Cross Border Shopping trip

So I had the day off on Friday and we decided to take a day-trip to Seattle to do some cross border shopping. I'll be blunt: Despite the cost of renting a car, the consumed gas, the ENTIRE DAY spent running around, it is still worth it. Yes, we can save that much. Something is horribly wrong with the relationship between Canadian consumers and the local retailers.

Don't believe me? My first example is a little furniture store called IKEA. You may have heard of it. We use a fair amount of their stuff at home so on this trip we planned to get some doors for our book shelf as well as slip covers for our two love seat sofas. As luck would have it, the doors didn't work out (they didn't have the ones we were looking for) but we did get a pair of slip covers for our sofas. Price for the slip covers: $39.99 each - Price in Canada: $119.99 each. Those two items alone paid for the rental of the minivan and all the gas we consumed.

Then add on that all the items we were able to get that just aren't available in Canada, and the restaurants we tried, etc. Even when we don't get everything we planned, we still seem to come out ahead - way ahead.

Plus, it's just a day trip into another city, which is just nice to do once in a while. This last photo is of a fantastic mural inside a Chinese restaurant we had lunch at. Our lunch selections were nothing spectacular but the place definitely had the ambiance. Oh by the way, the minivan in the first photo is the one we rented, thinking we had extra long doors to bring back. Had we known they weren't going to work out we could have gotten away with renting a Smart Car. Thanks to Enterprise Car Rental though, for giving us a free upgrade and giving us consistently great service. There is a reason we go all the way to Richmond to rent our cars now. Kinda like our reason for going cross-border to do some shopping once in a while.

Paralympic Patch Job

Hi. Remember me? I'm the one who hasn't been able to blog in almost two weeks. Like the rest of the city, up until yesterday we were all suffering from a bit of post-Olympic depression. Luckily for us though, the Paralympics kicked off yesterday so that should help most of us ease back into normality.

Over the past couple weeks I have managed to photograph a couple interesting bikes that I have noticed on my lunch breaks. They aren't the sort of bike I want to own or anything like that - I just think they are interesting for one reason or another. Sometimes it's the rusty-yet-functional aspect of an antique ride, or in the case of the second example, something unusual. Either way, I thought they were interesting enough to take pictures. The fellow riding on the tall bike happened to have a camera crew following him too. Some guys are popular I guess.

As mentioned, the Paralympics are underway and on my way into the office on Friday I stumbled across the torch relay. The biggest difference between this time and the first time was the lack of a crowd. Look at the picture, I think I captured just about everybody who was interested in following it. Also keep in mind that most of these people are related in some way to the guy carrying the torch. Here you can see that his grandson ran with him and his son is the man in the foreground. I get the impression that the Paralympics are going to be a much more intimate event, which could be nice although it is still a shame that it isn't promoted like the main Olympic event.

So - the real reason I am blogging this morning is because I am drying out a little bit. My bike had a flat tire and I wanted to ride it this morning. I inflated it enough to ride into the office, using a hand pump and rode in the rain to get here. Once here I made use of the office bike pump, which is much easier to use. I also figured I would dry out a little bit before heading back out. Pictured is the fixed tire and tube. I noted that there is a definite hole in the tire now, so I will probably have to replace it soon. That's ok though, my tires are pretty cheap - less than twenty bucks. I won't do it today though because I have wasted enough time as it is and would like to get some actual riding in. Later!

It's over already? So soon?

The Olympic main event ended with an overtime goal by Sidney Crosby. What a game! It easily could have gone to the Americans who put up a fantastic effort and provided us with the biggest obstacle on the way to Olympic Gold in Men's Hockey.

We decided to watch the game in the comforts of our own home, which was a great plan. I was literally on the edge of the sofa in front of the TV for the third period and could barely stay seated for overtime. The game was so tense! Twice we missed a goal and instead hit the goal posts. In a bid to stay alive, the US team tied the game with less than 30 seconds on the clock. Sophie, our cat who was sleeping on the back of the sofa behind me, decided she could take no more of me jumping up and screaming every time Canada came close to getting a goal - she relocated a safe distance away, to the other end of the room.

