Thoughts for the End of July

I am back.  I will be short and not so sweet.  I have a couple of things on my mind this end of July in 2012.

1.  Saw where Kim Jung Aun, or however we want to write that name, Beloved Leader of North Korea, or is that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (why do and did all the communist/totalitarian nations of the world claim as their official names "The Democratic...." when they were anything but democratic?  Answer, please see the works of George Orwell/Eric Blair--Newspeak at work) has purged/consolidated his power by expelling or retiring the big time General of his father and bringing in his own guy to run the military.  It really does remind me of Entourage.  Only with access to nuclear weapon technology (not the capability for ballistic missiles but they are working on it) and without the Hollywood bling, read blond babes.  I have visions of the young Kim hanging out with his buddies, cruising Pyongyang and living the life.  Am I wrong?

2.  Received a comment in the last week on a post from September 2006 calling me a "fucking dick".  It may or may not be true.  The post was on another crappy Friday night meal prepared by my late, and dearly missed, MIL, and references the diminished thought capacity of my departed FIL.  It was either posted, anonymously, I might add, by a family member (in which case, touche, but if I am a fucking dick, then you are a dickless eunuch who obviously did not have the balls to put your name to the comment or deal with me directly) or somebody who does not have the intellectual or emotional strength to stand behind his/her comment.  I mean calling me a "fucking dick" makes me laugh.  Besides, who is the dick for commenting on a 6 year old post.  Did you just learn to read?

3.  I am sure I have posted about our ongoing drain issues.  Over the past 9 months, I have had to have a drain company in to clear a backup (done with their scope) and clear two myself with a large electric drain snake (rented from The Home Depot).  I had an old Italian guy, who used to work for the city and is a self-taught drain "expert" come in to fix/deal with the issue.  The larger company wanted over $4000 to do a five-foot dig and replace the part in the clay pipe that had been cracked with PVC.  This dude took half the price and was going to do a 15 foot replacement, so no cracks on the house side of the drain.  I hemmed and hawed about using the guy as I was worried that he could not do the job by himself, at least without collapsing and dying in my basement (who would be responsible??).  Anyway, I bit the bullet and let him go.  He said it was going to take 4 or 5 days.  He started last Monday and had dug out the trench to cut and remove the clay pipe that day.  He was done by Tuesday afternoon.  Replaced the pipe and recemented the floor (trench he dug) and removed all the debris.  Awesome.  He said the crack was near the spot by the bathroom in the basement.  He thinks that it was cracked when that room was renovated back in 1989.  It took close to 20 years for the roots to find the water in the area and move in.  This is what was creating the back ups (sewage in the basement, awesome!!!) and the last snaking I did in May, from the outside in, may have tore up the roots in there at the time, giving me more than 4 months of relief but the issue would have still remained.  Glad it is done.  Now, on to painting and the carpet being replaced (on order and set to be installed in mid-August, just in time for the Lad's return home from camp).

4.  The Lad is still at overnight camp.  The pictures we have seen seem to show him doing rather well.  He is a good kid.  Have I mentioned that I like him?  I love him, there is no doubting that.  I like him, too.  He is so damn similar to me it is scary.  Nice to know, he got my sense of humor from the gene pool.  He gets it, just a bit more slowly.  I do miss him and I do like the "freedom", too.

