Missed the first year of the event (I was at a unicycle convention in Ottawa at the time. While both events were fun, I definitely didn’t want to miss this event a second time ’round!)

Last year it was hilariously awesome. Lots of good food and good friends and good new people to hang around and talk to! Mix in a pretty nice day last year and it was epic. My first time seeing a full pig being thrown. (Apparently the first year included the pig ACTUALLY being thrown, as it was dropped on the ground… stories be told.)

Here’s this year’s event was this past Saturday.  Drove in alone, left alone. All well and fine for me. Brought a case of green iced tea as my contribution to the pot luck (I’m just not good with food. Last year I bought a fruit platter) and just started to stand/sit around with the people I knew and some people I got to know better.

This year I also had the chance to do the exploring expedition with some friends, missed out on it last year. It was fun & exciting. I had some awesome photos of the graffiti under the train tracks, the tracks themselves, and the river, as well as some guys we met up with (that everyone else met up with last year). I also acquired a rusty railroad spike (which I already seem to have misplaced somewhere in my car.)

Then there was the swine. Nommy nommy swine. I ended up with two bun’s full. The first with just a dijon mustard (which was surprisingly awesome. I normally dislike mustard in all forms) The second I included a cheesey mac salad in with it, which was messy, but good fun. Badur added some coleslaw to his second helping which also looked amazing.

The summer time gatherings are always fun. I miss the old days when it was a regular occurrence in the Toronto area, before my main source of such gatherings moved away. *sigh*

Here are a select grouping of photos from the event. I’m just linking to my flickr account, so you’ll be getting transferred over there when you click any one of those thumbnails!

Short little annoying bald-headed dude who was too groovy for his own good (complete with blue-tooth headset… damn, I can’t make fun of those anymore, I’ve joined the ranks of owning those bloody headsets… although mine’s still in it’s box, heh.) is at the front of the line, and I could already think he was an annoying prat.

Then he tries to pay with I guess a gift card?  Which is a completely new thing, that the restaurant hasn’t been set up for, because while they have the machines that read them, they apparently aren’t hooked up.

So it’s back and forth.

Staff can’t accept that form of payment.  He asks what they want him to do.  Staff asks him to choose another method of payment.  He wants to be compensated. Staff can’t offer anything. He wants to be compensated for coming “all this way.” Staff ask him nicely to pay with some other method. He wants to talk to a manager.  Staff basically IS the manager… and can’t do anything (!!!) He wants to be compensated.

While I don’t like getting in the middle of arguments, but was seriously contemplating WHAT to say at that point (I’m pretty sure I was planning on just paying for his meal to get him out of the way) Up pipes a ballsy chick from behind me.

Ballsy Chick: Just pay for your food man! You’re holding up the line!

Then THEY go back and forth! Pay for your food! I’m having a conversation here. And you’re holding up the line, pay and get out already! It’s the holidays! And you’re holding up the damn line!

Somehow “The holidays” got brought into that conversation… I can’t even remember how that worked.  Finally dude probably noticed the 10+ people in line, all staring daggers at him, asks for the store number, then tells mostly said Ballsy chick he hopes her new years sucks too(???) Just to jump in as he’s walking out the door wishing ballsy chick… or all of us… a horrible new years, I decide to yell out “Happy New years to you too!”

So the rest of us are finally able to order.

In the world where the general attitude forced upon us is “All I know is that no one is better than anyone else, and everyone is the best at everything.” (Simpsons… really you needed me to tell you that?) I see two possible solutions.

Staff could have offered him something, I can’t really imagine them getting in trouble for it. A salad or dessert or something of a similar nature for free. It was obvious he wanted the whole meal for free and I wouldn’t agree to that either.  All in the vain attempt at keeping the customer happy… or at least shutting them up.  I don’t generally agree with this practice but desperate times can call for desperate measures.

Customer was being a douchebag, thankfully a somewhat rational douchebag since he wasn’t crying and screaming and waving his arms, but still a douchbag.  Therefore I see no problem in denying him services. Being an adult he should realize that not everything works everywhere, just chosen another method of payment while asking for a phone# to call & complain to or come back the next day.

Either way, he got a phone# and is what… going to call to complain that the other customers were rude to him? Because the staff there were polite and as helpful as could be given the circumstances.

Full house at my place, me, my mom and my dad. Somehow I got the bright idea of cooking a “full” breakfast for myself, but without really any normal food in the kitchen. So I decide that cooking fish (my dad fishes IRL) would be a great breakfast.

Of course, I don’t know how to actually cook fish, let alone a flash-frozen whole fish with all the insides & outsides still attached. But I decided that boiling the fish would be a good way to cook it since there was not enough time to steam it before I had to leave for work. (?)

So I’m in the kitchen, boiling water, mom enters the kitchen, dad enters the kitchen, I’m for some reason boiling this fish… and I start hearing a voice about how the water’s getting kind of warm. I look around but my parents are ignoring me, and this fish that’s sort of in it’s boiling water bath is starting to fall apart so I’m picking at it a bit.

When I notice that it just blinked. My dead, almost-done-cooking fish blinked at me. Very clear eyes like it was still alive, and continues to blink every few seconds. (Do fish even have eyelids IRL???) And the voice continues more panickey about how it’s getting really warm, to finally a screaming in my head about how it hurts, especially when I stick a fork into the side & remove some flesh for my consumption.

Keep looking around, no one else seems to hear any hint of that voice that’s screaming at me about how much pain it’s in & how hot the water is.

That’s about as far as I remember sadly. I probably woke up very confused.

It was bloody irritating as hell dealing with my ex boyfriend and his eating habits.  I only ever watched him eat was white bread or white pasta, extra cheese, extra meat, two… sometimes three servings, and soda. Pepsi in particular.

Never any fruit (unless you count fruit punch that contained obscene amounts of sugar and maybe 5% fruit juice) never any veggies (unless you count potato chips and french fries) never any whole grains… nothing what I would consider HEALTHY.

Anytime I cooked… he would either totally super-saturate everything I cooked in hot sauce to the point that everything was glowing bright red, or just outright refused to eat it.

To either throw a ton of unnecessary seasoning onto food before even tasting it… or to outright refuse to try it because one of the nine ingredients is something you “never eat” (for no good reason) is exceedingly rude.  It’s insulting. I got sick of it, and stopped feeding him.  At my house, he’d be forced to eat or go hungry, at his, he risked getting yelled at by family members for eating “their” food.

And not only was it WHAT he ate… but HOW MUCH.  He claimed he didn’t cost much to keep around because he didn’t eat a lot. He did. He just didn’t eat frequently.  His one meal would equal three of mine. Spaghetti piled sky-high. An entire bag of potato chips. A two-litre bottle of Pepsi. All pretty much in one sitting.  Coupled with his inactivity of sitting in front of the TV, the computer, and his Xbox360 for HOURS at a time, he was somehow still mystified that he was gaining weight.

Not to mention… any time we went out for a meal at any restaurant or fast food joint, his meal would on average cost twice what mine would. And of course I was paying always the one pulling out my wallet for these meals.

His family lifestyle didn’t help either.  They all live on pre-packaged, over-processed, often frozen foods, reheated in the microwave, so it’s obviously what he’s grown used to.

It’s just sad… because there’s only so much microwave radiation one person should really be ingesting.

Test run of cupcakes for the halloween pot-luck hosted by the Toronto Unicyclists (www.torontounicyclists.ca)