Surfergeeks

…does this city suck?

How the hell is it that a ultra-conservative city like London end up electing all Liberal politicians? Good god, this is so conservative (insert Match Game response here) that if there was an Amish party you would think they would be shoo-in to win.

But no, we go and vote red across the board. Very very weird.

In other (humorous) election news: I went and voted yesterday…sorta…

You see, right now I currently pre-occupied with dying of the cold. So, yesterday it’s time to leave for work and I was planning on stopping to vote. I grab the voter registration card and off I go. Show up, hand them the card, they give me the ballot, I mark my ‘X’ and off to work I go.

I get home last night, notice that Nikki’s voter registration card is still there. “How come you didn’t vote?” I ask.
“That’s your card,” came the reply.
WTF? It turns out that I inadvertantly grabbed Nic’s card in the midst of my delerium. No one noticed. So, Nikki ended up voting yesterday and I didn’t. I could have went back out after I got home and voted again (using my card this time) but I just didn’t feel like going back out. Ah well…

Some guy started up a petition to bring an Ikea to London. To quote the London Free Press, “it’s one of London’s hottest retail urban legends”. Anyhoo, this guy started the petition hoping to get 1000 names. He’s already at 3200 and the list keeps growing by the minute! Click below to sign.

http://www.PetitionOnline.com/ikealnd/petition.html

Hopefully Ikea will pay attention to it and finally give us the store we need and deserve! Hell, if this city can support 3 Home Depots and a huge Rona surely it can support 1 Ikea.

Ok, Rob got a letter from Columbia House today. (Background: he has purchased some DVDs from them)

The contents of the letter: We are sorry to inform you that your merchandise has been returned as undeliverable.

Does this make sense? To send a letter to an address that previously could not be sent to? Does Columbia House just assume the letter will be received? It was, but that’s not the point. Would it not be unreasonable to think that the letter would go undeliverable as well? If the address was wrong the first time, the address is probably going to be wrong the second time.

The other weird this about this; what happend to the DVDs? Why did they end up undeliverable? They had the right address, as we can verify from the notice we received that informed us they couldn’t be sent.

It’s all very, very stange.

First – I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOo out of shape it isn’t funny. Helping Tracy move yesterday there were a couple times when I thought my body was just going to go on strike. Sigh. Need to get in shape…sooo lazy….get in shape…sooo lazy….

After the move it was decided that we would go to the drive-in. Actually, that’s not quite true. It had been discussed earlier in the week about going to the drive-in. The final decision, in spite of some last minute whining, was made over the yummy pizza Tracy bought us for helping her. Now, our options were somewhat limited – we could either see Shrek2 & Harry Potter (both of which we’d seen) or Dodgeball & The Day After Tomorrow. Obviously it would be the latter that won out. Nic wasn’t too thrilled about seeing Dodgeball, and, to be honest, I wasn’t very excited about it either. I’m not, by any remote stretch of anyone’s imagination, a Ben Stiller fan. In fact, I’m rather ashamed that we share a birthday. Regardless, we both wanted to see Day After Tomorrow (DAT).

So, we get to the drive-in about 4 minutes before the box office opens. There are maybe 30 or so cars waiting to get in. There’s only one money-taker working so only one lineup. Naturally, there are two lineups of cars though (one east-bound, one west-bound). The first half dozen cars or so in the “line” that actually led to the booth wouldn’t let any of the other cars in but after that everyone started behaving properly and each car would let one car in front of it. Apparently this made a “customer” (and I use that term in the loosest way possible. A customer would generally abide by the rules set forth of the establishment – namely – wait your turn to pay) upset. He pulls out of line, pulls up to the booth on the other side, hops out of his “oh so cool” white 4 door pickup goes around to the money-taker, literally throws the money in the window, goes back to his truck and spins the tires taking off into the parking area. The manager guy (who is at least 70) shows up, gets the story then takes off for the parking lot. He eventually makes it to where the truck was. Yes, was. While the old guy was making his way over about 5 people got out of the truck and the truck drove out. They were there with another truck full of people (family/lovers/both – who knows). A short time later the truck returned – maybe he went back to pay properly, apologize, who knows. The manager guy talked to everyone and then went away. It was very disappointing that they didn’t get bounced out. They would have if it were my drive-in – if for no other reason than they treated my staff poorly.

