mmm... cheesecake

So I decided to try making a cheesecake the other day. First time ever. And it worked!

So tasty.

one week left

hallowhat?

Tonight I got a chance to go to one of those farms that gets all over itself in making money out of the Halloween trend of scaring teenage girls out of their wits, and boy was it hilarious. Needless to say, Kimglow Farms near Ayr was themed fairly well for the agri-tourism destination that it has become during this season. They had tiki torches lit all along the driveway and had all their usual harvest garb around, not something I could see much of because it was dark, but that's not what I went for.

So, onto the "Scary" parts. The first thing I saw was this guy just wandering around in a pair of coveralls and a mask of something "frightening". He was quiet and just came up and stood behind people. It was funny to hear them scream when they realized he was there.

Immediately we went to the Haunted Hay Ride, seeing as we figured it may start raining later on in the evening and it was best to get the big line attraction out of the way. So we waited and were the last three people to get onto the second wagon. While in line, the quiet scary guy got a lot of people around us. Much laughter at their expense.

The ride was about 50 people on a hay wagon with a guide to keep us entertained. Random people in masks climbed onto the wagon, people with chainsaw bases revved the engines at us, we had to walk through the haunted forest, which wasn't really that scary, and then back on the wagon to come back to the main station.

I'll admit that I jumped once or twice, only because I didn't see the characters coming up from behind me when they banged on the side of the wagon, but I can tell you that for the most part, I was laughing hysterically at this group of 5-6 teenage girls across from us that didn't stop screaming the entire ride. Our guide went up to them and said boo and they screamed. They screamed at every bang, chainsaw, scream, ooga-booga, and more... So much fun.

Another part of this farm was a haunted barn. Not much to say about it, some characters and the typical scenes of horror. I said hi to all the characters and wished some of them well in their endeavours, but we were fortunate to be behind some of the girls from the wagon ride, so much laughter ensued.

The corn maze, wasn't really a maze. Just a few inter-connecting corn paths. In the dark.

It was a fun trip, but I'm not sure if I'd go again. Maybe if I have a girlfriend someday who gets easily scared or just likes going for wagon rides in the night with strange characters around. You never know, it could happen. There is always hope.

And I went bowling with 4 friends tonight. It was fun times. I got the high score both games - 131 first game, 130 second game. Woo.

jump the gap

Speaking of Roundabouts, I was just trying to get directions via Ira Needles Blvd in West KW and for some reason Google Maps was taking me down Highland to Trussler and then south instead of continuing down IN... so after some deliberation, I zoomed in really close (Gord pointed this out) and there is a gap in the Google Maps version of the Blvd on one side. Not just one gap, but two, both within the same block.

See picture:






Oh, and if anyone from Blogger comes through here... probably not because I have it hidden from search engines, but it would be nice to have the ability to upload images to cursor in this program rather than having them go to the top of the post automatically.

roundabout!

So, although I'm not as overt about my liking roundabouts as Matt is, I still like them and was very pleased to see that Cambridge is considering a plan to install 11 roundabouts on Franklin Street from the 401 through just south of highway 8.

That road is a fairly good bypass when going to the upper levels of Hamilton, and potentially beyond because of the Linc and Red Hill Expressway now being a good bypass of the Skyway.

The main reason I'm getting this down is only to ensure Matt sees it, because he may still be in Boston, although I do appreciate a good Roundabout and am very excited that Lambton County's finally getting one at Lakeshore and Mandaumin.

More roundabouts!

initial thoughts

So yesterday, I was out for a walk in the woods in Eden Mills with some friends and we were around this pond taking some pictures, then three of us decided it would be a good idea to leave the fourth one in her own little world and see if she figured out where we went to... a few minutes later, we realized she wasn't following us, so we turned around and went back to where she was and there was a new person with her. A guy about 6' tall in a plaid shirt with large safety glasses on, worn jeans, and a big Amish-style beard. We were curious as to who it was, then we were introduced to him and told that he was alumni of the camp we were at and that he was going to come on our walk with us.

