theMediaman.com

On a whim, Simone and I trekked out to KW to visit Reg et al. We managed to pull in Mel, but Homeowner-Ben was tied up. Right now he’s suffering from the long hours of a “Version 1.0″ company. I saw an IBM slave reading Microserfs on the bus today, and now I wonder if Ben has read it.

Reg lives in a part of Waterloo that used to be populated by wild animals. Now there is a thriving suburban village out there. I think it extends past St. Jacobs, and Reg is (due to recent construction) now one street away from bat-country.

When we pulled up to his place and got out of the car, the silence was deafening. I’ve spent a long time in Toronto, and my “time away from it all” this year was spent on the waterfront at the cottage. I had all but forgotten what it was like to experience silence… it was slightly unnerving.

We had a warm-up drink, played the first level of God of War II (now I’m anxious for the GoW PSP game), then picked up Mel. We stopped briefly past Ben’s workplace in order to pursuade him to shirk his responsibilities and go drinking with us, but he was far too responsible for us. Dammit.

The decision to go to Morty’s was made simply by calculating where’s a place where a bunch of mid-twenties/early-thirties people wouldn’t look out of place in a University town in September, and the fact that it was close.

Two of the best places to eat near King and University were Morty’s and Stanley Burger. Stanley’s turned into a Quizzno Subs shortly after I left KW, which just feels wrong. It’s like having your favourite Mom & Pop cafe turning into a Starbucks.

Morty’s wings were as brilliant as ever. They had that new Rickards White on tap, but I was torn between trying that and going for a Waterloo Dark. I could have wieghed options like how likely it would be that I would find one or the other in Toronto, but really it came down to what I wanted with my wings. Waterloo Dark was closer to what I wanted, so I enjoyed a pint with my big-ass, honey garlic wings.

My night-driving isn’t as good as it once was. Where once I could leave Kitchener after a Thursday night of clubbing, drive home to Barrie, and still get up early to drive to Richmond Hill for work, I find that leaving much after midnight is risky.

(Simone is barred from commenting on my old age being a factor here… she was asleep before we hit the 401.)

Regardless of the late hour of our departure, we got home well after two. Following two days of chicken wings for dinner I swore that I would eat less protein and more balanced meals for the rest of the weekend.

On Sunday, Simone made chili for lunch. Oh well.