bright lights for brian.

a guy i work with - a guy i like quite a bit - has, today, been diagnosed with cancer. i'm not going to say alot except that we're all thinking positive thoughts here. maybe you could too.

g. xo

safety check.

this was sent to me by ailsa..

.....

Hello friends,

 

I need to share something that happened to us this weekend because I still can't believe it happened. I've made it as short as possible.

 

I came home from Winnipeg Friday evening to a cold house - Natasha who had been home with my mother in law for the Thursday night while I was away mentioned that they couldn't get the heat to come on. Nuts I thought - the boiler finally went. I put a call in to a service person who was coming Saturday between 3 and 5pm.

 

Natasha work up at 4am this morning (saturday) -  gagging and throwing up. This went on for almost 8 hours when she started to complain of sharp stomach pain. Honestly - I thought it was her appendix. Off to ER we went. Assessment - gastrointestinal virus and sent us home. Oddly - while at the hospital, Natasha never gagged or was sick. When we came home she started to feel ill within 30 minutes. I thought it was the car ride and the piece of toast she tried to get down.

 

Boiler Service man arrived at 5pm - yep the boiler was dead. He pulled out his Carbon Monoxide detector then jumped to his knees and ran to open the front door and yelled where the back door was and flew that open. Furnaces and Boilers are red tagged (making them inoperable and service men are forced to cut it off for safety) when Carbon Dioxide readings are at 20. Ours was at 630. the 1500 - 2000 level is when you don't wake up. It was clear that Natasha had CO poisoning and given my 4 month situation i was a little worried.

 

I called my doctor who said 'grab coats and go back to ER right now'. You know those people that get to skip the entire waiting room line? That was us tonight. 5 minutes and we were in. They dont mess around with this. Cognitive tests, neuro tests, oxygen tanks, talks of splitting us into hyperbaric chambers, and blood tests. My sister was called because Natasha would stay at Children's with her and I would have to go to VGH.  Nat's blood test was only .02 off of needing to spend a week in a hyperbaric chamber given her longer exposure and I was .04 off.

 

We're lucky. Really lucky. This could have been one of those horrible stories. Its odourless and oftern symtoms are confused with the flu or simply being run down. We didnt have a CO detector in our house - some smoke detectors have a dual system. Mine are only 4 years old but they were clearly not built in. I never really thought to have one - everything is serviced yearly in my house so I really thought we were covered. So learn from us - buy one. Put it near where your furnance or boiler is.

 

.......

g. xo

ring a ling

here it is..

g. xo

pigskin ring a ding-ding day.

here's what i know - i'm not a football fan. sure, i'll watch a little if it's o tv (but generally the NFL not the CFL..)...but i really know nothing about it from a fan's perspective. what i do know is that when i have watched either, the NFL just seems more entertaining. the games themselves are very different in many ways but are still football - a game where the game clock keeps going even when nothing is happening....what gives there?
anyhow.
i know a few folks who really love the game and to them i say, 'have fun today...' (uh-oh i just saw some face painters on the tv...)
i think the one thing i like about the CFL is that no one makes a ton of cash. i had a few friends play in the CFL and they had jobs outside of the game because they weren't getting rich playing football. i like the every man aspect of the game - if they weren't playing in the CFL they'd be at home drinking beer watching it.
go lions! go bombers!
a while back i made garvie a ring and during the summer she was swimming and it made it's way to the bottom of the pool and into the filters and away...so today, with the help of mishi, i made her a new one...pretty exciting...i think it turned out well. hopefully it fits.
**i tried to upload a photo but blogger is fucked right now...
ok. i'm off to have burgers with the garbs.

g. xo

Going, going, gone.

