The Doom That Came to Cowtown

I caught wind of one of my favourite artists coming to the pacific north west, and since she doesn’t tour often, I figured I’d jump on that.  I had an option of staying in Portland or Seattle.  I opted for Portland.

The flight was uneventful (got a plus seat for $40, which was barely worth it on a Dash-8.  I got extra leg room, but no extra width.  I was planning on using the Westjet connect service for the flight, so I brought my tablet Turns out this was a mistake, since that service wasn’t available on the plane.  Thankfully I was reading Legends and Lattes, which is an awesome book BTW.

My hotel was going to be hella-expensive, so I decided to cheap out in other parts of the trip, like taking public transit from PDX to my hotel, which ended up being three buses.  Thankfully, Portland has day passes for $5.  I had a giant bag of American change (that security theatre tossed my luggage for, ironically missing my knife) I’d been saving for years, so I used that.  Discovered that you couldn’t put more than 30 coins into the machine at the airport though, so I had to try twice without using all my nickels and dimes.

My hotel was McMenamins Kennedy School (an old elementary school retrofitted to be a bougie hotel).  About twice as much money as I usually pay, but it was walking distance to the theatre at least.  Pls it’s super nice and I really do like it.  Just wish I was rich is all.

I kinda crashed in my room for a few hours instead of trying to find some lunch (the hotel has several restaurants, and room service, so mostly it was just me being lazy). When the evening came, I decided to hit a local brewery on the way to downtown for a flight.

I ended up at Broadside Brewery on Dekum street (best beer, Wild & Crazy Kids, an Imperial stout).  Most of their beer was good, and they had a decent selection of non-IPAs.  The joint had a big patio and friendly staff.  Give it a try if you’re in the neighbourhood (or other neighbourhoods, they’ve got a bunch of locations in Portland).

I was sitting at the bar minding my own business, when some old dude sat next to me, and asked me how I was doing.  Now if you know me, that’s generally something that gets my anxiety up, and I’ll often react poorly.  This time though, I thought, “you’re on vacation, and you’re not likely to really talk to anyone for the next three days except service people.  What’s the harm in having a conversation with some rando at a bar?”

So I drank my beer, and had a nice chat with Bill (who admitted that he did this sort of thing all the time).  It was a pleasant, paper-thin conversation about the weather and travelling.  Bill and his wife were originally from England somewhere, and had emigrated to the US as young newlyweds (Bill was in early retirement, so a robust late-60s).

I can’t remember much else, aside from enjoying myself.  I finished my beers, shook his hand, and caught my bus downtown to grab an upscale dinner.

The upscale restaurant I found was Q.  Before going there, I double checked that their name had nothing to do with Qanon.  It did not, as they were named about two years prior to Qanon becoming a thing. 





Everyone on the staff was a delight.  I got a nice seat facing the kitchen, so I could watch all the food getting their final plating before heading out to the customers (or being based forward to me, in the case of my own food).

On the recommendation of the host, I got the grilled pork belly to start.  My entree was the house made saffron tagliatelle, washed down with a Sunlight wheat beer from Vatietal Beer Company.  I finished the whole thing off with a really good Old Fashioned.

Q was expensive, but worth every penny.  Check it out if you’re in Portland.

Next up I wandered over to Powell's Books, a must see for any trip to Portland. I think I bought one book for myself, and a whole bunch of birthday presents for the Port Wood folks. Books, the gift of choice for discerning nerds.

I wound out the evening at 10 Barrel Brewing (best beers (a tie): Raspberry Sour Crush - a fruited sour, and Smooth (feat. Rob Thomas) - Japanese rice lager ). I asked if they had flights and they said they did. Specifically they had one flight, with every beer they had. And now I can say I've had a flight with ten beers. Thankfully the beers were only three ounces each, so I walked away having had the equivalent of two "pints". Still, it had been a long and busy day. I lyfted back to the Kennedy School and had a good night's sleep.

The next morning, during my travels, I bought a pair of the Mega Millions lottery. This is the one that was a record breaking $1.5 Billion. I got one for myself, and one for my buddy G. What shocked me was that the tickets were $1 each. That's it. TL;DR: neither of us won.


(my one souvenir)

The remainder of the day was spent taking a long walk along Alberta Avenue, which is one of Portland's arty neighbourhoods. I had a nice breakfast, found some cool shops, and ended up downtown, where I spent an hour playing video games at a barcade. I ended up back at the hotel about two hours before the show and took a nap out of the heat.



