Doctor Kielbasa

It's 9pm and I've successfully filled my apartment and most of the 6th floor with the aroma of Blue Seal Kielbasa. It's driving me nuts. I'll have some tomorrow for lunch along with the nice fresh rye bread I bought today. mmmmm...

The reason I've gone and cooked that fine cylindrical meat is that tomorrow I've got some folks from work coming over. Pretty much just the girls that work for me. Maybe a few others, depending on who's around. It's a good team-building exercise, and cheaper than going out to a bar. Plus they'll help me rotate my stock of beer. Beer, Kielbasa, a variety of cheeses... Who can go wrong with that mix?

On my next trip back to Massachusetts I'll have to bring back the kielbasa mom got from Czabaj's, that however, needs to be saved for a special occasion. Someone needs to come visit.

That's about it for tonight. If reading about French chicks eating kielbasa is your thing, well enjoy. If not, well you're outta luck.

Me, Ange and Dave 

Wow what a pair. I didn't take these pics. Todd from Buffalo did while I was on stage. Some might say he should be ashamed. Others (like those of us who had to keep a close eye on this while on stage) might compliment him. Thanks Todd! 

Buffalo Chips

So this was my 2nd Dyngus Day spent in Buffalo, quite a good time.

Now I could have driven straight to Buffalo from Montreal, but that would have been the smart and easy thing to do. So instead I drove back to Massachusetts to pick up Swiader and then to Buffalo. So a 6 hour drive each way became 11. Good start.

I got into Massachusetts Saturday afternoon, where I thought it would be a good idea to spend like $120 on 2 bottles of Scotch. Then I drank almost half of one on my own (like the champ I am) after I had a few beers at On The Border. BBC's Maibock isn't too shabby this year. Then a bunch of us went to Westfield. I have a vague recollection of that part of the night, however for some reason. Must be the weather.

Sunday, my asshole travel buddy got to Chicopee at 10 and we spent the next 5 and a half hours driving in his fine Swedish automobile (that's sarcasm).

We played that night along side Lenny and the boys. They sounded great actually. Alalal played concertina, Kevin Adams played Trumpet and Nick not only wrecked Dzuiba's bass head, but managed to anger Rocky by messing with his. Nice job Nick! I guess we had about 700 there throughout the night from what I've heard. Got to run into my buddy Robin Pegg there, hang out with my favorite Polack and got tailed by a stalker most of the night. Quite the complete evening.
I also had the pleasure of meeting Kenny Krew (from the Krew Brothers) who complemented me on my drumming. That was cool. He wanted me and Swiader to come out for drinks and everything, but us being the responsible individuals we are, we said no (no lie!). Got back to the hotel at around 1 where that asshole thought he'd be funny and read the Bible aloud while I was trying to get some sleep. But it was Easter so, I let it slide.

Monday, we went to brunch down the street. Ran into Lenny's boys on the way in and Scrubby and his mom on the way out. We had a brief practice then brought our stuff over to Hearthstone Manner for the gig. Jan Cyman played before us. He sounded really good and also offered to help me with my taxes this year. Great!

That job went pretty well too. Estimates say that about 4,000 people came through the doors at Hearthstone throughout the day. It was packed with lots of nice scenery. Too bad every gig can't be like that.

On a down note, I had to let Ed know I won't be able to do quite a few jobs this year. In fact, more than half due to the way he's got things booked. So, not quite sure what's going to happen there this year. I'd kinda like to do the recording we're working on tunes for, but only time will tell.

So we got done with the gig and on the road around 2am. Drove straight back to Massachusetts. Had breakfast, ran errands and then back to Montreal. I'm still beat.

Fat Man and Little Boy 

Feedback, Cubans and Polka Vinyl

Well I guess quite a few people read Canadiamania based on the amount of emails and IMs I got regarding yesterday's post. About 70% agree with me, the rest of you, well, you can go Red State yourself.

