Good Deal – Casino Royale

As I grow older, the need to have certain items the day it comes out is waning.  Case in point, Casino Royale.  After seeing this in the film, I knew I had to add it to my James Bond film collection.  However, when it was first released on DVD a few years ago, it definitely didn’t have very many special features and if you follow trends, newer, better versions end up coming out near the release of a sequel.  Hence, I played the waiting game.

The wait paid off.  I picked up the collector’s edition of Casino Royale for $22 last night at Future Shop.  There’s documentaries galore on this set and I’m excited to watch them.  I bought the James Bond collection a few years back and have made it a habit of watching a film and then watching all the documentaries.  They are really well done and I enjoy them thoroughly.

The best part about the purchase is that there is a coupon to see Quantum of Solace in theatres (the new Bond film) up to a maximum of $10.50.  This is a steal of a deal.  So really, I paid for my ticket to see the film and then I spent an additional $11.50 for a copy of Casino Royale.  No complaints from this guy.  I’m sure I may have a little trouble entering the theatre with this coupon so I’ll head straight to the customer service desk when I do end up seeing the film (which should be sometime after Maren returns from Belgium.  Ah, Belgium, home of Andalouse sauce.  Drool.)

I also picked up the new Dears album which is great.  I downloaded a leaked copy a few weeks ago considering it wasn’t on the shelves yet.  I figured it was time to support this band so I went ahead and picked up a copy.  It’s a decent album.  Something tells me that they will never have another album like No Cities Left, but so be it.

After the adventure at Future Shop, I meandered around Chapter’s for awhile looking at this vampire book series that Holly was raving about but then I decided not to pick up the book right away.  Can I just point out that I am quite silly when it comes to money.  I look at the price of the book ($12) and think “Mmm…maybe I can find a used copy.”  Then I walk over to East Side Mario’s to wait for everyone and proceed to have two beer at the bar which cost me $13.  Who’s the fool in this situation?  Clearly I need to relate the purchase of material objects with the amount of beer it’s worth.

I did end up waiting at the bar for quite some time last night.  I showed up there around 6:20 and had some time to kill until 7PM when everyone was supposed to show up.  In the end, Vero was the first to arrive and she strolled in around 7:10.  I thought the plans had chaged on me at one point!  Vero and I sat at the bar and the bartender was super nice and even gave us some free bruschetta while we waited.  He was recipient of the larger than normal tip from this guy.

Melanie showed up around 7:30 and we got a table and Vero and Simon showed up a little while later.  We were meeting to celebrate Melanie’s 24th birthday.  Gifts and laughs were exchanged and I had a good sausage and pepper penne.  I knew our plans were to head to Simon’s hockey game afterward but once I found out it was just a game of pick-up hockey in some arena somewhere, I politely let the girls go ahead without me and I headed home.  I don’t think I would have minded going to a hockey game where they sell peanuts and beer but I felt sitting and watching a bunch of guys play hockey in an empty rink was a little too much for me that night.  Besides, I’m sure the girls had a lot more fun without me there!