Paintball Aftermath, Time on my Hands, Minstrels, Glasses

So I'm just throwing up some pictures of how that paintball weekend left lasting impressions on my arms and (not so flattering) belly area. Those blasted kids! These bruises are actually pretty tender.

I've really got to get back on a diet regime by September here...

The rest of the week has been pretty uneventful, with one exception. I think the nurse that I was paired with got a "smoothing" day off. I'm not 100% on how this smoothing works. Apparently, as you work, you bank hours that can be used to get a day off (after you've built up the day or course). This has left me with a whopping 4 days off in a row. I can't remember the last time I've had more than 2.5 days off.

Unfortunately, it really reminds me about what little interests I have these days. I mean, I bike around and am training for a race in September. Okay that's 2 hours out of a free day. My bike advocacy group takes up maybe an hour every odd day. Other than that there isn't much else that I do. I seriously sometimes go on Facebook, click the "Home" button, scroll to the bottom of the page to check what's going on with people, scroll back up, and then immediately hit the "Home" button AGAIN!

Oh, my life.

I did take the time to eat out at Minstrel's Gastropub with a friend. They have a rooftop patio which is nice. The food was great (big portions), and was priced well. I got the curry-apple-chicken wrap and a green salad. My friend got a steak and fry plate. We split on a big plate of nachos (excellent nacho's, folks!).

Other than that, nothing to report after 2 days of relaxation.

Went to a glasses store today to help my friend Jables pick out a new pair of glasses. I took a look at the mens selection. I think I'll need glasses soon as my right eye is significantly blurry when compared to the left. As a result, when I'm really trying to focus on something, I tend to wink. People often get the wrong impression from this. I guess they think I'm trying to pick them up. Listen, Sally: to me winking as a pickup maneuver died in the '9o's. Grow up!

Friday Night Drinks, Family and Supper, Paintballing with Children

So I went downtown to the bars last Friday. It's been about 3 years since I've gone out on a Friday night to drink, but Jables and her cute sister roped me into it, so there was no backing out.

The best part of the night was the walk there.

We started at the Bitter End (below), and moved to Maxwells Plum shortly thereafter. The evening wasn't that exciting. People were drunk. The concentration of police cruisers was higher than I've ever seen in quite a while. Pizza Corner was bumpin'. Girls were lookin' cute. Just stuff I remember as being pretty typical.

Before calling it quits for the night, we headed over to Gatsby's for a Coffee and some desert. Call me old fashion, but that really capped the night for me.

Went to the valley for the weekend to see the family. I think I'm starting to have my family pegged. As much as we enjoy each other's company, I think we're secretly trying to kill one another by food. Whenever a bunch of us get together, there are at least 2 rounds of heavy suppers, and eating usually begins by 4 in the afternoon and can last until 9:30-10:00 that night. Not only this, but a good 70% of the food we consume is meat. Sure we try to make things look good by making a small salad available here and there, but by and large, most meals revolve around steak, pork, chicken or all of the above. We also try to trick the Food Guide's salad recommendations by making pasta and potato salads. It took me a lot of focused concentration to not just blurt out "Alright folks, pasta and potato salad are not the same as regular salad!"

Anyways... I went easy on Supper's #1 and #2, and opted to sit out of the dessert round someone started (various pies).

The next day we went to a paintball tournament. It lasted for about 5 hours. Unfortunately, there were little kids there playing in the tournament too, which really sucks for the following reasons:

- Unless you're very close to a kid, they won't admit that they've been hit.

- You can have your gun barrel to the back of a kids head and ask him to surrender and he will still successfully worm away from you and shoot you in the face, neck or groin, point blank.

- It rarely matters what team the kid is on, he will shoot at any sign of movement unrelentingly.

- You could be walking onto the field with a group of kids that are on your team, get a couple steps ahead of them and then feel about 20 shots to your back because they all of a sudden thought you were a bad guy.

- If you're walking out to a start-point on the course after being hit, kids will always follow you and shoot the shit out of you until you get there. Or until you swear at them and use their real names.

- Kids will cry at the drop of a hat. Do not approach a crying kid while playing paintball. This is usually a trick to get you close enough to shoot in the face, neck or groin, point blank.

After a couple hours, the kids went home (thank god). The rest of the day was fun, but totally exhausting.

Oh. Took the road bike out on Saturday afternoon for a good 20km. Finally made over 30km/h average, which was a goal I had made for myself at the end of my school year. Felt pretty good.