It's all good...

I thought I'd maybe show up for work today. Heck, they didn't even know I was gone for the past week. Instead I did the Costco run for tonight's party and did a swim at LA fitness. By the time I finished the swim and then sat in the hot tub for 20 minutes I felt done. I was going into tonight's party with the gang tired and on edge. Alice was the same.

A little after 5 pm Bob, the fireman brother from another mother from Windsor showed up. It was so great to finally meet him. Bob is the guy that doesn't comment often on the blog but when he does it's brilliance. Tombs of wisdom.

It's interesting to meet a blog or twitter guy for the first time. You have this great relationship online and in a way you're not sure if meeting in person will fuck it up. Bob was one of those guys that exceeded your expectations. He showed up and I was thinking.......what did I do to deserve such an awesome guy to want to visit the House of Payne. He's the real deal.

It was funny, as the night went on, the kids actually joined us downstairs at one point. That's rare with other people around. I've always joked to Reid that he had an older brother named Robert. Alice had a miscarriage before Reid. I told Reid that she flushed Robert, his older brother down the toilet. At times I'll ask Reid, "what would Robert do?"

When I met Bobbie, I realized this is what Robert would look and be like. He was my miscarriaged son. I told Reid and Alyssa that this was their brother Robert. Both looked at him, saw him and thought that would be cool to have him as a brother. Bob was trying to tell me that he was only 4 years younger than me and I really couldn't be his dad. I was having no part of it....Robert.

After all was said and done and I was calling Bob Robert, I eventually realized that Bob and Robert where the same name. Doh.

Simon has driven me crazy since Ironman China. Telling me that he kicked my ass at drinking then and will now. That my beer is crap light beer. All in fun and it drives me crazy. I guess I'm competitive and take my beer drinking seriously. Tonight I wanted to put it all to bed once and for all. It would be too painful to go another year of being harassed on twitter. First thing I started to do was photograph ever beer I drank and then post to twitter.

I started at least a couple hours before Simon. When Simon and family showed up I started doing the same thing with his beers, I took a photo. By the time he arrived I was already feeling NO pain. I probably had about 8 half litre glasses of beer. Maybe more.

I was still sober enough to make sure I have his sons Seb & Sid some gifts from Uncle Bryan. I think I may know what it's going to be like to be a grand parent. I spent about an hour in the store looking at stuff to buy them. It took a while, there was so much I wanted to get them but had to narrow it down. I bought a gift bag and in the bag was a Transformer toy, a big bag of assorted chocolate bars, juicy fruit gum and one had a Canadian flag and the other had Canada tattoo stickers.

It was awesome watching them look at it all. I helped them open the bag of chocolate and then watched them open the little boxes as they were in between games on the pinball machine. One asked me where the trash was I told him not to worry, just throw it on the floor. Which he did and he couldn't stop laughing and thinking that was cool. Both of them loved the pinball and slot machine. Reid also took them to jump on the trampoline and do a little skateboarding. They seemed to be having a blast.

In one of my drunken moments I had to fix the slot machine. One of the coins got stuck and I think Sid told me. I fixed it and he asked what was the matter. I told him to go tell his mom and dad that "one of the fucken coins was stuck", make sure they know it was "the fucken coin". I'm a total bad influence on kids. Shilpa was surprised with what he said and before she could give heck to Sid, I think Alice may have told her it's not his fault it's that big kid over there's fault. She was a good sport about it and I apologized half heatedly. I love those two little guys, they are so damn cute.

Before John Proc came today I was telling Bob and Ian about John wearing his finishers medal after Ironman Lake Placid and telling me that he planned on wearing it the entire week where ever he goes. To work, to the store, where ever. I even teased him that he'd be having sex with it on and I got the feeling he seriously had no problem with that. John told me that last year after he finished his first 70.3 half Ironman that he wore his Muskoka medal the entire week to work. That it fostered a lot of conversation.

I think it's cool and takes extremely big balls to do that. I love it. So in honour of John I decided to find my 9 Ironman finishers medals and wear them around my next. I thought it would be funny when he shows up and he has his one medal and I'm binged out with 9 finishers medals. Unfortunately I could only find 7 Ironman finishers medals. I forgot that Alyssa must have lost two of them when she was a little girl. She probably left them in a park sandbox or something. They were my finishers medals from Ironman Canada (87 & 91).

