TK

#32 - Playoff Time

2007-03-29T22:56:00.000-07:00

So the Canucks made the playoffs. Legitimately clinched a spot. In fact, they are now 3 points ahead of Minnesota for top spot in the NW division. In fact, they are also giving Anaheim a run for their money for 2nd in the conference. They have a game in hand over the Ducks and are just on a tear. Mind you their games are close and usually involve a 1 goal win, but a win is a win is a win. When you have Roberto "Bingo Bango Bongo" Luongo in net for you, you really have to not make a showing to lose a game. I'm very excited for this year's playoffs. Tanya and I are going to attempt to catch some games at pubs and soak up all the playoff excitement and atmosphere. If you want to join us, give me a shout!!

Not much else to write about right now. Well, can't think of much to write since I am so tired. Work is going well. I took a day off last week which seemed to somewhat energize and recharge my batteries. I was recalled back to Nanaimo last week to be an Environmental Monitor watching a Log Jam being unjammed. The Koksilah River was flooded and ended up flooding Cowichan Bay Road (just google map these names and you'll see where I'm talking about). They brought in a grapple yarder to pull the logs out which was really neat. The significant portion of the work though was being back in Nanaimo. Tanya had Spring Break so she came out and we made it a mini-vacation. It also brought us some closure on our life in Nanaimo since we left so hastily without truly saying goodbye in November. While Nanaimo is quiet and everything is so convenient to get to, it is also a little too quiet for us big city folk who enjoy going to shops and places after 6pm at night (everything closes at 5 or 6 in Nanaimo, except a few restaurants). We really discovered that Nanaimo is a great place to visit, but in the end, we are very happy to have moved back home.

That's about it for now. Sleepy. I'll post on the experience of watching the Canucks vs. Flames this Saturday night live and let you know if we make it onto HNIC!!

Post #31 - Facebook

2007-03-26T22:49:00.000-07:00

So, like Goma, I've received some invitations to join Facebook. This wonderous new website system that seems to model itself off of Myspace or Blogger or any number of these do it yourself website systems. The difference it appears is that everyone under the yellow sun has discovered Facebook except for me and Goma. I decided to go for it and create an account. Wow, not only was I inundated with requests from people to add me and add them to my site, I discovered that Facebook is the new version of alumni.net (which tells you how old school I am that I still reference that site). I have literally found people from not only high school and elementary school, but even pre-school. That has to be pretty amazing. My contact list is small, but seems to grow every day, especially surprising as to how many people are online with Facebook that I would never really have expected. So to answer Goma, while I am a major proponent of going out and meeting new people in real life, I would say that to get in touch with people you already know and haven't perhaps seen in the last 10, 15, 20, or even 23 years, Facebook.com is the way to go.

I'm keeping this brief since I want to watch last night's Family Guy before I go to bed, but hey, look at those Canucks. Lacklustre performance last night, but 14-2-3 in their last 19 games. Not too shabby. 1 point out of a playoff spot and they really seem to have Detroit and Nashville's numbers. Hopefully they have Colorado and Minnesota come playoffs.

Tanya and I have tickets (thanks to the 2 hour Timeshare presentation we sat through 2 weeks ago) for the Vancouver vs. Calgary game this saturday on HNIC. We'll be the ones holding up the "Bingo Bango Bongo" "Will you marry me Luongo" signs!! Keep your eyes peeled and your VCRs/TiVos/PVRs set to record 7pm on CBC!

GO CANUCKS GO!!!

Wow, Part II

2007-02-14T21:52:00.000-08:00

So we arrived at night on November 29th back in Richmond after our harrowing caravan journey through Nanaimo to the Duke Point Ferry Terminal and made it to my parent’s house to park the U-Haul truck. However, the truck got stuck and so we spent a couple of hours with a bag of kitty litter trying to unstuck it which we did.

The next day we drove to our new place and with the help of my parents and brother and Tanya’s parents we moved in. However, with the mess of our apartment, we decided to postpone our first night a day as it took us longer to return the moving truck since it got stuck again once it was unloaded. Argh!! However, after a good solid weekend of unpacking and help from family and friends, we really got settled in.

I started my first day at Vancouver SEACOR on December 1st with a half day of orientation and paperwork. I’m part of the Remedial Systems Group in Vancouver with 50% of my time focused on that and 50% focused on regular site assessment work. Very interesting new work and some of the same stuff as in Nanaimo but new sites and different challenges. For example, it took me two hours to get back to Vancouver from Abbotsford one afternoon. A distance of about 90km. Conversely on the Island, two hours is the time to get from Nanaimo to Victoria (125km) or the almost time (2.5 hours) to Ucluelet from Nanaimo (180km). A trip of 90km is the approximate distance from Nanaimo to Union Bay to the North or Cobble Hill to the South. Each trip would take approx. 50 minutes. So yeah, some definite differences with travel times and mileage, but my field work load has been light, very light, so I’m happy about that as winter sucks for field work. As I am now two months into my new position in Vancouver, I have to say that the atmosphere is very different in Nanaimo. Not better, but different. The lunch room is awesome!!! and overall, I am very happy to be working in the Vancouver office. Plus the fact that I got a very nice raise last week. =D

I must say that things are different and we are very happy to be back in Vancouver. The commute isn’t too bad – ½ hour to work and ¾ of an hour home, usually. We are closer to friends and family, and we have all the great food here. Which is really the main reason we moved back. =) That and Tanya wanting to take UBC courses next year. Actually, I’m thinking of going back and finishing my Arts Degree, perhaps even do an MBA. Although we'll see where things go. Right now, I'm just happy to be moving forward with my career as a consultant and happy that our life back home is going so well.

More posts to come sooner than later. I promise!!

Wow, it's been how long?

2007-02-14T21:38:00.000-08:00

Okay. It has been forever since my last update. A lot has happened since my Superheroes quiz thingy. Let’s start with where I left off…

In September I made mention of an opening in the SEACOR Vancouver office that I applied to. Well, As of December 1, 2006, I have been an employee of the SEACOR Vancouver office. It was somewhat of a stressful time after I applied. Tanya applied to the Richmond School District as a TOC and then received an interview. I was told around the end of September that the transfer was a done deal and that all that needed to be done was dot the “i”s and cross the “t”s. However, that took a whole two months which actually was sort of a good/bad thing. I got a chance to work on a lot of cool projects in Nanaimo and work my way up to starting the whole project management aspect of being an engineer. Tanya’s interview went well such that we were starting to contemplate what our future scenarios would be.

1. I get the transfer and Tanya doesn’t get hired by SD38. We would move back of course but perhaps in the Spring of 2007 to give her more time to make money in Nanaimo and to reapply to other school districts.

2. I don’t get the transfer but Tanya does get the job with SD38. This was the worst case scenario because we really didn’t know what to do. Thankfully it didn’t happen.

3. We both get hired. Well, it happened. Actually Tanya got hired first.

Yup, Tanya had her interview and then on October 31st, she called me to tell me that SD38 had called to hire her. She asked them for a day to think it over as scenario 2 seemed to be happening. So I called my boss in Nanaimo to ask him about the transfer since I hadn’t officially heard from Vancouver and well, frankly I would probably move with Tanya and look for a job with another company which he didn’t want to happen (I’m a hot commodity you know. But Tanya is a hotter commodity). He called me back in the afternoon and told me that I got the transfer and that I’d be moving at the end of November. Wow. That fast!!!

