GAME 6

Pre game hottie....
We need a double-shot for extra luck





Big-Lips-Mitch work'n up a sweat.


And the man, the legend.....LOOOOOUUUUUUU.



Stay tuned for a post game update. I predict a riot.
UPDATE- 2-0 Dallas.

EARTH DAY

The following post is not hockey related...

This sunday is Earth Day!
Now would be the perfect time to change to a greener lifestyle! Well how'm I gonna do that you ask? Well lucky for you I've made a list!

1. Plastic. It's super bad. It never breaks down in landfills, and it is actually bad for your health. Without going into a big explanation, the use of plastics in household materials and food containers has been linked to girls getting their first period earlier than they used to (16 years about 100 years ago to 11 or 12 now). Pregnant moms should worry (or those who want to be moms) because plastics leach Estrogens into the food that we eat. This actually changes the organization of the baby's brain and it affects them for the rest of their life. It can also change the baby's reproductive organs making them sterile with a combo of boy and girl parts. All bad news. If you are wondering where I got this info from, I did a termpaper on this, and it is all from reputable medical journals. It is now becoming the consensus that plastic is not foodsafe and could be really detrimental to the health of little ones. My Earth Day contribution is to cut my use of plastics by a lot. I'm going on a plastic-detox. My plan includes: using canvas bags for grocery shopping, recycling more (most stuff I recycle), and trying to figure out a plastic-free way to pack a lunch. It's going to be a tough thing to change.

On with the list, easier changes:
2. your car. get rid of a gas guzzler in favour of a hybrid or more energy efficient car. Drive less, take public transit, and walk more. If you can walk, do! This is also an excellent way to lose weight and save money!!

3. change your light bulbs to the more energy efficient type. They last 5 years, before they burn out. So you will also be saving time not having to change light bulbs, as well as saving money on the cost of replacement bulbs and electricity!

4. Use cold water. Wash your clothes in cold water, and hang to dry when possible.

5. If you have electric heat registers shut them off at the fuse box in the spring. Did you know that they eat up energy all summer long?

6. Look into weather stripping windows and doors, I hear that this can really make a difference in the amount of energy spent in the winter on heating.

7. Buy locally grow foods. In the summer, this is just about the easiest change to make. The food grown way far away has to transported to where you are. But, if you buy locally grown produce, not only is it fresher with more nutrients, but it also requires less energy to get it to you.

8. Recycle. If don't do this already, you should! I have guilt tripped more than one person into recycling. I give out Recycler of the Year certificates to those I see making an extra effort. :)

9. If you live in an appartment and think that you can't compost, think again. You can Vermicompost! Dirt, newspaper (shredded), worms and a little water and veg scraps all in a rubbermaid tote with some air vents. Mix and wait. The micro-organisms eat the veg, the worms eat the micro-organisms and make dirt. Excellent way to teach kids about recycling, ecosystems, and why we always save worms who are drowning on the sidewalk when it rains. And it doesn't smell because you bury the veg.

10. I can't really think of a #10....

GAME 5

Uh yeah, Sorry for the delay I was busy failing an endocrinology exam... someone called in a bomb threat half way through too. I'm ok, turns out there was no bomb, and no it wasn't me who made the call. Anyways on to the important stuff like, the game 5 pre-game hottie pic!



One of my personal favorites. Kevin Bieksa. His stupid penalties are a bit of a problem though. But I'd still date him. I think the black and white pic adds a bit of class.

Stay tuned for a post game update. Who is the annonymous Canuck who is a faithful commenter?

UPDATE- crap. 1-0 Dallas in OT. Damn, and I was all ready to start a riot.

GAME 4

I thought I would go vintage for this posting. You know that in '94 you were all about him. Those big lips, the blue eyes and my god ... the dimples. Oh Pavel, where are you now? He probably has a comb over, but for a while he was the hottest Russian in town.

I love how my postings about the playoffs have digressed into a heated discussion about who is the hottest Canuck. For all you non-hockey fans, at least my blog is now a source of eye candy. I promise a non-hockey related post soon.

Game 4 update to follow...

UPDATE- The canucks won again 2-1. They are now leading the series 3 to 1.

Trevor had a very good game, so here's a picture of him. Hmmm, I wonder if anyone has named their son after him? Stay tuned for more hot canucks...

GAME 3

Game faces on, stay tuned for an update

Whitney didn't think that Taylor Pyatt was very good looking, so I have added a new pic for this game. No-neck-Brent Sopel. mmmm...mullet

Update- Canucks won 2-1. Thanks to a winning goal in 1st OT by Taylor!

GAME 2

2-0 Dallas. BOOO. I listened on the radio at work. It didn't sound like a very good game. All you Canuck fans out there- who's this cutie? Hint, he's on the team, and he isn't a twin. Also if you are looking to pick up some Canucks gear, my local Shoppers has a HUGE amount of Canucks stuff.

