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!

As usual, Rum got his walk and since we’d terrorized him the day before (spending the day driving around), we didn’t do anything too mean. We left him home in his solarium/jungle while we headed out. To Ikea – aka, Land of the Lost. Where we had their $4 breakfast. Actually 4 x $1.00 breakfasts, plus bacon plus drink. This is s decision that haunted us on Wednesday.

The gaping void of the fireplace

The purpose of the trip was to find a new entertainment center/unit/table/bench -thing to replace the horrible fireplace that we had removed. This removal left us with a bit of a mess as it was screwed AND glued to the wall, not to mention tied into the electric.

Yep, ugly, right? About what you’d expect. Paint doesn’t match, hole in the carpet, patches of missing drywall. Not to mention nowhere to put the TV that was previously atop said monstrosity.

So, Ikea proved useless, but we did find a nice area rug for Rumble, a small mat for the fan, a small bookshelf and assorted other things we probably didn’t need.

Then Chris said the horrible words nobody should ever say.

“Hey, do you wanna stop at Walmart on the way home?”

And we did. And it was…. sticky.

But we did manage to find an entertainment center that was quite nice, but didn’t actually exist except for the demo unit. So we moved 4 feet and found another one. And it was deemed perfect. And heavy. Whoa was it heavy. Stupid tempered glass.

Afterward, we spent about 1/2 an hour discussing dog food with Celine at Tisol on the Grandview Highway. The vet had suggested Rumble go on an Kangaroo or Emu diet. $110US per case. I don’t think so.

Instead we settled on NRG dehydrated food as a source of all things different. $30CDN per case. Yeah, that’s better.

The rest of Tuesday was occupied with the ongoing cleanup and also putting together the new entertainment shelves. Ugh. Not bad though, less than 2 hours, only a couple of mistakes. You know that was going to happen with 30 instructional steps on paper, PLUS a 20 minute DVD you are “advised” to watch prior to assembly.

The new entertainment unit

Question: How are you supposed to watch a DVD about assembling the entertainment unit if you don’t have a place to put the TV until you’ve assembled the entertainment unit?

I know, right? Thankfully our laptops work. We watched the DVD at triple speed thanks to VLC media player. Much more entertaining.

So, now we have new floors, new rugs, new bookshelf, new entertainment center and still somewhat of a mess to clean up. This whole “have someone install the floors for you” is not necessarily as easy as it sounds.

We didn’t really have anything planned for this time, but we did take the opportunity to finally have laminate floors installed, to replace the carpet that Rumble had… damaged over the last 4 years. And what a nightmare that’s been.

First thing, we love the floors! They make the place look much better, and even though they’re dark, the house doesn’t feel darker.

Monday morning (officially day 1 since Chris worked Sunday night), starts with us packing EVERYTHING out of 1/2 of the condo into the other half. Packed. So tight that if we closed the solarium door, we may not get it open again. So full that we couldn’t even think about entering the kitchen or storage room.

Even the bathtub got a temporary resident.

Long story short – floors take a long time, even in about 300 square feet. And there will be dust EVERYWHERE if you don’t have an outside space for cutting. The number of Swiffers we’ve used could clean … bunches of space.

Now, Thursday after Monday install, we finally have everything back in order. The changes necessitated the purchase of 3 small rugs, a new TV stand and about 100 little felt feet. We packed the place up in about 2 hours. It took us 2 days to get everything sorted.

It all felt like moving day. At various points it both looked and felt like we were moving either in or out. We even ordered pizza and bought Chris some beer.

The nightmare part is the mess that the installer made. The floors are great, but he managed to make a mess everywhere. Broken baseboards, chunks of floor in the bathroom, purple goop on the walls, smears on the floor etc. We’ve filed a complaint with the company and are anxious to see if they even reply, now that they have the money.

If not, expect a big post about them here, with names and pictures. Yes, it’s a little like blackmail. Here’s a sample photo. Still a bit of mess, but we’re getting there.

The first video is a time-lapse of Danny Askew‘s “summer” – which actually starts during the Olympics. It’s a little strange as it starts with Vancouver and the Olympics and suddenly jumps to Las Vegas for about 20 seconds, and then back to Vancouver and some lakes in the forest somewhere. It’s a great video though and the time-lapse is quite nice.

Summer 2010 Timelapse Reel from Danny Askew on Vimeo.

