I couldn't tell which way he went, as I would have tried to cut him off at the pass. No luck though. Chris caught back up to me and we tried to devise a plan.

Natasha wasn't too far away from coming by... we had already been chasing the dog for about a half hour by then. We figured that Natasha would have been pretty clutch as the dog seems to like her as well, so we left her in the house with the door wide open, while we took another walk around. I took another walk around the trail that we had already covered and Chris took another look around Kensington.

I couldn't find him in my trails... he didn't dart out seeing me at all and there was no sign of him just running around, so I headed back to the house to see if he came back. On the way back, I called up Chris to see if he had anymore luck... sure enough, he did! I could hear some voices in the background as he said, 'we got him, we'll see ya back at the house.'

Back at the house, Natasha was good enough to drone on about how dead I'd be... or the both of us would be... if we had never recovered the dog. Yeah, thanks, Natasha... ha ha. We were both pretty aware of how much trouble we were in. Jen more than likely would have killed us... that almost went without saying. Chris finally showed up with two ladies who had found Costas down around the paths at 10th St. and Memorial Drive. Chris had seen them with the dog on the collar and was awfully curious as to whether or not it was Costas. The ladies found him wandering around scared... and so they put him on one of the leashes they had their dogs on. It was quite funny, 'cuz one of the ladies, seemed to have it on for Chris, but Chris seemed rather disinterested and nothing really came up of it. What a shame.

So, we locked the dog away in Jen's room and that was our adventure. Jen later came home from working at the Folk Festival and decided to give us shit for keeping the animals in her room, saying 'you didn't have to leave the animals locked in my room.' And I was like, 'ummmm, I wouldn't have to if your stupid dog wouldn't run away.' 'You still didn't have to.' It just makes me shake my head.

Also during the evening, I finally watched Army of Darkness. I had never seen it before. That was a pretty fuckin' funny show. I don't know why I had never gotten around to seeing it before. Now it just makes me want to rent all the Bruce Campbell movies, 'cuz I don't think I've seen many of those either. The whole genre has been a miss for me.

Onwards to Sunday. Granted, the Sunday post will be above this one... but it's totally worth it.

Oh Yeah, I Wanted To Rant As Well

Shit, I totally forgot... I opened up Blogger this morning, 'cuz I wanted to let go of a rant of somthing that disturbs me a bit. This weekend marks the opening of the OutGames... to me, this raises the question of the desire for equality and tolerance.

"If you want to be considered and equal and be tolerated, why do you segregate yourselves and put yourself on a pedestal to be taunted as a whole?"

This isn't just the homosexual right, it's women's rights, it's ethnic rights and relgious rights... I mean, is it really that hard to blend in with the world. Living in Canada, I see all sorts of different groups of people, which yes, can be defined by their race, gender or sexual preference, and we all walk the streets the same, which is great.

It's the radical movements, like the OutGames, that ask for loads more than equality and tolerance. Sure, everyone in the games is equally not "straight" and they can all tolerate each other, but at the same token, is it not wrong if there was the StraightGames?

If someone was brave enough, they should go up to the OutGames and protest that they can't be involved because they're straight. It's like when girls tried to join the Boy Scouts... it's ridiculous, but at the same token, the right argument nowadays.

I don't have a problem with these games as a whole... I agree with the argument that there are some athletes that have a hard time competing or finding competition or coaching, because they are gay or bi or transgendered. Fine... good argument. There is intolerance in this world between straights and not-so-much's... that's a given.

But to bring everyone to the OutGames doesn't make things any better for the world. If anything, you're lining yourself up with the people who are intolerant by saying... yes, I participated in the OutGames, now you have even more reason to hate me... 'cuz I'm out there and you don't like gay people. There will be a backlash to these athletes from the intolerant culture.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that he couldn't make it to the opening of the games. "He couldn't be everywhere at once," was the official announcement. Now, k.d. lang, a well-respected out singer is appalled by this. This also irritates me, 'cuz I think someone has to wear the stupid helmet for this one... and here's why:

1. The OutGames are new and not recognized by a sanctioned body of international sports... so, who really cares who wins or loses? I don't think the Guinness Book of World Records will be there... or maybe they will. I don't know, I haven't heard.
2. On Stephen Harper's platform of coming into power in Canada... trying to eliminate the gay marriage act. He's a Conservative Party member... they don't like gays. Putting a person, who wants to elminate your rights, in an arena of said people (probably upwards of 5 to 10 thousand), probably wouldn't change his mind, rather creep him the hell out and make him fight for their way harder.

D'uh...

But please, don't get me wrong. I'm a very socially free kinda guy... do whatever ya like with your life, you should be free to do so. All I'm saying is that if you want to be equal... just blend in. You shouldn't have to cry for being equal all the time... throwing whatever makes you "unique" or "different" in someone's face isn't going to make them like you.

This goes for everyone too... don't throw your culture at me, what am I gonna do with it?

Bickering and Demons

Quarter after nine... Saturday morning. Woke up to the neighbour next door fighting with his girlfriend, allegedly. That's at least what Jen said was goin' on. I finally got up when one of the two threw a planter against the wall under my window and it smashed into a few pieces, some flying high enough that I could seem them in the window. You can sort of see what I mean in this pic... it's a shame one of them already picked up the planter.



You know, I thought that picture looked better when I took it. It's supposed to have an example planter, which it does... but capture more of the broken pieces. I don't want to go take another, so you'll have to live with this.

Talk about capturing something scary... last night Jen's dog Costas was barking at me like a mad dog. He thinks he's so tough when he hides under her bed. Well, I decided to capture a little bit of this hellion and publish it to the world. Unfortunately, this was when we got home from the bar, so it was dark in her room when I got the video. I kinda thought if I turned on the light, it wouldn't bark at me so much... so then I just grabbed a picture... and damn, does it look freaky.



I tried calling Natasha after work yesterday and I got her voice mail. No return. Hung out around the house, bored out of my mind. Feeling a little too impatient for the nothingness on TV, playing poker or reading any sort of goodness. So, I went downstairs and bothered Chris for a while. Came up with the clever idea to go throw the football around at the park. Chris was good for it... so we did. We threw the ball for a little while, me starting to throw out my shoulder and elbow a bit. I still can't believe how much the mechanics of throwing a football to a softball differ. It's something. Then we went to the Yardhouse for a few... I had a few... he had a couple. And it was there, after 10pm, that Natasha decided to return my phone calls (I did try a couple times afterwards) saying that she was home all day watching movies with her phone on silent. Very helpful! No matter. It still wasn't a bad night.

Today's mission... go see Clerks II. Jen saw it the other night with Jay... I wouldn't let her tell me too much about it, 'cuz I know how she likes to spill beans when no one else cares. She did thnk it was really funny... so, I think it'll be doubly funny to me, since I'm a HUGE fan of these movies. It does look like the real deal too... so I can't wait.

The evening holds no plans... so we shall see.

Friday Morning... No Pics.

Friday morning and nothing on my plate at work. So... I think I might try and get a whole load of writing done this morning and then see where it all goes from there. Maybe, just maybe, I might be able to get out of here early today.

Last night was very quiet again. There was no sign of Trisha, so those ideas were thrown right out the window. So instead of going out, I stayed in... grabbed some pizza and a few beers and went home. I sat in front of the computer for a while, hung out with Chris for a bit downstairs... Jen was working at the Folk Fest... and by 10pm, I was in bed.

