March 27, 2010

Like father, like son... or daughter

I went over to the Li's today. I promised Tamami-san that I would help her out with her Skype. She's not a tech person so I said, no problem. I got there around 3:30ish (well, she came and picked me up on her way home from downtown) and after eating some noodles set abouts sorting her out. First order of business was figuring out why her headset didn't work. Turns out it was simple enough. A combination of the headset and the computer volume being turned down. No problem. Next was testing her Skype connection. I had brought over my laptop so I could play telephone with her. After some quick fiddling, poof, Bob's-your-uncle. I showed her how to set it up, make calls, receive calls, sent chat messages and look for contacts. All pretty basic but easy enough to show. I hate the PC set up of Skype. I think it's a bad layout. The Mac layout is so much easier to visually comprehend. I imagine once you get used to it it's no big deal but off the bat... Mac layout is waaaaaaaaaay easier to grasp. It was about this time that I noticed the signal strength of their wireless was really low. Weird. I got full bars when I set it up. I wandered downstairs to have a look. Everything seemed fine but I rebooted it just in case. I was gonna be really pissed if there was something wrong with this rig. I went back upstairs and same thing. Low signal strength. I picked up my laptop and started walking towards the basement stairs but I got 15 steps from the table and my signal strength went up to half.

You've gotta be kidding me.

By the time I got to the topof the basement steps another 5 steps away I had full bars. Wow... I double checked with Tamami-san's laptop and same thing. So the reason we had full bars last week was because she was sitting on the couch by the stairs. Hmmm... something was interfering with the signal. As I went downstairs (Oscar the bulldog in tow) I looked over the wireless set up and wondered if it would make sense to move it upstairs. Mimi's room is downstairs so moving it upstairs might cause her some grief but... hmmmm. Worth a shot anyways. I disconnected everything and hauled it upstairs. I asked if there was another cable outlet upstairs but was told there was only one in the house. Huh? I just disconnected the modem from one downstairs so where was the tv connected to? She showed me the cable wire coming directly out of the wall. Ah. One cable outlet and one wire coming out of the wall. Gotcha. I went back downstairs to try and figure out how to set this up to increase the signal strength. Tamami-san showed me where the cable from the tv came through the wall and down to a splitter box on the other side of the basement. Ta-daaaaa! This splitter box was directly below the kitchen where she likes to work so this should dramatically increase the signal strength. Except... where was this second cable going to? I followed a rather long cable that had been fed through the wooden trusses and then duct taped along the ceiling across the other side of the basement down the wall and under the door into Mimi's bedroom. the cable then continued back up the wall across the ceiling and back down to connect to a tv at the foot of Mimi's bed. This had to be THE most ghetto cabling setup I had ever seen. I mean, the duct tape wasn't even flat in some parts. It looked like it had fallen a bunch of times and the remaining ball was just stuck back up on the wall or ceiling. Even the way it cut across the ceiling wasn't very pretty. Ah, teenage ingenuity. It ain't pretty but it's functional. Tamami-san told me there used to be another cable that ran through the ceiling and into Mimi's room somehow but the Shaw cable guy cut the line when he installed the modem so Mimi rigged up this set up so that she could get cable in her room. Interesting.

I spent the next 20 minutes or so inspecting the walls and ceiling in Mimi's room trying to figure out if there was a way to feed a cable line in through the wall. I couldn't find the other end of the original cable line and after doing some head scratching I noticed the 2-way intercom. on her wall. Seen that before. I walked back to the cable outlet where the modem used to be and lo-and behold there was the other end of the intercom next to the cable outlet. Some hope. If I could figure out where the line was getting into Mimi's room and if there was enough room, I could feed the cable through the same way and into her room. Then I could connect Mimi's cable to the outlet where the router used to be hooked up and hook up the router to the second side of the splitter. Sweet! Now, to try and figure out the wiring. It took several minutes but I finally was able to follow the tangle of electrical wiring to a small hole in the wall at the back of some shelving. This hole led into Mimi's blanket closet. It was gonna be tight but I thought I could probably feed the cable through the hole.

I set about collecting the cable from Mimi's room, "disassembling" her ghetto duct tape set up, discovering about another 10 feet of cable squished into a space in a wall panel and hauling it over to the other outlet. I fed the cable through the ceiling trusses and over towards the hole in the wall. I was standing on a rickity folding chair with one foot, bracing myself on a bedframe that was leaning against the wall with m other foot and trying to pull myself up on to this top shelf which was about 3 feet deep and 3 feet from the ceiling without touching these exposed copper wires that seemed to be connected to my only source of light up there. I think after I failed to ease myself up the first time because of the awkward position I was in, I resigned myself to the fact I was going to half to do some sort of jumping motion which would inevitably bring me reeeeeeeeeeeally close to if not in contact with these exposed wires. I think I must have stared at these frickin things for a good five minutes not wanting to "test" the possibility of a live current running through them with my fingers seeing as I had one foot on top of a metal bedframe that was sitting on the floor. I finally decided to see what i could do about gingerly trying to move them out of the way. Thankfully the wires were a bit on the stiff side and I was able to bend them so they pointed in a much safer direction. Namely, away from me. Five minutes later I got the cable to the hole in the wall only to discover the hole was just a wee bit too small. Fabulous. I inquired about some tools. There were some but they were a bit of a mish mosh. The saw was too big and there was no drill so i wound up having to use an old Xacto utility knife. Now, for those of you who have never tried to cut through wood paneling and a bit of drywall in near virtual darkness while leaning at a precarious 45˚ angle with your arms fully outstretched whilst trying no to cut the wire of a two way intercom in the process, let me tell you, it wasn't exactly easy. In fact, I believe it took me the better part of 20 minutes just to make the hole only slightly bigger but large enough for the cable line to get through. i ended up running the cable through that hole, down the inside of the closet where i created another small hole at the bottom of the wall so the cable could come out and run along the floor to Mimi's tv. During this whole process I found out the shelving in this particular closet was built by my father including some bracing elements built out of old hockey sticks. Tamami-san laughed and said I was like my dad. I think what she meant was that I was handy like my dad. Yeah, I'll take it as a compliment... sorta. My dad, after all, had at one point built me a toilet paper stand out of the bottom half of an old lamp (the Ikea ones that every person in their 20's with their own pad has), a stick and some CD's. You could just imagine the look on my face when dad offered it up to me. Dad, if you're reading this, I love you but it wasn't really aesthetically great and Rose being an interior designer almost turned white when she saw it. Maybe Mimi could use it in her bathroom though. She seems to be down with function over aesthetics.

K, so this story is getting a little long in the tooth. Anyways, I got Mimi's cable hooked up, The router got placed in a better spot, Tamami-san can work in the kitchen now with a strong wireless signal and as an added bonus, the desk where the modem used to be got cleaned up and is a functional space again. Oh, and I was able to swap out two fluorescent bulbs so the laundry area is brighter now too. Damn, I am turning into my dad. I'm becoming Mr. fix-it.

Li-san brought home dinner from Lime and Van Ya. Deeeeeee-licious. Seafood does taste so much better closer to the water. At some point during dinner, Tamami-san made some crack about how no one does anything around the house except her or something to that effect to which Li-san and Mimi high-fived each other. Like father, like daughter. Mind you, we've seen that in Mimi since she was 5...

Good times, good times.

Tamami-san gave me a lift home after dinner and she packed me left overs. what i didn't realize was that she tucked in an envelope with $150. Grrrrr... That's not cool. I'm gonna have to give her grief about that. I'm sure that's her way of getting me back for paying for the wireless router last week. Still, not cool. Grrr...

Reason to smile today: Hangin out at the Li's . Even if I was kinda working it's nice to be able to hang out with them. It's been ages and they're good peoples. Bonus - GSP beat Hardy in a unanimous, dominating decision at UFC 111.

