thebitterguy

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And my best wishes.

The only thing worse that being left out of the discussion of what to do for a Christmas party (and good timing on that, btw. Restaurants NEVER fill up in mid December) is finding out that the final decision is a bad one.

I mean, the first choice was The Keg, which is a mediocre steakhouse at best. So the fallback was another cheesy chain bistro. Is imagination dead? I mean, if you're coming in from out of town, you might have an excuse for picking a franchise place. But if it's the town you live in, surely you can suggest one or two good family owned places for a meal, right?

Feh.

So last week, when I was on my week of holidays (which was really "four days of getting the GX schedule finalized, five days of trying to relax"), Cynra & I took a trip out to Picton where we stayed at the beautiful Lake on the Mountain.

Lake on the Mountain, for interested parties at home, is a bit of a natural wonder. The name explains it all. The lake is located on top of a limestone escarpment, 62 metres above Lake Ontario, with no visible source of water. We stayed at an Inn that's next to the park. The park is very small (consisting of a parking lot atop the escarptment, and an area next to the lake itself.

The highlights are the evenings. Picton is far away enough from the larger urban areas (Belleville is the closest, and it's about half an hour's drive away) that you get rid of a lot of light pollution and can see a lot of stars in the evening. In fact, the light smudge of the milky way could be seen running overhead.

Pictures were attempted to be taken of the night sky, but our camera just wasn't up to the task. I really need a nice digital SLR. Or maybe I should have just taken my film camera. The Glenora ferry is a particularly lovely sight to observe at night, an arrangement of lights cutting across the dark waters of Picton bay, leaving reflections in the ripples of its passing.

The cottage we stayed in was a single room affair that was fairly well supplied. For food we were on our own, but it had a set of pots and pans, a dishrack, and a fridge, stove, oven and microwave.

It also had a TV, but who goes away to watch tv?

I tried a recipie for Carbonara, although finding a fresh piece of Parmesean in a small town on a Thursday night is surprisingly not easy. We were also annoyed to find we missed a deli on the way into town by about twelve minutes We ended up using powdered stuff, which is very much not good. The recipie, on its own, has potential.

We spent a couple days relaxing, driving around Prince Edward County, trying one of the local wineries (it's just fermented grape juice to me, kids! I ain't got not palate to speak of) and going to visit Sandbanks park. The restaurant at Sandbanks looked a lot smaller than it had been when I was a kid and bought issues of the Legion of Superheros from it. I'll bet they no longer have spinner racks there. Poor, poor Reflecto.

We did visit Buddha Dog, where we were incredibly disappointed. I mean, seriously. It's like eating a slim jim. And I should have known better than to go to a gourmet hot dog place with a wife who's very... neurotic may be a strong term, but very SPECIFIC about how she takes certain foods.

We came home on Saturday, racing ahead of the afternoon's thunderstorms.

This week I've worked to get back onto my workout schedule. I'm reminded why it's a bad idea to stop.

No AFD funniness from me today. Too contrived, you know?

Thanks to lab_brat for her summary of some of the day’s celebrations. I did enjoy ljstaff’s one, though.

I could complain about how my favourite Facebook app has crapped out (My Heroes Ability, if you’re interested) just as I was getting within spitting distance of getting Teleportation, but that would be boring.

Wrestlemania was enjoyable (noizangel, we had vegetarian snacks! Where were you?), other than the Kane match. The Lumberjill match and the Big Show/Mayweather match were not as horrible as they could be, and isn’t that what luciancarter paid $50 for?

Other question that some of you should be able to answer: Did Toronto host a Kotei this year? Or has all L5R activity in Ontario moved to Thunder Bay?

You can't spell "class" while using the letters included in "Disney corporation"

Well, to celebrate that most lucrative of hallidays, ABC has produced emailable Valentine's day cards for Lost, Ugly Betty & Gray's Anatomy.

Now, the GA & Ugly Betty ones are almost criminally generic, with dialogue taken straight from a Sweet Heart except for a few exceptions. Ugly Betty 'villains' Wilhemina and Marc get at least a little zing in theirs, since they're in the form of "while you were out" messages. Seriously, that's creative compared to the other ones.

I wonder if they track how many are sent? Becasue I can almost guarantee you there ain't gonna be a lot of "Betty's Dad" valentines sent.

Hey, it's the world that's cruel, not me.

The Lost ones at least show a little creativity (which makes me wonder: Did Writers write that? Hmmmm), but I gotta tell you, there's some questionable ones in there.

( Like these two: )

Wow. Way to make fun of crazy people AND torture. Classy, ABC!

edit: Confession time: I sent Cynra the Sayid one.

Good holiday so far. Uday & Qusay are playing NHL Hitz Pro. We've played a few games of Tsuro, and the roast beast is roasting as we speak. Cynra & I may go for a ride later, may go see We Are Marshall.

Gifts were nice. Got Superman Returns & MUA for the box, JLU season 1, and some books by my two favourite journalists, Thompson & Berton. Also got Son of a Witch, which should be interesting; hopefully I won't have the same issues with flow that I did with Wicked. Hogfagther is complete at home and waiting for us.

This is the winner as best spam line ever: "You have to understand that keeping the galactic peace is our role".

redeem147 asked that I post a link to Billy Idol's myspace page for the Christmas album.

You can enjoy it too!

Cynra just came home for her Christmas vacation, carrying her Christmas Haul. In addition to the usual candles and candies, she got a plate of butter tarts. Sweet, sweet butter tarts. FRESH butter tarts. HOME MADE butter tarts. Oh, man. Paradise. The pecans were fresh and huge. The filling was sweet and liquid.

I'm in heaven.

Well, that was a good evening. Cynra did the majority of treat handling. A chilly drizzle fell for a good part of the evening, which may have kept a few trick and/or treaters away.

I was sent on a dinner mission (Operation: Pizza and wings) and stopped by one of Mississauga's many comics shops on the way home to pick up the new Astro City. I also picked up the first 100 Bullets trade. I think someone on LJ recommended it yesterday, and it had always seemed interesting so I picked it up. The paper was kinda flimsy for a trade (I'm used to the glossy stuff in trades, I guess) but the stories were neat. The second one? Depressing. I find the backstory is interesting, too. I will pick up book two shortly.

The clerk at the store gave me a Vertigo sampler (Vertigo: First Offences) as a gift. Happy Halloween indeed! I guess he liked my overwrought office worker costume.

We had a few folks still arriving for candy by the time I got home, but it petered out as the evening went along. The cat pumpkin was adorable but appeared to suffer some structural issues, as its head fell off and rolled a couple feet away. Initially, we thought it had been abducted by local pests (racoons or teenagers), but it was eventually found.

We saw the Buffy episode of Smallville (oh, look. Lana is possessed by an evil force AGAIN. Thankfully she has no opeating brain cells, or she'd start to remember things). Very horrid. At least we get to see Braniac go all T-1000 on some guy.

We REALLY need that Legion of Superheroes episode, before the show swirls down into a whirlpool of suck and gets put out of its misery. At least the actor playing Braniac hadn't undergone dental surgery before his takes this week.

D&D game for tomorrow is cancelled, which is unfortunate, but will give me time to tidy up before Halo 2: A Bomb for the Old Guy. Regular game is on Thursday. Must see if Dragon Lady sells long boxes, as I've started to store comix in rubbermaids.

Extended XML rental. Alllllmost finished. Damn Master Mold is tricky. Am I suposed to be shutting off the control panels or something?