Yeah, it makes me cry too.

Friday rocked. Having finished with the cleaning and organizing, we finally got to the “cation” part of our “stay-cation” and decided to head up to the Capilano Suspension Bridge, which is a bit like returning to the scene of the crime.

Back in 2005, around the time we first started going out (Holy shit – it’s been almost 7 years!) I returned from Arizona on January 1 or 2, and our first “date” upon my return was a trip to Capilano. Chris was a little horrified to be seen with me, I think, as I’d let my step-mother bleach my hair while away. It was a cold day (for Vancouver in January) but bright and sunny. We were excited because not only did we have fun, but we got the BC resident deal and could go back as often as we wanted for a year.

We went once more.

Capilano Suspension Bridge Cliffwalk

Spring forward 6 1/2 years and we’re back. This past summer they opened the Cliffwalk adventure. Near the end, I realized that they had an educational theme about the importance of water in nature sprinkled throughout.

Cliffwalk is a semi-circular bridge stuck to the side of a cliff 300 feet or meters (I forget) over the river below. There’s a really cool video on YouTube about the challenges of making it. It’s worth a watch. Along the way you are treated to some small signs about how the valley was formed by rivers, and water cracks the stone. Very informative if you notice them. I didn’t.

So that’s Chris, hanging out high above the valley floor. At various points they have clear super-strong glass panels to walk out on. It really feels like you’re floating.

We also checked out Raptor Ridge (one bird, does not an attraction make) and the TreeTop Adventure, which is a really cool series of bridges suspended between the trees.

After making our way home, we basically decided we’d had enough, and I wasn’t feeling that good. So bad that I actually took a nap. I don’t nap. Whether it’s 10 minutes or an hour, after I nap I wake up all fuzzyheaded, disoriented and useless (no comments) so when I do decide I need a nap, it’s a bit of a deal.

By the time I was feeling better, Chris was on the decline.  We usually work like that. One is sick, the other is better. Then we switch. Not usually within minutes, but you know.

So, we had a quiet evening at home watching TV, playing with computers, iPads and the dog, which was fine.

As I write this, it’s Saturday morning. Rumble dragged me out just before 7am and I stayed up to try to get things done. Other than some blogging, nothing much has happened, but we have a plan! We’re off to Stanley Park as soon as Chris and I muster up the energy to shower. Harder than it sounds, but the weather is enticing!

We finished cleaning up. Everything was returned to it’s rightful spot, garbage was thrown out and recycling put downstairs, the dog got a bath, Chris got beer Corona), we had some ice cream and other bad food, and we hung out.

I was also kicked out of the house for a few hours while Chris worked. He spent many, many hours sorting, organizing, boxing etc while I sat in a Starbucks hard at work on a WordPress plugin. Rumble and Chris had walked me down, sat while we drank a cooling libation (sans alcohol of course) and then they went home.

At several points, we also went on many, many walks across the city, along the seawall etc to take full advantage of the fact that summer decided to return during our vacation! Woot!

We also wrote the email to Mikes Flooring expressing our displeasure in their installer’s lack of care. But that’s another post. A long other post.

Sometime in there, we also finally got to relax. As one is supposed to do on vacation. This made the dog happy as we stopped messing with him, moving things around etc. And he seems to like his new food!

And you might be asking yourself “Where the hell is Jeff?” (or you might not)

Today, I’d like to answer that question. Errrr. Yeah. I’ve been here, around, and over there a little bit.

My day job has kept me pretty busy. I’ve been helming, driving and generally doing (the work for) a conversion of Casting Workbook into a multi-lingual website. Or at least bi-lingual to start with. What does that mean? We want to take Quebec. For those outside Canada, you may not know that Quebec is a little different from the rest of us. First, they speak French, but even that’s a little different. Second, they want to separate from Canada. Third, both of those come with a TON of politics, so doing business there is challenging for outsiders.

