29 August 12

We spent the day at Hollywood Studios. You can tell how hot it was by the fact that in this photo, all three of my brothers have visible patches of back sweat. However, riding the new and improved Star Tours ride made it all worth it, as well as our dinner at the Brown Derby.
A couple more photos from this day are here.

28 August 12

We spent the day at Epcot, drinking our way around the world [showcase] until our dinner at Chefs du France. An epic storm rolled in around 4pm and lasted over three hours. Alice said they usually don't last longer than 20 minutes, and they almost never go into the night. Anyway, we were all fully drenched; even those of us with rain ponchos on still had swampy shoes.
You can view a few more photos from this day here.

27 August 12

We slept a little late, unsurprisingly. Went to the Magic Kingdom around 2, and as soon as we got there, Kenny went to the barbershop and got his shoulder-length hair cut into what you see above. When the barber asked if he wanted pixie dust, he said yes. Because he's cool like that.
We rode all the most important rides and then headed over to the Grand Floridian for our dinner reservation. After dinner, we went back to the hotel and played Cards Against Humanity and Josh showed Jimm how to shotgun a beer, which they did standing in the bathtub.
A couple more photos from this day are here.

26 August 12

We made it to the airport and through security just in time for boarding. Our connecting flight was in LA for some reason, but we got to watch the sunrise as we took off (here it is over Mt. Rainier). We had enough time at LAX to eat an overpriced breakfast and some godawful coffee before boarding our flight to Orlando, and by the time we got to the hotel we were STARVING and had been up for something like 40 hours (no one except Josh really slept much on the plane). Ate burgers, went back to the room, unpacked, and lay in bed reading (& trying not to pass out from exhaustion) until Alice showed up after her shift. It's silly how quickly you can get used to someone being around again.

25 August 12

Jeff and I had breakfast together Saturday morning, and sadly said goodbye for the next two weeks when he left for a friend's wedding in the afternoon. My stepdad and my brother picked me up with all my stuff and we had a late dinner out at my mom's, where Maddie had a horde of friends over sitting around and also making pretzels. I tried to nap a little before the drive to Seattle, but it didn't really happen. We hit the road just before 1am.

24 August 12

Garden harvest! Lettuces, carrots, and zucchini I picked to take to my mom's. Steph kept me company and we had pizza and beer while I packed my suitcase.

23 August 12

22 August 12

haircut.

21 August 12

meaty pizza: lamb sausage, mint, red pepper, & onion.
vegetarian pizza: zucchini, shiitake mushroom & red pepper.

20 August 12

Jeff got me these tunnels as an anniversary gift. Sometimes he really surprises me — usually he is super bad at being secretive about gifts. He also gave me a Muddy Waters record (but I sort of knew about that already).

19 August 12

Jeff and I celebrated our anniversary early since I would be out of town on the 25th. This was at the Hawksworth bar (not the restaurant lol too poor): tuna on rice croquettes; spicy fried cauliflower with cilantro.

18 August 12

Jeff's been thinking about getting some new glasses, so we went to Park Royal and he tried on some frames. These Prada ones looked really good, but even with the groupon they had available, it would have been too expensive. He did get a nice hat on sale at Banana Republic, though. I bought $120 worth of bras.

17 August 12

gluten-free veggie korma pizza & an evening of sitting in the backyard with the roommates.

16 August 12

The cookoff was held in my backyard, a lovely evening for it. Unfortunately it was another one with only three competitors... but at least this time there were enough people present to judge. I won with my asparagus, basil, pistachio & kale soup.
You can view the other entries and category winners on the blog, as usual.

15 August 12

Jeff and I went down to the hill near the tunnel and picked two huge containers worth of blackberries before it got dark. Of course, we also picked plenty to put in our mouths while we were gathering them.

14 August 12

There is more juice and flavour in one of these tiny strawberries from my garden than in three of those massive California ones.

13 August 12

terrible quality iphone self.

12 August 12

We drove home on Sunday with a trunk full of rum given to us by Tony. Made our usual stop at Lac La Hache (because it's so beautiful, and also because by then my coffee has worked its way through my system) and had lunch in 100 Mile House at a surprisingly decent joint called the Firehall Diner.
We took Highway 99 from Cache Creek, and visited the little winery in Lillooet, and afterwards stopped at Seton Lake (seen above). It was much busier than the last time we stopped there, loads of people were swimming and there were people taking photos up at the viewpoint. We went down to put our feet in the water (it was balls hot out) before getting back on the road.
The drive was nice, except for when we got stuck behind an old camper coming down the mountain into Pemberton — it took literally twice as long and the guy's brakes were making this awful stench the whole time. He could have stopped at any number of pullouts to let us pass but nope. By the time we finally got to Whistler for dinner we were starving, but the service at the pub was not that good and our food took over an hour. Jeff complained to the manager though so he explained the problems they were having with the kitchen and then comped our meal, which was nice, although I would rather have just paid if it meant I could have eaten 45 minutes earlier.

Some more photos from this day can be viewed here.

11 August 12

Tony's liquor of choice for this year's party was rum, so I cooked up some peaches to make bellinis. We also made mojitos with raspberries and mint from the garden.
After the bbq, and after everyone had gone home, Jeff and I stood out in the yard watching the Perseids until we got cold and our necks got sore. It's amazing how many more stars you can see up there. I tried to take some photos, but they didn't turn out too well. One mediocre attempt can be viewed here.

10 August 12

Jeff and I spent the day driving up to Quesnel for Tony's birthday. It's the third year in a row we've gone, so the trip has gotten pretty familiar and nice, but there are always new things to see. This year we stopped in Skihist Provincial Park, a very beautiful place in the mountains above Lytton, in the Thompson Canyon. We also saw a whole bunch of bighorn sheep around Spences Bridge, probably seven or so! I'd only ever seen two or three at a time before. We also made a stop at the fruit winery at the edge of Cache Creek for lunch and a tasting. It's probably the only decent place for food in like 200 km.
See a few more photos from this day here.

09 August 12

08 August 12

07 August 12

I met up with an old high school friend for beer and poutine. On the bus ride home, a thunderstorm began and lasted most of the evening. I'm sure those of you from other parts of the continent don't understand how we West Coasters get so excited about storms... but if they only happened where you live once or twice a year, you might.

06 August 12

05 August 12

A little boy checking out a man's rainbow nail polish at the Pride Parade. I went with Steph, and it was extremely hot out. We saw Sarah in the parade in her Trojan t-shirt and hung out with June for a short time, but then Steph & I left and went down to the Mill for a beer and some food. Got popsicles on the way home and then sat outside drinking until we couldn't stand the heat anymore, and went inside to watch movies in Steph's cool, dark basement suite. After Jeff got home we went out for Indian food and it was the greatest.