Archive - April, 2004

----- 04.18.2004 --------
This week's been great so far, and it's not over yet! Monday night we had pool. We needed to win it if we're going to win our division. So, when put under pressure, that's what we did! Sure, it went down to the very last doubles match, but that's fine, cause we won! :) So, we're in either 1st or 2nd of the B Division. We play next week to find out where we sit. We're already guaranteed $250, but we'd like to take the $400 prize. Once the cheque comes, we'll get together and celebrate. There's 6 of us, so I doubt it will cover the whole night, but it'll put a good dent in the tab, that's for sure :) Moving along, last night, Tuesday night, I had a date! I went for dinner with a girl I met at 25dates.com a few weeks ago. We ate at Milestones and I had a really great time with her. Wednesday night, tonight... right now... I had a squash match. I played someone that usually beats me when it counts, but not this time! I ended up winning the match 3-2 (it was a best of 5). I was down the first 2 games, but then I focused, busted my ass, played my heart out, and stole the next 3 games! It felt awesome!!! Then I met up with my buddy chris and we worked out. Today was a bi's, tri's and forearms day. It too felt great, even though I was a little beat from the squash. Anyway, that about brings me to now. Tomorrow night is the Perfect Circle Concert. I can't wait!!!! I've been anticipating this for months! The last time I saw Maynard, the lead singer, was way back in Sept. 2001 when he performed with Tool. That was probably the best concert I've ever been to. Sure, my expectations are high for tomorrow, but I'm sure they'll live up to them. Well... I guess that's about it. All's going well here. I hope all of you are doing just as well. Taker easy!

----- 04.18.2004 --------
This weekend has been great! And long overdue! So you're thinking to yourself, what was so great about this weekend? Come to think of it, nothing. What did I do? Nothing... alteast nothing all the exciting. Friday night I went to the gym after work then came home, stayed in, and did my taxes. Then Saturday, I got up nice and early to the phone call of Abdul, my grocery gateway delivery guy. After I got my groceries sorted out, I stayed up and didn't go back to bed like I wanted to. I started cleaning. Full-blown spring cleaning. And that's been my whole weekend! Although my place is still far from spotless, it's much better off then it's been in a long time. I had years of magazine piling up, and stuff cluttering every surface. I sorted through all kinds of paperwork and made room for what had to stay, and what had to go. I threw out tons of crap. I'm such a packrat! I even tossed my beer cap colleciton. Yes, 9.5 lbs of caps... GONE! I still have a ton of work to do, but I've started the job, so it's that much easier to tackle. And that made for a great weekend! I feel so much better for it! The weather even cooperated by raining. Nothing makes me want to stay inside more then bad weather does. Today I brought back a few empty cases to the beer store and the weather's starting to shape up. On my way back, I noticed the coolest thing! The CN tower was surrounded in mist and the sun was just breaking. At the right angle, the sun would hit the windows on the side of the tower and reflect into the mist creating an echo of sunbeams. It's tough to explain, so I took some pics! On my 2nd trip to the beer store to return more empties, I grabbed my camera and took a bunch of pics. Hopefully a few of them captured the beauty of it. Anyway, I'll post them up so you can see for yourself. After getting back, I went up to the roof to BBQ a nice thick top sirloin steak. It was awesome! And now? I'll finish some cleaning, watch Sopranos when it comes on at 9, and get to bed early. Tomorrow night we've got pool. It's down to the semifinals. If we win tomorrow, we've secured a cash prize. If not, we still have the next week to battle it out for 3rd place. Wish us luck! Cheers!

