Five Guys – Grant Crossing
5517 Hazeldean Rd Bldg C2 Unit 6
Stittsville, ON K2S 0P5
Phone: 613-836-1800
Hours: 11am-10pm Every Day

Five Guys – Barrhaven
1181 Greenbank Road
Nepean, ON K2J 4Y6
Phone: 613-823-0093
Hours: 11am-10pm Every Day

Five Guys – Trainyard
525 Industrial Blvd.
Ottawa, ON K1G 3S2
Phone: 613-562-8119
Hours: 11am-10pm Every Day

Five Guys – Orleans
Coming Soon!
3732 Innes Road
Orleans, ON K1W 0C8
Hours: 11am-10pm Every Day

I had originally gone to the Five Guys Trainyard location on a Thursday evening around 7:00 PM and I didn’t even go inside after looking in and seeing the place was packed with no room to sit.  A few days later, on a Sunday we went to the Five Guys location on Hazeldean.  This time we went early showing up 10 minutes after opening.  Luckily we were the first ones there although by the time we had sat down people starting flowing in.  We ordered 1 regular order of Cajun style fries.  One regular hamburger fully loaded.  One little cheeseburger and one regular drink.  There is free refills on drinks!

There are no trays for eating in, everything comes packed in a paper bag, ostensibly this practice originates from when they were only a take-out place.  The grease starts soaking through the bag the almost the second they pack the food in it.  This is mostly due to the fact that they place the burgers and container of fries in the bag and then dump more fries over everything.  My advice if you’re planning on picking up take-out at Five Guys is bring a plastic bag with you to put your food in or else it could get a little messy in the car.  The Five Guys burgers come tightly wrapped in tin foil which is good.  Be prepared for some finger licking goodness but beware, it’s going to be messy!  The Cajun style fries are super tasty, no extra salt required.  I’ve never tried the regular fries but after having the Five Guys Cajun style fries I don’t think I would bother trying the regular ones.  The Five Guys regular burger has two patties whereas the little Five Guys burger only has one patty.  Our order for 2 burgers, 1 fry, 1 drink came to roughly $18 which is only slighter higher than a combo at decent fast food burger joints like A&W.  Seating is cafeteria style and thankfully the Five Guys Hazeldean location is a bit larger and doesn’t have tables crammed quite as close together as at the Trainyard.

If you’re looking to go for a burger in Ottawa that still qualifies as fast food but better and you don’t mind a bit of a messy burger than I definitely recommend Five Guys!

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site

• Two photographers
• 8-10 hours of wedding day coverage
• Engagement Shoot – 1 hour (ours went for 2 hours)
• 11×14 30-pages personalized photobook (1)
• 12 x 18 enlargement 2
• 20 x 30 enlargement 1
• Full resolution DVD 1
• Total price: $1,825

We had our initial meeting with AliphAurMeem which was pleasant and we discussed all the details, everything was in order so we signed a contract with them.  The first order of business was the Engagement shoot which we ended up doing around the end of May 2010.  We went out for 2 hours and took tons of photos.  When that was all said and done we were looking to get the Engagement shoot photos prior to the wedding as we wanted to make use of a few photos at the reception.  When we asked AliphAurMeem about this they advised they would be able to get a few of the photos to us.  We received an email with a download link just shy of a month and a half after the Engagement shoot for 14 pictures.

Of course the next big thing was the wedding itself and correspondence leading up to that special day happened in a timely fashion.  No complaints regarding photography on the wedding day.  Lot’s of photos were taken and there were no issues in scheduling or locations etc.

After the wedding we were advised by AliphAurMeem that it could take up to 4 to 8 weeks to get our photos.  We had checked with some of our friends and relatives that were also recently wed and they had received their wedding photos within 4 to 6 weeks so that seemed fairly standard.  Time started to go by and we hadn’t heard anything back from AliphAurMeem so at 10 weeks I sent them an email requesting what the status of our photos were and when we might receive them.  I didn’t get a reply to my first email so at 11.5 weeks I sent them another email requesting the same information.  At that point I received a reply advising “We’re running a bit behind in our editing. We’ll be in touch as soon as the pictures are ready for download. “  Given that it was already 3 months since the wedding we were a bit surprised that we were going to have to wait even longer.  3 weeks later we received an email advising that our preview pictures were available for download and a link to download the photos.  We downloaded all the photos which were watermarked versions and looked at them all.  The following day I sent an email back to AliphAurMeem advising we had downloaded and viewed the photos and everything looked good.  More time passed and we never heard back from AliphAurMeem.

