I've been on vacation this last week, enjoying time with the wife too much to blog. Here's what I've been up to:

Monday: Pink Shirt

Super Happy Summer Fluff-a-Thon! Georg had crashed over so as to be punctual, and we all got up around 8am to face the day. Bel phoned at 8:10 to say she'd be over shortly, so Jenn worked on my new pink shirt, Georg was nice and went on a milk run for us, and I set up to make coffee, tea, and waffles. Around 9:45 I got tired of waiting and started making breakfast. We phoned Bel and found that she couldn't make it after all due to familial difficulties. My shirt was ready about the same time as the waffles, so after food I changed out of my pyjamas, and we watched the first movie, Easy Come, Easy Go. At this point, we decided to walk to the New West Quay for some food. We walked down to the Brunette-Fraser Regional Greenway, which is unfortunately incomplete, which meant walking along the railroad tracks to get to the Quay, but it was alright. Untill it ended, it was a beautiful little trail. We met Colin at Chaos, walked to the liquor store at Columbia Square, and went back to the Quay for lunch at the Paddlewheeler Pub. We split a pitcher of wheat beer, Jenn and I ordered "brew buddies" (little, deep fried, potato cheese and jalepeno things), nachos and a chicken quesedilla. The four of us popped into the Quay to see what we could see, and Georg wanted to go to "A Touch of Africa", where Jenn, Georg and I loaded up on beads and such to make necklaces. After a brief hike up 8th st, Colin drove us back to our place, where we watched Eegah and Bride and Prejudice, which is a Bollywood style modern interpretation of Pride and Prejudice. I actually found it to be very entertaining, it almost didn't belong in the fluff-a-thon because it was so well made. However, it was a musical, and the colours were spectacular, so it fit right in. There were also a couple scenes with big Indian banquets, and the plan for dinner that night was pizza, but the movie inspired us to press pause and order from Royal Tandoori instead. Right after we placed the order, we walked down to the gelato place and picked up mango and blood orange sorbet for after, came back home and put the movie back on. Dinner was the perfect thing to hit the spot, and afterward, despite the fact that it was getting very late, we finished the last two movies in the fluff-a-thon, Earth Girls Are Easy, and The Pirate Movie. We were done at 2am, but I stayed up untill 3 reading due to acid reflux. Overall, I dub it a success, although I'm not sure if I'll repeat it.

Tuesday: Teal Shirt

Jenn and I left Georg to finish napping, and caught transit to the north shore. We hung out at Lonsdale Quay just looking around, and picked up a very nice hair clip thingy for Jenn, and after a quick McD's lunch, took a bus to the Capilano Suspension Bridge. We got a discount for having taken the bus, and though it cost $40 to get in, we can now go back for free as often as we like in the next year. The staff were all in olde-timey clothes, and they had live olde-timey music, so that was pretty cool. The bridge itself was hugely crowded, but once you cross it there's some nice trails and such, including one that's suspended from tree platforms like some kind of Ewok village. They had a nice gift shop and concession stand, where we got fudge and a peach lemondade slush drink. It's actually a really cool place, I'm looking forward to going back in the future. We took transit back again, and went to Jenn's casino to pick up her tips. We had intended to use the cash in the fabric stores on United Boulevard, but they were closed. So we went to Ginos, a mediterranian place on Columbia we've been meaning to check out since we moved in. It was pasta tuesday, so as tempted as we were by lamb and souvlaki, we decided to go on the cheap. It wasn't bad, La Rustica or even the Spaghetti Factory is a better place to go for pasta, but we want to go back some time for the greek stuff.

