Eating healthy

A couple weeks ago I saw the health nurse who told I need to eat better.  It's not like I eat crap all the time, I just have an erratic eating schedule and I'm not getting all my food groups especially fruits/vegetables and proteins.  Tonight I thought I'd make some Hamburger Helper because that's good for you right?

It's not just any hamburger helper, it is Whole Grain Helper made with 100% whole grain pasta.   There is nothing better for you than 100% whole grain pasta!  Don't run out to your local grocery store looking for this because it's not available in Canada and it's not because it failed CFIA guidelines.  My sister got this for me when she down to the States.  I've still another box sitting in my cupboard.  If someone really really wants it, I will give it away.  Any takers?  PLEASE?! You need those whole grains.

White Christmas

It's not Christmas, but it's white outside.  The weather sucks!  On Thursday it was +13C here and nice and sunny.  Then for Friday and Saturday a heavy snowfall warning was issued and it went down to -14C.  The hell?!  What ever happened global warming?

Today me and Cody were planning on going to see The Green Hornet, but when I looked outside this morning I was like forget it.  I don't need to go anyway, so I'm not.  Instead, I wore this Green Hornet t-shirt I got for free at this new toy/collectible store by our place.

One week later...

Wow, has it been one week since my post about my vintage Kenner Han Solo?  I thought I had written something since then, but I guess not.  I had planned on writing something, but got side tracked by watching DVDs. 

Today at lunch I went to Phoenix fully prepared to find that they had sold all the Kenner 12" figures, but was surprised to see that they were all still there with the exception of R2-D2.  I know I said I might get the Boba Fett figure, but that still is too much, so I passed.  Although, I decided how can I have Han with out Chewbacca?  That is like PB & J without the J, it is just wrong.   So I got Chewie!

Chewie is from 1978 and looks pretty damn for being 33 years old and there aren't any scratches or scuffs on his body.  He comes with all his parts, but unfortunately his bowcaster is a little messed up.  The silver cartridges actually remove from his bandoleer and then attach to his gun.  They are pretty tiny which would make losing one pretty easy if you aren't careful.  Luckily, Chewie has all his.

After doing a whole 10 minutes of research online I discovered my Han Solo is not actually complete.  He should've came with a Medal of Yavin and it looks like his belt is a reproduction and not original.  I had my suspicions about the belt and they were right.  It was made of a soft foamy material instead of plastic.  In a fit of OCD I went and bought a medal reproduction online.  It would've been nice to find an original, but it will have to do for now.

That being said if anyone happens to see Chewie's bowcaster or Han's belt and/or medal in good condition,  feel free to buy it for me.  I will probably pay you back.

Just the two us

I gots mad money yo!

They paid out my holiday pay last payday, so I had a couple extra thousand dollars just sitting in my bank account.   This afternoon I went to Phoenix to see what I could I waste my money on.  All statues were 40% off and I wanted to get a Spider-Man one, but they didn't have any I liked.  They only had one.  But that didn't mean I didn't find anything!

A vintage 12" 1979 Kenner Han Solo figure!  Somebody must have sold them a collection because they also had Luke, Leia, Chewie, R2-D2, a Stormtrooper, Darth Vader, Boba Fett and a Jawa.  I had it narrowed down to Han, Vader or the Stormtrooper, but in the end went with Han because he was in the best shape.  The Vader had loose limbs which sucked, but he did have his lightsaber, and in fact it looked like all the figures had their accessories.  I would've gotten Boba Fett, but he cost $178.  Yes, I had a bunch of extra money, but that is still too much to pay.  Maybe if he's still there next week...

I ended up paying $55 for Han, but as I said he's in pretty good shape.  The clothes look REALLY good, maybe too good.  He does have some wear on his head where the paint is rubbing off.  He has his blaster, but I think it's too heavy and/or he needs a new belt because he's suffering from a wardrobe malfunction.  Anyway, I think I just found my new profile picture.

JUST SAY NO TO CRACK!

Failure to launch

Before Christmas I mentioned in one of my posts that I went to Chinook Hobby West looking for gifts and while I did get Logan some Star Wars Lego I also bought some stuff for myself.  One of those things were a pair of vintage Go-Bots model kits.  You can't really compare Go-Bots to Transformers because Go-Bots were so horrible lame in comparison, even the names were stupid.  A space shuttle named Spay-C?  Really?!

Normally, I'm not one for model kits, but I picked these up because they snap together.   They both were transforming models from vehicle to robot and had a pull back motor.  Unfortunately, they were molded in white which meant they would need to be painted, but if I put the space shuttle together I could get away with not painting it because it's mostly white anyway.

