Might As Well Face It, I'm Addicted to Lost...

I think this past weekend has been among the busiest as of late. I never really slept in and was on the go the whole time.

Thursday afternoon I arrived home from work with just enough time to get myself ready for the WPGA play. After the play, mum dropped us home and Colin and I headed into Richmond for some late-night, all you can eat Sushi. After that we returned home and watched a couple more episodes of Lost.

Friday I had a hair appointment in the morning, then spent the early afternoon doing laundry and watching the Olympics. I watched the opening ceremonies three times, but each time somehow missed the Canadians entering. Colin said they looked like a bunch of red and white penguins waddling in, in that monstrosity designed by the Bay.

Too bad the Bay now has the rights to outfit the Canadian Olympic Team, since Roots did a far superior job. Unfortunately, the Bay is a sponsor of the 2010 games, so we are stuck with them outfitting the Canadian Olympic team for at least another four years.

Later in the afternoon I met with Tina and we walked to Starbucks. Afterwards I went back to her place and she made me garlic prawns - I didn't get food poisoning :). Thalia met me at my place later that evening and we wandered up to Rogers and rented Elizabethtown. It was ok. Actually, I was enjoying it till the end - it had one of those endings which seems more like the beginning of another movie - I hate that.

Saturday morning was split between watching the Olympics and watching the police and Hazmat team across the road from my apartment. Someone's meth lab caught fire... You can live in the best parts of Vancouver or you can live in the worst parts of Vancouver, this sort of thing (like meth lab operations) can found anywhere in the city.

I joined Tina and Jen for lunch at the Jericho Tennis Club - it had been years since I had last been there. Tina had to steer me in the right direction, as I made a bee-line for the Yacht Club - if I go down to Point Grey Road it usually means I'm going to the RVYC for some reason or other - we humans are creatures of habit. Afterwards Tina ran a few errands and then we visited her mum at a craft fair. Then we headed into Richmond and wandered around Richmond Centre for a bit.

That night Colin and I saw the third movie on our Oscar list - Munich. This, in my opinion, is my favourite so far. After that we returned home and watched another episode of Lost.

Yesterday morning my mum and I went shopping - it was good shopping day, except for the fact I couldn't find a pair of khaki pants that fit me properly.

I spent Sunday evening with my family and picked up a copy of Andrew's recently completed screen play - from what I've read so far it is very intriguing, and I personally would like to see it made into a film.

Later that night, Colin and I watched yet another episode of Lost. We now only have one episode left to watch, then we will have completed the entire first season! I am not sure what I am going to do with myself between now and the time I will have to wait for season 2 to finish and be released on DVD.

The Lost ad that aired during the Super Bowl states it best- "Might as well face it you're addicted to Lost..." (to the tune of Robert Palmer's hit, Addicted to Love).

The Olympics Have Begun...

I love the Winter Olympics. I don't wish away the four years in between, but at the same time I long for that excitement and pride the Winter Olympics bring. There is something about the Winter Olympics that is so, inherently, Canadian. Is it the hockey? The curling? The skiing?

Maybe it is the great, patriotice moments created by Canada's excellence in winter sports, namely hockey. I think the greatest Canadian moment I have experienced to date was the ice hockey gold medal game between Canada and the USA in 2002.

It all started the night before that most wonderful of days, and I remember it vividly. Colin and I spent our Saturday night (Gold Medal Eve) at the Blarney Stone. We met some guys from Holland and had a great conversation with them about hockey, the Olympics, politics... Late into the evening (early morning really), Killarny began to play their cover of Where the Streets Have No Name, and in the middle rift, the guitarist kept on playing, and fluidly the Where the Streets Have No Name turned into O Canada. How many of you have rocked out to your anthem? There we were, all strangers, cramped onto the Blarney Stone's tiny dance floor, coming together as nation, partying and dancing to the national athemn in great anticipation the next day.

We were up early the next morning and at the bar (Malones) at 8 AM. It was such an amazing experience. Everyone decked out in red, white and maple leafs. The CBC was there. Everyone starting singing the Stompin' Tom Conners' classic, "The Good Old Hockey Game."

And when Canada won - wow - no words can describe it, but maybe these pictures can:

Irony

Vancouver's main newspaper publication is the Vancouver Sun...

Now that's irony.

Singing the Blues

I don't get it. I don't think any Canucks fan gets it. It is one of life's great mysteries, like how they get the Caramilk inside a Caramilk bar. Why can't the Vancouver Canucks beat one of the absolute worst teams in the NHL, the St. Louis Blues.

We can beat the best of them: Ottawa, Colorado, Detroit, Dallas. Hell, we could beat St. Louis when they were good; but now that they are bottom feeders in the NHL standings we can't beat them.

I guess there is one positive thing about not being able to beat the Blues - we know we won't have to face them during the playoffs...

When Will It End?

I do realize this will be my third (or fourth) blog entry in a row about rain, but this is all any of us of Vancouverites can think about, talk about.

I don't mind the rain, out of necessity. Vancouver is a rainy city. If you live here, you have to put up with it, and think about how beautiful the city is, when it isn't raining.

It has rained so much though, this winter, I think I have forgotten what a sunny day is like. It isn't raining right now, and the sun is peaking out, but there are still grey clouds all around, threatening to soak us Vancouverites even more.

In the last 46 days, it has rained 44 days. Yes. 44 days of rain. A month and a half of rain. I am going nuts. No more rain, please.

I saw the mountains today for the first time, in a long time. I then felt robbed. While I much prefer Vancouver in the summer time, there is nothing more beautiful then a clear winter day, with clear blue skies, and the bright sun lighting up the snow capped mountains. I have not been able to enjoy that scene this winter.

When the rain comes, it erases the mountains from sight.

You stare out into the Harbour and English Bay and see nothing but an ominous, grey mass. You know the mountains are behind it, somewhere, but you are having a hard time picturing them, because they have been hidden for so long.

We [Vancouverites] take some solace in this rain with the knowledge that these dreary, wet days have broken a few records - the wettest January ever, and the wettest month ever in Vancouver meteorogical (is that even a word?) history. Since the city started keeping weather records in the 1930's, Vancouver has never seen so much rain as it has these last 46 days.

As they say, this weather is for the ducks. And if this weather keeps up, I think we may, out of sheer necessity, evolve into water fowl. I think waterproof feathers and webbed feet may be the only way to survive this.

I love water. I am more at home on water, than on land. But I don't like water when it falls from the sky, for days and days and days and days....

And the Rain Goes On...

What's up? Well it is still raining. We did see a bit of sun and blue sky last week, but that was short lived.

Last Saturday, I attended the Vancouver Rowing Club Burns Supper with my family. My brother gave a great account on it in his blog, so I will let you read what he has to say about it: http://spaces.msn.com/pooley/blog/cns!DB6B19BECD846ADA!309.entry. I guess Colin and I must have a penchant for Scottish Country dancing, since we didn't seem to have a problem with them, and picked them up fast, especially the Eightsome Reel...

On Wednesday, also Robbie Burns Day, Colin celebrated his 31st birthday. I gave him his long awaited pair of hockey skates.

Thursday evening was an adventure: Colin and I were going to go skating, but his skates didn't quite fit properly (not wide enough), so I wanted to take them back before we used them. We decided to go out and see a movie instead. We headed out to Silver City Richmond for the 8 o'clock showing of Munich; however, there was a huge power outage all over Richmond, so Silver City was closed. We then headed to the cinema at Richmond Centre and to see if they had power.

It is truly amazing how drivers in this city don't know what to do during a power outage. Half of the people just sat at the lights and the other half just flew through them. Apparently these people have no concept of the 4-way stop procedure. So it was no surprise to us when we arrived at the intersection of Westminster and 4 Road, to see a major accident had just happened.

We arrived at Richmond Centre, in one piece, only to discover there wasn't a good selection of movies to choose from. The ones we were interested in seeing didn't have a 9/9:30 showing for some reason or other. But the power was working, so we decided to wander around the mall. Actually, we made a b-line for HMV to look at DVDs.

