Canuck in Minnesota? Well, here it is the beginning of 2006, its raining again, and there’s nothing on TV :-p

But I do have a bunch of new CDs on the player. At the moment is The White Stripes “Get Behind Me Satan”. I like the title, and so far the music is pretty good too. Did you know that the White Stripes are the only band (so far) to appear on Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show to perform? I got the CD from my brother-in-law for Christmas, and am just now sitting down to have a listen.

I also have a bunch of other new CDs to listen to today as well. Well, new for me anyway. We haven’t had much money the past few years to go buy up everything I’ve wanted, but I had a bunch of freebies with BMG after I ordered my club requirement, so decided to order a bunch before the holidays as a treat. In the player coming up after the White Stripes is Rob Zombie “Past Present and Future”, then The Cult, “Beyond Good and Evil” then Rammstein “Mutter” and finally David Bowie “Heathen”. Good thing I have a 5 disc carousel eh? ;-) I also got a few others, which I think are out in the car…Pearl Jam “rearview mirror”, Eric Clapton with BB King and for some reason, I can’t remember the other 2, but I know there are at least 2 more.

I don’t take nearly enough time to sit and listen to music anymore. Part of it is that I have yet to find a decent radio station around here to be able to keep up with new stuff, plus, I’m only in the car for 5 minutes at a time to and from work, and we’re in this strange bowl where we can’t get a very good signal anyhow. We need to get us a Serius satellite radio. I really miss Canadian music. I should check a few websites to see if the Tea Party or Tragically Hip have released anything new recently.

It’s a shame that my favourite Canadian bands have not really gained any popularity across the border, other than in close border towns. Sure, the Barenaked Ladies are ok, but they got backing from Jason Priestly and appeared on 90210. I’m fairly certain that if that hadn’t happened, they’d still just be a Toronto bar band. But they’re not the best thing to come out of Canada by far. How do some bands cross the border and others don’t? I don’t get it. Perhaps they don’t really want to. I guess I’ll never know, unless I could sit down and talk to Gord Downey or Jeff Martin personally. I’ll have my people call their people. ;-)

Speaking of border towns, I bet you’re wondering about the title of this post aren’t you? Well, I’ll get to it then. Last week James received a message that there are 2 Domino’s franchises available for take over. One is in Minnesota, and one is in Wisconsin. They’d both be turn-key, but one apparently needs a heavy duty overhaul that could be fairly cost prohibitive. The other is just take over the lease and start tossing pizzas. James would need to go take some franchiser training of some sort and write some exams and get financial backing to qualify. Both shops are obviously closer to the Canadian border than we are now, but still quite a drive back home. They’re closer to Manitoba really than Ontario, but maybe I could meet family somewhere in between for long weekends or whatever. If the Great Lakes weren’t in the way, the drive would be much shorter! There’s this in-land ocean called Superior tho…I’ll have to teach James how to drive in “real” snow that’s for sure!

Then of course there’s the whole owning your own business, never have a vacation, work your ass off 20 hours a day 7 days a week thing. And they’re both in tiny little towns two hours away from anywhere. What to do what to do? James is investigating to find out why the franchiser is giving them up, he figures it was a corporate take-over for non-compliance, which would explain the one shop that needs the overhaul. Well, it’ll be quite a while before we could possibly do anything anyway, but its something that we are considering. If they remain available while James takes all the training and we find a backer, we may just be moving to the mid-west. Or not.

Also something we want to do this year is go to a friend’s wedding in Scotland in May. Our friends’ Chris & Alison are planning to be married, and since I am partly responsible at least for them meeting, I really would like to attend. Cost is one thing we need to consider, plus getting vacation time. If I still have my job with the studio, I’m only eligible for one week vacation, but then I’m only working every other week anyway :-p and I do want a trip home sometime soon as well. James might be able to get the time off, but can I get him on a plane? He hates flying. I’d have to drug him. But then its not a direct flight from Charlotte, we’d have to connect in either New York, Newark or DC, which would mean if he’s drugged I’d have to drag him from plane to plane. No easy feat, he’s twice my size! Would hypnotism work do ya think? Plus we’d have to put the dogs in a kennel while we’re away. There are no kennels around here that I trust to take care of them properly. The one here in town I’ve heard doesn’t exercise the dogs, they just leave them in the cages all the time. That’s not right. :-( I don’t want to just leave them at home and have the pet-sitter come in once a day, they need more human interaction than that, they’re very sucky dogs and need lots of loving! *sigh* I suppose we’ll think of something, it’s a few months off yet.

Well, if I can convince my fat ass to get up off this chair today, I think I will try to organize my files a bit to get ready for tax season. This place is a total mess and I’m off this week, so I might as well be productive.  ¶ 11:39 AM