Also there is a new feature on my blog. A map that shows where people are that check out my blog. No surprises yet, Vancouver and Hong Kong.

GAME 1

A WIN 5-4. But for the love of Christmas Pete do you think we could do that in less that 7 periods? I can't commit to watching 5 and a half hours of hockey a night durring final exams. Thanks a bunch.

Well that's a relief

You Are 60% Normal

Otherwise known as the normal amount of normal You're like most people most of the time But you've got those quirks that make you endearing You're unique, yes... but not frighteningly so!

How Normal Are You?

Also a very good sign:

You Could Definitely Be a Vegetarian

You would make a great vegetarian - if you aren't one already. You're adventurous enough to try all sorts of new veggie foods... And your commitment to animal welfare will motivate you to stay meat free!

Could You Be a Vegetarian?

This is total crap! I'm way more Irish than that.

You're 40% Irish

You're probably less Irish than you think you are... But you're still more Irish than most.

How Irish Are You?

I also have good manners 78% of the time (sure) and my celebrity boob twin is a mix between Lucy Lawless and Chalize Theron. Obviously I was hoping for Scarlett Johannson or maybe Angelina. Damn. Thanks to Catherine for the time waster link on her blog.

Mark Your Calendar!

April 18th is the start of the annual Army and Navy shoe sale. Nothing better than cheap shoes. You can look at the online flyer here: http://www.armyandnavy.ca/

Lesson learned from last year, don't bring a purse, it just gets in your way. Wear slip on shoes, and be prepared for lots of pushing and shoving!!

Little kid birthdays

It's springtime, so that means lots of birthdays. First was Kaitlyn's pirate themed 8th birthday party, complete with a treasure chest cake.

And a tresure chest pinata


Then it was Kassie's 5th birthday

Then Trey's 7th birthday at Cultus Lake, and the Canucks won their game too!

mmmm, ice cream cake!

Easter Bunny

After this Bobby always started eatting at the ears, not the tail.

It sounds like an April fools day joke, but it's not. It is snowing. I think this is the latest I've seen snow. Umm it's April, right?

UPDATE- it's now 11:25am on the 2nd and it is snowing again! I also lied when I said it was the latest I've seen snow. After reading Cathy's post, I remembered that it snowed on Sarah's birthday May 10th in Kaslo in 1985 or 1986. But this is Vancouver, whole different thing.

The One

I really am going to put an fake ad in the "I saw you" section.

I have a theory that people will pretend to be the person in the ad. My other theory is that other people are also making up false ads to meet people. But I don't know how to test that, other than to respond to every ad and seeing how many people don't care that I'm not "the one." So excercise your creativity and write a good "I saw you" ad. If it's good, you may see it published very soon. I'm going to put a 1 week deadline on submissions.

"I saw you"

Yes I know that I have done a post about "I saw you" messages before. I check them about every few months, just to see. I think some are funny, others are so vague that they could be about anyone. I have been thinking about posting a fake one just to see how many responses I get. Do you want to help me write one?

I'm thinking super general like :
New West station to Granville w4m "We kept making eye contact on the skytrain last night. I kept hoping you would ask for my number, but you never did. Just shy? I was wearing glasses, a black sweater and jeans. You had brown hair and were wearing jeans and a hoodie."

Or else it could be so specific it shouldn't result in any matches.
Starbucks at English Bay w4m "I was ordering a decaf soy caramel machiatto, you ordered the same thing. We are coffee soulmates! I was wearing Lou Lou Lemon, you had blonde dreadlocks. Coffee?"

What do you think? Maybe it is the psyc student in me that is super curious about the type of people that respond to these ads. Can anyone write a better one?

Vegan Lunch box blog

I have a favorite blog that I visit from time to time when I need inspiration. It's called the vegan lunchbox. It is written by a stay-at-home mom (and now author) who packs amazing lunches every monday for her son.

I mean amazing.

The tiger is fried tofu cut into a shape with nori on a bed of sushi rice. And there is a packet of soy sauce in the shape of a fish, with vegan doughnut holes.

Everything is vegan, and super healthy. This was a favorite week of mine. Fruit salad, blanched asparagus with soy sauce and sesame seeds, sushi and a cherry nut fruit bar. So this is a lunch for a teenager right? Wrong!!! He's in kindergarden. (Now he's in grade one). And yes, he eats all of the food. Each lunch is rated by the kid.

I liked this week's lunch too:

It is "chilled Japanese buckwheat noodles topped with a sprinkle of nori and served with a flavorful dipping sauce. This time they are appearing without their traditional sidekick, daikon radish, which shmoo [her nickname for her son] didn't care for. But I did pack some edamame and one of my favorite fruit combos: fresh kiwi fruit mixed with fresh blueberries."