We have discovered Lost. Actually, I have seen a couple of episodes this season, but like 24, and even more so, you have to watch this series from the beginning. But instead of buying Lost on DVD, we decided to rent the first disc from the video store to see if we really liked it or not. Let's just say we headed back to HMV the next day to buy the DVD.

After only 18 months, Canadians headed back to the polls this past Monday, and for the first time in 11 years we have a new governing party - the Conservatives won, but only a minority, and Stephen Harper is our new PM. I think I will be keeping a very close on eye all the goings on in parliament this time round. Apparently, after not even a week of being PM, Harper already brought up the gay marriage issue, which he said he wouldn't, hmmm....

Last night Gavin, Jess and Travis came round to watch the hockey game. It was an excellent game, for the most part, and thank god Vancouver won.

Funny thing, though - the CBC feed cut out with only about 6 minutes left in a very close game. I guess Harper has started to make his cuts to the CBC... Gavin said that maybe the Avs fan that was getting out of hand decided to take out his (or her) anger on the CBC truck and blow it up. Well, the feed came back, but we were watching the Denver feed for a while, and one of the Denver commentators said the CBC truck exploded. We were pretty sure he was just joking, but considering it was our thought too, it was a little creepy.

I am currently reading Fall On Your Knees by Anne Marie MacDonald. This is a great book, very deep and intricate.

Rain, Rain Go Away...

Actually, I see blue sky and sun right now - what's that? Lisa sent me a funny email this morning, and I think any Vancouverite will have to agree with this one... I think it perfectly captures what we are all feeling right now:

The Daily Show - Canada's Indecision

I haven't watched the Daily Show in weeks, but Colin and I tuned in to watch it last night. If you are Canadian, last night was a great night to watch Jon Stewart. He talked about Monday's election. Yes, it was Indecision 2006, Canadian style. It was so funny, and very different from Canadian satirical programming. I will have to watch again on Monday to see if he has any election coverage.

So far my favourite satirical sketches during this campaign have been Air Farce's Debate 2006 skit (Friday, Jan 13). In this sketch Harper is portrayed as a robot and melts Layton with his laser vision - if only the real debates were this interesting to watch. The other great sketch was 22 Minutes' (Friday, Jan 13) take off on the most recent Buckley's ads. Vote Conservative - it may tastes awful, but it works...

...And Win They Did

Wow! Last night's game was amazing. At first I thought it was going to be one of those nights where the puck just wouldn't go in, no matter how many amazing chances you had. But, it broke open towards the end of the third period.

Both Vancouver and Buffalo played a great game last night, and Auld looked good in goal, as he has for a while now. But we do need a viable backup.

I thought the first game Ouellette played, he looked good. The second game. Not so much. I don't think I have ever seen an NHL goalie cover his face/mask and duck as the puck is coming towards him. Somehow that doesn't exude a lot of confidence in your goal saving abilities.

Auld is good, but the guy will need a break some time...

The only time I worried about last night's game was earlier in third, and Vancouver appeared to be sitting back and playing a defensive style of hockey, which really isn't them. Hey, I was tired too last night, but I was allowed to be sleepy and relaxed, up in my cozy, little corner of the nose-bleeds of GM Place. I'm not the one playing hockey.

But they woke up, and scored, again.

The only thing I didn't like about last night's game - the hoards of people leaving with about four minutes left. Vancouver was only up by 2 goals at that point, and Vancouver has been known to blow and lead like that, with only minutes left in the game. Oh well, I guess the ones who left aren't true hockey fans (or were Sabres fans, there were a few of those at the game last night)...

It looks like I have a fun weekend ahead of me. Tonight Colin and I are joining Tina to go to her friend's birthday. It sounds like some of tonight's company will be a blast from the past for me, but I enjoy catching up with people I haven't seen in a long time...

Tomorrow, Colin and I are joining my family for Burns Supper at the Rowing Club. Yeah! My annual allotment of haggis.

On Sunday I am heading out to UBC for the Sororities of UBC alumnae open house. It will be neat to see what the other chapter rooms look like. I just hope they don't have the old DPhiE room open. It has been over a year now since the chapter closed, but I still think it will be hard to see the old chapter room, even though the chapter was only in there for a few months.

They Better Win

This post may jinx the outcome of tomorrow night's game, but the Canucks better beat Buffalo, goddamit. I am so adamant about this because I am going to the game tomorrow night. It is my first live Canucks game since Calgary beat us in Game 7, Round 1 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 2004, and will probably be the only game I go to this year, unless I go to a playoff game again.

In other news... I don't know what the heck to do about this impending election. I thought I had it all figured out, but the last couple of weeks in Canadian politics have been inane. In the last 48 hours I have changed my mind from voting Liberal to Conservative to Green, back to Liberal, back to Green. Damn, we should chuck the lot of them out and start from scratch.

I might have an easier time voting Liberal if it weren't for the continuous scandals and the fact that my Liberal candidate is Ujjal Dosanj. Oh why did Elections Canada have to redraw the boundaries of Van Quadra and Van South? - I could at least stomach voting for Stephen Owen. I did in the last election.

It wouldn't be beyond me and what I stand for to vote Conservative, but Stephen Harper is just such a freaking weirdo, and I don't allign with his morals or values.

I won't vote NDP, I just don't know about Green, and the only other party in my riding is the Canadian Christian Party or whatever it's called - so you can just forget that.

I want to vote Conservative, but I sure as hell don't be responsible for putting Harper in charge of this country.

I've got 5 days to figure things out, and the politicians sure aren't helping any. I haven't learned anything from the debates or the adds other than that one party is worse than the other and that the party leaders are all a bunch of fools.

So on Monday this ship of fools sets sail.

Oh by the way I predict a Stanley Cup Final between Vancouver and Buffalo - here's the method to my madness: Vancouver vs. Islanders in 1982; Vancouver vs. Rangers in 1994; therefore Vancouver vs. Buffalo in 2006. However, should my theory be right, that would also mean Vancouver would loose another Stanley Cup... and it's about freakin' time we won one.

This week in Vancouver...

The biggest news floating around the Vancouver airwaves this week: Lions quarterback Casey Printers is moving to the NFL and will playing for the Kansas City Chiefs... in other news: Don Taylor can't get enough of saying Casey is moving to KC.

Also dominating the Vancouver news scene:

Mark Messier's jersey was retired at MSG... big news for Vancouver (note: sarcasm): While the Moose is an amazing hockey player, he captained the Canucks during their darkest days (and quite possibly made things worse).

It's been raining for 25 days straight. Or maybe it's 26 or 27 days now. I don't know. I've lost count. Maybe I should start building my ark...

Vancouver vs. Toronto

I know this a little late, but better late than never...

To all you Maple Leafs fans reading this entry: Leafs Suck, Leafs Suck, Leafs Suck. We beat you! Canucks Rock.

You don't know how long I, and so many other Canucks fans have been waiting to say that. And it seems ever since that game has been over there has been a real lack of Torontonian transplants around here to brag to.

Why is that whenever the Leafs beat the Canucks, the Torontonian transplants seem to crawl out of the Vancouver wood works and rub our faces in the Leafs win, but as soon as we finally beat the Leafs, there isn't a Torontonian in site. And with the new NHL scheduling, we probably won't meet up with the Leafs until the next millennium. Unless we face off in the Stanley Cup finals - you know that could probably count as Canada's first civil war...

Hence the cyber-gloating. And I know there are people from Ontario, and specifically TO, who read this blog, so hopefully I can jeer a few Leafs fans in cyberspace...

There is nothing more satisfying to a Vancouverite than to say those two magic words: Leafs Suck.

Actually, there are probably more satisfying things, but that is definitely up there... Leafs Suck.

Ok I'm done now.

Until we meet again...

(I actually have nothing against Mats Sundin, I just find this picture highly amusing)

interesting fact: there are 324,000 websites that make reference to the Leafs sucking; there are only 165,00 that reference the Canucks sucking (and I bet most of those are from disgruntled Canucks fans...)

