Calvin's Weblog

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 41

Temp: 22 degrees

The weather is much nicer today, totally cleared up, but still quite mild - it made for a pleasant lunch on the work cafeteria's patio though, so I guess scortching heat isn't always the way to go...

I thought I had finally indentified and resolved the shower leak, but this morning it was still there - though just a trickle, so the first thing I did when I got home was to squirt gobbs of caulk all around the tap/handle face plate. I was SURE this was where the water was coming from, this has GOT to fix it! We'll see tomorrow morning...

I also packed up the tent and cleaned up the back yard (still party remnants, like chairs and tables out on the lawn) as the gardeners come tomorrow, and if there's so much as a hose lying out, a childs toy on the grass, or a dog turd in the yard, they'll skip your house all together - it's in the strats rules - so if I want my lawn mowed tomorrow, it's gotta be clean.

I don't know how I failed to mention it last week, but I had played in an online World Series of Poker qualifier invitational tournament on Monday the 17th. I guess I figured talking about a 4 hours online poker session wouldn't be nearly as interesting as my gardening catharsis entry... well, anyway, I'm going to mention it now, 'cause it ties in with my next paragraph ...nice segue! So I won an entry into a 500 person tournament, where the winner gets a $10,000 pre-paid entry into the 2006 WSOP in Las Vegas, where you get to play in the same room as all the legends of poker, for a prize pool of something like fourteen million dollars. Long story short, I came in 27th - which I was pretty damned proud of, by the way! There was a moment there that I could almost taste it ... that WOULD have been pretty rockin' to be, eight days from now, sitting at a table with Doyle Brunson, Daniel Negranu, and Phil Helmuth! But I lost, so now the only way to get in is to come up with $10,000 of my own ... maybe next year, lol.

So the point here, is that since I completed Need for Speed Most Wanted, I've kinda found my way back into online poker (hey, the weather was dull for a week, I needed something to do) and so the other week I signed up with Absolute Poker because they had a good signup bonus offer going on. I played for about 2 hours last night, and turned a $4 stake into $34. I tell ya, it's like taking candy from a baby ... money candy ... from a baby that doesn't know how to play poker. I had done the same thing yesterday too, turning $8 into $32. All told, in the last 10 days I'm up $69, and all for playing games - my kinda game - the kind that pays you to play it!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 40 - RAIN!

Temp: 19 degrees

Wow! I woke up around 9:30, and it was raining! Darn... we've still got the tent set up in the back yard. the rain sure was sorely needed though, and I don't mind it in the least - the grass is just soakin' it up!
The rain tapered off by noon and everything dried up. We used the opportunity to tidy up the party aftermath indoors, but honestly there wasn't much to do.

I made french toast for breakfast, with fresh strawberries and icing sugar - yum!

Then in the afternoon, we went over to Carole's step-brother's place to see their baby Adam, who turns 6 months old on Aug 2nd - man, he's getting big!

After that, we took Carole's Mom and Brian for a drive out to Maple Ridge to show them some of the properties we're been looking at. Oh, I didn't mention that we've been looking at properties? How's this for a bombshell - a week after Carole decides it's time we got a dog, she drops this one on me : "Okay, I'm ready to move now, let's start looking at houses." Hooray! I've been waiting two years to hear her say that. I guessthe leaky shower and noise complain were just enough to boost her desire to the next level. So now we're looking at single family houses in the Maple Ridge area.

When we got home from the drive, I turned on my projector system to demo it for Brian, and played the "Swarm of Smiths" scene from The Matrix 2 - how long is that scene, maybe 10 minutes max? Well, just as it was finishing, Carole comes running downstairs to tell me that sh just finished having a nice chat with the next door neighbour who had come over to complain about the noise. SHEESH. It's SIX FRIKKEN PM and I'm playing a ten minute clip from a movie. Yeah, you're right Carole. Time to move. Thankfully the neighbour was nice enough to say "The noise was unbearable last night, but it sounded like you were having a party, so I didn't want to bother you." - Thanks! That would have been a bummer. So we've lived there nearly seven years, and you moved in four years ago, and only now you decided to start complaining about noise? Wasn't there some sort of precedent set during the last 4 years? She also has the nerve to say "Your piano playing is very loud also, but I can put up with it because the music is bearable. When you play the terrible rock music though I feel like I'm going to have a heart attack." So now I'm really torn... do we stop playing music and hope the complaints stop, or do we crank the music repeatedly until the complaints stop? I jest of course, I wouldn't wish a heart attack on anyone ... after all, it might not be fatal, in which case the complaining would probably be much worse after the fact.

Well, we've been looking for a new place anyway. This just enforces my case for acerage - mare space between us and the neighbours means more noise can be made with less complaints.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 39 - BBQ

Temp: 20 degrees

Today started off overcast, and the radio said there'd be the likelihood of rain in the morning, but that it would clear up in the afternoon ... let's pray for the best, 'cause today is the big BBQ day!

Yesterday afternoon I had done all the shopping, but there were a few things I had forgotten, so I whipped down to the store again this morning for a few items. I made my world famous potato salad, then spent the rest of the day cleaning and prepping for the party.

By 4PM, which was our official 'start time' on the invitation, we were finally finished the prep and ready to rawk. The first to show up was Ron and Pam at about 6PM, followed shortly thereafter by Wayne, Patty, Remo, and Keith.

Amazingly, the sun came out just as our BBQ started - oh, and it never rained today either!

And hour or so later, there was a surprise buzz at the gate, and Paul and Dan from TYPHUS showed up! I haven't seen either of them in close to three years, but Carole emailed them an invite, and they made it out - that was cool, we did a lot of cathing up and remeniscing, and we all listened to rawkin tunes and BBQed hot dogs and sausages and burgers and steaks, and pork, and potatoes, and you name it.

Then at about 8:30 there's another unexpected buzz, and Carole's friend Linn appears at the door - and a few minutes later, Stevie and Jenny (who we had run into on Bowen Island last week) arrived. So now there were 13 of us, the perfect number for a party!

We gave Paul, Dan, Steve, and Jen a tour of the house, since none of them had ever been here before, and me and keith busted a gut laughing at www.CatsThatLookLikeHitler.com on my big screen projector.

From about 10 to 11:30, all the musicians (me, Wayne, Remo, Dan, Paul, Keith ...oh, I guess Ron and Pam had left by then) piled into my basement studio and began jamming out old Sabbath, Ozzy, Maiden, and Priest tunes - it was a total blast, and it looked like everyone downstairs was having the time of their lives, while the girls sat out on the deck chatting.

Amazingly enough, the whole thing started to wind down by midnight, and everyone was gone by 12:30 - I think this is the earliest one of our parties has ever ended! But this is also the first time ever that we didn't have a "captive audience" either, as everyone here tonight drove, and nobody was at the mercy of the bus system, which shuts down at 10:30 in these parts.

It was a really super time, and everyone behaved themselves (though Remo did start to get into the Absinthe a bit near the end... though I WAS kind of encouraging it, lol) - I don't think there was a single spilled drink, at least not that I was aware of... and only one broken glass, which was a total accident. There was even about a case of beer leftover by the end of it - how rare is that? Good time though, definately a success.

Oh, and once again, my potato salad was a huge success too.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 38 - Gig

Temp: 23 degrees

Overcast half the day, but no wetness and the sun did come out for a few hours. Since we were going to see our buddies Wayne, Ron, and Remo at Pub 340 in their new band Sinister Black, it was a good thing that it has cooled off ... there's nothing geekier than wearing shorts to a rock show, but there's nothing more uncomfortable than being in a hot, sweaty, non-air-conditioned rock bar on a hot summer's eve ... so everything worked out perfectly. I wore jeans for the first time in over a month, and we had a great time at the show. Ron's got triggers on his drum kit now, and they sound awesome. And Wayne threw a couple of straight-up rock/metal guitar solos into a couple of songs that totally kick ass - it has been a long time coming!

