Getting Sac'd Part II

So I was in Toronto for work and had lunch at Subway. When I walked in, this one lady was giving it to the lady behind the counter about the new charge for the crappy little plastic bag for your sub. Apparently it's part of the green initiative for the city of Toronto to charge 5cents for bags, so subway is charging now... I didn't pay for one as I planned on eating in, but that made the decision for me... sure, it's only 5 cents, but I think I'd rather pay 5 cents at Zehrs to get a bag that will be useful for something. I'd probably be angry and yelling at the sandwich artist if I was forced to pay for a bag while ordering multiple sandwiches.... that's extortion.

Thanks for asking

I'm not planning on getting the pig flu vaccine as it becomes
available. I waited for an hour or so until Faith got there to get the
kids theirs, but then I left and went back to work. I'm not buying all
the hype and hysteria, plus I'm pretty sure I had it in Feb. If it's
anything like the one I had in Feb, I'll take my week off sick and watch
movies in bed thankyou very much...

Words words words

I've noticed lately(on a few awkward occasions)that, even though I enjoy a lot of music from my youth and it gives me a good nostalgic feeling when I hear or sing it, I really had no clue what the words were to the songs. This isn't any sort of preachy bit on how music can corrupt you, rather a realization that I listened to a lot of music that I liked back in the day that had some pretty messed up lyrics. Even more, I didn't notice for the most part until recently... I've been out to Karaoke every Monday all summer and it's been a lot of fun. I usually put in a song from high school so I can re-live the glory days, but sometimes realize just how messed up the words of the song are while reading and regurgitating... I've heard a lot said about how music kids listen to
changes their behaviour, but I was a pretty good kid and made it another 13+ years before I clued in to what the songs I liked meant... I was just interested in the music, no the words... makes me wonder how much kids pick up. I didn't really pay attention til recently I suppose...

Awkward moment 1 - Song: Lighning Crash by Live... weird lyrical use of placenta...

Awkward moment 2 - Song: Possum Kingdom by The Toadies... give it up to me, do you wanna be my angel, do you wanna die?

Karaoke is fun, though. You should come.

J-balls and the NHL

Watching all the hub-bub surrounding the Hamilton Coyotes aka the
Phoenix Coyotes only brings one question to my mind.

Do I care?

IF (big IF) this were ever to become a reality, would it make a difference to my fanship? I'm not sure that it would. There's a lot to be said about the ability to get a ticket and the storied history of mediocrity in TO, but I'm a leaf fan, good times or now... The idea of driving into Hamilton (spit) to see a game makes me angry. I hate getting around Hamilton (spit) and I'm sure it would be a lot worse with 18,000 people trying to get to the arena at the same time. I'd much rather drive to TO and spend some time in the city before a game than drive to Hamilton and contract some rare lung condition. Personally, it's not an attractive option for me to change allegiance. The Mapleleafs already have my money from merchandise, so why would I want to up and change all that to a new team if it's not ideal.

If I were to cheer for only successful teams, I would change teams every year. There's something special about following a team and hoping to see them succeed. That will bring you through some rough patches and 42 years without a championship (considering the straight odds of winning in a 30 team league, your not too far off pace). So be it, I like to follow the team, learn about the players and watch them grow together.

I think J-Balls should jump ship on the hamilton idea and build something in Waterloo area near the 401. I'd seriously consider changing my cheering habits for something that was more convenient.

What do you think? Do you have one foot already off the bandwagon?

Windows 7

I've been trying out the new version of windows for a number of weeks now at work as my prime os. It has been an enjoyable experience on the whole but some times I'm left pining for the good ol' days of xp. There have been only a couple minor compatability issues (not nearly as many as with vista) and the virtual xp machine in w7 has made those issues into non issues.

Has anyone else been tinkering? it's still just an os.

Tell me that's not a dude...

There's been a lot of talk about this around the 'water cooler' today... you make the call.

Getting sac'd

I'm getting pretty miffed about this 'green' trend to charge for plastic
bags. Seems nothing more than eliminating a few plastic bags while
lining the grocery stores pockets with nickels and opening up new
revenue streams for their "reusable bags"... We've gotten to a point,
because we use a lot of plastice bags for garbage (diapers etc), where
we have had to either pay for bags on purpose or go to a store that
doesn't charge so we could have some in stock.... either that or pay for
a box of bags.

It's annoying that it's turned from a courtesy provided for us into
another way to make money. Why not just not offer plastic bags if
they're really serious about eliminating them. Now it's just like a tax
for forgetful people.

