"I'm going to live to see my own death." - my Mom. (Yes, my mom said that. Not Bucholtz. Not Kelsey. Not Amanda. My mom. I'm frightened.)

"I want to have a dog-sized goldfish in a giant room-sized tank. I'd take it out and hug it, feed it cereal." - Aaron, last weekend.

"I'm not fired. You're fired...from me!" - Aaron, on employment tactics.

"I want to stick my cock in you like Wrestlemania." - Dale, repeating a pickup line he heard one of his friends use the weekend before. No word if it worked (But I can guess).

"I gotta do some serious homework when I get home." - Buchs. He hasn't said those words since he was probably 14. Just sounds odd don't it?

"I think it's about time I win the Conn Smythe. I deserve it." - Buchs, while watching the Oilers game with me and Ian at Jimy Mac's.

"Lookin' pretty sharp there. You should wear collared shirts more often. Then you could go to the bar and be like "Hey baby, there's a business meeting in my pants." - Buchs, commenting on my attire since I came to the pub straight from work.

"Because we're human...that, and most of our friends are obnoxious jerks." - Kelsey's answer to my question "Why is there always somebody mad or annoyed with someone else in our group of friends."

For it being a long weekend - or any weekend for that matter - it was definitely a little strange.

Sean and Rach were in the Okanagan visiting family, Kelsey and Amanda were in Kelowna getting alcohol poisoning, and Jer, Ian, Buchs, Lambie and Derrick were in the woods alone, drunk, with a bunch of other men. (Don't worry, I'm assured it's not nearly as homo-erotic as it sounds).

Of the few of us left in the Lower Mainland - Me, Chris, Jenna, and Bobby - most were working, or buying new wheels.

Luckily for me, to counteract the potential boredom was Mike, Melissa, Dale, and his buddy Aaron. It was like a mini college reunion, so it was pretty cool.

I saved my energy Friday, not even leaving the house except to go eat Chinese food. Saturday, however, was a doozy. Had a beer or two in the afternoon, then picked up Mike at the Albion Ferry, and headed into town to Melissa's.

There, we started drinking - maybe not as heavy as we would have in our Kamloops days, but good enough to start with. We had planned on hitting up Mavericks so, as Dale put it, hot half-naked drunk chicks could rub up against us.

However, we realized upon arrival Mike was sans photo ID, as he's currently switching his Driver's Licence back from Alberta to B.C. So we wandered down Kingsway til we found a place that served booze.

And that's where things got pretty rad. My first drinks were all different - rye, rum, beer, caesars, which didn't sit too well in the ol' stomach, but I didn't puke, so that was a bonus. We spent the night constructing one giant straw (with a hook on it!) out of all the little straws; spending all our change on some punching bag arcade game; and standing on chairs to show off new tattoos.

Add in a trip to Tim Horton's on the way home and it was a pretty decent night, capped by us polishing off the rest of the booze when we got home, before crashing at about 3:30 or so.

So what had originally looked like a bummer weekend turned out to be quite a doozy, and I had a pretty wicked time hanging out with people I don't get to see that often.

And I didn't miss you at all.

"This computer lacks the appropriate emoticons to express my befuzzlement." - Mike, in an msn conversation, after reading over the latest post's comments and discovering that a certain someone is dating a certain someone else.

"My car looks mean. Like it will eat you." - Kelsey

"You can't do it just a little. You always gotta do it a lot." - Rachel's brother Andrew, on beer and drugs.

"I don't think people don't like me as much as I think they do."

Buchs: This (cell phone) case is sweet. It holds cards in it.
Nick: So basically it's a purse.
Buchs: It's a "murse" - a man purse.
Nick: Do you carry your balls around in it too?

Nick: Where's Buchs?
Bobby: He's probably asleep.
Nick: No, he was with Amanda when we left from playing ball.
Bobby: Oh. Well, there's still a good chance he could be laying down still.

"Is a pap test like a massage? You know, you pay a little extra for a happy ending?" - Buchs

"Japanese people don't dig. They just use their ingenuinity and playstation it out." - Buchs again, unfortunately.

"You're as paranoid as a black man at a rape trial." - Buchs, on a roll now. (and getting more multi-cultural by the minute)

"If I punch you in the face does that count as a hate crime?" - Me, to Bobby, after he continously refused to give me the baseball.

Counting drinks in a drinking game.....
Buchs: Well that was 9, and now it's 4...so you gotta drink 15.
Chris: You idiot. That's 13.
Buchs: Oh, I thought we were multiplying.

And the word of the day: Foilage. Not foliage. Foilage. Apparently similar to foliage, but when the bushes and trees are wrapped in tinfoil.

Pretty decent weekend. Friday started with a took-far-too-fucking-long trip to the doctor, to get my ear's unplugged. It was a success - and now for the first time in probably 6 months I have 100 % hearing in both ears...I can hear everything now, even stuff that's probably not meant for my ears in the first place.

Friday after a quick trip to Fort Pub, we decided we wanted to go camping. With that obviously not an option in such short notice, we did the next best thing and had a bonfire at a spot in Fort Langley. Did that for a few hours til our wood ran out, then went to Sean and Rachels, which, really isn't that surprising because that's where we often end up.

Saturday I spent a bit more money from my quickly-depleting savings account, bought a really nice high-def DVD player, and after that went and visited B-Rad, then threw a ball around for awhile before going to Lambo's for the rest of the night.

Today was gorgeous out, and would've been a good sit-on-the-deck-and-drink day, but I got stuck working from 12:30-3:30. Now though, i'm home, and am going to make up for lost time.

Oh, and I'm going to eat some potato salad too. Ha.

:: Found Money...again ::

When income tax return time rolls around, everybody always get excited because it feels like you're getting free money - a good chunk too, usually. Sure, technically it's not free, technically it's yours anyway, but it feels free, and that's good.

That's how I felt when I got my cheque, anyway.

Then, today looking at my bank account, I wondered how come it seemed a little low. I didn't give it too much thought, and then went about cleaning up my room a bit. Underneath a stack of old reciepts and junk, I found an opened envelope.

With my tax return cheque in it. I thought for sure it'd been cashed and spent. Guess I forgot to deposit the damn thing.

So now it's like getting free money twice.

All $844 of it.

New pictures from the past month or so are now posted for your viewing pleasure.

If you don't want to click that link, they can also be perused on the left, click on - surprise, surprise - My Pictures. It's easy. Do it.

That is all for now, probably until the weekend's over.

:: Lock jaw ::

Only one person I know could injure herself eating beef jerky...

"I ate alot of jerky in not so much time."

Guess who it is?

"If I had a kid he'd come out a sasquatch." - Sean

"These guys look like they all work at a computer store." - Sean, sizing up our slo-pitch competition. The computer nerds still kicked our ass.

"I'm black sometimes. I'm like a gecko." - Amanda

"Kelsey, there's something about you that makes me want to shimmy." - Amanda again.

"The doodle's eyes are scary. When it looks at you its like it's trying to steal your soul." - Bucholtz, on Brett's dog.

Lots of the usual weekend bufoonery - although considerably less to write about than usual, being as I remember nothing from Friday night. I actually completely blacked out.

Scary/weird thing is, I didn't even feel like I was drinking much. I did however, have a very empty stomach, and wasn't drinking my usual alcohol.

But I still stand by my claim I was drugged somehow.

On a side note, I just read this headline on Yahoo!

"After gorilla escape, Dallas Zoo gets safer"

Well no shit it's safer, there's not a gorilla running around in there anymore.

Idiots.

:: Bury Bonds ::

Like pretty much every baseball fan, I'm so sick of Barry Bonds news stories it makes me, well, sick.

If he breaks a home run record, then write something. If he gets caught with steroids in his locker, then by all means, bring out the tape recorders and TV cameras.

But for the love of God, we don't need stories like this one. We've pretty much been documenting every time the fucking guy takes a piss. I know that linked story is just a game preview, but c'mon, tell us something we don't already know. You can't see it there, but the headline you had to click on to get to that page said "Bonds still stuck on 712 home runs."

So, to paraphrase, "Bonds not doing anything right now" or "Bond's currently having nap, not hitting homers"

It's the same as writing a story titled "Plane lands safely, nobody hurt"

I hate Barry Bonds as much as the next non-Giants fan, but just let him fade away already.

:: Reunion ::

I was sitting on the couch, sipping on a strawberry slurpee, while watching the tail-end of the Detroit-Edmonton game. Mike was a few seats away, in the middle of a story about the time an old friend of ours stole his dad's motorhome to get to work.

And Doug was lounging in another chair a few feet away, yelling loudly - between mouthfuls of Doritos - at the referee for completely blowing a call.

Nothing really out of the ordinary, if you'd known the three of us since we were kids. Except for the fact that we're all now sporting a few extra pounds and a bit more facial hair than we once did, the scene could very well have been pulled straight from 1997.

That's what it felt like, anyhow.

In high school, Doug, Mike and I were best friends. They'd grown up together since elementary school, and I met them both in Grade 8. We were a pretty tight group back then, along with a handful of others.

We were always together, our group of scrubs. Playing road hockey. Going to the movies. Drinking warm beers smuggled from Steve's dad's fridge. Throwing eggs at houses. And fighting those same people when they did it back.

Without getting into specifics, things went a little south in the later high-school years, and since then I'd completely lost touch with Mike and pretty much everyone else except for a few. And while I saw Doug sporadically and we talked a fair amount, it wasn't anything like it used to be.

Not surprising really. People grow up, move away. Go to far-away schools or develop different interests and friends. Some end up in rehab or anger management. Change just happens.

