I'm like a week away from the "deadline" I stated I would cut my hair. It'll be a year that I haven't cut my hair. I'm liking having long hair again...I think I want it a bit longer actually. People seem to be coming around to it too...and they agree that long is definitely better than shaved. I agree with that too. I guess I could get certain parts trimmed as it doesn't have to be long all the way around. I should start looking at long hair styles and pick something I like. I noticed Dave Grohl has his hair long these days...it looks pretty good.

Letterman's "Will It Float" game is brilliant. It's fairly television friendly, what with the whole suspense about the item floating or sinking and then actually seeing the result. It's fun. Dave talking to Alan and Paul, trying to suss out what the result will be. Then the cityscape lifts and you've got the models, the grinder girl and the hula hoop girl and it's just a wonderful bit. I love when Dave gets frustrated cause he has been wrong for the past several weeks. It works well and is definitely Late Show.

I need to be rich.

Planman's P5 era is about to come to an end. I bought a truck yesterday...a '93 GMC Sonoma. The P5 is officially up for sale, so if you want it, come talk to me. It's a great car, lots of fun, but I just didn't feel like paying for it anymore. It seems smarter to get a cheaper, beater vehicle and pay it off quickly. I got a small truck because trucks are much more useful than cars. The truck I got needs work done to the tranny (a whole different one probably), but other than that it's in good shape. I think I'll be happy with it.

I'm getting pretty skilled at the hobble. Also my knee is getting stronger I think...which helps. It still hurts to be bent, but it's getting better daily. I hope I'll be able to play soccer and run and climb and do all the things I did before.

Not much else to say. This week went by pretty fast. Next week should be exciting at work as we will no longer be The New VI. Come Tuesday we will be A-Channel Vancouver Island. The new promotional material and graphics and signs are all coming in and things are shaping up for the change. There's a party next Sunday (Aug 7) which will have free ice cream and food and festivities.

My knee is feeling better, although I'm still hobbling around. I wasn't able to dance much on Saturday night, but I did manage to cut a couple of rugs. The dancing was at the wedding of Lila and Duane. Choy and I attended both the ceremony and reception, both of which were good. Ceremony was at Fort Rodd Hill and that was a beautiful backdrop for a wedding. Reception was at The Chief and Petty Officers Mess, and excellent venue. I recognized the DJ when I entered the room. It was Tim, whom I had worked with at AMS when I began DJing...so I chatted with him for a bit. Choy and I were seated with Tami Davidson (Pearson) and Orlando Estrada (Patty's brother). I didn't know Orlando at all, but we got along fine. Tami I hadn't seen in a couple years, but it was good to see her. I like Tami, we get along well even though I didn't really know her much in high school.

The food was excellent, as was the video that Tine put together showing the couple and their history. Not too much in the way of speeches and things seemed to go quite smoothly. All in all a good wedding. Lila looked beautiful in her dress, and the bridesmaids were all lovely as well.

Looked at a couple of trucks on Sunday and the second one, a Mazda B2200, I am following up on. Hung out with Sara for a bit...we went to Beaver Lake and lounged about. I went for a dip in the lake...it was lovely and refreshing. Mom and Dad came into town in the '51 Chev and we went to the Esquimalt A&W which was hosting "Cruisin' the dub"...a car show and featuring lower prices ($0.25) root beer and car hop service. It was good, and I got to say Happy Birthday to my mom, which I'll do again here...Happy Birthday Mom!

Speaking of birthday's, mine was last week. It went by quietly, but Tree did make me a cake on friday...a yummy carrot/pineapple cake with cream cheese icing. It was enjoyed by all. Thanks Tree!

And that was my weekend.

It began as a war cry, but soon turned into a cry of agony. I fell to the ground, writhing in pain...a pain I had not felt in quite some time, if ever. It did not feel good. I'm talkin' soccer last night. I had one goal scored already, and had missed a few more attempts. My team was leading and leading fairly strong. I was up near the goal on the right hand side, my back facing the net as I watched for a pass. The ball came my way, a little off to my left. I swung around, foot lining up to kick, preparing to school this one past the Yeech and into the back of the net. As I swung around, I realized the Yeech was right there, preparing for a kick of his own. We both hit the ball at exactly the same time...he with a forward kick, me with a side kick. There was a lot of power coming from both sides, but a leg has much more strength coming front on, then side on. The ball went nowhere, and my leg was the one to give way, which is about the time my war cry turned into agony. I didn't feel or hear any cracks or snaps, just a spike of pain on the left side of my right knee. I pulled myself out of the game and over to the sidelines. The pain faded after a few minutes, but walking on the leg proved that it was not all good...there was something not right. The pain returned about an hour later, although not nearly the same. I iced it for bit. After sleep (an awkward sleep) the leg was still in rough shape. No swelling, but it's tender on the inside of the knee, and it hurts to change from extended to bent. I saw a doctor and he says it's just the ligament (luckily not the cartilage) and time will heal it. I'm out of soccer for at least a month.

