v42.1: Stalagmites in my Freezer

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

Today was much like any other day.  I got up, got ready for work and headed into the office.  I worked.  I came home, ran a few errands, came home again and decided to have a glass of Pepsi.  I opened the freezer door and stopped.  I couldn't help but notice all my ice cubes in my ice cube tray had little ice spikes sticking out of them.  It was the oddest thing and initially I thought something was wrong.  Why the hell would my ice cubes have stalagmites sticking out of them?

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Of course I had to look this up and apparently it isn't uncommon to see ice cubes with stalagmites sticking out of them.  I bet you're all wondering how this is achieved?  I examined the ice cubes for a few minutes, but I couldn't figure out exactly how it happened.  Did someone break into my apartment and fashion these out of ice?  Was there water dripping down from inside the freezer in precisely the exact spot where my ice cubes were?  Are there microscopic organisms living in my freezer who can only survive in sub zero temperatures and they build these structures to live in?

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After a quick search on Goggle, the answer finally presented itself to me.  This strange phenomenon happens to ice cubes when they freeze from the outside in.  Since water expands when it freezes, there is no where for the liquid to go - but up - when the ice starts to form.  Seems so simple doesn't it?

-slurp-

On the gaming side of things I've started playing WoW again.  This time I've decided to start up a little Blog to record some of the adventures and to just talk geek about WoW.  Initially I had the domain wowgeek.com registered, but I let that domain expire and go away, so I've decided to use my old domain fiendz.net to house the new blog.  If you head over to http://www.fiendz.net you can check it out.  I don't have any content there right now, but I'm slowly building the site up and plan on doing some posting there soon.

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Anyway folks, time to head out for now.  I hope everyone had a great day today!

Cheers,

Al

v42.0: What the Frack?

Evening everyone,

-slurp-

I just wanted to post a quick note to let everyone I'm still here and I haven't forgotten about you.  Work has been quite busy lately and my life has been going through some massive changes.  I haven't been doing any gaming lately, which is strange for me; I have always been a huge gamer. I have, however, been thinking of reactivating my WoW account.  Most of my gaming friends have also moved on to other things and none of them (that I'm aware of) are playing WoW these days.  I had thought about firing up Rift as well, but I'm not really looking to start a new game right now.

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Well folks, time for me to sign-off for now.  I'm going to try and post more frequently here in the coming months.  Hopefully my writing dry spell clears up.

Cheers,

Al

v41.9: Roll Up the Starbucks

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

Apparently while I wasn't looking, the Roll up the Rim contest has come to a conclusion.  Imagine my disappointment when I got a coffee yesterday and I was handed a standard brown cup.  Of course that doesn't mean there are not Roll Up cups out there in Timmy town, just the Tim Horton's I frequent.

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This year I barely drank any coffee in comparison to previous years.  In fact, I believe I drank 60% less coffee than previous years, which is saying something since:

1. This is a Blog about musing over coffee


2. I'm a huge coffee fan


3. I like coffee

Perhaps it has something to do with the broken driver's side window motor in my truck and the other personal issues I've been dealing with these past few months.  I'll be honest here, my coffee "tastes" have drastically changed recently.  In fact, I'm finding Tim Horton's coffee to be a little on the weak side now and I almost prefer to drink (GASP) Starbucks coffee.  I know, many of you are probably as floored as I am about it, but recently I've been drinking (GASP) Starbucks coffee.  I've even picked up a French Press which I use to make my own Starbucks coffee here at home.  It is something a little foreign to me since I've never been really picky about my coffee and I've always been a huge hater of Starbucks.

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Of course that doesn't mean I won't stop by and have a Timmy's every once in awhile; in fact I had a Large Timmy's today.  I don't know what changed, but coffee has taken on new meaning lately and I foresee some interesting musings in the future.  In fact, I may go to an actual Starbucks sometime and write a musing from there.  What a grand idea!

I just need to take baby steps with it, there is no hurry to rush off to the nearest Starbucks and start trying to fit in.  I start off with buying their coffee and slowly work my way into the Starbucks club.  Eventually I will be accepted by them and they will welcome me in as their own.  Then, and only then, will I be worthy to sit in their coffee shops and use their free WiFi to Blog about being there and using their free WiFi.

