The 31st I drove up to Ch’town with Nathan this evening where we met up with Kyle, Cory and Ruth Ann for some Royal Tandoor buffet. It may very well have been the best their food has ever tasted and I ate until I could eat no more. Every single dish I tried was extra tasty but after two plates I had to call it quits even though more na’an bread—delicious na’an bread—was calling out to me. The plan for the rest of the evening was to get a good seat at the theatre so we could take in Rob Zombie’s version of Halloween. Kyle’s been as giddy as a masked-murderer-lovin’ schoolgirl waiting for this movie, and for his chance to see Danielle Harris all grown’d up. Over the past few weeks we’ve been watching the Halloween movies to prepare for this new one. I’d never seen any of them until this month and now I’ve got 1, 2, 4, 5 and 6 under my belt (even though we could have stopped after Halloween 4). With bellies full of curry and rice, we headed uptown to get our tickets nice and early. Ruth Ann didn’t join us but Tracy met up with us and so did Greg. I sat at the end of the row, chocolate and iced tea in hand, waiting for the lights to go down and the murdering of innocent teens and townsfolk to begin. And did the murderin’ ever begin. I liked Zombie’s interpretation of the original Carpenter quite a bit, how he kept quite a few key scenes but also how he delved into Michael Myers’ back story which was pretty much nonexistent in the 1978 version. The fact that it was lacking in the original doesn’t bother me, I just liked to see how lil’ Mikey went from tormented schoolkid to a giant beast of a serial killer in a rubber mask. The mask looked awesome too, way better than some in the sequels, and only looked better once Michael busted out of the sanitarium and donned the filthy thing after being locked away from it for years. The kid version of Myers is so messed up, violent and sadistic that you get to see how he becomes even more brutal and cruel by the time he breaks out. The body count was much higher in this one and violent in a much scarier way, probably due to the level of gore and brutality. One thing it lacked that the original had lots of was the overall spookiness but I think that had to do with not knowing why Myers was killing. When he’s an emotionless, slashing serial killer stalking people in the night it makes for an entirely different feel than when it’s a psychotic giant on a murder spree. All in all, I thought it was a pretty damn good horror flick but seeing as I’m not really a life-long fan of the Halloween series I might be in the minority. After the movie we tried to find a place that didn’t charge cover so we could hang out for a bit before heading home. We ended up at 42nd Street which was a pretty swanky, quiet spot I’d never been to before. Lots of old brick and beams, fancy furniture and $7.00 desserts. They made me a homemade iced tea but the kitchen was closed so I couldn’t get sautéed bananas in a puff pastry bowl. Maybe next time. The 30th Over the summer Kyle had a few choice lines and I managed to copy down a couple of them before I forgot what they were. For your entertainment, enjoy the following Kyleisms. The 27th I went to see Superbad tonight and laughed my damned ass off. It was filthy, absolutely ridiculous, funny as hell and everyone swore like a sailor. All of the guys involved in the recent spate of these movies are so funny and know how to make some damn entertaining comedies. Michael Cera is one of my favourites, he’s hilarious in everything from what I have seen of him in Arrested Development to the episodes of Clark and Michael I just recently finished watching. Him and Jonah Hill look so dumb an off-guard in this poster that it’s completely perfect. It’s just too bad Fogell isn’t in the poster too because the movie ain’t nothin’ without McLovin. All three of them are so good together, playing off each other and acting like I expect a lot of teenagers (or, sadly, even people my age) would act, except way funnier. The overall plot is pretty standard for a teenage movie, and even though it’s way over the top it still manages to be on the edge of the realm of possibilty and not outright foolish. I think it had a lot to do with the really smart writing that’s a lot truer to how people actually talk and behave, plus amazing one liners and dialogue that’s crude as hell. I’m thinking I may go back to see this again while it’s still playing because I was seriously sore from laughing. The 26th I hit The Linkletter again for breakfast today but this time Melissa MacLean joined Nathan, Greg and I. Oddly, the hashbrowns were pan-fried this time and not deep fried cubes. A welcome surprise even though they were probably the leftovers from some chruch-goers who couldn’t finish them fifteen minutes prior to our arrival. After breakfast, the day was shaping up to be a wash and I really wanted to get out of the bloody house. I thought of maybe calling some people to go out to Burlington for a go-cart run but it seemed too late in the day for that. Then around dinner time Greg called and asked if I wanted to go to Burlington for a go-cart run. Uh, weird and yes. I met up with him, Melissa and her younger brother, Marcus, at Frosty Treat for a bite to eat before we hit the raceway. I had told myself