Shit happens.

This whole housing thing is confusing and annoying. Everyone except me seems to be an expert on the housing market, and they all seem to have strong opinions on it. Some people are all for it...get in while there's still something to get. Some people are against it...the market's gonna peak soon, don't go until prices drop. Then there's people that seem to be able to decipher the good houses from the bad very quickly. I feel like I'm in way over my head...and all I've done is talked to a mortgage broker and looked at 4 houses! I'm just overwhelmed. I'm not good with financial things. I don't know how to find the loopholes in life. I let the GMC go for $1000...people told me I was crazy, that it was worth at least double that. Maybe it was, maybe I ripped myself off, maybe I have no concept of value. Scratch the maybe...I don't. Things would be so much easier if I were rich..I wouldn't have to worry about value. Of course to get rich, you usually have to worry about value.

Suicide seems like a much easier option than buying a house. But of course I won't do that, cause what fun would life be if you just took the easy out all the time? (or once in this case).

Rol is gay for apple juice, but he's having an affair with orange juice right now. I no make shit up...he tell me so.

We helped Choy move much of his stuff from Sooke to town last night. His desk and couches were the biggest pains in the ass, and his TV is pretty heavy too although not that awkward. We got all the big stuff moved. It took a while and we were tired. My arms are huge now though...so much muscle!

Going to look at a house tonight. Had a meeting with the mortgage broker yesterday and it's insane how much it costs just to get into a house these days...down payments, closing costs, taxes, high ratio mortgage insurance, etc. I'm gonna need a second job and probably have to sell my car. Crazy.

I'm working day shifts this week. It's got me all screwed up...I don't seem to have time to do anything. But I found a bit of time tonight, so here's an update.

Sunday I checked out that house I mentioned. I wasn't really into it. The kitchen was cool, but other parts of the house needed some work and it wasn't really ideal for me as it was two bedrooms up and two down...I really only need one. But hey, I checked out a house! I have a feeling I might do this a lot before I buy (I should anyways).

Behind a boat sports happened on Sunday evening. We just stuck to tubin' and it was fun. There were some pretty good crashes and much air was caught. One incident involved Reed and Rol...I found a nice ripe wake and plowed through it head first, bringing them into it completely straight. I went slow enough that they didn't just jump over it, but dipped right down into the trough and then flew up as they crested. Rol popped out of the Eliminator and splashed down into the lake, while Reed handled the Mean Machine well and amazingly landed it and continued on! There was at least two feet, maybe three, of air involved! Another incident involved Reed and Ryan. Rol took them threw a nice whip turn and Ryan rolled off the Mean Machine just before Reed whooshed over top of him, went airborne (with the Eliminator) and splashed down about 10 feet beyond Ryan, landing his face on his fist and giving himself an owwie in the process. It was all good. I didn't have any spectacular bails as far as I know...I did land on my head (after a couple of speed induced cartwheels) once which felt kinda weird, and one time Rol whipped me around 4 or 5 times and the G-Forces were getting unbearable...it's amazing I didn't swallow my tongue.

Eats at Montanas followed boating, and Reed, Polly, and I opted for the all you can eat ribs. I had the beef ribs and how awesome they turned out to be. Basically you eat them with a knife and fork, and there's only one big bone and it's on the end. They cook them so nice that it just falls away and you're left with a large, very tender chunk of fatty beef that goes down very easily. I had 4 in total...and I'm glad I stopped there.

Monday, after work I met up with Choy and Angel for dinner on Angel's last night in town. After much procrastination, we chose a place downtown that Choy had a coupon for. We found it after a bit (it had changed ownership and name since the coupon was printed...but they honoured it). It was crazy...the woman running it spoke pretty much nil english. She was very excited to see us (we were the only ones in there) and she was very helpful pointing out items on the menu that she figured we would like. She had pieces of paper with english phrases and chinese (cantonese I believe) phrases written down, and if she wanted to tell us something, she found the appropriate phrase and showed it to us. In the end, we managed to order what we wanted and the food was pretty decent. We were pleased and entertained and we gave her a decent tip. She made sure to show us the phrase about telling all our friends and family about the Golden Sunshine Cantonese Restaurant (although a lot of the food seemed Vietnamese)...so here, I'm telling you about it. It's on the corner of Johnson and Vancouver St in downtown Victoria. Watch out for yellow Mazda's running red lights at that intersection.

