EZ & Money's weekend adventure
I had a guest over this weekend. It was my friend Len from Shelburne. He's a DJ and a schoolteacher at the high school, although I didn't meet him until after I was done there. He was a bit of a celebrity at the time because he worked at our favourite radio station. Right now he's just schoolteaching and he hates it (less at the moment since it's his summer break). After a few false starts earlier in the summer, I was able to talk him into coming up to do some cycling.
He showed up at 11pm on Thursday night, and we chatted and stuff. We got up at a decent hour on Friday morning and went out cycling. We went out along the Experimental Farm path I found, and around to the Ottawa River. We deked into Mountain Equipment Co-op so I could exchange the cycling shorts I bought last week for a pair that fit better. He talked me into upgrading to a nicer pair (and then paid for it, the big doofus). It was raining when we got out of there, so we went over to The Works burger joint down the street to try and wait it out. The burgers were amazing (despite that I got one with a hot pepper on it, and I got most of it in one mouthful, and I was on fire for the next hour) but the rain persisted. It was a light drizzle, so we decided to tough it out, and we rode downtown and then home. It was a good ride. I think the total distance was around 20 or 30 kilometres.
We hopped on the bus and went to the Arrow and Loon for supper and a beer. Coincidentally, Dan and Natalie showed up, so they joined us and we all had dinner together. Len was giving the waitress a hard time -- all in good fun of course, and she gave back as good as she got. It was a fun night.
The next day we went out cycling again. We went downtown to the Byward market, via Col. By drive, so he could have his first ever Beaver Tail. He loved it! We wandered around the market for a bit, then took to our bikes again. We went on a path we went on last year when he was up, a gravel one that went East along the Ottawa River (with a brief diversion down the Aviation Parkway). I was hungry, so we stopped at the end of it for lunch, and we discovered we were in Orleans. That's a good 30km away from downtown Ottawa! By the time we got back home, we'd covered over 60km for the day, and boy, were we feeling it. Even with my new bike shorts that had a shammy in them, my backside was pretty numb.
I picked up a bit of glass before lunch though, and we finally stopped on the way back to make an emergency change of my inner tube. That was fun. Fortunately I had a little portable pump that he gave me last year, and I was carrying a spare tube after my blowout before, so we didn't get stranded.
After we got home and showered, we went to the infamous Ben Ben's for dinner. One waitress there recognizes me immediately, since I bring all my friends and family there. (If any of you come visit me in Ottawa, I'm taking you there too! Be warned, it's the best Cantonese food in Ottawa!) The food was great as always, though mu shu pork is a bit spicy for me. (It wasn't as bad as the previous day's hot pepper though!)
From there we hopped back on the bus and went out to Gloucester to the Silver City, and watched Fantastic Four. It wasn't a Spider-Man or a Batman Begins, but since I went in expecting an enjoyable light superhero movie, I wasn't disappointed. It may be cliched, but it's got some really good lines.
Today we passed on cycling, and went out to XS Cargo instead. We got Len a new chair like mine, and I got a pair of wireless headphones for Nana (actually they're for Bill, but when he uses them, it's Nana who'll get the relief too), and a $30 MP3 player. It turns out I got what I paid for; the Classic XP3 is a no-name player with no Linux support, and is expandable only by older, lower-capacity flash media. But hey, I chose the $30 player just for that reason (rather than spending $200 and expecting no better Linux support), so I think I'll live. (: We went to Denny's for breakfast, returned to XS Cargo so Len could get his own wireless headphones (he got me a pair too, despite my protests), and then we went to the Canadian War Museum. He'd wanted to see it, and I missed a lot when I went with Karen and Steve, and we both enjoyed it. (Well, as much as you can "enjoy" something so somber and sobering.) He pointed out the relics that were similar to what his father used in WWII, some of which he still has in his garage, and I told him a bit about Grampa and Uncle Fred who served in the Navy in that same war. From there we got ice cream, and then he went home.