It was a nice night, and I guess we were back home by 1:30 AM. Early night. But we have a lot of prepping to do for tomorrow's BBQ!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 37 - Poop

Temp: 28

Carole sent me this the other day, from the Best of Craig's List.

It's so funny that I just had to share it, and at the bottom I've added a few jems culled from my own observations.

Office Poop survival guide
Date: 2006-06-15, 2:07PM PDT

We've all been there but don't like to admit it. As much as we try to convince ourselves otherwise, the WORK POOP is inevitable. For those who hate pooping at work, following is the Survival Guide for taking a dump at work.

CROP DUSTING:
When farting, you walk briskly around the office so the smell is not in your area and everyone else gets a whiff but doesn't know where it came from. Be careful when you do this. Do not stop until the full fart has been expelled. Walk an extra 30 feet to make sure the smell has left your pants.

FLY BY:
This is the act of scouting out a bathroom before pooping. Walk in and check for other poopers. If there are others in the bathroom, leave and come back again. Be careful not to become a FREQUENT FLYER. People may become suspicious if they catch you constantly going into the bathroom.

ESCAPEE:
This is a fart that slips out while taking a leak at the urinal or forcing a poop in a stall. This is usually accompanied by a sudden wave of embarrassment. If you release an escapee, do not acknowledge it. Pretend it did not happen. If you are standing next to the farter in the urinal, pretend you did not hear it. No one likes an escapee. It is uncomfortable for all involved. Making a joke or laughing makes both parties feel uneasy.

JAILBREAK:
When forcing a poop, several farts slip out at a machine gun pace. This is usually a side effect of diarrhea or a hangover. If this should happen, do not panic. Remain in the stall until everyone has left the bathroom to spare everyone the awkwardness of what just occurred.

COURTESY FLUSH:
The act of flushing the toilet the instant the poop hits the water. This reduces the amount of air time the poop has to stink up the bathroom. This can help you avoid being caught doing the WALK OF SHAME.

WALK OF SHAME:
Walking from the stall, to the sink, to the door after you have just stunk the bathroom. This can be a very uncomfortable moment if someone walks in and busts you. As with farts, it is best to pretend that the smell does not exist. This very uncomfortable walk can be avoided with the use of the COURTESY FLUSH.

OUT OF THE CLOSET POOPER:
This is a colleague who poops at work and is damn proud of it. You will often see an Out Of The Closet Pooper enter the bathroom with a newspaper or magazine under his or her arm. Always look around the office for the Out Of The Closet Pooper before entering the bathroom.

THE POOPING FRIENDS NETWORK (P.F.N):
A group of co-workers who band together to ensure emergency pooping goes off without incident. This group can help you to monitor the hereabouts of Out Of The Closet Poopers, and identify SAFE HAVENS.

SAFE HAVENS:
A Safe Haven is a seldom-used bathroom somewhere in the building where you can least expect visitors. Try floors that are predominantly of the opposite sex. This will reduce the odds of a pooper of your sex entering the bathroom.

TURD BURGLAR:
This is someone who does not realize that you are in the stall and tries to force the door open. This is one of the most shocking and vulnerable moments that can occur when taking a poop at work If this occurs, remain in the stall until the Turd Burglar leaves. This way you will avoid all uncomfortable eye contact.

CAMO-COUGH:
A phony cough that alerts all new entrants into the bathroom that you are in a stall is called a Camo-Cough. This can be used to cover-up a WATERMELON, or to alert potential Turd Burglars. The Camo-Cough is very effective when used in conjunction with an ASTAIRE.

ASTAIRE:
A subtle toe-tap that is used to alert potential Turd Burglars that you are occupying a stall. This will remove all doubt that the stall is occupied. If you hear an Astaire, leave the bathroom immediately so the pooper can poop in peace.

WATERMELON:
A watermelon is a big poop that creates a loud splash when hitting the toilet water. This is also an embarrassing incident. If you feel a Watermelon coming on, create a diversion. See CAMO-COUGH.

HAVANA OMELET:
A case of diarrhea that creates a series of loud splashes in the toilet water. Often accompanied by an Escapee. Try using a Camo-Cough with an Astaire.

UNCLE TODD:
An Uncle Todd is a bathroom user who seems to linger around forever. This person could spend extended lengths of time in front of the mirror or sitting on the pot. An Uncle Todd makes it difficult to relax while on the crapper, as you should always wait to poop when the bathroom is empty. This benefits you as well as other bathroom attendees.

Okay, and here are my humble contributions:

THE VP:
This guy might not actually be a corporate Vice President, in fact, he might not even be all that important or all that busy in the office - but when he rushes into the bathroom to pinch one off, you'd think he had a thousand critical issues on his plate, and pooping was not worth ten seconds of his time. In fact, ten seconds would be generous... this guy careens into the washroom in a blur of motion, and before you even hear the door latch, his pants drop, or his butt hit the seat, you hear a WATERMELLON, a flush, and then he's out the door ... no wipe, no handwashing, in fact, you're pretty sure he didn't even close or open the stall door. If you're unfortunate enough to be sitting in the next stall when THE VP whirls through, you'll be left with your jaw dropped and a sense of confusion about what just happened - "who ever that was," you wonder, "they must be ONE BUSY PERSON!"

THE POOP TALKER:
Nothing is worse than sharing the bathroom with THE POOP TALKER. It's unclear whether this guy just feels more comfortable about pooping when giving a play by play, whether he feels he needs to coax the poop out with encouraging words, or whether he even realizes that he's vocalizing his inner voice - but one thing's for certain, as awkward as it is, you can't escape without busting into fits of uncomfortable laughter when you hear "Come one, there ya go, you can do it... oh! You brought a friend! that was unexpected... any more? yeah, you can come out to play too, come one, one more..." eminating from the next stall. The worst is probably when you hear "come on, come on, just once, do it for me..." followed by three or four deep breaths, then a a strained huff and a very uncomfortable long silence (where you're picturing the POOP TALKER's face a bright crimson with veins popping out of his forehead) and then finally a WATERMELLON with "Yes! Yes! That's mah boy! i knew you were in there, you were just shy weren't ya!" hot on it's heels.

THE CROHNS HOG:
This guy may or may not be afflicted with Crohns, but whetever his problem, he certainly spends the bulk of his work day in the John. Three, four, five times a day. You know who he is by his shoes, because you see them sticking out of the stall every damned day - no matter when you make your trip to the can, he's either just leaving, just entering, or his dusty brogues are sticking out from under the stall. He's quiet at least, but he sure is a hog ... this guy is the number one reason you find yourself seeking out the SAVE HAVEN, as he seems to have a complete monopoly on the 'nearest' bathroom during normal business hours.

INAPPROPRIATE HYGENE DUDE:
While closely resembling an UNCLE TODD, this particular breed has one unique distinction. He seems to deliberately wait until you're using the facilities before entering the washroom and proceeding to liesurely brush and floss his teeth at the sink/mirror directly in front of the stall you're occupying. Revolted by the thought of pooping while someone's brushing their teeth right next to you, you wait... and wait... and wait... but when the brushing's finally done, the flossing starts. Then the mouthwash, and gargling, and spitting, and then he starts over with round two. All you can do is wait him out - you certainly don't want to finish and have to make eye contact with INAPPROPRIATE HYGENE DUDE.

