Month: May 2007

http://www.mcfly2015.com/

Definitely one of the funnier petitions I’ve seen in awhile. A petition for the Marty McFly (of Back To The Future) sneakers from his visit to the future. Hilarious.

Let’s talk a little about the future for a moment. I must say, in the year 2007, I’m kind of disappointed with the technological advancements of late. Sure, we have the cellular phone. But where is the crazy stove where you pop a small packet inside and then in 3 seconds a pizza emerges? Or the flying skateboard? OR FLYING CARS?!

Sure, the flying cars were pushing it (imagine the traffic problems!), but we need more future items NOW! If anything, we are stuck in the past. Heck, my hairstyle is stuck in the past. Time for a haircut.

A little bird told me that it’s Trish’s birthday today. What the heck is up with all these birthdays around the same time? Holy mackerel.

While we celebrated her birthday in style at the H&C on Friday night, I’m extending a St-Hubert meal her way on her birthday. Redeemable at any time, but give me a heads up for when you wish to go for it Trish!

What can I say about Trish other than the fact that I miss my work buddy. You know those people at work who goes to every break/lunch/whatever with you during the day and you laugh at the minutiae which is your daily life? I still remember the laugh we had when we were looking at some OC Transpo signs that had penguins on it and she said something about their tails between their legs in which I pointed out that it didn’t look like it was a tail hanging between their legs. Oh, the laughs we had that day on the bus!

Trish is the woman of style, pizazz and flair. Plus it doesn’t hurt that she is attractive. No one wants ugly friends.

She is known to rock and aspires to become one of the rocker girls that history will remember, but she doesn’t really know how to play a guitar, let alone hold one. Trish, we recommend another sport – like knitting.

Always one with an opinion but also with a kind ear for when Palmer wants to rant, she is what you call a good friend. I feel ashamed for how long I have made her wait to install her CD burner. I am clearly not as good of a friend as Trish is.

Let us not forget that Trish claims to be a feminist and has a legion of ‘menions’ at her beck and call. Actually, let’s point out that she coined the term ‘menion’. Trademark that one.

On your birthday, Trish, we salute you. You are a honey-of-an-o.

I don’t know where you all were this weekend, but I was in paradise. That’s right, Ottawa had the most beautiful weather. Saturday had a little chill in the air but Sunday was that weather which you dream of devising an evil contraption that will harness the controls of the weather so you can this one perfect day all year long except for Christmas because we all love snow on Christmas Day because we all know that’s what Jesus had in Bethlehem. Snow. Let’s take a look on the map for a second. Hmm…Bethlehem…wow. Nowhere near the North at all. Hey, where did the snow come into the picture then?

Saturday morning I arose from my slumber as I drove Vero to her class. This is her final class FOREVER. It’s only three full weekends. While that sucks, let’s keep in mind that instead of going to 16 weeks of class, you only have to go to six days of class. She’ll be done in a few weeks.

Feeling a bit rough, I get home and decide I should not head back to bed. I watch some shows that I haven’t’ seen in awhile and when Mike and Danny get home (from dropping Carol off in Cornwall) we cook up some lunch and head downtown to grab some LPs. Mike and Danny scored on that front but I didn’t see any albums I was interested in picking up. I’m trying to find Paul McCartney & Wings album ‘Band on The Run’. I’m starting to pick up classic albums that should be in all collections.

We then headed to Le Baron for a GPS battery and then Danny finds my voice recorder that I’ve lost since Christmas! I am ecstatic! It was lodged under the seat! Vero is not going to kill me anymore (as she had bought it for me). After doing a happy dance, we headed home, took a much deserved nap, headed to Montana’s for some ribs and wings and then finished off the night by watching the Senators win big and then popped in our favourite film – Dazed and Confused.

After Danny left on Sunday morning, Mike and I hit our productive stride. I gave the inside and outside of my car a much needed cleaning. I even shampooed the carpets inside. It was more to get rid of the salt which it had a hard time with. Does anyone have the much needed solution to getting road salt out of a carpet? I thought a shampoo would do the car good as there was this awful smell in the car in the past year and we couldn’t figure out what it is. I assumed someone through a tuna pita under the seat but I didn’t see any.

We then took a crack at cleaning the garage which is always…fun? Mike has come up with some good ideas for the garage so one of these days we will tackle putting some shelving inside. In the end, the garage really only took us a good hour of clean-up. We made a trip to the beer store with our bottles; including wine bottles now that they take them back. I had grand aspirations for making my own wine again so I was holding onto the bottles. But after 2 years I realize they were just taking up space.

