seattle portland getaway...

it's late. so for now surfice it to say i had an awesome weekend it seattle and portland with liz.

beer, margs, scooters, shoes and art are the themes for this trip...


beer tasting at georgetown...


liz, charlie and i forget that guys name at the 9lb


me and charlie at the 9lb...


more at the 9lb...we were there alot


there was alot of beer and beer related activities on this trip. here's a pic inside one if the brewery tours we went on


when we weren't drinking beer we were drinking margaritas and they make 'em potent south of the border...


there were also alot of scooters. there was a rally going on in seattle. it was mainly a pub crawl w/ a bit of scooting in between. liz and i didn't bring our scooters down but we joined in the festivities.






funky 80's mo-ped


we found greg at the side of the road so we kept him company while he fixed his scooter.


there was also alot of shoe shopping involved with this trip


and art. thought the one on the right looked alot like the faile piece i bought in portland last year.


here's a siori kawamoto limited edition print i bought in portland

and pie...


i don't know...thought this looked cool...


ok this is definitely a cool souped up bug...saw this in portland


this combines our themes nicely...beer and scooters...;)


a trickster in the market in portland


me, rich and liz with our growlers from the georgetown brewing co. liz's burst in the trunk on the way home all over almost everything. i was lucky though...and i have to thank garn for this one....my computer was right near the beer jug wrapped in this homemade sleeve he had made for me last year, anyway...not a drop got on the computer!! :) good job garn.


liz and me being tourists in front of a funky Mexican restaurant in portland. some lady kindly stopped and asked if we wanted our picture taken together. portlanders are super friendly.


many shoes size 5-5.5 in a vintage store in portland. in short a little shop called torso...right next to voodoo donuts is owned by the vintage clothing nazi of portland. she's almost never open and only lets in people she likes. she turned away the woman after us....pretty funny. i think it's a store full of her and her husband's old stuff b/c everything is pretty much the same size.




me on the pub crawl in seattle.


a cool pic liz took...of liz taking a cool pic....


thanks to liz and charlie...you're a great travel companions!

more later.....

:)

charlie, liz and i are heading south

yep...heading to seattle and maybe portland for the long weekend w/ my buddies liz and charlie.

so happy thanksgiving everyone. not sure if i'll update on the weekend or not....

:)

built to spill kicks it...

last night i went to the commodore to see built to spill. i have to say i think they kicked friggin' ass.

nice visuals as well. here are some pics that ian kindly took for me. he's alot taller and can see....




nice work ian, thanks.

:)

visit to the vet

today after work i took charlie to the vet to get her rabies shot. i might go on a little seattle/portland trip this weekend and want the option to bring charlie along for the ride.

anyway, as we waited for her gab an asian lady was filing out papers. it seem like everytime i'm in there someone is getting their animal put down which always makes me sad. this time it was a even sadder. the lady was crying. her husband came in for a minute...then went and waited in the car. 'coward'...i thought....'can't even stand by your wife as she says bye to her cat?'.

i could hear her crying when she went in the room and saying over and over "i'm sorry...i'm sorry" after a few minutes she came back in to the office w/ cat in hand. a beautiful grey cat w/ blue eyes....it was still alive. she gave it to the vets assistant said "i'm sorry" again and left. that was that.

it was really hard for me not to start balling right there and then. i'm kinda glad chloe spared me that and just took off to die....although it may have been nice to be with her in her last moments.

on a happier note....charlie is now 4.4lbs...double what she was last time i brought her in!

:)

new look...

thought it was time for a new look. hope you like it....

:)

fear

why are so many people so afraid? so afraid of the one thing that might just help compete our lives. we lie to ourselves saying we’re fine alone....but then continue to search for what eludes us. something that had looked us in the face...on more than one occasion....but didn’t have a chance with turned backs. almost everytime. squashing passion in it’s infancy.....stopping it in it’s tracks.

:)

charlie loves goos

here's a video of charlie playing with my dog sitters cat. it's pretty amazing.



sorry about the sidways thing. not sure how that happened. if anyone knows how to fix that let me know

:)

happy 40th sean!!

yesterday was sean's 40th....hope you it's great year for you sean.

love you ex wife...hehehe (i have to smile when i say that..:)

:)

post 500!!

wow....this is my 500th posting!! holy crap. i hope after 500posts people are still reading.....

goodnight.

