The venue was the Old Roxy Theater, which as it's name suggests is an old movie theater converted to a concert venus. The theater only holds between 100 to 200 people which makes for a nice intimate evening. We ended up scoring front row right side seats which was cool but I don't think there was a bad seat in the house.

I didn't know what to expect out of a Hawksley Workman. I enjoy his music and I know he is a little eccentric, though I was afraid that he would be a little divaish and only play music with no connection/conversation with the audience. Boy was I wrong to worry. The music was phenomenal, even the new stuff that is not as known by the audience, and the stories were hillarious. He played off of the energy from the audience telling stories, telling jokes, occasionally making us scratch our heads trying to figure out what he was talking about. He would even break into stories in the middle of songs - while his buddy Todd Lumley ("Mr. Lonely") played accompaniment on the keyboards. The funniest story was about fusing drum solos with potato salad making (click here to see this song with the story that I took at the concert).

He even made references to being called Hawksley WORKSman by one of the old Roxy staffers who introduced him to the audience. A little inside joke for the people who were at the show :)

Since there was no opener we were treated to two hours of just Hawksley and Mr. Lumley. With one encore in which he played three songs selected by the audience.

He ended up playing many of my favorites and many new favorites from his albums including "Jealous of Your Cigarette", "You Me and the Weather", "Warhol's Portrait of Gretzsky", "Your Beauty Must Be Rubbing Off", "Tokyo Bicycle", "We Will Still Need a Song", "Autumn's Here", "Rain" just to name a few.

As an added surprise during "Autumn's Here" an audience member started playing his harmonica and Hawksley called him up on stage where they jammed for a while. The harmonica playing worked well with the song and Hawksley was really loving it and the audience enjoyed it as well - giving both Hawksley and the harmonica player a standing ovation at the end of the show.

Another Canadian artist off of the list - but this definitely will not be the last time I see Hawksley. Can't wait for the next time!

Thankfully my buddy SMooSH and his wife gave us their window rattler AC unit so we can at least cool down our sleeping area.

Don't get me wrong - temperatures of 30 degrees is okay, as long as it cools down to the mid-teens at night. When it's in the mid-twenties at night we aren't given any time for things to cool down.

Oh well. It looks like either Friday or Saturday that things will cool down at night. Hopefully the humidity breaks soon.

As my long time readers may remember Firda and I saw Ms. Harmer in October of 2006 in Orillia, Ontario, which was a tour to promote her last album "I'm a Mountain". Four years was a long time to wait but she didn't disappoint. She played a lot of her new stuff while mixing in many of her more popular older songs, and we were very happy to have her play our favourite songs.

The venue was very nice as well. A small intimate setting with not a bad seat in the house. We ended up in the third row immediately in front of the talented keyboardist Julie Fader (whom I admit to having a little crush on - and have seen in concert with Sarah and the Great Lake Swimmers a total of four times now). The banter between the band members and the audience made the night even more magical. Plus the opening band "Colleen and Paul" were exceptionally apt at setting the mood for the main event.

My only peeve about the show is that the audience gave up after the first encore. I know the band were willing to come out for a second encore but the older population of the audience decided they needed to go home and sleep. Heck it took the venue a good 30 to 40 seconds to turn the lights on - which meant they weren't planning on doing that. Though this was a minor issue and didn't ruin the night for me.

Here's hoping that the next album doesn't take 5 years to emerge and the next time we get to see Ms. Harmer in concert is even sooner.

Saturday my parents came up and took us out for dinner at a local Greek restaurant called Demetre's. We've been to this particular restaurant before and enjoyed it. This time was no different.

Five years with more years to go!

I never know what to post about. I guess since it's season and series finale time I could post about the shows we watch and my thoughts on the finales.

Grey's Anatomy - A shooter on the loose in the hospital. A story of a grieving husband who believes that revenge is the only way he can get any closure in his wifes death. There was a lot of violence with a lot of people dieing and even more teetering on the brink of life and death. The ending was kind of predictable but a good end to a mediocre season. At least it had about 90% less whining over relationships. Sometimes I wonder why I still watch it.

Lost - The two and a half hour finale was on last Sunday but we didn't get to see it until Tuesday night. The six season story has finally come to an end - the main story line has been resolved, there are still many unanswered questions but I'm satisfied. As one of my friends said the finale was a definitive ending - there will be no spin-offs and no reunion episodes. After six years I am finally satisfied - and if you want to know what my theory about the finale is contact me.

How I Met Your Mother? - No major cliffhangers here but as always good entertainment. A baby may be added to the cast (will this cause a shark to be jumped?), a mistake averted due to bleached hair, a love lost and potential love rekindled next season. The only thing I hope is that in the next season they identify the mother before they run completely out of steam and get cancelled.