Big Fish

A few weeks back Thalia and I got together for our semi-usual Friday night hang-out. After a Sushi dinner we went to Blockbuster and rented Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Watching the movie spurred three conversations: Roald Dahl, Johnny Depp and Tim Burton, the latter of which is important to this blog entry.

Even after knowing each other for 20 years, we still discover new things that we have in common: the most recent discovery - we are both Tim Burton fans. Of course this discovery led to us talking about his movies. I have seen almost all of them, but one I hadn't see was Big Fish. Thalia and Todd own the DVD so Thalia lent it to me - I finally got around to watching it last night.

Not only is Big Fish now my favourite Tim Burton movie (sorry Beetlejuice), but is now one of my all-time favourite movies. It was based on a novel, so not all the elements of the movie were Tim Burton, but it was an amazing movie nonetheless. It was a little crazy (as Burton's movies are), but it all came together, and made perfect sense.

If you haven't seen this movie, I suggest you do. And if you tend not to like Burton films because they are on the weird side, I still recommend this movie, as it is more mainstream than his other films.

Best movie I have seen in a while - this coming from someone who practically lives in the movie theatre/video store.

2006

Everybody's doing it, so will I... write a New Year's blog entry that is.

To start, I don't make New Year's resolutions - never have and I doubt I ever will. Actually, that's not true, I always make one New Year's resolution: don't make any New Year's resolutions. True, it is a New Year, but apart from writing 2006 instead of 2005, what's so new about it. I am not trying to be cynical, but think about it - January 1st is just another day, and in the case of this year, just another Sunday.

But I do believe in making resolutions and goals for myself (and yourself), I just make them throughout the year, as I see fit. I am always looking for new and interesting things, and ways to improve myself, I just don't feel like I have to wait until January 1st to "say" I am going to start working on those things.

So what of my end to 2005 and beginning to 2006?

With about three days to New Year's Eve, Colin and I had no definitive plans, so we decided to throw a small party. We invited a few friends over and I cooked dinner for everyone. We had just received our new, big screen tv a couple of days before that so we started the party at 3PM for anyone who wanted to come over early and watch the Canucks get decimated, yet again. I won't go there right now, that is deserving of it's own blog entry...

A friend of ours brought over his digital box, which also has HDTV, so we were able to watch both the Canucks Game and World Junior Canada-USA game in high def - now I'm ruined. Once you watch TV in high def, there's no turning back.

Once those two games were over and more people arrived, we kept on watching hockey, and a room full of Canuck fans sat and watched the Battle of Alberta. After hours of hockey (I think 6 or 7) we all turned our attention to the party. Later in the evening we broke out the board games and listened to an ailing Dick Clark ring in the new year.

At about 1 or 2 in the morning, we heard a lot of swearing and yelling outside our apartment. There were a few drunken teens outside. We didn't think to much of it, but kept an eye (and ear on the situation), and it was a good thing we did.

First they kicked over a couple of newspaper boxes. Stupid, but not detrimental. A few minutes after that, however they ran up to a car driving slowly by and punched the window. Right after that a stream of teens flooded out from the building next to us and began chasing the car. That's when we called 911. While waiting for the cops, a girl at the party was now standing below our window, arguing with a couple of the guys. It was starting to escalate and get physical, so we called 911 again.

Within minutes two cop cars showed up and were talking to the three teens for a good half hour. No one was arrested in the end, but we didn't hear a peep out of the culprits from the rest of the night. Mind you, by this time it was getting close to 3AM.

We returned to our games for a bit, then decided to pack in the party around 4AM.

All in all, it was pretty good way to ring in the New Year.

January 1 was unusual day, but a good one. On New Year's Eve we received a somewhat drunken phone call from a friend of ours who had come over from Victoria to spend New Year's Eve in Vancouver.

The next day we met up with Adam and our friend Jed for an all you can eat sushi lunch. Here we were after a late night of drinking, having serious, intellectual conversations about the state of the world, but of course this was interrupted by a moment of immaturity, as Adam just had to order the chicken knees. Why? Because they were chicken knees. I don't think he ended up eating them though.

On Tuesday, I had a great, Canadian experience. Yes I live in Canada and I experience it everyday, but not quite like this.

I had the opportunity to attend the World Junior Hockey Championships semi-final game between Canada and Finland. It was such an amazing and patriotic experience to be there among the red, white and maple leaf. And the fact that Canada won was doubly good.

It also gave me the opportunity to see Luc Bourdon in action... a Canuck draft pick. By the sounds of the game, I think the people of Vancouver have already taken to him. We could use someone good on defence right now...

So far that is my 2006. Not a bad start to the year...

I now just have to get my act together and start planning my 10 year reunion, because at some point last year I thought it would be a fun thing to do. Now I'm not so sure.

Ecological Foot Print

I saw this on Lisa's blog so I thought I'd check it out...

According to www.myfootprint.org, if everyone lived like me, we would need 5.6 Earths. That is a very scary thought...

But perhaps this is something we need to keep in mind in 2006. We saw so many natural disasters in 2005 caused by global warming (or many of us assume it was an effect of global warming), that we need to really open our eyes this year and try to make some significant changes to conserve the environment we live in.

New Goalie Rumour...

Biron.

That is all.

And So Another Year Ends.

Well, I guess there is technically one more day left, but for all intensive purposes, 2005 is over. Without a doubt 2005 has been the most exciting year of my life, thus far. The biggest reason for that is I got married. I also started a job in my field, even though I am starting to have second thoughts about it. But I won't go there right now. I saw my family from England for the first time in ten years. I finally met someone from Colin's mum's side of the family, which was extremely important and special to me. And, after all these years of wanting to to return to Aloha paradise, I honeymooned in Hawaii.

2006 should be an interesting year since I have my 10-year high school reunion. I can't believe I graduated from Crofton 10 years ago! And I graduated from UBC five years ago. And this year I am really on the downslide to thirty...

The past few days have been lots of fun. We finally bought our big screen TV. We upgraded from a 21-inch screen to a 46-inch HDTV compatible TV. It make sense for a couple like Colin and me to have such a gargantuan TV: we love our movies and our hockey. I am looking forward to watching the Canucks-Wild game tomorrow on our new TV.

Colin and I decided last minute to through a small New Year's Eve get together. Ringing in the New Year with close friends is always fun.

Goodbye 2005 and hello 2006!

Oh yeah, if you ever need to buy anchovies, they aren't with the other canned fish, they are in the refrigeratedsection at the back of the grocery store, with the cheese.

This is not some random comment, I spent a good 20 minutes walking around Safeways tonight looking for anchovies.

White Christmas

While most Vancouverites will be enjoying a warmish, wet, green Christmas I am guaranteed a White Christmas. No I did not rent/invest in a snowmaker, I am heading to Whistler. I have never spent Christmas in Whistler before so I am really looking forward to it. Plus I really just need to get the heck out of Vancouver right now.

Work has been brutal the last few weeks. To put it in a nutshell the Marketing Manager has been indisposed and with no warning I was left to run the entire marketing department. It was tough at first, especially since I hate chaos and uncertainty, but once things were organized I felt a lot better.

But I am thankful just to get away for a few days and have a few days off! It's not my usual minimum 2-week Christmas holiday that I have become accustomed to, but it could be worse. I am taking tomorrow off, and the office is closed till December 28th. Then it's back for two days and then off for New Years. I don't really understand why I have to go in for two days next week, but I have pretty much used up all my vacation time, so I will have to keep that in mind next Christmas.

Merry Christmas.

David Letterman Stalks New Mexican Woman...

Just when you thought there couldn't possibly be anymore room on this planet for crazy people another one pops up. This time it is a woman from New Mexico who has created such a fantasy world for herself that she actually belives David Letterman is stalking her via his Late Show monologues.