Now I have to admit that we’re pretty patient people and perhaps in this particular situation we were a bit too generous.  I don’t like to be the guy constantly hounding someone to get something done, unfortunately I think that’s going to change.  When someone provides you a service, one that you pay a lot of money for it should be their responsibility to follow through on that service and communicate with you, provide you updates and information etc.  After all, it only takes 30 seconds to pound out a 1 line email and hit send.

So at the beginning of January 2011, almost 24 weeks after the wedding I sent AliphAurMeem the following email:

“Happy New Year, hope you are both doing well.

In 6 days it’ll have been 6 months from the date of our wedding.  We can appreciate how much work is involved in the editing and touching up of hundreds of photos if not more however I think we’ve been fair in the amount of patience we’ve exercised while waiting for our wedding pictures! 6 months seems like an unreasonably long time to wait.  I’ll be honest in saying we’re disappointed that we haven’t yet received the final product yet.

At this point if the pictures are edited and done and on DVD’s ready to go we’re willing to take those and forget about the coffee table book, enlargements, and any other printing included in the package, those are things we can easily do on our own in no time at all.

Please let us know when we can pick up our photos.”

The same day I received the following replies:

1. “I am extremely sorry. I was under the impression that your pictures were edited and sent. Let me figure out what went on and I’ll take care of it.”
2. “From the email below it seems that you had received the preview pictures back in early November. Your contract includes 3 enlargements and one 11×14 30-page photobook. The reason we send the preview pictures is so you can make your selections and let us know which pictures you’d want. Our apologies if this wasn’t clear. For the photobook, if you will not be making any selections, we can design and send you a preview by tonight and you can then decide to proceed with it.”

I emailed them back the following:

“It’s true that you did send us the download link for our preview pictures back in early November.  We had also downloaded and reviewed them and replied to you as is noted below.  We unfortunately didn’t receive any instructions regarding selecting photos and were not aware anything had to be done on our part while we were waiting the past three months.  We would have appreciated a follow up email.  When I read over our previous email correspondence in retrospect my reply to you regarding the preview pictures must have seemed odd as I had not made any selections yet I didn’t receive a reply advising at that time what I needed to do. At any rate, confusion aside we will have to sit down tonight and take a look. We will email you back with our selected photos and what they are for.”

At any rate the emails went back and forth and within a couple more weeks we were advised that the photobook had gone to the printers and the enlargements were ready to be picked up at GPC Labworks on Bank St.  The photobook and the DVD with our photos were mailed to us.  At this point AliphAurMeem requested their final $500 payment which we promptly paid.  The enlargements I had to pick up myself and when I did go pick them up I only received 1 of the 12 x 18 enlargements and the 20 x 30 enlargement.  I didn’t even bother discussing that with AliphAurMeem, we had waited so long we just wanted it to be over and done with.  That aside I can get the same quality of prints at Costco for a few dollars.  When we received the DVD with our wedding photos on it we noticed the Engagement shoot photos weren’t included so I emailed them back advising of this and they mailed me another DVD.  We were surprised that there were only the 14 photos on the DVD that we had originally downloaded prior to the wedding.  I don’t understand how we could go on a 2 hour photo shoot and take so many photos only to end up with 14.  I sent them a polite email inquiring into what happened with all of the other photos that were taken which was my last email to them.  I never heard back from AliphAurMeem which was no surprise.

