December 2nd, 2002. Monday
Took a trip upstate and into Niagara Falls, Ontario ten days ago. A good time was had by all. A very informative trip. Discoveries of note:
1) A thin layer of gortex makes a fabulous shield against a cold, Canadian wind.
2) Ronald McDonald can easily be seen as a cold, maniacal killer.
3) Besides scary Ronald McDonalds, there isn't much of note in Rochester, NY.
4) Canadian money feels like play money. Especially since it has the Queen of England on it. That must suck.
5) Candadians are a truly odd sort. They accept American dollars up and down, are generally seen as th 51st state, yet they insist on calling American cheese- get this- Canadian cheese.Also spent an insane amount of time in the dark, damp cold looking for the little lady's glasses. I was shocked that we found them, inches from a sewage drain.
But the trip was just what I/we needed. A nice, long drive, a few days off work, and some good company. Plus, a good amount of Dunkin' Donuts and Denny's food, topped off with a trip to the Cracher Barrel in creepy Binghamton, NY. I like to eat. A lot. So by all counts, a good trip. And only working one day in 10 days was pretty good too.Over Thanksgiving, I mostly ate, drank slushies, and played video games with brothers Garrick and Geoff. Brother Galvin is still in Japan, but through the magic of internet technology, we were able to speak with him, for free, via a video conference over AOL Instant Messenger and Yahoo instant messenger. Truly a wonderous time we live in.
Canadian cheese... unbelievable. I had to really force myself not to laugh when I ordered my "Moons Over My Hammy" at Denny's and had to say "Could I have that with...um... Canadian cheese instead?" Also at Denny's, we were sitting there quietly minding our own business, not really paying attention to the bunch of kids sitting behind me except for the one that looked kind of like Neil Young and/or Stephen King (have you ever noticed how similar those two can look?), when the girl right behind me says "...yeah, and I was going to get that when I heard what it was aboot." Now we had been sitting there in dead silence for a minute or so, but as soon as this girl said "aboot" we both just started laughing hysterically. Of course, the table of teenagers turns and looks at us, and all we could do was laugh a little less out loud. Ugly Americans. I don't know why it was so funny, but it was. I almost spit up my coffee.
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