paulyblog

We take posession of the house today!  I am so anxious. We are going there at 5:30pm tonight.  We will start by priming all the walls that we want to paint, then we will pick out the colours.  We got a bunch of paint cards last night so we will compare them with our washroom tonight.  I am also going to paint the computer room and the upstairs storage room.

My shed looks so big now that there is practically nothing in it.  I can’t wait to put my toys in there.

We don’t have to worry about cleaning anything either because they did all the cleaning already. They even shampooed the 2 carpets!  Bonus!

I will put some more pictures online as soon as I get some.

Jenn, Life

la·zy (lz)adj. la·zi·er, la·zi·est

That’s right, lately I’ve been pretty lazy. I haven’t wrote anything in the blog since I left for Ottawa so I will begin from there. (You better get comfy, it’s long)
The Ottawa trip was a lot of fun. This time we got to stay longer than a couple of days. We left on Friday June 30th right after work. By the time we made it to Ottawa it was past 3AM. I don’t speed much anymore since my record is now clean (I learned the hard way).

Canada Day was lots of fun. We went downtown, there was a gazillion people. There were people setup on the streets playing music, doing tricks, selling crap and trying to talk to you about Jesus. I still can’t believe how much money some guy made by taking a step ladder and doing a back flip off of it. The crowd around this guy was huge. When he finally jumped I was like “that’s it?”. I thought something cooler was going to happen. He could of set himself on fire or something. Then I would of paid money to see that. Apparently there was about 300,000 people in that part of town that day.

After we walked around the crowded streets we went to the Aulde Dubliner in the market to drink some beer. We ended up taking over the patio and drank beer for over 6 hours. We saw all kinds of people in those 6 hours (just look at the guy in the blue latex suit). I also got a funny video of a bum doing a cartwheel. Of course since it was Canada Day they had special menu’s out. To give you an idea how special, some chicken nachos were $17. It made for an expensive afternoon (new home owners). It was nice an sunny pretty much the whole day until the fireworks. It started to drizzle when it was time for the fireworks but they turned out good anyways.

On Sunday we did what we usually do when we go to Ottawa. We hit up Ikea and the Costco’s. Yeah I know but we don’t have those stores here. We needed some stuff for the new house so it turned out good. Last year when I went I only bought a brush to wash the dishes (best damn brush though). On Sunday night we were going to check out Barrymores for 80’s night but after waiting in line for close to an hour we decided to leave. We went to Social and sat in the courtyard for some drinks instead. It was a perfect night for patio drinking.

On Monday we went to the Museum of Civilization. I’m not big on museums but it was alright. The main feature was Petra - Lost City of Stone. They also had expositions about the history of Canada, First Nations People, Canada Post, Nursing, and Ice Skating. We also saw “Kilimanjaro - To the Roof of Africa” in the huge Imax dome. That was pretty cool. Later that afternoon I helped my cousin build a deck off the back of his house. It turned out pretty nice. I can’t wait to drink beer on it now.

On Tuesday we headed off to Sudbury right after eating breakfast at Denny’s. I’ve been to Denny’s twice now, it’s great. In Sudbury we went out for supper with Jenn’s friend Anya since it was her birthday not too long ago. Then we did some more shopping.

Wednesday was back home!

So in the last week I ended up spending quite a bit of money on shopping, restaurants and beer. It was alright though because we are on holidays. It could of been worse, we could of been in Calgary at the stampede spending way more money. I think buying a house was a better choice though.

Tomorrow I start eating better, exercising more and getting stuff done. We have less than 2 weeks left until we have to move. I still have so much packing to do, I am not looking forward to it.

Canada, Fun, Jenn, Life, Useless

Mini-putting, batting and bowling.  Those are all things that I haven’t done in the longest time.  Well except for Saturday.

We started off by hitting up the mini-putt.  I did pretty good and ended up beating Jenn.  After that we tried out the batting cages.  I remembered why I don’t play baseball, I can’t hit worth shit.  Jenn was smart and tried the soft ball instead of the hard ball.

We went to see Nacho Libre for the matinee and I was rather dissapointed with it.  I figured it would be a lot funnier but it wasn’t.  If you haven’t seen it yet, wait until it comes out on DVD or even better, wait until a friend rents it and go watch it there.

After supper we went to a friends, drank some beers and went bowling.  Bowling is really not my thing.  I usually can’t hit 100 points but this time I was really drunk and I think the beer helped.  Our first game everyone was laughing at me because I only had 26 points after the 5th frame.  At the end of that game I got lucky and got 2 strikes in a row and ended up beating my good friend.  He was pretty mad because I beat him and I suck.  The funniest part was I killed him again the next game.  Out of 10 frames I got 5 strikes! I finished with a 184!  I warned him that when I hit my 8th beer I am an awesome bowler but he didn’t believe me.  The best part is I have the pictures to prove it!  I don’t think I will ever let him forget how much he sucks at bowling now.