In the end my wife and I were quite disappointed having to wait over 6 months to get our wedding photos.  How AliphAurMeem could just forget about us for so long even given the fact we still owed them a final payment of $500 on delivery amazes me.  I really wonder if I had never sent followup emails to them how much more time would have passed before they figured it out on their own.  I would love to have the rest of our missing engagement shoot photos but I suppose they were deleted for whatever reason.  I’ve definitely learned from this experience and in the future when I use “professional” photography services again I will make sure of few things.  I’ll decline any printing services, I can do all that on my own much faster.  I won’t require any photo editing, I always have the latest version of Photoshop and editing photos is easy.  These days with digital cameras being used by professional photographers they’re just capturing data.  Data is easily copied and transferred to different media.  I’ll make their lives so simple, just take ALL the data you captured write it to DVD and provide it to me.  That shouldn’t take any longer than an hour!

That’s my recount of our experience with AliphAurMeem.  The photos they took that we did receive are very nice.  They seem like nice people and I think they have a good thing going for them.  They were also apologetic for the mishap.  The only recommendations I would make is much better communication, followup with clients it shouldn’t be the other way around, deliver in a timely fashion, deliver all photos.

[Update] We received a DVD in the mail with all our engagement shoot photos after this post was read. The enlargement print that was missing was done as well. [/Update]

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site

I definitely can’t speak to all Settlement Conferences that are held but I can speak to my own experience of a Settlement Conference, the first one I ever attended. Hopefully this will help others in what to expect although outcomes will vary depending on the Judge presiding over the Settlement Conference.

I was taken to Small Claims Court by a Company here in Ottawa. Both I and them attended the Settlement Conference self represented. Their claim was that I owed them thousands after resigning for cost of training. In the employment contract there was nothing stipulated regarding remuneration for training and therefore the issue was the contract.

At the beginning of the Settlement Conference we were graced by a monologue by the Judge which went on at length. For the words that came out of their mouth it was obvious they were narcissistic in nature. The Judge went on about how many cases they had worked on and how intelligent they were ad nauseam.

Before I describe what happened next I should define what should happen in a Settlement Conference. The whole point is that the Judge will mediate and both parties or their representatives must openly and frankly discuss the issues in dispute. This way the issues of the claims can be narrowed and hopefully resolved. The Judge will encourage the settlement of the claims and assist the parties in preparation for trial if need be. There should also be full disclosure between the parties of relevant facts and evidence. Settling doesn’t mean that the Plaintiff always wins, the settlement should be in favour of whomever the law deems just, based on the issue at hand.

What actually transpired in the Settlement Conference I attended didn’t come close to meeting any of the previously mentioned points. Once the Judge concluded their wonderful monologue they began to question the Plaintiff in such a manner as to make it appear that I should settle in their favour. This went on for roughly 15 minutes. At one point the Plaintiff attempted to speak directly to me but was cut off by the Judge and advised that everything goes through them. Having said that there was no direct discussion allowed between myself and the Plaintiff. It was obvious to me that by the questions the Judge was asking the Plaintiff and by the comments that were said that they hadn’t read my defence at all. Once the Judge started asking me questions which were very few it became clear that this Settlement Conference was going to be a waste of time.

Since the entire claim hinged on the employment contract once I stated that I had issues with the contract the Judge cut me off and pushed it to trial. The Judge didn’t even let me finish and then berated me for not settling and lectured me on how unpleasant court is with all it’s niceties and expenses etc. I was advised in so many words that the issue with the contract was going nowhere and I would most certainly lose in trial and how I should heed what the Judge was saying. There was no preparation for trial whatsoever, the evidence with all the facts wasn’t even reviewed.

If you read up on various lawyers websites regarding Settlement Conferences you will assuredly come across this tidbit of information: “The opinion of the Judge should be given serious consideration in determining whether to continue or resolve the claim.” Do NOT take this statement at face value. Granted if the Judge “mediating” the Settlement Conference has advised and provided an opinion based solely on the facts and evidence presented by both parties then I would agree that their opinion should be considered. In my case the only serious consideration I gave the Judge’s opinion was whether they should even be presiding over a Settlement Conference in the first place. A Judge that doesn’t even look at the facts or read the Defendants defence…classic.