Finally, the time had come for my concert. I dressed up nice, walked the kilometre to the venue (The Alberta Rose Theatre) and settled in to watch Vienna Teng.

First though, we got opening act Stephanie Schneiderman, who was pretty good, but I'm not familiar with her.

Vienna Teng came out and sat in a nest of instruments and got people to shout out suggestions for songs to sing. Not sure if this was just banter, or if it did affect the set order. I do know that she played lots of her standards, a few new songs (including an amusing ditty she wrote for her toddler called "When it's time to leave, always have a pee").

Seeing her live was a joy. She's a great performer, even outside of a studio. I'm happy to go. Except, she wound up the show and hadn't played my favourite song! Apparently it's not just my favourite, because it was one of the two songs for the encore.

I left the Alberta Rose Theatre happy in my heart. The sun had gone down, so the heat had subsided to pleasantly warm. I walked back to my hotel and ordered an expensive burger at the bar.

To summarize the hotel, I probably shouldn't have stayed there - it was an expensive two nights, for average hotel rooms (even thought the hotel is wonderful to stay at, and has much better rooms). In the end, I had stayed there before so it wasn't special. All it really had was proximity to my concert. I could have stayed at a nearish motel for 1/3 the price and used a fraction of the savings on taxis.

Next morning I took a bus to Vancouver, hung out with my Vancouver peeps for a few peeps, had a bar crawl, watched Barbie, and basically chilled.

I failed to land a premium seat on the way back, and since I was watching Barbie when check in started, I got stuck with a middle seat in the back of the plane. That said, boarding was a dream, everyone was calm and orderly, and we pulled back a few minutes early. I grabbed a chicken sandwich, wandered over to my gate to see they were already boarding (indicating that the previous flight was not late). I got in line, and got on the plane. The pilots practically glided into our gate with no delays whatsoever.

Here's the really weird thing - when the seatbelt light turned off, hardly anyone stood up. Maybe five people throughout the plane, and two of those were from the front row. They openned the door to let us out and everyone... just stayed seated until the way was clear. Numerous people commented on this. When it got to our row, we stood up, grabbed our stuff, and left. It's like every single person on the plane was rational. I got to the baggage claim, wandered around for a bit until I found the "Fragile" section. Within two minutes, they opened it up, and I was one of the first people to get my luggage.

All in all, it was one of the most seamlessly easy flights I've ever experienced, even with being stuck in a middle seat. It's like the universe wanted to make up for it.

I’ve been looking forward to a vacation for a long time. Last time I went anywhere was eleven months ago, and that was just two nights in Banff. I wanted to wait until there were no travel restrictions, and I had both my vaccination shots at least a month in the past. All that was accomplished in July, so plans were put into motion. It was surprisingly hard since a lot of my travel mojo had atrophied.

Sunday, after giving an ultimatum, I drove to Kamloops. It was uneventful and enjoyable.

I checked into one of the cluster of hotels at the top of the hill near Aberdeen mall. Then I called Noah and he came and picked me up. We went back to his place, where I then had supper with Trista and Logan. This was followed by some board games.

Being parents, they’re early to bed and early to rise. I had Noah drop me off at Bright Eye Brewing, and I had a quick flight of so-so beer. I rushed it a bit because I was going to take a bus back to the hotel, and this was the last one, being Kamloops on a Sunday night. One bit of good news related to that. Normally it’s two buses from the brewery to the hotel, but since it was the last bus of the night, it changed from one route to the other without me having to leave. Front door to front door.

The next morning, I was asked, “How’s the smoke?” - there wasn’t any. There was a ton a few days earlier, but I managed to mostly avoid forest fire smoke this whole trip. Anyway, I drove into Port Moody and hung out with the Port Wood folks.

Tuesday, Gareth and I hiked around Mundy lake. We probably did about three Kms. It was a nice walk. And I got an education on comparative religions of an iconoclastic bent. Later that evening, I met up with Ken and Athena at Havana restaurant. So nice to reconnect with both of them after several years.

Being a weekday, everyone was busy on Wednesday, so I decided to perform an experiment that I’d been wanting to do for awhile - see if a folding bike was something I’d want for travelling. Rad Power bikes makes one, so I figured I’d go down there. It was a few blocks from Clubhouse Sushi, so I walked by there first, only to confirm that they are indeed closed permanently. Alas.

