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.

I've been off since last tuesday, and I only have a few days left, so I'd better blog before I get busy again. Most of wednsday and thursday I spent getting prepared for time off. St. Patrick's day was the start of Jenn's days off, and we took a little bus trip out to CNL to get some DVDs, and we picked up Darby O'Gill and the Little People, Darkman, Firefly and the Matrix box set. We wanted to have people over to watch Darkman and Darby O'Gill for St. Paddy's, but we could only find one interested party so we spent the time alone instead.

The next morning we went for a swim, packed our bags, and off we went to the Corporate Inn on 12th St. for our anniversary. After we checked in we took off to see Deep Sea 3D at the Imax, and it was pretty cool, although I have to say that having seen several of the critters in that film in reality, the film makers certainly took some creative liberties with the foley. Aside from that, it had some really gorgeous cinematography. For dinner we went to Won More, and after a two or three year absence, I was finally able to get my hands on some spicy beef with peanuts and chilis.

Sunday was our actual anniversary. Breakfast was at the Jiffy Wiffy Wafflehouse, where we both enjoyed a waffle with blueberries and whipped cream. We went for a little stroll, and picked up candles for the hotel room and a new tea ball for rooibos teas. Jenn had chosen some uncomfy shoes to wear, so we went to the Zellers that's shutting down and picked up a new pair. There was only one pair of shoes in the store, and it just happened to be a style she didn't already own and it matched her outfit. Said shoes and a new pair of socks cost around $5 after taxes, and no husband can complain about that. We walked down to the Quay, and hung out there for a bit, and then caught a bus up 12th st. to Ole Ole for lunch. We both hate chilaquiles, but to try something new we ordered nachos with beans to start. Normally I wouldn't go for refried beans on nachos, but the way they're done at Ole Ole is incredible, I've never had better. We sauntered down the hill to Renaisance Books, where we picked up a couple novels and the Star Trek TNG Roleplaying Game. Not that I ever intend to play it, but for $10 I thought it would make a good addition to the collection. We went back to our room and flipped through our new books for a bit, and then we each got a turn in the jacuzzi tub (the tub being the major factor in our decision to go to a hotel in the first place). Since we moved in to our current place in June, it's been nothing but showers, and finally having a nice long soak in the tub was perfect. Dinner was at the Italian restaurant attatched to the hotel, and it was pretty good. The quality was better than Spaghetti Factory, although less than La Spaghetteria in my opinion, and the choices on the menu were pretty limited. In the end I went with Spaghetti with Porcini Mushrooms and Pancea in a cream sauce, and it was very nice. They only had two options for dessert, flan and tiramisu, so I asked for one of each and Jenn and I shared them. It was a really good meal, but I'm not sure I'd go back unless I was staying at the hotel.

Monday morning Jenn and I caught some Kids in the Hall on TV before we packed and left. We came home to the dirty dishes we left out, so we spent most of that day and the next morning tidying up our place. The rest of the week has actually been cleaning, watching DVDs (We've now finished all of Monty Python's Flying Circus and all four Alien movies), swimming, and running the occasional errand. The real highlights since we got back were having the niece and nephew over for a sleepover, getting them loaded up with sugar, indoctrinating them on Rex the Runt, and then sending them back saying "Tuesday" and "I like jam." Also my parents came over for dinner on wednsday night and we watched Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which I hadn't seen before and found to be hilarious.

So now it's friday afternoon, I'm blogging and Jenn's napping because she has to go back to work tonight. I go back monday morning, and before then I need to get groceries and go through my old books in my parents' basement. I haven't been very productive, but that's not the point of a vacation.

Well, I'm back from my honeymoon now, but I'm going to wait untill I have pictures developed to really talk about it. Here's a quick synopsis:
20th: Woke up, got breakfast, drove upisland, fancy dinner.
21st: Woke up sick, shave and haircut, bought groceries and movies and Lego, stayed in all day, enjoyed jacuzi tub.
22nd: Better then, drove all over Campbell River and Courtenay buying souvenirs and seeing the strange foreign towns.
23rd: Walk on beach, horseback riding, mini golf, barbecue, swimming, night drive up highway to look at stars without city lights.
24rth: Pack, a couple last souvenirs, fancy lunch, go to Coombs to see Goats on the Roof, barely catch 5:00 ferry home.