I don’t know how many files I changed (agents alone was over 200 files), but we had nearly 3000 words & phrases translated, not including the public site or help files. Some help files alone were over 10,000 words.

When our first phase was done, 4 of us went to Montreal for a couple of days (like not quite 3, from the time we left to the time we got back) to put on an event and introduce us and put a face to the company. It was awesome. Except.

Except I managed to lose my engagement ring the first night I was there. Goofing around in the snow, my hand got cold and wet and the ring slipped off. I was very sad that night, but despite advice to the contrary, I told Chris right away. Certain people thought I should quietly replace it. Yeah, lying to your spouse is seldom a good idea.

Our event was held at L’Orignal (The moose), a rustic little basement restaurant that you’d probably pass if you didn’t know it. Our host Shaun introduced us to the owner, Travis, who I thought looked familiar. Turns out he was a carpenter on the TV show Debbie Travis’ Facelift some time ago. Neat.

So, after that, we came back to enjoy more work and preparation, because 3 days later our newest partners were flying in for training! Yep. 3 days and onto the next. They came, they saw, they were great. I’m not saying much because it’s still fairly new.

That was last week. They left on Tuesday night, so now we had 5 days left to get ready for our sales team to arrive for a week of meetings and strategy. Wow.

There have been a few personal bumps that I’ll include in another post shortly.

Chris has been fantastic through all of this. From me working extra hours (and days), me coming home exhausted or alternately jazzed on coffee and Diet Pepsi, to me leaving the dog with him for 3 days, he hasn’t complained at all. This is one of many reasons I love him so much. I brought him a silly t-shirt from Montreal. It wasn’t much but he really didn’t need/want any of the touristy crap most places sell.

All that while he’s been learning his “new” job (almost 3 months) and working some pretty wonky/changing shifts. Next month he’s basically Monday to Friday, 9-5 so that’ll be nice. Month after that he’s supposedly on nights again. <sigh>

Through all of that, I haven’t even touched my personal projects. I’ve got 3 plugins for WordPress either mid-coding or well thought out. I want them done, so I can get them launched, but just haven’t had the time or energy.

Hopefully things will be slowing down or changing enough at work that I’ll have the brain power left to do something at the end of the day.

But now the sun is starting to come out, meaning spring is here and summer is around the corner, so that’ll be another distraction, but a very very happy and welcome one.

The website has this to say about the project:

What is the It Gets Better Project?

In September 2010, syndicated columnist and author Dan Savage created a YouTube video with his partner Terry to inspire hope for young people facing harassment. In response to a number of students taking their own lives after being bullied in school, they wanted to create a personal way for supporters everywhere to tell LGBT youth that, yes, it does indeed get better.

Two months later, the It Gets Better Project has turned into a worldwide movement, inspiring over 5000 user-created videos and over 15 million views. To date, the project has received submissions from celebrities, organizations, activists, politicians and media personalities, including President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Rep. Nancy Pelosi, Adam Lambert, Anne Hathaway, Colin Farrell, Matthew Morrison of “Glee”, Joe Jonas, Joel Madden, Ke$ha, Sarah Silverman, Tim Gunn, Ellen DeGeneres, Suze Orman, the staffs of The Gap, Google and Facebook, the Broadway community, and many more. For us, every video changes a life. It doesn’t matter who makes it.

The website www.itgetsbetterproject.com is a place where young people who are lesbian, gay, bi, or trans can see how love and happiness can be a reality in their future.  It’s a place where our straight allies can visit and support their friends and family members.  It’s a place where people can share their stories, take the It Gets Better Project pledge, watch videos of love and support, and seek help through the Trevor Project and GLSEN.

Along with all the celebrity support, hundreds of videos have been produced by normal, everyday people who want to send messages of hope to the community. Chris and I have talked about making a video, but haven’t done it. We were both bullied as teens and responded in different ways. Today, we believe that It Gets Better and feel that we embody that. We’re both out of the closet, obviously married and not shy about it, we don’t hide our relationship, and are fairly happy having moved past the bullying and negative experiences of our younger day.