Today was payday up here in Canada, so I went down to my neighborhood tobacconist to spend some of my hard(ly) earned money. I rather enjoyed the Cohiba's I shared with Tim and Charles last month so I picked up a couple more. The guy there also recommended these Gars that he gets "special" from Cuba. They're called AROs. $10 a piece for a good-sized cigar so I picked up a few of them to see what they were like. I also came across a nice humidor in the shop. It was moderately priced considering its size, but the guy knocked $25 off so at that price, who could resist. My current humidor only holds 5-8 gars depending on their size. This one will hold a hell of a lot more. I'll post a picture. I just need to treat it so it will keep my cancer logs nice and moist.

Right now, I am enjoying one of those AROs. Pretty darned good for a $10 cigar. I've also decided to crack open that nip of Lagavulin that was sitting in my cabinet. Why not!?

I need to spend some more time at this place. Everytime I go there, there's a bunch of dudes just sitting around a table, stogie in hand (or mouth) either watching TV, reading the paper or whatever comes along. That sounds like a fun Saturday morning activity. I'll have to get in on that.

And to complete the evening... Billy Belina's Polka Vinyl Show is on right now. Much better than the Saturday morning show, mainly because even on the net, WMUA still comes in with static. And also because I don't have to listen to 10 minutes of "get well" wishes for every old codger that broke a hip in Western Mass between every song. Good show Billy!

Smallville comes on in an hour.

Politics Revisted

First off... Happy Birthday to William Shatner. Mr. Shatner, a native of Montreal, is 74 today. This ties in nicely with today's topic: politics. Now the average reader of this blog will say "But Shatner played Captain Kirk in Star Trek, which is a fictional show, how does that have to do with politics?". Well it seems that our jaggoff of a President and his aides not only use religion for their basis of US Policy these days, but Star Trek is also a part of it. Hear is an interesting read for you:

http://trekweb.com/articles/2005/03/21/423f61c0dbd64.shtml

Now, hearing Dubya explain his reasoning for one of his many stupid actions is because "Jesus told me" is bad enough, but this has gone too far. And I kinda recall Captain Kirk and crew doing everything possible to avoid a war with the Klingons even though one was iminent just cuz they wanted to avoid war at all costs. Dubya must not have seen that episode when we decided to go into Iraq 2 years ago for no reason. Or perhaps maybe back then we were basing foreign Policy on reruns of Gunsmoke. I'm not sure. Regardless, someone needs to take that lady and her boss and pull their heads out of their asses. Then they should be beaten with their own appendages.

That brings us to the Terri Schiavo case. It's nice to know that Congress held a special session to get involved with this over the weekend. Here is another group of assholes that sit around with their thumbs up their asses while our soldiers are dying in the Middle-East for lack of a good reason, Kids are shooting up high schools with their grandfather's police revolvers and sex offenders are kidnapping, raping and murdering little girls in a state that still can't vote right. Yet this is more important. Oh yeah, and I should add that the people driving this happen to also be Republicans.

Now... her husband says she said at one point or another that should would prefer death to being a vegetable. Her parents say that she would never say that because life is so important her religious upbringing means she would choose living as a vegetable as opposed to dying. Now, I went to catholic school for a few years, did the whole church thing etc etc, when I was younger and for the life of me I can't ever remember reading the scripture where Jesus taught that artificial life support is the way to go. Maybe I was out that day. However, I for one, if ever in that situation would prefer to be put out of my misery than spend 15 years admiring the lightbulb above my bed while I'm being fed from a tube and having someone to change my diaper daily. Call me weird. Regardless there are reasons we have 3 branches of government and a reason for separation of church and state, which seem to be getting ignored more and more these days.