It was so warm in the house last night as well... my room is one of the coolest in there, with the fan in the window. So, I was better off in there anyways. But I had left the front door open for Jen, which I think she had a panic attack when she couldn't see me right away in the house. It's a shame her first instinct is to yell... if I had actually fallen asleep, that'd be really annoying.

This morning, she got up and punished me (I think) by having a shower first... yay!! We need to get a plumber or someone into the house to look at the plumbing in the bathroom. The faucet doesn't shut off well... does anyone have a plumbing blog I can surf to?? I wasn't too pleased with the cooler shower, so I pretty much just walked out without chatting with Jen this morning... I was kinda fuming when I left. I feel a bit better now.

I'm already up a few bucks in the poker this morning... came in 2nd on a $1.10 buy-in tournament and took a couple bucks from a regular table after a few hands. So, I'm definitely in a better mood this morning. I think I'll update the Hockey Pool Domain, maybe get a column on Canucks Rush done... and maybe a couple more games of poker in this afternoon.

Apparently, Natasha is working until noon today, so I'm almost expecting a call from her this afternoon, otherwise I'll give her a bell after I finish up here at the office.

Well, my writing has been hijacked by chatting on MSN with Basil & Sue... haven't spoken with Sue in a long while. Nice to hear the news... even if it is a little depressing. Heh heh... sounds like things have been changin' for the Jones family... for the better, I'm sure.

Anyways... now that my attention is distraught... I'm gonna leave this post.

Dammit... I'm Hooked!

Well, it looks like we all got it wrong... the ball game wasn't a late game, rather an early game. Only Derek showed up on purpose and Aaron showed up 'cuz he finished work early and was gonna kill time at the ballpark. Aaron had called at 6:45pm saying that nobody showed when the umps were lookin' for us... so we ended up forfeiting the game. Shit. That'll probably burst a couple bubbles... how disappointing.

So the evening was pretty much wide open for anything... so, I filled it with beer & poker. I had lost another $5 buy-in during the day yesterday, so talking with Chris, he talked me into playing small one table tournaments. Fifty-cent, dollar, two-dollar buy-ins... nice & easy. The competition would be along the same level as I, so that'd be alright. My first tournament was a $1.10 buy-in... and I won! That was pretty sweet. A whopping $4.50 return.

Hook, line & sinker.

After watching Chris so many times and improving my game with the play money, this whole playing for a buck makes for good fun.

Chris came up and saw the last couple hands of the winning tournament before we went over to the Yardhouse for a few. It was pretty busy in there, but neither Chris or myself were really into it, so we each had three and then we split for the house. Needless to say, the poker bug bit again.

I finished second in a $2.20 game and third in a $0.55 buy-in... I wasn't doing too bad. But time was sort of against me... so I went upstairs and snuck back on to finish 6th in another $1.10 game, which didn't pay anything. That knocked me down enough to get to bed at 12:45am.

You know you're addicted when you get up really early to get to work early to play a game before you start working. Yup... that was me this morning. No real worries though... I've still finished up everything for today AND one for tomorrow as well. Now, I have a big filing that's due for Monday left on my desk, which I was gonna do before writing this piece, but the conversion program took forever to convert the Form, that I said 'sod it,' and started writing.

Yeah, it's pretty dead at work today... I've actually managed to play 4 tourneys here at the office this morning... I've gotten money back on three of them, so it's a semi-profitable day.

I haven't seen any sign of Trisha on MSN... beginning to wonder if we'll follow through with any plans tonight. Oh well... we'll see.

Mmmmmmmm... Chili

Last night's adventure was making chili... man, I love making chili. The sad thing is... I've made chili more times during the life of this blog than I've had sex. Ha ha ha... awwwww. Probably not the greatest thing to admit, but it saves ya lookin' that up when you're finished reading this post.


I don't know where the ambition came from last night, but it just hit me as soon as I got home from work. I should make chili. So, I changed into some shorts, since it was damn hot outside, and walked over to Safeway to grab some ingredients for said chili. Once I got home, I threw on a CD and just started cooking. There wasn't anything on TV that kept my interest from fading away, so cooking went fairly smoothly. I think it took me an hour and a half of prep and cooking at the same time, not too bad... then I just let it simmer for a while.



Jen was working last night, so I could have made as big of a mess as I liked... but instead chose to clean while I worked. Really... I don't know where all this ambition came from. After it was all said and done, I was eating just after 8pm... and man, is it ever good chili. I made a lot too... so guess what I'll be having before ball tonight...

Work this morning was a tad bit hellish... the stupid client I was talking about yesterday showed it's true stupid colours this morning. My normal contact AND their lawyers were both making changes, some of which contradicted the other's changes. What a shit show... and I had to get a couple other big one's done today, including one that took almost 2.5 hours. Argh. But now I'm done with all that and now I can do whatever the hell I like.

I also deposited $25US onto the Doyle's Poker Room last night... I thought I'd have my hand at giving poker for money a try. I blew my first $5 in a matter of only a few hands last night, which really kind of sucked, but I was a tad blinded by a big raise that caught me off guard. I was doing so well with the play money, that I thought why not give it a try. I'll probably give it another shot here at the office as I'm waiting for the day to end.

Another late ballgame tonight... I think its against the Boomers tonight. I'll probably go back to the lead-off spot in the order. I'll also try to keep the good streak of play at second going. I had been telling myself to 'play like the best second baseman in the league' when I'm out in the field and that seemed to help. A lot of times, I found myself being gunshy a bit after taking funny hops every other game. Now I am trying to build up the ol' confidence to make sure I'm playing well.

Anyways... that's all I've got this afternoon. I'll be back on in the morning. It doesn't look like there will be anything pressing at all first thing in the AM.

Google Search Results

I thought I'd jump on here late tonight... not to really give a "daily update" of sorts, but rather just point out a little bit of a trend of the last couple days.

Now, it's pretty fair to say that I use everyone's name rather freely on the Tales... it does actually bring the Tales up when people are looking for other people, or who knows... people looking for themselves. As it so happens, both Amber Mazur and Kelly Chikmoroff are two of my biggest search phrases that brings people to the site. This after "opiated" and Opiated Sherpa, itself. Oh yeah, Carli Miles comes up as a popular one in my GoStats counter. There are a couple other names that I've mentioned, both friends, people I've met and celebrities that I've mentioned before... all having people look and find the Tales. Quite fascinating.

The last couple days though... Amber's name has come up. Even at 3:30pm this afternoon... here in Calgary... flipping through the archive of the Tales and finishing up going to the my MSN Space. These things always make me curious. So, I'm guessing with the frequency of visits and such, I thought I would shoot a flare into the Blogosphere and see if anyone catches it in a new search and maybe I'll get an e-mail, either good, bad or curious in it's own right... click here if you're gonna send one, gentle reader. I'll write back.

A Tie? In Baseball?

Yup... we actually drew with Rusty's 3-3 last night. It's best illustrated with a blur, 'cuz the 7 inning game went like a blur. Last night, Tom and Ryan were away in Cuba and Alan was managing the team. But the worrying began, even before we took the field, as there just wasn't enough guys as we inched closer to game time. There was only six of us for the longest time, then Munden arrived just before game time and after having phone calls put in, Menzies & Nick showed up by the end of the 1st inning. We had to recruit another guy and play with 8 in the field for the first inning, where we got hit for a couple runs to start.