:)

luv-a-fair

last night was the big luv-a-fair reunion at dicks on dicks. i went and danced the night away with liz, ian, dan, dyan and a few others.

i woke up this morning not feeling too bad considering my 2am bedtime. the only thing is as the day went on i started developing a bad cold. ended up coming home early and will be off tomorrow. oh well...nice cuddling w/ the puppy, movie watching and charlie's having fun eating my snotty kleenex!

some pics of the night, courtesy of dan and liz...

i bite liz...


dan goths out with liz


luv-a-fair greeks


ian and me having fun


:)

a little reminder

i think this is the 3rd time i've posted this. it still seems valid....

balloon on a string...

sometimes i think of myself as a balloon on a string. floating happily threw the air...not knowing were i may land or where i might go.

the only thing is... a balloon needs some way to attach it’s self to the earth...so it doesn’t fly too high...or too low...or get caught up on over head wires.

a balloon needs a strong grounded person to hold on to her string. a gentle connection that allows her to sway merrily in the breeze but stong enough so as not to let go when gales blow.....

:)

ok....

i finally changed the CD in my car. i'd been listening to broken social scene for two days straight.

:)

fragmented memories

sometimes when i have a painful event....i feel old memories coming down on me like a deck of cards falling all around. each card a different memory. i get a flash of a few as they fall. can’t quite make them all out...some foggy...some clear....and some surprising ones are included as well...just to mess you up even more.

:)

champagne and lemonade

another fun filled weekend. this time it was a dance workshop weekend. a few Swedes came to town and basically whooped our asses. it made me realise ....i’m out of shape. my friend leah from calgary came for the event and stayed with me. saturday night solomon douglas played at the legion...always a treat.

tonight ani, rob and i decided to have a little divorce celebration. ani made an awesome meal...i had champagne and they had lemonade....it was a wonderful evening to complete a great weekend.



me and charlie pants at ani's....


i just bought the toy in the middle off of garn this weekend....cute family


:)

do you know where your clothes have been....?

...or come from?

today i walked into fairweather a low end unisex clothing chain and was immediately struck with a horrible chemical smell. so much so that i just had to leave.

it reminded me of a conversation i had recently with our dyer at work. she was telling me that in the past year she has had lots of problems with clothes holding their dyes and having to wash them many many times to get chemicals out before the fabric being ready to receive the dye. she wondered what was going on so she did some research and found out that much of the clothing made in china is heavily sprayed with pesticides before being shipped out. pretty much all that low end stuff you buy in canada is now made in china. the quotas were lifted a few years back. the demand for cheap clothing is so high....how else can a company compete? slave labour, cheap fabric dyes and pesticides ....that's the answer. i don't blame the companies. i blame the consumer who won't pay good money for quality clothing made in canada. they demand to have new cheap stuff readily available.

another odd thing about that i thought....a year ago is when i started getting a skin rash. i sorta wonder if these chemicals could be a contributing factor in that for me.

so think about that next time you comparison shop for clothing and wonder why does this cost more than that....b/c that cheap shirt my cost you more than you think....in the long run.

or better yet...buy vintage!

:)

ok well....

today was kinda boring.

hmmmmmm....oh well.

:)

happy birthday to my sweetie ani :)

yesterday was ani's birthday and we celebrated with some bbq action. it was a good party with great people. started at 2pm went till...i'm not sure. i left at about 9 and the party was going strong.

rob taking care of the bbq. usually ani does the bbqing but rob did a great job.


liz with charlie aka crazy pants


cartoonist james loyd made ani this rad card...


niaomi and a randam kid...


my date for the evening ian. he's pretty handsome i think...;)


here's the present i gave ani. we saw this at garn's bean around the world show and ani really loved it. thanks garn.


the cake....



:)

i'm free, free falling...

i'm free.....whooooooo oooooohhh!!

it's official....i got my divorce!!! :):):)

ani and i both got our divorces today. actually it became official august 24th but we both just found out today!!

