Kids Again

On the first or second day we went to the beach I commented to my siblings that it would be nice to have Mom and Dad on the beach watching us having fun in the water. I admitted that it was a "kid" thing to say but we all did agree. Yesterday while we were out at Stone Island Mom said she enjoyed watching us as it reminded her of when we were kids. I thought was pretty funny given my earlier comment. She said they were counting heads from time to time just like they used to do when we went to North Beach as kids.

So we have been doing some shopping off and on but so far the only thing I have bought is a hat. I know eh, me not buying stuff is pretty weird. Mom and Dad bought us all something for their anniversary even though we tried to explain that wasn't how it worked. They bought me a silver pendant, a cross of sorts. Oh I also bought vanilla for Freda, enough to keep her baking for years to come. Other than that it has been mostly just food. My 500 Pesos per day budget has been rolling over quite nicely. Hopefully the shopping will pick up today and tomorrow.

Just to let you know I got up at about 7AM and came outside and am sitting on the patio writing this blog. So beautiful here.

The long Awaited Family Reunion Post...

...or Highlights From My Trip to the Maritimes. Part I

Friday July 31st we headed out for the long drive across Quebec. We made stops only for gas and to stretch our legs. Jessie was awesome, she spent most of the trip sleeping in the back seat. She complained less than Dan to be sure. We finally arrived in Edmundston NB and checked in to our pet friendly room at the Best Western. The room was well set up for pets, no carpet, and it had patio doors to the parking lot. That made it much easier to deal with the luggage too. We went for a swim. Okay I didn't swim at all but did enjoy the hot tub even though it wasn't as hot as I would have liked it. After the swim we headed downtown for a walk and a bite to eat then just relaxed.

Saturday morning we headed out to the nearest Starbucks which happened to be three and a half hours away in Moncton. Best discovery ever was that there was an H&M in Moncton, there would be shopping before we left. So we grabbed our Starbucks and headed for the family. In the end it was nice to see everybody and it was all pretty low pressure. We just hung out.

The cottage was rustic by my standards but much less rustic than it could have been. Because we had Jessie with us we ended up with one of the better rooms. The upstairs was all pretty open but there were two bedrooms downstairs with doors and we got one of them. They also had the only two double beds so that was another bonus.

The rest of Saturday was pretty relaxed, just hanging out and drinking. Walks on the beach with the dog. Enjoyable. In fact when asked later about my favourite moment the first thing that came to mind was those walks and runs on the beach with Jessie.

Sunday we headed in to Moncton for a bit of shopping. No great finds but Moncton does have an awesome mall. The rest of the afternoon and evening was the reunion. Reasonably low pressure and fairly painless.

Monday was a random day trip to "the dunes" which turned out to be fairly pointless in that dogs were not allowed. We went for a quick look around while my sister looked after Jess. Then came out and just hung out with my sister, my dad and some family member from Boston. That turned out to be more fun than the boardwalk on the dunes.

Tuesday morning we headed off to PEI. My sisters partner, Andre was not feeling well so he stayed behind and looked after Jessie. Somehow I ended up being the lead car on the trek but thanks to the GPS, I managed to get us to the Confederation Bridge which was a pretty awesome structure. We headed in to Summerside where we left the family in order to accellerate the tour as we needed to be at the ferry in time to head over to Nova Scotia. From Summerside we headed to Charlottetown and wandered around downtown. Had ice cream at Cows which is an East Coast thing. Awesome parody t-shirts there. I bought one and found one I wanted that wasn't available there but a quick BlackBerry message to my Sister-in-law had one purchased for me on their visit to Cavendish. After that we headed for the ferry and then off to Halifax NS.

More to come in Part II. Time to go get groceries now.

Weekend Update

So when my friend Steve asked how my weekend was today I said it was okay. Upon reflection it was actually much better than okay.

Saturday started with a bit of running around. Despite the cool afternoon weather we took Jessie for a walk downtown and had coffee with Meghan on the patio at Sipps. Dan and I decided to catch a movie in the evening so we checked out Angels and Demons which I thought was quite good to the dismay of the critics.

