Sunshine Diner

Today was day one of the 2007 extended birthday celebrating. My parents and their Brazilian exchange student, Isis, were in town, so they took me for brunch for my birthday a few days early which Alex's family followed up with dinner.

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Girls' Night

The first deck party of the summer ended up being a kitchen party instead. I don't think it has rained since this afternoon, but it was quite chilly, so we crowded into the dining room to play poker.

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Past My Bed Time

A recurring theme this week...bed time has been and gone long before my head hits the pillow and the light is off.

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Mr. Moon Mr. Moon

Moonrise over Kits.

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Three Door Boarding

Great...the overcrowded bus I take to work is difficult to board during regular term time. It's not so bad right now since there are few students on campus, but during the year, often as many as four or five buses will breeze past because they're too full to pick up more passengers.

Now they've gone to 3 Door Boarding which came into effect yesterday along with all buses being fare-paid zones (this I think is a good things. Too many bus drivers have been assaulted because of fares).

The problem with 3 Door Boarding is that it effectively erases any semblance of a line. On those mornings when the bus doesn't stop, at my stop a kind-of-line forms (one stop east a real line forms), but when you open all three doors, it negates the line and potentially means someone who has been waiting for 20 minutes might not get on, but someone who just arrives and happens to be at the back door will get on.

I think I'm in a complaining mood because this isn't really an issue for me. During the term, I tend to take a trolley bus anyway. They may take about 5-10 minutes longer from my house to work, but I don't watch them drive past with no room for passengers, so it actually makes my commute shorter than taking the express bus.

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Self-Portrait

Riding the bus home from a long day at work. I don't have the energy to take a picture of anything more interesting.

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Greek Day On Broadway

Today is Greek Day! Broadway, from Macdonald to Balaclava (or maybe a block or two further) is closed and there are tents with food and music and people, people everywhere. Although, the downpours might keep the people away this year. Who knows. I'm totally impressed because these flags have been up for four or five days and no one has ripped them down, not even the partiers who were throwing eggs at the cars on our street on Friday night. Egg=not so easy to clean off a car.

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Saturday Night Excitement

Or not. We had a quiet Saturday night at home after Greek food and a visit with Kelsey (who by the way is crazy and will be running a half marathon tomorrow...crazy I tell you!)

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Sneaky Sneaky

Alex bought me flowers last week that included these purple flowers. The sneaky store where he bought them tricked us...looks like they coloured them with food colouring or something...

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Orchids

Part of the beautiful bouquet I brought home from the event last night. My boss thought they would look good in my house. Flowers are great! The bouquet was so huge that we had to split it into four vases.

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Ceiling

I spent tonight sitting under this amazing ceiling, hoping that everything would go as planned...and it DID! Yay...now I can breathe again and my head isn't going fly off my shoulders!

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The Never-Ending Camp Blanket

I started accumulated these badges when I was a brownie...a long time ago. They sat in a box for years. The box grew a few times and finally morphed into a huge ziplock bag. My mom bought the material for the blanket and it sat, lonely, waiting to be made into a poncho. *TWO* years ago, I sat down and make the poncho and did the blanket stitching. Now I'm still trying to sew all the stuff on to it. I can't believe how many badges and things I have. This crazy blanket is almost the most expensive piece of clothing I have. Seriously, I think I own one thing that cost more than this blanket.

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Flowers

A Saturday morning surprise from some boy I know (and yes, I do know it's Monday today).

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It's Cozy By The Fire...In JUNE!

It was a bit of a dreary, dismal June day today. We got back from Father's Day brunch to discover that it was so dismal, a cheerful fire was needed...

Yeah...I like a good fire in the fireplace, but I was just a little too warm this afternoon!

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Cheesecake!

We went out tonight with some of Alex's coworkers for dinner and drinks...and, apparently, cheesecake.

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Unemployed?

He doesn't look like he's upset about being unemployed. He looks rather content and not so stressed out. And technically I guess he isn't unemployed, he's between jobs. Alex's last day at his job was today and he starts his new job on Monday. That's probably why he doesn't look too concerned!

Good luck Alex!

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Ever-Changing Front Step

At the top of our stairs is a tiny porch with not enough room for a chair, but K. has put a planting table/baker's rack there. It's super convenient to put things on when searching for keys or when carrying too much to open the door. It also has a collection of stuff on it. Plants, decorations, stuff. Well, I went to home work this morning and the birds and gargoyle were gone. Everything was gone. But when I came home this afternoon, they had been replaced by the frog and the planter.

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Gummy Bear

My only companions today have been the Gummy Bears (oh...J. just made a liar of me. She's here now, but until now it was just me and the Bears). It's very quiet out here on the edge of the cliff.

Aside: Gummy Bears always remind me of Ferris Bueller's Day Off

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Breaking Through

Even though the morning wasn't exactly sunny, the light from outside managed to get through the living rooms blinds and giving us an interesting view of the stained glass butterfly my Dad made me.

