Category: Uncategorized

If the weather was anything like it was in Ottawa this past weekend, I am sorry.

Vero, Mike and I decided to go up to Matt’s cottage regardless of the rain because the long weekend fever hit us hard on Friday.

Surprisingly, it had not been raining at all up there so that was a welcome change. We sat by the campfire for the remainder of the night and much hilarity ensued until 4:00 AM. It’s funny how time works…one moment you notice that time is moving slowly, then the next, you lose track of 4 hours. Whoa.

The next morning, we awoke to someone shooting paintballs at the cottage and someone mowing their lawn in the middle of the rain. Odd. The paintballers were especially odd as we never found out who they were.

Shannon and Adam were heading out to paintball for their bachelor party but it got cancelled unfortunately, due to the rain. We all met for some breakfast in a Population: 40 people town which was nice. It was good to see Adam again as it has been a few years. I like how some friends can just go back to being how they were together without a care in the world.

A slew of us ended up going to the bowling lane in Smiths Falls which ended up being a vintage, vintage joint. I asked the 90-year old shoe guy if the shoes I was getting for the day were used by the bowlers who bowled 450. He said something like “You only wish Sonny!”. We had a good laugh.

Smelly old cloths and some serious mid-game resets aside, it was fun times.

After that, Alex, Mike and I returned to the cottage to cook up some sausages and then we packed the car and left. It is unfortunate that it was raining…it really puts a damper on the weekend.

That night, Mike and I headed out for some bachelor party debauchery which included a hand of poker in which I split the pot at the end with Dave as it was getting late. Nothing wrong with money in my pocket.

All in all, I thought it was hilarious how we packed up the car so much that we could have lived out of it for a week, but ended up staying there for one day. The same thing happened last year also. Really bad weather. But, Matt is a gracious host and I thank him for having us up.

In lieu of most of the world (or in Canada) ending on May 25, drink a lot of beer this weekend.

http://www.savelivesinmay.com/

Oh, blogger, you finally work. Two days later this photo is able to upload.

Samantha (Mike’s sister) came into town for a few days as she was in Montreal for a business trip. Seeing that Our Lady Peace was in town, they decided to pick up some tickets. I mentioned to them that I didn’t feel like going as I had already seen them this year, but mentioned that they should wait until the last day tickets are on sale because they usually open up more floor seats after measuring the stage.

So, that’s what they do…pick up a few floor tickets for themselves and head off. Keep in mind that they are not entirely excited about this ordeal as they have no idea where their seats are. When I checked them out online, I noticed they were in Section .B, and not B which I took as probably some extra space they opened up in behind Section B. Only makes sense.

So, they get to the Scotiabank Place, find section B (or .B turns out there was no difference) and proceed further, further, closer, closer to the stage until they get to three rows in front of the stage!

AS IF.

They said the concert was great…I read somewhere that Matt and Jen went to the concert randomly also.

So, they are in the Ottawa Sun article since Raine Maida invited the press staff to take pictures of the audience instead of the band. So, there you have it. Mike and Sam, inside the Ottawa Sun. I am jealous, but super happy at the same time that they had this opportunity. That’s so wild.

iplaying: Not For You (Boston 8-30-2000) – Pearl Jam

This is the second day in a row that I cannot get any sleep at night. Everyone has those days where they can’t sleep, but two in a row isn’t fair. Maybe it’s somehow connected to the rain in the city. I feel like a zombie…

PERFECT segueway into my posting about zombies. If anyone is interested in getting made up into a zombie for a commercial which is filming this weekend in Ottawa, I suggest you get in contact with Vero. One of her cohorts in crime is organizing this shindig which should be fun. If you call working 7 – 5:30 at night fun. Personally, I can’t think of a better thing to do on the long weekend, can you?

Speaking of the long weekend, pending rain, I should be heading out to Matt’s cottage for a bit and also out to Adam and Shannon’s bachelor party. That’s right ladies, these men are getting hitched so it’s your last chance to convince them to be with you instead of their wives-to-be.

I did an interview with Vero for the Youth.gc.ca website if you would like to a look.

CLICK ME !

To whom it may concern,

On Friday, May 12, 2005 there was a message on my home phone from HMV indicating that my pre-ordered copy of the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album; Stadium Arcadium, was put aside for me at the Merivale Road location (located at Merivale Place 1651 Merivale Road (613) 226 9190 in Ottawa, Ontario) where I had placed the pre-order.

Excited that the weekend had arrived and I finally had time to pick it up, I left my house in xxxxxx, xxx (hey, you don’t know what kind freaks are out here in the world reading my blog!) to drive out to the location.

