4h12m

I made it back.  The roads weren't too bad, 533 from Nanton and then Hwy 22 were the worst, but okay.  It was still a boring ass drive though.  Made it back in time to unpack, chill, and watch Castle.  Oh yeah, and check out the new dawg.

My brother got a new dog, Stella, and she isn't a total annoying spazz, so she's okay.  For now...

After watching Castle I went to Mt. Baker, not the bar or the mountain, but the high school.  Logan is playing in a basketball tournament there, so my mom made me go watch it.  It was entertaining and painful to watch at the same.  Lots of bad passing, atrocious lay ups, double dribbles, travelling, going to the wrong hoop and one case of scoring on their own net.  I know they're only 11 and 12 year old grade six kids, but make them run some more drills and learn the basics.

Logan's team from Amy Woodland beat the other team from McKim, it was a blowout at 34-8 or something.  McKim gets some credit for only having 8 players on the entire team, while Amy Woodland had at least three lines of kids.  Some were sitting on the floor because there was no room on the bench.  The McKim kids were looking pretty tired.  Apparently, I have to go watch another game on Saturday then on Tuesday I have to watch some play Amy Woodland is putting on at the Key City.  Being an uncle sucks.

Travel advisory

Friday after I finish work at 11 am I'll be heading back to Cranbrook for a few days.  The good news is that it's supposed to snow tonight and the price of gas went up.  Wait...that's not good news!!  It's supposed to snow all throughout southern Alberta tonight, with accumulations ranging from less than 1 cm to 10 cm.  I think it's only for tonight and then it supposed to clear up in the day.  Still stinks.  Then I swear yesterday I saw gas at 112.9/L then when I went and filled up like an hour ago it was 120.9/L.  The hell?!  Then when I get back to Cranbrook I think it's supposed to snow there for a couple days.  That isn't that bad as I'm hoping to go skiing.   I'll be doing that and the usual stuff of hanging out and going through my boxes upon boxes of crap.

In the meantime, here is a fabulous new product you all should try.

Pudding' Squeez!

I know I'm tired of eating my pudding with spoon like a savage, so this handy pouch is much more accommodating.  Just open it and squeeze in your waiting mouth.  Why wouldn't you want a Puddin' Squeez?!  Try one today, then thank me later.

Oh man, I am smashed!

Remember way back when Cody and I ate at a couple different burger places then I wrote about them?   That was awhile ago and I sort of gave up on it because my attention is non-existent.   Well, we're back to that again because today Cody and I took a trip to Smashburger.

I first spotted a Smashburger over in NE Calgary while I was driving around, I'm not even sure what I was doing over there and it was quite a while ago too, maybe a year and a half or two years ago.  I only wanted eat there because I liked the name Smashburger.  We never got around to check it out because it's over in the ghetto and I'm too white and scared to go over there.

Before Christmas I was driving around in the NW looking for a used sports place because that was when I was looking for a pair of skis and I ended up getting lost and by accident found a Smashburger in a new development called Royal Oaks.  Today I finally got to give it a try!  It was a smashing success!

After you order they give you a number you take to your table then they bring it out to you when it is ready.  You can read the Smashfacts on your number while you wait!

I ordered the BBQ, Bacon and Cheddar burger with Smashfries aka toothpick fries and a Smash drink.  The fries are so damn tiny, but not bad, but not great.  Cody really likes them, but the fries from CB's or Five Guys are better.  They are a look smaller than they look in the picture.

You can order burgers in regular or large size, by looking at the picture you can probably guess I ordered the large size.  I'm guessing if you order the large size, it only increases the size of the patty, not everything else including the bun.

The burger is pretty awesome as it's not steamed ala McDonald's or flame broiled like Burger King, but they cook it on a flat top.  The burger is pressed down on the grill giving a slightly crunchy outer crust which is awesome.

While we were eating one of the staff came by our table and asked how we were doing and how was the food.  That is not something that would ever happen at Wendy's, so that's a plus.   Although, we told the girl "Good" when she asked us how the food was, my first impulse was to say "Incredibly greasy."  That's not a bad thing, it was pretty good, but I'm glad Cody drove there because I was feeling a little sleepy afterwards.

I wrote this out pretty quickly because I wanted to go to bed and I was too busy looking at the Smashburger online menu deciding what I want to try on the next trip back.  Hopefully, the pictures help make up for it.  The good news is that I've decided on the Avacado Club Smashchicken with french fries for the next trip.  I'm just not a fan of Smashfries, sorry Cody.

