G is for Goalie

Well, duh. What did you think I would choose?

G is also for Google. Without which I'd never be able to amaze Penny with my repository of useless information. Bless you, Google.

G is for "Go Figure", one of my signature phrases. Very handy in a number of anecdotal situations. It can say "that's an interesting story", or "fuck me, I'm bored of hearing this story AGAIN" with equal affinity.

G is for G spot. (Maybe one of these days Jones will figure out what happens when he finds it). When people tell me to go to my happy place, I know what I'm thinking about. Everyone else thinks I'm pondering a pleasant meadow. Silly rabbits.

G is for Grumpy. Which I am sometimes. I admit it. So, deal.

And finally,

G is for Guitar. An instrument I love to play but don't get to play much anymore. *sigh*

F is for, um...

How about "flailing", does that work? Cuz we all know what "F" is really for (I know Ed and Sue know for sure!)

F is definitely for Football. Unfortunately, Penny and I seem to be bad luck for the Argos because they lost every game we attended this year. So we're not going to attend the East Division semi-final this weekend. Instead, I'll just watch on the Tube.

F is for Five...as in a 5-2 win last night in my Ajax league. And I was doing a lot of flailing around at the puck for sure.

F is for FUBAR. Heh. 'nuff said there.

But F is really for Friends. And I count you all among them. :)

E is for Eerie

Sometimes it takes my wife to point things out.

I had come home from hockey late Monday night (I'll just slip past the ol' procrastination issues here) and I had showered and DW was staring at my left side as I changed.

"Oh my god" she said. "What happened to you?"

I gave her an odd look.

She said, "Your chest protector has branded you. You've got a pentacle! No, seriously!"

Of course, I didn't believe her but I went to the bathroom to check it out in the mirror. She wasn't kidding. I had the faint outline of a pentacle on my rib cage.

You knew we had to take pictures to prove it, right?

Here ya go...here's proof that I bear the mark.














First the cross thing, now this? What's next?

D is for D'OH!

Probably the singular catchphrase announcing failure, recognition of retroactive error or realization that you just uttered something you shouldn't have uttered.

Way better than "oops" by a long shot.

Of all the contributions to Western society provided by Matt Groening, I'd say that one was the biggest.

(Pretty sure that's what Larry said after The Steph posted that picture....)

C is for Cornucopia

Well, its for a lot of things...isn't it?

C is for Choke, which is what my Argonauts did when they had a chance to clinch first place and a bye to the East final. Penny and I went to the game and were throroughly disgusted with the on-field product.

C is for Crunch, which is what fellow North Bay native Mike O'Shea does to people on the football field. In fact, he's done it 1,000 times. Yep, Mikey recorded his 1,000th tackle on Friday night. Well done, Mike.

C is also for Cuddle, and Penny and I did much of that this weekend.

C is also for Cool...and I give that big shout out to all my readers, commenters and lurkers. You folks rock.

Edit:

C is also for Clarke. As in Bob. He who fell on his sword as the seemingly untouchable GM of the Philadelphia Flyers. He wasn't universally liked as a GM in the NHL, but he definitely took some good stands when he needed to. I give you Eric Lindros as an example. Take a break Bob. I'm thinking you need it.

B is for Baseball

I really lost most of my interest in baseball after the strike, but I was thinking of Larry when I heard that the Cardinals made it to the World Series. I was a little sad that Carlos Delgado won't get a shot at a World Series title but I hear it was quite the series.

As much as Larry is a hockey fan, I know he likes his hometown Redbirds too. So, here's to you Larry...may your boys bring home the hardware this year.

A is for Argentina

Argentina - a lovely little country with some interesting and somewhat dubious socio-political history. They recently unearthed Juan Peron to move him to a new mausoleum. Needless to say the event was fraught with all sorts of emotion.

However, on a more positive note, Argentina is the home of my friend Daniela, her husband Seb, and their daughter Sophie. Sophie has her own photo blog and she's an absolute cutie. Dani and Seb are, I think, still hoping to move to Canada some day...although why they wanted Winnipeg still escapes me. Seb is also likely the only Maple Leafs fan in the Greater Buenos Aires area.

Night of the living brain dead

Somewhere in a parallel universe, my doppelganger has had an awesome day. I, on the other hand, had a pretty tiring day at the salt mines. By my calendar, I had all of about 45 minutes of unscheduled time yesterday. Yikes.

All things being equal, I'm hoping his day goes to shit and mine is nothing but success and accomplishments.

