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Same old story, the longer I don’t blog the more of an effort it seems like it will be and the more I put it off, proliferating the cycle.

Been busy. Did more overtime last weekend, went to a Chinese New Year parade, a mega shop at Metrotown, hockey game, doctors appointments, visitors, free concerts, and soon Granville Island and playing Settlers with new friends.

Work has been profitable lately. Lots of overtime and I’m getting faster every month so my bonus goes up every time. I guess I will just stay there. I’ve been there for 5 months now and I’ve heard whispers about a 6 month raise.

The Chinese New Year parade was pretty cool. But it was raining and cold and people kept poking us in the eyeballs with umbrellas, so we didn’t stay for the whole thing. Still came home with a pocketful of red envelopes though.

Last Monday we went to a Canucks vs. Sens game with a couple of our friends. We all met up right after work and drank a bit and went to the game. It was a lot of fun, even though the Sens lost. I must have drank a bit too much actually though because I felt really horrible the next day and barely made it to work. Scott’s a real trooper though, he’s been starting work at 6:00 AM this week and still made it.

I really like my new doctor. Yet another reason why I hope I miraculously get into BCIT so I can stay in Vancouver and stay with this lovely doctor. Anyway the news from the last appointment was not so great, he’s narrowed it down to two (crappy) possibilities. I have to go off dairy for a week to see if that helps, starting the day after Valentines I guess. Anyone who knows me know this will be torture for me.

Jarrod and Taylor are staying with us right now. It’s been a mellow visit, which is good. We went to a free outdoor concert last night which was good until our feet turned into muddy icicles. We’re off to Granville Island market in a bit. Yeah I’ve been there twice already, but I like markets!!!

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I finally got around to getting a photostitch program (free and legal I LOVE LINUX) and made up a few panoramas from the past year or so. Check them out.

The MCG in Melbourne


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On the West coast of Australia


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From the lookout between Kailua and Honolulu, Hawaii


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A beach in the North part of Oahu, Hawaii


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Sorry for not writing in so long. The Whistler weekend totally exhausted me and I spent the whole last week recovering. So happy that this is a proper weekend.

I worked 13.5 hours of overtime last week and was just go-go-go right up until our Whistler trip. Scott’s friends arrived at 1:00 am at our house and then we woke up EARLY to drive up on Saturday morning.

The weather was total poop all Saturday and Sunday. I could tell when it was pouring rain in Squamish that things weren’t going to be good. Plus apparently it was College Weekend which meant Whistler was TOTALLY OVERRUN with American college kids. I felt like I was the only person there who actually came up for quality boarding, and was really disappointed with all the rain and crowds and broken gondolas.

Scott had a lot of fun with his friends though and that was a lot of the point of going up so at least that was good. And our hotel was very nice.

I had an ok day on Saturday. It was very rainy at the bottom, but the clouds were fairly low so once you got above them the weather was ok. I had quite a good session and got very very sweaty.

Sunday morning we woke up and saw that is was totally pouring rain. Scott and I decided to not go up because it felt like it would be a waste of money, especially for Scott who would have gotten SOAKED. We decided to go tubing instead, but that turned out to be broken too. Instead we just relaxed and got a Beavertail and went in the hot tub.

Scott had to leave on Sunday night but I stuck around. Monday was a lot better. No rain and much clearer skies. I went right to the top of Blackcomb and had fun in the great glacier conditions. But then I crashed on a very narrow flat trail with a huge cliff on one side and tweaked my foot. It hurt but not that much because my foot was so tightly wrapped in my boot. I spent the rest of the afternoon working my way down the mountain and then got poutine and relaxed.

Was too bad that I didn’t actually get a chance to meet up with Robyn, even though I was using her snowboard!! Both of us had quite a crazy weekend and it just didn’t work out.

So the (very complex) way our passes work means that I have one more day left on my pass (Scott does not). We’ll have to do some budgeting to see if we CAN actually go up for one more day trip, or maybe I’ll just sell my pass to Rosemarie. Depends on how much Scott’s teeth stuff costs, I guess.

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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.

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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.