Something I learned today: I'm more like my dad than I think.

March 24, 2010

Seeing is believing

Had another good night's sleep and woke up at 8. I was feeling a little lazy so I lay in bed for a bit surfing through the latest posts on Facebook on my iPhone. When I finally decided to get up, I rolled out, wandered over to the dresser, pulled out a clean pair of shorts, walked to the doorway, turned back, looked at my hockey bag and went, "...how come I can see?"

Apparently I forgot to take my contacts out last night. They're so comfortable that they didn't even bother me when I woke up this morning. Now, I've fallen asleep with contacts in before and prior to this incident, every time I wake up, whether it's a full night or a nap, my eyes sting. This morning, nothing. OK... I guess we'll see how long this lasts before I have to take them out.

Spent the morning applying to iStock. I've taken so many photos I thought maybe I'd post a few of them and see if anyone else likes 'em. Now, I know all of my photo friends will probably frown at me and I totally understand and I'm reeeeeeeeeally sorry but I could use a little extra dough. Not that I expect to make anything substantial but if it covers the cost of my Timmy's double double in the morning then I'm gonna be happy. Spent the rest of the day battling the Celtic knot. I got a lot further with it today than I did yesterday. It's sorta there. Not quite happy with the unity or the front hooves but I got the steam/flames and the back end resolved for the most part. I'll try and have another go tomorrow in between all my meetings.

Not a whole lot to report today. Predominantly a work day. Missed out on the sunshine. *sigh* Tomorrow is an early day and a lot of meetings. Right, I gotta take my contacts out tonight...

Reason to smile today: Progress on the tattoo. (yay)

Something I learned today: I need property releases for buildings. I recognize that iconic buildings you probably do but I didn't realize that you might possibly need one for any building. Interesting. Also, public crowds. I thought you didn't need model releases for public crowds in a public place. Hmmm. How about that.

March 23, 2010

Pass me the buffet...

Another day, another dollar. More job searching, more celtic knot work. I'm going to make $1.50 an hour by the time I'm done with this. Thing is, I don't want to half ass this. Not that I ever want to half ass my work but tattoos are something personal and permanent (well, for the most part) so I feel compelled to do a good job. Hard to tweak a tattoo after it's been inked. As I've mentioned in my previous posts, Celtic knot work is not my thing and it's been tricky to try and get it not only to look aesthetically nice but also somewhat culturally correct. Now, I know that there were more than likely no traditional Celtic knots created in the shape of a leaping bull with steam/fire coming out of it's nostrils but there is some personal pride on the line here. I am a professional after all. Hopefully I'll be able to get this down soonish. I know Chris is pretty anxious to get this and I'm starting to get anxious to get it of my plate before I start dreading working on it. Nothing like working on a project for too long and starting to hate it.

It was sunny today and I'm a little sad to be cooped up inside but gotta do it. Dinner with Graeme tonight. We're going for sushi. Woo-ha, Woo-ha.

I met up with Graeme at BC Sushi on W. Broadway and Arbutus. It's an all you can eat joint. Being on a budget sorta sucks but what do you do you know? It was good seeing Graeme again. He's a character. You could almost put him in a sitcom (sorry buddy. My warped sense of perception). We chatted about school, Eugene, work, design, girls, girlfriends, ex-girlfriends, and, of course, sushi. Now, BC Sushi isn't the best sushi but it was certainly better than passable. I've had worse in Cowtown at proper restaurants. They had a surprisingly big selection for AYCE. There were a number of items on the menu that would definitely have been on the B or C list in Calgary. Benefits of living near the water. Easier to get stuff. We ate and ate and ate and when all was said and dne I was surprised we didn't scarf down more. For me, I had only had a coffee and a banana all day so I was starving. Maybe I hungered myself out of an appetite. Still, sushi is always a treat for me and with sushi restaurants seemingly around every corner here I imagine, even on my limited budget that I'll be having sushi a little more often.

Reason to smile today: uh... hello? Sushi. 'nuff said.

Something I learned today: Get over pass relationships quickly! (Remember) if you cant get over,, u will go under! - @RevRunWisdom

March 22, 2010

The good life

I slept really deep last night. I must have. I only got 5 hours of sleep but I woke up before my alarm went off and I felt good. I knew I was going to have a short work day today so I buckled down right away. Got a little further with Chris' tattoo. This Celtic knot work is driving me a bit batty. It's definitely not my thing but I imagine it's good practice for when I give the Ireland jersey another go.

I decided I would try a different approach to my job searching. i haven't had a tonne of response so for the companies that seem to be a little more informal I thought I would try something with a little more humour involved. First is my cover page. Hopefully that will grab their attention. Today, I applied at a firm in San Francisco. My resume stayed the same but I thought I'd mess with my cover letter. I had my regular formal cover letter then in 5pt type I wrote some other stuff in between the lines. Something about if I didn't at least get a phone call I would send them boxes of dead fish or something to that effect. I tried to make it funny and bring out some of my personality. Hopefully this will get me a couple of responses instead of the dead silence I've been getting.

Ian picked me up just after noon and we headed down to White Rock to have lunch with Hanne. I hadn't seen Hanne since I'd arrived so it was nice to see her. She's looking a lot like her mom. We took a walk down to the waterfront with Gidget. We wound up at an Irish Pub called Slàinte by the Pier. It was really odd. There were two new Irish pubs that had opened up two doors down from each other. We sat on the patio and enjoyed the sun. The food was really good. i had the Fish and Chips and it was really nice. Not greasy at all. Ian and Hanne also said their food was quite good. Two thumbs up. Highly recommend it.

Ian and I headed back into the core and back to his place later that afternoon. Laura was at home and it was decided that we would go to Incendio's for dinner. Interesting back story to Incendio's. It's a pizza place that had a brick, wood burning oven. That was their shtick. Unfortunately, something went horribly wrong at some point and the place wound up being consumed in a fire caused by the oven. Irony... They've recently reopened and it's very nice in there. The food was tasty (I've had pizza from there before). We had a Capricciossa pizza (ham, pepperoni, artichokes, mushrooms and olives) and an antipasto plate to start. Mmmmmm mmmmm. I have found the food in vancouver to be really good. I guess that's one thing about world-class cities. Better variety and better caliber of restaurants. That's not to say Vancouver doesn't have it's share of complete crap places but it's certainly miles ahead of Cowtown. And the FISH. Oh, don't get me started about how seafood tastes so much better closer to the water...

Was a good day today. I'm happy that things seem to be getting better and better. Now if I can only land me that job...

Reason to smile today: Lunch on the patio overlooking the beach with good friends and good food

Something I learned today: more action. the year is 1/4 over

March 21, 2010

It's a good day for the Yale

I got together with Jacqueline today. It's always good to see her. She had pinged me on Facebook last week to let me know she would be in town. I would also meet Eric for the first time. We agreed to meet down in Yaletown. I got there a little earlier than I thought because I got a lift from Lara as she was heading in that direction.

While I was waiting I wandered around Yaletown. They've done a great job revitalizing the area. It's a very trendy area now. Very cool. Some fun shops and some great restaurants is what I've been told. The community center is an old train yard called the Roundhouse. Very cool use of the old space. I imagine Calgary would have just mowed over the building and built something new and a lot less interesting.

We spent the day wandering through Yaletown, catching up and having coffee. We took a walk along the water, I tried to make an inukshuk, found a cool wireless light switch and reminisced about the old days (yeesh, I sound like an old geezer). We had dinner at the Eatery because it's veggie friendly, funky and they had never been there before. Food was great. Company was better but the time passed way too quickly. I wish sometimes I could make certain moments last a little longer.

