Rowena

Blog-worthy. Now go get Wentler...errr...Waltworth...whatever

Al's #1

Definitely is when it's mentioned here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Italian_Beef

I now feel very good that we actually had an authentic Chicago meal. Well, my heart prolly doesn't feel good, but emotionally I'm set. Damn, I may be craving one again...

Being Productive

This is how to do a productive Chicago trip in 54 hours and 20 minutes, starring Arvin, Ken, myself and other various co-stars:

Friday, 3:15pm E.T. - pick up Arvin in the PT Cruiser (a gas guzzler by the way) and head for Chicago

5:30pm - arrive in Sarnia; proceed to wait 45 minutes to cross the damn border

(before arrival) - watched Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle, Saved By The Bell, and plenty of gas/rest stops, puctuated by vending machine visits

Saturday, 12:00am C.T. - arrive in Chicago, pick up cousin Mar, go to White Castle and enjoy burgers like the movie

1:30am - sleep

6:30am - wake up, shower, get ready, proceed to wait a couple of hours for everyone else to get ready

8:30am - arrive at IHOP for breakfast. Ordered an "International Passport" breakfast; 2 eggs, 2 bacon, 2 sausages, 2 french toast, 2 pancakes. Yummy, but a little overkill on the butter

10:00am - visit other cousin Daisy and her partner Kim, who we find out is pregnant with twins. It's an immaculate conception!

10:45am - visit United Centre; take photo with Michael Jordan (statue)

11:20am - arrive at Sears Tower; was gonna go up but the wait was 1.5 hours long, so we ditched that plan. Oh, and Ken almost got into it with a crackhead, who was luckily to cracked up he started to bug other tourists instead

11:45am - decide to walk to Millenium Park and Buckingham Fountain. In 40C heat. Ouch

12:15pm - get there, do a bunch of photo-ops, swelter in heat

2:00pm - drenched in sweat, reach the car again. Might be a gas guzzler, but the PT Cruiser has an awesome A/C system (which we would proceed to use the rest of the trip, undoubtedly killing our gas mileage. But whatever).

3:00pm - late lunch at Al's, where they served this Italian Beef Sandwich and fries with cheese sauce. Frikin' awesome. We then had some watermelon and strawberry "Italian Lemonade" across the street, which was equally awesome and cooled us down. Someone needs to open up places like that here

4:00pm - arrive at Steve and Barry's, a store with decent clothing and nothing over $6.98US. Ken and Arvin think it's an awesome store

5:00pm - arrive at Mar's work to pick up the car parts that's been at her desk for the past 7-8 months. Much bigger package than what I thought; Ken and Arvin proceed to start to freak-out that we will be stopped at the border. Yeesh

5:30pm - arrive at Outlet Mall. End up buying a Nike dri-fit shirt for $10 and a pair of Nike runners for $40. I threw out my New Balance runners that were a bit wide and had seen better days

7:30pm - arrive at home for a quick breather. Oh and to "deposit" some stuff in the bathroom. I made the executive decision to try to sneak in two of the three boxes of car parts to Canada, and get the third box delivered to me

9:15pm - arrive at Lou's Pizza, where we had an awesome deep dish sausage pizza. My heart starts to moan

10:30pm - go to Dominick's Grocery store, pick up a couple of Chex Mix for the brothers

11:45pm - get home, shower and do some more deposits

Sunday, 1:00am - talk to cousin Meng, who is leaving for Florida in a couple of days

1:30am - sleep

7:30am - wake up, go to bathroom, say "screw it" and went back to bed

8:30am - wake up, take shower

9:15am - ate breakfast that Tita Myrna cooked for us; longanesa, rice and atchara

9:30am - watch "The Simple Life" on TV

10:15am - say our goodbyes, go to Target for one last shopping excursion, go to White Castle to pick up slyders (aka. burgers) for the road

1:30pm - stuck in Indiana traffic. Thank goodness Ken is driving

(before arrival) - watch "Fun With Dick and Jane", Saved By The Bell and In Living Colour

7:00pm, E.T. - reach the border, had no problems at all. I proceed to get mad at Arvin and Ken for being too worried about getting stopped at the border and I could've taken my other car part (in honesty though, I was kinda worried too, but only because they were so worried)

9:35pm - arrive home, and start thinking about how it would be like if (when?) we were to do this for New York

I do believe I will be calling in sick tomorrow. Now that's productive baby

Jason And Arvin And Ken Go To White Castle

Leavin' tomorrow to Shykahgooo with the groom's party (not pictured below). Should be good, as I would finally get my car parts. Yee-uh!

Don't Hassle With The Castle

Smoggalishous

Apparently You CAN Judge A Book By It's Cover

That house I wanted to live in? Forget it, not so nice.

I dread when we actually start looking for a house for real. Sigh.

Streets-Of-Dream-Ville

Where would you like to live? I'd like to ideally live somewhere that looks a little like this:

This picture not intended to subtly tell Sharon anything

I hope my benefactor would like something similar. I love you!

