Archive for May, 2005
May 31, 2005 at 8:05 am · Filed under Pubquiz
We won the grand final of the McKibbin’s pub quiz last night with 27 out of a possible 50 points. Second place only had 24, I guess it was a tough quiz. Go us!
Some sample questions for you:
- What date was the day the music died?
- Which creature has the longest recorded life span of 220 years?
- Which plant has the largest seed?
- What was Toto’s real name?
- Which Broadway play begins with “Sold! Your number please? Thankyou sir.”?
We got all but one of those wrong. Of course, it’s much easier with Google at your fingertips…
May 30, 2005 at 7:47 am · Filed under Food, Travel
Our last night in PA was spent in Intercourse (snigger) where we saw authentic and not so authentic Amish folk, bought jam, and ate traditional Amish fare (ham and reconstituted dried apples with potato dumplings and chow-chow).
I arrived back in Montreal on Saturday morning to be greeted by my lovely wife who I missed terribly while I was away. We went home and spent the weekend gardening, mowing lawns, pulling up dandelions and using C&T’s super-duper jet washer to wash the deck. We finished the weekend with chicken on a beer can (shove a half empty can of beer up a chickens bum and stand it on the bbq for an hour or so) and a trip to Rockaberry’s for pie.
Now I’m back at work and trying to figure out if I actually learned anything last week.
May 27, 2005 at 10:32 am · Filed under Travel
On Wednesday night we visited Philly. We spent a long time trying to decipher the parking signs (and I thought the Montreal ones were bad). We saw the Liberty Bell Centre (or Center as they like to call it) and Washington Square and all that patriotic stuff. We ate at a fancy contemporary Italian restaurant where everything was delicious.
Last night we went on a scenic drive through the PA countryside, visited the Chadds Ford Winery and picked up a couple of bottles then went back to the hotel for an evening of wine, pizza and a good movie (The Station Agent).
Tonight we’re going to visit the Amish and try some shoo-fly pie.
May 25, 2005 at 8:05 am · Filed under Travel
We went to the King Of Prussia mall last night. Depending on who you talk to it’s either the biggest or the 2nd biggest mall on the East Coast side of the USA. It’s big, but it’s not really exciting for the likes of me. I drooled over everything in the Mac store then wandered around aimlessly for an hour before eating an oversized meal at the Cheesecake Factory. I still have half a slice of cheesecake in my hotel fridge.
May 24, 2005 at 9:21 am · Filed under Travel, Work
I’m in Malvern, PA, population 3000. It is not very exciting.
May 19, 2005 at 12:03 pm · Filed under Family+Friends
My Mum is currently in Portugal, probably drinking “screaming orgasms” with “the girls”. I think it’s a second childhood thing.
My Dad just had an operation on his wrist. I’ve yet to find out why.
My Brother is a policemen in the Met, and just passed his response driver test. So if you’re in London and see a police car hurtle past with lights and siren going and a skinny lad grinning in the driver’s seat, it’s probably him.
My Sister is in the middle of a paramedic training course, currently inflicting her bedside manner on patients in various departments of her local hospital. I guess all those visits to A&E in her youth had an effect.
My Mother-in-law just spent the weekend practicing sleeping with her friends. Best not to ask.
So now I have to ask, in a terribly transparent attempt at getting more comments, what are your family up to?
May 18, 2005 at 8:16 am · Filed under Rants
Whether you think Belinda Stronach was right or wrong to defect from the Conservative party to the Liberals, surely she deserves the same amount of respect as any male politician?
With her ex-fellow conservatives calling her an attractive dipstick
, a whore
and a prostitute
and the National Post referring to her decision as a Blonde Bombshell
I start to wonder if it’s possible for women to be taken seriously in Canadian politics.
May 17, 2005 at 8:05 am · Filed under Family+Friends
Sunday was my birthday.
I got an early birthday present from Paolo who managed to get me the episode of Doctor Who that I missed last week. Thank you Paolo!
On Saturday we were joined by Kim, Cara & Tyler, Paul & Jen, and Eddie & Manon for a day of over-eating, over-drinking and playing silly games (the girls beat the boys at Cranium by some fluke). We finished the day with a viewing of the extended edition of The Fellowship of the Ring, and Shawn turned up fresh from Ottawa just as Boromir was keeling over full of arrows.
I have to thank Jen and all of the above for my lovely gifts and cards and for the good company. I also have to thank Cara for the delicious birthday cake she made. I only had nine candles, which was a relief, I was sure I was older.
