Bruce Willis' only weakness is his moustache.

Party to Loud!

Some things must be loud. A good party is one of them. Security may not enjoy this fact but who cares. Security is there to keep me safe. It gives me no sense of safety that I received a NOISE WARNING. Now they are watching us with their beady eyes and binoculars. The notice was delivered At around 11:45 by a surly security guy who spoke 3 words – “Are you the tenant?”. He had epaulets with stripes or stars so I’m pretty sure he was a general or something. He was a bit of a dink. I figure that to send the General the rental company must consider a good party to be tremendously heinous.

At opposites with the company, we consider this notice to be a pretty good thing. This is like getting an official commendation for having a good party and a sign of success.

As you can see from the “Details” section of the notice the General doesn’t do grammar. So I don’t respect his authority and this document would most definitely not hold up in court. We took the literal translation of this “Detail” to mean that we had to reach the destination of Loud with our Party because we weren’t there yet (it reads Party to Loud). By that I mean that we were to “Party (until we got) to (the place) Loud” - wherever that might have been. This was not a problem and we found Loud at the bottom of a gin bottle and then moved from the apartment to the Raven (a.k.a. Dirty Bird) - which was dirty as always.

Basically Mark and I spent the entire weekend getting ready for the party and then today recovering from a hangover that feels like someone beat me all over with a hose full of marbles, spending extra time on my kidneys.

What did you do this weekend?

One Year

It went down as:
Waterloo phone interview - sure
Ill be there. 8 day drive. 5 days of acclimatization to freeze ass cold then work. 6 months of adaptation, new people, work and more people - including 5 months of winter. Same time of givin it hell in sometimes what is a little damn place in nowhere alone. 6 more of work, summer fun, and a new winter realignment towards good times - summer brilliance carried over. Travels, aspirations, and not even the sky can be the limit. But goddamn if 1 year passing with a milestone marker like this one doesn't stop and make you think, re-examine, re-assume. A lifetime of experiences each year is pretty much how it should be.

I'm celebrating 1 year in the 'Knife anniversary and now in reading this so have you. Im going to have another beer and go to work again in the morning with what hopefully is a headache - most likely brought on by the scotch im soon to have post-beers consumption. Picture is from 1-year ago - symbolic? Poignant? - something anyway. But please just mail me jamesons as my one true regret of my northern location is i cant get jamesons for any decent price and i die inside just a little bit everytime i pay way too much for it (such is this year's determination)!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

I had a New Year eve in Yellowknife and am now a veteran. Went to the bar early and it was dead so went home to prepare for celebrations and then went back later and it was busy.

The Top Knight bar served until 3am at which point those of us left standing were left to our own devices. Mark and I needed food pretty bad. So we walked to some place called Bruno's Pizza -known for its late operating hours and selection of fine pastries and cold cucumber salads. There's also a big fish tank full of Beluga and you can pick your own caviar - and im a liar. This place was closed as it was in fact after 4am by this point (to the best of my knowledge).

On our way to Bruno's we had passed a lively stretch of crowded 50th street where revellers spilled from bars to waiting cabs and fights. As we stumbled on by many of these people were waiting in line for chinese food at the restaurant that never seems to close. This place called the Leisure Cafe is probably a good place for OCAD prissy students to go and get over themselves. We had passed on this venue due to the huge line.

After the lengthy stumble to Bruno's we retraced our steps to the Leisure Cafe which was at this point without a line and without an open door. In fact there was not a person on the entire street, not even a car - just empty bars. Upon further inspection of the premises there was a sign taped to the wall next to a windowless green plank door that said "Ring Bell for service". Without hesitation and with thoughts of sweet and sour chicken egging him on, mark rang the bell. A portal swung open in the centre of the door and a wizard of oz experience was had.

Some wizened chinese lady stuck her head out of the portal and said "What you want?" Startled, I responded "2 Combo A's". Without pause she replied "You get combo B, 25$ now." That seemed like a deal. But despite marks protestation to the opposite, we had to wait outside. Slam went the portal. 5 minutes later she was back and asked for one more dollar. I gave her one.