after eating myself sick at the pot luck yesterday that I was going to try and eat better this week but I got to Frosty Treat and went all out with a big helping of “poutined” fries with the works and then a flurry. No self-control whatsoever. But no self-control is tasty. We hit Burlington, outfitted ourselves with some bracelets for multiple rides/activities, and settled into some carts first. I got the dud of the lot, eventually trailing behind everyone but not before getting caught in the hairpin turn where Marcus or Melissa managed to spin me around and I collided with Greg head-on. It didn’t seem like it was going to be a good thing turn of events when he made the turn and slammed into my bumper but it was fun and no one was mangled in a gasoline-soaked wreck. Though, that really ended up taking me out of the race but I wish I could have recorded that race on my digicam somehow. I could have caught the collision and all of the dirty tricks the MacLeans pulled on the track. Thankfully, the second round of go-carting saw me in one of the faster cars so I was able to have a good race with Melissa while Greg ended up in the slow-ass car and he lagged behind by a lap or something foolish. Bumper cars are fun but the fun never lasts long enough. I’m sure more than a few minutes at a time on bumper cars can’t be all that good for your spine so perhaps it’s wise to have a cut off point. Head on collisions are surprisingly more painful and jarring in bumper cars than on go-carts even though you’d think go-cart speed would top bumper car speed by a long shot. I hear both are really good for Greg’s back problems. The lighting on the mini-golf course sucked or was altogether non-existent. Mini-golf in the dark isn’t a good idea at all really or much fun for that matter. Trying to find the hole in the dark is really tough (that’s what she said). We headed back in town, dropped off Marcus and the three of us tried to find a place that was open where we could sit outside and have a drink. It was like summer had come back because it was one of those perfectly warm nights without any wind that makes me want to sit outside by the water for some reason. Turned out The Silver Fox was closed, so was The Deckhouse, and that left the patio at Dooly’s. Wrestling was the main event there and a bunch guys oddly sharing love seats watched a bunch of greased up muscle-heads on the big screen throw each other around. We got our drinks and went outside. I decided I was going to get a picture of the three of us enjoying the lovely view of the fish plant and back of the Smallman’s building so I set up my camera and dashed back to our table. What you see here is Greg and Melissa laughing at me and me looking like a dummy because I’m a clutz who hit the table with my knee and spilled a bunch of their beer all over the place. The 25th Laine decided to have another pot luck night out at her place and that meant I was back in the kitchen making more food for yet another food-related get-together. Between the pot lucks, buffets and barbecues, I’m bound to need all new pants this fall when I find out I’ve fatted myself out of last year’s limited wardrobe. Still, the fear of spending more money on stylin’ cargo pants from Wal-Mart and Zellers didn’t keep me from eating chili, pizza, pasta, biscuits and sweet ’n’ sour meatballs. Then for dessert there was apple pie (which I had to skip because I had some of each of the following), some crazy chocolatey cake and a chocolate caramel Skor bar cake that I made from scratch. Even though the curious chocolate “soup” I put into the oven didn’t look promising, it did eventually turn out and wasn’t all dried out like my mom thought it might be. Take that Betty and Duncan, and your stupid cakes from a box. It did take over twice as long to bake than the recipe said, though, and made me late for the damn pot luck but I thought it was good and it was therefore worth the wait. The rest of the night was spent outside in the yard by the Spanish grill with a good group of compadres. Leigh and Sharon, Nathan, Bryanna and Shawn, Laine, Marissa, and myself plus Neil and Mary-Kate showed up for a bit as well. Sitting around chatting by the fire is nice and all but the evening really wouldn’t have been complete without a round of fireworks. A small coterie broke away from the main group and headed over to the French school parking lot with half a dozen fireworks. Neil had never lit a firework before so, like the gentleman that I am, I gave him the honours of lighting the first rocket. That was followed by some more loud rockets and the barrage concluded with a big cluster of sparkly explosions that topped any firework I’ve ever bought before. The smoke coasted through the neighbourhood and we gave it the ol’ 23 skidoo back to the Spanish grill at Laine’s. Not five minutes later a cop car showed up, followed by another shortly thereafter, and they sat in the parking lot just out of earshot for a long damn time. I guess the police have nothing better to do on a Saturday night than idle away in a vacant parking lot while, in the meantime, people were probably receiving punches about the face and eyes in The Heritage parking lot downtown. The 23rd People came over after trivia tonight and Kyle passed out as usual in the green chair. I thought I’d take a picture of our little, sleeping, drunken angel but since he wasn’t conscious to give the thumbs up I asked D’Arcy to fill in. Someone thought it would be a good idea to wake him up and stick the phone in his face, telling him that Sara was on the line. I woke him up and he took the phone, very confused, made a severely retarded face and said “Helll-llloooo?”