Songs You Didn't Know Were Covers (Part 3)

If you were alive in 1982, Toni Basil's 80's anthem "Mickey" has been forever burned into your memory banks. In fact, it has appeared on so many 80's compilations, I'd be surprised if anyone over the age of 12 hasn't heard it. Well guess what? It was a rework of a 1979 song called "Kitty" by the UK band Racey.

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Mighty Machines

An exciting day yesterday for the company as 3 new quay cranes for our Deltaport expansion arrived from China. These are currently the 3 largest quay cranes in all of North America, capable of handling the largest container ships afloat. Each of the new cranes can lift four 20 foot containers or two 40 foot containers at the same time. Now if only we had a weapon of massive consumption to kickstart the economy, we'd be all set!

Coffee Wars (Monday)

After years of being a diehard Tim's fan in Halifax at university, my move to the west coast precipitated a shift to Starbucks. Then came Bean Around the World, JJ Bean and Cafe Artigiano, to name a few. But recently the introduction of McDonalds new premium roast coffee has thrown me for a loop and left me asking "What is the best cup of coffee in Vancouver?"

I've decided to try a different coffee every day this week and evaluate each one. To be fair and consistent, I'll only order a straight forward drip/filter coffee...no foo foo drinks loaded with caramel or chocolate. We're talking manly man's coffee here, the stufff that'll put hair on your chest.

Today I kicked off my morning with a large McDonalds coffee. First off, it is extremely convenient, being just around the corner from my home with plenty of free parking (that's a big deal in Vancouver)...no drive-through though. At $1.77 including tax ($1.67 in East Van) it scores high on value. The cups are freakin' amazing...the insulation keeps my beverage hot long after my commute is over (running the Olympic construction gauntlet has added 20 minutes to my drive). The new McDonalds coffee tastes like how I imagine coffee should taste - strong but not in a tongue-curling bitter way. On the caffeine front, it definitely perks me up but not so much that I'm jittery. And it has a moderate laxative factor (more on that one when I get to Starbucks!!!).

The downside is that living in a city of coffee snobs, it isn't cool to drink McDonalds. If one more person says "eeewww, you're drinking that crap" I'm going to go postal. Just try it, people. Also, the smell of french fry grease at 7 AM is a little off-putting. Wish they had a drive through.

If you couldn't already guess, McDonalds new coffee scores high in my books. I'll give it 4 beans out of 5, mainly for value, taste and those great cups.

Aquaman

Well, still no pictures...

I'm so proud of Justin. We've had several attempts at swimming lessons and up until 2 weeks ago, the kid still didn't like to put his face in the water. It is pretty hard to learn to swim if you don't want to get your face wet! And yes, we've always had goggles for him. It has been frustrating, because he loves to swim in a pool with his floats on.

We've been taking the kids to the pool on the weekends, and 1 week ago he finally started putting his head underwater. Then we arranged for 5 straight days of private lessons for Justin and Brooklyn for 1/2 an hour each day (2 1/2 hours total). So then on the weekend when we went to the pool again, all of a sudden Justin could swim - head in the water doing a front crawl, doing rolls, floating on his back, jumping into the pool and then recovering and swimming away, etc.! All of a sudden it just all clicked, and he was loving it!

It is really nice to see him gaining confidence, and overcoming something that was a great fear (head underwater). Now I'm really looking forward to our upcoming holiday! Afternoons at the pool are going to be a blast!

G's Surgery

My aunt Gretchen is home recovering from from an operation where they reconstructed her jaw with the bone out of her ass...must...resist...making...joke...

Back in 1980 she had a gall bladder operation...I was 12 at the time...and she saved the letter I wrote her. Can you imagine a 12 year old writing something so nasty to his dear old aunt suffering in the hospital? What a little twerp!

Urgh! A Music War

Warner Brothers unceremoniously released the film on DVD this week, to the delight of new wave and punk lovers everywhere (believe it or not, there are several websites dedicated to this film and pleading for a DVD release).

Urgh! is basically a series of live performances filmed in the UK and US around 1980. It features the Police, XTC, Devo, Echo & the Bunnymen, the Go-Go's, Joan Jett, Gary Numan and a lot more. Fans say it captures the essence of the new wave music scene happening at the time.

Alas, WB do not ship to Canada!

Pictures of You

Well, Judie dropped our camera and smashed the crap out of it. Ugh! Hopefully we'll get a new one soon, but in the meantime...if anyone has any pics they'd like to contribute to my blog, just email them to me and I'll see what I can do about posting them!

Yikes! Cousin Robert

OK, this isn't exactly what I thought I'd get when I asked for pictures!!! My cousin Robert is lucky to be alive after a serious car accident...someone is definitely watching out for him!



According to my aunt June, someone passed him on the highway and then slammed on their brakes. Robert swerved to avoid hitting the car and lost control. He doesn't remember what happened but witnesses say his car flipped three times, broke a telephone pole in half and his car landed, right side up, in a deep ditch half filled with water. He got out of the car and laid down on the grass. They did x-rays and an MRI last night and all is well. He has a bad headache and many bruises and a lot of aches but he will be fine. Whew!