Solonor's Inkwell

MacGyver is the only man ever to wear the mullet successfully.

But only so I’d have something to blog about.

I’m still here. I haven’t expired. I just kinda wrote myself out with that whole vacation story and toe mashing incident. I don’t know what else to write other than my usual obnoxious comments scattered thither and yon throughout the blogosphere like little breadcrumbs of Solonor stuff. Um… yeah.

While you’re waiting for me to think up something to say (on the edge of your seat no doubt), why don’t you do something productive? Read a book. Mow your lawn. Clean out the crap that’s accumulated in the gutter above the front door. Oh… wait… that’s my to-do list. Never mind.

Let’s see. What’s happening around Chez Rasreth…

The kids are starting back to school on Monday. I’m still not used to how it starts so early down here. Pepperkat starts high school, and Whiny the Elder is now a senior! E. Gary Gygax, when did that happen?

For those interested in my musical exploits, I will be getting the recording gear set back up again (it was torn down for the yard sale last month, and I never put it back together). Expect a complete CD of songs any day now. Yep. Any day…

Boringest. Post. Ever.

Have a great weekend, blog monkeys.

In which our heroes finally return from whence they came

We knew the end was coming. We had seen it all, done it all. On Sunday we would drive to Manchester, NH, to board a waiting jetliner that would carry us back to that dreaded thing called “real life.” Of course, we were bummed.

And when the shoppers get bummed the bums go shopping!

So, on Saturday after another yummy barbecue, we split along party lines. The womenfolk took off for bargain shopping (Bangor is all upscale now… they have a Tarjay), while us menfolk hit the pool hall.

We also took one last opportunity to seek out the elusive ketchup chips…

Continue reading →

Or Ketchup chips! My kingdom for some ketchup chips!

One thing you must realize about them Canadians: they’ve got strange tastes. For example, while we Americans like ketchup on our fries and salt-n-vinegar chips, they eat their fries with vinegar¹ and like ketchup-flavored chips. I think they do this to be spiteful.

Anyway, Pepperkat has a friend who is a ketchup-o-holic. She puts ketchup on everything. In fact, if we just give her a bottle of ketchup to drink, she’ll clean our kitchen for us.² So, when we saw that they sold ketchup chips in Canada, we decided to bring her back a bag. We didn’t want them pre-crunched, so we chose to wait until just before crossing the border on our way back to buy some.

Bad plan.

I’m one of those annoying people who hates to go the same way twice. If I go someplace using Route A, I must use Route B to come back. If I go to the store to get milk, I have to go the long fricking way around to get home.³ So, rather than go back the way we came, I had the bright idea to take the direct route through western New Brunswick and eastern Maine via Rte 6…

There. Is. Nothing. There.

Dude. Seriously. Other than the historic McAdam Railway Station, there was nothing. Not even a fricking convenience store. So, we returned to the States dejected and chipless.

Continue reading →

Or “Canada is like a whole other country, ain’t it?”

WARNING: Due to Canadian bilingual laws there will be much French speaking in the following entry. While Canadians have built up a resistance to the damaging effects of constantly thinking in two languages at the same time, it is suggested that Americans reading this post carefully remove the French parts by closing their right eye while doing so.

Do not attempt to read this post while operating heavy equipment or while attending the Republican National Convention.

Democrats may be able to close their left eye and read the French part, but only if they say the Pledge of Allegiance three times fast.

The next two days of our journey were spent in the capital city of New Brunswick: Fredericton (La Ville du Fredericton, La Capitale du Noveau-Brunswick) We were supposed to meet up with fellow Lounge Lizard and real-live Canadian, Babs, but due to the aforementioned price of gas, she could not make it.

So, left to our own devices (dispositifs), we set out to explore (explorez) the city on our own.

First off, I must say that we were heartened (encouragé) by the extra security measures (mesures de sécurité) that were put in place (mis en place) for our visit (visite)…

We were totally unprepared for the advances in medicine that Canadians seem to have made. For example, apparently, you can custom order your spouse…

(I can already hear the stampede of men applying for Canadian citizenship.)

On Wednesday, we went to visit the Beaverbrook Art Gallery (Galerie d’art Beaverbrook). There are no pictures from inside the gallery, but it has a fantastic collection of Salvadore Dali art. We spent almost all day there.

After that, we had dinner at a place that was recommended by multiple Canadians: Brewbakers.

Mmmm… chocolate…

The next day, we traipsed around Kings Landing. That was 300 acres of history, including 70 buildings–all from the early 1800’s. It made my inner history geek go YIPEE!

There are TONS of pictures from that part of the trip in the Photo Gallery.

Finally, we bid adieu to Noveau-Brunswick on Friday. Up until then, we were able to avoid causing an international incident. But we still had to find our ketchup chips and cross back into ‘merica.

What? I didn’t tell you about the ketchup chips?

[TO BE CONTINUED]…

The Adventures of Bobby Sock and Friends, Part 7