on friday i rode my bike through my first snowstorm on my way to queen'z park to hear my mother sing in the civil service choir. the snow wasn't really snow, at least not after it hits the ground. in the city, snow is dark grey slush, and its not very pretty. riding a bike in it got me where i needed to faster than if i walked, but i got splashed a few times and my clothing bears the battle wounds of a slushy day in the tee dot.
i really enjoy listening to the civil servant's choir sing each year. even though my mom is a retired civil servant, she still makes an effort to be part of the choir each year. singing christmas carols inside of queen'z park is also kewl. not too often do i get to hang out inside of queen'z park, yet alone sing christmas carols.
the lieutenant governor of ontario, james bartleman, was the honoured guest. when he arrived, they introduced him with god save the queen and oh canada! what the hell does the lieutenant governor do, besides being the queen's representative. what is he lieutenant governing over?
either way, james bartleman read his yearly christmas welcome, and then we got back to the singing. at the end of the concert, they invite audience members to come up and sing the hallelujah chorus from handel's messiah. i love this part. it gives me the chance to sing with my mom, stand on the stairs of queen's park, and totally sing off tune ;)
my friday night was a repeat of the week before...a night in playing video games with graham. my job was to get beer, more specifically the extra strong ale from the amsterdam brewery known as avalanche. man, this beer is 8% alcohol and kicks you in the teeth! the amsterdam brewery is located at king and portland, or as i was soon to find out, used to be located at king and portland. the saving grace of the amsterdam brewery is that the beer doesn't get any fresher than when you buy it at the brewery, and most importantly its open until 11pm on friday and saturday nights. when you missed the 9pm closing time of the beer store, the amsterdam brewery saves lives.
so i walked to the brewery from kensington market only to find the doors locked. on the door was a sign saying "we've moved to 21 bathurst street" with a little map. it didn't look that far. boy was i wrong. they new brewery was in an old abandoned warehouse at bathurst and lakeshore, which took me about 30 minutes to walk to from their old venue. the new space is huge, and i'm happy that the freshest beer in the city now has a new and larger home to bring amsterdam goodness to more people...but holy shit is it ever far. okay, maybe just farther away from my house than they were before, and in winter that's a big deal. whine some more norm, whine some more.
i cross the bridge over the train tracks and make it to the new and improved amsterdamage brewery. the dude workin the store rekognizes me and i continue my whine about the move, how its so far from my place, blah blah blah, poor me. it also seems as if the amsterdam brewery no longer makes avalanche beer, which only intensified my already whiney demeanour. sometimes i can be such a queen. as i moaned about how much of an effort it was to get beer that's not even going to be brewed anymore, the guy working there gave me a coupon and said "here's a free six pack coupon that you can give right back to me now and grab a sicfor any of the other beers we do brew". my world and perspektive completely changed direction with the random gifting of free fresh booze *aaaah* thank you so much for the free booze dude!
randnorm gifting. heh, how can i normify everything? normurai. phenormenon. normaste - i honour the norm in you that is the norm in me ;)
with a free six pack (and $12 more in my pocket than i thought i'd have), i took a cab home. we picked graham up along the way. he had just bought our dinner from the bellwoods cafe, home to the 1lb hamburger and fries for $5. it is a challenge eating a pound of ground beef in a single sitting, but possible none the less. graham and i have learned to eat only half of the burger with all of the fries (covered in gravy of course), and save the other half for later. playin vidz, drinkin beer, and puffin rootz can definitely give you crazy munchies.
i had joked to graham earlier that i would give him a present if he bought dinner. when he agreed to buy dinner, i said "kewl, wait, now i have to buy you a present. oh well, the dollar store is on my way home." that was before my journey to a far away land to find free dutch ales *mmmmm* so after dinner, i told graham that i didn't get to stop off at the dollar store to get him a present, but i did have a card for him and that he wasn't allowed to look as i signed it in front of him. then i gave it to him with this bowl i had picked up for him earlier in the evening at roacharama.
graham had recently lost his glass bowl, and this bowl was affordable and wanted to be loved. when the woman who sold me the pipe dropped it on the ground by mistake and it didn't break, i knew this pipe could take the beatingz and the love that graham would share with her. graham was so stoked, and he immediately packed it. i said merry christmas to him, then i said "but wait, i wasn't gonna buy you a christmas present anyways, so this is just a random gifting."
we spent the rest of the night playing star wars battlefront 2. man this game just gets better and better the more you play it. as an elite pure bred clone of the 501st brigade, also known as 'vader's fist', this game lets you live the battles you saw in episode 3, and even the movies after (before) that. you get to fight alongside the jedi, then when order66 is given you get to storm the jedi temple and kill every jedi in sight (and jedis don't go down very easily). but the best was playing the battle that opened episode 4, a new hope: capture princess leia and retrieve the stolen death star plans. many bothans died to bring you this information :p
after all these decades, you finally get to play as darth vader, and in the role in which he was first introduced. slicing through rebel scum with his lightsaber, force choking helpless foes from across the room. this game kicks some serious ass.
darth tater kicks some serious spud.
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