Why isn't it Saturday yet?

 Well its Monday again. Beginning of the week. I can't wait till its over. Next Saturday is going to be epic. Its free comic book day and Get your Geek On is broadcasting live from pulp comics. I can't wait. Later that night we're seeing the Avengers. Its pretty much the super hero movie I've been waiting my whole life for. Saturday is going to rule. Too bad i have another 4 shifts of unreasonable rednecks to go before i get my amazing Saturday. Fingers crossed  for a good week. Maybe all the customers will be happy! I can't believe i typed that with a straight face!

Big surprise

  Hey it was my first Sunday and how should i put this? I hate it so much. Not my favorite day to work.  It was miserable. Jane stop this crazy thing!

Getting old part 2

I drank one beer yesterday. I'm not much of a drinker anymore. Back in my younger days i could put the beer away.  Anyhow as i mentioned, i had one whole beer yesterday and felt tired and wasted. Man i am such an old man now.

Getting Old

  Wow having a rough painful week. Have had several headaches at work. Arm is sore. Tooth is killing me. Gums are sore to the touch. I am seriously falling apart. What the hell?

Frantic Friday

  Man its weird having Fridays off. I bet it'll feel even weirder working on Sunday. Friday was ok. It could have sucked a lot worse. When Kath was driving home Thursday night the van died. She was able to coast the van in to the parking lot of the  beer store.The next morning Rob and Nickle's dad looked at it and we needed a new water pump. We had it towed to a garage downtown and lucky for us it didn't cost as much as we thought it would. Its working fine now.

 While we were downtown we had 2 hours to kill so we walked to the comic book store and discovered a cool new restaurant. I got a burger. What made the burger so special? The buns were 2 grilled cheese sandwiches. So awesome.

 I got to pick Diana up from school. I get to do that on Fridays now. Took her for an ice cream cone.
I was going to grill chicken for supper but our propane ran out. Can't replace the tank until next weekend. Ended the day by falling asleep on the couch earlier than i would have wanted to. Yes having fridays off will take some getting used to.

Last crazy customer of the week

     So my last call of the day--and for the week was the craziest person i had spoken to in awhile.  It started off ok.  This lady called in and she  then began to ramble about how she wanted to cancel the internet because her daughter was always on it and not doing her chores. Ok whatever i could cut the service. Not a problem. Then i noticed the lady was on a 2 year contract--up in may to get a discounted rate on all of her services. So calmly  i told her--before i cancelled service that if she cancelled her cable and phone would increase in price and would be charged an early termination fee for cancelling the contract. I didn't feel like catching shit for not informing her about the early termination fee or etf if you will. Here's where this lady became a total Psycho and lost in on me. I'll try and transcribe what i remember about the conversation.


Crazy lady : so what are you trying to tell me?
Jay; if you cancel internet your other services will go up in price and you'll be charged for breaking contract


CL: You don't make sense
J: Well i see you've been under contract since october 2010 to get a discount
CL; I didn't sign a contract
J; No but it was a verbal agreement
CL; Then its not a contract
J; unfortunately its works like a contract
CL; Are you a lawyer? 
J; No but this is our policy
CL; Are you even in virginia?
J;?
CL; Just answer the question
J; No I'm not but i work for the virginia office
CL; i knew you weren't from Virginia. A Virginia representative would know what they're talking about and you don't
J(starting to get pissed but staying calm): Ma'am I do know what i'm talking about its my job to tell you what will happen if you cancel the contract'
CL; You are rude! i hope you get fired!
J: I'm sorry if you're taking it that way M'aam
CL; Do not call me Maam! Call me Laura Johnson! (i think that was her name)
J: ok laura johnson?
CL: the other person i talked to knew more than you do. They didn't mention an etf. Why is that?
J; I can't speak for another representative
CL; See you don't know how to do your job.
Meanwhile I'm looking at a screen that says she will be charged 50 bucks if she cancels service
CL; I'm gonna call back and mention that you did nothing but accuse me
J; im sorry what did i accuse you of?
CL: you accused me of having a verbal contract
J; i wasn't accusing you of that. That is the truth it says so on your account
CL: you're a bad employee
J: well you're a bad parent. (i didn't actually say that to her face but i was thinking it.