Other changes last night saw the batting order get swapped around... I was hitting in the lead-off position (0 for 3, 2 groundouts & a strikeout), Munden moved down to the three-spot (also 0 for 3)... but contributions coming from Derek and Aaron, getting some good hits. I think Derek was 2 for 3, 2 singles and reached on error.

In the field though, we were pretty stellar... the runs they did score were on solid hits, a couple gappers, including one in the first when we only had two outfielders. Alex pitched a complete game for the tie and pitched really well. I had probably my best game at second, without a double play... managed to knock down everything that came to me and almost an out on every play... the only one I missed was that possible missed call at second.

Not only were we missing a player or two, but there was only the home plate umpire (no base ump), which made it difficult on a couple of occasions... including a force out at second that looked good and a ball hit down the first base line that looked foul, but called fair.

It was a shame we had tied that game, we finally played well enough to beat those guys.

After the game, Munden handed me $15 and I ran over to the liquor store and picked up a 15-pack of Kokanee for the team. There was quite a few of us sticking around for a while, but we left rather early... around 11:15pm.

When I got home, I was still itchin' for another beer, only having 3 at the ballpark... so I opened up the fridge and found the Guinness that had been in the fridge for a long, long time.



You can see the best before date in the picture... December 18, 2004. You know, it was actually still pretty good. I drank it without any grimacing... though I think it knocked me out cold when I finally got to bed. I bet Jen was surprised to see the empty can on the counter this morning.

This morning though... I really hit the snooze button a few times. Okay, not a few... a lot. I don't know what bright idea I had, but I had set my alarm on Sunday night to 5:30am. I got up at 7:10am... hitting the snooze button every 9 minutes. I don't even remember most of the times I did it, but they had to have happened. The morning got a little worse, because my sleeping in lost me my place in the shower first this morning... so I just said, fuck it... when Jen finally got out, I wet down my enormous hair, deodorized and went out the door. I'll shower later this afternoon. Couldn't really say I was a happy camper.

A new client of mine, decided this week to be the scourage of the workplace... I finally got to work on a small amendment project for them, which turned out to be a little more work than once anticipated. I had to incorporate changes to a document, which there wasn't that many, just about 7 pages worth of text and copy and paste in financial statements for this filing. Well, the conversion software didn't let me convert the whole thing, so I had to go into the original Word document and take what I needed... then convert... then copy & paste in. Well, I needed more text than what was laid out for me... dumb client. I was then able to copy & paste one set of financials that I had converted before... but the other set, I was never given, so I had to convert those as well. Fuck! So, I started to charge him for the work... which, happily, seemed to go over well, 'cuz it was only like $100. Just a pain in the ass is all...

Oh, now the edits are starting to show up... YAY!

At lunch this afternoon, Fred and I went over to the McDonalds down the road from the office. I had already gotten my lunch when Fred was waiting for his order. Well, this lady... quite possibly a crack whore (we are in Forest Lawn) comes through the door and goes past the single-file line waiting at the door and goes right up to the counter where Fred is. Fred had remarked to her that she wasn't next, pointing to the people in line and she bitched him out something fierce. It was soooooo funny. It was a moment that I wish I had captured on my camera. She even called over the manager to ask him what the lining-up policy was in the McDonalds and he backed up Fred a little bit... but man, she wasn't happy. I was laughing under my breath until we finally walked out... oh, man... that'd been great to have a picture of it.

Well, I better get to these edits... they won't do themselves, y'know.

Festivals Wuz Us

Well, traffic was a super-biatch coming out of work on Friday afternoon. Memorial Drive was bunged up so badly... so unappealing. This was actually probably the first time I had seen Memorial be this bad since moving down into Kensington. So, when I got into the gridlock before Deerfoot, I managed to slide off Memorial, onto the Deerfoot and head up to the natural gridlock of 16th Ave. I finally managed to get through, chat with Crhis on the way... just wasn't the best start to the weekend.

Chris and I decided to head out to Langdon for a few drinks and check out the beer gardens at Langdon Days, but beforehand, we'd go grab a bite to eat at the Yardhouse, since neither of us were really keen on shopping or cooking. So we headed down there and Ashley was there to look after us. She was off to Mexico on Saturday for two weeks, so when we took off, we did a sennding off shot of Tequila before Chris and I took off for Langdon.



Chris and I arrived in Langdon to take a small part in the Langdon Days festivities, but Benny was getting a head start on everyone. Greg had suckered him into double Mai Tais with Brandy instead of Grenadine... just to have an umbrella for every drink and stick each one in his hat. What you can't see is the other 3 umbrellas sticking out of his hat.... too funny.

Jeff was already at his place waiting for us to show up, so we poured Benny out of the bar so he could go home and have a shower and Chris and I went over to Jeff's place for another pre-game beer and then over to the gardens. We sat out front, fending off the mosquitoes and had a laugh... Chris was meeting everyone in Langdon for the first time as well, so it was all new to him as well. I also managed to get my Franz Ferdinand CD back from Jeff... the case had been empty for sometime now and now my CD collection is back to being relatively complete.



The beer gardens at Langdon Days on Friday night was actually somewhat dead. I had never gone to the gardens in my few appearances at Langdon Days, so I wasn't really sure what I was to expect. Despite the lack of people, there were people there who I hadn't seen for a while, since moving into the city and got a couple chats in here or there. The mosquitoes were all hovering around the top of the tent, which I tried to capture in the picture, but even the light coming from the tent wasn't enough for the Twilight function on my camera and you can't make out any of the bugs. Apparently though, Saturday night is the best night at the Beer Gardens... all the ball teams that play in the tournament and a lot of the townsfolk would all be around, but Friday was just the drinkers of the town, almost exclusively. It was alright, but Chris and I didn't hang around for too long for Chris didn't want to crash in Langdon and I wanted to get back in case I wanted to go play ball with Alan up at Shouldice on Saturday.

The word leaving the grounds was that the four-way stop in and out of Langdon was already crawling with RCMP, so just to avoid any complications, which there may have been a small one... maybe... Chris and I took a little detour, a little further East and then looped back onto the highway to head home. No problem. Chris had even fallen asleep on the way home... I do have a picture of it, but I don't think I'll post it. Not today anyways... it'll be for blackmail later.

7:30am came a little too quickly... despite getting home just after midnight. I'm pretty sure I didn't stay up too late afterwards. Oh no, that isn't true. When I got home on Friday night, I had set Jen's phone to call forward mine, to see if I could get Natasha's number from it, but I missed about 3 or 4 calls from the forwarding. So, I spent probably about an hour writing text messages to missed cell phone numbers. I sent 'how much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck could chuck wood.' Well, Jen's friend Jesse called me straight away... ha ha... I think she's kind of the bitchy type anyways... and it was after 1am... ha ha. Then as it turned out, Natasha was texting me back and forth... I wasn't too sure who it was and I wasn't exactly sleuthy enough to figure out it was her. There were a few messages back and forth... then I just passed out.

And then 7:30am came a little too quickly. I didn't feel ambitious at all laying there in bed. I just couldn't bring myself out of bed to go out and get drunk right away, it just wasn't in me. Actually, getting drunk wasn't in me at all really all day on Saturday. It was sort of a lazy day without beer, but I would be slightly giving that up later, but not to any major extent.

