Saturday, July 31, 2004

Cabin Vacation Fini,

Got back from my Parent's cottage today. Left ~@ 11:40am and arrived home @2:40pm. It was raining for most of the trip. The first place I went was Petit-P's place. And that was the first mistake. By the time I got my stuff out of the car, they were going out. I don't think France likes my 'popping' in. I would think after not seeing them since Wed. that it would be OK. So I had to immediately move the car. No problem I headed home. There's certainly something in the 'air'. Went home eat and slept a little. Prepared for the, "Olympic" competition @~5:00pm. Waited in front of Petit-P's place for a good 20 min, but they did phone @5:00pm to let me know where they were. Gave France the wine [I bought at my Parent's cottage place], she unfortunately had nothing to say about it :-( And Petit-P and I went to the competition. It was raining hard. We got our sits where I think everyone took any covered sits. Unfortuntately it really started coming down and oddly Petit-P's mom gave him nothing for the event (eg: umbrelia, food, money, clothing), I was surprised. He wore the shirt that certainly shouldn't be worn never mind to this event. We left after about 30 min. 'cause he wanted to go. Just as we were leaving it stopped raining. Headed back to his place and then to the DVD rental place. Rented, "Queen of the Damned", "xxx" and "yyy". Watched Queen of the Damned or at least part of it. His mother wanted him back by 9:00pm, so we were unable to finish the movie. Basically cutting my vacation early to come back for the sporting event with him was a waste of time. Had it been good weather I would have been really disappointed. Oh well. It seems recently that there's something going on. Not sure what. Petit-P seems more 'wild' and mother seems more 'cold' to me. I certainly can't think of anything I've done. Hope everything is fine.

Friday, July 30, 2004

Cottage Again,

Went for the usual 'big-walk'. Mother and Father stopped 'half-way' and I continued to the tracks and around back to the house. I don't know that it was relaxing my mind was too much on other things.

We played some badminton. I goofed around as usual. I hope I entertained the others. It went for a while. We had another fire. And went to bed @~11:00pm.

Thursday, July 29, 2004

Another day at the Cottage,

Nothing exciting today. Great weather. And that's why I'm here. Need a back-to-school tan. We went into the city for a 'shopping' day. I didn't find anything. I tried a couple things on, but couldn't find anything. Saw Alex [the kid next door]. He hasn't changed much. They mentioned that he had a recent hair-cut, unfortunately he looks exactly the way he looked the last time I visited. I don't even know if he's gotten any bigger. Had a late night fire.

Wednesday, July 28, 2004

Off to the P's Cabin,



~@11:00am today left for the P's Cabin (Cottage). I first popped by Petit-P's place to say good-bye. It took 2hrs and 45 min to get there. I arrived Brother and Family was there. The wife has lost 70lbs in the past 9 months. She's looking a lot better. The younger kid has lost weight as well. I don't think she's on a diet but by virtue of the mother being on one she's on one.

The weather was great. We went to the local town's fireworks. Brother went in another car and was ahead of us. They decided at the last minute to pay to go in and see the fireworks. It's $11/person + car + parking + etc. Kids under 11/12 are free. So they snuck the, 'elder' one in. I guess they had a much better view. We [Father, Mother and I] drove around the neighbourhood looking for a good spot. We first put the car at the local Church and found a place to watch the event. The problem it was raining. And we were inthe middle of a mountain of dirt. So we decided to leave 10 min. after arriving. Just as we were leaving other people were arriving. Clearly we had the right idea but probably arrived to early. The event started at 9:30pm and we had left @~7:00pm and it takes maybe an hour to get there. We headed back to the car and drove into a side street, parked and waited for it to start. The show lasted for 30 min. It's some soft of international competition. We had a reasonable view as we rested against the back of the car. Lot's of traffic on the way home. But remember the journey is the reward.

Tuesday, July 27, 2004

Looking for Canon,

Spend most of the day up to ~@3:00pm looking for the replacement parts for my Canon. Didn't find a single place that carries the parts however did find two places that carry 'universal' battery charger. The problem? Too big. And I really didn't like it.

Afterwards went to my place with Petit-P and he play on the computer until ~@6:40pm. He also tried onthe 'gansta' cloths thatI had bought on eBay, and the Apple hat the Alex bought me from California. I'd like to give him some of this stuff but a) I kinda like them myself, b) I Paid ~$50+ for the pants and C) The hat was a gift.