One of the most recent videos to be added is yet another celebrity (of a sort) – Max Adler who plays Karofsky on Glee. Karofsky is a football player and more importantly a bully. He’s quite fond of slamming Kurt into his locker and taunting him with hate speech. Recently though, we found out that Karofsky is actually a big closeted ‘mo himself when he kissed Kurt (who finally stood up for himself) in the locker room.

Max shot an It Gets Better video and it was featured on The Advocate.com yesterday. Although Max isn’t gay, I’m sure he’s seen his share of bullying in school and life, and I’m glad that he shot this seemingly honest video to counteract the damage being done by his character on Glee. I think having Karofsky’s character on Glee is important as a way of showing what really happens in school, and how most people who bully are really insecure themselves (although they’re not all gay of course).

You can watch Max’s video below, but be sure to check out the YouTube channel for more videos, and the It Gets Better Project’s website for more and how you can get involved.

http://www.itgetsbetter.org/

Chris and I took a giant step recently. One that would make some of our friends weep openly and question their ability to cope. Many couples would break up in record time if they took this step. But we have faith.

What did we do that was so drastic?

We shut our cable off for the summer.

Yep. And Novus took us seriously. About 3 weeks after the first of the month we came home to static. Last year we cut it down to the basics for the summer and it took them 2 months to make the change.

Cable companies do this for 2 reasons as far as I can tell. One is they hope you change your mind before they get here, the other is that 9/10 cancel requests are place where tenants move and they hope the new occupants will subscribe. Either way a month or two of service costs less than dispatching a warm body, so they leave it on until x amount of time passes or they “have a guy in the area.”

With TV season drawing to a close and our ability to watch shows online increasing daily, plus the impending summer weather (you hear me mother nature?) we want to try to lessen our dependence on the tube.

How’s it going? Other than the 2 – 24 hour delay in watching the 3 or 4 critical shows on TV, it’s good. Rumble gets more playtime, more work gets done, more walks get taken and Chris and I get to spend more quality time together.

Which inevitably means sitting at opposite ends of the couch ignoring each other in favor of our laptops.

I joke. That’s the scary time some other couples would dread. What do you do to fill the time otherwise filled by TV?

I’ll let you know how it goes, but being released from the LCD bonds of the TV feels good so far. Now we watch it on our terms. We may never turn the cable back on.

PS: by never I mean until September.

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Yes, I’m fine.

We have no clue what caused the hospital visit last weekend. All those tests were clear, and so was my cardiac-stress test on Tuesday. Boy what fun that was.

Anyway, it’s been almost a week, I’ve been tested, poked and prodded a few times and nothing happened. Which is good and bad. Good because it means there’s nothing big and obvious wrong. Bad because it means we don’t know what caused it. I would like to know – no matter what it is, knowledge is power.

Today was an amazing! day. Chris and I grabbed a ZipCar to take Rumble for his bi-monthly haircut so he was less of a furry little monster. It also helps with the “post-walk grooming” shall we say.

Right now, we’ve been home about an hour and Rumble is curled up on his bed, happily sound asleep knowing that his dads aren’t going to mess with him any time soon. He’s also exhausted from the playtime he got while waiting for his turn at the groomers.

Fetch in North Vancouver is a HIGHLY recommended place. They keep to their timelines, the dogs are always happy and comfortable. We tried the Kerrisdale location once and they were great too.

We also found a pop-can crusher! We’ve been looking for one everywhere we go. We found them online, but they’re expensive. HomeSense at Park Royal had them for $12.99. They’re supposed to be wall mounted but we don’t trust our walls and it seems to work just fine (if awkwardly) by hand! Yeah recycling.

By the way, Chris expounds on Rumble and the trip to North Van on his blog. Give it a read.

