Fun and Games Dept

Feeling good this morning, I decided to crank up the tunes as I got ready for work. I so love the sexy vibe of this track.

129.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl went out to dinner with business associates today (and can you believe that neither Larry nor Louise invited me to join them! Well!) so when I got home from work I decided to throw on the rollerblades and hit the canal trails.

I like rollerblading very much though I have to admit that I’m not super good at it. I frighten folks including small children with my “barely maintaining balance” stance, but for the most part I am able to get from point A to point B and back without breaking, scraping or jarring any random body part. I like to remain intact after working out. I was able to get about 5 km of rollerblading in before deciding I had met my quota for the day and heading home. It was a good feeling. My legs were a little trembly on the drive home but overall I was feeling the endorphin high.

Motivated by the rush of good vibes I was feeling from the much needed exercise, I decided to spruce up my bike a little bit by ordering new pedals, cleats and cycling shoes. I found a really good deal online and though there is some assembly required I figure that I’ll be good to go when the package arrives at the end of the week. The original shoes, cleats and pedals lasted for about 3000 miles (and I loved them very much); I’m figuring these will last for at least that distance as I did go for a higher caliber of equipment. I’ll be good to go when I go cycling with Thom later in the season.

I have no idea why I rollerblade in kilometers and pedal in miles.

Whilst rollerblading today a woman commented on my t-shirt; I was wearing one of my favourite workout shirts, a leftover from the radio station I used to work at. The station went off the air in 2001 so there’s probably not that many shirts left out in the public (though we handed out around 2000 or so during the run of the station). She said “I remember that station!” I like to hear that because it makes me feel like I made some sort of impression somewhere along the way and it’s a good way to stroke my ego. A couple of weeks ago Earl and Jamie and I were shopping at Old Navy and the clerk said “Didn’t you use to be on the radio?” Earl rolled his eyes as my ego was stroked and I purred.

There are many ways to motivate me.

128.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

With nearly eight years of this blog under my belt, I have discovered something very interesting. If I haven’t written a meaningful blog entry by 8 o’clock, I’m not going to blog about anything meaningful, unless of course I get some sort of brainstorm whilst lying in bed and then get back up and write about it.

So basically tonight I am blogging about not blogging. And that’s okay.

By the way, Apple had a big keynote speech today. You can turn just about anywhere on the internet and read about it. I’ll tell you what you need to know: Apple announced some pretty cool (but not earth shattering) things today and AT&T as the network provider for the U.S. sucks big time.

That’s all you need to know.

Oh, in the photo above, you’ll notice that my allergies to all things nature related have kicked in. I’m not sniffly or anything, my eye is just wonky. A few drops before bed and I’ll be as good as new and be able to see better than Steve Austin.

Mayfair Diner., originally uploaded by iMachias.

This morning we stopped at the Mayfair Diner before heading back to Central New York. Earl and the Cubster opted to order breakfast, since it was 10:30 a.m. and all, but I decided on a turkey burger from the lunch menu. Keeping with the healthy theme I skipped the fries and went for a 70 calories bag of chips.

Eating in a diner such as these is always a good experience for me and nothing can really replicate it, no matter how hard we may try. Fast food joints are way too fast (and usually populated with surly folks behind the counter) and the chain sit-down restaurants are too generic. That’s why Earl and I try to eat at local places when we travel.

Real food at real prices with real people.

Two thumbs up for the Mayfair Diner on Frankford Ave. in Philadelphia. And the turkey burgers are huge and delicious.

View., originally uploaded by iMachias.

So I am sitting on our balcony at Embassy Suites in Center City Philadelphia. The hotel is right on the Ben Franklin Parkway. Our view is the picture you see up there. I took the photo yesterday.

Earl, Jamie and I are in town for the weekend, we’ll be heading back up home in a few hours. Earl and I visited with his family yesterday. I haven’t seen anyone since New Year’s, it was good to see everyone. Jamie visited with some friends and rode his bike around the city while we were doing the suburb thing with the family. The day was quite enjoyable.

As a quick aside, I don’t know how the fine folks of this area deal with driving the Schuykill (Interstate 76) on a daily basis as it’s a clogged mess of frustration. I was posting photos from my iPhone to my Facebook account whilst sitting in traffic. If you were following that, you will know that:

“Whomever thought the Schuykill was a good idea should be flogged.”
“I’d rather drive on 128 around Boston.”
and
“God I miss the 401” (referring to Toronto. At 18 lanes at it’s widest point, the 401 is busiest freeway in North America)

And referring to the Ben Franklin Parkway, “I don’t drive across your park, don’t have a festival in my street. M’kay?” I had to explain to Earl that “M’kay” was a sarcastic was of saying okay. He didn’t know. I’m vague like that.