LA TROIS COILER:
A poop by any other name, ... uh, ... probably wouldn't have three coils. This is one of those rare poops so continuosly long, that it has to do laps to fit in the toilet - making upwards of two, three, and sometimes even four complete revolutions of the bowl and resembling a big brown soft serve cone. It's all you can do to stop from taking a picture or calling your colleagues in to check it out, it's just so amazingly LONG! Of course, you stop short of doing anything so fecalfeliactic and reluctantly flush, cognisant of the fact that you've just witnessed of of the true rare spectacles of nature.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 36 - Camping?

Temp: 29

Nice and warm during the day, but we sure did pick a chilly night to camp out in the back yard! Lows to 15 overnight don't sound too bad, but there were a few frigid moments. We weren't expecting to need sleeping bags, so just sheets and a blanket on an air mattress was all we had setup. Yeah, we could have gone inside, but it wasn't THAT bad, and we decided to tough it out. It was still lots of fun to wake up at 6AM and walk INSIDE to get ready for work.

I worked some more on the shower after work today as a little water still leaked down in the kitchen this morning - certainly not as much, not even a quarter of a cup this time - but it IS still leaking, so while I may have been on the right track, it's still not fixed. I've GOT to get this resolved before any permanent damage is done!

I also picked up some car cleaning supplies, like soap, wax, and wheel cleaner, 'cause my car is sooooo dirty ... but it was so hot when I got home (okay, 29 degrees, not scorching, but too hot to wax a car in) that after cleaning the wheels with the brake dust disolver, I figured I'd wait for a cloudy day to do the waxing. There are supposed to be some cloudy days in the not too distant future, so I shouldn't have long to wait.

We've planned a small gathering this weekend... gonna have a few friends over for a BBQ and I keep thinking that I should make a shopping list, but I keep putting it off - can you believe that we haven't bought any groceries in over 6 weeks, and that I've only cooked twice in July (both BBQs)? We've either always been away, or we're eating out... this is BAD ... I mean, it's great that there's so much free space in the fridge for BEER, but all this eating out can't be too healthy. So, maybe tomorrow I'll make a list and get the place stocked up for the BBQ and beyond... gotta start cooking again!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 35

Temp: 28 degrees

I don't know how or why, but it really cooled down over the last couple of days - it's still beautiful, warm and sunny with blue skies, but the heatwave has passed. That being said, 28 is still pretty warm :-)

I finished Need For Speed last night! Yay! It's FINALLY OVER! Well, completing the game unlocks two new cars and some special challenge raes that I've yet to check out, but I got the "Congratulations, You Win!" message so that game is done like dinner. Phew!!!

I forgot to mention yesterday that something happened to our ensuite shower ... after my shower I went downstairs and there was water leaking out of the roof in the kitchen - yikes! I raced back upstairs and sure enough the spot directly above the leak is where the shower was. I couldn't find any signs of places water might be getting out, but I grabbed some silicone caulk and covered everywhere that I thought might be a problem ... no dice, 'cause this morning after our showers, it was leaking again - this is not good. I'm going to have to check in the drain and behind the tap and showerhead for leaks and cracks - if I don't find the problem, we might have to yank the whole shower out ti find it and that's an expense I'm not lookign forward to...

Last night at dinner we were talking about how we really need to get camping soon, and we resolved to setup the our new tent in the backyard today to check it out. Last summer we had bought a nice new 7 foot tall dome tent but hadn't even opened the package yet! So after all these hot sweaty sleepless nights (although it's much cooler today) we resolved to setup the tent in the yard, and spend the night 'camping' in the tent. We thought the prospect was hillarious - camping in the back yard, and yet, such a practical and easy way to finally get a good night's sleep in the cool outdoors. So today after work, we called each other on it, and said "we're doing it - this is going to be hillarious, but why the hell not???" So we setup the tent, and we're spending the night outdoors in the yard.

Wish us luck!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 34 - 7th Anniversary

Temp: 29 degrees

July 24th, 1999 was seven years ago... hard to believe! How quickly time flies, and yet the wedding seems like a lifetime ago. So much has happened in our lives since then! Just thinking back at the eleven years Carole and I have been together, so many awesome adventures come to mind... many of them have even been blogged in this forum!

Today started off nicely. I decided to take the day off work, so I slept in until about 9, did some little chores around the house, and then spent the remainder of the day alternating between gardening (or just laying back lazily) in the sun, and going downstairs to cool off and play some more Need for Speed. I beat the top racer by the way, and I'm now #1 on the blacklist, but just when you think the game is finally over, now I've gotta evade 30 police cars for six minutes... if you get away, THEN you finally win the game ... or do you?

I had a doctor's appointment at 5, and then at seven Carole and I went out to Saint St. Grill in Port Moody, our favorite local fine dining establishment. It might have something to do with the fact that they mail us a 'complimentary entree' letter on our anniversary every year, but we love going to this place for those special occasions. I've never been dissatisfied with the food or the service here, and as we all know, I can be a little hard to please some times...

So we started by sharing the Prawn Provencal, then Carole had a bison cheese bocaccini salad while I tried the Grilled Ceasar - as strange as the prospect of a head of romaine tossed into the oven until singed might sound, it tastes absolutely out of this world. For the main course Carole had the grilled chicken while I had the stuffed chicken, then we shared a creme brule for desert. All of it was asolutely perfect.

Though laid back, it was a nice way to spend our special day.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 33 - Bowen and um, no boating

Temp: 35

Still Hot, Hot, Hot here - but fortunately, I find that beer really helps me to have a good sleep, even when everyone else is tossing and turning. We stayed overnight at my parents place, and after breakfast, still reeling from the surreal events of the night before, we did a nice drive out to a nifty place called Xenia. What a nifty place! There's a labarynth of stones that takes about 10 minutes to walk through, and then a short walk away is "The Opa Tree", an 1,100+ year old giant of the forrest. Just steps from that is "Sanctuary", an amazingly peaceful little "temple of sorts" secreted away in the wods. You can see picture and read about the Labarynth, Opa, and Sanctuary HERE.

After Xenia, we made our way to a beach near the new Bowen Golf Course, and spent a bit of time there before heading back for lunch.

We had no sooner cracked a couple 'o' beers when Josie came barrelling up the driveway exclaiming "Chris' boat is sinking! Quick, grab buckets and rope and jump in!" My dad and I grabbed some gear and jumped in. Josie tore down to the dock, and as we rushed out, it wasn't hard to miss Chris and a few curious bystanders frantically trying to keep the boat above water. "What did you do, Chris?" I asked with a smirk...
"Some joker turned on my bait-tank pump sometime overnight, but the plug's in, so it filled the whole boat with water", he replied with a scowl, "This is NOT how I was planning to spend my hangover!"

My dad and I quickly secured one end of a rope to the dock, and looped the other end under the engine. We then reefed on it until we had the lip barely above the water level, and secured it to the dock at that level. It then only took about 10 minutes of frantic bailing by the three of us to get enough water out that the boat was again floating "on" the ocean, as opposed to "under the surface" of the ocean. Whew! That was close. Some cheekly tourist walks by and says "Ya don't see that everyday..." and keeps walking. Yeah, thanks for the help, buddy!

From there, it was fairly easy to barter a tow to shore (I'll trade you my pre-paid spot at the dock for a tow to shore!), but getting the half-full-of-water boat on to the trailer at low tide was a bit of a challenge - fortunately, getting it 3/4 on was enough so that pulling the plug and letting it drain for 10 minutes was sufficient to drain it the rest of the way. Miracle of all miracles, there was enough juice left in the previously submerged battery to get the engine raised, otherwise it would have been a pretty strenuous job to do manually.

So now Chris just has to run fresh water through the engine, and dry to dry out the lower carbourator - and hopefully the salt water doesn't corrode all the wiring throughout the boat. Yikes! What an ordeal...