May 13, 2005 at 8:28 am · Filed under Blogging, Skepticism
A couple of items from the blogosphere:
First, what would you say if someone asked you to switch to a less gay phone company? Eugene Mirman handled those sales people perfectly.
And secondly, is this amazing satire or unbelievable reality? What do you think?
May 11, 2005 at 7:30 am · Filed under Movies + TV
Something bizarre and freaky happened to the DVR last night. American Idol (which I don’t watch) recorded ok. Amazing Race (which I watched while it was on) recorded ok. Doctor Who (which was on while I was out) did not record!! This is terrible and horrible news (yes Shawn, there is such a thing as must-see-TV, and Dr Who is it).
If anyone (John? You listening John?) happened to record last night’s episode and can lend me the tape I will be forever grateful.
If anyone happened to record it in high definition, I will prostrate myself at their feet, proclaim my unworthiness and then have myself flagellated in their honour.
May 10, 2005 at 11:09 am · Filed under Canada
Back in February I sent off my application for Canadian Citizenship. I’ve been bitching and complaining (mostly inwardly but occasionally to Jen) about the lack of response from them. Today I was going to call them up to ask what was going on, but I decided to do a bit of research first.
According to the immigration website, the first stage, which involves someone looking over my application and making sure everything is there before sending me a confirmation letter, takes approximately three months. This means I should wait at least until the end of May before calling.
Three months? That seems like a long time just to take a brief look at my application and fire off a form letter. There can’t be that many people applying for citizenship can there? I went looking. Apparently there are. Every year about 160,000 people apply for Canadian Citizenship. That means those poor immigration people have to look at around 700 applications every working day. That’s 100 applications every working hour. And that’s just for the first step of the process.
About 5% of those applications get rejected, which still leaves 150,000 applications for the more detailed second step, and probably more than 100,000 for the even more detailed third step.
It looks like the CIC employ about 4000 people, and I would guess that less than a tenth of them spend time processing citizenship applications. Putting all these numbers together, it’s not really surprising that the processing takes so long.
So I’m going to stop complaining, sit back, relax, and wait patiently for my application to be processed. My Father-in-law has been here for over 25 years and he’s still not a citizen so it’s not like I’m in a hurry. I don’t envy the job those immigration people have to do, so they can take their time, and I’ll be very nice to them if they call.
May 9, 2005 at 11:38 am · Filed under Rants, Skepticism
This article about a rubella outbreak, says:
Health authorities believe the outbreak started at Rehoboth Christian School in Norwich, where about 60 per cent of students are not vaccinated, most for religious reasons.
If only there was a religion vaccine…
May 9, 2005 at 10:00 am · Filed under F1, Food, Home, Skepticism
The race was a bit on the boring side, but I laughed at Michael’s misfortune. I now have visions of him grabbing the nearest Bridgestone mechanic by the throat and yelling into his face. Congratulations to Kimi on a dominant victory.
We tidied up the garden over the weekend ready for planting season and went to Reno Depot to buy seeds and a hoe (not a dirty hoe though).
I made banana bread: quarter cup of butter, half a cup of sugar, 2 eggs, 2 cups of flour, some baking soda, some baking powder, mushed up overripe bananas, all mixed up, poured into a loaf tin and baked for an hour.
It was Mother’s Day here in Canada yesterday so I sent Mum a box of champagne truffles, even though British Mother’s Day was about 2 months ago.
In skeptical news, the Kansas science trials are nearly over, and it sounds like the intelligent design community have been made to look, well, stupid. The real scientists boycotted the whole thing, leaving the lawyer on the side of science to cross-examine the ID people and make them look silly and lazy (apparently most of them didn’t bother to read the document the trials were based on).
May 6, 2005 at 10:33 am · Filed under Skepticism
Everything you need to know
May 6, 2005 at 9:59 am · Filed under Home
Gardening season is upon us and I look on it with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. We have a huge garden, which is great until you realise how much work is involved to maintain it. Jen and I are quickly coming to the conclusion that we can’t manage it alone.
If anyone is feeling incredibly altruistic and wants to come by and help out with our gardening efforts, they are more than welcome. There might even be some bbq chicken in it for you. Here’s a list of what we plan to do this year:
- Mow the lawn every two weeks
- Plant the vegetable garden
- Weed the vegetable garden and the other beds regularly
- Put some kind of fence around the vegetable garden
- Find other innovative and humane ways to keep the squirrels off the vegetable garden
- Tidy up all the existing flower beds
- Create a new flower bed along one side of the vegetable garden
- Plant more pretty things
- Look after the existing pretty things
- Paint the garage
- Paint the potting shed thingy
- Wash and reseal the deck
If we can manage half of that lot I’ll be happy.
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