Kelly and I had both planned on getting up early so we could get going with our Saturday. Yeah... we both slept a little longer than planned. Instead of leaving the house around 8am, we didn't get out till 10ish. Item #1 on the day was to attack a bunch of garage/yard sales. We browsed the first one, then did a low speed drive-by of a couple more which we quickly decided weren't worth stopping at.
We had planned on browsing a bunch in Midland but figured we should stop for food first. It was quickly approaching 11am and we wanted to order from Burger King's breakfast menu. Kelly ordered a bacon and egg croissan'wich combo (she chose bacon because she's not a fan of breakfast sausage). I ordered my usual double croissan'wich combo which comes with both sausage and bacon. Plus we each ordered a 5 pack of french toast sticks, which comes with a little container of table syrup.
We pull up to the window and I pay and wait...
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We're finally handed our coffees, which, even though they each had two cream in them, were still hotter than the surface of the sun. Unfortunately Burger King does not believe in double cupping or using cardboard sleeves, they prefer customers scald every bit of skin that comes in contact with their cups.
More waiting......
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(Note to self - at least the food will be served hot and fresh)
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Drive Thru Girl: "Here you go sir" (she hands me our order in two separate bags)
Me: "Thank you. Could we have a couple extra syrup please" (one packet just isn't enough)
DTG: "There's already one in each bag"
Now bear with me here. I asked the nice young lady for EXTRA syrup. If each order comes with a package of syrup then having put one in each bag is NOT EXTRA, is it?
Me: "We would like two extra please" (so walk your lazy ass over to the other side of the counter and get them)
For some reason, syrup seems to be the only condiment they don't have near the drive thru window, and the staff always seem so put out that they have to walk the 10 feet just to get syrup.
----- Time to eat ----- We drove to the back of the Mountainview Mall to park in the shade. It was shortly after 11am now and it was already a scorcher of a day.
We open the bags.
Two orders of French Toast Sticks - check
Two orders of little hash brown discs - check
A double croissan'wich - check
A bacon and egg croissan'wich - NEGATIVE - a G.D. sausage and egg croissan'wich - FRICK!
So rather than drive back over and get the proper sandwich, Kelly gave me her sausage and I gave her my bacon. Although my taste buds enjoyed having a croissan'wich with double sausage, I'm sure my arteries weren't as excited about it.
Of course, as if the drive thru girl had put a curse on me, I dribbled syrup on my shirt. A syrup that quickly became tar-like when combined with fabric. I tried wiping it off with a napkin which only made it worse. Having no water available to me I thought that using my molten lava java might loosen up the tar that was quickly hardening into my shirt. Woohoo, syrup gone, but now I have a coffee stain that I need to get out somehow. Hmmm... what could I use to get the coffee out??? Eureka!! Hand sanitiser!!! This worked like a charm. Now to get on with our day.
Although we had planned on going to several more garage sales we decided against going to any more so that we could complete the next item on our agenda. A trip to Waubaushene for the "Waubaushene & District Lions Club 2nd Annual Family Fishing Derby".
On the way to the fishing derby I had noticed a sign on the highway for a garage sale in a nice neighbourhood in Victoria Harbour. Sometimes nice neighbourhoods have decent garage sales. Not this one. Nearing the address we could not see any tables set up. Once we got closer it became apparent why we could not see tables. This was not a garage sale. This was someone trying to hock all their baby and toddler clothing. It was strewn all over their driveway. We have no kids, so we have no reason to stop.
Onward to the derby!
We had both entered last year's derby simply because we enjoy fishing, the entry fee was reasonable and most importantly you don't need a boat to compete. Last year Kelly won a door prize. She won a personal pizza combo at Boston Pizza, which is worth well over her $5 entry fee. I didn't win anything last year :(
When we arrived at the dock there were already a couple dozen people fishing. I paid the $10 for both our entries and we each got a little badge with a number on it. I was 37 and Kelly was 39. We found ourselves a little space on the dock and planted ourselves for the next couple hours.
For those of you that have never been to the government dock in Waubaushene, I will let you know now that it is completely unshaded at the water. Kelly started slathering on the sunscreen and asked if I wanted some. Regrettably I only asked to have my arms done, not all exposed skin (neck, face, ears) Time to fish.
It wasn't too long before we each had our first catch. A sunfish for each of us. Yay. Fast forward to a couple hours later and we had each caught a number of sunfish, one perch each, and a rock bass for me (which I gave away to a nice young kid so that he could enter it under his name). The fishing wrapped up at 2:30pm, we packed away our gear and went and stood in the sun for the announcements of the winners and for the door prize draws.
And the winners are:
Child - Largest Fish: Some kid
Child - Smallest Fish: Some other kid
Most Gobies - A different kid (he was the only person to catch a goby)
Adult - Largest Fish - ?
Adult - Smallest Fish - KELLY CONTOIS! - 4.5"
Now generally, you'd think the prize for catching the smallest fish would be some kind of a joke... it wasn't. The prize Kelly won was an Abu Garcia fishing combo (Rod & Reel). These can be a little pricey. I haven't looked up the value yet, but you can be sure it's way more than the $5 entry fee.
I didn't win any prizes for the fish I had caught, but there were still the draws left. There had been enough prizes donated that all entrants would win a little something. My number was drawn and I won a nice art-deco two shelf unit from Waubaushene Heritage. Made from steel and painted grey this fits nicely in the bathroom as 2 weeks ago Kelly painted the room grey. Kelly's name still hadn't been called by the time they got to the last number in the coffee can so I knew she was going to win the last prize. The final prize, which Kelly did win was a Marine Safety Kit. The kit includes a 15m heaving line with float, a sound signalling device (a whistle), a waterproof flashlight, and it comes in a watertight container that doubles as a bailing bucket. Kelly stated that winning the $10 kit was a good excuse to buy a boat. Nice try honey.
