12 May 12

Jeff and I hit up the first farmers' market of the season at Trout Lake, where we bought some more plants for the garden (heirloom tomatoes, mint, and curry), a salmon, and some apples & rhubarb to make a pie. After taking everything home, we set out for Wreck Beach with Steph, where we met up with Amanda & Laryssa & co. We sat in the wonderful warmth of the sun until it started getting late, and then Jeff and I headed to Madeleine & Ben's for their housewarming on the edge of Kitsilano. We ate a lot of food and drank some beer and admired their view and chatted about things you never remember later on.
There are a few more photos from this day here.

11 May 12

Theo likes to sit and look longingly out my bedroom window.

10 May 12

We had our first BBQ of the season, and also ever since we have never owned a BBQ until now! This photo showcases Jeff's and my differing tastes in beer: he likes crisp and light, I like meaty and dark. The food we made was as follows:
-spinach & watercress salad with marinated roasted red peppers, garlic, capers, and pecorino
-lemon butter grilled asparagus with coarse salt
-mashed potatoes with cumin-caramelized onions
-grilled chicken with spicy rib rub
you can view a photo of it here.

09 May 12

I got this little dude at ikea many moons ago, and at the junk store the other day I bought this lovely pot (which was filled with coral!) for $1 and repotted it. I think it looks pretty good in there, don't you?

08 May 12

chocolate moustaches made by Sarah.

07 May 12

I went to the photographers' meetup at The Union for the This Is East Van book, which will be coming out in early July. I took Malloreigh (who, incidentally, had a photo in their last book) as my date. We had some beers and I briefly met the people in charge and a couple other folks, but we spent most of our night talking to a lovely couple, Jake and Tesney, whom I hope to see again.
After drinking beer all evening we considered going to the Foundation for nachos, but decided that without at least one more person it wouldn't be worth it and so instead we went home to our respective houses and ate nutritional yeast on toast.

06 May 12

Gardened. Drank beer in the yard with Steph. Went to Chelsea's for a haircut. Watched Game of Thrones. The end.

05 May 12

Jeff and I spent Saturday afternoon thrift store hunting for a new bedside table (we found a great one for $20), and then after setting it up, decided to venture to Kits for dinner because we almost never do. I took this photo of the East Van Cross on the way there.

We ended up on the patio of a little pub called Elwood's, where Jeff had ribs and I had veggie pot pie and we listened to a dude play blues with a slide guitar. I was so into it that we actually bought a CD from him. Remember CDs? Afterwards we treated ourselves to dessert at Sweet Revenge and scoffed at the supermoon not being all that super.

04 May 12

the beer that tastes like a pancake breakfast.

03 May 12

02 May 12

Rum pot: put rum, various berries, and sugar in a jar. Put jar in back of dark cupboard for several months. Remove fruit, strain sediment. Enjoy delicious syrupy boozy goodness.

01 May 12

Less than a week later, these beautiful basil plants were shrivelled beyond repair. I didn't do anything differently than last year, and my plant flourished! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!

30 April 12

It's only May and we've already had three delicious barbecue dinners.

29 April 12

Also from Alice's party at the pub. Not sure why this happened.

28 April 12

My brother Riley, at the Witch of Endor Pub for Alice's boozetastic goodbyefest with all her friends.

27 April 12

My parents hosted a going-away party so our family could say goodbye to Alice, who will spend the next year working at Epcot in Disney World. I'm posting this photo instead of something that is, you know, not a photo of a photo because I'm just so proud to see how far Alice has come from the painfully shy, oftentimes grumpy little girl we grew up with. She is one of the most outgoing, friendly, likeable girls I know, and I'm sure she'll spend the next year making loads of people happy and having a blast. We'll all miss her, but life is too short to miss out on opportunities like this.
If you like, you can see photos of various members of my family wearing Mickey Mouse ears here.

26 April 12

I was feeling pretty rough so I stayed home from work. I slept in late and then drank coffee in my pajamas. In the afternoon I felt kinda better so Jeff and I went to New West so I could get rice milk chocolate for Maddie at Karmavore.