So the moving part was the next step. Finding an apartment which we did in North-central Richmond thanks in part to my mom checking the Richmond Review paper. Great location and really bright apartment (Tanya wanted bright after living in our Nanaimo Cave). We actually got the apartment the first weekend we went back to try and look. Very fortunate that the owner liked us and our references checked out. Thanks Brad!

So the whole packing process came next which was difficult since Tanya already started working with Richmond mid-November. She ferried back each week and came back on the weekends. It was a good time to do so since I was out in the field which posed a problem for packing. Surprising how much “stuff” you accumulate in 2.5 years.

The next big problem was the weather. Moving in November isn’t very fun. However, living on the west coast, you usually only have to contend with rain. Not this time though. It snowed. End of November in Vancouver/Nanaimo and it snows with a vengeance.

My brother unfortunately couldn’t make it out to help us move but Jeremy didn’t care about the risks of traveling so he caught a bus to the ferry terminal and we picked him up which was great because we would have flipped out having to move ourselves without his help. We were also grateful to our friend Brad who came out for a couple hours to help us load up the truck. So, after packing up in a downpour of snow, we handed in our keys, made sure the carpet cleaner arrived and then caravanned it to the Duke Point Ferry Terminal arriving just before the big snow storm hit. Nanaimo treated us well, but it was time to move back to Vancouver!!!

hmmm...

2006-10-24T08:44:00.000-07:00

So apparently, I am part Supergirl. Well, at least I'm 85% Superman. I'm happy with that!!!

Which Superhero am I?

2006-10-24T08:42:00.000-07:00

Your results: You are Superman

Superman		85%
Green Lantern		70%
Spider-Man		65%
Supergirl		65%
Robin		65%
Wonder Woman		45%
Batman		40%
Iron Man		40%
Catwoman		35%
The Flash		25%
Hulk		15%

You are mild-mannered, good,
strong and you love to help others.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

Update #4273-2

2006-10-23T09:15:00.000-07:00

This will be quick since I'm at work and shouldn't be doing this right now...

I'm at 188 points in my hockey pool. Naslund and the Sedins are doing well for me. In fact, the only players sucking right now are Alfredsson, Iginla, Tanguay, and Horcoff. The bad news is that Havlat and Sullivan are both out with injuries. Sullivan's is back spasms which I think is day to day, but Havlat suffered an ankle injury and will be out for 2-3 weeks. Boo-urns!!!

The Canucks meanwhile are 5-3-1 in their first 9 games. A couple of losses that should have been wins, but I think after this weekend of two straight come-from-behind OT nailbiters, they seem to have found a groove. Still not getting secondary scoring from Boulis and Morrison, but I like the idea of putting Taylor Pyatt in the Powerplay with the Ikea Line and Salo. Hmm... a big guy in front of the net on a Powerplay. Wonder who that reminds me of... =D

Otherwise, no news yet on the big decision awaiting Tanya and I. Big things for her today, but we'll not say anything until it happens...

Oh, and to the Seattle Shopping Roadtrip crew:

Our bet with regards to what sort of store Kohls is... looks like Dev and Tanya were right. Kohls is a clothing store similar in style to The Bay. They sell very similar products such as Dockers for men and other stuff for women. You can check out their website at http://www.kohls.com
Dev and Tanya both thought it was a clothing store in line with Winners, but I thought it was a hardware store similar to Home Depot. Dor thought it was a plumbing store because she saw the name on a toilet once... Actually she wasn't far off though. She might not have seen Kohls on the toilet, but Kohler which if you look it up at http://www.kohler.com is a plumbing/furniture/golf/engine company. A jack of all trades sort of company.

Anyways, that is about it for now. I'll be updating soon... hopefully with great news!!!

p.s. - Jerm, have a great trip to Singapore and Australia. Safe flight, enjoyable visits, and don't hit on too many flight attendants. Make sure you order a Foster's beer. They are big. Don't bring any frogs to Australia or you'll cause environmental havoc; don't get tricked into a game of knifey-spooney, don't insult the Australians otherwise you'll get a boot to the but; get me a didgereedoo, or a hat that says "Pobody's Nerfect"; Kangaroo pouches are slimey; make sure you complete your Yahoo Serious collection, and eat some bbq'd shrimp. Oh, and deep fried mars bars!!!

HNIC!!!

2006-10-11T15:20:00.000-07:00

If you are reading this blog and you don’t know what those letters stand for, either you aren’t Canadian, or you should turn in your Canadian Citizenship card.

Hockey Season has begun and the Canucks are off to a luke-warm 2-1-1 record. While they are 2nd in the Northwest division, they are lagging behind Minnesota. This season promises to be a very different one for our Canucks as Todd Bertuzzi, Alex Auld, Bryan Allen, Anson Carter, Jarko Ruutu, Dan Cloutier, Ed Jovanovski, Richard Park, and Coach Marc Crawford are gone. The top line has been nicknamed the Ikea Line with Naslund and the Sedins. Line 2 includes Morrison, Bulis, and Cooke. A far cry from last season’s promising team that fizzled into a big bomb.

Hopefully this season will be different especially with “Bingo, Bango, Bongo, his name is Luongo” in net. Yes, you heard that correctly. It came out of Tom Larscheid’s mouth during the Canucks’ 3-2 win against Columbus this past Friday night.

What makes this season more special for me is the fact that I am participating in my first ever hockey pool courtesy the hockey fans in the Vancouver SEACOR office who decided to make it up. My players are listed below and so far have earned me 70 points.

Marc Savard --- Boston
Maxim Afinogenov --- Buffalo
Jarome Iginla --- Calgary
Alex Tanguay --- Calgary
Erik Cole --- Carolina
Eric Staal --- Carolina
Martin Havlat --- Chicago
Brenden Morrow --- Dallas
Nicklas Lidstrom --- Detroit
Shawn Horcoff --- Edmonton
Saku Koivu --- Montreal
Steve Sullivan --- Nashville
Jaromir Jagr --- NY Rangers
Brendan Shanahan --- NY Rangers
Daniel Alfredsson --- Ottawa
Simon Gagne --- Philadelphia
Mike Knuble --- Philadelphia
Shane Doan --- Phoenix
Sergei Gonchar --- Pittsburgh
Mark Bell --- San Jose
Joe Thornton --- San Jose
Markus Naslund --- Vancouver
Daniel Sedin --- Vancouver
Henrik Sedin --- Vancouver

Yeah, I know I’ve got the top Canucks line on there, but I have a feeling that they are going to do really well. Seriously though, it is hard to pick players for a pool, especially when you are limited to 2 per group and each group has 4 players you would definitely want to pick. Too bad I can’t travel into the future and see where the points are after game 75… oh well, we’ll have to wait and see.

Cool and Addictive

2006-10-10T13:13:00.000-07:00

So I was checking out James' blog. James was an instructor at GEERingUp! in 2002 and he happens to have a blog as I and Jerm do. He mentioned an online game that I checked out that is very addictive.

James' blog: link is to the right under the other blog links.

Game: http://www.funny-city.com/jokes/unfolding.shtml

The other neat thing is the Pandora Project. You type the name of a song or artist and it provides you with streaming music from that artist and other music of the same or similar genre or style. You can try it out yourself here: http://www.pandora.com/

enjoy!!!!

THANKSGIVING WEEKEND ROAD TRIP

2006-10-10T12:35:00.000-07:00

There I was, sitting at work at my computer, typing up some reports and I get an email from D&D in Richmond asking if we (Tanya and I) were coming back for the long weekend. I replied we were but were only staying until Sunday as Tanya wanted to spend Monday prepping for her week of TOCing. D&D replied saying they were going to the U.S. shopping near Seattle on Saturday and wanted to know if we could join them. I suggested they ask Tanya so Dev called Tanya right away and all she really had to mention was Seattle, shopping, and Forever 21 and Tanya was hooked.

