By TheCalgaryGuy - Tuesday, June 28, 2005
As promised: Matt's Incredible Adventure at the Bike Shop.
We luckily missed the rain. It started raining about 30 minutes after we left the shop. Not that riding a bike in the rain is particularly dangerous, a little more than a car but not by much and quite safe when you know what you're doing, like I apply myself to do (know what I'm doing, I mean). No, rain does not equal danger. Rather, rain equals wet. You get wet in the rain and it's not a comfortable feeling.
Sandra came with us to check out bikes. We've be talking about it for a couple of days and she's totally into it. She wants to get a bike, eventually, and wanted to have a look at what's available (and mostly the prices). So we spent a good hour in there, sitting on bikes, talking about bikes, checking out the place.
Then we drove around to find a sofa bed, found one and came back home.
Oh! the breathless part. Since the suspense isn't quite... well, present at all, breathlessness shall be induced through the use of a very long sentence. Here goes.
While at the shop I was in need of a couple of things, which I got, namely a breathgard for myself (a thingamajig that clips into the helmet just above your nose so your breath doesn't flow up into the shield and fog it all up), a tainted shield for Vero's helmet (so she doesn't have to deal with sunglasses) and a new pair of gloves for myself to replace the current, now old, pair of gloves that I've been using since last year and that are now pretty worn and getting not quite comfortable and, as I was checking the gloves -- all 30% off, which is good when they cost 200$! -- I saw a pair of "colder weather" gloves which I will have to buy eventually because when it gets cold your hands get cold and you can't really move them around much, particularly the right one, since you're holding on to the handles (and the right is squeezing the throttle) but I didn't get that pair because that's enough money for one day and hey! my birthday is coming up anyway so I got the "warmer weather" pair but they didn't have exactly the same color scheme so now I have slightly un-matching gloves to go with the rest of the outfit but whatever I'll survive (and, more importantly, I will be protected).
How many passed out from that?
By TheCalgaryGuy - Monday, June 27, 2005
I have to write something. Must... keep... site... updated... *drool*
I need some excitement in our lives. Wouldn't it be cool to say "yesterday we saved the world from a nuclear holocaust"? Interesting concept: can spies have blogs? If so, what would they write? Wouldn't it just kill them to write entries about their boring "secret identity" and keeping all the "fun" stuff out?
Actually, it would probably kill them to write about the fun stuff. Literally.
Speaking of saving the world from nuclear holocaust, I must add two things. First, what's with them people saying "nucular"? I mean come on: it's a word. You see the word, you say the word. You don't say "cherry" when reading "chair", so what gives? Second, do not under any circumstances rent the movie The Manchurian Candidate. We did last night, and I'm still waiting for something to happen (in the movie). At one time we had to pause it and the still frame was about as exciting as the movie. Or at least, as entertaining.
(It's set in the aftermath of the Gulf War where some soldiers were brainwashed into taking over the government so they could shape it into what this multinational corporation wants, blah blah blah. Oh! and "USA is the best thing in the universe" galore.)
See the references? "Nuclear holocaust" to people saying "nucular" and to a movie that makes you wish it would happen so you wouldn't have to watch the movie. I think it makes sense somewhere, does it not?
So how many words was that, 254? Does that qualify as an entry? It will today. Tune in tomorrow, when I will describe in excruciating details my upcoming trip to the motorcycle shop (where I have to drop my bike for it's scheduled inspection and buy new gloves). The suspense and excitement will keep you breathless. If not, it should be short enough to read in one breath...
By TheCalgaryGuy - Thursday, June 23, 2005
On Tuesday night, the city of Calgary rescinded the Local State of Emergency that had kicked Sandra out of her apartment. So come Wednesday night, after work, she packed up her stuff and we went over to her place.
The lovely sight of a yellow "do not cross" tape greeted us at the front door. On the door, a sign: due to severe electrical damage caused by the flooding, tenants are not allowed back in for the next 30 days.
30 DAYS! 1 MONTH!
So we have an "extended" house guest. We don't mind at all, Sandra is a cool girl, but it really sucks for her. Out of her place, from her stuff and her routine for a month. Like my very eloquent friend Marianne said: it sucks ass. Not a fun situation to be in.
Plus there's just over a week of school left. So now is the most stressful, painful time for teachers and staff: you're extremely tired from the long year and kids just don't want to be there. So not only does she have to deal with that, she has to deal with that while kicked out of her place. Sucks ass.
It should make for a full house, too. My mom is arriving in a week, then Marianne in three weeks. So for a couples of days there, we'll have all of these people in the house at once! Woohoo! Should make for interesting morning meetings. /smile
By TheCalgaryGuy - Monday, June 20, 2005
On Saturday night we went to a party thrown by a girl that works at Vero's school. She invited a bunch of people from her work and her husband invited a bunch of people from his school -- yes, he's a teacher too.