Then we all ended up at Doug's last night.

It was the first time the three of us had been in the same room together in eight years.

It was a little bit strange at first, really. I've seen Mike in the last few years because he manages a store in the mall, but after enough years things get to the point where you just never expect to re-connect. It's a quick "Hi" and that's all.

So we sat there watching hockey, but didn't do the whole "What've you been up to?" thing. Partly because we sorta each have the jist of it anyhow, and I think partly because it would feel weird looking at a person you used to know so incredibly well and going "So...do you like stuff?"

It'd be like, five years from now, having that conversation with Jeremy, Ian, Chris, Melissa, or Kels. Weird to even consider.

We don't have nearly as much in common as we did in high school - part of the reason me and Doug don't hang out as much. I have my own big group of friends now, and Doug has some of his own, plus a new fiancee. We run in different circles now, basically.

So none of us really felt the need to play catchup, instead we just laughed about all the crazy shit we used to do, briefly interspersed with crazy shit we've done lately, and separately, that the other two might find funny.

We yacked about old high school people we've seen lately, if any. Basically we just did the rundown of which chicks are hotter or uglier than the last time we would've seen them.

Typical guy stuff.

Then we did the update of our former clan, few if any we've seen in the last few years. Steve's still around, but he's the only one.

One bought a house in Aldergrove with another buddy of ours. Another, my ex-housemate Jay, apparently goes to Kwantlen (despite dropping out of Grade 12) and lives in Surrey with his girlfriend. To be honest, I'm surprised he's still alive, although I wouldn't be surprised if his dad is not. A third guy is in AA now, and was in drug rehab before that. Another still is a born-again Christian, married, and probably has a kid by now.

As for some of the rest, who really knows.

Maybe I'll run in to them eight years from now, and we'll sit down and wonder just how in the hell Ryan thought he'd get away with "borrowing" his dad's motorhome when we were in Grade 11.

Actually, considering how much fun I had last night, eight years is too long to wait.

*Updated.....

Amanda: Brett just do her already!
Lambie: No I rubbed one out already, I'm fine.

"If I was ever going to have sex with a foosball table that'd be it." - Bobby, trying to convince me to spend more money.

In reaction to the hoards of high school kids who thought he was God...
Bobby: I'm going to run for mayor so this feeling never ends!
Lambie: Doesn't matter, you'd lose because none of these kids are old enough to vote.

"I don't wear the wrist brace during the day because it doesn't match any of my clothes." - Brad being Brad

"It's like a whorehouse, but dirtier." - Sean, on the interior of his car.

"I hate soup! I don't wanna eat food that I'm drinking!" - Sean again.

To be honest, my expectations for this weekend weren't that high. Nothing big was on the horizon, I had to work for a bit Saturday, and I just generally figured nothing would really be goin' down.

Nothing really did, but it still turned out alright.

Friday after work, me, Chris and Seaner went and tossed a ball around a drank some beers, then we went over to Sean and Rach's with the usual crew and had a couple more drinks.

Saturday was much better, despite the fucking rain. I had to cover a baseball game Saturday but due to the friggin downpour it was rained out. Drove all that damn way for nothing.

When I got back I went and hung out with B-rad for awhile, then me and Bobby went and got some food at Shark's (mmm...mediterranean chicken wrap). After killing some more time at my place we headed to Lambo's. At about 1:00 or so (I think) me and Bobby left, and spent the next while loafing on Bob's couch eating burritos and watching Top Gun...then Jeremy called.

"I'm drunk and nobody's here anymore. Come get me I don't wanna walk!"

Being the nice guys that we are (occassionally) we went and picked him up, only to be informed that he didn't wanna go home, he wanted "to go do something."

I got news for ya Jer, at 1:30 in the morning when you're shittered, there's not really a whole lot to do.

Goof.

Anyhow, after dropping Jer off at the street in front of his cul-de-sac (He said we couldn't go in it, so we had to get as close as possible), the night was finally over.

And now I really want to eat a burrito. Man they were good.

More weekend stuff to come later on, but for now, here's the TV I just bought.

I get a half-chub just looking at it.

In my recent Inter-web perusing (mostly through links on this site, and Mike's) I have stumbled upon a handful of fucking outstanding posts from a number of different blogs, many of which I'd never read.

Some are funny, some serious, some rambling and quasi-whiny/lame, but at the very least, all are written well. A sample below, with websites in brackets...

Single Guy's Guide to Couplehood (This is what we do now)

I have a fucking blog (This is what we do now)

Put out or get out (A Tribute to Nonsensical Ramblings)

Single Guys Guide to Dating (This is what we do now)

I get it - you're in Sales (The Phat Phree)

Also, because I came across them written in some file on my computer, I'll leave you with three Ian quotes, all said to me a number of weeks ago, all within about 5-10 minutes of each other. He was on a roll...

"I'm up for most ideas. Except male strippers and church."

"I'm hungrier than an Ethiopian on a hunger strike."

"I wish I had some tits to play with right now."

That's all for now, kids.

:: Easter Weekend :: (or the $5,000 weekend that was almost $10,000)

"I wish my lawn was emo so it'd cut itself." - Sean, with an old joke that still made me laugh.

"Chiropractors are all a bunch of pirates." - Buchs, for some reason.

"Let's go get stoned and play bingo!" - Tara (Yes, Tara said that.)

"Pictures are bad. It's like evidence." - Chris

Bobby: A little piece of me died right there.
Jer: I hope the rest of you dies real soon too.

"Anyone else have that awkward half-chub right now?" - Jer, watching porn

"I always like sucking cock upside down." - Buchs, horribly messing up a sentence. Horribly.

Not a whole lot shook down this weekend, it appeared by all accounts to be pretty lowkey - especially considering it was a long weekend.

The most important thing is that the Cannons won their first game of the year - unfortunately on the same night as the Canucks' season went down the tubes. Fucking Canucks.

The rest of the weekend was pretty mellow - for me at least, because I didn't drink at all. I was home reasonably early most nights, yet somehow I feel just as tired. I had to sign some papers for my house, and hand over a $5,000 deposit - so now there's no backing out, unless I wanna get sued, which I don't.

Speaking of the house, I was very close on two occasions to buying a big-screen TV and/or leather couches to put in it, but both times I held off. Basically, I can't decide whether I want a 42" plasma, or a 52" regular TV. It's a tough call, what with all the HD, ED, LCD etc options that I don't know a whole lot about. On one hand, a 52" is pretty damn big, but a plasma tv is..well, just pretty rad. Oh well, at least I've got time to decide.

Besides, I probably spent enough money this weekend with the deposit. Doubling that on a TV and couches may have sent me into some kind of shock or seizure of some type. We wouldn't want that.

Well, Jer might. Then he'd try and get my house after I kick off.

Play Ball!

After getting called out for not updating the Cannons' site for months and months, I did. So go check it out.

That is all.

:: A post for no reason ::

"I'm just a farmboy who occasionally likes to get jiggy with it." - Buchs, wishing he lived in the sticks, as we drove to our ball game yesterday.

No real reason for this post, except to maybe get that other damn post bumped down a peg. You've probably noticed a decided lack of big, sprawling, hilarious posts lately. No drunken recaps, no weekend awards, no long lists of laugh-your-balls-off-its-so-funny quotes.

The reason, I figured out tonight, is that I just don't give a shit about this blog right now. I used to like regaling y'all with funny stories, but now, I don't have much desire to recap any of this crap for anyone.

So for the time being, don't expect much of me.

:: Sunday Morning Regrets ::

What the hell is my problem?

I used to be a pretty fun drunk, a pretty fun person in general. Now all I do is get myself into trouble and piss people off. I don't know how exactly I dig myself out of this hole.

And I can only apologize to certain people so many weekends in a row before it starts losing meaning. But here's one more for the road anyway...

Sorry. I'll try harder.

Honest.

Nick's Keg-erific Shitshow

Date: This Saturday
Time: late-afternoonish
Location: my house.

The following people are invited:

You.

"To quote Aristotle: Fuck you guys." - Buchs

"Fuck New Orleans. I didn't give them shit." - Jer

Ian: I hate suction at the dentist.
Kels: What, would you rather choke?
Ian: I'd rather spit in the dentist's face.

"I hate cats. I'd rather run them over." - Jason (A guy at my company conference)

"If you were in Vietnam, I'd shoot you." - Buchs to Kels, cuz she's apparently Asian.

More stuff to come later, maybe...

For some reason, the realtor has put pictures and a virtual tour of my new townhouse after it's already been sold, which in some respects makes me nervous, like they're going to back out of the deal for some odd reason...but mostly it's good because you can now all see my new place, inside and out.

Go here.

And no, I did not pay that price for the place.

I paid more. But can you really put a price on awesomeness? Check out the pics and decide for yourself.

"Who's idea was it to let me drink...ever?!" - Amanda

Chris: His hands are huge. His pinky is like the size of my dick.
Someone: That's unfortunate for you, then.
Chris: No, it's unfortunate for Jenna actually.

"I'm completely douche free." - Kels

"Ahh...that's good. It's like pissing in the mouth of God." - Buchs, peeing outside

"I've never swallowed a quarter but once I stuck a marble in my ass." - Lambie

And most importantly, this one, from Thursday, when out with some work people for drinks...
"There's nothing sexy about a guy who lives at home with his parents." - Brenda

No, no there isn't.

However, contrary to the post preceeding this one, that is no longer a problem for me, as I have bought a townhouse. But just like the first attempt (which I lost) , it wasn't exactly a walk in the park.