Saturday morning came up and we all met at my parents' place to head down to the States. We decided to document our before and after with some photos...

Dor & Dev & Tanya & Me on our way to the States.

So, after listening to CKWX News 1130 and finding out that it was a 2.5 hour wait at Peace Arch and a 1.5 hour wait at the Truck Crossing, Dev told us about her sneaky route using 0 ave. to get to the Aldergrove crossing. The lineup wasn't as bad, but it took a while as 0 ave has to merge with the main road to get into the border line-up. After chatting for over an hour and watching a guy pee behind a telephone pole (yes, he thought the telephone pole would obscure him from everyone around), we made it to the border. I chatted it up with the US Customs officer mentioning we were heading down to do some shopping. Well, the girls were. I volunteered to drive and he asked why and I said my wife was with us and so he said "then you really didn't volunteer did you". =D Yeah, I'm pretty good at chatting it up with the DHS!!

So we headed down Meridian Road to Bellingham then caught the I-5 to Lynnwood to go shopping at Alderwood Mall. The girls made a bee-line to Forever 21, and I took a meander around the mall, buying a DX t-shirt and a belt.

5 hours later and the girls having rung up their credit cards to over $400, we headed back up the I-5 to the Seattle Premium Outlet Mall to do some more shopping. I ended up with a couple Nike toques for the upcoming cold winter of field work. The girls bought some shoes and Tanya found LeSportsac outlet which sells their purses 50% off retail prices. She bought 2!

We eventually made our way back to Cascade to grab some Jack-In-The-Box and back up to Canada which by that time was already 10:30pm. We got to the Peace Arch crossing and the Canada Customs officer lady asked us where we were from to which I replied Richmond/Nanaimo. She then asked if we were all Canadian citizens and I replied yes. Finally, she asked the total value of goods being brought over and I said about $550 (yes, we told the truth, it never pays to lie and get caught) at which point we were all prepared to be pulled over to pay duty/taxes, but she waived us on and that was it!! Wow, amazing!!!

All in all, a great day of a mini-road trip, fun, friends, food, and shopping.

Tanya & Dev & Dor & Me with our loot!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!

Holiday Meals

2006-10-10T12:11:00.000-07:00

ROSH HASHANAH

So a few weeks ago was the Jewish New Year of Rosh Hashanah. To celebrate, Tanya and I decided to make a traditional Jewish meal which consisted of really yummy foods each having their own meaning, but the theme for Jewish New Year is that of eating sweet foods to bring forth a sweet year. The above photo shows our dinner consisting of fishballs cooked in a tomato sauce, chickpeas cooked with leeks and onions, and carrot tzimmes which is a sweet carrot dish with apples and cinnamon. Oh, and of course the red wine!!! =)

THANKSGIVING

There we were, Tanya and I, in Save-On Foods a week and a half ago, attempting to buy some fish for our dinner when we passed by all the produce on sale for Thanksgiving. Yams, brussel sprouts, mushrooms, carrots, celery, cranberries, etc. The light shone in our heads and we decided to see how much Turkeys were. A far cry from fish, but we had never made a Thanksgiving meal together and decided to see what we could do. In the end, we bought a 5kg fresh turkey (and saved $10 with a coupon!!), yams, brussel sprouts, cranberries, carrots, mushrooms, stove-top stuffing, onions, celery, and marshmallows.

We stuffed our turkey very simply. Mushrooms, celery, onions. Put it in the oven at 450 F for 25 minutes to brown the skin and then lowered to 325 for 2.5 hours breast side down. This ensures the breasts cook in the turkey juices staying moist and juicy!! We cooked some yams and candied them in the oven with the marshmallows, steamed the brussel sprouts, made home-made cranberry sauce with the cranberries, and tried out Stove-Top rice stuffing. Then once the turkey was done, we saved the juices and made a very lean gravy by straining out the oil/fat. Tanya and I celebrated our first ever Thanksgiving together as husband and wife with a huge week-before-thanksgiving feast!!! =) Our leftovers? Turkey barley soup and turkey sandwiches. Yummy!!!!!

DRUM ROLL...............

2006-09-29T09:11:00.000-07:00

IRON MAN IS..............................

Robert Downey Jr.

You heard it here first Mr. Lee!!! CNN.com reports that Robert Downey Jr. has been cast as Tony Stark/Iron Man in Marvel Entertainment's upcoming feature film slated to begin production in February 2007. Jon Favreau is directing.

You can read the entire article here:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/29/film.ironman.reut/index.html

In other superhero news...

Did anyone watch the season premiere of Smallville last night? Wow, what an amazing episode. I think Al Gough and Miles Millar really have created a masterpiece on the whole Superman mythology. I remember when the show premiered, they both said that it wouldn't be a "Superboy" series. No cape, no costume, and specifically: "no flight, no tights". This season however, their attitude has somewhat changed in the whole "no flying" aspect. I personally think that they never expected the series to go as long as it has. Watching a young Clark Kent develop a lot of his superpowers and learn to control them, then learn to master their use is just amazing. The stories keep getting better and this season will really highlight the rift that forms between Clark and Lex Luthor. As well, they have introduced Jimmy Olson, and will introduce Oliver Queen, a.k.a. The Green Arrow. He comes to Smallville and eventually meets Clark and tries to convince Clark to form a Justice League of sorts with Kid Flash, Cyborg, and Aquaman. Pretty cool season I must say!!!

Well, to Iron Man I say thank GOD it wasn't Tom Cruise. Kind of wishing Oded Fehr was cast, but Robert Downey Jr., despite his past problems, is a great actor and I definitely think he can do it.

I'm just waiting until Green Lantern and Flash. I've heard that Flash will be played by Ryan Reynolds (only if it is Wally West though. He is too comedic for Barry Allen or Bart Allen). Green Lantern is still rumoured to be played by Jack Black. All I can say is that would be a tragedy. While I do enjoy Jack Black's comedic talents, he doesn't fit any Green Lantern, whether it be Hal Jordan, Kyle Rayner, John Stewart or even Guy Gardner (who I doubt they'd build an entire franchise out of). I would suspect that Hal Jordan would be the GL, but I can't see Jack Black playing him. Perhaps George Clooney if they had to go with someone famous... we'll have to wait and see!!!

Credit Cards...

2006-09-28T08:19:00.000-07:00

So last night on Olson on Your Side on CTV news, they had a story about the latest fad of putting "Please see ID" on the back of your credit card instead of your signature. The article can be found here:

After reading the article, I realize that in Canada, we are a very trusting lot and most places don't actually look at the back to match up the signatures. In the US though, they specifically ask for ID to confirm you are the person using the card. Even without having "Please see ID" on the back. I know some people who have taken to doing this on their credit cards instead of their signature. The only thing I would recommend, is to sign the back AND put "Please see ID" beside it. However, I wouldn't take my recommendation as fact, and the best is to call your credit-card company and find out if that is still acceptable.

Diet Pepsi/Coke & Mentos

2006-09-26T12:55:00.000-07:00

Check out this YouTube video I found. Hilarious!!!!

Oh, by the way, for all you science geeks out there, Mentos does the same with regular coke/pepsi as well as diet.

If you're not down with that, I got just 2 words for ya!!!

2006-09-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

My young Jedi apprentice has completed her training. She has officially succumbed to the Dark Side of the Force.