When I finally dragged my ass out of bed, I just sat on the couch, played on the computer and watched a bit of the British Open on TV. I thought I would catch up a little on the hockey news and play with some of the pics that I had taken from the night before. I didn't exactly feel motivated enough to write anything, so I didn't, obviously. I did climb on Amazon.ca and finally bought the CD from Be Your Own Pet and Dirty Pretty Things, which will be shipped from Florida today, hopefully. I still haven't seen the confirmation e-mail yet that they've been sent, but I'm sure its coming.

When I finally came to, I chatted with Chris and he felt like grabbing some Arby's for lunch... so I suggested we head into the core, we could grab lunch at Eaton Centre downtown and then we could just hang out for a while. Lunch and some more CD shopping highlighted the afternoon at the mall... MSTRKRFT's The Looks and Snow Patrol's first album, Final Straw, were both relatively cheap at HMV, despite looking for some Modest Mouse.







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MSTRKRFT, the dance side-project of Death From Above 1979, was a pretty good buy. When we got back to the house, I popped The Looks into the CD player and we sat out front of the house and listened to it. It's a pretty wicked set of beats and dance tunes... wasn't bad chilling music either. I didn't pop in the Snow Patrol CD until later...



It was certainly a quiet afternoon in front of the house. Just sitting, watching the world go by. I had bought the latest copy of NME available at HMV... so we both got a look at that. It really wasn't too exciting. I played with my camera a little more and we just hung out for a couple hours.



Jen finally got home after 5pm, I think... she had a good time out in Canmore at a condo, instead of a cabin. But apparently, this condo is something else. A $750,000 condo not far from one of the lakes around there... a 4-bedroom place, with all sorts of ammenities and luxuries, so she was pretty tickled pink. She told me all about it... what each room looked like to the colour scheme detail. I guess this is sort of a girl thing.

Jen confirmed Natasha's new phone number to me when she got home... sure enough, it was the same number I was texting all Friday night. Ha ha. So, I gave her a bell and she was on her way to Saskatchewan for the week. I forgot she was heading out that way, but she'll be back Thursday night and wants to hang out on Friday.

Then the taste for Chinese food kicked in... and it was a phone call to Wok Tu Yu. I went and picked up food for Chris and I... a little Salt & Pepper Squid goes a long ways, I tells ya. Especially with a few beers... see, told ya I had a few. Yes, only a few.

Clerks was on tap for the evening movie watching... Chris hadn't seen it yet, so I ran upstairs and grabbed it. There was talk that we may want to see Clerks 2 on Sunday, but he hadn't seen the first one, so that I could do for him. Man, that movie still cracks me up to no end.

"Don't suck any dick on the way to the parking lot. Hey buddy... get back here!"

The evening was capped off with some chatting online. I spoke with Jen in Taipei for a while. She had started up another Blog to collect links from around the net. She wanted some input and some advice... and we got a bit of a chat in. She's really takin' to this Bloggin' thing, much like myself. Check both her sites out... and maybe even give a little input for her second Blog. I was also chattin' with Julie a bit that night... but my router kicked the bucket for the night at around 1am... so that kinda sucked. And that was the night.

Sunday, was again a lazy morning. Jen had left early for a hair appointment and asked if I wanted to go into the core again to look for the Modest Mouse CD for the song we kept hearing at the Yardhouse. I really didn't have much else on the go, so I said yeah... but still lazied around for a good while around the house before getting ready.

She got back, I was showered and ready to go... so we walked through the Salsa Festival, which was happening Sunday afternoon in Kensington. All sorts of tents set-up, much like the Lilac Festival, but with samplings of all sorts of different salsa's from restaurants and individual participants and all the money from the bags of nacho chips went to the Women's Shelters in Calgary. Man, was it ever busy. We just walked through before heading into the core around noon. They were just starting up for the afternoon, but it was really busy.

So we went into the core, she got Modest Mouse's Good News for People Who Like Bad News and another reggae disc at HMV, we grabbed a bite to eat and went back to the Yardhouse for a couple beers. While we were sitting there, she got the idea of getting the bar staff a drink from Starbucks... which she did and that paid for our drinks, including Chris' who came a little later. Man, what an idea. I bet her co-workers weren't very happy with her though... she grabbed 4 iced drinks (which are a bitch to make, I hear) when the Starbucks itself was super-busy. I'm pretty sure I would have been pissed off... ha ha. The Queen of Keeping Friends, that girl...



We eventually got a window seat at the bar as well... which the view was fantastic. We hung around there for a couple hours, enjoying a few pints, nothing major. It was really hot out in Calgary on Sunday, upwards of about 31 or 32 degrees... so the bikini tops, tube tops and tank tops were out in force... which made for a great view from the window. Jen, a big fan of boobs ("but she's not gay", in her own words) was doing her best to point them out, for the sake of pointing them out. She was drinking Crown Floats in the afternoon, before she was supposed to work at 5:30pm... she had 3 or 4 and was mighty tipsy, if not slightly wasted by the time her boss called her in to work a bit early... closer to 3:30pm. Ha ha.

Chris and I debated for a while afterwards and decided we should rollerblade down to Eau Claire and go check out a flick. We got home and found that Pirates of the Caribbean started earlier than Clerks 2, so we decided to go see that. But first, we got a good skate in as the people were floating down the river...



... and the clouds rolled in over top of us. Man, I was sure jealous of all those floaters... could be an activity for next weekend. But the clouds really came over quickly, very dark and very ominous. There was thunderstorms in the weather forecast and they did come. So we managed to loop around the Zoo and head back to Eau Claire, pick up our tix and then went into Joey's for a drink and a bite to kill some time. When we got into Joey's, the storm hit... but not for very long around there.

Pirates of the Caribbean was an alright flick... both Chris and I agreed that there wasn't enough Keira Knightley, which was the real selling factor of the movie. When she was on screen, she was particularly hot... so, no real complaints in the end. It was a very entertaining movie... but still kinda glad we only paid $9 to see it at Eau Claire.

We got home around 9:30pm... the paths were clear and dry, so we were able to rollerblade home. Then it was an evening of a little bit of TV, online poker and chatting online. I was chatting with Trisha, a girl I had met online. We were chatting about all sorts and I made mention that we should get together on Thursday and I think we might. She's a big soccer fan and plays quite a bit herself. By all of her pics online, she's a pretty cute girl with seemingly a lot of personality... so I thought why not? We get along alright online... and what's the harm?

And that there is the weekend. Finally... I'm finished.

Car Crash Dreamin'

A third loss in a row for the Cruisers has really put somewhat a dampen on the great season in Langdon. A crushing defeat by a younger, yet even less capable team, blew our shorthanded hopes away last night out in the countryside. I'm only guessing, but the score probably looked somewhere in the neighbourhood of 14-7 for the other guys... but now that I think of it, they probably had more runs than that.

We had to pick up a few recruits for the evening game, a couple guys who were just hangin' around the park, Dave (pictured with me) & Yul, Leah-Ann brought a friend, Charmaine and even Ron & Suzanne's boy, Jason, played with us. But despite good efforts all around on the team last night, the other team was just hitting non-stop and managed to drive in runs that we couldn't respond to.

I had my bat goin' pretty well last night, going 4 for 4... a homer (on errors), 2 doubles and a single with a couple runs scored was my line last night. That's the sort of confidence I need to take over to the fastball games... that'd be so sweet. The fielding by me was a tad suspect... more funny hops, an overthrow and a dead arm last night really captured what it was all about. There was one grounder that found a good rut in the ground and hopped well over my glove... it was just too weird. I'm beginning to think that this is the "Season of Funny Hops."

