The Real McCoy

I just got back from renewing my plate sticker. I like to live dangerously when it comes to traffic citations. I think technically the plate is only valid until the first of the month, but I like to pretend it's valid up until the birthday of the owner. I also replaced my ownership which was two addresses and one owner ago. The lady was like, "Where's the other part, the part that says you own the car?" I was like, "If it's not what I've given you I don't think I have it." $10 is the price you pay for being an idiot, which I am ok with. I extended for two years, just incase Ford rolls back the licensing fee cut.

Yesterday was a bit of a shit show. I picked up Adam and we did some shopping for him at Winners. Then instead of coming home we went down to Cherry Beach, first stopping at the Church&Front Timmies so I could get a drink. As I'm walking out of the Tims I witness a cab backing into my car and hitting my bumper. I checked for damage and didn't see any, but I was still plenty pissed. I didn't even know what to do. I asked for his number and he said something like, "I'm a taxi driver." Ok buddy, that's well established, but if I find a crack I want to be able to find you. So I just took his taxi information down and was done. It's not the end of the world, but it's still not a nice thing to see happen. Adam mentioned that if I wasn't there I never would have known, which helped me calmed down.

Nik and I hit up Niagara this weekend past. Drove in Saturday morning and stayed the night. After we checked in we taxied down to Clifton hill and took a walk down to the falls. I snapped a neat shot on my phone camera of the American Falls, they have this oddly beautiful ice formation that sits in front of the falling water. I'm not sure if that's how it is every year, but it was neat. After the Falls we went to the Hershey and Coke store. Then we took a stroll through the midway but we weren't feeling it so we moved on. Gift store, Sugar Mountain, and finally a tour through the wax museum of criminals. We walked home after that and ordered a gluten free pizza and had some drinks. A bit later we taxied down to Fallsview and blew about $30 each. I emailed Fallsview to complain about their faulty slot machines. They flipped Nik's bet to maximum (10 credits vs 1 credit) on more than one occassion, and they flipped my credit bet from 25c to 50c, and then later flipped my bet to maximum as well. We wouldn't be sore losers if we lost the money fair and square. And odds are we would have lost it anyways. So I await a response from Fallsview. And if I'm lucky a gift cert. But I'm not counting on that.

I'm about 400 pages away from finishing Atlas Shrugged. I told Adam that I'm not sure if part of my love for this book is cognitive dissonance. Why else would I read a 1069 page book if I wasn't enjoying it? All joking aside it's a great book. And I fear I may feel a small void in my life when I'm done.

Looking forward to drinks tonight with S&S.

Annnnd, done.

Nights of Make-Believe, Days I Don't Believe

No matter how many improvements my landlord makes I still feel like there is an ever growing list of annoyances at this place. My showerhead still screeches like 1000 dying rodents every time I take a shower. If I'm lucky it will stop half way and I will be able to shower in peace. But that's usually not the case. He waits about 5 days after a snow fall to shovel, and by then the next fall is just around the corner. On occassion he will not take the trash or recycling to the curb and either I will have to take the bin out or it will not go out at all. The tenants downstairs seem like lazy bums when it comes to split responsibilities. Granted it should only be split between one, but step up, please. And now the big winner is the dying smoke alarm battery that has been beeping every 30 seconds for the past 2 DAYS. I don't even know what to do. My landlord is out of town so we have to put up with it until he returns tomorrow or the battery finally dies. We'll see how much longer I can maintain my sanity with this going.

I had some great Indian food for lunch with a coworker. There's a great veggie Indian place just south of Matheson and Mavis called Doaba. Mmmm, the food is amazing and so cheap. I actually found myself smiling today at work. I feel so much more like I used to. And that's something I haven't felt in well over a month. That being said my general attitude has not changed, they have made their bed.

Dawn had a great bday at Insomnia on Tuesday. I picked up Adam and Jess and headed down at about 8pm. Most of her friends were from work, which made me jealous. I wish I had more close friends at work. Anyways, she has some really great friends. I had a really great talk with this one girl about Canada and US in terms of politics, and geography and travel, and human rights. It was really fantastic.

I finally passed the halfway point in Atlas Shrugged. I'm starting to think that this might be one of the most important and socially relevant books I've ever read. It was personally a bit slow in the beginning but Rand has just picked it up and taken the book in some really interesting directions. She of course is a little kooky with some pretty harsh views. Objectivism is a bit of a tough pill to swallow sometimes, but it makes you think.

The dying battery is starting to double beep, perhaps this is progress? Just die already.