So I was in the bathroom, taking a "number 1" when all of a sudden in my peripheral vision I notice a big buzzing bug (one of those fuzzy ones that sort of look like a bee yet at the same time a spider with wings) on my shoulder, slowly making its way to my neck. Instinctively, I start to try to shoo away the bug; of course not realizing that I am slowly splashing around and outside the toilet. So I try to compose myself, but the bug gets closer; again I try to shoo, and again the splashing continues. As it gets much closer to my neck, I finally get it off of me and shoo it onto the counter. The aftermath? A dead bug due to the newspaper I hit it with and a whole lot of cleanup. This was my one opportunity where I could've kept calm and compose myself like the ninja warrior I always thought I was. I was wrong. Argh.
* * *

Renos galore in my house again...marble tiles in the kitchen. Gonna be chaotic again; hopefully it will be worth it. Can't wait till we get our own house!

Sexy

Why Is My Car Insurance Rates Higher This Year?

"Because the rates went up"

"Yes, but why?"

"Well, according to my computer, your premiums went up $104 from last year"

"Yes, but why?"

"Well, the Grand Touring Protection Coverage from last year went up $25, so really it only went up $75"

"Actually that's $79. But if my car is getting older each year, and it depreciates in value each year, why are my rates going up?"

"Inflation"

"Really? Inflation? That's the reason?"

"Yes. Is there anything else I can help you with?"
"No, but I find that a really dumb answer. Thanks anyway"

Sigh. I seriously hate car insurance companies.

Pulled Pork Heaven/Hell

Not willing to let the Ribfest at City Hall go without at least visiting it once, plus the fact I love these things:

I think I'm getting horny looking at this pic

Ken, Jake and I walked in the pouring rain with me horribly sore from yesterday to get some wonderful protein. And it was good. Maybe too good. The meat was awesome, but maybe a little too oily; half the bun was not only soaked but drenched and diluged in oil (I ended up only eating about 3/4 of the bread). I was gonna buy one for lunch tomorrow, but thought better of it. I don't think my heart would've forgave me.

And Another One Done

So concludes my 4th PHI Slo-Pitch tournament, with the same results: soreness. But new this year is not the feeling of "never again." I actually had a lot of fun at this year's tourney. The first game we won against Ottawa, traditionally a powerhouse team. And who was the pitcher for our team? Thassrite...me.

But then came the second game...the first three innings were fine, until the last two where I became unravelled. I don't know, I guess I got spooked and I lost my control. I was not to pitch again. We ended up winning 2 and losing 1, and we actually went to a fourth game (albeit we lost, Peel has never really gotten far in recent years).

All in all, a good time and I guess it helped that the tourney was held in Peel (despite it being a lot of work) because I was close to home. Oh yeah, and the weather, while it rained a bit, was also a factor in goodness in that it was not scortching hot. It also helped that Sharon came to volunteer and met my workmates and they all liked her (I dunno why things like that make me smile).

The only stupid things I did (because I always do stupid thing)?

1. Wake up at 6:45am when I was supposed to be at Sharon's house at that time. I woke up at 5:34am like I planned and thought I hit snooze; apparently I shut off the alarm instead. Good thing Ken called me and woke me up.

2. Unnecessarily slide into second base, all for a laugh. Yeah, I gots the scrapeys on my leg now. Ah well.

Next year again I guess.

PHIs Drunk Equal Embarassment

So this year Peel hosted the annual PHI slo-pitch tournament. I purposely didn't join the committee because I knew it would be a lot of work; which it was. I "volunteered" today and I ended up feeling like I did a crazy amount of work being the "bus coordinator." It's not fun all the time trying to deal with drunken idiots. Sometimes makes me glad I don't drink (like an idiot; besides, it wasn't Wednesday). I will admit, though, that's it's nice seeing some PHIs I haven't seen a while. I also ended up getting a DJ contact name, coincidentally being the same DJ that did Gil and Marie's engagement party. I wonder if Sharon will agree.

A very close resemblance to what I saw today

And now I have to wake up in about 3 hours to play softball. Yikes...I think I may be getting too old for this

Hot And Wet

No, I'm not talking about that, but rather the weather. And on top of that, why is it that whenever a flat tire occurs, it's never at a worse time (although it can be argued that there is never really a better time a flat tire can occur). I am not talking about my car, but rather the Rolla that my brothers "take care of" (I put that in quotations to denote my sarcasm).

Conrad had a flat tire on the side of the 410; I came to help but we couldn't get the wheel off due to it being rusted. And it was hot. And wet. And I felt sticky. Brutal.

Granted the flat tire is not his fault, but there always seems to be problems with that car. It was once my baby too; I once took care of it like I do mine now...maybe it's yearning for me? Riiiiiiite....