Monday, July 26, 2004

My Car is broken into!,

   Well today was the anniversary for meeting France and Petit-P. It's been exactly two years since they first meet me in T.O. when they visited the Pope. But after France's girlfriend cancelled lunch for some strange 'speaking' problem, the day just went down from there. We went to a Chinese buffa(sp). Afterwards we went to Church. Through out the whole day I was trying to leave only because France gave me the impression she prefered to be alone avec Petit-P. Well I should have listen to my feelings because we ended up going to a place to roller-blade and my car was broken into. They went thru everything and one could tell they tried to 'brake' the steering wheel to steel the car, but unsuccessfully. But they did steel one important thing for me and that was my Camera case. It had two cables in it and a battery charger. It's a good ~$150. Completely useless for them [I would imagine]. Oh well. Go with your gut!





Sunday, July 25, 2004

Petit-P's First visit after my T.O. vacation,



Petit-P phoned me after I asked him to in the morning. The day would consist of going back and forth between his Mother's and Father's place and the Grande-Mall. We finally ended up at his Mother's pace for 5:00pm where we had diner. I brought over some coloured face markers and he went crazy. I'm not sure how happy his Mother was but we will see tomorrow. We also installed Microsoft's new Visual Studio VB.NET Express Beta. It took awhile, but it finally did install. It finished around ~@10:00pm, at which point i had to leave. Today was also the first day that I gave Petit-P a, "Max Pain".

Thursday, July 15, 2004

More Shopping

 

  Went to TigerDirect`s. It`s a computer warehouse. Not much there of interest kind like that last time. And just like before I bought some headsets for the computer. Not really sure why. I`ll give one to France, maybe. After that I went to Fairview Mall. There was a couple of good deals on shirts and shorts so I bought.

 

  Next headed to the Kennedy Mall. There`s a Chapters and a CompuSmart. Still looking for Petit-P`s Spider-Man 1 game. It`s difficult to find. By this point and was getting bored and tired headed to The Scar. Town Centre (STC) to phone Rob at just after 5pm. On the way to the centre I caught a 50% off sports place and saw a Dad`s cookie`s place. The Dad place close minutes before I got there but the clothing place was openned. I bought a $5 pair of hockey shorts. Good deal I think. Since Rob`s car broke down earlier this week I went to pick him up and we went ot the Pacific Mall to eat Chinese. Nice. Haven`t talked to him in probably 11 months. So we had our usually conversation. Then we thought about a movie so we headed back to the STC. We were 30 min. late for Harry Potter and Shrek 2 I want to see on DVD and it was expenseive $13.00 for the movie so we said forget it and went to the mall. I bought some face paint, after looking for a water gun.

 

  Next we went to the Crispy Creams. Got a sample donut, and sat and talked until 10pm. I dropped him at home and returned to `my` place around 11:10pm. Went straight to bed.

Wednesday, July 14, 2004

More Shopping,

 

  Went to Miss. for the RipZone Factory Warehouse with Jo. Unfortunately this place had moved and the new place wasn`t openned yet. We moved onto Square One and planned on seeing Spider-Man 2 at the local theatre 2:10pm. We eat just before and saw the movie. It was OK. Exactly what you would expect. After, got a bit lost on the way home. Carmen arrived while we were returning with the dog. Took Jo to work for 10:30pm. Talked to Carmen a bit, watched some more TV `not too much` and went to bed.

Tuesday, July 13, 2004

Downtown,

   Went downtown to meet Annie!. Always a pleasure. She paid for lunch and we eat the Eaton`s Centre in a open `Hawon(sp)`ish place. Huge Coke`s. We both had Club sandwiches. After I went to the CompuCentre looking for Petit-P`s Spider-Man 1 game. They said it`s in a box :-(Well at least they said they have it). After went to all the usall downtown places including: the World`s Biggest, HMV`s. over to College street for my favourite computer store, which unfortunately had closed and ànother`bookstore openned inthe same place. I looked around the area, there`s lots of undiscovered Chinese computer places, saw that I paid the `standard`price for my DVD and walked along Young and Bloor back to the subway. Got home around 5:30pm. To my surprise Jo go a 'Dragon' tattoo. He's becoming more and more cool. After I got home J and I we went to Sherway to look for shorts he wanted. Carmen came home soon after and we had a nice super. Jo went to work. Talked to Carmen for a while and watch some late night TV. I`m not missing much, but I can tell it`s oddly addictive. Weird.