After bowling we did the mistake of going to get poutine at the worlds best poutine place.  It’s always so tasty (loaded with cheese) but you always end up feeling like you’re gonna die after.  I’m sure there has got to be over 1000 calories in one poutine.  We went back to my friends new house and drank more beer.  I got to bed it was past 3:30am.

 
Fun Saturday.

Fun, Jenn, Life, Useless

I did it. My first half marathon, completed.

We left at 6am Saturday morning with the bus from the local sports store. I hate taking the bus. I thought we were going to travel in a coach but it was more like a city bus. The toilet stunk before anyone even used it. It was a long ride but it went by fast. I bought JPod on Friday night since Raymi’s been blogging about it for a while now. I read a hundred and some pages. When we got to Ottawa we got lost for about 20 minutes. We finally made it to the hotel at about 4pm. Jenn had to run at 5pm so it was a big rush. It was rather stressful but Jenn ended up making it in time for the race.

On Saturday night we went to the mall to get some sun glasses because I forgot mine at home. I also bought a pair of shorts since mine don’t fit anymore. We drove around for like an hour trying to find a place to eat. Believe it or not, I had a hard time finding a place that had pasta. We went to St. Hubert in Gatineau thinking they might have a few pasta items on their menu but we were wrong. We ended up going to Dinty’s, I had some spaghetti and chicken. I went to bed around midnight. Taking the bus makes me tired.

Sunday morning was the race. I woke up at 6:57am to Jenn yelling “What time is it!” thinking we had slept in because the sun was bright and early. We got ready and drove to City Hall where the start line was. It was kinda hard to get there because all the street closures. The full marathon started earlier at around 8am. Too bad we didn’t start that early. At 9am it was already +15 celsius. The half marathon started at 10:15am. I was nervous but I felt good. At the 5km marker 30 minutes had gone by. My heart rate was just below 170. It was a good start, I didn’t leave too fast. At around 7-8km that’s when I knew it was going to be a killer run. My heart rate was getting up there. It was in the 180’s and it stayed up there. We passed a few water stations where I stopped to get a drink and splash some on my head and face. It was +37 celsius when factor in the heat from the pavement and the humidex. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. At one point we crossed a bridge and the sun was just killing me. There wasn’t a whole lot of shade to run in. I found that the hardest part. One of the water stations was out of water, at the next water station I drank way too much and started getting cramps. When we got back to Dow lake at around 14-15km I had to start walking. I couldn’t handle the heat anymore. I would walk a bit, run a bit, walk a bit, run a bit. The last 3km was the hardest. The crowd was cheering on the runners. You started seeing more and more people dropping to the ground. Paramedics were all over the place taking care of fallen runners.

I crossed the finish line in 2:22 into the race. My official time was 2:18. My goal was to run it in 2:00 but that didn’t happen. The heat is what killed me. I didn’t have a chance to train on hot days. I think the hottest day in my training was about +18 celsius.
When I finished the race I drank 2 full bottles of water. When I tried to sit down on the curb I almost fell over. I was exhausted. In the resting area they had cottage cheese, bagels and gatorade. The were also giving free massages but the line up was huge.

We went for lunch at Oregano’s in the market. They were still having brunch at 2:00pm. That’s the first time I had bacon, eggs and beer. The service sucked. The guy was rude and not helpful. We won’t be going back there.

After lunch it was time to head back to the hotel since the bus was about to leave. I showered quick and we were off close to 4pm. We made it to pembroke where we stopped at the truck stop for supper. It was actually pretty good and the service was great. We were able to get the race results with my laptop from a wireless network from the truck stop. Everyone on the bus was around me asking for their time.

By the time we got into town it was about 2:30am. I was really tired and it was impossible to sleep on the bus because it was very uncomfortable. I got to bed at about 3am. Jenn had to work today at 9am. I don’t know how she did it. I slept in until 1pm. I was so sore this morning when I woke up. I had a hard time getting to the shower. It’s ok because I have a massage scheduled for tomorrow evening.

I installed the air conditioners this afternoon because it was +31 celsius. I hate the heat.

I think I might do the Toronto Marathon in October. By then it should be a little cooler outside. Tomorrow night everone that I trained with are going to East Side Marios for supper. I wonder who will want to do the Toronto Marathon with me…

Jenn, Life, Running

Monday was 4 years with Jenn (long and painful, just kiddin’).  I’ve been pretty busy this week and forgot to blog about it.  I got her some flowers and a kick ass vase.

We went to Montana’s for supper, it was actually Jenn’s pick and bonus for me.  The food was pretty good, we ate so much.  They ran out of Texas Bold sauce which really sucked.  That’s the only sauce I ever get for my ribs.  I didn’t know which other one to try.  I ended up getting the apple butter sauce which wasn’t as good.  Everyone’s been telling me to try the wings since they are so good so I did, they were pretty good.

