Palmer's World

I'm heading to Sault Ste Marie in 10 minutes along with Holly who will be driving her own car. We're meeting in Deep River at the Tim Horton's.

Holly: Do you have a cell phone still?
Ryan: No.
Holly: (obviously distressed) Uh...uhh...
Ryan: Holly, no worries. We'll just travel like cavemen used to and actually arrange a meeting spot ahead of time!
Holly: (laughter ensues)

Here's to a great trip on the weekend. Take care all.

Not a month has gone by after I started playing around with the Travelr software to tag my photos with a geographic location, that Flickr themselves release basically the same thing.

It looks prety snazzy so far after looking at it for 5 minutes and it's a heck of a lot easier to tag photos.

I think I'll wait a few weeks until everything settles down and I see if they provide any cooler features to think about.

I know the ladies reading this want the details up front so here it is:
6 pounds, 11 ounces. A baby boy!

That's all you need to know anyhow, right?

So, after the wedding was done, we got home and called the hospital once again and it sounded like nothing would happen for awhile so we crashed for the night and headed to the hospital in the morning.

Got there around 10:30 and was able to see Annie for a bit and then I left again to pick up Mike who was at a brunch. Turns out that wherever he was at (perhaps a relative of some sorts) was the same place where Alanis Morissette grew up in Ottawa. Coolness! Coupled with this amazing brunch, I was glad to have dropped by to pick him up. I said goodbye to his family as they headed for Kapuskasing and then Mike and I drove back to the hospital. Luckily the torrential downpour had stopped by this time as it was hell to drive in on the way over. I would also like to take this time to thank the moron who splashed me in a tidal wave of murky water while walking to my car.

When we got back to the hospital around 1:00 we headed for their room but were asked to wait outside. Then we heard someone counting up to 10 and then we realized that the child must be coming around sooner than we thought!

The nurse asked us to wait down the hall in the waiting area which is essentially some chairs near the elevators. Two hours passed and nothing much happened so we were bored stiff. Plus, the elevator had this annoying bell that would ring even if no one came off.

I took a snooze to awake to the most surreal experience of my life. Let's backtrack for a moment - I don't care for hospitals. I've never really been in them and the closest I've been to actual emergencies is when my sister slammed my fingers in a door (OUCH!) and watching ER or Grey's Anatomy.

So when Mike awoke me and I was kind of in daze, a slew of doctors/nurses whatever and Eric were hightailing Annie to the operating rooms and then they were gone. This threw me for a loop and I thought I may have been still dreaming. But no, it turns out that this was the real deal and it shook me up. Mike and I were bewildered and didn't know what the heck was going on. This was at 2:30. It felt like this weird dream that I had not awoken from.

10 minutes later we see a group of doctors/nurses/Eric run back across the floor and there's this little thing with a whole lot of hair being carted back the other way. Eric was a mess so we didn't know what the heck was going on as we don't want to interrupt them in doing their job.

I think an hour went by and Mike and I were just wondering what could have happened and hoping that everything was alright.

In the end, everything was alright! Eric came out to tell us that a baby boy had been born and Annie was resting! Life was good, we laughed, I paid Mike the $2 I lost on a bet (I was pretty sure a girl was coming this way!). Vero and Annie's cousin Simon showed up a couple of hours later and we hung out in the waiting room for awhile until we ended up going to see the new mother and her child. It's a beautiful son they have and he's been born to the best parents that ever could be (except for my own).

I'll give you more updates as they come in, but all I can say now that the miracle of childbirth is pretty crazy. I can only imagine how it was in the actual room. But they all perservered and everyone is doing fine.

Welcome to the world Baby Desgroseilliers.

SOMEONE told us the wedding started at 2:30. Always keep your invitations so you don't show up there an hour ahead of time.

Jason and Monique's wedding was spectacular. Mike, Vero and I arrived not knowing what to expect, but once you enter Bean Town Ranch it's like you've entered a movie set. It's an entire ranch with lakes, and barns and overall goodness.

They had a horse and carriage bring us over to the spot where the ceremony was going to be. Pretty cool!

The ceremony was beautiful, outside and sunny. Jason is the biggest crier (cryer?) in the world and proceeded to bawl when he thought he would see Monique. I don't mind when a dude cries during his own wedding but there's no excuse for further crying when you're delivering a speech to thank everyone for coming. Step up to the plate man! Show them what you're made of! ;-)

The pastor was amazing as he reminded me of a cross between Guy Smiley and some game show host. I felt like I was at a movie and this was some badly scripted dialogue. There were some parts where Vero and I could not stop laughing our asses off.