To recap: I had an offer on a condo on Thursday night, but lost in competition with two other bids. It was a stressful, stressful night that did not end until after 11:30 p.m. I was pretty discouraged, and worn out, and was planning on just taking the house-hunt down a notch because it was taking a lot out of me - time-wise, and stress-wise.

Then I found one more place and decided to buck up and look at it Friday afternoon. I put an offer on it later that night, and then waited. The offer was supposed to close that night, then was switched to noon Saturday, then five. The selling realtor wanted to stall in order for more bids to come in. As of 4:25 mine was the only one.

Joke's on her, I thought.

I thought wrong. A second offer came in right before the deadline, which meant I had to alter my offer from $4,000 below the list price, to almost $10,000 over the list price.

Yes, over. A $14,000 swing just because of competition. Guess that realtor knew what she was doing after all.

I don't however, feel like I got taken to the cleaners. After comparing it to other just-sold places in the same complex, this one was a little under-priced to begin with, and I still save 11G's compared to the one I almost had Thursday.

Plus I'm just happy I won. Like I told my realtor Dan, while signing the amped-up offer. I wasn't nervous, I was just getting competitive.

I wasn't gonna lose twice in one week. When I want to lose that much, I go play softball.

This place is also a townhouse, not a condo. The condo was in an old-folks area. This place is certainly not. During my two trips there, I saw four 20-something people, all carrying beer into their places. I saw one guy with orange hair and a sweet dog. And I saw two pretty hot chicks.

Score one for me.

Also its about three blocks away from Icehouse.

Sorry there's no pictures of the place to show ya, and I most likely won't move in until the summer, but maybe I'll be able to get some pics at some point before then, we'll see.

So that was the big event of the weekend.

In other news, I got pretty wrecked on Friday night. I slept for a wee bit, then went out for dinner with Chris, Jenna, Buchs, Kelsey and Amanda. After that, we ended up at Sean and Rachel's place, as we often do.

And, let me tell you, I got done. Bucholtz bought me a 26 of Crown because he owed me booze from a previous time, and I downed a little over half the bottle - normally it'd take me more to get that wrecked but this time it didn't. After a few stressful days, it was pretty fun. Amanda, for one, seemed to be having the most fun. Fuck is she ever molding into one fine alcoholic.

Nice work.

Saturday should've been a writeoff, because when Dan the realtor called me at 9 a.m. to tell me that the deadline had moved to 5, I was nursing one helluva hangover, plus I was just tired. I messed around on the computer for a few minutes, then went back to sleep until noon.

Then we hit the ball diamond for a little slo-pitch, and then I did the townhouse buying thing, which took me until dinner time. After that I ate some chinese food, watched the game at Derrick's place, came home and fell asleep by midnight.

All in all, a pretty stellar weekend (haha...stellar. good word eh Kels?). And like I told Kels, now that I have a house my awesome-ness level is bumped up at least 40 %.

AT LEAST.

Now that I have the townhouse more or less secured, it's just another thing I can check off my to-do list for 2006, along with pierce my ear and continue losing some pounds.

Now I'm pretty sure the chicks will be falling all over me in the next little while, or so I'd assume.

All I need now is a cowboy hat and a cut on my face and it'd basically be a licence to nail bitches.

I'm pretty sure that's how it works. (Or maybe I just came up with that cuz I've been hanging out too much with Buchs these days)

:: Home-less ::

I put an offer on a place tonight, and all seemed to be going according to plan.

I offered. They'd counter offer. I'd offer again. I'd get it.

That's how it was supposed to go. Then two other fucking offers came in at the last minute, and suddenly we had a competition on our hands. I figured nobody else would go full-price, let alone over it, because the general consensus was that it was over-priced to begin with.

So, in a very "un-Nick" like move, I went all in. Full asking price + $1,000, just to get over the hump.

I waited. And waited. At 11:00 p.m. I was still in the running.

Official time of death 11:23 p.m.

I'm fairly confident the money was even between me and whoever I lost to - otherwise things would've been settled far sooner than 11:23...and I was super flexible with possession date too - I didn't care at all when it was, either next week or August for Christ's sake.

But whatever. Apparently it wasn't enough to get the job done.

You give absolutely every you can possible give - and then some. And it still ain't enough to get you what you want.

Story of my life.

Fuck this noise, I'm going bed.

Couple of quick hits...

First, for those readers who don't mind horrendous grammar, or none at all (Bucholtz, this is right up your alley), my old j-school pal Dale has some helpful tips for picking up women.

And secondly, on the topic of chicks, I laughed pretty hard at this yesterday, from King of Queens - a show which as of late has rocketed into my "Top Five Shows of All-time list" along with Sports Night, The Simpsons, Family Guy, and Rescue Me (honourable mention to The A Team).

Deacon: Women want you to think they're always thinking of you. It's all a scam. What they're really thinking about is girl crap - throw pillows, lotions, private schools, Lenny Kravitz and fat-free sour cream. It's never you man!

Maybe ol' Deke is on to something.

Fuck I love that show.

Weekend, in progress...

Buchs: Why's it called a blog anyway?
Me: It's short for web log.
Buchs: That's stupid. I'd have called it a wog, or weblo - that's way better.

"Why read when you can watch TV?" - Ian

"I'm gonna melt all my gold jewellry down and make an Oscar statue, but with my face on it, then I'll carry it around all the time. I'll call it a Boscar." - Bobby

"No matter how hard you try, you're never going to sound smart." - Sean to Buchs

"I'm not passed out I'm having a moment of reflection." - Buchs, lying on the bed in Sean's spare room.

"He brings a touch of class to an otherwise classless event." - Buchs, about Lambie wearing dress pants, collared shirt and sweater to Jer's birthday shaker on Saturday night.

Happy Birthday Jer!

Yes, barely a week after Kels turned 21, Jer turned 22, and I'm happy to report I was present for both occasions, as opposed to last year where I was present for none.

Friday was a strange one. For starters, I got a text message in the morning from Kels saying "Woohoo Kamloops already!" which was pretty surprising. I didn't know she was headed home for the weekend. Then again, in the loop I am not.

Work went as per usual, and I was home in time to watch the Canucks game, which me, Chris, Sean and Rach watched at S&R's place.

Then weird part #2 - we ended up at an unfamiliar Friday locale.

After that, starving, we tried to find a place to eat - White Spot (30 minute wait), Jimy's (too packed), Fort Pub (every table was reserved. EVERY table...fuckers). Eventually we couldn't wait anymore and settled, unfortunately, on Ricky's where it was empty because most of Ricky's clientele eat dinner at 4 p.m., and were probably in bed by the time we rolled in at 7:30ish.

The service, and food, to say the least, was shitty. We go to Ricky's for Hangover Breakfast quite often, and it's decent, minus the absolutely shitty service. Well dinner ain't no better.

All 10 or 12 of us basically ate separately, as they brought one meal at a time, with about 10-15 minute intervals. I got my food last, and some people were done by then. To top it all of, the food was marginal at best, and Chris and I paid $8 for six chicken wings. Yes, six.

The rest of the night played out back at Sean and Rachel's, complete with the usual hijinks.

**EDIT: After a not-so-subtle suggestion, I should also mention the weekend was cool because Katie was there, from PG, for the weekend. It was a Jeremy birthday-surprise (And a surprise that shockingly wasn't ruined beforehand). She suggests she's the world's greatest girlfriend, but I guess we'll have to let Jer decide that. Nice to see you again, regardless.

Saturday we BBQed some dogs and drank some beers at the Scramstad abode, with the highlights being our complete assualt of the JRFM phone lines. We called for everything - millions of requests, contest, just to chat...

In the end, Bucholtz was the big winner, getting on air twice - once because he won a Chicken Little DVD and dinner for four at Burger King, and another time to request a song for Jer's birthday.

By the end of the night, the phone line request guy knew us well, and when Jer called in the last time and told him his name, the JRFM guy said "Jeremy? Is it your 22nd birthday?"

Awesome.

:: Random Points ::

Seems like the only time I post anything substantial these days is on Sundays after the weekend is over and the usual festivities have calmed down a bit. I figured I'd hit up the ol' blog with some bits and pieces of random stuff, cuz I haven't done that in awhile. Besides this gives you guys some more stuff to read, and I know how much you love me. Some of ya anyways.


Random note #1
We made our Final Four picks this week...most are pretty similar. Here's our picks. Keep in mind we don't know much about college hoops, we either pick the frontrunners, or the guys we see on TV, or we just pick at absolute random.

Our picks (the ones I've heard so far):

Me: UConn (over Duke)
Chris: Villanova (over Duke)
B-Rad: Duke (over Villanova)
Scotty: UConn

All the picks look fairly similar, although just to be different I was tempted to go Ohio State over UCLA, but that's a pretty big stretch. Anyways, on to other things people might care about...

Random note #2
Got my cell phone bill in the mail, and it was a little higher than usual for some reason, yet the text messages were WAY down. Only sent/received 106 last month, which is down from oh, I'd say 1,100 in previous months.

Don't really know why. Oh wait, yes I do.

Random note #3
The following two things have been annoying me the last two weeks: Work, and condo/townhouse hunting.

Rest assured, there are other things and people annoying me too, but we'll focus on those two right now. For starters, I have very little to write about at work - it's spring break, so there's no school sports. High School B-ball just ended. The junior hockey team isn't in playoffs, so nothing to write about there. Just very frustrating...

