Dining out for life

Last night we participated in the Dining Out for Life campaign in Vancouver. It's a huge event that raises money to help a couple AIDS related charities in the area. Restaurants donated 25% of the proceeds to the causes.

We ate at a local restaurant called Characters which we chose because they were closest to our place. Well that, and they also served a roast lamb dinner. I really like lamb - so much so that I am willing to put up with a greek salad (which I am not fond of because I don't really like cucumbers) in order to get it. The food was good, the wine was good, dessert was also good. If you haven't noticed, I am not much of a food critic. We had a good time, and that's pretty much good enough for me.

Landmarks new and old

The other day I found a cell phone on the ground. Well, my dog happened to take a dump a few inches away from it, so I guess she found it. Whatever. The bottom line is that I then had to run around to find a cellular store for that brand so I could return it.

I was motivated to return it because it was so damn noisy. Honestly, some people like phones that beep and blink ALL THE TIME.

So because of this, I had to modify my route home a little bit. In so doing, I got to walk past a few of the landmarks in downtown Vancouver. Notably, the new Olympic clock thing that was recently defaced by protesters, and the Vancouver Art Museum.

I noticed a photographer taking pictures of the building across the street from the museum - this is my blatant copy of the photo he was going for. My only defense is that my photo is about twenty feet to the left of where this guy was standing. Is there really any harm in learning from the pros?

Saint Patrick's Day Madness

So it's St. Patrick's day, which is also my brother's birthday. I am wearing green, have spilled something on me, and have been out in the rain enough to get my feet soaked at least twice. St. Patrick's day will be over in Ireland before I have my first drink of the evening.

Rumor on the street is that all the pubs and bars in town are 'standing room only' tonight. That certainly will complicate things, to be sure. I already have one friend who tried to go early, and could not get in. (He must have not brought an umbrella.) The big problem with 'standing room only' is that those waiting outside generally get soaked, and don't even get served beer during the process.

This means we may need a version 2.0 of tonight's plan. Well, make that 3.0, since we already revised it once before. Somehow, somewhere, we will find a suitable place to celebrate.

Water Taxi to the rescue

Since I had the dog with me at work yesterday, I decided to shorten our walk home by taking the water taxi. In short, I'm glad I did. The walk was long enough as it was, and besides - it was a nice sunny afternoon. The perfect day for a boat ride.

The boat operator had no problems with me bringing a dog on board, so with that out of the way, we boarded the boat and set off. There were many sights to see, but Louise missed most of them because she was too short to see out of most of the windows, and besides, she just wanted to sit and relax on the bench. Either that, or investigate the storage compartments that were stuffed with lifejackets.

I probably won't be a regular water taxi user, but it is nice for the occasional trip. Just one of the many perks of living in this city. I did enjoy getting a chance to see parts of downtown from a different perspective.

Root Beer Assassin wins the war!

Root Beer Assassin, in his wise ways, figured that perhaps the reason the target did not like root beer had to do with the high fructose corn syrup used in the A&W brand Root Beer. He set out to find a suitable replacement root beer.

While dining at the Memphis Blues restaurant for lunch one day, RBA discovered Boylan Bottleworks, who make a root beer sweetened with real cane sugar. This truly is the 'good stuff' in the root beer world.

No trickery was needed to persuade the target to try this brew. On presenting the root beer, the target agreed to take a sip.... and was pleasantly surprised! Using cane sugar in the recipie makes for a superior tasting root beer and even this skeptic agrees! This is a pleasant drink!

Root Beer Assassin can rest easy now, knowing that he has introduced yet another person to the wonders of good root beer.