Last Friday Scott and I went to a CFL game. We saw the BC Lions play the Hamilton Tiger Cats. I got the tickets off Craigslist as an anniversary present (paper!) for Scott. He had never been to a football game before and really wanted to go.

Gene Simmons was there for some reason. He did the coin toss, and then he left.

The first 10 minutes I had absolutely no clue what was going on. None whatsoever. Luckily Scott didn’t mind answering all my questions. Plus I got to have a hotdog with bacon and cheese, so I was happy.

The lions lost by one point. One confusing point. Why would you get a point when you miss a kick??? I’ll leave this for Scott to talk about in his blog (eventually) because IDGI.

I ended up having an OK time, although I don’t think I would pay to go again. I would go if it was free!

P.S. DID YOU KNOW cheerleaders don’t wear skirts anymore??! They just wear underwear!

On the way home a dude yelled at us from his car and it STILL makes me mad to think about it. We were crossing the road in a crosswalk at a busy intersection and he zoomed up making a left turn and yelled at us for being in the road when the red hand signal was flashing. Um, we started crossing when it was still walking man, I don’t think we are expected to get all the way across before it even starts flashing. I yelled at him. Scott told him to “Shut up, idiot” too.

I wish you got more time in situations like that. He’s the one who shouldn’t so be so close to us while we’re crossing, and I would have liked to tell him that!!! Dumb angry man.

Last week was pretty stressful. I was really starting to get worried that we were going to get stuck at the end of the month with no where to live. I really didn’t want to end up signing a year long lease for a mediocre place. Anyway, the place we had applied for and then gave up on (because we hadn’t heard from them in the 1-2 days they said) called us back after 5 days and said it was ours. So we went over and on Friday and signed the lease.

It’s in the Metrotown area. 2 min from Patterson skytrain station. 10 minute bike ride to BCIT. 15 minute train ride to downtown. Twice as big as our apartment now, plus a balcony (ground floor though). Move in at the end of this month!

Do you like my artwork?

Other weekend highlights have been playing Carcasonne and Dominion (Rosemarie, please come back to Vancouver NOW!!), seeing Harry Potter 7.2, and checking out the local market (although it was POURING rain). We bought 2 things of strawberries and 1 of raspberries for $10. I was relieved to see some local strawberries still because I don’t feel like I ate enough this summer. Should have had more Shouldice while in Ottawa, doh doh doh.

I also reassembled my bike with the few tools that we have, except for the handle bars. Need allen keys for that. I can’t wait to ride it!!

Scott is still looking for work. I hope he gets something soooooon.

Here are some pictures from last week at the free concerts in Stanley Park. Jess was in town finding an apartment for when she starts at law school in Sept. Wooo a new friend in Vancouver!!

July 14th was Scott and my first anniversary! Scott got me some flowers and candy and I got him some CFL tickets for this Friday. Then we went out for a fancy dinner at Tojo’s. We ordered the 5 course and vegetarian omakase which basically means ‘trust the chef’. It was exciting and delicious. I had been looking forward to this meal ever since we moved to Vancouver. Tojo is one of the top rated restaurants in Canada!

To drink I had a cocktail with sour tangerine and guava that was super tasty.

1st course: I had a tuna tartar thing that was super light and smooth and fluffy and soft and delicious. Scott had a spinach salad that he liked a lot but it was very tiny so he was sad.

2nd course: I had octopus. It was decent, not rubbery whatsoever. I’m sure that is pretty much as good as octopus gets. Not my top choice of seafood really. Scott had a seaweed salad, which was ok, but maybe a little plain.

3rd course: Yellowtail with some stir fried stuff. Quite tasty, but cooked fish < raw fish, in my opinion! Scott had a croquette that I don’t think he liked very much because it was not very Japanese.


