23 August 11

I was the official photographer at the opening of the Papergirl Vancouver art showcase at the Roundhouse. Please do check out the blog or look up the facebook page if you don't know what Papergirl is. Jeff and a cohort, Alix, got this started in Vancouver (Jeff later had to step aside as coordinator due to other obligations but stayed on as a volunteer) and by the time of the showing they had over 500 pieces of art donated to give away! Pretty amazing stuff.
You can see a few more photos from the event here and here.

22 August 11

Another workplace hipstamatic shot.

21 August 11

20 August 11

Saturday morning I went with Steph, Sarah, and Onur to vegan brunch at Mal & Kaylie's. Afterwards I met up with Amanda for a few hours at the beach, where we swam a bit and shared a pot cookie, which turned out to be much stronger than either of us was expecting. It was a lot of work to operate my body for a few hours, during which I had to climb 400 stairs and take three different forms of transit home. Then I had a nap and Jeff gave me some watermelon to eat, and after that we played board games with Iain, Steph, Jesse & Krystyna. I went to bed relatively early for a Saturday.

19 August 11

Jeff and I went for dinner and drinks in Gastown, and decided to check out Pivo. We had no idea it was their anniversary party, but we got the last empty table and and ordered a beer and some food. And then soon afterwards the server came by with free drink tickets, and then they served up a whole bunch of free appetizers! Even though we'd already eaten, we managed to find room for some homemade potato chips and pulled pork flatbread. We went home nicely sauced and very full, and only spent like $35.

18 August 11

a workplace self-portrait.

17 August 11

16 August 11

15 August 11

After work I met up with Iain, Steph, Jeff, and Jesse (and briefly J.J.) at the New Oxford pub in Yaletown. We ate some food, we drank some wine & beer, Steph and Iain had some pointless arguments, you know how it goes. Good times.

14 August 11

Actually all I did was run errands so I really don't know why I was wearing this outfit.

13 August 11

In the afternoon I met up with Iain in Maple Ridge to hang out with my sisters at Breastfest, an annual music & art festival to raise money for breast cancer research (Chad, above, is the mastermind behind all of this). We saw some good bands and ate some sandwiches, and then I took the bus back to Coquitlam where Jeff picked me up to go to Chris Verral's birthday party. It was a delightful time full of free beer and delicious bbq and homemade donuts.

12 August 11

Malloreigh with a corsage snap bracelet, given to her as a birthday gift. We celebrated with a picnic in Crab Park, involving copious amounts of food and some beer & wine & Fireball. There was frisbee, and nail painting, and wrestling, and random wet dogs that came up to check out the food and lick our faces. A lovely evening.

11 August 11

Sarah's friend Cameron was home visiting from Japan, and he came over for dinner (and wine). I helped her cook this up: stir-fried veggies & tofu with miso-tahini sauce, on top of brown rice.

10 August 11

I would really like this if it weren't so fuzzy. But it's hard to keep still enough for a 1.5 second exposure time.

09 August 11

I got some film developed and treated myself to fancy coffee (ok not that fancy, just an Americano misto) while I was waiting. Then I got a million groceries and carried them home on the bus because I am a chump without a driver's licence.

08 August 11

07 August 11

At Lac La Hache, I picked up a whole bunch of empty sea snail (lake snail?) shells at the water's edge. We stopped for lunch at a creepy sandwich place in Clinton and intended to take Highway 99 home, but after driving through Marble Canyon and making a stop at a winery in Lillooet, we went the wrong way at the junction and ended up on Highway 12 going back to the Trans-Canada instead. So, we stopped at the Alexandra Bridge, which is a steel bridge crossing the Fraser from back in the olden days.

06 August 11

Tony's birthday party was bourbon-themed and Jeff sorted out a pretty impressive menu of drinks to serve. He and I played bartenders all evening and got nicely buzzed on Maker's Mark ourselves, not to mention full of barbecued brisket, various salads, and two kinds of cake.

05 August 11

Jeff and I made a couple of stops on our way to Quesnel, one here at a winery & bistro just north of Cache Creek. We sat on the beautiful shady patio and tasted fruit wines and ate delicious sandwiches. I really love the drive up north; there's so much beautiful scenery and it's nice to feel really far from a big city once in awhile.

04 August 11

Greyhound with mint.

03 August 11

Jeff and I made an executive decision and took down the hideous plaid curtain over our small living room window, and it's amazing what a difference it makes. It wasn't even on a curtain rod, it was just two halves of an old metal pole taped around a pencil crayon in the middle, so we didn't feel at all bad throwing it out.

02 August 11

A small bag of shell fragments I picked up at Third Beach on Sunday when we were there. I got pretty into it and the only reason I stopped was because my bag was full and I had nowhere else to store them. I have an idea for a project, but judging by how much time it took to get what's in this tiny bag, I'm going to need a lot of weed in order to gather up enough for what I have in mind.

01 August 11

After making epic breakfast (complete with sangria), Amanda, Laryssa & I met up with Luke and rode our bikes to Wreck Beach (well, Luke road to the beach, the rest of us locked up at Alma and took the bus). We sat listening to the Rolling Stones, drinking beer and eating blueberries & leftover chili until we were hot enough to go in the water; it was cold but lovely. Eventually we conquered the stairs and biked home. Upon my arrival I was incredibly hungry and in desperate need of a shower — signs of a weekend well-spent.

31 July 11

An afternoon spent celebrating Pride with Amanda & Laryssa & Jeff Downer, followed by an evening of psychedelic drugs and wandering Stanley Park for hours, and then biking back to their place and making midnight chili and bannock over a backyard bonfire. Wonderful day.

30 July 11

Chelsea and Joel hosted a fantastic 90s party at their house in Burnaby, with a dj spinning the best (and worst) tunes from our childhoods and teen years, prizes for trivia knowledge and costumes, plenty of booze, and Fruit Roll-Ups. My style inspiration for the evening was Angela Chase from My So-Called Life, and Lauren in the picture above is dressed as Wacko from Animaniacs. I won a couple of dvds for knowing about Notorious B.I.G.

29 July 11

28 July 11

Jeff and I went to my mom's for dinner; we sat in the kitchen with the back door open and ate cold meats & cheeses and salad. And drank lots of rosé. As usual, someone (probably Travers) almost did a spit-take at the table from laughing. Mom sent me home with half a wheel of brie and a bunch of tapenade.

27 July 11

tea.

26 July 11

I neglected to take a photo on this dull Tuesday, so here is an iphone photo I forgot about from the Okanagan weekend, of delicious Summerland Sweets syrups.

25 July 11

Malloreigh and Kaylie came by for dinner and Jeff and I made this sun-dried tomato pesto sauce with portobello mushrooms, yellow zucchini, asparagus, and peppers. We drank several bottles of wine and chatted until it got late.

24 July 11

Another hot day in the Okanagan, with an impressive nine wineries visited in the Oliver area. Unfortunately that left us no time to visit any in the Keremeos/Similkameen region. Maybe next year.