Juhky Reborn

So since my last, rather inspiring post about my new love of football (only people who don't know and aren't wannabes call it "soccer"), I have crossed the threshold of really rarely recreational player to rarely recreational player. I went to Walmart and found this on sale:

This will definitely make me a better striker

Well, not the exact same ones, but shin guards nonetheless. I can't wait till the next time I play soc...errrrr...football so I can for sure look like a poser. I'm thinking about getting a jersey with the name on the back saying, "Juhky."

What else was I doing at Walmart? Well, I was buying tennis balls. Arvin and I are going to play tennis, for reasons unknown. Should be interesting since the last time I played I think was three years ago. I should prolly find my tennis racket...

Heavens Devils

I was watching this pretty crappy movie yesterday on TV:

As opposed to "Hells Angels in Hot Air Balloons"

Sometimes people watch old movies, and while seeming "dated" it can still maintain the integrity of the picture. This one though was pretty bad (as in not-so-good). The only thing about this movie I liked was the bikes, and how much I want one. Something about riding a bike seems so...free?

Damn You Fat Lady

At least you haven't sung though, otherwise I might be over. But anywho, I went for my regular blood test, and this morbidly obese lady was taking my blood (not the regular guy who usually does it). The regular guy is usually gentle and actually takes the time to find the vein. This lady? Yeah...she just jabbed me with the needle under my elbow that I felt a muscle in my wrist move. As a result, it's tender.

Re-enactment, but just imagine the lady about 400 lbs. heavier

Sharon's take on it? "She must've been skinny and smart before she got a permanent full time job. But then she got fat because she didn't have to try anymore because she already had her full time job. As a result, she became lazy and dumb. And now you're in pain." Always a great prespective she provides me. Always.

Adieu, Good Doctor

At the risk of sounding like this guy:

Gimme ten!

I would like to wish many good luck and safe travels to this guy:

Smell de pingers

Dis-pa-dee-da today at his house, as he is leaving for the great city of Calgary tomorrow or Tuesday.

I remember a statment Dr, Sy said back when we all graduated high school: "I presumed, for one reason or another, we were all going to go to the same University." At the time, I thought it was a bit ridiculous as of course everyone went somewhere else.

Maybe I am the ridiculous one now? For one reason or another, I thought everyone (except for BJ) was just going to live in Mississauga after we all started our careers, having children here and just living out life. Of course, as things turned out, I was wrong. Even come a couple of years from now, other friends and people in my life will be relocating (heck, maybe even my wife...errrr...us).

Have I always been so naive to think that all my friends were perfectly happy here, not wanting to explore what else is out there? Am I wrong to feel perfectly content living here? Should I be moving to another province just to "try it out"? What happened to Jeff's plan of everyone having a specific role in his society?

Yikes, I become quite gay when someone moves away; it's not like they are dead or anything. But just knowing that things gones dones and changeds, and will never be the same...it's such a disparaging thought. I think I'm just a baby and way too emotional. I better learn to let things go, I guess.

In the end, though...I don't want to be...a murderer...(yep, sounds as gay as it felt typing it)

Ms. Lobo's

Purveyors of finely baked, homemade chocolate chip cookies. Absolutely delicious, it soothes my craving for a delectable sweet treat. My sincerest apologies, but the batch I have are mine, all mine.

Re-enactment of the chocolate chip cookies that I have

Now then, to work on cooking real food...

(just joking baby...kinda...iwuvwu!)

Training: Not So Good

So my BP training hit a snag last night. Apparently my lack of alchol dehydroganase combined with my inability to appreciate Alexander Keith's hath made me puketh. So, scratch that off my list. It tastes like crap, and made feel like it too!

* * *

What did I do on my day off?

-woke up, luckily without any symptoms of cocktail flu

-went to lunch with the best girl ever in the world

-spent a couple of hours doing something for my passion. What passion you may ask? Well, I have been a big fan of basketball for many a years. As well, a big fan of shoes. Combine those two, and you have my collection which I finally took a picture or 40 of. I now present to you, a couple shots of my black colourway Nike VC Shox line:

ohhhhhhhh

ahhhhhhhhhhhh

uhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

ihhhhhhhhhhhh

Of course I took individual shots of the VC 1-5 (including the often forgotten VC1.5) as well, but you get the idea. Apparently Nike is not going to make anymore signature shoes for VC, which is a little sad that the collection ends here, but it's also good for my wallet at the same time. I'm sure Sharon is happy, because she just doesn't get my collection. Sometimes girls just don't understand.

Happy Birfgay

You are old.

Maly is a lucky girl

Oh and don't think I forgot about Jepot. How can anyone forget about Jepot? Happy belated.

A candid pose, he was unaware a camera was going to take his picture

And now...I wait for the obligatory "embarass you back retaliation" although it may be a while if ever they do

Yep...As A Result Of Yesterday...

You should check out how sore the front of my body is

And how does my left side of my face feel, but not necessarily showing it?

That's right, I feel like a white guy

I'm much too delicate I do believe.