How was your weekend?


Danielle was in town yesterday so we could talk with a travel agent. Looks like we’re going to London, Paris and Rome. The three of us agreed we would rather see fewer cities and stay a little longer at each place. Some of the available tour packages stop in 7 or 8 cities, in different countries, but travel is by air-conditioned coach. We don’t want to experience Europe from a view sitting on a bus. With our package you stay 3 nights in each city. The first day in each city includes prepaid guided tours and entrance fees to some of the popular sites followed by a group dinner. The next two days are free time to explore the cities on your own. There will be someone waiting when we land in England to escort us to the hotel. Transportation between London and Paris is by train, under the English Channel, and then a flight between Paris and Rome. Our fabulous European vacation will end on a low point a 10-hour non-stop flight home from Rome. We’re all going to try and save money to take advantage of as many tourist traps as possible. Doesn’t make any sense to go all the way to Europe and not pay the extra fee to ride the elevator to the top of the Eiffel Tower, our prepaid portion only takes you to the second deck. We’ll probably ride the London Eye and visit the Louver to see the Mona Lisa, but we’ve got lots of time to decide exactly which attractions to see. We will also watch 20 year old SCTV skits of Bob and Doug MacKenzie before going. We want to keep the stereo-typical image of a Canadian strong. We’ll wear flannel plaid shirt and tell each other to take off eh while ordering back bacon and beer for breakfast. John is extra excited, apparently the drinking age in Europe is 18 and we are leaving 5 days after his 18th birthday. Anyway after our visit to the travel agent we were treated to a very good home cooked dinner at Theresa’s. After driving Danielle home to Milton I settled into my couch groove and watched the Ticats lose another one. They made the game interesting, even if they did drive me crazy by taking stupid penalties at crucial times. Even with the loss I’m excited for next year. With a healthy Printers and Lumsden the offence should be a lot better. The receivers are looking better too, with Armstead’s speed, and big targets in Dickerson and Bauman. Hopefully Bauman will get over the dropsies, he has dropped a few too many passes this year. Even the backups look good. Reggie Williams is showing signs that he could be a starting quarterback in the CFL someday and Lumsden’s backup running back, Caules (spelling?) had a few good runs, (even tho a couple were called back because of those damn stupid penalties). On defence number 55 Keith has looked real good in his first two games. He will definitely compliment an already good line-backing core. Now someone needs to step forward as a leader in the secondary, which is the weakest part of the team right now.

Anyway this morning I got up and out on my bicycle to enjoy the beautiful day and remembered to bring my camera. A lot of the pics are taken on the east side of Main Street at John, opposite the old courthouse. The Hulk part deux is being filmed in Hamilton. It was weird when they first started building these until I figured out it was just a movie set. They are also filming at the old Dominion Glass factory by Gage and Barton, but sorry no pics.

Enjoy your week and the rare pictures on this blog.

You can't fix stupid

Something tells me this kid won't end up at the top of his class.

Don't show it off if you can't wear it correctly.

Yeah, this is safe.

Spray-painting the side of your house does not increase its perceived value.

Ever heard of a leash?

One sign that you're spending too much time at the computer.

Couldn't they have worded this differently?

Carolyn felt like she never quite fit in amongst the goth crowd.

Great follow-up sign.

Maybe this was her favorite skirt.

Or, maybe she's crying tears of relief that she wore panties today?

The smiley face is a nice touch.

And the news room goes silent...

You have to love how no one has seen him yet

Steady sleeper.

There are just some things you can't un-see

Seen anything good on TV lately?


Watched a lot of baseball this year, the Blue Jays have played great since being eliminated from the post season. That should tell you how bad I think TV’s become. I do like to catch the pilot episode for new series. Watched the first two episodes of Kid Nation and enjoyed them but I get bored quickly. Watched the new Bionic Woman but I didn’t see anything in the first hour to make me want to watch another. The only time I wasn’t bored was when she used her super powers and even then the bionic eye started to annoy me. Survivor is on right now but I’m not really watching. Haven’t liked any of the previous seasons why would that change. I believe Big Brother followed production of Survivor but it’s the same show only indoors. I watched a little Survivor when Theresa and I worked together at the auction but didn’t really get it. I did catch Big Brother’s pilot episode the first season but haven’t watched much more since. Most reality shows are full of “look at me” personality types and they’re the worst type of people. There are a few reality shows I watch like the biggest loser, extreme home makeover and the antique roadshow. I love to see the hidden disappointment on their face when after being selected to participate on TV they find out their goods are only replicas of a piece that would have been worth thousands. That’s good TV. With few exceptions I’m totally bored with the fat guy married to the hot wife sitcom format. More then ever I watch a lot of sports. The golf channel has lots of tips that don’t translate well for me onto a golf course and lots of info-mercials for golf stuff that I think I want. No need!! Anyway the only TV show I still plan to watch started, The Office, and it looks like a hell of a start. Gotta go!!

Andy Rooney - isms

Andy Rooney Tips for Handling Telemarketers


Three Little Words That Work !!


The three little words are: "Hold On, Please..." Saying this, while putting down your phone and walking off (instead of hanging-up immediately) would make each telemarketing call so much more time-consuming that boiler room sales would grind to a halt. Then when you eventually hear the phone company's "beep-beep-beep" tone, you know it's time to go back and hang up your handset, which has efficiently completed its task. These three little words will help eliminate telephone soliciting.


Do you ever get those annoying phone calls with no one on the other end?


This is a telemarketing technique where a machine makes phone calls and records the time of day when a person answers the phone. This technique is used to determine the best time of day for a "real" sales person to call back and get someone at home. What you can do after answering, if you notice there is no one there, is to immediately start hitting your # button on the phone, 6 or 7 times, as quickly as possible. This confuses the machine that dialed the call and it kicks your number out of their system. What a shame not to have your name in their system any longer!


Junk Mail Help:


When you get "ads" enclosed with your phone or utility bill, return these "ads" with your payment. Let the sending companies throw their own junk mail away. When you get those "pre-approved" letters in the mail for everything from credit cards to 2nd mortgages and similar type junk, do not throw away the return envelope. Most of these come with postage-paid return envelopes, right? It costs them more than the regular 41 cents postage "IF" and when they receive them back. It costs them nothing if you throw them away! The postage was around 50 cents before the last increase and it is according to the weight. In that case, why not get rid of some of your other junk mail and put it in these cool little, postage-paid return envelopes.


One of Andy Rooney's (60 minutes) ideas.


Send an ad for your local chimney cleaner to American Express. Send a pizza coupon to Citibank. If you didn't get anything else that day, then just send them their blank application back! If you want to remain anonymous, just make sure your name isn't on anything you send them. You can even send the envelope back empty if you want to just to keep them guessing! It still costs them 41 cents.


The banks and credit card companies are currently getting a lot of their own junk back in the mail, but folks, we need to OVERWHELM them. Let's let them know what it's like to get lots of junk mail, and best of all they're paying for it...Twice! Let's help keep our postal service busy since they are saying that e-mail is cutting into their business profits, and that's why they need to increase postage costs again. You get the idea!


If enough people follow these tips, it will work ---- I have been doing this for years, and I get very little junk mail anymore.

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