She hung up shortly after that making me sit there in disbelief wondering what the hell just happened. Great way to end the week i must say.
 

Bitchy Jay is back!

  I hate my new shift. I really really do. Also I'm sick.  Yup the awesome weekend came to a screeching halt. Did i mention my work took reading away? No more reading comics between calls. Yay I'm glad they took away the last thing keeping me sane there. Thats fair! I'm not at all bitter.

Rochester Adventure part 3

  Good day and welcome to day 3 of our trip. We again got an early start to take full advantage of that awesome breakfast spread. Have i mentioned i want a pancake machine? We met up with Rose at a really awesome place called the Strong Museum of Play. Why was it so awesome? It was practically a museum of Jay. There was a room that was dedicated to Super Heroes. Statues,old comics, posters and dolls you name it. There was even a wing dedicated to old toys and old arcade games. It was so awesome. I could have lived there. I wish i could  hire George Clooney and his oceans 11 gang to steal everything.

  All good things must end. We hit the road and said our goodbyes. We got back To Canada around 6;30. Just in time to do Get Your Geek On. It was an amazing trip. Hope we can go away again sometime.

Rochester adventure Day 2

   We awoke early. We had another awesome day planned.  We got our first complimentary hotel breakfast. It had everything--eggs, sausage,bagels, cereal and a pancake machine!!  kath won't let me get a pancake machine. Ah phooey.  Then we decided we would celebrate national record store day. Its a special day in america where record stores--yes some still exist, get special albums and singles by different artists. This is special indeed because most music  is released on cd and mp3 these days. We went to a cool store called record archive  which sells everything from records to cds to dds to vhs tapes. It was really cool and reminded me of buying records as a kid. I used to love singles or 45's. I still have a pretty cool collection. No record player to play them on though. Made me feel really old.

  Next up--the main event. The wedding of Kath's dad and Margaret. It was a really nice ceremony. Diana and  my niece and nephew were in the wedding party. Everyone at the church was really nice to us. The reception was great as well. The food was amazing. I ate really good all weekend. The happy couple would be honeymooning in our neck of the woods--Niagara Falls Canada. They were gonna be in canada a day earlier than us.

  On the way back to the hotel we took a side trip to a comic store in downtown Rochester--Park Avenue Comics. Kath got some Wonder woman socks. We also left gygo business cards for the owner as well. They had the card we left in December hanging up on the wall. Yup we're famous.

We rested a bit at the hotel and then went to meet Rose for dinner at a diner called Johnny Rockets. We'd been there before and it has a happy days feeling to it. Our waited kinda sucked though. Was in a rush to get us out of there. Went back to the hotel where i watched a bunch of Friends episodes and Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom. Good times.

Rochester trip day 1

This past weekend we traveled to Rochester to attend the wedding of Kath's dad and Margaret. Diana was going to be a flower girl.We got a cheap hotel room and planned to make a weekend out of it. As we headed into Rochester friday evening we stopped in a cool little town called Brockport. There's a nice comic book store there that we like and a pizza place that makes the best pizza i ever had. At the comic store Diana and i both got a comic and Kath got a Wonder Woman magnet. We left the owner a stack of our Get Your Geek On business cards. The owner remembered we were from Canada--amazing because i think we make it in there once every 2 years. We had lunch at the pizza place and as usual it was awesome.

