Month: June 2008

This seems like a neat project to try out at a future party…

Read here.

I saw myself on Moitie Moitie yesterday.  It was pretty cool to see me sitting down in the background.  I was also with Mike and he got a little bit of face time as well (as much face time you can ask for as an extra).  He gets a massive closeup shot in a future episode though.  It will be great!

For those of you who are reading this before Sunday night, the show airs either at 5PM or 5:30PM on TFO (which is Channel 12 in Ottawa).  We are in the restaurant scene about 10 minutes into the show.  I have taped the episode to show everyone so later in the summer we’ll have a little party to celebrate.

Dang, it’s hot today.  But awesome hot.  Maybe it’s awesome because I’ve sat around with no shirt on since I woke up.  I don’t even have the air conditioning on.  I have grown accustomed to the heat nowadays but maybe I’ll throw the A/C on when I go to bed.  Sleeping while it’s hot is horrible.  But I think it’s starting to cool down now.

I’ve studied all day while Vero laid in the sun in the backyard all day long with me.  It was great.  We popped in a new album Maren passed to us to take a listen to.  Los Campesinos! is an amazing band and we really enjoyed the album.  We listened to it twice while sitting in the sun, absorbing life’s rays, and drinking iced tea.  I then switched over the listening medium to CBC Radio 3 streaming radio.  I haven’t listened to it in awhile and I don’t know why I ever gave up.  I have this love/hate relationship with radio.  I love what it has to offer (well CBC Radio3 at least…) but then I find I don’t pay enough attention to albums I actually go out and buy!  Where’s the good balance?

Right now I’m descending into a strange place as the sun is going down and it’s cresting over the mall outside my window.  A cool breeze is coming in, I’m listening to a live Dears concert I found on CBC Radio, and there is a beer in front of me.  Studying has finally taken a break for the day and I feel good about it…

As my final exam approaches, I realize that I will have the rest of the summer off (well other than my actual job!).  Here’s some things that are in the works of what I want to accomplish and what I’m actually doing:

• Travelling to Victoria, British Columbia from June 14 – June 21: Mom and Dad are probably boarding an Alaskan Cruise as I type this (Bon Voyage Patterson Clan!) and afterwards they are going to visit Uncle Brent in BC.  I decided that this would be a good time to finally go out and visit him and I managed to convince Troy to come along and Nanny will also be along for the ride.  Mom and Dad will pick us up in Vancouver in a car they will rent and then we will head to Victoria.  We are going to take things easy and if we feel like going out for a trip on the coast, we will.
• Traveling to London, Ontario from June 21 – June 24: When we arrive back in Ontario, Troy and I will head out to his house so we can do some recording.  It worked well last year while recording The Stomper (hey, isn’t that ready to be released yet?!) and we are hoping that the trip to BC will inspire us to write some stuff and maybe think about recording.  I can definitely see us laying down 705 while we are there though as long as we can find the right guitar tone.  If it cannot be found, perhaps a cover song.
• Canada Day weekend – Looks like Vero’s sister and husband are coming to town that week so that should be fun.  Vero and her sister are going skydiving!
• Modify Mike’s Xbox.  Now that school will be done, I can catch up on the things people have been waiting for!
• Go for a bike ride with Carrie.  Ottawa, watch out!
• HOPE Volleyball: Once again, we will terrorize the beer tents.
• Resurrect Movie Night with Trish: This may involve scoping out drive-in theatres, films in parks or pubs, etc.
• Travel to Gaspe – First week of August: Patterson Family Reunion!  Should be fun.  I hope to spend each day either swimming in the ocean or biking around the loop (about 15 km).  The last time I attempted this feat, I ended up half way around and I couldn’t go any longer.  I was young and stupid and didn’t bring any water with me.  Since then I have grown up and learned how to bike properly.  I also will bring my guitar down and may or may not need to perform every night.  The strip club lives on!  (you do know that our cottage is an old strip club, right?)
• Have some BBQs with friends: The one thing I hate about going to school is the fact that my friend visiting quota goes down to 1%.  It is quite awful.
• Have Maren and Allan-Paul over for supper: Considering I never have and I have definitely had a great meal over there once or twice, it’s only courteous to do so.  Also, sneak some of their wine.  😉  I suppose if I forgot anyone on this dinner list, they should let me know!

What big plans do you have for the summer?

Heads up!  I have asked a few of you to contribute to the website while I’m traveling this summer!  If I haven’t contacted you and you wish to put your spin on Palmer’s World, feel free to ask and contribute!