So I've officially hooked Tanya onto WWE Wrestling and Justice League. It was a slow and sometimes arduous process (more for WWE than JL) but she is now officially hooked into watching Monday Night RAW. Neither of us like Smackdown very much. She is a huge John Cena and Trish Stratus fan and a big DX fan. She is a typical mark for wrestling as she hated Triple H when he was bad but likes him a lot now that he has reformed DX with Shawn Michaels. Shame that Trish decided to retire, but she sure ended her career on a high note!! If you have no clue as to what I'm saying here, go and send an email to "Lauri" asking her to ask her boyfriend to explain it to you. Confusing? Probably. But saves me some trouble...

Anyways, I've been slowly teaching her the ways of being a "smart" wrestling fan. Knowing how to see what is going to happen even before it does and knowing how everything happens for a reason. Except for RAW last night when the power went out.

The process of hooking her onto wrestling took many moons and only really occurred this past summer even after a year of living together. Of course my wonderful wife doesn't watch wrestling like a typical guy would, but I do find her insights into how ugly Edge and Kane and Umaga and Viscera are to be very humorous. Her deduction that Lita is a slut is also quite funny since everyone watching the events live says the same thing. =)

Justice League is the best cartoon made since The Transformers. You can't help but love to watch Superman, Batman, Flash, Green Lantern (John Stewart), Wonder Woman, Hawk Girl, and J'onn J'onzz kick ass every episode with animation that makes the original "Super Friends" look like caveman paintings. Tanya's favourite character is Wonder Woman. I can't really blame her as she is very amazing and also has a big chip on her shoulder. I've even got Tanya into reading Wonder Woman comics!!

My personal favourite is of course Superman. A close 2nd is Batman. We recently purchsed all three seasons of Superman the Animated Series. Then to further our collection, we recently purchased Season 1 of Justice League. We've currently watched 3 of 4 Discs. Great storylines (some better than the others) really make this show worth watching. We just finished watching "Legends" a two parter that pays homage to the entire DC Infinite Earths storyline. I won't go into great detail, but if you want a synopsis, check out this website. http://www.worldsfinestonline.com/WF/jl/episodes/legends/

Something that I think sets DC characters apart greatly from even those of Marvel is the whole Greek Tragedy aspect of each character's life. Whether they be hero or villian, some traumatic event in their life has shaped them into who they are or who they will be destined to be. Among the 7 main characters on JL, J'onn J'onzz seems to have had the most lost in his life. He was witness to his entire civilization being destroyed and he must live with the fact that he is the only martian left in the universe. The parallel of Superman is similar, but remember, Superman was a baby when he escaped a dying Krypton and so he never really knew his parents or had the opportunity to grow up and start a family that J'onn did. Regardless, the DC universe is very much alive with personal tragedy which is something I never truly discovered as much watching these episodes for the first time on my own. It took Tanya to really point out how meaningful alot of the episodes are.

I definitely recommend watching Justice League if you already haven't. As for me and Tanya, we'll continue to enjoy the crotch chopping DX and look for Season Two of Justice League at stores everywhere!!

Personal Update Interlude

2006-09-22T13:12:00.000-07:00

While I will for sure soon get to Part III of T&T's wedding, I thought it would be good to update other personal things...

Work has been going quite well. Was involved with a creek realignment project for most of August and part of September. I'm in the office now completing reports for other projects and will shortly be heading back out into the field in October. Busy time of the year for our office as we have a lot of small annual projects on the go soon.

I won't delve into many details and Seakrait made brief mention about a loss that we had recently. Tanya's grandmother had been sick for a while but the fighting spirit of this amazing woman kept her going for quite a while but unfortunately, she passed away about 2 weeks ago. She was 90 and was a very lively and happy woman who was surrounded by many loved ones and will for sure be missed by her family. I always think though that if a person is fortunate enough to have lived a good and happy life and is surrounded by people who love them, then we can only celebrate the life they led and cherish the happy memories they gave us.

On another note, a position with our Vancouver office came up a couple weeks ago that I decided to apply to. It was a tough decision as I do really like it in Nanaimo and the projects I am involved in are really cool and interesting, but Tanya and I realized that we want to eventually move back to Vancouver for her master's and for when we have a family and so I would kick myself if I didn't at least try for the position. My office manager was very accomodating about the whole thing and went so far as to say that the company would do whatever it could to help me transfer as I am a valuable member of the company and they would hate to see me go elsewhere. I was truly flattered and humbled by his comments and those of my other co-workers and project managers that know because it means I am doing something right!! =)

I'll update this when I know what the results of my application are so keep your fingers crossed!!

Finally, September marks 10 years since Tanya and I and all our high school friends started Grade 12. That means that in 10 short months, it'll be our 10 year reunion. How amazing is that?!?!!! We've already gotten in touch with some of our classmates and we are starting to plan a reunion. If you graduated C.E. London Secondary in 1997 and are reading this right now and you aren't Tanya, Jeremy, Gloria, Doreen, Devon, Tim, Wai Chi, Selene, Tanya, Ada, Bonnie, or anyone else I regularly keep in contact with, drop me a line so we can add you to our list of grads. Meanwhile to get regular or semi-regular updates on the reunion, check out http://london1997.spaces.live.com/

TTFN!!!

The Wedding Part II

2006-09-22T12:56:00.000-07:00

Wow, 3 months since I've last updated my blog. Crazy!!! Time has flown by so fast. I remember last year, the summer kind of dragged on waiting for the all important fall TV season to start. Yet, this year, Tanya and I were just commenting on how quickly the fall TV season has approached us as we were watching the Season premiere of Gray's Anatomy and CSI.

Well, back to the stuff I have been meaning to finish writing on... our wedding and honeymoon!!

So I left off at us being just married and husband and wife. After our nuptials, we went off to take wedding photos with family, friends, and just us. All the while, our friends were conspiring to decorate my car with "Just Married" all over it as that was the car we took on our honeymoon. We were very honoured and overjoyed at seeing such an awesome decorating job, but then realized that two of our friends who were supposed to be preparing things for the wedding reception shirked their duties and decided to play artistes!!!! I blame Goma.

Our reception was amazing. Meeting so many people for the first time and seeing friends and that we don't often see because they abandoned us to places like Redmond, Boston, New York, London, or Toronto. I know in particular that my family was really happy to be there because it was a sort of impromptu family reunion as lately the only times we see everyone is at funerals. It was great to have everyone be together for such a happy and festive occasion. The food was amazing so we were told. Unfortunately with all the photos, dancing and greeting, we didn't get much of a chance to eat. Tanya herself wasn't hungry and I was starved but the food was nearly gone when we were just sitting down to eat and then it was speech time.

Both our fathers and my brother (best man) gave a speech followed by myself and then Tanya. Her speech was amazing and mine was pretty good so I've been told. Our friends then gave speeches and finally my 11 year old neice (who is almost taller than someone we all know) gave a short speech to the effect that she has a mom named Tanya and now an aunty named Tanya. =)

After speeches it was time for cake cutting and more dancing. Our friends all danced to Grease of which we have some awesome blackmailing photos!! It was an amazing time for Tanya and myself and we were quite disappointed to see it end so quickly in fact, but we were so happy to have spent our most special day with all those that we love and care about.

Our wedding night was spent at the Granville Island Hotel. My company gets a discount there so we decided to take them up on it and were treated quite well to the penthouse suite with mini-bar, living room, bedroom with hottub and a view of the east end of False Creek (Science World). We spent the night opening our gifts and then sleeping in and waking to a beautiful sunny day on Granville Island.

