meat and beer don't like me!

today i ate a lot of meat and drank a lot of beer at ben's bachelor party. later we went to the rivoli to play pool. when i was there i was secretly dropping bombs left and right. the lady at the next table asked one of my friends if the placed smelled right. he responded with "i don't know what you mean". she described it as smelling like "open sewage". yeah, open sewage.

i hang my head in shame.

Martin Charles Gordon Barons, P.Eng

just got the confirmation that i can put some extra letters at the end of my name. it's only taken about 10 years of school, work exerience and exams, but it's finally mine.

i've got a fever ...

i'm sick, and off of work for my second day. i've had a fever over 100 the whole time. i don't fear the reaper is coming. but man i can't get that song out of my head.

bemz ... that's a funny word

so i have always had a secret love of interior design. i blame it mostly on watching endless hours of trading spaces in the late '90s at my parents house. i swear it was the only show they watched back then.

so when i was at home depot on wednesday i picked up a copy of 'canadian house & home' to get some ideas for decorating my new apartment with felicity. i found an article (aka advertisement) for bemz. they make designer slip-covers for ikea couches.

what a great idea. so many people have ikea couches, that well look like ikea couches. have a look if you're intereted.

www.bemz.com

something in the mountain air

one night last week as i was walking to the main cabin at storm mountain lodge to get some more firewood, i thought about my blog. i thought about how i want to share some thoughts again on my blog. this is not a promise that i'll be righting here on a regular basis, just that i'll make an effort to.

so my thought(s). it never gets dark at night in toronto. as we all know there is light pollution in the city that casts a dark amber light into the nights sky. on weekends away from toronto, ex. dave's cottage, it's gets pretty dark at night. you can enjoy the stars in the sky and sleep with the curtains draw back. but then there is middle of the rocky mountain, deep in the bow river valley dark. as i stood there looking at orion on the horizon of castle mountain i thought about how wonderful it was to be away from toronto and the busyness and the people ... with my wife.

word of the day

xzibit

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xzibit

i think ...

... i have given up on blogging. well the second coming of me blogging lasted longer than the first. maybe there will be a third coming. maybe i'll learn to write ...

something is missing

i took felicity, rachel and rob to the airport last wednesday night. they were off to germany for a 10 day vacation. rachel is going to see her parents and to meet shane. let's just say rachel is very very excited about meeting shane from kazakhstan (that's ah nice).
so it's been 4 days without having my girl around, and simply put i miss her. i haven't written because no one really wants to read about how much i miss the woman i love, and how it's weird not being able to talk to her. about how i think about her in almost every free moment. how i talk about her with everyone i'm around. it would be just too gushy.

so instead i'll announce the awesome and amazing event that is coming up at the drake. i'm going to romania this summer for two weeks to run a summer camp for the orphans of cluj, romania. the team that is going is having a fundraiser night at the drake. everyone is welcome, but we are only sells 200 tickets. check out the poster for details, come out to the event to my team and have some fun too.

it's sunny out ... so welcome to my city

wow, what a beautiful weekend. the sun was out in full force for another weekend. this can only mean a couple things; there will be group events that screw-up traffic, tourists that fill-up downtown and i will get a sun burn. well two of three happened this weekend.
i got up early on sunday morning and took my bike out for my normal short trip down parkside and east across the lakeshore path to bathurst and back. there was a bike race on the path this weekend, but it was the weirdest race. it was a short circuit race just within marilyn bell park. if you know marilyn bell park, you know it's just a small piece of land along the waterfrount. so i had to bike on the lakeshore, which is normally very dangerous, but it was a quiet sunday morning.
next was the giant sikh parade in downtown. it was huge. it took me about 20 minute to travel from dundas to king on university on sunday afternoon.
but my favourite moment of the busy weekend was the tourists, or more just one tourist in general. i only assume it was a tourist because it was a sweet driving manuever. i'm driving with felicity on the lakeshore going west, and we were first in line stopped at yonge. as we waited at the light a southbound car on yonge turned right onto lakeshore west. as soon as the car turned onto the lakeshore, it quickly made a 180 degree turn on the lakeshore. so now the car is facing me, and the other three lanes of traffic that are about to drive straight at the car. the look on the ladies face as priceless. as we all slowly moved forward, some people honked, everyone stared, i motioned for her to turn around again, but she decided that she was going to continue working on her driving skills. so she decided to hit the gas, turn back-up yonge, cutting across three lanes of live traffic and continue on her way. it all happened in about 5 seconds, but it was an amazing 5 seconds.
so i say welcome tourists. enjoy this summer shopping at the eaton centre, walking slowly through the downtown looking up at the cn tower and i'll be looking for you as i drive through the city this summer.