Slurpee Conditions, Civic Style.

As is my civic duty, I will report tonight's slurpee conditions.
Location - Sarnia (London Rd)
Time - Shortly before Eva threw up in the car...
Report: Well, Dr Pepper Cherry and Pepsi did everything they possibly could to smooth over the fact that my daugter puked in the car (again) and the smell was putrid... Nonetheless, the slurpee was good, although enjoyed begrudgingly in spurts between cleaning up and packing up at Grandma's house. The slurpee did, however, compliment the Captain Kidd fireworks quite nicely, despite the screaming child behind me smelling of vomit.

I call it like I see/smell it.

Today's Slurpee Conditions (Wednesday Edition)

Location: Chatham, Ontario
Time: 9:00pm
Gatrorade g-force and coke were in good shape tonight, quite thick and potent. The only thing that subtracted from this particular experience was the baby vomit in the back of the van and the subsequent cleanup effort on hwy 40... At least it had stopped raining at that time....

Official Slurpee/Froster Conditions

Date: Friday, June 26, 2009 - 2:30pm
Location: 7-eleven in Woodstock
Report: Coke was at it's finest today, best enjoyed on the 401 with the sunroof open... booyah

Date: Saturday, June 27, 2009 - 7pm
Location: MACs at Strasburgh and Block Line - Kitchener
Report: Runny sprite and ok coke mixed up to make something much too syrupy and upset my stomach. The leftovers were preserved through cryogenics and enjoyed on sunday afternoon with a spoon.

Thanks.

Official Froster Report

Location: Mac's at Block Line and Strasburg, Kitchener
Date: May 24, 3:00pm

Coke was at it's absolute best, which is good due to the fact that all
others were runny... Very good mix of syrup to frostery goodness today,
straight to the last drop. 1.18 L never tasted so good...

Motel Sicks

so, on the way up to Cochrane, we've decided to stay overnight about half way the last number of times. We decided to try to cut costs and stay at Motel 6 in Huntsville. Right off the bat, I should have walked out, because they didn't have a crib, but I was being cheap and optimistic. We got settled into the room and I get ready for bed. It was small, but modern enough. After about 10 mins of laying down, trying to convince Silas to fall asleep, I noticed my breathing getting very constricted. More than normal. Since the kids weren't enjoying the sleeping arrangements, and I couldn't breathe, we packed everything back in the car and checked out to try another hotel in North Bay with a crib and less poison rooms.

I went to the front desk to explain the situation and get my money back when they person working informed me that she could only give me half the money back for a 1 hour stay. I argued a bit, and asked to speak to a manager. At this point it was 11:30pm and neither manager answered their phones or cell phones, but one did call back... I overheard some parts of their conversation which included "they were in a pet room" and "he refuses to switch rooms". Luckilly, I needed no more argument and she refunded the whole price for me. I didn't even have to bring out he argument that people really shouldn't try to poison guests by not informing them that they were staying in a designated pet room.

Travelodge in North Bay was quite nice with a decent continental breakfast, a crib and we all had a good sleep.

THE END

Slurpee conditions

Time: 8pm
Location: king st, kitchener

pepsi and gatorade fruit punch are a formidable duo with great consistency and texture this evening... Worth the trip.

Slurpee conditions

As of 4pm on apr 23, conditions are favourable. gatorade fruit punch has potential, reminiscent of Tahiti Treat.

Official Slurpee Report: TO Edition

No, it's not the Terell Owens edition, I stopped in at the ol Sev Elev on tha way home from working in Toronto on Wednesday.  Conditions at the 7 eleven on Rutherford Rd in TO are as follows:

Pepsi: Excellent condition, thick enough to last until Guelph.

Gatorade G-Force: Tasted more like a powerade I've had before, was pink instead of orange... methinks it wasn't the Gatorade afer all. 

Washroom: I'm glad I only had to pee, cause that toilet gets an F

Thanks for tuning in... 

Official Slurpee Conditions Report

As of 9:30pm, March 29th, 2009 at Derry Rd Location, Mississauga, ON

Looked like dire straits at this particular 7-eleven until fully rounding the corner to find the second slurpee machine!  Coke was in it's element tonight, thick enough to pile to a nice cone at the top.  I give it 5/5, though none of the other flavours were operational or appetizing. 