We then headed over to Eric and Annie’s to borrow his grass seeder as there is a strip of dead grass along my driveway which is ugly. I haven’t seeded/fertilized before so I figured I should start one day. Turns out that I had enough for the back lawn also so I mowed both lawns and spread the seed. We’ll see if it sprouts anything.

Considering Vero has some ham and water in her fridge we brought her some St-Hubert last night and enjoyed her balcony view (her new apartment is awesome!) and then headed to see Spider-Man 3 but it was 7:55 with a movie starting at 8PM. We had to get a refund on our tix as there just wasn’t anymore seating.

I think it’s a shame that today is a beautiful day and we are stuck inside work all day. Perhaps I should join construction?

There are times in one’s life when you go out with some friends, you either have a great night, or one of those nights which make your brain collapse in the sheer awesomeness which was that night. Friday night was no exception.

Sena and I left work to pick up a few gifts and then head to Trish’s. While we waited….and waited…and waited…we had a few beer and watched some TV. Then we got going out to the homestead where I was expecting some dinner ready for us as the crew had the entire day off while we had to work all day.

True to form, the crew at home were lazy all day and had nothing ready for us, so I had to haul out the meat to BBQ. I am making the situation sound worse than it is – I was fine with cooking up some sausages for all!

Fast fact: I did not know that it’s smarter to boil your sausages before throwing on the BBQ. Who else does that? I especially like how both Mike and Danny were giving each other the eye when I threw them on raw but they said nothing. Ya goofs, if you know I should boil them, you should tell me! 😉

Carol ended up cooking the sausages as the rest of us were in the middle of a mean game of washers. In the end, it took Sena and I awhile but we finally caught up and beat Mike and Danny as they had started to go back down in points (which happens if you bust at the end).

After a few drinks and a few laughs, we then headed downtown for the celebration of Trish and Carol’s birthday. What better place to end up, but the Heart and Crown. We were very excited as we had discovered that Shaydid was playing and it wasn’t until Trish pointed out that this was the same band we saw on Canada Day weekend who rocked our socks off! Let it be known that Trish was also trying to pick up the drummer last Canada Day weekend.

Us (to the lead singer): Hey, my friend thinks your drummer is hot.
Lead Singer: I do too! That’s why I married him! (while flashing the ring)

Woops! Sorry Trish. Didn’t see that happening! Ha ha.

We arrived just in time to grab Duncan off of the patio and we headed into the back area where the main act was coming on. We had an excellent vantage point and the night started off great when I was downstairs getting some beer and heard some sweet, sweet Pink Floyd playing. I thought it was through the radio, but no! It was the band! I raced upstairs and had forgotten that they have this amazing guitarist (who last time had a sweet, sweet moustache). This guy could shred.

The night starts up in fine fashion and all is good in the world.

Highlights of the Night:

– Alright, here’s where I throw a little back story. Years ago, Carrie, myself and others frequented the H&C a lot more than we do nowadays. During that time we noticed an old man who always was at the bar. He wasn’t a leery old man, he was a good time and we had a few pictures taken with him. We never knew the story behind him. Old-timers like that always have a great story attached to them.

Months after that moment, Carrie and I were searching through old pictures and had a good laugh when we realized that this old man had appeared in other pictures we had from before that moment! He’s been there forever! A permanent fixture one might say! From that point on, any night that we found this gentleman in the bar upped the greatness of the night.

This night was to be no exception. Sure enough, out of nowhere, the man shows up and I proclaim “This will be the best night ever!”. At this point, Carol and Danny realize that they did not go wrong in coming to Ottawa for Carol’s birthday. I’m sure they had their doubts…I mean, who wants to leave a slew of your friends back home for your birthday to come party with a bunch of people that you don’t really know? But this was not the case – this was the beginning of a grand night.

In the end, we found out quite a bit about this gentleman. His name is Roy and he was celebrating his 80th birthday! He also mentioned that his birthday was last weekend but he was still partying. I want to be this guy when I get to be 80!

