Swiss Chalet Delivers!

Hello Feeding Tubes!

It has been very hot and humid here in Mechanicsville these past few days, and I am hoping for some relief...but it doesnt look like it is coming any time soon. I imagine when the family and I head up to our new cottage this weekend, the weather will turn into 10 degrees and rain.

Tonight my softball team Y.E.P. tried to keep their 1 game winning streak alive. We played valiantly and even had a 7-5 lead in the bottom of the 7th, but could not hold it and had to settle for a tie. Kudos to the Bruisers for playing a hell of a game of softball.

I think I lost about 15 pounds playing that game tonight. The temperature was 31 degrees outside, but about 40 with the humidex. When I got home, I decided to reward myself with some Swiss Chalet Delivery. Now, due to my last delivery experience with PizzaPizza, I was a little nervous putting my dinner plans in someone else's hands. I placed the order at 5:56pm, and it was guaranteed in 40 minutes or free. 6:36 rolled around, and I called up the customer service at Swiss Chalet to see if my order had infact gone through. The nice girl said "Yes, it should be on its way. And it will be complimentary."

I was happy to hear this, and waited for the delivery guy to finally arrive. He did, and when he got to the door, I said "So, this is free?" and he said "Yes, sorry about that." Without any argument, or yelling - I was soon dining on my free meal.

I hope someone from Pizza Pizza reads this, and sees how a reputable restaurant handles its guarantee. Swiss Chalet never fails to impress me, and it is easy to see how they have become a Canadian institution. It is refreshing to see a place actually follow up on a guarantee, unlike Pizza Pizza where I had to argue tooth and nail to try to get my deserved free pizza, and it was unsuccessful.

Anyway, I wanted to let the fine people at Swiss Chalet know that I am impressed with their fine customer service. (And I also didnt want to sound like a whiner who only writes complaints, I will also write compliments when warranted.)

Well, I better get back to sweating to death.

Good night internet!

July 29th

I was checking out YouTube today, and found this...it was some
hilarious television!

July 26th

Hello Tubes!

It has been a wild week and weekend...and I just dont know where to start. I guess I will start on Friday. I took 2 hours off of work, and hit the road to the centre of the universe at 2pm. I was expecting a pretty boring drive, so I got myself a book on tape to listen to whilst driving. I ended up listening to this book called "The DaVinci Code". Previous to this, I had not heard of this novel, and it seemed pretty good for an independant, underground book. I think the author "Dan Brown" did a pretty good job on this book, and if he keeps it up, maybe his next book will get some praise and sell alot of copies.

Anyway, the book lasted the full 4 hours, and that got me right into Toronto's rush hour on Friday night, which was incredible. You really get to like Ottawa after trying to drive around there for a brief amount of time. I guess that is why everyone rides the tube and streetcars.

After I arrived at Erin G's, we decided to go get a chicken at a Porteguese restaurant across the street. This was the best meal I think I have ever eaten....shifting the "Moons Over My Hammy" that I ordered at Denny's in Detroit in 1996 down to #2 on my "best meal" list. This chicken is the bargain price of $9, and it is cooked to perfection. Swiss Chalet could learn a thing or two from this restaurant. I wish I could remember the name...it is on Bloor Street West near Brock Avenue...and there is a picture of a pig on a spit on their sign. You cant miss it!

On Saturday, I loaded up all the Goodman children into my car and headed up north of Newmarket for the Goodman family pool party. As luck would have it, it wasnt the nicest day, but everyone who wanted to got into the pool for a little bit at least. My personal highlight was the trampoline that Erin G's cousins have. I had a great time trying to break my neck on that thing! I think I might get one for my balcony.


Sunday was shopping day! Erin G and I headed down to the shopping district and checked out all of the fine stores that Toronto has to offer. Unfortunately, I could not find a single Giant Tiger among the stores. I picked up a new fishing shirt, and another shirt from some fancy store that had some crazy sale on. I tried one some jeans that were 20% off at this one place...but the 20% off sale price was still going to be $180, so I passed.

I headed back to Ottawa on Monday after lobsterizing in Belleville for the day. It is a 4 day week, so I cant wait for the weekend to come!

Today's Rant topic: Pizza Pizza

Tonight, after a hard fought 8-7 softball victory, I decided to treat myself with some pizza from the Canadian Pizza Chain "Pizza Pizza". I'm sure you have all heard of this place and their "30 minute guarantee". Well, tonight I placed my online order at 6:23pm and waited...and waited...until 6:58 when the pizza finally got there. So I let the dude in, and said "So this is free right? You guaranteed 30 minutes or free". He said "No, it wasnt my fault - it was the previous customer, he slowed me down". I said "Thats not my problem, you have a guarantee...whats the point of the guarantee then?" Anyway...this carried on for about 3 minutes, when I finally got fed up and just gave him the money.

This is an open letter to Pizza Pizza...what is the point of having a guarantee, if you wont honour it? I have a guarantee too, I will NOT being ordering Pizza Pizza ever again! (Let's just see if they can stay in business without my $20 a month!)

