Canada Day 2005

Thought I’d pop in another post on the progress being made on the bar front. Things have been going so slowly that I ended up actually taking a day off work to get some work done on this project! Actually, I had a ‘personal day’ that was going to expire if I didn’t use it by the end of the month so I figured it would give me a chance to get a little extra work done on the bar, not to mention get laundry and my taxes done! Pictured to the left here is my attempt at capturing what the oak pieces look like after two coats of stain and three coats of varnish. Shiny, isn’t it? What you see is the product of almost 2 weeks of effort. Every step takes me an evening, because you have to let the stain / varnish dry thoroughly before either sanding it or re-coating it. Plus, most of these pieces had to have both sides done, doubling the time! The good news is that I have about 2 other ‘groups’ of pieces that I have to work on, and most of these are simpler pieces with a lot of 1-sided finish coming up. After those are all done, it’ll be the true building time. Can’t wait for that stage! I have to question the people who submitted testimonials on the website where I got the design saying it took them 3 weeks to build the bar! Okay, maybe they truly meant ‘build’ and not prepare. In my opinion, there’s no way on God’s green earth someone could possibly do all the cutting, routing, sanding, staining, varnishing, dry fitting, and putting together this whole bar! NO WAY!! Maybe if they worked full time on it. Naw. Granted, I had to learn a lot of things along the way (namely how to properly use a table saw and router), but just these last few steps of finishing take so long…

Hey gang, well, as the title implies, for me at least, Christmas has more or less came and went. Jody and I decided to celebrate Christmas before she left for BC to spend time with her family. Yup, that’s right, Jonah and I will be bachelors over the Christmas break. Well, by break, I mean a couple days. I decided not to take any holidays this year, and am instead saving my pennies and time for when I might really need them. Hopefully it doesn’t mean I won’t be relaxing, but I’ll still be going in to the office to keep up with what’s gong on, and clean up my office for the new year. The last month or so has been pretty hectic for me it seems. Now, I strive on being busy, but I see I haven’t really posted much lately to keep everyone up to speed. So, I’ll try and rectify that a bit right now.

Well, the chips all fell where they may, and in the aftermath, 3 people walked away happy, and the rest stumbled away drunk. Such was the case at the conclusion of my first stab at tournament director of a Poker game. Seven people braved the weather and a great time was had by all. Check out all the pics. I started the day by visiting Rob at 10am to pick up chips and some tips on how to play. I then picked up a fancy new poker table top, which was put to great use by us last night. Participants in the inaugural game included Dave Smith, John Kean, Greg Herage, Adam Stewart, Matt Scase and Rob Sample. Rob was a surprise addition, given that he was supposed to be playing all day at another tourney. Well, turns out he got done early, hopped a bus, and showed up half cut and with a nice $20 in his hands to join the action! Huzzah for that. He made it possible for us to do a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place game. Ironically, Rob was the only real player at the table, and was the first to be taken out. Never trust us beginners. We’re VERY unpredictable, right Rob? We set the game up with increasing blinds every 20 minutes, and $10,000 buy in for $20. I think it’s safe to say everyone had a great time, and we’ll definitely have to make this a regular occurence. What do you say boys, monthly? The table has room for 8 people, so we can have a rotating cast of characters depending who’s available. After all, if Matt can win, anyone can, right? Ha ha ha. The exit order was (I think): Rob, Adam, me, Dave, John, Greg, Matt. Congrats Matt. Pizza’s on you next time 😉 Of course, to make the night sweeter, we kept going by playing vids till the wee hours… Halo, Driv3r, DOA Volleyball (yes, I’ll work on that hack sometime). Good times. I never knew I was such an efficient killer in Halo when intoxicated! And the grand finale was Dave, Matt and I watching music DVD’s till 4am! Huzzah. Let’s do it again sometime boyz.

Seasons Greetings bloggerinos! As aluded to in my previous post, I will now write out a slightly longer account of my past few days off. All said, it was a great few days, although I missed my better half over my time off, and didn’t play nearly enough video games (none) or watch nearly enough movies (2, both yesterday!). However, I got a fair bit of house chores done, messed around with a few computers, exercised a good little bit, and even worked! Even though I was home alone for the actual holidays, I managed to snag two great Christmas meals. On Christmas eve, my sister invited me to her place to celebrate with her, Patrick and Helena. It was my niece’s first Christmas, so how could I turn that down? Then on Christmas day, I was invited to join the crazy Clyman’s clan for Turkey dinner. Since I had missed Oktoberfest (and the associated Turkey ) this year in K-W, I jumped at the chance to feast on a plump bird and the trimmings fixed up by Roger and Sharon! Thanks to all my ‘hosts’ over the holidays, making sure I can’t lose any weight 😉