So, after lunch and some chat, we were on the 5PM ferry, and back home by six. On the main floor of our house, it was 36 degrees, and on the top floor, well, it was so hot you couldn't even breath! If I had to guess, it must've been 44, bare minimum... Holy Smokes it was hot in there... we got all the windows opened and managed to get the
temperature down to 32 by 9PM, which did not make for a very comfortable sleep... but you know me, no matter how bad it gets, you'll never hear me complaining about SUMMER!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 32 - Bowen and boating

Temp: 36 degrees

Is this really the first time we've been to Bowen since the beginning of summer? Huh, it doesn't seem like it's been that long since our last trip... well, as you may have guessed, we headed out to Bowen Island today - and a good thing we did too, because it's a scorcher again. It was much nicer on the island, in the nice ocean breeze - 29 degrees - that's definitely tollerable.

We made it to the ferry in time for the 11AM sailing, and was very lucky to have the attendant place the pilons directly behind my car... yay, this means I'll be the very last car allowed on the boat! Lucky I wasn't one minutes later! Unfortunately, my assumption was wrong - as the boat loaded and all the lanes emptied, it looked like it was getting pretty full - but finally our lane started to move, and we thought for sure we'd be getting on the ferry ... but then, as soon as the 2nd last car in the line (the car directly in front of me) gets waved onto the loading ramp, the attendand jumps in front of my car with her hand out, saying "sorry, we're full - you'll be on the noon sailing."
"Come on! I'm the VERY LAST CAR! You can't fit me on???"
"Oh sure, there's room for several more cars, but we're at passenger capacity... no more life jackets, so I can't let you on."
Man that sucked. I mean, it's not like we had any plans that we were going to be late for, but the anticipation, then the letdown... then being the only car there for about 45 minutes was kinda lame too.

But, no harm, no foul, we were on the 12PM sailing, which was half an hour late, but we still made it to my parents place before one.

We had a quick lunch, then we went down to the dock to meet up with my aunt Josie and her boyfriend Chris, who had invited us out on the boat for the afternoon. I had programmed all nearby GeoCaches and downloaded the island maps into my GPS the night before (Oh yeah, THAT's what I did last night ... it wasn't all video games, I was preparing for this trip!) - so we figured we'd try for some of the "boat access only" caches.

We were heading to Plumper's Cove on Keats Island first, and were about half way, but the breeze was adding some extra chop to the waves and all the bumps were interfering with our beer drinking, so we veered north up Long Bay on Gambier Island and found two caches there. We then skipped back to the west side of Bowen where we docked for a nice prawn and artichoke picnic.

It was then back to Snug Cove for a charity Salmon BBQ on the warf. We cleaned up and joined my parents for dinner. The food was good, though the portions not exactly huge - but it was for charity, and we had a picnic only a couple hours earlier, so it was all good.

All in all, this one one damn fine way to spend the hottest day of the year! In fact, 43 temperature records were smashed in BC today, including a 100+ year old record in Chilliwack, as it hit 37.8 there today. Lytton hit 44, the hottest in the country, but ironically, that's not nearly Lytton's record high...

SO ANYWAY, after dinner we headed to Chris's (Josie's boyfriend) place for drinks. It was awesome sitting out on the patio in shorts and a T-shirt at 11PM, as it was still at least 20 degrees out.

Ah, and now we've come to the most awesome and memerable point of the day...
We're all having fun throwing out funny cat names, in a jovial attempt to help Josie name her two new cats, when Chris dissapears... I think the last thing I said was "how about 'Ren' and 'Stimpy' or maybe 'Stevens' and 'Mandu'? when Chris reappears, and bends down on one knee in front of Josie.
Yes, you guessed it - after a 15 year courtship, my aunt, fourteen years my senior, gets a proposal! In front of all of us! Totally surreal. The answer was 'yes' by the way, but it has yet to be determined exactly what "Will you be my partner for life" actually meant... wedding? One could only hope...

Man, that was exciting. I happened to have my camera on me, so I snapped a few pics, but I don't happen to have my camera on me right now, so I can't post them... I will soon though - promise!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 31

Temp: 36

Scorcher! Wow, where did THAT come from? Nice! I did my standard watering, gardening, and hanging out soaking up the sun after gettign home from work.

For dinner we zipped out to Boston Pizza, and after dinner we went to Petcetera to check out the puppies... yeah, we've been talking a lot lately about getting a dog. Ironically, it took years of softening up the ground to even get Carole to THINK about having a dog, and then even after I got her to the "okay, maybe someday, but certainly not anytime soon" stage of acceptance, it was still a lot of slow and steady subtle reinforcement to get her to say 'yes' (in case you hadn't guessed, I've really wanted a dog for a very long time) - but then suddenly, one day a couple weeks ago, Carole suddenly went from "No, absolutely not - not as long as we live in a townhome" one night, to "I think we should get a dog now" the very next morning.

I was stunned, I surely thought I still have another year or so of gentle prodding ahead of me! Suddently I'm the one caught unprepared! Over the next two weeks my inbox has been inundated with links to cute puppies for sale, SPCA adoptions, breeders, breed information, and just random "cute dog" images and stories...

Whoah, we haven't even agreed on a breed, or an age (buy adult, or buy puppy?), or a budget, or a timeframe! Er, at least I didn't know we had agreed... but according to Caole, we're looking for a Golden Retriever or a retriever cross. Um... well, I'm still holding out for a Collie. Actually, truth be told, I'll take in anything that doesn't shed, doesn't need haircuts, WON'T fit in a purse, (but WILL fit in a travel kennel), with a good temperment, and moderate energy, without being totally restless, hyper, or feel the need to roam free all over the neighbourhood. It's gotta be friendly, loyal, easy going, happy, personable, and of good temperment, but not a sloth, and not a lapdog! I don't mind if it barks when it's happy, but it can't be a chronic barker, must not be a yapper, and can't have any aggression problems. A lot to ask for? I don't think so - and if you asked Carole, what I'm describing is a Golden Retriever - but at $800 for the cheapest we can find, I'm willing to relax my criteria a bit if it saves me a few hundred bucks. So, in my mind, more research is required.

So anyway, we've started looking into owning a dog.

The rest of Friday night, I spent in the basement - playing Need for Speed ... I'm sooooooooo close to the end!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 30 - First month of Summer is done

Temp: 29 Degrees

Well, the radio said it was hitting 30 today, and while it felt hot, hot, hot! - my faithful car thermometer said it peaked at 29 on my way home from work, and trust me, that puppy's faithful... no matter where I'm driving, if the radio says "it's currently 18 degrees in Ladner", and I happen to be in Ladner, my dashboard 'exteral temperature' will read 18. It's pretty awesome when I'm driving home from work and the Radio says "It currently 24 in Burnaby, 26 in Port Moody, and reaching hights of 27 in Pitt Meadows" ... and sure enough when I leave work the car says it's 24, when I get to Port Moody the car is registering 26, and by time I get home it's 27 ... yes, I know I don't live in Pitt Meadows, but that's the closest weather reporting station to where I live, and it's pretty darned accurate. So, basically what I'm saying is, after 6 years of the same commute, I pretty much trust my car's thermomether implicityly - it's always right - and on those rare occasions when the radio says something different, I just assume the announcer made an error. My car is never wrong.

So today was 29. Tomorrow's supposed to be a few degrees hotter. Finally! Here come the REAL heat again.
I spent this entire afternoon/evening in the sun - from 4PM 'till 7:30PM I was outside, topless, making 'gardening' excuses to be out tanning. And in that 3 and a half hours I manages to go through 7 beers ... don't ask me how that happened, I guess it must've been HOT! I wasn't feeling hungry, so I didn't bother making dinner, and fortunatey when Carole came home, she was happy to just heat up her leftover pork, potato and corn from the day before.