– Here’s where the other highlight of the night occurs. At this point I need to get to a phone to call Carrie to tell her that the old man from the photographs is here at the bar and that she needs to get down here pronto. I ask Duncan for his phone to call Carrie. As soon as I mention her name she emerges from the crowd! At that point I whispered “I need to call Elizabeth Hurley.” but she didn’t appear so I thought I should get back to reality. Coincidences like these are not to be ignored – there was a reason she was at this spot at this time and it was to have a great night! She had a good laugh when she saw Roy dancing away in a t-shirt that said ‘LURE’ on it. Classic. CLASSIC!

– Let’s talk a little about the band Shaydid. I love this band. Honestly, I can now put them above Fortune’s Hand at this moment in time. Hey, we all know I love FH, but ever since their guitarist left, I don’t know…maybe the last time I saw them I was turned off by the entire crowd being followers of the new guitarist who were shouting his name during THE ENTIRE NIGHT. While I suppose that is cool in a way, it did get annoying after 30 minutes. So back to Shaydid, they have it all. An amazing guitarist, KEYBOARDS (a must for any classic rock band!) and let’s be honest, the singer is quite amazing. When they started Fleetwood Mac’s You Can Go Your Own Way I lost it as this has become a new/old favourite of mine. I love this tune. As Krista points out, it’s an excellent driving tune.

Shaydid never put on a bad show and I am looking forward to this Canada Day weekend when they return. I highly recommend that everyone mark their calendars now to see this band in action. They are over the top.

– Let’s not forget to talk about my new hat and how everyone was making a grab for it. Yikes! It was funny at first, but sometimes you have that fear that someone will not be a gentleman and leave the bar with it. I think I need to attach a chain to it.

I’m sure the others can add some memories in the comments section. All in all, I was once again impressed with the Heart and Crown. We ended the night by picking up a schwarma, checking out Vero’s new pad and heading home.

Last night after Vero got off of work we headed to her new pad to unpack some things.

First stop was her new roommate Mel’s place as she had the two keys to the new place. She will be moving her stuff this coming Saturday.

We get to the place and Vero inserts the key and tries to turn the lock but nothing is moving. Then she realizes that she can’t get the key out.

I try to attempt to jostle it from its place but this thing is wedged in there tight! It can only turn so much and it doesn’t even have one ounce of wiggle room when trying to pull it out. Clearly we are victim to a Wal-Mart key cutting experience. 😉

While I try and pull out my superhuman strength to remove this key, Vero goes downstairs to the superintendent and he grabs some tools and tries to remove it himself but it isn’t working.

Then, out of nowhere a police officer pulls up!

Officer: “Uh, what’s going on here?”
Vero: “Our key is stuck in the lock.”
Officer: “Do you live here?”
Vero: “Yes, we just rented the place this week.”
Officer: “Oh thank God, I thought this was a Break and Enter!”

Here I am with this giant smile on my face of the sheer hilariousness of this situation. The police officer had to call off her backup also. After taking some information down she was gracious enough to find some locksmith phone numbers and give them a call but she said they either were on the other line or busy.

At this point, I would like to thank the Ottawa Police for the kind service they provided in our predicament. When I think of police, I suppose I think of ‘movie’ police and how they are only interested in crimes, but she was kind enough to not leave us high and dry. Kudos to you.

So after she leaves, I head down to the bowling lane to use the pay phone. This is where my night hit an all-time peak.

Now, if you don’t know who Salad Fingers is, it’s this very insane character found in some animation clips on the Internet. It’s not for the weak of heart but if you’re interested, Google and watch some Salad Fingers episodes. I personally find him hilarious.

So I walk in the bowling lane and use the phone but to no avail so I grab some change from the cashier. On my way to the cashier’s desk I see these two teenage girls. One is walking, talking and just acting weird and the other is filming her with her digital camera. I then realize that she is imitating Salad Fingers! Awesome!

On my way back from the cashier’s desk they are eyeing me up and acting like Salad Fingers while taping it and they just want to see my reaction (which, if no one would know what the heck she is doing, they would probably think she was disturbed.).

Me: “Wow, cool. Salad Fingers!”
Them (mouths gaped open in shock/awe): “YOU KNOW SALAD FINGERS?!”
Me: “Yes, of course. Who doesn’t?”

I then walk away and let them revel in the fact that they aren’t the coolest cats on Earth. I am.

Locksmiths don’t pan out (where’s the 24 hour locksmith when you need him?) so Vero breaks the key so no one could get into the place (I say potentially considering we couldn’t even get into it) and we head home.

While I know Vero was disappointed in the night as she had high hopes for unpacking, I must admit that I thought the night was hilarious and you have to enjoy these random nights when they come your way. Especially when someone is doing an impression of Salad Fingers.

