Sometimes Virtue is Rewarded

[jamesq]

Despite a very expensive upcoming trip to Las Vegas, I decided to take a quickie vacation to Vancouver. This was my reward for losing ten pounds in Weight Watchers since the beginning of the year (I'm now at the lowest I've been in 2011/2012, not that that is a high bar).

Thursday night before the trip was kind of rough. I got into that weird must-fall-asleep-but-can't-because-I'm-too-busy-thinking-about-how-I-have-to-fall-asleep mode. Combined with needing to be at the airport at 7:30 am, this meant I got very little sleep.

Friday I managed to wake up on time and get the few must-do-the-day-of chores done. thebrucie gave me a ride to the airport and I had an uneventful flight to Vancouver where stephtopia picked me up. We ended up visiting her and garething's tidy and well-maintained apartment in New Westminster briefly, watched some Futurama porn, then went to see slavewench briefly. We finished up with a late lunch of sushi at Metrotown and wandered around the mall for awhile while I looked for a soap bag (which I successfully found at Sage).


There may have also been a tiny amount of cross-dressing.

We met up with G and went back to their apartment to hang out. As S and I had both eaten recently, we left G to his own devices, cooking-wise. they were nice enough to give me a ride to my hotel downtown.

The hotel featured a decent location near both train lines, so-so beds and wifi that worked for about one minute each day. Good luck figuring out which minute though. I ended up talking to their third-party tech support. After convincing the tech that I was not a moron, using secret pass-phrases like "Linux", "Ping", "Packet loss" and "Round-trip average", he concluded that it wasn't my netbook that was at fault and was instead a faulty router. Of course, that could have been their version of the bedbug letter. I do know that the wifi situation did not improve while I was there, nor did I expect it to.

I slept until 9 the next morning and met bognaustroglum for breakfast. After that I went to the awesome Gourmet Warehouse and spent a bunch of money. I followed this up with a wander along Commercial Drive and then went to meet garething, stephtopia, slavewench and her brother J for lunch (at the same sushi place).

After lunch I won $21 bucks in the lottery and then we retired to play some card games. I have now discovered the joy of Munchkin. I had tried to learn it some months ago, but completely misunderstood how to play it, so I didn't get it. Second time around I got a much better explanation, which made all the difference. We played Super Munchkin and Munchkin Cthulhu. Though not at the same time (which would have been fun, if weird. Well, weirder).


For supper, G, S and I went to The Old Bavaria Haus for some good German fair. The portions were huge, so I ended up taking half of it back to my hotel room with me (the room had a bar fridge, which was a point in it's favour). Sadly, I never finished this meal - Béarnaise sauce is not something you want to consume after it's been in the fridge for two days. Still, all our meals were delicious. I'd have finished mine in one go, but I would like to take keep losing weight.

I ended up taking the SkyTrain back into the city and managed to reach my station just as the Canucks/Sabres game let out. As both my hotel and the station are next to the stadium that meant transversing a large number of morose fans (Canucks lost, sadly).

Sunday, I decided to walk down to Granville Island and wander around. Along the way I realized I had no cash, so I went into a 7-11 to cash my lottery ticket. No lottery ticket - it either fell out of my pocket, or I accidentally threw it into the recycling in my room. I was on the opposite end of downtown by this point, but I headed back to my room to see if I could retrieve the ticket before housekeeping got there. Felt like a yogurt-head the whole way too. I got back to my room before my room was cleaned, but did not manage to find the ticket. I still don't know what happened to it. Could be in Gareth's car, could be in Jess' apartment, could be next to Russell's teapot, I just don't know.

I turned around and walked back to Granville island, taking the SkyTrain to Olympic Village as a shortcut. Granville island is somewhat more built up than I remember (It's been a few years), but it's still a nice place. When I'm trying to impress a girl, I might stay at the Granville Island Inn, which I've been informed is very nice and has wifi.




Having time to kill I left the island and checked out some used book stores. I then went to my old haunt Calhoun's to while away a few hours. Sadly, I got there and discovered the house was packed with people who had the same idea, but had it earlier. I went back downtown and grabbed a nap.

After the nap came the highlight of the trip - friends dining at the Clubhouse. Got to hang out with my friends, have a few beer and some delicious sushi! (three days in a row for sushi goodness). Not enough time with some of these fine folks (among them, somejauntypolka, whiggy_one and chris9871) sadly.

Monday, Steph and I hung out. We visited The Dutch Wooden Shoe, Decadent Desserts, The Comic Shop and Drexoll games (where I found some IRONDIE and a dice bag in the same flaming fabric as my tacky garb!)


Finally, we had only enough time to get me to the airport, unless you counted the fact that there was a snowstorm in Calgary - then I had all the time in the world.

My flight was late. The flight ahead of it was cancelled, so they crammed as many people from that flight onto mine as possible. Apparently that meant putting the other two guys with shoulders as wide as mine into my row. Oh well, I had a window so I could lean against that. Also, Big Bang Theory was on so I watched most of that.

We came into the city and got low enough I could see through the snow to figure out where I was. We passed Memorial, then 16th avenue, then 32nd Avenue. About halfway through McCall golf course the plane suddenly accelerated up! Our landing was aborted and we started flying towards Airdrie! As we circled back towards Calgary for another attempt the pilot comes on the PA and tells us that we didn't land because there was another plane on the runway! I'm glad they pay attention. We ended up circling around for 15 minutes while YYC cleared the runway of other planes and a few tonnes of snow. This led us to the first landing I've ever been nervous about (Im normally a very calm flyer). We landed safely, if somewhat late and everyone rushed to get off the plane to meet assorted connecting flights. I grabbed my bags and splurged for a taxi home. It was going to be transit, but now that we were two hours late, I just wanted to get home.

I unpacked my swag and went to bed.

Comments

[cat-cetera.livejournal.com]

Sounds like fun! (And less stress getting home than my weekend was) I like Munchkin a lot and have dozens of decks, which we do play all together. I hope it wasn't at Villa Tamborri where you had the less-than-satisfactory introduction to it.

[jamesq]

Nah, it was at Brallisonville. The guy explaining the game wasn't that good at explaining it - I thought you needed to buy items (instead of just playing them), but was stymied by the lack of any sort of wealth card. I figured I just got a really shitty hand, but it was just miscommunication.

[jamesq]

Also, you should have made that left-turn at Kamloops!

[(Anonymous)]

:/ I should have cooled my heels in Sicamous. I wouldn't have got home any faster, but there would now be fewer miles on my car and fewer grey hairs on my head.