  



Monday, July 12, 2004

Vacation,

 

   First of my vacation. Left 11:00am, but just before dropped off the VCD at France`s place. It was a long drive 8+ hours, but I was `making good time` until they pulled us off the highway for 45+ min. Then just inside of Scar. I started hearing a car noise. I went to the Pacific Mall. When I parked I looked under and saw something hanging down. Went into the mall and bought a new Dual-layer DVD writer for $136/9+tax. Seems like a good deal. The only thing is it`s so new no media is available. The guy said in Aug, but if you want it now $30. On the way out I could hear the `thing`dragging so I went to the nearest `mechanic` the guy `knocked`the piece off, said it was the cover to the catalitic(sp) convertor and it wasn`t important and you can go a get it spot welded back on, but it was OK to drive. So I put it into my trunk and continued on. I arrived at 8:30pm which was really good timing considering when I left. Chatted to Carmen and Jo. Had a shower. Stayed up and watched some late night TV, recall I don`t have a TV and went to bed.



Sunday, July 11, 2004

The day before vacation,

   Decided to go to Church and surprise Petit-P and mother. It was the last day I`d see them before my vacation and I wanted to see Petit-P`s new iPod (15 GB)! Spent the day there, as always never thinking I`d spend more then 5 min. She`s great we had after Church food. They had to go see someone in the hospital for an hour so I went back to my place and started writing the DVD they wanted of their friend`s wedding. It took 1 hour+ for a less then 5 min. video and the quality was not DVD quality. They arrived probably an hour later and Petit-P stayed at my house a couple of hours. We didd the usually goofing around. Oddly he wanted to shave, so he did. I don`t a `full`shave for maybe 3 hairs. OK what the hell. Then after suddenly he shaved my face. There`s a painfull experience. I was a bit nervous, potentially blood everywhere, but he managed to `scrape`everything off. She said come home before 6:00pm for diner, so at 5:50pm and started poking Petit-P to get off Need for Speed and getting going. We needed to get gas so unfortunately we were late 6:25pm.  She made a nice diner after feeding us bread and water `cause we were late. Spent the nigh goofing around. I talked to her more then Petit-P but after 9:00pm she said go play with him. Of course he was to into his new iPod to be entertaining.  But we still had fun. Around 10:00pm I left. Got home and started a little cleaning for tomorrow`s vacation. Went to bed around mid-night. The plan - leave for 10:00am!

Saturday, July 10, 2004

A day avec ECY,



Arrived just after midnight ECY's place. He was funny. He pretended that when I got out of the car that I had run him over. Funny stuff. I need more of this. I had planned to bring over my most recent purchase of the DVD, "Family Guy", but I forgot the DVD and just brought the case. Dooooh. We did the usual watched TV until late. I got up several times in the night and I think ~@3:00am turned off the TV and the computer.



Woke-up ~@10:15am and waited for ECY to wake-up. Decided to wake him up ~@11:00am. After having breakfest we went to his friend Ron's place. He wanted to create a CD. As with other of his friends he seem pretty rich. He's got a big house and a piscine. After ~45/1hr we went to another mall near ECY's work place and to another place to pick up some food, recall his Mother went on vacation and left him some 'gift' cards to buy some food. So on the way home off to Provigo. Picked-up some stuff and on the way out the door he met some of his friends. I thought they looked a lot younger then ECY but he says they were older. In fact 18 years-1 month. They asked ECY if he could buy a cigar for them. We went across the street to the gas station and attempted to buy one. I thought they wanted cigarettes and would take 'anything'. Not so they wanted a specific type of Cigar. We left with nothing. Back to ECY place, eat some hot-dogs and wasted the afternoon until he went to work.

Thursday, July 8, 2004

To my great surprise,



Petit-P phoned in the early morning after go to his Father's place to edit the video he did with his friend yesterday. Apparently his Father's Apple G3s(?) were not good enough to do the editting so he phoned me to see if he could do the editting on my machine. Sure no problem. What another great day. Again just goofing around with Petit-P. He's started his own Blog by the way. Cool.