Found the hotel. Nice place. They had a pool and breakfast was provided in the morning. Diana loved the hotel. She wanted to move there. Soon we were off to the wedding rehearsal. Diana was nervous but she was awesome. She had all her flower girl moves down. Ended the night by visiting with our good friend Rose. Rose told us about this little cafe that makes all kinds of cup cakes. We went there for a late night snack and the cup cakes did indeed kick much ass. Went to sleep at the hotel. We had a busy day ahead of us.

shitty shift bid

So i forgot to mention the results of the shift bid. There was a sheet of 150 shifts you could pick from. I needed something where i could walk Diana to school in the morning and have Sundays off to do the show. Sixty of them were awesome and another 30 i could work with if i had to. So 90 of the shifts were do able. I was 62 out of 150 people. This means i would choose 62'nd and was bound to get something that would be awesome right? At the very least i would get my 62'nd choice right? Wrong. I walked in and was given a sheet with my new shift on it. I started at 11 and was done at 7. Ok that solved the Diana issue. However they wanted me to work that shift on Sundays as well. Now i was going to be getting Friday and Saturday off which was nothing to sneeze at but i couldnt do Sunday. I told my manager who asked me--'you didn't pick this shift?' Why would i pick a shift that would interfere with the show? I didn't get anything in my top 90 and that pissed me off. How did they pick the shift then? I decided on my break i would go talk to the lady in charge of the shift bid. Before i could do that though my manager came back and said i could have sunday off but my other day off was something dumb like Tuesday or Wednesday. I then asked what if i got out of work an hour earlier on Sundays. Sure it was cutting it short but at least this way i had a fighting chance. So it was approved and now i work 10-6 on Sundays. It'll have to do. God forbid they go by seniority there. Oh well such is life i guess.

Wizard world wrap up 2.

Just got back from having an amazing weekend in Rochester. More on that later. First things first. Part 2 of our trip to Wizard world. After we regrouped with Rob and Nickle we did our interview with Catharine and Lance from the Last Star fighter. I tweaked the interview a bit. Instead of concentrating on questions about Catherine's career i just asked both of them Last Star fighter questions. The interview went well and they were both super nice. She looked like she hadn't aged a day since 1984 when the film was released. We thanked them and then i took Diana shopping. She was so good all day. We werent sure how she was going to take the day but she had a great time and said she couldnt wait to come back next year and that she loved wizard world. While we were shopping Kath and Rob interviewed a nice young lady named Lisa who makes her own nerdy crafts.Really nice stuff too. She makes her own pins and fake mustaches and her stuff is really nice.

We closed the day off with hot dogs and fries and headed back to St Catharines to do an episode of Get Your Geek On with Hunter and Kristen. Had a fantastic day and already counting the days to next years wizard world.

Wizard World Toronto 2012 wrap up part 1

Well its blog number 800. Who'd a thunk it? So thankfully i have a happy blog for the occasion. Just sitting here listening to Walk by the Foo Fighters. You might remember that song from last summers Thor movie. Speaking of Thor I can't believe we are only 2 weeks away from the Avengers movie. I can't wait.

Anyhow as you may recall we went to the Wizard World con in Toronto on April 15th. It was our third Wizard World and they always treat us right there. For the third year in a row Get your Geek received press passes from a great man Jerry Milani. He took good care of us yet again. It was much appreciated.

We got there good and early this year. We were in pretty good shape. We had two interviews lined up. One with Catherine Mary Stewart from The Last Starfighter. The other was a lady who makes geek crafts named Lisa. To start the day we were going to try something a little different.

