Category Archives: Photos

i know i tweeted about this earlier today, but i don’t think y’all took me seriously.
on Saturday, February 7th, i want to go lose my blood donation virginity and i want ALL of my geographically-compatible friends and acquaintances to do it with me.
i also know that this will take more wrangling than a Project Runway premiere/sushi-making party, but this… this is all for the greater good.
plus, there is all the juice and cookies you can stand to consume! and a pin! and knowing you’re saving up to THREE LIVES! and, if you don’t already know it, your blood type (so you can finally fill in that “blood type” box found, oddly, on lots of Japanese paper products marketed to teens).
and, you can hold my hand because, frankly, i’m scared to death.
not of the needle (thank goodness i’m finally over that teenage phobia). or the blood (c’mon, i have a uterus). what i’m really afraid of is passing out in front of all those strangers. i’m fairly certain, intellectually, that won’t happen; but, my own issues with public humiliation are still great enough to insist on my nervous system quivering at the mere thought. will you be my security blanket?
today, i got the skinny on how the whole blood donation thing goes by a lovely lady from Canadian Blood Services. it’s all very thorough and medical with lots of questions about where you’ve been and who you’ve slept with, but it’s also entirely confidential and safe.
i’ve been wanting to give blood for years and years, but my ignorance of the procedure combined with that nagging fear mentioned above kept me away. i feel like it’s my duty to carry on the family practice of being a prolific blood donor. my dad donated regularly for decades (until he got cancer (he’s fine now, thanks!) and they took him off the list).
so, my awesome grand plan is for us all to gather in North Vancouver for a nice big brunch (they want you to be well fed & hydrated), then head over to St. Andrew’s United Church and get our blood drawn together! afterwards, who knows? the sky’s the limit!
who’s with me? who wants to save some lives?! if you’re reading this and can get to North Van without aid of a plane ticket or passport, i really hope you will consider joining me.

i guess i should give up my dreams of being a runner, huh?

succumbed to pizza. i really wanted a steak, but knew i couldn’t cook it well enough so i opted for the more expensive, less satisfying option. i rock! and i have indigestion.
tomorrow is a big day! it’s MRI day at St. Paul’s! my appointment is at 7am, so i’m hoping to arrive around 6:30 so i can find where the radiology department in time. i’ve never done more than just drive past the hospital, so i’m way more nervous about getting/parking there than anything else. the last thing i want is to be late and get bumped. that would make me cry.
otherwise, i’m ridiculously excited about it! i totally expect i’m going to be like some annoying 5 year old asking “what’s that?” “what are you doing?” “what does that do?” “what are you doing now?” “can i take a picture?” “what’s that noise?”
i’m SO EXCITED i don’t even mind that my alarm clock is set for 4:45 am.
i sold two more magnet sets today. i took my latest into work and they went pretty darn fast. i have more square glass on order, but it could be weeks until it arrives, which is sad because i received three beautiful new chiyogami papers from portland in the mail and i can’t wait to use them.
i had big plans to do laundry and some house cleaning tonight since i have plans wednesday and company coming on thursday and super dessert to make tomorrow, but… it’s cold and rainy and dark and i’m so stuffed with mediocre pizza i think i’ll just park my but on the couch and work on my latest pair of booties while basking in the glow of the idiot box.
sound good to you?

oh, right. i do still have a website. sorry about that. what with having no access when i’m most often found at a computer and with twitter being so darn easy to pop my thoughts out when they come… excuses, excuses. i’m a poor blogger, i know. actually, it seems to be a theme lately. most of my favourite bloggers have been really quiet lately. maybe the bloom is finally off the rose…
regardless, hi! what’s up?
this past week i’ve been the crazy crafter. one of my co-workers mentioned she was to have a table at a local craft fair this weekend and, without even thinking about it, i asked if i could put some stuff on it for her to sell. so, i’ve been making booties, photo cards and magnets, magnets and more magnets. it’s been fun! i think it’s the season for closeting yourself in your house and making things.
otherwise, i re-borked my knee a couple of weeks ago, so was limping and sad for two weeks. i rediscovered my love of breakfast dining. i’ve almost finished my xmas shopping. i’ve had far, far too many work dreams. i need a haircut. my boyfriend bought himself a 24″ iMac and i’m so jealous.
big news: i’m finally booked for my MRI at st. paul’s hospital on the 2nd. i’m ridiculously excited to start the process of (hopefully) getting my knee fixed. seriously, you couldn’t wipe the smile off my face the day i got the news.
car update: after $600 and four trips to the spa, i think the intermittent and troubling power problems have been fixed. first, they replaced the oxygen sensor (to fix the sputtering), then they replaced the coolant temperature sensor (to fix the crazy starting problem). it’s been running really well the last two weeks, so of course that’s when i discovered there’s a leak somewhere.
christopher and i stopped at the grocery store to pick up dinner fixings last night on the way home from work. when i asked him to reach into the back, behind my seat, to grab my re-useable shopping bags (see? i’m eco-friendly!), he pulled them out he said they were wet and asked if i’d put an umbrella back there. i then reached behind me and felt the floor mat — and it was soaking wet.
it’s probably been there forever, so i can’t panic about it. hell, i can’t even let myself think about it or i’ll just get disheartened. i was starting to feel so good about the car and my bank accounts and knee situation… something had to go wrong, right? i will mention it to the spa guy when i go back to give him an update on the fixes. maybe he’ll have a cheap and easy idea. cross your fingers!
so, yeah. i’m really boring, which is probably the main reason it’s been so quiet around here.
how’ve you been? tell me everything!

