Injured Kittens and Mind Blowing Chess

Davy Crockett and Basil engaged in fierce gladiatorial combat this morning and served as our alarm clocks. There's also this stray kitten that Jay's roommate took in after she saw it limping along the side of a busy road a couple days ago. It's got a dead hind leg that just drags along behind it as it walks. It's the most tragic thing I've ever seen. It doesn't appear to be in pain though, which is good. Anyways this damn cat frustratingly kept meowing loudly in our ears and climbing on us all morning. John totally looked like he was fantasizing about breaking its other leg - I could see it in his eyes which were twitching uncontrollably at the time.

After we woke up, we went downtown and got our bikes tuned up. I got my chain replaced, and John got a new rim because his was all cracked and worn. We then went to a famous restaurant called Hoito's which is a Finnish owned joint in the basement of some Scandinavian culture centre. It's quite famous for its delicious crepe-like pancakes. It was at this restaurant that John lost his buttermilk virginity. I warned him that it tasted pretty disgusting and sour, but he decided that he wanted to try it anyways. The waitress described it best: she said it tasted like watery sour cream. For some reason my mom loves the stuff.

After we got our bikes, we went down to the pier and checked out a few cultural centres. There was this one museum that talked about various grains and how at one point Thunder Bay was the biggest grain hub in North America. Who knew?

We then went to a little cafe called Calico's which is full of hipsters and hippies with dreadlocks. There was a communal chess board hidden away in the corner that somehow caught John's eye, and he taught me to play chess. I must say, I was a natural and won every single match. It was astonishing how successful I was at playing chess. John couldn't handle the level of strategy I dealt him, and he started convulsing due to my sheer levels awesomeness. A crowd quickly formed around me as I moved the pawns forward  and cheered loudly at my shoulders. One lady had a heart attack, and some hipster's head exploded into a huge number of pieces (a number so high you've probably never heard of it).

We then met Jay at Kelsey's for dinner. After that we tried hunting down some Persians. No no, not the people - it's a type of pastry. It's kind of like a cinnamon bun/donut hybrid that has a weird strawberry icing on top. Thunder Bay is famous for them. Unfortunately we couldn't find any because they were all sold out. We'll grab some on our way out tomorrow.

John and I then caught a flick at the Famous Players. They still call them Famous Players here in Thunder Bay despite the fact that Famous Players was bought out by Cineplex a while back. The film we saw was called Moonrise Kingdom and was a highly stylized, slapstick caricature of small-town American in the mid 1960s. The two main kid actors had great chemistry and the director successfully captured that childhood romantic awakening that we all tend to reflect nostalgically upon. Maybe I just speak for myself. I loved it. John did too.

We got back and watched the latest episode of Breaking Bad. It's the best show on television, so make sure you check it out if you don't already. What an interesting season this one's looking to be. I am really excited and antsy for more.

Sleep now, cycle tomorrow. Rinse, repeat.