The 27th My cat is officially retarded. Yesterday evening I was coming down the the stairs when Hobbes bolts past me like mad. Then he continues his maniacal running as he dashes off into the kitchen then darts past me again half way up the stairs. Then off he goes again into the living room, behind the couch, and then plops down in the corner and starts licking himself. The whole time I'm wondering just what the hell has him so worked up. So I look down at him and notice he has a piece of shit attached to his ass somehow. I guess he was running to get away from it but wasn't quite successful. The 26th Last Friday after going out for some Pizza Delight, we stopped in at Green Gables (aka Needs) for some junk. The only thing I wanted was an Aero Caramel bar because I hadn't tried them yet. Guess what. A big blank spot where the Aero Caramel bar should be. Denied. So on Sunday morning after some Eggs Benedict at the Loyalist the logical thing to do is to follow-up the meal with an Aero Caramel bar. I saunter into the Ultramar looking to satisfy my craving for bubbly chocolate and caramel. Lo and behold! Another blank spot where the box of bars I'm looking for should be. Denied again. Shoppers Drug Mart came through for me on Tuesday. I have to say I really like the Aero Caramel bar. Perhaps the wait—the twice denied—made it all that much better. Or maybe you just can't go wrong with chocolate and caramel. All last week I was trying to figure out how I was going to get to Charlottetown to go to Lloyd and Samantha's wedding. I worried about what to get them and basically stressed myself out over who to go with and trying to get there without going early Saturday morning and having to spend 10 hours wandering around the city prior to the 8pm wedding. Well, Ian came through for me and we went up there with his parents. We hung out for a bit and met up with Jason and April at Beanz. After visitng their place post-Beanz they very nicely invited me to stay for dinner which was pretty damn good. Then I was off to the wedding. I was walking and worried about being late. I worried if I had remembered the correct time for the wedding or not. I worried about getting a ride home. I basically just put way too much worry into a wedding. I arrive in time. Kent, the best man and former roomie at Lloyd's during my college years, asked me and Brandon to do a favour for him. The car needed to be decorated with a few meagre supplies and Kent had some larger responsibilities to deal with. Understood. So we went out to do the best we could with a couple of bags of streamers, some balloons and a can of shaving cream. The whole time I'm worried that we're doing a horrible job and that they'll be starting the ceremony soon. A few times I mention to Brandon that we should go but he assures me that we're fine until finally it seems like we've done all we can do and we head back into the Kier Gallery for the wedding. I'm standing around looking at all of the people gathered around, chatting, taking photos. I think it must be starting soon, everyone seems excited for it to begin. Brandon walks up and stands beside me for a second, not really saying anything. Then, in a dismayed tone, he says, "You know we missed the wedding, right?" Well, imagine that. I spend all week stressing out and spend all day being worried about the whole event, and look what happens. Normally, I'd be pretty pissed but at that point it really didn't matter anymore. I was there, I gave them a gift, I decorated their car, I got some photos. A few sweets and then some egg rolls at the Canton Café afterwards was just enough to smooth everything over. The 20th Today was one of those days that should be the precedent for all other days throughout the year. Well, with regards to the weather anyway. Clear, blue skies. Warm enough to comfortably go without a jacket. Cool enough in the shadows without getting cold. A wind light enough to keep you cool when you're in the sun for too long. If it could be like that 365 days/year I think I would be quite a happy person. Although the farmers might not like it very much. I got some photos developed a little while ago and thought this photo of Hobbes was pretty creepy and alien-like. The little freak can do some pretty strange things and make some weird faces. The 18th A bunch of us went to see Troy tonight and I thought it was pretty damn good. The whole insane warfare and gigantic battles were just harsh but too many people in it were just playing the same characters they always do. Orlando Bloom might as well just have been Legolas except a wimp. Brad Pitt was the same pretty boy with his tough guy face that he always plays. It was really cool to see Peter O'Toole in it, though, and he's just always good but I really need to see more of his movies. It must have been a while since I've seen him in anything because I don't remember his voice sounding the way it did. He defiinitely has one of the coolest voices ever. He's right up there with Tom Waits and Lance Henriksen. The 10th I went to see Man on Fire last night with Nathan and Luke. It was actually a lot better than I thought it was going to be. The preview made me want to see it just because the editing and look of the film seemed pretty cool. It definitely had that newer "music-video" style of editing which generally pisses me off in a movie but it worked well in this one. I wasn't overly keen on how some of the sub-titling was done but I guess it goes with the territory for that style. The film itself has this saturated, greasy look and when all of the disjointed bits and pieces of different Nine Inch Nails songs played in different spots I thought they were damn complimentary. The fact that they were overlaid on top of a Linda Ronstadt song was rather strange. The story itself was really good and didn't get as Hollywood as I thought it might. There were some pretty harsh parts though when the bad guys start to get their comeuppance. Dakota Fanning was great and she's probably one of the cutest littlest actresses ever. She just has some level of believability which seems strange for a kid so young. Denzel never really did much for me in the past but I liked him in this one. Then again I've probably only ever seen 1 or 2 of his other movies. The 7th Kira stopped by today when I was home for lunch and brought me a couple of rather unexpected birthday gifts. First, I opened a little tin wind-up pecking chicken which is super cool with the key and everything. I've named him Peking. Then she gave me a chocolate peanut butter fudge bar thingie from Beanz and I got instant diabetes. They're probably the richest things I've ever eaten but they're so good. So thank you very much, Kira. I bought the Kids in the Hall first season DVD box set tonight and finally saw for the first time in probably 10 years the Indian Drum skit. I think it was the first skit of theirs that I had ever seen. That show was the best television going for a long time. That has to be one of my best purchases to date. The 6th The birthday started off pretty well for dragging myself out of bed at 8:30 this morning. I had to do it though because I needed to win an auction for this awesome Gizmo toy I used to have when I was a kid. Can't go wrong for getting a childhood toy for $6 when the guy was hoping to get some sucker to pay like $60 up front for it. It's Gremlins, buddy. Not Citizen Kane. Other than that, the day was pretty blah until I got home. There was a card from Sharon, Leigh and the dogs which was nice. And then Tammy stopped by with a bunch of candy before we went to go get some grub at Pizza Delight. Nothing sits on top of a panzerotti, caesar salad and apple skillet dessert like licorice bits, Swedish Berries, and Tootsie Rolls (candy combo). Mmmm. Being 26 years old today now brings me to the age where I looked at co-workers at Shoppers Drug Mart at one time in my late teens and thought the 26-year olds seemed so old. They seemed adult but I soon found out they were as immature as I was and still am. I'm over halfway to 50 and over a 1/4 of a century old. That really sucks in some respects. The 5th I hate being sick. I started feeling crappy on Friday and I'm still coughing the following Wednesday. I do feel better though but feeling miserable moreso than usual is never good. This had better not be one of those get-sick-with-the-change-of-the-seasons type of sickness because I don't want to deal with this 4 times per year on a schedule. But it's not all bad. I just basically laid around like a useless turd for a few days catching up on my Letterman and Conan. But it's also been pretty nice outside so it's a shame to have wasted my days indoors. Oh well, at least I can look forward to the summer. Some oil on the bike chain and some air in my tires will soon be in order. The shorts are being worn. A barbecue has been had. Frosty Treat has been visited. Next up: beach.