And so the Plaintiff paid the fee and requested a trial date which was set for 6 months after the Settlement Conference. I was notified via mail by the Court about a month and a half in advance. The Plaintiff had taken the Judge’s opinion seriously and this was to be their downfall. Prior to the trial I served the Plaintiff with a motion to settle, my offer was that the claim be dismissed. They never responded and therefore my offer was not accepted. On the day of the trial the Plaintiff was approached twice with an offer to settle with the claim being dismissed. They were also advised as to why legally they couldn’t win and that they should settle. They were so confidant that they were going to win they rejected any offers to dismiss the claim.

The Plaintiff didn’t know much if anything regarding contract law so I can only surmise their steadfastness was based on what the Judge said in our Settlement Conference. Sadly for the Plaintiff walking into that courtroom for trial cost them thousands more. I won the trial and the Judge didn’t even need to hear closing statements from my side. I was awarded costs and I actually made money off this whole debacle.

So this all goes back to the Settlement Conference where realistically had the Judge actually mediated the issue at hand this would have been dismissed saving the Plaintiff thousands. Instead the Judge’s advice was a disservice to both parties providing the Plaintiff with false confidence and belittling me. Thankfully I’m not a complete pushover.

Unless you have friends who are lawyers you probably won’t hear much if anything at all regarding how Settlement Conferences actually transpire. Even then a lot of lawyers might be reluctant to discuss how effective Settlement Conferences really are. However what I found out is that what happened to me is not uncommon at a Settlement Conference, especially when you’re self represented. Certain Judges will strong arm you into settling without looking at all the facts and evidence. In fact the Judge that “mediated” the Settlement Conference I attended is known in the legal community for taking a position on an issue quite quickly without all the facts.

The trick then is if you’re representing yourself how do you deal with such a Judge at a Settlement Conference. If the Judge is taking a strong position against you and you want to get them to listen to what you have to say without cutting you off you’ll need to take an indirect approach. In other words you’ll need to “lead” the Judge to what they should already be aware of. In my case if I had spoken to how I’d be happy to settle and to do so I would just need to have the Plaintiff point out a couple of items in the contract then I might have had more success at getting the claim eventually dismissed at the Settlement Conference. Obviously it shouldn’t be necessary to play games just to get the Judge to listen to you but sadly it would appear to be necessary in some cases. If you don’t at least provide the appearance of wanting to settle regardless of in who’s favour you’ll most likely get shut down by the Judge.

I could only hope that what transpired at my Settlement Conference was an isolated incident and that it’s not par for the course however I somehow doubt that. Don’t assume that the Judge at your Settlement Conference has clearly read over all the facts and evidence. Be prepared to pleasantly and politely educate the Judge about the facts and evidence. Make it clear that you want to settle, that’s what the Judge wants to hear. You don’t have to elude to the fact yet that you want to settle in your favour even if you are legally entitled. I found being directly honest and blunt will get you nowhere.

To all those who will be self representing themselves, good luck at your Settlement Conference!

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site

I must say it’s very tempting to speed in the HOV lane with no one in front of you.  Even better is the fact that the HOV lane dumps into the fast lane when you hit Bayshore.  There were two OPP cars waiting for offenders off to the left of the HOV lane, thankfully they weren’t looking for speeders this time around as I would have been found very guilty.  They were checking to make sure there were at least two people in the car.  The first OPP car was situated around the Eagleson underpass on the left.  The next OPP car was situated hidden behind a large POST just before the Moodie exit.

I did find it funny while listening to the radio on the drive in and they were talking about the HOV lane and that traffic was moving well from Kanata to Merivale and it was because the HOV lane was open.  That was a bit of misinformation…if traffic was moving well it wasn’t because the HOV lane was open as next to no one was driving in it.  At any rate it’s interesting to see if more people will start using it.  I didn’t even know it was in the works so it was a bit of a surprise.