:)

in the land of the living now...

this saturday is ani's birthday. it also happens to be ruths husband's memorial. i grappled all week about going or not going to the memorial. today i realised....i'm in the land of the living now....i've done my time with the dead.

i will spend the day with ani...celebrating her life!

:)

mum gets a new knee

congrat's to mum for getting her new knee today!! she's been waiting awhile....3years! hope in the end the wait is worth it.

i'm sure she'll be up dancing in no time.

:)

it's all about charlie

nice relaxing sunday today. lots of doggie play time. liz and i had lunch at subeez then took charlie to trout lake. later on charlie had some play time with her best bud sophie.

charlie wasn’t sure what to make of the water....






:)

evolution of dance

this guy can really dance!!



:)

a writer w/ a good name....

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/books/07cnd-lengle.html?_r=1&ref=books&oref=slogin

:)

time to update...

ok....i haven't written my blog for a few days and thought it was time.

had sort of but tiring week at work. friday was kind of a crappy day...one of those days when everything seemed to go kinda wrong....but it all got sorted out in the end:) plus i was tired. i had gone for drinks with a new friend the night before. someone i had met on the scooter rally the weekend before. yes it was a male friend. a cute scooter guy named ian. i had a good time....i think he did too. he's nice, smart and funny....(see i told you i'd be kind on the blog, ian...hehehe ;)

anyway i meet a few new friends at that rally and got to know liz a bit better so i'm very happy i went.


today was really just a lazy day. had a bang trim then later had a coffee with my buddy doug he's having some girlfriend problems. the girl just doesn't know a good man when she see's one....and i'll tell ya....doug's a catch. i'd be after him in a heart beat if he was single.

anyway after that i basically napped and played on the computer. met a few friends for sushi and now i'm waiting to go dancing at the legion.

later.....

:)

just because....

i wanted to post this picture of me, liz and ani from the other night....


just b/c i think it's a nice picture. (not sure who the dude w/ the camera and fake moustache is;)

:)

and finally....rest.

ralph elke, ruth elke's husband died last night.


i worked with ruth for many years and for about the last two her husband has been battling cancer. their daughter was married last weekend and ralph proudly held on for that. and now he gets a rest from the pain. rest.....and on to the next.

ralph loved roses. i rememeber ruth used to bring them into the office at twilight zone and the whole office smelled amazing...
my thoughts are with ruth today....

:)

where to start....

a friend asked me friday what my plans were for the weekend and i responded “i think i’ll just keep it low key...relax...have some friends over for a bbq on sunday.”

well...think again!!! this weekend was anything but low key...although i did have a bbq which was great.

ok...where do i start?

liz called me up and said do you want to come to "the worst rally ever" with me? she was riding in it. i didn’t really feel that confident on the scooter yet but i said i would come and have breaky at choppers, the starting point. i wasn’t really sure what to expect....a bunch of snotty vespa riders perhaps? nope. far from it....a whole lot of friendly people form all over who just happen to like scooters...all kinds of scooters and small bikes. i hung out 'till they rode off. wow...when they all start up like that....what a rush. i think i could get hooked!! i really want to do it next time they have one! :):

after the ride they had a party in the tahitian room at the waldorf hotel...liz and i danced the night away with the cute scootter boys..hehe

liz's hubby richard in the tahitian room...


checking out the scooters outside the waldorf


liz was in love with this ducati


sunday they had another ride but i had a bbq planned so i got ready for that. doug, jill, ani, rob, anne, shelly, dan and his kid gus came over..it was a really good bbq. i ended up roping dan into doing the bbq and everything was awesome.

afterwards i talked a few of my guests into going to funkywinkerbeans on hastings where the scooter club were doing karaoke. more goodtimes....


scooters lined up on hastings....


some weird picture at funkywinkerbeans. someone put a moustache on it...


ok...just incase that wasn’t enough fun doug, jill, shelly and i headed to the railway to meet up with andrew and headed to a friend of dougs for some jam session till the wee hours.


shelly and the moose...


so much for low key. oh well....it was a great weekend and i made a few new friends.

:):)

i may have a new addiction....

more on this in a bit....



:)

for people who have someone to cuddle....

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-avoid-trapped-arm-whilst-cuddling-in-bed

:)