After the movie I returned the call from Meghan that came in about half way through the movie. It was an invitation to go for drinks at Tango. After a few drinks there I was feeling pretty good. Tim and Brooke (AKA Gunther) and some of her friends showed up. Another drink then we took off and left the kids to play. Apparently when I got home I updated my MSN tag to let everyone know I was drunk. Go figure.

Sunday started off with Brunch of course. A bit of shopping. I was almost as excited to pick up the new bedspread as I was to pick up the next volume of the James Bond movie collection. That's right, just one more to go now and I will have them all. We watched Goldfinger which is the third movie but in my opinion the beginning of the James Bond formula.

Between shopping and James Bond there were a couple open houses and an awesome, though cold, barbecue hosted by Amy and Keith. Good times.

Time flies...

Even when you are not having fun.

I can't say there has been no fun at all. Definitely had a good weekend with friends and shopping and brunch and coffees. All the usual events that make up my weekends and my life. Plenty more of that to come I'm sure.

Work: After just a couple weeks in my new department I have been voluntold to go into training to go back to Business Care. For those of you who recall my last time in Business Care you might remember that it was a definite low point in my time working there. Now the plus side of this new move is that we no longer have Inbound Business Care. The department is now completely offline. This means I will not be taking calls from pissed off people who are too dumb to be able to read their bills or people who think their children would never rack up hundreds of dollars in text messaging. Now I will just be processing email requests to change rate plans and upgrade handsets. The work should be better but the hours, not so much. Oh well at least I still have weekends off.

Penny: The Prednisone worked fast when we started her on it but Penny is starting to show some of the original symptoms again. Otherwise she is still doing well. Her energy level is a bit lower than usual but she's still got bark left in her. In fact since the inflamation around her throat has not come back she is able to bark again. She does love to bark. I think it is one of her favourite things to do. I wonder if I will miss that barking too... Decision time is coming but I think we still have a bit of time.

Recycling the past...

So since nothing really interesting happened today let me dredge something up from the summer of no blogs.

The 3AM border crossing on the way to Pittsburgh...

Looking back I guess I should have known that 4 guys crossing the border on their way to a furry convention are going to get pullled over for sure. At least we had the big fursuit dog head in the trunk to back us up. Well after a half an hour answering random questions we were back on our way to the land of Anthrocon. Anthrocon was more fun that I ever expected. It kind of reminded me of the Star Trek conventions I attended in my younger days except the Anthrocon attendees were much less serious. Let me tell you that you have not lived till you have seen 30 furries do The Time Warp. Ego Boost: Mikey was hit on by a "straight" boy (and a 6 foot skunk from South Carolina). Good times.

I have to say that Pittsburgh surprised me. It was so very much like Chicago but with less art. It was reasonably clean, at least the areas we were in were clean. There was lots of good architecture and some good museums, most notably The Andy Warhol Museum. There was also no tax on clothes and shoes. Gay heaven to be sure. Mikey came home with a new pair of Pumas.

I am definitely looking forward to going again next year. At least next year it doesn't happen on the same weekend as Toronto Pride.

PS: To whoever found that lost SD Card outside of The Warhol Museum. I was not defiling that teddy bear, we're just close that way.

Emergency Clubbing Road Trip

So on my last day shift at work I am sitting there waiting to go home when I get a text message from Neil telling me he is booking a couple rooms for us at the Sheraton in Toronto. Well I actually thought he was asking if we wanted to go but really by the time we decided we were in it was already booked. Well for me I think it turned out to be just what the doctor ordered.
Saturday morning we all piled into the car with our Starbucks beverages and started out on our journey. We got to the hotel and checked in, did some shopping then headed back to settle into the rooms. Somewhere in all that we hooked up with Bry and Ry, did dinner and hit the pool. A bit of the drink up in the rooms then off to Church Street. The original idea was to hit Tango & Crews but the line up was too long so off to Woody's. Well we all know that Saturday night is the Best Legs Contest at Woody's. We know this from an earlier blog you may or may not have read. Well I did manage to NOT drop my pants this time though I was approached by the fabulous Sofonda Cox who again hosted the event.
Sunday was typical of our weekend hotel stays. I was up hours before everyone else so I headed off to Starbucks and hung out in the lobby, checked email and such in the cyber lounge and walked around the Toronto City Hall grounds which was right accross the street from the hotel. Brunch. A bit more shopping. Northbound Leather. A quick stop at Bry and Ry's. Ikea. Then home. Dinner at Silver Wok. All in all an awesome weekend. Thanks to the BFFs.