25 April 12

24 April 12

Theo. Straight from camera.

23 April 12

Alex's memorial was held in the theatre of our old high school. It was so painful and so beautiful. Mostly it was just friends of his, playing music, telling stories. It was nice for Alex to be remembered through music and in theatre, the way he felt most at home. Above is a friend of his, Chloe, playing a song she wrote for him after his death, entitled "The Good One". It was so soulful and heartfelt; she brought the house down. I don't think there was a single person in that overpacked theatre that wasn't struck dumb with emotion listening to her play it. You can watch a recording she made of the song here on youtube.

Afterwards my family went to the Black Sheep Pub, where a few of Maddie and Alex's friends and teachers had gathered for a drink and a bit of food. Steve Moore, one of my favourite teachers, sat with us and we all had a pretty good time talking about music and things. Maddie was especially grateful to him, because he was the only one involved with the memorial who really asked for her input, and that allowed her to give him a poem Alex liked to read aloud during the service. We were all pleased to see Maddie talking, and eating, and even laughing. I'm sure nothing about life is going to be easy for her for a long time, but sometimes a little distraction can help for a little while.

22 April 12

Pizza cookoff was held at my house. Jeff spent half the afternoon making dough, I spent half the afternoon trying to make bacon out of coconut flakes. I won with my BLT pizza, so I suppose it was worth it. Above is Tim with his fried plantain crust mini pizzas with mushroom/white bean sauce and garlic-tomato-mango salsa.
As always, visit the cookoff blog to see all the entries (there were 11!) and category winners.

21 April 12

Laryssa called me to see if I wanted to hang out, so I decided to stop moping around the house and go over there. We visited Amanda while she was working at Bump n Grind, and she made me this lovely macchiato. Afterwards Laryssa and I went over to Neptoon Records for record store day... I picked up Queen's A Night at the Opera and The Who's Who's Next for myself, and also Sharon Jones & the Dap Kings for Jeff.

We picked up some beer and meandered back to the house, where I was Laryssa's sous chef as we created a delicious vegan feast. Jeff met me later and we took a taxi home after one more glass (mug) of wine.

20 April 12

Laryssa and Amanda came over with ingredients for kebabs. It's nice when friends think to cook for you during hard times. We cooked them on the grill and then smoked a joint and watched Ghostbusters with Steph and Jesse.

19 April 12

Alex died this Thursday afternoon. Jeff and I went out to see my family in the evening... Jeff made pasta dinner for those that felt hungry enough to eat it. We sat around in the living room, talking, crying, laughing... Maddie curled in front of the fire, underneath a blanket from the hospital, wearing one of his shirts.

Her friend Kayla showed up and didn't say a word, just laid down at Maddie's side. We were so thankful she was there to spend that night with Maddie so she wouldn't have to sleep alone in the bedroom she shared with Alex.

18 April 12

I received some shocking and unbearably sad news this night from my family. Maddie's boyfriend Alex was in a car accident and it was clear he would not make it. He just turned twenty-one years old last month. Life is so fucking unfair sometimes I just want to throw up.

17 April 12

strawberry blossoms.

16 April 12

15 April 12

Tim and Dan at New Brighton Park.

I met MaryAnne in the afternoon for caesars at Havana, and then we went down to New Brighton, where a bunch of people had gathered on the dock to drink beers for Laryssa's birthday. Then I came home and watched a godawful hockey game when I should have instead gone to Kitty Nights.

14 April 12

Liang came by in the late afternoon; we picked up some wine and then rode our bikes over to have dinner at Laryssa & Amanda's. We ate a lot of curry, got stoned, sat on the roof. Rode home. My brother Travers turned 19... normally I would have brought him some celebratory beers, but he doesn't drink.

13 April 12

12 April 12

Jeff made this delicious strawberry dinner. Pasta with strawberry purée, mint, garlic, and pecorino. Spinach & arugula salad with almonds, pea shoots, avocado, and strawberries; tossed with lemon oil and balsamic vinegar.

11 April 12

10 April 12

While I was setting up to do these, the cat came in and started licking my toes, and this turned out way better than the shots I had in mind.

09 April 12