B. Mann Consulting

Over the long weekend I made the trip back east to New Brunswick. Kedwick, to be exact, where Arpin Canoe was kind enough to give us a bunch of canoes to sail down the Restigouche River in.

It was Troy's Bachelor Party, and we had 15 people total. Both Dave and Foo have pictures. Kate went to Lake Placid with Anna, so I had a waterproof camera. Pictures will be up when they get developed (including, funny enough, pictures from the trip from last year).

Did I mention the theme was pirates? Yep. One of the best parts was going for the brunch buffet at the Madrid on the drive up (more commonly referred to as "that monster truck and dinosaur place by the highway"). We geared up in full pirate outfits, demanded to be seated in the "pirate" section of the restaurant, and then proceeded to hang up our skull and crossbone flags and inflatable parrot. Yes, I did try and put jam on a crescent roll using nothing but a hook for a hand.

Some classic tidbits from the weekend:

• Laser Plastic: take plastic bag, wrap around stick and light on fire; watch (and listen!) in amazement as plastic melts in flaming globs, making sounds like a laser
• First rule of neon usage: More than two colours of neon and/or flashing neon must only be used to indicate the presence of "danseuse nuese" or an adult entertainment shop; violation of this rule may result in the polite request to remove tops
• "Cracker" is a good name for a parrot

Fireworks were also a big hit. I can now honestly say that buying a whole bunch of fireworks and lighting them all off is on my "Top 10" list of things to do "just because". That's right -- no occasion is too small to not warrant burning a whole bunch of money in the form of fireworks. May I suggest the extra-large "family size"?