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P1010570, originally uploaded by palm0014.

A thought entered my head that I should attempt a surprise 23rd birthday party for Vero. Her birthday was on September 15 but I figured if I could manage to hold something on Saturday the 13th, all would be good in the world. What better way to celebrate a birthday than to have a deep-fried turkey and corn on the cob?

The invite went out and I slowly planned the event. Rob pointed out that I was stupid for holding yet another corn roast in the month of September as we had a hard time finding corn last year at this time. He was right…what was I going to do? I got a tip from Steve to look on St.Joseph and sure enough, I managed to scoop up the best corn I’ve had all season at $5/dozen. A fair price to pay considering the lack of corn around the area.

The plan was set into motion on Friday night when I realized that I had not figured out a good way for Vero to show up at the house for the party. It presented itself when she wanted to go see a comedian out in Hawkesbury on Saturday night. Knowing full well that this would be the time of her party, I asked if this was something she REALLY wanted to go to and she said she wouldn’t mind, but it wouldn’t kill her if we didn’t. Perfect. I arranged for her to show up at my house around 2:30 on Saturday so we could have an elaborate meal before heading out for the evening.

Note for next year: Do not have a party starting at 2PM. That’s just plain silly. In my head, when it comes to a party, I’m of the Northern mindset. That mindset says “You know what? I don’t really care when you show up. It could be 10AM if you wish. But just know that we’ll still be roaming around getting things ready for the event.” So that’s the reason I said 2PM was the start-time. In hindsight, I should start the thing around 4PM. A more reasonable hour for people to show up.

Vero was actually the first to show up to her surprise birthday party so Mike and I had strategically positioned ourselves in the front husking corn so she sat down and chatted. She did notice that we had five dozen corn for a meal but I just said that we got a really good deal on it. Five minutes later, her cousin Melissa showed up so we couldn’t put the surprise off any longer as it’s not common for her to show up in Orleans so we yelled “Surprise!” and I now have a vivid memory of what Vero’s face looks like when she doesn’t know what the heck is going on.

We went inside the house to find balloons, party treats, you name it, we had it (except for a pinata). Mike and I then started to get things ready for the turkey roast and people started showing up shortly after that and by 5PM the backyard was packed.

The evening went off beautifully. There was (once again) too much oil for the bird to fry in but it came out great. The corn was super superb…best corn of the year. I even won a corn eating contest against Duncan that night.

After supper we cleaned up and Vero opened up a few gifts. A few of us then went outside to enjoy the night (and play some lawn golf) while others stayed inside to watch Back to the Future. I personally ended off the night watching Ghostbusters (which Jean-Francois and Marie-Claude picked up as a birthday gift for me!) but passed out half way through the film.

Highlights of the evening:

• Giving Melissa’s brother Tommy tips on how to treat a lady. He even wrote them down. Some favourites were:
  • Me: Open the door for a woman. But don’t push her out of the way in order to do so.
  • Melissa: Don’t stare at a girl’s chest. Look at her eyes.
  • Rob: But don’t be afraid to glance at her chest once so she knows you’re interested.
• Lawn Golfing! What a hit. Glad to see Mike constructed his own set.
• Vero receiving a magician’s hat as a gift. That is amazing.
• The fact that the cakes Mike and I made didn’t suck.

I’m sure there are a bunch of other highlights that people will comment on. All I cared about is that everyone had a great time, especially Vero. It was great to see her friends show up for the event.

My only beef about the day is that when you are hosting a party, it’s hard to sit and talk with people until the night is over. It’s really hard. So I apologize for Mike and me running around getting things ready for supper. But I’m sure the turkey and corn makes up for it.

So I was off sick on Monday and Wednesday from work and Krista had the following email conversation with someone whom she THOUGHT was me, but in reality, she accidentally reversed my last/first name in my email and met someone else who shares my name.

Conversation Transcript:

From: Krista
Are you home sick today?
————–
Sent from my Blackberry

From: Palmer
To: Krista

No, why?

Sent from my iPhone

From: Krista
Loser.
————–
Sent from my Blackberry

From: Palmer
To: Krista

Serious?