Rad Power Bikes staff is attentive and also funny. They fit me out with a bike and a fifteen minute time frame. I was hoping for much longer (like, long enough to bike 20 Kms or so). That was not to be, and was also completely unnecessary. It only took a few minutes to realize this bike was literally not a good fit for me. My legs were too long, and my feet too big for the pedals, and the ergonomics had me leaning in ways that would be uncomfortable to sustain.

Thursday I attempted a run and bonked due to Port Moody’s hills and the fact that it was stinking hot. I was hoping for 5K, but only managed 3. Later, Gareth and I caught The Suicide Squad, which I rather enjoyed. First time in a theatre in sixteen months.

On Friday, I took a bag and checked into a hotel downtown, since I wanted to have a space I didn’t feel I was invading, at least for a few days. Three nights in Le Soliel. Nice joint. That evening, Rosie and I went to Dageraad Brewing, which immediately became my favourite Vancouver brewery. The specialize in Belgians, and do a fine job of it. This was helped by the fact that Rosie and I got there fairly close to closing, so we pounded them back pretty fast. Next trip, the same amount of booze, but double the time I think. Given it’s proximity to Lou’s place, I’ll definitely invite him next time.

Saturday was a day of fine food (Gabe and Jules baked goods), thrifting, fine beer, and not so fine spirits. In researching new places to try, we discovered Rocky Point distilling. It had an intriguing and disturbing spirit called “vodquilla”. Basically an agave-flavoured vodka. It was… not good. Rosie described it as “like a vodka that’s being kind of racist”.

Sunday I explored downtown Vancouver a bit and rented a regular bike to go around Stanely Park. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t be able to pedal it, since I usually have pedal assist, but it turns out that my legs are pretty strong. Also the path around Stanley Park is mostly flat and this bike weighed about a quarter of what mine does. The ride was a pleasant hour diversion. If I were to do it again, it would be a weekday though. Since it was Sunday, everyone was there with me on the path. I’m not fond of crowded bike paths.

After that, I met up with the Port Wood folks for high tea at Palate kitchen. Unfortunately, one of us came down with heat stroke, and couldn’t keep any of it down. I’m calling a mulligan on that outing.

After tea, Rosie and I did some shopping, including getting some of the awesome tea we had, and also stopping off at Dank Mart! A snack store for stoners. It was wonderful, and I hope they open a franchise in Calgary.

That evening I met up with Ryan and we had drinks at Callister, and dinner at Earls (after failing to find a spot in Storm Crow Alehouse. I walked back to my hotel via Granville Island.

Monday I checked out of my suite, returned to Port Wood, and decided to cancel my plans in Kelowna since it was on fire. Sadly this meant not meeting friends who had moved there. But it did give me an additional day in Vancouver since I still had reservations in Nelson.

Tuesday I met up with Lou and we had lunch at a Japanese place called Kokoro Tokyo. They serve Mazesoba, which is Japanese cuisine I hadn’t tried before. Delicious. Later we all watched Academy Award winner Nicholas Cage in Willy’s Wonderland. A movie that asks “What if Chucky Cheese was possessed by demons”. It was entertaining in that what-the-hell-am-I-watching way.

Wednesday, otherwise being the day ‘d have left, was spent exploring Granville Island, seeing Free Guy with Gareth, having the best tacos of my life. And it all ended with a contemplative evening on the Port Wood patio enjoying a nightcap while listening to a neighbour sing along to some Persian pop music. He was pretty good, too.

I was very worried about driving to Nelson. It’s on the very end of the amount of time I like to drive. Plus there was a risk of forest fires. I was fortunate that neither fire nor smoke interfered with me. I got to Nelson, checked into the Hume Hotel, and had drinks with Kelly at Backroads brewing. Super was pizza in my hotel room.

Friday morning, I treated Kelly, Judy and Janette to breakfast. Got a tour of Kelly’s studio and bought a painting. They were all busy for the rest of the day, so I explored. That evening, I met up with Fergus for beers and programmer shop talk. Later, I went to the Library Lounge for creme brûlée and a nightcap.

