Montreal and HDTV

As usual, I talk about how much I want to write more blogs, yet weeks go by and I don’t do it. I really wish that I did this more and I usually have the best of intentions in doing it, but it is combination of lack of time and laziness (to be perfectly honest). Work lately has been very busy and when I do have some time, I just don’t have the mental energy to sit down and write (but really, do I ever really have mental energy?).

Montreal
There has been a lot going on, but it is so hard to capture it all the moment I sit down and decide to start writing. As I start to write this blog, I am sitting on a plane from Montreal back to Minneapolis/St. Paul. I just finished a week in whacky Canada, ay. It is so weird to be back to Montreal. I had been there twice before. The first time I went was in February of 1990 when I was less than a month shy of my 16th birthday. What a crazy place to go at that age. A bunch of other high schoolers in my class (we were all Juniors) went on a “ski trip” there. We did ski, but we also drank a ton as well as went into a bunch of strip clubs. While I currently believe that strip clubs are a waste of money and only good for unintentional comedy (especially the one in Hager City, WI), at the age of 15/16, they are a gift from God. I was so blown away to be able to see grown women get totally naked and dance for me, even though I was wearing braces and obviously under the age of 18. Even though I was mostly with people I did not hang out with regularly in high school, we were all friends in Canada. One of the guys even got a gun pulled on him late night on St. Catherine street (fortunately, the drunk lady holding it had no bullets in it as she kept pulling the trigger only to hear “click click”).

The 2nd time I went to Montreal was for my buddy’s Jay’s bachelor party in July of 2002. As I recall, it was a pretty good time. We drank, but we never got totally insane or out of hand. We did go to a lot of strip clubs and some of them were creepy. I am not sure we were always having fun in them as there was always a debate on which club we should be in. We seemed to have more fun when we were out and about just drinking as opposed to sitting still in a strip club and paying for $7 beers.

The funny thing about being there twice and returning back was that nothing seemed familiar to me at all. Even though I was staying right by Saint Catherine Street and I was on the street at some point virtually every day, barely anything seemed familiar. It was odd, I thought a bunch of memories would come crashing back to me, but it didn’t. I guess I drank more than I thought last time I was there.

I did have one memory come back to me that I had not thought of since 2002 came to me when I went to dinner my first night (Monday). Our Canadian sales rep took me to a restaurant on Crescent Street. While sitting on an outdoor patio of the restaurant on the 2nd floor, I all of sudden realized the street was familiar. Then it came crashing back to me. In 2002, we ate at a place a few doors down (on a 2nd floor outdoor patio as well) and I started yelling at girls across the street that we on a balcony on the 4th floor of a hotel. They were partying a bit and seeming to have a good time. I started to interact with them from across the street, and then it turned into me demanding that they show their boobs. Yes, I was a classy guy when I was 28 and drunk. A bunch of them ended up doing it and we actually had an entourage of people collecting around us to see it go on. It was fun because none of us had any intention of trying to hook up with any of the girls (all of us were taken at the time), we just wanted to see their boobs and there was no other commitment from either party.

This time in Montreal was a lot less tame. I never had more than two glasses of wine, I never went to a strip club and I was in my room every night by 8:30. The highlight of the week was going to the casino to play poker. It was a weird set-up; it was a combo of live and online poker. You sit at a table and each player has a monitor in front of them. You can see what cards you have and place your bets on it. ON the middle of the table is a larger monitor that everyone can see what the community cards are and what people are betting. I played 10 hands of $1-$2 No Limit and one won hand worth $148. Take away the $3 for blinds and $7 to see the flop in another hand and I profited $138 in 15 minutes (Canadian Money). By the time the big blind made it back to me, I withdrew my money and took off. I couldn’t have been happier.

Quebec is weird because they all speak French. I seriously thought I was in France (minus the neat landscape and good food). It felt like I was in another world and instantly felt guilty every time someone said “Bonjour” and I replied “Hello.” I have no clue why I would feel that way, maybe I just assume I did something rude when I was there before and they remember me.

HDTV
I made a purchase a few weeks ago that I have been thinking about for quite some time. I finally made the leap to buying a plasma TV and upgrading my service to HD. To be honest, I don’t know why I waited so long to get it because I absolutely love it. Sports are so much cooler in HD and even regular shows are pretty sweet. I got a 50” Samsung that was highly rated by Consumer Reports that is 1080p capable. I know that I don’t have the use yet for 1080p, but someday when I get a Playstation 3, it will come in handy. I also bought a new stand (ouch these are expensive) that allows me more room for the auxiliary equipment as well as mounts the TV up in the air a bit so it is easier to see. Add in an unconverting DVD player for $20 and I am living large.

Of course, I have the NFL package from DirecTV. I was all fired up to watch the Patriots all year in HD, but now that Brady is knocked out for the season, it doesn’t have the same ring to it. But I love watching football no matter what team is on, so it is still a winning situation. It will also be cool to watch Red Sox playoff games in HD soon. Hard to imagine they will win it again this year, but it would be pretty nice.