Tuesday after work I went for a run with Q and a bunch of other people...it was bring a friend night for the Running Room running clinic that Q had signed up for. After the shoe sales pitch/lecture that went on waayyy tooooo loooongg, we actually did run 7K (although we stopped to walk for a minute every 10 minutes, which I don't care to do). We ran in the 9min 30s mile group and I had no problem with that pace...my usual pace is a bit faster than that I think. It was all good...maybe I'll run with the group a few more times. It was kinda weird running in a big group...and downtown to boot. After that, I rested up for a few hours, then went for regular Tuesday soccer with the usual gang (which is generally more ferry workers than VI workers these days). It was good...I scored at least 3 goals and set up a couple others. I tended goal for a bit too...didn't do so well, although a saved a few.

There, how's that for an update?

I didn't shower today. I'm allowed to do that, especially on Sunday.

Angel is visiting from Deadmonton. I was told through Choy that she was coming...she had no communique with me prior to her visit. Choy asked if I could babysit her a bit this weekend, as he had stuff to do. So I ended up hangin' out with her on Friday before work, then I went out to Sooke to hang with Choy and her on Saturday. They made me breakfast. Somehow I ended up mowing Choy's lawn.

After dinner we headed into town to go to volleyball at the Stinky Winky (the social committee at work had booked the rooftop courts from 7 til 11). We got there at 8:30 and no work people were around...so either they had been there and left because of poor turnout, or it was just a plain poor turnout and no one showed. We left promptly. Checked out a house that I'd seen in the paper for sale...looked not too bad from the outside. Gonna see it inside today.

We hit the Monkey Tree pub for some nachos and beer. They were playing music Bingo there, and we got in on the Country round. I was doing quite well...believe it or not, I know my country! (It's from my radio days...honest...) We observed a couple of hot waitresses too. The nachos had to be sent back as they were sub-standard...after the top layer, most of the chips were pretty crumbled and the cheese wasn't even melted. We got the replaced and the second batch was much better. The guacamole was good...salsa a little weird.

Headed to the casino after that (we never did finish the Bingo game...but I'm sure we woulda won). Choy kicked ass on blackjack, while Angel and I placed bets at the Royal Ascot. I tried out my new theory for th Ascot, and it worked somewhat. I ended up $10 richer than what I'd come in with. If I'd kept at it longer I'm sure I woulda got more...but I was getting a little bored. I didn't bother blackjacking it.

Not a bad weekend so far. Would have been fun to volleyball, but oh well.

I'll update when I have something to update on. Not much happening this week. It turns out that the cute/cool chick from Saturday's party is seeing someone...that sucks (more for me than her I guess). I should wash my car...but I think it's going to rain more in the next few days...so is there really much point? I've had my car for over a year now. Crazy!

There's nothing like being dragged through goose shit and dead fish filled waters at moderate speed clutching with all your stength to the handle of 'The Mean Machine'.

Yesterday was the first 'behind a boat' sports day on the season. Started out with some doubles tubing action, with a bit of wakeboarding (or attempted wakeboarding), and then more tubing. I hadn't wakeboarded in over a year, but I got up first try and managed to stay up for quite a while. I seemed pretty comfy on the board and was crossing the wake without much difficulty. Reed, Rol, and Q all did well on the board too...but not as good as the old guy we observed...he was doing flips and getting massive air. One day...

Tubing was fun as always. I believe the highlight would have been when I was driving for Polly and Reed, and got them into a good whip around where Polly actually caught air and went right overtop of Reed's tube (which he had bailed off of when he realized she was gonna clip him). That looked pretty cool. I caused Tim and Ryan to have a pretty good dual bail too. Rol and I had a good goof off session on the tubes and I managed to get the Eliminator right up onto the Mean Machine for a little while.

Q&S, & I hit the casino in the evening. They'd been with Choy the night before and it was apparently a lucky night. Last night was pretty good too. I walked out with more money than I walked in with, which is the goal of every casino visit. The Blackjack table was hot, then cold, then it heated up again and that's where I made my winnings. It's a tough decision to leave the table...if you're ahead you think you can get even more ahead, but if you're down, then you think you could at least get back up to even. It takes a bit of force and will power sometimes...but I'm in no way addicted to the gambling.

Following casino, we hit up Slefler's birthday party at Ryan's bachelor pad. It was good...played some poker, drank some drinks, did a little Fifa soccer, played a drinking game with a buncha girls (a couple of which were single (I think/hope) and cute), and played some darts (again with the cutie).

So Saturday turned out pretty good. So far nothing happening for Sunday. Was supposed to go suit shopping with Mom and Gord, but plans changed.