So, the first movie, Dodgeball, was sorta funny. Nic laughed a couple times but thought it was a stupid movie. I laughed more than that but she’s right – it was a stupid movie. Certainly not something I would ever buy. Ben Stiller’s characters do nothing but make Stiller look like an idiot in real life.

After the first movie there was a slight pause – and Nic & I are both in agreement here – they really really need to bring back the animated ads for the snack bar that features dancing hot dogs, pop, popcorn, etc.

The second movie, DAT, was better than the first – on an entertainment level. On a scientifically accurate level – pfft! – Jen’s kid Bri could turn in more scientifically accurate results. I had numerous issues with parts of the movie. I won’t even mention the above science-fact aspect. There were lots of small continuity problems or “couldn’t happen” problems. One we thought was a MAJOR fuck-up turns up that we just don’t know much about US Geography. Oh well.

The only other thing to report about the drive-in is disappoint in their website. On the website they indicate that the concession stand has a BBQ pit, diner-style seating, new playground equipment, and also mentions a 3rd screen. It appears as if the third screen is forthcoming but the website implies that the others already exist. Not quite true – the only thing that is new is there *IS* new playground equipment. But no new concession stand, or BBQ pit…Maybe those are planned updates as well. But wouldn’t you think they would work on this BEFORE the daily drive-in season arrives???

Rob and I got to Tracy’s at 1:30 PM. Kristi was already there. We loaded up two cars with small boxes and moved those over to the new place. Around 3 PM, John, Tracy’s friend, show up with a Van, we loaded that up, and now had 3 cars to load. They were packed up and it was all taken over. Final run, the van and 2 cars (3rd car came with, but there was no need to fill it with anything) were loaded. Took that over to the new place and unloaded and we were done. I can’t remember the exact time, but it was around 6:30 PM. A very nice move. Plus, we all got pizza out of the deal. Thanks, Tracy!

After eating the pizza and saying our good-byes, Rob and I went to the Drive-In Theater. Watched Dodgeball–very dumb–and The Day After Tomorrow–not great, but not horrible.

Had a bunch of running around to do today (well, laundry and head to Highbury Ford where my brother works). Started laundry and then went to see my brother. You all may not know, but for the past week, my car has been really loud. Knew right away it was the muffler. Which sucks the big one. I had to replace the whole exhaust system on my car just 2 years ago. Travis is a mechanic, so I wanted him to check out the car and let me know if the muffler was pooched, or if it was something easy to fix.

Good news! It should be an easy fix. Just the exhaust pipe is loose from the muffler. All that needs to be done, is to reattach it. No big, Travis figures if I go to the right place, I could get it fixed for about 50 bucks. We will see about that one, but it’s better than replacing everything again which is over $300.

So, tomorrow, will have to call around and try to make an appointment. And if you are wondering, I checked my reciept for the last time this fixed. Unfortunately, it was only a 1 year warranty. So won’t be getting it fixed for free.

And that was our week-end. Even with all the hard work it really enjoyable.

Okay, so the first announcement was just a gag. Then I get news from an old friend that is truly announcement worthy:

Em just let me know that Rob proposed to her last Wednesday! Apparently both her sister and I think alike as we both said that now she can start on kids!

Awesome news!!!

Okay, we’ve been keeping it really quiet. No one knows yet but I figured now is as good a time as any. We’re moving. We bought a house. Here’s a link to it:
Our new house

Everyone is welcome to come visit us anytime they’d like! The address is listed on that page.

Yeah, so Rob says he will help you move, but only if free food is involved. I said we are doing this for a friend, he’s like, no, you help someone move cuz they give you a free meal out of it, or at least some booze.

