ugly duckling

Busy, fun filled weekend with little sleep.

So last week my tube headphone amp kit finally shipped and for the rest of the week after work I sat and stared at all the parts. Friday was a long crappy day and after work I went for a run, had a late dinner and finally started working on my amp. Yes I am a bit obsessive because I stayed up till 3:30AM. Saturday morning I had to meet AF1 downtown at 9:00AM to help him fix his toilet. He had called earlier in the week crying about how his toilet tank was spewing water every time he flushed and something about ball-cock valves. And he was practically begging me to help him fix it. Okay, who do you think should be a better toilet fixer? A) Certified mechanical engineer -him or B) two-bit computer programmer – me.

So Saturday morning after only 4 hours of sleep I dragged my ass downtown and helped AF1 take out the fill valve from his toilet. Then we went to some big-ass plumbing store with a foul-mouthed clerk and bought the replacement parts. We had everything re-installed and flushing within an hour and it wasn’t even lunchtime yet. Did I mention that somehow AF1 managed to spray toilet water on me?

We hung around a bit until it was lunchtime and headed over to Little India for some Indian food and then went to pick AF1’s bike from Trail Blazer. After dropping AF1’s bike at his loft we walked over to my favorite store MEC and I bought a bike pump. Then it was back uptown where I dropped by the office for 2 hours and then went home to continue working on my amp.

Finally midnight and my amp was finished. I plugged it in, flicked the switch and whatdoyaknow no fire or explosions. Yes, first try and everything was working perfectly. The little vacuum tubes began to glow like they were supposed to and all the voltages were correct and I even had time to do a little listening. And of course it sounded pretty darn good but I didn’t do any serious listening because I had to get up at 6:00AM Sunday morning to go on the Becel Ride for Heart. By the time we actually started riding it was 9:15AM and we managed to finish the 50km in 2 hours. I don’t know if it’s because I’m in better shape this year or my new road tires (instead of knobby off-road tires) but I had a much better ride this year than last. I was able to power up the hills with no problems and by the end I was still good to go. There were hot, athletic chicks everywhere. Yes, I just had to throw that in.

We didn’t stick around for the after events and just headed back to AF1’s loft to shower and change. Then it was lunch at Shanghai Cowgirl where I ordered the perogies. After the 2-hour workout I was ready for a big juicy burger but then I didn’t want to walk around with hamburger-smelling hands. We took a short walk around the neighborhood so AF1 and AF1W could look at townhouses and then it was off to the movies. Yeah so I’m a big Harry Potter fan, read all the books and saw the first two movies. As partial payment for my services the day before (and probably feeling bad for spraying me with toilet water) AF1 went with me to see the third movie. Maybe because I was tired but Prisoner was not as good as the first two. I felt it didn’t flow well but the special effects were pretty good. They did a pretty good job with the CGI Buckbeak and Dementors.

After the movie we walked around on Queen Street. One thing I notice whenever we go shopping is all the sales chicks always say hi to AF1 but never say hi to me. Or when we walk by a group of chicks they will check him out and I’m the invisible man. Yes, I guess he is what chicks would call a hottie. But too bad to all you single chicks, he’s married. And me, I the skinny little computer geek in tow. You know how all hot chicks have the ugly friend that they try to setup by saying, “she’s a really nice girl”? So I’m like the male version of the ugly friend. But hey, I’ve got headphone amps!