Sent from my iPhone

From: Krista
Almost.
Hope that you are feeling better.  Did you know that tomorrow is Amelier’s  birthday?!
————–
Sent from my Blackberry

So this morning I see that she has sent this email to the wrong person and I tell her but she says that’s not possible as she was talking to me yesterday and shows me this conversation she was having with this guy.  Turns out that she called the guy a loser thinking it was me writing down ‘sent from my iphone’ at the end of the email in response to her ‘sent from my blackberry’ message that appears on her Blackberry.

In the end, some poor guy who shares my name was called a loser by a random girl yesterday.  Poor guy.

You know it’s been awhile if your parents call wondering if you are alright because there hasn’t been an update to the website.

Been sick.  Am feeling better.  Will talk more later.

Ciao now.

Last night I went to my Multimedia I class which turns out to be a course in learning how to use Adobe (formerly Macromedia!) Flash and Adobe Photoshop.  I am familiar with both programs (somewhat) so feel that this semester, coupled with my Pop culture, shall be a breeze and I’m happy for that.  I don’t need to think too hard after a good summer.

Man, it’s getting dark outside though.  I left class around 8 (as it was the first class so there isn’t much to do) and it was already dark.  I decided to head over to Krista’s for a bit before heading over to Vero’s place.  She was out so I decided to fire up the laptop and check out the new episode of Californication that I just downloaded and it is mint.  I love this show.  David Duchovny…I bow to you.

I would also like to thank WordPress for allowing me to post pictures again.  They make a posting so much nicer to look at.  Unfortunately, it probably means that older posts need to lose a few pictures…directory seems to be getting full?

Where the heck is Languedoc?

You’ll find out in Uncle Gerry’s new blog about his life in Montpellier, France.

http://gerrypatt.wordpress.com/

First an election is called with…no real reason that I could see.

Now the news, not even a week in, focuses on a puffin.

Ladies and Gents, I’ll see you on October 15 when this all blows over.  This is moronic.  Farce.  I feel like I’m watching an SCTV skit.

Last night I had a super-productive night in furthering Troy’s new tune ‘And So It Goes’.  I envisioned some strings over top of the guitars and to do that, I asked Trish to come on over.  We spent the night listening to the song and transcribing the chords into piano chord land which was difficult as the song was recorded in a flat tuning so we had to transpose all existing chords into a flat chord.  This also took awhile as Trish is more of a sight-reader which is fine by me.  Now that we have it all laid out, the next time we meet we’ll try and record a few takes into the computer and see what we can do with it.

Unfortunately, a main sticking point is the fact that I couldn’t get the keyboard to interact with the computer today and I never had a problem with it before.  I think it may be the adapter that Matt gave as it shows that it receives a signal from the computer but it doesn’t seem to send any signal out (judging by the blinking lights).  So I’ll have to see if I can track down another USB Midi adapter to test my theory out.

Last week I started school.  I was a schmuck and packed my schoolbag and hauled that heavy, heavy thing into work.  When I stopped to change busses I saw a bunch of students collecting for Shine-orama (a fund raising activity for cystic fibrosis) and I thought “How can there be Shine-orama today if there is class today?”.  Sure enough, I checked the schedule and class didn’t start until Thursday, not Tuesday!  Argh.  Shine-orama equals end of summer.

With that news in hand, I did decide to go to Vero’s after work and finally pick up my bicycle.  It was a decent day to bike home but I lost steam around the Jeanne D’Arc area.  I don’t know if it was the fact that I hadn’t eaten enough to give me energy or if I just didn’t drink enough water.  Either way, it was a struggle for the last eight kilometers of the trek.

I turned around and headed back towards town as we were going over to Mike and Melissa’s house for dinner.  We met Melissa’s brother Tommy who is starting a culinary management course at Algonquin.  Is culinary management any different than being a chef?  Let me know!  He was an energetic chap and was fun to talk to.  Mike had prepared an amazing dish of rice and some beef concoction and we even got some cake!  It was nice to see the two of them and we enjoyed the time we had with them.  Eating over at friends place during the week equals end of summer (for me at least, being the student).

On Wednesday we got the grand idea to return to Minglewood’s for some wings and beer.  You can’t go wrong with a $10 pitcher of beer.  Mike’s wings tasted like fish so he didn’t care for them at all, but I can’t say mine tasted bad.  We then headed back home and watched a few episodes of Veronica Mars as Vero was starting a cold and just felt like lazing around.  Last weeks of wings on a patio equals end of the summer.

