hot time in the old town tonight...

on good friday, goober and i decided to explore new westminster. new westminster was actually the first capital of b.c. and is one of the few areas of the lower mainland that not only has history but recognizes it. it's very heritage oriented.

first stop, fraser cemetery.







we visited raymond burr.







the first policeman in new westminster.










good ole gassy jack. gotta love the fact that gastown is named after a saloon owner. one of the interesting things about this grave, is that it was unmarked until the 100th anniversary of his death.


terry hughes. terry hughes has a park named after him in new west. he died saving some kids who fell into the fraser river. i tried to find out more about him but there isn't much out there.


after that, goober and i heading to columbia street to meet up with a friend for more exploring.

here is a view of the patullo bridge, which crosses the fraser and hook new west up with surrey. you can also see where the skytrain crosses as well.


on columbia street is the raymond burr theatre. i'm not sure if it still has events going on it.

columbia street used to be very scary in a main and hastings kinda of way. but now it's starting to get all gentrified. even the salvation army there is fancy now.

there used to be this cool ole cafe which i think was called the pacific cafe on columbia. they had individual jukeboxes at the tables. we used to go and eat grilled cheese sandwiches there. it's long gone of course.

possibly the ugliest dress i have ever seen.










off we headed to sapperton landing. it's a really nice walk along the fraser river.

goober not happy. he's anxious to get going! there is no time for reading signs. there are trees and bushes to be peed on.

he's wearing his halloween leash because a few days earlier, he decided to go for a run, thru the muddy hills of hume park, dragging his leash behind him. i have yet been able to get the leash clean enough for human touch.


along the pathway, there is all these awesome tiles with fish. loads of crazy fish, and wacky colours. here is just a small sampling.




we then went to visit terry hughes park.






time for a pit stop at dairy queen. did you know that hot fudge comes in plastic pouches? i would have thought bottles or cans for easy pouring but no. a big ole plastic bag that seemed to be incredibly awkward to work with.

next we headed to city hall. there is a really nice friendship garden there that was given to the city by their sister city in japan.

goober went mental in the park. we think it was the ducks. which he never cared about before. but he took off like a maniac and we had to go running after him. we spied him above the pond, eyeing the ducks and the water with a look that said, "look out below!" i have never yelled "no" so loud before. there was no way i wanted to drive home a wet, smelly algae covered dog. thank god, for once in his life, he listened to me and just took off again. we finally caught up with him and continued thru the garden. we even managed to cross the stone steps without anyone falling in.

i just like the way these stones around city hall looked.

all in all, it was a good day and we will need to go back and explore some more.

put me on the slug line...

man, i have been so unmotivated lately. i'm not working currently and i feel like a bad cliche of an unemployed person. lounging around in my pj's until 4 in the afternoon. and i'm not even sure what i'm doing to fill my day. it's not like i'm sleeping until 4, i'm usually out of bed by 8 am at the latest. at least i'm not lying on the couch, watching tv. but i am starting to feel a bit more motivated. i actually made it out to dinner with friends last night and i spent today exploring today. i will post some pics later this weekend. i'm pooped and i think we are going to the movies tonight so i will have to make this one short.

1. everyday i love you less and less- kaiser chiefs
2. edge of seventeen - stevie nicks
3. breed (working mix) - nirvana
4. big pants dance - lee press-on and the nails (this song makes me laugh so much)
5. poison arrow - abc
6. in the colors - ben harper & the innocent criminals
7. lyla - oasis
8. tower of song - martha wainwright
9. welcome to the black parade - my chemical romance (ok, the reason i have this song is because it gets stuck in my brain and the only way to get it out is to play it.)
10. memphis tennessee - the animals

remember, according to christian tv, today is the day we celebrate the death of jesus.

have a good long weekend my canadian buddies and for my american ones, i can't believe it's not a holiday for you! i learned that fact the hard way by getting a parking ticket a few years back. i didn't put any money in the meter because i assumed good friday was a stat. i would have fought it, but it was only $3.50 so i was ok with paying it.

ring ring...

my apologies for the delay in continuing the saga of the mysterious ring. it took me a long time to find something i could offer up as visual solution.