Reason to smile today: Spending time with Jacqueline

Something I learned today: I am lucky to have the people I do in my life. I am blessed and rich beyond imagination. Even if I have not a penny to my name, I will never be poor because of them.

March 20, 2010

Connecting

Slept in today. It's Saturday. Late night. I think I'm allowed. Besides, the only thing I got going today is getting together with the Li's. It had been awhile since I'd seen them so it was going to be nice to catch up with them. I miscalculated, however, how long it would take me to get there. I thought they lived a little closer than they actually were and I thought I would be able to get there on one bus. As it turns out I was wrong on both counts. I wound up having to walk several blocks after getting off the bus AND all uphill. I am definitely out of shape... bleh.

Tamami (still sounds weird saying that) asked for some help with her PC. It was running slow so I said i'd have a look at it even though I don't really have much of a clue when it comes to PCs. I thought if I ran a defrag through her laptop and an anti-virus sweep I was bound to make it perform, at least, a teeny tiny bit faster. Taka was doing taxes and Mimi was still sleeping when I got there. I started poking around on her laptop and discovered a few things. 1) The wireless signal on the laptop was reeeeeeeeeeally weak which would account for part of the slow surfing speed. 2) the wireless router was being routed through a really old computer (no, really. It was probably still running DOS....) instead of directly from the cable modem. That was just plain weird. I also did a little research on the wireless router and laughed my butt off after reading one review where the author commented how he had owned many, many wireless routers in his time and that this particular model was "hands-down the worst router he had ever owned."

I convinced Taka to give me a lift to the Future Shop to get a new wireless router. While we were there, Taka also picked up a digital camera. He's not much of a compare and contrast shopper. If it looks good and the price is right he's in. Reminds me of me in some sense but I think when it comes to electronics I'm a bit more of a nerd and I like to know how it performs. We grabbed a bite to eat while we were there and I saw my H&R block cubicle panels being reused this year. I still get a kick out of seeing my stuff in the real world. Its kinda fun.

After getting back to the Li house I set up the new router (God, I hate PCs and how much of a nuisance it is to set up hardware). According to Tamami the speed is blazing fast compared to what it was like before which is good. We also installed Skype on her laptop and tested it out with Tomi. Still need to get her a headset and mic but we'll save that for another weekend.

We picked Tomi up and headed down to Van Ya for dinner. Van Ya is Li-san's new restaurant on Kingsway and Harold. Japanese mom's kitchen is how they're marketing themselves. Cute place. Small. Food was great. Nothing overly spectacular but simple and decent. Just like they advertise. Comfort food. Love it. Li-san was he same as always, if a little older. Always good for a laugh. We talked and laughed about lots of things and caught up with each other. I'm loking forward to seeing them some more while I'm here.

All in all it was good to see them again. Still hard to believe sometimes Taka and Mimi are all grown up. Makes me feel old. :-)

Reason to smile today: Getting to catch up with the Li household.

Something I learned today: The olympics weren't as good to the restaurant industry as one might have thought. Apparently it was actually quite hard on most of them.

March 19, 2010

Not so bright

Got up early-ish to get Xuan ready for her flight to Mexico. She was flying out at 1:45pm so we had to be there for 10:45pm according to American Airlines. We got the last of her things packed and we headed out the door. Stopped in at Timmy's grabbed a coffee and hit transit. We were on the Canada Line part way to the airport when my phone rang. It was Tomi. Apparently she got dizzy in the shower, passed out, had a face to ehm.. tub meeting and had been lying down unable to get up for about an hour and a half. "Do I need to be calling you an ambulance?" I asked more than a bit concerned. "I dunno, do you think I need to?" Uh... ya think? I love my sister, don't get me wrong but occasionally she says things or does things that baffle me. TOday, I will give her a pass because she may not have been thinking straight with the head injury. I told her I would get to her as soon as I was able to and in the meantime, between the two of us, we needed to find a way to get her to the hospital or clinic since she didn't want to call an ambulance. I fretted the rest of the way to the airport calling as many people as I could think of without success. When we got to the airport I got Xuan through the check in as fast as possible and left to check on my sister. Not exactly the way I wanted to say goodbye but I didn't have much of a choice. I hope Xuan will be ok. I hope she has fun.

As I made my way back towards Tomi I phoned her to see how she was doing. She had managed to get in a cab and get herself to the clinic nearby. She said she was nauseous, dizzy and in pain. Well, at least she made it to somewhere to get some medical attention. I found out later that she had actually been talking to one of her friend's husband but hadn't asked him for a ride becuse she thought it would be too much trouble. Again, I'll give her a pass for head trauma causing irrational thought but it did make me shake my head a little. It took me the better part of an hour to get to the clinic but when I finally did I found her curled up on one of the waiting room chairs. So, the diagnosis was that the migraines may have been caused by the lights in her place. The brightness was causing her migraines and with her, a loss of blood pressure causing low blood flow to the brain. Couple that with a hot shower and presto, bingo, tim-berrrr city. She was advised to swap out the lights in her place for something not so bright and intake some more salt to increase her blood pressure. We made a quick stop at the Safeway to grab her some Gatorade to replenish her electrolytes and sodium levels and headed back to her place. When we got in, I started looking at all of the lights in her place. They weren't halogens but they were 13 Watt CFLs (equivalent of a 60W incandescent bulb). I made a runner out to Home Depot to pick up some 40W incandescent bulbs and a couple of dimmer switches. Armed with two bags of stuff I made my way back to Tomi's including a quick stop in at Mickey D's (them fries should have lots of salt).

As I set to work replacing the lights in her place I discovered there was something odd going on with the wiring in her place. When I replaced the lights in her room, only two of them would light up. At first I thought it was the bulbs but the bulbs were fine. The only thing I could conclude was that the light sockets were made for the lower wattage CFL bulbs. To make matters worse, when I tried to shut the power off so I could install the dimmer switches I discovered i could only do it if I shut the power off in the entire house. Not just her unit. Guess how I found out? Her landlord upstairs called down as I had one of the switches half taken apart. I wound up having to take everything back and trying to find the lowest wattage CFL bulbs I could find which turned out to be the 5W (equivalent to 25W bulb) CFLs. I swapped out just about all of her lights with these 5W bulbs and it made a noticeable difference even in the daylight. I spent the rest of the day at Tomi's making sure she was ok and doing some things around the house like taking Doug the Pug for a walk and stuff.

As evening fell I noticed even with the new bulbs, it was still quite bright in Tomi's house. We started to do a count of the number of lights she actually had in her place and much to our amazement she had 20 lights inside her space. In a space not much bigger than 600 sq. feet that was… ridiculous. I think my mom and dad's five bedroom house may not even have that many lights. No wonder she was getting a migraine it was probably like staring into the sun. i didn't switch out her closet light and we discovered it was so bright when we closed the closet doors, the light emanating from the spaces in between made it look like the Poltergeist movies. We laughed and took some pictures of it. Nutty. We spent the rest of the evening watching a movie before Ian came to pick me up. I told my sister I would check in on her in the morning.

Ian and I closed out the night having Moons Over My Hammy at Denny's What a day. I have to say being able to hang out with Ian has been great. I know he's been bugging me to move here for a long time. If nothing works out overseas maybe I'll stay. We'll see.

Reason to smile today: Ian describing to me his reaction to meeting someone whom he thought was quite shallow,"Oh my God. Deep like fry pan"

Something I learned today: Lights that are too bright can be hazardous to your health

March 18, 2010

One last day of Xuanshine

Taking an extended nap in the middle of the afternoon yesterday was a terible idea. Completely killed the night's sleep. I kept waking up, tossing and turning and barely dozed off most of the night. Made for a heck of a morning. Had to get up early to go to networking with Lara. The HOBN group was quite good. I met and hooked up with a few good people. Whether or not that turns into anything remains to be seen but it was a promising start considering it was my first day there. The range of people there was quite broad which made for an interesting dynamic but the group was quite loose and the networking quite informal. It was good.

