MegaLoad Chocolate Cups

Snack today -> MegaLoad.
I found this chocolate bar only at Toys R Us.  It's called the MegaLoad.  Basically it's 3 peanut butter cups with each topped with a different treat.  I think it was $2.29.

Megaload Original

One has an Oreo Cookie, another sprinkled with mini M&Ms, and the third with a chocolate chip cookie.  This thing is great!  It's like 4 different desserts in 1.  My favorite is the Oreo one.  Next time I'm at Costco, I'm looking for a box :)

Inside Megaload Original.

Apparently there are more than just these 3 toppings and some with caramel filling too!

Useless Gaming News:
I got this Collector's Edition Sonic the Hedgehog fridge magnets from Sheridan.  I can't use it at home because my fridge is stainless steel, so I'll have to use these at work.

Sonic Magnets.

Useless Transformers News:
Found and picked up Battle Core Optimus Prime at the Kanata Toys R Us today.  1 left on the shelf as of 8:30pm Thursday night.

Battle Core Optimus Prime.

Useless Idol News:
AKB48 "Halloween Night" video.  The "Hammer Dance"... LOL

Lego Ghostbusters HQ

Dinner today -> Chicken.
Picked up a roast chicken on the way home at Sobey's.  The white meat was kind of dry.  I think they make it better at Costco.

Roast Chicken.

Useless Gaming News:
Got my KickStarter copy of Floating Market today.  Seems like all my Kickstarters were shipping all at the same time.  Been getting something almost every other day.

KickStarter Floating Market.

Useless Toy News:
WANT!  No pics of the insides, but I'm hoping the previously released Ecto-1 will be able to fit inside.

Hobgoblin Wave

Lunch today -> Pizza.
Picked up a Canadian Hot-n-Ready from Little Caesars for lunch.  Also grabbed a medium coffee from the McDonalds next door.  The eyeball was dessert.

Lunch.

Useless DVD News:
Found the latest Sailor Moon DVD release at Walmart: Season 2, Part 2.  I'm way behind as I'm still watching Season 1, Part 1.

Sailor Moon DVD: Season 2, Part 2

Useless Toy News:
Found the complete Build-a-Figure: Hobgoblin wave at Toys R Us, including the hard to find DareDevil figure.

Hobgoblin Wave.

Esquire Magazine

Dinner today -> Potato and Onion Soup.
Made more soup today.  I made potato and sweet onion soup and stirred in some sliced sausages.  I used a different brand of coconut cream and it wasn't as sweet as I expected.  I'm going to switch back.  Today's soup was good, but not as good as the one I made on Friday.

Potato and Onion Soup with Sausage.

Useless Magazine News:
Picked up the new Esquire magazine.  The Emilia Clarke article was the only thing interesting in it.  Kind of disappointed with the rest of the magazine.

Esquire Magazine.

Useless Gaming News:
Got my KickStarter copy of Pirate Loot today.  Now I need to buy more sleeves, and I just bought and used 800 sleeves on Friday.

Pirate Loot.

Weekend Report: Dixit Picture Orientation

Food this weekend ->
Took a vacation day on Friday.  I was considering going to Mandarin Buffet for lunch, but there was a huge traffic jam starting at the Bayshore exit at 11am.  Not sure why?  So I skipped Mandarin and went to T&T instead and got a 4 item meal.  I got pork belly, garlic chives with squid, beef brisket with daikon, and general tao chicken.  Four items with white rice and soup for $8.99 is a great deal. 

4-Item Meal.

Had Rideau Restaurant takeout Sunday night at parent's house.  Beef chow mein, beef brisket chow mein, dry fried rice noodles with beef, rice noodles with shrimp and egg sauce, shanghi noodles, and fish rice (not shown).  I also brought my leftover potato, sweet onion, cheese, bacon, and shrimp soup. 

Rideau Takeout and Soup.

Useless Gaming News:
At Jeff's place for dinner and games Friday night.  Linda's sister, Cindy, was visiting.  We started with Star Trek: Five Year Mission because Everett wanted to play it.  I was surprised he actually remembered the rules and how to play.  Then we played Tsuro, Dixit, Mr.Game, and Code Names.
Lots of fun during Dixit, and Linda won the 1st game while Cindy finished 2nd last (just ahead of Jeff).

