It's (was) my birthday !

I'm now in the second half of my 20's. Man, do I feel old...

For the first time since I moved in the Ottawa region, my mother had planned to come see me on my birthday. First time in 6 years that I was able to celebrate my birthday with my family. My girlfriend also took the whole weekend of to be with me. Now that's a nice gift !

I didn't get a lot of gifts this year, but at my age, I can buy myself the gifts I want :) I already had my tamtam in March when I picked it up at my sister place. My girlfriend got me a paintball jersey. Now I won't need to rent anything at PSI ! My sister got my a book of novel by Frank Herbert (author of Dune).

My mother arrived with my sister late on Friday night, right when I was about to leave the Lone Star with some friends. They all came to my house and we played some Wii games. Seeing my mother playing video games is one of the funniest thing ever. The folling day, we went for breakfast at La Fiesta (their breakfast are much better than any other place in Gatineau) and went for some shopping in Gatineau and Ottawa. Didn't get a lot of thing, except a basket and a cushion for the cat. She loves that thing now.

We bought all the stuff needed for supper and finally tried the cooking stone I got for France 3 years ago. I ate so much that we ate the dessert on Sunday. Speaking of Sunday, my mother insisted on doing some gardening in my backyard. So we went to Home Depot again to get some more plants and my sister wanted to get an A/C.

Long story short, it was a great weekend. I wish my birthday next year will be as fun.

What's up lately with me...

Well I haven't posted in a while I guess I was too busy or not motivated enough. Maybe both.

In the recent events:

- We played paintball on May 4th. That was quite a short game, due to a mix up in the reservation. Hard to believe someone can think that an expiry date of a credit card can still be 01/06...

On the plus side, I feel like I'm getting used to my marker. I had many good shot during that game, even tho our team was underpowered. We got our ass handed to ourselves on a plate on many occasions except the first game where we totally pwned the other team. Yeah, I said pwned, what are you gonna do ? Also, one again, I got shot on the fingers/hand. This is one of the worst place to get hit because the way the back of my hand is exposed, it's the only place where the ball shell get in my skin. This caused me to bleed a little a couple of times.

This is maybe what convinced me of getting a pair of gloves in the current Canadian Paintball order. The fact that I have an almost full bag of unused balls also prompted me to add 3 pods to the order. I don't really want the cat to take any interest in the bag, that could be a real disaster.

- The day after paintball, I got my first tan of the year. My girlfriend had decided that this year, our front and back yard would look good and we would enjoy it. Even tho I went to bed at 2:30 in the morning, I was at Home Depot at 9:30. Got some plants, a nice tree, fertlizer, a BBQ and a bunch of other things. Home Depot had a special that weekend where any purchase over 450$ could be paid in 12 months instead of 6. I also had a 10% off coupon so it was the right time to get everything.

Assembling a BBQ by yourself is one the most hard thing I ever done in my life. As hard as installing a bath (no wonder a plumber ask 1500$ to install a bath). But the result was satisfying. I used it 4 times since then and I'm not sure how I lived without it.

The front yard now look good too and as soon as the plants get bigger, it will look even better. The tree adds a nice touch to it, I just hope it will survive the next winter.

I'll take a couple of pictures and post them soon.

New Computer Desk or an adventure in Ikea Hell...

I got a new computer desk yesterday and getting one was harder than I tought...

I had my eyes on a Ikea desk for quite some times and my eBay sales were just the right amount for it. The Ikea website stock availability feature was telling me it was out of stock but hey, who believe the Internet these days ? So I called, just to make sure.

The freaking desk is really out of stock... forever. Ikea has discontinued the only desk I wanted (and I've been checking for for almost a year) ! I went there anyway because I was decided that I would get a desk that night.

Fast forward to the Ikea, Work Area section. My brother in law had found a TV bench in less than 2 minutes so even if I had left without a desk, the trip would have been worth it. After 30 minutes, I finally decided the one I wanted. I needed 3 things : the desk, the shelves and a glass top for the desk. We went to the warehouse area to get the boxes. First, the TV bench : we find the aisle, find the right bin to find an empty space ! Out of stock (even tho the clerk checked on her computer and said they had some). She said we should come back tomorrow and they would have that bin replenished... No thank you, I'm not doing a 45 minutes drive two days in a row.

At least we could find the desk and the shelves. The glass top was nowhere to be found... I didn't even ask the clerk...

Went back home, dropped the boxes, had supper with some friends and came back at around 10:00-10:30. I built the thing by myself in a little less than 2 hours and started putting my stuff back on the desk. At 1:00 I had to stop, take a shower and go to sleep...

I had achieved my 2 goals of the day : get a new computer desk and be able to check my emails on it before going to bed.

Before & after :

They call it pain(t)ball for a reason...

