Weekend early...

What a great day, is all I can say. It was like I had four days in one and it felt wonderful to be alive.

It started with me having lunch with a competitor who wants to use us for his overflow work.

We met for lunch at Earls to discuss business and pleasure.

Earl's is a great restaurant that just come to Toronto via Western Canada. They only hire "attractive" people. I'm sure they MUST ask for body measurements and proof of "sexy wardrobe" on the job application.

We had a great meeting over a couple beers. I got back to the office and at the end of the day Johnny asked me if I wanted to go for beers with him. I said, " sure, I just can't stay to long, I've got training tonight".

Anyways, one beer leads to three and it's ALWAYS fun hanging with Johnny. He's my brother from another mother and a guy I truly enjoy "shooting the shit" with. It's been quite a while since we went for a beer together and we had some good laughs.

I enjoyed the part when Johnny said to me, "I don't want to sound gay, but you're looking really good, the best I've seen you". I replied, "Thanks, I appreciate that, I don't know, I've been in better shape, although I did qualify for Kona last month, I guess I'm in good shape, Thanks" and afterwards I thought of should have kept is simple and said, "Thanks homo".

It was a typical triathlete response, rather than just giving a simple "thanks" and move on, I had to analyze it, compare it in my head to the past, validate it and then add caveats to the thank you. When it comes to being in shape and body weight, triathletes are "all women".

On the drive home, I had a great phone conversation with Al Nolan, my second brother from another mother. Al's coming to the House of Payne Beer Run. He had to miss the first two and even though he has a fundraising commitment later that night, he's coming for the run at least.

Al had two concerns about coming. The first is he has to find a ride back to St. Catharine's from Burlington. It's about a 40 minute drive and the second is if he stays for Payne-a-Poolza he's concerned he'll get out of hand. For those that know Al, he's one "funny dude" with a big head. By big head, I don't mean ego, I mean "physically", he has one big "Mellon".

I told Al, the run is always fun and I think this group may be the craziest. Out of about 12 - 15 that are going to be doing the run this year, only 4 have done it before. There is going to be a lot nervous new victims with "am I going to puke my brains out anxiety". I see it every year.

In the past, many of the participants were not huge beer drinkers and had "governor's" on themselves. Don't get me wrong, every year is GREAT, but it never went too late and no one got too crazy, other than me at the "after party" on my deck.

This year has the potential to change all that. Of the new people coming, I know at least 4 or 5 that have no "governor's" on them. Guys that need that "special wifey poo" to keep them out of jail, or at least out of the back seat of a cop car. Al's definitely one of them. You can take the boy out of the Prairies, but you can't take the crazy Prairie boy out of Al.

Actually, Al was telling me that his wife Julia is really supportive about the beer run and said, "stay for the night, I'll take care of barbecuing at the fundraiser". I said to Al, "awesome, great, I've got a comfortable pullout sofa you can sleep on". Al's on the fence. He knows if he stays, it could get "out of control fun". I told him, don't decide now, after the run, if you want to stay, pull and "audible".

I think Al should stay and here's my simple argument. "Al, you do so much for so many, now it's time to take care of yourself" AND "late night, impromptu flights to Vegas are much more funner with more people".

When I got home, Jamie and Barb came by for a beer and cigar. Before I knew it, it was a few more beers, laughter and it was dark out. Doh....Friday's going to be another training make up day. Jamie drove over in a new car he bought, a white Porsche.

It was funny, Alice and I were at the downstairs bar and Barb comes to basement patio door and I'm wondering, "where's Jamie". Barb says, "Jamie out front, he wants to park his car in you're driveway and wants you to turn the water sprinkler on your front lawn off before pulling in the driveway".

I figured, "no problem, that make sense, you don't want it to park it on the street or get it wet". What I didn't realize is Jamie is meticulous when it comes to his cars. The first time I experienced this was when he took Alice's new car for a test drive. He put his ass in the seat first, then clicked his heels together to get any dirt of the bottom of his shoes and then swung his legs in. I was thinking, three things, "One, that's a great idea for limiting the amount of dirt you get on your car's floor mats. Two, it shows a lot of respect to someones car, and three, it's completely unnecessary for a 2003 Honda Accord.