So if you need a little inspiration when packing your lunch, go check out her blog at: http://veganlunchbox.blogspot.com/

Moving Whitney

Yup, Whitney moved today. There seemed to be a lot of discussion about where the sofa should go. I sat back and took pictures.
















Finally we got it just right. This took over an hour.



No one knew what to do with this box. She had the weirdest labels on her boxes.
Change Underwear, and weird clothes. Should we open it? We decided not.

St. Patrick's Day

A few years ago I was really into researching my Irish roots. We really are Irish, from Pontypool, Armagh. It's the north eastern part of Ireland. This got Whitney excited because she thinks maybe our ancestors were IRA. I doubt it. I can't figure out which side is loyal to England and which side isn't.






This is the church that my great great great great grandparents were baptised at in the 1700's Vinecash Presbyterian, this isn't the actual church. It has been rebuilt since then.

Anyways, a toast: 'Beannachtam na Feile Padraig!' <--- Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Pie

Yet another blackberry pie. My freezer is getting awfully empty. I am running low on blackberries. So many hours of picking, but I should have done a little more. Remember the duffle bag that may or may not have contained a body or money? Yeah. I like risked death by cougar to get these berries.


This is a wheat-free dairy-free pie, totally from scratch. Looks good right? Oh so wrong. It was like a lemon pie made with cardboard crust. Far and away the worst pie I have ever made- even worse than the dairy-free cheese cake. I am going to buy ice cream, to see if that makes it edible. I don't want to throw it out, because so much time went into it.

The Ultimate Test of Canadian-ness

I understood about 95% of this, but that's probably because I spent some time in Nfld. Some of the weird stuff is pure newfie slang. How did you do?

"How's she goin' - I was born a herring choker, but brought up a blue noser, a caper to be sure - me paw was from the rock but me maw was née en acadee.. Anyhoo I was working the rigs out by fort mac, and later by cowtown - ended up on compo and drove the #1 to the hammer where I live now. So's the other day I went by the sev for a deck of players and a carton of ****, and then down by the LCB for a halfsack of moosehead and a forty pounder of screech. I had a couple of toonies left so I popped in on the tims for a double double and a maple glazed.. by gar if it didn't remind me of parti sucre weekends at the sugar shack. but the darn metis chucklehead working the joe-job behind the counter forgot to give me a serviette. I asked him right nice, but buddy called me a newf and gave me a trudeau salute. Well lard thunder I got right chippy, he was an FBI from the rez, but I pulled a goon - suckered him in the chicklets, and skedaddled before the RCs got there"
I don't know what the *** is supposed to be. Some sort of slang for milk?



And here's another one



"They'd cut off my E.I. and the pogey was still a week away, so I rounded up all the twoonies and loonies I could find in the chesterfield, and hiked a coupla clicks to the LC to pick up a half sack and a mickey, but settled on a flat and a twenty-sixer and a plan to get right p¡ssed. It was a skookum plan, but I shoulda paid the hydro, cuz they cut me off and now my two-four froze along with the taps and I'm huddled in my tuque, johnnies and mack - without enough left for a hot double double and a jambuster. I'm set for butts though and I've got a whack of KD (but nowheres to cook it). I'm also late for rent on my bachelor, so I'm dekeing my Jean-gee Pepsi landlord as I promised I'd sign over my GST rebate when I got it from revcan. He's somewhat of a goof but I don't want a kerfuffle cuz HNIC and Coaches Corner is tonight and I want to see the Habs knock out the Leafs (like a good 'pegger I'm rootin for anyone but Hogtown)."



Again, it was crystal clear. These were posted on an american website asking for a translation. The translations americans attempted were WAY off. Nobody knew that "hiking a couple of clicks to the LC" was walking a couple miles to the liquor store. Or that butts are cigarettes. Duh! so obvious. The only thing I don't know is the Jean-gee Pepsi reference.

Kaitlyn's birthday

Nothing like getting the flu for your birthday...



Well maybe getting the new Cinderella movie makes up for it.

New Editions

Okay so I went to the store for something and came home with new fish. The big one is Sarah's, it's gotta be like 5 years old. The four little ones are new. I only had 3 fish, and Sarah's fish is so aggressive that it will kill anything that it is put with. So I bought more fish that are aggressive too.

So its like really hard to take a good picture of fish. I spent like half an hour taking a hundred pictures or so and most of the time the fish weren't even in the picture. This is the other new edition. He's a shark. I've never owned a shark, apparently they are aggressive. Unfortunately, mine looks unhappy.

I think it has nothing to do with my camera skills. I think this might have been the problem...

She spends about 1/3 of her awake time at the fish tank like this. She has her favorite fish, the algae eatter. The little bugger was camera shy last night. But I caught a good pic of Salem's #2 favorite fish (my favorite). Ironically it is a catfish.