July 20th

Hello all you little feeding tubers out there. With this weather being so hot, I havent had time to get to the computer and write another exciting installment of my blog. But tonight is your lucky night, I have time in between my laundry loads!

Last weekend I went back to Belleville to lobsterize by my parents pool. It was great to get out of the smog of the Nation's Capital for a few days. This week has been busy, I have played baseball twice and golf once...which means 2 nights in a row without a nap!



This weekend I am heading to Toronto for Erin G's family pool party. I hope I do not embarass myself by drowning or anything like that.

I have also been watching a few movies. Most have been absolutely terrible, but I did manage to finally watch C.R.A.Z.Y. last night and really enjoyed that one. I would like to thank Little Borrelli for loaning me his DVD.

If you have no other option, you should rent "Failure to Launch", and if that is out of stock at your movie rental store - just rent "How to lose a Guy in 10 Days" instead. These movies are 99% the same. There must be a "Matthew McConnaghy Movie Generator" machine somewhere in hollywood where they just spin a wheel and the movie plot is made. The only highlight of the movie was when....actually, I cant think of a highlight, my loss.

When I was home last weekend, I picked up "A Brief History of Infinity" from the discount pile at Coles Book Store. I have found that the best books are usually the cheapest ones. Books are all just a big pile of words at their essence, I dont understand why some are more expensive than others.

Tonight I saw a car parked on Burnside Avenue with 5 parking tickets on it. Whoever owns that car will probably not be in a good mood when they see all those tickets. I wonder if the City of Ottawa has a "Buy 4, get one free" parking ticket deal...if so, that guy might save a little cash.
Well, that is enough for today. Good night, and good luck.

Toronto Cottage

Hello Blog Fans!

This weekend was a wild one. The deadbeats (Wes, Purdy and I) took Friday off and headed to Belleville thursday night for some old fashioned lounging and swimming in the ol' swimming pool. We arrived in Belleville with dreams of picking up some incredible steaks at Bib's, but to our dismay Bib decided to shut the place down at 6:30pm. That was unacceptable. We complained and headed back into the car and decided to hit up A&W for some Mama, Papa and Mozza burgers.



We arrived back at Case de Mullins around 7:30 and had some drinks. My boy Farva came over to visit and we watched some UFC fighting. The ladies arrived around 10pm I think, and we all sat around discussing important world issues until late in the evening.



Friday morning we got up at the crack of dawn, then after about 5 hours of milling around Belleville we finally hit the road to Bancroft. I havent been up there in years, so it was nice to see the old town again. From there it was off to Carnarvon, then Kushog Lake - the location of the cottage we were planning on ruining. We arrived there around 2pm I think, and it was straight to some cold beers on the dock. We continued drinking cold beers on the dock until about 9:30pm when we sat by the fire for the rest of the night.


Saturday was just about exactly the same, except we started on the dock around 11am instead of 2pm.

Sunday we got up and headed back to the Nation's Capital, it was good to be home.

I would safely assume that Kristen does not read this blog, but I would like to thank her for having us all up for the weekend anyway. It was amazing to see what a cottage is like in sunny weather after only experiencing extreme cottage weather at Farva's for the last 4 years.



Highlights of the weekend:
-Drinking some MacLay's beer on Thursday night.
-Getting a Dr. Pepper at Jug City in Bancroft friday morning.
-Seeing 8 women screaming their lungs out when a dock spider runs across a dock
-Buying 6 hot dogs and 12 buns for the entire weekend. (to feed 3 fellas)
-Trying to name all the 3 letter words we know.
-Bringing "Goose it!" back into my everyday lexicon.
-Meeting "The Wiggler", Aurora's finest export.
-Watching the Wiggler jump off the deck and almost break his coccyx.
-Meeting 2 people who like Super Troopers as much as I do. (everyone else just doesnt get it..)


That is all I can remember for now, as usual there is more pictures up on Shutterly you can go check them out if you want.

Canada Day!

I guess it is time for another blog entry. I havent been doing a very good job at updating this thing lately, but it was due to the fact that I was caught up in the high stakes world of real estate. I used to think Donald Trump was an idiot, but after trying to successfully purchase a property, I have the utmost respect for his real estate empire.

The offer has been accepted, so hopefully the new septic system gets clearing by the crusty old municipal inspector and we can move right in.

This weekend was Canada Day, and as per tradition my family gathers at my cousin's cottage in Black Lake, Ontario. Erin G made the trip down from Toronto, which was good since I would have been too scared of the thunder and lightning in the tent if I was in there all alone.

The highlight of the weekend was when Uncle Jay got there with $200 worth of fireworks from some fly-by-night store in the "City Centre" in Ottawa. I had thought that building was condemned, but I was proved wrong as it is the fireworks district.

I think the weather was the most extreme I have ever seen there, we had 4 thunderstorms, sun, clouds, hail, gale force winds...but no snow, so that is good. As usual, today was the nicest weather of the whole weekend, but it is also the day everyone leaves to come home.

Well, that is all I feel like writing today.

Have a great week internet! I have only a 3 day week!

PS - Blogger is a real pain the ass for uploading pictures, so I will put all the rest on my shutterfly account which is linked on the side of my blog. You can go there and see more if you are so inclined.