Big Bang Theory - Another great comedy series. The episode was good but no real cliff hanger - but I will still be watching next season.

Modern Family - If you are not watching this yet you don't know what you are missing. It's the new Arrested Development without the plot (meaning you can jump in at any point and watch the show - unlike AD which was one really long, amazingly awesome movie).

The Office - One of my favorite shows of all time. I love that it is syndicated like 200 times a day. The finale was no exception. Kathy Bates character of the Sabre founder Jo Bennett is priceless. And will we see the return of Holly? If so what happens to Toby? The questions!

Community - Another hillarious show. The cliff-hanger? Who will Jeff choose? Brita, the study group partner? The hot teacher? Or the twist contender at the end of the show? Can't wait to see.

And those are the shows that we watch that have finished for the season. Shows still ongoing are Breaking Bad and Glee.

Was this adequate for you Handy Solo?

I also find that when I try to create a longer blog post I run out of steam half way thorugh. I have several abandoned posts that I really need to get back to.

In the meantime here is a link to a sweet video by Vampire weekend for there song "Giving Up the Gun" - featuring Jake Gyllenhaal, Joe Jonas and RZA. If you don't know Vampire Weekend you really should.

The Olympic closing ceremonies are supposed to be the shining star at the end of the games. Sadly the only shining I saw was when Neil Young and Michael J. Fox took the stage. The "musical" selections were suppose to represent the best of Canada but the majority of artists came from Ontario with absolutely no representation from Altantic Canada. The only musical acts I enjoyed were Neil Young, Alanis and K-Os. Sadly I'm not a big fan of Nickelback, Simple Plan or Avril Lavigne.

The comedic elements were a little luck lustre as well. William Shatner did a skit that was very reminisent of his "I Am Canadian" sketch but not as funny. Then Catherine O'Hara did a "Canadian's are so humble and polite" skit which got a few giggles out of me but fell short of funny. Michael J. Fox was the only good comedian and he didn't play the crowd for laughs but was sincere.

I don't know how this closing ceremony compares to other closing ceremonies but I sure hope Sochi does a better job in 4 years time. Thankfully a bad closing ceremony doesn't tarnish the performances by the world's athletes!

These past two weeks of the winter Olympics have been the most memorable that I have ever witnessed. The Canadian athletes gave a phenomenal performance. Half way through the games everyone was wondering if we were even going to end up in the top 10 countries but our athletes stepped up and won medal after medal to end up 3rd overall.

With that 3rd place we have some honorable distinctions of being the country with the most gold medals (14) - this number actually means that Canada has historically won the most gold medals in this single winter olympics than any other country during a single winter olympics.

It was an amazing games and I'm saddened that it ends tonight.

Thank you British Columbia for hosting these Olympics. We know it didn't go perfect but they are a games I won't soon forget.

And thank you to the athletes from all countries. Even if you didn't win a medal you are still winners for being world-class athletes! Keep skating, skiing, curling, luging, sledding, and everything else you do! Can't wait for the next games

Here's hoping we get to meet her before she is too big!

My parent's dog, Buttons, passed away today. He was only four days shy of 16 years old.

While he wasn't a "childhood" dog for me he did hold a special place in my heart. Before he was my parents dog he was my maternal grandmother's dog. When she passed away my parents decided to take Mr. Buttons in. I believe he was around 6 years old when my parents took him in.

He had been having a hard time for the past couple of months. Having spells where he couldn't maintain his balance. The vets weren't sure what was causing these spells. Today something different happened. He started wheezing and struggling to breathe. They had an appointment with the vet around 11:30 today - but Mr. Buttons couldn't hold on and passed away on the way to the vet.

How did everyone spend there new years? We hung out with a group of friends in Guelph, Ontario. It was good times hanging out with people we haven't hung with in while. It was so good that we didn't get to bed until 3 a.m. in the morning. That doesn't happen all that often anymore! We spent the night with our friends SMooSH and Loba in Guelph which was very nice of them to let us stay at their place.

New Year's Day we headed down to my brother and sister-in-laws house for our niece's first birthday. Even though we were super tired we still had a good time. In the last couple of months my niece's personality has really started to shine - she has also gotten to the point where she is understanding words and actions.

The day after New Year's Day we spent shopping - mostly thrift stores. We returned a board game present (which we got doubles of) and picked up another board game called Zooloretto (which is quite simplistic but a lot of fun), I also picked up an XBOX 360 to complete the trifecta of next gen consoles. If you have an XBOX 360 add me to your friend list - my handle is "ForestPirate".

Well off to enjoy the last day before I head back to work!

Firda and I just got back from my parents place earlier today. We spent the past couple days (since Christmas Eve) with my parents. We had a good time with the family - it would have been great if we both weren't battling a flu/cold. We are feeling much better today though still quite drained.