After the networking I went back to the house to get Xuan. I promised to take her to Granville Island before she left for Mexico so I picked her up and we headed to the Island. I had just ben there a few days ago but like I said before, it's one of my happy places so I didn't mind being back. We wandered through the market and the shops, had some lunch, watched a guy get pooped on by a seagull (what the hell is with that? I'm two for two now...), and generally enjoyed the sunshine. Xuan is always interesting to watch because she sees things in a way that is reminiscent of a child seeing things for the first time. IT's entertaining and in some ways, refreshing. It makes me try and see things; even things I see over and over again, in a new way.

We made our way from Granville Island to the passport office at 3. It took no time at all to get her passport. Ta-daa. She's officially hooked up with documents. Now hopefully, she'll have a good time in Mexico. Still a little worried for her but hopefully it goes well.

We spent a quiet evening at the house getting Xuan ready for her flight out tomorrow. Packing, prepping that kind of thing. We'll make it an early night tonight.

Reason to smile today: Xuan - "I like Ian. He looks like Santa"

Something I learned today: You have to turn the baseboard heaters ON in order for them to work

March 17, 2010

Sleep and eat, eat and sleep

That pretty much summed up my day. Ian met up with us at 11 to have brunch at the Tomahawk. I had a Campfire which was apparently the equivalent of a half order of the Yukon breakfast (the breakfast that made them famous). I would have considered the Campfire a regular sized breakfast which frightens me to think just how big a Yukon is...

I got suckered into a Banana Cream Pie for dessert. Not the best idea I've had first thing in the morning. It wasn't so much a pie as it was, what could only be described as a kitchen accident where a flood of sliced bananas and cream buried a pie crust and was topped with copious amounts of whipped cream to try and cover up the freak happenstance. I couldn't finish it as much as I tried.

It was a beautiful St. Patrick's Day and we considered taking a wander down to Granville Island to take in the sunshine.

Right after we have a nap...

...Lara called at 4:30.

We had to clear out as she was expecting a fellow to come view the suite so we straightened the place out and went upstairs. The fellow never came and we wound up having an impromptu dinner with Dan and Xuan. Pasta with a mushroom and beef cream sauce and a Salmon, caper and avocado salad. Not bad at all for mashing it together.

I'm still tired. Early tomorrow for a networking session with Lara.

Reason to smile today: Well, Irish eyes are smiling today right?

Something I learned today: You don't necessarily need mayo to make a tasty salmon salad.

March 16, 2010

Wait for it... wait for it...

Early mornings are still something I'm getting used to. I had to get up this morning cos the duct guys were coming to clean the ducts. Dan came and knocked on my door at 8 this morning. I had been dozing in and out for about an hour. They came in with their giant hoses and compressed air and made lots of noise. I guess I needed to be up anyways. To be honest it was a little fascinating to watch. Two fellas in red shirts and ties with blue jackets on mucking around in the dust. I don't know why they make them wear ties. I'd be cutting my wrists if I had to do that. I understand the concept of looking presentable but that would just suck.

All things considered they were done pretty quickly. I thought they were going to take the better part of the morning. Tyson, one of the duct guys, warned me that the house wold smell like burning for the first five or ten minutes. He says it freaks a lot of people out.

After they left I did a Timmy's run, had a shower and then made and uploaded a video for Eugene's memorial. Seeing as I wasn't going to make it I thought I would like to say a few words. The compression of the video took FOREVER. I knew Xuan was anxious to get downtown and get her passport done but since today was deadline day for the videos I thought I'd better get'er done before I left. It took almost an hour to compress and then start uploading. I think I compressed it too high quality the first time.

We headed downtown to the Sinclair building. We waited in line to have her paperwork checked (about 15-20 minutes) then had to wait another hour and a half to get the paperwork processed. Turns out Xuan has some discrepancies in her various forms of ID. Mostly due to a combination of her inability to communicate the right order the names should have been in and the cultural differences in which the names are presented. I imagine her original conversation with the first piece of ID went something like this:

Official: "So what's your name?"

Xuan: "Nguyen The To Diem Thanh Xuan"

Official: "So Xuan is your last name?"

Xuan: "No. It's my first name."

Official: "So what's your family name?"

Xuan: "Nguyen"

Official: "So it's The To Diem Thanh Xuan Nguyen"

Xuan: "No. Nguyen is first"

Official: "But it's your last name"

Xuan: "No, Xuan is last"

Official: "Xuan is your last name?"

Xuan: "Yes"

Official: "So your family name is Xuan"

Xuan: "No, MY name is Xuan. Nguyen is the family name"

Official: "..."

Xuan: "It's Nguyen The To Diem Thanh Xuan"

Official: "...and the family name is Nguyen?"

Xuan: "Yes."

Official: "So... Xuan The To Diem Thanh Nguyen"

Xuan: "No."

Official: "Ehm... I'm just gonna put it down like this."

The way Xuan explained it to me (and it took a couple of minutes) her last name is Nguyen The. If she were to get married, she keeps Nguyen and the "The" would change to the name of her spouse's family name. To Diem is actually her middle name and Thanh Xuan is her first name. As is in Japanese, the presentation of names is reversed. Family name presented first and then given name. To Xuan, the presentation order makes sense in terms of what comes first, what comes second and what comes last. In reality, by Western standards her name should be presented as Thanh Xuan To Diem Nguyen The. As it stands right now, the government knows her as The To Diem Thanh Xuan Nguyen on her Citizenship and Drivers license, Xuan The To Diem Thanh Nguyen on her SIN card and Xuan The Nguyen on her health card. Fun fun... I figured, for now let's get at least most of these consistent even if it's F'ed up and we'll worry about correctly changing it when she gets back from Mexico. So, after we got her passport sorted, we went up to the fourth floor of the Sinclair building to Services Canada to wait in yet another line to get that figured out.

By the time we were done it was nearly 4pm. Wah. We were both hungry and we decided to try and find Japadog which everyone except Ian seemed to be raving about. We walked up and down Burrard trying to find it to no avail. We even asked for directions. I pulled up their website and found both of their cart locations and couldn't figure out why we hadn't seen it. Then I saw the note. Closed Tuesday March 16. Argle Bargle!! Foiled! We wound up walkig down Denman and decided on Phö Central becuase Xuan would probably not have the opportunity to eat Phö while she was in Mexico. It was a teeny tiny place with just a few tables and not even a restroom. Is that even legal? The food was delightful, the service friendly and all in all a nice dining experience albeit cramped and a need to pee badly after.

We walked down Denman after eating and noticed we were CLEARLY in the gay part of town. I'm not sure what gave it away the most. The Rainbow flags along the light standards, the scantily clad, buff make posters advertising gay porn and fetish wear or the pink garbage cans and bus stops. Hmmmm.... Entertaining anyways. We had a good laugh. Nice to see the community getting out there. I don't think they'd get away with that in Calgary.
At the west end of Denman we turned North and headed back towards Robson. We walked along the busy sidewalk full of young hipsters and tourists as we window shopped and took in the sights. We had a boo at the skating rink and inquired about the zipline over Robson (which is apparently free if you don't mind the wait. It was three hours when we asked about it). We turned down Granville, stopped in at the Olympic Superstore at the Bay which was a complete zoo still. Apparently a new shipment of red mittons had arrived and they had been snapped up in a hurry with only a handful of small gloves left. As we were leaving we saw people in line hoarding them. Some carrying five or six pairs. Nutty.