Anyway, you don’t have to, but I told Rob I would let you know what he said. I just didn’t tell him how I would do it.

Feel free to comment. Hehe.

P.S. The dolly is at Rob’s mom’s, so we might not be able to get it. We will try though.

I just read a story over at Fark.com about a dude that was arrested for animal cruelty. You see – he was over at a friend’s place drinking. Apparently had a few too many. Popped the friend’s cat in the microwave and turned it on for two minutes. Unfortunately, by the time the heinous deed was discovered, the poor cat had perished. The dude had taken off as well. Fortunately the guy was arrested and charged. Personally – it’s a good thing I don’t live in New Zealand where this crime took place…that guy would NEVER want to leave jail….there’s a new show on TLC called ‘Big’ where they make the world’s largest things. All I would need is a microwave big enough to shove this guy in…

In far better news: This is FUCKIN’ AWESOME: http://www.zug.com/pranks/tattoo/

Okay, this deserved a separate entry. For those that live in town you may heard recently that there was a convention out in Edmonton for Canadian municipalities. The cities would send representatives in the form of mayors, councillors, etc. Well, it turns out we send the second largest delegation from across the country with 12 council members in attendance to the cost of around $20K. Toronto, a place with 10 times the population only sent 6. Okay, this alone is bad enough. The local paper has been following up on the story and asked each council member what they learned out there. Most of the responses were sincere efforts to explain (justify???) the trip. One response, however, really pissed me off. Councillor Bernie MacDonald responded with the following quote: “You guys are making too much of this. I have no comment. Goodbye.”

Who the hell does he think he is? It was the people of London that voted (obviously mistakenly) this asshat into office. The London Free Press is asking the questions that people would like to know. They are absolutely NOT “making too much of this”! Does this guy not realize that he’s accountable to the people of London? Not only does this comment make him appear to be a totally obnoxious prick who thinks he’s above accountability, it furthers the belief that the elected of our city is little more than an Old Boys Club that reports to no one. The first thing the Mayor needs to do is slap this guy’s hands for not properly responding to the sincere request. I’ve spoke before on the scandals that are plaguing our administration. Shit like this does NOT help improve the perception the city has of its elected officials. Quite possibly the best way for Councillor MacDonald to resolve this would be to apologize to his constituents and resign from his position. Of course, he won’t do this – after all, apparently he has no accountability. Of course, he’s probably never going to see this post as well – unless I can find an email address for him…

Now, Councillor MacDonald wasn’t the only one to brush off the Free Press – he just did it in the most spectacular way. Coun. Harold Usher also questioned why the Free Press was “dragging this on” He also went on to say that he was “not going to sit down and try to explain to anybody every single thing that I learned at that conference.” I wonder if he would use that exact line if one of his voters asked him to explain? Coun. Ab Chahbar laughed, then responded he was quite ill and that he can send the paper a report on what he learned. Well Mr. Usher – let me tell you the reason the Free Press is “dragging this on” – BECAUSE THE VOTERS WANT EXPLANATIONS ON WHY THEIR TAXES ARE GOING UP AND WE’RE SENDING OVER HALF OF COUNCIL TO CONVENTIONS – THAT’S WHY!!!!

Why does this council continue to have its head stuck so far up its ass that it can’t see that the public is NOT becoming any more reassured that the city knows what it is doing? These antics continue to show our city council as being nothing more than an incompetent group of buffoons who are laughing at us, the voters, for being stupid enough to vote them back into power.

I think the person I am most disappointed in is our Deputy Mayor, Tom Gosnell. When he was Mayor the city prospered and things were looking positive. I had hoped that with his election to Board of Control he would be able restore some respectability back to city hall. Unfortunately it appears that one man is not enough. (And, to be honest, I really haven’t seen much evidence that he’s even tried)

Grrr. I did NOT want this to overshadow my Riddick/Mike post but damnit, these people piss me off. I said it before, and I maintain that I wish there was a way to impeach them. (before it was just the Mayor, now I think I want the whole lot of them gone)