Our honeymoon started with a stop-over at Tanya's parents place to drop off our gifts and then our official trip started as we made our way down to Portland Oregon for the first night. We got in late in the evening thanks to traffic through Seattle/Tacoma and construction entering Vancouver Washington. We grabbed a couple slices of pizza at a New York style Pizzeria and then headed to our hotel for a night of relaxation, thinking of all the wine we would soon be drinking in Napa and Sonoma Valleys!!

Part III to come soon!!! I promise!!

The Wedding and First Day of Honeymoon!! Part 1

2006-07-27T21:35:00.000-07:00

So, it all started the week of June 19th when Tanya went back to Richmond on June 20th. I followed suit on the 21st, happy to have 4.5 weeks off of work and thrilled to be getting married to the woman I love.

We had our rehearsal dinner on the 23rd (Friday) which consisted of a BBQ bash at my parent's place and a going over of everyone's duties and responsibilities for the wedding. We capped it off with dessert, some thank you gifts for our family and friends, and a magic show by my Brother! (HA HA Jerm, try and figure them out I dare you!!!)

The weekend consisted of picking up tuxedos and running many errands. Oh, and we got together with Tanya's family on Sunday night for dinner at which time I learned how to play Mah Jong. Then Monday night was my bachelor party which was a big poker game of fun!!. You can view Seakrait's blog to see photos... http://seakrait.blogspot.com/2006/06/74-poker-i-hardly-know-her.html. Tuesday involved me having an almost heart attack to get my car seat fixed. The driver's side switch to move the seat forward and back wasn't working and we needed the function for Tanya to be able to drive my car during the honeymoon. So I took the car in and they said the whole seat undercarriage needed replacing and it would cost me some money because the extended warranty company would only cover replacement with a used part. So they got my car fixed. Wednesday at 12:30pm. 6 hours before our wedding.

Argh!! But that is okay. Wednesday morning, my uncle from Toronto came into town (hadn't seen him in 14 years). Us guys (me, my bro, my dad, Tanya's dad, and Jerm) went to my sister's place to change into our tuxedos. From there we travelled by car to the Brock House and when we approached, I had Jeremy call Zaneta to let her know we were arriving so that Tanya could go and hide in her bridal room. Little did I know, Zaneta would say that they hadn't yet left Holt Renfrew where they were getting their makeup done!!! Well, after some delays, worries, nerves shattering, our wedding happened. I had a big goofy grin on my face, of which I'm hoping to get a decent photo of soon, and by a little after 7pm, June 28th, 2006, Tanya and I were Husband and Wife!!!

to be continued...

We're Back!!!

2006-07-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone,

Tanya and I have safely returned from our adventures in the U.S. on our honeymoon. I'm at work right now and so I can't really type much, but I'm hoping within the next week, I'll be able to post a lot more about our wedding and travels down south. Oh, and many photos as well. Looks like out of our two friends who have blogs, only one was a friend enough to post photos of our actual wedding. The other decided to post photos of her very lovely friends (http://goma-on-the-go.blogspot.com/2006/07/my-lovely-friends.html) but nothing of the lovely bride and groom for whom she wouldn't have photos in the first place if they didn't decide to get married. Oh, and no excuse, becuase she has the DVD of 500+ photos... But that is okay. We understand. Her lovely female friends (of which Tanya isn't one I guess) get their own blog entry. =)

I must say in all honesty though, that I am incredibly touched that all our family and friends came from far and wide to attend our wedding. It was a very special day for Tanya and I and we are very touched that we have so many people that care about us to share in our celebration.

Finally, I'd like to reiterate our invitation to our friends who will be in town between August 11th and August 22nd. We'd love to have you come over to Nanaimo for a big slumber party. We'll have pillow fights and tickle fights... or at least the girls will... Jeremy and I will just watch. Through the iris of the video camera. =) But seriously. We have many games to play, including a new one that we are so very happy to have received. TnTaboo!!! It is awesome and it is definitely a labour of love that we will forever cherish!!

Well, that is about it for now. I should start working. I'll type more later tonight hopefully.

Wow... 3 weeks gone

2006-06-21T11:45:00.000-07:00

It's been 3 weeks since my last post. Seems like time just creeps up on you and then bitch slaps you in the face as it races by at the speed of light...

I can't believe how quickly the past few weeks have gone. Tanya and I have spent the last while getting all our wedding stuff together, packing, organizing, cleaning etc. We had our friends come out and visit us a couple weekends ago which you can read in detail at http://seakrait.blogspot.com/2006/06/66-turmoil-and-sickness.html

Other than that, work has been pretty busy, but mostly in the office. Report writing is a tedious process sometimes and there are so many things to think about before you print off that all important final copy to the client. The text itself has footers with the date, client, etc. Now it would be easy enough if there was only one footer, but our report templates are all sectioned and divided so each report has at least 3 different footer sections to change. Then of course the data tables in Excel need to be changed. Oh and the figures and photos need finalization. Make sure all the lab reports are in date order, and finally, sign the front page. Phew. Needless to say, I had to re-pdf a report yesterday like 5 times before I remembered all the little edits.

Aside from that, I'm actually quite excited to be doing reports in the office. Too much field work made me crazy and this is a great chance to gain much needed report writing experience.

However, nothing can compare to the anticipation and excitement of getting married in a week!! Yes, you read that right. One week to go. I can't believe it has gone by so fast. Amazing. Tanya and I are very excited to be getting married and very excited as well to make our honeymoon trip down to San Francisco. Lots of stuff planned and I really should get back to work now so I'll just say that every night in San Fran is a Ghirardelli's night!! http://www.ghirardelli.com/

mmmm... chocolate and icecream!!!

I'll post again soon, and once we're back from our honeymoon, I'll put some photos up for those that want to see the sites and sounds of Napa Valley, San Francisco, and Lincoln City!!!

No more Blasé!!!!!!!

2006-06-01T10:27:00.000-07:00

I hate change. I despise it. Probably because it takes me a while to get really comfortable in a new situation and then BAM!!! change. Perhaps it is my shyness that starts me off and then finally, after a long while, I get so happy with the way things are going, I get so disappointed and sad when changes happen. I can’t really say for sure, but that is how I feel right now. I've got a couple of co-workers leaving today and tomorrow and it sucks because I really got to know them well this past year and now they are going away. I hate change.

Tanya asked me why I feel so blasé about our upcoming wedding. I couldn't give her an answer. I think I can now.
People ask if I am excited and I shrug it off. I never intentionally mean to feel that way, but for some reason, I just don’t jump up and down for joy. I think about this upcoming wedding day. I think about her and I up at the end of the aisle, saying those words of love and togetherness to each other and then walking away hand in hand as a married couple. I envision these moments so clearly (except what exactly Tanya’s dress is like, but I know that she will be the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen) and I get a big grin on my face.

But I also worry. Perhaps it is the part of me that worries about things going wrong. I’ve only ever had one huge event like this in my life, well, it can’t compare to this great event of our wedding but my Bar Mitzvah is a distant second. It was a big moment for me at 12/13 years old, but it didn’t go the way I had planned it to be and it soured me on a lot of things and gave me pause to consider such huge events. I suppose I’m going to have to do a lot of trusting with the people we’ve hired to make sure everything goes off smoothly. I suppose I’m worried that out of everything we’ve planned, we’ll forget something and someone will get upset or offended. I suppose that deep down, that is what I worry about most. Making others around me upset or angry.