(work) Mike doesn’t like pink shirts.

More specifically, he doesn’t think pink shirts should be worn on men. We’ve heard rants, we’ve heard raves – the message is clear: “No man should wear a pink shirt!”

With this knowledge in hand, a brilliant idea was hatched between conniving Krista and Palmer as we decided to go for the gold and pick up a pink shirt for Mike for his birthday.

But knowing very well that he would burned it with a magnifying glass under the sun, we had to think of an ingenious way to get him to accept it, and potentially wear it.

I felt like we were spies on a mission with the prep work that was done to it.

We mailed the shirt along with a nice note to his wife. In the note we asked his wife if she would be a kind soul and ensure that Mike wore the pink shirt on his birthday.

Sure enough, his birthday comes along and we receive an email saying “Thanks for this birthday gift. I can’t believe I’m wearing this shirt!”

Turns out that his wife (God bless her soul) washed and ironed it and said “Mike, can you wear something for me today?” and passed him the shirt. Awesome.

So here you have it – Mike in all his glory in his pink shirt. I’d like to also point out that he already spilled coffee on it in defiance of the monstrosity which adorned his hairy chest. I do enjoy the fact that he was getting compliments on it all day.

While I could have gone for a more vibrant colour, it is pink nonetheless and here is proof that Mike did indeed break his credo.

Many moons have passed overhead during my friendship with Carol. So it is fitting that on her birthday, I should write something about her.

Carol is actually anxiously awaiting to see what sort of birthday greetings she will receive via this virtual networking Frankenstein creation called Facebook but I know that secretly she was waiting to see what I would have to say on this space right here.

Let’s first talk about how I now realize how a lot of you are disappointed when there isn’t anything of substantial…Palmer inside these postings. For example, Carol said she was craving some good postings this week and all she got was a posting on how CD sales are dropping! Lame! Mike also piped in and told me how Palmer’s World is his sister’s drug of choice – she can’t get enough.

Well, this has redoubled my efforts into making this an entertaining space for the masses! Not only shall I redouble my posting efforts, but I will once again just spew random thoughts onto this page; more than you wish to read about!

Anyhow, back to Carol’s birthday.

Fast fact – Did you know that Carol’s phone number back home corresponds with her birth date? That is awesome.

Carol and Danny arrived last night (which I didn’t know about or else I would have taken the day off) and we had a few beer and called it a night. Carol was talking about how it’s been a decade since we left school. This is true…it’s been ten long years since we’ve left the good halls of KDHS. I can probably pinpoint that ten years ago around lunchtime I had a grilled cheese sandwich and some fries along with Carol. Or maybe she was laughing at me printing out a t-shirt with the Palmer Platter. Carol, if you’re reading this today and I’m not around, go into my bedroom and in my top drawer you will find the Palmer Platter t-shirt. Perhaps I’ll wear it out tonight.

Carol is one of those hidden gems in life where she is this great person who is caring and fun to be with but you don’t realize how MUCH you depend on her until she goes away. This is how I felt when we went our separate ways to college. She’s the one who not only thinks about you and wants to know what’s going on in your life, but makes you feel good about yourself (and rightly so!). I just hope that everyone around her (including me!) make her feel the same way. Because she’s THAT good.

Now, seeing that it is her birthday, I suppose we should come up with some random memories of Carol.

• Let’s us not forget the fabled time where I visited her in Oshawa and her roommates bed was empty but Carol would not allow me to sleep in it, or on top of it, hence I had to sleep on the floor. Watch it Carol, this may happen to you tonight!
• Carol + Internet were the same word essentially back around 1995-96. Let’s be honest. We all were into it. But I bet Carol had a gazillion friends via the IRC channels which blew me away.
• I remember how she introduced me to I Mother Earth by having the Scenery and Fish album on one day and I caught Earth, Sky and C and was blown away. Heck, while we’re on it, she also lent me her Siamese Dream album which created the monster which we know day (aka the Smashing Pumpkins fanatic that I am).
• The constant times where we were hungover at Wal-Mart and she had refuge in the back room of the shoe stocking area. I definitely hid out there a few times in my life. Let’s talk a little bit about Wal-Mart shall we? We were reminiscing last night about our times at Wal-Mart and Mike told us of how one day he was covering Sports section early in the morning and was feeling pretty rough so he unrolled a sleeping bag and slept ON TOP of the counter and then the manager comes by and asks what he’s doing. Classic. Man, I had a good laugh last night when he told me that!
• Flashback: Oshawa circa 1998 when I was in a club and Carol told everyone to keep an eye out for a crazy dancer and they would find me. Pshaw.