After the ceremony, we walked over to another barn where they had cocktails and numerous snacks. Annie saw us and whisked us over to a table (she was part of the bridal party, much like her husband Eric who was the best man) and we hung out for awhile, meeting a few good gents in the form of Joseph and Darcy. These guys were good times. Coupled with the fact that they had a pianist and a flute player playing for us, the atmosphere was fantastic.

If there's any indication on how cool geeks can be, it's when you discover that everyone loves Star Wars (no, I did not bring it up). We actually wanted to request the Mos Eisley Cantina song from Star Wars. I proceeded to leave a napkin with our request when they musicians had a break but no dice. We were pretty bummed.

With a ring of a church bell, that was our indication that supper was on so we moseyed on over to the hall, and realized that our new friends were actually sitting at the same table as us. BONUS! After loading our glasses with wine, we noticed that the nametags at the table were from UNICEF and indicated that our gifts were made in the form of a donation. The funny thing about this is that they first sentence on the name tag said "The Gift of Health has been given to the needy from Tables 12-14". But mine was off-center so it read "The Gift of Health has BEER given to the needy from Tables 12-14.". Here I thought we hit the goldmine and were getting free drinks for the rest of the night, but alas, only myself and Christina had these magical Willy Wonka tickets in our hands and someone had to ruin our night by proclaiming they were off-center.

Salad was served and someone was mentioning how someone at the head table had gone into labour. WHAT THE HECK? Mike, Vero I start freaking out as we know this can only be our good friend Annie and we look frantically around to see where the heck she is. We end up getting Vero to go talk to the bride and it turns out that they have left the wedding to head for the hospital. Holy mackerel...this was a sobering thought. You know, I've seen people have kids before, but I haven't been entirely close to them, so for my friends Eric and Annie to have a kid on the way...it just shook me up and make me realize "Whoa, Annie isn't just getting big all of a sudden for no reason."

Considering the drive to the hospital would have been an hour long, we figured we would call the hospital later considering no water had been broken; only contractions that were 5 minutes apart.

The rest of the wedding party stepped up to the plate to read Eric's speech as he had to rush off with Annie. It was an excellent speech and it was interesting to hear Eric's words being read by others.

The highlight of the night came from the first dance. The sun had gone down, there was a campfire outside and we all stood on the edge of this pond. In the middle of this pond was an island where the bride and groom danced the night (or 3 minutes) away with spotlights on them and fireworks going off in the distance. Pretty slick I must admit. I've never seen a first dance this crazy before. Afterwards, we entered the hall again where the pianist and flute player had been joined by a drummer/singer and they played some old school music where Jason and Monique showed off their ballroom dance lessons.

After watching some dances, we called the hospital and found out that they didn't know what was really going on as the doctor had to do an evaluation. So we figured we would call back later to find something more concrete.

The dance was decent. The trio played for a good hour and then they brought in a DJ for the rest of the night to spin some tunes. Overall, not many people were up dancing but I would have to note the following:

• The stereo kept cutting out to the point where you would wait five minutes to hear another song. Must have overheated?
• The DJ blew. I'm sorry if Jason and Monique are reading this and taking offence but the fact that he would slap a CD on once in awhile and leave the dance area is not a bad thing, but it is when your CD is full of slow dance tunes and 10 songs later he comes back in.

In fact, when we were leaving the wedding later that night, I kind of said "Man, the wedding was awesome, but the DJ sucked." and Mike proceeded to say "Yeah. Sucked donkeyballs!" and then I noticed that sitting alone by the campfire was the DJ who definitely heard us. Do I feel bad? Maybe a little. But come on! It's your job to be in there DJing buddy!

Highlights of the dance floor include me doing a running leap into a guitar rocker stance on my knees in front of some woman I didn't even know. I slid at least a good four feet onto my knees and was very impressed with the slick floors. I didn't bother looking up but I heard this woman was a little bewildered at why I was playing the guitar solo to "You Shook Me All Night Long" on my knees but then she gave into the the rock gods and realized she should be honoured. Please note that after the wedding in the car I realized I had split my pants to the point where an entire fist could reach in down below. I can only imagine that this is the event which ripped those pants. ;-)

Also, Vero and I decided to have a dance-off since there was no one on the floor dancing. I must admit that she kicked my ass bigtime because I proceeded to have a very lame move in which I was pretending to golf. However, I redeemed myself later where I was pretending to bowl and then I woudl run to the opposite end and pretend I was the bowling pin and get knocked down. Definitely should have been the winning move but Vero beat me with her re-enactment of the shopping cart.