This week I was assigned to write a feature story on scrabble for christ's sake. Yes, scrabble. It didn't actually suck that much, and it turned out OK, but c'mon now. Board games? Perhaps a new low..and that's saying something cuz God knows I've had my fair share of lows.

On the plus side, my boss called me today on my way home to tell me another story I wrote was possibly the best thing he's ever seen from me, which was nice. Real nice, in fact, since he's not exactly known for dishing compliments.

On the house-buying front, I don't even wanna start getting into it. Here's the jist - everytime I find a place I like, it's either already sold, or is sold quick. And by quick I mean either 30 minutes, two hours, or less than a day.

Sometimes it takes me that long to get my shoes on.

Random note #4
Only two comments on the last post? C'mon, you can do better than that.

Random note #5
I've decided that the most frustrating feeling in the world is knowing that, no matter how much you try, you'll never end up with what you want. Whether it's looking for a place to live, or something work related, or something else, that's how it goes. And I don't like it.

Random note #6
Most people won't care, so just stop reading now, but here's my fantasy baseball team, in the league me and some guys from j-school do. In four years I've never done better than about fifth or sixth, so I went with a new strategy this year - pitching over hitting..

C - Michael Barrett
1B - Paul Konerko
2B - Robinson Cano/Ronny Belliard
3B - A-Rod
SS - Jhonny Peralta
LF - Scott Podsednik
CF - Aaron Rowand/Rocco Baldelli
RF - Jeff Francoeur
DH - Brad Wilkerson

P - Jake Peavy
P - Andy Pettite
P - A.J. Burnett
P - John Garland
P - Josh Towers
P - Jae Seo

Closer - Huston Street
Closer - Derrick Turnbow
Closer - Chris Reitsma

I like my team, even though it lacks power. As is the case with most teams I pick (in any sport), my squad is high on potential.

I'm always big on picking the sleepers - the guys who maybe don't jump right out at you, but prove to be more than worth it when all is said and done. They can surprise you - some guys, all they need is a chance.

:: Weekend Revisited ::

"I took a great shit earlier. It was like somebody liquified the Cosby's and fired them out of my ass." - Sean, in the parking lot after breakfast Saturday morning.

"Turn on the hockey game and suck on my balls!" - Ian's directions to his ideal girlfriend.

"I don't know why black people talk the way they do. Just 'cause you're black doesn't mean you can't pronounce words properly." - Buchs, apparently upset with ebonics.

"Pupperoni doesn't taste like pepperoni at all. It tastes like sawdust and cow eyes." - Buchs again. Eating dogfood? C'mon now...

"You might as well break the law before it's illegal." - Buchs trying to convince Ian to chuck a "mashed potato ball" at a street sign. Apparently when Ian's in the RCMP breaking the law will be doubly bad.

Somebody: What are the odds you'll lose your money?
Hammered Chris: What are the odds I'll have fun? I'D SAY THEY'RE 1:1!!"

"I think my brain is healed because my head is itchy." - Brad, with a little self-diagnosis.

"Does that mean half a sandwich fills him up instead of a whole one?" - Buchs, after watching a show about a midget on TV.

Yes I know this recap is a few days later than usual, but Sunday I was just too worn out and tired to write anything, and then work's been a gongshow ever since the week started, so here goes...

The weekend started off on the right foot, with Kelsey's birthday at the Giggle Dam. The only thing that sucked was that I had to be at work early on Friday (6:45 instead of 8:30), so combined with the night before where I worked til 11, I was pretty tired. Thankfully I was out of work super early Friday, and then waited for the festivities to begin.

And what festivities they were - even just the ride into Port Coquitlam and back. I was driving Jer, Jenna, Ian and Chris, and three of 'em (guess which three) wanted to drink a beer on the ride out. Normally I wouldn't really care that much, but I decided to be a pain in the ass so I said no.

About 20 times. But they did it anyway, of course. More on this later.

The show itself was a beaut - made funnier by a few "opening night mishaps." Derrick was the first of us to get dragged up on stage - to play a pre-show game where he had to hold a quarter between his buttcheeks and waddle a few feet, before depositing said coin into a beer stein. Derrick's apparently got some pretty good aim with that thing (there's probably a joke to be made there, but I'll let it go), and he won the contest, thus winning a free shot. 'Course, the losers got free booze too.

Amanda and Kelsey were also up on stage briefly for various drink-making displays, but the highlight was definitely Bucholtz, dressed up in partial drag dancing on stage to the harmonious sounds of the cast singing a slightly altered version of Tom Jones' "She's a Lady."

He was so proud of his drunken performance that he flexed on his way off stage, and 10 minutes later I found him holding court in the men's bathroom, talking about how he had solid dance moves because he's been hitting the gym to "work on my glutes."

Another high point of the show, unrelated to the show performances themselves (cuz it was awesomely funny in general) was right at the end when Kelsey's uncle, Jon, dragged Kels on stage cuz Tara and Amanda had a present for her.

Kelsey was not too impressed, and wondered who gets somebody a dildo and makes her open it on stage in front of hundreds of people?

Awesome people, that's who.

Then on the way to Kels's, Jer wanted to ge a beer from the trunk but assumed I didn't want peopel to drink in there again. So he opened to trunk to "put his flag away" (we had little Canadian flags as part of the show). His cover was blown when Chris caught on...

"Hey Jer, wanna grab me a flag too?"

The rest of the night was the predictable gongshow - but I only lasted til 1:30 then had to call it a night. I was exhausted, not nearly drunk, and I could feel GP's slowly creeping on, so I called it a night and went to sleep.

Amanda was still drunk at 1 oclock the next afternoon, so that puts the awesomeness of the night into perspective.

Hope your birthday was a good one, Kels. Of course, I didn't miss this one, so it automatically kicked a certain degree of ass.

Saturday most of us took it easy - played some baseball (we need some serious, serious work to shake off the rust. Between my inability to track a fly ball or hold onto a bat, and Ian's 15-foot-off-target tosses, we really sucked).

That night me, Ian and Buchs made ourselves a helluva feast for dinner - steak, various kabobs, prawn skewers, garlic mashed potatoes, and grilled asparagus. Plus some beers. It was delicious.

We went over to Tara's after that, and watched the Canucks game and had some drinks - a lot of people were out and about, but me, Ian, Buchs, Amanda and Tara were there, and Jer and Lambo made brief appearances - as did Jenna and Chris, who was HOSED.

He rambled on about wanting to go to some club, did a litle dance in the kitchen, then left, an angry and annoyed Jenna in tow.

Nice work douche.

Buchs ended up sleeping in his truck again because he's a retard, and that's about the end of the night. Although I was talking to Kels at about 1:30 or so - both of us loaded from out various outing. She was downtown and some bar with some old work people.

I got a couple potato-salad related text messages (we had potato salad on Sunday), and then I sent this one, apparently (drunken spelling and grammar not corrected): "We're drinking. I've polished off a 26 on some beers. YOud like me rite now - I'm super rad."

Well, I am super rad. Can't argue with that.

Happy 21st Birthday Kels!

You can now legally get drunk in any country on earth.

Hope your "birthday week" (nice invention by the way) is a gooder.

:: The weekend, a baseball legend, and a crab attack ::

"People over 50 will eat feces if they have to." - Sean

"I can't stand women. If they didn't have cunts we'd hunt 'em. And then I'd mount them on the wall and face-fuck them." - Jeremy, just mangled on Friday night.

"Grab my balls just don't hold my hand." - Dicastri, to another guy at Lambies. (can't remember who).

"I felt dirty after the crack whore smelled me." - Kels

Then tonight, at the Boathouse, courtesy of Kels again....

"I injured myelf eating."

"Gimme all your insides!" - talking to her crab.

"That's the best thing I've had in my mouth in a long time." (No I will not be putting that into context. Not a chance. I'll leave it to your imagination.)

This weekend was again a decent one, pretty much par for the course.

Friday night there was a Canucks game against Chicago (For the record, it was one of the most entertaining games I've seen all year). Like I alluded to in a previous post, we had no Slapshots to go to. Not wanting to kick a dead horse, I won't go on and on about that problem.

But on a similar tangent, we used Friday to try and find a new place to go.

It's pretty clear that Shark's Club is not that place.

Now, during the day Shark's a nice sports bar - it's only Friday and Saturday nights it turns stupid. And they've got real good food (ask Kels and Panda about the Mediterranean wrap), and they've got pretty good seating if you get the right table - which we did.

But our usual routine don't fly there.

I won't go into detail, but to say that crazy, literally psycho people threatening your life in the parking lot is a pretty obvious sign from the Drinking Gods that maybe, just maybe, it's time to mosey on down the path to another establishment.

Besides, it was too expensive for an every day place.

So, that being settled, we grabbed some booze and went over to our place, where we just sort of chilled out - we even had a fire in the backyard fire pit for the first time this year, so that was pretty rad.

Things got weird, however, when somebody noticed Kelsey's car was missing from in front of my house. Yup, stolen - or so we thought.

Kels called the cops, told her all the required info, and as she was pacing my front yard on the phone, she saw her car - three houses down, across the street, parked nicely in the opposite direction it was originally in. The cops hung up on her, and when they did come by about an hour later, immediately asked two questions:

"Is Kelsey here?"
"Is she drunk?"

Seriously though - her car was down the road, with no damage - no forced entry, no ignition damage, nothing stolen. Just there.

Somehow. (I have two theories on what happened, but I won't get into that now.)

The only spare set of keys are in my room - for those times when Kelsey the Genius gets out here and locks her keys in her car. And they were still there when I went to bed at 2:30.

Just a strange, strange event.