yesterday, my blog turned eight years old! woo!

although the last year or so has been relatively quiet compared to those early days of multiple posts per day and blogging on weekends, i’m still glad i’ve kept it around. surprisingly, there even seem to be a few of you who still come around to see what’s going on.

i’ve had a lot of things rattling around in my brain to write about lately, but time and circumstances don’t permit for blog-writing the way i prefer to do it. i cannot access this website from work, which means, because i self-host, i cannot access the software to publish to this site during the day; and, as my life has evolved, once i get home the last thing i want to do is spend any signicant time in my computer chair typing. it’s not that i don’t spend time at the computer at home, but these days there just seems to be so many other things which need doing when i’m there i can’t find the dedicated time to write. browsing the runnersworld.com forums or twittering don’t take the same kind of brain power as actually writing.

obviously, if i want to start publishing again, i need to work on a new procedure. i guess this post is the first step towards that goal.
anyhoo, happy anniversary weblog! here’s to eight more years together!

so, i’ve been 36 for almost two weeks now. i’ve also shed all the weight i gained while sitting on my mom’s couch eating marshmallows during the first half of my week off (thank god).
let’s see, for my birthday i:
– got spoiled
– went to Parksville
– ate cake
– got even more spoiled
– sweated a lot
– bought new Nikes which feel like walking on a trampoline
– nursemaided my sick boyfriend
– ate steak
– slept in to a whopping 8 a.m.
– got a new dvd player which plays avi’s
– played Mario Kart on the Wii
– oh, did i mention i got spoiled?
yeah… even though the festivities weren’t exactly how i imagined they’d be, i’m more than happy with the way they turned out.
i didn’t even really mind getting sick on my first day back to work. well, okay, i minded, but thanks to my boss’s bottle of magic chinese herbs i didn’t get as sick as Christopher (again, thank god).
this past weekend, i went to Richmond twice. once, to buy a dress. twice, to attend a wedding shower. both made for awesome days… even if i was in Richmond. ;)
now, i’m filling in while my officemate is off camping — which means 5 a.m. alarm clocks and lots of grease. and not the good kind you make french fries in. oh well. it means i get to leave early. that’s got to be worth the pain, right?
okay, enough of this “communicating” crap. i have a disk full of Dexter to watch!

i probably shouldn’t be writing a birthday retrospective at 5:44 a.m. especially since i just woke up from a mystifying dream involving me on a cruise ship wanting to buy a new DSLR but having forgotten to bring any money since it was “all inclusive”. not to mention the sea turtles.
anyhoo, 35 may have been a little difficult to wrap my brain around, but 36 seems just… old.
i think i’ll have some coffee and mull this whole situation over. that’s what old people do, right?

i knew when i saw that 2 pounds of strawberries on the “must sell fast” shelf for only $2.50 i had to have them. turns out that my first strawberry pie turned out pretty darn awesome.
what a perfect end to an almost perfect weekend. yay.

this is news only to those of you who don’t follow me on flickr, but…

yesterday, i got a haircut. the end.

let’s see:
– i’m on vacation this week.
– the car is in the shop.
– again.
– i have lilacs in a vase on the windowsill.
– i love lilacs.
– i just ate salad with chicken for lunch.
– i have a houseguest coming to stay for the weekend.
– this means i’ve been cleaning.
– a lot.
– i’ve known this guest for almost 13 years, but we’ve never met.
– i’m driving down to seattle to fetch them, since there’s a lack of passport involved.
– i’ve got tickets to see REM on friday.
– i’m addicted to Mario Kart 64.
– and i can’t get a Sloan song out of my head.
– my uncle made me a custom rolling stand for my printer & scanner.
– it is awesome.
– i’ve been making stuff lately, too.
– rings and magnets and stuff.
– i like making stuff.
– i’m so happy i’m not sick for this vacation.
– i just ate a macaroon.
– yum.
– back to the gym tonight.
– i need that.
– since i’ve eaten far too many macaroons.
– i can’t believe it’s almost the end of May.
– car’s ready. time to go!