. Once we all started laughing at him and his drunken foolish phone face he made the most serious face ever and it only made us laugh at him even more. The 20th Tonight was Melissa’s last night of vacation before she heads back to Ottawa and she invited some people out to Clinton for a fire. Crystal and her sister, Natalie, showed up and the four of us sat around the outdoor fireplace trying to keep warm. It gets so damn chilly at night already but it wasn’t all that bad. We just kept that sucker full of wood all night and we managed to stay warm enough. At one point as the gals chatted and I stared at the fire and took pictures, they ended up talking about those things girls can equip so that they can stand up and take a leak man-style. It just so happened that Melissa had some disposable ones handy that she got from some festival and Natalie decided she wanted to give one a try. I just kept quiet and let them go about their business, and go about her business Natalie did. Off into the bushes she did go with man-pee-converter device in hand only to come back laughing after she has unknowingly gone ahead and peed all over her pants. I’m sure she’ll love the fact that I’m recounting this story but it was funny in a very awkward way (because we all know how much fun it is to be hanging around someone after they’ve gone and pissed themselves). While she stood by the hot fire, jeans steaming in the cool night air, Melissa fetched her a fresh pair of pyjama pants to change into. Soon after, Crystal and Natalie decided that at two in the morning that it was high time to go jumping on the trampoline while Melissa took some photos, and I kicked a rock around the yard while Robin chased it like a dummy. She’s a smart dog but she is a dog so she’s also dumb. The 19th I went to The Linkletter with Greg and Nathan for breakfast for the first time in a long time today. I’ve always heard stories about them re-using food but I guess I was hungry enough that I didn’t care if I got someone else’s uneaten toast…or bacon. It was an alright breakfast but the coffee sucked a big, gross suck. That’s usually the way it goes unless you eat at a finer eating establishment, and even then it’s hit and miss. I'm thinking Earl Grey or Red Rose next time I go. Kira’s taco dinner was this evening at the Maros household so I headed over there with cookies and banada bread, and visions of tortilla shells and salsa dancing in my head. There were veggie chicken and ground beef options plus all sorts of nacho chips, dips and miscellaneous goodies. I just wish I could have stayed longer to hang out with everyone and eat more tacos but I had to go pick up Melissa so we could go to the comedy night at Baba’s. I drove out to Clinton and hung out with Melissa’s dog, Robin, while she got ready to go. Robin is such an awesome dog. She’s part border collie and some other flavour of mutt but she’s smart and so eager to play fetch all the time. She will keep playing as long as you’re willing to keep throwing. We walked into Baba’s while Taylor was doing his routine and soon after Greg showed up with his friend, Arianna. There’s never any damn room to sit at that place and even if there were seats at the front I hate sitting directly in front of the acts. We all just orbited around the bar and took in the acts. I had seen most of the people perform before and while everyone was funny I didn’t think it was nearly as funny or polished as the last time I went. Still, going out to see some comedians at Baba’s is much better than spending the entire night staring at the walls in the living room. During one of the breaks, I sat out on the deck with Melissa and a couple of people while they chatted with Lorne Elliott and his wife. They were both really nice but it’s always weird to listen to a CBC radio personality talking away in person. Though odd as it may be talking to someone I hear on the radio all the time, I’m still looking forward to the day I’m able to have a conversation with former Brave New Waves host Patty Schmidt or former Definitely Not the Opera host Nora Young. Well, they can just talk while I listen actually. The 18th Shawn invited a bunch of us over for a barbecue but the days of sitting out on the deck to enjoy grilled meats seems to be over for this year. We went to Cow’s for dessert and took full advantage of Bryanna’s staff cone discount. When she stops working there and I can no longer get cones for a buck and a quarter I will just simply have to stop getting cones from Cow’s. Greg is home visiting from Vancouver so while he and everyone went out to try and have fun on the town somewhere I decided to just stay home and make some cookies and chocolate chip banana bread for a dinner at Kira’s tomorrow. I rummaged through the cupboards to see what ingredients I had to use at 2 a.m. only to find I was low on chocolate chips. Seeing as Needs had icing sugar for cookies I made the