Two thumbs up for the wedding and two thumbs up for Bean Town Ranch. We were very impressed and we're pretty sure that everyone had an amazing time. Jason and Monique, you were beautiful. I hope you have a good time in Vancouver and that last Alaskan cruise!

***To rewind a night, Mike and I hung out with his family who were up for another wedding this weekend. It was good times and we jammed a bit and came up with an impromptu song called The Wedding Day Jitter Blues. I cringe to listen to this tune sober so the next time I've had a few glasses of wine, I'll play it back to see how it was. Thanks to the Losiers for showing us a good time!***

Now, I suppose I should write an entry about whatever happened to the best man and his wife that night...

Last night after MaryAnn's farewell (let's be honest, she's going to NFLD for three weeks and coming back part time...it's not a REAL farewell), Krista and I ventured over to the Ottawa side of the river to check out the Parliament Pub. She had told me wonderful things about this pub but I had never heard of it.

After grabbing some street meat we entered the establishment - right across from the Parliament Buildings. It was a neat setup. Not a pub that I'm used to as we ended up in some cushy lounge chairs where I felt I needed a pipe along with my drink, but it was pretty cool. They had pictures of all the Prime Ministers, and they also had some good caricatures of the cool ones. Also, you can tell that this pub must have been built in the hay-day (hey-day?) of the Grits as they had an entire half of the pub sectioned for them, whereas the other half had to share the Torys, NDP, Bloc and the Pink Elephant party (I'm joking). It was interesting to think of the many battles fought in this pub depending on who sat on what side.

All in all, an enjoyable experience with good company. I even found a sweet Mountie cardboard cut-out in the mall below the pub which I know Krista wants for her place. It reminds her of Due South.

All Hail the Spudtrooper!

To join the ranks of Darth Tater in my office, I stumbled upon this gem at the grocery store for $10. Sweet! It even has its own masher of a weapon!

I was telling Jennie that if I wanted to show off that I'm a true geek, then I would be getting legitimate statues of the sorts and putting them on display at work...but the Mr. Potato Head series is just a fun item that hides my true geekdom.

This reminds me of how Vero's family dropped by my place to check it out and her dad made some comments on my Matrix and Star Wars figures on top of my book shelf. 10 years ago, I would have been quite embarassed, but now, I thrive on these comments as Vero herself contributed to the collection.

Does anyone have my copy of Shaun of The Dead?

Mike wants to watch it and I can't seem to find it.

*update* Although I appreciate the help from my friends in lending their own copies of the movie to me, I have revised my statement above to put more emphasis on an important word in the sentence, as opposed to what you must have thought you had read. ;-)

Well I just realized what is wrong with my right hand side nav bar. A freakin' gremlin must have chomped out half the code to my website! *groan*

I'm pretty sure I have the HTML code I was working with at home during the weekend still on my computer so I can probably salvage it there.

Although, I am hoping that I get a Blogger beta account soon to see their new features. But with my luck, there will be a slew of cool new templates to pick from after I scoured the Net for this one.

Last night after volleyball, Mike and I watched Land of the Dead which is the fourth film in George Romero's Dead series.

I was pretty excited to see this film as I had only see the other three parts and the third one was made in 1985. 20 years later, I'm sure a zombie film can be beefed up immensely with the aid of something I like to call the 'puter.

When we last left the Dead, they had infiltrated an army bunker where some scientists and army types were hanging out trying to figure out how to get out of this mess.

Fast forward to sometime in the future where the Dead seem to run rampant around the countryside (if not the world, although it sounds like Canada fared well during these times. Go Canada!) and humans rarely go outside of their barricaded cities. However, with any civilization, someone at the top has to screw it up for all of us (read: Bush) and so the rich live in luxury, while the poor live in the dregs.

As for the Dead, they happen to evolve during this movie - learn how to use crude tools to get to a goal, learn to communicate together, etc. It was interesting to wonder if they'll make it so the Dead actually become human again over time. That would be wild.

There as an interesting part of the movie where they used fireworks to make the Dead stare up into the sky so the humans could go about their adventures since the Dead didn't even bother with them while there were some cool lights in the sky. I read how Robert Epert compared this to the shock and awe tactics used by the Bush Administration. Interesting. What's also interesting is the fact that the Dead finally realize the fireworks mean nothing and keep on doing their zombie thing; eating people and wreaking havoc. Take that!

