There and back

It's Tuesday night and I'm back from my short trip to Cranbrook.  I was going to post something while I was there, but I didn't really do a whole lot to make even a single post really worth it.  I thought I'd cram everything into one fun filled post.

My playlist for the drive down to Cranbrook.

I drove back to Cranbrook on Thursday and left somewhat early in the morning as I had to get back by 2:30pm to watch Avery's hockey game.  I made it just in to watch the game and see him lose.  Why did I come back again?

I only got one pair of socks this year, but they are extra nice.

Oh yeah, I came back for Christmas presents!  I didn't open all my presents at once, I spread them out over Friday, Saturday and Sunday.  Waiting an extra day or two is not a big deal at this point.  I got some movies, Disney Infinity 3.0(the Star Wars one!) video game, a CD binder(for my overflowing DVD collection), some huckleberry jam, two pairs of pajama pants and some bed sheets. 

I always get a pair of pajama pants every year without fail, and usually those pajama pants are too big.  XL pajama pants for some reason at like a size 54" or so they seem.  This year I got two pairs of pajama pants, so I'm hoping at least one pair will fit.  I'll wash them first and hope they shrink a bit.

Saturday I watched Avery play in two more hockey games which they actually won.  I was going to go the Kootenay Ice game Saturday night, but I was a bit tired from my cold, so I stayed home.  Turns out they played terrible and lost, so it was no biggie.

Avery's team made it to the finals on Sunday where they lost to a team they beat on Saturday.  They looked pretty slow and lazy out there for the final game.  Somebody should've pumped them up with sugar and Red Bull or something.

After the game I thought I saw Joe Detta and I was like, "Is that Joe?  It looks like Joe".  Then he disappeared, but later my mom asked if I saw Joe, so apparently it was him.

The hockey tournament also had some real nice baskets and raffle prizes.  You paid $20 and some some tickets which you use to enter yourself in drawings for various themed baskets.  I entered myself in a few of the basket giveaways and won was for a mini fridge.  I was also entered to win a PS4 and an iPad.  I won nothing!

On Monday, I met up with good up Willie and we went looking for all the gems of the Cranbrook retail merchants.  I got these two VHS tapes from the Bibles for Mission thrift store.  The Channeler is a horror movie starring Dan Haggerty.  I picked up Nukie wondering if it's similar to Mac and Me.  I'm kinda of hoping it is, but also kinda hoping it isn't.

I forgot my change in the car, so Willie paid for these for me.  What a bro.  I'll getcha back the fifty cents, man.

We went to Wal-Mart and didn't much except some Star Wars granola bars and that weird Batman van in the parking lot.  We walked over to Dollar Tree, and I bought some junk food.  I keep ads on TV for the Reese Cup with Reese's Pieces inside it so I had to try it.  The Clif bars must be left over from the holidays as they are Spiced Pumpkin Pie and Ice Gingerbread flavours.  I eat that because I'm totally an athlete.

We also went to the Salvation Army where Willie got a Smiley mug, an Oasis single and paid for this 8mm camcorder tape for me.  Yeah, I forgot my change again, so Willie had to pay for me.  Don't worry, I paid for his bag of chips at Dollar Tree, so it all worked out.

I bought the tape wondering if there is somebody's old creepy home movies on it.  Just like that time I bought an old VHS C tape that came with the adapter, so we watched it and was like some old 80's home movies and it was somebody's birthday and there was a creepy moustached guy smoking a cigarette holding a baby.  I never watched it again.

Since the Hospital Aux and the Cellar are closed on Monday, I swung by the Hospital Aux today just to check it out and good thing I did.  The sealed BB-8 Funko Pop was worth the trip.  I also got an old Warren Miller ski movie on VHS.  I'm wondering why I keep by these old VHS tapes because chances are I'm not gonna watch them.  If I was really a keener, I dig out my VCR and DVD recorder and convert them over to DVD, so I'd have a digital copy.  Then I'd need to buy a puny little old school TV to do it all on, because it's too much of a pain to on the real TV.  Maybe one day when I get fired and have lots of time on my hands.

