The Briar Patch

I was going to post a new travel blog on the north but it turns out it is Expo weekend in Edmonton. I went for opening night Friday and here are some random thoughts. For real this one is just quick and dirty no editing so I am sorry if it gets a bit mixed up but trying to post while it is still relevant! As I walked in, or towards the entrance I texted my wife "I dunno if I am in Heaven or Hell" First I need to know if  what I heard was true. If you bought a meet and greet or pic or whatever and the celeb cancelled AFTER the refund deadline you didn't get your money back? I 1000% get it if you cancel or change your mind after the deadline, tough shit. Hell it sucks but even if something bad happened and you cant make it you agreed to something when you bought the tickets. HOWEVER if the celeb cancels after the deadline, that is not on the customer and the expo SHOULD be giving a full refund. I only heard second hand that they weren't. In this case though if they aren...

 Old as balls, thats what I am.... Well not yet only 45 recently but man looking back on the mid 80s until now, wow things have changed. Not the point though, I had a "birthday party" recently at the Canadian Brew House by my house. It became clear I no longer "party". First we were there by 5PM and out by 745. In younger years, usually couldnt actually afford to go out like that so it was a back yard BBQ that started around 6. It would be noisy and last half the night, hell most years the sun would be up by the time I laid down. Now the loudest thing is my friends kids running around. No one gets out of hand. My friends are amazing and assholes at the same time. Most other Bdays we just have a nice meal, same with mine but they still buy me shots for some reason when they dont with others. Maybe not having children makes them think I can still handle it. I actually did a decent job, only cause it ended early! A bunch of shots, plus wine and vodka doesnt sit in the ...

Hockey players can be either douches or great guys. Let me tell you about some douches. We recently played a team all say 17 - 21 and they literally all looked like someone you would cast as the rich bully in a teen drama. They literally all would have been perfectly cast, except not like a muscled bully just a rich kid. They constantly chirped which is part of hockey but then back shit up when you shit talk, don't just scurry away, like rats. What really got me was they singled out a single player to try and pick on. Someone with some issues. If you have to "punch down" your a loser, you should be embarrassed. I am 5 foot fuck all and I take pride in battling guys way bigger than me. Hell I lose a lot but I cause them issues. Everyone on my team even says that, punching down I couldn't imagine. Plus they had 2 "coaches" on the bench. Guys my age, probably a couple dads I assume. Flat out WTF! Your in a rec league of ball hockey in the lowest or almost lowes...

So the States are liberating Iran. The fact is, its not a bad thing. Not a lot of good ever comes from there. The regime of the last 40 some years is actually awful. Lets not kid ourselves about it though, the only reason this is happening is the Epstein files. Chump doesn't give a shit about freedom or helping these people. He wants the world to move on, what better way than trying to be a hero. Also that is going to lock a lot of votes in for his party. Him saying servicemen may die it happens in war is terrible. It does look like Lord Farquad in Shrek. Trumps have never served once, in fact they have dodged the draft. Don't see Barron running out to fight. Remember a couple years back when chump said Obama would create a war with Iran to improve his poll numbers... Ya good times. Or when he said he wouldn't create new wars.... Keep in mind this wasn't him being a good human. This has dragged on! I wrote that the first day the war started. Now its been dragging on and...

 So this is another in a long line of blogs about our trip to Europe last year. It might be worth reading the others before diving into this! We had just arrived in the heart of Florence for our day there.  Our very first stop was a gold store. The owner gave us a brief history, but nothing that stuck with me, and then they let us browse the gold. There was a divide, for sure. Some of us had a quick look and knew we weren't buying. Others looked at less expensive pieces, and some looked at the top shit. The one thing that did catch my eyes was stretchy gold. You want to make a mint bring this to Canada, I only want 15% as a finders fee. It is genuine gold, but it pulls apart and comes back together tightly. Think of a woman's scrunchy, but made of gold and in bracelet form. I can see it taking off, so there you have it. I only want 15%, and if you have the funds, you can be a millionaire. In all seriousness, though, it was a lovely shop, and they do want you to buy something. ...

I can still taste the bitter defeat from yesterday. When a very under preforming USA defeat Canada in the gold medal mens hockey game. No sports is never about who deserves it, in this case its about who gets the most goals and the states did but they did not deserve it!! 4 nations USA was scary, they played well. Olympics except for maybe 3 minutes in the first period they did not look like a pro team. They looked like beer leaguers against an NHL squad. However in a single game Hellebuyck should have won tournament MVP. 41 saves and .976 save %. Any other day and Canada wins that 4 or  5-1 for sure. Stopping breakaways by McDavid and Cellebrini. That save on Devon Toews is iconic and his stick stopping that will go down as an all time great hockey pic. Also Mackinnon forgetting his is one of the worlds elite players and shooting on an open net like I do is going to haunt him for a long time!! Not going to blame them but the reffing was awful. I guess counting too many men is hard...

The Castello is at the top of a hill, and in every direction you look, there are lush green hills; it is incredible. The Castello itself does look like an old stone castle. Not a massive fortress a king might live in, but an old greyish brick building a lord might sit in overlooking his countryside. It looks like it has ramparts running around it, but I am not sure, as we never got up that high. When you come in through the iron gate, you step into a large and open courtyard. A few trees, different doors headed off in different directions, but not much else. We were greeted by the host for the evening, who told us the tale of the Pazzi, also pointing out that this courtyard is home to the only remaining legitimate Pazzi coat of arms. Then he started the tour of the Castello. One of the first rooms is the "conspiracy room," where all the planning of the failed plot was done. See my last blog for details of what I mean. The failed Pazzi plot. It is a large, drafty, old wooden r...