It was an absolutely gorgeous night for ball as well. The sun was beating down, there was a bit of a breeze... so there was little to no mosquitoes at all out there, which is rare for Langdon. There was a quiet air to the ground as well... not a lot of chatter... very unenthusiastic... right Suzanne?



After the game, Benny and I went over to the Wildfire for one when Benny called John and checked to see where he was... down at the Landing. Benny finished up his Wild Chicken (that wasn't the same as Wild Chicken before) and we got in our cars and made our way down to Chestermere.

There, we sat with John and Alicia for a little while... chattin' and havin' a few beers. Jeff's name was pretty much mud from his behaviour of late. We didn't stay too long... I think I had 3 there, so it was a pretty cheap night last night.

I got home to the empty house around 11:30pm... checked to see if there was anything on TV... there wasn't... and then just went to bed. And man did I ever dream!! Bad dreams, too. Not only was I dreaming, I was doing some mild sleep walking as well... as one of the dreams, I was driving the car and ended up going the wrong way, trying not to crash, while using my heel on the floor (as a brake) and holding on to the end of my futon for dear life. It took me ages to figure out what the hell I was doing when I snapped out of it... but it scared the shit outta me, I tells ya. I'm sure there was a lesson in that dream somewhere, but now I can't remember what exactly was going on, so now I can't remember the lesson. I spent a few moments trying to write it down in my head so I could write it here on the Tales, but then I think I started dreaming about writing other stuff and have now since lost whatever I wanted to keep.

I woke up again around 5:10am... not quite dreaming as thoroughly as before, but I'm sure I was... Maggie (the cat) was lying with me on the bed. I don't really know if she was there all night... if she was, I wonder what she thought of the sleepwalking episode... ha ha. Man, was I ever tired when I woke up though... I sort of wanted to get up, 'cuz I didn't think I would fall back asleep... of course I did. But as the time creeped closer and closer to 7am... my resistance to getting up was failing and I finally dragged my ass out of bed.



I had a super-quick drive to work this morning... I made it in two White Stripes songs. That's pretty quick. Even if one of the songs was the seven-minute epic, Ball and Biscuit, from Elephant.

All my filings are pretty much done already this morning... filed five of them when I got in as all their proofs had come back after I left last night. Now, its sort of sit and wait. I'll do a little more writing on the How-To manual today, I'm sure. There's probably a few other things I could get up to around the office as well.

Last night, I was beginning to feel a little less motivated to go out and play ball with Allan tomorrow. Langdon Days are this weekend and that'd be fun to go hang out at... I would be getting drunk there as well, but it wouldn't be free, as it would be with Allan. Plus, with Allan, I would be playing some ball, which I wouldn't be doing in Langdon. Not too sure though... there's just something that says Langdon would be a little more fun. Ah well... we'll see what goes on tonight.

Tonight, there's a few options, I think... one, I'll give Natasha a call, since I have her new number now and see what she's up to. From there, options could be made up. If that fails, then I'll give Chris a bell... see what he's up to. And then finally, there's the beer gardens in Langdon, where I know Benny and John will be, which is supposedly a hell of a good time. I might see if Natasha and Chris wanna go out there... it would be good fun.

Anyways... I might be back on later... depends how the day goes.

Back on the Winning Track

Back-to-back wins for the Royals now after a 7-4 win over the Us Guys last night, in a game that'll be more known for it's poor umpiring than the offense we generated.

The two umpires that worked last night's game were a tad sketchy at best, so much so that I ended up breaking into hysterical laughing when a pitch flew just under my arms in the batter's box and it was called a strike. I quickly turned around, had a giggle and stepped back into the box. I did actually end up taking a walk for that at-bat, but geez... there were some weird calls. It didn't really help that Jesse was shootin' his mouth in his loud way at every missed call, we were labelled as a "complaining team" by the base ump before too long.

Nevertheless, despite the lack of good umpiring last night, we still managed to put away the Us Guys, not without a little turbulence. A no-hitter going into the fourth for Alan saw that erased with a lead-off double, which started a 3-run inning for them, but we had already amassed a 4-run lead in the first inning. The team rallied back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring a few more runs and then we kept our cool in the last inning, despite the bases being loaded with two outs.

I went 0 for 1 last night, with a sacrifice bunt, a walk, and a run scored... and didn't have too much to do in the field. Only one groundball came between myself and second, with runners on 1st & 2nd in the last inning, a sharply hit spinner came and just as I thought I had the hop, it took yet another funny one and hit my arm, knocked it down, but couldn't complete the play. The diamond itself was really dry and dusty, which made the spinning groundballs that much harder to pick up.

The game finished around 10:30pm, then Alan, Ryan, Tom and myself hung out at Alan's truck and had a few bevvies 'til midnight. All in all, it was a pretty good night.

This morning was a little difficult to wake up to... I got to bed not long after midnight and I was out like a light when I hit the pillow. I just wanted to stay in bed for as long as possible this morning, but relented when the clock ticked past 7am. A quick shower and out the door wasn't too hard when I finally got going.

A big 133 page filing done in 23 minutes this morning was pretty much the only highlight of the workday so far. It was a rush job that cost the client $400... not bad, eh?? They needed it done now, so it cost them. I wish I could pocket some of that. Ah well. There was also a web demo for the new version of SECPublisher... a program that I use occasionally in the filing. I just sat in and listened to the teleconference for about 40 minutes... that was alright. I did find myself doing crosswords and playing games whilst it was all goin' on... that's how exciting it was.

Tonight... out to Langdon for a game with the Cruisers. Go see the folks tonight... get a game of ball in... and then head over to the Wildfire for a couple and see John. That'll be good. I'll probably give Benny and Jeff a call when I'm done the game... see if they're goin' down as well. I'm sure John will talk to Benny... dunno 'bout Jeff. Jeff is apparently avoiding the place, since he spent some of the pool money that he collected for his shitty-ass playoff pool... and Greg won it. How the hell do you spend money that isn't yours?? Not really responsible, eh??

Alan invited me out for a ball tournament on Saturday... just up at Shouldice. From 8am to 8pm and he's supplyin' the beer. It sounds awfully hard to pass up... so I don't think I will.

Jen and Costas are away until Saturday night or Sunday morning... Jen's friend Sarah, who has been featured here before, has invited her up to a cottage in Canmore for a few days. Jen called me this morning at work asking for my duffle bag... a favour, if you will. Actually a couple.

Favour List (Favours asked by Jen and Favours asked by Clayton)
July 16, Jen asked me to pick her and Betty up from Lake Sundance... this after lying to me where the church actually was, knowing full well that she was going down there.
July 20, Jen asked me for my duffle bag to take to the cottage... feed her cat... and "clean the house" for Saturday night. She did state every favour individually by asking if I could do her a favour for each one.

Jen 4 - Clayton 0

I haven't really seen much of her for the last couple days, so that's why the list isn't growing so fast.

I tried to give Natasha a call last night to see if she wanted to come out to the game last night... but when I called her number that was on my phone, a guy picks up the phone. Weird, I thought. I couldn't actually distinguish the voice right away, 'cuz I was in the car and the wind was somewhat troublesome... but when I figured out it wasn't Natasha on the other end, I asked for her and the guy on the other end was, 'uhhhhhh... I think you have the wrong number... uhhhhh... which Natasha are you looking for?' This guy was a real prize... there was a part of me that wanted to reply, 'how many Natasha's are there?' but I didn't. As it turned out, she had gotten a new phone and number, Jen was saying to me, and gave her old phone to her sister's boyfriend. Looks like ya got a keeper, there sweetheart.