Oh yes.. Then we also have the Roman Catholic Church commenting on this. OK... the last thing the Roman Catholic Church should be doing these days is saying what is moral or not. This is the same organization that says its immoral to grant Terri Shiavo's wish and let her die, the same organization that says 2 chicks can't get married no matter how hot they are because its immoral is the same organization that turns a blind eye while all these kids are getting molested by priests and other officials in the organization. The church should spend a little more time finding ways to keep Father Shanley from playing hide the holy sausage with his head altar boy than worrying about other things they're not directly involved in.

And finally... There seems to be some buzz that Massachusetts Governor "Nit Wit" Mitt Romney may have trouble running for president in 2008 because he's a mormon. I for one would never vote for the guy cuz I disagree with many of his policies and because I dislike him in general. However, one thing about him is I have never heard him talk about Joseph Smith and the Golden Plates and all that other horse shit while he has been in office. For that he gets a gold star. A Republican that keeps church out of what he does in office is rare these days. And if he decides to run in 2008, he should lose because he is a moron not because he is a mormon. Pretty clever huh? I came up with that myself.

For those of you interested in a religion that is openly corrupt and won't intervene in shit that doesn't pertain to them simply because it interferes in their ongoing quest for slack, please check out http://www.subgenius.com/ and be enlightened by the teachings of Bob Dobbs. And no.. they're not serious. Well not really..

It's Miller Time.

What a blast!

And no this isn't a reference to Iraq... We'll discuss politics again later this week. This time, however, I'm referring to Chicago.

I got in around 4pm their time. Which is like 5pm our time, unless of course you're reading from the west coast and then its 2pm. If you're reading from another time zone, well, figure it out for yourself. Now in typical Crusade fashion, the most logical easy way to handle these arrangement presented themselves, yet, we decided to take the more difficult, less intelligent way of doing things. This included driving around the same road for over an hour for no apparent reason. Finally got to the Glendora House, set up and guess what... there were difficulties getting with the sound system. For any of you in the loop, you'll know what that's all about. Again, it's a great sounding system when you know how to use it, but, when you don't, it's just extra-heavy shit.

The gig went fairly well. Not bad considering this is the second time we've all played together in like 4 months. Jr Blaz, Bobby Zima, Freddy K, John Gora, Gene Swick and quite a few other dignitaries were there. Zima borrowed my Greg Glen (you know, "kielbasa") ride cymbal as he tried it out on a gig last summer and liked it. I have to make sure to get that back from him or else. But all in all, it was nice to see everyone, we did well and much was imbibed. After a bunch of us all went out to eat so we didn't get in until 4am. Pity that my nazi accordion player roommate had to wake up at 5:30 to get to the airport when I got to sleep in. Being the nice guy he was though he decided to smoke 4 or 5 cigarettes before he left.

Sunday I accompanied Ed and his family along with their German foreign exchange student downtown. I got to see the Sears tower and some other buildings. Caught a glimpse of the Navy Pier as well. That was kinda cool. Then they went to Medieval Times and I went to my hotel... By the way.. Keith Stras is the man. Due to my flight schedule I needed a cheap place and Keith was able to really pull through. Later that day I had planned to check out some more of the city and grab a beer or two with Tommy Kowalski, however, I kinda fell asleep a bit early and when I woke up at midnight, it was a little late to call. So, that was that. I'll have to make it back out there again soon though. Really nice city.

I was gonna continue working on writing out some charts tonight, however, I'm totally burnt out from the weekend. So, I'll spend some more time on that this week. I have Friday off due to the holiday and nothing to do so, that's my gameplan!

Hey! Look at my balls. 

Top o' The Morning Eh!

Well actually it's like 8pm but, shh don't tell anyone.

So today is St. Patrick's Day. A day where everyone pretends to be Irish. Too bad not many countries are building railroads anymore...

I asked a few people at work if there's anything special going on for St. Patrick's Day and they all looked at me like was from another country or something. The response was, "uh yeah, duh, St. Patrick's Day in Montreal is bigger than anywhere else." Well excuse the f&$^ out of me for not thinking that an area full of pea-soup eating, pacifist-socialists are known for celebrating Irish culture.