In short, it was awesome. And now, some memes I missed while I was away:


You are Form 5, Dragon: The Weaver.

"And The Dragon seperated the virtuous from
the sinful. He tore his eyes from his sockets
and used them to peer into the souls of those
on trial to make a judgement. He knew that
with endless knowledge came endless
responsibility."

Some examples of the Dragon Form are Athena
(Greek), St. Peter (Christian), and Surya
(Indian).
The Dragon is associated with the concept of
intelligence, the number 5, and the element of
wood.
His sign is the crescent moon.

As a member of Form 5, you are an intelligent and
wise individual. You weigh options by looking
at how logical they are and you know that while
there may not always be a right or wrong
choice, there is always a logical one. People
may say you are too indecisive, but it's only
because you want to do what's right. Dragons
are the best friends to have because they're
willing to learn.


Which Mythological Form Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

PORT ALBERNI:

Monday night, after I blogged, I ordered the last of the Orient Expedition sets I needed to finish the collection from the Lego website. At 50% off, I kind of figured I had to. I stayed up kind of late getting packed, which was good because I was in a real rush tuesday. I came home from work, had some dinner, sold my gear, showered, loaded up the car, deposited my cash, came back for forgetten directions, all within an hour. Jenn and I wound up being early to the ferry, which was good. After the ferry, the drive was long, wet, and boring. We arrived around 1am, and I crashed pretty much immediately, having only been up for 20 hours. Despite this, the bed was so uncomfortable I was awake at 7:30 the next day, and that was that. Steve (Jenn's dad) gave us the grand tour, and we went into town to check stuff out. It was very much the typical small town. We went to the pub in the quay for lunch, where I was feeling bold enough to try eating a hamburger. It arrived, and the patty was really thick, so I had to ask for a steak knife. Even cutting off small pieces, it proved to be quite a task, and I think it took me around half an hour to eat it. That evening I took a stroll around the property, had some dinner, and Steve, Robin, Jenn and I played Creationary (see Jenn's blog for details). Thursday morning we left really quick so as to see my aunt in Nanaimo before boarding the ferry. We only got to visit for an hour, but it was nice to see her and she gave us some chicken salad sandwiches for the ferry that were quite delicious. We came home, and Jenn had plenty of time to prepare for work, ending our island oddysey.

AGAIN WITH THE CRACK:

So last night, I was woken up by my cell phone ringing. It was Kevin, from the A shift at work, obviously drunk out of his gord, and proclaiming it openly. I wasn't sure what he was after, but he started calling me an idiot, so I let him go and went back to sleep. Shortly thereafter, Carl, the lead hand, called me and told me Kevin had been murdered. "Oh no!" I said. Carl went on to explain Kevin had been murdered by his own mustache, as he was so blind drunk that he passed out and suffocated on it. In fact, Carl had been concerned for his safety, and had put Kevin up to calling me and insulting me so that I would go over to his apartment (as, unbeknownst to me, Kevin lives in the same building as I do!), seeking to pick a fight, but instead keeping him safe. Carl demanded to know what kind of coward I was that I wouldn't protect my honour, so I explained that while I was sorry Kevin was dead, I don't pick fights with people who don't know what they're saying, and if I had known he was in danger I would have gone only to help. That ended the conversation, but it was very difficult to get back to sleep, thinking that I could have just half an hour ago prevented the death of someone I knew. This morning I woke up not wanting to go to work and look Carl in the eye, then I wondered if I had dreamed it, because why on earth wouldn't Carl just ask me to look in on Kevin? Then I realized that there is no Kevin on the A shift, let alone one with a mustache, let alone one that lives in my building. Finally, I checked the call log on my cell. No calls last night. Definately a dream.

FRIENDLY NEIGHBOURHOOD SPIDERMAN:

I've been watching my brother's copy of the old Spiderman cartoons, just a couple to unwind before bed. Despite their crappiness, they make me want to do a supers roleplaying game, as does every other superhero show I watch. But I can't get plots together. People can't get together. Some of my friends are GURPophobic. Then I realized that if I formatted the game like a Silver Age superhero cartoon, with ridiculous villians, terrible dialogue, and predictable plots, I could use TOON to play a supers game, and details like what was actually happening and character continuity would be irrelevant! I'll pitch the idea to tea (through Jenn or a note) and see if anyone besides Rick bites.