Long march in Victoria

Once we were good and sunburned (and rested) we headed downtown for a day of touristing. We hopped the bus, and headed down to Douglas & Pandora, then walked back towards Chinatown. On the way, we stopped at a couple of places, notably Silk Road Tea, which is a pretty fancy joint, not Chinese, but selling tea notwithstanding. Mostly fancy herbal teas, and we got a couple, Angelwater, which is spearmint-lavender, and a sour-cherry sencha. Then we hopped on down to Don Mee for a bite of brunch. We had lotus leaf rice, Siu Mai, Honey Buns, ginger pork dumplings, and a couple of other things. Upon waddling away, we shopped a bit and wound up at Swan's where we tried the Berry Ale and the Wit. Both were excellent. (On a later visit, we would add Arctic Ale and Bitter to the mix, and they were good as well.) More shopping followed, including the consumption of chocolate at Chocolaterie du Victoria, which were awesome, and some Sushi at a place on Blanshard near Fisgard next to the Arabian Nights Cafe. Then we hopped a bus to the house, and promptly got lost by missing our stop and going on a grim forced-march back to the house. Happily we were spotted by our kind hosts and Jenn got a ride up the hill. By this time Jenn's knee and Hip were in a good deal of pain from all the walking, and she needed a solid dose of Jinuhntonucks in order to sort her out. To this was added BBQ of halibut, salmon, and smoked sablefish, along with stir-fry and rice, which were all good, although Jenn didn't care for the sablefish. Then off to bed with visions of more dawdling in our minds.

So then, like,

Upon finishing our time in Calgary, we hopped a plane for Victoria, or, rather, we trudged for the crack-of-dawn flight, and fought our way through the business travelers trying to hit Vancouver by their mid-morning meetings. Jenn had to sit next to a very rude woman on the plane, who had almost been detained at security for making a scene over her coffee cup. We flew out on a CRJ 200 and arrived at a reasonable time in Victoria. Upon our arrival, we were met by my Uncle, who drove us into town, set us up at the house, and left us unattended while we slept (Jenn) and sunburned (Owen).

Upon the return of our kind hosts, we dove into the Ginnantonyks and some very good Chinese food, and called it an early day.

We're back

We'll be updating our blog here over a few posts with details of our little holiday, there's a bunch to talk about, so we will be taking our time.

First off, we headed out on Thursday morning after Jenn was done her exam, and after I hauled all our stuff down to the truck in preparation for a few days camping. On the way to pick her up, I went to T&T for lunch, where I got Ginger Beef and Lemon Chicken, adventurous, I know, but Jenn was writing a really hard exam, so she got comfort food, so there. We headed out along the back way to drumheller, in what can only be described as bucketing rain. When we arrived at our campground, there was an awful lot of thunderstorm going on, so we ditched and cruised the extra hour into Calgary and stayed with my parents for an extra couple of days. During that time, we were fed, watered, and I got to start some wine kits with my dad and bottle my sherry, and trim the hedge and whatnot. It was swell.

I also had a chance to stop in and visit the Hamiltons, who are living on the way way way south side of Calgary, about 75 km by car from my parents house (still in the same city however) and the happy new parents, whose little happiness causer is very very cute. I also liked the fancy low-flush toilet they installed. It really flushed hard. I don't know if it was a pressure assist or just a high speed valve, but it got the job done on 6 litres. That's quality.

We also watched the Oilers lose the Cup, which sucked, and we booed.

Making lunch, and making Jenn a happy camper.

I need to use up a whole bunch of eggs and onions between now and when we leave on holiday, so I have made two recipes from this book, Onion tart, and Quiche Lorraine. They are just getting ready to go in the oven, so they will be ready for lunch when I get Jenn. She is one lucky chick. Slowly but surely she is turning into a foodie, and it makes me happy. Another thing that makes me happy is the fact that as soon as I start working on the computer, Koda curls up at the top of my keyboard and falls asleep. He never does this when I am not here, because it is the love, you see... The cat love for me.

Speaking of happy campers, we are going camping. For the first couple of days of our trip, we are going to be camping in Drumheller, then we will be heading down to Calgary for a couple of days to check out the zoo and for me to meet with a headhunter, and then off to Victoria for a week or so for a visit and a chill out. Anyone wanting to get together with us in Calgary knows how to get a hold of me.

Our Go Oilers Ordeal:

Some people will tell you that Oilers playoff tickets can't be had for love or money. That just isn't true. Our love got us Oilers tickets in section 333, which is just below, well, the roof. But that's okay, because we were in Rexall place for the big game! I thought my heart was gonna stop after Ryan Smythe's goal.

In order to win these tickets, I had to kiss my wife. Sounds easy enough, but then try kissing for five and a half hours without stopping. No pee breaks, no removing your lips from one another, no sitting down. At the end of the ordeal, there were three couples standing, and the names went in the hat. We won, we won, we won. Woot Woot Woot. Go Oilers. Jenn will understand if we never kiss again.

s'il vous plaît, parlez Anglais!

Aggh! Seven days of French, five hours a day, plus homework. Five more days. French immersion. Jenn is slowly...Going...Crazy...

Just in case anyone is wondering where I am.

My thesis:

So yesterday I finished the draft of my thesis that I was on, call it the third draft, although it's hard when you are using a word processor to think of drafts. This is the draft where you print it out and hand-edit it. Unfortunately, since I finished that draft, I have had to take into account the damned homegrown bombers in Toronto, so there will be a few small tweaks as I go through, but soon, SOON, it will be done! I know I have said this before, but REALLY, this thesis will be handed in almost right away, after which I will... Continue to tweak and work on it, at least until I hear back from my Advisor. Well, I might take a day off to do something fun, like, I dunno, what do people do for fun? Look for jobs?

Parents using computers.

Does this http://general-mayhem.blogspot.com/2006/06/so.html sound familliar?

I'd be concerned that my mom would post a comment objecting, but I think I am more likely to get an e-mail saying, "I tried to post a comment on your blog, but it didn't work. It kept showing me these funnly-looking letters.

Happy Birthday

Today, we will be celebrating a birthday with our friend Jocelyn. There will be a party. There will be all kinds of fun, there may even be costumes.