Next up is a sort of walking tour of downtown Vancouver. Brandon Moza was testing his Canon camera and got some amazing video. If it was only a matter of buying the same camera to get the same quality video, I’d be out shooting tomorrow.

Vancouver – Testing the Canon 7D from Brandon Moza on Vimeo.

Unfortunately, and fortunately, that’s coming to an end. I say unfortunately because it’s so pretty to walk down the street and see hundreds of trees festooned in bright pink – a sure sign of spring here. It also means that we now get “pink snow” with sidewalks covered with millions of rotting pink petals as they drop from the trees making way for the green.

I say fortunately because it means that summer is fast approaching and the weather will stop being as unpredictable. Plus seeing Vancouver return to it’s lush forest-like state is the way we all want to see it.

It also means that Chris’ birthday is approaching. Early April and he’ll be, well let’s just say turning another year older. It always causes him stress and last year I didn’t exactly help alleviate that so I’m going to try to do something special this year. Not a big party, but something nice.

We’re also planning on a small mini-vacation either that weekend or the one after. Just a quick trip out of town for 2 nights to re-group and see someplace new. Technically it’ll be the first vacation we’ve taken as a couple. A few years ago we went to Calgary for a long weekend, but we stayed with my family the whole time and had a tight agenda of things we had to do. Not really a vacation.

This will be all about us – relaxing, no agenda (other than getting to the destination), no interruptions. The dog is coming with us, but he’s low maintenance generally.

Spring is in the air!

Anybody who knows me even a bit knows I’ve got a Starbucks addiction, but I’m trying to kick it.

In Downtown Vancouver, there is a Starbucks location within a few (read 2) blocks of just about everywhere. In the last 3 places I/We have lived, there’s been one within a block. And there is one within a block of my office.

Seriously, I didn’t plan it, but I think Starbucks did.

A few years ago I went to Yuma, Arizona for Christmas to visit my dad and step-mother and was tired most of the time I was there. I came up with my Starbucks Conspiracy Theory. Basically, the reason I was tired wasn’t that I wasn’t drinking coffee but rather, in Vancouver the air is so saturated with caffeine from one coffee shop or another (Starbucks, Blendz, Cafe D’Artigiano, etc) that you live in an artificially caffeinated state whether you like it or not.

So, this past weekend Starbucks finally released a store locator app for the iPhone into the Canadian iTunes store!

For me, it’s not about locating a store in Vancouver, it’s about remembering which stores are good (clean bathrooms, friendly staff) among the 100s there seem to be downtown.

And of course it will come in handy when we’re out of our comfort zone and I need a fix.

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So, this was the second weekend of the Olympics in Vancouver and things have certainly kicked up a notch or two!

Holy cow it’s so busy everywhere. We spent hours standing in line to see some of the Olympic pavillions or “houses” as they’re called.

By and large, they have NOT been worth the time spent in line. Here’s the ones that we saw and a rating…

• Royal Canadian Mint – 25 minutes for the non-medal line up. Time inside 10 minutes. Rating: 5/10
  We saw the $1,000,000 gold coin, and lifted the gold ingot. Whee!
• Maison Du Quebec – 25 minutes for the lineup before they opened. Time inside 2 minutes. Rating: -50 / 10
  Inside was another line to buy food/drink ($10 for a beer) and an empty stage with the promise of “entertainment” coming up soon. Uh – pass.
• Sotchi House – 2 hour lineup before it opened. We left.
• Ontario House – 2 hour lineup. We’ve been to Ontario, nothing they can do to tart it up will make us stand in line.
• Saskatchewan House – 15 minute line up. We could see it from the minute we got there and we saw it behind us as we left.
  Yes, that’s my take on the “My dog ran away 2 days ago and I could still see him” joke.
• Costco House – not an official house. 5 minutes in line, 2 minute wait for fried “pub” food. Failure to see what the fuss is about. Rating: 7/10, because were were hungry.
• Turner-Rose House – No line-up, good company, cheap food, comfortable surroundings and no crowds. We strongly advise you visit this one. Rating: 10/10

  We also recommend our Welcoming Emissary! He’ll make you feel welcome!

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Vancouver is alive with people. It’s pretty crazy how busy things are. Even tiny hole-in-the-wall places that locals avoid are busy with tourists. And of course the popular places are even busier.

Sunday, Chris and I took advantage of the gorgeous weather (Yep, sunny and warm in February) and took in some of the Olympic sites. We’d been out Saturday but other than Robson Square didn’t “do” anything Olympic.