The next morning I checked out, discovered that it was raining. It rained the whole way home. Don’t mind because, again, BC was on fire so it was desperately needed. The only disappointing thing was that I forgot the leftover pizza in my room. It was going to be my lunch on the way home. I got him in the evening, happy over a vacation well spent, and melancholy that it was over.

( I went to Vancouver. Here are the highlights... ) 

I wasn't planning on going to Vancouver until my summer road trip, but I've sure been craving to go to Vancouver. Then my friend Lisa texted me.

"Dita von Teese is performing here on June 15th."

You can see how much intense pressure she put me under. How could anyone withstand that onslaught? After a heroic attempt at resistance, I gave in to temptation! I took a quick look at room rates/flights/teeckits as soon as I got home, and pulled the trigger on a whirlwind trip to Vancouver. As with many of the women I know, it will be short, fun, and awesome.

My itinerary:

• Friday, June 15th: Fly into Vancouver around noon and check into my suite. It's in a building I've been dying to get a look at for ages. And it's in my favourite neighbourhood.
• Later that evening, see Dita Von Teese.
• Saturday, June 16th: Who knows?
• Sunday, June 17th: Late flight back to Calgary.
• (Monday - sleep in before going back to work)

So Vancouver peeps, I'll be there, and likely hanging with the Port Wood folk on one of Saturday or Sunday evenings, which leaves another night available for ale and whores. Join me!

And can I mooch a ride to the airport on Sunday night?

Well, I managed to put off this entry for a long time. I found a point form synopsis, so I'll just crib from that.

Preamble

I was complaining that I wanted to do basically the same road trip that I did last year, only with about half the driving. That basically meant I had to get the car to Vancouver without me, so that I could drive it back. Wendy ended up volunteering to take my car out there, since it was also convenient for her. Thanks again Wendy!

While this was going on, Steph bought me tickets to see Steve Martin and Martin Short in Las Vegas, so now the plan was to fly to Vegas for a few nights, then fly to Vancouver, then drive back.

Las Vegas

Highlights of Vegas include an easy flight, meeting up with Steph and checking into our cheap-ass rooms at the Monte Carlo. We wandered over to the North Outlet mall and did some window shopping, then came back to watch a double-bill concert: Tears For Fears and Hall & Oates.

As far as the music was concerned, I'm a much bigger fan of Tears For Fears than I am of Hall & Oates. I loved the first half of the concert, and the second half was pretty decent too, except where they took a half an hour to play the last song, in a process I like to call "wanking". But what was really amazing was the people watching. There was a row of patrons that could have novels written about them.

There was the couple (the female half I kinda fell in love with, as she was luminous) that sat together, leaning into each other with an easy familiarity that spoke of a deep love and comfort in each others company. The concert could have existed just for the two of them. I'm a little envious.

A few seats over was the sour-faced couple. They scowled the whole time they were there, frowning and brows furrowed, but still bopping to the rhythm, almost against their will. Steph invented a backstory for them. Basically, just before they left for the concert, she caught him screwing the maid, and they're late to get to the concert, but by god, they are going to be having a discussion when they get home!

But the winner was the old guy in the trilby with a date. He was a couple rows ahead of us, and notably in the front row of our section. This meant he could stand and dance. And by "dance", I mean stand in front of his date, facing her (and away from the stage) swaying with his hands in his pockets. He did this for basically the entire concert. He wasn't quite in our line of vision , but he was close. Not so for a lot of other people who got to watch Tears For Fears And Some Dude, and Hall and Oates and Some Dude.

"Do you suppose this is their first date?"
"If it is, she's learning something valuable."

Seriously, he could have not watched the bands at home for cheaper.

The next day we had lunch at Holsteins (where I convinced Steph to split a milkshake and burger with me, since each of us getting one would have lead to suffering) and a few hours off the strip at the Pinball Hall of Fame, with a side trip to Nerdgazms (a geeky memorabilia store). Along the way, while deciding what to do in the evening, we decided to get "discount" tickets for the Cirque du Soleil show Michael Jackson: One. This lead to a comedy of errors, because I bought the tickets 121 minutes before the show, but you had to pick the tickets up two hours early. I failed to read that part of the fine print, and we ended up rushing Mandalay Bay to throw ourselves on the box office's mercy. I shouldn't have worried - they were very understanding, and we got our tickets. A quick drop off/wardrobe change at the room and we were back in time for the pre-show (always go to Cirque shows early).