I didn't do much for the holiday... "No shit, it's 8 o' clock and you're online" you say? Well, I need my money for the weekend (read below). I did finally make it back to the mall after work to pick up a display case for my Bobby Doerr baseball as seen above. And on the way back I hit up The Old Dublin Pub on University Street for a Shot and a Beer. Typical Irish bar. They had live Irish music today. They also have an extensive list of Single Malts ranging from 10-25 years old. I went for something in the 12-year old range that really wasn't anything special, which is why I can't remember what it was. And of course, I had a Guinness -- For Strength!

I would have stayed out and celebrated like a champ, however, this weekend Crusade is playing in Chicago. I was going to be driving there, so I wasn't going to be there all that long. However, this morning I found a cheap flight, which is preferable to driving 32 hours in 2 days by myself. But, however, the flight leaves Monday morning so Sunday I'll have to explore Chicago, therefore I'll need money.

But think that'll stop me from enjoying this fine day? HA! I'm taking from my stock of Samuel Adams (always a good decision) and I've got a little nipper of Oban that I'm sipping from. YUM.

Time for some shenanigans...

I picked this sign up at Michael's the other day as it would go nice in my apartment. Too bad, however, half of it is a lie... I don't hang out with Poker Players...  

Back For A Bit

Back in the comfort of my own apartment, for a few days anyway.

This trip back to Mass was pretty cool all around. Still an odd feeling being a "visitor" but, that'll pass. The weather kinda killed Saturday so I never quite made it to Gilbertville or Haverhill. Instead I went up to the Hampshire Mall where I picked up another Bathroom Reader as I've gone through the one I got for Christmas. What's great about these books is that they take being full of shit and turning it into an educational opportunity. This will further help my sinister plan of world domination...

Now back to my recap... So after that, I hit up Pizzeria Uno. Then Matt and I went to the Rolling Roc. Quite the friendly tavern it is. Well Kevin and his friend Jon were supposed to come down and they got there and this kid doesn't bring his ID with him. There's a f*!$&%^ brilliant idea. "Hey, I'm a stoner that doesn't look of age but I'll go to this bar anyway and see what they say." So Kevin said he was gonna bring the kid back to get his stuff on the other side of the city and come back. Well, that being the perfect opportunity to gay-out... Neither of them came back. However, Jess and Theresa came down. And they're more fun to look at (amongst other things) than the other two so it wasn't a bad deal. Theresa and I ended up schooling Matt and Jess in the fine sport of billiards.

From there, we all disbanded and I ended up hanging out with some girlies in the South End. Don't even ask. But the place was wicked sketchy so I guess you could say it was ok.

Sunday, I had the pleasure of packing all my stuff back up and getting ready to go home. Chrissy (the girl I work with that was supposed to come to Boston) ended up coming down and going back a day early with some friends, so I didn't have to play taxi. Though it would have been cool to have someone to drive home with. I stopped by the Ludlow PACC to check out the DynaBrass reincarnated. They sounded pretty good. The kid they have on drums is quite the talent. I'll have to have his legs broken before he becomes a threat. Where's Whitey Bulger when you need him? I started off drinking water which was how I was hoping to finish the evening but that, as we all know, was a plan doomed from the start. It was Terri's birthday so, she insisted I drank with her. So I had a couple beers before I switched back to water. I was also hoping to get on the road by like 5. Well being the disappointment that I am, I didn't get on the road until 7:30.

I should have been back by like 12:30-1, however, as I went to gas up, I came to find out my Corporate Card got cancelled. Hmmm, was this the company's silly way of telling me I was fired or was it a big misunderstanding? That made me look forward to Monday! Well as the ATM there was broken I was forced to get off in Lee (the town, not Elmowitz) to get some money. Well to keep another long story from getting even longer.. I pulled into St-Laurent around 1:45.