----- 04.11.2004 --------
I'm just onmy way back to Toronto from Windsor on the train. What better time killer then a quick site update from my blackberry? Sure, it's not fully aytomated... This'll take a cut and pate, but still, it's great way to pass the time. This weekend went by too quickly unfotunately. I took the noon train and got in around 4. I relaxed, had a nap, ate, and then went out with a couple buddies I haven't seen in what seems to be forever. So, we met up at "Abars" and put back the pops. What a fun night! Of course it wasn't long before we were caught up with each other again and turned our attention to the pool table. Justin and Kevin, the 2 friends I went out with, are actually going to Vegas for pool! They won their league and that's the prize. How sweet! Speaking of pool, our team's doing alright. We're going into the semi-finals come April 19th. I've got my fingers crossed... We've come this far, so why not finish first in our division?!? It'd be a good way to finish off the league since I won't be playing next year. You heard me right. Sure, I said that last year and still played, but not this time. This time I'm not playing and I mean it! It's just too much and starts my week off all wrong! Alright... Back to my weekend. Ok, so I woke up really late saturday with a sweet hangover. A bit, later we (my family minus Laura, who's still in Australia) went out to Riverside Tavern for some pizza and beer. There's something to be said for tradition, and for this one, all I can say is "Yumm!!!". I love their pizza! After that I started to watch a movie and fell asleep on the couch. Since I was so tired, I took advantage of it and went to bed nice and early. This morning I got up at the crack of dawn and watched "Bulletproof Monk" with my Dad around 7. It's cool seeing movies shot in Toronto since I recognize so much. In this case, I actually saw them shooting one of the scens outside the Daily Bread Foodbank. It's a scene where a satellite falls through the roof of a minivan. Jamie & I were walking past there on our way to the climbing gym about a year and a half ago. Speaking of climbing... I think it's been since september or october since I've last been! Time to dust off the gear and go! I should find it a bit easier because I feels stronger, however I'm heavier and that's going to work againt me. Considering the fingers are usually the weakest link, they may go first. Anyway, I got totally side-tracked! After the movie, Nicole & I did a quick easter egg hunt. That's tradition for ya :) I won. :) After that, I went out for a quick blade. It was fairly cold and windy, so I kept it short. I only went about 3K, but it's better then nothing. After I got back, we had an early dinner with my aunt, uncle, cousins and my grandma. My Mom put on a wicked spread as usual... Turkey and ALL the fixin's... And then some! After dinner, it was off to he trainstation to catch my 5:30 train. And that's where I am now... Just the other side of Woodstock, past the half way mark. Well, thanks for helping me kill some time :) I hope everyone had a Happy Easter and got to spend time with their families. Laura: Happy Easter down under! LYBB (laura knows what I mean by it... And its our little secret ;). Cheers everyone! < send >

----- 04.07.2004 --------
Wow, can you believe Easter is this Sunday?!?!? That's great! It means another trip to Windsor to see the family. My train leave TO at noon Friday. I'm not sure what I'm going to do on the train yet. Normally I read a book or something. Maybe it's time for a new book.... but what to get? I could do some self-studying, which would probably turn into a nice sleep ;) Either way, it's a short 4 hours. After that flight to Australia, anything less is no problem! Let's see... what's new since my last update date? Well, Monday night was pool, as usual. In fact, it was the quarter finals for us. And.... drull roll please... we won! We automatically play the next two mondays now. If we lose the next, we'll play next next week to determine 3rd and 4th. But who's thinking that way? We're using that 2nd Monday to claim 1st place!!! That's more like it :) Wish us luck! Hopefully we'll do better then I did in my squash ladder league match last night. I lost 1-3, but I'll blame it on the pool the night before. I really wasn't feeling 100%. Not even close! When I got home from the match, I had Matrix: Revolutions awaiting me. I had pre-ordered it over a month ago from Amazon.ca. What an awesome movie! I watched about half last night then had to call it quits and hit the hay. And today? Fairly uneventful. Pretty busy day at work, then went to the gym. I had a good shoulders and back workout, with a bit of arms thrown in the mix. Tomorrow I hope to work out as well, but that will depend on how much squash I play. My knee is starting to act up, so I might take it easy and only play an hour or so... then work out :) I don't think it could take the 2 - 3 hours I usually torture myself with on Thursday nights. Well... I guess that's about it. Be sure to check out my links page since I'm always updating it. Newest links are near the top of each section. That's all for now... cheers and have a great long weekend!