so, the answer is not in the ring itself, but that the ring is also owned by someone else.

here is your visual clue.












if you still need an answer, go here.

birthday boy...

we interrupt the mysterious saga of the ring to bring you this....

a celebration of the wonder that is 'goober'.

happy birthday buddy! sorry, no snow today but i did try to fit in all of the stuff you like. you got pizza for breakfast!






you went for many walks and peed on many things.










you got to sleep in the sun in the car. and drink water from a cup. sorry no ice cubes today!









we didn't make it swimming but you did get to play in a stream.







and of course, there was ball.










um, no, not for you.










but i will let you pick out your dinner tonight. mmmm, new zealand summer. with real sausages.

he will also carry these to his blanket and unwrap them at christmas.



you didn't make out like you did at christmas. but you did get a big meaty bone.

i can't believe it's been eight years.

ps... stop hogging the bed. :)

she's a mystery girl ...

so, here's a weird little tale. my brother comes home yesterday, says try this on and throws a big chunky silver ring at me. knocking me senseless. no, no, just kiddin'. :)

he hands me the ring and tells me to try it on. he bought it for himself and decided it wasn't really him and it was more me. (i am not sure what this says about us, that my brother is buying girl jewelry or that i am wearing mens). i try it on and it's a bit big but workable. and it looks pretty cool but there is something odd about it. i can't put my finger on it.

i try the ring on again a few hours later. i'm looking at it, thinking. what is with this ring? and then it hits me! jesus christ, i don't believe this!

but before we get to the exciting conclusion of the ring, a word from our sponsers... friday random top ten.

1. straighten up and fly right - nat king cole with the king cole trio
2. vixens in space - the dirtbombs
3. you are my sister- antony and the johnsons
4. take my money and run - cuff the duke
5. ballroom blitz- the sweet
6. henrietta- the fratellis
7. steal my sunshine - len (really? again? i swear i have more songs on my player)
8. nihilism- rancid
9. the times they are a-changin' - me first and the gimme gimmes
10. hanging on the telephone - blondie

here is a picture of the ring in question. i'm curious to see if anyone else will figure out what is up with it.

happy friday everyone!

cigarettes and alcohol...

here are two quotes that i am currently enjoying.

"cigarettes may be bad for you, but so is getting hit by a bus" - michael flocker.

"why don't you go play in the food processor"- hobbes (to calvin, of course).

the first quote is enjoyed in a personal mantra sort of way. (i do not smoke by the way). the second is enjoyed purely as a potential insult to be hurled. plus i really admire bill watterson and the way he has retired and not been tempted to come back. or merchandise the crap out of his creations.

ps... 'goober' has this weird new habit of smelling my breath when he comes in from outside. umm, no, i haven't been eating peanut butter without you.

tick tick tick boom...

i heart the hives. who knew?

mellowlee and i headed down to the commodore friday night to catch the hives/the donnas rockin' it out. sadly, no photo evidence as i neglected to check the battery on my camera before the show. :(

we got there nice and early ( a surprise to anyone that knows me) and managed to snag a table at the totally sold out show.

first up, the opening band. now, i'd like to offer a piece of advice to all opening bands. announce who you are! as much as possible! yes, granted they did say who they were in their very first sentence on stage. however, if you slur it into the next sentence, a lot of people won't catch who you are. and since you are the opening band, a lot of people are still arriving and wouldn't have heard it. if they liked you, they would have to try and find out who you were. never make people work to find out who you were. at the very least, one of the last things you should utter before leaving the stage is "thank you, we are "insert name of band here". if it wasn't for the donnas announcing you once and the hives announcing you a few times, i would have had no idea who you were and i actually thought, hey this band is ok, i wouldn't mind looking into them some more.