We are off to a good start because the box is pretty small and doesn't have that many pieces in it.  This might turn out pretty good.

I take back that part about this turning out pretty good, check out step 1 of the instructions.  Step 1 has you putting the wheels on the pull back motor using a hammer?!  The wheels and the motor are both made of plastic and if you took a hammer to them, then totally get broken.  I didn't use the hammer.

I eventually did get the model put together and I suppose it looks "okay".  Some of the joints don't line up very well and it looks weird.  Also, when I took the pieces out of the frame there was always a lump of plastic where it was connected to the frame.  This made putting some of the pieces together a little more difficult because I had to shave the lumps down.  Even the round wheels had these lumps on them and when I put the rubber tire on one the wheels it was oval and not round.

The stickers didn't turn out so good either as there were too many stickers on the sheet and when I tried to put them on like they had in the pictures they didn't even fit.  So some stickers didn't even make on and some don't line up because either the model is too small or the stickers are too big.  I just tried doing it like the picture!  Why doesn't it work!!

Looking good??

Here we have the instructions for transforming the model, it's a difficult four step process.  Okay, it's pretty easy and probably as hard as transforming the regular Go-Bot toys.

There is my transformed SPAY-C and it looks like he needs some maintenance.  When I popped out his arms the one arm pops off, not out.  I can stick it back in, but it just falls back out.  As long as he stays in vehicle mode, he'll be okay though.

The best part of the model was the pull back motor which worked way better than I thought it would.  It was plastic and looked pretty crappy, but when I tried it out it took right off.  In the end I didn't even bother putting together the second model kit.  Seemed like a waste of time, good thing these things were only $1.99 each.   I still have one more goodie from Hobby West that needs to be done.  It could be a little more difficult and dangerous than a snap together model kit.  If I can pull it off, it will be awesome.   Stay tuned.

Deal of the Day

On Wednesday I left the house only to get some groceries because I was all out the staples like Simply Orange and chocolate pudding.  On the way Safeway I thought just the hell of it I'd stop by Blockbuster and see what's going on.  I'd glad I did!

They had a bunch of previously viewed TV sets that were on clearance.  I picked up Knight Rider seasons three and four for $7.99 each plus 25% off which came out to $12.58 plus tax for both of them.  Damn, that is cheap!  Don't worry I already have seasons one and two that I've already watched.  It will probably be a while before I get around to watching them though.  I still have to finish watching/start watching MacGyver season 5, the Incredible Hulk season 3, Wonder Woman season 3, Angel season 3, Airwolf season 2 and Inazuman.

After Blockbuster I did get to Safeway and get my Simply Orange and pudding.  Right now Safeway is running their Texas Hold 'Em contest and while I'm not 100% sure how it works I know it does have instant winners.  I totally hit the jackpot and won a free chocolate bar.

Other prizes are things like a trip to Las Vegas, watches, diamond bracelets, Eureka vacuums, and pot sets.  Who would want any of the stuff when you could have a Big Turk?

Welcome to KEITH

Cara's parents went on vacation to Scotland and this picture was on their vacation pictures.  When Cam had to sit through them he saw it, stole it and sent it to me.  I really hope Cam didn't actually steal it because that would be wrong and now it's mine and they're never getting it back.  He probably just copied it.

From what little research (NONE!) I've done "Keith" seems to a more common name over in Scotland and England.  Maybe not common, but more common than over here in North America.  It doubles as a first and last name and sometimes they spell it all stupid and mixed up like "Kieth".  At least this town got it right.

If they wanted to truly stick to what it means to be "Keith" they should drop that "friendly" bit from their town motto.  It would be more in the Keith tradition if it read "The Meh Town" instead.  I will have to write them a letter, they will have to listen to me.  I am Keith.

Remember these?

When I was at home for Christmas I took home some records, so I could box them up with my other records.  I don't have that many, only enough to fill an apple box.  That is enough because that box is enough to give you a hernia, I nearly killed myself lifting it. The box also has misc. record stuff in it like plastic sleeves, 45 adapters, and record brushes.  When I putting my records in the box I found something somebody might find interesting.

CD boxes!  Back in the day CDs used to come packaged inside boxes, which looked nice, but took up way too much room.  I remember almost never seeing these here in Canada, and these three boxes are from CDs that my grandma bought me down in the States.

