“Hey! Let’s go downtown and grab a bite to eat.
I have my awesome two-month old lock so I’ll just lock both of our bikes up with it.
Oh! Great… my key is stuck (first disappointment).. Hm.. there’s absolutely no way to get it out. It is 100% officially stuck.
Well… should we cut the lock? Are we going to be able to even cut it? We don’t have a hacksaw.. or a Rotozip or something of the sort.
Let’s go see what the make-shift Zeller’s on Sparks St has. Well… it’s confirmed that they have the worst hardware section ever (not surprising).
Lo and behold, though, they have a shady $1.00 hacksaw! Huge.
Let’s go and see if we can at least cut through the vinyl wrap around the actual metal coil.
4 minutes later…
Wow we just hacked through a $40 bicycle lock in less than 5 minutes with a $1 hacksaw. That makes me feel great.
Screw you OnGuardLock. Not only will they be getting a strong-worded letter expressing disappointing that a two month old lock seized up, I want a new lock.
In other news – I’m back from my fun-filled trip through Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire. Life was good, the whales were non-existent and the trip was a success. I took a few pictures, all of which were within the first day of traveling. My battery died, and before you curse me for not charging it before leaving, I must say that I did charge it! The difference was that at our last shoot, I gave Steve the battery from my camera in exchange for his dying battery (ohhhh and it was a cheap non-OEM one). So, it didn’t hold a charge and I was more-or-less cameraless. Sad. Live on!
News item #2 – To the St Catherine’s street Apple store in Montreal, I hate you. We raced from the Canada-USA border to your store so that I could get a hold of the new Snow Leopard OS and install it before I went to sleep. We got there… 1 minute before closing time… and you were sold out? Psh. Regardless, I can happily say that I got a copy of it today from the Apple store in Rideau, and it’s installed! So, yay.
I’m off to dis/mantle (that is to dismantle, and then mantle) some Ikea beds and organize my room/life.
To you, I bid adieu.
Went for an eye check-up today… lucky I wasn’t the full hour ($145 for a new patient full checkup).
She did her thing. Checked out my eyes. Did this and that. Took some retina pictures (fun!).
Ohhh but how enjoyable it was! Their office won’t make the insurance claim for you, so I had to sprout the full $145 and make the claim myself… great… I’ll see that money no time soon. Here’s her reviews.
Beyond that, her assistant tried to sell me some fancy “UV protectant sunglasses” (because they couldn’t sell me any prescription goggles, as my eyes were perfecto)… but I made the faultless rebuttal that dollarama sunglasses also have UV protection.
I win. Side note: Dollarama definitely has the worst website… ever.
Even further beyond that.. I’m hitting the road for another ride today. I’m hoping it’ll be upwards of 90k. With 33 days left, it’s soon time to break the 100 mark.
Since the heat has been turned on now (summer may be upon us!), I had to go and pick up another bottle cage and water bottle for my bike. I did a little trip around MEC and Bushtukah, where I picked up some tire levers (essential – especially at $2.50 for 3).
But yah, going out with one bottle of water just isn’t going to cut it. Especially when I like biking the most in the heat of the day (if you’re going all out.. you might as well go all out, ya know?)
Oh, and earlier this week, wordpress released a new version of the backbone at 2.8 (downloadddd).
For upgrade instructions, check here (don’t let it scare you)… so check here. It’s super easy. A lot more easy than one would lead you to believe. The important part to remember is that you’ll be replacing everything in your wordpress folder except for the content (Themes/plugins/media/etc). Make sure to backup everything!
Ohhh Life… what Curveballs thou has. Just don’t throw out your elbow.
Check the counter on the right… 60 days left.
Time to get serious, eh?
Long weekend proved to be awesome.
Hit up the market yesterday and had the best sandwich of my life to date (not counting my daily routine of PB&J – can’t beat them at all).
But these meat sandwiches at Narcissito’s? (edit: Nicastro’s – Thanks Ness!) haha (I’ll find out for sure)… but ya.. these meat sandwiches.. were the real deal.
