invncble | Weekend "Back to the Futures"

This week and weekend was all about cycles, or revisiting places, things, or people from the past.

Back to Toronto: First time in 7 years
After coming back from FCN about a week ago, I had to quickly go to Toronto for 3 days because of a work-related conference. So a little turboprop plane (see the pic; my cellphone camera can't pickup the spinning prop) on Porter Airlines took me to a "foreign" country, Canada. They have different money and weird laws. This airline lands on the island airport right next to downtown Toronto. Besides meeting up with

theamazingkodi , I finally got to meet another online friend and hockey fan, Eric. So a boring conference but nice company.

Back to Cycling: First time in 18 years
After seeing some sales at the local REI and knowing that my tax refund was coming, I decided to bite the bullet and finally get a new bike. I had my last bike stole in 1993 and haven't gotten one since then. So

hypersnazz was kind enough to offer some advice on bikes and I ended up getting a Novara Big Buzz '09, a city bike. Novara is REI's brand but they back it up with tune-ups and a lifetime guarantee. It was also on the cheaper side and 20% off. I finally hopped on the bike this Sunday and looped through my local neighborhood. After covering 3.5 miles, I finally understand why cyclists hate cars. Things to get: tighter fitting pants, water bottle holder, bike comp, and tire-repair kit.

Back to Grilling: Since last summer
Not much here to say except IndyPup came up and (along with

perro and

street22 ) grabbed a quick bite at Peggy Kinnane's Irish Restaurant and Pub and headed over to Furball's place. Some were grilling, while other furs were socializing around and melting beer bottles and VCR parts in a fire pit. Fun times all around. But the grilling continued into Sunday night with yelang in town. It did give me a chance to try out a Good Eats recipe for grilled skewered Brussel sprouts (brushed with a paste of olive oil, mustard, paprika, garlic, salt, and pepper). Apparently they turned out pretty good. ^_^

This week will be busy with work-related things. But this weekend will be the start of the first LAFF softball which should be interesting. Go Predators!