When John came it I wished I could have captured the look on his face when he saw my medals. It was like he had a major doze of "Medal Envy". I'm sure tomorrow when he's back at work he'll be showing off his medal he's glad I don't work in the same company or attend the same meetings. John would have his one medal and I'd have my 9. That would be a classic moment in work history.

The second guy to show up to the party was Ian (@pedalmanTO). I told him to come earlier. He has a meeting tomorrow with his boss at 7:30 am and wouldn't be able to stay long and had to catch the Go Train back to Toronto. I'm glad he came early it gave us some time to talk. Like Bob, I've never met Ian face to face. I've spoken to him on the phone, twittered and only exchanged emails with him. Turns out he's a great guy face to face as well and I got to learn a little more about him. I didn't realize that at one time he was a Category One cyclist. That's the highest calibre in cycling. He's also did triathlons over 20 years ago and is no training for his first in a long, long time. The Muskoka 70.3 in September. One thing he did and he shouldn't have was bring me some beautiful cigars. One day we are going to have to smoke them together.

It was also nice to see Doru. I haven't seen him since my Kona party. As always Doru is Doru. An honest guy who you can trust with your life and is kind to all. It was nice to finally hook up and I was surprised to see that he even went home at a reasonable time. Miha was there to drive and normally Doru stays till the end and told me he'd have to leave earlier. I was totally cool with that, actually I was impressed with the self-control and consideration. I don't know if I could do that. Just showed me that he's in control and on track. On an Ironman front, Doru and Miha have signed up for Ironman Mon Tremblant next year. So is Fran and John and I can't remember if Carlos and Fernanda are doing it. Either way, there will be a good sized group of them going.

Carlos and Fernanda came as well. It's always great to see them. Carlos is one of the nicest guys ever. They told me that they are doing Ironman Brazil in 2013 and wanted to know who wanted to do it with them. I said I'm in if they could guarantee my safety from not getting kidnapped. They said where we are going is safe and shouldn't be a problem. It's not in Rio or San Paulo. I'm very serious about wanting to maybe go with them. I just have to convince Alice. I need to convince her to go to Malaysia and now Brazil. She's not a fan of any food that isn't normal western food.

It was also great to see John and Heather again. John's a true friend. He was so pumped that we were able to pick up an Ironman street light for him from Lake Placid. He loved mine and always wanted one. He was like a kid in a candy store. He's also looking pretty fit and I think he's on the bubble about doing Steelhead with us. I hope he decides to do it. After talking with Bob, I think myself, Al and the boys are going to stop by Bobbies place on our way home from Michigan and have a beer or more.

I did the typical Captain's hats head shots. One day I'm going to do a photo book and put everyones picture who has worn the captains hat into the book.

As the night went on it whittle down to a small group of the hard core, Simon, me & Alice and kids, Bob & John Proc & Fran. Bob tapped out around 4 am and I can't remember when John left. I do remember Simon bringing three Montecristo Number 2's, one for me, Reid and him and the three of us sat around the bar and smoked them. Reid loved it. Simon was funny when he said, "I'm not 100% behind your parenting style with allowing your 14 year old to smoke cigars, but if you're good with him smoking a cigar, I got him one too".

At one point in the night the beer bong came out. Simon knew how to play me like a fiddle. He didn't pull from it but he was able to convince me to "show him" twice before Alice took it away and banished it to a place that she says I'll never find it or see it again. Using that thing is like mainlining beer right to the brain.

It was one, if not the latest night at the Pig & Whistle. It was a Matty O night. I remember the sun was up when I started to fall asleep with my head down on the bar. I think Simon watched me sleep on the railing of the bar and I'm sure he was laughing. I'm glad he was able to make it down to the Pig & Whistle and meet all the other twitter and blog buddies. It's amazing how great everyone is and how well everyone just hit it off. We are all definitely birds of a feather.

By the end of the night, from photo's only, I drank 6 litre's of beer. Not counting the beer bong or glasses of beer that I drank that I forgot to photograph. I also think I got more beer given to me as a gift than I have in my kegerator. One awesome impromptu gift I got was from Bob, it was his baseball style fireman's cap. It is very cool. It's now going to be a permanent addition to the Pig & Whistle. The only casualty we had was Carlo's broken wine glass on the pool table. It's not a good party until someone breaks something.

Easy Swim - 44:56 / 2011 meters