The game ended and I convinced Holly that we were going for a walk down Robson street. This is where the real celebration was! Luckily for us, Louise was pretty sleepy so we were able to leave her at home for this trip. Risk of accidental trampling was just too high.

The crowd was massive, hyper and elated. Everybody was happy and the cheering just didn't stop. Complete strangers were giving high fives to each other. Red and White were the colours to wear. A little while later the flame in the cauldron was extinguished but the party continued on. I cannot overstate how big this celebration became.

It hasn't sunk in yet that the party is over. Everyone had such a good time.

3 Strikes in Olympic Curling

We went to see another Olympic event last night - this time it was Women's Curling. I already had a passing interest in this sport so when Holly suggested we get tickets for it, I was on board. Since there are quite a few games to be played leading up to the medal rounds, the event was structured to show three games at a time - this meant we got to see the US play against Sweden, Germany play against Japan and Canada take on China. Someone to cheer for in each contest.

Or, in our case, we had the opportunity to see our three teams lose, each in a different way.

Admittedly the US team isn't really in medal contention this year. That's ok, they are already cleaning up on lots of other medals in other sports so nobody feels too badly for them. They played until the 9th end at which time they conceded defeat. The final score: 9 to 3 for Sweden.

The Japan vs. Germany game was a lot closer. Japan played to the end, using up every last second available (the clock ran out during the final shot). They played well but ultimately lost during regulation play.

China came out with an early lead against Canada and held on for the first half, at which point Canada actually tied it up. Regulation play ended as a tie, which sent the teams into an extra end (or in hockey parlance, 'overtime') where China scored. Much of the strategy involved has to do with who gets to throw the last stone, an advantage China capitalized on in the 11th end. It was a fun diversion from the Men's Hockey game which was also happening at the same time. (we lost that one too.)

Here is a brief video of the Canadian shot that tied up the game with China. Listen for the crowd as they go crazy. Oh, and the final shot was taken on the skytrain as we made our way home - there is a lot of Olympic gear being worn and I think the biggest seller by far has to be the mittens. This is the center hand rail to hang on to while standing on a crowded train.

First time in Snow Shoes

I was up at 4:00 am this morning.

Let's just let that sink in a bit. 4:00 am is so early it's really late from the night before. I call myself a 'morning person' but generally speaking, 4:00 am is not what I mean. I'm more of a 7:00 am kind of guy.

But I digress. I had good reasons to be up so early. I had a gondola to catch at 5:20 am on Grouse Mountain - all so I could be ready for a 6:00 am start for my first mountain trek on snow shoes. On a good day, when I am feeling motivated, I will get up early to ride my bike around Stanley Park, which admittedly is an enjoyable way to get exercise. However, just the day before my boss offered to take anyone who was interested on this morning hike with snow shoes. I was in.

The plan was to start hiking while it was still dark so that we could be at a good spot to watch the sun rise over the Lower Mainland. Roy (my boss) was kind enough to lend me the gear required for the day - a pair of snowshoes, a head mounted light and 'gators'. The last item is basically leg skirting to keep out snow and wetness from entering in your boots. All three items turned out to be very helpful and I was happy to have them.

Our guide for the hike was Eric. He had the perfect personality for this kind of job and it soon became clear that I was hiking with frequent visitors to the mountain as he knew Roy and the others quite well.

I could go on about the actual hike, but I think the pictures speak better than I could. In short, it was fantastic, I had a great time and everything went off according to plan. We saw wildlife, Matt Lauer from the Today Show, Eric named off most of the local mountains as they came into view and of course, we saw our sunrise from the top of a mountain.

I already can't wait to convince Holly to come out with me next time.

Olympic Hockey

Yesterday was a lot of fun. We stopped working at 1:00 pm (any day that happens is a good day in my mind) and started celebrating. The entire office was going to watch one of the Olympic Hockey games! We had food and drink brought into the office, former employees started to arrive and we even let Greg up on the roof again.