After supper we came back home and watched 24!  It was pretty awesome.  I wish I could just watch the entire series at once so I could find out what happens!

Jenn, Life

Last night was our annual tax party.  At the end of every tax season we have a tax party and all the food and booze is included.  It was fun, there was tons of appetizers.  I had some back ribs and mashed potatoes.  I squeezed in half a slice of chocolate cake for dessert. In between all that there was also many Molson Canadians.  After supper a lot of people went home but about a dozen of us went out on the patio. Edmonton won their series, that was amazing. We stayed there until midnight which probably wasn’t the greatest because Jenn wasn’t feeling too good last night.  I should of went home early to take care of her because she always takes care of me when I am sick or not feeling good.  Sorry Jenn.

Note: 2nd time I have some XANGO before going to bed when I was drunk and 2nd time I am not hung over in the morning. One of the many uses for XANGO 

Jenn, Life, Xango

It’s almost 3am, I am tired, I am finishing my pizza and diet pepsi.  Tonight was round 2 at the hospital.  This time Jenn was the patient.  At around midnight she got up and wanted to go to the hospital.  Every once in a while she get’s dizzy, her heart races and she feels like passing out.  Her doctor told her to go to emerge the next time it happened.  Tonight was the night, not even 5 minutes after I crawled into bed.  I owe it to her, she took care of me earlier this week when I was sick.  Well I am all done my pizza, it’s bed time.

Jenn, Life, Useless

Last night started off good.  I went to my mom’s place for a BBQ because my brother is in town.  The food was awesome.  After supper I went for my run with the running group.  When I got back home I was itchy all over, especially under my arms.  I showered and then my cousin from Calgary called.  We talked on the phone for a bit and then I noticed that my body was full of red bumps.  I got hives.  It’s really weird because I’ve never had anything like it before.  Jenn brought me to the hospital to get checked out.  The nurse at the check in counter had a quick look and recommended benadryl to stop the hives.  Sure enough I decided to get the needle instead of the pills.  Well I don’t do very well with needles, and I warned the nurse.  Not even 5 minutes after the needle I started getting warm and dizzy so they brought me to the back to lay down.  It sure beats sitting around in the waiting room with 40 other sick people, and I got to sleep.  Jenn read her book while I was sleeping.  Time goes by so much faster when you’re sleeping.  I was there for about 3 hours and ended up sleeping just over 2 hours.  When I woke up at 11:30 the hives were gone and the doctor finally came around to seeing me.  He thinks it might be the dust from the road when I did my run earlier.  It was very windy and there was a lot of sand and dust blowing around.  I just hope it doesn’t happen again.  What a way to spend the night.

Jenn, Life, Useless

Last night was amazing! That was definately the best Matt Good concert I’ve ever been to. I was also very impressed by Melissa McClelland. Her performance was excellent and she even went back up with Matt to perform a duo at the end. We lucked out and got some pretty sweet seats right in front of the stage. I think we were about 15 feet away, look at the pictures.

As you can see from my last post I got to meet Matt after the concert. I was so damn nervous. When it came time to talk to him I couldn’t spit out the words. I got my Loser Anthems B-Sides and Rarities promo disc signed, it’s one of the rarest Matt Good item I have (still haven’t found Lo-Fi B-Sides EP). On my way out of his bus I turned around and thanked him for the xmas gift (signed picture of him and Jenny) and told him I was Paul from paulyblog.com. He remembered who I was at that point. Then I shook his hand and told him it was nice to finally meet him. Don’t ask me why I shook his hand, I know he hates shaking hands, he’s mentioned it in a podcast or online at one point before but I was nervous as hell and forgot. I’m sorry Matt. Don’t worry though, I’m not sick.

Not only did I get to meet Matt Good, I also got to meet Lauren White a.k.a. Raymi. My friend Ashley mentioned Raymi was on tour with Matt so I checked her blog to see if she was going to be in North Bay. On her blog it only showed the Kingston, Waterloo and Ottawa show so I e-mailed her to see if she was going to North Bay. By the time I got to the hotel Ashley messaged me saying Raymi was going to be at the show. About 5 minutes after that I got an e-mail from Raymi saying she was already in North Bay so I told her I would see her at the show. When Matt hit the stage I saw Raymi off to the side of the stage. During Matt’s encore I managed to get there and introduced myself. She’s really down to earth and nice to talk to. She’s awesome (and better link me to her website)! We talked for a while and she told us if we wanted to get anything signed to meet her in the back by the tour bus. It was really nice to meet you Raymi and thanks for the info. That made my day.

I uploaded a few of the many pictures I took. Enjoy!

Fun, Jenn, Life, Matt Good, Music

On our Ottawa trip last weekend I took some pictures of….

Jenn drinking on the bus

Us drinking some green beer on St. Patrick’s Day

Me and Jenn at the Sens game (in which they won 4-2!).

Our visit to the Parliament where we saw some protesters

And other pictures of us having fun

Fun, Jenn, Life, Useless