Sunday morning started like any other. Relaxing wake up around 8:00, husband lying beside me, dog sleeping at the foot of the bed, smell of coffee brewing from the other room, man-servant bringing us breakfast. Oh, no, wait. No coffee, no servant.

But then I noticed a “fluttery” feeling in my chest. I’d felt it before (several months ago) and it usually went away fairly quickly. So I dismissed it.

Finally we get up around 8:30 and discover that all the water in the house is brown. It’s happened once before when the turbidity levels were high in the local reservoirs and we’ve had rain recently so we assumed that’s what it was. Turns out there was a burst pipe/leak in the building and we had no clean water.

Fine, we hiked down to the brand new Nester’s Market in the brand new Woodwards development, bought some water and other groceries and hiked back home. My chest was still fluttering from time to time.

I made breakfast (egg McMuffin type things with turkey bacon) while Chris walked the dog and then we watched some TV while deciding what to do for the day.

I finally told Chris around noon that I was having these “flutters” but that it wasn’t anything major. Being Chris (wonderful guy), he insisted we go to the hospital ASAP and figure out what’s going on. And we headed off to St. Paul’s Hospital.

That’s where I got Lucky.

Dr. S. Lucky was the name of the doctor in the RAZ (Rapid Assessment Zone) when we got there. After a very brief wait in the chairs, I was whisked in for an ECG, then got blood drawn, then a little medical history and finally a chest x-ray. From there it started to slow down. We were now in the waiting game.

Nurse Jennifer was awesome in the RAZ and kept a close eye on me. Eventually, the first round of tests came back clear and they suggested Chris and I go for a walk, and we did. But I got some tightness in my chest afterward, prompting them to hold me for a second round of Troponen tests at 6pm.

Chris had to go home and walk Rumble. We hadn’t anticipated this taking ALL day of course.

During this time, Dr. Lucky basically disappeared. At least I didn’t see her again until about 4:45, but her mysterious doctoring kept putting notes into the computer and more things happened. I got Aspirin and was prepped to be moved to a room with better monitoring equipment.

My new temporary home was “Acute Stretcher 5″ as pictured above. Tres chic. I had to leave Jennifer behind and was introduced now to Gemma (or Jemma), a wonderful nurse from the UK. Unfortunately my stay here was brief, like 30 minutes and I was move “somewhere quieter” that I never did find the name of. It was quieter, but I liked the ER feel of Stretcher 5.

Now I was in the able hands of Kristen (or Kirsten) who eventually brought me dinner. Turkey dinner from a hospital on Sunday isn’t the worst thing out there, and considering I hadn’t had anything but a bit of water in 6 hours, I was glad for it. It actually wasn’t too bad and it certainly hit the spot.

In the end, I was sent home a little after 8pm with not much to show. A few sticky spots from the monitoring pads, a little less hair on my hand from the IV tube they never used and orders to go for a stress test on Tuesday morning at 8.

Nothing showed up in anything, and the fluttering never re-occurred. We have our theories as to what it was, and I’ll be talking to my family doctor about them once I can get an appointment.

Chris was with me the entire time, which was VERY much appreciated. He was very nervous and worried about me, but kept calm and helped me relax too. It freaked him out more than he let on. His father passed away from a heart attack so Chris has, if not reason then history, to cause him to worry. I’ve promised to outlive Chris so I have to do everything I can to make sure that happens, or he’d never let me live it down.

See – nothing to panic about. I’m taking today off to relax and make sure everything is up to speed before heading back tomorrow.

Last year got off to a bad start. I don’t remember why exactly. A lot of things went wrong but I didn’t whine about them on my blog hear so I have nothing to go on. I do remember talking to people about how I wanted to start over and that lasted for about 2 weeks. If you remember what I complained about, let me know.

2009 did get a lot better, things were good etc. And then it came to an end much the way it started. I had a headache and was generally “out of it” for a couple of days, including New Years Eve, leading to me being in bed between 10:30 and 11:00. Yep, hardcore party people in the house.