Dixit - Linda's Win.

In the 2nd game, I started orienting the picture cards so they faced the right way up for Cindy.  That changed her game completely and Cindy started scoring more points.  She eventually won the 2nd game with the help of that small change.

Dixit - Cindy's Win.

We finished the night with a few rounds of Code Names.  This is a great, quick word game.  Challenging and fun, especially with Linda and Cindy providing the Spy Master description words.

Complete NES Book

Useless Gaming News:
Got my KickStarter copy of "The Complete NES" hardcover book.  It lists every Nintendo game ever released in the US, along with a short description and full colour pics of the box and screen shot.  Cool handy reference book.

The Complete NES Book.

Also got in the mail, my KickStarter copy of "Mr Game".  It's a boardgame where to objective is to roll a 4-sided dice and move to the goal.  As you play, the board can change, random powers can be played, and even the goal can move.  It's got alot of chaos and chance, and they are features in what I look for in a game.

Mr.Game.

Back to the Future Day

Winterized my car at Mazda today: Winter tires on, oil change, fluids check, tire pressure and balancing, rust check, filters changed, and heater check.  I'm all set for the snow.  Bring it on!

Lunch today -> KNH
Went to Kanata Noodle House at lunch before picking up the car.  I got the #15 Pho Special (medium) with the rare beef on the side.  I ate and drank everything in the big medium bowl.  The rare beef on the side is the best way to go, otherwise it would have been over cooked.

#15 Pho Medium.

Useless News:
Today was Back to the Future Day (Oct 21, 2015).  I should have tried to get the special Pepsi bottle for $20.15US.  Now it's over $300 on eBay. 
Probably going to look for the Delorean Hot Wheel.

Useless Gaming News:
The Legend of Zelda performed by a live orchestra on the Steven Colbert show.  YouTube link here.

Dead of Winter

Snack today -> Truffle Fries Chips.
Opened my last bag of Truffle Fries Chips for a snack today.  I wish they bring this flavour to Canada.  It tastes just like Alfredo sauce on a thick ripple chip.

Truffle Chips.

Useless Gaming News:
5-player after work gaming tonight.  We started with a a quick game of The Resistance.  I was totally fooled because one of the players was acting like the spy but he really wasn't and another player was acting like a rebel, but was really a spy!
After we played a 2hr game of Dead of Winter.  It was a learning game for everyone but me, but it still went way longer than expected.  It took us 2hrs to only play 4 rounds of a 6 round mission.

Dead of Winter.

When I got home, Biblios Dice and my KickStarted Cosmic Run was in the mailbox.

New Biblios Dice and Cosmic Run.

Election Day 2015

Voting in the Canadian Election Day today.  It's no where near as fun or as interesting compared to the AKB48 Elections.  Nobody good to vote for either.  Couldn't convince Steve or Ed to vote for Starscream too.  The only thing I'll remember from this election campaign is the commercial quote "Nice hair though" :) LOL.

Useless Gaming News:
I picked up the hard to find game "Code Names" on the weekend.  It's a short fun party game.  From what I read of the instructions, it needs min 6 players for best play, but playable with 4 or less.  Hope to try it out at gaming lunch this week.

Code Names.

Also got 3 games when I piggybacked on James's order last week.  I got Garden Dice, Transylvania: Curses & Traitors, and Smash Up: Munchkin.

Newest Games.

Weekend Report -> Mandarin Buffet

Food this weekend ->
Went to the new Mandarin Buffet in Orleans on Saturday.
I wasn't impressed with the initial service.  We had made a reservation, but we still had to wait for our table to be prepared.  I've never had to wait when I've made a reservation the night before.  Table should have already be readied. 
When the table was readied, the waitress took her time leading us and explaining the buffet.  It was a feature Ben liked, but I know what a buffet is so I just wanted to be seated and get food.  Good thing everything went up hill from here.
First good thing is after being seated, we were given hot towels to wash up.  Very Japanesey :)
The sushi was good, but the ribs were magnificent.  The ribs were meaty, juicy, and savoury.  Just like ribfest.  The New York steak was alittle over cooked for my taste.