I threw these CDs into the playlist for the drive back.

I'm back now and just getting ready to go to bed because I have to work tomorrow and probably the next five days straight in a row.  Cody's been locked in his room ever since I got home, so chances are he's probably sick or dead.  I'll wait a few days before I bother to check in on him.

Chainsaw gun!

I decided to finally go out and buy a brand new game for my XBox One.  I've been playing the same old games, all two of them, forever now.  I ended up getting the XBone exclusive Gears of War 4.  I actually played Gears of Wars: Judgement not that long ago because it was a Games with Gold freebie, so that was what pushed me.

I picked it up this morning from Best Buy (it was on sale!) then had the long excruciating wait of having it install and update.  Only a mere 46GB!  I played it all afternoon and while it's very familiar it's still fun.  Although, I was a little annoyed it took so long into the game before I was able to chainsaw something in half.

A huge bonus of buying Gears of Wars 4 is that you are also buying all the previously Gears games as well.  The game comes with download codes for the original Gears of War, Gears of War 2, Gears of Wars 3 and Gears of Wars: Judgement.  Once I finish GOW4 I'll like to go back and replay all the previous Gears games, unfortunately I don't even have room for all those games on my hard drive.  I'll have to download each game individually, play it, remove it and then move on to the next game.  

Even better than getting bonus games is getting free stickers!  This sticker sheet was also in the case with the download codes.  I'd probably buy more games if they came with free stickers.  I think the last game I bought that came with a free sticker was The Munchables(2009) for the Wii!  I can only hope Gears of War 4 will be as amazing as The Munchables.

Almost

I had Monday and Tuesday off this week and I almost...almost made a quick trip back to Cranbrook.  But then I didn't.  Looks like I'll be going back for the last weekend of this month anyway, so it's no big deal.  Avery has a hockey tournament in Cranbrook that weekend, but most importantly I need my Christmas presents!

So with two days off in a row I could probably be get a lot done, or I could sleep in, watch TV, play video games and eat chips.  Guess which one I did?  I also even briefly left the house to buy groceries on Monday and then Tuesday I went to the thrift store where I spent $3.00 on movies and CDs.

Here is an out of focus shot of the two CDs I got, Smashing Pumpkins and the Golden Eye soundtrack.  I finally have an actual copy of Machina/The Machines of God.  This whole time I've been using a copied version Cam made me.  I'll still keep the copied Cam version because it has bonus tracks on it.

The two movies I got, but since The Hire was in a CD case the lady rang it up as a CD, so I paid 50 cents for a CD instead of $1.50 for a DVD.  Yes!  I already own a copy of The Hire, so paying 50 cents is cool, but $1.50 would've been too much.  That said, it's available if anyone wants it!  I watched this afternoon, so I'm done with it.  The cover says "Widescreen Presentation" and yes the films are widescreen, but they're not anamorphic widescreen, so you got the black bars on the top and the sides.  It's kinda of annoying.  After watching the movies I think Cam should try and replicate all the stunts from movies since they just used factory cars and not heavily modified stunt cars.  

I also found this awesome sweater, but unfortunately it was too small.  It was grey and it said "Star Wars The Empire Strikes Back" on it in coloured text.  It was simple which I liked.  It actually looks exactly like this!

The one thing I really hate about thrift store shopping it when you find a really cool shirt or jacket, it's never your size.  Happens all the time.  I almost bought it for Cam, but then remembered he's more of a Star Trek guy.

Musique

Here's another post about something I randomly discovered just by doing internet stuff.  I came across an article about a Beastie Boys/Daft Punk mash up album that was free to download.  I had to check it out to see what it was all about and found out there was good news and bads news.  The good news is that it was actually pretty good, the bad news is that it's no longer free to download.

The deal is that it's called Daft Science, eight Beastie Boys tracks all remixed using only Daft Punk samples done by Toronto artist Coins.  All his projects are "name your price" which means you can pay $10.00 or you can pay nothing.  I guess Daft Science must have had a lot of downloads as the option to download has been suspended.  A free album this good is a shame, but I guess it's too good to be true, but even it returned as pay only I'd buy the album.