I despise making Tanya upset as I promised myself when we first talked about getting married years ago, that I would always make her happy and that I would always do whatever I can to take away any bad feelings or stress that she might have. And lately I haven’t been doing that. I haven’t been keeping my promise to myself and my promise to her. I guess the stress of a wedding is affecting me more than I realize and the stresses of work and family have compounded that. I recently upset my mother and I hate doing that. We’ve had sort of an up and down relationship the past few years what with my taking longer to graduate, taking a year to find a job, but finally things are going well. I have a secure job (I hope), and I’m getting married and I do these little things to upset her and I see that it upsets her. I do the same thing to Tanya sometimes. I don’t know why. I just end up with my big foot in my mouth.

I guess along the lines of Jeremy’s ½ way past the year resolutions, I’m going to make some big changes in my own life. This coming from a person who despises change.

I’m going to get out of this funk as of right now!
I’m going to do everything I can to make sure that I never upset Tanya again and that she is always happy and never stressed.
I’m going to make sure that I am more open and conversive with my parents about how my day went and how things are going. I think in the end, that is all they want to hear from me. I do phone them often, but I could actually call them more often.
I’m going to worry less about things I can’t control and learn to be happy about the way things are going in the here and now.
I'm also going to be happy about the prospects of the future. Having children, owning a home one day, and growing old with the wife I love.
I’m going to make sure that I surprise Tanya at least once a week with something from my heart.

A Blasé time??

2006-05-29T23:05:00.000-07:00

One month less one day until Tanya and I get married. I'm excited. Trust me!!! But for some reason, I have a hard time showing it. Don't get me wrong. I love Tanya with all my heart. I constantly think about us living our life together as husband and wife and having children and growing old together. Yet, with less than a month until our big day, I can't help but feel less than 100% yell out loud, pump my fists in the air, give a big "Woooooo!!" excited. Perhaps it is the part of me that is nervous over being the centre of attention, but it seems lately that the only things that get me really excited are going on our honeymoon (for the trip to Napa and San Fran, you perverts!!), collecting Infinite Crisis (DC Comics), and seeing Superman Returns on June 30th.

Now, don't take this the wrong way, I'm truly excited in my own right about our upcoming wedding. I'm very proud of how we planned everything together. Despite the few disagreements, everything has gone pretty smoothly and I couldn't be happier with our choices we've made. Yet something is there, in the back of my mind and I really can't pinpoint it as to what it is that has made me so blasé this past while. I know it is affecting Tanya a lot and I try not to let it show, but she knows.

Jeremy thinks it is because we are living together, have been together for 9 years and are practically married without the title. That could be part of the reason, but I really don't know the rest of it and it really tears me up inside to know that I am causing this unhappiness to Tanya for our biggest day. I wish I could explain what goes on in my mind, but I'm not the best at doing it. Perhaps work stress is a par to fit, but I don't know exactly for sure I can say that. Work has been pretty hectic. I feel like I'm not getting as much done as I should and then people ask if I got the work done and I feel like my reasons for saying no are just plain dumb excuses. I really don't know what it is. I'm hoping that this goes away soon. I think that once I am off work (in 3.5 weeks), the reality of me getting to marry the most beautiful and wonderful person I know will smack me in the face like a big red brick, and that I'm truly the luckiest guy int he world will make me jump for joy and yell "Woooooooooooooo!!!"

I guess the other thing that seems to pre-occupy my mind is the fact that two of my co-workers are leaving at the end of this week. Changes are a happening and I'm not good with change. Can't say it is a big, huge thing, but I think I'll miss them and their ability to bug the hell out of me every day. I'll miss that. A lot.

Well, I think I've exhausted what is in my head. I need to think a bit and apologize to my most amazing fiancé... one sec. okay... done. Not as successful as I hoped, but i'll make it up to her. ;-)

-->> I appreciate your thoughts... only if they jive with mine.

Hey Devon!!!

2006-05-28T20:50:00.000-07:00

What's a butter-face girl???

=D

My parents' fence

2006-05-22T20:51:00.000-07:00

Went back to Richmond for the Victoria Day long weekend. Got Jeremy (http://www.seakrait.blogspot.com) to help me replace my parents' fence and gate leading to the backyard of their house. If you go to Jeremy's blog and look in his archive, I'm sure you'll come across a posting where he basically made fun of my plan for replacing the fence. See I was at work and I wanted to convey what we were doing. Not having access to AutoCad, I was unable to create a scale drawing of the new fence and gate so I used MS Paint. Those of you that have used it, know that it doesn't do much in terms of creating a plan drawing, but it was all that I had, and Jeremy decided to post it as the culmination of my thought processes, well, after a full Saturday and 1/2 day Sunday, I'm proud to report that the fence and gate are holding up perfectly, and my plan was awesome!!! so :P to Jeremy.

I must say though, that despite the fact that we were working until 10:30pm that Saturday night and still weren't done (my cordless drill ran out of batteries, oh and on a side note, Jeremy, I was telling a co-worker about the batteries running dead and he said they should invent a cordless drill with the cord option like you were describing!! So I say go for it!!!) it was a LOT of fun. Jeremy had a great idea to put a caster on the bottom of the gate so it would hold it up better and not put as much torque on the gate post, but unfortunately, the concrete path isn't level and the caster was getting stuck in the gate closed position so I had to take it off. But the gate does close and it does stay open quite nicely with a little hook latch that attaches to another post.

A few things we learned that weekend:

1. Definitely start early and get extra wood. It may cost a bit initially, but you end up realizing that you need to use more.
2. Wear runners or steel toed shoes. Definitely not sandals and barefeet. You might get dirt flung at your feet or concrete poured on you or concrete slopped on you.
3. Always add water to dry concrete, not the other way around, despite what the instructions on the bag of post-haste may tell you.
4. Measure twice and cut once. While we actually only made one measuring mistake, I figure it is sound advice for anyone doing any woodwork.

That being said, I think Jeremy and I could definitely start a house building company.

Black and Decker Rules!!

One Month + 10 Days

2006-05-16T10:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, I can't believe that there is only that little time left until Tanya and I get married. Time just seems to fly by. Especially with the nice weather. Seems like Spring has sprung for a lot of people that I know. Tanya is TOCing pretty frequently and the teachers she subs for really like her and are recommending her for full-time positions. Gloria (http://www.goma-on-the-go-blogspot.com) just got the "To" and "The" removed from her title. She is now Assistant Editor at the company she works at. Jeremy (http://www.seakrait.blogspot.com) just got a bunch of new paintball equipment and will be turning 27 in precisely 25 days. Plus, he has the distinction of being neck deep in his application process to become a cop. Yay no more speeding tickets for me!!! Although he just needs to get his RCMP posting in Nanaimo. ;-)

As for me, I seem to be moving on in work with some bigger projects and bigger responsibilities. We just wished a co-worker well on Friday as she embarks on a year of Maternity Leave. We have also just welcomed a new junior scientist into our office today and will be saying farewell to two people at the end of May. Our receptionist is moving far up north and my office-buddy is going to do her Master's in Environmental Engineering at UBC this upcoming September. With all the changes, additions, and moving into new office space, I've been "upgraded" from "field bitch" to Phase 1 ESA Guru.

For those of you unfamiliar with Phase 1 assessments, they are the initial works we do as Environmental Consultants for our clients. It involves historical research on properties and the surrounding lands, site visits to determine where if any, potential environmental concerns may be, and recommendations to our clients for further investigative or remedial work. I am currently in the process of completing my first 2 Phase 1 assessments which may not seem like much, but seeing as how I'm the new office Phase 1 person, it is big. Plus, I'm being attached to larger scale projects instead of the small monitoring/sampling jobs that had me running all over the island and contracting pneumonia (another story for another time).

So, all in all, a great spring. Plus the fact that you can't beat 19°C weather when driving to work in the morning and a high of 27°C mid-day, I'm quite happy.