Thirtieth day of summer already -how strange is that! Have you ever written the word thirtieth before? I don't think I have... but I just looked it up, and the spelling is right. Weird! It doesn't look right, does it... well anyway, thirtiest day of summer. Hmmmmm. I suppose some reflection is waranted. I started this blog up again with a distinct reason: SUMMER BLOG. I promised myself I'd log everything significant for the duration of this season so that I could look back and see if I really took advantage of the summer, or if I just fucked around. So far, I'm still uncertain. To be honest, I don't think I've done that much... sure, I've tanned a lot, I've geocached a bit and I've been away on several trips (Harrison, Bowen, Edmonton - oh no! I'm doomed to only go to places that end in "n"!!!) and I've donr a lot of yard work and basement work, but I still feel like the bulk of my time has been wasted.

Who knows, maybe I'm wrong - maybe I'll look back at this and say "see? You averaged 2.3 hours a day, just lounging outdoors, soaking up the sun - isn't that exactly what you'd hoped to achieve? Free time to just emjoy the summer?" After all, I DID spent the entirety of last summer sequestered indoors working while the infamous "strike" went on outside, so maybe this is exactly what I need?

Well, what I really need is a vacation. I just got a nice note from my employer this weeks that says "you have 29 vacation days banked from last year (yeah, no shit... I wasn't allowed to take any vacation during the strike!) and if you don't take them by the end of this year, they will be forfiet. Wha??? I just took a 2 week wacation in Europe - I've taken plenty of 'single' days off... in fact, Carole has already used up sll of her vacation days, so what exactly am I supposed to do with these extra 29? Stay home and play Need For Speed? I think not. Go tanning? Maybe, but that's hardly good use of time... I dunno... maybe I'll meet someone in the next couple weeks that's really into fishing or camping or something, and I can invite myself along for a few weeks... I dunno... any ideas?

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 29

Temp: 23 degrees

Surprisingly, it has been overcast all day... it's still really warm and humid, but the sun hasn't broken through yet.
Add to this, the fact that on the radio they keep saying the temperature will reach 30 in Vancouver tomorrow, 33 by Friday, 36 on Saturday, and will hold or increase for Sunday - making this next weekend THE hottest on record for Vancouver (for the day of the year), if the forcast is correct. So... it's odd that yesterday was gorgeous, and tomorrow's supposed to be a scorcher, but today it's overcast.

I think we're going to Bowen this weekend, so it'll likely be cooler in the straight - hopefully I'll still get plenty of tan-time!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 28

Temp: 25

Back in the office today, but it was so nice out, I went for a walk at lunch. I checked on the geocache that I've placed nearby, and basically did my regular 20 minute circuit which gives me enough time to grab a chicken salad sandwich and a Coke Zero before heading back to my desk. At 2PM I had to run to another office for a meeting, and before I knew it, the day was over and I was driving home with the sunroof open, just soaking up the sun.

I spent from 4PM 'till 7PM in the bakc yard with my shirt off, grabbing more soothing rays and doing anything I could think of to keep busy... hand watering, weeding, more herb harvesting, reading the newspaper, etc. Anything that was an excuse to stay in the sunshine was fine with me. I even took the wireless laptop outside and started doing work research, which probably wasn't the brightest idea, since I ended up doing that the rest of the night (four hours of work for free... am I nuts?) But I DID break long enough to make myself a nice BBQ dinner.

Carole was out again, shopping for new jeans on snooty Robson Street, so I just made myself a BBQ pork steak, baked potato, and peaches'n'cheam corn. YUM! I actually haven't fired up the BBQ in quite a while (sacrilege!), so that made tonight's outdoor dinner in the evening sun all that much tastier.

On another note, I forgot to mention this Saturday, but something else I had been meaning to do for a while was to watch my favorite movie on my new big screen - so at about 9PM I popped in "The Matrix", cranked up the surround, and dug in to the leftover popcorn from Superman the night before. The movie was awesome, except for one thing ... I got my very first noise complaint in six years!!! Of all the loud blasting parties I've held, of all the band recordings I've done in my studio, not to mention the late night mastering sessions... - of all the previous movies I've cranked with the subwoofer, or thrash metal CDs I've cranked up to ten, I've never had anyone bang on my door before. This was a total shocker - but honestly, I'm so glad the neighbours did it. I've been pushing the boundaries for so long, it's good to know there actually IS a limit. And now I know where it is. So, in retrospect, I had The Matrix cranked up to 8 with the subwoofer on full, and the next day when I popped in Matrix 2 and set the volume to 4, it was STILL loud enough to make me wonder if it might be bugging the neighbours, so yeah, totally no harm no foul. I'm glad I know now that someone does actually live next door and that there in fact, aren't deaf.

The only thing that troubled me a bit though was that after 6 years in the place, I've only just finished the rec-room in the basement and installed the home theatre in there ... I really hope the neighbours don't have a bedroom down in the adjacent basement room, or that would really suck for both of us - all these years I've made noise, maybe it never bothered them because they were in the basement and I was up on the ground floor? How will this bode for my future moie nights? And what's going to happen when I start recording my next album in the fall? Yikes! Well, there's no sense worrying about things that haven't happened. For now, let's just hope that was my one and only complaint.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 27 - Homework

Temp: 24 degrees

Today I worked from home. I'm doing security testing on a new consumer product my company may be launching soon, and the device needs to be tested in the 'consumer' environment - not really practical or productive to try to hack it in a lab environment.

So, it was nice to be able to wear shorts and a T-shirt to work, but the morning started out with the sun popping in and out from behind clouds, so at first I was thinking that this was going to be the kind of day that I wouldn't mind spending in the office ... well, could be worse, right?

But, by noon, when I finally went downstairs to get a bite to eat, it was bright and sunny and hot out... well, not scorcher hot, but "nice" and "comfortable" hot. Unfortunately (or rather, 'fortunately' ?) there was nothing in the house that I could whip up quickly for lunch, so I donned my sunglasses, pulled on my sandals, and did the 2 minute trek to the 7-11 next door for a big-bite hotdog and a slurpee. I was back home in another 2 minutes and decided to sit out in the backyard to enjoy my lunch. Very nice. The day was turning out just fine; bright sun, shorts & a T-shirt, no commute, and yet still quite productive!

Twenty minutes later it was back to work for another two and a half hours, before calling it a day at 3PM. I'll tell ya, a 7-to-3 day is quite nice when you just roll out of bed and you're at work - no shower, no commute, no insane office chatter/noise to distract you. Then at 3, instead of hopping into the rushhour traffic, hoping to be home by four, you're already home! I'm going to see if I can do this more often.

So, after 'work' I went back to the yard and spent half an hour in the sun just watering all the plants before deciding to start harvesting the herbs. I've got so many chives growing, and just going to waste, so I figured I could cut up a whole bunch and dry them and save them. I also did the same to the sage, and the Curry Plant. I also picked a couple more strawberries and popped them into the freezer. I get so few strawberries throughout the year that I just save them up all year in a freezer bag, and then in the dead of winter when they're out of season, I make myself a strawberry margarita. I did this last year, and it was awesome - I think it's a great idea, so I'm doing it again this year.