And Michael Jackson: One? It had Cirque's usual outstanding acrobatics and dance. It also had possibly the best melding of wardrobe/props/fx that I've ever seen in a live show. Well worth it. The plot, such as it was, involved four teen agers being chased around the Neverland mansion by security and chanelling Michael's spirit through articles of clothing (hat/glove/jacket/shoes), all while regaining a sense of wonder. In short, it was like Michael Jackson was actually a lich, like Vecna.

We rounded out the evening with vodka cocktails and caviar at Red Square.

After Lunch on Sunday (Tequila Taqueria), Steph and I split up to do our own thing. We met up again that evening with special guest star othelianna and made our way to Caesars Palace to watch the show we came for: Steve Martin and Martin Short in an Evening You'll Forget For the Rest of Your Lives. You can watch it on Netflix now (since it took me nearly a year to finish writing this entry). It was a lot of fun, and we had a blast. After the show, I treated the ladies to my (current) favourite Vegas restaurant: China Poblano, a Chinese/Mexican fusion restaurant in the Cosmopolitan. It did not disappoint.

And on Monday we all went back to Vancouver. Found my car a mere two blocks from Port Wood.

Vancouver

Tuesday I saw Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets. As MovieBob says, the'll be showing the first ten minutes of that movie a hundred years from now when doing Luc Besson retrospectives. Pity about the rest of the movie though. Also spent the day with Rosie thrifting and wound up at Storm Crow Tavern with Lou.

Wednesday was #DNDLive, and if you ever wondered why my trips to Van were often at the end of the month, there's your answer.

Thursday was beer day, with a car trip to Deep Cove distillery, Filmgo. Later, on foot, a self-guided tour of some of East Van's breweries: Callister, Powell, Andina. All worth a trip,

Saturday watched Atomic Blonde with garething, then went downtown to watch the fireworks. These were easily the best fireworks I've ever seen - Japan deserved their win. Making it even better, I shelled out for reserved seating for the show (in the past, I've stood in the crowds) which meant snacks and drinks, our own biffies(!) and I just hung around for a half an hour after the show to let the crowds disperse. Finally, I walked across downtown, which was super pleasant, since there were light crowds, and good weather - they gave the evening a chill mood. It would have been nice to hold hands with a partner, alas. This is now my go-to way to watch these fireworks.

Sunday I went to Chambar with Athena, and we had a sausage party at Port Wood.

Monday I went to Cabrito with Athena, Lou and Ken, then went to the Rio to catch the Harry Potter's Birthday Burlesque. While waiting in line to get in, someone gave me an extra ticket. A phone call later, and Athena came to join me. decent amateur geeky burlesque, but the Rio's balcony was hot as BALLS. Afterward, we sat out on St Augustine's patio and enjoyed adult beverages.

Tuesday I checked out and said goodbye to Desmond, the guardian cat of the apartment where I was staying. That's where I learned his name, because I ended up chatting with Desmond's owner (and also giving her the rest of the cat treats I'd bought earlier in the week to feed him whenever I went by). From there it was off to Port Wood to pick up the furniture I'd acquired over the last few months and jam it into my car. Then I began my drive home through the smoke.



Okanagan/Kootenay

So the interior of BC was largely on fire. It was super smokey all through my drive to Penticton, and it got worse the closer I got. After several hours I found my hotel and set out to find some grub. I ended up at Bad Tattoo Brewing, where I sampled some of their beer and had a decent pizza. The walk back was smoky and after dusk, so now Penticton looked like Silent Hill.



There was also the mystery of Penticton's water. I passed three water jug filling stations. The hive mind suggested that there isn't actually anything wrong with Penticton's tap water (it's likely the filling station's source), it's that there are a lot of cabins in the Okanagan valley that don't have running water.

I spent the morning exploring Penticton, then drove to Osoyoos and stopped for lunch. Finally, I reached Nelson and checked into the Hume hotel, where I would spend the next three nights. I had earlier convinced Joel to join me, so he biked there from Calgary. We ate at the Main Street Diner, then met up with Rosie and Kelly and had a nightcap at the Savoy.



Thursday was spent wandering around Nelson's main drag. That evening Janette, Joel, Rosie and I had a philosophy meeting at the Library Lounge. Friday we visited Balfour, went to the Ainsworth hot springs, and had a fantastic charcuterie at the hot spring's restaurant. And finally, a tour or Kaslo. We wound the evening out at Torchlight brewing. Incidentally, Janette makes an excellent tour guide.