Also read on the Internet (I'm just cribbing a bunch of this stuff from the Wikipedia entry) is that George Romero stated that the movie was a statement on the current Bush administration. Wild.

My favourite part was when they cut to some underground gambling/bar/general human mayhem establishment and the humans were paying money to get their picture taken with two chained up zombies. NO WAY! That hit home as to how humans can ignore the actual danger that's out there by making a mockery of it. Fast fact: I missed it, but it turns out that the two chained up zombies for the picture taking were none other than the two guys from Shaun of the Dead. I want to see the movie again just to catch that!

I give this 5 bloody killings out of 5 because I thought the idea portrayed in the film were excellent, the zombie mayhem was coolness (and they realize they can breathe (do zombies breathe?) in the water!) and overall, I would say the best of the series (next to the original of course).

One day, I'll have to check out the remakes of Dawn and Day, but for now, I've filled my zombie quota for the month.

Thanks to Marc-Bernard for lending us this flick!

Awhile back I had picked up the Karate Kid box set for the sole reason of watching The Karate Kid. Heck, you can't go wrong with picking up the second one also.

I had never seen The Next Karate Kid which did away with Daniel-san and introduced Hilary Swank as Julie-san.

Overall, I would put this film at par with Karate Kid Part III which wasn't the best film in the series. I enjoyed the humourous elements of pitting Mr. Miyagi with a girl instead of a boy but other than that, it was your run of the mill 'coming of age' story. Heck, there wasn't even a tournament of some sorts! Where's the Cobra Khans? All they had is some lame-ass security force at a freakin' high school (who had a bunch of high school students who were security detail? We sure didn't have that in Kapuskasing!) run by some old-timer war vet with a chip on his shoulder. I always like it when you see these dudes run around and say "Finish him." to the students after a brawl and the students are thinking "Wha???" and I'm also thinking "Wha??? Is this Mortal Kombat?"

I give this 2 karate kicks out of 5.

D'oh, what happened to my website? It's all messed up now.

Awesome! In a few hours I was about to hand in my security badge form and get a new card and spend $25 to get a new bus pass.

But, the heavens heard my cry and my stuff was found! I just have to pick it up tonight.

The only downfall is that I had to pay $20 in Bus Tickets in the past week. Ah well.

Friday brought the parents into town where I took them to the Mer Bleue bog as well as around the town to various stores. We also hit up J.P.'s Chip Stand at the Canadian Tire parking lot on Merivale Road. Mike and I saw on the news that this was voted the #1 stand in town. I will admit that it was a good meal, but I can't say they were the super-ultra-best fries I've ever tasted. But they are yummy. So don't be scared to check this place out! Although GJs chip stand outside the Canadian Tire on 10th Line is just as good. What's with all the chip stands outside of Canadian Tire?

A funny observation was how it was a beautiful 25 degrees on Friday, and my parents thought it was killer with the humidity, whereas I felt comfortable. I can remember first moving to the city thinking I would die during the summer…I suppose the human body can adapt over time. I would imagine this is the case for people who live in humid climates (Hello Uncle Gerry!).

Saturday brought forth a late afternoon beach trip to Constance Bay. I remember spending countless days during the Summer of '01 basking in the sun. It's a fair trek outside of town, but heck, you make up what you lose in distance with the massive amounts of beach available to you.

I ended up seeing Shawn from Kapuskasing there which was a surprise. I had not seen him for a few years and he has sure put on the muscle! I didn't think a human body could put on that much mass! He hangs out there regularly so I may see him in the future.

Alex enjoyed his Captain Hat that Mike, Vero and I picked up for him for his birthday. This was hell to find in town. Who would have thought that it would be so hard to find a freakin' cap'n hat? We then went out on the boat for a rip around the bay while Vero, Philipp and Alex attempted to wakeboard. It is too bad that Philipp couldn't manage to get himself up but I have a feeling that it was due to the fact that the bindings were a size 1 and his feet were a size 20 (or at least that's what my estimates were). His feet were hurting him pretty bad later in the night. Ouch!

We then headed to the homestead and played some Mario Party (who's the winner? BOOYA. I am the king) and had some pizza. Feeling pretty tired, I bailed on any further festivities of the night and left their place.