I find not having too many distractions (other than the French Girls, which is quite the distraction) has allowed me to actually devote some time to developing that elusive Groove CD that has been in the "pre-planning" phase for like 4 years. I started writing out some charts tonight. At this rate, we'll be ready to record in 17 or 18 years. Jeez, I hope it lives up to its expectations.

Time to call it a night...

Let It Snow Let It Snow Let it.. This blows...

Well, I'm back in Massachusetts (again) and its snowing (go figure). So this is putting the kybosh on today's activities -- For Now Anyway...

I got in Tuesday night. Took a lot longer than normal as I hit snow about an hour south of Plattsburgh, NY and had to deal with it all the way back to Chicopee. Ended up hitting the 99 when I got into town. Then I got back to my 'rents house to check my email and find out that the meeting I had the next morning, the only meeting, the one I drove out for was postponed. Great, things were off to a great start.

So Wednesday, I didn't go into work. Why deal with the weather. So me and Putnam went to City Jake's for breakfast. Haven't been there since the good ol' days at RCN. Nice and greasy, the way breakfast should be. Then we hit the mall with Noble. From there we were driving around and I decided to give Chuck a call to inform him I was gonna be in his area later that day and the next couple days... Well, he wasn't at work as he was plowing the night before so he beckoned us to stop down. So we did for quite a while where we enjoyed some of the finest milk and cookies.

Thursday was a work day. Had meetings and all that happy crap. Thursday night was kind of a recovery from the milk and cookies and the lack of sleep that accompanied their consumption.

Yesterday was good times. I had my performance appraisal which was pretty darned good. Surprising but I can't complain. Then the fun began. Matt and I went to Michael's which was quite the emmasculating experience. I had to get some plate holders for my trays. And some fake grapes for another one of those bottle lamps. We also stumbled on some tin signs that I bought. One said "Ice Cold Beer on Tap" which seemed nice. The other says "Beware, Poker Players and Loose Women Have Been Known to Frequent This Establishment." Say 'hello' to my new door sign! From there we went to the mall to pick up Lea and her friend Laura. Lea is like 20 but is only 4'9" tall and looks like she's 12. So, I decided to call Dave up, who thought it would be funny to show us the shovel and duffle bag in the trunk of his car. He was out of lyme though, which is a disappointment. We went bowling, then dropped of Laura and then the rest of us chilled at Dave's until like 3.

So that brings us to today. I was supposed to be hanging out with Tim and Pam after a brief layover in G-ville. Well, with the roads the way they are, Haverhill is pretty much out of the question and G-ville isn't looking promising, though I should stop in and be social. The Czabajs are also making their Easter Kielbasa which is a special treat in itself. So who knows.

That's that for now. Catch up with you all once I'm back up North.

Eh.

I bought these dudes like maybe 3 or 4 years ago if not longer. I just brought them back up from Massachusetts. Bob and Doug have returned to the Great White North. 

What a Corporate Whore

The more things change, the more they remain the same...

Well I was planning on coming back to Massachusetts again on the 11th, for a couple meetings. One of the girls from the office was going to come down as well as she wanted to check out Boston on the weekend.

That all changed today... Last week they hired a new Senior Vice President in charge of Customer Service for all of North America. But at my company, North America sometimes excludes Canada, which makes it funny cuz we don't have any operations in Mexico. Presumably because we all know Mexicans don't like to work. Oh wait, thats just a bad stereotype.. sorry.

Well today we cleared it up that I don't report to him. I'm still king of the hill right now in Canadia, which is cool. But, I do have a "dotted line" going to him in my reporting chart, meaning I don't answer to him directly, but I should work with him to the best of my ability. I can live with that. Though I also need to be careful that I'm not busting my ass just so he can swoop down and take credit for the work I'm doing. That bastid. Well, he's trying to get the Call Center in Maynard COPC Certified. COPC Certification is actually quite a good thing, the problem is I don't run a call center. I've got 4 reps that could be considered call center reps, 3 account managers that don't fall under the call center umbrella and a backoffice person. But, my boss requested I take part in the meetings to see if we can benefit from the certification. Well, I can cuz it will look nice on my resume, but as for the rest of the organization, now is not really the best time. But like a good soldier I said "Yes sir" and will see what's going on with this.

