Almost heaven, Accordion City

My jet-set life needs to calm down a bit. Thankfully, other than a birthday party, I have no major plans for this weekend. I need to slow down a bit, after 1) my mom and stepdad visiting 2) going to Detroit and 3) heading to Toronto for one of the greatest weekends of all time. I say one of the greatest weekends of all time, because it took me all of yesterday to recover from Sunday alone. I'm not sure I've fully recovered or not.

Anyways. Here's how the weekend went:
Saturday was a great day. My favourite couple and I went to lunch at a pub that boasted 35 different kinds of hamburgers. I had the Bahama Mama, a burger with pineapple and mango. I was in heaven, but next time I'm there, I'm getting the Skippy Dippy, which, I'm sure you can guess, is a hamburger with peanut butter. Heaven.

Afterwards, we wanted to go to the Ontario Science Centre, but there were too many lines (including one into the parking lot) for us to want to fight the crowds, so went to Playdium, an arcade of massive proportions. We played. Sadly, I did not get a chance at the 3-puck 2-paddle air hockey, but next trip, I'm so there.

Wendy, Joey and I had dinner, then went upstairs for his birthday party. There was a lot of beer and a lot of karaoke. Sass brought me skates to try on, which she borrowed from one of the bartenders from the Banknote. Fortunately, they fit. The bar closed relatively early, so Sass and I went over to the Banknote for a nightcap or two, or three. She says I'm a bad influence. The feeling is mutual. Both of us are right.

After Sass dropped me off on Saturday night, I tried to get a good night's sleep. I was a little too excited about the pre-game skate I had scheduled with Sass for Sunday. Oh, side note about the Toronto Subway- the chimes played when the doors are about to close sounds, to me, exactly like the Mork and Mindy theme. I managed to record the audio on my cellphone as proof. Toronto, I ask you to be the judge. After taking the train downtown and even transferring to a second line, I emerged just north of the Air Canada Centre. I had some trouble finding an ATM that would take my crazy American bank card, but we tracked one down, and all was well, except that we had waited too long to get into the pre-game skate.

Phone calls were made. Deals were struck, but we were still unable to gain access to the ice. Sass suggested we go to a bar she new and grab a drink, as we were allowed into the Air Canada Club, a VIP lounge with free food and, as it turned out, free beer. We had an hour or so to kill first. We found a place, but I was a little hesitant to start drinking. It was, after all, 11 am to my body, and I try not to drink until after noon, except on days I'm at work. (I'm kidding.) I was also hesitant, as I knew we would be going to Kick Ass Karaoke, which would make for a very, very long day of drinking.

And it did. We stayed in the Club for the balance of the game, including part of the after-party. Meeting some of the players more than made up for missing the pre-game skate. Free beer made up for, well, everything that could have possibly gone wrong. I discovered a new passion in life- the trumpet guy. He sat atop the glass and played various fight songs, to get the crowd into the game, not that they weren't already. I told Sass over and over that I wanted that job. Anyone want to sell me a trumpet? I could use some lessons, too.

After the game, after being told by Lanny McDonald that we should have known better than to wear a Canadiens sweater in front of him, we headed to the Banknote again, to meet up with my friend N, who moved up to Toronto about a year and change ago. Not that we needed them, but more drinks were had. After a brief stop over at Sass's condo so she could change, we headed to Kick Ass Karaoke. I did a slew of songs. I'll list them later, because, well, I don't remember all of them. I've been writing a list in my head, and I think I'm most of the way to complete.

I spent yesterday on the couch, as I mentioned earlier, recovering. It took a while. Ok, I'm still recovering. I still have to write tonight's quiz, too, so I'd better get on that.

More later.