The coolest thing nowadays is the fact that we see each other a little more. I think we stumbled upon the fact that just because we went to different towns during college doesn’t mean we have to stay separated all the time. So I occasionally end up in her town and she occasionally ends up in mine and all is good in the world.

Happy Birthday Carol! I invite everyone to trade tales of Carol on her birthday. Or, (as she would prefer) send her a birthday wish via FaceBook!

Blockbuster has their minimum $5 return special on trade-ins for old DVDs. Vero and I walked over with 4 old DVDs (two of which I ended up with at a Christmas exchange two years ago FROM Vero and never really wanted to watch them. Woops!) and reveled in the fact that they accepted them all and I have a sweet $20 credit at the store now.

Eric had told me that there were a few that he brought in that weren’t accepted so I was worried about a few of them, but it turned out well. It especially turned out well for the return of Kentucky Fried Movie – an amazing film, but I picked it up at Blockbuster a few years back, it never worked and it was too late to return it (or I was too lazy to return it). So Blockbuster gets their own copy back after all these years. I knew I would win this battle eventually! Never cross the Palmer. He always wins somehow.

This week had Vero stay with us because she doesn’t have all of her stuff at her new apartment but we’ll go and unpack her stuff tonight. Should be fun – I always love unpacking…it’s the mark of the new age. It has been fun having her hang around the place and we will miss her.

Last night Eric and Mike pretty well supervised me tear apart Vero’s bicycle which is a mess and try and rebuild it. We started out with Eric’s old bicycle and thought we could just fix that up. It was in an accident the front forks were bent. After a few hours of playing around with that (Read: His bike is awesome. Vero’s – not so much. It’s like riding a piece of rust.) we bent the fork a little too much which automatically eliminated our chances of success.

We then decided to see how much we could fix up the rust-cycle and it didn’t work out too well. The gears don’t work (which for a moment, didn’t really matter as Vero insisted she doesn’t need gears!) but then we couldn’t get the back brakes functioning too well. While I believe her when she says that she would be fine on it, I don’t believe traffic can always be on her side – something that Eric can attest to when some truck hit him a few years back. So we convinced her not to use the bicycle for now. Maybe I’ll go back and try and change a few things – a new brake cable and get some new gear shifters, but something tells me I can probably find an old bike somewhere that is in better condition than this one.

Hey at least my bicycle seemed to be in top shape and now that I put some air in the tires and threw some WD-40 on the chain, I’m good to go! I’m excited to venture out into the wilds again with my bicycle. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – the only thing I regret about my new pad is the fact that it’s just a LITTLE too far to bike to work.

Danny and Carol are coming up this weekend for some fun at the Heart and Crown. We will be celebrating both Trish and Carol’s birthday this Friday night.

Here’s a call out for everyone who likes a good time, to come on out!

Before we head out, Mike and Ryan are inviting you over to Casa Losier & Palmer for a little pre-party action in which the BBQ will have propane.

Spread the word. Perhaps I’ll send out an Evite.

Helped Vero finish the move out of her residence last night. It’s weird to leave a place barren. There were good times had there over the past year although Mike and I both agreed that it couldn’t have been THAT great of a time as we never saw any parties during the year!

We managed to make the final load in one shot and drove out to Vero’s new pad. It is pretty flippin’ sweet. Definitely something that I’ve never been in (as apartments go!). It’s only three years old, it has central air conditioning with a remote control so you can control it from the comfort of your couch. It also has some nice hardwood, an open concept kitchen/living room and all in all, it’s pretty swell. I think her and her new roommate Melanie will enjoy it.

I’m not going to lie and say that I didn’t appreciate the fact that Vero lived on campus for the past four years. It was awesome to go to her place before class and have some supper. I’m also not going to lie and say that I didn’t enjoy the fact that after a night at the pub I could walk on over to the University and fall into a deep slumber instead of heading back home.

But these are minor details and the coolest part about it all is the fact that Vero is into a new movement in her life where she has her own pad and it’s awesome and she also has a sweet, sweet job. Coupled with the fact that…heck…she has me, she probably has what people would call ‘the high life.’