Fall Television is soon starting up so I binged on Grey's Anatomy on Sunday afternoon as it was pissing rain all day outside. It was one of those days were you were thankful for the blanket and a couch to curl up on. I also watched a biography of Led Zeppelin which was kind of lame (lame as in there wasn't anything really new to see), although they had this excellent part where after the Beatles broke up, George Harrison wanted to see Led Zeppelin perform and the following conversation took place:

G. Harrison: "Well, what time should I get there?"
Tour Manager: "From the beginning, definitely!"
G. Harrison: "Hmm…well, when's the intermission?"
Tour Manager: "There's no intermission."
G. Harrison: "But it starts at 8:00!"
Tour Manager: "That's right! They play from 8:00 until 10:30 some nights!"
G. Harrison: "When the Beatles used to perform, we would be slotted to play for 20 minutes and speed through it to play for 15 minutes and that was it!"

I found that amusing as I couldn't imagine paying good money to see someone perform for 15 minutes. It almost sounds like the Beatles were more about the experience of seeing The Beatles whereas Led Zeppelin was all about the music.

Something I'm working on...here.

Some may call us geeks, I call myself the champ.

A welcome surprise came from Claude last week when he realized that we never finished off Star Wars Trivia from last December because we were all busy.

Here I was thinking I was champ of the world, but had not finished off the year of trivia!

With six months of wins under my belt I felt reassured that my months of reading the New Jedi Order would fuel my brain for the final month of questions so that I would emerge victorious.

I did. Booya.

Thanks to Claude and Benoit who have given me some good times over the past year with some great Star Wars trivia games at lunch! To all those who were there for the contests, we're sorry you couldn't participate but you wouldn't even know what planet Chewbacca is from.

I can now retire from being a geek for the past year and go back to talking about cool things like cars, women and playing cards.

What a crappy deal this morning. I lost my ID badge AND my bus pass on the bus somewhere. I'm pretty sure I know exactly when it was lost...I had put my iPod in my pocket and it was a tight squeeze (we all know Palmer loves the tight pants because the ladies like the tight pants) and then I had taken it out once I found a seat. I bet my badge is lodge in between a seat somewhere on the bus. Argh! That's even worse than just dropping it because someone would be gracious enough to throw it into a mailbox somewhere.

There's always balance in life and I suppose the balance was created this morning when I found Ferda's ID badge that she had lost at my house months ago. One ID badge found, one gets lost.

PLEASE STAND BY. DANGER ZONE.

Here's the scoop: Philipp tipped me off to two amazing websites, one that will be relevant to you, one, not so much but the service it provides is amazing and will eventually make its way to the English.

1) http://www.jajah.com
Everyone has heard a little about Voice Over IP (VOIP). The whole phone over the Internet thing. Jajah takes it one step further.

You know how Skype can use a headset connected to your computer to talk to people? Sure, you can get an adapter for your phone and use that, but let's be honest, that costs some cash and cash we don't have.

Go and use Jajah! All you do is:
1) Type in your phone number.
2) Type in the number you wish to call.
3) Click GO!

Your phone will ring. You pick it up and there will be a voice saying "Please hold, we are connecting you now." Then, it connects you to the person you wish to call!

UNBELIEVABLE! Phil and I were freaking out on Friday night after a successful connection to Vero. This is a service which caters to the general public - the ones who just don't want to sit in front of a computer with a microphone. But hey, I can use my own phone without paying for an adapter? NO PROBLEM!

Is there a catch? Well, you can try it out for free for the first five minutes (just to test the service out). After that, I believe the prices was 0.025 cents a minute within North America.

Read that again. A quarter of a quarter of a cent. Perhaps we had a few beer in us that night and read the price wrong but someone should verify that for me (as I can't check that site at work).

Plus, it's free between jajah users.

2) onlinetvrecorder.com (or somethign to that effect).
If you're into German television, you can go on this site, click through their TV guide and choose a show, have these guys record it for you for FREE. That's right, FREE. When the video is ready, you download it to your computer.

How do they do this legally? Isn't this the whole illegal file sharing movement? Well, not quite.
They encode the video so only you can watch it (or, decode it). So, only the Palmer would have the right decoder to make the video watchable. After that, I could share the video if I chose to do so, but then it would be my ass on the line legally. They are the equivalent to the friend who tapes you that Sam Roberts concert on television and passes you the videocassette.

We grabbed Rambo II in German and I hope Philipp will enjoy it when it's done downloading!

I can see this service coming to North America VERY SOON. The best part about it is that you can get any TV show they are airing...we aren't talking about the most popular shows out there...it can be an obscure one if you wish, such as The History of the CIA which Philipp downloaded.

