Weekend Report

You know you've had a good weekend when you are ready to go back to work. My good buddy Rob from Ottawa came down to Brockvegas, lol I'll back to that, to play the Phoenix with his band Shotgun Kiss. The last time he played there they didn't want to pay him because the owner thought he was dropping too many F-bombs. I was very impressed with the covers Shotgun Kiss belted out. The funny part was Rob yelling out " How you doing Brockvegas!" The band told him at the end of the first night that "Brockvegas" was derogatory and the locals would not like it. I feel this is my fault because I use "Brockvegas" a lot, but since I'm a local I can use it, got that Rob! lol

Well the highlight of the first night was this woman, I use the term loosely, was after Rob and would not take no for an answer. I started with "Rob is my gay lover" and she shot back with a "Cool, I like that, can I join in?". Taste of vomit in my mouth when she finished saying that. Then she wanted to know what would I want to try and hook her up with him, ew I just felt dirty! I told her to find a nice local boy, but that just fired her up even more! Finally, I just told her he was engaged to me married, first I was surprised at how fast it made it around the bar, second she didn't believe me. She must have found a local guy after all since I didn't see her after last call. Maybe they threw her out, which would not surprise me at all! I wish I hadn't forgotten the camera the first night, you would laugh if you could see her!

After that Rob kept me up till 5 AM sucking back beers and chatting about past tales. Damm you Rob I felt like crap the next day. No, it didn't help me that I had 3 1/2 hours sleep and played Squash the next day hungover. After Squash it was back to bed, to get rested up for another night with Rob at the bar. I was dead tired, but he had the place jumping again, guess what, I was there till closing again! Damm you Rob! Well I had a blast and the best part is I have a month to rest up till the next time you and your band are back again to rock Brockvegas!

New $5 hits the streets!

Well I managed to get my hands on a few of the new fives today. Being a collector of paper currency can be trying sometimes. The bad jokes "don't we all collect paper money?" The feeling that the tellers at the bank think I'm crazy when I tell them that I'm collecting them and the have to be crisp bills! Going into banks all the time and asking if they have this or that. Asking friends to go into banks and ask for me in different cities, but in the end it is worth it when I get the treasured bill in my hands. The Bank of Canada has a great website and has helped me greatly with my collection.

Why do I collect paper money, I'd say it is like a treasure hunt for me. Going through all that effort to find the bill that my collection is missing to make it complete. Have you ever looked at a bill closely? They are works of art, snapshots of Canadian history and Canadian landscapes. Just like a painting in the national art gallery, I find these little works of art a pleasure to look at, but with paper money they have two sides!

Have Videos? You Tube is the place to share them!

Well one of my videos had just past 500 views since I up loaded it Nov 8th. I love You Tube, it is such a great way to share your videos! One day while I was surfing You Tube I found a video of the Griffon one of the ships that I work on! Now, after watching the video, I know why some of the stuff on it is always broken!

Signs That You are Getting Older

Well the announcement of Patrick Roy being inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame came as a bit of a shock. Not because he was being inducted, but of the fact that it brought back so many memories of me watching the Canadians, my team before the Senators came back,on Hockey Night in Canada and seeing the Great Patrick Roy in net and the spectacular saves he performed when I was a kid (14-16). This announcement is on a level as when Time life music came on with their infomecial "buy the 80's collection today", watching ,concert shirts cargo pants and desert boot come back into fashion. People that you knew when they were kids, now with kids. I'm looking forward to the day when "hockey hair" AKA the mullet comes back, but I'll hopefully will be bald by then!

Weekend report

Well this weekend was a bit more tame than last weekend, I was exhausted from the previous weekend's fun, but this one was still a bit busy! We went up to Ottawa for brunch to meet some people I used to work with at Hertz. It was great to see them and shocked to see some with kids! Next off to shopping, it started with new shoes and snowballed into Christmas shopping! We had to get out of there before it got out of hand.