Thursday had me craving a burger from the Works so I called up Annie and she was thinking the exact same thing.  We waited until Eric got home, ordered take-out and headed to their place.  I had the Royal Supreme burger which was a decent burger but nothing special.  I like something with a little spice in it.

Friday I was excited to see Carrie and Katie (who was up for the weekend).  I packed the car for a trip to Toronto the next day and drove to Carrie’s where they had not arrived yet so I pulled out my guitar and had a beer on the back patio.  When Katie and Carrie arrived, they made an excellent supper and I got to see Holly’s mom who was up for the week.  The night was a combination of a little wine, a little Mario Kart and some laughable pictures being taken along the way.  Unfortunately I grabbed an air mattress which had a leak and ended up in an uncomfortable spot early into the night.  I had to move to the couch in the living room which is more like a love seat.  Mental note: Must buy Carrie a six foot long couch!

On Saturday, Vero and I headed out in the pouring rain to Toronto.  It cleared up an hour later and we munched on some excellent A&W in Kingston.  Vero was nice enough to drive the rest of the way and I slept that entire time.  I was quite in need of some nap-time.  We arrived in Ajax and picked up a few things (as well as a new air mattress) and had to drop into Aunt Dinah’s as I had forgot the directions for Dwayne and Wendy’s place.  Luckily, Vero had been watching Veronica Mars for the past few months so her detective skills found a spare key outside the house.  Funnily enough, we found out that Aunt Dinah had placed this key outside on that day only for Aunt Val!  We were quite lucky!

We headed over to Dwayne’s and the skies parted and the sun shone through.  Rick, John and I hit the pool for awhile which was divine.  Funny story about John…probably not too funny to him…but I had completely forgotten about meeting him before at Winterlude a few years back.  So I introduced myself and he thought I was simply joking.  However, if you know me, you know I have an awful memory and you have to explain where I met you before.  Once I realized I had some beers with him at Darcy McGee’s, it all came flooding back at me.

The food was excellent and there was a cake celebrating Aunt Dinah’s and Uncle Richard’s 40th anniversary.  Sully had a lovely poem written commemorating the event and everyone was having a great time.  Troy and I hauled the guitars down into the basement for awhile until we were asked to play outside which was great.  We then retired to the basement to play some more and after my fingers started to bleed, it was time to take a break.  Sully, Troy and I stayed up for awhile longer and then hit the sack (oddly enough, I was in Paige’s room sleeping in a Hanna Montana bed.  Hanna Montana, you make a comfy comforter.)

The next morning I definitely didn’t have enough sleep but figured we should head over to Aunt Dinah’s for some breakfast.  After breakfast Vero and I hit the road again and played our great tag team game of “I drive half the way, you drive the other.”  In the end of the day, I retired to my couch and read comic books for the rest of the night.  Pool parties in Ajax are a sign that the summer is ending.

Now I get to look forward to my two new classes – Pop Culture and Multimedia I (which I heard deals with learning how to work inside Flash and Photoshop.  Considering I’ve dabbled in both, I’m excited for what looks to be an easy semester!).  The end of summer indeed.

You all know my cousin Troy. What’s interesting about Troy is the fact that I never really knew when his birthday was until now. It’s good to think that after 30 years I know what day one of my cousin’s birthdays fall on.

Troy and I have become as close as brothers do over the past few years and I’m glad for that. I feel like I know him as well as his friends and here’s some good points about this chap on his birthday:

– The man can make a mean chili. I mean, it’s the sort of chili that will change your metabolism. Your body will wretch inside after feeling the spices and the goodness inside. It’s oh-so tasty as well.
– The man can play the guitar. Well, at that. Can I say he’s the best guitarist in the world? Heck no. But he’s quite good and he spends his time honing his craft and even used to share his knowledge to others. Heck, he does that with me right now and I’m better for it.
– The man is not a music snob. Who else can enjoy some Metallica and Neil Diamond in the same breath? He’s stated his first album was a Roy Orbison album. He isn’t about ‘what is cool’. He’s all about what makes him feel something.
– The man has some good stories. While I am known to embellish a few stories, he is also a master storyteller and his audience stands silent while listening to him speak.

This is but a mere snapshot of what sort of man Troy is. At the end of 38 today, he has quite a few more years left in him to continue his quest to better himself as a being of this Earth while at the same time, sharing good times with others.

Happy birthday brother. I guess I’ll see you tomorrow night!