15 minutes later after freezing, being entirely weirded out by an empty street that minutes earlier had been over-run with the after bar crowds, and badly wanting some chinese food - we got chinese food. Then the fuzz buzzed us and we went home to eat what is the best chinese food ive ever had.

I will let the pictures speak for themselves as they do a better job of it than I do. Also, i look retarded in some of them. Pretty good.

Shampagene!!

New Years 2006-07 024, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

How many glasses of champagne does one really need? Many.

Superman!

New Years 2006-07 020, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Im not sure if I look more like clark kent or elvis in this one. Im actually not that drunk, but i sure am good at pretend.

Its a Hat!

New Years 2006-07 032, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

I'm beyond words - this was likely taken after we started making up new shots to try..... likely.

Blue Lights!

New Years 2006-07 026, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Party at the Top Knight

Elevator.

New Years 2006-07 053, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

This is our elevator - its acually a fun place this time of the morning.

Chinese Food Order Window!

New Years 2006-07 045, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Portal to the world of chinese food. This is the window to 3:45:am New Year heaven.

Happy Hat.

New Years 2006-07 048, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Chinese food anticipation makes -20 feel warm.

Party Boy!

New Years 2006-07 046, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Best of the night - waiting for lonely chinese food from a hole in a door.... so sad.

Planners and Friends.

So now I am returned from the mildly civilized south to the oddly mild winter of the north, having managed to once again fly with a lovely hangover – tradition maintained. Along with my luggage and Christmas gifts I also brought a truckload of memories back with me and am dumping some of them onto this site in the form of pictures.

Remind me to never again go to a bar that makes you sit down before they will serve you drinks and won’t let you buy from the bar and when you are standing up they ask you to sit down – that’s pretty close to kidnapping in my book and that’s not cool. They should change the name from the Green Room to “Lame Bar That Could be Nice But It’s Run By Prissy OCAD Students Who Didn’t Get a Good Tip When the Planners Came to Town” – or maybe something shorter.

During my vacation it was good to see old friends and make new friends and see some family and I mostly enjoyed the part where I wasn’t at work – in short.

These pictures are all from the party on the 29th. I didn’t get pics of everyone as I ran out of film. So if you were someone at this party and have some good ones send them and Ill post them for all to appreciate.

Thanks to those who came out – it does not get any better and we only broke one glass!!

Big Thumbs

F1000006, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

I like this one. Suarez and I would make an attractive couple or front line workers at a MacDonalds.

Piping Hot.

F1000009, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

This picture only makes sense when you understand that the pipe that Max is touching is very very hot. Just cause you go north to whitehorse and become a planner doesnt mean that you need to grow a beard so people can tell us apart (here im talking about a paralell in our circumstances - funny... get it?). Nice beard.

Who's a model?

F1000001, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Joe is not actually touching Phil, but Phil already looks uncomfortable and Joe is very intent. The best part though is Pman striking a pose fit for the cover of Canadian Fedoras magazine or something.

Hand figures.

F1000003, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Rickett asked me to not post any embarassing photos like the last time we got together. But then he went and struck this pose which is exactly like the last time we got together and its too funny not to - sorry Rickett.

Last time is: http://photos1.blogger.com/hello/207/9421/1024/DSCN1157.jpg

It's about that time.

F1000005, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

This is obviously later on in the evening evinced by the lack of apparent sobriety.

Burning Sneer.

F1000007, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

This is one of my favorites of the evening. Jeremy is burning something in a candle and is so happy he might be wetting himself while mike looks like hed much rather be somewhere else - nice sneer buddy, its going to be ok.

Thumbs.

F1000008, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Big thumbs up and a bigger smile - Joe. Also a thumb in front of the camera - Mine. Tom and Ian are the casualties of this picture.

Girls!

F1000011, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Antonia on the left and Andrea on the right and a candle in the foreground.

So over it.

F1000013, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Max really loves Suarez, and Suarez he knows it.

Submariner.

F1000014, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

So many tables pushed together so we could all sit so we would be served that people had to go under the table to get out. This is dawn sneaking away. Ill refrain from making a going down reference.

Going strong.

IMG_3822, originally uploaded by bmpetch.

Vincent is really really happy.