Carole was having dinner with friends this evening, and since I was having such a nice time just kickin' in the back yard sunshine, at about 6PM I just hopped over to 7-11 again for a chedar smokie with extra sourcrout. Yum! Fattening as hell, but still nice on a warm summer day.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 26 - Crystal Falls

Temp: 25 degrees

Today we headed out before noon to do the three mile hike to Crystal Falls in PoCo. There were a couple of geocaches on the way, so it was a good excuse to do this trail we'd never been on before. The terrain was pretty flat, and we were to the falls in no time. We had packed a Subway picnic lunch, so we made our way to the top of the falls and sat on the edge while we ate our lunch. There were millions of bugs, and fortunately we brought our 'Off Spray", which didn't keep them off of us, but DID keep them from biting.

I guess we spent about 40 minutes at the falls, and when we were getting ready to leave, I happened to notice flecks of gold in the pool at the bottom of the falls ... I was intrigued, and started sifting through the silt to see if there were any gold pieces larger than just flakes. "I should have brought my goldpan! This would have been a fun passtime for the afternoon!" - oh well, maybe next time...

Unfortunately though, those tiny gold flakes got me distracted and I began rock hopping down the stream looking for glimmering silt pools. It didn't take long until I misstepped on a slimy rock and took a crazy spill, gashing open my leg. I was a little worried for about 2 minutes, but the bleeding stopped, the gash wasn't too deep, and the pain was subsiding, so we started the trek back. It was no problem, in fact, compared to some of this spils I used to take when I was a kid, this was pretty dang trivial - it got me wondering if decades without exposure has seriously degraded my threshold for pain - then I remembered "the gallbladder" ... 'nuff said.

Round trip was three over hours, and when we finally got back out from under the trees and into the sun it was baking hot - the thermometer said 25, but it sure seemed hotter after the hike.

I spent the rest of the evening playing Need for Speed - I'm now #2 on the blacklist, and shooting for #1... I'm sooo close to finally being done with this game!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 25

Temp: 25 degrees

Beautiful day! Carole and I first went to a hot-dog fundraiser for a little Port Coquitlam girl that's in Children's Hospital right now, and after loading up on hotdogs we went for a drive out to Golden Ears Provincial Park, and the surrounding area, where we located a couple of geocaches.

We also just spent some time in the sun, kicking back near the water.

On the way back, we detoured through Pitt Meadows and went for a walk on the dyke near the airport, and watched the skydivers. A guy I work with said he'd be doing some jumps this weekend, and I couldn't help wondering if he was one of the parachutists up there.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 24 - Superman

Temp: 22 Degrees

The weather's finally clearing up, today was a nice day and the weekend's supposed to be even better.
Good thing too, 'cause my tan's fading quickly!

Tonight we went for a cheap quick dinner at ABC in Mallardville, then we headed over to Silver City to see Superman Returns. To our surprise, with each entree at ABC, you get $3 off movie passes, so that's was a pretty good deal.
After the dinner and the two and a half hour movie, it was midnight, so that was pretty much the end of the day.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 23 - Zero Vs. Diet

Temp: 21 degrees

Overcast all day, but sun poked out in the afternoon long enough to warm up a bit (was probably around 17 or 18 for most of the day), so after work I got into my shorts and managed to find a new geocache.

So anyway, anybody tried this Coca Cola Zero stuff?

About 8 months ago my work instituted a 'healthy work place' initiative resulted in all the chocolate bars and gummy bears and chips in all the workplace vending machines being replaced with granola bars, powerbars and trailmix. This didn't bother me, 'cause I don't generally eat any of the above - I didn't miss the junk snacks and I didn't care about the healthy stuff either. In fact, even the clearig out of all the pop machines to make room for water, gatoraid and diet soda didn't phase me much, but I DO like to have the occasional Coke, and it WAS kind of a bummer that every 2 or 3 weeks, if I got a craving for a Coke, I was shit outta luck. I tried Deit Coke, but that stuff's disgusting... in fact, although I have a pretty low opinion of Pepsi products in general (and have been known to forefo a drink all together if an establishment only serves Pepsi products) I do have to admit that if I only had a choice between diet Coke and Diet Pepsi, I'd take the Pepsi in a heartbeat ... which pisses me off even more, since I'm such an ardent proponent of Coke.

Soooo, finally, after much debate and deliberation, some 'workplace health council' in their infinite wisdom finally permitted CocaCola Zero to be sold in the work cafeterias. People were talking about it like it was this great gift from our most benevolent and generous employer ... wow! We're allowed to buy Coke Zero at work! Who would have thought we'd ever live to see these days??? Well, a few weeks down the road, I was in the cafeteria buying my lunch, and I figured "aw, what the hey, I hate Diet Coke, this is probably just like Diet Coke, but I've got a choice between Zero, Diet, water, gatoraide or orange juice, so I'll give this new stuff a try."

I was totally surprised by the taste... it tasted just like Coke! Wait a sec, was this just some sneaky marketting ploy? Maybe it's got all the sugar of Coke, but they just rebranded it with the name Zero to dupe people... nope, that's not the case, the can definitely says "zero caleries, zero cholesterol" ... I was impressed.

I began to buy Zero more regularily, if I was ever in the cafeteria buying lunch, I'd probably grab a Zero as my drink. It was just like Coke after all, but without any of the guilt. Hmmm... Zero guilt... I like that.

One day, I was in kind of a hurry, I just wanted to grab a sandwich and a Zero and get back to my desk in time for a conference call. In my haste, I accidentally grabbed a Diet Coke. The cans, after all, are the same colour - they look almost identical. But with the first wretched gulp of disgusting aspertame syrop, I was rudely reminded that these two products were NOTHING alike. Ironically, this brown piss water I was gagging on actually brags "Only one calorie!" on the can... and this got me thinking...

If Coke Zero has ZERO calories and tastes exactly like normal sugar-laden Coke, then WHAT THE HELL IS IN THAT ONE CALORIE THAT THEY PUT IN DIET COKE THAT TASTES SO DAMN BAD? AND FURTHERMORE, WHY THE HELL DON'T THEY TAKE IT OUT? Come on! It's one damn calorie, and it's stinking up the entire can! Can't you just find that barfy little sucker and take it out?

Who knows... maybe until 2006 there just wasn't the technology available to locate and remove a single calorie... but now that the technology evidently exists, why are you still subjecting us to Diet Coke, for the love of pete?

If you can't manage that, then do us all a favour and just cancel the Diet Coke product line once and for all so that humanity will never have to endure that tripe again.

Well, that's my rant for today.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 22 - Edmonton (last day!)

Temp: 22 degrees

Sun and clouds, still windy. Streets were wet this morning like it had been raining, but seemed to clear up - still not particularity warm, (overcast mostly) but I hear it was POURING in Vancouver, so I can't complain.

You know, I used to love travelling for work. A little more than a decade ago, I got sent places like Palm Springs, La Jolla, San Diego, Maui, Whistler, Edmonton, Ottawa, you name it, I loved it. Wow. That seems like a lifetime ago, and yet, to think that only twelve or thirteen years ago, I stepped on a plane for only the 2nd time in my life - and I had never been to any of those places before. What a strange irony that the wonder and amazement I had back then at how much smaller the world gets when an airplane can take you 1000 miles in an hour and a half, has been replaced with such a jaded attitude towards airplanes and airports... now, it's just a pain in the ass. It's no big deal to fly to Calgary in the morning for a meeting and be back home in Vancouver in the afternoon. The plane trip just becomes an hour that I'm wedged into an uncomfortable seat.

In the past 12 years I can't even count how many planes I've been on... but, in the last 6 months alone I've been on ... um... I guess TEN planes... Is that right??? can't be that much...
1.) Vancouver -> Las Vegas
2.) Las Vegas -> Philadelphia
3.) Philadelphia -> Salt Lake City
4.) Salt Lake City -> Vancouver
5.) Vancouver -> Phoenix
6.) Phoenix -> Puerto Vallarta
7.) Puerto Vallarta -> Phoenix
8.) Phoenix -> Las Vegas
9.) Las Vegas -> San Francisco
10. ) San Franciaso - Vancouver

... Wow, looks like I was WAY off, lots more planes to go!