Wednsday: Orange Shirt

Back to the New West Quay around 9am, this time to take a cruise on a paddle wheeler. We arrived early, and took a look at all the little shops. I found issue 1 of a new Star Wars series from Dark Horse comics, set 130 years after episode 4, but I decided to wait untill after the cruise to buy it. We boarded the boat, and the tour got underway. It was pretty relaxing, and there was a guide on a microphone who gave out the origins of the places we passed, and told stories from the lower mainland's pioneering days. Jenn and I had signed up for the buffet lunch, which was salad, cold cuts and buns, not bad but not great. It took about 3.5 hours to get to Fort Langley, so if I do it again I think I want to do something a little shorter. Fort Langley wasn't as cool as I remembered, kind of boring, really. We were only there for about an hour and a half, though, and then it was back to the boat. On the way was a quilting and knitting supply shop, where Jenn picked up some wool. The ride home was faster, due to the fact that we weren't fighting the current. There was a french-canadian guy who got on board and played the guitar as part of the entertainment, but the performance was so-so. All in all, the boat was pretty cool, and the tour was interesting, but next time I'd rather do something else, like one of their dinner and dance cruises. When we were back at the quay, we popped upstairs to pick up my comic, and walking past one of the clothing shops, we spotted a purple Hawaiian shirt, the last colour I needed to complete the rainbow in my closet. When I tried it on, it wasn't quite as extra-large as my other extra-large shirts, but it was only $12, so we got it. When we got to the book store, issue 1 was gone, and issue 2 was in its place. I asked about it, and they'd just packed it away for the changeover. They were nice enough to dig around and pull it out for me, so I let them talk me into subscribing that comic through them. Jenn and I hopped on to the skytrain, and went out to the fabric stores on united boulevard to see what we could see. We bought some black fabric for Jenn to make herself some work pants, and some purple fabric that matched my shirt for Jenn to make a skirt out of. We hustled off to Silver City on the Lougheed Highway and watched Lady in the Water, which was good. Not as good as Shyamalan's other movies, but I did like it.

Thursday: Green Shirt, Yellow Shirt

We were originally planning to go out to Splashdown first thing in the morning, but we were getting a little exhausted of doing something big and exciting every day without relaxing, not to mention the money we were spending. Instead, we just sat back at home. I looked up some books on the New Westminster Public Library's site and reserved them, and Jenn and I went out to pick them up. When we came home, I thought it would be nice to order pizza and watch a couple movies. We ordered from Pizza Hut, see previous entry for how that went (although my $25 gift card arrived today), then we looked at the Checkers Pizza Flyer, but they wouldn't be open for a while, so I looked around online, and eventually we ordered from Fresh Slice, home of the barfing pacman. Apparently their delivery driver also doesn't understand that a) around the back means the opposite side of the building from the front and b) most basement suites are downstairs, as opposed to on the second story. But at least we got our pizza this time. Unfortunately, we had lost so much time with all the delays that we could only watch one movie, so we watched the live action made for tv Ewok movie, Caravan of Courage. I recall liking it as a kid, despite it being so scary, but that's not how I feel about it now. Now that I'm older, it's bad, bad, bad. The narrator was familiar to us, Jenn said he sounded like the Care Bears narrator, which prompted me to respond that Ewoks were the lost and dirty tribe of Care Bears who got kicked out of the cloud paradise, but I thought that the narrator sounded like the same one from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer. Lo and behold, narration was credited to Burl Ives, who actually was the narrator from Rudolph. After the movie, I changed my shirt and we went out to see The Untold Crimes of Insomniacs, which I liked, especially the chat room scene, I thought it was very well done. When the play was over, Jenn, Eva, Ryan, Tim, Chris and I went out for gelato, then we parted ways and went home.

Friday: Green/Yellow Shirt

The original plan was to go to the Planetarium and Maritime Museum in Vancouver, but again these plans were scrapped. We just hung around instead, Jenn sewed and I played Jedi Academy on the computer. We ate leftover curry for lunch, and for dinner we cooked up a London Broil, roast potatoes and onions, yorkshire puddings and gravy. We drank a bottle of Painted Turtle Cabernet Sauvignon, which was very smooth and went well with the food, and for dessert ate half of our leftover wedding cake, which, astonishingly, was still moist. We retired for the evening with Carolans and disk one of Fellowship of the Ring.

Saturday: Blue Shirt, Purple Shirt

I finally used the smoker function of my barbecue on Saturday. I got some beef ribs, rubbed them down, and smoked them for six hours. They didn't turn out too bad, but I hadn't peeled enough of the membrane off of the back, and the connective tissues hadn't broken down all the way, but they were still better than broiled ribs. We had Russel over for dinner, and he gave us a lift to the Leo party. Madness ensued, as can be expected.

Sunday: White Shirt

Tea! I picked up some Quiznos for lunch, and watched a little Flash Gordon with the guests. That night Jenn and I needed to get groceries, so we went out to the Safeway at Royal City Center. Before that, though, we popped into Kasuga Sushi for dinner. It cost about the same as Kirin, but I thought the food itself was better, and I very much preferred the menu at Kasuga too. The only thing stopping Kasuga from being better overall was the hours, but the next time I'm in a large group who want sushi, I'm going to see if I can convince them to go to Kasuga instead of Kirin.

