Section U, Row 10, Seat 11

Biscotti and I were at the PNE yesterday and found ourselves at the 5pm Superdogs show at the Pacific Coliseum. Halfway through the show the host, Chase, halted the proceedings for a special appearance by the president of the PNE, Michael McDaniel. The president was present to announce and deliver a spontaneous gift to a randomly selected audience member. The lucky winner would receive a four-night trip-for-two to a five-star Jamaican resort, valued at just over forty-seven hundred dollars. The president then announced that the winner was seated in Section U, Row 10, Seat 11. Because the seating for the Superdogs show is a free-for-all, and the section indicators are virtually invisible when seated, no one knew what section they were in, or what row and seat number they were in for that matter. Then a spotlight shone down in our general direction and people several rows in front of us were turning around and looking towards us. We couldn't find our seat number, but the seat directly to Biscotti's right held her bag and that upturned seat had the number 11 on it. Biscotti wondered aloud, Is it this seat? A few seconds later the guy sitting directly in front of Biscotti's bag stood up and made his way down to the floor to collect his prize.

Splashdown

When was the last time you were at Splashdown Park in Tsawwassen? Before Friday, the last time I was there I was a single-digit age. On Friday Biscotti and I had a great time. More fun, I'm sure, than when I was a kid and very scared of the slides. I'm older and less scared now (but you still won't find me on most playland rides) and the slides were wicked awesome. All I can say is "Go! Go! Go!", no matter what age you are.

A PostSecret Ticket

Joffre

Over the August long weekend Biscotti and I took the dogs on their first ever camping trip, and we didn't make their camping debut easy for them. We drove on up past Pemberton to Joffre Lakes Provincial Park and then hiked three hours to the camping area located on the shore of Upper Joffre Lake. The dogs did remarkably well, especially considering how many campers were up there (approx. 25-30), including - strangely - a few people we know. As you might expect with two humans and two Maremma crosses sharing a tent designed for 2-3 humans, the two nights spent in the tent were cosy affairs. See evidence of the cosiness, and other pics from the Joffre trip, by clicking here.

Three Joffre videos by us on the right sidebar:

1. Camping at Joffre
2. Holly at Joffre
3. Plunging into Joffre Lake

Another Parked Car Crash!

A few hours after our Bourne triple-header yesterday (see previous post), Biscotti was affixing new license plates to our car which was parked in front of our house. As she worked on the front plate, a car traveling eastbound was passing a left-turner on the right and side-swiped our car! Biscotti had her right hand and right hip on the front of the car and was jolted. She turned and saw the car speed up, but was able to get their license plate number. Looking at the picture of the mark left on our car (click pic to enlarge), the driver surely knew that they had made contact.

Biscotti called 911 minutes later, and after giving all the info was told that all police cars now had the info and if they saw the car they would pull it over and question the driver. That doesn't sound like they are going to immediately and actively search for this car. Why the f### not? A hit and run, person hit, license plate number and color of car known, location given, direction the car was headed given, and well, if we happen to see it then we'll ask them some questions. What the f###? Seriously... What. The. F###?

This morning we spent two hours at ICBC. Yay. Does all of this sound familiar?

Bourne Again, and Again, and Again

At 8am yesterday morning Biscotti and I put The Bourne Identity into the DVD player, pressed play, and refreshed our memories. At the end credits, at approximately 10am, we took it out of the DVD player, replaced it with The Bourne Supremacy, and continued the refreshing of our memories. At the completion of that one we headed over to Metrotown for the 1pm showing of The Bourne Ultimatum (or Ultimatium as SilverCity Metropolis would have you believe). It was a tremendously fun triple feature that I recommend to all of you.

Our Futon Cover

1. Put two futon covers in wash
2. Hang them both to dry in backyard
3. Go out for evening
4. Come home late and go to bed
5. Wake up in the morning
6. See only one futon cover hanging*
7. Look all over backyard
8. Ask neighbor if it's in their yard
9. Denial over - someone swiped it
10. About 5pm see something inside back gate
11. Futon cover has been returned

* the cover that was taken was the one further out on the line and was very high up and would've taken mucho effort to get off the line and we found a few clothespegs on the ground with one clothespeg still on the line.

Possible explanations:

• The thief couldn't look themselves in the mirror and returned it (doubtful)
• The thief was a child and their parents made them return it (doubtful)
• The thief realized that the futon cover didn't fit what the thief wanted it to fit and figured they'd return it (likely)

Can you think of any other explanations?

Flight of the Conchords "Humans Are Dead"

Flight of the Conchords "Beautiful Girl"

Flight of the Conchords "Business Time"

July 2007 In Review

I took a blogging hiatus and it was swell. Now I'm back and we have some catch-up to do. Here's how July went down...