So here I am in a house full of teachers, meeting teachers that mate with other teachers (we befriended Ben and Val who, you would guess it, are both teachers).
At some point during the night I overheard a guy talking to another about the motorcycle he just bought. I didn't hear much, but the word "bike" grabs my attention like no other (perhaps second to "naked"). So when that guy ended up alone I went over and asked about it.
Turns out he bought a brand new CBR last week. So we had a long conversation on the topic of bikes.
After we finally introduced ourselves, I asked him (Chris) which of our two hosts he was teaching with.
Chris: "I'm not a teacher, my wife is. With Pierre."
Me: "So what do you do, then?"
Chris: "I'm a programmer."
...
So he's a software developer who creates web-based apps in Java. The whole "really? me too!" bit got old very quickly. The more we talked about work the more we realized we do the exact same thing.
So we befriended a software developer and a special needs teacher that are into bikes.
This world is just too darn small.
By TheCalgaryGuy - Sunday, June 19, 2005
So I said: "The sun is back!" And it was. Then it left.
The two weeks of rain caused the two rivers in town to overflow a bit. It's pretty impressive, actually. They built a lot of houses near the rivers and the water started reaching the resident's lots, just on the edge. I think some people were told to evacuate. But then the sun came back, so all was fine.
It started raining again for the last two days. But nasty, crazy, catching-up-for-the-last-ten-years rain. And just like that, the rivers that were quickly going back to a normal level overflowed even more.
Our friend Sandra lives in an apartment building overlooking the Elbow river. Last night, people came over to her place and told her to evacuate the building: the water was getting very close to the first floor's level (she lives on the fourth floor). So we now have a visitor for a couple of days.
Let the parentally-inclined not worry: our house is built on the flanks of a hill, high atop the city, far from any body of water. If water levels ever reach our house, I do believe that 90% of Canada will be completely under water.
Today, the rain has stopped. Let's hope the rivers start behaving again.
By TheCalgaryGuy - Wednesday, June 15, 2005
I gotta admit I'm a big fan of the show. There was a convention in Vancouver last month and I almost convinced myself to make the twelve hour drive. Almost. But I'm more of a "watch the show everyday" fan than a "rake up the miles just to meet a bunch of geeks" fan.
Anyway, in today's show, "Demons", the team has a quick philosophical discussion on the nature of the christian God. Teal'c confirms that no Goa'uld would be "nice enough" to be represented as the Bible's God.
O'Neill: "You've read the bible, Teal'c?"
Teal'c: "I have. It is an important part of your western civilization. Have you not read the bible yourself, O'Neill?"
O'Neill: "Oh yeah, I have. Well, I'm listening to it on tape. Don't tell me how it ends."
/laugh
By TheCalgaryGuy - Tuesday, June 14, 2005
Finally! It seems we've had a never-before-seen rainy season this year. Two full weeks without any sun! In the fourth sunniest Canadian city, the city with the most sunny days year round and the fifth driest city in summer months, that's quite disconcerting (taken from Environment Canada's website). The water is needed (everything is green now!) but the lack of sun really gets you down.
But no more! The sky is clear and we can see the mountains again. Well, at least for the next couple of days. The Weather Network says it will rain again on Friday...
By TheCalgaryGuy - Sunday, June 12, 2005
We saw a couple of movies in the last few days.
First, we rented Meet the Fockers. The movie is the sequel to Meet the Parents, a movie that came out some years ago and was generally regarded as a very funny movie. Meet the Fockers is also generally regarded as a very funny movie and I agree with the people that generally regarded the qualification of it. I mean: we thought it was pretty funny. Definitely worth the rental fee. I won't be buying it, though.
On Saturday we saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith in theatres. The story is about Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie that fell in love, got married and much later realized that their marriage is basically their secret identity when not going around doing spy and murder stuff. The characters are, I mean. Pitt and Jolie might be getting married as a way to protect their secret identities, but if so I really don't care. Anyway. Both of the characters, then, separately and without the other knowing are keeping a whole other life secret. It is quite well written and acted and if you turn your brain off and don't try to figure out every detail before it happens this movie is a lot of fun. We laughed a lot and were very well entertained. We all agreed that were it not for the 11$ a piece requirement we would go right back and see it. So we highly recommend it for all members of the family aged 13 and up (there are some sexually suggestive scenes and plenty of gun fire); it is now in our "buy it on DVD" list.
By TheCalgaryGuy - Friday, June 10, 2005
Today, MSN Messenger informed me that a newer version is available for download. It pops a neat little window that asks me if I want to download and install it. I said "yes" and it did a very good job of downloading, installing and restarting itself. You can't blame them for that: they really know how to make their software, and their installation, user friendly.