I don’t know what’s stranger…the fact that Kitchener, Ontario seems to be the hotspot for comics books, or the fact that I swear this woman looks a little like Mom…

I have been hinting about some recent comic book acquisitions.  I felt that I needed some time to really think about the great gift that was given to me and how I can properly document it.

Aunt Lois and Uncle Gary’s friend was giving away their old comic books.  I really didn’t know what to expect from them but I said I would definitely take them off of their hands as a comic is a comic!  I thought I would have some entertaining reads.

But later in the day, Aunt Lois started telling me about the titles available…Fantastic Four, X-Men, Spider-Man.  My heart skipped!  Could it be that I was getting a slew of my favourite titles?  Then Uncle Gary even listed some of the Fantastic Four issues they obtained…#33, 34, 41..etc.  I couldn’t believe what I was reading.  Vintage comics!  A dream of mine was to finally read some old comic books.  In comparison, the comics nowadays pale in comparison to what was released back then.  Back then they focussed more on squashing a story into one issue.  Nowadays they gear a storyline to fill a tradepaperback in most (not all!) cases.

I received a notice that as soon as their friend realized that they were taking his comics off his hands, he now wanted to sift through them and decide which ones to get rid of.  Ah well, I realized I would be in the same position and not want to get rid of my gems.  I figured I would still get to read a few good issues though and left it at that.  Aunt Lois did phone later on and mentioned that there were about a hundred X-Men comics so my hopes soared back up again!

Fast-forward to my trip to Aunt Dinah’s, I arranged for Aunt Lana to pick up the comics for me from Aunt Lois.  I will still drop by your house in the future Aunt Lois!  You can count on it!  I didn’t want to show TOO much excitement when Aunt Lana rolled into the driveway so I never brought it up for most of the afternoon.  It wasn’t until after dinner that I figured this was a good time to meander out to the car and pick up the boxes.  I brought them downstairs and started to sift through them.

Shock went through my system as I started to sift through the comics.  Rick and Tracy were there as well and Rick went through a few and was yelling out names “Thor!  Fantastic Four!”.  Aidan (age 4) wanted to read one so I passed him a Green Arrow book.  I ended up looking through every comic after everyone went to bed.

In the end, I ended up with a slew of Silver (60s) and Bronze (70s) Age issues…something I’ve always wanted to read but never had the opportunity.  The majority of them are Marvel Comics (my fave) and I ended up with 164 Uncanny X-Men comics and the strangest (fate?) thing was that the last issue in the series was #272 and my own collection starts at #273!  I couldn’t believe how fate put these comics into my hands.  I thought it was just plain good luck but after seeing how coincidental it was for the X-Men issues to line up, I knew there was a higher power at work here.

I catalogued all the comics the night I got back into town and I ended up inheriting 621 comic books, with a slew of Uncanny X-Men, Fantastic Four, Nick Fury, Iron Man (over 100 issues), Incredible Hulk, a bunch of Spider-Man comics (even a few old Amazing Spidey!  Awesome!  That’s my fave series next to X-Men)…I even received a few older DC Comics like Justice League Europe, Action Comics…I haven’t ever really read many DC Comics but here’s an opportunity to start!  The majority of the issues come from the Bronze Age and a few touch into the Modern Age (80s+).

I have started to read a few each night before going to bed and am enjoying what they have to offer.  They are much different than the newer comics I read now.  I started reading some Iron Man (as I have never done so before), some Fantastistic Four and some Captain America.  I usually just reach my hand into the box and pull out whatever issue there is to read and have a fun time reading it.  It will take me quite awhile to get through these issues and I look forward to reading them all!

Some may marvel at the fact that I obtained quite a wealthy amount of old comic books.  While I realize that some of them fetch a few bucks due to their age, I must admit that I’m more excited to actually read the stories that shaped the comic books that we all know and love today.  I’m more excited to see Jack Kirby’s artwork and Stan Lee’s dialogue than to see how much they will eventually sell for.  I want to see Spidey’s witty banter and fighting some classic villains.  Feel free to drop on by and read a few with me on a rainy day!

A special thanks goes to Aunt Lois and Uncle Gary for thinking of me when this gift came their way.  As for the gentleman who passed these gems along, I thank you good sir and rest assured that your comics are in good hands and they are being enjoyed immensely.  You’ve brought someone’s dream come true.

Appendum: On a related note, after hearing about my love of comics again, Maureen called me and said that her friend Amy was getting rid of her old comic books!  I ended up with 350 newer comics (from the late 90s) and a few of them will definitely fill up my decade of missing X-Men issues!  I haven’t gone through them fully yet and there are a few that are in questinable shape (covers torn off, pages missing) but all in all, I came out on top and will catalogue them soon.  Thanks to Maureen and Amy!  Clearly I should just be on the lookout for comics people are giving away and not thinking of buying any!

