Oh Canada

Did you guys know I was going to Canada?  Yeah, me either, I was told Thursday that I was needed in Canada Saturday.  Which is fine, but a little more of a heads up would have been nice.  My Bride wasn’t happy about the last minute trip, mainly because we didn’t have time to get her a ticket to go with me. 
I’ve always wanted to go to Canada, it’s been way up on my list of places to visit for a long time, so getting to go for virtually free is what we, in the industry, like to call outstanding.  So Saturday morning I boarded a plane and headed to the Great White North.  This was a work trip so I didn’t have too much free time.  I landed Saturday afternoon in Toronto and after getting my rental car I headed downtown to see some sights.  I visited the CN Tower, which was pretty cool, but it was so overcast there wasn’t much visibility.  Then I headed to the Eaton section of downtown to visit the Hard Rock Café.  Eaton was very cool, had a Times Square sort of feel to it.  After getting my shot glass I decided to head to the hotel to check in and meet my co-worker for some dinner.  I was given a GPS by my bride for Christmas one year.  And I told her that I didn’t need a GPS with Canadian maps on it, mainly because I’m cheap and didn’t think I’d ever need them.  Boy was I wrong.  After I left the parking garage at the HardRock I got stuck on some roads that wouldn’t let me turn off of them.  So I kept driving further away from where I needed to be.  My thinking was when I was able to make a turn I would turn and then head back in the other direction until I reached the road I needed and then continue on my way.  Well, when I reached the road I needed to be on I wasn’t allowed to turn on it.  So my next thought was to drive up one more block and run parallel to the road I needed to be on.  My plan was working, for a minute, then at some point one of the roads took a dramatic turn.  So this begins my tour of the suburbs of the greater Toronto area.  After driving around trying to find the road I needed to be on I broke out my phone and used my maps to get me pointed back in the right direction. I learned that in Toronto it’s ok to park anywhere as long as you have flashers on, and since people park anywhere it’s best to stay in the left hand lane or you’re going to get stuck behind someone’s parked car.
Sunday was a day of work, we got started about 9:00 am and finished up around 10:30 that night.  Giving me just enough time to eat, get back to the hotel, pack up and go to bed.  The main story from Sunday is that I discovered a lovely little place called “Tim Horton’s”  OMG peeps, the combo meals there are a sandwich and a doughnut!  A SANDWICH and DOUGHNUT!  Anyone that knows me knows just how much I heart a doughnut.  It was simply heaven up north.  I told my co-worker, who’s a Canadian, that he could laugh if he wanted too, but I was taking a picture of this.
Then comes Monday, or as it was to become known, the day of delays.  I’m a hurry up and wait type of guy so I got to the airport early, I didn’t know how long it would take me to return the rental, my soccer momish Dodge Gran Caravan, get through customs and then security. I return the minivan with no issues, get to customs and then stand and wait, about 30 minutes of waiting and I didn’t even get a stamp on my passport.  Next is security, pretty quick through security except the guy in front of me has apparently never flown before.  Take your shoes off buddy, do you have a belt on?  Ok, take that off and come back through, do you have any change in your pocket, place that in this little basket, come on through.  Then to top it all off the guy tried to balance the change basket on his coat, so guess what happened when it hit the divider going into the scanner?  That’s right, change everywhere, so let’s have everyone help dude pick up his 5 dollars in nickels, dimes and pennies.  After all of this I start my trek to my gate.  Toronto has to be the poorest laid out airport I’ve ever been in.  Two moving sidewalks, no trams and a sign that said “7 minute walk to your gate”.  That’s right folks, 7 minute walk, no other option.  I walk down stairs and through long narrow hallways to get to my gate.  I use gate loosely also, it’s 6 degrees outside and I have to walk out the double doors across the tarmac and climb the steps to my plane.  I swear I think Donald Trump has a bigger jet than this commercial jet I just flew on.  All this was after a nice 40 minute delay to my flight.  I had a layover in Cleveland, which was to be a long layover, but due to the delay it was shortened so it wasn’t so bad.  As soon as I land in Atlanta and turn my phone back on I get a text from my bride saying that there is a huge wreck on 85 and she’s sitting with the car in park in LaGrange.  So for the third time that day I found myself sitting in an airport with a plenty of time to kill.

Leaving on a jet plane

A quick blog since I'm waiting on my flight home. I was sent last minute to Toronto Canada to do some work. The trip has been fun, it's mostly been work though. I flew out early satuday morning and had a few hours to tool around Toronto. I found out do last minute that I didn't have any time to plan a todo list. So I went and visited the CN Tower, and hit up the hardrock for a shot glass. I hope to post a better blog later with some pictures and my adventures of traveling without a gps in a foreign country. I should be back in the south around 8:00 and in the arms of my bride around 8:30. I can't wait, she's so good to me. Between Cleveland and Toronto I've seen a lot of snow, flying above the snow covered landscape has been amazing. Alright time to get back to my good friend an keep me busy partner John Grisham.

Is it just me?

Or has it been slow out here in the blog world.  I'm not getting any comments and most of the people I follow aren't posting any new blogs. What's going on?  I've been bored at work.  Somebody please talk to me.