Anyways, after we got back to Center City we went out to dinner at an Irish Pub called “Moriarty’s”. I may have mentioned before that I enjoy a good Irish Pub.

After dinner we went for a walk around the gayborhood. One of the beautiful things about Philadelphia is the small residential streets in Center City; I know the houses are quite expensive but when you stand on one of these streets you hear hardly any noise from the hustle and the bustle of the city. Now that is an environment that I could definitely live in.

We got back to the hotel room a little after 10 and decided to watch a movie; “Titanic” was on so we watched that. I still think it’s one of the better movies out there; I haven’t seen it in a long time and I have to admit I found the green screen effects a little startling. I guess I never noticed how far we’ve come in the past 10 years or so in that department. It didn’t detract from the movie though, and that’s what’s most important.

After “Titanic” it was time for bed. Embassy Suites provides robes and slippers for our furry friends. I think it’s cute.

Okay, my dear friend Shirley sent me a bunch of photos. I have to admit, we were having fun at the Saranac last night.

This is Ryan, Shirley and me.

119.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

So I have been thinking about doing a road trip this weekend. I considered several locations and pretty much had my mind made up for Ohio and Indiana, but when California made their idiotic decision this week I decided that I didn’t want to spend any more money in the U.S. than I absolutely had to, so I decided to visit my family outside of Toronto.

I love it up here. My sister and I just got back from a run to the market so she can make supper and it was a good experience. My nephews are both handsome and my mom is up here visiting as well so it’s a little family reunion of sorts.

I made the right decision for where to go on a trip today.

113.365, originally uploaded by iMachias.

I have been really bad at taking daily photos for my 365 days project. It has been 13 days since my last photo. I’m thinking of renaming the project “smattering of days with 365 days”. I blame the two weeks of on-call within three weeks. On-call messes with my head. After nearly five years of doing on-call you think I’d be used to it by now. Perhaps I should just stop bitching about it and go with the flow. Maybe that will be my new theme in life: “just stop bitching about it.”

I am sitting on the back patio enjoying the glorious sunshine. Earl and I are back from running a few errands, Cubster held down the fort whilst the two of us ran out. I had to pick up some Muscle Milk – the large jug was marked down from $48.99 to $27.99 and the expiration date isn’t until 2010. Sometimes it’s the little things that count, and yes, I’ll pick up another jug if you ask.

We also fixed the push mower. I destroyed the old blade when I hit a rock about a week ago. I’ve been hitting a lot of things lately. It was just a five minute job to swap out the blade for a new one. I even mowed a bit (even though the lawn didn’t really need it) to make sure everything held itself together and nothing came flying out. There was no drama.

There is a very confused wasp on the loveseat here on the patio, it seems the owner of the house wiped out all the nests in the umbrella. His GPS still shows there should be filling stations in the area. I’m a mean Daddy.

I’m feeling much better today than I did yesterday. I’m already scheming for next weekend: I have a three day weekend and I have an adventure in mind. Combined with a really short work week (I have Wednesday off as well) and one can understand why I’m chomping at the bit to get this on-call week over with.

‘Tis good.

Grillmaster, originally uploaded by iMachias.

Earl cooked the Cubster and I a wonderful picnic supper tonight. I took this photo right before the back of the grill fell completely off. It might be time for a new grill, this one has been beaten up pretty bad by storms over the last couple of years.

Bam., originally uploaded by iMachias.

After doing on-call stuff until nearly 11 p.m. last night, I decided to head to the local bar to put up posters for our upcoming “bear night”. The bar was populated by people half my age but it was good to see the bar at least busy. I have to admit I don’t miss DJing on Fridays though.

After putting up the posters and a few NA beers, I decided to head home. I wasn’t really tired so I decided to go for a little drive before heading back to The Manor. I was moving down the expressway along a particularly dark section of roadway around 72 MPH when I saw movement to the very left of my car. In a few split seconds, I made a quick dash to the right onto the shoulder and tried to slow down, skidding in the process. I remembered yelling “Jesus Christ!”, which was quickly followed by “no air bag! no air bag! no air bag!” as I dread the idea of the air bag exploding in my face. I heard a “bam” near the front left tire followed by another bang near the back of the car. I pulled over, got out of the car and looked around. The deer was gone from what I could tell. I couldn’t see much of the car in the darkness, so I decided to drive to the next interchange where there were streetlights.

I examined the entire car as I walked the perimeter. Apart from a few stray deer hairs, there was not a scratch or dent on the car. Nothing.

My Acura is tougher than I thought!

This morning I drove back through the area and there’s some skid marks but no sign of a dead deer. He’s probably in the trees waiting to try again.