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Finally Finished

I finally finished the blanket I was making for the baby who arrived early. It's been so busy around here lately that knitting has been put on the back burner. I'm not sure what I did to this poor blanket (I haven't blocked it yet), but I think my tension changed because it's a funny shape but still had the right number of stitches...oh well, a two month old baby won't notice that...

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Blank Book Obsession?

If you read my other blog, you'll know that I have a paper obsession and a book obsession. I was getting ready for bed and looked at the books in the bookshelf at the head of our bed. It seems that most of my books by the bed are journals and blank books. And most of them are still blank. True, there are a few books with words printed in them, but they are out numbered by the blank ones. Which is why I think this officially counts as an obsession...I keep buying them and never using them. Shh...don't tell Alex...

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Greek For Dinner

Today I had an all day Girl Guide meeting for the International Committee - the only committee I'm still a member of. I know, I know, who wants to spend Saturday in a meeting? It wasn't so bad. I really enjoy the committee and the other women on the committee are great and we always end up having a blast.

We had a Greek-themed dinner and one of the committee members knit us all Greek dancer dolls. Here they are flanking an empty bottle of wine and judging by the blurs in the background, R. is having a great time!

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Popsicles

Popsicles are one of my favourite summer treats. I decided I was in a popsicle mood tonight and as I pulled the popsicle out of the package, I wondered why they make them separate now...and then I thought of a few good reasons:

1. The together popsicles usually broke a little off centre so one side of the popsicle often ended up on the ground
2. If the together popsicle didn't break off centre, it sometimes broke horizontally, so you got stuck with a chunk of icy cold popsicle in your hand and a piece that was hard to eat attached to two sticks
3. If you tried to eat them attached, they inevitably created a big mess

(Okay, so maybe these problems were just me getting excited about popsicle since at my house usually we got orange juice popsicles)

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Italian For Beginners

This is Buchanan, where my Italian classes are held.

Notice the address marker says Main Mall and this entrance is on East Mall. Addresses are a constant problem on campus. People are forever stopping me as I walk across campus to ask if I know were some address is.

The problem is, I'm a campus person. I spent four years living here when I was a student and I've worked here for two and a half years now. Which means, like most campus people, I don't know the addresses of any of the buildings, except maybe my own.

Like this one. I would have no idea where 1866 Main Mall was, but I could tell you in a heart beat how to get to Buchanan. Chemistry, Physics, Forestry, Science One...yup, I know where they are, but I can't tell you their address. A lot of buildings are like Buchanan and are bordered by two or three streets so if you said Buchanan, I could get you there quickly, but if you give me an address, you might just get to take the scenic route!

The poor people asking for directions often have no idea what building they are looking for, because really, what does one do in the Buchanan Building? It's obvious what happens in Chemistry, Physics and Forestry, but Buchanan?

Life on campus...there's really nothing else like it!

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Narcissistic Reflection?

I had to leave my desk and go for a walk, I was feeling SO FRAZZLED! Anyway, I took the old camera and went wandering past the Museum of Anthropology and part way down the stairs to Wreck Beach. The sun was out and shining and making the puddles reflect stuff when I walked down, but it's gone again now.

Oh, and climbing up stairs, it's a good way to get rid of sick-to-your-stomach-panicky energy and refocus. Now I just have to keep telling myself, "See, it's not as bad as you thought after all!" I can see the tension in my shoulders in this picture...hopefully I've relaxed a bit now!

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Coffee Drinker

I've been waiting for months to take a picture of this guy in front of Starbucks and today was the first time I saw him that I had my camera with me and I wasn't flying by in a bus (too bad I didn't have the good camera with the better zoom since I was kind of far away). He hangs out in a chair at both the Starbucks on Macdonald at Stephens (pictured above) and the one two blocks away at Macdonald and Mackenzie. I've never seen him with anyone, just him, by himself, sitting there. He's always very well behaved and never barks or bugs people walking by.

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And Then The Rain Came

After a few blistering hot days, we had some rain today. They forecast some showers, but we had a few hours of downpour. It was that nice, rather warm, spring rain and everything smelled fresh and clean afterwards.

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Team Hardcore

Yay Kelsey! She broke last year's Team Hardcore record for the Oliver Half Iron Man! Way to go!

That's her, heading for the finish line.

update: numbers can be found on scribbles, scratches and scrawls

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Cooling Off

The drive to Osoyoos was super hot, but not as hot as 38C Osoyoos. We stopped in Manning Park so that I could move around a bit (the back is still not happy with long car rides) and found a creek to cool off in. The flood threat was apparent as most of the rivers, streams, and creeks we drove past were swollen almost to the top of their banks.

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Triathlon Muffins

Tomorrow morning we're off to Osoyoos so that bright and early on Sunday morning we can go cheer Kelsey on as she does the Oliver Half Iron Man. Last year we discovered that early on Sunday morning in a very small town there is only one coffee shop open and it's hard to find breakfast. This year we're going prepared with rhubarb oatmeal muffins (don't they look yummy?) and a bunch of fruit and veggies (for snacking on later, not for breakfast).

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