Full out meat with sick deals all over them (read sick deals as mayo & moutarde, hot peppers, lettuce and tomatoes) for a mean deal price of a 5 sheet (taxes in).
Let’s be serious here… it’s a steal. I’m sold.
The market is sick.
60 days.
40km today.
Once I get up to about 50kms on my long trips, I think I’ll start doing two-a-days.
It’s time to start pounding out the kms.
I’ll see how this 40 goes, 35 wasn’t that bad last week.. so I’m sure it’ll be fine. I’m aiming for under 2 hours – a pace somewhere between 20-25km.. as of now I think I’m averaging a pace of 21km/hr – which isn’t too bad. 8 more weeks of constant biking should bring that up too!
ohh the good times.
Softball tomorrow night. Double-header.
Update:
40.12 kms
1:54:20
It takes a lot of effort to put on 40kms.
I saw a lot of the city…. and parts of the city more than once.
First off, the boys of summer have arrived. Ottawa has vastly turned into a city of Islanders as two more have joined the masses. So with that comes the first day of summer work, officially kicking off the four months of money and good times.
To boot the ball a bit further – I picked up the rocking ronnie depicted in the picture to the above. I’ve been researching and looking high and low for some sort of road bike to make my mcDaunting trip home to PEI with (fyi for the un-knowledged: I’m planning to bike home to the Isle in July), and finally while the boys were purchasing their bikes yesterday, I spotted this fancy riggin! It was a relief that it didn’t carry the $1400 price tag that the rest of the road bikes in Ottawa seem to bear. Without a doubt, this’ll be the beast that suits my fancy and with all good intentions, bringing me to the end of the odd 1200km trek. I put my first miles on it today with a 30-ish km ride up and around, down and through Gatineau Park (which was sick and has unbelievably cool trails). So with that, let it mark the beginning of a 2 and a half month training extravaganza.
Lastly (!!!!!) – Life of db is officially a registered business as I attained my Master Business License today, allowing me to rock out with whatever Life of db wishes to do. Firstly, of course, is to get the TEEs section of Life ready to rock and roll. I have to get to getting on digitizing the designs and start pumping out some TEEs. It’s gonna be sick.
Rest assured, Life is here, and Life is going to kick some ass.
I was out shooting real estate, waiting for a cloud break. Man crossed the road and spoke in a rushed tone – “Take a picture of me.” Being caught of guard, I asked him to repeat, this time ready for the same hurried murmur of “take a picture of me.”
As he stood still as a statue, I snapped one quick shot whereby he inquired, “Can I see it?”
“Yah, yah, that’s a good shot. That’s good.”
And that’s all the acknowledgement I need. He left, I see him around the block 5 minutes later, where he had no recolation of what just happened moments before.
Fair enough. Make shit happen and move on. Word. Life. db
So, I am rather proud to say that I actually did get outside today! Not only did I go outside, but I actually walked and moved around once I got out there and made a little trip to Bramasole Diner to have a little taste of breakfast. Fantastico!
I also got a haircut (via Ness) and made a video that got most of our day down pat. I’m going to work on that tonight / tomorrow, so if I can find the time I’ll get it posted in the near future. 3 days until I disappear!
Where are you summer? Less than 3 hours until the 1 month anniversary of the last running of a bus in Ottawa. How sweet is that? Every city needs to try having no buses. It makes for such an easy life! Note: I’m actually not a big user of buses, so I’m not even getting hit the hardest. I pretty much bike to wherever I need to go (any season), except that I’m not that fond of biking to Ness’ during the winter – it’s almost a tad too long on really cold days. Anyway, today I went on the hunt for a couple of Apple Products today (#1 and #2), which was a fairly decent jaunt for having no busing system. I truly went out of my way to get these little suckers. While I definitely could have bought them online from the Apple store, my recent qualms with purchasing #1 (regular iPhone ear buds) from around town has made me more determined in finding someone who will sell them at a decent price. More on that with tomorrow’s post.
What this whole ordeal boils down to is that I want summer to return. Simple. I can’t handle this “trotting” around in the snow anymore. They suck at cleaning sidewalks, it really is cold, and I want to be able to wear shorts. Is that too much to ask for?