As we headed towards the SkyTrain station we passed a Rogers booth and I stopped to inquire about the cost and logistics of switching my number to a BC number. I thought if it wasn't going to cost too much and not be a total hassle I might do it so that I didn't have to keep paying long distance fees. As it turned out it cost nothing and I was able to switch it in about 30 seconds. Shocking. I was expecting to have to do some negotiating and this was just far too easy. Amazing. had I known this I would have switched it sooner. I spent most of the ride home texting the people I knew in vancouver about my new number.

We finally made it home around 7:30. It had been a full day and both of us were tired. I think it's going to be an early night tonight.

Reason to smile today: After waiting in lines all day, being able to switch my cell number out in no time at all with no cost and no changes to my phone plan. Wow. How easy was that.

Something I learned today: Changing your cell number when you move provinces is wicked easy. If only all services could be this easy and hassle free.

March 15, 2010

A Lot of Bull

I woke up a little late this morning. Showered, did dishes, started up a load of laundry and sat down to do work. Hmmm.. not bad. Already fairly productive and I've been up less than an hour. Nice nice. I'd ben neglecting Chris' tattoo for awhile now only working on it here and there. I know he's been anxious to get it so I sat down and grinded it out today. I've tried designing celtic knots before and they're not exactly the easiest thing especially if you want it to look authentic. I'd been doing a fair amount of research combined with what I had done previously for the Ireland jersey and developed a decent pool of reference material. In the end I tried to find existing designs that had shapes and forms that I might be able to borrow. In the end I borrowed heavily from one design in particular but modified it to look like a bull head instead of the shield shape it originally was. The only thing i couldn't figure out was the steam from the nostrils. After a full day of playing around with it I've got it to a point where I'm quite happy with the direction but I have a few more details to work out and then it's cleaning up the knots. I figure I have a couple more days of work to do. Looking forward to getting this done. It's looking good and better than I had originally thought it might. Yay me. Yay process.

Dan and I hit the Tomahawk Barbecue for dinner. I had heard about it and was looking forward to it. Nothing could prepare me for what befell my eyes. It looked like it came straight out of the movies. As you stepped inside you felt like you had just stepped back in time to the 70s. The decor, the setup, everything screamed like a vintage movie set. The only giveaway was the big screen flat panel TV over the far end of the counter. I couldn't get the grin off my face the entire time we were there. It was amazing. I think the strangest part was the bathroom. I have a strong appreciation for kinesthetic sensory perception. The second I walked in to the bathroom the smell hit me in the face and sent me back twenty years to summer camp at Goldeye. It wasn't a bad smell. It just took me back in a hurry. I could feel Goldeye on the other side of the walls. It was absolutely strange but delightful all in one. Who would have thought the smell of a bathroom would ever bring someone so much joy. The meal was also greaat. I had, I think it was called, a Skookum Tomahawk Burger. A burger with piles of lettuce, a tomato, onions, an egg and sausage. Yes, sausage. The thing was absolutely massive. Tasty though. As we settling up the bill, the owner showed me a photograph of the the Tomahawk Barbecue from 1925. The place had been there for 85 years. His parents lived in the back and the original restaurant had just a counter. Marine Drive was the main road that ran directly in front of it. How times have changed. Marine drive is a block away now and although the main structure is till there, the inside has expanded with the living quarters now gone and some renovation being done somewhere along the way. It still maintained a whole lot of charm and character though. What a great place.

Xuan arrived at close to 10pm. She had missed the 5pm ferry and had to wait until the 7pm ferry. She did manage to get here though. It's always a little touch and go with that one. Not good at planning, not good at directions and attention span of a goldfish. part of her charm though. She's leaving for Mexico on Friday and although I'm a little worried for her I hope she is happy while she's there.

Another big day tomorrow. Time for bed. Until next time.

Reason to smile today: Chris' tattoo is getting somewhere and better than expected.

Something I learned today: Great restaurants still exist in all their kitchy charm having survived 85 years of business.

March 14, 2010

A Little Dim in My Sum

Was robbed of an hour of sleep last night because of the time change. Stupid daylight savings... Still got a decent amount of rest though. Woke up early-ish to go have dim sum with Ian and Laura. I haven't had dim sum in awhile so this was a treat. I hopped the bus to the Seabus terminal only to find I had 20 minutes to kill. Booo-urns. I was going to be late. Hate it when I'm late. I figured since I had time I would dig around for a coffee. I saw the Satbucks but decided I really didn't feel like paying an arm and a leg for a princess coffee today. I started looking around for a Timmy's. I wandered around Lonsdale Quay for a few minutes looking for a Timmy's but gave up and headed back towards the Seabus terminal thinking I would consider getting one on the other side. Right about then I noticed the big advert in the window of McDonald's. Free small coffee. Hmmm... I wondered if I needed to make a purchase. I didin;t see any fine print saying otherwise so I stepped inside to make an inquiry. The girl at the till was all too happy to give me my free coffee without purchase (which I found really odd for some reason that she was so happy) and I happily headed back around the corner to the Seabus sipping my free hot McCoffee. Score!

On the other side I made my way towards the Imperial Restaurant on Burrard and coincidentally bumped into Ian and Laura. Nice, nice. Ian explained to me that the building the restaurant was in had a very strange history in that several builders took over the project during it;s construction resulting in some odd architectural features like staircases that went nowhere. Curious. I should like to see some of these staircases going nowhere. The restaurant looked like it used to be a lobby for a hotel. There was a mezzanine level and fancy chandeliers hanging from the ceiling. We seated ourselves and were promptly presented with the first round of food. The dim sum ladies here had to carry their trays. Poor ladies. They must have some seriously strong arms though. Wah. The food was quite good. A couple of interesting twists like shrimp... ehm... not really a dumpling but shrimp stuff on melba toast battered and deep fried. Interesting. Tasty still. I was facing the kitchen so I kept keeping an eye out for the new trays of food. Strangely, the dim sum ladies kept sneaking up from behind me which startled and baffled me because I didn't know where they were coming from. It was like they were coming out from the walls like weird dim sum ninjas. I still thoroughly enjoyed my meal.

After dim sum we walked over to the Northern Pavilion which was still open for the Paralympics. Lots of native inspired art. It was an interesting exhibit. Not entirely my cup of tea but certainly worth a look. We made our way down to the Army & Navy after that to find Ian a fishing rod as he was going fishing on Monday. I tried to convince him to get the Spiderman fishing rod but he wouldn't go for it. He settled on something called the Ugly Stick that came with a whole bunch of accessories.

I took my leave of them to wander through Gastown and Lonsdale Quay before going home to await Xuan's arrival. She had informed me she would be catching the 5pm ferry so I wanted to be sure I had the place clean and ready for her. I picked up a bunch of Olympic stuff that was starting to go on sale for my cousins kids. I think they'll enjoy them even if the Olympics are over.

I got home, cleaned and jumped on my laptop to do some surfing while I waited for Xuan. At about 5pm my IM application pinged to let me know there was a new message. It was Xuan. Ehm... aren't you supposed to be on a boat? Apparently I had misunderstood and she would be arriving tomorrow. Ah. Well then. I'll see you tomorrow then.

Reason to smile today: Dim sum with Ian and Laura. It's been awhile since I've been able to enjoy dim sum without any anxiety.

Something I learned today: For many years DeBeers was the only company on the planet that knew how to find diamonds. It was a closely guarded secret until a Canadian scientist figured it out, passed over a sizable chunk of change to sell DeBeers his findings and keep it secret, and published his findings to the masses.