Note the Bleach box is missing something from the bottom and that where there was a coupon for a free Sub Pop mail order catalog.  I cut it out and mailed it in to get the catalog and sticker because this back before the internet and you had to mail order stuff out of catalogs.   Thank god for eBay, I don't know how we survived before.  I believe I ended up ordering the Nirvana Sliver/Dive 7" out of it eventually which I then broke and then had to order...again.  But you already heard about that.

So back to records again...  I have this Ikea storage unit which is broken up into eight cubes and the space just perfectly fits a 12" record.  Every once in a while I like to buy a record to put in it because I think it looks cool/hip and it's my way of decorating.  I usually go to the Inner Sleeve in Marda Loop and check out their soundtrack section because the soundtrack LPs are usually pretty cheap and I can always find at least one from a movie I like.  I went by this week and ended up getting Pretty In Pink and Revenge of the Nerds.  Pretty In Pink is currently on display, I think it looks pretty good.

If you are going to collect records it would probably be better to collect 7" records just because they are smaller.  The Inner Sleeve has 7" records too, but they aren't organized very well so I don't even bother to look through them.  The did have a small section of 7"s for only 50 cents, so I flipped through those.  Lots of 80's stuff, some I almost bought not because they are good, but because they are just so cheesy.  I did end up buying a Yello 7".  You may not know the name, but you've definitely heard them.  They are a Swiss electronic band that started in the early 80's and are most famous for their song "Oh Yeah" which plays at the very end of Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Mr. Rooney (Jeffrey Jones) gets on the school bus.  It's a classic.

It's made even more cooler, but the fact it's on coloured vinyl!  It was only 50 cents!

PIZZA! PIZZA!

I finished work the other night and was too lazy to go home and make a peanut butter sandwich for dinner since I already had PB for lunch.  My milk was expired, so cereal was not an option,  Lucky for me Little Caesar's (aka Little Seizures) was on my way home.  I stopped in and got two pizzas, a med pepperoni and a med three meat treat.  The more pizza I got, the more leftovers I would have for later.

I had it figured out that it would break down something like this:

I'm kidding!  I made Cody eat some of it, but I still had a couple pieces leftover for breakfast.

Normally, I would have just carried my pizza boxes out like like a regular chump and then they'd be cold in the four minutes it took me to drive home.  BUT NO MORE!

That's right, I now have my very own Little Caesars insulated pizza bag for keeping my pizzas nice and hot.  It only cost $2.50, but I'll still admit it was a complete waste of money and something I'll probably never ever use.  It was a total impulse buy, plus I need something to write about on here, so here you go.  Seriously though, if you eat a Little Caesars often enough that you need your own pizza warming bag, that is a little bit scary.  Since I'm stuck with mine I'm trying to come up with other things I can use for it besides keeping pizzas warm.

Happy New Year and stuff

Did mention I'm back in Calgary?  I was going to write another post while I was in Cranbrook, but I got lazy.  I drove to Calgary on Wednesday and the roads were pretty crappy, but I survived.  Since I've been back I've been working and playing Bad Company and/or watching movies.

Christmas was okay, I got some good stuff, but I can't even remember what I got now.  I got some video games, some movies, gift cards and cash.  No socks, but I did get a pair of flannel pajama pants.  My mom always gets those for me.

On Boxing Day I went to Giant Tiger and Wal-Mart, but really didn't get anything.  GT was surprisingly quiet and Wal-Mart was busy, but half the people in there were in line at customer service for returns.  When I was back I also went to Pages and Aabco.  Aabco just gets more dirty every time I go in there as it must be the only business left in town that allows smoking.  Seriously, I can only stay in there for 15 minutes tops before the smell of smoke starts giving me a headache.

On Tuesday night I went to the hockey game with my parents and Lillix (OMG!!) sang the national anthem.  I guess they did a good job, but they had their backs to like 3/4 of the crowd, you'd think they'd know how to play to a crowd.  Oh well, I doubt they were getting paid, so they probably didn't care.  Tuesday night was also Saputo night, so I was all psyched that they were going to throw bricks of cheese and 4L milk jugs in the crowd, but they didn't and it sucked.  During the second period there was a stupid race and some guy won a $50 gift certificate for Save-On.  Big whoop!  Don't worry though the Ice beat Medicine Hat 6-3.

When I driving back right outside Cranbrook on there is that power sub-station on the right hand side of the road.  I was going by it and noticed a badger crossing sign.  I didn't know we had badgers in Cranbrook!  I've never noticed sign before and it looked brand new, so I guess the badgers must've just moved in.  I was telling Cody about it and he said he say it too, he also said he saw a badger once up Moyie.  I bet it was just a squirrel.

 That's a lot of words, so enjoy this picture of a pan of Mongolian style Hamburger Helper!