Well, that's about it. The only Hawaiian shirts I didn't wear were my red one that Jenn made, and my new blue one that my sister brought me home from Mexico. Not bad at all.

Dear Pizza Hut,

I've just had a very disappointing experience with your McBride Boulevard location in New Westminster BC, through your online ordering service today, reference number AR04804X72T1516. I placed my order online at about 1:15pm, and according to your website the delivery estimate was half an hour from that point. My wife and I did dishes in the kitchen immediately after, which in our suite places us right beside the only door in and gives us a view out of our kitchen window, which we were both facing the whole time, that allows us to see anyone who enters our stairwell. At 2:00pm, our pizza had still not arrived, and I waited untill about 2:15 to phone in to find out what was going on. I was put through to the store, where I was told that the driver had been by twice with no answer. I'm sure he went SOMEWHERE twice, but as I said, we were standing beside the only door to our suite, watching the stairwell the entire time, and absolutely no-one came to our door. The person who I spoke to repeated all the information that I had given on the website, that I live in a basement suite, and that the entrance is around the back, all of which was correct, so I know there was no error on my part. The person offered zero compensation for the mistake that was made, and told me I would have to place my order again, and that I would then have to wait half an hour for it to arrive. Unfortunately, I had used an online only coupon which gave a discount on first-time orders, and since I already placed the order I can't use it again, even though I never recieved my order.

I understand that mistakes are bound to happen from time to time, and I'm usually pretty easy going about mixups, late orders, or drivers who are having trouble finding the place (which has only happened twice before), but not receiving the order at all and being told to start over is a new one, and without a little something more than a simple apology it is completely unacceptable to me. I usually order from the mom and pop place around the corner, and I ordered from Pizza Hut to try something different. Rest assured, the experience was different, and I'll stick to my more reliable, local, independant operator in the future.

Thank you for your time,
-Stephen Brown

First of all, I'd like to say Happy Holidays to my friends, and gift them all with a link to something I didn't make or pay for:
Clicky!

Jenn and I both got some HMV gift certs from Santa, and I got a $150 cash Christmas bonus from work, so I cajoled her into blowing it all today. We went out to Coquitlam Center around elevenish, after the hardcore shoppers, before the afternoon stress cases. For the most part, the mall was about as busy as Metrotown on a saturday (although the Future Shop was really packed, and the line to get into Off the Wall was comparable to the line to get onto rides at the PNE on Labour Day). First we hit the HMV, and Jenn picked up Barbarella and Super-Size Me (mostly because it cost about the same as renting it would), and I got Robots and the Faux Fireplace DVD. We then hit the Future Shop, where I inteded to spend my work bonus on Sea Quest season 1, the He-Man and She-Ra Christmas Special, and a portable CD player for putting on in the kitchen while I'm doing dishes or cooking. Well, despite my seeing multiple copies of the He-Man DVD there before, all the Christmas stuff was hidden away, and Sea Quest wasn't shelved, even though today is the official release date (the main reason why I wanted to get it). So I didn't even bother looking at boom boxes. Instead we went to Best Buy, which was not only less crowded, it was better lit, and the staff was incredibly helpful, not to mention whoever was doing the organizing for Boxing Day had a real head on their shoulders, and the checkouts were amazingly efficient. They had everything I was looking for, and I thought at first it was going to cost me $8 more than Future Shop, but the prices were lower than they were labeled, and in the end it cost the same. From now on, when I need electronics around Coquitlam Center, I'm going to Best Buy. Afterwards, I was very hungry, so we ate at Popeye's. I've been wanting to try the food there for a while now, mostly because of this loop of a girl dancing in a way which I find endearing for some odd reason. Not really a good reason to eat somewhere, especially because it isn't even a commercial, but I've been craving fried chicken and I've given up KFC, which really limits my options where I live. It turns out they're a Louisiana themed place (named after the character from the French Connection, as opposed to the cartoon character), complete with Dixieland Jazz playing in the background. The chicken was pretty good, as were the fries and the biscuits, but it was the red beans and rice that I decided to take a chance on that was the thing that makes me want to go back. Another thing I wasn't expecting was that they serve catfish, meaning I now have a second, more affordable source for the delicious poisson. Now I just need an excuse to go back.

Week in summary.