anyway, thanks to the hives (i'd forgotten by the time the donnas had left the stage), i found out the openers were vancouver's own "the hits". i enjoyed them as an opener, they fit the bill (garagey punk stuff) and i think i would like to check them out again. i really could have done without the 'jumpin' jack flash' cover tho. (shudder)

next up, the donnas. i haven't seen the donnas for a few years now. i used to go see them all the time. i enjoyed them as i always do. they are more polished than before, which is to be expected. and i would have like to have heard more older material but they still rocked. while watching them, a thought occured to me. when i was a wee lass, this was how i imagined being in a rock band would be. i can't imagine growing up and imagining that i'm hannah montana, rihanna or even avril lavigne. or god forbid, the pussycat dolls or fergie. are there girls that rock that are front and centre? if i was a young lass, who would i want to rock out like? i can think of tons of indie girls but off hand, i'm having trouble with the rocker chicks. but i digress.

the hives were up next. now, i like the hives. i mean, i bought the tickets (well, mellowlee did for me. because i got all mad at ticketmaster. grrrrr!). and i was excited to go. but man, was i blown away by them. they put on a show. maybe it's because i see so many indie bands, which i love. but some of them really need to work on their stage presence. good songs are good songs, but if i've paid the $$$ (which are getting even more insane. especially with ticketmaster. i've bought tickets where the fees were almost 50% of the ticket. and sadly, i am not exaggerating by that much).

but the hives were well worth the dosh. from the moment, they hit the stage, looking oh so su-ave, they were there to entertain. and howlin' pelle almqvist is an amazing front man. i totally get why spin put the hives in the top ten live acts to see and almqvist is in the top 50 of greatest frontmen. he danced, he strutted, he yakked it up. i expected him to jump into the crowd at any moment. (he did not). i see why some people call him a cross between iggy pop and mick jagger. i loved it when he said to someone in the audience something like "you want to give me that blue bracelet and i would love to wear it but i only wear black and white." i also love it when a band plays all their major hits before the encore. it makes it seem like a true encore. it's something i always say i would do if i was in a band.

the hives were loud, fast and tight. just like a rock n roll band should be. they, and especially almqvist, owned the stage friday night.

i heart the hives. and almqvist is my new rock n roll boyfriend.

xmas in february...

i haven't posted a friday random top ten for ages. so here goes...

1. american psycho - treble charger
2. leave the pieces - the wreckers
3. let 'em go - pride tiger
4. steal my sunshine - len
5. memphis tennessee - the animals
6. your daddy don't know - toronto
7. who taught you to live like that?- sloan
8. a northwest passage - the (international) noise conspiracy
9. i saw mommy kissing santa claus - gilby clarke
10. one way ticket - the darkness

hmmm, not very impressed with this selection. and yes, i still have xmas songs on my player.

i'm off to the hives/the donnas tonight! whooo hoooo!

hiding all away...

i have been away a long time. i didn't plan it, it just happened.

three things have kept me away.

1. i got sick. really sick. so sick, i demanded the doctor give me tests. which is so not me. i spent the whole weekend worrying and it turned out all i had was a virus. but a bad one. it's funny, once my tests came back negative, i got really, really, really sick. one night i woke up at midnight, and lay in bed for four hours shivering because i could not get warm. i could not make it out of bed to turn up the heat, get a blanket or put on more clothes. i seriously pondered sticking a note on goober's head and trying to get him to get help. sadly, i realized goober is no lassie.

2. super busy. both at my latest contract job and going to shows around town.

3. a very very bad online blogging experience. the reason my blog went private. i hated doing that but i could see no other option. i may or may not have to do this again. so, for all of my readers, please send me an email and i will officially invite you to read my blog. that way, you can always access it, no matter what is going on.

but i feel i am ready to return now. i've missed all of you.

donuts - i told you to get me donuts! ...

ok, every year, all of us cousins get together and do a santa gift exchange. we all bring a wrapped gift and put it on the table. we draw cards and either the high card or low card gets to pick first. this usually sets off the first round of the debate on the official rules. the rules are extremely complicated, and get debated vigorously each year. the only rule that everyone always agrees on, and is strictly enforced is the opposable thumb rule. if your thumbs touch the gift, it's yours.

anyways, the exchange is one of those one where you can either pick a unwrapped gift or steal someone else's. and the gifts are usually alcohol based. this year, there were three shooter snakes and ladders in the exchange. very odd.

now, i don't like to give just alcohol. i like to go for some kind of twist. this year, i am pretty damn proud of my idea. i decided to give a bob and doug gift basket.

beer - check
bacon - check
toque - check
dvd - check

but how do i wrap it?




quick! pit stop at tim horton's. wrap everything in donut containers!

put big donut box on the top.

as gift is being opened, "these can't really be donuts?"




oh yes, my friends they are.

cue cousins falling on floor laughing.

christmas is going to the dogs...

