Now that's scary

While this photo isn't scary (it's part of an ad for some Lottery), it is poorly photo manipulated.

The fact that someone got paid for producing this (at least I hope they got paid for it) while other people that are really good are out of a job... that could be considered scary? Okay it's a stretch. It was something that caught my eye while waiting for the subway.

It's Halloween today here in North America. It's a time when kids wander the streets wearing various costumes ranging from ghosts to superheroes to inanimate objects and everything in between and ask for candy. Houses have tombstones, crime scene caution tape, skeletons, ghosts, witches, black cats on their door. Pumpkins with carved face (aka jack-o-lanterns) glow with candles, flashlights, or LED bike lights inside. Haunted, spooky, scary stuff.


The Monsters Inc. Mike Wazowski jack o lantern, not so scary.


Giant inflatable cat with moving head, again not scary

I went to cook a frozen pizza (Dr. Oetker Pizza Generosa) and moved some stuff off the stove top oven in the process. Doing so I discovered the following...


What the heck is this? That's pretty scary.

Some soapy water I had left in the wok which I let sit in order to make scrubbing the previous meal easier. I forgot about it, obviously. Left for Montreal and came back days later to find this primordial ooze that looked gross and smelled worse. It had the reminiscence of smelling like vomit. Until now I never knew you could recreate that stuff outside your body.

Bleh.

John A Macdonald

Parc Ave

I picked up Darryl and we ended up going to Mamma's. A restaurant known for being open into the wee hours of the morning that sells poutine with smoked meat. While it wasn't really that early in the morning we still enjoyed having a large breakfast.




Poutine with smoked meat and a BLT!!!


This is probably one of the best poutines I've had all week.


A car parked in front of a shopper's drug mart.

While driving back home I pulled over in front of a cemetery. It was to free up my driving hands to program the car GPS (aka FRAN - Find Restaurants And Navigate) to find the nearest Tim Horton's. I was getting tired and wanted something to drink.

Looking out the side window I realized that it was autumn and the colors were amazing. Definitely some nice photographic opportunities. Since Darryl couldn't drive he was subjected to my discretion. I drove into the cemetery.

We weren't in there for more than five minutes when Darryl noticed a tiny sign that read burial site of John A. Macdonald. He was Canada's first prime minister.





We continued to drive around with not much success in finding the site. Had this been the burial grounds of George Washington we would have expected a large statue or something.



My hopes of finding the site increased when we saw a Canadian flag in the distance. I drove the car, parked, got out with my camera only to find it was just a war memorial. D'oh.


The tiny sign

It took us a total of forty minutes to find it. I had stopped the car at another Canadian flag couldn't see the site and was about to give up when Darryl saw another tiny sign. It was too good to be true.

I got out of the car to find the site hidden behind a bush. After walking around taking a bunch of photos I got back into the car and bookmarked the place so I could find it again. Way too much work finding this but for you just click here (N44.262143 W76.541578).

Montreal Practice

Today was pretty low key. I had woken up to drive Tush to work. Wondered around Montreal for a while then drove back to crash. The lack of sleep had caught up with me.

I woke up later to pick up Tush and drive her to practice. It was good seeing some of the Montreal skaters even if it was for just a short time. We returned to Tush's where I went back to bed.




Garbage day


















Mmmm... Montreal bagels.


...with salmon








Iron Wench playing Dodge Ball on skates.


Lyn-Dah Kicks in mid throw


Bandit gets beaned




Leaving the sport complex


Hot Dog! It's a hot dog!


...with mustard and ketchup


posing on the couch

An impromptu visit to Montreal

With a few days off of Resident Evil and Darryl needing to get stuff back from Montreal and Lynn wanting to talk about camera stuff, I decide it would be a good time to rent a car and head off to Montreal for a few days. The thought of getting some Montreal bagels made my mouth water. To be honest just the thought of eating smoked meat and poutine from La Belle Province was enough to get me into a car for a 6 hour drive.


Posing with some boat on a trailer in the background


toothbrush?


Stopping at the Timmy's.


Food at the Flying J

On Darryl's request I drove into the Flying J gas station where we refuelled both us and the car. Part of the decision to stop at the Flying J was the talk of a buffet, an all you can eat buffet. While the gas was a tad cheaper than anywhere else, I was not impressed with the food. Maybe it would have been different had we gotten there during the day when normal folk eat? The food might have been fresher. I don't know. Darryl spoke so highly of this buffet making my food expectations high. In the end the food was mediocre at best. I had corn that looked and tasted like corn that was sitting in butter for hours. It had lost that crispiness to it and had a soggy oily quality instead.

Aside from the sub par food the location of the gas station was great. Before pulling in my vision was starting to blur. It was that sleepy thing I get while driving long distances at night. When the road becomes hypnotic, the eyes start watering, eye lids getting heavy and wanting to close, squinting a lot because the teary eyes are causing everything to blur.

I was thinking I'd nap in the car a bit after eating but the combination of eating, getting something to drink and just sitting at a table, helped a lot. As a just in case measure I purchased three bottles of energy drink. I don't normally drink energy drinks, heck, I don't even drink coffee. The thing that sold me was the slogan "No crash later" and lasts for 5 hours. 5 hours? more than enough time to make it the rest of the way to Montreal.


Checking out the trunk.


The energy drink


The Skee Ball equivalent


A mini merry go round

As we continued along the highway and eventually the blurry vision started to wash over me. I was getting tired again. It was time to drink some of the energy drink. Initially there was no effect other than it bombarded my taste buds with one of the most horrific synthetic waves of gawd awful I've ever had. I was still tired, my vision blurry. I would have to look for a place to pull over. Then, about a minute later, my eye sight started to clear. More than just clear I had super vision. I could make out each LED in the truck's rear lights. The truck was three car lengths ahead.

The awful tasting bottle of awakener did it's job. I dropped off Darryl at the place where he was going to stay (and where all his stuff was), then drove over to Marc and Tush's place.


Marc, Lorianne, Cheese and Tush greet me from their couch

The stuff worked too well. I couldn't sleep for the next five hours.