When the time arrived, we all walked over from the office to the stadium (about a fifteen minute walk) and started waiting in line. At one point I turned around and took a picture of the people still behind me - this is after going through the security checkpoints - you can see them in the background. It was going to be a busy place!

In order to fit in everybody we ended up having two separate box suites - I had only been in a suite at a hockey game once before. It's definitely the best way to watch a game. Each suite has a kitchen area and private bathroom at the back. That saved a lot of lineups and running around between periods, for sure. Anticipation was building with just about everyone as we arrived, the view of the rink was fantastic and the beer, well somehow we managed to keep it flowing.

The stadium was pretty full and unlike the games with Canada as one of the teams, the colours were pretty evenly split between the blue and yellow of Sweden and the black, red and yellow of Germany. In our booths we had supporters for both teams. It was a bit of contrast though from the sea of red and white for Team Canada games.

Eventually the game was over - it was a great game to watch. Definitely not a blowout, Germany did a great job holding back the stronger team from Sweden. However, when it was over the Swedes skated off with the win.

From the arena, we headed over to Irish House - one of the many pavilions around town. Thanks to some great connections we were all able to enter a VIP area that was above the main floor.

We continued to party here until the night ended. Such a memorable day, just about everything worked out better than planned. If anyone doubts Vancouver's enthusiasm over the Games here, they are blind, deaf or just plain not here. I have never seen this town so enthused to party over anything like this before.

The net result? I'm even more excited now for the rest of the Olympic sporting events, but especially the rest of the hockey games. Go Team Canada! Go for Gold on home ice!

Olympic Dishwasher

We bought a new dishwasher over the weekend and I took half a day off yesterday in order to swap out the old one for the new. The project was a bit challenging for my not-quite-so-handy hands but I'm happy to report a successful job.

The best part is that the new machine works. The old one doesn't, but that didn't stop someone from responding to our craigslist ad for a free non-working dishwashing machine. If they can fix it, I hope they make good use of it. It will just be nice to have someone come take it away.

I think this is now the second time I have gone to youtube.com to get advice or instructions on how to do a job. The first time was to learn about tiling, a job we eventually didn't do because when we went to get the tiles we left with more questions than we started.

Of course, it was Valentine's Day on Sunday and we did manage to celebrate the occasion. Pictured are some of the oysters we had as appetizers. The main course was steamed lobster served with butter and well, I was too busy removing the shells to take pictures. Maybe next year.

Protest the Cherry Blossoms, oh my!

Well it's underway and the picture I lead with today is one of cherry blossoms. Why? Because it's probably the most under reported story of the games. Thanks to the warm weather, the cherry trees around here started blooming early. I'm sure the tourists will enjoy seeing pink trees around town.

The opening ceremonies went off with only minor hitches last night but overall I think they did a great job. I really enjoyed hearing K. D. Lang perform and at times the visuals to the art performances were stunning - like when the killer wales 'swam' across the floor. My wife was troubled by the frayed bowstrings of the fiddlers though - she's a violinist, so seeing the equipment in such a state was distracting.

The second shot is of some of my co-workers getting ready to cheer on the torch relay. I'll attempt to embed a brief youtube clip of the torch bearer running by at the end of the post.

Did anyone say protest? I heard of at least two times that the torch relay had to be re-routed to avoid trouble in Vancouver due to protests. The local news ran stories about elementary school kids who were sad and disappointed because they waited and waited and no torch came. You just know those kids are going to grow up with pure hatred for protesters in the future.

I think I am ok with that.

The final two shots are first a police road block and second, reinforcements. Yet another protest happened on Robson street today - I was walking the dog and had to go around them as the closest officer to me claimed 'it wasn't safe'. I'm not so sure about how dangerous it is to walk past stoned street performers more interested in flag waving and raising awareness of their pet issue but I also didn't feel like pushing the matter. In a way, I'm kind of glad that protesters are given as much as they are in the way of rights, etc. here. Welcome to a democratic nation, peoples of the earth. Ok, without further ado, here is the youtube video: