A high score on a Foo Fighters pinball machine has Edmonton player Dave Formenti on a high. He first started playing pinball when he was a teen. “I remember the local fish and chip shop had a pinball machine,” he said. “I would put 20 cents in and have a game.” He said it’s the randomness of the game that drew him in. “The ball has a mind of its own and you try to control it. I think that’s fascinating,” said Dave. For the past four or five years, Dave and his wife Kim, can often be found playing pinball machines at the Sherbrooke Pub. “It’s our thing. It might not be for everybody but it’s what we do,” said Kim Formenti. Kim & Dave Formenti play pinball at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton) They were there on Easter weekend for a few games on the Foo Fighters pinball machine. “It’s fast. It’s a three flipper game with multiple ramps and a very interesting code to try and complete,” said Dave. “An extremely challenging game with a great soundtrack and lots of fun.” Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton) It’s a machine Dave has played at least 100 times over the past year. Soon into that two-player game he earned an extra ball. “Originally it was like, ‘Oh man he’s got the extra ball. He’s just going to keep going. I’m on my phone for a bit. This is going to be awhile before I get my turn,'” Kim joked. She said 20 minutes later Dave was still playing. “I’m like, ‘OK, I’d better pay attention here.’ We’ve never been this far and sometimes he looks to me to kind of cue him,” said Kim. Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton) “You have to be very strategic about your gameplay and accomplishing modes in order to progress within the game,” Dave said. “The big points come from the final battle. So if you can progress through the game and get to that final battle there’s massive points,” he added. Dave completed all of the modes required to finish the game – the display then rolling the end of game credits. “It shows all of the characters from the game as it rolls through. It runs across an old movie script in black and white that shows Jack Danger’s name as the credits are rolling through at the end of that game,” Dave said. “Then a little rewind icon pops up and the movie film zips back and everything resets back to the beginning and you start the game over again,” he added. “I said to my wife we want to watch this ’cause we will never see it again.” “We sat there in awe together. We were just kind of immersed in the moment and the excitement of it all,” said Kim. Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton) Dave earned five extra balls during his game. He said he still had two left to play after the game reset. His entire game took about 40 minutes. “It generated a 6.2 billion point score which I had never achieved before, not even remotely close to that,” said Dave. “I’ve seen him do 1.4, 1.6 but I’ve never seen him go that high,” said Kim. Dave Formenti’s high score on the Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton) “It’s extremely hard,” said Jason Zazula, another local pinball player. Zazula has played for more than a decade and competitively for about nine years. He bought his own Foo Fighters machine in August and plays it at least six times a day. “I haven’t even cracked one billion yet and Dave has done six billion,” he said. “Doing that on a game that’s not in your house, where you can just take off the glass and cheat is a huge feat,” he added. Zazula posted a photo of Dave’s high score on a social media page for fans and collectors of the machine. One of the comments came from a ‘Dead Flip Pinball Streaming’ – a page run by Jack Danger. “He’s the chief game designer for Foo Fighters. He acknowledged that that score was a big fat WTF, literally blown away,” Dave said proudly. It’s a shout-out Dave said made him feel special. Dave Formenti playing Foo Fighters pinball machine at Sherbrooke Pub. (Amanda Anderson/CTV News Edmonton) “It was a special game. It happened once, probably never happen again but I’m terribly grateful for people acknowledging that it’s something a little bit special,” he said.