Auburn got a dusting of the white stuff

As most of my readers probably know by now, the Auburn Tigers are the National Champions of the world in the United States.  This makes me one happy dude.  I’m pretty sure my bride was ready to divorce me during the game.  I was a nervous wreck.  I couldn’t sit down, I was pacing, I was fighting back the urge to hurl every second, I even quit making cornbread for dinner because the Tigers started doing bad when I was mixing up the batter.  Yes, I understand that it was bad planning and timing on our part to not have already eaten by kick off.  When dinner was ready I could barely even choke the food down due to my nerves. 
My thoughts on the game?  Totally not what I expected, but I couldn’t be prouder.  One, our defense was outstanding.  Two, I was so proud that Kodi Burns got the first touchdown.  For people not around Auburn, Kodi has been a leader on this team since he was moved to Wide Receiver.  With Cam getting all the national attention, Kodi has quietly been leading the team behind the scenes and the team has been following.  Three, how fitting was it that the game came down to a Wes Byrum field goal?  What a way to cap off his career!  And lastly, people are already talking about the title not standing and that the NCAA will take it away.  Well you know what?  They might take away the title, but they will never take away the feeling I felt Monday night when the football went between those yellow goalpost.    So do what you want NCAA, Auburn will ALWAYS be the 2010-2011 College Football Champions of the World.  All we do is win win win no matter what…
More poor planning on the super fan’s part…  I had planned all along to go to Toomer’s after the game to celebrate with untold members of my family.  As the game was winding down, tied 19 to 19 my bride asked me if she should get up and start getting ready.  I said "heck to the no!"  This game isn’t over yet, we are not going to jinx this by acting like we’ve already won!  As soon as the scoreboard said Auburn 22 Oregon 19 with 00:00 left, I told my Bride, get up, get dressed, we’re going.  We throw on some clothes, grab our warm coats, talk to a friend who wanted to ride with us and dash off to the truck.  What do we see when we get to the truck?  About an inch of ice caked on the entire truck.  I chip away at the door and bust it open, fire up the big blue beast, and put the defrost on full blast.  Back to the house we go to wait on ice to magically melt away.  This did allow me to watch some post game celebration, and calm down before hitting the roads like a wild man.  We allow 15 minutes to pass before checking on the Blue Beast  with the horses inside her thundering ready to be let lose to roam the plains, but alas, still an inch of ice on her holding her back.  With no more time to spare a dash to our storage building to fetch the overkill for the south ice scraper/snow brush combo tool we received for Christmas ages ago.  This tool is awesome, it blasted the ice off the windshield as if it was a hot knife scraping the top layer out of a tub of butter.  The brush is also a bright Orange color, so totally fitting, and can also be used to help flag down help if stuck in a ditch, or land an air craft if you're on the deck of a aircraft carrier.  With fully charged camera in hand we’re ready to get our party on.
Once in Auburn, it was a mad house, cars, people, and toilet paper everywhere.  Here are a few moments we were able to capture before we ran out of space on our memory card, guess that should be up in the poor planning section of this post…

While I'm posting videos

Here's a video of a friend of mine singing at my church. 

His voice is a Ferge and Jesus.

You never know who you'll find on Youtube...

Here is a video of a friend of mine's parents from their trip to AZ for the National Championship game.

So jealous they're getting to go to the game.

Eff you Lifetime!

Hey Lifetime, why don't you stick to entertaining women and leave me the F-bomb alone?  Quit trying to suck me in by playing my favorite shows, PawnStars, American Pickers, and How I Met Your Mother.  I'm sick of it!  You knew I was a sucker for watching reruns of these shows, so you put them in time slots when I'm the most vulnerable to watch them.  Thanks a lot A-hole.  Then last night you suck my bride and I into the //the.craigslist.killer.  Again you knew I was a sucker for movies based off of true events.  You knew I want to watch that movie and then research about the real events and people involved.  Why couldn't you have stuck to making male bashing movies that only women would watch so I could skip right over you and not have to an embarrassing conversation about having seen something on Lifetime.  Lifetime I curse you, but will continue to watch you because you're playing the shows I want to watch.

Side note, Susannah guessed the movie correctly, the movie was Elf.  The first quote was when Buddy was talking to the snow man about finding his real father and the snowman well telling Buddy to be thankful that he had a father.

Another side note, this is my 100th blog post, so go me!  I never would have thought I would have had so much to say.

I am resloved no longer to linger

Every year most people seem to make new years resolutions.  I’m sure most resolutions don’t make it through the first week of the January.  I know I’m guilty of not seeing resolutions through to completion.  So with that being said, here is a list of resolutions that I don’t see myself following through on this year. 

1.    Getting into shape.  I say this all the time.  I’m a former athlete so I know how good it feels to be in peek physical condition.  How you just feel better, seem to breathe easier, and have more energy.  But now with life happening all around me I find it hard to get back into shape and stay in shape.
2.    Be healthier.  I need to start watching what I eat and drink more.  I will admit that I’m addicted to soda.  Not even the taste as much as the convenience of a 12 oz drink that’s only a pop top away.  I need to force myself to drink more water, eat less at seatings, and eat healthier snacks.  Before anyone thinks this is about weight loss, it’s really not.  I’m getting older and I really need to start worrying about my health more.  My father is nowhere near a perfect image of health, and I’m starting to see a lot of him in me, so it’s time to nip it in the bud.  (If for no more than my bride’s sake)
3.    Cut back on TV and reading more.  I’m starting to think I could go without TV, it’s a luxury and a time waster.  Do I enjoy TV?  Of course I enjoy watching TV.  Do I think I could not watch a program and feel like I didn’t miss anything?  Yes I do. 

And for the resolutions I intend to keep. 

1.    Be a better and more supportive husband.  A marriage takes work, and even though we haven’t been married long, I already see areas that I need to improve on.
2.    Pray often and with more purpose.  Not to win the lottery or anything selfish, but more or less opening up a dialogue with the man upstairs.