Tonight turned out to be pretty fun too. Rather than actually buy Kelsey something for her birthday, we went to the Boathouse in White Rock for dinner - which we've really been meaning to do since about last June.

So we ate quite a feast, which was highlighted by my inability to subtlely break a lobster shell, and Kelsey actually getting cut (twice!) by a crab leg. She had a deathgrip on one of the legs, and in her attempt to pull it apart, ending up squeezing too hard and cutting herself on the sharp little points.

It was still Kelsey 2 Crab 1 since he was on her plate, dead, but the guy still got one on the way out.

And I laughed and laughed (not at the injury so much as the fact that not many people hurt themselves eating).

And finally, I hate to end this post on a sad note, but I must.

Kirby Puckett, the rolly-polly former Minnesota Twins outfielder, died today at 44, after complications from a stroke.

While I've always been a Blue Jays fan - and a Mariners fan in my last handful of years once I began to re-love baseball again in my late teens and 20s' - I always liked the Minnesota Twins.

I don't know why really, perhaps because two of their biggest stars during the 1980's and early 90's were two guys who didn't quite fit the 'athlete mold' - Puckett, and first baseman Kent Hrbek. They were both as wide as they were tall - kind of like I was (And still am, to a certain extent.)

There were other Twins I liked too - Dan Gladden, Jack Morris, Chuck Knoblauch, but I liked Puckett most of all. His biography is on my bookshelf right now.

In his later years, Puckett suffered from glaucoma, causing him to retire due to blindness in one of his eyes. So he had a few medical problems.

But I never expected this, and now I'm just kinda sad.

I never really openly cheered for the Twins or even really for Puckett - in the early 90s they were chief competition for the Mighty Joe Carter-led Jays, of course. But they were always my "closet" faves - kind of like the guy who says his favourite movie is Goodfellas when really it's The Goonies.

Oh wait, that's me too.

Adios Mr. Puckett.

There's a Canucks' game on TV in T-minus 1 hour. Just now, the reality has hit us...

"Where are we going tonight?" - Amanda

"This sucks not having a good reliable place anymore!" - Sean

"Last night Amanda called me during the game and I heard noise in the background and figured she was at Slaps, then realized there is not a slaps anymore." - Tara

"Let's go to Slaps..haha, oh." - Buchs.

This sucks.

Say it ain't so.

I wanted to let the Slapshots: Last Call post sit at the top of this site for a day or so, but I figured I'd let you know about a couple changes to the ol' Classic Times. For one - as you can already see - I switched up the header/title graphic at the top of the page.

Secondly, if you scroll down a bit and look at the left-hand sidebar, you'll notice a Hall of Fame section - where links to the top posts, quotes, and stories can be found, dating back to the blog's beginnings, back when it wasn't called Classic Times at all - but In the Loops.

:: Last Call ::

With everyone else writing farewell's to Slapshots on their respective blogs, I figured I should do the same, since Slaps is certainly worthy, considering how many hours, days, and pints were spent there over the past handful of years.

Tonight was the final night for Slapshots as we knew it. It will eventually just fade into the ajoining restaurant, and while it will still serve alcohol, it won't be the same but for the name on the door.

Tonight's Canucks' game was the last hurrah - although it could be argued we really went out proper on Friday night.

Although it was just a little watering hole that never made much money (and had been know to close down for months at a time due to lack of funds) it was still our home base, and it wasn't uncommon for us to be there three or four times in a given week, depending what games were on the tube.

We'll miss it, no question.

It was the place we went on boring Fridays, the place we went after ball games, the place we went to when any sporting event required a large T.V.

And the place we'd go to just 'cuz.

The food wasn't always very good, and they went through managers and owners like they changed a keg, but in the end, the bartenders knew our names, always had our table ready for us, and had our drinks on the table before we even ordered them. It was ours.

I think Amanda said it very nicely yesterday on her blog, when she said of Slaps:

"Slapshots was the place that welcomed you in before you were legal and kept you comfy when you were."

And with that I present to you... my Five Favourite Slapshots' Moments, in no particular order:

5. Bucholtz' 19th Birthday
Buch's 19th - Dec. 23, 2003 - was a killer night. I didn't live here at the time, being in Peace River. I flew home for Christmas the night of his birthday. My parents picked me up from the airport, I went home to drop off my bags, picked up Mike and went straight to Slaps. The guys were already sloshed - Buchs especially, of course. On last call, a hammered Chris demanded mine and Mike's remaining cash (which we drunkenly handed over), and he came back with something like 13 highballs for us to pound back. All I remember of Buchs is that he spilled two full pitchers of beer in Ian's lap, and ended up passed out in the parking lot by midnight. After four months in solitude in Alberta, it was good to be home.

4. Super Bowl 39
January 2005. A whole team of us were there to see the Pats' win another Lombardi Trophy as the best team in football, but I ended up winning a trophy of my own - a Sleeman's mini-fridge fully stocked with beer. For every Sleeman's beer you bought, you put an entry form into the bucket for the fridge draw. Having gone pretty hard the night before (read: Hammered) I didn't figure that downing beers at noon the next day was wise. I'd just have one, I figured. Well, one soon escalated into one bucket (3 beers), and one bucket soon turned into...well, you get it. Then the draw came and lo and behold, Lisa the bartender announced my name. So me, Chris, Ian, Sean and Dave the manager hauled it off to Chris' truck, and it was mine. It's been in my room since.

3. Canucks playoffs (2003-04 season)
I wasn't even in the bar, or the province for that matter, for this one, but I still remember it. It was Vancouver's first round series against Calgary. Yes, that series. I know the Canucks lost it on Martin Gelinas Game 7 overtime goal, but before that, I remember many, many phonecalls from my Peace River apartment to the guys - Chris, Ian, and Jer mostly - as they watched from Slaps. There was a ton of noise - and thanks to cheap drinks when the 'Nucks scored - a lot of boisterous activity. Even though I was miles away, it was still fun to hear what was going on. In a province where everyone was cheering for the Flames, it was nice to still know what it felt like to be shitfaced in a bar, cheering on the good guys.

2. New Year's Eve 2004
Oh boy, was this one ugly. I remember this one for the sheer number of people we were there with. It was one of the rare times the place was actually packed - and over 30 of us were there. Close friends. Acquintances. Hockey buddies. Friends of friends. We started drinking real early, and to be honest, I don't remember the details. One of the highlights for me was when Dani (waitress) was coming around with complimentary tiny shot-glass size plastic cups of champagne on a tray, and Me and Garski took the whole tray and did about 15 shots each of champagne. Incidentally, it was also the one-and-only time I've ever puked at Slaps. There were a pair of other solid moments - from a tanked Bucholtz getting physically shot down (pushed away) by one of Bre's friends; and Jeremy and Katie disappearing for awhile to a roller hockey dressing room...I'm sure they were only talking.

1. The last Friday
This night has already been mentioned on the blog this week, but it was still a good one. Cheap/free drinks. Brian giving us all kinds of free shots, and us leaving hammered with half the bar in our pockets. Glasses, candles, pitchers, chairs. Didn't matter - if it wasn't nailed down, we scooped it. And in Jer's case, even if it was anchored somehow, we took it anyway. Was it blatant theft? Yep. But I prefer to think of them simply as parting gifts - a way to reward the best customers that place ever saw, so we can remember the joint long after it's gone.

Sure, they can take our bar, but we'll take a bit of it too thank-you very much.

So goodbye sweet, wonderful bar. May your taps never run dry.

:: Bad haircuts, 4x4's, and fights ::

"There's nothing like a four-way man kiss." - Lambie (actually from last weekend).

"If it had been about a llama and a tranvestite It'd be a different story." - Buchs, after saying he wouldn't watch Brokeback Mountain.

"Curry's the new ketchup." - Jer

"All they know how to fucking cook is mashed potatoes. They gave me potatoes with spaghetti for fuck's sake." - Brad

"When I push the button, they come running. They're like my bitches." - Brad, on the nurses.

"You and I are gonna have words tomorrow." - Kels, to her beer.

"Don't you ever get ashamed by the things that you say?" - Sean, to Buchs.

It was, by most accounts, a quality weekend all-around. We actually had a good Friday for a change - usually they're boring because it's many people doing many different things. This time, though, we were all pretty much in the same place, except for Buchs, who just didn't show up and told us he went to a Clan Rally. Really, he went downtown to hit on coug's with his work buddies.

He insists that he had a 100% success rate, but with his new haircut, I really find that hard to believe. Just a word of advice: Nobody, and I mean nobody, can pull off the sidewalk.

Not Shawn Desman. Definitely not Kyle Bucholtz.

But I digress...

With our longtime watering hole closing its doors forever as of Tuesday, we took the opportunity to have one last blowout there Friday night. We drank for basically free, since the bartender, Brian, is a buddy of ours and no longer cares about his job. I ate dinner, drank about 8 double rye-and-sevens, two martinis, and we also had about 4 or 5 rounds of shots.

I paid $16 bucks.

Also, we took some souvenirs - but Brian said we could.

I now have a beer pitcher, martini glass, a high-ball glass, and a candle-holder thing. Panda has a freakin' bar stool, somebody else has a number of glasses and a chair, and Jeremy just ripped some Coor's light paraphernalia off the wall.

Yep, we all got our money's worth, although it is fairly sad to no longer have a home-base bar. Nobody to get us drinks before we even order them, no more preferred seating and 'preferred customer discounts."

"I think I actually might cry. This is sad." - Amanda, moments before we left.