Last night at poker I started out pretty well...
Then it went south - though I have to say I lasted long into the night and never had to buy more chips and others were sent packing long before me...
It was a fun event and we helped make some money for the school so win-win...don, of bombers fame, was kicking ass when we left..go don!
Ok..
Off to play cowboys hockey then later, the muppets movie.
Have a great Saturday!

g. xo

poker and silver bells.

tonight i get to try my luck at poker. when i was a kid, well, early 20's, i played a fair bit of poker with some pals. but really, it was more about drinking than cards. but, when the card playing did take place, i made some decent loot. but i haven't played any cards in a lot of years - though one time, with marcy, we stopped in at a casino on the I-5 on our way home from portland, and i won, in a matter of fifteen minutes, a couple hundred dollars. so tonight could be interesting - though you don't get to keep any of the money anyways as it's a fund raiser - but i'm still gonna try and win all the chips. (don from the bombers is in on the action tonight too so we'll have to see how each other do - maybe we'll be at it head to head...)



i went to pick some parts we were having anodized last night in coquitlam after work and remembered when i got there how much i like looking at that stuff....they do all manner of work there - last night i saw some super cool snowmobile engine covers, steel colored dividers and these rain collectors i took a quick picture of.
beautiful day out there - get the fuck outside!

g. xo

just workin'.

this weather can fuck off just about anytime now. like right now.

g.xo

happy thanksgiving my southern friends!

to you. i say, have a great parade.

g. xo

running man.

Wow.
It’s been a while. In blog update terms.
I wish I had more to report but I don’t. life has been moving along a regular rate without too much excitement – which, maybe now, is a good thing…
Had a very nice dinner the other night with Dorothy, Issy and Garvie at the Brown’s in tsawwassen, Brown’s the place not their house. And I’ll say this, and I endorse Brown’s as a place to get decent food…but I would stay away from the slightly exotic stuff. Garvie had a curry and I had a pad thai and they were both, so-so…the burgers and ribs are very good there though…
Booked a couple tickets to S.F. the other day for a weekend away in December with Ailsa. We’re gonna eat and roam around and eat some more…go to the MOMA, eat some more, drive to Los Gatos, maybe, and go to Andale and perhaps over the hill to Santa Cruz for the day….so many things we’ll have to see.
The salt mine closes up for the xmas break on the 16th so ho-ho-ho I’ll be outta here and doing some relaxing before we start up again in January…and once this dig is done, it seems we have another excavation job right afterwards that will take us until the summer to complete. Workin’ it. By then Lawn Order will be starting its eighth season and there will be more swag to be had…
So you know, there’s a new taco flavour at La Taqueria that you’ve gotta go and try…I’m not even going to tell you what it is…you just need to try it – I will be eating it today around 1:15 pm…maybe two of them.
There have been guys in my underground installing a new elevator that I am thinking of leaving a present for…a rack of Avalon milk bottles. Now, I’m no genius but I can tell you this – it shouldn’t take over three months to put an elevator in and when I see these guys moving around there and doing their work…they are milking this job for all it’s worth. And they’re not big on cleaning up most days…it’s a shit show down there.
Tomorrow night I am playing some Texas hold ‘em at Fiona’s school as part of a fund raiser thingy…I haven’t played in years – poker that is, have never played Texas hold ‘em….but I know the game…Ailsa has never played poker. Ever. It’ll be fun. And I plan on winning.
Maybe.
Ok.
Have a great Thursday.

g. xo

louuuuuuuu....

all the ice cleaners - all fifteen of them...do the ice clearing, what seems, every five minutes....

actually there was no lou last night but there was a canucks game last night that corie was very nice and took me to. we met graham and grant there and had high hopes of winning the 50-50, or at least i did, but went home with less money in our pockets at the end of the game not more. sadly.
it was fun and always good to go out with corie and have a few laughs.
one thing i found out last night was that they actually change the advertising on the boards between periods. they take one off and stick up another. that's fucked.
the hawks had the upper hand last night...maybe next time.
or not.

g. xo

ends of the spectrum

one great guy, one asshole. in the same picture. (hint, the one on the left is the asshole.)

just sayin'.

g.

muc and roll

our man muc came to town for the weekend to celebrate his tenth year with the lovely jenn...congrats i say...the three of us had a nice lunch down at meat and bread - a place marc wanted to try. i really like the food there but it's so fuckin' loud. why do some places seem to think that we, as patrons, want really loud music while we eat?
just askin'...

g. xo

true value.

it wouldn't be a trip to bellingham without mishi going to value village and trying on a few things. somethings better than others.
nice.

g. xo

cheech thanks and the great bellingham grocery run

an e.mail i received today..

