There’s been something very familiar, this weekend.

We made a surprise (and lightning-fast) trip home, to Winnipeg! Mrs. That Dan Guy had to come here for our work, and we decided not to tell anybody – just surprise both our families.

Which is a risky proposition, on a weekend. Unlike us, people go out and do things on a weekend. We knew we were taking chances, but by and large, we were pretty successful.
We did miss some people, but we’ll be back, so we can catch them on the flip side.

The first person to get a visit out-of-the-blue was my old buddy, and anti-James Blunt crusader argy.ca. With my new semi-bald style, he didn’t immediately recognize me, until I went straight for some collectible comics, with my greasy fingers. It all came back after that!

From there, we went to MTDG’s sister’s home, where we tried to find out if they’d be home, without giving away that we were already in town. I think we tried to suggest to them (via a cryptic text message) that we had something we needed to talk about, and asked if they were going to be home that night.

Well, we had forgotten to remember that Friday night is Bingo-Mania in Winnipeg, so we had to hustle over, so as to catch them by surprise. As we were pulling up to the house, on our niecettes was vamoosing, to get a really good seat at the Bingo Pavilion. We honked our horn, but she just waved a bingo dabber at us, as her cab sped away…

So, we went to the door of the home, where we did indeed surprise MTDG’s S&H, plus the remaining niecette, who was preparing to go see one of those fancy-pants music concerts we hear so much about. So, our surprise was at the cost of seeing all of them, but we did have a hoot with the remaining group, who decided to pass on Bingo, and visit. A good time had by all…

Yesterday, we surprised MY parents and family, almost causing a cardiac incident when I tiptoes up behind my mother, as they were returning from some running around. She also didn’t recognize me, with my giant baldness, and a couple of extra pounds that somehow snuck on over the summer…

From the old family home, we called up my sisters, who were able to come over, but not my other niecette, who was working. So, at the cost of the element of surprise, we missed her as well.

But, we’ll be back…

Aside from that, I had a chance to walk around downtown Winnipeg, which has changed a bit since our last visit. I walked up past the downtown library, and the new arena, (Large Western Canadian Telephone Company) Centre. Walked up past the Burton Cummings Theatre, and into the Exchange District, where I found Red River Bookstore, still open after all these years. Don’t tell MTDG, but I was able to pick up a couple of titles I’ve been looking for…

Chow for now!!