Flee Market

Due to a new work schedule (more on that in another post) I will be getting the next few weekends off.  I never get Sundays off unless I specifically ask for them off.  So today both Cody and I had the day off, so we went down to check out the Sunnyside flea market. 

On Saturday Cody was watching Canadian Pickers, the Canadian rip off to American Pickers, and as were pulling in to the flea market I was making a CP joke.  I was saying we should've brought a video camera and filmed a Canadian/American Pickers spoof.  Like just buy the biggest piece of crap we could find and say "Picked $25" and "Valued $0".  Then thing was as we were walking around inside we actually saw one of the Canadian Pickers guys!  Scott Cozens, the guy with hair, is from Calgary, but you'd think he'd know better than to hang around the Sunnyside flea market.

There are times when I've been to Sunnyside flea market and they've had tons of cool stuff, now it's getting sad.  You're lucky to find one table with some interesting stuff on it.  They should start screening the vendors, so only good stuff goes out.  Some people had tables that should've been thrown in the dumpster.  I know the saying "One person's trash is another person's treasure", but some stuff people had was just straight up trash.    Neither of us got anything and it was waste of time even leaving the house.  Next time I should go to Crossroads Market, I haven't been there for years.

STORE CLOSING! FINAL SALE!

Those were on the signs hanging in the windows of the Blockbuster over in Westbrook.  Everything in the store was 30% off from new movies, previously viewed movies, video games, food and merchandise.  They just started selling all the stock, so we went to have a look.  The store was pretty busy with lots of people walking out with stacks of DVDs.

The 30% off wasn't much of a deal on the newer releases and brand new stuff, so it wasn't really even worth it.  The older releases was where it was at because some of them are hard to find or out of print.  They were priced $6.99 to $9.99 then minus the 30%.  They just had signs hanging up that said "DVDs $6.99 to $9.99", so the actual price wasn't marked on the individual movies, so you didn't know the price until the rang it up at the cashier.  It would've been nice to know the prices of the movies it would've helped in deciding what to buy.

I realized why I don't bother to rent movies anymore and that's because I couldn't find anything I wanted to buy to buy let alone rent.  Cody bought more movies then me, but I forced myself to buy a few just because I went out of the way to go there.

I went home with They Live, Princess of Thieves, Private Resort, The Misadventures of Merlin Jones and not one, but two French movies in The Nest and The Horde, so at least I have a variety of movies.

You can blame the internet for the demise of Blockbuster, but at least you can get some decent deals if you look.  The 30% off is too low and it should be more, but all the good stuff will be gone ASAP anyway.  Check out your local BBV!

Yo Joe!

Double Crossed

I didn't get in on the super fancy pants limited edition vinyl of Sloan's new album The Double Cross.  Instead I had to settle for a CD version of the album, but at least it's a step up from the regular CD.

Signed by real life rock stars!  Or some hobos they paid to sign it for them.

Now all I have to do is listen to it.

Breakfast of Champions

Burger Time

I have been slacking on my burger joint "reviews" lately.  I've eaten at places years ago and still haven't written about them and I'm sure I've eaten at places that I've completely forgotten about.  The last time I was driving back to Cranbrook I noticed a sign for this place down in Deerfoot Meadows called Five Guys Burgers and Fries.  After doing some research (aka google) I found out it's a burger chain from the US that has quite a reputation.  Me and Cody went to give it a try last Thursday.

We had tried to go there once on a Saturday, but the place was totally packed.  Thursday afternoon wasn't that busy, but we still had to wait in line.  From the outside it doesn't look that big, but once you get inside it's a lot bigger than it looks with most of the room for tables.  We ordered and making a decision wasn't that hard because the menu is pretty slim with a couple types of burgers, two types of fries and soft drinks.  No milkshakes?  I got a bacon cheeseburger with large cajun fries and a regular drink which came out to $15.82.  Holy what?!  That is expensive, so this better be damn good.

After you order they give you a number which they call out when it ready to be picked up.  We didn't wait long, so that was a plus.  Since I usually eat my fries first I'll talk about that...they sucked!  I ordered the cajun fries which are like regular fries with some spicy seasoning on them.  The seasoning isn't that good and for some reason just made the fries limp and soggy.  Cody got the regular fries and his were pretty good and were crisp.  They give you a lot, but cajun fries are a fail, while regular fries are a win.

The burger was pretty big, but less in circumference and more in height.  Once you started eating it, you couldn't stop because it was messy and stuff was falling out all over the place as you were going.  All the toppings are free, so if you have a lot of stuff on there, you'd better have a bib on.  My wrapper was full off all kinds of crumbs and drippings and hand was so juicy I had to go wash it.  The burger was pretty good and I liked that you got lots of free toppings.

So far we have good fries, but regular and not the cajun and the burger was also good if messy.  The soft drinks can be refilled as much as you want, so that was nice.  The price was too high, but what else could I complain about?  How about...THIS!

Once you walk into the restaurant you'll see big posters that line the walls of the place with quotes on them saying how great and fantastic Five Guys is from various newspapers and magazines.  Then underneath those signs are smaller copies of magazine articles saying how great Five Guys is.  Then as you're drinking your Coke Zero you see quotes on the back of your cup saying how great Five Guys is.  I FREAKIN' GET IT, YOU DON'T HAVE TO KEEP SHOVING THIS PROPAGANDA CRAP IN MY FACE!

Get over yourselves already!

Seriously, knock it off with that already.  I'm in the restaurant and I don't need to see some quote from Washingtonian Magazine every time I turn around.  I bet the toilet paper has quotes printed on it.  I was liking it, but that just made me dislike it a bunch. 