Biscotti and I went to Whistler from July 13-15 for our first anniversary. While there, we did the Rainbow Lake hike which neither of us had done before. There was a lot more snow than we were expecting, and Rainbow Lake was almost entirely covered, but hey, it was a good time nonetheless. Some very nice waterfalls while en route. See pics from the hike here.

Also while in Whistler we went to Mongolie Grill, which shouldn't really surprise anyone. What will surprise you, as it did us, is that our respective bowls of chow weighed the exact same! Crazy eh? Well, we thought it was cool. And so did the guy who weighed the bowls. So you should too.

Many times recently, I read in papers and magazines the word majority. I heard many people say it too. And every single time I read and heard it, it was preceded by another word: vast. Is every majority vast? No, but you wouldn't know it these days.. It seems the vast majority of people, especially the collective media folk, need to learn that they can use the latter word without using the former word.

I've been checking in on this site Mondays fortnightly as author Yann Martel continues to send Prime Minister Stephen Harper books. Martel has received a response from the first book sent, albeit from Susan I. Ross, Assistant to the PM. The latest book, la huitieme (sorry, no accent graves, or agus), is a book of very short poems. Check out this poem, known as the world's shortest:

Fleas

Adam

'ad 'em

And now to an example of horrible things humans are capable of. As you may have heard, NFL QB Michael Vick of the Atalnta Falcons is charged with involvement in a dogfighting operation run from a house that Vick owns. The details are gruesome, and the entire thing is abhorrent. If Vick was involved in any manner, that's bad enough, but what I find equally offensive are the comments made by Washington Redskins RB Clinton Portis.

In the June 4th edition of Sports Illustrated, writer George Dohrmann quotes Portis as saying, "It's [Vick's] property; it's his dogs. If that's what he wants to do, do it". He also said that if Vick were convicted of dogfighting, he would be "behind bars for no reason". Remarkable. Dohrmann writes, 'Animal control officials call this the "just dogs" mentality. "It's just dogs," explains [Kathy] Strouse, "so why does it matter?"'

In the July 30th edition of SI Jack McCallum writes that 'Portis also expressed the learned opinion that if dogfighting is held behind closed doors, then it's O.K.' McCallum also writes, 'According to the indictment ... as recently as April Vick and two of his associates executed about eight dogs in ways that stunned John Goodwin, an animal-fighting expert for the Humane Society of the United States. "Why would someone kill a dog this way?" asks Goodwin. "the only reason I can think if is that they took some pleasure in it, which is just sick."' Humans really piss me off sometimes.

Now to a happier topic! Flight of the Conchords. A friend asked if I'd heard of them - I hadn't - and a few days later finally looked them up on youtube and after watching just one video I instantly fell in love. Flight of the Conchords is a New Zealand folk, pop, and comedy duo composed of Bret and Jemaine (wikipedia). I will be posting three youtube videos soon, today if you're lucky, but I also strongly recommend watching their new television show. You can do so at this site. Each episode has three parts, each part about 8-9 minutes in length, about as long as a halfhour show would be without commercials. What are ya waiting for, give it a go mate. I root root root for this show to be aired on a Canadian network, like maybe Showcase or Bravo or the Comedy Network.

I saw the Simpsons movie the night before last - loved it.

After a few months after my last run (which itself was a year or so after my last run before that), I went for a run last Thursday in Pacific Spirit Park with Maui & Holly - and felt surprisingly good during and after. I didn't have high hopes of endurance but was able to go for about 35-40 minutes. A second outing yesterday morning was more difficult. I have a goal - set while writing this paragraph - of doing a half-marathon in 2008 and a full marathon in 2009. I guess that's two goals.. All of that was an intro to saying that I'm trying to get into shape by being more active. I'm cycling more, both for recreation and transportation. I play baseball for a Surrey team and most of our games are in Surrey or other such locales which are a tad difficult to get to on a bicycle from Vancouver. On Saturday July 7th we were supposed to have a game at Blue Mountain Park in Coquitlam. I was psyching myself up to cycle there, was planning the best route, and then the game was canceled.

On July 24th though, we had a midweek game at Central Park in Burnaby. After the aforementioned disappointment I didn't hesitate to pack up one of my panniers with my uniform and necessary equipment and cycle on over. Twenty minutes after leaving home I arrived at the park. Man it felt good. I felt like I was 12 years old again, cycling to a baseball game while wearing my full uniform (yup, cleats too) and carrying my glove in a plastic bag hanging from my wrist. Anyway, after arriving at Central Park after the nice leisurely bike ride, I was entertained by teammates' stories of traffic hell over the bridges and through the cities with this midweek rush-hour game being much more of a traffic headache than our usual Sunday games.

That's it, I'm done. I now return you to your regularly scheduled summer, or winter if you're on the flipside of the planet, like in New Zealand or something..