Sunday it was the next installment at Mrs McGarrigle's cooking class. This time it was Thomas Riding of Sam Jakes Innin Merrickville with a very hearty fall menu. It started out with a Butternut Squash Tart Tatin with goat's cheese and roasted garlic for the appetizer. A great light start , very tasty. Then it was on to the Confit Chicken on potato, apple rosti in cider apple jus. At first, I was a bit shocked because the chef was going to roast the chicken legs in fat. He had this big tub of chicken fat that he'd brought over from the Inn and it looked disgusting. Well as the dish was being cooked the smell was amazing and the thought of the fat cooking the chicken faded away. The chicken fell off the bone and was very moist and not greasy at all. Though I don't think that I'll use fat since I don't cook that much chicken in a year! We were told that olive or grape seed oil will do. Then off to desert, Squash cake with vanilla creme caramel brulee. A little bit of heaven on a plate.

Next up the Church fundraiser dinner. After Merrickville it was back to Brockville to help volunteer with the dinner. They stuck me in the dish pit. Why do women find it so funny when men do dishes? It is amazing how much of community spirit there is here in Brockville. There is always something that is going on to help out less fortunate people in the community. Way to go Brockville!

A good buddy Rob W is coming down this weekend with his band to play at the Phoenix. That should be a wild weekend, I better get some rest to get ready for that!

Baltimore Ravens Vs Cincinnati Bengals

A video of the opening starters

What a Looooong Weekend

Long weekend you ask? Well the first thing is a four day weekend is always good! The reason for the great long weekend is that it was the Wach/Maric family football game in Baltimore. Yes the Baltimore Ravens vs the Cincinnati Bengals once again do battle. We were not disappointed with the game at all, being Ravens fans and we won! I have to feel sorry for my Brother (2-2 since we started going to Baltimore to watch the games) when the Ravens caused the Bengals to fumble off the opening kick off. Well it only got better when Palmer threw an interception on the next drive! 14-0 Ravens! The Bengals almost made it back, but the two initial turnovers hurt them bad! This family tradition started with my Brother Ivo asking my cousins if they would go to a Bengals/Ravens game and what started out as the four of us on the first year has now grown to 12 in the fourth. There is talk of going to see the Ravens in Buffalo next year to show the colours.


Beinging more of a hockey fan than an NHL fan, I scoped out the local NHL teams as to what games were on the schedule around the football game and found out that the Sens were playing the Caps the next night in Washington. Hand flew to the phone in 20 min the tickets were bought! My Brother and cousins warned me not to wear my Sens jersey to the home of the Washington Capitals, but being a true Senators fan I was going into the building with the jersey on! Of course a few beers before the game is always a smart move, but there were more people in there with Sens jerseys on than capitals! A few people from Ottawa, Halifax, Windsor and me from Brockville were all whooping it up! After a few beers, thanks cuz, we were off to the game. In the Verizon center, I'd have to admit is a nice looking building, my cousin is pumping more beer into me which isn't very hard to do since I'm excited about the game. I get to my seat and the game is about to start, what is this! There building only has about 3-4 thousand people in it. I turn to ask the Capital fans "where are the rest of the fans?" and find out that is the regular size crowd the caps draw! Wow, how can a team survive with a fan base like that?

Anyway, the Sens are up by three goals early in the first period and I'm being my normal annoying, abrasive self while I rub it into the Capital fans around me! Second period, the Caps score two goals, I better shut my mouth now. Third period the game is flying back and forth and it is some great hockey for this time of the year. Until Phillips takes a tripping penalty late in the third and the Caps score, game tied. Can you take back gloating? I did! Overtime, caps score, ouch! Overall I enjoyed the game, it was some great hockey, but Washington DC isn't a hockey town. I will look into a game in either Montreal or Detroit, any hockey fans out there?

I was shocked at how easy it was to go through security at the airports this trip. Flying into DC is usually a pain in the ass since 9/11. They make you go through the regular security airport, then to get into the gate you have to go through it all over again. Then they pat you down and go over you again with the metal detector. I must be getting use to airport security or working for the Coast Guard helps, I passed the US customs in 5 min then on the way back the Canadian customs was about 3 min (good looking ladies at Pearson). I always love it when the US customs personnel ask me where I work. When I tell them the smile comes out and it is like we are buddies! Then the "have a good day and enjoy the trip" follows!

On a side note, after I cleared customs and was waiting for my bag. I realized that I'd been standing beside Margaret Atwood. I haven't read her stuff, but that is my brush with fame this weekend!