Stopped by after visiting the meeting house oakville for The Attic... decent evening, though I still don't quite understand what 'emotionally disabled' means... reminds me of the chapel at EBC where the guy said we were committing 'spiritual incest'...  weird.

March of the Penguin

so, I've been running a little file/print server in my basement on Ubuntu Linux for about a year or so now.  It's been quite stable and virus free, though recently it started becoming flaky and non functional for some of the basic purposes I wanted from it.  Part of it was hardware getting old and failing...  Anyways, I decided to upgrade my storage and rebuild the thing last week and I installed the latest release of Ubuntu, 100% pain free.  It found all the drivers, and didn't bother me, like a windows install does, periodically to click next.  

Then I try to get the file shares going, no problem... next, print sharing.  Trouble.  It wasn't as easy as I remember and I start mucking around with settings and editing config files... typical old school linux crap.  Not only could I not print, but my file shares stopped too...  Running out of usable time, I did what I thought I would never do...  I went back to good ol' windows.  

More painul install, trying to find current drivers, doing 4 or 5 batches of updates etc... I can now print and access my files with reasonable ease.  I think the main difference was that I switched from win 2000 server which was quite clunky and beligerent sometimes.  Now I've gone to XP pro, not exactly server class, but a little smoother.  Maybe Bill Gates likes mullets.

Just for me mom...

At the request of my mom, here's a pic with the mullet and a wifebeater.  Faith pulled out the flat iron and straightened my hair lat night... People at church thought it was quite something. 

I'm glad my hair isn't naturally straight.  This is pretty intense though.  

Obey the Mullet!

Here's some pics of the complete package... Mullet and handlebar...  I decided, after forgetting to decide on anything for lent, to give up my dignity and get a mullet.  Not the first run at this particular 'Euro' hairstyle.  The challenge to keep it til easter may be difficult... 

Last week at Swiss Chalet, while waiting for a table, I caught a girl staring, then telling a friend and pointing. All while I was looking right at her, so I gave her a kissy face and raised my eyebrow and she hid in fear and embarrassment.  People seem to stare wherever I go, but shockingly I've found more people who don't notice or say it suits me.  One woman at work said it's 'sexy'.  Thanks Anne.   Another woman at work said that when she sees me, she 'hears Randy Bachman songs in her head'.  It's been fun to see people's reactions, now to see if I can last til easter.

Zap!

We're back

Had some troubles connecting to internet over the last couple days abroad, so I update from home.  Thursday, we sent a few poeple to Chotebor to go Bowling with the gypsies.  That was good times had by all.  We did some ESL classes in the evening and wound up our hockey week by beating the Skulls 7-5. 

 

Friday featured a trip to Pardubice for some souvenir shopping, and then to the baby orphanage for the afternoon.  Lots of time to play with babies and pray for them.  We headed back to Dlouhy for the hockey dinner in the evening.  There were about 25 players and their wives at the dinner, which was great!  We had soft tacos and spent the evening hanging out and getting to know people better.  The evening also featured a draw for door prizes, where we had enough prizes for everyone to take one home!  Amanda broke out her wig collection for some great photo op's and a great time was had by all.

 

Saturday took us to Prague to enjoy our last day in style and Fly home Sunday.  What a beautiful city with so much history. 

 

The trip wound up quite well, with a lot of good things coming out of it.  Many relationships were furthered and a lot of people heard testimonies of God's work in our lives.  We've appreciated your prayers through this trip and will have some pics up soon.

Ciao

Dan

Wednesday

Aho, from CZ.  Things are rolling along here.  Today the English camp wound up with a worship service, some baking and ultimate frisbee and a floorball game.  Chris shared his testimony and it was great. Things were pretty emotional at the end. 

 

We played the Panthers tonight and lost 12-5.  I had another 2 goals, but the secondary scoring was lacking. 

 

After the game on one of the shuttle rides back to Dlouhy, the van hit a patch of ice and wound up in the ditch on it's side.  Thankfully, no one was hurt at all!  It looked like quite a gentle landing, considering.  There goes the security deposit.  Ah well.  We will have to go on without a van for the rest of the week... a bit of a bummer. 

 

Please pray for continued safety on the roads as it hasn't really stopped snowing since we got here.  About 1.5 ft of snow has fallen since Sunday.  Pray also for the team as we get run down a bit and people get sick.  Thanks again for your prayers.

Dan

Tuesday Update

Tuesday was a great day here in Dlouhy, CZ.  We had Ryan give a talk on drugs and alcohol addiction with the kids.  he shared about his experience as a worker at a treatment facility and a personal testimony on how God can fulfill better than drugs or alcohol.