After driving the 30 kilometers to the store, with my pre-order confirmation voucher in hand, I went to the front cash to show them my voucher and ask for the album. After a few minutes of the cashier looking in cupboards and out on the floor and speaking on the phone with an unidentified person (whom I can only assume would be a supervisor on duty?), he informed me that they did not have a copy for me and was very sorry.

Working in the retail industry myself at one point in my life, I chose not to express my frustration with the cashier who had no control over the situation. I politely asked if they could arrange for me to pick up the album in the xxxx,xxxx location since I did not wish to drive for 30 kilometres again in fear that the store would once again not have the album. I was impressed with the fact that they arranged it so I could pick it up at the other store even though the pre-order voucher indicated that this would not be possible.

I would like to question how a store could go ahead and call people indicating that a copy of an album is now at the store and ready for pickup, and then not have it. I understand that the pre-order voucher does not indicate that a copy would be placed aside for the purchaser, however, considering the phone call I received which indicated so, one would think there actually would be, especially considering I had driven out to the location within 24 hours of the phone call.

You may be asking why I had chosen to make the pre-order at the Merivale Road location in the first place considering it was 30 kilometres away from my house. I was picking up a DVD which was on sale and the only store in the area that had it left in stock was the Merivale Road location and at the time I noticed the pre-order deal for the new RHCP album and signed up. Unfortunately, I didn’t notice until later that the voucher indicated that I had to buy it at that location and not at any HMV location.

I would ask two things:

• Have someone explain to me (in writing) why this error occurred
• Reconsider the policy on needing to pick up a pre-order in the same location that you placed it. It was easily done in my case as an exception, so why not do it for all who take part in the pre-orders?

I must say that I am not impressed with HMV at the moment and that I will be spreading my distaste amongst my other friends who are known to frequent HMV stores. Hopefully my comments to my friends can be positive after hearing from you.

Please note that I am sending this same letter to both the head office in Etobicoke, Ontario and to the Merivale Road location in Ottawa.

Thank you,

The Palmer

***and there you have it. I wonder what kind of response I will get. To all those who have ever been snubbed by stores – write to them! I am kicking myself for never writing sooner to Home Depot about my paint issues last fall…it’s probably too late to do anything. On the other hand, it doesn’t hurt to try, right?***

It’s a Radiohead day today.

In the movie news, all you hear about is how Mission Impossible 3 is not bringing in the big bucks it was planning to.

I find this disappointing considering I wasn’t disappointed with this movie. This reminds me of another flop – The Island. I never heard anything about this movie other than the fact that it didn’t do too well…and it was a killer flick.

Speaking about killer flicks…methinks Tom killed this one on his own. Unfortunately, the line between actor (in a movie) and actor (in real life) is connected and that’s probably what drove people not to go see MI3.

Can you blame them? Unsure at this point. It is a movie after all, so it’s not like he’s going to be harping about his religion in the movie (unless THE RABBIT’S FOOT is some Scientology device that none of us know about! I hope my faithful Scientologist contingent answer my question) so no one should be scared of the movie from that point.

But, I suppose it could be that people just didn’t like the previous movies. John Woo movies are a love/hate thing – I personally love them.

Anyhow, to Tom, some sage advice. There’s three things that you just don’t talk about in public – that’s finances, religion, and how your girlfriend can beat you up.

It’s Pearl Jam fever time right about now…new album was released last week….they just kicked off their WORLD TOUR in Toronto for the first night last night (next show is tonight!)…and there are rumours that this will be the last tour (which is pretty silly if you ask me. They are judging that from a quote from one of the guitarist saying they are getting pretty old and they’ll have to stop touring soon. Come on. It’s Pearl Jam. No one stops touring. Except the Beatles. And that was due to the PA System.)

Anyhow, when I saw Pearl Jam in Ottawa last year, I didn’t manage to snag a tour poster which disappointed me. Pearl Jam do the old school thing where there is a different tour poster for each date they play – harkening back to the days where all bands did that. It’s like…they had their own personal artist or something.

Anyhow, I’ve been scouring the Internet for someone selling it and VOILA! Yesterday it went on sale on Ebay from some guy in Hawkesbury. Awesome. Hopefully I will get it. Will know in a week since the bidding will go until then. I will also see if I can save the shipping costs by either hitting up my good man super_ap who’s father lives out near that way or else I will make a road trip myself. But we’ll see how the bidding war goes!

iplaying: Thin Air: Pearl Jam