Here is one of many articles on the story - this is from the Mail & Guardian Online
http://www.mg.co.za/articlepage.aspx?area=/breaking_news/other_news/&articleid=259765

'Letterman must not think of me'
Santa Fe, New Mexico
22 December 2005 12:34

Lawyers for David Letterman want a judge to quash a restraining order granted to a Santa Fe woman who contends the CBS late-night television host used code words to show he wanted to marry her and train her as his co-host.A state judge granted a temporary restraining order to Colleen Nestler, who alleged in a request filed last Thursday that Letterman has forced her to go bankrupt and caused her "mental cruelty" and "sleep deprivation" since May 1994.Nestler requested that Letterman, who tapes his show in New York, stay at least three yards (2,7m) away and not "think of me, and release me from his mental harassment and hammering".Lawyers for Letterman, in a motion filed on Tuesday, contend the order is without merit and asked state District Judge Daniel Sanchez to quash it.Letterman's long-time Los Angeles lawyer, Jim Jackoway, said Nestler's claims are "obviously absurd and frivolous".Nestler's application for a restraining order was accompanied by a six-page typed letter in which she said Letterman used code words, gestures and "eye expressions" to convey his desires for her.She wrote that she began sending Letterman "thoughts of love" after his Late Show began in 1993, and that he responded in code words and gestures, asking her to come East.The motion to quash the order contends the court lacks jurisdiction over Letterman, that Nestler never served him with restraining order papers, and that she didn't meet other procedural requirements. -- Sapa-AP

Man that woman is crazy... It is scary to think though the people like this actually do exist!

Elexmas

You know it had to happen sooner or later... no, not the election. Me, writing a blog entry about it.

Of all the times of year to hold an election, what a stupid time. Christmas! It's not like we have anything going on in our lives. Way to go Harper! You couldn't wait till the new year... nope, you couldn't.

I, like many Canadians, have decided to ignore the election for now. I will begin paying attention January 3rd, after the Christmas holidays, when I go back to work, when the election should have been called.

Christmas, as fun as it is, is also a very insane time of year and the last thing Canadians need right now is to turn their already frazzled minds to four, crazy politicians.

Maybe I'm lucky. I know a lot about Canadian politics, at least that's what my university transcript says. I know what the parties stand for, and 20 days should be suffice enough for me to rummage through their election promises to figure out who best run this country.

Actually, I already know how I'm voting - Liberal. Many of you will agree with this choice, while many of you may think I'm insane. How can I support a party that is so corrupt.

Law of deduction...

I wouldn't vote for a party whose sole purpose is to break up this great nation. Besides, I don't live in Quebec, so I can't vote for the Bloc anyways.

I live in BC. I won't vote NDP.

That leaves the Greens, the Conservatives and the Liberals.

I don't really have a concrete reason for not voting for the Greens, I guess I am just too mainstream, and can't look outside/am not ready to look outside the box.

I would vote Conservative if Mackay were in charge, and the party had a more PC flavour. Progressive Conservative that is. I used to vote PC. Then came the wolf in sheep's clothing. The uniting of the right: a blend of Alliance and Progressive Conservative. Hmmmm.... What ever happened to the PC component of that equation. As long as crazy people from Alberta like Harper (and his predecessor, Day) are in charge of that party, forget it.

Leave abortion alone. Leave gay marriage alone. Last time I checked Canada was a progressive nation, always moving forward. Oh, that's right, I forgot, the Progressive was dropped from the Conservatives.

Which, by logical deduction, leaves the Liberal party.

Every time one of the four Prime ministerial hopefuls show up on TV (most often the news), I change the channel. From now, until January 3rd, the only election coverage I'm watching is on Air Farce, the Rick Mercer Report and This Hour Has 22 Minutes.

You can learn a lot about the current campaign from these shows: for instance, I learned from the Rick Mercer report today that Harper's 5% GST won't kick in till 2011. Do the math on that one: even if a majority is elected January 23, and stays in term for the full five years, which never ever happens, an election will have to be called before the GST reduction comes into effect.

There's something to chew on.

Merry Elexmas.

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe

This past weekend I went on a hunt through my parents' house for my copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It was tucked away in a box, which was one of many boxes filled my (and Andrew's) old toys and books. Of course, it was in the very last box.

I vaguely remember reading this book. I think I was in Grade 5, maybe Grade 4. Up to that point only four versions had been published: the original, published in 1950, a second version published in 1980, and mine: the television tie-in special edition, published in 1988, and another version published in 1988. I am sure, however, many more have been published since then.

As I mentioned, I have the TV tie-in edition. This particular edition accompanied the then made-for-TV BBC Mini series.

And now, seventeen years later, the motion picture version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is about to be released... which is why I was tearing apart my parents' house looking for my copy of this timeless book. You see, I don't remember the story, at all. All I do remember is that there is a lion, a witch, and a wardrobe which leads to Narnia. And the only other thing I remember is that one of the children had a thing for turkish delight.

I tried turkish delight for the first time when I first read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. I remember thinking it was magical and mystical, because you could get all the turkish delight you wanted in Narnia. Of course now all I have to do is go to Purdy's to pick some up...

Separated at Birth?

For those you who watch SportsNet Pacific and the Daily Show have you ever wondered if Don Taylor and John Stewart are related?

Their looks, their mannerisms, their idiosycrasies are so eerily similar that you really do have to wonder if they were separated at birth...


So pay close attention the next time you watch your Canucks news and then tune in later for the Daily Show...

Hawaii the Blog

Hawaii the Blog has now been posted - check out the October archives and look for October 19th! Warning: this is a very long blog entry!!

I've Lost the Will to Blog...

I don't know what's up with me, but I haven't felt like blogging much lately. I've been super busy and haven't had anything creative to type. Heck, I haven't even posted my Hawaii blog yet and I've been back in town for 6 weeks now.

The last month at work has been extremely busy, and December is showing no signs of letting up. Then there's my 3 volunteer positions with my sorority, plus I am now a class rep for CHS and trying to organize a 10-year reunion; and I have to start planning for Christmas.

Ah well, next week kicks off the party season, with three Christmas parties in less than a week, so it's all good.

I've been watching that How Clean is Your House show on the Women's network. I think it has inspired me somehow: I cleaned my apartment from top to bottom today - I can't get over how clean my oven is, I keep staring at it - which, when you think about, is really quite sad.

I found out this week there is going to be a Canadian version of America's Next Top Model: Canada's Next Top Model. I absolutely love ANTM. In fact it is the only reality show I watch, besides the Amazing Race, so I am looking foward to the Canadian version.

There's a Rumour Going 'Round

If you haven't heard this by now you are either living under a rock or don't pay attention to (or don't care about) Canucks hockey: apparently there is a big trade with Florida coming down the pipes.

My speculation, Colin's speculation, our friends' speculations, the media's speculation is that it will be Jovo and Cloutier for Luongo and a draft pick. I have heard rumours for sometime now that Jovo would like to return to Florida, so I wouldn't be overly surprised by that move; and Cloutier, as much as I like him, and he puts out good numbers, he is injury prone (as proven again this week) and has never had a decent playoff run.

Luongo may be the first superstar goalie Vancouver has ever seen. Not sure if this is set in stone, but it sounds like he will be back up to Brodeur at the Olympics and will most likely become Canada's starting goalie when Brodeur retires.

My only concern is that Vancouver has often proven itself to be a goalie graveyard: I seem to recall Potvin being a good goalie for TO but when he came to Vancouver he was as about as useful as a screen door on a submarine.

It has also been rumoured that Betuzzi may be traded. I don't think that will happen, for two reasons: First, to break up Bert and Nazzy would be destructive; and second, I think Vancouver is the only franchise and city that even accepts Bertuzzi after what happened that fateful day in March, 2004. So far every other rink he has played in this season, he has been booed everytime his stick touches the puck.

But, for now, this is all just rumour. Maybe someone planted it to take our minds of the Grey Cup partying we Vancouverites should be doing this weekend...

Getting Lazy

I can't believe the amount that has passed (again) since my last blog entry. For some reason lately I haven't been in a very creative mood and just haven't felt like writing. Plus, I really just haven't had the time to sit down and write an entry.

It seems like ever since I returned from Hawaii I have been extremely busy, and when I have five minutes to myself all I want to do is sit and down and watch TV.