Saturday we checked out from our hotels, and checked out the hippiest farmer's market in the world. Joel opted to go straight back to Calgary (but ended up taking a ridiculously long and miserable ride home because they closed the highway due to fires. I went to Kimberley and discovered a very long stairway, had supper at the Pedal & Tap and breakfast at Stonefire pizza. Also got serenaded by Happy Hans, the yodelling cuckoo clock. It was madness inducing. Then I drove to Radium and spent a pleasant hour soaking in the hot springs.



The highway was open when I left Radium, so I took a hair-raising drive up highway 93. Along the way, I got to see multiple water bombers, and gouts of flame that went higher than the trees. And those fires were within a stone's throw of the highway. Alas, there were signs admonishing people to not stop their vehicles, and since I wasn't going to try driving and shooting a camera simultaneously, there are no pictures. I assure you, it was quite the terrifying spectacle.

Finally, I managed to hit Banff during the worst of the traffic. So much so that I couldn't find parking, and decided to just straight home.

I drank a lot of beer, hung out with lots of good friends, and had a fantastic time.

Facebook has a feature where it shows you stuff you posted on this day in years past. Turns out, the end of March, beginning of April is a popular time for me to go to Vancouver. There's no mystery to this - I often have vacation time I have to use or lose, and this is when my company's business year ends. So yay, a reason to visit; and yay, my vacation days have recycled.

Here's a recap:

Before I even got to Vancouver, on Tuesday night after my last day at work, I spent some time with thebrucie and Allison. We went to Craft for a four course meal with beer pairing put on by a local brewery. They were noteworthy for having a luau theme (so Bruce was happy), and an IPA that was actually super tasty - this is how they're supposed to taste.

Wednesday, I checked into The Burrard and took advantage of a special they had. I'm now the proud owner of nine (well, seven now) $25 Amex gift cards!

Being by myself I decided to go have a quiet dinner at Clubhouse Sushi, and then walk to the Rio to catch The Critical Hit Show (aka #DnDlive). It did not disappoint.

Related to the above, the performer I have a mild crush on, revealed she is about ten years older than I imagined! Also, that she was going to perform at a strip club for the first time the next evening.

Thursday, I didn't actually go to the strip club, mostly because going just to see a crush would be kinda creepy, and doing so by myself would be creepy as fuck. Instead, I opted to go to the Comedy Mix to see Sarah Tiana, who was pretty funny, as were the other three comics of the night. I need to go to comedy clubs more. It really is great value for the money.

Speaking of value for money, chicken fingers normally don't qualify. However, I ordered them at the Comedy Mix because I hadn't eaten any supper that night. When they arrived, the house lights had gone down, so I couldn't really see them. I could tell it was piled high on top of the french fries, making it seem huge. I resolved that I didn't really need to eat the french fries, so I'd stop when I got to them. Except there were no french fries - it was chicken fingers all the way to the bottom. By Grabthar's hammer... what a savings.

Friday, I hung out with stephtopia in the afternoon, inadvertantly filling my hat with soft drinks (wet. sticky. I've felt it before), baked a cake at Port Wood before everyone got home, and then went to the Burrard Pub with Jonathan, garething, and othelianna.

Saturday, Rosie and I went thrift shopping in North Vancouver. I figured, if we were going to do this, we should go somewhere farther afield, so it would be unique to both of us. Nope. She's been to every thrift store in the lower mainland it seems. Among our travels we also went to Filmgo sales, which is a thrift store that caters to professional props people, though they will sell to anyone. I found a Chinese Apothecary cabinet (basically a medium sized cabinet with 33 drawers in it), but didn't buy it.

Back at Port Wood, I prepared for Gareth and Steph's anniversary by icing the cake I'd baked the night before. Freeze your cake, it makes icing it way simpler! A little fudgy - I probably over mixed it. I'll need to work on that for the next iteration.

It was also the Sins Against God and Humanity Potluck party that Steph planned in my honour. Basically, all those weird and horrible recipes from the distant past you've always wanted to try? We tried them. I made Spam Musubi. Steph made Bologna Stew. Rosie made Twix Salad, Here's the thing about those recipes - they're actually damn tasty. Not terribly good for you, but if I was health conscious, I wouldn't have drank all that rum.