We went down to the jail cauldron to see what all the fuss was about. Wow, did someone screw that up. “Too keep people safe” they erected an 8 foot security fence over 100 feet away from it, completely obscuring the view. People were climbing on concrete crash barriers to get a 1/2 decent photo that didn’t look like it came from Guantanamo Bay.

We tried to visit the Royal Canadian Mint display, but it was closed for a private function, so we hopped on the Canada Line Skytrain and went to Olympic Village with the intention of taking the Olympic Line train to Granville Island. 45 minute line up. No thanks, so we walked the seawall – a much better choice.

Granville Island is known as “Place de Francophonie” or “The fake French area” during the Olympics. Honestly, I wasn’t feeling it. The eastern end of the island is blocked off and there’s a large area devoted to French culture and displays, but they were pretty uninteresting. I hear Quebec House is worse. That’s for next weekend.

We then did get on the Olympic Line train (courtesy of Bombardier) since there was no lineup to get BACK to the Skytrain. Cool. It was a nice ride, but not all that exciting. The Canada Line Skytrain back to downtown was lined up out of Olympic Village station! What!

So we walked over the Cambie Bridge and Chris got some great photos of the athletes village and Sochi House on False Creek.

We actually forgot we couldn’t get home our usual way from the Cambie Bridge and detoured up Beatty Street past BC Place, Alberta House and the Bell Ice Cube (huh?) and a huge crowd of people gathering around that area.

On the way home, we encountered a fleet of Mini’s that we had seen before. Canon has outfitted a fleet of 12+ Mini’s with camera lenses on top, and for some reason they really intrigue Chris and I.

After 4 hours on our feet and moving constantly, we finally got home and crashed. The dog was happy to have us back.

This week, we’re going to try to get out in the evening and enjoy some of the excitement and crazy during the evening. This will be “tricky” with having the dog at work, and the fact that Chris is working at 6:00am during the Olympics.

On the weekend, we’re hoping to make it to even more venues. Canada House, Northern House and a bunch of province ones too. I’d like to visit Sochi House as it’s supposed to be impressive, but Chris is disinterested. Considering the Russians tried to kill him last time he encountered them, I don’t blame him, so I may have to go with someone else. We’ll see.

Today marks the 2 week point before the 2010 Winter Olympic Games and the signs are popping up everywhere.

It feels like every open lot or parking area in downtown Vancouver has had a tent or bigger building erected in it and most buildings have had a bit of sprucing up done. Power wash, new signage or paint has really given the downtown a facelift, and it’s quite nice. Too bad it’s probably a one-off. It would be great if the building owners and tenants continued to take this amount of pride in their appearance.

Too many buildings in downtown (business mostly) look like they were nice about 10-20 years ago, but the owners forgot you can still buy paint, or hire a pressure washer for a few bucks. With the annual Vancouver Rains buildings get this dirty streaking where the water runs down and very few people ever clean it up.

There’s a travel office 2 doors from my office (Creatively named ABC Travel) who have been getting a facelift. What was once an older building with classic features is being updated to be a nice fully-glassed in front. Very modern/contemporary. Unfortunately the business inside hasn’t caught up. They moved in 2 years ago (moving down 4 doors) and the place is a disaster. I swear all they did was carry everyone’s desks covered in years of detritus down and drop them in. So here’s this lovely new glass front, giving you a nice view into a filthy, messy, dark office full of desks covered in 5 year old travel brochures.

Meanwhile, outside our home here on Abbott Street, we’ve finally been cut off from the rest of the city. Well, mostly.

When I took Rumble out for his nightly walk, they’d basically created a corridor of giant traffic cones leading into and out of our garage, but preventing traffic from going anywhere else.

This morning, they’ve been allowing 1 or 2 vehicles past (Casino shuttle for one) and turning away a bunch of pissed off motorists because they’ve also closed Expo Blvd and Pacific Blvd from Quebec to Nelson! They’re in the final stages of putting up the concrete dividers and chainlink fence to completely block the intersection of Expo and Abbott here and should be done when Rumble and I leave for work shortly.

The Olympic “garbage collectors” have started appearing. Basically 2 pinch rings attached to various light posts around the city, with transparent green garbage bags hanging out of them. Not a very “pretty” sight, but as Chris pointed out, they are anti-terrorist friendly. The can collectors will also be thrilled to be able to see which ones to target.

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