This past weekend, Mike and I headed back home to surprise Mom as it was her surprise retirement party.  I picked Mike up at Tunney’s Pasture at 4PM and we were on the road to a road trip weekend!

Have you ever entered ‘the zone’ while driving?  There are long road trips out there, but if you enter ‘the zone’, they fly by.  I definitely entered the zone on Friday evening and had no problems driving for a long time.  The music was good, the conversation was good, the sights were good.  I really enjoy driving the route up to North Bay.

Around New Liskeard I finally relinquished the driving duties to Mike as I was growing tired around 10PM.  It wasn’t the greatest driving conditions…it was raining hard off and on.  At various points we swore it was snowing out!  I must have been enjoying my sleep as Mike told me he had to poke me a few times to wake me up around Cochrane.

Let me tell you, I am thinking of writing a letter to the Ministry of Transportation in regards to their painted lines on HWY 11.  We could not see them at night.  I don’t know if that was an effect of a long winter, or of the rain, but we could not see the divided lines nor the sidelines.  At various points I figured the only thing keeping me on the road was the fact that I heard the hum of the pavement underneath me.  When it opened into a passing lane, it was a free-for-all and I just navigated in the center.  It was quite horrible.  I am wondering if they repaint their lines each year and it just happens that after every winter, this is how they end up, or have they neglected them for a few years.

We rolled into town around 1PM and had a few beer and a sandwich with Mike’s parents.  They were gracious enough to allow me to get some slumber for a night so I didn’t ruin the surprise for Mom.

Let me roll back a few days to give you a funny story.  Earlier in the week Maureen had let me know that there was a surprise party being planned for Mom.  So I talk to Mike and say “Wanna go up to Kap this weekend?”.  Of course he is up for it and then he adds “This will be a good weekend to go up as my sister is moving into her new house.”  I groaned and realized what I had got myself into.  I am kidding, as I am more than willing to help out friends and family move (as long as it works with my schedule, sorry Joe!).  I figured “No problem.  Wake up early, get a move done, relax for the rest of the day.”

Then I talk to my sister and she says “Oh that’s great that you are coming up!  I am moving into Mike’s sister place on Sunday and you can help me move!”

What the heck?  How did I manage to rope myself into two moves in one weekend?  Oh well, they are family and they need some help.  No problems there.  Although I worried about my head the next morning on Sunday.

Saturday morning arrives and I am woken up to find out that Dad has dropped by to pay a visit.  We chat for a bit and then head out to Sam and Marc-Andre’s apartment to help move.  Bad news on the horizon though…it’s raining.  It’s dreary, it’s mucky, it’s pretty well a bad day to move.  Oh well, haul on a sweatshirt and we are good to go.

We drop by their new house to set up the coffee machine and then head back to their apartment.  Luckily they are well set up and have a ton of people helping out so it wasn’t that hard of a move.  We made a few trips, had some lunch and I believe we were done the entire move by 2PM.  No worries there.  The afternoon was spent having a few beers and I escaped for awhile to pick up some gifts for Mom for the night.

Can I also point out that Marc-Andre and his father made an amazing feed of pickerel for us?  It was superb.  Marc-Andre was pointing out that they were using pastry flour instead of regular flour as it supposedly tasted different on fish.  It definitely did and I recommend trying it!

Their new house is a beaut and I wish them well on their unpacking which should take approximately seven months judging by the amount of stuff we moved!

Bruce was gracious enough to bring me back to his house so I could shower and get out to the Royal Canadian Legion.  I thought I was running late so I called a cab.  I loathe taking cabs, especially in Kapuskasing of all places.  But, I didn’t want to be late for the surprise so I rushed over to the Legion.  On my way over there I noticed the car was running at Rick and Nat’s place and I groaned because I could have got a ride with them!  I showed up to the hall and found out that I was about 30 minutes early so I definitely didn’t need to get a cab over.  Oh well, you live you learn.  I settled down, had a drink, spoke the Konopelky’s and Labries’ and Rick and Nat (interesting why I don’t ever refer to them as the Achilles…) and chatted with John and Maureen for awhile.

After awhile, the crew from Canadian Tire showed up into the hall and it was quite the party.  A little while later we were ordered to hush up as Mom and Pam (the other woman retiring) were being led down the stairs with a blindfold.  All you could hear is Mom yelling “Is this when the stripper hops out?!”  I was having a good laugh.  I hid in the corner so I could time the surprise right.  I didn’t know if it would work well.  The blindfolds came off, everyone yelled surprise, surprises were had.  But then I had to figure out a way to get through the crowd and sneak up on Mom.

