"But this... does put a smile on my face."

My wonderful fiancée Karli is taking me to see Avengers: Infinity War in IMAX 3D tonight! Take THAT, May the Fourth!!

- Sid

"We serve all kinds in here."

After checking out a possible wedding party venue on Wednesday night, Karli and I decided to have dinner at the nearby Storm Crow - she's fond of their tater tots, and I'm just always happy to go to the Crow, I just feel at home there.

As it turned out, Wednesday night is Trivia Night at the Storm Crow, and as such the place began to fill up quickly.  We were seated at one end of a table for six, and a look-alike for actor Jon Heder was seated on his own at the far end.

Shortly after we placed our dinner order, Jon was joined by two women.  The sort of casual awareness that you have of other conversations nearby made it evident that they'd agreed to sit at our table to help fill in empty space in the bar, and they had a friend on the way to fill the last empty seat.

The three of them struck up a conversation, and I have to admit that I was sort of pleased for the guy there alone for trivia night who was doing his best to make a connection with someone.

At this point, the friend arrived, a blonde woman with a grey toque and a condescending smile.  I wish I'd found a way to sneak a photo, but that would have been a bit much - maybe just imagine a shorter version of Regina George from Mean Girls.  In a hat.

Regina was the poster girl for not being engaged.  She was turned away from the conversation to the point where she was facing me more than her friends, and kept looking down at the menu and smirking.

As Karli and I were finishing up and getting ready to leave - we're not big trivia fans, although it's possible that I might do well at Storm Crow Trivia Night - Jon finished making a Dungeons and Dragons dice roll joke and excused himself to visit the men's room.

The second he was gone, Regina suddenly turned her attention to her friends.

"Ohmygod, you're so funny.  I can't believe how interested you sounded when he was describing that stupid game.  'Unh huh, yes...'  My god, you're SO funny!"

I have no idea how your friend responded, because I was overwhelmed by the urge to lean over and say, "Hi there!  I couldn't help but overhear what you said - guess what, you came to the wrong bar."

Of course, my urge never made it past the original impulse, what kind of Canadian would I be if I started doing things like that in bars?  But really, if you're going to go to a venue which is decorated with battleaxes and rayguns, has a TARDIS in the back and a 10 foot wide Millennium Falcon over the entrance, not to mention a Star Trek themed drink menu and a beer named after Great Cthulhu, maybe don't make fun of the fact that the person beside you is talking about Dungeons and Dragons. In fact, I feel that the whole reason for having a bar like the Storm Crow is to provide a gathering place for people who want to talk about things like D and D without being mocked.  Full points to your friend for showing interest and attention - and I'm sorry, but you really were in the wrong bar.

- Sid

P.S.  Full disclosure:  I've never seen Mean Girls, due to my standard movie requirement of aliens and explosions (or elves and magic).  That being said, after reading the quotes from the characters on IMDB, it might well qualify under the "aliens" category.

Aussi disponsible en français.

I would like to express my ongoing appreciation for the strong social media game demonstrated by the federal government of Canada, as demonstrated by today's tweet from the National Research Council.

That being said, I have to admit that the release of Wolverine's Canadian military service record by Stats Canada is still my favourite - not to mention the Transport Canada announcement for May the Fourth last year.

Oh, and in compliance with the Official Languages Act of 1969, the French version of the NRC tweet can be found at https://twitter.com/CNRC_NRC/status/980420802297425920

  - Sid