March 13, 2010

Om Nom Nom

I woke up at 2. I figured it was the weekend so I could sleep in. I was meeting Ian and Laura later this evening for dinner so I decided in between I would wander down to Lonsdale Quay and do a walkabouts. I was going to make my Timmy's run when I noticed Lara's kitchen light on. I knew Dan was away this weekend so I knocked on her door to see what she was up to this evening. As it turns out, nothing. I asked if she'd like to come for dinner and that I was about to do a Timmy's run and a walk about. Lara wanted to join me for my Lonsdale Quay walkabout so while I did my Timmy's run she was going to get ready.

There was a homeless guy hanging out by the door at Timmy's. He was disheveled and scruffy and appeared to be looking for handouts. He said nothing and held the door open for me. I noticed he didn't seem to be asking anyone for anything but merely acting like a doorman. Interesting way to do things. I have this thing with giving homeless guys change. Buskers i don't have a problem with. Homeless guys... I don't know where the money is going. Will it go to alcohol or drugs, I don't know so feeling a little charitable today, along with my order I bought some soup. It was a little cool out so I thought some warm soup might be nice. As I approached the door, he held it open for me once again and I said, "Thank you. The bag on top is for you my friend." He smiled and said, "I'd actually prefer some change..." As I walked away I think I heard him say, "Holy..." I think he must have thought I bought him a donut. My good deed of the day.

After Lara was finished getting ready and donuts and coffee had been consumed, we headed out. It was almost 4:30 so we weren't going to have a tonne of time to wander abouts. No worries. Not like I'm going anywhere tomorrow. We poked around and looked and laughed at a bunch of unlicensed products and other weird things before heading to Ian's. We were running a little late and with the Paralympics traffic was a little congested. We got there about 20 minutes late. Oops.

Laura had discovered a new Chinese place that had gotten some good buzz so we walked over to check it out. As we walked in to the space I thought to myself, wow, this is definitely not your traditional Chinese joint. It looks like a bar... It was pretty empty and we sat ourselves towards the back of the narrow space. It was a pretty groovy space actually. Nice ambience. The waitress gave us some cinnamon infused water to start and we leafed through the menu. Ehm... the menu was mostly drinks and one page of food that looked like mostly appetizers. Hmmm... ok. Ian started thinking we were in the wrong place and after some investigating we discovered we were. Feeling bad, we explained our situation to the waitress who replied it wasn't the first time this had happened and directed us to the restaurant that was three doors down. There was a big neon sign outside of it that said Bao Bei. Well, we were definitely in the right place this time. The wait time was 45 minutes so we decided to go back to the bar to kill some time. When our table was ready we walked over and sat ourselves down. This was also not exactly your typical Chinese restaurant. I'd call it a little more fusion or at least a modern twist on Chinese cuisine. The space was lively with thumping music and the crowd was definitely of the upscale, hip, urbanite variety. We ordered our drinks and food and I haver to say it was a very, very nice experience. The food was well prepared and delicious. Ian said, Laura's Pina Colada was just as the menu advertised, "The best f@#$ing Pina Colada ever." We thoroughly enjoyed our time there. I'd definitely come back here and recommend it.

Reason to smile today: Delicious food and fabulous company at Bao Bei.

Something I learned today: Male Alpacas make a particular sound to stimulate ovulation in the females. Could you imagine if humans were like that?

Something that made me laugh today: "What do mimes do for quiet time?" - Lara

March 12, 2010

Out of My Depth and Out of My League

I had a bit of a panic attack last night. I was thinking about Eugene and how he passed away at 66 and realized if I were to pass away at that age I would have already lived half my life. Now, for those of you who don't know, I have a thing with death. I find sleeping to be a little too close to death and the idea that I would never regain any sort of consciousness for the rest of whatever freaks me out. It kept me up for a good chunk of the night which sucked because I had to be up so early. I think I finally passed out sometime after 3.

My alarm buzzed at 6 and I awoke, groggy, grumpy and tired. I had a .tel morning meeting with Lara and her networking group. I stumbled into the shower, got ready and headed out the door thinking I was late. Lucky for me, Lara was running a little behind too so no big. We got to the meeting place, grabbed a seat and some coffee and settled in. Lara introduced me to a few people and we chatted as we waited for the presentation to begin. Now, for those of you that don't know, a .tel is a new domain. Difference between this and most domains is that the a .tel domain name is set up as a digital business card. You can upload all sorts of information about yourself to it and when someone visits it they can have all your info in one spot and if they'e on a smart phone the info can be one touch links. Handy. I had been aware of this previously but I wasn't completely convinced I wanted to fork out $20 a year for it. I had my site that had an easy url to remember, and I updated the info in it frequently. I also used vCards, traditional biz cards and bump, mover for trading info with people. I wasn't completely convinced I needed to pay for another method of contact information storage and distribution. After listening to the seminar and finding out about the addition of Google Ad Sense, and my current transitional state, the a .tel began to make more and more sense. They also offered up a gift card for half price so in the end I bought two cards for $10 a piece and bought TeakSato.tel (teak.tel was already taken) and TaxiCalgary.tel. The latter was an idea that I "borrowed" from the demo. As a person who has frequently DDed for friends as well as having some friends get injured from being involved in drunk driving accidents (not as the driver), I'm a big proponent of the Arrive Alive campaign. I have often encountered friends as well as situations myself where I needed to call a cab but couldn't remember the number. With so many people surfing the internet wirelessly, this seemed like a great idea to a) promote the concept of not drinking and driving and b) potentially make a little residual income from the google ad sense. My plan is to get a bunch of my friends involved in becoming my street team and guerilla tagging bars, clubs and other areas where alcoholic beverages are served and promoting the TaxiCalgary.tel site. If I can become the default URL to call cabs, I could stand to make some really decent residual income. At least, that's the plan anyways.

After the morning meeting I wandered back towards the core. It was still early so I thought I would see if Ian was up. I knew he had the day off and I thought if he was up we could get some breakfast. I decided to check out the Olympic Superstore at the Bay and see if they had any massive sales going on to get rid of their supply of stuff since the Olympics were over. While I was waiting for the store to open, I helped a lady from the Bay run some stuff up and down some stairs into a storage area which she greatly appreciated. Felt it was the least I could do since I was sitting there anyways just reading the paper. The store finally opened and I wandered down to the Olympic section. Much to my surprise hundreds of people were streaming in to buy Olympic goods. I couldn't believe it. Really? It's still this busy? Maybe it's because of the Paralymics. I was actually surprised to find some of the things they did have. here were some international hockey jerseys (China, Sweden and the US), some international clothing including a full suit from the Russian contingent with Sochi 2014 on it and some long coats from the Chinese contingent. Made me wonder what their selection was like during the Olympics. Would have liked to have gotten my hands on some Japanese stuff if it was available. I settled on a long sleeve Canada shirt and an Australia dri-fit shirt. I debated between Australia and New Zealand but in the end I thought the Australia one was juuuuuuust a bit nicer. I also picked up a few stuffies for my cousins kids.

I had turned my ringer off for the meeting so I missed three text messages from Ian. I did manage to get a hold of him though and he swung by to pick me up from the Bay. We went to a little French place and had a lovely breakfast. The waffles there were quite good. Ian told me I had to have one with breakfast. Glad I did. I had Les Boulettes for breakfast. Two poached eggs, spicy Moroccan meatballs and cilantro. Came with grilled focaccia and hummus cucumber salad. Wasn't really feelin' the hummus first thing in the morning but the rest was very tasty. Only bad part was the spicy meatball burps I got for about an hour afterwards. We decided to run a few errands including getting me a glass coke bottle from the Coke stand in the Bay (it wasn't open until 11). I had always been annoyed that they always featured these glass coke bottles in the commercials but you couldn't get them up here so when I saw it, I got giddy. I had only had one other opportunity to drink from the iconic bottle and that was back in Halifax. I do love me a glass bottle. It just tastes better. I'll tell you why. When a soft drink is bottled in glass, the way it goes in is the way it will taste when it comes out. With plastic, the carbonation actually escapes through the plastic over time so the manufacturers actually overcarbonate the drink to give it a longer shelf life. There's your edu-ma-cation for the day.

