by ·0 Comments

We had a good time snowboarding at Mount Seymour on Monday night. Rose came too which was good for me because Scott stayed on the bunny hill. Rose and I checked out the rest of the hill but the more challenging side was very very busy so we only did a few of those runs. Scott improved a bit and is looking forward to not having to use a rope tow ever again. (Although I’m the one who did the most embarrassing wipe-out on the rope tow… just ask Rose.)

I’m worried about Whistler this weekend though. The main Whistler village gondola is broken and they’re not sure how long it will take to fix. Also right now the forecast says up to 30 mm of RAIN over the weekend. :(((((( Although maybe that forecast is only for the base and that means SNOW on the mountain??! I hope so.

by ·0 Comments

It has been a very busy week. I am tired!

Natasha stayed with us for a few days after New Years. We had a lot of fun with her, playing Settlers and dragging her around to different parts of the city to buy shelves, and cooking a lot of delicious vegetarian asian food.

Our New Years Eve was very low key. Natasha, Parry, and his fiancee came over. The last time I saw Parry was like 4 years ago… on New Years Eve in Toronto! Anyway it was really good to see him again, he’s pretty much the only one I still keep in contact with from Maastricht.

At about 1:00 AM Nat, Scott and I decided that doing the New Years Day Polar Bear Swim in English Bay was actually the greatest idea of all time. We got pretty pumped about that, and then went to bed. But we followed through! There were SOOOOOOO many people there. Apparently there were something like 2,300 swimmers, and probably just as many spectators. It was insanity.

I reckon I was only in the water for about 5 seconds. We had decided that you had to dunk your head to make it ‘official’ so I ran two steps in, ducked under, and then ran out. Wrapped up in our giant towels and then got dressed up in the massive amount of winter clothing we packed. It actually wasn’t that bad! The sun shining definitely helped. The only bad part was our feet… the beach was painfully cold.

After the swim we walked up and got hot chocolate and by that time we were all pretty much back to normal! If I’m here next year I would do it again. Unless it was raining.

After the long weekend Scott and I were back to work, Natasha headed off to New Zealand, and then Rosemarie came back (bearing gifts and snowboarding equipment)! Of course we squeezed in another game of Settlers.

Both Scott and I feel pretty run down after all this activity. I need a long weekend after that long weekend. :/ Which I do not get, at all, because I’m going in tomorrow to do overtime at work! The money will help though… a lot of snowboarding in our near future!!

Mount Seymour on Monday for a practice session. We are renting a car because it is actually cheaper than paying 4 one-way shuttle tickets and 2 add-fares, plus then we don’t have to leave work early. Girls are free on Monday nights too, which is awesome! Then Whistler next weekend!! We originally planned on just going for the weekend, but Scott suggested I stay Monday too with his friends, which I am now very much considering (Scott can’t stay because he actually must be at work that Monday). We shall see. I am excited!!

About time for another food post soon. I’ve had some successes lately. Mmmmm.

by ·0 Comments

Woooo only 1.5 more days of work, then a 4.5 day weekend!!

I haven’t been sleeping well lately. The kid upstairs screams for her mom for 20 minutes once per night, and I get hyper-focused on Scott’s breathing sounds, and my brain keeps going a million miles per hour… and I’m up for hours. :(

Looks like we’re going to Whistler mid-January. Two of Scott’s friends from Kansas are going and we are meeting up with them there. He says the last time he saw one of them was 2008 and the other 2004! I just hope it’s not toooo crowded (since we’ll be going on a weekend) and we get enough time on the mountain, because it sure is expensive! Hopefully we can also squeeze in a night session at one of the local hills before then too because I feel rusty and Scott is still very much a beginner!! I’ve been keeping an eye out for coupons.

Last January I made a whole bunch of stupid New Years resolutions. I don’t have the exact list anymore because it was on my ‘craptop’ which is now in the garbage. :/ I really can’t remember them except for “invent teleportation” and “eat a grilled cheese hamburger”. Anyway I did the latter on the weekend and it was glorious.

by ·0 Comments

Things I wish someone would invent soon:

1) Brain notepad.
Like the notepad I have on my phone, but IN MY BRAIN. No need for typing.

2) A nutritional information tracker in my mouth.
Calories and fibre and protein and all that stuff. No more need for estimating how many grams of cheese I ate… it just calculates from what you actually put in your mouth (har har).

3) Teleportation

4) Temperature adjusting blanket.
No more sticking your leg out from the side of the blanket, or throwing it on the floor only to wake up cold later. This blanket would regulate everything from night to morning and keep you at the right temperature.

In other news, I received this email from Ms. Fisher of BCIT today:

“In addition to post secondary transcripts, we will review evidence of any recent advanced applications (work or project based) that provide proof of current knowledge and practice related to the program prequisite courses.
Kind regards
Lorie”

Good news. This is very different than what Saxxxxxony told me last year. I think now being a BC resident helps a lot, or maybe my pestering actually did some good. Anyway I think I’ll leave it at that for now, but once the selection process starts in January I will call again just to make sure my application is in the right pile.

by ·0 Comments

After a rather uneventful Saturday (just tv and laptop and a quick trip down Broadway to the Michael’s grand opening (Holy moly it was busy. I got 8 things of acrylic paint for $2, two canvases for $5, a cheapo paintbrush and some varnish for the table (with 50% off coupons))) I decided to check the Craigslist community postings for the first time.

The first posting was about an apple festival at UBC. I thought it was cool, and Scott loves apples. The $2 entrance and $3 to taste 60 varieties of apples convinced us to go. So we got up early Sunday morning and bused to UBC (wow it is far!). It’s a good thing we arrived early because it was very busy and extremely busy by the time we were leaving. Unfortunately we ran out of time in the tasting tent but I reckon we still tried about 40 kinds of apples. Pretty neat. I liked one called Fiesta, and another one I can’t remember the name of. Doh.

We tried the new Ambrosia apples. Scott liked it, but I don’t really care for ultra sweet apples so it wasn’t my thing.

After the tasting we looked around at all the other food booths, and also did a taste survey of three new varieties of apples. We also saw them making cider and a huge room full of every variety of apple that exists (nearly!).

We thought we’d pick up some of the ones Scott liked at the end, but by the time we got to the sales area EVERYTHING WAS SOLD OUT. It was totally barren. Note for next year: Go EARLY on Saturday, and buy your apples immediately!