So what have I been up to the last couple of weeks:

With Remembrance day landing on a Friday, Colin and I decided to go out Thursday night to watch the Canucks-Colorado game and invite some friends along. Matt Diamond and Travis joined us at Hudson's Landing, a gorgeous, little sports bar just minutes from our apartment. But I think that is the last time I will ever watch a Avs-Canucks game there, since the Canucks lost both games to the Avs that I watched at Hudson's Landing. In fact, I think every Canucks game I have watched there, they have lost. Bad Karma. Hockey superstition.

On Friday (November 11), I went shopping with my mum, and began to mull over my Christmas list, as I am working up until December 23, a first for me. Colin was good, and went downtown to watch the Remembrance Day Service. He didn't stick around for the parade though, since it was pouring rain, and he was soaked to the bone.

I have only worked over Christmas once in my life, and that was nine years ago when I worked at Roger's Video during my second year of university (and the only time I worked during the school year). Every other Christmas I have either been in school or worked in a school so I had anywhere from two weeks to five weeks vacation. This year, including weekends and my flex days, I have eight days off, so I need to get my shopping done in early December, probably on one of my two flex days I have before Christmas.

But I digress. After shopping with mum, I headed over to Lisa and Andrew's and spent some time with Lisa and Tina. Tina took off around 5 PM, but I stayed as I had no plans for that particular Friday evening.

I went out to dinner with Andrew and Lisa. We dined at the Bavaria House in New West. It was my first time at a German restaurant, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I will have to take Colin there one evening. After dinner we returned to Andrew and Lisa's and watched Child Star - a Canadian film, which I really enjoyed.

I don't remember much else of that weekend - so I am assuming it was fairly uneventful.

Last Thursday, Colin and I went over to West Van after work to have dinner with my grandparents. Since they can't fit all of their grandchildren and significant others in their apartment at one time, we are going over in pairs. I think my brother and his girlfriend are the only ones who hasn't made it over yet.

Last Friday I was super busy - most of my day was eaten up at my hair salon. My appointment was at 12:30, and I didn't leave till almost 3:30. But my stylist is good - so I'm not complaining. That evening I joined my in-laws for a night at the movies. We saw the new Harry Potter movie, The Goblet of Fire. While my favourite book is the Prisoner of Azkaban, the Goblet of Fire is definitely my favourite of the four movies they have made so far. It was excellent.

Saturday was an interesting day: Thalia and I went to the CHS Bazaar for an alumnae tea for the Class Reps. We were the only two there from the 90's. Most of the attendees were from the 60's and there were a couple who graded in the 80's.

It was very strange being back at Crofton. We chatted with Miss Addison at the tea and then walked around the school grounds and checked out the Bazaar. It was very weird walking through the woods. All the memories of lunch time forts, the money tree and the "horse riding area" came back to us. Between the two of us, we pieced together many a lunch hour spent in those woods when we were little girls. It was a very nostalgic moment.

We were also able to go into the Fine Arts Centre. The second I entered the Auditorium I felt very strange. I spent so many years on that stage, on the catwalk and in the sound booth. It was a huge part of my life coming back to me. A life I left behind 9.5 years ago. A life to which I am now returning - I have taken on the task of organizing my 10 year reunion and have been in contact with CHS a lot over the last month.

On Sunday I watched a very frustrating hockey game. With all the penalties called, I think a maximum of 5 minutes of actual hockey was played in the first period. There was just no flow to the game - but at least the Canucks won. Two points is two points, no matter how you get them. Afterwards I watched the Grey Cup Western Final. Good year for the BC Lions to loose - since the Grey Cup is in Vancouver this year. I'm glad I decided not to by any Grey Cup tickets.

There are all these great festivities going on this weekend, but with the Eskies playing the Allouettes, I am not really in the mood for Grey Cup partying now, as many other Vancouverites probably feel.

On Tuesday I was exhausted and all I wanted to was go home and go to bed. But when I walked in the door, Colin informed me that his dad was coming by in about 30 minutes to pick us up to go out for dinner and watch some hockey.

I didn't have to go, but I wasn't about to give up a free meal and a hockey game.

Ruutu and Kessler were the big favourites at that game; in fact at one point GM Place was chanting Ruutu, Ruutu. It took me a moment, however, to decipher what they were chanting as the crowd sounded more like a bunch of barking seals. Maybe it's a good thing Ruutu isn't a superstar.

Tonight Colin and I are going to watch the San Jose game and tomorrow we are going with Travis and Clare to the Giants game.

I love going to the Coliseum to watch hockey - it brings back so many memories.

Do you remember when the Fox was locked out and you had try to get him back in???

On that random note, goodbye...

It's Been A While

I haven't written anything substantial in my blog for sometime. It's not that I haven't had anything to say, or anything interesting going on in my life. In fact, it has been quite the opposite. I have been very busy lately.

Let's rewind a couple of weeks: I love Halloween, it is one my favourite times of the year. But it's always a crap shoot; I either have many parties to go to, or none at all. This year it was the former. I was invited to three Halloween parties, but with one in Vancouver, one in North Van and one in White Rock party-hopping was out of the question. Colin and I ended up at Tina and Mark's in White Rock. It's always a good party at that house. I dressed up as Batgirl, and Colin dusted off his Joker costume, that was a huge hit in 2001 and again, this year.

Last weekend I was very busy. On Friday I went to the dentist, Curves and went shopping (both clothes and grocery). On Saturday I headed to North Van for a day of quilting. Yes, that's right, quilting. Two of my sorority sisters are excellent quilters and decided that we should make a t-shirt quilt using old sorority t-shirts, to auction off for our Centennial Fund. So I really did learn something new this past weekend - 6 of us spent the day working on internal stitching. I know it doesn't sound that exciting or glamourous, but I had fun, and enjoyed the time spent with my sisters.

That evening Colin and I headed to the first of two 30th birthday celebrations that weekend. That night we spent the evening celebrating Shawn's (Colin's ex-roommate) birthday, and on Sunday night we went to a Karaoke Bar on Alberni to celebrate Matt's (one of Colin's groomsmen) 30th birthday.

So far I have no plans for this weekend. Tonight Colin and I are going to a sports bar to watch the Canucks-Avs game. I guess I will have to see where the weekend takes me.

Next weekend I am going to the CHS Bazaar, and will be attending a class reps tea. Yes, in a moment of weakness or maybe insanity, I signed to be a class rep for the class of 1996. It could be interesting...

Good News...

...for all you Jon Stewart/Stephen Colbert fans - The Colbert Report begins airing in Canada next Monday (Nov 7), right after the Daily Show, on the Comedy Network.

The Five-Day Work Week

Believe it or not, this is the first 5-day work week I have worked since the third week of July! This week has gone fast, but when you haven't worked a full week in three months the week seems so long.

So how did I manage to go three months working 4 days a week or less? It's a combination of my flex fridays, long weekends, time off for the wedding and my vacation in Hawaii.

But I made it to Friday, and with Remembrance falling on a Friday this year, I have the next three Fridays off, so another month will go by before my next 5-day work week...

Not A Winner...

I am not $54 million richer, but some lucky schmuck from small-town Alberta is...

I read an article on the CBC website today, outlining the problems past winners have run into. It summarized that winning the lottery does not make your problems go away, and can create new ones.

Here's my [rhetorical] question: since the only problem I have is financial, wouldn't winning the lottery solve that?

One of Many Awesome Things...

You know one thing I love about the Canucks this season? Everytime they score a goal (at home) Elevation is played. That song already gives me a natual high, tie it in the Canucks scoring, well it is just more awesome than words can describe...

My Mistake

The Rick Mercer Report wasn't on last night. In fact the season premier isn't for another two weeks. Oh well.

I enjoyed Da Vinci's City Hall. If you know Vancouver politics well enough, you can actually figure out some of the more obscure plotlines, and place the really story. On the other hand, some of them are pretty obvious...