So how was everyone's Christmas? Did you all make out like bandits? We did pretty good this year. Video games, books, board games (Ticket to Ride, Dominion: Intrigue, Dominion: Seaside and the Agricola Expansion), a heating blanket (to preheat our bed before we jump into it), a dining room table (used from Kijiji) and a bunch of clothing.

It was also my niece's first Christmas. I think she enjoyed it - though she had to take a nap half way through the present opening. She turns 1 on New Years Day so we are planning to go down there for the party.

What else? We say the Olympic Flame come through Stratford today. We just got into town and had to park on a side street (since the relay route passed in front of our house). We had about a 10 minute wait since we got home and they ran by. It was a "blink and you'll miss it" type event but interesting to see nonetheless.

I also had a chance to do out for dinner with a bunch of old friends I haven't seen in a while including two dear friend who live in England now (Kaley and Nasser), two friends from Toronto who we haven't seen since likely the summer (Caiti and Ian), and my best bud Joe and the always cantankerous Tom :) Sadly Firda didn't feel well enough to join us but we had fun.

Well it's off to play Ratchet and Clank now! Happy Holidays everyone!

Our client called us on Thursday morning to see if we could be on-site on Friday. After a rather frantic Thursday morning (buying plane tickets, reserving rooms, renting cars etc.) I flew out on Toronto for Thunder Bay at 2:30. I grabbed my rental car and drove 1.5 hours to my first motel in Nipigon.

The motel was relatively nice, in that it had a bed and a bathroom. It also had paper thin walls so I could hear the neighbours TV - even though it wasn't overly loud. Since myself and the gentleman next door were the only two renting rooms at the motel I asked the motel owner if I could move a couple of doors down. He graciously allowed me to move from my single room to a double bed room several doors down.

The next morning I woke up and got on the road quite early. I had a 5.5 hour drive to get to our client site and I needed to be there by noon. The drive basically consisted of driving east for 4 hours and then north for 1.5 hours. The east part wasn't too bad - the roads were clear and the driving was easy. The north part kind of sucked. Apparently it snowed the night before and the roads were still kind of messy. I took it slow but I still made it to the site 15 minutes before noon. One of the highlights of the drive (other than the beautiful scenery) was the "no gas station for 97 kilometers" sign when I turned onto the north highway.

I spent the night in the only motel in town, which was actually in a "mall". I use the term "mall" very loosely, but it was a mall. The mall had the motel, a liquor store (LCBO), variety store, library, community swimming pool, a restaurant, a bar and I believe there may some government administation offices (though I'm not sure). It was an interesting atmosphere since everyone seemed to know everyone else. It was a nice enough motel - the room was super warm but I had a good sleep and that was the most important thing.

Saturday morning I got up - hit the road and got back to Thunder Bay in about 5.5 hours. The road conditions had approved greatly since the day before so I made good time. I arrived in Thunder Bay around 1 pm and had a little bit of time to check out the town. I stopped at the Terry Fox Memorial just outside of town which was very nice.

For those of you who do not know Terry Fox, he is a Canadian icon. He was diagnosed with cancer in his teens and lost a leg to cancer. In 1980 he decided to start his "Marathon of Hope" while his cancer was in remission. The Marathon of Hope was a cross-country run to increase cancer awareness and raise money for cancer research. He started his run in St John's, Newfoundland and made it through five provinces and 5,373 kilometers before his cancer returned and he had to quit the marathon. His plans were to continue when he got better but sadly he passed away in 1981 from pneumonia. Every year the "Terry Fox Run" events take place all over Canada to raise money for cancer research and to continue the legacy started by Terry Fox.

Back to my story. I jumped on my plane back to Toronto at 4:55 pm - the flight took around 1.5 hours and I was home by 8:30. It was good to be home, but sadly I had missed most of the weekend by then. If it was possible I would have taken a day off this week but alas things are really busy right now and there is no way I can do that.

Oh well. Hopefully I will have some time off around Christmas (other than Christmas Day and Boxing Day) but I'm not really counting on it.

Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen movies you've seen that will always stick with you. First fifteen you can recall in no more than fifteen minutes.

1. Donnie Darko
2. Dance Me Outside
3. Requiem for a Dream
4. Best in Show
5. Brewster's Millions
6. Ravenous
7. Highway 61
8. A Mighty Wind
9. Hard Core Logo
10. Dancer in the Dark
11. The Fox and the Hound
12. Monsters Inc.
13. Evil Dead 2
14. Army of Darkness
15. Amelie

It was very sudden. She was sent to the hospital around 2:00 pm with chest pains. She was in her 80s - and the possibility was always present but I hoped that she would be around for several more years. There was very little warning.

Even though we were not biologically related (my biological grandmother passed away when my father was in his late teens) she is the only grandmother I knew on that side of the family.

The visitation and funeral won't be until mid-next week.