1 :: Karin and I did breakfast yesterday at IHOP. She had the usual french toast. I was craving sizzling pork, so I did the Five Star breakfast with bacon. Mmmmm…. Bacon.

2 :: Forest fires are ravaging much of the interior of British Columbia in what is now being called “the worst summer for fires on record.” Particularly bad, is the fact that once again the media has swarmed in on people’s pain and loss. From one perspective, my “tuning out” of the coverage seems uncaring. However, since I am virtually powerless to assist in widescale firefighting, I figure the next best thing is to let people greive their losses out of the public limelight.

3 :: Wedding planning is coming to a head as the “big day” looms ever closer. I tried to justify our upcoming early arrival into Red Deer as a sort of “buffer” to my sanity. Society seems to heap painful amounts of regret on guys who are soon to be wed, people continually asking me if “I’m nervous”, if “I’ve got cold feet, yet” or if “I’m ready to hide under a big heap of dirty laundry and revel in my lapsing singlehood.” The answer, a surprising no, is however qualified with the knowledge that I will have a few days (say, Monday to Wednesday) to vacate my mind of work worries, travel worries, and wedding worries.

4 :: Arrived at work to the empathetic news that Ross’ new condo had been burglarized last night. Stolen, his cell phone, dvd collection, laundry money, and microwave oven. That sucks.

5 :: Item number four reminded me that we had watched an hour’s worth of “Speaker’s Corner” on CityTV the other day, and were impressed by (a) the soap-eater grovelling for forgiveness and (b) the burglarly victim who implied that he was now “on the hunt” for the thief who stole his car.

6 :: Chris and I saw T3 on Sunday at Metropolis. The first half seemed recycled, but we — admittedly — went in with very low expectations and were both impressed overall. Noted, however, that when you make a movie in this century about the “Man vs Machine” motif, you’re competing against the standard-setting end-of-last-century blockbuster “The Matrix” — and that’s not a fair competition. The real question is, in a battle between Arnie and Agent Smith, who would win?