Books

Time for an update on my reading adventures. During my time in Hawaii I read Vancouver (there is a previous post about this book) and the Red Tent by Anita Diamant:

I am currently reading All That Matters by Wayson Choy (author of the Jade Peony) for my next book club (November 6).

Tuesday Night TV

I don't think I have ever been able to say this - I am looking forward to tonight's television programming - especially the CBC (wait, did Hell just freeze over?).

There's a hockey game on tonight - Canucks vs. Wild, but that is on PPV and we don't have digital, so we will be listening to the game on CKNW. We did have the opportunity to watch tonight's game, but we both passed it up. We must be sick!

So exactly what is on TV tonight that has me looking forward to an evening in front of the tube? The Amazing Race, The Rick Mercer Report and Davinci City Hall (formally Da Vinci's Inquest, next thing we know it will be Da Vinici, Canadian Senator...).

Hawaii 05

I've taken such a long time to post this Blog, because I planning on adding photos. I will post a link when my photos are up online.
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I’m sorry to say I am now back in Vancouver after two, glorious weeks in the Hawaiian Islands. I became very used to the lifestyle there: going to the beach everyday, tanning, swimming – I was in heaven. Now I am home, and it is wet and cold, I can’t show off my tan, because I have to dress warmly – no more running around in bikinis and flip flops; but enough complaining, let me share my trip to Hawaii.

We left Vancouver on September 30th. I didn’t enjoy the first half hour or so of the flight out of Vancouver – it was very turbulent, and I don’t do well with turbulence. Once we were over Oregon though, it settled down, and I even got a good view of Crater Lake and Wizard Island. Considering the number of times I have flown to Los Angeles, I have never seen this geological landmark. All the other times it was either cloudy, dark or I was on the wrong side of the plane.

Since the flight to LA was only two and a half hours, with no movie and no food, Colin and I passed the time by playing cribbage.

This is the first time either of us have had to make a connection through LAX. Usually flying to LA means going to Disneyland – but not this time. Because we were flying on (British Airways) points, we couldn’t book a direct flight from Vancouver. This was mildly frustrating, considering that flying from Vancouver to Hawaii is only about thirty minutes longer than flying from LA to Hawaii. But it was a free flight (courtesy of my parents), so I can’t really complain.

DON’T EVER MAKE A CONNECTION AT LAX IF YOU CAN AVOID IT!

I have never seen such a gong show! We had an hour and half layover in LA. I assumed it would be enough time, except that it took the shuttle to take us from the Alaska Airlines terminal to the American Airlines terminal forty minutes to show up – and this is the only way to get from one terminal to the next, in our case.

I have made connections in many major US airports: SeaTac, O’Hare, DFW – they all have a great system; hop on a monorail and in a few minutes you arrive at your next terminal. This is not the case with LAX. When your shuttle does finally show up, you drive along the runway, dodging food and luggage trucks and breaking for planes taking off and landing.

We thought we finally reached our destination. But no, it was the American Eagle terminal, not the American Airlines terminal. So we hopped on another shuttle and again drove through the maze that is the LAX tarmac.

We had about 45 minutes before boarding by the time we reached our terminal. We scoped out the fast food restaurants and settled on dining at Burger King.



American Airline boasts that their airline has more legroom in economy than any other airline. More legroom my ass! We were in the second to last row of the plane, with a window and centre seat. God we were cramped!

We arrived in Maui at 8:30 PM (Hawaiian time), got our bags and looked into the cost of taking a cab to our hotel (the Maui Lu). It was going to be about $25 for one way, so we looked into renting a car. Good call Colin. While Oahu has an amazing bus system (The Bus), you really need a car to get around Maui, and the price was right.

We hopped into our car, left the airport in Kahalui and headed to our hotel in Kihei.

I quite liked the hotel we stayed in – we had an ocean view, right on the beach and our room turned out to be a loft. Too bad we were only in Maui for two days. I will have to re-think that when we return to Hawaii.

I called Lisa to let her know that we now had car, and she didn’t need to pick us up to drive us to the wedding… Travis’ mum answered the phone and told me that Lisa had gone to the hospital – she had been kicked in the head by a horse! Thank god she was ok.

I woke up early Saturday morning, around 5:30 AM. Of course I was still on Vancouver time, so it was really 8:30 AM, so nothing ridiculously early. I drifted in and out of sleep, until Lisa phoned at 7:30 AM. She filled me in on the previous evening’s events. She also updated us on the wedding plans:

Just before we arrived in Maui, Hurricane Kenneth was bearing down on the Island. By the time we arrived, it had been downgraded to a Tropical Storm, but this still threw a wrench in the wedding plans.

The wedding was to take place at a house Travis and Clare rented, near Paia. This part of the island, however, is susceptible to rain, and made it impossible to hold the wedding there. Lisa informed us they we looking into moving the ceremony and dinner to Kihei, which happens to be in a rain shadow area, so is quite dry. Of course, nothing was final.

Since we had all morning and a good chunk of the afternoon, Colin and I went out for breakfast at Stella Blue’s Café. Afterwards we drove along the coast to Lahaina. We returned to the hotel around 1:00 PM to find out about the wedding plans: it was being moved to Kihei, to the Mana Kai, which was about ten minutes away from our hotel. We still had some time so we went for a walk around the hotel grounds and went in search of the Vancouver Monument.

On the beach, next to our hotel a monument has been erected to George Vancouver – it is the spot where he (supposedly) first landed when he came to Hawaii. The monument consists of a large cairn, with inscriptions and two (West Coast) totem poles.

After our walk, we returned to the hotel to get ready for the wedding.

The ceremony was a quiet one (only about 20 people attended, mostly family), on the beach in Kihei. Afterwards, we went to the hotel’s restaurant for dinner. I, of course, ordered the Mahi Mahi (a type of fish, if you were wondering).

Because of Lisa’s accident, Andrew and Lisa decided to leave the house in Paia and return to staying in Kihei, and booked a room at the Mana Kai. Shortly after dinner began Lisa left to go to bed. Andrew offered to drive us to the house in Paia to go to the reception. He followed us to our hotel, where we dropped of our car, and the three of us made our way towards Hana.

The house was gorgeous, unfortunately is was dark (and pouring with rain) so we couldn’t really see the property. There was an outdoor washroom, however, complete with toilet, sink and shower. I would have loved to use the washroom every day (which most of the guests at the house did), and it was surprisingly private.

I had a good time at the reception. Clare and Travis did the traditional cutting of the cake and the first dance. And later in the evening everyone got into dancing, something rarely seen at a house party. I drank a lot that night: I had some sort of tropical concoction at dinner; and back at the house I had a Malibu and Pineapple (you can purchase Malibu Rum at Costco in Hawaii!), a Corona, and 3 glasses of wine. And I was still standing.

We left the party around 1:00 AM and returned to Kihei just after 1:30 AM.

The next morning we got up, packed, checked out and met Lisa and Andrew for breakfast - back to Stella Blue’s Café. After breakfast the four of us checked out Hilo Hattie’s and then said our goodbyes as Colin and I had a flight to catch to Oahu.

We had some time to kill, so we checked out a small shopping mall in Kahalui, filled the car with gas (more like topped it off), and returned the car. While we were waiting for our flight to Honolulu, a ticket person at the gate said anyone flying to Honolulu could hop on an earlier flight – so we did.

Just after we taxied away from the gate it hit me – we were on this flight, but our luggage doesn’t know we were on this flight. So we sat around the airport in Honolulu for 45 minutes waiting for the plane with our luggage on it to arrive. Oops.

We grabbed a shuttle bus to Waikiki and settled into our hotel.
As is often custom for a first day/night of vacation, we decided to explore Waikiki. My grandpa wasn’t kidding when he said there were a lot of ABC stores in Honolulu – there were at least two per block in Waikiki Beach. We ate dinner at Smorgy’s – if you are in Waikiki, don’t ever eat at Smorgy’s. It was a buffet-style restaurant: the salads and desserts were ok, but the main courses were not very appetizing. Our digestive systems paid dearly.