Speaking of which, Bumbu Rum is probably the best sip-it-neat rum I've ever had! Definitely picking up a bottle soon. Drinking did happen, but there was so much food, and drinking was at a sufficiently slow pace, that no one actually got drunk. Tipsy, sure, but not drunk. Next time, less unfortunate food, more cocktails.

The night required cheese, so I made them all watch The Nice Guys.

About the only real problem of the trip is that I ended up not getting on my bus because I assumed I was getting on a different bus and didn't actually read the instructions Google Maps gave me. And it was sufficiently late when I left the party that the 2 Km walk to Burquitlam station was less time.

Sunday I hung out with Rosie some more, but we did spend a plesant two hours at Dutch Wooden Shoe enjoying pancakes and the company of Steph and somejauntypolka!

I also remembered an incident where I waited too long to buy a set of drawers from Consignment Gallery and regretted it. I resolved to buy that apothecary cabinet. About two weeks ago I emptied my penny jar and got enough money to pay for the cabinet. That's exactly the sort of thing I like doing with that "found" money. It gets to live at Port Wood until I can get my car out there this summer.

And now I'm actually planning that summer trip. A full week in Vancouver next time, I think. This time was, as is the way of the spring trips, too short.

I spent a relaxing couple days in Vancouver, partly to visit folks. Got a B&B on Victoria drive that was rather nice. If you're following around, this is a type 2 (mother-in-law suite rented out to make the mortgage), or so I thought. When I checked in, I met the landlord who was upstairs. She showed me around the place and also gave me a warning about her being a musician who sometimes practiced the piano. Oh, and she had a son who would practice drumming - but they'd make sure to keep it to a minimum, and not do it at all at night. As I don't spend a lot of time in my B&Bs, I wasn't too fussed. A few days later, she contacted me to let me know that three French couples were renting the rest of the house. Where she and her son went during this time I have no idea. The French couples? Loud and boisterous, but never when I was trying to sleep. Vive la France!

I went on a shopping spree at Gourmet Warehouse. I need to remember to actually do something with all those ingredients. Actually, I've already started. Between that, Nelson, and Leavenworth, I bought a lot of food.

Bought a pillow and a light jacket at the thrift store. The jacket was because I had somehow forgotten to pack one, and it being Vancouver, the rain was starting. The pillow? I left it at the B&B.

"Did you forget a pillow here?"
"I didn't forget it. I just thought the suite needed one more pillow."
"Um. Ok."

It really did need one more pillow.

That night I went to see Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates. Ultimately it was a forgettable little bit of summer fluff. If there's a reason to see it, it's Aubrey Plaza and Anna Kendrick, who have some great comic timing by themselves, and are better than the sum of their parts in this movie. Don't let me oversell it. It's OK with a few funny bits. Wait for Netflix.

Tuesday I had lunch with Ryanzilla, went thrift shopping, because apparently that's how I roll.

That night, I went to see Tickled. At first, it seems to be a weird documentary about a competitive tickling league. Spoilers: there is no league, it's a scam. it's actually about how a sociopath's wealth and kinks ruin lives. Well worth watching, if only for the train of WTFs that arrive at your mental train station as things are revealed.

Wednesday included a visit to FlyOver Canada. Was it good? Mostly. Kind of expensive. There's a pre-show that head-faked me. It's a montage of adorably photogenic folks from around the country. And then it ended, and I thought "did I just pay $22 for this?" And then we went to the main show, which was a fun 15 minute of high-def fly-over footage of my beautiful country, while you're strapped into a chair hanging in the middle of the screen so that it fills your field of view. Also, they spray you with mist at appropriate moments. Worth it? Sure.

That night I visited whiggy_one and somejauntypolka at Storm Crow Prime. Much fun was had.

Thursday morning I took Athena to the ferry terminal, and had a nice wander around Granville island. Bought some ingredients and drive out to Port Wood to socialize with garething and welcome othelianna back to Vancouver. Oh, and to cook dinner. Not my best creation, but no one complained, or even had gut-wrenching nausea.

It occurs to me that I was there when Rosie left Vancouver, and I was there when she came back. *smiles*

Next morning I met her at the Clubhouse for lunch, and then I was on my way back to Calgary, albeit in a leisurely fashion.