Here is Cody trying to do up his coat outside Smashburger as we are leaving,  It wouldn't zip up for some reason.

PS ~ They don't really have a Smash drink, but they should considering they already have a Smash burger and Smash fries.  It only makes sense.  They do have malts!  What is a malt?!

PPS ~ Fun fact, we actually tried to eat there once before.  We came by on a Sunday afternoon, but the place was closed because someone broke in.  A guy was cleaning up a bunch of broken glass outside and said something about they would be opening once they cleaned up, but we didn't wait around.  I guess some one took the whole Smashburger concept and little too literally.

To Mike,

I promised Mike an autographed picture of myself for entering the "Guess my new favourite TV show" contest the other day and here it is. Congratulations Mike and enjoy!

CORPORATE MAGAZINES STILL SUCK

I was shopping at Safeway and saw this on the magazine stand at one of the tills and like the sucker I am I bought it.

Seems like Rolling Stone puts out one of these Nirvana collector's issues every couple years now.  I don't blame them as most of the issue is a bunch of collected stories from previous issues of Rolling Stone, so it's easy money.  I still have a couple of the original issues some of the articles appeared in.  Although with this April marking the 20th anniversary of Kurt Cobain's death I was expecting them to exploit that a little more and maybe go bigger.  It needs to be a hardcover!  With fancy gold lettering on the cover! With a dust jacket to protect said fancy gold lettering!

FYI, the mag is ridiculously overpriced, so save your $15.  Yes, it costs it $15, and that's why corporate magazines suck.

Getting lucky

Check out what I got today!

Jealous much?

Yes, it a little late, but better late than never.  I know the hand writing/scrawling may look similar to mine, I you assure it's not.  I appreciate it, I'm flattered, so thank you, whom ever sent it.  It even tasted like chocolate!  Again I'd like to point out that's not my hand writing.

Good or Evil?

Are you a Jedi or a Sith?  It's the age old question everyone asks themselves and now I'm about find out what dwells within me with the Dark Side Detector.

"Learn about electricity you will."

It's a Star Wars Science kit by Uncle Milton.  I've seen a couple different types of these Star Wars meets science kits before, most of them in the toy aisle at Liquidation World(RIP). 

You have to assemble the lightsaber yourself, but luckily they included a sheet of photocopied instructions.

Thanks Uncle Milton, I don't think I could've figured it out on my own.

Ta-da!  I didn't even look at the instructions when I put together!  It's all ready to test, but before we do that let's take a minute to learn about electricity.

Haha, yeah right, I'm not going to read anything that might make me less dumb!  At least they sprung and got this page printed on some glossy paper AND in colour.

And now the moment of truth....drum roll or whatever...

That's right, I'm 100% pure unrelenting evil.  DARK SIDE FTW!!

The reverse side of the edumacational page has facts about the force, lightsabers, Jedis and my homies, the Sith.

That "Cool Fact" isn't very cool.

The Sith may be evil, but they aren't very cool.  I'm seriously considering a turn to the light side.

Now that Uncle Milton has the Dark Side Detector, I wonder if they plan on releasing a Jedi Detector?  A home kit to check your midi-chlorian count would be pretty handy.  I wonder how they would do it, a urine test?  Blood test?  Check your hair follicle?  Now that would be science-y!

Spidey sense tingling...

Pop quiz hot shot

Can you guys guess my new favourite TV show?

It  is so obvious, I might as well tell you, but I won't.  The first person to correctly answer wins a fabulous prize!  I'm not saying it will be some random crap that has been laying around on my bedroom floor either, also I'm not saying it won't be some random crap that has been laying around on my bedroom floor.  

Rules
One entry per person.  I reserve the right to veto any answers or submissions from people I deem as jerks.  I can declare myself the winner if I want.  Kittens are cute.

Upgrade

I had already mentioned I was thinking about getting a new camera and I had told Mike I was thinking about getting another Canon.  After some more looking around and seeing some sales I ended getting a Samsung camera.  It was pretty close between the Canon and Samsung, but in the end I went with Samsung because it has more features than the Canon even though it cost a little bit more.

I don't even remember the exact specs on it now, but I think it's 14 MP and it shoots full HD video.  We actually used it as a secondary camera when we shot the ONE THOUSAND video.

It has 18X optical zoom.