11.) Vancouver -> London
12.) London -> Berlin
13.) Berlin -> London
14.) London -> Vancouver
15.) Vancouver -> Edmonton
16.) Edmonton -> Vancouver

SIXTEEN? Sheesh! No wonder... SIXTEEN flights in the last 6 months.

So where was I ... oh yeah ... I used to love travelling for work, I would get to see, even if just briefly, parts of the world I'd never seen before. But now, after being away from home for two and a half days, I just can't think of anything else - I just wanna be home... but it sucks that I've got to take yet another airplane to get there.

TO THEIR CREDIT, the airports are a dream if you're only flying domestic - and this is the first domestic flight I've taken in a LONG time... I'm so used to the hours and hours of lines and queues and waiting and delay when taking international flights - especially to the US - in fact, if I never had to visit the US again, I wouldn't mind a bit. Not that I don't like the country (the leadership is a whole other matter) but mainly just because of how hard it is and how long it takes to get through customs, imigration, border patrol, etc.
BUT - for these quick domestic commuter flights, it literally takes 3 minutes to walk into the airport, do the self-check-in at the kiosk, print your ticket, and walk into the boarding area. You don't even get asked for ID. And you don't need to be two hours early either. 20 minutes is fine.

So I was at the Edmonton airport at 4:40PM, and even after being selected for a "random" (yeah right, random my ass...) security check, I was sitting waiting at the gate 4:53, and had 20 minutes to kill playing 'breakout' on my blackberry before boarding began. And since the boarding process is a half hour before departure, I seriously could have got to the airport an hour later (5:40) and still made it onto the plane with time to spare.

120 minutes in the air, and I'm back in Vancouver at 6:15 localtime.

And it's GOOD to be back... even though it's raining.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 21 - Edmonton (still)

Temp: 24 degrees

Warmer today, but still windy. Not like it matters, the only sun I saw was during the 3 minute walk to the mall food fair for lunch. Other than that, just more work work work.

One interesting thing I noticed last night though, is that the sun didn't set until well after 10pm and it wasn't even dusk until 11. I guess it's a combination of being on the flat prarries (no mountains for the sun to hide behind), being at a higher elevation, being so much farther north, and being in the middle of the time-zone instead of being at the far end of it, like we are in Vancouver. i figure the amount of natural light at 11:15PM was about what Vancouverites can expect at 10PM this time of year, plus the fact that the sun was already well up and at'em long before I was (I was up at 6AM), there must be at least two more hours of daylight here right now, if not more. It's a wonder you don't see more tanned Edmontonians!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 20 - Edmonton

Temp: 20 degrees

Well, it's 20 degrees in Edmonton anyway, I think it was about 24 in Vancouver. Sunny here, but windy. Actually, I take that back - at about 3PM it started raining really hard and lasted about 2 hours, but by the evening it was clear again, and still at least 18 degrees at 9PM when we walked back from dinner.

Dinner. Yummm. We went to LUX Steakhouse and I had a $45 9oz filet mignon, which was quite possibly the best steak I've ever had in my entire life - and I've had a lot of good steaks!

Other than dinner, there's not really much to say about Edmonton, it was just work work work (boring stuff) - didn't really get out at all.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 19 - first rain of summer

Temp: 20 degrees

Well, It had to happen sometime. When I woke up today, it was raining! Apparently it had been a pretty heavy rain, but by noon it was gone and the sun was pushing through. It just barely made it to 20 degrees, thankfully.
I didn't go outside at all, just stayed in watching movies and playing Need for Speed. I'm going for #3 on the blacklist now... I tell ya, I'll be happy when I've beat this game, as it means I'll never have to play it again ... don't get me wrong, it's fun and it's addictive - but it's using up so much of my time!

Today was a low key day anyway, 'cause tomorrow I've got to be up at 4AM to catch a plane... gotta work in Edmonton for three days - joy.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 18 - The Wayner

Temp: 28 degrees

This morning I went out back and picked some fresh herbs (huh? Who says gardining doesn't pay off?) and made a couple of fresh herb omlettes. The day didn't start off sunny, so I spent the morning playing video games, but by noon the sun was out, so I took the opportunity to water the lawn. Sure, I could just set up the sprinkler and forget about it, but what kind of catharsis would that be? I kinda enjoy just taking the time out to hand water now - inefficient, sure, but it's an excuse to be out in the sun while still accomplishing something... I find it hard to just lie motionless in the sun, and besides, if I did that on MY lawn, the ants would eat me alive.

So I'm out watering the lawn, when the phone rings. Carole was inside listening to Billy Idol and bouncing around (dancing? Exercising? Who knows...) but she heard the phone, and brought it outside for me (yeah, I guess she answered it first, and determined the call wasn't for her...) - It was Wayne. He's leaving for PEI tonight, and was having an impromptu get together to listen to the first post-production mixes of his bands new album, and have some drinks with friends on a gorgeous afternoon. That sounded like a great idea, so we heared over.
Ther ewere a couple of friends there that we hadn't seen in a really long time, so it was great to catch up.

We also all went to the Fireside Pub for a late afternoon lunch, and that was a lot of fun. Brian and I played the pinball machine there for a bit, and had the most hilarious time ... I don't know if this was suposed to happen, or if it was a malfunction, but on Brian's first ball, THIRTEEN bals drop - the whole bloody game is just full of pinballs bounching everywhere - and as he's frantically trying to keep them all in play, more keep shooting in. Finally he loses them all, and what happens? Nope, it's not player two's turn, it's stil player one, and 13 more balls shoot out - the whole thing starts over. We were all just howling with laughter, it was the craziest thing. His final score: 617,000,000 - yes, it was the high score.

So after lunch/dinner it was back to Wayne's place for a few more hours on the back deck, soaking up th esun and catching up with old friends. It was a reallly nice day, but before we knew it, it was 8PM and Wayne had to leave for the airport. He'll be gone 3 weeks, but when he returns, he'll have Comeau with him - that'll be a blast!

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 17 - Catharsis

Temp: 24 degrees

Ah, that's better, the sun is back. I was able to get out at lunch and get a little sun, and it was great to get home, get into my shorts, and spend a couple hours weeding, watering, and gardening. This will probably come as no surprise to most gardeners, and will probably seem pretty odd to everyone else, but I find weeding and watering to be sooo cathartic. It's not often that I get to perform such a mindless, yet productive, nurturing, and satisfying task. My mind is constantly racing throughout the day, always multitasking, always five or six things on the go at any gven time - and always one step behind, constantly scrambling to catch up.

It's amazing then, that a completely mindless, methodical and repetative task like plucking weeds in the warm sunshine can allow me to lose myself for hours, and leave me so satiisfied, and with such as feeling of acomplishment. Well, for one, you get to see results at the end of those two hours - where once there was a floundering flowerbed choking with weeds, there is now a healthy vibrant and groomed garden - and as satisfying as that is to see, that's obviously not the catharsis... the best part about gardening is allowing your mind to empty. The purging of all the superfluous thoughts, fragented ideas and remnants of cognitive scrap that have been plugging up your brain all day - that's what it's all about.