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site

I went out to Golden Tire this morning arriving there at 8:45 AM.  I told them I would like to get a set of the Falken ZE-912 tires put on my existing rims in the size I needed.  He told me he had them which I expected since I had already called to confirm.  So they put my car up on the hoist and took off my wheels deflating the existing tires and started to remove them.  It was only at this point that they went to get the tires I had asked for and told me they didn’t have them.  They offered me the Falken 512 tires instead which aren’t as good as the ZE-912.  They also told me they had a Nankang snow tire in the right size.  He also tried to sell me a tire in the size of 205/40/R16 telling me it was the same.  I told him it wasn’t the same and it would throw the speedometer off.  He eventually conceded that I was right.

I finally agreed to get the Nankang snow tires instead and when I asked the price I was told it was $500 for everything.  So I stated that I had been quoted $360 for everything for the all seasons.  Even though this was the same guy that I had spoken with previously on the phone he told me no way it was $360 for the all season tires.  Even after arguing with him he wouldn’t admit what he had told me on the phone.

It took these guys 2 hours straight to get the tires off my rims and put the new ones on and install and balance them.  It was obvious from watching the guy doing the work that he wasn’t even a certified mechanic.  He tried 5 times to mount the new tire on the rim and finally another guy had to come and help him.   After driving home and experiencing wheel shake the whole way it was clear that they hadn’t balanced the tires correctly.  I also checked the pressure in the tires and they were all different ranging from 33 to 37 PSI in each tire.  Even worse was the fact that these guys trashed my rims as well.  Each rim had been scratched, gouged and nicked by Golden Tire during their installation.

I had to go elsewhere to have the tires balanced properly by a professional and sure enough once that was done the wheel shake was gone and it was a smooth ride.  Out of principal I should have gone back to Golden Tire and had them re-balance the tires free of charge.  However, given the amount of damage they incurred and the fact that they weren’t able to balance my tires properly the first time going back would have been nothing less then a hassle and a waste of my time.

Needless to say I’m pissed off and am never going back there again.  If you’re thinking about going to Golden Tire I don’t recommend them AT ALL.  It may be a good deal on tires but not worth the damage to your rims and worse case your car.   In my experience with them they are definitely not honest nor do they do good work.  They’re sloppy and careless which will only cost you more money in end.  Do business with a more reputable company instead and forget about Golden Tire.

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site

Young Drivers of Canada (Ottawa) requires that you use your own personal vehicle (car) for teaching others how to drive.  In my case I was teaching Standard in my very own $45,000 car that was only a year old.  It was the nicest “Young Drivers of Canada” car on the road in Ottawa.  Either way, expensive or cheap the end result is the same, your car gets destroyed and you pay for it!  Certain methods that Young Drivers of Canada requires you to teach as an instructor are all designed for automatic vehicles.  Due to this there is extensive wear and tear on the vehicle when you’re teaching Standard.  Note that Standard instructors are not paid more money to compensate for this fact.

For all those who drive Standard out there, imagine this.  Over the course of six months 250+ new drivers have driven your car for 12+ hours each.  They have ridden the clutch extensively, burnt the clutch, dropped the clutch, stalled the vehicle dozens of times in one lesson and then there’s the shifting.  Perfecting a smooth down-shift is an art, especially when you’re doing it to accelerate.  Accidental down-shifting is downright idiotic and causes massive damage to the clutch and flywheel.  I had various students that would accelerate out of second gear and slam the shifter back into first and then drop the clutch like it burnt their foot.  For anyone who has never experienced this…DON’T.  Allow me to describe it to you: The car lurches hard enough that you’re thrown forward, tires squeal, and the engine revs high.  If that wasn’t bad enough you’ve now drastically dropped speed without hitting the brakes confusing the car that is tailgating you.  (Ottawa drivers love to tailgate Driver Instruction vehicles).  A mistake like this at the wrong time could cost you your car if not your life.  The thing that amazed me is that certain students would repeatedly make this mistake.  This is after hours of instruction, explanations and taking it slow in huge empty parking lots.  They already knew what they should be doing but then again these were students that never practiced

So here I am, three and a half months after leaving Young Drivers of Canada and paying out of my own pocket to fix the damage to my personal vehicle caused by their students.  I will be picking up my car today after having been without it for the past week as it’s been in the dealership.  The cost to replace my clutch and flywheel is $1600 and I have no one to thank for it but Young Drivers of Canada!