We then proceeded to go back to Sean and Rachel's, where we got just plastered - or I did anyway. I hadn't really got drunk in awhile and I felt like I needed to get just fucked..so I did. And so did Ian, and Brett. And Jer.

The four of us, especially, were a show. Or so I was told - I don't really remember. I don't even remember how I got home. Apparently Kels gave me a ride.

It was a doozie of a night.

Saturday was similar, but a little more low-key. Me and Ian went and checked out a townhouse (it sucked), went to visit B-Rad, and then went for chicken wings. Then it was back to my house where everyone just sat around, had some drinks - the usual.

And it ended in a very familar way - with me, Chris and Jenna cleaning up the bottles, Buch's fast asleep/passed out in his truck out front, and Jeremy and Lambie beating up guys in the Mcdonald's parking lot.

Okay, maybe not everything was the usual.

Weekend Awards

Worst idea...
Bucholtz, for his duct-tape assisted haircut.

Best fight scene...
Jeremy and Lambo.

Best disappearing act...
Lambie, who we found sleeping under my stairs on the floor.

Best impulse purchase..
Kelsey, for buying Tank.

The weekly drunken argument award...
Sean and Rachel, of course.

:: The Weekend ::

This weekend was a bit of an odd one - both eventful and uneventful at the same time..sorta.

Yes, I'm aware that's not actually possible, but that's how this weekend felt for me. Friday got started a bit later than usual, but at least I squeezed in a decent-length nap. We all went to White Spot for dinner, then just chilled at Lambo's house. I packed it in around midnight though - I wasn't drinking and was just tired.

Things picked up a little bit after I left, apparently - but it continued the streak of subdued Friday nights - Sean and Rach were downtown, Jer and Katie called it a night early, and Kelsey was somewhere else entirely. Not sure where, she just wasn't there.

Saturday, I put an offer on a townhouse - so that would count as eventful. But it's only a backup offer because somebody else beat me to the punch, so chances are very, very slim I'll actually get the place, hence the uneventfulness. Went and looked at a couple new condos after that, but they sucked - way too small and overpriced.

Saturday night, while most people went downtown to Shark's Club for a hockey fundraiser, I went out with Doug, Steve, and some other people for Doug's birthday. We went out for dinner, then back to Doug's place and had some drinks.

Even if it wasn't quite on par with the craziness of a usual Saturday night with the usual crowd, it was still pretty rad. Nice to see some different faces I hadn't seen in a long time - especially Steve-O, who I hadn't seen in maybe 10 months or more.

There was less drama too, which was also a nice switch.

Sounds like Shark's Club was pretty fun too - Bobby had to call me in the morning and ask if he talked to me the night before, just to give you an example of how drunk he was.

All in all, I guess it was just a nice change to have some space for a night. Not that I don't have that already, but expect more.

And now, without further adieu, the Weekend Awards...

Best idea...
Jeremy/Nick, for 'borrowing' White Spot's "Tastes of the West Coast 2002" training video.

Best idea II...
Whoever turned the watching of the video into a drinking game.

Worst Movie...
Tastes of the West Coast 2002 training video.

The 'Shoulda seen that coming' Award...
Me, when Jer snagged my hat and locked it into a newspaper box. (That's twice now, for those scoring at home).

Best attempt to foil a theft...
Sean, at the beer store.

Oddest/funniest compliment...
Steve, who said I looked "like a fuckin pimp," last night when I met him at the restaurant. Like I said, I hadn't seen him in a long time and I'm a little different now.

Happy Fucking Valentine's Day

I hate Valentine's Day. For many reasons I don't feel like listing - maybe if I had a girlfriend, or even some easy lay on the side, I'd feel different, but I do not.

Ah well, that's life.

I'll leave you romantics with this V-Day quote from Ian...

"I got Bre flowers and all that shit. Stupid girls - flowers die anyway. I should get her a fence, that'd last a lot longer."

I don't even know what else to say to that, other than I laughed pretty hard.

"This is the first time I've ever showered while staring at Jeremy." - Ian, after hockey on Tuesday.

Pretty bland weekend, not a whole lot of good stories, or anything. Friday was lame, and I was home by 10:45.

Saturday was alright though - it was nice out for a change, so we went down to the park and threw a baseball around, then went out for dinner and over to the Scramstad residence. Certainly didn't suck, but seemed to lack our usual energy, that's all. I'm not even gonna do weekend awards because, well, I don't know that there were any. Nothing I can think of, anyhow.

And, as a side note guys, don't steal other people's shots...God that was an over-the-top episode.

As an unrelated aside, I heard the best band name on the weekend - some bar band in Vancouver is called Pepper Sprayed by Hookers.

Awesome.

:: Traffic Jam ::

Well, that was fun wasn't it kids?

While I appreciate all the blog traffic - and especially the comments - you may have noticed the over-abundance of commenting lately. Back in the day, each post was lucky to get 4 or 5 replies. Now though, each one gets close to 15-20.

It's pretty awesome, especially when everybody else's blogs still only gets a few.

That means I'm winning, bitches.

But while big numbers are great, can we all please just take a second to realize what the fuck we're commenting about before we do it? We all saw what happened on the last post - I had to delete at least 12 messages.

If you're mad, take a breath. Hell, take a breather even if you aren't mad. All I ask is this: If something looks bad -whether it appears racist, sexist, gross, or just mean - it probably isn't meant that way IN THE LEAST.

You have to consider our group of friends and how we operate. If you don't quite know, err on the side of caution because we're not bad people.

Or just give'r shit I guess, if you still want to. But just don't get angry when you lose the comment battle, like you inevitably will.

Because I run the show here, and I always win.

That, and I'm the only one who can edit or delete messages.

Carry on children.

"Do brown people go to Merritt?" - Kelsey

One of life's eternal questions.

"What you do is dip Rach in KY and say 'C'mon Sean, all the orifices are lubed." - Kels

"My mohawk is better than Jesus." - Jer

"He's brown. That's definitely below the food chain." - Kels, immediately regretting it.

"You know, you're the only guy here who I haven't seen naked." - Ian

:: Weekend Awards ::

Best Idea...
Jeremy, for "Hey Ian, want a mohawk?"

Best Answer/Biggest mistake...
Ian, for saying "Yes."

Best impersonation of a homeless person...
Bucholtz, for sleeping in his truck at 3 a.m. with a tallie on the dashboard.

Best nipple-related story
Rachel

Best dare...
Bobby, for drinking a glass of Creamy Poppyseed salad dressing.

Best addition to the dare...
Bobby again, for downing mustard and hot sauce after the salad dressing to "get the poppyseed taste outta my mouth."

Best baseball analogy...
Ian and me, for "hitting for the cycle."

:: Super Bowl XL ::

With tomorrow being the Super Bowl, I figured I'd make a prediction. In the past, my predictions have actually been fairly accurate - I've been right the last two or three years, and in 2004 I even predicted that the game would be won on a last-second Adam Vinitieri field goal.

But I'm having a tough time this year not only with a prediction, but deciding who to cheer for. I know, I'm supposed to cheer for Seattle because there "technicaly" the local team, being just a few hours south, but to be honest, I've never really been a Seahawks fan. I'm a Chargers fan, and over the last couple years, I've kind of taken a liking to the Steelers.

Chris and Ian are both gonna go hard for the Hawks on Sunday, and Bobby's cheering for Pittsburgh, but I just don't know.

One on hand, there's the locals... One the other, I wanna cheer for the Steelers because of stories like this.

Right now though, I'm leaning slightly to the Seattle side of things - in predictions and cheering.

Seahawks by six.

Well forget Vegas, everybody's got a reason to say no it seems.

That's fine though, really. I just thought I'd try and spice things up a bit.

Anyways, my birthday's a long way away still to be worrying about it now.

With other people doing Jokes of the Day and Odd Facts of the Day, I decided I needed to come up with some catchy new feature. So, with that in mind, I give you, the Weekend Awards, or the Drunkies....

Best case of pretending to be a lesbian in order to get rid of a guy...
Kelsey

Best drunken performance by a duo or group...
Jenna and Kelsey

Best case of pissing off Randy by doing something stupid...
Jeremy

Meanest Burn award...
Rachel

"Smartest" decision after a night of drinking...
(tie) Getting up early to go snowboarding - Chris, Jenna, Derrick
Driving home at like 7 a.m. with limited sleep - Kelsey

Actual smartest decision...
Sleeping in then waking other people up for fun - Nick

Angriest person after being woken up by Nick...
Kelsey

Ugliest purchase...
Kyle

Best Disappearing Act...
Ian

Funniest Moments with Cars...
(tie) Nick - No E-Brake
Kyle - running out of gas after purchasing "The Bitch"

playing a tough game of Chaser...
Me: Fuck this, I quit!
Amanda: Fine, you can't play anymore then!

At my grandparents 50th anniversary, when Chris went downstairs to crash a wedding...
Me: I've never been prouder to be a member of this family.
Dave: Wow, that's saying a lot.

"I love watching dogs back up." - Bucholtz

"Why you gotta be all up in my grill?" - Ian, to Amanda, who was sitting too close apparently.

"I like goats and they like me." - Buchs on msn, for absolutely no reason.

Last night was a pretty good night - went to Tara's house and drank there. Drank a lot actually.

Two highlights of the evening - Chris winning a lot of money at the casino; and me forgetting to pull the E-brake on my car and having to chase it down the road, unlock it, get in, and stop it before it hit a car parked on the street. It was a tough maneuver, but I did it of course.

Cuz even when I'm tanked I got skills.