All in all, a nice relaxing trip to Van. I didn't get to see everyone I hoped to see, but that's usually the way of these things. There'll be other visits.

( Here are some pictures, behind the cut... )

I was chatting with garething and stephtopia and we're making facetious jokes about G's employability.

S opines, "You're a good worker; you know your stuff; you're not an obvious crack addict."

I jump in, "That's right! You're not an obvious crack addict. What's your secret?"

G makes a injecting between the fingers gesture.

I nod sagely. "Good thinking".

S immediately gets this look on her face:


She says, "You two are so adorable when you talk about drugs like you actually know."

"Oh, that's right you don't inject crack," I say.

"You don't? What do you do," asks G.

I make a gesture of flicking a lighter and holding it under a spoon.

"That's heroin," says S.

"Drat. Well how do you smoke crack," I ask.

"You smoke it," she says, emphasizing that I, myself, had the answer all along.

"I thought you smoked meth."

"You can smoke both."

And now as I write this, I understand. You can do both, though probably not at the same time.

I'm in Vancouver and so far the trip has been very good. I met up with several friends for a late lunch, checked into my B&B, did some grocery shopping, and wound up at Storm Crow with a bunch of random SCAdians I hadn't met yet.

One of the things I'm trying to accomplish is to travel with less stuff. I ended up buying a shoulder bag that was almost the maximum dimensions of Westjet's carry-on allowance, then ended up switching it all to my first backpack at the last minute. I'm glad I did (though I'm not happy I wasted the money on a shoulder bag I'm probably never going to use) - it fit without problem, carried what I needed it to carry, and has a wee bit of room to spare.

The problem with packing lightly though is that I have some high volume things. First, being a big guy, my clothes are simply bigger. Some people can stick a change of clothes in a Pringle's can. I am not one of them. The big thing is my running shoes. One solution is to make those my only shoes, except I like to go to the theatre and nice restaurants, and my neon green runners don't go well with black pants and a button up shirt. So those shoes need to be packed. There's been times when I've packed the shoes and then failed to run. That always irritates me, so I resolved that, on this trip, if I was going to pack them, then I was going to run, rain or shine.

Did I mention that I'm in Vancouver in November?

So I hear it pouring rain all morning, and I'm thinking of putting the run off until tomorrow. Then while puttering around my suite this morning, I hear that the rain has stopped! Looking outside the window, I can see a few patches of sunlight trying to break through the cloud cover. Cool! This could be my one opportunity.

I put on my running strip and go outside. It is dry for about ten feet and then it starts to rain again. OK, I think, It's probably just the last gasp of the rain, I can ignore it.

Over the first kilometer, the rain grows more steady until it's a full on shower. If it gets worse, I resolve, I'll turn around and go back. It gets worse and worse, but it does so as I get farther and farther away from my suite. At three Km I have my epiphany: My clothing is already soaked through to the skin, and it doesn't feel that bad. Oh, it's not pleasant, but running in the snow is worse. As long as I keep running, I won't get cold. So I resolve to do my full planned run. After about five Km, I stop avoiding puddles. When I finally finish at seven Km, I'm actually steaming.

I go back into my suite and immediately strip down. Even my skivvies are damp.

And now the rain has stopped.

I'll probably have more in depth things to say about this trip in a while, but for now, the highlights.

Good

Visiting with assorted friends. As usual, that is the whole point of the trip. In particular, it was nice to have some quality time with ES (who stayed with me at my B&B for the first two nights), somejauntypolka, stephtopia and othelianna.



Saw thee decent movies. The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Wind Rises, and Frozen. Reviews of all three are forthcoming.

Had a couple of nice pub nights at Storm Crow, St. Augustine, and the improbably named Burrard Pub.

Restaurants included a mix of old (Clubhouse Sushi, Wooden Shoe, Red Ginger) and new (Saffron, All the sushi joints on Commercial)

Also did a lot of window shopping with Rosie/Kelly/Shannon. Found some great and quirky stores and also finally got to see the Vancouver Flea Market



Read, relaxed, explored.

Bad

Didn't get to see Gareth or Ryan. That sucks.

Ugly

No depressive incidents. The only ugly thing really happened afterward, and that's my usual Vancouver homesickness. Except this time it's a lot worse. I'll write about that too, in the next few days. Suffice it to say that I'm scared of my options.