At least I remember most of it...

Great weekend!
Highlights of the weekend include: Kingston's Gay Pride Parade (such as it was), shopping, Pride Party at The Grad Club, Brunch, Coffee with Kim, dinner and Ocean's 13 with Howie and Neil.
The parade was small but at least we have one. The weather was outstanding for it.
Shopping was very good. Tim is my new good luck charm when it comes to shopping since I found 2 camouflage items that I have been looking for for a while now.
The Grad Club was good for a change. Great crowd. Saw a few people I haven't seen in a while. Could have stayed later but what the hell.
Coffee with Kim and the most animated story about Aunt Lee to date. Every family has to have one and Aunt Lee must count for about 10.
Stopped by to see Howie and Neil while we were in the neighbourhood which of course turned into dinner and a movie. Ocean's 13: Not as good as 11 but better than 12.
So funny story about The Grad Club outing. I had my first total did-something-I-don't-remember-doing-even-after-being-told-I-did-it moment. Apparently Tim and I dropped our pants to show off our matching underwear. Yeah, totally have no recollection of that particular event. But it doesn't surprise me.
So it was a totally full and fun weekend. Two more like it to come I think. YAY!

What the hell!

So I haven't posted in ages. I have no clue why that is. Lazy I guess.
Not a whole lot to report. Work is the usual up and down affair. Usually down. The more apathetic I become the less any of it seems to matter. So, enough about work.
I'm not going to go back and cover what I've been doing the last few weeks. I've had some fun I'm sure. There was a weekend in Toronto. Shopping at H&M with Emma, we know how that turned out. Fabulous of course. And expensive.
This weekend is Kingston Pride. Next week Laura is throwing a pre-party before heading to The Joy Supper Club. Then the weekend after that we head to Toronto for Pride. YAY! So much to do, so little time to do it. Hope we can fit it all in.
Okay thats it for now. Stay tuned for more...

I mixed Lub and Woody's again...

Well it has been a while but yet another has commented on the lack of postings so this one is dedicated to Ryan.
We had a great long weekend. Headed up to Toronto on Saturday morning. Fashionably late of course. Picked up Ryan from his suburban hell on our way by. Then into the city and picked up the other half of the home team and headed to the hotel to check in then for a walkabout downtown. Managed to not spend any money there.
We then headed out to Oakville for the wedding reception which was our excuse for heading into the city in the first place. The reception was nice. Thats about all I can say about it. Well I guess I should add OPEN BAR! So there was my pre-drinking all set up for me. One shooter, 4 cocktails, then back to the hotel to change and head out with the boys.
Started at Lub for a $9.00 Candy Apple Martini. Guess they have to pay for that Restaraunt Makeover somehow. After that it was off to Woody's where we watched but did not participate in the best legs contest. Read this post if you want to know more about the last time I mixed Lub and Woody's. After that it was back to the room after seeing Bryan and Ryan to the subway station.
Sunday morning we headed up to spend some time with Emma. What happens when Emma and I get together? My VISA Card gets a run through the terminal at H&M. To the tune of $205.00 it was. But I got some great finds. Only in European sizes could I possibly take a size Large in underwear. After shopping we grabbed lunch and watched a movie with Em. Oh I also got a pair of skater shoes at the Winners on Bloor. I kept the receipt because I wanted to make sure they were Howie-approved. They were approved but I need to add a second set of laces to step them up. No pun intended.
After all the shopping and hanging out with Emma we went back to Bry's to pick up Ry. After some contemplation about kidnapping Ryan and bringing him back to Kingston it was decided that we really should be responsible and drop him back in suburban hell.
Monday was a mow the lawn, walk downtown and head over to Howie & Neil's to wish Neil a Happy Birthday day.
So that about covers it. All-in-all a very fun weekend. Next weekend the city boys are back in town. Should be another good time.