Ian decided to drive out to Richmond to watch the movie. I think the rationale was the times worked out better. There were an AMAZING amount of retarded drivers in Richmond. I don't know if they were all just trying to live up to their stereotype but it was baffling how many we saw. Come to think of it, it wasn't just Richmond. Ian said that all the idiots are on the road when I'm in the car with him. Uh... whatcha sayin there Ian?

We hit the Daiso so I could get a few cheap drinking glasses and another mall to try and find a Resevoir Dogs poster (no luck there). While we were at Aberdeen Centre I had a bit of a strange encounter. I noticed the Ferrari store had been replaced by a Lamborghini store so we wandered down to have a look. There were two Gallardos parked in the space and I asked if it would be alright if I took some photos. The girl behind the counter said no problem so I knelt in front of the white one and started snapping photos of the emblem on the hood. She came over and asked me to stay behind a belt barrier that had been set up around part of the car. Uh... ok... Now the reason for the confusion was that the other grey Gallardo had no such barrier so I could go up to it as close as I wanted and they didn't have a problem with it at all. They appeared to be pretty much identical cars except for the paint. Weird...

We got our tickets for She's Out of My League, then hit the pub across the way for a snack before watching the film. The show was actually quite good. When you see the trailer for it, you get the impression it's another one of those low rent comedies where all the funny part are in the trailer and is filled with all sorts of Hollywood cliches. This film actually managed to avoid a lot of that and had quite a few scenes in it that were very funny to watch. It was surprisingly good. I'd definitely recommend it as a renter. 50/50 on paying full price at the theatre but I don't think you'd be disappointed.

After the show we headed back to Ian's to see if his place was full of drunk lab techs. Laura had gone out drinking with some of her co-workers for the evening but the place was empty when we got home. We popped in The Dark Knight, Ian made us some KD and we settled in for the evening. Laura got home around 8:30ish and when the movie was done I was feeling pretty beat. Three hours of sleep and a full day of activity did me in. I got a lift back to Lara's house and as I was doing a little cleaning and unpacking from the day's outing, Lara came down and knocked on the door. I told her how the rest of the morning meeting went as she had to cut out early to go to an appointment and told her about my new .tel purchases as well as the rest of my day. Lara wanted to watch the third movie we had rented earlier in the week. I was kinda tired but I was feeling a second wind coming on so I went upstairs to watch the show. War Inc was surprisingly bad. Well, at least it wasn't MY cup of tea anyways. The show starred John Cusack, Marissa Tomei, Ben Kingsly and Hillary Duff. Now with the exception of Hillary Duff, those are all really high calibre actors. Two are academy award winners and the other is highly decorated. How could I go so wrong? It was weird. That's all I'll say.

All in all, a big day out.

Reason to smile today: Lots to smile about. a .tel, Coke bottle, day out with Ian, Surprisingly funny film. All were great.

Something I learned today: I learned quite a bit about a .tel today. I think the concept definitely has it's merits. For those of you students who are reading this, I would say consider this as your lives are highly transient right now and it would be good to put this on your business card so you don't have to keep printing up new ones every time you move.

March 11, 2010

Working Hard but Hardly Working

After sleeping a tonne last night I was up at 8 ready to go. Jumped in the shower then did my Timmy's run. There was a Shaw convention going on in the parking lot. I also noticed a car with a lot of snow on it which caught me off guard. It snows that much in Vancouver? Found out later that it snowed up on Burnaby Hill.

I got back to the house and sat down to get some work done. Somehow... it didn't work out the way I had hoped. I don't know why exactly. I was busy all day. I found a seated osition that didn't kill me and I was hammering away all day but when all was said and done...

I got my laundry done...

...and a few important e-mails.

I don't understand. What the hell was I doing all day? It's not like I was surfing around on the net and chatting to people all day. I did a little but nothing out of the ordinary. In fact probably less than I normally do. Weird. I also somehow managed to consume a quarter of my ginger and pepper jelly that I bought yesterday on the island. I didn't think I ate that much of it. Apparently I did. It was lovely on my throat though.

I posted some new pics and updated the blog in the evening as I didn't have time to do it yesterday. Lara came by around 8 and we made a run over to Save-on to do some grocery shopping for dinner. The plan was to make salmon, spinach and brie quesadillas but it sorta turned into a salmon, spinach and brie tortilla sandwiches. Still tasty. We watched Hitman as we ate dinner. It was... ok. Not particularly well acted by the lead and the writing was a little weak but it was alright overall. Still a nice evening.

Gotta be up early tomorrow to attend a .tel get together with Lara. Time to crash.

Reason to smile today: Tasty ginger and pepper jelly with cream cheese on rice crackers. OM NOM NOM NOM NOM

Something I learned today: If I make a fried egg, cheese and salsa open faced sandwich with a slice of tomato, I cover of all of my food groups AND it's easy to make. :-)

March 10, 2010

My Happy Place

I couldn't sleep last night. I sorta dozed in and out but I couldn't sleep. IT drove me nuts. I better be crashing out hard tonight.

I met with Ian this morning to have some breakfast and get my cheque from CM. As an added bonus I got my earbuds back that I had forgotten at his house. Holy yeesh, it's nice to finally get that cheque. I was starting to sweat there scraping the bottom of the barrel. At least I have some breathing room now.

Speaking of breathing, this cough is really irritating.

ok, I'm done ranting about it. At least for today. Oh, something I forgot to mention on Monday. I was at the Save-on and they have one of them auto blood pressure checking do-hickey machines and my blood pressure is normal for the first time in years. Granted, it's a high normal but at least it's normal. I typically check if I have a free moment. One of those things I do out of curiosity and stuff whenever I see one of them. The last couple of years it's been high and I thought it was because of my diet and lack of exercise. Turns out it's just stress. How about that. Isn't that something...

After breakfast, Ian dropped me off downtown so I could hit the bank. He needed to hit a Canadian Tire and there was a TD right by there so he gave me a lift. It was starting to drizzle a little so I was happy to have my rain jacket. I pass through the first set of doors and there are signs on the inner set of doors. "Closed due to emergency situation." I look through the glass and notice security staff and what appear to be police officers inside. There were no cop cars out front so... most curious. The next nearest branch was about 7 or 8 blocks away so I started hoofing it up Broadway. It was nice to walk down the street without the anxiety that had followed me the last couple of years. I also liked that I could look around at new stuff. You know how when you live in a city for a long time and then you look up one day while you;re walking down a familiar street and notice something you hadn't noticed before? Well, Vancouver is somewhat familiar but visually less explored for me so it was fun looking around.

I made it to the bank no problem, did what I needed to and exited. My cough was acting up again and I needed something to wet my throat. I also needed to find a Bank of Montreal. I looked across the street and lo-and behold, a BMo. I grinned, held up my hands and thought, "Well, wouldja look at that. Things are looking good today." BMo was empty and the guy behind the counter was a pretty French man. Yes, I said pretty. He looked like he should have been directing traffic at a fashion runway show. His coiffed hair, Armani glasses and his french accent made me giggle a little but the thing that did it for me was as I was mid-sentence asking about how long I could expect for the hold on my cheque because it was a new account, he says, "Ah lahk yo gla'sses. Zey ar veghry nice." I sorta stopped and looked at him blankly with a stupid smile on my face before I could muster a thank you. It was a very odd exchange. Now don't get me wrong, it's not that I don't appreciate compliments but in the 25 years that I have worn glasses I don't think I have ever been complemented on my glasses out of left field by a stranger. Maybe it was because he was french and I'm fashionably impared...

