Long weekend

Friday

Tennis in the morning. Visit from Peter in the afternoon. Dinner with the Dornans in the evening. New couch (a big hit with everyone), new coffee table (a big hit with Nathan), new TV (which we couldn't turn on). Great dinner, my very own baked potato, with desserts provided by Tom.

Saturday

More tennis. A trip to Loblaws for goat's milk. Sushi for dinner. Rum and cokes and 'Atonement'.

Sunday

Trip to Orleans to visit the cats. Washed my car. Picnic in the afternoon with leftover sushi and little cans of Coke. Played some frisbee. More tennis.


Monday

Trip to Orleans. Cards with mom and Karen. Clean up time. Steak dinner. Guitar Hero into the night.

U23D

On Saturday night, Karen and I finally went to go see U23D at the Museum of Civilizations. I say finally because Karen had initially suggested it 3 weeks ago. I have never been to see U2 in concert and I thought that this was probably the only chance that I would ever have to see them 'in concert'.



Even though we got to the museum well in advance of the 8:45pm start time, we were probably the 100th and 101st people in line. We waited for about half an hour before the finally let us in and then we were given a nifty pair on 3D sunglasses (modelled by Karen).

Among the songs featured in concert were Vertigo, Beautiful Day, New Year's Day, Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Bullet the Blue Sky, Pride (In the Name of Love), Where the Streets Have No Name, One, and With or Without You.

Need more info?
http://www.u23dmovie.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U2_3D

And the Oscar goes to... Sandra Bullock?!?

I must admit, I was pretty excited about the Oscars this year. There were a lot of good films made in 2009, and for the first time, I had seen quite a few of the ones that were nominated. I was also looking forward to the hosting team of Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin, each hilarious in their own right, and put together, would undoubtedly prove to be comedic plutoneum.

Of course, before the Academy Awards could begin, they have to do the whole red carpet thing, which is an awards ceremony in itself. It seemed quite scaled down this year, no fans on the bleachers, less interviews, perhaps owing to the whole thing being held under a tent due to the rain. Anyway, instead of 'And the Oscar goes to...' it's 'Who are you wearing?'. Apparently, there is a lot of attention placed on 'who is wearing who' and they are an endless number of television shows (ET, eTalk, Extra!, The Insider, etc) that mercilessly dissect and rate these outfits. It makes me want to cringe.

The Oscars finally began at 8:30, with a song and dance number by Neil Patrick Harris. By far, one of my favourite actors, from his debut as the very young doctor on Doogie Howser M.D., to his current ironic role as the womanizing Barney on How I Met Your Mother. Alec Baldwin and Steve Martin took the stage next and they totally owned it. Calling out to celebrities in the audience and showing them no mercy. Saying to Woody Harrelson that he is "so high", staring down George Clooney, and picking on Meryl Streep and her record 16 Oscar nominations, or as they put it, the biggest loser in Academy Awards history. Also noteworthy was their comment that those wishing to obtain an official transcript of the evening should "Get a life". Click here to see the full video.

The awards then proceeded as they usually do. They get a pair of presenters up there, most of which have nothing in common, they set up the clips with some scripted banter, after which they announce the winner, the winner comes up to the stage from the audience to much cheer and applause, everyone else in their category tries to take the bad news with some form of humility, and the winner's speech is cut off by exit music after about 10 seconds.

The big winner of the night was 'The Hurt Locker' with film editing, sound editing, sound mixing, original screenplay, best director, and best picture. I agree with the Academy on this one. This film was ridiculously good. 'Avatar' picked up art direction, cinematography, and visual effects. This movie is basically just a big budget orgasm for your eyes. I was very happy that Christoph Waltz won best supporting actor for his role as Colonel Hans Landa in Inglourious Basterds. His performance was bone chillingly awesome. The best villain ever. Truly a guy you love to hate.

And Sandra Bullock won best actress for The Blind Side. I couldn't believe it. I thought that it was a mistake by the Academy. She was up against Helen Mirren and Meryl Streep! How could she win?!? No, I did not see the movie, based on the preview alone, and also on principle that I've seen this kind of movie before. One person doing their best to help out / inspire someone / a group of people that are struggling / have been cast aside without being given a chance. Wildcats, Dangerous Minds, Dead Poets Society, Coach Carter, Lean On Me, The Emperor's Club, Mr. Holland's Opus, Dance With Me,... the list goes on and on.

Go here for a complete list of all the nominees and winners.

Shopping in Montreal

Yesterday, Karen and I took a trip to Montreal.

We got up at 6:30am, something that I haven't done in a long time, but something that Karen does everyday of the week. She had a breakfast already made up for us: yoghurt, bananas, and blueberry muffins that she had made the day before.

We caught our train at 7:30am. While we were waiting in the train station, I had a coffee. My first of three for the day. We got on the train excited about the day to come. We ate our breakfast, listened to some music, read a bit, and before we knew it, we were there.

Our first destination after getting off the train was Tim Hortons, as the first cup of coffee that I had had was already starting too wear off. After that, we sat on a bench to relax a bit before we continued on with our day of shopping.

Our first shopping destination was RW & Co. In the past, this store had proved to be a virtual gold mine. There is one in the Rideau Centre which we go to quite often, but the one in Montreal is much bigger. I toured the store and jotted down some information on what I had seen. Karen tried some stuff on, and came away with a nice shirt.

Next, we went to Bleu Marine Co. where Karen was looking for the perfect pair of Silver Jeans, and then to The Gap, where neither of us found anything of interest.