Again, for some reason and maybe it was the beer glow I had going on, I wanted to sit in the his new Porsche to see how it felt. I've never wanted to do that before. I've never once wanted to sit in any of Jamie's other cars which are much more expensive than this one, but this one I did. Truth be told, I think I wanted to see how the feel of the seats compared to Alice's new Honda, to see if the $190,000 price difference was worth it.

I go to open the passengers door and ask if he minds if I sit in the car and he says "no you can't". At first I thought he was joking. Then he says "no, you have jeans on and I don't want them to mark my seats". I look at Barb and she verifies, "he's serious".

Parts of the leather on the seat are white. Then I looked at his drivers seat and he had a towel that he was sitting on as he drove. Reid came out to look at the car in his black pajama's and I don't even think they passed the "sit test".

Alice and I have talked about it before, Jamie is LUCKY he does not have a son, especially if it was Reid. Boys wreck and lose stuff. Before you leave the hospital with your newborn son, they should give you an owners manual and the first page, in bold letters, it should say, "Caution: If you have ANYTHING of value that you do not want wrecked, lost or stolen, take it off-site and hide it now".

If Jamie had a boy and he didn't keep him "caged" or had a "retraining order" keeping his kid away from his cars, Jamie would be going nuts. I could only imagine the daily conversations with his son that I've had with my own.

Jamie - "Hey Jr, where did this 3 foot scratch along the side of the Ferrari come from? It looks like the handle bars of your "chopper bike" scratched up beside it"

Jr - "I don't know, why you always looking at me, you always blame me, what about the girls or the dogs or the guys who deliver the beer? Why do you always blame me?"

Jamie - "Because you're the only one with a Chopper Bike with Ferrari red paint on the handle bar?"

Jamie- "also, where's my screwdriver set?"

Jr - "I don't know, why are you looking at me, ask mom"

Jr - "Oh and Dad, now that were done talking about the car stuff, can you buy me a "Friday the 13th hockey mask off eBay? Look at the one I found it's very cool and it's a good deal. If you buy it for me, I promise I'll stay out of the garage for a week".

If Jamie had a boy, he'd have to be highly medicated or his garage would have to have a "mission impossible" alarm and surveillance system with the red laser beams cris-crossing every corner at all angles and his very own home security guard. And EVEN THEN, it might not be enough protection.

After Jamie and Barb left, I ran out of daylight and knew training was out of the question. Alice and I kept on partying, listening to 70's music and talking. I love hanging out with Alice, we have such a good time together. Lots of laughing and sometimes a tear or two. Last night we shed one over her parents who passed away before we moved to Toronto.

I had a perfect eating day until when we went upstairs to go to bed. I started snacking and one thing lead to another. I ate everything in the house except the kitchen table. The chairs were delicious with Ketchup.

Oh, one last thing. I want to make an apology of omission. A couple day's ago I mentioned the people I've met through twitter, the blog and triathlon. It wasn't 22 people, it was 24. I forgot to mention Lindy and Reuban and thankfully Lindy reminded me.

I knew I'd miss someone and it's always the most obvious. Alice and I had such a good time when Lindy and Reuban came over and I can't wait till their next visit. If I've forgotten anyone else, let me know, and please forgive me, I do have "early onset Alzheimer's" and after 8 beers, I get "booze-heimers" until I sober up.

Oh, oh, oh, one last, last thing. Matty and Heather O are coming all the way from Cleavland for the House of Payne Beer Run. Matt has never done a beer run and decided to do a trial run the other day. You have to check out his blog post about it, it's very funny. http://mattheworavec.blogspot.com/2010/08/training-payne-hop-5k-beer-run-practice.html

By they way, it's not to late to register for the Beer Run or Payne-a-Poolza. The shirts arrived today and look GREAT. It also turns out that the night of the party, UFC is having a pay-per-view event that I'm going to order and play in the bar downstairs.

No training - other than day long beer intervals.

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