After BMo I wandered around towards the London Drugs I remember seeing as I was walking up. I reeeeeeally needed a drink. I got to the doors only to find them all papered up with a happy note announcing they had moved one block east. Really? Yeesh. I rolled my eyes and kept walking. A bum heckled my Flames hoodie. Oh yeah, I'm in Vancouver... I finally got my drink and immediately regretted my choice. I wanted a ginger ale but they didn't have any so I picked up a bottle of the green tea ginger ale. It was terrible. I don't recommend it to anyone. I wonder who comes up with these ideas sometimes. Coffee coke? Pepsi Blue? Green tea ginger ale? I shake my head in wonder sometimes at the marketing geniuses that come up with this crap. It was about this time that I noticed that the street I had thought was Granville was actually Cambie. Sonsamabich! Granville was in fact ten blocks west. I rolled my eyes, turned around and marched up the street.

I don't mind walking. I really don't. Not having ever owned my own vehicle I've done a lot of it in my life and to some degree I think I notice a lot more things that I wouldn't otherwise in a car. I can also stop to peek in a window or take a picture if something catches my attention. Something I wouldn't recommend if you're driving. I walked past Memphis Blues Barbecue House which, for any of you meatatarians, is a fantastic Southern Barbecue restaurant. Everything is self serve including drinks and getting your food. The West Broadway location is tiny but I have fond memories of eating there with Hanne, Gary and Mike after Ian and Laura's wedding.

Once I got to Granville Island I was in a very good mood. It had been a few years since I'd been here and it's always been one of my happy places. The atmosphere is vibrant, the food is fresh and everything just feels... happier there. I wandered through the market snapping pictures, listening to buskers and enjoying myself. Love this place. As I wandered out of the market and down towards some of the other shops I found myself behind the Sandbar (another tasty dining experience), I noticed a little boat that had been dry docked and was being displayed. There were a couple of other people also taking pictures of it so I snapped a few and was getting ready to be on my way. I was checking my iPhone for something when I heard what appeared to be a splash behind me like someone had thrown a cup of water on the ground behind me. I turned to find a lady looking rather surprised and much to both of our horror covered in bird... stuff... A gull or a pigeon had carpet bombed her. It would have been fine if it was, y'know, one poop but it wasn't. I helped her over to the cafe that was ten steps away and asked the girl who greeted us if she had some napkins or rags for the poor lady. The recoil this girl did when she realized what all the white stuff covering this lady was, was priceless. I left the poor lady at the cafe and went on my way. Yoikes. That was almost me...

I wandered down towards Emily Carr and decided to poke around inside. I have to say, I wish ACADs facilities was half as cool. Man, it is so nice in there. I wandered across to the south building and meandered around looking at some of the projects they had posted on the walls. I started thinking about Eugene. I wondered if any of the design staff here knew him? I saw a lady who looked like a faculty member and stopped her on the stairs to ask. "That's a good question," she replied. She said she was actually on her way over to the Dean's office and that either the Dean there or her secretary would most likely know. I followed her over and she introduced me to a lady named Trudy. "Trudy, this young fellow is from AAC... AA... I'm sorry what was it again?" I sorta looked at her funny and replied ACAD. She left me with Trudy and I explained Eugene's recent passing and was wondering if an of the staff on the design side might know who he was and perhaps they would care to know. She explained that the Dean of Design was in a Dean's meeting currently but that she would be happy to leave a message for her. I wrote down my e-mail address on the post-it note she gave me and then said, "and you were from A..."
ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!?!? There are four sister schools in Canada. Emily Carr, ACAD, OCA and NSCAD. Are you telling me you have NO clue they exist?!?! Even the department secretary at NSCAD knew what ACAD was. This was absolutely mind boggling. Recently there was an article written in a prominent art magazine about the art colleges in Canada and I have been told that there wasn't a single mention of ACAD in that article. This encounter reminded me of that and as I left ECI I grumbled something under my breath about the current outgoing administration at ACAD and headed back towards the public market.

During the course of my roaming around Granville Island I found myself on the east end. I had never been past Emily Carr and was actually surprised to find stuff there. There was a mini community called the Sea Village comprising of a series of floating houses lashed together against the pier. Now THIS was very cool. I took some pictures and noticed a woman walking along the dock in front of the houses and stopped her to ask about how this community came to be. She explained that she wasn't actually a resident but was looking after one of the units for her friend. Apparently they ised to be located on the other side of False Creek but had to move for some reason and found themselves here. Now I imagine the reality of a moving house aren't quite as glamorous but imagine being bored or really hating your neighbor one day one day and going, yeah, I'm moving to the other side of the water...

I hadn't eaten anything yet today and the soup Ian had brought for me last week was still on my mind. It was getting a little cool out so a little Muligatawny soup was sounding reeeeeeally good. I enjoyed my bowl of soup as I looked across False Creek. All in all, I was really enjoying my time here today even though I was getting absolutely nothing accomplished work wise.

I made my way home and came back to find the back door open. I figured it was probably Dan but I made ready to jump whomever it was inside if it wasn't. Well... I don't really know what I would have done but it sounded good for a second there. It turned out to be Dan coming home from work. I asked if he had Lara dinner plans. As I had just been infused with a bit of cash I wanted to go celebrate by eating some sushi. I hadn't had any since getting here so I was chomping at the bit to get some. As it turned out, Lara wasn't going to be home so Dan and I made our way down the street to Sushiman (yes, really) and consumed 46 pieces in about ten minutes. Now, I know I eat fast but I don't think I've ever had sushi with someone that kept up with my pace let alone beat me. Most of the time I have to make a conscious effort to slow down so that I don't wind up sitting and staring at whomever I'm having dinner with for any length of time. It was impressive. I like eating sushi with Dan. We walked across the parking lot to Baskin-Robbins™ for dessert and headed back to the house. I think I passed out in about an hour. I was so bagged from not sleeping the night before and all the walking that I was in bed by 9. Amazing day. I'm lovin' it.

Reason to smile today:
Visiting Granville Island. One of my happy places.

Something I learned today:
It is not unlucky to open an umbrella indoors if it a store that exclusively sells umbrellas

March 9, 2010

Where Does the Time Go...

Still having some trouble sleeping. Fell asleep late again last night (or early this morning shall we say). I was awoken at about 9 by my phone. Calgary calling. Asking me when I can send them money. As soon as the cheque arrives... and man, I hope it's soon. THe nice thing is, I know another one is coming at the end of March so that makes me a little less tense about finances but this first one needs to get here soon.

I fell asleep again and woke up at noon. Man, this is gonna start killing my mornings. I got up showered and did my Timmy's run. At least this is waking me up. I was feeling a bit lazy so I spent the rest of the day in a position similar to this as I mashed away on my laptop trying to get stuff done. I'm gonna have to change that. Wasn't particularly effective but it was easier on my back. I just need to have a little better posture when I sit at the kitchen table or I start doing some Yoga at noon. Actually, that's probably not a bad idea now that I do have some space to do it.

Tomorrow, I try and get a little further ahead on Chris' tattoo and I try and get the proposal done for the Oil Kings. Those are my two objectives tomorrow. K - I - C - K - A - S - S! (clap-clap-clap-clap, clap-clap) That's the way we spell success! (clap-clap-clap-clap, clap-clap).

On a bright note, Ian called me to tell me I have mail. Woohaa woohaa, the cheque has arrived! Sweet as! Breakfast with Ian at De Dutch tomorrow morning. Can't wait. Hmmm... guess I'd better crash.

Reason to smile today: The cheque has arrived *dances*

Something I learned today: Although easier on my back, I get less work done for some reason. Probably cos I'm faster on a mouse than a trackpad. Or maybe I just get too comfy...