-slurp-

Cheers,

Al

v41.8: Laughter is the Best Medicine

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

Lately my life has taken an unexpected turn.  I've been down, I've been up and I've even gone a bit sideways with things.  Despite the way things have gone, I've managed to maintain a bit of my humor and laugh every so often.  It isn't easy, especially with the way my emotions have been.  Today when I was checking the administrator portion of my site, I was greeted by this joke in my spam folder.  Normally I delete spam from my site's spam folder without reading it, but for some reason I decided to read it today and found this little gem:

Oh To Be 12 Again…(Humor)

A man was sitting on the edge of the bed, observing his wife, looking at herself in the mirror.
Since her birthday was not far off he asked what she’d like to have for her Birthday.

‘I’d like to be twelve again’, she replied, still looking in the mirror.

On the morning of her Birthday, he arose early, made her a nice big bowl of Coco Pops, and then took her to Alton Towers theme park.

What a day!
He put her on every ride in the park; the Death Slide, the Corkscrew, the Wall of Fear, the Screaming Monster Roller Coaster, everything there was.

Five hours later they staggered out of the theme park.
Her head was reeling and her stomach felt upside down..
He then took her to a MC Donald’s where he ordered her a Happy Meal with extra fries and a chocolate shake.

Then it was off to the cinema with popcorn, a huge Cola, and her favorite sweets…………M&M’s.

What a fabulous adventure!

Finally she wobbled home with her husband and collapsed into bed exhausted.

He leaned over his wife with a big smile and lovingly asked, ‘Well Dear, what was it like being twelve again?’

Her eyes slowly opened and her expression suddenly changed.

‘I meant my dress size, you retard!!!!’

The moral of the story:

Even when a man is listening, he is gonna get it wrong.

-slurp-

I thought I'd share that with everyone in hopes it brought a smile or laugh.

Cheers,

Al

v41.7: Short Update

Good morning folks,

-slurp-

I've been very bad at keeping this site updated lately.  I've been keeping my coffee winnings and losses update (when I've had a chance to get to Tim's) but as far as posting and writing, I've been slacking.  There have been a lot of changes in my personal life lately which I'll refrain from sharing with you now, but know that I'm doing OK and things will eventually come around and get somewhat back to normal again.

-slurp-

If you've been following along with my Roll up the Rim 2011 page, you'll notice I am well above the 1 in 6 odds of winning this year.  I don't believe I fell below that at all which is different for me.  Granted I haven't had nearly as much Tim Horton's coffee as I've had in previous years, so the odds are a bit more in my favor in that regard.  The Roll-up season is starting to wind down so hopefully I can get a few more coffees in between now and then.

Well folks, as the title suggests, this is just a short update today.  Work beckons and I must answer the call.  Hopefully I'll get some time this week to post something worthy.

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Cheers,

Al

v41.6: Thursday O'Clock

Howdy folks,

-slurp-

It's Thursday!  Isn't that exciting?!  Not really, but Thursday means the work week is nearly over and the weekend will be here.  I have no plans this weekend so I'm not really sure why I'm looking forward to it.  Normally I would say that the weekend means no work but lately work has been the only thing keeping me sane.  I've actually started to enjoy things there and the work is actually starting to get a LOT better; which is nice for a change.

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So if you've been following along with my Roll up the Rim winnings you've probably noticed that I haven't had a Tim Horton's coffee in a few days.  Actually, I had one last night but I didn't get a Roll-Up cup so I was a bit put out by that.  Allow me to explain.

I'm usually a pretty lazy guy first thing in the morning.  I'm also a create of habit and when I get into a routine, I tend to stick with it and rarely deviate.  Lately I've been finding myself going to the local Irving near my apartment to get coffee.  First off, the price is right ($0.99 for any size) and they lots of different flavors to choose from.  Secondly, it is quick and it doesn't taste all that bad.  Thirdly, they give me a little card that is stamped every time I buy a coffee and after 6, the next one is free.  Normally I don't ever use the free one, so I have 3-4 cards in my truck that have free coffees on them (2 per card) that I'm saving for when I don't have any money on me and really need a coffee.