So as a result, I now have to go back down to Massachusetts Tuesday night for a meeting at 8am Wednesday Morning and one Thursday. Plus the one I had Friday already. Three days of travel for 3 meetings that are no more than 2 hours a piece. I'll have to find a more productive use of my time while I'm there. hehe. And on top of that, it looks like I'll be spending even more time in Massachusetts now while this certification process is going on.

This is cool, yet mildly annoying. It's always good to go back yet... They moved me up here in the first place cuz I was spending so much time in Montreal for work, now that I'm up here, I'll be travelling back to Massachusetts just as often. WHAT THE F***!!!!

I could just say "no" but me being the "team player" (read the title of this post) I swallow it. Pardon the pun.

So anyway... I'll be back for just about another full week, anyone interested in doing something... Call or email or something soon. I'll be out in Boston one night probably with Chrissy from work, or at least playing taxi... But, I've got a few more days so.. Let me know!

See some of you all soon.

My cool Fonseca Tawny Port Lamp. Thanks Mom! :-) 

Dyna Won't You Blow...

Your horn.

I was able to bring back one of my instruments across the border this last time... And it ended up being my trumpet. The bass may be next, but the trumpet was small, compact and would probably disturb my neighbors the least. Well, that is, once I got a mute. And that's what I picked up today.

There's this music store near my office called Steve's. And this place has one hell of a selection. Kind of if you combined Music Men, Gerry's, Falcetti's and Downtown Sounds into one big-ass store. They had a guitar shop, drum shop, keyboard shop, brass and woodwind shop and pro-audio shop. Crazy stuff. Their prices aren't too bad neither. I don't get a discount there however, so it's still cheaper to buy in Springfield or South Hadley when I'm in the area. So I bought a mute there. They had a bugle on sale for $40 Canadian. I may investigate that later.

So I get home from work and decide to bust out the horn. Man, this sucks. I bought that trumpet almost 7 years ago. Can't believe its been that long and I still can't play it for shit. Then again, for the last 3 years, I'd pick it up once or twice a year whenever I had time. But now, I should have a little more time to practice up here. I oiled it up all nice, and practiced for about 5-10 minutes (after a warm up of course) and that was all my lip could handle. But, it's a start. I wish I would have brought my Bb book with me so I have some tunes to play. Oh well, I've got some stuff here that'll tie me over until my next trip back.

Which brings me to my next topic... It looks like I'll be back Friday March 11 again. All those lame reviews that have soaked up my time for the last couple months, well I was supposed to get mine from my old manager, however, he and his wife just had a kid that week so, he rescheduled it to the 11th. The company didn't want to pay for the trip down there, so if I couldn't find a way to justify paying for it out of my budget, it would have to be delivered over the phone or I'd have to pay myself to get down there. I was leaning towards going the phone route, however, one of the girls at work is going to Boston for an interview or something on March 12 and noted that I'm from there and asked if I was planning on going back that weekend if we could carpool. Cha-Ching!! So I'll be back in town that weekend. But I have to be back Monday morning for a friggin' meeting at 8:30am so, it'll be a short trip.

And some alarming news for you all. The other day I mentioned how I've gotten the Canadians hooked on State-Line Potato Chips, which are "The Pride of New England". Well State-Line fell into some financial difficulty in the 90's and were bought out.. By Herr's I thought... Well, I happened to look at the back of the bag to find out that they are now made in Warwick, Quebec. That's right, State-Line Potato Chips are a product of Canadia. Sad Sad Sad. But what's funny is, you can't buy them up here. Dumbasses.

Time to catch Smallville.