Anyways... that'll just about do it for me this afternoon. Might as well get back to the no-nothing grind of the office. Heh heh... maybe I'll go watch some TV.

Short Tuesday Night

The bell tolls for noon... I've already eaten. It's been a little bit busier of a morning. But anything to do would be a bit busier than the last couple days at work. Now I've got the gist of it all done, just waiting on a couple more exhibits from a client in Vancouver and I'll be good to go for the rest of the afternoon. So until then, I thought I would spend some time on Blogger and get some writing in.

Chris was in the mood for Snakebites last night and it all went a little pear shaped... only a little. Could have been worse. Chris had come upstairs looking for his Blackcurrant concentrate and my Sleeman's glass. The bastard had sort of woke me up as I was napping whilst watching the Blue Jays game on TV. But when he returned upstairs with a couple of refreshing beverages, I definitely woke up then.

Watching a little TV and growing in intoxication, we made up our minds to head over to the Yardhouse. Thankfully, we only stayed for $35 each... ha ha. Jen and Natasha came in and found us there and joined us for a couple. There was no rhyme or reason to the evening, just having a drink, because we could.

Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera on me, which kinda sucked. So, there's no illustration of the evening at all. I had left the camera at work last night on my desk. I didn't realize it until I got home when I was checking my pockets for stuff. I'll have it tonight for the ball game though... I'm pretty sure.

So yeah, ball game tonight... don't know if anyone is gonna come watch... I was trying to convince Chris to come out for the beer afterwards, but I'm realizing that it is the late game tonight and he might want to be home in good time for work in the morning. You know, I should be somewhat concerned about that as well, but I'm not really.

Well, my idea for a dry August (booze-wise) has already been finding difficulty... apparently, in the first weekend of August, the team will get together around Shank's North for an evening of beer, pool and what have you. Hmmmmm... hard to resist. Social outing... shouldn't drink... might though... don't know... ahhhhh!!

I'll keep the Tales posted... there's only 12 evenings left in July. Maybe I can drink myself sick of it all.

Writing for Writing's Sake

The minutes certainly are not moving with any conviction this afternoon. Lee and I are trading cutting remarks for the sake of just doing so... we are really just that bored. I'll get up for a while... then go back and sit down. He'll come into my office, kick the skill football around and then go back to his desk... all good fun, really.

Today's treat... a new flat-panel monitor. It's super! Well, kinda... the actual screen itself is pretty sweet, but I'm not really sold on the shitty set of speakers that are attached to it. I'm trying to listen to a little Death Cab while I'm bored, but it's ever-so-grainy and really hard to listen to. Ah well... at least the screen is actually staying on for me.

I even wrote a new article on Miikka Kiprusoff Has Been Ravaged By A Pack of Wolves. Actually, it was sort of Lee's idea to do, since Garth Snow got the job of Islanders GM. That alone was a good laugh for both of us, but Lee thought if Snow could be GM, why couldn't Kipper be promoted too? I couldn't agree with him more. Ha ha.

I haven't posted on Canucks Rush for a couple days now. I couldn't quite bring myself to write about the Assistant Coaching jobs that were filled today. I really didn't want to rag on Rick Bowness and how I think he's kind of a joke to my Canuck readers... if there are any. I'm sure they could do enough by themselves.

I also really didn't get around to writing any more on my How-To manual today. I did a bit, but not really enough. I did have a couple filings in and out of the office... there's still a couple more small ones to do as well. Neither of which are due in the next couple minutes before the deadline for the day. So, I'm not gonna worry about it too much.

I did, however, pay some bills today. It's becoming increasingly harder to be responsible in this way for me. I can't really understand why exactly... I used to be so damn good at it all. But I guess when they start screwing around and not getting things right, it does tend to take the good taste (if there is one for paying bills) out of your mouth and you (or maybe it's just me) get complacent with not paying them right away and being done with it all. I dunno... it does sort of make sense to me.

How can one actually become more responsible in one's own head again?

I've also been reading a lot of Blogs again today. It's been a Blogsurfing kind of day on BlogExplosion and BlogMad. The selection is growing everyday it seems... try and block out the religious and overly political stuff, 'cuz that stuff just frustrates me to read or not read or even just skip by. Politics and Religion, to me, has seemingly become a fashion statement more than a basis of belief or opinion. There are a lot of people in today's world that claim to be this and claim to be that, but then blur the lines by their own actions and then try to justify their actions by some sort of spin of their basis.

I'm convinced that Jen, my roommate, is a fashionable Christian. Sure, she goes to church once and a while... she says she loves Jesus... hell, she even teaches Sunday School to kids... but she lays waste to all sorts of Christian values, like lying, stealing, fucking and all sorts. She never really likes our neighbours... she's broken up a marriage... I dunno, it just seems to me that hypocrisy wins again on this one. Oh yeah and her response to the hypocrite title is 'well, everyone's a hypocrite.'

Hmmmm... 45 minutes to go. I think I'm gonna go surf some more.

Royals 5 CBA 4

A pretty good game for us last night, getting out to a 5-0 2nd inning lead and holding on for the rest of the game and winning 5-4. We did manage to find some bats through the game, even some of our less-than-consistent hitters hit at least a single and we kept the pressure on offensively, despite only scoring our runs in the first two innings.

Our pitching was pretty good last night... Alex pitched the first 4.1 innings and did quite well. The fifth inning he found himself getting hit and Munden came in and got roughed up a little, pitching just over an inning. Aaron came in and shut the door on CBA and recorded the save, while Alex got the win.

I had a solid game at second base last night, knocking down what was hit to me and even making a good catch in foul territory a little ways beyond first base. At bat, I went 1-for-3, single, sac bunt, reached on fielder's choice, RBI and a run scored. All in all, I thought it was a pretty good outing for me. I was even getting some good coaching in... it's great how the guys listen when I get them one-on-one. Oh yeah... and that's me in the picture... number 8.

Next up for the Royals is the Us Guys on Wednesday night... late game @ 8:45pm. Gonna have to change my lenses in my glasses to the blacks, 'cuz the sun usually comes right over the trees and right into the line of vision at second... it's even worse for right field. Even last night, it was pretty awful.

Yesterday at work it was pretty quiet. Then add on the fight with the monitor all day, it wasn't overly productive on the work PC. Not to say I didn't get everything I needed to done, it was just that I spent a whole lot more time on the laptop. No complaints, really. I found myself updating the hockey pool list, watching some of the news online and starting to write the EDGAR How-To Manual for future employees. I actually spent a good portion of the afternoon writing it... I'm probably just less-than half way. A good 3,000+ words already... it sure doesn't take too long.

And then the only other notable part of yesterday was having beers with the guys last night after the ball game. I had bought a 24-pack of Kokanee for the group and we sat around at my car and had a beer and bullshitted a little. It was really cool. On Wednesday, someone else will bring a case... actually, I'm almost expecting a few cases to show up... Alan said he'd bring a couple and Alex was gonna bring one... man... it's getting to be rather social up there. We could almost have a pretty good party... especially if we win on Wednesday.

Today, it'll be a day of rest... I think I threw out my arm a little last night, so a little rest for it will do some good tonight. There isn't much to do here at the office again... maybe one or two smaller ones will come in today, but that will probably be it. I'll continue writing my Manual this morning and afternoon... that way it'll be done. Fred wants me to incorporate a lot of my tips and tricks into it, just so they're there.