Funny website info:

I checked my website stats for the first time in ages. There were some funny ways people found this site over the past few months. The following web searches brought people to Classic Times...

"how to use a coat hanger to unlock car without keys"
"whats the difference between yams and sweet potatoes"
"Aaron Pritchett gay"
"evil alien conquerors"
"drunken girl pictures"
"Bo Jackson sweet potato pie"

and my personal favourite search referral...

"fuck off"

Who searches for that?

Vegas Update:

The idea is gaining some steam. On the probably/maybe list: Me, Kels, Buchs, Lambie. The only definite No's are Jer, Amanda, Sean and Rach. I don't think its quite gonna be a 20 person shaker, but if a few people come, it'll still be rad.

:: Vegas, Baby! ::

I've come up with a brilliant idea. So brilliant it may just make your head explode.

As many of you already know, Kels is planning on a trip to the Giggle Dam for her birthday, which is March 9. (Everyone should come, by the way).

The Dam is a wicked idea, judging from the one-and-only time I went, which was just before Christmas.

Anyway, what I liked best about the idea was that it wasn't one of the following things: Roosters, Shark's Club, or going out for dinner and then getting plastered at Fort Pub and/or someone's house.

Since we all turned 19, we've done those ideas to death. This is something different while still combining our two true loves - fun, and alcohol.

So, with Kelsey's plan as an inspiration, I started thinking about something I often think about:

How can I one-up Kelsey?

Vegas, baby. That's how.

(Just kidding, I'm not trying to one-up anyone, but her birthday was what got me thinkin'.)

I'll be turning 25 which, in my mind, makes me officially old. That's a quarter-century for Christ's sake.

And I'd like to go out with a bang.

And I haven't been on a vacation in a long, long time. (No Mike, Vulcan, AB does not count). Also, within the next five months I'll most likely being dropping my entire savings account on a townhouse, and from that point on I'll be a poor schmuck with limited funds for social activities such as drinking my face off and making a fool of myself.

So before that happens, I'd like to see what kind of trouble I can get into.

It's single-handedly about the greatest birthday party idea ever. There are already a handful of people on the "Maybe" list - Kels and Ian. And Lambie said he'd be in if we get hookers (Consider it done my friend).

Unlike my thousands of other "brilliant ideas" I come up with but never follow through on, I'm quite serious about this one, and will begin organizing it quick-like. We don't necessarily have to go in April near my birthday, but I don't want to interrupt slo-pitch season.

So, who else is in? Speak now.

And answer Yes.

"GF Strong is gonna look GF Weak after Brad kicks the shit out of it" - Seaner's MSN name tonight.

And he's off!

Brad's finally off to GF Strong tomorrow - the best head injury rehab place in BC for anyone who doesn't know.

He'll be there for awhile probably, it'll be an intense amount of work for him, and we can't visit much, but it's the last stop before he gets to come home.

Give 'em hell buddy. See ya real soon.

:: Gym Theory ::

Went to the gym tonight after watchin' the Canucks game at Slapshots, and heard this interesting idea being discussed by two 20-something guys lifting weights next to where I was riding the bike.

They were discussing the merits of picking up girls at the gym, and decided that the best idea was to try and meet an average-to-relatively hot girl with "potential", who was maybe not in absolutely peak shape - but not, as one guy put it "without hope."

I'm pretty sure the subject came up because of one girl on the eliptical machine who was pretty attractive - not exactly 105 lbs, but she had some serious guns and was certainly not a "butter face".

Basically, it was these guys' theory that they should go after girls with potential because once they "got real hot" the girl would be out of their league, and the average guy wouldn't have a chance.

And, one guy pointed out, you know they'll get hotter. After all, they're at the gym.

I guess it's called buying low and selling high.

It sounds like the typical thing some guys at the gym (or Kyle and Derrick) would come up with, although I guess it doesn't have be just a slimy guy idea - could work both ways I guess, although I don't know if chicks think like that.

Matter of fact, I rarely know what girls think about anything.

I'm not saying I really agree or disagree with their philosophy, but I thought it was mildly amusing at least and worth a post (especially since I'd gone awhile without one).

Whadda ya think?

"You should beat up Jesus, I'll give you five bucks." - Amanda

"I wanna meet a girlfriend when I get to G.F. Strong so I can have some handicapped sex." - Gorski

Yeah, he's back.

Last night, there were some of you who complained about my lack of uploaded pictures. Well whiners, complain no more, the My Pictures link on the left now contains three new sections:

Christmas 2005, Dinner Party, and Random Drunk - a combo platter of photos from some parties - including the 'lil shaker here last night.

So don't say I never did nothin' for ya.

"If I get married it'll be to a stripper I get knocked up." - Buchs

"I'm choking on my own delight." - Buchs again, smashed.

When I told Buchs about Jenna's dog sleeping in my room when he was here over Christmas...
Me: Well where the hell do you want him to sleep?
Buchs: I dunno, wolverine exchange?

(I don't even know what to say about that..)

"I just juiced myself." - Kels

"Yeah, well at least I don't need tampons!!" - Sean's comeback to one of the girls.

"This week was a big ball of stupid." - Ian

"Me and Rach are queens of gracefullness." - Kels

"We have to love a lot of people in my family but we don't like any of them." - Kels, on importance of family.

Then this morning, hungover, these two gems from Kels, not even a minute apart...

"I'm just going to stop putting things in my mouth."

"Note to self: Don't bend over."

Seriously folks, not even I can make this stuff up. Well I could I guess, but I'm not.

This weekend was a good one - my first of the New Year sans beer. I wasn't planning on drinking at all really, but then decided to down a bottle or two of wine, which was actually a really good idea. It's not as bad for you as beer, and it doesn't result in the crushing defeat/blackout that occurs when one drinks Nick Nolte-levels of hard liquor.

All in a all, a good incident-free weekend - nice switch from the "high intensity" New Year's bash.

Now, for the next week or so, I'll be spending a lot of time putting together the video/slide show for my grand parents 50th anniversary party on the 21st. It's a time consuming endeavour, so I guess I should finally get crackin' with it.

:: Day 1 ::

Today it was back to the gym - beginning Phase 2 of what I previously dubbed The Nick Rebuilding Plan. I'm already down 41 lbs. with, I figure, 40 more to go.

Gimme six or seven months and every dick from high school who mocked me, and every drunken jackass I ever had to punch for calling me fat (ahem, Bucholtz) will be eating their words.

And every chick who ever said 'No' will be wishing they hadn't.

Too late now bitches*.

*Editor's note: I don't actually think you're bitches. I just like acting tough.

"What did you do to him while I was gone?!" - Kels, to Buchs, after I made some Bucholtz-like comparison regarding her smooth, newly waxed arm and my "jut-sack" as Kels called it. There was also an offer put forth to test the comparison if I remember correctly.

Fuck I'm sweet. Get used to it (maybe).

Tomorrow is New Years of course, so that'll be disgusting. Posts will come sometime after, once I've fully recovered from what I expect will be one helluva hangover.

Happy '06 homies.

:: Year In Review ::

A year ago at about this time, I said, unlike some people, I wasn't necessarily looking forward to 2005 because 2004 had been awfully good to me.

Fast forward 12 months, and I don't feel the same way again. Far as I'm concerned, this year can't be over quick enough. It started out well enough, with life rolling along according to plan - I even started going to the gym in hopes of losing some weight. Turns out that would be one of the few steady, positive things about this year. The rest was a rollercoaster...

A quick rundown...

- got drunk a lot.
- There was some ugliness.
- Recovered.
- fell down a driveway.
- Recovered.
- Brad got hurt.
- my dog died.
- Currently recovering.

And now my grandma (not the grandma many of you have met, my other grandma - my dad's mom) is in the hospital. She's diabetic, and has leukemia (another wonderful thing brought to light this year), and just today my dad had to take her to the hospital after she had some kind of stroke or diabetic shock. She was this close to being in a diabetic coma, apparently.

Just one more log thrown onto the fire of shittiness.

Chris summed it up nicely today on the phone: "This is the worst year of my entire life."

Yes, there were good points - camping trips, parties, ball games, trips to Seattle and Alberta, but overall, it just feels like I've constantly had something on my mind - almost always bad. I've had a very hard time just relaxing, and I've lost my ability to just go out and enjoy myself without thinking, worrying, wondering, etc. I don't know when that'll change.

I don't know what exactly I've learned this year, what 'life lessons' I'm supposed to take from all this bullshit. Maybe for one, I learned not to take my friends for granted, because tomorrow they might be gone - in a coma, moved away, or just moved on to other things and other people.

And I guess I also figured out that, sometimes no matter what you do, and what you say, some things are just the way they are, and won't ever change. No matter what.

Fuck off '05. Don't let the door hit cha on the way out.

And as for 2006, I don't expect it will be the greatest year for me either. Now, don't get me wrong - I'm not being pessimistic, just hear me out. I know (hope) that '06 will be better than this year, and I'm sure it will be (it can't be worse).

But let me use a sports analogy, if I can.

After lots of success, every winning team eventually has to go into rebuilding mode to get back to where they want to be. Hell, even the New York Yankees sucked in the '80s. And 2004 was my World Series. This year, I guess my life played with guys called up from Triple-A who weren't quite ready for The Show. And it'll be another year of "rebuilding" before I get myself where I want to be. There's a number of things I need to do, but I won't get into that here. So 2006 is simply Year 2 of the Nick Rebuilding Plan.

Things will be a lot different in 2007 - I'll be a lot different. And that's gonna be my year I think.

And as for a resolution for the next 12 months?