oy.

last week? last week was rough.
between still being beleaguered by the horrible, horrible plague i think i got from all that French kiss-kissing i did at a show opening, the utter lack of quality sleep, the screaming from my neighbour’s apartment, work taking my soul out back and kicking the shit out of it and stealing its milk money by the time Friday rolled around, i was completely out of sorts.
i was so anxious about rising gasoline prices, the rice rationing in American Costco’s and the utter inability to hear anything but bad news about the planet and its inhabitants that there was nothing for me to do but become overwhelmed and curl up in a ball and whimper.
to top it all off, i missed getting my polaroid photos in the ‘roid week pool on flickr by 5 hours because i was too upset to figure out that re-hooking up my scanner wasn’t any big deal at all. le sigh.
Christopher braved my ridiculous moodiness long enough to watch some tv and eat utterly horrible pizza and then leave me to hopefully get some sound slumber.
Saturday morning, sometime around 8 o’clock, the screaming from across the hall started again. this time, it was beyond anything i’d heard before. it was shrill and manic. as i was trying to figure out if i should call 911 or just the non-emergency police phone number, i heard a knock at their door and my upstairs neighbour asking if everyone was all right. about fifteen minutes later, more knocking, this time followed by very officious voices asking what was going on. boy… that sure was a great way to start my day!
luckily, i put the rest of it to good use getting my space all cleaned, tidied and sorted. laundry was done and there was even a little tv-watching. a super-hot shower followed by an afternoon out in Kerrisdale with Christopher and the best sushi in the world and i was right as rain by Saturday evening which was perfect timing because i had plans to head downtown to have drinks with people from high school i hadn’t seen in 8 to 18 years.
the micro-reunion (it was too small to even be called mini) was nice, but as everyone else there has been in a lot more contact with each other in the intervening years, i felt just like i did in school: friendly, but not really connected to anyone. i kept feeling like they all knew so much more about each other’s lives while i was just kind of… there. i’m glad i went, but i think i had expectations of a greater feeling of shared history, especially with two of the attendees. unfortunately, it just wasn’t there. i’m not quite upset about that, but it does leave me feeling a little like a small piece of my personal history has faded away.
ugh. i just realized that i hadn’t seen the majority of those individuals when i was HALF my current age. wow. now that’ll make you feel old. sheesh.
anyway, i’ve got to go visit Mr. Physio to pick up my prescription orthotics. i’m hoping they’re going to be the miracle cure for all my aches and pains. once i get them, then i can start looking for new sport shoes. i have it in my head that Nike Free 5.0’s are what, in combination with the orthotics, are going to make me walk and run and work out like a whole new person. heh. i’m such a sucker.

since buying my 1991 Volkswagen Golf, i believe it’s been in the shop, on average, every six or seven weeks. let’s run down the list of things which have required service/repair/replacement since i bought it in August:
– pre-purchase inspection (duh)
– post-purchase major tune-up (including new front brakes)
– front passenger window stopped working (needs new regulator – to be replaced next month, finally)
– rear passenger window replacement (remember when it exploded at the car wash?)
– noxious fumes entering cabin (oil cap was left off after oil change, but i thought it was the exhaust system)
– scary moaning noises when running fan and windshield wipers on high during major downpours
– ran out of gas on way to work (yay for BCAA)
– windshield replacement
– engine vacuum — to address power problem
– leaky rear wheel cylinder replacement
– fuel filter replacement — to address power problem
– headlight bulb burned out
– coolant leak due to coolant hose rubbing through spark plug wires — the cause of power problem, who knew?
– accelerator pedal started sticking when accelerating (throttle cable was rusted through)
– slow leak in rear tire (to be fixed next month)
don’t get me wrong, i really like my new-to-me car. it’s definitely a step up from the Geo, but sweetness and light, i certainly hope i can get through the summer with only the most basic of routine service visits to my mechanic (although, i’m not hopeful as i think the master cylinder might be on its way out and it’s due for a new timing belt fairly soon). it’s getting to be a joke about how much time i’ve been spending there lately.
well, either that or i need to dump Christopher for a VW specialist. just kidding, honey!
p.s. there’s major construction going on at work and i think the constant vibrating of the building might just make me go insane.