****update - i think i have solved the photo problem.*****

one of the things i like about the blogging world is that i'm constantly remembering things that i've forgotten.

like reading dale's post reminded me of a long conversation i had at work years ago. one of the nice things about working retail is you spend a lot more time talking to the people you work with. you really get to know them much more than in an office situation. dale reminded me of a long conversation i had once about how there needed to be more xylophones in rock music and that a tribute album really needed to be done. dale, i don't know what happened to my dream!

'goober' and my xmas ornaments are teaming up to kill me. here is my version of the events. just in case, something "happens" to me. last sunday, i am walking in my house. the path is clear. suddenly, 'goober' appears and pushes a box of ornaments in front of me. i trip. i am in pain. my ankle is killing me. i think nothing of it.

however, as the week progresses, my ankle still hurts. i take a look at it mid-week, and i can see it started to bruise. and on friday, it hurts so much, i decide to have a little soak in the bath and i see that my ankle is turning many colours. purple, brown, black, blue, yellow. bad 'goober! bad 'goober'!

today it seems to have stopped adding any additional colours. and the pain is beginning to subside.

i leave you with a series of photos. i think i will call it... 'goober' - a study in snow.

i'm drinkin' up christmas!...

****updated - for some reason i forgot to title this post.. corrected!****

first off, before i forget, here is possibly my favourite ever web search referral to my blog.

"how do you get a chicken out of a bottle without breaking the bottle or killing the chicken"

i've had a bunch of bizarre celebrity encounters recently. here are some of the highlights.

1. a band member from a certain band that i have made no attempt at hiding my hatred for. now, granted, i do know this person, but i haven't talked to them for years.
2. a singer whose cd i mentioned in my blog.
3. an artist whose work i love.

i mention this not to brag, but just to try and explain how weird my headspace is these days. nothing is surprising me anymore.

i am so happy to have my car back and running, i wanted to hug it this morning. is that wrong? now i just have to figure out where i put the thingy for my tape deck so that i can run my mp3 player thru it.

our favourite bad tempered zombie listed a few of xmas traditions that her family partakes in. as always, i am stealing her idea and posted a few of my own.

1. the traditional xmas music gift. formerly a cassette, and now a cd. the making of which is best accompanied by shortbread, chocolate, eggnog, and baileys

2. christmas eve must be spent at the railway club. and without planning, i must see my christmas friends there. it's weird if i don't, and it's even weirder when i see them in summertime. we all get very confused.

3. now, some of you may know i collect christmas music, but when it comes to decorating the tree, i prefer to do that to the sex pistols and sometimes smokey robinson. this comes because as a teenager, i bought both these albums and played them for the first time while decorating the tree by myself.

4. these decorations are among the first to go up on my tree. jack and zero go up near the top of the tree. usually near marilyn. lock, shock and barrel must always be separated. they get up to no good if they aren't. ernie and bert however must be very close to each other. and usually near the back for privacy.

5. we always have lemon meringue pie for dessert.


hope everyone is having a great weekend. i know i am!

bass! how low can you go? ...

today's random list is full of my fave countrified songs.

1. gift – sugar
2. bring the noise – the unholy trio (i can not get enough of this song). listen here.
   