After picking him up from Father's work ~@11:03am in the morning we went to Provigo to get a 'Bud' and some soup. Recall he recently got braces and after the minor accident was told to have soup for 2 weeks. I bought some Clam Chowder and we went to his Father's place first to get his cell phone. We continued onto my place where we spent most of the day editting the video. At 'high-res' it takes beaucoup du space. Unfortunately he wasn't satisfied with the music and never finished editting the movie. But as I've mentioned before he's very good with Movie Maker v2.1. We ate some soup and watched part of the DVD, "Bowling for Colimbine". On his out of the door I told him about the 'video' I wanted to do a, 'GTA: Vice-city' take-off. The first version went great, but of course one wants multiple takes. The second one was terrible, not only did we screw up the 'exchange' at the car, but we were out of frame. After the first take I couldn't help but think hay this 'kid' just drove off with my car and all I have is his camera. We were about to do a third take but for some reason he wanted to get going. Dropped him off at Father's place ~@5:00pm, returned home.



ECY had phoned during the afternoon so we managed to make some plans about getting him from work after 12:00 midnight. He ended up phoning me ~@11:30pm and said he would be finished ~20 min. I arrived at his place [he had taken his Scooter] ~@12:07am. He arrived moments later. We watched three consequentive 'cartoons'. Probably fell asleep after 2:00am and we had to get to Summer school for ~@8:15am.

Wednesday, July 7, 2004

Boring Day.

Woke-up did a quick one off of Petit-P with a Liberal sign, because I saw he had changed his MSN photo to a Liberal photo. Sent it to him. He didn't really like it.



Since it was sunny I decided to go for a ride. I thought I'd head to ECY's place, and maybe meet him there after school. Since summer school ends at lunch time I'd have to leave ~@11:30am. This was a little too late for me. Remember: never wait. I decided to leave ~@10:15am, and on the way I could pop-in on Petit-P. First mistake. Though he was online when I got to his place he didn't appear to be there. Some 'public' people just arrived to cut the lawn. I not really sure if he was there of not. I left after 1-2 min, continued biking down the street and phoned a couple min. later. Still no answer. Ok, maybe in the shower. Continued onto past the public pool and went into the forest behind Mini-Pomme's place. No trails there and a fence to stop you exiting. Second mistake. Heading back home, 'cause way to early for ECY and relaxed for a bit.



After having lunch I took the car to the next town west of here. Absolutely nothing out there. There was however a 'sex' place and a WalMart. On the way back went to the WalMart, picked up a pair of boxers. Headed home. Boy was I bored.



During diner watched the DVD, "K-Pax". OK. Finished ~@8:30pm and decided to walk to ECY's place. Mistake three. If you take the main street it's a pretty far walk. Took ~1hr. Arrived ~@9:30pm and phoned ECY. He was with APJ and Marylin, watching a movie. He said he phoned me after ~@10:00pm. I wondered around and headed to the Grande-M hoping he would phone. I waited until ~10:10pm and left. It was a long way home [I thought], but ended up not being too bad. Found a different way to walk back with a side entrance to the street. As soon as aI got home dropped into bed. After a ~2h walk [~8:30pm -> ~11:30pm] I was dead.

Tuesday, July 6, 2004

Surprise but not.



Went to pickup ECY from summer school. Arrived on time and there's certainly lots of students there unfortunately at the last minute I noticed his Mother came and got him. No problem :-( Off to the Grande-Mall.



Watched the DVD, "Confidence". Great!

Monday, July 5, 2004

Dentist,



Today was Petit-P's Dentist day. What makes it special? Well he's getting braces! I can't help but be reminded of when I had braces. Boy was I ever afraid. The situation is a little bit different, I was told that I might need the 'cage' thing on the outside and have to wear that to school. In knew the other kids would kill me if that happened [this was in High-school so everything was out of proportion]. Turns out it was something that I only wore at night and was, 'easily' removed. Thank God. Braces are a great thing they certainly fix up your teeth. I know I had a big space between my two front teeth and everything was much better after. It took two visits to put them on. One to glue on the braces and another to attach the 'rope/track' that goes between them. You don't want to do both on the same day 'cause the glue has to seattle first then you can start attaching them. Well mon frere's dentist did it all in one 1-2 hour visit. Cool, maybe the technology has changed since I got mine. We took some film and photos at the dentist [Remember Petit-P is incredible with Window's Movie Maker - or at least I think so] so maybe he can splice together something interesting. Certainly there's some reasonable 'raw' footage. He seemed to hold up very well. It's not a painfull process but any visit to the Dentist is not fun. Of course me coming in and out with a camera probably helps.