You check out his Bandcamp and SoundCloud.  I've embedded the Bandcamp player below.  Ch-check it out!

KFX

The other night I was doing internet stuff and came across somebody mentioning the Kelowna Fan Xpo.  I had to check it out and see what it was all about.  This year's Kelowna Fan Xpo, or KFX, takes place March 24th and 25th at the Kelowna Community Theatre.  The website is here, http://kelownafx.com/.  It is and I quote, "an annual event that will transport the interior of BC to a world of comics, manga/anime, Sci-Fi, fantasy, horror, gaming, movies, and more."

After checking out the website it's obvious the show is pretty small as the guest list is pretty lean.  They do have a lot of time to add more guests though.  Being small isn't that bad as it's easier to access guests and I'm sure it will grow in the future.  Despite the small guest list there are two people on it I know I'd go see.

1. John Delaney, I've actually met him before and he's pretty cool.  Back when I first moved to Calgary I heard about this comic "thing" that was at some community hall.  I went with Murray and we dragged Elaine along with us.  The "thing" turned was in the gym of a community center and was pretty small.  Guys had tables set up with stuff for sale and John Delaney was there as the one guest artist.  We waited (not long) to meet him and he signed a copy of Adventures in the DC Universe.  He was friendly and easy to talk to and was even doing free sketches.  You'd never get a free sketch from anyone now.  He did a real cool Nightwing sketch for me which I still have framed up somewhere.  At the time he was mainly doing DC stuff, but Elaine asked him for a Hulk sketch and me and Murray were totally embarrassed omg.

2. PJ Fresh Phil!  The YTV legend PJ Phil is going to Kelowna!  If only they can get Paul McGuire for a reunion.  I know he used to be on CMT, but I swear I saw him on ET or ETalk the other day.

I know Cam and Cara probably already bought their early VIP passes and that's why I'm asking them to get me a PJ Phil auto.  Thanks guys!!!

New year, same old me

I bet you're wondering why it's been so quiet around here lately.  No pictures of Cranbrook, Christmas toys and socks, and Willie?  That's because I ended up staying in Calgary for Christmas and doing absolutely nothing.  And I mean absolutely nothing as a couple days I didn't even get dressed, I just hung around the house in my pajamas.

I had planned to go back to Cranbrook on the 23rd after I finished working a half shift in the morning.  I had watched the news the night before and the weather said it was going to be flurries in the afternoon.  Didn't sound like a big deal except when I left work at 11am it was already snowing pretty hard.  The news also said it would quit snowing overnight, so I decided to just postpone my drive back until the next day.  When I got up on Saturday, turns out it didn't stop snowing, but in fact it kept snowing and it snowed all Saturday and into Sunday.

I'm really tired/bored of the drive back to BC now as I've driven the road so many times.  I really hate it, so when a bunch of snow makes a drive I hate makes the roads crappy and the drive longer then I'm going to just not going to do it.  I'm old and ornery now, so I don't things I don't like.

I heard from Avery that I got a lot of presents, but they're all in Cranbrook.  That also means nobody got any presents from me because they are all still here in Calgary.  If I known I wasn't going to go back to Cranbrook for Christmas I wouldn't have rushed through my Christmas shopping.  I got lots of time now.  I did end up sending Logan a copy of the new COD because I figured he needed the copy of the game to play with his friends.

I got this card from Cody.  Cody is incredibly lazy when it comes to buying gifts, this year he just got me some gift cards.  I will be using the Cineplex card on Thursday because we are finally going to see Rogue One.  The gift card might not even cover the cost of the ticket and nachos, but I haven't had nachos for a while.  He also got me an Amazon giftcard.  Did you know they made a Die Hard colouring book?   It's on my wishlist, next year I'll just give him the link to it.

I'll probably go back to Cranbrook in January or February, as long as it doesn't snow.  Maybe it can snow after I get there, then I call work and say I'll be back in April.  I'm still packed and ready to go.