Czech Pilsners, actually, I believe. Like Budweiser Budvar.
But, of course, we had to go and add a ton o’ corn and rice and wreck the beer.
Just me and the wife. Great time all around. Flew into Rome and spent a few days wandering around the ruins of the Coloseum (I still can’t spell that) and the forum, and the Pantheon and Vatican City. Then off to Tuscany where we drove a toy car to various of the walled cities, then to Florence for a couple days and finally Venice. Truthfully, it wasn’t a very restful vacation but it was an awesome one.
Maybe I’m a victim of my own expectations but I think Duff is always shown as brownish, so I always thought of it as a richer brown ale. Which, now that I think of it, is kind of ridiculous, it’s supposed to be a cheap beer, right? Anyway, it was a shock to turn the corner in this ancient walled city and see a pizzeria with window displays of honest-to-god Duff beer. My wife tells me that the look on my face was similar to what we saw on tourists’ faces at the Sistine Chapel.
In fairness to Venice, there was a certain odor in Florence as well, but that was different and actually less pleasant. Venice smells like the ocean, with all that that entails, and some people don’t find that smell too pleasant. My wife, for one. But I don’t recall the smell being unbearable.
Syzygy
6183
In the emergency room now with my first kidney stone blockage in 8 or so years. Pain only got up to an 8 or 9 this time. Luckily the narcotics are working!
I had my first response to my attempts to find a student room in Toronto for my exchange year, and according to that, I’ll be raped and killed on the York University campus :(
tromik
6185
What? Are you referring to the horrible rapes on the York campus in the past couple of years, or did the replier come off as a crazy person?
The former! It was more of a cautionary note before explaining the commute. She seems great.
Had an excellent turnout for our show. Made some bucks and got some people to laugh. Awesome.
I’ve been on vacation for the last… nine days, and we just stayed here at home. I have played more video games in the last nine days than I think I have in the last three months put together. 50 turns of Dominions 3 with a friend of mine, all of Assassin’s Creed 2, Age of Wonders: Shadow Magic, Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, Lord of the Rings Online, Torchlight, Madden 2010, and since five of those games are games I hadn’t played yet I am very satisfied with the progress I’ve made into my backlog.
I also had my first migraine, though it wasn’t related to the video games. Honest!
tromik
6189
Yea, what’s happened at York in the past few years is really sad and horrifying. Other than that, the area itself is extremely nice and safe.
When do you fly over?
I’ll arrive on the 25th of August and will be staying until May. The room I’m looking at now is in Little Manila, which seems cool, but the commute to York isn’t that great.
Hunty
6191
I went to Spain for two weeks and saw a grand total of about two clouds. I swam a lot and drank even more. They won the World Cup, which meant my girlfriend and I nearly had to sleep rough because the entire country, taxis included, shut down and stranded us at the bar we were watching it in. On the whole it was awesome.
I landed back in England on Friday and got the train back through Croydon in the pissing rain. Then I had a lovely relaxed weekend, with fajitas! Now I am at work. Urgh. Peaks and troughs.
I got a ticket. First ticket I’ve gotten in a long, long time. Total idiot ticket too. Registration sticker because I’ve been putting off getting my car smogged (in California you don’t have to do a yearly inspection, like Back East, but every few years you have to get your car tested for how much smog it contributes).
Not interesting, but the cop was. He was incredibly nice, and must have apologized four times for writing me a ticket. I felt like I was in Bizzarro World. “I’m sorry, but I have to give you this ticket.” “I just got reprimanded for this, so I have to do it…sorry!” “I’m really sorry, I usually don’t do this.” “I apologize, but I have to do this. But I wrote ‘fix-it ticket’ right there, so it won’t go on your record.”
It was so weird. So many apologies when it was absolutely clear it was my effing fault.
I’ve never felt so at peace with getting a ticket. So I guess it worked.
-xtien
We have sabbatical vacations at Epic and I have one currently on the books - basically, you get a month off (in addition to your regular vacation). The only rules are that you have to take it all at once and you get a new one every 7 years.
I’m considering doing exactly what you’re describing with my first one. I think I’ll putter around the house for a month and just do whatever the hell I feel like every day. I originally wanted to do something big like travel Europe for 3 weeks but money is a little tight right now and I’m starting to think that having a video game vacation at home would be amazing.
It’s nice, but by Saturday my wife and I were both getting restless. The heat wave knocked out a lot of our activities (and gave me a migraine the one time we did try to go out), so I’m actually happy to be back at work and back to normal this week. If I were to take a full month off, I’d want to build a small trip or something in there, just to break it up.
There is that, yes. On the other hand, I have taken 2 weeks over xmas before and not gotten bored. But overall, I agree that you don’t just want to sit in the house for a month. I would definitely plan a series of weekend trips or something over that month to break it up - the beach and other places.
spiffy
6196
I just got back from almost six weeks of a business trip which coincidentally took me back to my hometown of Montreal, for the end of a movie shoot. It was my first time on set, and it was a pretty cool experience (especially the part where you whisper something into the director’s ear and he blares it on a the megaphone … “Francois! move the camera!! There is a cg man over there in the corner!”)
Montreal was friggin’ humid for our stay, though… being in the Bay Area/west coast has had me spoiled. But the nightlife in the Plateau is second to none… hanging out on a terrasse, the parks, weeklong concerts, the women (hottest anywhere I tell ya), the late night boozin’ … good times.
Don’t forget the snow, the cemetery worker strikes, the chain-smoking, the gang wars…
kerzain
6198
That would be Salt Lake City and the surrounding Mormon communes.
Where a 7:1 female-to-male ratio actually counts as balanced!
tromik
6200
There are a few Filipino areas in the GTA, but I assume you’re talking about Concord, around Dufferin and Steeles or Finch?