Celebrity food critic Keith Lee said he was blown away by Toronto, handing a rich ranking to its culinary creators, as the first international stop of his latest food tour. “Toronto might be one of the top three places we’ve been to on this food tour,” Lee declared in a video posted on Sunday as he departed the city. Lee, a Las Vegas-based food reviewer who has more than 16 million followers on TikTok, ventured to Toronto on his FamiLee Food Tour, after visiting Arizona, Indianapolis and Hawaii. They spent over a week in Toronto driving across the city and its suburbs, unleashing the “Keith Lee Effect” on local businesses. After each of Lee’s visits, lines looped outside of the institutions he sprinkled his praise on. Wait times doubled for a shawarma spot in Scarborough while a tiny bakery in Ajax had to shutdown just to prepare for the weekend rush, and a pizza spot downtown had to take a day to restock their depleted supply. “For this to be the first international food stop, I did not expect this reception, my mind was blown,” Lee said as he summarized his stay in Toronto, and the boom in business he left in his wake. In the span of just over a week, Lee reviewed seven restaurants in the city. Here’s a look at how he ranked them: Food critic Keith lee visits Toronto, ranking it among the top three on his latest food tour. To launch the Toronto leg of Lee’s food tour, he started at a shawarma spot in Scarborough, Ont. For overall taste, Lee ranked the chicken shawarma an 8.2 out of 10 and the veal an 8.4 out of 10, favouring the single proteins over the mix of veal and shawarma wrapped in one. “I feel like this is going to be one of our most interesting food tours yet,” Lee said. Next, Lee headed to what he called a “super Canadian” bakery located in a backyard shed in Ajax, Ont. While Lee said that sweets aren’t in his wheel house, he gave the Korean sponge toffee latte an eight out of 10. “That’s unique. It’s real good,” Lee said. He ranked the carrot cake with cream cheese icing a seven and the banana loaf a 7.2 out of 10.  “We’re definitely all in shock, overwhelmed, but we’re really excited to see what comes of it,” Victoria Fliegel, Biscuits to Baskets shop manager, previously told CP24. For his lone stop in downtown Toronto, Lee visited a “very, very tiny” pizza shop, starting with a mac and cheese that acquired a glowing 8.5 out of 10. Lee handed a pepperoni pizza with hot honey and pickled jalapeno a 9 out of 10 while a samosa pizza got a 7.5 out of 10. Lee left a $3,000 tip and another $1,000 for Afro’s Pizza to hand out free slices for the rest of the night. “Once he left, we gave away free pizza to people for three hours,” owner Rodney Best told CP24 last week.  Lee, a self-proclaimed eggs benedict connoisseur, ranked this restaurant’s take on the classic breakfast dish a 7.7 out of 10. For the waffles, dipped in a blueberry compote, with a zesty, soft buttery texture, Lee elevated his ranking to a nine out of 10 for the brunch spot with locations in Toronto and Markham, Ont.  Tasting a dense stack of earl gray pancakes, Lee claimed he couldn’t taste the notes of tea, but deemed the taste “still really good,” giving it an 8.5 out of 10. This Bahamian treasure snagged the highest ranking on Lee’s list in Toronto. “In my opinion, this [line] should be out the door. This is the best food we’ve had since we’ve been here,” Lee said. For his first dish from the Bahamas, Lee took a dense, buttery pancake, spreading guava butter and fried snapper on it, and giving it a 9.6 out of 10. “I’d wait two hours for this,” Lee said. The fried chicken didn’t quite reach the same level of awe, receiving a more generic 7 out of 10. On the opposite side of the scale, Lee’s first and last Jamaican stop took the lowest ranking on his Toronto trip. The visit took off to an odd start with an employee admitting she was hungover and initially messed up Lee’s order. After noting the customer service blip, Lee gave the Jerk chicken sandwich a 6.5 out of 10, the curried goat a 7.5 out of 10, and the oxtail with rice and peas a 6.5 out of 10. The jerk spot responded to Lee’s review with an apology on Instagram from the owner who explained he was out of town and pledged to personally serve the critic next time he’s in town. Lee tasted a traditional Somali dish, goat and rice, and gave it an 8.2 out of 10, acknowledging that it might not be everyone’s cup of tea. The beef stew, which Lee claimed tasted “like pot pie” got a sturdy 8 out of 10 while he ranked the milk cake an 8.5 out of 10 for taste, but a 3.5 for texture.  

Some people love to wash their car, and for others, it’s their most hated chore. It’s a necessity for car owners, so no matter where you fall on the love-hate spectrum, you want a car wash that’s going to give your car a deep clean that lasts. Automatic car washes are at almost any gas…

  When you take your car to the car wash, there are multiple add-ons available, and one common choice is spray-on wax. It may seem like it doesn’t make a difference, but there are some important benefits. And these benefits go beyond how shiny your will car looks. What Are the Benefits of Waxing Your…

Even when you are lucky enough to start with an empty room, it can be overwhelming to design an interior that you can enjoy for years to come. Following some basic interior design principles, you can transform your space into a relaxing room you will be comfortable and happy with. Decide what your focal point will be and build out from there.  For best results, keep proportion and scale in mind as you decorate as well as these tips!

 Deciding on Your Focal Point
Do you have a magnificent bay window with an incredible view?  Is there an ornate mantle that is the reason you fell in love with your home? Or is there something you absolutely MUST HAVE in the room? Situate your furniture around your chosen focal point to create balance and equilibrium. If your room does not already have an existing focal point, create one with oversized art or add an accent point like a free-standing fireplace, they come in a variety of sizes and styles. Symmetrically balance the room evenly so that both sides mirror one another.  This will help your chosen focal point stand out all the more! Use matching accent tables to flank your sofa or use different pieces of furniture to create a copacetic visual impact, like two similar armchairs to balance a sofa.
Repetition for Rhythm
Rhythm creates a flow and helps direct the eye to the differing visual elements in your room. Just as the notes of a favorite song repeat to create the rhythm, repetition in decor will create a rhythm throughout a home. Establish visual interests with a rhythm throughout your space by placing similar colours or patterns at intervals and repeat in artwork, cushions or area rugs.

Perfect Proportion and Suitable Scaling
Who doesn’t love a large, overstuffed chair? But if your room is on the smaller size it may look out of place and make your room seem even smaller than it is. Keep proportion in perspective. Proportion is the ratio between a piece of furniture and the size of a room. Scale is the size of a piece of furniture in relation to the other pieces of furniture in the room. A super large chair will overpower an apartment of loft size sofa or loveseat and create a sense of unbalance in the room.

Have your room humming harmoniously
Creating harmony will enhance how much you will continue to love your finished. Pull the room with a subdued colour palette for a pleasing, harmonious vibe.   together for a pleasing, harmonious look with a subdued color palette. You can also use a single colour for elements that vary in size and shape. Check out our blog on Doing White on White Right! for more tips!

What is the focal point in your room?  What is your best tip to find harmony and balance through your home?