3. poor little critter on the road – the knitters
4. count down our days – fembots
5. dick in dixie – hank III
6. everybody loves me but you – juliana hatfield
7. teach me to breathe – dave pirner
8. the good ones – the kills
9. take my money and run – cuff the duke
10. it begins – girls against boys

have a good weekend y'all!

another one rides the bus...

i think december will be mainly a month of postings of random things. i will probably be working six days a week and some night shifts so i think that will work best.

first off, i found out what point 11 from my previous point meant. i called up my friend with low blood sugar and she said, what the girl meant was that people with low blood sugar get cold easily. there you go. you learn something new every day.

if i do change my blogger name to 'pancakes' then goober will become 'waffles'

and now random bus stories...

sometimes when i get on the bus, for fun i will sit next to the person who makes it most obvious that they do not want someone sitting next to them. is that mean?

on the skytrain the other day, a grumpy old man sat in front of me. he asked me if the umbrella next to him was mine and after i said no, he threw it. now maybe he meant to throw it down, but he ended up throwing it across and nearly hit the woman sitting there. he didn't even apologize, just kept grumbling to himself.

today, i got to see this totally old couple in their 70's, sitting on the bus, holding hands and flirting with each other.

while waiting for my bus, i watched this incredibly beautiful girl flirt with this totally nerdy geek. and she was really flirting big time. hair tossing, smiling, moving in close.

then when the bus did come, our bus driver harassed all of us about our transfers. look, i know this is a weird route, where the zones combine and you can actually go two zones on a one zone. but we didn't make the route! nor assign you to it! so deal. and don't try and make me pay extra you bastard!

yippee! it's friday tomorrow! and i got my car back today! whoooo hoooooo!

cold as ice...

ok, confession time. i stopped watching 'the hour' two months ago. i always wondering what would make me stop watching it. i mean if brooke hogan didn't, what would? apparently the answer is three roman polanski jokes. i wasn't even sure i wanted to go to a taping. so how do i feel now? stay tuned.

but first...

randomness from two days of attending 'the hour' in vancouver.

1. yes, i went to the hour with mel. i don't know how this is possible but she is even nicer in person than online. sadly, i could not wear fancy boots. so i wore red and black starred creepers instead. also, when meeting someone for the first time, bring gifts. mel and i exchanged xmas cds. she also brought chocolate. there was no way i was not going to like her after that. (ps.. get a passport lady!)

2. i need to buy a clown mask. of course, it will have to live in the farthest corner of my basement.

3. the tim hortons on dunsmuir, near the railway club serves the coldest ice caps i have ever had. i felt like my whole esophagus was frozen. (i can not believe i spelled that right on the first try). oh, and cream cheese and ice caps are not a good taste sensation.

4. just when i think it is not possible to love rick mercer anymore, i learn something new and even better about him. and my heart grows like the grinch with more love for him.

5. i am a bigger techie geek than i thought i was. i spent most of the taping watching and listening to the production crew. on an additional note, i really miss using my slr. i feel like i've been cheating on it with my digital.

6. certain bc "stars" are even bigger assholes than i thought.

7. brett butt is really really funny.

8. i am obsessed with taking photos of pancakes.

9. certain people are freakishly smart. so much so i may have to change my blogger id. i am thinking of perhaps "pancakes".

10. do not listen to south park songs when listening to your ipod alone in crowded streets. because you will laugh out loud and everyone will know you are a freak

11. overheard in the lineup. "are you checking your coat?" "no, i have low blood sugar". what does this mean?

12. sweltering tv studio + downpouring rain + no umbrella + no hoodie = one potentially sick clown.

and now the answer... seeing the show live, especially on tuesday made me think i might just give it another shot and catch up on a few episodes that are on my pvr. especially because i think there's a steve earle interview in there somewhere.

happy hump day everyone!

you stupid girl...

tip #97 - when working various shifts, make sure you check your schedule prior to going to bed. or else you end up getting up more than three hours early. and yet, still not make it in to work on time.

today, i also didn't tie up the dog securely when i let him out for his morning pee break. hence goober had a nice long free range run thru the neighbourhood. so long, i think it freaked him out. i came out and he was running like mad to get to me. which never happens.

tonight it is so cold and wet that goober is barking, demanding to be let in. he will have none of this!

today's musical obsession.. john hiatt.

mainly this song.



but this song does contain this line that i love " i'm yellin' at the kids in the back cuz they're bangin' like charlie watts"

here in my car ...

before i go into my other stories, i just have to say.. i want a zenn car.

here's the piece rick mercer did on it.