Played paintball yesterday and I got the bruises to prove it !

I could finally tried my gun yesterday. My brother in law was kind enough to wait at my home in the morning for our second Canadian Paintball order. We waited more than 2 weeks for it but finally got it. So I was able to try my new mask as well.

This paintball marker is so much better than a Tippman 98 ! But it cames with a price so for an amateur the Tippman is still good. Not everyone is willing to spend more than 600$ for paintball gear. For that I thank all the people that bought from me on eBay recently.

The only issue I had with my gun is that I had to clean it afterwards. When it's a rental gun, you don't really mind getting it dirty or having to clean the paint out of it, it's not yours ! So I spent around an hour and a half cleaning it. The paint get's really hard to clean so now it looks like my gun is dirty all the time. Sme of the paint got stuck on the gun itself. Not pretty. I have to find something to clean it !

But let's talk about the game !

We had a surprise when we arrived : They had changed the setting of the bunker. So it was like a total different game for us, which added to the fun. I was lucky to be with Simon and Ghislain again. This time we really tried to have a strategy and it paid off. At one point we had 5 or 6 consecutives winning streak. I got hit almost all over my body. I still feel a couple of the hits, especially the hand. Got it so hard it bled a little.

My brother in law was the only person that was not from work so he didn't know everybody. I'm really happy that he enjoyed himself anyway and wants to come the next time we go. He speaks only French so that was a little hard for him to communicate as a good part of his team was English. But he did great and he had a good time.

I'll post more pictures as I get every pictures that were taken yesterday. So I leave you with a great headshot Alexandre did on me:

I freaking want that !

Isn't he cute ? I just love him. http://dreamlandtoyworks.com/my_little_cthulhu.html . I can't wait to see it in store !

CCJVQ meet in Montreal (the joy of feeling complete)

Good thing I stayed at home on Friday night and slept like crazy (first time int he whole week I was sleeping correctly).

The drive to Montreal was insane ! So much snow on the road... almost lost control once. One big snow plow was moving the snow on the left side of the road, with the wind going to the right. For a good 10sec, I could not see a damn thing. Freaking nothing ! At least, I was able to pass it quickly.

Always nice to see a lot of good friends all at once. I can say I represent mostof the Outaouais capter of the CCJVQ. Through my 3years and a half of collecting, I established a good reputation in the club and am a well known member. It's always nice to see another member asking me a question of advice or hear someone says : "Weirdguy always find cool stuff in Ottawa". I do find a lot of cool stuff, it's true. I tend to stay away from buying video games on eBay as I never known when I'll get it locally.

I did get some pretty good stuff at the meet. Two faily rare Dreamcast games and a set of Rayman Raving Rabbids figures that was exclusive to Ubisoft employees. I you love those rabbits, you'll want those figures, you can bet on that. Also got some PS1 and NES games. And some other stuff I don't remember (it's amost been a week !).

But the real find was this really nice tamtam. My half brother makes them with his dad. They are made by hand, totally custom. You can request any color and size. They come with a price tag tho. This one is my birthday gift but I mgiht order him a bigger one next year (that I'll have to pay). Maybe something with a stand, like 3 foot high. I like the deep sound of those. I'll have to learn how to play too, there must be a technique for that, not just bashing the thing with your hands...

On a side note, I am ready for paintball ! Got my air tank during my sick week. Tested it with my friend Simon, who came to the same conclusion as me, the electronic board inside the gun is stuck in there really hard. Compared to his gun (same model), mine might be a little bit more trouble to clean. But I guess I'll have to live with it. I really like the look of the gun. Look mean with all the accessories. Since I'll be moving it a lot, I decided to get a bag for it. Got one for cheap at Wal-Mart tonight so I can finally store it somewhere safer than the top of my futon in the game room. I can't wait for next Friday !

Another thing that got completed is my hit and run on my car (see first post ever). My GF step father came and fixed it on Thursday. I can finally drive the damn thing. Still 8 month and it goes to the scrapyard... Can't wait for that too.

I hate being sick

Even tho I write this one week after feeling better, I really hate being sick !

It started on Sunday night and ended on Friday. I tried to work on Thursday but could only stay 2 hours and these 2 hours felt like hell. I don't even remember what I did during that time.

The big problem here is that I feel guilty... Guilty of not being at work and actually doing something worth the salary I get every two weeks. Don't get me wrong here, these 4 sick days didn't felt like vacation at all. I spent most of my time in bed without any freaking energy. Even watching TV seemed painful.

The only positive side in all of this is that I could get a little advance in my DVD backlog. I was able to finish the Chick'n Swell third season, which was very good.

On Saturday, I was feeling good enough to go to Montreal, where I had to visit my sister and go to a video game swap meet. More about thatin the next post.