We left ~@3:05pm and he for some reason wanted to come back to my place. So, no problem. I warmed up a quick pizza and sat down for a little meal.

Now I know eating things like a pomme would not be good for the braces but pizza! There's nothing 'softer' is there? Well one or two bites in and Oooops there goes one of the 'suckers'. One of the braces at the bottom right front popped off. It didn't fall out or anything 'cause it was still attached to the 'rope/track' thing. "Phone toi Mother", I said. And he did. Moments later an appointment was made for tomorrow morning @10:00am. Not an emergency but not sure if they, the dentist, understood what happened.



We continued to goof around. He played, "NFS: UnderGround 1" and "Far Cry" on the computer [I don't think any of Petit-P, ECY or MiniPomme enjoys the game as much as I do]. And watched some of the DVD, "Kill Bill Vol. I". And left ~@6:20pm to go back to Mother's place. We picked up his computer at his Mother's place went back to his Father's placed, dumped him off. I always get a sense that he thinks other people are not good enough to be at his Father's place. Don't know why. Just a feeling. His Mother is no doubt more strict then his Father and his Father is probably more 'well-off' so maybe this explains it. Always seemed to be awkward with his Father and I, but then I've only talked to his Father a few times over the last 2 years so no big deal.



I returned to the video place. Picked up the DVDs, "Reality Bites", "K-Pax", and "Confidence". @~8:00pm I watched the DVD, "Reality Bites". It was OK. Ben Stiller's Directorale debu(sp). Watched some of the 'bonus' material - always more interesting to me then the movie. And went to bed ~@12:00pm.

Sunday, July 4, 2004

Biking,



Well after yesterday I thought I'd go biking. I planned to visit Petit-P for 5 min. before I started, maybe pop-in after Church, or go to the Church and wait for Petit-P and Mother. But as I was just leaving I noticed Petit-P on MSN so I dropped a quick message. Good thing 'cause he said he was going to go Roller Blading. So I said I'll be there in 10-20 min wait and for me. I thought I would see him off. When I arrived [it's a fast 15 min. to 'cycle] his Mom said he didn't want to go RollerBlading and was using his ordinateur. So I told him to change so we could go [it was such a nice day] that I was going to enjoy it. After a little coaxing he final came but it took a good 45 min. Then his mother didn't want to go because, 'it wasn't a good time' [being in the middle of the day with the sun beating down]. I never accept this excuse. So we left.



We first returned to my place to pickup the camera. Petit-P wanted me to take some photos for the web-site. [Ya sure] No problem. After getting the camera we were off to the 'track' for roller-blading. We took some good photos and did some 'skit's with the movie camera. Should be good. After ~1hr went back to Petit-P's place and goofed around on the ordinateur, played some music. Very enjoyable. Also looked at some family photos of mon frere when he was, "tres petit". ~@6:00pm his Father came by to take him to diner. Off he went and ~20 min. later I left on my bike. His mom lent my his school bag so I could carry my camera home. Very nice.



Got home. Had some Pizza for diner.

Friday, July 2, 2004

Petit-P returns!!!

Spend most of the day on the phone with a computer company trying to get my DVD working. Never did get it working with their suggestions. I'm now thinking it's a 'pin' problem.



Well after weeks my brother has returned. I must say I did miss him for a little bit, but as things get busy one moves on. I'm so glad his Mother phoned and allowed me to go with her to pick him up. I was so looking forward to this. She phoned ~@7:30pm and said come for 7:50pm so there was a rush. There needn't be the bus didn't arrive until ~@8:45pm. I filmed a little.



After we went back to his place. I took some photos and he started MSN'ing his friends. Must have been a long day for him 24+6 hours, but he looked very 'healthy'. I managed to get out of there before his Mother went to bed. I just know it's way too important for him to talk to her about the vacation as opposed to me. I'm sure we'll get caught up in the next few days. Looking forward to it.