It was sunny all week long. Monday to Friday was absolutely wonderful around these parts. Sure, the evenings and overnight were a little crispy, but you gotta expect a little chill in the air this time of year in Atlantic Canada.

But now it’s Saturday. And it’s raining. Some low pressure system is hanging around and will likely dump a couple of inches of rain on us today and overnight. Then, tropical storm Kyle is going to pay us a visit tomorrow and as it passes through it will be leaving behind another 4 inches of rain accompanied by bales of gales.

So… it’s a lazy day. My darling wife is napping on the couch and I’m clicking around my computer. I decided to change the picture on her profile (right) as mentioned in a previous post and I think you’ll agree it’s an improvement over what was there before.

Then I decided to click on the posts featured in my Random Post section in the sidebar of my site. I must say, it was very interesting for me to remember what was going on in my life and see the timelines associated with them as I clicked away, re-reading post after post. Some of them were a little cryptic, but I was immediately reminded of where my head was as I read and reminisced. This project/hobby of mine is serving as a journal of sorts, a “captain’s log” if you will. I know, I know, big revelation right? But it’s not until you get a few years of this thing under your belt do you realize what value it brings to you personally. While I post shit about stuff I encounter that interests me and little anecdotes from everyday life, I also record significant happenings like family deaths, injuries and other stressful or lifechanging events.

It’s amazing how life passes by. Days blend into weeks and months. Months blend into years and generations. I find that unless something else significant was going on in your life, sometimes it’s hard to remember the timelines and order of things in your past. This blog thing of mine is starting to serve a second purpose. It’s not just a hobby and a waste of time for me and my readers, it’s turning into a form of autobiography; a journal of events and eye-catchers in the life of me and my family and friends; a map of my past and a record of that journey…

I highly recommend doing something like this. It doesn’t have to be put out there on the interwebby thing for all to see. A journal, or diary, or even a special folder on your computer with selected pictures with captions will do.

So, go ahead, give it a try. Three or four years from now you’ll be happy you did.

I learned…

• that putting a piece of cheap rubber hose on a hot copper pipe in a bonfire makes the fire turn all kinds of freaky colours.
• that I need to keep my eyes peeled for wildlife when driving on Route 126, north of Moncton. (We saw a deer, a porcupine, and a moose on a 20 minute drive.)
• that a porcupine doesn’t run very fast.
• that the rear axle of a 2008 Hyundai Sante Fe does not clear the noggin of a porcupine galloping in full stride.
• that just when I think my pool game is stabilizing and consistent, it isn’t.
• that I don’t always know when to keep my trap shut.
• that a 37-inch flat screen Sharp Aquos TV does not fit into the same stand that a 36-inch tube Panasonic does.
• that my wife doesn’t like it when I cut holes in TV stands. (Actually, I learned that the last time I cut pieces out of our TV stand.)
• that landscaping bricks are 16 pounds each and I’ve been really overloading my utility trailer since I bought it.
• that the phrase “give him an inch and he’ll take a mile” applies to 17-year-old teenage boys and 41-year-old adolescent men. (Ask my wife… I think she’ll agree!)

What have you learned this week?

So… this is old news, but I’ve had this one in the queue for a while. It’s regarding Nalgene bottles and the fact that it has been recently disclosed that and ingredient in some of the plastics used in the bottles, Bisphenol A, is particularly harmful to one’s health. Retailers everywhere were and are jumping on the bandwagon to remove all such products off the shelves.

Apparently, even small doses of this chemical can increase prostate, breast and ovarian cancer cell growth. There’s evidence linking it to infertility problems. It behaves as some sort of synthetic estrogen that can alter the way normal estrogen interacts with developing nerve cells important for brain development and normal functions of the mature brain. I think my risk for ovarian cancer remains pretty low, but the other stuff really scares me.

Curious, I wondered if the bottle I was using at my desk was a potential culprit that could be leading to my premature demise and made a stark discovery. This bottle was indeed one which could potentially contain this dreaded chemical. My first clue, when I went to a CBC.ca article describing the situation, was that my water bottle looked exactly like the bottles they show in the picture attached to the story! Another clue, as indicated in the article, is the presence of the number “7″ in the recycle symbol located on the bottle.