Any questions?

Late NIght Buzzin'

Just after 11pm... my head is just goin' at full blast. I think it was all the Pepsi I had with dinner. D'oh. I might not be able to sleep for a little while, so I thought I would turn the ol' laptop on again and give the Tales some more hell.

Don't really know what to go on here, but I might just type away again and see where it goes. Plus, Benson is on the line (MSN), so I'll probably go a little back and forth.

I guess there really isn't any denying that there is girls stuck in the ol' melon. I guess with a sober conscious tonight, it allows me to reflect on things that have gone on in the last little while and trying to pick up the nuances and signals, thinking of what I may have missed, what I may have misconstrued and I think to myself... this really sucks.

I'm really growing into this place where I don't want to do any of the work... 'cuz 999 times out of a 1,000, I'm pretty much wrong. Being shot down in a bar or a club is one thing, but when you try and build a rapport with some people and think to yourself, 'is this a sign?'... not really knowing you're completely out of your mind... and then ruining it all by giving some half-assed attempt in fear that a full-ass attempt would just make you look like an ass and a no-ass attempt would lead to regrets... unless you're really drunk and you just sleep it off.

I like to think of myself as an approachable, nice guy who is very polite and is fairly honest... I don't think I'm completely honest sometimes, but that's another debate for another time. I'm honest when it counts... and that's what I'll stick to. This whole signal game really shouldn't be an issue... I don't really want it to be, but there's the hump, right? Can't always get what you want. I've been up front with some girls before... but they probably weren't the right ones to be up front with. Then I've been coy and played the signal game... then I just get drunk and knock down that house of cards. And you think I'm gonna stop drinkin' any time soon?? Ha! Well, I could if I definitely had to... but I don't at the moment, so that logic rules. Just once, it'd be really nice to have a girl ask what I was doing sometime... and I'm probably not the only one who thinks this either. Which is fine... out of 9 billion people, this isn't exactly "unique".

Now, I don't know... I've got patience coming out of my ying-yang at the moment. It's here in spades. Shit... I've got a waaaaaaay better record of "not having relations" in the lifetime of the Tales than Bill Clinton did in his terms in office. Boo yah! Oh shit... that's not good. Nevertheless... patience... I got it. Sure I run out from time to time, make stupid mistakes... most of us do. The opposite sex (or same for some) is an evil tempting tidbit of life we can't seem to shake. I know I can't. But the time'll come for me to screw up yet again... and then a year after that, another screw up... but all told... one of these years will be mine. Maybe. No promises.

Hmmmm... that feels a bit better. All this darkness in my room is starting to knock me out as well. And it only took 20 minutes to get here. Sweetness. The alarm is set for the morning... and I think I might check out of here. It's been a little bit of a reprieve on the ol' noggin' tonight. A few thoughts for the Tales never hurts.

Moving and Favours

"We're goin' streaking!!"

Man, I love Old School... what a show. I thought I would write a little bit while I watch it on CBC. So, if you find that i'm rambling on, as per usual, it's probably because of the movie. Then again, I might only write when there is commericals... so it won't be so bad.

I actually managed quite a bit of the little I wanted to do this weekend. It was pretty impressive. Only $60 drinking on Friday and $30 last night, including food both nights, it was fairly decent. I had to say, I was pretty impressed.

Friday night, I arrived at an empty home... well, not quite empty. Chris was actually downstairs, but he was on his way to Victoria in the evening, so it was sort of empty to me. Ha ha. When I realized that nothing was really gonna go anywhere... no one was really about... Benny wasn't gonna be doing anything, Jeff was more than likely already out on the Stampede Trail again (despite swearing it off), I just went to the pub to hang out.

A bite to eat (a recommended Chicken Caesar Wrap by Ashley) which was really good, a few beers, a couple tequilas with Ashley... and a beer with Jen... that was pretty much it. Well, at the pub it was. Jen and I walked over to Blockbuster and rented Aeon Flux... came back to the house... watched it... that was pretty much that. Chris was definitely against watching that flick again, but despite not having the sharp & sexiness of the cartoon, it still wasn't too bad. It was an easy action movie to watch... Charlize Theron is pretty easy on the eyes... it was okay by me.

Saturday was in fact moving day... Julie caught me on MSN with a couple drinks in me, said that one of her friends couldn't make it because of a death... so the guilt button was pressed. But before then... I had to replace my debit card. I had left it at the bank when I deposited my cheque at the bank machine. So, I took Jen for a drive all over North Calgary, thinking that I could find a good way to get to Country Hills, but I didn't really do that. It was just an exercise in finding good ways through construction zones and all sorts of neighbourhoods that I've been lost in before.

But a trip to the bank, a sense of relief and a lunch at McDonalds... we were back home after enjoying the lovely Calgary sunshine in the car. When I got home though, I hung out for a bit, working on my hockey pool draft workbook, it's becoming quite comprehensive now... which, I'll share if anyone else is holding hockey pools of their own. Jen had fallen asleep and I was getting bored, so I called up Julie and made my way over to her's to help her move.

Her and Gaylene had already gotten started and I caught up with them at Julie's old place... half a block away from her new place.



What a pair of muppets.

Anyways... yeah, Julie's place is super-nice. I kinda held out on taking pics of the view, didn't really wanna come off all touristy... but it is super-cool. It's a north view of downtown and an east view of Calgary as well from the balcony... 9 floors from the Victoria Park ground. I helped out for a good 6 or so hours... met both of Julie's brothers again, another one of her friends... it was a pretty busy afternoon. I even ran into Nathan, a friend of Julie's who actually lived with me in my Victoria Park apartment, which ended sort of abruptly when I was really just tired of living with him. An interesting afternoon to say the least.

Then it was an evening back at the Yardhouse... just by myself from start to finish this time. Pat and Matt worked behind the bar and Ashley was about, so I wasn't really alone for the most part. I was chatting here and there, which made it alright. I only hung around for a few beers and a pizza, but wasn't really in the mood to stick around for too long, so I just came home. By midnight or so, I was in bed and passed out.

Today... Jen snuck out of the house to go to church with Betty. Not exactly one of my favourite past-times, but the girls sure seem to like it fine. But I did agree to pick them both up from church, because Jen wanted to make it to the Folk Festival office to pick up her volunteer passes. What she didn't tell me, that Betty did later in the morning, that the church was in Sundance. I was aware that the church was somewhere close... in the NW. Not a half hour away to the southern-most points of the city.

On the drive down, whilst being a tad frazzled... I came up with the idea of making a list, posting it on here of the favour list between myself and Jen. She asks a lot of "favours" and I want to keep a list to see how many she keeps tallying up from here on in.

So here is the...

Favour List (Favours asked by Jen and Favours asked by Clayton)
July 16, Jen asked me to pick her and Betty up from Lake Sundance... this after lying to me where the church actually was, knowing full well that she was going down there.

So there we go... I will try to make sure I remember all the favours... there are a lot. This is an independant study. It's only to prove the thesis that Jen asks for a lot of favours. And if I have it all written down, then I can have written record when I come back to redeem these tokens for favours in the future.

Anyways... enough about that now. I went over to Shouldice for practice... and it was only myself and 3 other guys (Alex, Ryan & Menzies), plus the coach of course, that showed up. So we had a batting practice and knocked the ball around for a while in the fields there afterwards. It was a good use of a few hours in the afternoon... got a decent little workout and got nice & sweaty.