Hard rock, metal, nu-metal, screamo? Call it what you will (not screamo!) but Breaking Benjamin lie in the same vein of the hard rock acts nowadays - Three Days Grace, Finger Eleven, Trapt, etc.

I picked up a Breaking Benjamin album We Are Not Alone a few years and was blown away. Amazing stuff on this album, only to be outdone by their previous album Saturate which I had picked up at a used CD store.

So with this knowledge in hand (and downloading every live track known to man - did you know that they started out as a Tool cover band? If you can cover Tool, you are amongst the rock Gods.), I, along with Eric and Mike have been anticipating the release of the third album Phobia.

The other day I was thinking there must be something new coming out so I dropped by Music World to discover I was correct and there it was, priced at a modest $12.99, you can't go wrong!

Hard rock is best delivered in the car so I ended up listening to this album quite a bit in the next few days. What's the verdict?

Undecided at this point. At this moment, I have to say it's not as good as the first two albums but have you ever had those albums that you listen to and you think "Well, it's alright..." but the more effort you put into it, the more you fall in love with it and then you realize it is the best thing you've ever listened to and it ends up on your list of albums to take with you to a deserted isle? Who knows if it will end up this way for me? At this moment in time, every time I listen to it again, the songs get more dynamic and pull on some musical heart strings of mine. That's a good indication that this may become one of those albums.

I find this happens a lot when you get used to a certain sound from an artist and then they change it on you. Let's take Metallica's Load for example. Sure, it sounds different than their previous albums. Does this make it a bad album? HECK NO! This is a diamond in the rough and once you get the whole "It ain't Metallica like we know and love!" out of your head, you learn to appreciate it a whole lot more! But I won't apply this argument to St. Anger. Gak...what a pile of bantha poodoo. Kirk, where are the solos man? The solos!

So, if you're into the new hard rock/metal scene and enjoy the new stuff coming out from all the bands, pick up some Breaking Benjamin - preferably the first or second album to get you started. Then when you're hoooked, I'm sure you won't be disappointed by picking up Phobia. I'm not. It's not like it's Everclear's last album which has prompted me never to buy another Everclear album before listening to it. I felt the same way after The Cranberries Bury The Hatchet. Ick.

iplaying: Breath - Breaking Benjamin: Phobia

I just received an amazing gift from Krista which reminded me that I hadn't spoken about my birthday yet!

Thursday night brought Eric, Annie, Mike and Vero to the house for a BBQ. There was a LOT of food. We're still picking through the leftovers! It was an amazing feast put on by Mike and Vero. Thanks guys!

We then headed out to a mini-putt course in Navan which I had never been to. What's this? A course Ryan has never attempted? Blasphemy!

Well. Let me tell you that this was the most amazing course I've ever been to in my life! It had fountains and pools of water all over the place and there's even a hole where you have to run the ball down the river! Amazing stuff really! Rob ended up coming out after his volleyball game and played a few holes with us. Turns out that the course was created/owned/managed by some people from Kapuskasing! Incroyable!

We headed home to have a piece of cake and then I got my gift from Vero - a jambe drum! It's an African drum which sits up to my knees. An excellent gift and I will enjoy it around the campfire (although I'm sure the neighbours will start complaining!) The power went out for a few hours in Orleans so we proceeded to just hang out and bang the drum for a few, and then headed to bed. Thanks babe! It is awesome!

Thanks to all who made my birthday a wicked time! Let's not forget that the guys and gals at Katie's cottage got me a cake, as well as Carrie and Philipp picked me up a wooden carving of a hand doing the 'rock on' sign. AWESOME! I want to mount it onto my car!

Oh, and what was the gift from Krista? Only an autographed copy of the script from the Pilot Episode of Dawson's Creek! Ha ha, oh man, we laughed a few months ago when we realized we were both die-hard Dawson's Creek fans. I wouldn't say I am die-hard enough to scour the globe for an autographed script, but I'm definitely going to frame it! My fave part is she said it cost more to ship than to actually purchase!

I enjoy going to Katie's cottage for numerous reasons, but most of all, the fact that there are certain things that happen every year which you look forward to. For example:

• Canoe trips
• Seeing Pete passed out every year when we arrive on Friday
• Shotgunning of Schlitz
• Random Goodness (for instance, this year consisted of us all growing 'staches)

The moustache competition went well although a few people 'forgot'. No worries though, by the end of the weekend they had some sweet 'staches going on. I won the prize for 'Most Dedicated' which I was very proud of.