week before I figured they must have chocolate chips, even the crappy fake kind. Nope. Just butterscotch chips so I had to find a substitute for my chocolate chip banana bread or it was going to end up having a pretty paltry amount of chips in it. Crushing up a Hershey bar was a possibility but a package of Golden Buds would fit the bill even though they made for humongous chips. So I went back home to make macaroons or spider cookies or haystacks or whatever you call them, and a MacGuyver version of chocolate chip banana bread. Turns out that plopping a dozen Golden Buds over the top of each loaf was a good idea if you ask me. They made for these big melted chunks of chocolate that got crispy on the top and were way better than crappy No Name chocolate-flavoured chips. If it ain’t got real chocolate it in, why bother? The 17th It was a good night for the beach and it may very well end up being the last time we get to all go have a beach fire together before the end of summer. The lot of them all went out into the water and Kyle was eaten by a shark! No. No, he wasn’t. He did bring nachos and salsa though so I ate a bunch of that while they frolicked in cold water up to their knees. We brought fireworks which were pretty fun and loud but we saved the big one for last. In the meantime, a group of people down the beach from us busted out their fireworks and they blew the pants off our little pop and fizzle show. They had these massive Roman candles; loud, twirly ones; and big, sparkly explosions that looked like baby versions of what we get to see around here on Canada Day. I was instantly jealous and humbled by their pyrotechnic might but we did save our best for last, and after things died down we fired off the last salvo that exploded into the sky in a roaring staccato of shimmering bursts. It wasn’t a 30-ball Roman candle but it was a loud sonnuvabitch. I bet the local cottagers love that sort of thing at one in the morning. The 15th Charlotte had a chef explosion over at Sarah’s tonight: two kinds of ribs (pork AND beef), potatoes, dips, salads and dessert. As good as everything was, all I wanted to do was skip everything and focus solely on eating as many platefuls of ribs as I possibly could. She said the tender, fall-off-the-bone ribs had been in the oven for ten hours where they soaked up and were dripping with this unbelievably tasty, rich homemade sauce that I said she should start bottling so that she can sell all of it directly to me. They were so damn good. So good. I was never much for ribs, I’m not sure why, maybe something to do with the years of braces and dental work, but I’ve got a bad hankering for some more ribs. Maybe she can ship me a batch from Ottawa sometime. I’ll have to look into that. The 13th The plan for tonight was to drive out to get Melissa at her mom’s in Clinton even though we had no clue what the hell we were going to do for fun on an drizzly Monday evening. Before I headed out of town I saw this huge rainbow so I parked by the yacht club to snap some photos of it arcing from Glover’s Shore across to the other side of the harbour. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a rainbow that big and doing a complete arc like that before. I drove out to Clinton, got Melissa and we rolled into sleepy K’town, hoping that some miracle of fun and excitement would descend upon us but instead we just walked around by the liquor store and old train station taking pictures of pointless stuff. There’s an old train sitting on a short stretch of tracks so we spent some time snapping some photos of the train until this little, orange kitty showed up. He was wet from the rain, kind of skittish and chasing moths all over the place. He wouldn’t really let us pet him much but he did keep following us around the property while we took photos of him. When we were ready to leave he padded along behind us and then dashed off and made a b-line for my car. Maybe he knew it was mine somehow and wanted us to take him with us. I would have liked to keep him, he had no collar and he was a friendly cat, but I don’t think Hobbes would have taken to him very well. A lot of Melissa’s family are home for one of her cousin’s wedding so some are staying at her grandmother’s cottage just outside the bustling metropolis that is Kensington. Seeing as we had absolutely nothing to do, we headed over there and hung out with a few of them for a while. They were really nice and I had a pretty good time, the cottage was such a classic cottage that smelled like a classic cottage too. It was about a twelve second walk from the house, which was sort of odd, but when you’re out in the country it doesn’t really matter much. The 12th Today must have been one of the busiest days I’ve had in a long time, and one spent mostly driving along country roads. First of all, I drove up west to Green Park to attend the annual Grant family picnic. It couldn’t have been a nicer day for it either but, unfortunately, attendance seems to keep dropping every year. Only me and Dad made it this year from our family so I just sat with him looking around at the people who did show up, trying to remember everyone’s name. Thankfully they pass around a book for everyone to sign each year so I was able to cheat by being one of the last to sign and reading