The food was good, but not as great as all the damn posters, pictures, signs, drink cups and toilet paper make it out to be.  It tastes good, but not $15.82 good.  Also, it was too noisy in there.  Be quiet you young people I'm trying to eat!  I will probably give it another try, but not anytime soon.  How can they get voted "Best Bargain, Cheap Eats" when I had to pay almost $16 for my meal?

Limited Edition

Did anyone get a copy of the super fancy limited edition Sloan XX album today?  I didn't!  I was at work this morning and when got home at 11am I checked the website and they were already sold out.  The sets were priced at $99.99 plus shipping.  Not cheap, but still pretty cool considering the cover art was hand made by the band members themselves.  I guess I will settle for a plain old CD version.  That's right no digital download crap for me because I'm old school!

I really don't like to download music at all unless it's only available online.  As we all know everybody downloads music online and some people pay for it and some people don't.  You always read about the music industry complaining about shrinking sales because of online piracy.  I'm not sure what they are complaining about because maybe if the CDs were available people could buy them.  Just go into any entertainment retailer like Best Buy or HMV and you'll see the music sections are only half the size they used to be only a few years ago. 

When I can't find a CD/album I want I go look online and sometimes the place to look are the artists' websites.  I just bought the new Cute Lepers album "Adventure Time" online from their website.  I bought the LP, CD and a cassette of demos.  It was cheap too, $10 each for the CD and LP and $5 for the cassette.  Not only that they also autographed the LP and CD for me too! 

This the LP and it's so big the small autographs are hard to see.  Steve and Kicks need a new felt pen.

The CD copy and all the signatures look better.  Steve and Kicks must've got a new felt pen.

That's right a cassette!

Limited edition of only 100 hand numbered copies, mine is 6/100.

The album is good and I'm glad I bought from straight from the band.  Let's see you download a signed CD from BitTorrent.  If you like a band you be buying their stuff and supporting them, not downloading it for free somewhere.  Also, the new Beastie Boys came out last week.  I got it.  I like it.  But did anyone else find sliding the disc and whatnot out of the sleeve hard?   It was jammed in there!

Happy Anniversary!

That is, happy 50th anniversary Giant Tiger!  It's hard to believe that 50 years have passed already!

We have two Giant Tiger locations here in Calgary, one on Elbow Drive SW and one on 17th Ave SE aka International Ave.  Since 17th Ave SE is the ghetto I went to the one on Elbow Drive.  I was trying to track down something for a blog post, but unfortunately didn't find what I was looking for.  I did pick a good day to go though because they were celebrating 50 years of awesome by giving out free Giant Tiger swag. 

A reusable bag that I probably won't even use let alone reuse, but it was FREE!

 Okay, I can use this frisbee because I don't want to wreck or lose my good frisbee.  Yes, I have a GOOD frisbee.

 A notepad that just isn't an ordinary notepad!  The backside is magnetic, so I can stick it on my fridge...soon as I make some room for it.

Since they were giving me free stuff I felt a bit obligated to buy something, so I bought a $2 t-shirt and some discounted Easter candy.  Just to let you know that Giant Tiger in Calgary still attracts all the weirdos, skids and spazzes that the Giant Tiger in Cranbrook gets.   If your a normie or a spazz you still love free stuff and I love my free Giant Tiger swag.  I love it so much I will throw in the corner where it can collect dust until I move.

Orange Alert

Now that the weather has finally warmed up, it's nice to go outside and this goes for people as well as pets.  This morning I came home to see Orangey the Cat walking out of our yard.  He is very nice and affectionate and walked up to me and was meowing wanting some attention.  As I said before he looks too fat to be a stray, but if someone owns him then they really need to be brushing him.  He is SCRUFFY!

Taste the rainbow

I bought this loaf of rainbow bread from the bakery at Co-op.  I like the bakery at Co-op because they usually have different things you don't see at other grocery store bakeries.  They have fun stuff like cheese sticks with pepperoni inside, oatmeal cookies with apple filling, cheese sticks made with Frank's Red Hot and, of course rainbow bread.  Sometimes the product isn't as good as it sounds, like when I bought the pumpkin donuts last Thanksgiving.

I picked up the bread just because it had to be the happiest loaf of bread I've ever seen with all the bright colors.  When I tried it I was like "This is going to taste like candy!", but then I was like "This tastes just like bread." :-(  It doesn't taste different that regular white bread, but it's all about the looks and it looks awesome.  People stare at you on lunch break at work when you are eating a sandwich made from rainbow bread.  It's like they haven't seen bread that is green, yellow, purple and pink before.  "It's just a peanut butter sandwich people!"

More free shirts!

If you like cereal and free t-shirt offers then you are going to love this post.  I have not one, but two different t-shirt cereal offers to tell you about.

First up is a free CCM t-shirt offer from Post and Honey Bunches of Oats.  You can choose from several different varities and just enter the PIN inside the box on the website to get your free shirt.  You also don't just get a shirt, but a copy of The Hockey News magazine and get entered to win some CCM gear.  It's a jock thing, but the shirt doesn't look bad and it's free, so quit yer complaing!

The second deal from Kellogg's actually requires two PINs to get the t-shirt, so you have to buy two boxes of cereal.  You can choose from selected varieties of Corn Pops, Frosted Flakes, Corn Flakes, Fruit Loops and Mini Wheats.  It sucks that you have to buy two boxes of cereal, but the shirts look pretty cool and are worth it.  You can pick either a Tony the Tiger, Toucan Sam, or Corn Flakes t-shirt which feature the vintage versions of the mascots.  I am getting the Tony the Tiger tee.

I bought three boxes of cereal and two were the family size boxes for $12 and I'm getting two free t-shirts.  Not bad.