October 3rd was our first, full day in Waikiki. Our hotel offered a buffet breakfast every morning, “breakfast on the beach.” Every morning, between 6:30am and 9:30am, you head down to the pool deck with your insulated lunch bag and fill it with breakfast goodies. We opted to sit by the pool and eat our breakfast every morning, then rent our chairs and towels (free) and literally cross the road and spend our mornings on Waikiki beach.

This particular part of Waikiki Beach, where we were staying, is known as Kuhio Beach. Kuhio Beach has been badly eroded over the years, so a wall was built to stop the erosion of the beach, forming a lagoon. It reminded me a lot of the pool at Kits Beach.

I liked this particular part of the beach because the water inside the wall was calm. Everyday we were at the beach Colin and I would swim out to the wall, where the water was quite rough, and get thrown of the wall by the waves. Lots of fun! We noticed one day, that someone has lost their swimming trunks. No we didn’t see a naked person, but we did see a pair of swim trunks floating in the water.

Later that day (because we have our priorities straight) we went in search of a sports bar that would be airing Wednesday’s Canucks games (Vancouver vs. Phoenix). After only a short while of searching we found one – the Round Table. We were set for Wednesday.

On Tuesday we hiked Diamond Head. Our trip there was our first experience with the Oahu Bus system – the Bus. It only costs $2 (to go anywhere on the Island), and, in most cases, we were able to use our transfers, so transportation was frugal.

Diamond Head is a relatively easy hike, apart from the 100 stairs you have to climb near the top. The hike is well worth it; once you get to the top you see the most amazing view. It was absolutely breathtaking.

On Wednesday we took the bus into downtown Honolulu to check out some of the sites. We walked through a small museum in the Hawaiian Supreme Court and then took a tour of the Iolani Palace – the only royal palace that exists on American soil.

The palace was beautiful with a distinct European style. The Hawaiian king who had it built was a world traveler and wanted to incorporate design and décor from around the world. It was even finished with West Coast cedar.

After our trip into the heart of Honolulu we returned to Waikiki and watched our first Canucks game since game seven, of round one of the 2004 Stanley Cup finals.

On a side note, we were actually at that game. Apparently we were featured on the CBC as 2 disgruntled Canucks’ fans – we were the last to leave our seats at GM Place that night. Anyways, back to Hawaii.

Of course, the Canucks won their season opener.

On Thursday, Colin and I went to Pearl Harbour. It was an awesome experience, apart from the bus ride (it was an hour and a half each way!). We arrived at the Arizona Memorial at 10:30 AM, but had to wait until 12:30 PM for our group to head out there, so we headed over to check out the USS Bowfin.

The USS Bowfin is a World War II sub that was commissioned on December 7, 1942 (exactly one year after the bombing of Pearl Harbour). I could not imagine spending anytime on a sub, but somehow 80 men managed to live, sleep and work on it.

After our tour of the Bowfin we headed back to the Arizona Memorial for our tour. It started with a brief video showing the attack. It actually had footage of the Arizona being hit – the woman next to me jumped out of her seat from the sound of the explosion! After the film, we boarded a boat and made our way to the Memorial. It was very interesting to say the remnants of the Arizona lying eerily in the water. I closed my eyes and tried to imagine what Ford Island and Pearl Harbour were like 64 years ago. I tried imagine what the Arizona was like before her tragic end.

After our visit at the Arizona Memorial, we headed over to the USS Missouri. I have been on two aircraft carriers before, but never a battleship. The USS has great significance in [American] history (don’t forgot my degree is in US and 20th century history). It was on this ship the VJ (Victory over Japan) declaration was signed, thus ending the war in the Pacific.

On Friday and Saturday we decided to take a break from site-seeing and spent a couple of relaxing days on Waikiki beach. On Saturday afternoon we retuned to the Round Table for hockey game number two, Vancouver vs. Edmonton, but it was a Saturday and we were in the USA, so all screens were dedicated to football and baseball. With only a few minutes to spare we had to find a new place. The waitress at the Round Table suggested a bar that was only a couple of blocks away – Legends. Does every city of this planet have a sports bar called Legends?

This was one of those situations where something (mildly) disappointing happens, but the end result is so much better than you could have hoped for. This particular sports bar had hockey all the time, $2 Mai Tais and Canucks fans. The day we watched the Canucks-Oilies (not a typo, just my nickname for them) game there were even Edmonton fans there – well, the guy was actually a student from the University of Hawaii, who happened to be from Alberta, but was actually a Flames fan, but was cheering for Edmonton.

So there we were, in a sports bar, in Waikiki, with a good, fun Vancouver-Edmonton rivalry going on.

The Americans thought we were nuts. Who cares, there were more of us than them…

After numerous $2 Mai Tais we stumbled a way to dinner. A couple of guys from Vancouver suggested we try the Shore Bird (I thought they were saying Shoberg). We drunkenly stumbled our way through Waikiki, heading in the right direction, but not absolutely sure of where this place was. But funny things happen when you have been drinking. We were cutting through the Outrigger hotel, when all of a sudden I said (quite loudly) “hey it’s the Shore Bird, oh the Shore Bird not Shoberg, that makes more sense.” Yes in a drunken stupor, we quite accidentally happened upon our destination.

I managed to convince Colin to go shopping with me, so on Sunday we made our way to the Ala Moana shopping center. Definitely a must if you are visiting Honolulu. We bought lots of souvenirs, including macadamia nut honey (which Gavin had asked for).

That evening we went for a run along Waikiki Beach (about our third one). Colin went running more often than I did, but then he is training as part of his application to the police force (either VPD or RCMP). On the beach that night (and the previous evening) they had a huge movie screen set up, and were showing Bend It Like Beckham. We had both seen this movie before, but thought it would be a unique experience to sit on Waikiki beach and watch a movie. So we ran back to the hotel picked up a couple of chairs and towels and enjoyed a movie on the beach. It was unfortunate that we missed Saturday’s show, since they were showing a sneak preview of Wallace and Grommit: The Curse of the Were-Rabbit, which I really want to see. And it was free!

Let me weigh this: see Wallace and Grommit for free on Waikiki Beach or pay $10 to sit in Silver City to see it. Needless to say I was quite disappointed that we missed it.

We spent Canadian Thanksgiving lounging on Waikiki Beach. It made up for missing out on TWO turkey dinners. Guess I will just have to wait for my TWO turkey dinners at Christmas.

We headed back to Legends to watch the Vancouver-Detroit game. Because it was Columbus Day, we were somewhat outnumbered by Americans watching football and baseball, but we still made a good showing, and made a good point to be the loudest in the bar!

October 11 was one of my favourite days – the day we visited the Polynesian Cultural Centre. This was our big, vacation splurge. We decided to buy the Ambassador package which included a round trip coach ride to and from the Centre (it is on the North East part of Oahu, up towards the North Shore), a guided tour, luau, show, leis and other souvenirs.

The Polynesian Cultural Centre is run by Mormons and employs students from Hawaii’s Bringham Young University (which is right next door to the PCC). Before that I thought that there was only one BYU campus – the one in Salt Lake City. You learn something new everyday.

The PCC is a wonderful experience: you visit 6 Polynesian villages: Hawaii, Samoa, Tahiti, Fiji, New Zealand and Tonga. Each village is recreated to depict what that particular Polynesian country was like, including housing, clothing food and traditions.

After our visit to the Aeotera (New Zealand) village, Colin had gained minor celebrity status for the day. Many of the villages get the audience involved; for instance we learned how to hula in Hawaii (this is also where I tried poi). In Aeotera two audience members were asked to come up and participate in a Maori War dance, not the Haka (which is done before every All Blacks game), but something similar.

Colin stole the show. He had the moves and the vocals down pat, and had the audience hooting and hollering. If you want to see his Maori war dance I have it on video.

Everywhere we went that day people were coming up to him and telling him how great his war dance was. I even overheard some people as we walked passed them say, “that’s the guy from the New Zealand village.” At the luau there were two women at our table from Utah, and one of them was just so excited that Colin was sitting at her table. She touched him and said “I am never washing this hand,” or something along those lines. It was hilarious.