The rear screen is also a touch screen, but you can also cycle through everything with buttons.  It is wi-fi capable and can transfer photos to your computer or smart phone.  I can also use my phone as a remote viewer for the camera and control features such as flash, timer and of course, shutter control.  I have the app downloaded, but haven't tried to set it up yet.

I haven't taken too many picture yet, but so far it seems to work pretty good.  The donut pics turned out good!  The pictures look better than anything I've taken with my phone or my old camera, so that's all I wanted!

Donut series 1

The Moon rules

Although I do have better(?) things I could write about I went and made this gif.  I've had this Ignignokt & Err toy sitting on my dresser for the past few years with the intent to make it into a gif.  I finally did it, so appreciate it, love it, be in awe of it, etc!  Now fire the quad laser!

Complete set

My Honey Nut Cheerios toque arrived in the mail from General Mills, so now I have all four toques aka the complete set!

It is cold here, so I need to wear all four of them at once to keep me warm.  I keep the Cinnamon Toast Crunch toque on the top because it's my favourite.

Looks like eating all that cereal paid off, or should I say eating "almost" all that cereal.

This box is still hanging out under my desk.  I opened it and just entered the code and it's been sitting there ever since.  I'll get around to eating it as soon as I finish my Honey Combs with the free hockey card code inside.

1001

Mike, you can quit reading right now because you are on Facebook and this is old news to you.  For those of us who aren't on Facebook, the latest issue of Snowboard Canada is out with an article AND the coveted cover shot by one Jeffrey Patterson.  I found out about it without being on Facebook as Jeff's mom told my mom who then told me.  That's how we did things back in the olden days.

It was supposed to be out already, but was delayed for whatever reason and it just hit stores today.  I picked my copy up at Indigo.  In addition to the cover shot Jeff also has more photos and a story of a shoot he did in Ymir.  Now I bet Ymir is going to blow up with back country wannabes flooding in, the locals will be pissed and it will all be Jeff's fault.  Congratulations Jeff!

ONE THOUSAND

I did it, I made it to one thousand posts!  Actually, this post marks 1020 posts as I hit the one thousand mark a while ago.  I wasn't too sure what I wanted to do to mark the one thousand milestone and when I eventually came up with an idea it was post number 998.  I didn't have time to get it all together in time, but here it is in all it's glory even though it's a little late.  I hope you like it.



If for whatever reason the video doesn't load you can check it out on YouTube.

SUPER BOWL SUNDAY!!!

Just like last year Cody and I are glued to the TV to watch the Seattle Sealions take on the Denver Mustangs in this year's Super Bowl XLVIII.

The Great White North

Saturday was the first day of my three day weekend.  I'm not sure why I got a three day weekend, I didn't ask for, but I'll take it.  Do I have any big plans for time off?  Nope, because that would require forethought and I'm not that ambitious.

That doesn't mean I didn't do anything today.  Last time I was Phoenix Comics I saw a flyer for a collector show at the Sunnyside/Hillhurst Community Centre.  I've been to a couple of these before, that's where I scored my Public Domain DVD.  I saw two separate flyers for the same date, one was for Japanese anime and manga and the other flyer was for comics, collectibles and sports cards.  

Of course I went because it was better than sitting around the house all day.  The main entrance area was where all the manga and anime was and while I looked around a little bit I didn't get anything.  Then I went into the main hall area which I think might be a gym, I've never actually paid that much attention to it.  It was pretty full with lots of comics, toys and even the movie dude from the Sunday flea market was there.

I didn't even bother to look at the comics because I'm too lazy to flip through a bunch of boxes, also it was pretty busy in there, so I couldn't really get a spot if I wanted.  I didn't go home empty handed though.  At one table I bought an old 7-11 Marvel Howard the Duck glass cup from 1977 as well as a couple Star Wars magnets.

The same guy was selling magnets, key chains and light switch covers which you could mix and match for 2 for $5.   You can never have too many magnets right?

After that I bought three prints from local artist Gerald Garcia.  He used to work at Comic-Kazi and was the guy who first signed me up for a file there.  I always thought he owned/ran the store because he was always there when I was there.  Turns out I was wrong...it happens occasionally.  

Vader!!

Take off you zombie hoser!

I couldn't not get this zombie Bob and Doug picture.  You need to turn in you citizenship if you don't find this cool.  I also got a Tony Stark picture, but I won't even bother showing it because the Bob and Doug pic trumps them all, so it would be a waste of time.  

Now I'm going to take off, eh.