I almost forgot, Kelly also won a year's subscription to Ontario Out of Doors magazine (a $26 value).
We pack up all our loot, grab our participation certificates and head for home... kind of.
Kelly didn't know it, but I had planned on stopping at an estate sale in Port McNicoll. When we arrived there was a pickup truck taking up the whole driveway. They had obviously got some good deals on stuff because they were quite overloaded by the time they left. There wasn't much left to look at, but there was a bunch of Christmas lights and other miscellaneous Christmas junk. We both like decorating for the holidays but I dislike paying the price for new lights, they're so darn expensive nowadays. So I was able to secure a van load of lights, a couple trees, some garland, and some more miscellaneous stuff for $15.
Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up, there's a roof rake over there on the lawn.
I already own a roof rake but I've been looking for extra sections of pole to make my 18' rake a 30' rake. Although it would make sense for the retailers to sell additional poles, they do not. If you want extra, you have to buy another complete kit. Anyway, I bought this one for five bucks. Worst case scenario the poles don't work with what I already have. If that happens, oh well, then I've got a second roof rake that Kelly can use and it only cost me $5. Before we left the sale Kelly had found a box full of decorative ribbon. I believe she said there was 17 rolls (or 22) and that five of them hadn't even been opened yet. She got the whole box for $5. Considering that each roll retailed for about three bucks plus tax, $5 was a decent price.
I neglected to mention that we were famished after sitting in the sun fishing for a few hours and that we passed a BBQ that smelled ohhhhhh so good as we were coming in to Port McNicoll. So needless to say, as we were heading out of town my van pulled in to the parking lot where the BBQ was being held. Kelly got a hot dog, I got two burgers, and we each got a can of pop. Grand total - a whopping $7. Mmmm, this little side trip really hit the spot. I guess we were feeling generous towards the Lions' Clubs today since the BBQ was hosted by the Port McNicoll Lions Club and if you recall, the fishing derby was hosted by the Waubaushene Lions Club.
Okay. Homeward bound. Sort of. It's a 20X the points day at Shoppers Drug Mart. We discuss our plan of attack on the way to Midland so that we can get in and out of the store as quick as possible. Kelly would buy the household stuff and frozen lunches while I went and looked at the digital cameras that were on sale (my old Kodak kicked the bucket a few months ago). After comparing the various makes, models and prices I had decided upon the Fuji S4200. Not the most powerful, not the latest model, not the highest resolution, but in my mind the best bang for my buck. I paged an associate and asked him to grab me the camera I had chosen. Bad news. They had none left. I enquired if he could offer me a better price on a different camera as a substitution and was quickly told the prices shown were the prices I was going to pay. He said if I wanted the S4200 that I would have to take the demo unit. I asked if he could knock a few bucks of the price of the demo unit and was quickly told that he could not. Shitty. Since I didn't want to spend a fortune today, I opted to take the demo model. The original price was $219.99 and it was on sale for $99.99 + tax and the oh so wonderful ECO-FEE. So we check out, Kelly gets her bonus points and I get mine (yes, we each have our own Optimum card). I'm finally back above the top points level with 120,000 points.
Homeward bound at last. Once we got home all we wanted to do was relax. We unloaded the stuff we got at Shoppers Drug Mart and left all the fishing gear and estate sale crap in the van until later.
Inside we did our business, got washed up, and changed so that we didn't stink too bad when we visited family for dinner. Just as we sit down to relax we get told that dinner is ready. Ugh. Back out to the van to head over to my parents. Spaghetti for dinner, with garlic bread. It was good. Thanks mom.
We didn't stay too long after dinner and headed home to try and relax. Of course I wanted to play with my new toy (the camera). I pulled it out of the box, got the batteries, strap, and lens cap installed. Now I just needed install the memory card that I had bought last summer for another use, but had never gotten around to using. Last place I had seen the card (still in package) was in the kitchen drawer. That may have been the last place I saw it, but that's not where it was. After a lot of searching and a little tension, Kelly found the card in the file cabinet in a folder with our Rogers bills. Who couldn't have known that's where it was. Anyway, I installed the card and turned on the camera to take some test shots. MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR
S.O.B, WTF - Okay, maybe the card just isn't seated properly. I take the card out and re-seat it. MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR
Hmm, maybe if I format the card. It can't hurt anything. Out comes the card into the memory card reader. FORMAT. Format done. Back in the camera MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR - MEMORY CARD ERROR
GRRRR!!!!!!!!!
Alright, which piece of electronics is the piece of shit? The brand new card or the brand new camera. I grab my old Kodak, take the 4gb card out and place it in the new camera. Works like a charm. Thank Jebus. It's always nice when the problem is the cheaper item. Luckily I remembered that I had another new-ish high speed 32gb memory card in the dash cam that I bought last summer.
After all of the day's excitement I feel asleep on the new sectional sometime in the early evening (9ish). I opened my eyes at one point during the night and saw Kelly sleeping on the other end of the sectional. :D
Zzzzzz........
Wow, that was long-winded.
PS: If you're going to be fishing in direct sunlight, such as we were, make sure you put lotion on ALL exposed skin. My ears and neck got severely burnt and Kelly got burnt on her arms.
PSS: I neglected to mention that on the way from the BBQ to Shoppers Drug Mart we stopped at Johnson Fruit Market and grabbed some fresh raspberries and blueberries. These will come into play in the next blog.
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