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site

There are even worse violators of electronic waste in our city of Ottawa and those are private computer stores.  Computer stores that offer technical service and repairs are always going to end up with dead or failing computer parts.  The more common parts are: processors, memory, motherboards, hard drives, video cards, sound cards, network cards, power supplies and cabling.  If these computer stores end up with all these components which they do as no customer wants dead components back what could they be doing instead of sending them to the landfill?

In Ottawa we actually have a business called Computer Recyclers which accepts all computer hardware (anything that will fit in a desktop) to be recycled properly at no charge.  This keeps hazardous materials out of our landfills which is better for everyone.

I know of computer stores in Ottawa that charge their customers a recycling or “Environmental fee” to recycle their old components but then just throw it in the garbage.  They were originally only charging to cover the cost of gas to make trips to Computer Recyclers to have all the old components recycled but instead were too lazy and just threw it all in the garbage.  Quite a disgusting and unethical practice if you ask me.

Both businesses and consumers should be making better choices and the effort to properly recycle end of life electronics.  Would you take your old computer components and bury them in your back yard?  Of course not, so it doesn’t make much sense to bury it in the earth elsewhere.

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site

Oh and shame on the school bus driver that was tailgating me on the Queensway this morning with a bus full of children.  You should know better then that, shessh!

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site

As I was entering the intersection with the light just having turned amber there was an OC Transpo bus waiting to turn right onto St. Joseph.  The bus driver was not looking for oncoming cars even though they were still facing a red light and started to enter the intersection.  I had to brake quickly to avoid hitting the bus and while doing so checked my rearview mirror.  While checking my mirror I heard screeching tires and the car that was tailgating me was so close I couldn’t even see the hood of the car.

What I could see was the driver of that car throwing their hands up in frustration as to say, “Come on, what are you doing idiot?”.  For whatever reason that driver seemed unable to see why I had to brake so quickly.  Apparently the big bus sticking out into the intersection in front of me wasn’t obvious enough.  That besides the fact that they shouldnt’ have been tailgating and should have stopped earlier.

I see or experience situations like this everyday in Ottawa.  There are no accidents!  People make decisions, just not always the right ones.  A lot of drivers are ignorant of how they should be driving or following road rules.  Other drivers just blatantly disregard the rules and do all sorts of stupid shit that cause collisions and cost people their lives, money, time, wages etc.

Red means STOP, even if you’re turning right on a red light.  You must first STOP, yeild to oncoming cars and pedestrians and then make the turn if you are able to do so.  They didn’t paint STOP lines on the pavement just for the fun of it!

Amber means slow down and STOP if you can safely do so.

Tailgating is obviously driving an unsafe distance from the car in front of you.  Driving at city speeds a 2 to 3 second gap should exist between cars so everyone can stay safe.  Remember if you rear-end someone, you’re always at fault!

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site

Today I saw two collisions, the first was on Castlefrank in Kanata across from Holy Trinity high school.  One car rear-ended a Mercedes CLK 500.  The back end of the Mercedes was pretty messed up but nowhere near as bad as the car that did the rear-ending.  I’d have to say that car was a complete write off.  This is what happens if you follow too closely or aren’t paying attention and brake late.  Regardless people still tailgate all over the city.  Having said that if the Mercedes had been checking their mirror they would have seen the car coming and could have manuvered out of the way.  But hey, what the heck do we have mirrors in our car for anyways?

The second collision I saw was much worse with a car flipped over and looking worse for wear on the 174 East bound this evening around 8 PM.  All lanes of traffic were stopped with flares on the road and lots of emergency vehicles around.  No idea what caused that collision but obviously a result of someones decision or lack thereof.

One thing that is quite clear is that either drivers in Ottawa don’t understand or even know the rules of the road or they don’t care.  I would hope it’s not the latter as that would mean it’s an attitude problem as opposed to a lack of understanding.

Add to your favourite social bookmarking site