So i think i've mentioned that Quantum Leap is my favorite show of all time. It was a great time travel show that starred Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell and ran from 1989 to 1993. I can't believe its almost been 20 years since that show ended. I loved that show. Both actors were at the con but unfortunately for us they werent doing interviews. They were however doing a q and a quantum Leap panel at noon. I've always read about panels with different actors and was curious about what they were like. I couldn't pass up a chance to see the guys from my all time favorite tv show. When we arrived at the room where it was being held we discovered another power of the press. Not only could we attend for free but we got in first with the other members of the press. We actualy got to sit in the second row. See the photo above where you can see us sitting there. As a bonus we were allowed to record the event. Rob got audio of the event and Kath got video. It was so cool. Both actors came out and joked around a lot with each other and the audience. The moderator asked them a few questions about the show and then asked if anyone else had questions. A line formed behind a microphone and i immediately got in that line. I had no idea what i was going to ask but i knew i would regret it for the rest of my life if i didn't get up there. I was about 7th in line. While i waited they told tales of the show. When i reached the front of the line i asked about a possible Magnum Pi crossover that had been planned. I guess the question went over well. Two other blogs about the con mentioned it! all good things come to an end though and after an hour the panel was done. It was so cool and amazing. I think next year we will check the listings and see who is doing panels. It was really interesting.


Kath and i spent the next hour doing a little bit of shopping. Diana was with us this yea and she was being so good. We noticed that Catharine Mary Stewarts booth was open and we decided to go ask and see when she would be available for the interview. Her co star from the Last Starfighter Lance Guest was also with her. She asked me where she knew me from and then realized i was the st catharines guy that posted on her facebook group. She asked us if we wanted to interview Lance as well. I didn't really have any questions for him though. I said yes and then we re grouped with Rob at the food area to rethink the interview to include both parties. How did it go? Tune in for part 2 of my wizard world round up.

Catherine Mary Stewart

Yesterday we received some good and bad news. Sunday is our annual trek to Wizard World. You may recall that this is the event where we get actual press passes and interview celebrities. We've been counting down to it since the last one ended. We put an interview request into Jerry the guy in charge of the event. I was very excited because Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell were going to be there for a Quantum Leap reunion. Leap is my favorite show of all time. Last week we were told they wouldnt be doing interviews with anybody. At least they are doing a quantum leap panel that we are planning to attend. We still had a list in of another 5 or 6 celebrities we wanted to talk to. We got our confirmation yesterday. The bad news? 5 of the celebrities won't grant us an interview. I won't say who said no. The good news? We still got one interview which even Diana reminded me is better than none. The actress who said yes is Catherine Mary Stewart and was in a number of high profile films in the 80's such as the Last Star fighter, weekend at Bernies and Night Of The Comet. Another good thing is that this year we know beforehand who we get to interview so I'm able to concentrate on some questions i want to ask her.

As an added bonus, I clicked yes to liking Catherine Mary Stewart's facebook group. Someone posted about her upcoming appearance in Toronto this weekend and i replied that we were looking forward to meeting her. What followed blew my mind. She personally commented on my comment. She mentioned she likes St Catharines where we live and that her brother went to Brock University here in town. She mentioned we should remind her that we posted in her group when we are at the con.What a small world and that comment alone leads me to believe that she is really nice. I literally can not wait to do this interview. I'll keep you posted.

toy show

Ok trying to remember some of the stuff i did in the first 2 weeks of April. I have really been slacking with the blogs. A couple of weekends ago Rob and i did a favor for Paul Tappay. Paul is running the 2nd Niagara Falls comic convention. This year its at the brand new Convention center in the Falls. Anyhow Paul needed a couple of guys to go up to Toronto to a toy show and hand out some flyers and posters to promote nf con. When we got there we pretty much got to explore a very large room that contained pretty much my whole child hood. Lots of star wars and super hero toys. A lot of the toys were way out of my price range, I had a whopping 25 dollars to spend. I stuck to the dollar bins. The stuff i got was awesome. I found cheap Green Lantern action figures and some old macdonalds spiderman toys and beanie babies for Diana. It was amazing. We did a great job of getting the word out about the con as well.It was an awesome day. I wish Diana could have seen it. She would have loved it.

Lovely customer on a Monday

Havent blogged in April yet but lets sum up my week so far. I think we can sum up Monday in one sentence. I am quoting one of our customers. He told me this yesterday

" take your cable and shove it up your ass!"

I do like mondays so much