yes ... that's a guys ass

i was working in oshawa on tuesday at the gm plant. just collecting some water samples for mary k's project. i went to the location 'pizza and sub' place for lunch, go-go's pizza and subs. being a first timer at go-go's, i asked the nice lady behind the counter, 'what's good for lunch? what should i have?'. to the great response of, 'the pizza is good, and so are the subs'.

i got two splices of pizza-pie and sat by myself (there was no one in the place) for lunch. on the radio was your normal sub-urbans top-40 easy-listening music of the last 30 years, but nothing from the last 5 years. working for the weekend by loverboy came on. it made me think of the coming weekend of course. but it was only tuesday. i think that this song should only be played on friday's.

everybody's workin' for the weekend
everybody wants a new romance, hey yeah
everybody's goin' off the deep end
everybody needs a second chance, oh

time for a rant

handicap door activation switches, let's discuss them.

the front doors of my office have a one. many times i've seen the fedex or ups guy with a large handful of packages use the button. makes sense to me. i've used the button, when i've been carrying a full size cooler full of samples. i've also seen a fully healthy adult, carrying no more than a purse use the button. wait one second. this person would rather push the button and wait the 5 seconds it takes to slowly open, than using ... their God-given functioning arm. i see this happen most days coming to and from work. but it still blows my mind everytime. YOU ARE NOT HANDICAPPED ... physically. mentally??? maybe.

let's take it to the next level. a young child is begging their parent to push the button at the mall. to a response of, just once. NO, NO, NO. tell the kid they're not handicapped and it would be rude to use the button. IT'S FOR HANDICAPPED PEOPLE!!!!

huhhhh ... thanks i feel better now.

i almost have a new ipod

on monday felicity gone a new ipod. again sorry for not locking the car. so i almost have a new one. she's in the car most of the times that i am. we do drive to and from work together. so it's nice to have some great music to listen to again. but i do still miss my own ipod. so it's time to vote, buy now or wait for a new edition to come out and buy it later?

myPod and herPod, not yourPod

this weekend i went to my parents ... with F for the first time. it was a nice meet and greet weekend. i also got to meet F's sister wendy for the first time. the weekend was great, but it was tainted by a crime to society. on friday night, after arriving late at my parents house and running out to the car to grab one last thing we all tucked away for a nights sleep. i woke the next morning to discover that my and F's ipod had been stolen from my car. fffffoooooocccccccch. i was pissed. so i had forgot to lock the door of my car as i grab that one last thing. they didn't steal my work cell phone or F's expensive oakley sunglasses or even my wallet.
you have to understand, that next to a farm house, my parents live in the piss-middle-of-no-where. sombra to be exact, never heard of it (brouwer you don't count) not surprised. with a population of around two-hundred, i think i could do a door-to-door canvas to find our ipod's. the name sombra comes from the spanish word for 'shade'. i'd like to hereby rename to village, umbrio.
so i had to drive from toronto to the smallest town in ontario to get my and F's ipod's stolen. AHHHHHHHH.
sorry F.

facebook, no longer the face of evil

so i've been on facebook now for just over a month now. i have 237 friends, and it has become my third most visited website (next to gmail and google). really it hasn't done much for me, until today. ya, i have found some friends that i haven't talked to in a decade, but i have been found by some people that i really can't stand or don't remember. it is fun to post and look at pictures, the tagging option is actually really cool. and yes, everyone can she who F is.
but today i actually used to the site for extending my friendships/community. as you know i got a longboard, but riding with ben or steve doesn't happen often enough and riding by myself is just okay. so today i joined the 'toronto longboarders' group on facebook. hopefully, i'll get out for some rides, meet new longboarders, and discover great places in the city to ride.