4th course. Picture stolen from travelwithamate.com

4th course: OMG delicious tuna thingies. From the menu: Red tuna wrapped in nori seaweed with a light tempura crust, served with sour plum sauce. The slices of tuna were perfect looking: raw in the middle, cooked around the outside. PERFECTLY flakey. Scott got a mushroom dish that he liked a lot (finally).

5th course: SUSHI! Yay! Both of ours were really good. We each got a variety plate, which is what I always wish I could have at sushi restaurants but is usually not an option!

My plate had a raw prawn sushi (blech), yellowtail sushi (om nom nom), a piece each of Great Canadian Roll (Atlantic lobster with asparagus inside with smoked Pacific salmon on top), Spicy Tuna Roll, Golden Roll (crab, scallop, salmon, and sweet shrimp rolled in an egg crepe), and the most delicious piece of sushi I have EVER eaten:

Pacific Northwest Roll (West coast Dungenss crab and avocado inside-out with scallop and flying fish roe on top).

Scott’s plate had two of those bean curd pillows with rice on the inside, a few pieces of a roll with pineapple and lots of other veg inside, and a few pieces of a roll that was wrapped in cucumber instead of seaweed.

Sorry for the terrible pictures, we didn’t bring the camera with us to dinner.

Then for dessert we had ginger ice cream with tasty citrus fruit on the bottom, and a pannacotta type thing that tasted good but I didn’t really like the jelly texture.

Overall I was very happy. Scott’s wasn’t very good value though. We both left full, after about a two hour dinner since you have to wait a bit in between each course. It was a fun experience and maybe when we’re DINKs we can go back. Maybe Scott will eat fish by then.

Can’t believe we’ve been married a whole year! It’s passed by quick.

from tinybites.ca

Last night Scott and I went out with Carleigh for a nice dinner at The Eatery. The place had a lot of unusual sushi, including a lot of vegetarian choices, and lots of crazy giant paper mache decorations hanging from the ceiling. It was awesome.

Scott and I shared tempura veggies, which were gigantic and good, except for the yam that was still kind of raw.

Scott had two rolls:

  • buddha roll – tempura yams, red pepper, asparagus and lettuce, with dragon sauce
  • the moby – shitake mushrooms and kombu, soy sauce, avocado, sesame seeds

And I had:

  • jalapeno popper – smoked salmon, cream cheese, jalapeno – tempura style
  • godzilla – crab crunch topped with avocado and eel

And we shared:

  • mango paradise – avocado, cucumber, mango and agge

I also had a strawberry sake margarita, which was delicious! And much needed because my jalapeno sushi was incredibly spicy. SOOOOO SPICY. They left all the seeds in part of the jalapeno. I was sweating and my mouth was ON FIRE.

All in all, very tasty. Not the cheapest of dinners out, but it definitely was something special. No pictures because it was very dark inside.

What a rough night last night. I’m sure you’ve all seen it already on the news.

I think I knew the game was over after the first goal.

Then this was the view from Brian’s balcony. For hours. We could see the riot police pushing people off Granville St. The tear gas wafted upwards and stung my eyes and nose way up on the 21st floor. They cancelled all the buses and closed the bridges downtown.

I was pretty worried about getting home. Luckily the Skytrain was still running outbound. It was strangely quiet. I found out today that was because they were having problems at all the other Skytrain stations downtown except the one we went to. Lucky!

On the streets (with zoom and cropping)

People are so stupid. People who brag about their vandalism on Facebook are even more stupid. I hope they actually fine people.

I find the train of thought of the general public/media kind of funny though.

  • Before the game: ‘People won’t riot’
  • Right after the game: ‘Vancouver fans sure are sore losers’
  • This morning: ‘They would have rioted win or lose’
  • This afternoon: ‘They were anarchists from out of town’

Yes I agree that many of the people who started things probably didn’t even care whatsoever about the hockey game, but I think it’s surely a bit of a stretch to say that they were all ‘anarchists disguised as hockey fans’ causing the trouble. Not sure Vancouverites should get off the hook that easily…