Brockville Buskers

Just got back, a few days ago, from The Brockville Busker Festival.

Some of the highlights include;

1) Consistently cracking the checkerboard guy up onstage (or at least while he had a mic on.) That is essentially making him giddy - to giddy to speak let alone perform.

2) Being pulled around a show in a kids - covered wagon, by some guy.

3) Getting a dog to drink out of someone's water bottle.

It was a fun weekend. I ended up doing a knockout (knocking a cigarette out of someone's mouth while juggling clubs around them) with the checkeboard guy. We had some fun bits - one of my favs was Dave putting the cigarette in the guys butt.. then back in his mouth. It was through pants. "Well at least it wasn't in your butt Dave.. yeah that would be gross." I also ended up kissing some guy from the crowd - in a "take the guys picture" bit. He was all stubbly though, so it wasn't overly pleasant.

The weather has been ridiculously hot lately.. up over 40C celcius with the humidex. Speaking of which, it is pretty cool right now.. maybe i should be doing something outside.

I even got a photo of some overheated cows. I did a show in Athens Ontario yesterday (it was a long hot drive, for a hot show) the show was a lot of fun, but the photo of the cows alone was worth the drive.

Weekend at the cottage

So we spent the weekend at the cottage - with Carrie's friends from work. Of course (the way it walways ends up working out) the weather while we were at the cottage was cool, with a mild rain, clouds, and a mild breeze. We get home Sunday night and it clears up, and the sun comes out. Today, Monday, adds insult to injury with 29 degree celcius, gorgeous sunny weather. Go figure.

It was still a really fun weekend, hanging out with friends, drinking beer, playing board games, and most importantly FISHING. Rich and I loaded into a rather rickety canoe, and hit the lake for a good six hours (three hours at a time.) In the morning i managed to get 3 or 4 pike, a bass, and a half dozen rock bass, and Rich got one good 2lb largemouth bass. His reel was all set up wrong, so I loaned him my backup rod, and then he had a much better time no tangles, caught fish.. I did have a bit of a pisser though, on the way up I popped into Cambodian Tire to buy some fishing rods, i bought two, an indistructable 23$ rod, and a really nice $60 rod. Setting them up at the cottage, i realized that the $60 rod was broken int he store - the handle where you attach the reel was boned, and the reel wouldn't go on. Pisser. It's too bad, it was a sweet rod, cork handle, amazing feel - but it went back to the store and I got a refund. After fishing with the $23 rod - i realized for all im going to use it, i might as well jsut keep the crappier rod.

Also played ZOMbies - a great yell at your friends, and kill them with zombies kind of game. We played SAt night until 2am, until bleary and tired, I won through the goodness of my fatigued co-players.

While away, i missed out on a bunch of shows, but seeing as we now have a third Cowguy who is well versed in our show I didn't miss too much. And it was a much needed vacation.

Raining

Finally, an end to the sweltering June heat wave that we've been living through. This past weekend things were in to 30-40 degrees celcius hot.. quite a departure from the 10C that saw most of May. Things right now are about 20sih, but it's pouring rain, which should dispell the humidity, and make things reasonable again.

Been trying to write show material every night - it's been working out. Try to get a few pages of stuff out, and basically out of a page I might get one good joke. Hey one good joke a night is all i need! So far one of the best one's I've got is "You can trust me.. i'm from Ottawa!"

"Hollywood Causes Cancer" and the weekend.

It's been a pretty chill couple of days. Things have been busy in the office, and things (this weekend anyways) are remarkably slow for shows. This weekend I only have one show (it's nice.. a little mini-weekend off at home.)

So what do I do on my weekend off? Yesterday morning the Homeowners Association asked for some help spreading gravel on the PAX trail. I grabbed a rake and headed out. It was swelteringly hot - 30+degrees celcius, and I was out raking gravel with some nice community minded individuals. That lasted for two hours tops.. then i hit the neighbours pool.. aaah sweet relief. I drank about 3 L of water, most of which sweated out onto my tank top. Niiiiice.

Friday i was doing some errands in town, and i happened into the library. Figured it's about time to get cracking on the books on Patch ADam's top 10 list, so I started with book number one.. Goethe's autobiography. Things weren't going my way - it was the worlds tiniest library, so they didn't have Goethe's autobiography.. and instead I stumbled on Tom Green's
"Hollywood Causes Cancer." Although i'm not a big fan of Tom's comedy work, the book is really good, and it details his rise and fall to fame. It's a funny, involving book that actaully shows the person behind the show, and all of the crazy stunts. Most interstingly his parents - i had no idea that he pranked them as much as he did - to the point where they threatened him with legal action. Only parent's that really love you would get the police involved

"That's right kid's reading is fun! right now I'm reading this book that talks about balls, and bum putting, and pranking your parents - written by a guy that humped a dead moose."

I can guarantee that "Hollywood Causes Cancer" won't be on the school reading list - but it is a good departure from Chaucer.

Wednesday - is it Saturday yet?

Today I woke up and I hurt. Yesterday was entirely too phsyical. Squash with Jeff.. hiking around downtown with a bag that weighed a tonne, and then mowing the lawn (at a fast pace with a push mower that took almost 2 hours.) I passed out early, and woke up sore.

The day before saw me hauling 4 wheelbarrows full of dirt a ridiculous distance, and a hard set of yoga. Yeah.. i'm getting in shape.

Spent today keeping up in the office. Things are getting really busy, and I'm realizing that I will need staff soon. Especially if I want to aviod burning out, and since I want to start working on some new projects. Things are looking as though they will taper off a little bit, but all arrows are pointing to hiring. I'm looking for an office manager, bookeeping skills an asset, billingual, good phone skills, organized, etc. Looking for someone part time in the Embrun / Limoges area. Forward resumes to info@orbitalent.ca.

Monday... finally!

It's been a long week. My schedule was hectic at best - with everything from celebrating Carrie's birthday to performing for 5 days in the 30+degree celcius heat at the Ottawa Childrens' Festival.

I'm glad it's Monday. I'm home, with no big plans for today (plenty of office work to catch up on though) but i'm hopefully not going to leave the house. A nap may also be in order.

Outside the stormclouds are brewing, the thunder is brewing. You can smell rain in the air. The neighbours also had a big burning (aka fire) last night - they had the hose out too; it was that big. This morning you can smell wood smoke / fire reminants. It's nice, but a bit pervasive.

Yogi with an attitude.

I just finished a set of yoga, during which I killed about 20 moquitos. Look out... this yogi deals swift mosquito death. I realize that it isn't the Bhuddist way, but heck - I'm not Buddist, and i'm not even sure that I'm spelling Bhuddist right. Bhuddist, Bhuddist, Bhuddist.... thats a fun sounding word.

I havent' written in my journal because HOLY CRAP I've been busy. Been working the Ottawa Children's festival since Wed, and been doing all sorts of other stuff.. meetings, errands, building and hooking up my new gas BBQ! yay. I cant' wait to cook stuff on it tonight.