Our wedding is shaping up nicely. We seem to have our final guest count, well, almost, probably end up +/- 5 or so guests after all is said and done, but we needed our rough final number to give to Brockhouse this weekend... which happens to be a long-weekend!!!! Wuhoo!!! All that is left is to finish our wedding favours and oh, my speech. Eh... I think I'll wing it. =)

Going back to Vancouver this long weekend, meeting Tanya's family for the first time, celebrating my brother's and sister's birthday (May 22nd), and fixing my parent's fence and gate to their backyard with Jeremy on Saturday. Hopefully Jeremy has priced out the 1x4, 2x4, and 4x4 wood at Home Depot that I asked him to... oh and wood screws too!! I think May, June, July, and August are the best months of the year!!!

Till next posting... which is going to hopefully be later today. Tanya and I went wine tasting this weekend to an invitation only event and it was AWESOME!!! I'll provide more details later...

---If you're not sure where you're going, you'll probably end up somewhere else.

mmm... free wine and food!!!

2006-05-15T21:14:00.000-07:00

There we were, Tanya and I, driving down through Cowichan Bay and as we were driving back towards the Trans-Canada Hwy., we discovered Vancouver Island Wine. This was last summer, we were touring around the various local places between Victoria and Nanaimo when we came upon Cherry Point Winery (http://www.cherrypointvineyards.com/). It is a local winery run by the Cowichan Tribes First Nations (Duncan Area) and has some of the tastiest wine I've tasted. Not that I'm a wine expert or anything, but boy is it good, especially for estate grown grapes and a local winery. The best part about the winery and the others we eventually discovered is that their tastings are free!!! Yup, free wine tastings. We also discovered Merridale Cidery on the road to Shawnigan Lake, and Marley Farms winery which makes fruit wine blends from estate grown and locally grown fruit. Yes, Marley as in Bob Marley. His cousin is the farm owner. Well, as I digress... We have gone back a few times, our last being with Gloria and Devon last September.

Our first trip back this spring, we ventured out a couple weekends ago and ended up buying a case of wine. Some Pinot Gris (estate), Coastal Red and Coastal White (both of which are a composite of estate grapes and imported Okanagan grapes). Their award winning Gewurtztraminer wine was sold out and their new stock wasn't going to be available until after Mother's Day. However, seeing as how we purchased a case, they invited us to their special 2006 wine tasting event at which time they unveil their new vintages but only for their case members. So, we got a free pass for three people and after wrangling a co-worker, ventured back to Cherry Point Winery this past Sunday to taste buy and taste and buy and eat!!

We got there around 2pm (started at 1pm) and were shocked to see at least a couple hundred people there. We assumed maybe 50 or so, but wow... Cherry Point Winery is huge!!!

We got in line and it was awesome. First they sampled their white wines with various types of fish, oysters, and mussels, then the red wines with pulled beef, cheeses, roasted vegetables, pita, humous, roasted pig, pasta, and with their special Blackberry Port, they served it in Bernard Calebaut chocolate cups. Did I mention the wine was pretty much all you can drink and the food was all you can eat and it was all free!!!!

Oh, and we also ended up bumping into an old High School friend by the name of Richie Overgaard. He was there doing the same thing... tasting and buying. And we also agreed that Gloria would have to move back to Vancouver to help Jeremy plan our 10 year high school reunion.

So if anyone out there ever visits Vancouver Island, I highly recommend Cherry Point Winery in Cowichan Bay.

Cheers!!

DC Nation

2006-05-07T01:30:00.000-07:00

So, there I was, about 5 years ago now, when I came upon a bookstore named Powell Books in Portland, Oregon. I was there with Tanya perusing the stacks of new and used books and I found their comic book collection. In the vast array of Spiderman, Batman, etc. was "The Death of Superman", "A World Without Superman", and "The Return of Superman" all in their compilation/graphic novel glory. I bought them for real cheap and proceeded to get hooked into the greatest comic book comeback in history.

See, the story goes, back in the 1990s, DC Comics was preparing to finally marry Clark Kent and Lois Lane in their Superman comics, but the WB higher ups decided that they wanted the comic book wedding to coincide with the TV Show wedding on the new series Lois & Clark starring Teri Hatcher and Dean Cain. The comic writers were stuck as they had to wait a while before the TV show caught up to the comic, so in the end, they threw the idea out there that they would Kill Superman. That would give them enough time of story-writing to wait for the TV show and finally have a marriage. They created Doomsday and had him kill the most popular and greatest Superhero ever. It made CNN, Time Magazine, and probably thousands of newspapers all over the world. The Death of Superman. At the time, I wasn't a huge comic book fan or a Superman fan to be truthful, but years later, standing in Powell Books, I thought, this would be a great way to read the story after the fact. I was effectively hooked. Well, almost. I didn't know I was hooked.

A year later, I was perusing a Safeway I think and spied a Transformers Comic. Not the original Marvel comics of block drawn Transformers, but really well drawn Transformers. This was new and they were back. I proceeded to go everywhere I could to find all the issues of the 6 issue series. Even so far as stopping in Grants Pass on the way to San Francisco with Tanya to pick up some comics I bought from a guy off E-Bay. From Transformers, I added GI Joe which was also making a triumphant return. Wow, my childhood was coming back. While the Transformers and GI Joe were great for the most part, the series quickly lost interest for me.

Around the beginning of 2004, I spied a DC comic called Identity Crisis. It was a chilling 7 part series that delved into the lives of everyone's favourite superheroes. Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Robin, Elongated Man (ha ha Jeremy)... and how their alter egos play havoc with their family lives. Identity Crisis was just the tip of the iceberg for me though as I was about to find out about Infinite Crisis (http://www.dccomics.com). This series, which I just bought Issue #7 for, has completely flipped the DC Universe upside down and really provoked me to think about the characters created by such ingenius minds.

What makes a superhero super? Why do people look up to these costumed marvels? Should superheroes be completely altruistic (see Golden Age of Comics: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_Age_of_Comics) or should there be shades of grey (see Infinite Crisis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinite_Crisis).

Love and Marriage go together like a horse and carriage...

2006-04-26T22:34:00.000-07:00

THE AMAZING RELATIONSHIP TESTING SHOW!

The only good reality show on TV is the Amazing Race. Survivor is past its prime, and everything else is just crap. Although The Apprentice isn't bad... it isn't what it was the first season. The Amazing Race is incredible. Teams running around the world racing against each other, completing challenges for $1,000,000. Plus, the audience sure does learn alot about the different countries they travel to.

However, the thing that most amazes me about the race is the contestants. You've got siblings, dating couples, married couples, parents and their children, gay couples etc. all a mish mosh of groupings on the show. These people set out to win $1 million and "test" their relationships. Granted most of the testing is done by couples who are dating, but the whole point of testing the limits of their relationship is pretty silly if you ask me. What sort of relationship goes through the incredible stress of racing around the world every day. Granted relationships have stresses... but can you unequivocally say that your relationship has such stresses as trying to win a roadblock or pick the right detour and get a camel to run a race course? Don't think so. So why are you testing your relationship's maximum stress levels? Truth be told, these "couples" end up perhaps not being together after the race because they get on each other's nerves so much, they come to the conclusion that they aren't meant to be together. That is a load of horse poop.

The couples that I admire, are the older ones that have been together so long and run the race as if it is a game, not a test of their lives together. Which was why I was saddened today to see the older couple get eliminated. They raced for fun, cheered each other on in a positive way, and in the end, know that the race wasn't a test of their relationship, but more of a challenge for them to succeed at together.