We spent the rest of the morning at Simons, one of the bigger department stores, boasting three levels. Karen went her way and I went mine. I didn't find anything that I liked, but I did find a couple of things that were interesting.

How much would you pay for the jeans pictured here. $50? $100? $150? Well, the good people at Dolce & Gabbana would like you to pay $475 for these jeans. Wondering about that device to the right? There is a wire and a clip extending from the box and attached to the jeans that, if removed, will sound an alarm. By far, the ugliest jeans that I've ever seen.


What about this handsome blazer?
$100? $200? $500? Try $2,000.
I could imagine that they must have had a GPS tracking device on this thing. By far, the ugliest blazer that I've ever seen.

We went for lunch at a place called Carlos and Pepe's. We've been here several times before. One of the best mexican restaurants around. We had fajitas and sangria.

After lunch, we went to H&M, a three story mega store on St. Catherines. The first two stories are for women, the top story is for men. Karen says that this store is very hit or miss. Either you find a lot of nice stuff, or you don't find anything at all. This trip proved to be the latter of the two.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon going to Jacob, Winners, and Old Navy. Karen found a nice skirt and a top at Jacob, and I found a nice pair of black dress pants at Winners and a nice pair of jeans at Old Navy.

We caught our train back to Ottawa at 6:00pm.

The Bachelor Life

With Karen away in France, I have reverted back to my bachelor ways. These ways do not involve the 'typical bachelor guy' stuff like leaving my clothes on the floor and not doing dishes. Rather, they involve watching a lot of movies and television, and doing a lot of cleaning and organizing.

Most notably, I've been watching Band of Brothers. The series was created by Tom Hanks and Steven Spielberg. It is really well written and tells the true story of a group a paratroopers from Easy Company during WWII. Each episode begins with real accounts by the actual paratroopers (then in their 20's and 30's, now in their 80's and 90's). My brother introduced me to it; he bought me the box set on Blu-Ray for Christmas one year. Anyway, I've watched eight of the ten episodes in the past week. That's quite a time investment considering that each episode is an hour long. I've also been downloading a lot of movies and watching those.

I have always spent a lot of time cleaning and organizing. I enjoy it. Karen and I are well settled into our new place, but there are still a few things on the to-do list. That is another thing. I love making to-do lists. It's part of my organizational nature. Anyway, one of the things on our to-do list is to put up the drapes in our bedroom. We picked up the materials, but as it turns out, it's a much more involved process than that; requiring a trip to Home Depot and to Canadian Tire (which I don't mind at all - Canadian Tire is my mecca). So, if all goes well, I will cross that item of the list tonight.

The Best Shave

This morning, Jeff and I went to Imperial Barber Shop on Slater Street to get straight shaves. Our appointment was at 9:30am, I got there right on time, and Jeff showed up a few minutes later, having had some difficulty finding a parking spot.

They sat us down in old style barber chairs, you know the ones that look like barca loungers, across from one another, so we could see in the mirrors what was happening. They started us off by shaving off all the excess facial hair with some electric clippers. There wasn't much work to be done on me, because honestly, I don't grow that much facial hair.

So, I was ahead of the game as the barber continued to prep me for the shave, while Jeff's barber was still struggling. The next step in the process was the application of the shaving cream, but not just any shaving cream. They had a little machine on a table nearby that produced a warm, silky, smooth lather. The barber applied the shaving cream to my face using the tips of her fingers. Once that was done, she wrapped my face in warm towels, and let them sit for a couple of minutes. Then, she wiped off all the shaving cream, and reapplied some more.

Then, the barber brought out the straight razor and began, little by little, methodically, precisely, erradicating each and every hair on my face. I got a little nervous as the blade swept across my throat, remembering certain scenes from the movie Sweeney Todd, but in the end, I escaped unscathed with no cuts or bruises, and my face was as smooth as a baby's bottom.

October Road / November Rain

In reality, the road and rain were more pertinent to October, as it rained a lot, and I drove and moved a lot, but this way, I get to make reference to classic songs by James Taylor and Guns N' Roses, respectively.

October was a very busy month. Karen and I moved into our new place on the 10th, I graduated from my SSDC course on the 13th, I had lunch with Faudeya and Ghazal on the 16th, Karen and I went for sushi for Hogan's birthday on the 25th, Karen and I went to The Keg and to the Just for Laughs show at the NAC with Mandy and Nick on the 30th, Karen and I went over to Mandy and Nick's place for Halloween on the 31st, and Karen and I kept playing dodgeball for Chuck Norrii on Wednesdays. Our last dodgeball match of the month, on the 28th, put us up against our former Norrii teammates Tom and Holly and their crew of misfits, Ballin' Out Of Control. It was a close game, which they won by a rock-paper-scissors decision over a contested score.

November is shaping up to be just as busy. On the 6th, Karen and I, along with Holly and Tom, continued our annual tradition at the Ottawa Wine and Food Show. It was a good time. For a complete recap of the evening, head over to Tom's blog. On the morning of the 7th, Karen and I went to get some groceries for our housewarming party. That afternoon, I went over to my mom's place to help her out with her winter tires, and came back home in time to get things ready. Our party got started at 5pm and ended at about midnight. People came bearing gifts, we ate and drank like kings, and played Guitar Hero like real rock stars. Thank you to everyone who came; you guys are awesome. On the 8th, Karen and I went to IKEA, Bayshore Shopping Centre, and M&M. This afternoon, I'm going to get my winter tires put on. On the horizon, a retirement luncheon at work, more dodgeball with the Norrii, birthdays, and Karen is going to France!