Since then... I've just been sitting around the house. Jen & Betty were watching Garden State, which they had opened my unopened DVD and watched. Not like it was a bad idea... it's a good movie. Betty was waiting around here for leaving on the bus to Grand Forks... so her and Jen hung out here and grabbed some coffee. I've been watching TV and kept up all my work on the pool stuff. And now with Old School on, the girls (including Natasha) took Betty to the Greyhound station and since then, I haven't seen them. Betty has now left an hour ago.

And here you have it... the weekend as we know it. I don't think there'll be too much more other than wrapping up the lasagna that I cooked up and watching the rest of the movie.

I don't forsee the week ahead to be too busy... Monday and Wednesday, I'm playing ball with the Royals. A big game to get ourselves back on track against CBA early on Monday and then a late game on Wednesday. Thursday, I'm out in Langdon to play with the Cruisers again... it sounds like it'll be another tough night to get people out, so I will try and get Munden out, since he's living out there already.

Work shouldn't be much of a struggle... all my annuals are done. I'm gonna have to solve why my BenQ flat panel monitor likes to quit on me for a half hour and then come back on... only to go off in an hour for another 30 minutes. It's a real pain in the ass. I don't think there will be many filings as the month has been pretty quiet already. I have some bills to pay... some tickets still to pay... and then I can relax a little bit more.

Fingers crossed... maybe... just maybe, it'll be a good week. Don't need anything to blow up... don't need any more stress for a while... and well... a good week will be ace!

Good Morning!

Friday morning... finally. There was a definite sense of relief when I hit the snooze button and realized what day it was. The weight of the week was nearly off my shoulders. And it gets a bit better too...

1. It's payday.
2. The annual filings that I was talking about yesterday... they came in and they're done already.
3. Nothing came in overnight, so I can write all I like this morning and possibly afternoon.
4. Fred won't be in today... not that it's a big deal anyways... he's cool about everything when everything is done.
5. My abscess is disappearing due to the anti-biotic and I'm feeling great again!

Yeah, things are beginning to look up again. Last night, Chris and I hung out with Snakebites again around the house. The traffic around the place was a little much as Jen was trading a table for a desk between two of her friends and Natasha was about helping her out and Betty and a couple of her friends were picking up and taking away pieces as well.

The biggest laugh was when Jen was telling me that Betty was bringing over some Mormon boys to help her move stuff, so they can hit on them and show them that Christians are not as bad as everyone thinks they are.

Well...

Nah... I don't really want to open a can of worms, but let's just be sure that I could write and write and write about these said topics and the annoyances I find with them.

I was pretty sure though if Jen was allowed to have her way with these boys, that she would more than likely make them cry. She's just got that way with people that comes over really harsh and I'm sure that naive little boys would cry.

Then there is some increasing thought traffic about Natasha... there are definitely some compatibility issues goin' on there. Now, I can't say that these sort of issues haven't really been juggled before in my head, but since there has been a little more conversation about it, the issue does tend to make itself a little more predominant. And on further inspection of the issue... is it really compatibility. Thinking out loud does tend to throw me all over the map, but that's how I do my best reasoning.

I think the biggest issues with Natasha is that if something does happen, she doesn't want Jen to know right away (this is theory, by the way). Now, I don't think I would be overly ashamed of the whole thing... maybe I should be, I don't really know. There is also the "non-exclusive" angle, which I don't think is a problem necessarily, but it does share it's oddities of logic. None of which should surprise me, knowing where Natasha comes from. No matter... trying my best not to make this a priority.

Tonight... I think I'll just rent a movie or two and keep it all on the down-low. There is an invite to Fred and Nancy's place tonight, but I don't really fancy that. I just wanna go home and relax tonight. I did only have 4 last night, so that wasn't too bad. I'm hoping I could even do less than that tonight.

Saturday... the ever-present likelihood that I'll help Julie move. This hasn't been confirmed, mind you, but I do forsee it coming.

Sunday... ball practice starting at 2pm at the batting cages.

Those are my only upcoming plans. I think now I'm gonna prepare the template for one of these annual filings so I can have it filed this afternoon. I don't wanna make it look like I got it done in good time, I want this guy to suffer, 'cuz he's a dumbass. This guy is one of those clients who'll just act, pretend or actually be dumb when it comes to charges that are outlined on their contracts. It's not my issue, really... he wants 100+ pages rushed with bad tables... he'll get charged for 'em and the sales guys will have to look after it. It's also gonna be a long blog-surfing kind of day too... I'm already taking off on the 1.5/1 credit ratio at BlogAdvance.

This Blows

Hey, this YouTube is really neat... especially for recording wicked weather patterns and then posting them on the Tales. Out in Langdon last night, the clouds rolled over as we were playing ball and it made for some pretty excellent pics and the video above.



The dark clouds were rolling over, but the sun was already starting its decent in the West, so we ended up getting all sorts of long shadows with black clouds above.



There were all sorts of neat patterns in the sky... everyone was growing weary of one of these clouds touching down around the houses, but it just didn't seem like it was meant to be.



This one was one of the cooler looking funnel clouds overhead... we had watched it stretch out and then dissipate into nothing. It was all very entertaining.



And this one here was the one that was captured more in the video. It was really swirling up in the sky, quite the marvel to watch. I had to actually call Dad and tell him where to look outside. He was out on the back deck of the house when I called and I told him to come out front. It was really cool to watch. There was also a little bit of me that was hoping that it would touch down and then I'd have finally seen a good little tornado. It's kind of a morbid wish for destruction, but c'mon...

Unfortunately, the game for us didn't go quite as well... we had to scoop a few players from the other team, 'cuz there were lots of our guys & gals away on holidays or really busy... so we sort of suffered through and eventually lost 13-9. I had an alright night in the field, lots of balls hit to me at short and I did my part to do what I could... but runners scored on dropped throws to home, but it was all good fun. My bat wasn't too lucky at all last night... I went 2 for 4, a single in the first and a triple turned homer (on an errant throw) later in the game. I also had a pair of RBIs on the homer... so that was okay, but it wasn't really enough. So, the Cruisers fell again. Unfortunate.

When I got into Langdon, I went and had a chat with Greg at the Wildfire and we sorted out a date for the next Wildfire Slurpee Cup Challenge... September 9 & 10. Hopefully we get the sort of weather we had in February. We'll be limiting it to 16 teams over the 2 days, back in the parking lot of the pub. I'll be starting to put together some promo posters and stuff to get the ball rolling. I should get lots done for Langdon Days which is a week from Friday. Then we can put them around the town and start advertising then. It's almost too perfect.

And since the NHL schedule was released yesterday, I can proceed with dates and times for next season's hockey pool. I'll have it tenatively scheduled for September 27... just gotta find a place that'll house everyone.

It's still dead here at the office... I finished the two filings already this morning... I had them both filed before 8:45am... yet, there are a few still waiting for the okay to be filed. I'm still waiting on a couple more annual filings, which are due tomorrow for these two companies. I have much doubt I'll get both of them on time. I should probably send a reminder e-mail to these guys before too long.

Also on the list of things to do, set-up the payment plan online, if possible of my Alberta Health Care... apparently, I wasn't covered, 'cuz the last invoice wasn't paid yet. Granted, I only just dug it up the other day... oops.

That just about covers it for today... doesn't look like it'll be a busy weekend, Chris is away to Victoria and I don't have any plans with anyone else at the moment.