Weekend report

Pretty productive weekend.

After work on Friday, my agent took KT and I around downtown and showed us some condos that I was interested in. One at Bay/Wellesley, and two in Yorkville. There are several factors that I'm finding are important to me as a renter:

1) Locker - I have tons of army equipment that needs to go somewhere. A locker is critical for this purpose.

2) Parking - If I can rent that space out, it's another $100-150 a month.

3) Amenities - If I can cancel my gym membership, that's another forty-something dollars a month.

4) Furnished - Makes it easy to move in and move out of a place if I don't have to worry about many belongings. This feature is awesome for short-term renters, like me.

Saturday morning, I went for a 4 km practice run in anticipation of the 5 km charity run on Sunday. I just needed to make sure I was in good enough shape. I spent the rest of the day working on the gazebo site and cleaning up a felled tree. I built up the ground around the site so as to raise the grade and discourage the water from flowing down into the site. It was tough working against time, watching the storm clouds roll in. It appeared to be only partially successful, but I think it sufficiently reduces the flow of water into the site to avoid future drainage issues future. Progress is slow - I'm maybe half way through clearing the actual site - a 8' radius circle, about 4 inches deep. I'll have to dig down another few inches to improve drainage. Hopefully I'll be finished the gazebo by the end of summer. Had a barbeque with my family and some of my sister's friends. I was the lucky guy stuck outside in the rain, tending to the grill. In any case, I must have spent 9 hours or so outside, and came away with a nice sun burn.

Sunday, I ran the Markham Stouffville Hospital Foundation Legacy 5km. It was pouring rain and kinda cold and miserable in general. I clocked in at 23:21.1 min (4:40 km split time). Not too bad, I guess. Spent the rest of the day shopping.

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YYZ

"I Love You, Man" really rekindled my interest in Rush, which happens to be a staple of Classic Rock stations in the Ottawa area. So, I went ahead and downloaded YYZ from iTunes. I didn't get too carried away, though - just downloaded that one song because I don't hear it played on the radio as frequently as the others.

Fuckin Rogers. Those bastards clawed back my $15 credit, claiming that it was given to me in error. When I called them, Customer Care lied their asses off, at first saying that it was a bundle discount that I shouldn't have received because I don't have a bundle. I called the rep on her bullshit and she backpedaled and deferred responsibility - sent me to Customer Relations (which is apparently different from Customer Care).

I spoke to the Customer Relations rep, who actually had the audacity to lecture me about the primary goal of a business (ie. to make money). Right, that's why you do your due diligence BEFORE agreeing to a service contract (bitch). Because that's what a REAL business does. I really don't see why I have to pay for a Rogers mistake. She tried to convince me that I'm actually lucky that Roger's didn't decide to retractively bill me for the previous months that I'd received the credit. WTF? So, let's see - I'm getting fucked every month for the next two-and-a--half years, and I'm lucky that Rogers didn't come and fuck me last month. Bitch, I'm being fucked RIGHT NOW - do you think the timing really matters to me? Escalate.

So I got to speak to a Customer Relations manager, who offered me a $5 credit. She explained that the 'system' looks for situations where credit > half the plan. Thus, she can give a $5, $10, or $15 credit, but because my plan is $24.50 ($17.50 + $7), and I already have a separate $7 credit, the largest credit I can receive is $5 ($5 + $7 = $12 ~ 50% of $24.50). She did offer to give me my $15 credit back, but mentioned that it'd get clawed back every other month (nets out to $7.50 / mo), and I'd have to call in again to get the credit re-instated.

So I accepted the $5 monthly credit, but after some more moaning and griping, got her to give me a free month of service as compensation.

I guess in the end, my plan is still pretty good (but not excellent). I take no consolation in that, because for some reason, my ass hurts and there's a bad taste in my mouth.

Anyway, another trip pic. I like taking pictures of stairs and flowers. I don't know why.


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Trip Pics

Morning Kisses

Just came home from watching "I Love You, Man." It was a pretty entertaining movie. Anyway, that's not the point of this post. You sit through an evening show, maybe 1.5 to 2 hours long, not talking, not doing much of anything. It's been approximately 12 hours or more since you last brushed your teeth, and between then and now, there's been 3 meals and maybe a snack. The cumulative effect - bad breath. Good thing you can always pop that piece of gum into your mouth to cover it up.

I've always wondered how they did it back in the day with no dental care - no dental hygeine whatsoever. Every time I watch one of those era Hollywood flicks - say set in the medieval times or maybe a western, a couple of characters kiss and I can't help but think about how much they must stink and how bad their breath must be. I think about that every single time I see it. Every. Single. Time.

I guess they just got used to it, or maybe never knew anything better.

Anyway, I'm going to get my boots resoled tomorrow (hopefully). It's only been 2 years, and I haven't worn through the sole completely, but a chunk of the sole at the toe fell off. I have a habit of tapping the toe against the ground when I'm impatient or nervous, and all that tapping has taken a toll. I also need to find some red-brown shoe polish to match my Red Wing Boots. I completely didn't think about maintenance when I bought them. No Matter, I still like them a lot, and I've received a lot of compliments about them.

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Bamboozled

A couple of months ago, it came to my attention that most (> 90 %) of those "made with bamboo fibre" clothing are labelling and advertising their products in a misleading manner.

Basically, the clothing is made of polyester. Polyester that is derived from a bamboo source. Thus, the clothing labels should read "made with polyester" and not "made with bamboo"

Apparently, the culprit were the textile manufacturers/suppliers who successfully duped everyone with a claim that was just plain wrong. Among the victims (apart from the consumers) were ethically minded retailers such as MEC and Lulu Lemon, who both positioned the polyesters as natural bamboo and environmentally friendly.

I was always a little wary of that bamboo clothing... I always imagined that bamboo clothing would be really coarse and scratchy - worse than hemp, maybe. But when I felt the smooth soft texture of the bamboo material, I was immediately suspicious that it was a little too smooth... a little too soft.

Anyway, this all irritates me a bit. It's like all those stupid bio-plastics - "biodegradable" plastic pens and cups and etc. Sure, they're biodegradable - under high O2 and UV light conditions... I say, if it won't mostly rot away within a year in my garden compost, it isn't biodegradable in the sense that the normal consumer understands.

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Fire Sale!

According to Wikipedia, a Fire Sale is "the sale of goods at extremely discounted prices, typically when the seller faces bankruptcy or other impending distress. The term may originally have been based on the sale of goods at a heavy discount due to fire damage."

As it turns out, the original meaning isn't dead. Bootmaster on Yonge St. is having a Fire Sale following an electrical fire they recently had. All showroom pieces are 50-80% off. Mostly, I couldn't see any smoke/water damage to anything but a couple pairs of boots. I came away this afternoon with a beautiful full-grain leather belt with braided horse-hair reinforcement/decorative layer. It's stiff as hell owing to the thickness of the leather. Retails for $109, but it was half-off. It was the last brown-coloured 34" belt, so I snapped it up. They still have a 34" Black version, also 50% off, if anyone's interested. It'll fit a 32" - 36" waist, but once it starts stretching, I'd say it's probably closer to 33" - 37" waist. The leather is quite thick, so I wouldn't expect that much stretching anyhow.

I didn't like the buckle it came with, so I replaced it with one I got in Japan a couple years ago.

I think I'll go back and check out some boots this weekend. Sizes are limited, so I won't get my hopes up. I'll be hunting for a pair of black boots, simple-looking, with a western heel. Something a little dressier, that can be polished.

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