Friday, July 31, 2026

Full blown summer now. It's hot as hell, but considering the brutal winter we had, I guess I can see why people are okay with the heat. 

The waifu and I have met up with Charm on several Fridays, as they're doing poledancing lessons together on Friday most of the time. So they'll often meet up ahead of time and head back together, occasionally she'll drop by our place for a chat, or we'll do the same at her place. During one of the times she dropped by our place, what was supposed to be a short chat before she went home ended up being a 3 hour storytime about my sister. She had heard bits and pieces referenced, and had been told by me that it was at least a 2 hour story. It's still one hell of a story for anyone who hears it, lol.

In late June Onion and I attended the Elden Ring Symphonic Adventure. A wonderful experience! How we ended up watching it was so random. The waifu was scrolling through YouTube and happened to be come across a YouTube short of Elden Ring talking about Marika. She kept hearing 'Murica! and was like what the? She ended up on a deep dive into Elden Ring lore videos (thanks VaatiVidya), binging them over several weeks and months. She kept asking me to play Elden Ring, and as a person who knew how punishing FromSoftware games were, I refused. The only soulslike I've ever played was Black Myth: Wukong. Slowly but surely, she got me to watch the lore videos with her and when the symphony was announced, she suggested we watch. Well sure. But that meant I'd actually need to play the game now, since it wouldn't make much sense to listen to the orchestra without knowing anything. We ended up buying the physical disc at EB Games twice. The first time, it was a used disc, and the guy at the counter was infectiously enthusiastic, saying I was in for a great time. However, the installation wouldn't go past 73% and was stuck there overnight. I tried every potential fix I could find online to no avail. There was one tiny, near-microscopic scratch on the disc which made it stuck. We returned it, found another EB Games that stocked a brand new disc and continued the installation, thankfully continuing on from the 73%. Finally loaded and I entered Limgrave. Took me 2 months to finish the game, playing mostly regularly and doing maybe 75% of the sidequests. I've never been a huge sidequest or completionist guy, so I really only did the major ones or ones that had interesting plots. I finished the game with a week to spare. Whew! 

The orchestra was great. It was basically gameplay footage combined with the music being played. There'd be some ambient music from the different lands, before focusing on the boss battle music. Wonderfully epic. The Final Battle was epic as hell, and the ending theme with the Elden Beast, with the lady singing with the harp was majestic and beautiful. The choir did a great job making it all epic. The only complaint was that the volume and sound effect from the games was inconsistent. The spell effects and attack sounds were loud at times, acceptable at times and mute on some others. Likewise with the in-game dialogue from characters like Melina. Inconsistent volume overwhelming the music at times. But either way, very nice. Originally Onion and I, due to dillydallying, sat in front/behind each other as we couldn't get tickets next to each other. However, during the intermission, we realized the seat next to me was unoccupied the whole time. A no-show, perhaps? There was a guy next to the empty seat and I asked if it was occupied, and if not, whether my wife could sit next to me. He was fine, and we ended up having a nice conversation about FromSoftware games and JRPGs. A cool dude! There were also some cosplayers, and for some reason, a ton of women dressed as Miquella (why not Marika?)

Just a few days later I watched Evanesence. Another teen bucketlist item crossed. I've long been a casual fan of Evanescence. Bring Me To Life and Going Under have been some of the few songs I've never removed from any playlist I've ever curated in my life in all my devices, since I had access to mp3 files. Old computers, all my laptops, my mp3 players, and my phones. I've not followed their stuff in ages, so I listened to some recent things from them as well as the old classics. Amy Lee's voice is still resoundingly powerful. She sang her heart out and you could hear it. I got lawn seats because I was a cheapskate, so unfortunately, I had to deal with people constantly walking in front of me. After Bring Me To Life was done, a ton of people walked out, annoying me. Funny thing, she sang the updated version without Paul McCoy's rapping, but she audience sang that part loudly, so it was an interesting "remix". My Immortal was very intimate, and she shared about her own personal struggles and relationships. Overall, awesome!

In July, on my waifu's actual birthday, Charm and her organized a simple picnic at Riverdale Park. I took transit down to meet them, after they had finished their pole class. We had sushi and some pastries while chatting on a picnic blanket surrounded by a ton of other people with the same idea. Was nice just enjoying the atmosphere, city skyline and sunset.

The next day I took Onion to Saltlick Smokehouse in Hamilton, one of the restaurants we've really come to like. During the Hamilton Supercrawl last year, they had run out of their famous pork belly nuggets. Thankfully, not this time! But their A/C was busted, so it was hot as hell. The portions also seemed smaller, although the taste was still top notch. One of the sides they recommended was succotash, and we were hooked after trying it. We even ordered an additional succotash for takeout, so we could try and recreate it. We even asked the waitress, who checked with the cook on what was in it. We've tried recreating the succotash at home since, without success. It's still delicious and very nice, but it's not the exact same. When you start to pick apart the ingredients and analyze everything... yeah. Happy birthday babe!