Mandarin Plate #1.

Tempura shrimps were crispy.  Seaweed salad was well made and delicious.  The mussels were big and clean.  Ben really liked the butternut squash soup.  Everything was good and nothing was bad.  They only lacked congee (I wanted to make my congee bowl).

Plate #2.

The selection of desserts was amazing.  After 4 plates of food, I actually made room for 4 plates of desserts.  I tried the black forest cake, coconut cream pie, lemon cake, creme brule, rice pudding, butter tart, fresh cookies, watermelon, pineapple, frozen yogurt, and other mini-cakes.

Dessert Plate #1.

When we were finished and got the bill, we were given another hot towel to clean up.  The second hot towel service was the best touch.  I need to go again and try dinner!

Useless Gaming News:
Played 4-player gaming on Friday night.  We started the night with a long advance game of A Touch of Evil.  We only played with only 2 maps.  The villain was The Unspeakable Horror.  We started off ok, but the board was winning and killing Ben's and Brian's characters almost every round.  Then we triggered the final battle early.  We weren't prepared and we weren't allowed to bring any town elders to help in the battle.  We lost pretty badly.
Then we played Drop Dead.  This a pretty fun and quick 5 minute game.  A simple deduction game. where you try and collect information and guess the hidden card's number.  I'll probably pick this up.

Drop Dead.

Useless Halloween News:
Saw this cool zombie at Home Depot.

Zombie.

It's only $40 and has 3 different groans.  I videoed one of them.

Good Day Japanese Version

Lunch today -> Chorizo burger.
Went to Royal Oak for Iain's farewell lunch.  He's leaving for GDC.  Maybe he'll work with Ben.
I ordered the Build a Burger.  I built a simple Chorizo burger topped with sauteed mushrooms and cheddar cheese.  It was very good.

Chorizo Burger with Fries.

Useless Idol News:
Got some CDs in.  I got IU's "Good Day" single.  I didn't realize when they said it was the Japanese version, it meant she re-sang her Korean song in Japanese.  Cool, but I wanted the original Korean version.  I also got NMB48's "Must Be Now" single.  Included Milky bonus photo. 

New CDs for the Car.

Crazy Game

Dinner today -> Salmon Sashimi.
Got a salmon filet from the Superstore.  I sliced it up to make sushi, but I was hungry now and didn't want to wait for the rice to cool.  So I ate the salmon as sashimi.  I should have stirred in a raw egg in the hot rice too.

Sashimi Dinner.

Useless Baseball News:
Watch some of the Jays - Rangers game after work.  Game 5 was crazy with the errors and especially the incident with the ball being hit off of Choo's bat on the return throw to pitcher (I only know Shin-Soo Choo through Running Man).  But the Blue Jays pulled if off and won the ALDS.

Jays Win!

Useless Gaming News:
Played the new Coup: Rebellion G54 today with 6-players.  The new roles make the game different everytime, but we found some poor combos by chance.  Still a very good game.
I got the Kickstarted Red Dragon Inn 5 in the mail today.  I totally didn't expect it yet.  It's the big box that can fit all the sets and parts in it.  I also got 2 sets of the 5-player metal coin sets.  Each set comes with a draw string bag 30 gold metal coils, 6 platinum metal coins, 5 metal fortitude tokens, and 5 metal alcohol tokens.  These metal tokes are really good quality!

Red Dragon Inn 5.

Happy Birthday Zack!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZACK!!!

G54

Lunch today -> Sushi.
Was in the mood for sushi, all because I read this article in the morning.  I got sushi from the Sushi House in the Hazeldean Mall.

Sushi.

Snack today -> Doritos.
Tried the Habanero and Guacamole Doritos Collisions.  The red habanero chips were not as hot as I expected.  The Roulette Doritos are way hotter.  The green Guacamole chips were ok, but they seemed to have alot of ginger powder on them.