The opportunity presented itself as Mom turned her back a little from the crowd so I bounded at the chance.  I ran up behind her, gave her a hug and big kiss and said “Happy Retirement!”  I moved in front of her and you could tell that she had no idea who had just kissed her.  With all the pandemonium around with the surprises and the noise, this whole process took 30 seconds so she is still bewildered at the surprise of it all.

The look on her face was priceless as she clued into the fact that I was there.  “RYAN!” she screamed!  “What are you doing here?” (always a funny response…).  Someone managed to snap a photo of the shock on her face which is awesome.  It turned out really well in capturing the feeling.

The rest of the night descended into a good time.  I was introduced to the people Mom worked with (quite a few who were actually in my class in high school), Mom made a speech and received a watch (and her 15 year pin!), and the draft beer was flowing nicely.  There was even a wedding going on upstairs that I crashed around midnight to get some food from the buffet.  I didn’t hang around TOO long but I managed to scarf down a few meatballs and some pasta salad.  I met John on the way down who was disappointed I forgot to get him.  Let’s just say in my state, I was a man on a mission, and that mission was food.

After the party died out, we wanted to keep going strong so we went out to some karaoke bar on the highway called Jo Jo’s.  I have never been to this place and it was a decent pad.  I went to the bar to get a few beer and some girl yelled my name and started chatting me up.  For the life of me, I have no idea who this girl was but I am glad to see that my legend precedes me when I come into town.  😉

We stayed for a few drinks and then decided to head home for the night where I scarfed down some leftover ribs of Mom’s.  She also had the opportunity to open some gifts when we arrived home which she loved.

In the end, the surprise retirement party went off without a hitch (except for me breaking a glass) and Mom really enjoyed it.  She really didn’t expect anything other than the supper at Casey’s which they were at before heading to the Legion Hall.  Thanks to family and friends who made it out to the event!  Can I also point out that in the picture I have here of my family, it looks like Mom’s shirt is half black and white and half watermelons?  I did a double take and realized it was the flowers she was holding up!

During the night, I had a midnight visitor in the form of John who came into Maureen’s bedroom where I was sleeping and then he exited and said to Maureen “I felt a toe in the bed.”  Woops!  I guess we never thought Maureen and John were coming home!  I would like to thank John for not proceeding to snuggle up with me during the night.

The next morning, I wasn’t feeling too bad at all which was surprising.  I meandered around the house until Mom came home and made some hot dogs and then we headed over to Maureen’s new apartment and unloaded the truck.  It took us about five loads but it was an easy move as there wasn’t too much stuff.  I did require a nice nap during the afternoon though but we managed to wash my car first.  I also got some touch-up paint for the hood of the car but I don’t know if it’s an exact match and it doesn’t look like it covered too much at all.  I may have to give it a few more touch-ups.

That evening we headed over to the Konopelky’s for an amazing feast of shrimp, pork roast and veggies.  YUM!  It was really good and the company is always good as well.  Dad and I enjoyed a few much deserved beers from moving Maureen’s apartment in the afternoon.

We retired to the house for the night where Dad and I watched some show called “TV’s Most Outrageous Moments” which was fairly entertaining and I then checked out a slew of comic books (approximately 350) that Maureen’s friend Amy was getting rid of.  I scored a large amount that I did not have already and they were mainly X-Men related.  Not too shabby.  They are in questionable condition however as they were just stored in a box…multiple covers are torn or pages missing, but the majority are readable and that’s what counts.  I’ll have to get some bags and boards for them soon enough.

The next morning Mike and I headed on our way out of town and it was a beautiful day for a drive.  It’s too bad that we had to go through some construction areas as my car doesn’t even look like it was ever washed.  We rolled into Ottawa around 5PM, just in time for rush hour and we stopped into Vero’s place to wait it out and had some Louis’s pizza while we waited.

Vero and I then headed to the park and threw the frisbee around, played a card game called Speed and just hung out.  It was a nice end to a great weekend.  Lots of changes happening all around….Sam and Marc-Andre moving into a new house, Maureen and John moving into a new apartment, Mom retiring…crazy!

On a related note, we drove by the Kapuskasing Inn a few times and it’s quite the sad sight as it’s destroyed and is laying as a pile of rubble.  Mom and Dad managed to snag me a nice commemorative edition of the Northern Times with articles on the Inn though which was nice.  I am also arranging to obtain a brick.  😉