Ever notice how it's the little things in life that amuse us so much? More to the point, ever notice how it's the silly little idiocies in life that amuse us more than anything else? Well, this is not as much ''the little blog that could'' as it is ''the blog that enjoys going up the down escalator in your local mall.'' Will it have anything of real importance? No, probably not. But enjoy the ride never the less!

 


Not too long ago, we had opted on cold meat deli sandwiches for dinner; they're quick, easy and leave very little of a mess in the kitchen. There's the added bonus of a nearby local grocer called Vincenzo's that has the most awesome array of meat for a lot less cost than your standard Zehrs. They sell more than 4 different types of procuitto, people! Over 4 types!

...but nothing over 9000, alas, unless you count their sheer coolness factor. Yes, I'm geeking over groceries. I have officially reached adulthood. We'll see how long I can last before we have to start attaching the "mature" part onto that title. If I'm lucky, it'll only be when I'm in my 60's, and that will be attributed more to my age than my attitude. Responsible adult, yes. Mature adult...nyaaaaaa.

Or even better: NYAN!




...anyhoo, back to the meat. I had already eaten, being quite ravenous upon my return home from work. Mel opted to have hers later. And wouldn't you know it: about an hour or so after, the following conversation ensues:

Mel: [not so subtly nudging me]

Me: "Yes?"

Mel: ^-^ "Hungry!"

Me: "And?"

Mel: ^___^ "Help with nom-noms!"

Me: [getting up off the couch] "Okay, okay, I'll...wait a minute. Did you just tell me to get into the kitchen and make you a sammich?!"

Mel: "Yes, but my way was cuter."

Me: o.O;;; "That's still the same thing!"


So, yes. I have been demoted from "husband" to "sammich maker." But on the plus side, I get to wear a really cool hat for it. (Okay, so not really, but I'm seriously considering putting it on every time I'm required to do the sammich thing for Mel. It's big and black and has a large feather in it. Not as cool as a fez, mind you, but I think it works for the kitchen.)

In other news, the past week has been filled with families and gatherings. Last weekend, Mel & I trekked out to Hamilton to pay homage to my niece, She-Who-Is-Dangerously-Aware-Of-How-Cute-She-Is-At-Only-Two-Years-Old Josslyn. Naturally, I shutterbugged all over the place, and even managed to snap a decent picture of Mel in the process. Bear in mind that Mel's philosophy on having her picture taken is a lot like my grandmother's: whenever possible, she either averts her head or demands a happy face sticker be tacked over her face in the picture. This can only lead to disaster on my part, for that only fuels my desire to sneak in as many photos of her face as I can. Being her husband/butler/sammich-maker, I think I'm entitled to that.

One added bonus to the visit was that my Dad came down from Nova Scotia for it, and planned to stick around a little afterwards. It was very cool to be able to spend Sunday hanging out with most of the family in a "we're not going to run around everywhere" fashion. A day or so after that, my Dad jumped over to KW to spend a few days with Mel & myself. In the process, I managed to procure an extra day off for myself, which was great: we hit the Farmer's Market, and spent a decent amount of time just driving around town. A lot of old places and landmarks my Dad remembers have either changed or are altogether vanished.

All in all, a fantastic time was had, and this really lights the proverbial pilot light under my butt to get over to Nova Scotia within the next year. (Something I'm sure Ysa & Chris will object heavily to ;)

This left me with only four working days last week. I know, you say: what could possibly go wrong in those mere four days? The good news is nothing went wrong. The bad news is: Head Office slammed us with a multitude of desired changes & rearranges, one after the other. I have spent all my shifts scrambling around to get markdowns completed, switch around the luggage wall, remerchandize one of our large display carousels...and on Monday, I have to change all the signage before I open. At least the added bonus there is it means I can get paid to go in early for once.

They could have just as easily split all these tasks between last week and this week. Last week we had no outstanding work orders from Head Office, and were kinda bored between customers. Now it's non-stop. I'm starting to think it's planned this way. Maybe they have the Cobra Commander on their payroll, and since he's little more than a washed-up megalomaniac now, he has to take his petty grievances out on us retail grunts. Though if he did work at Head Office, that would explain a few silly-assed ideas & policies that have come down the pipeline....

There's a potential crossover fanfic here, I'm sure of it.

Labels: and knowing how silly your employers can be sometimes is half the battle, family reunions, stop typing labels in here and go help with nomnoms

posted by Phillip at 6:42 AM

 



Aaaaand, tada!