----- 04.04.2004 --------
Wow! It's already April! I've been really busy lately and I guess I have quite a bit to write about. I guess I'll start with Monday. Like every Monday, we had pool league again. Unlike every Monday, this was the first round of playoffs. We played again W.C. Fields. Luck was in our corner this time and we were able to the 5 points (out of 9) before even going into doubles! It's single elimination, so we needed the win. I envy their team though... atleast they're finally done their season! Tomorrow night we play against O' Grady's #2. We beat them in regular season, hopefully we can do it when it counts. They've got home field advantage, but that's already. They'll need it :) Ironically, they took out our other team, Harbour #2, last week. On Tuesday night my cousin came in from out of town to stay with me for a couple days since he had some interviews here in Toronto. Wednesday was an interesting night. And a busy one! Unfortunately I had a funeral (memorial) to go to. A friend of ours, Stuart Budden, died last week. It was a fluke accident when he tripped and hit his head. The absolute worst came from it and he ended up in a coma in the hospital. After some tests, I guess they found hemorraging in his brain. Sunday evening he passed away. He'll be greatly missed by a lot of us. The neighbourhood just won't be the same without him. After the memorial, I had signed myself up for 25dates.com. It's speed-dating, for those of you unfamiliar with it. It offers you a 3 minute date with 25 single women. I did it about a year & a half ago, back in July of 2002. I had a blast then, and had a blast this time too! In fact last time, I ended up meeting a great girl that I went out with for about 4 months. I guess I wasn't really ready back then & ended it without much reason. This time I feel a lot readier to meet someone. Readier... is that a word? Anyway... After the evening ended, I came home and hooked up with my cousin. We went down the street ot the Harbour sports Grill for some beers and some pool. We had a lot of fun. It was a little strange... this was actually the first time we've been out together. Every other time I've seen him was at family gatherings and such. Thursday was fairly low key. I had a squash match scheduled, but the guy I was playing forget his shorts! So, he showed up in his street clothes and said we've have to reschdule. No worries... Thursdays are round-robin night so I found lots of games to play. My game's really improving! Quitting smoking was the best thing I could have done for it. It's hard to believe that my 1 year anniversary of my last cigarette will be at the end of this month! Friday night, I went out to Lava Lounge. It was a weird night. Things got messy at then end of the night and we got in a scrap. We were outnumbered 10-3, but I had to stick by my friends. Fortunately for me I came out of it basically unscratched. Jamie wasn't quite as lucky and ended up with a boot salad. He's got quite the bruise and a bit of roadrash on his head, but all in all, he came out OK. Man, there are a lot of stupid people out there! This all started over something as stupid as liking/disliking the Leafs! Anyway... yesterday was a relaxed day, and so was last night. Today I went next door to get a "BioPhotonic Scan". They count the free-radicals and such in your body by scanning with a blue laser. I don't really don't understand it all yet, but will look up more on Pharmanex's Website. My results were very poor. I only measured a count of 17,000. I guess the Jamieson's Power Vitamins for Men that I take aren't doing much for me. My diet's pretty bad. Not enough fruits and vegetables. Anyway, I'm going to try 2 months of their "LifePak" mulitvitamins and see how that works out for me. I'll get another scan in 2 months and see how I've improved. I really want to live healthier, I just find it next to impossible to eat a healthy amount of fruits and vegetables. If some multivitamins will help me achieve a healthier lifestyle, so be it. I'm always looking for a better me... :) Anyway, that wraps up this update. As you can see... I'm doing well and keeping busy. Before I end this though, I want to share some links with you. Remember "Habitrail", those yellow tubes for a hamster or gerbil? I used to have one for my gerbil. Anyway, Habicase is the next generation :) Now you can include your pet while racking up frags in UT 2004 :) I also came across the story of the story of a 14m3r who wants to name his child in H4x0r. Too funny! 7h1s 15 R06 G1r4rd, s1gn1ng 0FF....

-------------------------
SEE THE ARCHIVE FOR PAST MUMBLINGS

© 2000, Rob Girard dot com