First Break

Wow, I've really been doing nothing lately, so it kind of hurts my mood to blog about stuff.

Well, Sunday I played more WoW and rested alongside my family. After that party we had to host, we were all too tired to do anything. The day ended only on a high note with the new Simpsons (400th Episode special) and the Family Guy and American Dad that followed. I swear, I never watch Fox except for the Sunday new animation block and the occasional show like House (That's on Fox, right?).

Oh, guess what? My Dad left about a dozen sausages from Saturday's part on the grill. Outside. All night. They looked a little shriveled and unhealthy, but they were quite edible and I've yet to have my stomach explode.

Monday was pretty dull as well. I played more WoW, including my last battlegrounds for the weekend, a 1 hour, 47 minute long heavy-defensive game where the opposing team basically locked out offensive attempts for an hour. To boot, I started the battle 30 minutes late, which is just my luck.

My Mom headed back north to visit my grandmother again, so us men were left to look after dinner. It turned out pretty well, Ribs with baked potatoes and some packaged broccoli with cheese for my Dad, while my little brother had leftover Salad from Saturday on top of it all. Apparently my Dad's dinner plans for the week also include another trip to Mandarin on Wednesday. <_< Fat chance I'm going there twice in a week's time.

If you don't get Discovery Canada or don't have access to it otherwise, you're missing out bigtime on Canada's Worst Handyman 2, the sequel to the reality-type show where a group of clueless handymen (and women) attend a rehabilitation center for their problems. I liked the first one a bit more, style-wise, but the series is worth watching every single week. It's not that I get an ego boost out of watching idiots do dumb stuff (If I did, I'd just watch Youtube or America's Funniest Home Videos or whatever Caught on Tape and crap like that), it's really interesting to watch people in a serious workplace and how they act and how it reflects on their work. I'd like to be on the program, not because I'm some horrible handyman, but because I'd really like to see if I could compare to the half-assed job they're all doing. The sister series to Worst Handyman is Canada's Worst Driver, a show of similar concept but with big dangerous cars flying around. It's going into its 3rd season, and my little brother says he'll sign me up (Since I don't drive, I'm therefore the worst person at it. Har har).

Today was another average day. I ended up skipping dinner since I had a lunch (This 'one meal a day' thing shouldn't be so habit-forming), though I'm not feeling hungry over 14 hours later, so I don't mind much. I found out that my weekend is going to be very, very boring. My entire family is out for one reason or another, and my plans to see Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End have fallen through just this afternoon. It means that from Friday morning to Sunday evening it's just me, the cats, and the interweb. Sounds nice and all, but when I'm trying to turn my life around just a bit a weekend where I won't be able to get out of the house or even see other people is more depressing than normal.

Oh, I had planned to do something big for Monday, maybe make it a weekly thing. I was going to write about a new Anime series I was enjoying. This week was Tengen Toppa Gurren-Lagann, but after episode 08... I don't want to spoil it, but my will to cover the series was dashed to pieces. Maybe I'll have more to say when 09 comes out, or at least some sense of if Gurren-Lagann will be the most genius piece of anime work I've seen in ages, or a confusing muddled production Gainax did to keep themselves busy.

So until then, I'm going to just update when I feel like it, about what I feel like. Maybe I'll be able to put together something more regular to look forward too.

All You Can Eat

So my little brother is up at some cottage on a lake probably drinking himself stupid (stupider?) while playing Guitar Hero 2. My mother is meanwhile north of here with family watching over my grandmother, who has taken a turn for the worse recently after surviving for two weeks after a different turn for the worse.

Now, my father isn't lazy. It's just that when he comes home my mom already has plans for steak, potatoes, salad and beets or something ready. So when he comes home to a house that's basically empty with me downstairs in my corner room, he only has one thing on his mind.

"Let's go out for dinner."

Well, he said this last night as well, but I was in no mood. He had sandwiches and complained about it. So tonight I decided to go out with him and we'd have a meal somewhere. We ended up deciding on the Mandarin, an all-you-can-eat Chinese-based restaurant.

Man, I'd really like to explore some of the research that goes into perfecting the all you can eat restaurant. Smaller plates mean more trips, less food outgoing at one time, and also a lowered chance for waste from full eaters. Smaller drink glasses means more (free) refills, more waiting, and more consumed (cheap) water. It'd be interesting to see where the psychology of the restaurant goes to work on the consumers. Or maybe I'm just over-thinking things.

I was almost immediately amazed by how welcoming everyone there was. Of course it's mostly an Asian (If not Chinese) staff, but they all turned to say hello when you arrived, and goodbye when you left. They knew where to be at the right time, and they were also constantly on the lookout for people to assist. I was really quite amazed by the amount of work the staff put into everything. There was a gentleman standing by the grill-table who would dish out the steak, chicken and sausage that they cooked there. He would happily load up your plate, thank you as you left, nod as you passed... I could never do something like that. If I had to see someone once every 15 minutes I might be able to handle it, but the idea of having a person pass by every 5 seconds and come looking for food every 30... It'd drive me insane.

I ate a lot, of course, as you should at such a restaurant, and though I was careful in my picks each of the three times I went up for the main course - other than the delicious grilled sausage - I don't think I ever had seconds of something. I should have saved more room for dessert as Lemon Meringue Pie, my personal favorite, was there in plentiful numbers. Instead of having more of it and more Jell-o squares - as there's always room for Jell-o - I decided to have some small cake and brownie slices instead.

I don't have to feel bad about eating a lot. I missed dinner last night due to, well, a lack of quick things to eat and I didn't eat today either. My lifestyle was meant for this kind of thing.

My father enjoyed his meal a lot as well, which was good, since he won't feel the need to go out there again for 6 months or so. He also went to bed pretty early, he was ready to sleep as soon as we came in the door! He always tends to feel a little down when my mother's away, so he bugs myself or my brother for some quality time. So I don't much mind getting 'hassled' with having a meal with him.

I'm probably going to lay down until my stomach stops complaining. It enjoyed the meal too anyway.