Tidbits

Sleepover at Ikea - Maybe this is the only way to get to the $1 early enough…
A ramen bath - Japanese spa with special baths resembling instant noodles. I wanna play!
Old age homes for dogs - 1) Old dogs don’t like to be abandoned at strange places. 2) Playing with young puppies will probably cause the older dogs to die faster due to exhaustion.
A remote-controlled pigeon - Oh the poor thing…
An article on a brilliant method of teaching grade schoolers about bats and rabies. I smell a lawsuit.
Will trade beer for Crumpler bags. Tempted by the beanbag and messenger bags…

O Canada!

July 02, 2006, 5:51 am

Well this year’s Canada Day was certainly much different than previous years. There was no fireworks, and there actually was a BBQ. There was also a lot of last minute planning. Originally, I was going to host a BBQ at the new house on Saturday, but then due to the weather, I’ve moved it to Sunday. But Cass and Em was only free on Saturday, so they were gonna come up anyway. But then, Friday, 4 pm, Jerry tells me about $20 LoTR tickets for the weekend. $20 (+5 misc fees), for any free seats for the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday shows is just too good to pass up. So I ordered 5, told Cass and Em about the change in plans, and then tried to find a 5th person. Unfortunately, almost everyone was busy, so I had to drag KD away from her camping buddies for the day, and those guys ended up spontaneously heading to TO to watch the Blue Jays game anyways. Feel guilty about dragging those guys away from their camp site at Laurel Creek, but KD did wanted to watch the show, and I can’t be sure I can find as cheap a ticket deal, on a weekend when she is around, between now and the end of the show in Sept.

So yes, after much indecisiveness around the campfire Friday night, we decided to drive back Saturday morning. Subway to theatre to catch the 1 pm show, send KD off to her 4 pm baseball game, and then back to Emily’s house in Sauga for a BBQ dinner. (KD and the camping people then drove back to Loo to cook dinner at their camp and to hopefully watch fireworks. I don’t know if they actually happened, as it was raining a bit)

The LOTR Musical

The musical itself, wasn’t that great. I believe my overall impression of the show can be expressed in the fact that I have no real interest in going back for a second viewing, unless things have drastically changed. Unfortunately, the best thing going for the show is the elaborate stage work and effects, which will not be as cool the second time around. The story was indeed confusing and cluttered. They picked highlights from various parts of the story, glazed over the rest, and gave tidbits that was neglected in the movies. So yes, to anyone who haven’t read the books or seen the movies, it made no sense (but I guess it doesn’t really stand to reason why anyone who have not even seen the movie would pay that much to watch the musical of it), and actually, there are some parts that people who didn’t read the books will not understand either. They stretched the beginning out too much, added a bunch of action in the middle, and the ending was rather anti-climatic. And the worse part was that to me, it failed as a musical because I did not find any of the songs particularly good, or memorable. I have no interest in going out and getting the soundtrack. Frankly, the soundtracks from the movies were better.

They even added some very blatant and unnecessary dialogues between Frodo and Sam pertaining to their relationship. Things like Sam saying to Frodo that “I thought we were together”, with his newly wedded wife standing by. And Frodo implying something that he was the “morning” companion and Rosie was the “evening” companion. Talk about two-timing!

I think we concluded that we would have been willing to pay up to $40 for it, but $100+ is way too much. The effects were truly amazing, but that’s the only thing it has going for it. And Smeagol was very well done too.

What Happened Afterwards...

But our exciting day don’t end there! So we went to Emily’s house after the show and we had a BBQ. Those two had already gotten food to bring to my place before I changed the plan on them, so we decided to just have it at Em’s place. Food was very good, and we thought we were so lucky that we finished BBQing right when the rain started. Lots of good food.

After dinner, Mike went to the van to get the mahjong set, and discovered one of the front tire was flat! On the 401 this morning, we ran over this small piece of wood that made a scary sound when it bounced around under the van, but since nothing serious happened, we thought it was okay. We even joked about how it better not have caused any damage, as a car in front of had quickly pulled to the side of the road afterwards. We’re still not sure if it was what caused the leak, as it was a slow one, and we didn’t see any major defects in the tire. Anyways, we put on the spare, which was sadly deflated, and almost didn’t make it to the closest gas station to fill up.

So we were forced to drive back to Toronto to Mike’s house to pick up his Civic (he had traded cars a few weeks ago so we can buy our patio furniture in Loo), and didn’t get back to Waterloo until 1:30 am. Poor KD left her clothes at our house cause she slept over the night before, and had to come by at that time to get them.

Looong day indeed, but I had fun nonetheless!

Tomorrow: Another BBQ!