maybe it’s an april fool’s day joke, but there’s no pain in my lower body today. after several months of various knee, foot and back aches, this ability to walk around pain-free is making me wary.
the feeling of impending suckitude is compounded by the non-problematic running of my car since the latest visit to the shop last thursday. i discovered a coolant leak right where a hose had RUBBED THROUGH two spark plug wires. yes, there was coolant soaking bare wires. last time i checked, water and electricity didn’t go together. a quick (and expensive) replacement and there have been no power problems all weekend — and i did a fair bit of driving around town. i keep touching wood or crossing my fingers, just in case.
i don’t want to get my hopes up.
lucky girl that i am, i was treated to an hour long full-body massage yesterday. sweetness and light, that was fantastic. after all the aforementioned aches and the week i couldn’t turn my head to the right, massage was exactly what i needed. seriously, what took me so long to start going?
in other news, there’s not a lot of other news. the weekend was relaxing-busy, with lots of thrift stores, an ice pellet storm, a family gathering, Portobello West, the single best CFC workout since we started them and a trip to get our last feed of Wally’s Burgers before they closed down yesterday.
the appearance of sunshine on sunday was quite the tonic for my soul. walking around Vanier Park taking photos of cherry blossoms and friendly ducks was exactly what i needed after the last couple weeks of wintery weather. now, i just hope it sticks!

oh, hey! how’s it going? wow, time surely flies, don’t it? can you believe march is almost over? seriously, easter is this weekend and spring is mere hours from being sprung (according to the equinox, that is).
so, yeah. stuff.
let’s see… catching up.
i had an odd, yet very pleasant, interaction at a birthday party with a long-time reader of this very website. i knew of him, through comments and our mutual friend, but we’d not once met in person. it was an interesting flash of insight as to how it must feel to be a celebrity. not that i’m a celebrity, by any means, just that when you first meet someone they already know all this stuff about you. in conversation, you mention “this guy so-and-so” and they reply with “oh, yeah! he’s a central storyline!”… it’s a little weird. that being said, i’m glad to have finally met him. hi, dave! ;)
what else? um…
i’ve been going to the physiotherapist for the last couple of weeks to rehabilitate my injured knee. that’s been fun. no, really! i’m almost inspired to start a new blog entitled “Tales from the Physiotherapist” because every time i go, there seems to be one stand out comment or situation which practically begs to be blogged. like monday, when he came at me with a bottle of gel, a plunger and told me not to be nervous. i couldn’t make this shit up if i wanted to!
knitting has slowed down considerably, but i’m still obsessed with wrist warmers. now that i’ve learned a couple new tricks and found some ridiculously yummy wool (so cheap! at wal-mart!), i’m trying to knit unblemished pairs now. there’s just something awesome about using five double-pointed needle at the same time. to quote the lovely mindy: it’s danger craft!
i got the chance to borrow a co-worker’s SB-600 speedlight flash for a weekend. while i still want one, the time with it mostly served to remind me that it’s not just fancy gear which makes for awesome photos. *sigh* i’m not so much with the awesome photo-making these days. i’m blaming the winter. soon, there will be more outside time. especially once my knee, other knee and feet are feeling better.
filed my taxes, got my return, spent the money.
liselotte has been acting weird and making scary noises. she goes in for a fuel filter replacement tomorrow. i hope it’s a cheap and easy solution to a troubling problem. cross your fingers for me!
my photo didn’t sell, but my boyfriend’s did! the whole exhibition experience was nerve-wracking and weird. i’ll probably sumbit again, but just not go to the opening night schmooze fest. that was exhausting. hated it.
i guess that’s it.
oh, my boss quit. friday was his last day. i was so distraught by the end of the day that when he came into my office to finally say goodbye, i couldn’t say a word. i just barely managed to hug him while trying not to sob hysterically. he… yeah. he was a great boss and a great guy and i’m not the only person who will miss him immensely both now and far into the future. it sucked. a lot.
tomorrow’s a half-day, then i’m hopping on the ferry to go spend easter weekend with the maternal unit (hi mom!) and our adopted family member, karen. i forsee: shopping, eating, tv, laughter, sarcasm and hugs. it’ll be just what the doctor ordered.
so, yeah. you’re fully updated on the rich and full life of me. are you sated? i’m feeling a little spent, myself. that was a lot of words for someone who doesn’t type much anymore. go chomp the ears off some chocolate bunnies for me and i’ll try to put more characters on your screen a little more often. ‘kay?

i’ve had a photo accepted to be part of this group exhibition at a downtown gallery. i can’t express to you the intense combination of excitement and disbelief i’m experiencing.
if you’re local, i certainly hope you’ll be able to come to the opening on the 29th. if not, do take some time to visit the show on a quieter day. it should be lovely.