Well I’ll return you to the ongoing written soap opera that has become my life at times in this column. I travelled south of the border to Minneapolis with the ladyfriend over the weekend, playing hookie on Friday from work (don’t tell my boss) and returning late Sunday night, so here’s a few thoughts I had whilst on the nine-hour trek each way. We’ll get all the negatives out of the way right off the hop. We went to watch the ladyfriend’s old hockey team play twice at the University of Minnesota and were rewarded with a goal for every hour we drove; unfortunately the two-game total was 18-0 and not in our favour (we showed up but I can’t say the same for the lady’s old squad). Also, we opted to rent a hotel room when we got down there and were rewarded with towels and bed sheets that were yellowed (mommy always said to plan ahead). Aside from that, it twas a great weekend. The Albertville Outlet Mall gave us a few good deals (and a subsequent $450 Visa charge), the Mall of America’s mirror maze caused me to run into a total of three mirrors while the lady later explained she was smart enough to walk around with her hands extended so they’d hit the mirrors first (the common sense approach was once again missed out on by the male gender), and the nice waitress at Denny’s gave me two extra pieces of bacon with my meal (life can’t get any better). As for the big messup that I seem to have weekly, unfortunately (for you, not me) I escaped the weekend with my most embarrassing moment only being that I walked into the women’s washroom inadvertently and to the shock of a couple patrons (but we’ve all done that...right). News thoughts In the miraculous of the week, a woman from Phoenix did the seemingly impossible and survived an ‘internal decapitation’. A car accident fully separated her skull from her spine. While internal decapitation typically results in paralysis or death, this woman underwent six surgeries and extensive physical therapy and is already walking and talking again (I can hear the song “I believe in miracles” playing in the background). In the weird category, after getting tests done as part of a joke, a Rogue Brewmaster has discovered his beard follicles contain the yeast strain needed to produce a beer brew. As a result, the ‘beard yeast’ is (reportedly) currently being tested to determine the ‘perfect’ style and yeast combo, and the beard beer (apparently being named New Crustacean), is expected for release in 2013 (yummy!)(hopefully they have to advertise the ingredients). I bought NHL 2013 for Playstation 3 last week, with the video game being coined as the most realistic NHL game yet. Since there is no NHL hockey being played at the moment I would have to say that ‘realism’ claim is incorrect, but at least the Maple Leafs are second-last in my simulation league so I can only imagine that’d be pretty realistic if there was hockey being played (relatedly, I saw Phil Kessel’s little sister playing at the Uni. of Minnesota over the weekend and she put up some big points). Remember a few weeks back when I told you all to Youtube ‘Gangnam Style’? Well it appears my readership must be large (or more likely I just browsed the video at the right time) as it has become the most-liked Youtube video in history, and is rapidly closing in on the title of most-viewed video ever, as it already has over 330 million views. The most-viewed Youtube video of all-time is (Bieber fever alert) Justin Bieber’s ‘Baby’ with 783 millions views and third on the list is Carly Rae Jepsen’s ‘Call Me Maybe’ (what an outstanding list). The negative story related to this - a few lifeguards in California created their own parody of the ‘Gangnam Style’ video, and were fired because they did so at their place of employment (no fun allowed). For this week’s recommended Youtube video check out “Amazing mind reader reveals his gift” (and then deactivate your Facebook account). Anyways, until next week, keep a smile on your face and I’ll do the same.