Monthly Archives: May 2006

3 month extension

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My boss just offered me a 3 month extension to my job contract so once the paper work is done, my contract will wrap up during the first week in November.

I am due for my annual increment in August, about a week after my current contract was up, so this is good news. I’m also waiting for our new collective agreement (and we damn well better not have to strike or I’ll be sure to make some enemies because I refuse) which will mean another increment. woo hoo.

‘Da boss also said that after that, it looks dicey for having money to extend it farther so it could be a real bleak looking Christmas if I’m unemployed and living in my truck.

UPDATE: YES YES YES YES YES – Looks like there will be no strike, and I’ll be getting a nice back pay cheque! Details:

“Rates of pay will increase by 2.25% (effective December 22, 2004), 2.4% (effective December 22, 2005) and 2.5% (effective December 22, 2006). The current retention allowance will continue until December 20, 2006. In addition, all rates of pay will increase by a flat rate amount of $900 to all employees. In addition, there will be a signing bonus of $300 and other important improvements.”

Full Press Release: http://www.pipsc.ca/english/documents/release/2006/cs_tentativeagreement_may3106.html

Unique Idea

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Remember the guy who sold pixels on a website and made a million bucks?

Here is a new idea – a unique and clever one:

http://www.onethousandpaintings.com

I bet after you look through the site you want to buy one. Come on, admit it, you want one – you even checked a few numbers to see if they were available.

Genius.

Elliott Brood

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Elliott Brood - AmbassadorElliott Brood‘s CD Ambassador is the best CD I’ve heard in years.

It is so good, I’m going to do something completely out of character – I’m going to purchase it! That’s right. I’m going to support a Canadian artist with my precious $$.

The band is Canadian, and I was able to find most of the tracks available on websites to stream in high quality. This makes me buy it more. When a band goes out of their way to make it difficult for their potential new fans to sample their music, I just give up and boycott the thought of ever buying their music.

I first heard of Elliott Brood from all the play they get on CBC radio. Their music is like a drug – I can’t stop listening. It’s loud and full of my favourite instrument – the banjo! It’s a real toe-tapping, head nodding folk album with a modern twist.

Here is the album description from Amazon:

This is not a tale about a gunslinger hero, nor is it meant to cut your heart. It is not the pledge at last year’s meeting of aficionados and it is not the eulogy at a death-country funeral. This is the tale of three storytellers who turned up their collars to the cold night in the dead of winter. Clutching old cases to their coats, they climbed the frozen stairwell to a dusty room in an abandoned abattoir on the edge of the city. Over three long days and nights, they coaxed sounds from the walls, ceiling and floors onto stacks of tape, slowly giving life to what would become the heart of the album. With the aid of basement stairwell echoes and broken down work vans, the album took its initial breath. The stories and sounds that were captured and which you presently hold in your hands, are the tales of AMBASSADOR.

AMBASSADOR is narrated in its entirety by Mark Sasso, Casey Laforet and Stephen Pitkin.

Now this is the part where you ignore that old western flickering on that old black and white in front of you and let your living room be engulfed in the swelling dust storm outside.

For Ambassador is here.

Or as described by weewerk:

Elliott BROOD call their music Death Country – dark, gritty folk music built around whiskey-drenched vocals and lyrics evoking images of love, loss and murder. In their soul-thumping bluegrass songs, banjo keeps time to a strange and chunky angular stomp, with vicious Kentucky-hardcore acoustic guitar and somber, achingly confessional vocal harmonies.

Also of note, Elliott BROOD’s Ambassador was nominated for Best Roots & Traditional Album for the 2006 Juno Awards!

To purchase it from Amazon, look in the right sidebar for the link.

To get a sample of their music, go to http://www.newmusiccanada.com/genres/artist.cfm?Band_Id=11365 and listen to “Second Son” and “The Bridge” to start. You won’t be disappointed.

UPDATE: Hey I see that Elliott Brood is playing here in the Sault!!
Jun 14 Sault Ste. Marie ON @ Downbeat Lounge
Can’t wait!

I Test Drove a Honda Element Today!

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I test drove a Honda Element today!!! After wanting one for probably 2+ years, I finally drove one!

It’s really peppy! You sit nice and tall and high in the drivers seat. It turns really easy and sharp. We took the Alabaster Silver Metallic one out. I really loved the Kiwi Green Metallic one in the show room – it has the new painted panels rather than the black plastic ones.

I don’t figure there is any way I’ll ever afford one, but at least I got to drive one! Here are the numbers he gave me – these numbers are for an automatic, 4WD model (the Y package)

To finance:
Total Amount to Finance: $37,255 (incl. tax, license, etc)

Term: 60
Interest Rate: 3.90%
Monthly Payment: $684.42

Term: 48
Interest Rate: 3.90%
Monthly Payment: $839.51

Term: 36
Interest Rate: 2.90%
Monthly Payment: $1081.76 (yeah right!!)

Alternatively, the leasing arrangement would be:
Term: 48 months
Interest Rate: 5.90%
Monthly Payment: $563.16 (incl. tax)
Due at Signing: $839.41 (=first month’s payment + license + fees)
Residual Value at lease end: $14,122.00

He said if he got a lease back with not too many km’s on it, he’d resell it within the week for $17K. I think that is my best bet. I love how the 2006′s have the painted panels. They also have side air bags and the volume controls on the steering wheel – but those new features probably aren’t worth $20K.

I’m a little concerned about how easily the plastic scratches inside. The one we test drove had just under 200 km’s on it, unless that was a trip meter I was looking at, but anyway, the plastic on the inside of the driver’s door was already significantly scratched up, as was the floor inside of the door.