This is the best picture of the bunch, and it still sucks.

The bike trainer

Yup that's my new bike trainer. Whitney and Rod came over on Sunday and set me up. Thanks!! I'm now going absolutely nowhere at a very fast rate. And yes, it does feel like at any moment, the bike is going to take off and I'll go flying into the wall. Let's hope that doesn't happen!

Night

I am reading a really good book. Night by Elie Wiesel. It is his story of surviving Auschwitz and Buchenwald. He was a teenager in Transylvania, when his family was transported to the concentration camp in 1944. As I read it, I keep thinking that it's a novel. I have to keep reminding myself that this is a memoir. About a year ago, Oprah interviewed him as they walked through Auschwitz, it was far and away the best interview I've seen Oprah do in years. Oprah hardly speaks, she just listened to him. They walked through the grounds and buildings all alone in the snow.

In the book, he tells how even in 1944, up until he was in the camps and saw what was going on, nobody knew. Eventhough the Nazi's had killed so many people by this point, no one knew what was really happening. Wiesel says that they thought they were going to a place to be segregated from the non-Jewish people. He'd never heard of Auschwitz. It is a short story about 120 pages long, but it is such a big story. Go get it.

Spring!

Has anybody else woken up to the bird singing? I love spring. My daffodils are thinking about opening up. My snow drops and blue bells are taking this year off apparently. They are usually blooming right now, but I don't see them. I am already planning Garden 2007. I have an idea of what I want to do, but I am limited by the lack of sun I get. Hopefully I can find a new place to garden in next year.




Just a reminder, this Sunday is the new start to daylight savings time. Spring ahead! It was only after I downloaded this picture that I realized something was wrong with it.

D-List Celebrity Sighting

Remember this guy? Charlotte's super gay friend on Sex and the City? Sarah and I spotted him at Granville and Robson last week after dinner at Saltlik. I was like 90% sure it was him. But I searched imdb and found out that he is in town filming Men in Trees- the show that I am addicted to. It's supposed to be in Alaska, but they are actually filming in Squamish. So it is a 100% sure sighting now.

to protect my ass, photo credit Janet Mayer

Proof that I live in the ghetto

I was walking past my window and happened to look out at the street. I see a guy getting dressed at the dumpster.

It took him about 45 minutes to do. I wish I had a better zoom on my camera. When I looked out, he had a shirt and black dresspants and loafers on, but the pants were undone, and he was trying to tuck in his I heart NY t shirt. After that came a pair of suspenders. And then a head scarf thing as if he was in Kung-Fu. Then a trench coat 5 sizes too big. That messed up the Kung-Fu headband. So he had to start over. After a lot of adjusting he got all his clothes on.









He also had a breifcase and a duffle bag and a walking cane. It took him a very long time to get everything as he wanted. I tried to get a picture of the final outfit, but it didn't turn out very well. But he was talking to himself in a pretty loud voice.


It is by far the strangest thing I have seen this week. I don't know if there was some sort of costume party or if it is

somehow linked to the lunar cycle.

Really not a good picture. This is on max zoom through a dirty window and a window screen. To me he looks a little columbine.

NOTE- if you click on the above pictures you can see more detail.

What's going on?

I think this picture must have been taken while I was in the bathroom.

I'm not sure what prompted this surge of Hippie Love. But it is very reminiscent of the time Sarah and Shannon staged a anti-war walk out in elementary school.

Sarah requested more pictures from Saltlik, so this on is of Kristen and I chowing down.

Salem

The Co-op sent guys to clean out the dryer vents today. Salem didn't like it. Basically it was a giant vaccum. After she came out of her hiding spot, she jumped up here. She went to the highest spot she could get to. Poor girl, it isn't easy being a scaredy cat.

Dryers can start fires if you don't clean the exhaust thingy (in the wall). It gets done here every 2 years. If you haven't done it recently, make sure you get it cleaned.

Guilty Pleasures

I never walk down the cookie aisle. But when I do, I always check to see if Viva Puffs are on sale. I love them. Cookie, jam, marshmellow and chocolate all rolled into one cookie? Yum.

There are other rules besides that they have to be on sale. Only one treat per grocery shop. Everything else in my basket has to be healthy. Essentially I shop to impress. Do you ever look at what other people are buying and make judgements about what sort of person they are? I do. The hot guy that is buying 5 package of meat, is probably not the guy for me. Or people that don't buy veggies. I don't know how they survive. Anyways, I want people to think, wow, she's a healthy eatter. I know, so stupid. And that's where the one treat per basket rule came in. No one will ever think that I am a healthy gal if all I'm buying is junk food. Seriously, what would you think if the person in front of you at the check out was only buying junk food?

So what's your guilty pleasure- food wise?