So we carried on down the trail, but as I'm walking, I'm trying to figure out who this guy is and what he could be doing wanting to spend time with us in the woods. The first thought that comes with a random person talking to you wearing a plaid shirt is that they're crazy. There's two types of crazy they could be: Overall nice guy, just wanting to have someone to talk to, or the one that I went to immediately - psycho killer out to lead us deep into the woods and kill us where no one could hear us. I knew it was probably not the most likely reason he was with us, but the woods led me to leave this as a possibility.

So in the end, he was just a nice guy out for a walk and looking for people to keep him company as he walked the trails. But I just felt I should share the story of where my mind is capable of going when given the right circumstances.

upcoming events

- October 19th: Halifax Reunion
- November 1: Curling (Still space available. Sign up today)
- November 8: Hike... not sure where yet. Possibly a Milton - Speyside through hike.
- November 20: Great Big Sea Concert

That's all.

x marks the spot

So, despite none of the Federal party leaders being able to hook me up, I still went out and cast my support for one of them. Who really cares about the local candidates, anyway? They're just a butt to fill a seat in hopes that the leader can become dictator over Canada.

So, even if my candidate of choice gets elected, I really wasn't voting for them. I was voting for the party by which I think will least harm our nation over the next few months until their fragile minority government is toppled and we get sent back to the polls again.

Let's hope that isn't for a few more days.

familiar

There's a theme that comes across on many commercials these days. The federal party leaders are looking out for my family.

It's so great to know that they like my family... but wait, there's something they're missing:

I don't have their definition of a family (spouse and kids). What are they doing to help me with this? Absolutely Nothing.

- Stephen Harper is not finding me a girlfriend. I think wants me to get pooped on by a puffin.
- Jack Layton is not giving me money to go on dates. He may be strong, but that's no help.
- Stephane Dion is not a matchmaker - I could let him try, but it's not worth the risk.
- Gilles Duceppe is trying to set me up with someone from Quebec, but they want to leave, so I don't think it's really going to work out long term.
- Elizabeth May, although she has a right to be a part of this conversation, she's not a guy and doesn't get me.

See, there's the flaw with this system... they're not helping me in getting the family that they seem to "care" so much about.

Sigh... I guess I'll have to use a different logic in casting my vote on Tuesday.

rockwood

Here's a few pictures from our trip to Rockwood yesterday.

the week of something or other

Today is Friday. I have survived the week. What made this week so interesting? First off, I started coming down with some sort of sickness on the weekend. It was sad. It started off stomachy with the sniffles, and by Tuesday was adding headaches, but yesterday and today has been mostly sniffles with some random sore spots on my person.

Secondly, I had an Exec meeting in Kitchener for the Organization that I'm the Secretary-Treasurer for. It's a good Exec this year and I look forward to getting lots accomplished and learning a whole whackload. The titles of the other three people at their home institutions include: Vice President of Student Services, Director of Student Development, and Associate Dean of Student Life... and me... Coordinator of Everything... or something like that. I have a long way to go. I think I need a bit more education sometime in the near future to help me along my way.

Thirdly, this afternoon marked the completion of doing something huge in the IT world at the school that we've talked about for a number of years and were scared to do, but finally forced into doing so after a server gave us a scare about a month ago and showed us that we need to do the thing immediately... and I did it by myself because my boss was away. I think it went well, and by all measures that I could test before I went home it was working. We'll see how it sits on Monday when I go in again...

Fourthly, I'm taking some Students to Rockwood Conservation Area tomorrow. I went with Gord and Vanessa last week for my first time and found it quite intriguing, although we only saw a very small part of it because it was somewhat rainy. I want to explore the caves a bit more tomorrow. Yes, there's caves. Afterwards, I'm leaving the students to fend for themselves back to the school and I'm off to Acton. (A friend of mine's meeting us at Rockwood and she'll drive them back to Kitchener... I'm not that cruel.)

It's been a busy week, but I think I've survived it. And I'm working my way through Expert on Guitar Hero III... I gave up on Hard and Expert on both GH I and II as well as Expert on Tony Hawk Underground... so this is my new challenge until I fail miserably in a few songs. Then we'll have to see what the next game of choice is. Perhaps RollerCoaster Tycoon 3 on my PC.

Out.