longboarding

the weather is warm today, so perfect time to go longboarding. it's been a couple cold months of watching the longboard sit against the wall, as i rode the snowboard. i grabbed the board and the ipod shuffle, i've got to have some great music awhile i ride, and i was off to high park. after 45 minutes of dodging runners, cyclists and cars, i was a little tired and felt good about the ride. i didn't do the big hill down to the petting zoo. ben and i conquered that one last year. but it was the first ride of the year. my goal is to be ready for the torontolongboarders.com 'board meeting'. from the photos on their website it looks like an awesome event.

stick it to 'em ... oh would i like to

stick it to 'em, is a team in the recreational co-ed floor hockey league i play in on monday nights. i've had the displeasure of playing this team for the last three season's. this team is way too agressive, especially this dude with a pony-tail. i won't bore you with the details of us losing to them, again, but give one example of why i don't like 'pony-tail boy' (or ptb).

in our league there is no high sticking, so the stick can never go above the waist. ptb took a nice slap shot in front of me, and hit me in the throat with the blade of his stick. he scored on this shot. i called a high sticking on the play, and questioned if it was or not. YOU HIT ME IN THE F**KIN' THROAT!!!!!! i think your stick was too high. just sayin'

i look forward to the play-offs in the next two weeks, where we will have to play them ... yet again. until then ptb.

one isn't bad

i got onething done.
i saw dave.
we ate george's.
he beat me at golf.
on jared's wii.
felicity came.
she quoted beat poems.
from 'so i married an axe murderer'.

i told myself

i told myself last night that i need some time off from social stuff. i seem to always have something to do. for example tonight i can:
- visit ben, i haven't talked to him for a week or two now.
- visit dave, he did screw-up his ankle/leg at my floor hockey game on monday. i should see how he's doing.
- go to leigh's fund raiser, i like wearing a suit, and i can there.
- go see 300 with henry, man i want to see that movie.
- go to an art gallery with felicity and kevin, i need to meet kevin.
- do laundry, clean cloths smell good.
all of this after says just last night, that i would have a night off.

i have a blog?

doesn't look like i've remembered that. so it's been almost two weeks now since posting. i really have been busy. let's see what have i done.
snowboarding with the normal crew, plus felicity.
dave's 29th birthday and crokinole tournament.
the appleseed cast concert in buffalo.
lunch with felicity's parents.
played bass at church.
practice with the worship band.
help edit a video going to kazakhstan.
had dinner at rachel's.
played a floor hockey game.
got a hair cut.
went to the maddy's with matt and leigh.
went to freedomize.
hiked the leslie street spit in 4 inches of fresh snow.
went to the fox & the fiddle.
watched some entourage for the first time.
bought some cd's at sonic boom.
bought some cd's at hmv.
played some nintendo wii.
and when to work.

i'll try to fill in the details on a more regular basis.

wow, mute math review

so last night was as great, if not better, than i expected. another crew of us (ben, shawn, steve, christy, kenneth, gillis, jared, shannon and felicity) went to see mute math play at the opera house. first off was the dinner at the real jerk, so good. the jerk was just hot enough for me and the rice was one the best i've had in awhile. as far as concert venue's go, next to the molson ampitheatre on a warm summer night, the opera is my favourite venue in the city. the main floor has three levels and there is a balcony, so great views from every spot in the place. it's the perfect size venue too, everyone feels close to the front. thanks to jared for showing up early and getting a great spot behind the stage right bar, perfect view.

so mute math is the greatest band live that i have personally seen. they build-up this energy throughout the show that feeds into the crowd but is also fed off of the crowd. listening to the whole crowd sing alot to 'noticed' was one of the highlights. others were the acrobatics of lead singer paul meany, the at-times violence drumming of darren king and the new song they play about half-way into the show.

so basically go see mute math, for only $20 it was the greatest show. mind blowing music. wow.