all of the names I couldn’t remember. There wasn’t any shortage of food and I ate like a pig as usual, filling up mostly on desserts (also as usual). I’ve never had to bring anything before because Mom always brought something for us. Seeing as she was working, though, I made some chocolate-covered peanut butter balls and brought a big tin full of them. They seemed to be a hit judging by the number of comments I got from people, but maybe that's just because I’ve never brought anything before so I would never have had people comment on my food n that case. In any case, when the picnic was winding down I told someone I had to get going to attend a barbecue, and when the ladies cleaning up caught wind of this they decided I was a good way to dispose of the leftovers. Before I knew it I had a cooler full of food and had to refuse taking any more because I had no way of keeping it cool. In exchange for the various salads, biscuits and rolls, I had to part with the remainder of my peanut butter balls. I suppose that deal is more than fair. With a cooler full of food that I had no intention of eating because of the pig-out factor, I drove the half hour back home and then was off a half hour down east this time to Breadalbane to try and catch the end of Kira’s going-away, bye-bye barbecue. People were still hanging out at their cottage and eating but things were definitely starting to wind down. I had a game of bocce ball and sat around the campfire for a bit chatting with folks. I’m not sure exactly how it works but I think they share the property with another guy so there are a couple of really nice cottages in this great patch of woods. I’m really jealous that they have their cottage is such a wooded and quiet spot. After unloading as much of the food as I could on whoever would take it, I drove back in town with George and loaded up the trunk with a bunch of firewood. I picked up Jill and Crystal, drove out to Clinton to get Melissa at her mom’s, and we all headed to Thunder Cove to have a beach fire. The meteor shower was supposed to be still going strong but I definitely didn’t see one per minute as I had heard on TV. Still, there were quite a few and it was nice to sit back staring up at the stars that just explode in numbers as soon as you get outside of town. That was my social butterfly Sunday and I think I’ve had enough human interaction and driving to do me for a while. The sad thing is, come three weeks or so there will hardly anyone around because people will be moving for school and people visiting will be heading back to wherever they came from. It’s going to become a quiet, boring place so I should probably try to have more days like these before the leaves fall, the cold and snow hits, and thoughts of pill-induced hibernation cross my mind. The 11th The Sleepless Nights were Hunters-bound once again tonight so that inevitably meant that so were we. I drove to Ch’town with Shawn, Bryanna and Laine with plans consisting of good food, good music and bra shopping. We ate at Churchill Arms where I split an order of onion bhaji with Shawn only to regret it because they were huge and so was my order of chicken and mushroom pie with fries. Much food, me full and in pain, etc., blah, blah, the usual. At Hunters, Sleepless Nights singer/guitarist, A.A. Wallace, opened the show doing some rap/spoken word type of stuff with a DJ. I’m not really into that so much but it was cool to see something different for a change. He seemed to make fun of himself, the crowd, the bar, and certain people which made his performance fun to watch. There was also a song with a sample of the Ducks Unlimited jingle which seems like a very unlikely source to sample in a rap song. It worked though. I honestly can’t remember the name of the guy/group who opened for Sleepless Nights. I sort of zoned out and they didn’t play for very long anyway. I guess the singer’s guitar string broke and he called it quits for the night, leaving the rest of the band wondering what the hell was going on, and then subjecting all of us to some shitty new “punk” music the bar decided to blare through the place in between bands. Once The Sleepless Nights started playing, though, everything was immediately better. They were loud, full of energy and putting on a good show. At one point, Wallace took his shirt off and wrapped it around the microphone, and I thought he was just doing it because it was hot or because it would give his voice a different sound for a song or something. Turns out his lips were being shocked because of some short in the set up, and eventually two of their three guitars shorted out. His lips were burnt, they had no songs to play that didn’t require him to be on guitar so they had to call it quits too. All in all, though, the show was still fun and I got to see their drummer beat the living hell out of his kit. The 10th For a Friday night that was shaping up to be one where I’d spend my time on the couch for hours on end watching classic movies I’ve never seen, I actually went out and had a fairly good time. I went to Dooly’s with Laine and Bryanna to shoot some pool until Kyle got off work. We ended up at the house for a bit, just long enough for the three of them to do a tequila shot, before we headed down to The Deckhouse to hopefully find a