We played a heck of a lot of bocce ball (urban style where you there are virtually no rules as to where you can throw the p'tonq) and there was some great food out there. I enjoy the system Katie has set up where everyone is in charge of a meal so you don't have to bring up food for yourself all weekend - just take care of the one meal you're in charge of and feed everyone. We're not talking about bologna sandwiches here, we're talking about ribs and salads of all sorts and breakfasts from the Gods. Mmm boy!

The MacGyver canoe trip was great! The boys truly enjoyed their t-shirts and we packed up the canoe and headed out with Pete in a kayak and Keith and Paul in another canoe. The water was higher this year so it made it an easier trip, although the choppy waters on the lake swamped us a few times which was unfortunate. We managed to lose two MacGyver shirts, my sunglasses, Philipp's hat and random oddities in the canoe (along with our empty jar of pickles, oh Philipp, you are a man after my own heart!) in the process, but we managed to come out unscathed and the lake was surprisingly shallow as we managed to walk the canoe back through it. Stupidly enough, I didn't bother taking a life jacket which won't happen again! I can say I was luckily not in a dangerous situation where I needed it, but there's no reason to take chances. Safety first people! And no, Miguel and Philipp don't count as lifeguards (even though they have the physique of them. They are like...David Hasselhoff.)

Our objective was met though in the high waters of the Crow River off of Chandos Lake. We managed to make it past the beaver dam which stopped us last year and we went even farther than thought! We ended up in a utopia of wilderness, where the water ended up being shallow enough to run around in and marvel at the beauty which was this land of ours. I believe Keith was super impressed with the whole canoe trip and going into the backwoods. I'm sure he would have come out last year if he didn't accidentally impale himself with a koob stick and had to go to the hospital for a broken tailbone. Ouch.

Thanks to Katie and Miguel for being some excellent host/hostesses and I'd like to say that the travellers in our car were happy for being invited (as well as Vero whose visit was a first time! Although she is burnt to a crisp!)

I almost forgot the other adventure we had when leaving the cottage. We had missed the garbage pickup time so each of us had to bring a bag of garbage. Thinking we were ingenious, we headed to the beach to drop it off in their garbage bins seeing that the car was packed and we didn't want Carrie to have a bag of garbage on her lap for a good 20 KM into the nearest town. Unfortunately, we failed to read the signs which said 'No household litter' in the garbage bins which brought forth some dude in a pickup truck filled with garbage saying that we weren't allowed to drop it in there. We had thought that the dumps were closed for some reason, but they were not so we had to pack up the garbage again. Unfortunately when we put the bag back in the car, the thing was ripped so some brown sludge dripped over some luggage and Carrie's leg, and my car. ICK ICK ICK! Furiously, I threw the luggage from the trunk into the backseat and was going to put the garbage bag into the trunk but it was leaking too much.

Here comes another dude dropping off this garbage and the pickup truck dude comes to intercept and says "Hey, is that household waste?" "Nope" replies the dude. "Just a bunch of beach toys." The pickup truck dude then says "Well, I'm heading to the dump anyhow, why don't you throw it into the back with the rest of the garbage?". I ask the guy "Hey, can we throw ours in there?" in which he replies "Nope." But he offers us an empty garbage bag which helps out with the dripping mess.

We are not some punks trying to litter here. We put the garbage into the big metal bin so that bears could not get into it. We are human beings here - help a guy out and throw it into the pickup truck filled with 32 bags of garbage that you're about to bring to the dump anyhow. It's the human thing to do.

Anyhow, that was the weekend! The trip back was uneventful other than multiple stops. Most times on a trip, I'm all about getting back ASAP...this time, we took our time and took in the sights.

On a random other rambling note, this is the second pair of sunglasses I've lost in the span of a month! I've had a hard time finding sunglasses I want this year and when I decide on a pair, I end up losing them! At least I'm not one to spend too much on them and ended up spending a whole $18 on the two pair. I should just give up and super-glue my aviators back into shape. They are my faves.

What I've accomplished so far at 28 years old (starting today of course!)

• Bought a house
• Grew a moustache
• Beat Ninja Gaiden (alas, only with the Game Genie to get by this one insane level)

So far, so good. I can't say that my life has been hell. I have been given a pretty sweet ride these past 28 years and I owe it all to my family, my friends, and my charming personality. Also, my modest ways.

What I look forward in the next year:

• Getting a grasp on finances (pay back those parents!)
  
