The Congratulations Post

First, congratulations to my brother and sister for getting their G2 driver's licences over the past few weeks. Josh's situation was a little more involved, with our car being taken to the shop the Friday before his Monday test. He borrowed a somewhat beat-up Neon from a friend, and proceeded to both learn to drive it, and take a test with it within a few hours. And I had to go with him, per the G1 licence rules.

The trek involved: A cab to the friend's, getting chewed on, and almost stepping on his new bulldog puppy. Driving the Neon around a bit (slightly noisily, possibly due to the weight on the passenger's side ), then way down to DriveTest. Waiting there with an MP3 player and a dead battery. A subdued government building victory celebration. The return drive, partially in a ridiculous downpour. Probably only my third bus ride since I stopped crossing town to work at Microplay. A meatball sub, and an arm that got sunburnt without turning red. It was all better than the drab way I'm describing it.

Almost three weeks later, the car's still at the garage, awaiting a new engine, so they haven't had too much opportunity to use their new super powers. Four drivers sharing one company carpool van doesn't allow for too many joyrides.

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Congratulations to Ashley Coulter, who's made it to the top 14 in this summer's Canadian Idol. My sister has worked with Ashley for awhile at a couple of different places, and she's naturally rooting for her.

I'm not real big on most pop music, so I don't pay too much attention to any of the Idol series (I'm more of a Canadian Idle. Ho ho ho.), but I'll occasionally watch while Robyn is checking out what Ashley is up to.

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A late congratulations to all the Canadian fighters on various UFC shows last week.

Jonathan Goulet of Victoriaville, QC, Mark Hominick from nearby Thamesford, ON, and Rob MacDonald of Mississauga, ON (best I can tell), all won at UFC's Ultimate Fight Night 5.

London native Sam Stout unfortunately didn't fare so well against Kenny Florian at The Ultimate Fighter 3 Finale. Florian seems like he might be a top 3 contender for a potential UFC Lightweight Title, though. Stout used to live just down the road, and during the few years I actually went to school at Jeanne Sauvé and Banting, I had a pretty big crush on his sister, Emilie.

I think these guys (except Goulet) may train with Team Tompkins here in town, near the Kellogg's factory. While I'm not about to see these guys fight live, with MMA events being illegal in Ontario, it's still cool to have a local presence.

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Finally, congrats to Vince McMahon for unwrapping a giant FUBAR with WWECW. There's been a few good matches so far, and it's improving a bit every week, but it's pretty much just EXTREME~! WWE. (In that they scream that it's extreme at every turn, except it's, you know, not. Cookie sheets and Test are not extreme.) WWE production style, WWE wrestlers, WWE announce tables, and especially a WWE audience (a SmackDown! audience, no less) make a WWE show. And ECW should not be WWE. This guy sums it up pretty well.

So Vince, Armando has something to say: