A Mr. Solid Halloween

Halloween Night has arrived and thankfully the rain held off and it even got a little warmer resulting in a spooky fog rolling in. I once again donned my Halloween mask and joined the kids on their neighbourhood pillage. The streets were realtively quiet this year and we were able to get through our regular route in no time at all.





As per usual we ended with a stop up at the corner to see the crazy Halloween guy's house. This year he added an antique car to the mix. This guy goes full out. He even climbs up to the second story windows and nails on fake boards to make his house look run down and abandoned. Huge thumbs up to this horror house.



We met up with our old neighbours and chatted it up for a bit before taking off in the van to visit some of our other friends. The first stop required some persistent doorbell ringing as the owner was in hiding after running out of candy. This tends to happen when you purchase the goodies too early and then pack them in your lunch snacks for 3 weeks. As compensation we scored a Mr. Solid Easter bunny. Sweet.




Next stop brought us to my personal favourite Halloween spot as it is here that I snag a beer every year. Last year was a festive Saranac Pumpkin Ale this year was a Saranac Pale Ale. So while my buddy kept adding various chocolate bars to the kids loot bags I enjoyed a refreshing ale. Finally we decided that we had best be on our way when he started handing out muffins, Kraft cheese slices and McDonald's ketchup.

The most unique set up this year was the house down the street that was showing a horror flick on their garage door. The projector was inside their car with the sound running through the car speakers. Thankfully it was rated PG.

Amateur Diet Coke Mentos experiment #1

Some of you may remember one of my earlier posts about these crazy guys in lab jackets blasting coke out of bottles. Well last weekend we decided to give the experiment a shot ourselves...

Let's just say we now know where we went wrong and we will try again.


Run like the wind brother!

Thanksgiving in Ptbo

Aside from the one year when we decided to have Thanksgiving weekend in Algonquin Park with my extended family (Grandma included) I've spent every Thanksgiving in Peterborough. This weekend was not going to be the one to break the streak.

We arrived late Friday night in a funnel of weekend traffic and unloaded our gear including little Maxly the snake who we decided to let go at the farm.




Saturday we awoke to a crisp, foggy morning. I strolled around the farm and snapped a few pics before heading into town with my wife to check out the farmer's market. The sunny morning had brought out everybody and their grandmother. What a bustle. It was busier than Loblaws. Local high school kids were scattered here and there playing guitars, banjos, fiddles, and other various instruments attempting to raise funds for the Terry Fox Foundation. I flipped them some change and left with a short video that I'll later load to youtube.






Saturday afternoon we ALL headed out to the Norwood Fair. The fair was complete with ferris wheel, funhouse, money-grabbing games, the Zipper, horse jumping, and every possible farm animal you can imagine.




Sunday morning was much warmer but the fog was again as thick as black bean soup (yeah, that's even thicker than pea soup). I decided to tour the town and soon found myself alongside the canal staring at a cloudy version of the infamous Peterborough Lift Locks. There was a steady stream of photographers taking advantage of this combination of fog, fall colours, and the 8th wonder of the world (or at least the 3rd wonder of Peterborough after Little Lake fountain and the Pig's Ear). Their digital SLR cameras and super sized lenses were definitely making me feel inadequate. Needless to say I kept my little pocket-sized clicker hidden between shots.




By about 11:30 the fog had burned off and the photo snappers had moved on. I too continued on my tour of the town stopping here and there before finding myself on the back deck of my buddy Twig's place in Ennismore enjoying a Bud Light.



Two hours and many laughs later I decided it was time to head back to the farm and gather the gang for the big turkey dinner at my aunt and uncle's place. The dinner and desserts were delicious my only beef here is that we wouldn't be able to dig into the leftovers the next day. It may be a sin to say it but sometimes a hot turkey sandwich smothered in fries and gravy is better than the actual Thanksgiving dinner.



Oh yeah, we finally let little Maxly go and he slithered away under a pile of rocks. There were some sad faces as we had grown somewhat attached to the little guy over the last couple of weeks. Hopefully he's happy on the farm and doesn't feel the need to slither all the way back to his stomping grounds at Charleston Lake. That would likely prove to be a bad idea. Happy hibernating, Maxly!