15 August 13

Alice and I were super early for our flight, but the flight itself was not too bad. Also it's been awhile since I've flown out of Vancouver and I forgot how nice it is. They have a dispenser at the water fountain just for filling your water bottle with delicious tap water! Mom & Jimm picked us up at John Wayne Airport in Orange County, and unfortunately we got stuck in rush hour traffic so it over two hours to get back to San Diego.

We went down to the water and had a gleeful time watching the dogs play on the beach, and afterwards we were joined by Maddie & Michael, and went to a fantastic sushi/tapas bar called The Joint.
Couple more photos from this day here.

06 July 13

Jeff and I went out to Maple Ridge and had dinner at the Billy Miner with Mom & Jimm, and then picked up Maddie & Hayley to go to Alice's birthday party at Josh's. It's always a pretty fine time getting drunk with my sisters.

05 September 12

Our flight out wasn't until 6, so we checked our luggage and spent the afternoon drinking beers by the pool. It was sad to say goodbye to Alice, but less sad than it could have been since we knew she'd be home for Thanksgiving. We ate Mexican food at the airport and got to our gate right at boarding time. The flight back to Seattle was actually smooth and decent, and it's always less anxiety-inducing not to have to change planes. My mom and I rented one of those digiplayer things and watched a couple of movies, which made the time go by a lot faster.

02 September 12

Back at Hollywood Studios, eating giant hot dogs. Afterwards we watched the Beauty and the Beast live-action show, which made me teary because it was my favourite movie as a kid (along with Fantasia). Later we saw a really interesting/cool show about stunt drivers, and eventually went to the New York-style Italian restaurant for our dinner reservation. It's funny, we were least excited about this restaurant but it was outrageously good, and our waiter was pure Brooklyn. We stayed late to watch Fantasmic, and actually managed to catch a bus back to the hotel (we'd been really lazy and had been taking cabs from places the past few days).
A couple more photos from this day 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 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.

10 May 11

After a pretty warm day we got dressed up for dinner at Napa Rose. The bill was unspeakable, but the food was so incredible and I can't remember the last time I had such good service. We went back to the hotel overly full and moderately drunk.

27 March 11

Jeff and I went to my parents' place for dinner, because Riley was visiting from Victoria! It was so nice to have everyone together. As usual, we ate too much, drank too much, and laughed until we nearly peed ourselves.

14 December 10

Alice triumphantly displaying our baker's dozen from Voodoo Donut. Sarah took us there after a delicious dinner at Navarre (and a trip to Fred Meyer for bottles of pinot noir to bring home). In the daytime we went to Powell's where all of us spent over $100 (I don't know if it's even possible to leave there and spend less) and got caught in a rainstorm when we tried to leave, so we sought refuge in a café/cinema nearby for warm sandwiches and soup. After dropping off books and leaving Alice to study and shower, Mom and I headed out to Macy's and Nordstrom Rack, where basically, this was me.

10 December 10

After work I met up with Alice and we went to Felisha's to drink eggnog&rum make a gingerbread house. It started off pretty good but then Raffi showed up and basically went crazy. Then he kind of destroyed it and Felisha considered just throwing it out the window but didn't want to attract rats.

18 November 10

Went to the midnight Harry Potter showing with Jeff, Steph, and my sisters and their boyfriends. We apparently should have lined up like... two days before, because we got there at 9pm and were still in the front row of the upper level (still a fair bit of neck craning involved, but no pain the next day). We sat on the floor of an overly heated Metrotown while snow fell outside.

15 July 10

Day 6: Hollywood Studios, where we rode an amazing roller coaster, got caught in a thunderstorm, took a tour of the backlot, and ate one of the most amazing meals of my life at The Brown Derby.
This is one of the false building fronts on the streets they sometimes use as sets. I can't get enough of crumbling brick and other kinds of urban decay, whether real or false.

16 April 10

Nothing says tropical vacation like drinking fruity drinks poolside. Too bad I got food poisoning later this day.

25 December 09

Alice's gift was one of the ones I was most excited to give this year. My mom's was also good, but I didn't think she'd appreciate me posting a photo of her crying.

04 December 09

Jeff and I went out to Maple Ridge so my parents could take me out for birthday dinner. Afterwards we sat at the kitchen table drinking pinot noir and talking. Alice was halfway through this collage at 1am when we left, and she started at 8pm.

07 September 09

Dinner at the pub with the family.

10 April 09

My sister wishes our uncle Ken well with his RCMP training, at his going away party yesterday.

16 January 09

Me and my sister got pretty retarded drunk at Library Square (and later, Doolin's). Second- or third-worst hangover ever followed.