Do you know how to get out taro root stains? I managed to sit in some at the luau and now have a purple stain on my shorts. I got some of it out, but it is still there.

Last Wednesday was our final day at Waikiki Beach. I sat on the beach and read for a record four hours. Later that afternoon we went to Legends to watch our final Canucks game in Hawaii. It was that stinker against Minnesota, a 6-0 loss. Thank god it was raining outside or I would have wasted my second to last day in Hawaii on a crappy hockey game.

For our last day in Hawaii Colin and I went to Hanauma Bay, a nature preserve and popular snorkeling destination. We were there for six hours, swimming with the fishes… I was hoping to see a sea turtle but didn’t manage to find one. I love being in the water, so snorkeling was an excellent idea. It took me a bit to get used to the gear, but once I settled in we were swimming far out; both of us are very strong swimmers so despite the strong tow and large waves, it wasn’t much of a challenge or danger.

It was the perfect way to spend our last day in Hawaii.

Because our flight home left at 8:00 AM, we were up at 4:30 AM to finish packing and be ready for our shuttle at 5:45 AM. The shuttle was 10 minutes late, and we were the first pick-up. We didn’t get to the airport until 6:30 AM, but were advised to be there no later than 6:00 AM. I asked the driver how the American Airlines counter was at the time of morning and he said it wouldn’t be busy. Not busy my ass, the line-up was almost out the door – thank goodness we were flying first class; and our plane was delayed 20 minutes.

The flight back to LAX was much more enjoyable than the flight over, but it helps when you sit in first class. The chairs were big and comfy and we were served food – an anomaly on planes nowadays.

Our breakfast started with fresh fruit and bagels; then, for the main course, we had a choice of frittatas, scrambled eggs or an omelet. A while after breakfast we were served warm, roasted nuts, then milk and cookies. Before we knew it we were in LA for our four hour layover.

We knew we could kill some time transferring terminals, but it wasn’t quite as bad as when we first transferred in LA; except we did almost collide with a baggage truck.

We settled ourselves at our gate and passed the time reading and eating dinner. There was a sports bar in our terminal, but it wasn’t airing the Canucks game. Had they been playing the Kings or Ducks there was a good chance the game would have been aired though. So Colin went back and forth from the gate to the bar to check out the highlights.

After awhile I started to feel cold. The air conditioning was blasting, but little did I know I was suffering from the onset of a cold. When Colin went to get dinner, I asked him to pick me up a Pumpkin Spice latte. I was looking forward to it. Except the Starbucks had closed. All the employees went for a break. WTF?! You are a Starbucks operating in a terminal full of flights going to Vancouver and Seattle and you shut down?!

It was supposed to re-open before my flight left, but never did.

We returned to Vancouver around 11:00 PM, and blew through customs in a record 5 minutes. We waited about 10 minutes for the baggage, and within 20 had two of our three bags, and then the carousel broke down.

We didn’t end up leaving the airport till 12:30 AM.

And here I am, back in Vancouver.

Pineapples and Pumpkins

As you know, from past posts, I was not happy about returning to Vancouver, but my first weekend back in town was a lot of fun.

I woke up Saturday morning and did four loads of laundry (less than I originally expected). After that I met up with Tina for our ritual walk to Marpole and coffee at Starbucks.

Since Saturday was such a nice day (and quite warm), I decided to dress somewhat Hawaiian. I wore a short sleeve top, capri pants and flip flops to show off my tan (which is fading fast), a puka shell necklace and a flower in my hair. Ok I stuck out like a sore thumb, but I was still in Hawaiian mode, and not ready accept the fact that it was Autumn and I was back in Vancouver.

Afterwards I headed over to my parents house for dinner and to give them their presents. I bought them some chocolate covered macadamia nuts and a package of Kona coffee - there is more, but they won't see it until Christmas. I decided to purchase Andrews birthday present in Hawaii: I bought him a Tiki Money God bottle opener and a Hawaiian shirt.

After dinner, Tina and I hooked back up - neither of us could be believe someone was actually free on a Saturday night. Tina needed to buy some things from London Drugs, so we made our way to Kerrisdale. After London Drugs we headed to the Kerrisdale Starbucks, where I purchased my second Pumpkin Spice latte of the day - I had to make up for the Starbucks issue at LAX (will be explained in monster blog entry on Hawaii).

While chatting away at Starbucks, I had a revelation, a Halloween revelation. I finally figured out what I was going to be for Halloween - Batgirl. Fun and functional, since I need to dress up like a super hero for work, so my costume works for both next weekend's parties and our Halloween promotion at work. Tina and decided to get together again the next day and go costume hunting.

I returned home just after 11pm, but stayed up till 3am watching Poltegeist. That is one of the best parts of Halloween - there is a plethora of cheesy horror films on TV.

Early Sunday afternoon, Tina and I started our costume hunt at Bazaar and Novelty (I love this store), where I found my bat ears. After that we headed to Value Village, where we both found all the things needed for our respective costumes.

While waiting in the extremely long line-up for the changing rooms, Lisa called Tina and invited us over to carve pumpkins.

I was definitely missing Hawaii last weekend, but all the Halloween themed fun took my mind off it, a little bit.

Why I Could Never Be a Vegetarian

The weekend before Colin and I left for Hawaii we joined his parents, brother and his brother's fiance for dinner. The decision was made to have dinner at The Naam, a vegetarian restaurant in Kitsilano.

I wasn't sure about eating vegetarian cuisine, but I am not adverse to trying new things, especially food (heck I've eaten haggis and poi) and I didn't really have a say in where we were dining, so the Naam it was; and Colin assured me that there would be something on the menu I would like.

The Naam is an extremely popular restaurant, especially on a Saturday night, so we had to wait to close to an hour before being seated. Someone made the decision though, that we should sit at separate tables, otherwise we would be waiting a lot longer. I was not happy with this decision because it was supposed to be a family outing, but turned into a date night (Colin and I decided to go sit on our own). Now don't get me wrong, I love spending time with my husband, but we were both looking forward to spending time with his family (yes, I actually like my in-laws) and catching up.

The decision to split up added to my unassuredness of the evening.

The waiter came by to order our drinks - I ordered a diet Pepsi - stupid me. I received an almost lecture-like reasoning on why The Naam didn't serve diet Pepsi or any pop for that matter. A simple "we don't serve pop" would have been suffice. So now I was feeling slightly jilted and embarrassed and I hadn't even looked at the menu yet.

I decided to order wine - I had a feeling with the way the night was heading I would need a glass. It was the must disgusting wine I have ever had. Apparently there is vegetarian wine too - but it was dry and bland!

I looked over the menu and most of the dishes looked appetizing. I considered ordering the Agadeshi tofu, since this is a favourite of mine, but decided to be adventurous and ordered a vegetarian enchilada. It was OK. Wasn't bad, wasn't great. It definitely tasted like something was missing though.

We then decided to order dessert. I choose pumpkin pie. You can't mess up pumpkin pie, right? Wrong. It was the most tasteless pie I have ever had. In fact everyone in the family commented on how bland their dessert was.

So I gave vegetarian a try, but never again. I am not a huge meat eater, but it wasn't the lack of meat available (and there was no fish, which I love), it was the lack of taste, in everything.

Rain

I want to go back to Hawaii! I became quite accustomed to hot, sunny weather and starting every day lounging on Waikiki Beach, reading for hours on end.

I think I may have found a place that I like better than Vancouver...

Greetings From Oahu

I have 6 minutes to write this post... Yes, I cracked and decided to hop online during my vacation. I still have an entire week here, for which I am very grateful. The weather is gorgeous and warm, a far cry, I hear, from the weather in Vancouver.

So far we have hiked Diamond Head, checked out Downtown Honolulu, including the Royal Palace and have visited Pearl Harbour. And have spent a few days lounging on Waikiki Beach. We even scoured Waikiki for a sports bar to watch the Canucks game - we found one and caught the game on Wednesday night against Phoenix.

Anyways, I am going to run and get ready to head out for an evening in Waikiki.

Aloha!