The news of the day...!

Okay, so I signed on another two sponsors today. Far Coast Coffee located one block west of Yonge and Bloor and Hairy Tarantula located one block south of Yonge and Gerrard.

To tell you a little bit about my encounter at the cool cats at Far Coast, I first started frequenting this place after having found out about it after winning a $50 gift certificate from the Leave the Pack Behind contest at Ryerson. I didn't really know what to expect but they I was impressed with the rustic feel of the place, and how meticulously well thought out this joint was in terms of being "green." Anyway, over time, I got to know a couple of the staff there, Aaron the Stats guy from UofT, Ryan the recent graduate from Ryerson's ITM program. Nas(?), the journalism graduate from Ryerson and Tara, the girl with one of the warmest smiles I've ever seen in my life. I have to say they kinda helped me in securing this sponsor, as I was chit-chatting with them for a bit, before I decided I wanted to speak to their store manager and get down to business.

I asked for his name from Aaron, to which he replied, "Mike." I nodded in acknowledgement, then scooted over along the counter to the gentleman who looked to be tabulating or organizing the store's receipts. As usual, I went into my pitch off the cuff, and he was receptive to it.

I shared with him my geeky passion of Transformers, and he reciprocated with some dialogue from Top Gun, the movie. It turns out he remembered the entire script. lol. I felt we bonded. I gave him my business proposal and my business card. He said he could hook me up with a bunch of gift certificates. Sweet and score! I thank him kindly, say bye to everyone and I'm back to work... 15 minutes on top of my 15 minute break. oops.. ;)

Next store I try, Indigo books. This was relatively quick and painless as they do their charitable donations through their corporate head office. Turns out the CEO, Heather Reisman has a WING named after her for her contributions to the Hospital for Sick Kids. lol. Damn.. I thank the manager that I talked to and leave with my tail between my legs.

Finally at the end of the day after work, I dropped by Hairy Tarantula and asked a gentleman by the name of Nina if I could speak to Leon and told him I'm a friend of Franz. I was told to wait about 20 minutes because he was coming back from their west end sister-store, HairyT West.

20 minutes pass, and there you have it, Leon shows up. He pretty much tells me to cut to chase as he was already primed by Franz. After telling him what I was using the money for he looks into himself says, "cool." Reaches down for a box, and as I'm wondering what he's doing, he cuts open the box and presents to me a box of the new Transformers 3D Battle-card game, which is presented by JUGGERNAUT.. the cat. The pictures tell the tale of the exchange.