Relationships...

are hard. They require dedication and work. Men love to be needed and Women need to be loved. That is something I've learned so far in my paltry 27 years of life. Imagine what knowledge I will amass in another 27 years. Probably not too much. The key to successful relationships is communication and that is a hard thing to do effectively. I'll readily admit that I'm a lousy communicator when it comes to relationships. Why? I'm not the best when it comes to on the spot sharing of my feelings/emotions. I can't satisfactorily communicate my feelings at the time when they need to be communicated and so my better half ends up winning all the arguments or just gets the silent moody treatment from me. Don't really know why that is. I guess I'm perhaps afraid to offend or say something that will get scrambled and misconstrued. So then later on, when I am able to accurately convey what I want to say and how I felt, it is pretty much too little, too late. Argument is over, and then at that point, I'm just rehashing old things which really doesn't help. I hate bringing up old arguments or things people have done in the past. The past is the past. Let it be.

So back to relationships. They are tough. Not always sugar and spice, but I always say that as long as you love your significant other, then that is all you need to fight for the relationship when the chips are down. Sometimes it may seem that it isn't worth the fight, or sometimes you may feel like you are the only one fighting, but trust me, as long as you can honestly tell yourself that you love the person you are with and that you can't imagine life without them, and that you see yourself growing old with them by your side, then you need to fight... and fight hard dammit!!

Stress & Relaxation

I had a lousy work day today. A job I was working on in November kind of turned sour today and because our client was breathing down our necks, my boss decided to breathe down mine. I understand his position, but boy did I feel lousy. My only bright moments today were getting my income tax refund, and getting a wedding gift from Tanya's mom's friend. Two return plane tickets from YVR to Paris. Wow. We were so utterly amazed and excited. Such a generous and kind gift to give. We're hoping to cash the tickets in for a summer trip in 2007... we'll have to see. I've already started thinking about where I want to go. Obviously the Louvre, Eiffel Tower, etc., but hopefully we'll have time to travel the French countryside, perhaps get to the Palace of Versailles, Normany coast, Nice, French Riviera. Wow. Amazing!!! We are really excited and very grateful for the tickets and the chance to travel to France. Kind of made all the bad stuff go away. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. As Mike Myers as Wayne does when things are kinda crappy, just smile and put your thumbs up!!!

Wayne's World!! Party Time!!

Excellent!!

Wedding Planning is Easy!!!

2006-04-21T19:32:00.000-07:00

First off, here is a picture of Tanya and I eating ice cream at Coombs last year.

Okay, so there are some difficulties with wedding planning. They say most couples end up having disagreements over the guest list or the table seating arrangements. I won't got into any details, but let's just say that Tanya and I had our disagreements, but that they have been resolved. Wedding planning for us though, wasn't as difficult as movies, television and others make it out to be. Perhaps because Tanya and I are practical people who don't go out of our way to ensure that we have the most rare and exotic flower for our wedding or that our cake was baked by a world famous chef (not that we know any). But for the most part, our wedding planning was pretty smooth sailing. Granted we did have our bumps along the way, but we have constantly been asking ourselves if there is more to it that we are missing since we have almost finished the large planning part. We just need to find a cake which Tanya and her sister will be doing very soon.

I must confess however, that our planning would have probably been "bumpier" had it not been for the BC Wedding Directory. A must have for anyone getting married in BC. It lists venues, florists, bakers, etc. throughout the magazine and in the middle, provides you with a budget template to calculate how much you want to spend on flowers, cake, food, alcohol, etc. As well, it lists out all the tasks you need to think about and when you need to think about them. For example: 12-16 months before, find a venue. 1 month before, purchase your wedding license. As you can see, it is really helpful, and Tanya and I sing nothing but praises towards this magazine.

If you are getting married in BC, and there is one thing you invest in, let it be the BC Wedding Directory!!!

The NEW S-M-R-T

2006-04-18T22:01:00.000-07:00

So Family Guy is my favourite cartoon show on TV. Don't get me wrong. I'm a huge Simpsons fan, but Family Guy is just so much funnier now than the Simpsons. Case in point. The recent episode where Peter is on Wheel of Fortune ("I take thee Quagmire") and chooses the "letters" as you see in the above picture. Genius of the creators of Family Guy to create something just as funny as Homer Simpson's famous "I am so smart" quote.

Someone not so S-M-R-T...
I heard recently that George W. Bush is the president most likely to push the big red button that will launch nuclear missiles in every direction around the world before his term is up. I also heard that if the Democrats win back the house in these 2006 mid-terms, they'll try and impeach him and remove him from office. Wishful thinking or truth? We'll have to find out.

Island Drivers...
don't honk their horns at all!! I'm serious. I moved here from Vancouver almost 2 years ago, and I have heard only one car honk it's horn and that would be mine. Seriously. You can be sitting in your car at a red light behind 10 cars and when the light changes to green, the first car could be sitting there for like 10 minutes and no one will honk at them. Island life is quite different. Sometimes it is great and relaxing, but other times, when you are rushing to make an appointment, the pace here can be very annoying. Don't get me wrong though; I don't miss the 1 hour trips from home to the corner store that I would have to suffer through in Richmond or Vancouver, but sometimes, people realizing a light has changed colour, would be beneficial.

To the IDIOT!!!...
That decided that he'd put his high beams on while driving behind me on the Duke Point Highway when I was going to pick Tanya up... you are an IDIOT!!! You don't need high beams when I'm driving in FRONT OF YOU!!! Bastard.

Tim Horton's...
Rules. Especially on the Island. There are so many of them around and when you have a job like mine that requires you to be on the road at 6am in the morning, a coffee or tea from Timmy's is a great start to the day. Especially on those cold winter 6am mornings. Oh, and try their bagel with peanut butter and jam. Really yummy as a once in a while treat!!! One complaint though. I hardly ever win the Roll up the Rim to Win contest. I want more than the occasional free coffee or donut. I want the car to follow me home like in the commercial. Is that too much to ask for?

WEll, that's it for today. Stay tuned true believers for another exciting blog tomorrow!!!

p.s. - Jeremy. You can't drive... and Gloria has LOST more masculine wiles than you will ever have!!! =) No offense Glor.

My First Posting... wow!

2006-04-17T23:39:00.000-07:00

So, here I am, my name is Terry, and I am writing my first blog posting. Why? I have no freakin' clue, but I do know that it is freakin' sweet. Well, maybe not, but I had to say it. Yeah, I know. Shut-up Jeremy. I started this as I figured I may as well jump on the bloggin band-wagon. Especially since the Canucks' bandwagon died last week.

So what am I going to write about? I have no idea. Someone named seakrait said I should talk about comics and how Iron Man is cooler than Batman. Well let me tell you something... I'll just say that Batman can kick Iron Man's a$$ and we'll leave it at that.

But seriously. I think this blog will kind of be something of a random jumbling of musings about current events, sports, my life, and yes, perhaps comics. Basically the stuff that interests me. May not interest you, but that is okay because it isn't your blog now is it!!

I think though, that I shall be posting a lot of commentary regarding my upcoming wedding. Yes, I am getting married in just over 2 months. Planning has been going quite well which has myself and my fiancé (Tanya) kind of questioning if we have everything done. I'll get into that in a future post.

So, with it being almost midnight and me having to get up early to go to Victoria for work tomorrow, I'll leave you with a random thought for the day:

If a cat is always supposed to land on its feet, and buttered toast always lands butter side down, what would happen if you tied a slice of buttered toast (butter side up) to the back of a cat?

I live for feedback... only if it's positive.