Another Week In Boxes

Well not much new here. Kylie has cut a couple more teeth. Her two upper fangs have come in and her two front teeth are coming in as well. I guess she'll have to want something else for Christmas this year (*rim shot*). I took them to Chuck-e-Cheese's last night. Man does that pizza suck. I was a bit pizza'd out yesterday. For work, we went on our annual outing. This year was to this place in CT called Nomad's which is like Chuck-e-Cheese's for big kids. I should have requested to go on Friday. Since the majority of my employees have an average tenure of 10+ years, there's abit of an age gap there. Friday's group had a few younger guys which would have made Laser Tag a little less like shooting fish in a barrel. Same with the rock wall. I haven't ever been on one of those things but it was pretty cool. Surprisingly, I was able to easily scale the intermediate and advanced walls a couple times each. Not surprisingly, I was the only one. haha. Oh well it was good times and nice to get out of the office.
The condo is coming together more and more. But still not settled in yet. I managed to get the doors on my cabinets. It's a little weird having to open a cabinet to get a beer glass now, but you can't win 'em all. My mom did a kick-ass job on the girls' room. Her and Cioci Cynthina put the wall border up in there and also hung the curtains in my room. Things are close to being "settled" I guess. I need to put the furniture together in the girls room. Also need to hang some shelves in my room for my cable box. The home theater isn't set up yet neither which is crap... I bought these brackets online, but the speakers are a little top heavy. So.. I need to come up with a way to space them from the wall. Maybe this weekend I'll do that. Once that's done, there's a million little projects but that's the bulk of the big stuff. I'll need to paint the hallways and hang my screen doors (with some help ahem) and still the get sink in my downstairs bathroom set up but that's all minor stuff. The bedrooms, kitchen, living/dining room and upstairs bathroom were the important ones and they're almost done. woohoo..

Which brings me to the next thing... I definitely do not intend to have a housewarming of any sort. The big reasons are time, money, lack of parking AND... there's no way I can fit everyone (or even a fraction of everyone) I'd invite in the place at once. Which would result in me doing like a full week of housewarmings and that just wouldn't work. But, everyone is welcome to come down whenever I'm around to either check it out, or hang out for a while or whatever... Usually later in the evening is best. Saturdays I'm usually free after 6 so that's really the best time. And please, please, please don't feel obliged to give me housewarming gifts (I mean it). I have, for the most part, most everything I need. For those of you that insist... Home Depot gift cards would help me further fix up the joint, but I'd rather the company than gifts of any sort.

This weekend coming up is a bit of change... Usually I see Kylie for a little Friday, when I'm picking up Natalie for her sleep over. But I won't be seeing either of them tonight. Instead, I have them all day tomorrow as Julie has family obligations. So tonight, after a little work around the condo, I'll probably head over to Thirsty Minds for some coffee or belgium ales. Then Sunday I got thrown some extra hours at the Apple Store which is always good since Sunday means time and a half.

That's about it. Not a whole lot of excitement.

He's Dead Jim

Tough couple weeks it looks like.. Alexender Courage died on May 15. He is the composer responsible for the original Star Trek theme. The "fanfare" to the theme has appeared in every production since.

Also dead is Joseph Pevney who directed "City on the Edge of Forever" as well as"The Trouble with Tribbles".

And finally, not related to Star Trek but still important nontheless... Harvey Corman died yesterday. He was in everything from the Carol Burnett show to many of Mel Brooks' films. His best performance was of course in Blazing Saddles where he played Heddy Lamar (That's HEDLEY!).

Wedding Bellz...

No not mine... Done with that..


The moving and renovations continue... This weekend I managed to get some of my home theater set up. My rear speakers are all that's left. I bought these brackets to mount them to the wall but I need to put a spacer between the wall and the bracket as the speakers need to be mounted forward just a little. It's a little problem but was quite the hang up. I also picked up the girls' bunkbeds. It'll just be a twin bed for Natalie for now but when Kylie is older, they'll get set up as bunks.
Then Saturday I had the pleasure of renting my equipment to John Gora for a wedding in Ludlow. What a friggin' night. It actually started off when I had to pick up a certain nameless accordion player at the airport. Having not seen him for the past 3 years, it was great that the first words out of his mouth were "hey check this out, I took at the Cleveland Airport!" It was a picture of a sign that said "Cleveland Shines". Must be their new baseball team or something. haha. My how little things change. Well we got to the hall where they had this HUGE appetizer spread. After we set up, I jetted for a while to be with the girls. Kylie is growing up so fast. And Natalie seems to be slowly but surely getting out of those terrible two's (though she's 4 and a half). Kylie's also sprouting a couple more teeth. Well after I dropped them off in Palmer, back to Ludlow I went. It was quite the party. I missed the meal, but quality time with the girls more than made up for that. When I got there, they were bringing out deserts. Later on they brought out the buffet. Oh.. and two of my favorite words.. "Open Bar". And it was all top shelf. It was a night of Chivas and Opa-Opa. Gora played mostly his disco polo stuff. Very few polkas. I got up and jammed a little. In between trying to mingle with people who had no idea who I was... Which was probably for the best. It's unfortunate I had to break down and load equipment. The whole night was pretty out of control... It was also pretty funny to listen to some of the old Versatones pissing stories. Why those guys were obsessed with that, I dunno.
I worked from 12-5 at the store Sunday and Monday. Sunday night I did some clean up and worked a little on the theater system. Ended up watching Cheech and Chong with someone later on the evening on Sunday. Monday night, Matt helped try to get the rear speakers set up but no luck until I get some wood to create some space between the wall and the brackets. Then him, me and my dad went to see Indiana Jones. I'd seen 3 movies in the theaters in the past 3 years. 1 of which was with Natalie. I've seen the same movie twice in the last 4 days. That'll be it for a little while.
Now I look at the clock and imagine what awaits me in the office tomorrow morning. I tell ya.. it's like running a day care. But it pays the bills... has tons of opportunity and free cable...

And We're Baaaaaack!

2 and a half years later, Canadiamania is back...

Now that I'm once again enjoying the single life, I've had a literal shitload of requests for Canadiamania to rear its ugly head once again. I have decided to skip over Canadiamania II and continue with the original. Pretty much bypassing the last 3 years.

So I'm single once again. Much to my chagrin... things didn't work out. I'll be nice about the whole matter, but well, the apple doesn't fall far from the tree... or the other apple for that matter. I'm not a quitter but when faced with a no-one scenario, it was what had to be done and we move on.

I've got the girls 4 times during the week. And.. I've got a nice little condo in South Hadley. The apartment in St-Laurent makes this place look like a dive, but, that's the way the cards were dealt. It was a foreclosure that I got a great deal on and between some of my friends, and mainly my parents... its coming together..

So... on to the debauchery. Well, I ran into Eldred at the Apple Store the other day. We will be making our triumphant return to the 5A soon. I've been hanging out with my pal Heidi, we'll leave it at that. And... last night I went to see Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of The Crystal Skull with Heather and Tricia. Prior to that we hit up this Coffee bar in town that happens to sell wine and Chimay... How fuckin' cool is that?

If you want to see some pictures... http://web.mac.com/john.daigle

Well that's it for now. Time to get back to watching Blue Velvet with Putnam. Then John Gora is playing some wedding in Ludlow tomorrow and I'm renting my equipment to him so I gotta get ready for that... Best part is, I can eat and hang at the reception... Keep checking back for more...