What really pisses me off is that the friendly little window has a "What's New" button that opens up this page. I clicked on that "What's New" button because I would like to know what it is I'm installing. Messenger has this nasty habit of having features I really don't want and can't disable, so I would like to know in advance what it is I will be stuck with.
So I clicked that button expecting to be shown a page that lists the new features and bug fixes between my current version and the new one. You know, like every other software out there. Instead, you are taken to that marketing page telling you how great MSN Messenger is and how many fun things you can do with it, but no details on what they are installing. And I looked, too! I clicked on just about every link on that page and nowhere could I find any kind of description of what is new.
That leads me very quickly to believe that they don't want me to know what's new. Otherwise, the information would be readily available, no? So either they fixed some very embarrassing bugs that they don't want people to know about or they just installed some more spyware on my box that they don't want people to know about.
I'm sure the update is quite benign and safe, but if it is why hide it? The end result is that they make me lose a little more faith in their product...
By TheCalgaryGuy - Thursday, June 9, 2005
On Tuesday night we saw the movie Madagascar. If you don't know what this movie is, you need to get out from under the rock where you've been hiding out and go to the movies. I don't mean to go see this movie, but see one. The previews for this movie have been running for something like a year.
But the for big-screen-challenged amongst y'all I will give it a quick description: a computer-animated movie, talking zoo animals with "movie star" voices, an escape from said zoo and our friendly castaways end up in the middle of nowhere Africa, namely Madagascar.
Of particular note is the quick dialog between the large escaped zoo animals and the lemur king, dialog which we've seen in the previews, where the king asks (in his Indian accent, don't ask me why) the zoo animals "where are you giants from?", the lion answers "New York" and the king yells "all hail the New York giants!"
That one gets me laughing every time. Smirking, I should say.
Unfortunately, that's the only one. The movie is supposed to be a comedy for the whole family. Well, the whole family part is kinda right but they toned down the humor a whole lot to make sure it's appropriate for the whole family. So the end result is that it's not particularly eventful, not particularly funny and not particularly worth the 10$ a piece to see. It is quite predictable and quite... I'm looking for a good word for "non-aggressive". But that's OK: it is as a proper family film should be.
The movie is entirely computer generated so it's technically considered a single big special effect. But that special effect doesn't have that "impressive" quality that validates seeing it on a big screen. The animation is quite good -- all the animal movement look very realistic -- but nothing your TV cannot handle.
So if I was to rate the movie, which is exactly what I am doing, I would give it: "2.5 / 5", "5 / 10", "better to rent it" and "I will not buy the DVD".
By TheCalgaryGuy - Monday, June 6, 2005
At this time, Marc and Magda (a.k.a "the in-laws") are in the plane on their way back to Montreal. They got here Friday afternoon and since then the weather has been some of the worst we've had all year (excluding snow storms). We're very disappointed that they didn't have a chance to see the mountains... again.
We're always happy to see them drop in for a quick weekend visit. Thank you both for dealing with the pain of the 4 hour plane ride, twice in such a short time, to come spend some time with us. Come back any time!
Note: I will have a similar entry in French, but this time I'll see if Vero can write it herself!
By TheCalgaryGuy - Friday, June 3, 2005
Let all who visit from now on be warned: late May and early June is the rainy season in Calgary.
Apparently, this is very normal. We get a couple of weeks of rain without much of a break, then a very sunny summer.
I don't much have a problem with that, I like rain actually. It's just disappointing for visitors like Marc and Magda who, for the second time, come to visit for the weekend and the weather is crap.
So future visitors be warned: avoid the end of May and the beginning of June. I mean, we're as nice as any other time of the year but the weather isn't.
By TheCalgaryGuy - Wednesday, June 1, 2005
For the last couple of weeks, we've started noticing the biggest drawback to us living in Alberta on top of a hill with our bedroom facing West: daylight.
We're basically old folks: we go to bed at 9PM. We're also kinda young in that we go to bed at 9PM because we're so tired of our day that started at 5AM by a rush out of bed to go training (physical exercise, that is). It's a routine we have and we like it.
However, Calgary has this... situation when it comes to night: it's always late. For the last couple of weeks we've reached "summer daylight hours" or something and the sun goes down a little before 10PM. I'm not kidding: last night we were installing baseboards (still) and went to bed at 9:45PM; the sun had just disappeared behind the mountains.
So at 9PM, our regular bedtime hour, we can sit in bed and read a book (without any of our bedroom lights on, of course). Actually, you can try turning on a light but it has no effect to the overall illumination of the room. The curtains in the window are like a big light bulb, shining bright as we get under the covers.
Completely nuts.
So now we need to find a blind that will fit the window otherwise we won't be sleeping all summer.
I love this town.
