Working for the Weekend

Some days I have big plans, big ideas and big stuff to get done. Some days it starts off so well. I find my groove early and hit the ground running. Then for one reason or another things just grind to a halt. Today it might have been the weather. Grey skies brought early this afternoon and though I could have dodged the showers to do an errand here and there I fell into a session of online poker. All was not lost. It was a winning session.

I did get a couple of nice pieces written for my Tragically Hip Tour blog plus I put together a nice colour coordinated spreadsheet for all songs played this tour. This is going to make it way easier to update my Stats for the band as they go. I was hoping to publish Vol. 2 of The Tragically Hip 2009 Tour Stat Pack, but I don't yet have a confirmed set list from 06/27/2009 in Chicago. If I don't get the info soon I may just put it out sans that night with a Barry Bonds mark*

I'm currently working a shift that gives me Sat-Mon off every week, but I work 10 hour days Tue-Fri. The length of the shift is no problem. That last few hours are when we're closed so work can be done with limited interruptions. I usually crack up some Grateful Dead or Phish. What does suck about the days I work though is there is little time to do much else besides the work. If there's OT involved I can be close to 14 hours from the time I leave till the time I walk back in the front door.

I bike across the city if the weather permits and round trip I think it's close to 25km. Pretty good exercise and I think it actually gives me more energy. The thing is that I just don't have time during these days to run normal errands so it's imperative that I do what I need to do during my weekend. I did increase my underwear totals so I am able to comfortably surpass 2 weeks without laundry if need be. Great investment on my part. I recommend it to everyone.

We did manage to get a nice sized grocery run in. That was the main thing today so being able to knock it off, while the store was relatively empty of the usual idiots, stock staff, idiots, etc, set me up nicely. Maybe I got a little too much satisfaction out of that run and let my foot off the gas. I don't know. What I didn't get done was hit the Canadian Tire for a new warming plate for inside my BBQ and I didn't get to the bank to make a purchase of Greenbacks. They are soooooooooooo cheap right now. Analysts are predicting parity by 2010. Bad for our tourism, but if they're going that "Buy American" route, whatever.

This weekend was really busy from the get-go. We went over to my sister's house for a BBQ on Friday night. Huge racks of ribs, veggie skewers and BBQ'd corn-on-the-cob. We sat up on her rooftop patio listening to The Hip and Q107, drinking some beers, eating, talking and basically just doing what we do.

My better half had to be downtown early on Saturday as she plays in one of the groups that were performing down at Queen's Park as a part of the 10th Annual Muhtadi Drumming Festival. I didn't make it down there until about 4pm. Chores ya know? It was a perfect day and drumming could be heard everywhere. Even the Drummers in Exile hippies were out. I found my lady in the Beer Tent (surprise, surprise) and we chilled for a little while before she was due to perform.

After the show I brought her djembe home while she stay. It gets heavy after a while but seems a great conversation starter on the subway. I couldn't stay even if I had wanted to. The Red Wings were playing at 8pm and after losing 2 in Pittsburgh I knew they were going to come out blazing, especially with Datsuyk back in the line-up. Well, it didn't start off too good, but the end result was a 5-0 beat down of the Antarctic Birds. One more victory to secure the hardest trophy to win in Sports.

I have been thinking about this question lately:

Would you allow your football team to experience an 0-16 season if the trade off was it would be book ended with 2 Stanley Cups?

I wonder what I would have said to that a few years ago when we didn't know Matt Millen was the worst sports executive Ever and the Lions looked promising? Hmmmm...

I found out while randomly reading the newspaper on Sunday that the Derek Trucks Band was playing a free show downtown as a part of the Luminato festival. How did I not know of this? Once I found that out, my night was planned. Day 2 of the drum fest was taking place so I was on a solo mission anyway. I did a few things around the house, brought the radio and a puff outside in the afternoon and listened to the Jays/Royals game while I did the Sunday Crossword.

As a Tigers fan I can say this unequivocally: Roy Halladay is THE single best pitcher in baseball. Period. Watching him is a treat I will always cherish as a sports fan. He's 10-1 now and threw a complete game shutout yesterday. So fucking sick. 97 pitches with 14 K's. Do the math. That's not many balls. His previous start was a complete game.

Derek & his band were playing down at Yonge & Dundas Square. I grabbed an Ice Cap from Tim Horton's and found a spot. The band sounded great and played a lot of stuff from the new album early in the show. This became more "experimental" as the show progressed. About an hour in I went back to Tim's and grabbed a Hot Chocolate and hit a bowl. Fantastic combo. I was able to get a spot on a ledge behind the stage and had a full view of the band with no one in the way. It was beautiful. The show ended at around 10:45 and everyone left happy. I would say there was probably 3000+ people down there.

I got home and ended up falling asleep on the couch. Sometimes the best sleeps come on the couch.