Here's hoping, anyway.

Btw, I must give a big shout out to the BatRider. I've resisted the urge to really needle him about the Eskimos being knocked out of playoff contention this past weekend. Fortunately he's a good sport about most of my ribbing on all things "Eskimo" so the banter will, I'm sure, continue.

I'm toying with the idea of my own A-Z list like Steph but I dunno if it could be done consecutively. Must consult her for the rules.

Have a happy!

Rampant Despotism IV

Well, we finally did it. We really did. We finally took the next steps on our path to rule the world.

After much drooling and longing, we picked up Civilization IV this weekend.

Anyone who has read this blog (if there is anyone left reading this blog) knows that I was a big CivIII fan and I was really excited to see that an update would be forthcoming. The game came out a while ago but it has finally taken up residence in the Stone-Shagwell manor - the perfect plaything for two equally aspiring despots.

Granted, Penny and I take different approaches to world conquest. She's all about steamrolling the competition, and I'm more into the economic and cultural stranglehold prior to military action, but the end result is the same. What I really like about this version is that apparently you can run multiplayer scenarios on the same machine where you take turns.

Once I crank some more RAM into the computer (because we're at the bare minimum for the system requirements) we'll have to try it out.

The graphics rock, the soundtracks are amazing and I could happily spend a few days building and ruling a few worlds. *sigh*

Screen shots follow...

So here I sit...

...Wires crossed yet again with DW's ex. My schedule says to drop them off after 7, and when I arrive at 7:20 he ain't here. So I call. He's apparently half an hour out.

Since I have no interest in burning up gas for 30 minutes, here we sit. Good thing The Boy was in slow mode getting out otherwise we'd sit here longer.

This isn't helping the headache I've been nursing since noon. This one is a doozie and nothing seems to help. Maybe sex will. :P

K. Is he here yet? *looks* nope. Not here yet. Fuck.

I have to do a major shout out to Steph, the Dirty Gypsy for her awesome alphabet posting series. She came up with 26 great posts that really are a great read. You'll even find a really awesomely embarassing picture of Larry the Nature Boy from a recent party chez Steph. Nothing like a pic of a drunken blogger on a bathroom floor in a really stupid hat to bring out those wanting to use the picture for evil purposes. (Like that picture would have any other purpose???)

*looking at clock*

Shit.

I really should have just gone back home and told him to pick the kids up there. But I'm a nice guy so I didn't do that. But I should have. Oh well.

Fuck its cold outside. Could be worse. I could be in Buffalo. That does apply at almost any time but in this case it's doubly applicable because they got pounded in a rare fall snow storm. Buffalo and the parts of Ontario right across the border got 12"-15" of the white stuff closing roads and schools and wreaking all sorts of havoc. Better them than us.

Speaking of which , I played 2 good periods of hockey last night and I'm not quite ready to talk about the 3rd period so we'll just not, okay? K. Good

7:42PM. Not here. ~sheesh~

My head still hurts. Did I mention that? Good. Didn't want you to forget.

Hmmmm. What else....Penny has been back at work part days this week I'll leave her to relate the gory details, suffice it to say that she really is the glue holding her department together. Based on what she told me I envisioned her department looking something like Klinger's Office when he got sick and the doctors took over. Chaos chaos everywhere.

7:50. I'm really glad I have my blackberry. Otherwise I'd be seriously bored. Kids are keeping themselves entertained with some kind of in-car wrestling. As long as they are still laughing and there's no blood I'll leave them to it.

7:56. He arrived. Kids gone. Am off.

Hey, wait a minute!?

This week I got a real sign that I had been lying low for too long. I was working on my paper (submitted last night, thank you very much) and went to the fridge for a drink. When I opened the door I saw a milk carton with my picture on it.

So, yes, I've been located. Alive and well.

The Stone/Shagwell clan is off to the wedding of Penny' niece at beautiful CFB Borden, where she is marrying a meathead. No, not Mike Stivic. She's marrying a Military Policeman - known as meatheads particularly for their red berets. Although by all accounts he's a great guy so I'm happy for them both.

It will be a trip down memory lane for me because I spent no small amount of time at Base Boredom over my time in the big green machine and I haven't been there in quite some time.

Last evening was spent with Penny's favourite nephew and his wife, who are also in town for the wedding. Nothing like a couple of pints of Alexander Keith's finest to lubricate the ol' brain pan.

Must get my mop trimmed now. :)