Move forward. In every sense.

*EDIT: Me and Chris went for Chinese food tonight. At the end of dinner, we got the usual fortune cookies. My fortune said "Your fantasy will come true."

I couldn't do anything but laugh, since the chance of that happening are..well there is no chance, let's put it that way.

Nice to see even the Chinese are mocking me now, along with God and whomever else is pulling the strings. What a day this has been. One thing, then another - if my house catches fire tonight I don't know I'd even be too surprised.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Happy Festivus everyone!

In keeping with the Festivus traditions, we will now proceed with the airing of grievances...

On second thought, that would take far too long.

And as for the feats of strength, I only try to fight when I'm drunk, and I never find any takers.

Catching up...

I promised you when I began posting again that we had some catchup to do, so I'll try and finish that off today, and then we can get back to the current biznass and ridiculousness.

Back in November, Tara decided to throw a dinner party for everyone, except Chris and Jenna because they're ugly and weren't invited. Actually, they were out of town, in Kamloops. Anyway, it was a pretty fun night - the food was excellent, and we all ate too much - and we also got drunk off wine, which is new for us. (See? We're expanding our horizons!).

Unfortunately, I don't have any funny quotes from that night - but one of the highlights was definitely Tara's brother Paulo. He was HAMMERED, and entertaining us all - especially Bobby, Buchs and me when he did a little 'routine' at the top of the stairs. It was aimed at a certain someone, but we'll leave that you your imagination. Fuck was it funny, but that's all I'll say aboot that. I also had a wicked burn on Kelsey, and doubled its effectiveness by not telling her what I said after we all laughed.

I'd tell ya right here and now but I forget what it was.

Between the dinner party and now, there were a lot of the usual parties - my house, Sean and Rachel's house, Lambie's, and Jer's too. They all kind of blend together, but some quotes...

"I wish I wore makeup." - Buchs

"A nosebleed is like a period from your nose." - Kels

"I had to febreze my room once after a chick left." - Buchs, on classy broads.

"I hate how no matter what I do you always find a way to make fun of me!" - Kels, to Chris after he made fun of her dinner selection at Jimy Mac's. Yep, that's vintage Chris for you. He's a douchebag.

"I do all my own stunts." - Kels

Rachel: I used to be like an elephant in the memory department.
Bucholtz: I'm like an elephant in the penis department.

"I'm the perfect example of a guy who's not good at anything." - my buddy Steve from work, drunk at the staff Christmas party.

Kels: Craft fair?! Let's go!
Me: Uhhh...no
Kels: Do you think they sell Kraft Dinner?

After Buchs had a blue mouth from eating a Push Pop...
"Yeah, I was eating out Smurfette."

Kels: I love People magazine, because it's trash, but it's classy trash.
Me: Just like you!

(Burn!)

Me and Kels also went to a Canucks game back in November, which was freakin' fun. I hadn't been to a game in a couple years, and Kels had only been to one ever, when she was 13 or something... They were playing the Blackhawks, and won, which was good. Also, we spent a considerable amount of money on $7 beers, so that was fun too. All in all, a good night. Best money I'd spent in awhile, actually.

And of course, we could barely get through a period without something stupid happening...

"The Sedins are twins?" - Kels (obviously).

"I wish I lived at Canuck's Place." - Kels, unaware it was a hospice for sick kids. I'll give her a break on this one I guess.

And that folks, is the backlog of stories and quotes from the past two months I was on hiatus. Now, only new stuff to arrive. Sometime in the new year, there will be a "Best Of" section added to the left side, and I've got a couple decent posts already in the works...some funny, some sad, some just plain good. Maybe a few that're all three rolled into one blog-orific package. Wait and see...

Happy Christmas Eve-Eve.

The best two things I've heard since October...

"Brad talked to me today!" - Kels

"Let's go." - Brad

Soon, B-rad. Soon.

:: No More ::

This is the second consecutive weekend where I've had one morning where I wake up feeling like a complete retard. Not hungover, mind you, but I just feel like a moron. Probably has something to do with Ian feeding me straight vodka and me actually drinking it.

But I'm done with that now. Sooo done.

No more.

"I need more booze...because I'm funny!" - Amanda

"Are you loaded?!" - Amanda again...then she fell over after asking the question.

"Even your olive skin can't contend with my blackness." - Buchs, to Kels.

Amanda: Why can't I call Bobby?
Me: Because that's the T.V. remote.

Buchs: You know...the hospital waitress?
Me: The nurse?
Buchs: Yeah, that's it.

"Jesus is the best wingman ever. He'll take the fat chick every time." - Buchs.

"It's time to say 'Get on your knees or just get out.'" - Bobby, on his philosophy.

"I'm making a fool of myself." - Amanda.

(as an aside, notice the quote variety? Not just one or two people. Whiners)

Last night was a bit of a mess - Amanda, for example, was drunk by noon! It was her last day of classes, so she was drinking with her school buddies. A few of us hung out and my place for awhile, then me, Amanda and Kelsey headed to Sharks.

Amanda lasted only about a half hour before running out of steam, so she left. Bobby came by for a bit too, and bought some Jack Frosts. Then he left to go pick up a wandering Bucholtz, who was on 96th sitting on the side of the road, chugging 7-UP out of a 2-litre bottle.

So the rest of the night, we had a couple more drinks, then Bobby came and picked me up at about 1:15 and I left Kels there...not sure where she ended up really. I came home and passed out, woke up at 4:45 and was a little confused as to what the hell was going on.

As an aside, I really don't like those mornings where you wake up and nobody's around, and you don't really know where or how everybody ended up, but that tends to happen a lot lately.

Meh.

:: Back by popular demand ::

At long last, the hiatus is over. I know I said the blog was discontinued til Brad got better - and I still stand by my claim that it doesn't feel right without him - but I've also come to the realization that it will be awhile yet until he's up and given'r again, and I know you people don't want to wait that long.

Turns out you just can't get enough of me. Can't say I blame you either, what with my clever wit, good looks, and charming personality.

So I'm back baby.

Since Halloween I have actually been writing stuff down, with the plan of making a few monster posts to catch Brad up on what's he missed. I'm not going to recap every single event for you right now, cuz that would take awhile, but I will toss a few quotes your way, collected at times over the last few months. More will come later.

So what's been shaking the last few months? Well, for starters, there were many, many hospital visits in November - such large crowds that we were once asked to leave by a nurse. (On a related note, Cindy wants more people to visit again now. Go say hi to Brad if you've got the time. Even if you don't, make the time and do it anyway. It's the holidays and people need to be with their friends).

Some hospital quotes....

Somebody: We shouldn't be so loud.
Kels: Who cares, everybody here is in a coma.

After the second night, some of us went to The Spaghetti Factory for a late dinner. Scott, Bobby and Buchs ordered Caesars. At one point, Kels just broke into a mini fit of laughter - not even because she said something funny but because she almost said it. Yes, we're now so impressed with ourselves we're laughing at stuff we don't even say. What was so funny you ask?

"Scott, can I eat your bean?"

Yep. Not even going to say anything more about that. Nothing, I swear.

There was also one strangely funny moment, when Kels and I realized we had both ordered the EXACT same thing, right down to drinks and appetizers:

Caesar salad
Corona
Seafood Linguine

Buchs: You ordered the same thing? You're like an old married couple!
Me and Kels at the same time: Shutup!!
Buchs: Proved my point right there.

Ugh. Outsmarted by Kyle Bucholtz. Youch.

And, now to liquidate some of the older quotes - from the Halloween party at Dave's house. Brad, I'm doing this for your benefit, because I know you won't have any memory of the night. But here's the rundown: You were Batman, Sean was a hideous-looking Robin. There were young girls there who were sloots. You may or may not have got with one of them - I honestly can't remember. Just to make it sound better, let's say you got with three. At once.

Nice work.

"I wish you could just push a button and be drunk." - Kels

"What's in my pocket? Oh, it's cheese." - Kels

When some young sluts left early...
"What, curfew?" - Kels

Buchs (to some girl): Wanna go upstairs?
Kelsey (butting in): Worse two minutes of your life.

Jer: I don't know why Colorado signed May.
Brad: Maybe because his last name is a month.

"I have the hugest wedgie. It's like a taco in my ass." - Brad.

Wow, sure feels good to see Brad's name attached to a stupid quote again, even if it is old.

Tune in later on while I purge the rest of the quotes and stories while we play catch-up.

Coming up: Dinner party at Tara's house, some random parties, and me and Kelsey go to a Canucks' game.

I know I said earlier this blog was on hiatus until Brad got better, but I'm making an exception today. And no, it's not a happy exception either. Sorry.

When I was five or six years old we bought a dog, Buffy. Small, maltese, used to fit in my dad's shirt pocket. Somehow, the little guy stuck around for 19 years - long, long after most dogs have had their day.

Still not sure how he managed that, to be honest - thats' 133 in dog years, for christ's sakes. It got to the point these last few years and months where I seriously wondered if he'd stick around forever.

Sure, he got blinder and blinder, and deafer, and the last months seemed to really struggle breathing at times, but somehow he always fought it off.

'Til yesterday, when we had to put him down. He just couldn't breathe this time...poor guy.

I don't really know what else to say, other than he's gone and I miss him.

Just one more thing to tack onto this trainwreck that's been the last 2 months I guess.

See ya pal.

These last two days have been, without a doubt, some of the worst I can ever remember. I don't even know how to put it into words.

We're all thankful to hear that things seem to be slowly getting better, though. Now all we need is for B-rad to wake up.

We're right with ya buddy.