5.  I could do an Olympic rant, or is that a rant of Olympic proportions.  I may save it for later, though.  Let me just say that Dr. Jacques Rogge is a pussy and the whole IOC are a bunch of fucking self-important dipshits.  Since, they do not live by their creed or the spirit of their organization, I find the whole spectacle to be about hypocrisy not sportsmanship.  Olympics not the place for politics or political discourse, what a fucking crock of shit.  1936, Berlin Olympics and the kissing of Hitler's ass by Avery Brundege (head of the IOC) where Jewish athletes were sacrificed so that the IOC would not embarrass the Fuhrer.  Jump to 1972, Munich Olympics where Palestinian TERRORISTS killed 11 Israeli athletes, Brundege again, said the show must go on.  Nothing said about that and NO RECOGNITION, OFFICIALLY, REGARDING THE WANTON LOSS OF INNOCENT LIFE WHILE TRYING TO COMPETE AND BE FRIENDLY AT THE OLYMPICS!  These IOC Fuckers headed by Rogge claim this to political.  Cannot piss off the Arab/Muslim states because they can use their petro dollars to buy the silence of the IOC (the only prinicple there is about the money, which is okay, but have the balls to be honest about the motives).  Wrong country and wrong religion, that is Israel's lot in international life (see the United Nations for further bits of the same hypocrisy).  1976, African nations boycott the Montreal Olympics, why?  Who the fuck remembers...or cares?  1980, Western nations embarrass the Soviet Union by boycotting those Moscow games due to the USSR's invasion of Afghanistan (yup, that got the Soviets out of there....10 years later).  1984 Los Angeles Olympics, the Iron Curtain block of countries returned, or so they thought, the favor by boycotting the games on American soil.  The funniest part of that one is...NOBODY FUCKING CARED OR MISSED THEM.  Did you miss the steroid pumped East German women, or should we say chicks with dicks (or overly large clits)?  Those games made money for the US and the LA area, so not much of a gesture there.  I could go on, but those put the lie to the test about the Olympics not being political, they are all about politics and nationalism.  Damn Fascist events.

That is all for now!  Ciao!

I am going to go happy with this one

I am back.  It has been over a month since my last post.  It appears other stuff comes first in this life I lead.  I could hit the happy things and the sad things since my last post.  There have been summer camp sendoffs, birthdays, restaurant closings and deaths that can be reported.  That would be too self-indulgent, as if this whole blog is not an exercise in self-indulgence. 

With that in mind, had a funny experience on Saturday.  We, the Wife and I, were out with some friends.  It was us, another couple and a single dude.  We were celebrating dual birthdays and were at the Drake Hotel.  This is a trendy hangout in the city's west end.  Actually, it is chock full of hipsters and wanna-bes.  Good for people watching in a twisted sort of way.  We were in the lounge, me looking out the front on Queen Street because I will not sit with my back to a plate glass window (I want to see the assassin's bullet coming).

We order our drinks ($12 mojitos, though the wife went with this gin, lemon and basil concoction that was tasty, too) and some apps (lobster nachos and edamames, interesting combination and it worked).  We sit, drink, eat and talk.  Of course, we treat our waiter with due respect and accept some of his food suggestions.

Then, as it grows later and the line up outside builds, the waiter comes to us and basically thanks us for not being "douchebags" by getting us a complimentary round of shots (some sort of strange mix that the bartender through together, they were good).  He said it would surprise to know that Toronto was home of the biggest douchebags around.  Apparently, they come in from the suburbs to hang out in the trendy, hipster filled world of the Drake.  He has worked, waiting tables, in New York and L.A., and this town, or location, is a douchebag magnet.

It was a very backhanded compliment, I thought.  I did appreciate the free shot, though.  It makes me wonder what kind of world we are living in when not being a douche is considered a shock and becomes praise-worthy.  What the fuck!  Have the douchebags begun believing that they will or have inherited the Earth, or a little slice of hipster (add doofus, here) heaven?  Fuck me!

Well, there you have it.  Let that be a lesson for the kids out there, it pays not to be a douchebag.  The best part of that term and hearing it said by those much younger than I, is that I am not sure how many of them know what exactly a douchebag is and how many have actually seen one?  Growing in the world of a drug store, I am well aware.

On a related topic, I think I did a post on FDS, Feminine Deodorant Spray.  This stuff was sort of a spray deodorant for those women folk who did not feel "fresh".  I said it before, and I will say it again, that was a 70s euphemism ("fresh"???) for rank, lady-stink.  At that point, it is like an Airwick in a sewer.  Just take a fucking shower, change your underwear to something cotton (granny panties if that is your bent) and get on with your life, minus the lack of freshness.  Otherwise, why are you using pussy deodorant and douching?

Now, that is all I have to say for today.  Thanks for dropping by.  Ciao!