So now I'm all melancholy of course, being isolated after a weekend of company and not looking forward to work this week. But I had a great weekend. There was lots of exercise, and lots of fun. Len's fun to hang around. He can be obnoxious (once he finds a good joke he hangs on to it and pulls it out often) and sometimes aggravating (he's quite racist, and I'm too chicken to say anything about his comments) but I still had a grand time.
He showed up at 11pm on Thursday night, and we chatted and stuff. We got up at a decent hour on Friday morning and went out cycling. We went out along the Experimental Farm path I found, and around to the Ottawa River. We deked into Mountain Equipment Co-op so I could exchange the cycling shorts I bought last week for a pair that fit better. He talked me into upgrading to a nicer pair (and then paid for it, the big doofus). It was raining when we got out of there, so we went over to The Works burger joint down the street to try and wait it out. The burgers were amazing (despite that I got one with a hot pepper on it, and I got most of it in one mouthful, and I was on fire for the next hour) but the rain persisted. It was a light drizzle, so we decided to tough it out, and we rode downtown and then home. It was a good ride. I think the total distance was around 20 or 30 kilometres.
We hopped on the bus and went to the Arrow and Loon for supper and a beer. Coincidentally, Dan and Natalie showed up, so they joined us and we all had dinner together. Len was giving the waitress a hard time -- all in good fun of course, and she gave back as good as she got. It was a fun night.
The next day we went out cycling again. We went downtown to the Byward market, via Col. By drive, so he could have his first ever Beaver Tail. He loved it! We wandered around the market for a bit, then took to our bikes again. We went on a path we went on last year when he was up, a gravel one that went East along the Ottawa River (with a brief diversion down the Aviation Parkway). I was hungry, so we stopped at the end of it for lunch, and we discovered we were in Orleans. That's a good 30km away from downtown Ottawa! By the time we got back home, we'd covered over 60km for the day, and boy, were we feeling it. Even with my new bike shorts that had a shammy in them, my backside was pretty numb.
I picked up a bit of glass before lunch though, and we finally stopped on the way back to make an emergency change of my inner tube. That was fun. Fortunately I had a little portable pump that he gave me last year, and I was carrying a spare tube after my blowout before, so we didn't get stranded.
After we got home and showered, we went to the infamous Ben Ben's for dinner. One waitress there recognizes me immediately, since I bring all my friends and family there. (If any of you come visit me in Ottawa, I'm taking you there too! Be warned, it's the best Cantonese food in Ottawa!) The food was great as always, though mu shu pork is a bit spicy for me. (It wasn't as bad as the previous day's hot pepper though!)
From there we hopped back on the bus and went out to Gloucester to the Silver City, and watched Fantastic Four. It wasn't a Spider-Man or a Batman Begins, but since I went in expecting an enjoyable light superhero movie, I wasn't disappointed. It may be cliched, but it's got some really good lines.
Today we passed on cycling, and went out to XS Cargo instead. We got Len a new chair like mine, and I got a pair of wireless headphones for Nana (actually they're for Bill, but when he uses them, it's Nana who'll get the relief too), and a $30 MP3 player. It turns out I got what I paid for; the Classic XP3 is a no-name player with no Linux support, and is expandable only by older, lower-capacity flash media. But hey, I chose the $30 player just for that reason (rather than spending $200 and expecting no better Linux support), so I think I'll live. (: We went to Denny's for breakfast, returned to XS Cargo so Len could get his own wireless headphones (he got me a pair too, despite my protests), and then we went to the Canadian War Museum. He'd wanted to see it, and I missed a lot when I went with Karen and Steve, and we both enjoyed it. (Well, as much as you can "enjoy" something so somber and sobering.) He pointed out the relics that were similar to what his father used in WWII, some of which he still has in his garage, and I told him a bit about Grampa and Uncle Fred who served in the Navy in that same war. From there we got ice cream, and then he went home.
So now I'm all melancholy of course, being isolated after a weekend of company and not looking forward to work this week. But I had a great weekend. There was lots of exercise, and lots of fun. Len's fun to hang around. He can be obnoxious (once he finds a good joke he hangs on to it and pulls it out often) and sometimes aggravating (he's quite racist, and I'm too chicken to say anything about his comments) but I still had a grand time.