This works out since I had an unfortunate incident with the truck last weekend.  For whatever reason, the driver's side window started to act up when I used it.  I was heading to the Tim Horton's drive-thru to get a coffee last weekend and when I pushed the button to lower the window it began to lower (slowly) and about half way down I heard a bit of a crunch sound.  I was a bit worried, especially when the window failed to go down any further.  I pressed the button up and down and it didn't seem to be doing anything.  I could hear the mechanism in the door moving, but it wasn't moving the window.  I pressed the down button until I couldn't hear it moving any longer and then I gently pushed down on the window and it just slid down.  Of course it was raining out and I was getting wet while waiting for my coffee and I was mildly annoyed that the window was having issues after only owning the vehicle for a little over a week.  Regardless, I drove away, hit the up button and low and behold the window began to raise, VERY slowly.  I was a relieved when it went all the way to the top.  The last thing I wanted was a broken window in the down position during a rain storm.

It seemed to work on and off most of Friday and Saturday, but Saturday night the thing really broke.  The window wouldn't go up or down and the window was sitting about 1/4 of the way open.  I could slide the window up with my hands, but it would just slowly crawl back down again.  It was frustrating.  Thankfully we didn't have any snow or rain that night because I was forced to leave the window down all night because it was late and I didn't feel like fumbling my way around in the dark trying to figure out how to keep it closed.

The next morning I woke and went outside with my son and we took apart the door to see if we could figure out the problem.  The door was fairly simple to take apart and after getting it open, I noticed a snapped cable inside which (I assume) is responsible for pulling the window down and pushing it up.  A quick trip to my local Canadian Tire told me that due to the year and the type of part that was busted, I would need to take it to the dealer.  I figured out a way to keep the window up so at least I could remain dry and warm this week, but it has really sucked getting into the parking garage and going through drive-thrus when I don't have a window to roll down.  Needless to say, I haven't been to a drive-thru since this happened which means I've been drinking a lot of Irving coffee and haven't been going to Tim's.

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Last night Kate had a job interview at one of the Tim Horton's near our place and when she left, she grabbed a free coffee (interview perk maybe?).  Of course because the coffee was free, there was no Roll up cup with it.  The funny part is, I had sent my son in to buy me a coffee while I was waiting because I wanted to be able to roll-up and post about it, but alas, it wasn't meant to be I guess.

I plan on giving the dealership a call tomorrow to see if they have time for me to take the truck in and look at it.  I'm not sure how much this is going to cost me, but I suspect it will be expensive.  the part itself seems fairly simple, so I don't suspect that will cost me much, but the labor will definitely cost me.

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Well folks, time for me to take off for now.  Hopefully I'll get some time tomorrow to post again.

Cheers,

Al

v41.5: Regulated Gas Prices

Morning folks,

-slurp-

It's FRIDAY!  My work week has finally come to a close and now I have a weekend to potentially look forward to.  This week has gone by quite fast for me.  I've been quite busy at work this week so my days seem so much shorter.  It's a good feeling to be working away on something and then look at the clock and see the time jump by several hours.

Here in Nova Scotia we have regulated gas prices.  Basically, that means the price of gas is controlled by a group of people who raise (or lower) the price of gas every week based on various factors.  Last night I drove by a gas station and noticed there was quite a line up of cars waiting to get gas.  Normally I hear on the radio what the projected increase (or decrease) is going to be, but for whatever reason I didn't catch it yesterday morning.  I assumed gas was going to go up, hence the line of cars waiting at the pumps.  Normally people freak out over a couple of cents a liter.  When you consider the average car has a 40 liter tank, if the price of gas went up 2 cents a liter, you're looking at an additional 80 cents to fill up your car.  Seriously people!  Is that a good reason to wait in line to get gas?  You're probably spending that much in gas just waiting to beat the 2 cents per liter increase.

Unfortunately, the price of gas jumped 4 cents per liter here in Halifax last night, which still isn't a whole lot when you consider the 40 liter tank again.  Unfortunately, my truck has at least an 80 liter tank in it and at $1.21 per liter, I'm looking at approximately $100 to fill the thing.  Truth be told, I have no idea how big my gas tank is but I know the last time I filled it up, it took $100 easily so the tank must be a bit larger than 80 liters.  Regardless, an increase of 4 cents a liter is still a lot when you look at the overall price of gasoline in the city right now.  I haven't been following the price of oil lately, but I suspect that, combined with the conflicts over in the middle east, are the primary cause for the sudden jump.

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Well folks, just a quick musing this morning to start off my day.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and if I get some time to post this weekend I will definitely do that.  If you live in the Halifax area, drive safely today.  There is going to be a ton of rain today and then the temperature is going to drop suddenly tonight, causing it all to freeze.  Take care.

Cheers,

Al