After 6+ months on the vanished list, due to popular demand this blog has magically reappeared! But don't for a moment think that you'll get any of that "behind the scenes/how'd they do that?" treatment. Mostly because if you do, you'll be subjected to lots of sad little remarks about how work is attempting to kill me; about how tired and rather apathetic I've been when it comes to updating the world about my life; about how--ooh, Mel has gummi bears! Shiny.

...hey, at least she's not staging a gummi orgy this time around. (She says, and I quote, "they're too tired to have sex right now.") Rule 34, folks. Even Mel adheres to it.

Anyhoo, here we are once again: you attempting to read this little bit of nowhere, and me attempting to update it on a regular basis. There's no guarantee I'll be anything even close to regular in the entries, but the current plan is to at least tac something up once a week.

To start: Anime North 2011!

The Con was very enjoyable this year, even if the cold from hell attempting to pound me into the ground before it even started. (And you know that it's a particularly sadistic strain of cold when you down an entire bottle of Buckley's over 2 days, and the cold just laughs at the effort.) After a rocky start--fun with the rental car, and the Walmart pharmacy being anything but efficient--we managed to pack ourselves and Shady up, and we were off to Toronto!

The Doubletree Hotel was ready for us this year, with all five elevators working for once. I will say it made a surprising difference: you barely noticed any lag time in waiting for elevators, and there didn't seem to be a lot of stopping-on-every-floor whenever the cabs were going down. Not even a minor sign of Gimpy the Wonder Elevator...which does make me kind of sad. Gimpy was always a mainstay.

The greatest heartbreak about the Con this year was mostly room-related. For the first time in about 5 years, we didn't have a window facing the TCC. Instead we got a scenic view...of the hotel rooftop. Awe-inspiring, truly awe-inspiring. So sitting at the windows and Cosplay-watching was pretty much off the roster this year, but we managed.

Anyhoo, we snagged our Panelist badges, hoofed it over to the TCC, met up with Nightbreak and just loitered about in the looooooooong line for the Dealer's Room. We did have fun watching the Cosplayers and trying to break Mel. Unfortunately, Mel pinched back.

Once we did get in, the Dealer's Room offered a lot of great and varied things. I will say it was a very good Dealer's Room this year, and I'm sure many an otaku went home with sobbing wallets and a shitload of swag. Oddly enough, Mel & I didn't really come home with a large haul. It's strange to reflect on, in many ways: I myself have been an otaku for going on 15+ years now, Mel for almost as long, and in that time we've collectively built up a sizable DVD collection and a pretty decent manga collection. Matter of point, for the last two years I've been focused on acquiring backlog titles that are harder to come by. As a result, there's not a lot left that really catches our eyes these days.

However, I did finally locate the X movie, and I somehow stumbled across a brand new Dominion Tank Police for $10. Mel nabbed a kanzashi from Maral's booth, some Mokona chess pieces and some very cool fanart from the Artist's Alley.

Amidst all this we managed to hang out with random members of the Fancrew, as well as the Fic Bitch and Dejana. Huzzah for friends! Huzzah for socializing with people who aren't customers!

And then there were panels as well. Fandom Entitlement was fun, especially since we had more people this time around (last time we were competing with the Dealer's Room and the One Piece panel). Sailormoon was filled with fans rejoicing the return of the manga series. Yuu Watase featured many people who hadn't yet heard of the new Arata series, so we spent a bit of time pimping that. Fanfiction was its usual good stuff, though I think given the crowd and interest there is the possibility of expanding or dividing it into a number of different panels with specific focuses. Aaaaand then there was FicFicBoom, which once again giddily devolved into Savage, Nightbreak, Gaffney and myself trying to break the audience. Bonus points for the all-hat orgy, the 4 Gospels shipping and Sean attempting to kill himself with a squeaky mallet. (Sometimes it's not necessarily the panel that makes it great, but the people you're on it with, and FFB remains my favourite still. ^-^ )

In between it all, Mel & I lounged in our hotel room (I played with Shady, and Mel played Plants Vs. Zombies), and lounged in the TCC parking lot as we idly watched the Cosplayers go by. I swear I'm more and more into the people-watching as years go by.

By the time Sunday rolled around, there was a welcomed dinner at Ginko's with Matt, Gary and Jen. Ohooo, do I love their sashimi. If I could just lay it all out on a table and roll around in it naked, I...uh...nevermind!

Now all of that is over. The Con is now 12 months away (again), and I've spent the last week fighting off that creeping cold--which has tried to kill me at work three days in a row now. But on the plus side, at least my store didn't burn down in my absence!

Wait...that means I still have to actually go to work. Dammit!

Labels: Anime North 2011 Con Report, the blog that wouldn't die (or update for that matter)

posted by Phillip at 5:45 PM