I was actually asleep by 11:10 and woke up not feeling too well again. But it passed.

And then we were in 2010. Corey Monteith of TV’s Glee ran a quick check on Twitter and said it’s officially ‘aught ten’ which I’m not going to pick up. The Olympic branding, which hasn’t taught me much, but has engrained Twenty Ten into my brain, so that’s what I’m going with. It may not stick either but I gotta start somewhere.

Vancouver is roughly 40 days from Olympic Chaos. I could complain about how much it’s going to mess up my commute, but it won’t be too bad (I hope). Considering Rumble and I will mostly be walking. I will have to change my bus route though. It won’t be too bad. I think the 50 False Creek will keep running from the Keefer Street side and end up on or near Granville where I need to get off.

I’m also hoping for nice weather for the Winter Olympics, not to be mean, but just because I don’t like winter.

Oh – and a rant.

Chris and I went to The Bay downtown and I wanted to buy us each a pair of the Red Mittens to wear during the Olympics as we wander around. Apparently the Olympic store in The Bay only accepts Visa and Cash.

Yep, no debit cards, no MasterCard, no American Express. Only Visa (the official card) and Cash (the official cash).

We left without mittens… For now. We’ll be back, oh yeah, we’ll be back.

Screw you 2010, I’m going to win.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, this is the show where they take “needy” families who are usually in some sort of serious distress and give them a new house. The family may have had a fire, a series of deaths in the family, a disabled child or something that has caused them to livin’ in the margins of life.

Most of the families seriously need help. They’re often living 4 and 5 to a room, if they’re even that lucky. Sometimes they don’t even have rooms.

Somehow, they’ve managed to get the family together and obtain a video camera to submit a request to ABC explaining how and why they deserve a new house. After some kind of screening process, ABC decides on a deserving family each week and Ty and his team swoop in, shoot some emotion-driven video and destroy their house.

Then, while the family is on vacation, the Ty-driven-dream-team recruits some locals who want to be on TV and build an entirely new house in just 7 days. God complex anyone? There’s an abundance of stories about how crap these houses are, leaving the family with a camera-beautiful home, but leaky roofs, toilets and other mechanical problems. It’s hard to believe the it takes a year to normally build a house, but a huge number of people can build one in a week.

So, back to the Vancouver story.

I don’t remember exactly how it went, but I asked Chris if he wanted to go to the home show. He gave me the sad-puppy face and said “Why would I want to do that?” and I replied “Ty Pennington is going to be there.”

He promptly replied “Fuck Ty Pennington!!!” (Possibly with more exclamation points). He seriously objects to Extreme Makeover: Home Edition not just tugging on heartstrings, but actively plucking on them with a chainsaw and exploiting hard done by families.

Ever since then, it’s been Chris’s catch phrase. If anyone (me or on TV) mentions Ty Pennington, Chris exlaims “Fuck Ty Pennington!!”

Tonight, he added Steve Jobs. “Fuck Ty Pennington!!! and Fuck Steve Jobs!!!” was heard. I should go find out what happened to iTunes. It’s usually the cause of Chris cursing Steve Jobs.

And if you do then you’ve never had a real good headache. I am not going to pretend to be an expert or even in the same league as some of those who suffer chronic headaches or have true debilitating pain. In just get a few strong headaches once in a while.

Tonight is one of those times.

I was fine when I got home, but just when I thought I’d be relaxing and unwinding along came momma migraine. Usually my headaches are caused by stress or dehydration. Today was not exceptionally stressful nor is Vancouver overly dry this time of year. And yes I drank water today.

So I was suprised by my headache. Tylenol migraine isn’t helping nor is yet another glass of water. So now I’m going to go to bed and consider prayer.

Ok I’m not really considering prayer but it might get added to the list one day. But if God spoke to me while I had a migraine, I may have a few less than pleasant words for her/him/it.