Doritos Collisions.

Useless Gaming News:
Got my copy of KickStarted Coup: Rebellion G54 today.  It's the same as playing Coup, but with 25 different types of characters.  Hoping to play this, this week at Gaming Lunch.

Coup: Rebellion G54.

Happy Birthday Emi!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY EMI!!!

Thanksgiving 2015 Long Weekend Report: Thanksgiving Lobster and Oreo Crepe Cake.

Lunch Friday -> Rideau Restaurant.
Went to Rideau Restaurant for lunch with some of the CMC boyz. Only 5 of us went, but we ordered 6 dishes: Schezwan beef, General Tao Chicken, Cantonese chow mein, sizzling black pepper steak, salt & pepper pork chop, and fried green beans with black bean and dried shrimp.

Rideau Food.

We destroyed all the plates :)

Destroyed Rideau Food.

Snack Friday -> Birthday Cake.
Gavin was in town this weekend.  We met up Friday night.  We celebrated Emi's birthday early by surprising her with a cake and gifts.

Surprise Emi.

Ben bought the cake from the French Bakery in Kanata, La Provence.  It was a Lemon Cheese Mousse cake.  Very good and lite.

Lemon Cheese Mousse.

We played games afterwards.  We started with Istanbul.  Unique work management game and fun.  It's hard to stop someone once they get ahead.  I think the game needs a way for players to steal of lose resources randomly.  Not a game for Brian.  He would give up after a few turns.

3-Player Istanbul.

Next we played Tiny Epic Galaxies.  Good game, but I think it would have been better with more than 3 players.  A worker placement and roll-your-luck dice game.

Tiny Epic Galaxies.

Finished the night with a bunch of game of Magic.  It's been awhile since I played Magic and nothing beats this game.

3-Player Magic.

Happy Birthday Uncle Chin!!!
Saturday we went to Montreal for my Uncle's birthday.  I ate soooo much food!
When we got there, we had a late lunch/appetizer.  There was BBQ pork, chicken, duck, different meat buns, tempura shrimp.  I was semi-stuffed with this meal.

Appetizers.

Then we went to Chinatown for dinner.
Started with a good fish maw soup.  For some reason they didn't give us any white pepper.

Fish Maw Soup.

Next was some really good seafood roll.  It was shrimp paste with chunks of shrimp and scallop made into a roll and then deep fried.  Very good topped with a bit of mayo and sriracha.

Seafood Roll.

Next was chicken.  It was very good too, but we all had just eaten good chicken for lunch.

Chicken.

Noodles was next.  A rich seafood, chicken, and veggie chow mein.  Lots of toppings on the huge bowl of crispy egg noodles.

Seafood Chow Mein.

A whole fish followed.  This was the weakest dish.  The fish was over cooked and lacked flavour.  Lots of tiny bones too.

Steamed Fish.

A shrimp-loaf was next.  A simple filler dish, but very good.

Shrimp-Loaf.

Next was a beef shank bowl with tofu.  Some tasty marrow filled bones in this bowl.

Beef Shank and Tofu.

Jumbo shrimp on spinach greens (I think).  I was getting full, so I didn't get much of this.

Jumbo Shrimp on Greens.

The highlight of the night: 2 lobsters stir fried with ginger and green onions.  This dish was so good. I ended up finishing most of the lobster as everyone at our table was full or didn't want to eat the hard to eat piece.  It got messy, but I didn't care.  As I was finishing. the other table brought over their lobster plate and polished off most of that plate too.

Lobsters

Fried rice came at the end, but it was just fried rice with pea, carrots, bbq pork, and shrimp.  No pic.
After the feast, we went back to my uncle's place for dessert.  There was 2 cakes and some squares from Totally Squared.  The cakes were fruity short cake and an awesome Oreo Crepe cake.

Cakes.

The Oreo Crepe Cake was extremely good, almost beats the Nutella Crepe Cake.  Almost.  The weak point is the creme between the layers is thicker and made the cake more heavy than the light nutella crepe cake.  The cakes were from Les Delices Lafrenaie.