When I first start plucking weeds, my brain is telling me "why bother, they're just going to grow back, you're wasting your time - you could be writing that song you've been meaning to write, or you could pay those bills you forgot about, or you could do that grocery shopping you keep putting off, or you could stop procrastinating and finish off the damned basement you've had 'almost done' for 3 years now... why bother grooming these stupid herbs? They're just going to die or get eaten by bugs anyway... don't you remember that tomato plant you babied for five months only to have it grow a single tomato, and then as soon as it was almost ripe enough to pluck, the ants devourded it? Give up! Go have a beer! Relax, or at least do something productive! You're SO behind on your work right now it's a wonder you still have a job - if you were responsible, you'd be working late right now, not making a feeble excuse like 'gardening' ... all you really want to do is sun-tan, you know it, so why are you sitting in the grass plucking clover and getting eaten alive by bugs? Look around dude, everything in the yard is dead and/or dying anyway - you're obviously not helping anyway. And hey, when was the last time you updated your blog, shouldn't you be doing that? And while you're on the computer, you should update your myspace page, or see if there are any new geocaches in the area ... at least THAT would get you excercising, if you were out hiking or looking for a geocache... MUCH better for you than just sitting here. And speaking of exercising, you've got that nice big weight bench in the basement you bought 4 months ago, when do you think you're actually going to start using that thing? Oh come on Calvin, don't kid yourself - bench pressing three reps everytime you go to the basement for another beer does NOT constiture working out - what you should really do is finally take advantage of the full gym that your employer provides .. how many times have you been in there in the 6 years you've working n that building? Huh? Never? Yeah, that's what I though..."

So anyway, that's what's going on in my brain for the first 60 seconds I'm plucking weeds, and it continues on like that for another 10 or 15 minutes, but then something amazing starts to happen ... my brain starts to run out of things to bitch about, and slowly but surely, SPACE begins to form between my fragmented thoughts. Not much at first, but it's there. Invariably whatever song was playing on clock-radio when the alarm went off this morning will surface and some dumb riff will play over and over in my head for another 20 minutes or so, and when that happens I know the catharsis is beginning... soon, I'll hear a bird chirp, or a dog bark, and I'll realize, amazingly, that I haven't had a single worysome thought go through my head in quite some time. I'll stand up and look around and see that th eyard looks beautiful once again, and I'll smile.

I'll look at my watch, and think to myself "wow, has it really been two hours? How did that happen! I feel so peaceful - I wish I could just kneel here and weed all night. BUT, there are no more weeds left, and your knees really hurt, and besides, Carole will be home soon, so you'd better get dinner started, hey, and don't you think you've been in the sun too long anyway? You wanna burn to a crisp? You've had your shirt off for two hours and you forgot to put any sunblock on again, you numbskull! And hey, don't you have like a million other things you need to do anyway???"

And then, as quickly as it had disapeared, the clutter in my mind returns. Time for a beer. Or six. Well, it was nice while it lasted, and who knows how tightly I'd be wound if it weren't for those blessed weeds...

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 16

Temp: 19 degrees

Still hasn't rained, but cloud cover remains today. Tan is starting to fade... bummer.

Today was a totally stressful day at work, what a way to kill a short work week.
Gonna grab a case of beer and go home and play video games, watch movies, and veg-out all night.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 15

Temp: 22 degrees

Wow, it's downright chilly today. The clouds this morning were even thicker and didn't burn off until around 1, but there was a cold wind all day. Kinda ironic that on the first day of summer I was praising how beautiful and warm it was at 21 degrees, and now it's 'downright chilly' at 22...

I kninda took work home with me today and did that or most of the evening, then watched the Premiere of RockStar SuperNova.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 14 - Another Day off

Temp: 25 degrees

I had booked today off from work about a month ago. Even before we had planned to go to Harrison, I had wanted to make this Canada Day long weekend a four-day weekend, anticipating good weather and some time at the beach.
Ironically, after that awesome weekend at the resort, I didn't need any more time off, and besides I'd had plenty of sun and didn't really need yet another day of lounging and tanning. Just as well, the day started off cloudy. Yet another reson to head on in to work anyway ... but I resisted!

I was up pretty early, like 8:30 I guess, and spent most of the morning blogging, updating myspace, and working out some other computer issues that I'd been putting off.

It turned out nicer in the afternoon, once the clouds burned off, but other than to water the plants I didn't even spend any time outdoors. Oh, I walked to 7-11 for a hotdog and a slurpee at about 1PM, but that was my only real venture outdoors this day. I also watched a couple of documentaries, and played video games for about an hour. Yup, pretty lame day, but it was nice to catch up on some of my computer chores.

Back to the grind tomorrow, where I get to catch up on some of my employer's computer chores.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 13 - Harrison then home

Temp: 30 degrees

I was up early to see the sunrise, not on purpose, but I happened to wake up at 4:30 so I watched as the glow over the eastern mountains skipped across the glass-like surface of the lake. It was perfectly calm, and serene.

At 8, when the gym opened I went down for a short workout, and Carole went down shortly there after.

Checkout was at 11, and from there we were in no real hury to get home, so we headed through Agassiz to Bridal Veil Falls.

After that was a liesurely drive through Rosedale to old town Chilliwack where we stopped for a few minutes in Salish Park to watch the geese and ducks and turtles. From there we wound up Chilliwack Mountain to checkout the new homes that are going up in that area.

Then we were off through Abbotsford where we detoured to Auguston before making our way through Old Clayburn Village, then Mission. We still had lots of time to kill, and weren't all that eager to be home after such an awesome weekend (and besides, I was able to fill up the tank in Abbotsford for $1.00 a litre!) so on a whim we swung right at Whonock and drove up to Rolley Lake before swinging back and taking the historic Dewdney Trunk back through Maple Ridge, and then finally home.

What a beautiful day.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 12 - Harrison Resort and Spa

Temp: 29 degrees

We had a light breakfast of bagels, creamcheese and coffee, then I lay suntanning by the pool with my mp3 player while Carole was in the spa, getting a pedecure.

And hour later, we went for another nice walk down the beach, and discovered a geocache at the far eastern end. After lunch, we decided to take a little break from all the sun, so we went geocaching / exploring up by Sasquatch Park, Hicks Lake, and Deer Lake. I found my 100th anf 101st geocache today! We also resolved to come camping in Sasquatch Provincial Park soon. Hopefully sometime this year!

Later, we just lounged around the pool, took a walk through the resort's gardens, explored the resort, checked out some of the other amenities, and basically just acted like we were on vacation. To tell you the truth, kicking back in the pool on this gorgeous hot day with a margarita from the pool bar in hand, we just as easily could have been in Mexico. In fact we both remarked about that very thing - it was probably hotter here today than it was in Puerto Vallarta this Christmas, and other than the palm trees being replaced by cedars here, there wasn't much difference. We could just has easily been lounging at a Mexican resort today, yet THIS place is only an hour and a half from home. We've GOT to do this more often.

We freshened up and went out to dinner at a local pizza place. After dinner we had a couple drinks on the balcony and watched the sunset again. After that, a late night dip in the natural hotspring mineral pools, and a swim in the indoor pools.

Today was a good day.

Summer Blog 2006 - Day 11 - Canada Day in Harrison

Temp: 30 degrees

For Carole's birthday, I got her a weekend getaway at the Harrison Resort and Spa. My kind of gift ... the kind I get to enjoy too!
Checkin wasn't until 4PM, so we left around noon and took a liesurely drive down the Lougheed Highway on a gorgeous, sizzling hot day.
We spent the afternoon walking the beach, checking out the world famous sand castles and the natural hot springs, then just lounging by/in one of the resort's 6 mineral pools - soaking up the sun and sipping margaritas and chi chis. It was NICE.

We got out of the sun for a bit around 7pm and headed to the pub for dinner and a few drinks, then went back to our room and hung out on the balcony to watch the sunset, sip back a few more drinks, and await the Canada Day fireworks show at dusk (10:15PM).

Here's a picture I took at dusk, about 10 minutes before the fireworks started