"Just a little thanks for enriching the lives of others with your green thumb mastery! Appreciate the gift from the gods...............and you!
Cannonball"

you're very welcome.

nice to know it's getting good reviews...

mishi and i decided to stock-up at trader joe's today, and la gloria market and a little fred meyer. so off to bellingham we went...and i, except for one or two shots you'll see tomorrow, just used my phone instead of my 'real' camera. and a little too much in photo apps for fun today, and we've got the day in pictures...

g. xo

mishi outside the convention centre tonight after getting a new hat.

need beer? need breakfast? go to the horseshoe


they had a little car show in bellingham today.


lunch at la gloria

a snack at rocket donuts

breakfast anytime.

a few things of no consequence...

yes, i know it's a holiday today - one i'll talk about more in a second but...does that mean i can't get breakfast anywhere? mishi, the garbs and i decided to try and go to the states today, big mistake, and so...after turning around and coming home i thought we could get some food...red wagon - closed. cactus club on burrard - no breakfast. it's like a town not a city...oh, right it is, it's vancouver.

ok. why we/i have the day off...it's remembrance day. a very important holiday and one we should take seriously, but one i don't take seriously enough. and i was thinking about it today and i think, while it was presented to me in school as a kid, it never hit home for me - not having a relative that fought in the war - so my heart just isn't in it. i should care more. it has become just a day off. i know the reasons why, i know the fight, i know. i know i should do more.

have i ever told you how much i love the darkness? not the dark, as in "i can't see", but the band...last night on the way to hockey it was the perfecto.

i thought i liked her but i think zooey deschanel is fuckin' annoying. cute, quirky, etc..sure. but so tiresome.

i haven't see it but know i don't have to see it to know that adam sandler's new movie jack and jill is a piece of shit.

ok. domestic duties start now.

maybe.

g. xo

the return of meat thursdays at the shop

i haven't cooked for the boys for a while but that changes tomorrow...

i made a trip to see the boys at columbus meats and grabbed some shanks for some osso bucco and then to bosa to grab some other goods to make risotto to go with it - don hoven will be in charge of that part of the game tomorrow.


it's a long slow cook so i came home tonight and have gotten a head start on it and it smells pretty good. the proof will be in the pudding tomorrow...

g. xo

nice rug buddy.

wow. that's red...(crappy iphone photo...)

i have this ikea woven rug for giveaway...let me know if you'd like it and we'll figure out how to get it to you. pronto. red. obviously. around 4' x 6'...i think. had it in my loft and haven't used it since i moved two years ago, so...away with it.

g. xo

hotfail

to anyone who may have received a spamming from a rarely, if ever used, hotmail account - fatkidspants@hotmail.com, i'm sorry. i have gone in and changed the password and will probably delete the account since i don't use it...only for msn messenger which i do now with gmail so...

anyhow. sorry.

g. xo

recycling the green machine

the end was today.
sure...i cut the last lawn last week, or whenever, but today i cleaned out the trailer and set out one of my old mowers for the scrap dudes then parked the trailer until i do some work on it....later.
i'm gonna make the trailer more friendly in terms of carrying my gear and make a ramp and give the gear a tune-up...etc....
in time.
not right now. right now the weekends are gonna be grass, mower and trimmer free. and a little more ailsa.

g. xo

island bound

ailsa and tracey share a laugh

ailsa and i got up early saturday morning and headed for the ferry...we were off to floyd and janine's for the weekend. cool part was we were going in garvie's new car. she had bought, less than 12 hours before, a new subaru forester and it was off to victoria for its first mini-road trip.
nice ride to go to victoria in. nice car.
after some coffee downtown in victoria and a little shopping - i bought a sweater i'm pretty sure should be one size smaller after wearing it a bit now...nice though...we headed out to the homestead to see floyd and janine.
it was a busy weekend - walks, bike rides, putting up window boxes, eating, playing with maya - a kid with huge internal batteries, and a ferry home to bed sunday night...
it was a nice weekend...but now i need some sleep.

have fun this week...

g. xo

walkin' in victoria...


i love this tree.

composted pumpkins.

good name. when i was a kid, floyd would say he was pissed-off by saying something or someone had browned him off...

maya...huge batteries.

They call it work...

...other times it's called something else.

g. xo