23 July 11

A basically perfect day, beginning with hearty diner breakfast followed by fruit wine at Elephant Island, and five or six other wineries thereafter. Bistro lunch. Lounging and swimming in the lake. Driving to Okanagan Falls for ice cream at Tickleberry's. Dinner at the pub. Reading in bed.

22 July 11

We started our Okanagan wine tour in Summerland after driving up the Coquihalla in the morning. This is Jesse outside of Dirty Laundry, taken with the Pentax.

21 July 11

Jeff and I went for dinner at Biercraft (formerly Stella's) on the Drive with my mom and Jimm.

20 July 11

This lamp is beside my bed. This photo is terrible.

19 July 11

18 July 11

From the top of Boundary Rd, looking west.

17 July 11

I rode my bike to Mal & Kaylie's and then we went for the by-donation lunch at the temple. Malloreigh left to go play cards and I hung out with Kaylie while she cooked, and then rode home to have dinner with Jeff and watch Being John Malkovich, a thoroughly messed-up movie which I had never seen before.

16 July 11

We hosted a no-pants party and although the day was stormy and lame, the turnout was quite good! Never underestimate the draw of doing (vegan and regular) jello shots while pantsless.

15 July 11

I moved my lavender outside because it hasn't quite been the same since it got knocked over, and it was taking up a lot of windowsill space. It seems to be doing better out on the front stoop.

14 July 11

I went to see midnight Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 with Steph, Amanda, Alice, Aaron, and Raffi at Metrotown. Amanda and I got there at 7:30 and Steph had been there since quarter to six and there were still loads of people ahead of us. Finally getting to sit in the theatre seats was an amazing experience.
The movie was one of the most epic things I have ever seen. At one point you could basically hear everyone in the theatre crying. Were it not for the cheesy epilogue ending it would pretty much be perfect. I got home at 3am and got up for work at 7:30 and it was so worth it.

12 July 11

Cookoff day! It was BBQ-themed and it was amazing. I made sweet balsamic glazed peaches with vegan crème fraîche, lemon, and sage. Pictured above is Laryssa's entry: fruit, onion, garlic and seitan in homemade barbecue sauce with cornflake crumbs. It was such a great evening, the skies cleared up and we sat out in Nina's beautiful backyard drinking sangria until it got dark and rainy.
I highly encourage all of you to click the link to the cookoff blog and check out the other entries and photos, and see who won!

11 July 11

This is what happens when you run out of tomatoes and everyone in your house buys some on their way home.

10 July 11

In the afternoon I rode my bike to the grocery store to buy cookoff ingredients, and man, I forgot how Adanac is uphill both ways. After that I just kinda lazed around, and when Jeff came home from work he was holding a graffiti book and a vinyl copy of Deltron 3030, and when I asked him where he got it he told me he paid a dollar for each one at a yard sale up the street. I went up there and got everything in the above photo for $5. Best shopping trip ever!

09 July 11

Jeff and I spent the day doing outdoorsy-type errands: went to MEC to buy new tubes for my bike (I wanted new tires too but they didn't have the right size), repotted herbs, bought a garden rake to attack the weeds around our vegetables, and got some new succulents for the kitchen window. In addition to the one above I also got an aloe vera and some purple baby toes.

08 July 11

Jen Hardwick arrived in Vancouver for an extended summer visit, and she came by for dinner (Jeff's butter chicken with homemade naan, and asparagus in curry butter) and between the five of us we drank two bottles of wine and then figured we might as well open a port as well. Since, you know, we'll be going to the Okanagan soon and acquiring even more wine and port.

07 July 11

I came home and Jesse was doing a test run of Skittle vodka jello shooters for the no-pants party on the 16th. I'm not normally very interested in jello, but these definitely improved the taste of both jello AND two-year-old homemade skittlebrau.

06 July 11

I took the afternoon off work and went to the doctor, went to the bank, bought bras that fit (lol 30DD what even is life), and met with someone who wants me to photograph a wedding in August. After all that I went to Steph's and we watched Order of the Phoenix.

05 July 11

04 July 11

We had a wine and cheese party at Flatland because Amanda, a longtime vegan, had been feeling curious about nice cheeses lately and wanted to get together and try a bunch of them. I went to Les Amis du Fromage and bought four pieces: marechal, manchego, fenugreek gouda, and cave-aged gruyere. Then we put on fancy clothes and headed over with a bottle of Beronia rioja that we'd been sitting on for awhile, and sat on the floor drinking wine and listening to old blues records while we tried all the cheeses (not to mention Tim's homemade bread).
On the way home there was a perfect harvest quarter moon over the city skyline; I wished desperately that I had a tripod but alas, it was not meant to be.

03 July 11

I slept off my hangover until around noon, and then went for lunch with my mom and Jimm in Coquitlam. Took the 160 home and Jeff got in from work shortly afterwards; we had a lovely evening together watching Good Will Hunting (Jeff had never seen it) and eating the food pictured above: wine-sautéed mushrooms and onions with rice and velouté sauce, garnished with basil. And rioja we bought ages ago at a grocery store in the states for very few dollars.

02 July 11

In the afternoon Jeff and I went to Third Beach for Angelique & Ben's going-away party. It was a lovely day... up until we arrived at the beach and it began to cloud over. We stayed talking and eating freshly-picked salmonberries for an hour or two, and then I went to Maple Ridge for Alice's birthday party. It was a kegger and although I didn't intend to, I got pretty drunk. My camera got passed around a lot, so of the photos that are actually interesting and/or in focus, I'm really not sure who took them. Alice did four kegstands because she's amazing. Covered in mosquito bites, I took a taxi back to my parents' place around 2am and passed out in Alice's bed, as she had already called it a night on a futon at the party. She showed up around 1:30 the following afternoon with a Big Mac meal and said she felt fine. What a champ.

01 July 11

I didn't take a picture on the 30th of June, so here are two from Canada Day. I got up early and made cookies for the bake sale/fundraiser/house show/party at The Mansion, and after dropping them off at Flatland I ran some errands with Jeff. Later Sarah had finished her cookies so we went to The Mansion together and stayed all afternoon and early evening chatting with friends and friendly strangers, drinking sangria, listening to the bands, eating baked goods, smoking joints. It was an utterly fabulous day, and the first where it truly felt like summer.

29 June 11

Steph and I were supposed to go see Super 8 but we both had horrible transit fail so we just watched the fourth Harry Potter movie at her place. We're trying to work our way through all of them before the new one comes out next week.

28 June 11

27 June 11

I went over to Flatland and Amanda, Laryssa, Jeff D and I sat on the porch drinking wine until it got windy and cool. Then we went inside and sat on the living room floor listening to music, smoking the hookah, and eating popcorn. A lovely evening.

26 June 11

Jeff, Jesse, Steph & I tried to go for brunch at Jethro's, but the wait was like an hour so we instead went to Crave on Main Street and sat on their patio. Steph got a mimosa. I got a sunburn.

25 June 11

I'm so lucky to have such a well-dressed man in my life. He dropped me off at Steph's and then we watched Harry Potter movies and ate food all day.

24 June 11

I used up the last of the film in my Holga and started a new roll in the Pentax. Thus, all the (presumably) decent photos from this day are on film. This is the ashtray on our front stoop.