 

We went skating with a group of kids and had a ball playing hockey with the orphan boys and just clowning around. 

 

In the afternoon, we headed to Pardubice, about 45min away and watched a Czech Professional Hockey Game.  It was fun to see a different style of hockey (far less aggressive, but fast) and hang out with the kids.  We also experienced a czech mall food court for supper after the game.  New foods.  I had a Tex Burger which was a pita with a deep fried piece of cheese( syr) and coleslaw... very yummy, probably not healthy. 

 

Thanks for your prayers.  I'm battling a bit of a cold, so any more prayers you can float my way would be appreciated.

Ciao

Dan

Update

Hey all, did church this morning.  Were all blown away by the Hlinsko Church youth group band... they really get it!  We put together a band an played a few songs.  Jerrauld from SOS US preached as he was here setting up his intern in town.  We had a great time at Church and everyone was blessed in a different way.

 

After church, all of us got to experience the Czech grocery store...  fun with conversion of money and trying new strange things. 

 

We went by bus to Skutec to play hockey.  By we, I mean the Hockey team, Chris and the van keys in my pocket.  Unfortunately the rest of the group was forced to stay back and get to know each other better. We lost the game 8-6, featuring a goal by myself.  Schmidtke shared his testimony and we gave the hockey players an invitation to dinner on friday and a Christian sports DVD. 

 

Things are going well, despite the little brain fart with the keys. Thankyou for your prayers

ciao

Dan

We made it...

Here we are in CZ. It's quite snowy here. Our flights went smoothe as butter and all our bags made it through. We are settling in tonight, Church Tomorrow and a hockey game tomorrow night.

Keep us in your prayers this week as people will be stretched and challenged in their faith. Thanks for all your prayers thus far.

That's all for now. Czech Big Mac was a success, though the Swiss King is no longer on the menu... sigh.

The beard stays, you go...

I had some fun growing my Christmas beard this year and I kept it a bit longer than usual due to it being so cold out for most of january.  I remembered watching this Kids in the Hall sketch years ago and I can identify with the part where he says "my beard is too tight"... There is definately a stretch of a few days where it's unbelievably itchy, and that's where I usually draw the line and shave it off.  Though I've enjoyed and even got used to the combination chin scruff and handlebar moustache as per my mii, I think I'll be paring down to just the handlebar for Church League hockey and then all the way down for Sunday morning...  Funny, though... hardly anyone says anything in reaction.  I usually expect a few comments or laughs, but people seemed to be oddly polite this time around, or maybe they are just not enabling me by ignoring the undesired behaviour... 

The clip below is about 5 min, but it's got a few laughs. 8 days...

Mii myself and I

I <3 Shih-tzus

LOST is back.  

de Motivation

Here's a few twisted motivational posters... I've got the skydiving one at work modified to say "IDIOCY: Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups"

You ever wonder what to do with an old trampoline cover? I did... til this.

I went to college with this guy... he's hillarious.

Slurpee Conditions

For Jan 10, 2009:

Location: University and Bridge

Pepsi was in a great state this evening, quite thick, but kept up to the pace of consumption without drying out.  Dr. Pepper was a joke, pure liquid.  Watch out for the Crush Cactus one, as I got a brain freeze whilst sampling it... dangerous stuff.

Polar Express

We made it safely back from the North country today.  After a gruelling 12 hour journey, we came home to a furnace turned off due to dead batteries in the thermostat... Once I got the batteries installed, I noticed the current temperature sitting at a brisk 8.5 degrees celsius.  I don't know how long it had been since the furnace had kicked in, but all the plates and furniture were quite cold to the touch.  We are up to 17.1 now, so it's a bit more bearable. 

We spent the past week in Cochrane in sub zero farenheit temperatures, so it was a bit surprising to come home to a cold house.  Usually a trip like this takes 10 hours, but we needed a few unscheduled stops to calm irate children.  We're getting to be quite familiar with Walmart's stock and prices now.  We've been to the ones in Milton, Huntsville, New Liskeard, Cambridge and Kitchener in the last week.  They're good with kids because of the golden arches inside and lots of room to stretch legs.

anyways, I survived the cold, only got the jeep stuck once, and drove a tractor for the second time in my life.. 

not a bad week.  I won't mention how much weight I gained, because It'll likely be traumatic to look at a scale right now...