world of excitement and oppotunity awaiting us. Well, there wasn’t much of anything going on there except a cool evening out on the deck but Charlotte did meet us there, and she was there with Andy and their friends. A lot of people seem to be home or coming home all around the same time. I hadn’t seen Andy in quite a while and talked for a bit with him before they all jumped ship and headed to The Heritage. Eventually everyone decided to go there but I was having none of it because I can’t stand that place on the weekends. Instead, I decided to walk home and make some chocolate-covered peanut butter balls for a family picnic I’m going to on Sunday. You don’t need to tell me that I really know how to live an exciting lifestyle. I had to make an awkward call to Needs (a.k.a. Green Gables) at 1:30 am to find out if they had any icing sugar since I was plum out of the stuff. Mercy. They did and my terrible banter with the cashier made it seem like I was going to be doing anything but make cookies with it at 2:00 am since I kept trying to reinforce the cookie-making fact way more than I had to. Maybe she thought I was going to go home and snort it or do something unseemly with it, not believing that I would actually make delicious cookies with it. I paid and left her there to consider why I needed confectioner’s sugar and a stick of butter so late at night, told some dude who drove past me to fuck off when he shouted some foolishness at me, and got home to start making dozens of delectable cookies. The 7th I remembered that there was a window display in the Holman’s building for some retro radio/CJRW theme. The potato mascot was on one of the displayed ads, and just looking at it makes me think of advertisements at the rink and listening to the news while eating dinner up west with my grandparents, waiting for the funeral announcements. He’s actually a pretty weird character now that I get a chance to study him closely. The big Mickey Mouse gloves, over-sized footwear, comically large bowtie and spindly limbs are a good start to making him appear to be a friendly cartoon mascot but it’s his gigantic, lumpy potato head that gives me the creeps. If that potato he has for a head was in a bag of potatoes I were to buy I’d throw that potato out because it looks gross and diseased. Besides having a misshapen, blighted head that’s not making him any friends or doing him any favours really, he has a very unsure, nervous look in his eyes. What’s he looking at anyway? What has captured his attention? His brow suggests an awkward lack of confidence that betrays his smile, a frightened smile, a look that makes me wonder if he shouldn’t have cartoony stress lines or drops of sweat shooting out of his potato head. A bad choice all around for a mascot or, at least, a poor choice for the final rendering by whoever they commissioned to draw 1240’s own radio mascot. The 6th Shawn didn’t realize he had a psychology exam in Ch’town and needed an emergency drive there or he was going to miss it. I’m sure this was an isolated incident of forgetfulness, and lack of preparation and planning because Shawn takes his education very, very, very seriously. In any case, I drove up there with him and Nathan. While Post-Secondary Boy was off most definitely acing this important, multiple choice exam, we headed to Value Village and Cash Converters. At Value Village I didn’t get anything but I thought about buying this creepy lenticular painting where Jesus kicking it cross-style when you stood on one side, and made the transition to the messiah un-crucified with his arms up in all his glowing glory if you looked at it from the other. It was huge, tacky and would have made a super cheesey addition to my office wall but there’s no way I could deal with looking at that freaky, shifting painting day in and out. I found used boxed sets of Millennium season one and three at Cash Converters, both in good condition and at a good price. Though this made me return season three, Shawn thankfully noticed that disc six was missing from the set. They gave me a refund but why the hell would they think anyone would want to buy a boxed set missing the final disc of the season/series? It’s not like a person can easily find the replacement disc somewhere. They might as well sell NES controllers missing the start button while they’re at it. After Shawn filled in the circles with his number two pencil, the three of us hit Brits for some fish and chips. I’d heard the place was really good, serving big pieces of fish and sides of sweet curry sauce. Whoever gave me this fine information was correct in all three areas. It was damn good. Greasy but the good grease, you know, clear and not all fatty and yellowish. Appetizing, I know. As full as I was, I figured I might as well get the most out of this deep-fried British experience so I ordered deep-fried pineapple rings with caramel for dessert. Also really good and just enough to make me as sick as I expected I would be after I walked out of the restaurant. The 3rd I rented a bunch of movies tonight after getting a few groceries. When I was crossing the Sobeys parking lot the sky kept flashing and by the time I got out of Jumbo there was quite a bit of lightning. So I got myself some Timbits and a cookie, and sat in the Toyota dealership