They indicated that if you were unsure if your bottle contained the questionable chemical, then you should contact the manufacturer. Upon close inspection of my bottle, the only clue indicating the manufacturer’s identity was a “Made In China” stamp. I called China and left a message. I expect they’ll get back to me soon. Listen up folks, if you haven’t already done so… If you are unsure if your bottle contains the questionable chemical: throw…the…bottle…away! I threw out my son’s favourite water bottle and he fished it out of the garbage can. Kids are immortal, or so they think. I retrieved his bottle again, told him that I scooped dog poop into it (I didn’t really), and then threw it out again. This time it stayed in the garbage.

I play pool in a local fun league. There’s roughly a hundred people in the league, divided into about 20 teams. Every Wednesday we get together and attempt to pocket balls for the sake of entertainment. By virtue of my ranking (average games won) among these folks I am the captain of one of these teams. This year was a fairly successful year for me and my team. My team finished second in the finals and I personally ranked 7th in the league.

At the end of each season, the league throws a kickass banquet, complete with awards, prizes, and a pool tournament. They cater in BBQ steak and have a buffet-style spread of baked potatoes and various salads. They usually draw names for prizes that vary in size from a $300.00 golfing weekend get-a-way to a $75 dollar Walmart coupon. Usually, there’s about half as many prizes as there are qualifying members. Pretty good odds of winning a prize. But this year, there was a prize for every single player in the league. Pretty awesome. On top of that, they gave away a shitload of Dooly’s cash and Pizza Delight coupons. In the draws, I picked up a pool cue (which I sold for a hundred bucks) and two pizza coupons.

We tried to use the coupons that night on the way home, but Pizza Delight closes a little earlier than 2:30 a.m. apparently. I put the coupons in my shirt pocket, we stopped at Greco for pizza, then we went home, went to bed and the next day continued about our normal business and household chores. Changing clothes from the washer to the dryer, I noticed a bunch of little pieces of paper. Oh no! My pizza coupons! Oh well… shit happens.

That was two weeks ago.

Friday, I was wearing that same shirt and noticed a ball of something in the shirt pocket. It was the pizza coupons, all balled up after being washed into raw pulp and then reconverted to a ball of paper after going through the dryer. I showed it to a colleague and half jokingly asked if Pizza Delight would accept it. She suggested that I wet the paper and attempt to unfold it again. I did just that and after some careful prying and spreading I was able to produce a couple of scraps of paper closely resembling their original form. They looked like something discovered in an archaeological dig. I let them dry and pressed them inside a notebook and went to Pizza Delight lunchtime today. After some giggling and poking fun at my expense, the nice young lady behind the counter wrote me up some new coupons and I was on my way!

The prize that keeps on giving. Free pizza… twice! Kind of.

Several months ago, my neighbour was nice enough to treat us to a feed of his home-made Chow Mein. He is a good cook and an even better friend. We liked it so much, he agreed to come over and show us how to make it. Well, we borrowed his wok so often to make it, he and his wife gave us a wok for Christmas!

I made some tonight and decided to document the process for your reading, cooking and eating pleasure. Click the graphic below to see pictures of the process and my attempt at describing what I do. Keep clicking to see the next step until you see all the steps.

Let me know if you try it… and let me know if you like it!

(Thanks Rennie and Lorraine!)

Curling is a team sport played on ice. The Olympic medal sport originated in the 1500’s on the lakes and ponds of Northern Europe. The object of the game is for two teams of four players to slide 42-pound granite rocks down a sheet of ice 130 feet long by 15 feet wide. The rocks are delivered toward the center of a 12-foot diameter target similar to an archery target. The targets are painted into the ice just below the surface at both ends of the sheet of ice, to allow the game to be played back and forth, usually eight or ten times.

I stole the above paragraph from the introduction section of CurlTech, a curling school website because my legs are too sore to write something original. Seriously.

On Friday night, I played the game for the first time. The social committee at work organized it and we figured it might be a nice night out of the house. It wasn’t serious play, really. We played three different teams, each game was limited to 45 minutes with beer and pizza served during the night. We actually only played a total of 8 ends because time ran out. So, in total, I threw 16 rocks and did some sweeping for my teammates. I actually had a great time and thought I did half decent for my first time out.

My first time is probably my last time. When I got up on Saturday morning, I couldn’t move my legs. I have never, never been so sore. For the life of me, I don’t understand how walking back and forth the ice a few times and sliding a couple of stones around would make my upper thighs so stiff and sore I find it near impossible to descend a set of stairs or lower myself to a toilet.

Go ahead, laugh. But it ain’t funny.