Tuesday: Went out with Jenn for breakfast at the Jiffy Wiffy and went to Zellers to look a spring coats. None worth buying in my size, although I did buy a CD and CD player cleaning kit for my Xbox, as well as "Taz: Wanted" for the Xbox. I cut the greens, and then took off with Jenn to see Kalev before he left the country. I'm happy that he found his dream job, but I'm sad to see him go to the UK to get it. Partly because I need to find a replacement groomsman. I wanted to take Kalev and Consuelo to Won Moore for dinner, but it was randomly shut for the day, so we walked down Denman looking for something to pop out at us. That's how we wound up at a little Quebecois type rotisserie place, whose name I wish I could remember. The chicken and poutine are good, but the ribs were the star of the meal for me. All tender and smoked, but there was no vinegar or garlic in the sauce. I though I tasted nutmeg, although it wasn't particularly sweet. Very flavourful, but absolutely no zing or kick, which I thought made for a great break from standard barbecue sauce. While it's not like I could get sick of the Memphis, this place is definately an excellent alternative.

Wednsday: Dragged my butt through work as I had stayed up too late to see Kalev and Consuelo one last time.

Thursday: Slightly less posterior friction. Got home and showered and ran out the door as quick as I could. I made it to Jenn's place before everyone else got back from OMLOTR, and started to play Taz. Very fun and simple, but incredibly annoying for automatically saving (even if you've screwed up and would rather lose your progress than save) and a RIGHT BEHIND the character 3rd person view which can make it tricky to accomplish some things. All in all, worth buying, but also worth selling to EB when I'm done with it. Went to Derek's, met Ethan and Ian (seemed like decent folks to me) and stayed up too late yet again.

Friday: Bought myself a spring coat and three work shirts from Army and Navy. It was so cheap that I treated Jenn to lunch at the Paddlewheeler Pub underneath New West Quay. The Beer Buddies were really good, as was the rest of the food, but it was definately the variety of pub food intended to go with beer, so I want to go back again some time when I'm drinking. Jenn went to work and I played Taz untill she got back, and wound up chatting with Derek about stuff while Jenn watched her movie. Again, stayed up way too late.

Saturday: Slept in late. Played more Taz. Cut the greens. Ate the new flamethrower burger from DQ, which was good, although their chipotle mayo tasted more like mayonaise with buffalo sauce in it. Went to bed on time.

Sunday: Woke up after much sleep and played more Taz. Discovered glitch in game, sent off complaint to programmers and grabbed the receipt to keep in the case with the game. Tea was enjoyable, although prolonged. Highlights for me included discussing the merits of beer helmets with mercenary Jeff (If you put a Guinness in one side and a Harp in the other, you get a mix-in-your-mouth black and tan! How classy is that?) and Rick saying that he wouldn't actually pull out a lightsaber during my wedding, he just jokes about it to make Jenn twitch. (I suspected as much, since Rick is a good guy, but I'm glad it was verbalized.) Now I am at home, about to eat some tortierre, on time for getting to bed at a decent hour. We'll see what happens.

What the hell did I do Wednsday? I didn't work. I think I went out with Jenn or something. We came back after my transfer expired and I had to walk up the hill. Oh, we went to Metrotown for something. Yeah, Jenn wanted to look for new shirts, and I wanted to check out Lego and games. We had Quizno's for lunch and Jenn got some stickers for sticker edition 1000 blank white cards! Okay, so we got back and I went up the hill to the lawn bowling club to do the greens, but it started to rain, so I went back down to Jenn's.

Thursday I remember more clearly. Jenn and I checked out one hall in the morning, and then we went back to the Memphis Blues with Derek since he missed it last time. I had barbecue poutine (fries with cheese curds, pulled pork and barbecue sauce) and a fried catfish sandwich.

IIIIIIIIIIII LLLLLLLLLLOOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVEEEEEE CCCCCAAAAAAATTTTTFFFFFIIIIISSSSSSHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yesm, catfish is my new favourite fish. It used to be halibut (which can still be my favourite saltwater fish), but catfish is so good. You hear people say that random meats taste like chicken, but when you have it it's not the same, right? Well catfish actually tastes like chicken, with a similar texture, but it's light and delicate like (of all things) a fish. Oh, soo good.

After that Jenn and I checked out three more halls. The first one seemed to be the best of the bunch to me, but Jenn liked the last, so the end result is that we are going to look at more halls.

Worked yesterday, worked today, working tomorrow. Monday should be good.