parking lot watching the lightning flash. At one point I could hear what sounded like someone’s bike tires rolling over the pavement but it was the sound of rain coming down over the parking lot. The thing is that it was raining twenty feet from me so I could see the line of rain which was really strange. On the topic of Timbits, I have had a massive craving for them ever since I brought a box of them to Twin Shores when Andrew had a beach fire last week. Specifically the honey-dipped kind. They are seriously one of the greatest things ever created. They’re not anything I need to eat but I’m pretty sure I could sit back and eat a 40-pack without any trouble. I’d feel sick afterwards—and no doubt during—but the journey to illness would be a tasty one. Again, speaking of Timbits, what the hell was with this little Timbit character from the 1980s? When I was a kid I thought it was so weird and cryptic, I honestly had no idea what it was or what it had to do with Timbits at all. It’s obviously a bunch of Timbits made into a character and it floods my mind with images and impressions of 80s brown and beige décor and uniforms, the little aluminum ash trays, people smoking inside Tim’s, hockey uniforms and fuzzy Timbit toys. The strange thing is, the Tim’s uniforms and décor is still pretty much the same palette as far as I can tell. That character sort of gets lumped in with other weird characters and mascots from my youth. There were local mascots like the CJRW Potato Guy and the Brothers Two. I just wish I could find images of them because it’s hard to appreciate them without seeing what they look like. The CJRW Potato Guy (I don’t know if he had a proper name) was basically a drawing of a cartoon potato with a bowtie holding a microphone, and the Brothers Two Restaurant had a simple drawing of two fat monk twins that reminded me of Friar Tuck from Rocket Robin Hood and the old, ceramic cookie jar my grandmother has that has “Thou Shalt Not Steal” on it. There were others like Hostess Chips’ The Munchies which were just big-nosed, fuzzy bear-like characters that always seemed very French-Canadian to me (à la Just For Laughs). One was orange, another yellow and the third was red. I always thought the Red One was the mascot for ketchup chips and the Orange One for BBQ chips but I could never decide which flavour the Yellow One represented. The sad thing is, I could only find a single image of a Hostess Munchy and it was on eBay for a Hostess Munchies pocket AM/FM radio. I can’t believe nothing came up in Google and it makes me wonder if anyone out there has bothered to talk about the Munchies online. It would be a shame if this little piece of Canadian junk food history be lost to the ages. Although, the photo has an American twenty-dollar bill in it so maybe The Munchies weren’t a Canadian thing only. All iI know is that they were on bags of chips, I had one of them as a teddy bear and they would all be part of the Lobster Carnival Parade in the summer and at ball games. Good gig. I’m sure there were a lot of other mascots, logos and characters that made weird impressions on me but the only other one that comes to mind right now is the logo for the Quik Mart. I never knew what the weird character was when I was a kid and it was one I always thought was local but I’ve since found out they’re not just a Summerside or just a PEI thing. It’s also something I can’t seen to find online either but thankfully there’s a magnet on my fridge for Wiley’s Quik Mart. As you can see, it’s basically a stylized Q character with a crown formed from the letter M, and this kingly Q looks like he’s running (hence the “kwik”) since the Q has an extra tail on it. Even though he looks friendly and bright, I always found this character to be really odd and somewhat creepy. It’s so strange that I can’t really describe the feeling I’d get looking at the Waugh’s Kwik Mart sign when we’d drive between Summerside and Wilmot. It just sort of always struck me as very weird and confusing. The 1st I managed to get into the theatre tonight to see The Simpsons Movie without any fuss since the manager working the night of my little freak out wasn’t in. However, the first express machine I went to didn’t work. I guess it’s too much trouble for them to put up an “Out of Order” sign. I was really happy with how they handled translating the show into a movie. It was like one, gigantic episode that had some really good bits and lines, lots of hilarious gags and good groaners. Spider-Pig being one of the funniest bits and one of the best ideas ever for the show or movie. Sort of like Pinchy the lobster except fatter and with sexual tension. It’s too bad they couldn’t have had some more material with characters like Burns, Moe and the all the rest but there would be so many people to cram into the movie that it would have ended up being five hours long. They gave a good sampling and seemed to touch on all of the key elements of the show. One videotaped scene with Marge really stood out to me, though, as the best performance Julie Kavner has ever given. Considering the show’s decline in the last several years, I think they really hit the mark with the movie. I’m just curious as to how unbelievably funny it would have been had they released a movie in the show’s heyday.