Chicken 'n Ribs

Karen and I met up with Tom and Holly at their place at 4:00 and then we all headed down to Sparks Street.

There were 6 main restaurants competing in the event, and we had a look at what each of them had to offer.

They were all offering several variations of the same thing - ribs, chicken, and pulled pork.

For each stand, a full rack of ribs cost $20, with a half rack priced at $13. You could also get a half rack and chicken combination.

One thing that caught my eye was what they called 'A vegetarian's worse nightmare', which was a meal comprised of ribs, chicken, and pulled pork.

Karen and I split a full rack of ribs, as did Tom and Holly. They were very good. I will definitely be back next year.

Paintball

We arrived at the Commando Paintball fields at 10:30. It was just Kurtis and I this time.

We went into the main office and we got our gear - mask, paintball marker, jumpsuit, and 500 paintballs.

The equipment is quite worn down, but it still gets the job done.


We put our names on a walk-on list and we were told to go with another group of people.

The first few games went quickly for me, getting shot in the hand before I could really do anything. One thing that didn't help was that my marker kept jamming up.

We broke for our pizza lunch just after noon. Throughout the remainder of the day, we joined up with many different groups, culminating in our last game, where we played with about 20 people. Overall, a good time, and I have to welts to prove it.

Sunset Ceremonies

The Sunset Ceremonies took place at the RCMP Stables at the Canadian Police College.

On our way there, Karen and I got caught in a rainstorm and we had to pull over and wait until things calmed down.

When we did finally get back on the road, we were met with some flooding on the street. We took a detour and found our way to our destination.

When we got to the show grounds, we saw that two or three small lakes had collected. As a result, Karen's dance and the pipe band performance were cancelled.

New at the Sunset Ceremonies this year, was a performance by the Golden Knights parachute team from the United States. Afterwards, the musical ride riders did their thing.

Goodbye MJ

I grew up with Michael Jackson's music. At home, we had 'Thriller' on LP and 'Bad' on cassette. I tried and tried and tried to learn how to do the moonwalk and I used to dance around while listening to songs like 'Smooth Criminal' and 'Thriller'. I did almost everything except wear the sparkly glove.

In his short lifetime of 50 years, Michael Jackson put out 10 studio albums from Got To Be There (1972) to Invincible (2001), in addition to the albums that he released as part of the Jackson 5, being the youngest at only 8 years old.

He was known for most of his life as 'The King of Pop' because he rocked the musical world and shattered records, his albums selling in the millions and earning platinum status almost instantly. Everyone loved him, respected him, supported him, and came out in droves to see him. In every sense of word, he was royalty.

But, as we all know, things weren't always so rosy for Michael Jackson. In the 90's and early 2000's, there came a series of legal battles and controveries. As a result, he lost almost everything, including his reputation and the respect of his fans.

After all this, he was ready for a comeback. He was scheduled to perform 50 sold out concerts at London's O2 arena, starting in July.

Working it out

I have always been an active person. When I was young, I was an insatiable fountain of energy. I used to run around all over the place. I played soccer, basketball, football and baseball. I rode my bicycle. I climbed trees.

I started working out when I was a teenager, lifting free weights at home and in my friend's garage; nothing too serious. Later on, I got a gym membership at the Orleans Recreation Centre. I started adding machine weights to my workout schedule and I also spent a little time on the treadmill.

Some time later, I got a gym membership at my work, and I kept that up for a few years. Recently, I terminated my gym membership at work, and opted instead for the larger facilities at Health Canada just down the street.

A few weeks ago, I ordered a workout product called 'P90X' (perhaps you've heard of it). The premise is that you do a series of workouts for 90 consecutive days, and at the end, you'll be significantly stronger, faster, and leaner. Prior to starting the program, they ask you to take a fitness test, and they say that you should only pursue the program if you pass the initial test. I passed, so I figured that I was ready.

Well, I gave the first workout in the series a try and by the end of it, I was seriously considering two things 1) living the rest of my life from the floor 2) bathing in a bathtub filled with Rub-A-535. I thought to myself that if were to keep this up for another 89 days, I would eventually turn into dust and be carried away by a breeze. I made the executive decision to put the P90X collection of DVDs at a safe distance from my DVD player, and to no longer speak of the incident.

So what am I currently doing to stay in shape? Well, diet is one thing. I've reduced my portions of meat, and have opted for more vegetables and grains. In terms of being active, I've been playing dodgeball and ultimate frisbee, with the odd game of tennis thrown into the mix. Karen always beats me, but at least I'm being active. On the workout front, I'm still going strong at the Health Canada gym, three to four times per week, and I've purchased a set of adjustable dumbbells for when I want to workout at home.

I've also started to take vitamins and supplements. Currently, I am taking GNC Mega Men multivitamins, ISO 93 Sensation protein powder (which I have for breakfast mixed with milk, frozen fruit and frozen yoghurt - a special thanks to Tom for putting me onto this), and an after workout recovery formula.

Overall, I'd say that the results have been good, but I'm still some time away from putting on a Speedo (sorry ladies).

The Great Air Conditioner Installation of 2009

Today, I went over to Karen's place after work. She extended the invitation to me with a purpose - to do her a favour; to help her install her air conditioner. In return, Karen promised to make fajitas for supper. I got to her place at a quarter past five and we immediately got down to business. Karen cleared the area near her window of miscellaneous boxes and bags.

We got the air conditioning unit out of her storage space and brought it into her room (the addition of a storage shelf has greatly improved the organization of things in there). I was somewhat already practiced in this manoeuver as last year, I moved her air conditioning unit from her room into the storage space. Basically the same thing, but in reverse.

The next step was to lift the unit and to place it securely in the window, ideally without having it pass through the opening in the window and falling onto the ground below. Karen assured me that this wouldn't happen, but usually anything is possible when I'm involved in a project. But as so often is the case, Karen was right, and the task was accomplished without incident, unless you consider my back going out as an incident.

The tough part of the job was done and all that was left was to secure the unit in the window. Karen's process involved the use of pieces of cardboard to cover the exposed parts of the window on each side of the unit and duck tape to secure the cardboard. A job well done, even though the finished product might not be worthy of the approval of the 'Holmes on Homes' guy.

Under Repair

For one reason or another, be it my busy schedule or my stellar lazyness, I have been putting off getting some much needed work done on my car.

Back in December 2008, my car was parked outside of a friends' place in Kanata, and at some point during the evening, some scratches appeared along the drivers' side door.

Today, I decided to get an estimate of the damages. At noon, I went to Carling Mazda and the guy there had me fill out some forms and then we went outside so he could take a look at my car. After staring intently at the trouble areas, and taking down a few notes on his clipboard, we went back inside where he sat down at his computer and prepared the assessment.

In the meantime, I sat in the waiting area reading today's Ottawa Sun. A few moments later, before I had time to get to the 'Sunshine Girl' page (unfortunately), the guy called me over and presented me with the completed assessment. The total cost of the repairs came to roughly $1,400. I left with the paperwork and drove back to work mulling that number over in my head.