• Maybe starting work on a basement (depending on how finances go)
• Learning more music theory (from the almighty Troy)
  
• Visiting Philipp a little more
• Earning enough trust so I can take care of Eric and Annie's baby

Speaking about Eric and Annie's baby, this morning I had a wicked time going to the hospital and checking out an ultrasound of Baby Desgroseilliers! The kid was cool! It stuck its tongue out at us, has this wavy crazy hair and the heart was beating super fast! It was crazy how fast this heart was going! Ultrasound technicians have a cool job...I think it would take awhile to get the hang of it but after that, it's like scanning for babies!

Anyhow, a big thanks goes out to Eric and Annie for inviting me to this event. It may be the last ultrasound for awhile as the baby is due next month!

Tomorrow's Update: What did Vero get me for my birthday. ;-P

This weekend Vero and I will be heading out to Katie's cottage which is guaranteed good times. I anticipate that we'll be having a bocce ball tourney as per our love of the game that was started on Canada Day (started for me at least!).

I am looking forward to Philipp, Miguel and I undertaking what I like to call 'The MacGyver Tour' which consists of us canoeing up the river and crossing various beaver dams.

This started last year where we got a little adventurous and decided to go as far as we could in the canoe as it had never been done by us before. My only beef was the fact that we all left our shoes back home thinking we would stay inside the canoe. Hesitantly and complaining all the way, I jump into the beaver dam muck which definitely consists of some form of feces and fall up to my knees in various spots.

At one point, we could not manage to pull the canoe up far enough over the beaver dam so out of nowhere, Philipp (or was it Miguel?) lets out a mighty roar - "MACGYVER!!!!!" and he summons the power that we need and singlehandedly launches the canoe over to other side of the beaver dam. We stood in awe at the awesome might which a lone human could hold within their body. It was an inspiring moment, however, we lost the magic as soon as we were heading back and SOME people had to be towed in their paddle boat by us lone canoers. We were not impressed.

I hope that this weekend shall bring equal adventures as last and that Keith does not break his tailbone again.

I would like to congratulate two people who have made the cut to the right-hand bar blog area.

Jen - whose blog was an enigma for some time but then turned out to be an amusing read for yours truly, especially after getting some inside thoughts on the beast we all know, the hot dog eating man himself, Matt. Check out Come on - it's simirable!

Troy - Heck, I haven't even read any of his posts as his first forray into the life of blogging, but I'm sure it will be a good read filled with the things Palmer's love: music, beer and good times. If the world had a clone of me, it would be Troy. Granted, he's the older cousin, so I suppose I'm the clone of him. Whatever. Clones are cool. Check out The Palmer Project.

Let's talk a little about Blog Etiquette. We're all new to this so here's a shout out for some advice.

Let's be honest...some blogs on the right hand sidebar are dead ends. They have nothing new, as in people have dropped off the face of the earth. Seeing that EVERYONE who publishes something on the Net wishes to have it kept clean and tidy (right....), it is rude to remove a blog from your ride hand side bar if they just don't make the cut anymore? Or is it good to leave it there for archival purposes? Let's just say Matt's blog has become close to the cut on many occasions to then jumpt back to life with grandiose posts about sumo wrestling in bubble wrap (bravo, bravo). So if you have any thoughts on this subject, air them out!

In a random news event of great things coming back from the dead - The Hilarious House of Frigtenstein is returning!!! Oh man, this was the greatest show ever! Especially with the disco wolfman. I heard it's coming to the Space Network this fall.

When we're on the road for a long trip, Highway Hypotheticals come into play. I can't recall who coined this term, but I'm sure it was during one of the numerous trips with Carrie and Philipp.

A Highway Hypothetical consists of posing a hypothetical situation to the car inhabitants. The more risqué the better. Controversy is a must during a long car trip.

The trip back down from Kapuskasing was fraught full of Highway Hypotheticals. Some of the faves that came up were:

• Would you sleep with someone for $1M without having the chance to discuss with your partner?
• Would you rather live in the Star Wars universe or the Star Trek universe? (Please note that Vero came up with this geeky question!)
• If you could enhance your body with cybernetic implants, would you?
• Would you place a GPS tracking unit inside the body of your child?

As you can see, fun questions all around! There are always the classics such as:

• What sense would you choose to lose?
• Arm or a leg?
• Blind or deaf?
• Death by drowning or burning? Yes, yes, sometimes we get pretty morbid but it's interesting to see what people would answer!

The next time you're on a long roadtrip, implement the Highway Hypothetical game and there is guaranteed fun, as long as there are some people who can actually contribute some good questions!