Oh, remember how we showed the tennis court to Victoria last time? While showing the court to her after our boardgaming session, we happened to walk across the card room the condo has, and there were several guys in there playing something. We couldn't tell what it was, but Onion was being a busybody and peeking through the window. They waved, and she thought it might be a board game. We thought we might as well be shameless and after sending Victoria off, walked in on them and asked what it was. Apparently it was Magic: The Gathering! Haha, damn! I mentioned that I played regularly over 20 years ago, and apart from a few brief sessions (like March of Machines), hadn't played since. They said they did this once a month in the condo card room and would be happy if I joined. And so I have since. They all play Commander, so it's been a big learning curve, along with all the new terms and effects that are commonplace. But they've all been very patient, and lending me their decks to play with. Been a lot of fun!

Well, Onion took Victoria's words of getting a coach seriously, so we found one on Facebook, lol. We looked around for reasonable rates and reviews, and found Fion, a Chinese tennis player who began playing and became really passionate about it. We've had just over a month of practice sessions with her. And our first session was garbage, lol. In spite of her clear instructions we weren't great. After several weeks and my own practice sessions against the squash court wall, we've both improved quite a bit. I hit about 80% of my shots in the court now, but we haven't learnt how to serve yet. Good enough to play some games at least! One time, the waifu had booked a court for us to play but also cooked late, so she told me to warm up at the court myself and she'd be a little late. I was practicing my forehand when a guy was walking with his daughter on a stroller and asked if I needed someone to play with. I mentioned my wife was running late but I wouldn't mind keeping in contact so we could play. We exchanged contacts and just played our first game! We're quite fortunate to be in the same level. Me as a complete newbie while he had tennis experience in highschool but hadn't played regularly since. His name is Ali and he was born in London, Ontario and had been in Seattle the last 5 years. We did a few rally warmups on our game night and eventually played a few rounds. He won the first 6-4, and was leading 2-1 on the second, but they turned off the lights as I was starting to get my groove on and play better. Aye! We've arranged to play again.

Charm and her husband Raouf also invited us to their newly rented place for a barbecue, buying a grill. Partially a FIFA World Cup finals match barbecue, and also to celebrate Raouf's birthday. The waifu and I made fruit skewers and brought drinks while they handled everything else. An immense amount of food, lol. We walked in and saw nachos, cake, authentic palabok and some other stuff like cupcakes and all. We tried out the palabok first (delicious), and chatted in their kitchen, greeting Saif (not sure if it's spelled right), Raouf's nephew and a big fan of Argentina. We gave Raouf his present, a cute mug with the words "Grill Master" on it, the handle a spatula, lol. He embraced his title! Called himself the grill master proudly and at one point was like, why is no one checking me barbecuing? So the waifu and I went down the patio to chat while he grilled a combination of Filipino-style marinated chicken, his own Middle Eastern style chicken, and some kind of mixed meat sausage, similar in taste to a kebab. He later taught us how to authentically eat it with pita bread. Also delicious but massively filling. Saif's girlfriend joined us (also wearing an Argentina jersey like Saif). We proceeded to watch the disappointing final match, with Saif providing hilarious and upset commentary on his favourite team. We hung around to chat about all sorts of stuff and ate some things when our bloated stomachs would allow. Saif's girlfriend went home earlier first while Saif and I were chatting about places to see in Toronto and Montreal, with me showing him images of some nice spots in Montreal, and highlighting our trip to Mont Tremblant's ziplining. We offered to drop him off to the LRT station since it was on the way home, instead of troubling Raouf to drive out as well.

To end off the month of July, I went to Wonderland with my cousins, Chloe, Lilian and Colin and Chloe's ex, Zoltan. Onion didn't like crowds and felt that since she had gone last year, she didn't feel like going again so soon. Chloe picked me up and we grabbed a light bite at a nearby bakery before heading over. Overall, fun! Much better weather than last year. It was mildly cloudy and not too hot, so it was quite pleasant to walk around. The lines were reasonable and we got on all the big roller coasters. Leviathan, Behemoth, Yukon Striker and AlpenFury. Last year I only managed to get on Behemoth. The Leviathan line was too long, Yukon Striker broke down right as we were about to get in, and AlpenFury, being new, had lines over 2 hours long. We went on other coasters and rides, and got wet with White Water Canyon and Timberwolf Falls (we got on twice). Colin wore his raincoat to avoid getting wet, which was freaking hilarious because everyone was in shorts or shirtless, meant for summer and getting wet and he was in his thick raincoat covered from head to ankle. Overall, a good fun time with them before we grabbed dinner at Pho 128, based on my recommendation, having eaten it with Onion after our escape room adventure at Black Creek's "Where Dark Things Dwell". Had several chats with Lilian about what's up with her life, and Colin's next steps now that he's been accepted into the University of Waterloo.

Back in mid-June, I was asked to help set up some tech stuff for the Celebration of Life for Crystal Magee, a longtime church member. She had always been kind to me, and although we didn't talk that much, she was really friendly and lots of church members remembered her fondly. On the day of it, several church members and family shared words about her lovingly, from her time as a powerful swimmer in her youth (almost qualifying for some national level stuff), and being a nurse later on, to moving to the GTA about a decade ago to be closer to her relatives, and joining Richmond Hill United Church as a result. Glad to have served.