went to seattle the other day. my car is still not working so got to be a passenger. i like being a passenger sometimes. i tried to act like greta garbo with my scarf at the gas station but i think the effect was ruined by the fact it was a black and white striped wooly scarf. plus i had forgotten my sunglasses.

since i was the passenger, i decided to walk to the peace arch while we were in the lineup for the border. every so often, there is talk about changing it and the outcry is always.. but the children donated their pennies for it!





this picture was actually hard to take because this alpha male was screaming at the car next to him. something about merging and one line. i was trying to not get him in the shot because i thought he might freak out on me next.





no shoes came home with me this time. season 5 of 24 did tho. along with these.

coming back, the wait was four hours to get back in canada. so we went for dinner, drove 1/2 hour to another border and we were home before we would have even gotten to the border at the other crossing. why do people wait in lineups that long?

i mentioned earlier that bahamian was my current fave word. i am totally obsessed with this bahamian singer/guitarist named joseph spence. he's like a drunken, demented blues/folk/calypsoian singer. and i mean that in a good way.

hear him laugh.

hear him sing.



have a good week everyone.

seven and seven is...

i've been tagged again! bad tempered zombie demands to know 7 new things about me and after much thought, here goes.

1. i have met three out of the five members of bon jovi. one's an idiot, one's an asshole and one was awesome. and the winner is... mr. jon bon jovi! i joked with him. he was incredibly nice, very flirty and possibly more attractive in person than onscreen. even to one who is not attracted to that sort.

2. until about five years ago, i never cursed. now, i swear like a motherf*ckin' truck driver. oddly enough, this happened around the time i started to go to calgary. i'm not saying there's a connection but....

3. as a child, my parents very rarely took me to see kids movies. this led to a rather amusing moment in show and tell where i reviewed the james bond film my dad took me to. i'm not sure my grade two class grasped the complexity of my review. which mainly consisted of stories about violence and sexy women in bikinis. sadly, my review was cut short by my teacher.

4. i have a not so secret desire to throw a drink in someone's face. this comes from watching too many old movies. this isn't as easy to do as one would think. not only does the person have to deserve it, you have to be holding the right drink as well. beer is not appropriate. especially in a bottle or can. it's got to be a cocktail or highball. one day, one day.

5. if i am looking at cds in a store or library and find one misfiled, i can not leave it there. i either file it correctly or give it to a clerk. it drives me insane. and don't even get me started on going to someone's house and finding they file their cds haphazardly. alpha-chronologically people!

6. i hate raisins with a passion. on the other hand, i love anything grape flavoured.

7. i love jambalaya. not the food. the word. it is possibly my favourite word. although, i do currently enjoy the word bahamian.

ok so here are the rules:

• link to your tagger and post the rules.
• share 7 facts about yourself, some random and some weird.
• tag 7 people at the end of the post and list their names.
• let them know they were tagged by leaving a comment on their blogs.

i don't really have 7 people to tag so i have only tagged three. play if you like. no biggie if you don't. :)

evelyne
just a cool cat
chick

if you peel away the skin is there anybody there...

i'm seriously thinking of 'outing' myself.

no, no. not in the sense you may be thinking of. the lovely mel has invited me to attend a taping of 'the hour' with her. and i am most tempted. and to be honest, a little nervous.

so many questions are running thru my mind. should i go? do i need to go in full clown makeup? and more importantly, what shoes do i wear?


ps.. i tried to change the time of this posting (just to make it current) and i got a big fat red error message....illegal post time. i'm such a bad ass. :)

well i drink gin monkey drink gin too ...

i'm sorry but i can not stop laughing at the following.

troupes of monkeys are out of control in india's northeast, stealing mobile phones and breaking into homes to steal soft drinks from refrigerators, lawmakers in the region have complained.

"Monkeys are wreaking havoc in my constituency by taking away mobile phones, toothpastes, sipping coke after opening the refrigerators," Hiren Das told Assam state's assembly.

He said the primates were "even slapping women who try to chase them".

here's a link to the full story. i'm just sad the colbert report is off the air. i'd love to see what they'd do to this 'monkey on the lam' story.

******update*****

here's a better "monkey on the lam" video.