I guess I just really have to get rid of my student loan first. Then I need a life plan, and I need to see if a Honda Element fits in it. Used mini-vans are much cheaper, but they just are NOT cool, and they have no resale value.

For now I just try to keep my truck on the road. The rear differential is leaking again – I should probably get that looked at.

Okay, off for a night of kabobs on the BBQ, scallops, Heinekens, fire, the season finale of Battlestar Galactica, and then UFC 60 !

Monty Learned how to Swim Today!!!

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I feel like such a proud momma – my little puppy boy learned how to swim today!!

I didn’t even have to get in the water – he wanted the bumper so bad that he finally just swam out and got it!! No half drowning episodes, no splashing around – he just swam! OHHH I was so excited and proud!!

You can see a few pics here:
http://www.canadiangoldens.com/monty/index.cgi?page=7months

Here’s a tease:
Monty's first swim

He looks a lot like Surf when he’s swimming, eh?

Monty got two points today!

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Monty got two points today towards his Canadian Championship! (a dog needs 10 points to be a Champion in Canada).

He was entered in all 5 dogs shows this weekend in the Sault. Today he went Winner’s Dog and Best Puppy in Breed. Woo hooo!

He is just a pup and has no coat compared to the other Goldens in the show, and even compared to the other puppy in the show. He’s losing coat like mad right now, so hopefully it’ll stop falling out and by the time he’s an adult he’ll have the beautiful coat his father does.

He showed really well, and I didn’t feel too out of place (since it was my first time showing a dog).

You can see a few pictures that J. took from the weekend on Monty’s website:
http://www.canadiangoldens.com/monty/index.cgi?page=7months

HA!

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HA HA! So I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t stand listening to that woman’s mouth!

“Sir Paul McCartney and former model Heather Mills released a statement this morning indicating they find “it increasingly difficult to maintain a normal relationship with constant intrusion into our private lives” and will separate after being married for four years.”

So THEY don’t like intrusion into their private lives. I wonder why they insist on doing it to others?

Weekend Trip was Good

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My quick dash to Southern Ontario over the weekend was good.

Traffic was practically non-existent. I took the I-75 to I-69 short cut from the Sault to Port Huron/Sarnia. The American highways sure are crappy – why don’t they use asphalt?

The longest border delay was maybe 20 minutes. Note to self: don’t take meat sandwiches into the US or they’ll confiscate them for their own lunch. They don’t appear to be partial to peanut butter and jam because he let me keep those ones.

I took Mom out to dinner on Friday night. The new Chinese buffet restaurant in Listowel was packed and lined up out the door so we went next door to Pizza Delight. It was also packed but we got a seat and had their pizza, pasta, and salad buffet. It was the LDSS 125 high school reunion weekend, which is why the town was packed all weekend. Brian and Leannio went, but I hated high school so I was getting the cold sweats just thinking about going. Brian and Leannio report my photo was on the wall twice in the 90′s room Hall of Fame. I guess there were a couple of teachers still alive that I would have liked to talk to, but there wasn’t really any old students I was looking for.

Saturday morning Monty and I went to Dad’s in the morning. Julie, Brian, and Leannio were there too. After a few hours visiting, back home I went to pick up Mom and Julie again and go to my cousin Kathy’s near Hanover with Monty for some grooming and showing tips.

Kathy and David bought an old school house and are fixing it up into their dream home. It’s really neat. They had some history of the school that was fascinating to read. Their basement walls are five feet thick!! I don’t imagine they had cement trucks back in the early 1900′s to do that either!

We had a good bbq there, and then after dark, we headed back to Listowel. I fell asleep on the couch watching “Deadliest Catch” with Julie, and when I opened my eyes again, Brian and Leannio were standing in front of us waving. They had just returned from the high school reunion dance. I tried to visit, but I was so zonked, I kicked Leannio out of my spot and fell back to sleep.

I woke up around 5am with the worst charley horse cramp in my calf. Leannio and Brian were sleeping downstairs too so I pounded the couch and floor in silence and pain so as to not wake them up, but Monty is a morning whiner so he woke ‘em up.

By 9:30am I had added coolant to my hot ol’ truck, and was on the road again. I stopped at Jay’s Sporting Goods in Gaylord, Michigan and bought Monty a bigger collar (his puppy collar was just too thin for his growing neck!) and a sweatshirt for myself.

J. had dinner ready for when I got home! He’s incredible! It was yummy. He even did some work in my yard and organized my garage for me while I was gone. AND he even visited Zeus to keep him company.

Here are a couple of photos of Monty getting groomed by Kathy:

House of Wax

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House of WaxLet me preface this review by saying, “No, we did not pay to watch this one!” It was the Movie Network last night.

House of Wax (2005) stars Paris Hilton, Elisha Cuthbert, Jared Padalecki, and Chad Michael Murray.

It is a Horror film and it did have many of the elements of a good horror. There were a few places I had to cover my eyes, and a few places where my heart was beating faster.

Just like the good horror movies, the film features a bunch of teenagers who are so noisey you feel you need to scream out “You nosey fool! Get out of there! You are going to get caught!”

These teenagers get themselves into trouble when they stumble into a town looking for a fan belt during an overnight camping stop. The town has a house made literally of wax, featuring many wax statues (who turn out to all be real people who were killed and covered in wax! Freaky! Hope I didn’t just spoil it for you!)

I give this a 2/5. It had some good horror movie features. But it did have Paris in it. And there were a few things that didn’t fit – like all of a sudden there was a building beside their camping spot – things like that that didn’t piece together well.

All in all, while I’m shocked that J. actually watched it to, it wasn’t bad. If you want a little horror flick to raise your pulse for a couple of hours, watch House of Wax.