over and out.

i think the time has come.
for years i have written this blog, mainly as a way for me to vent, to comment, to try and inform, to have a few laughs, to post some pictures, to just kinda have fun. (to post the many pictures of the garbs.) i have, though, lost a lot of my drive to update it and, frankly, don't have that much to say anymore - at least anything i think anyone wants to hear. (i have also been thinking of ways to reduce my digital/internet footprint but that's another thing altogether...)
there was a time when i took camera everywhere and documented a great deal of what i did. my life was really on display for all to see - with me in very few of the pictures but i really enjoyed taking pictures of the friends and family i was spending time with and the places i was hanging out at. pictures and stories from long road trips across the country, short hops to santa cruz to get a burrito or flights, recently, to germany to see lambchop and nyc to attend ailsa's brother gavin's wedding. i have always been a storyteller - or just a guy who rants, and this was another way for me to tell the stories of my life. some good, some bad and some somewhere in between.
i have found that i leave my camera at home more often now. 
i was encouraged to start the blog by a therapist, barb bernath, i was seeing years ago and for a long time, eight years i think, it (the blog) was a great thing. now, not so much or at least my interest, and others interest, has wained in it so why bother?
so..i thank you for reading, when you did, and i hope i entertained you from time to time. the garbs pics were often worth the price of admission alone.
i have been thinking of this for a while and had thought i would shut it down at 50 but that just seems to far away now. i had also thought of things i wanted to say, how i would shut it down, etc...but i can't think of anything right now - not that it matters.

there you have it.

adios.

g. xo

eating some old school.

garvie's place of employ - rethink communications - has landed Hy's steakhouse as a client and lord knows you have to go and check out the wares to see what they have to offer. really. to do the best work possible you need to sample the goods. so last night we did.
for those who don't know, Hy's is a super old school steakhouse. the waiters, like ours last night, have been there for years - ours, bonny, 44 years. the chairs are carved wood and plush. the walls adorned with paintings of ...well, i dunno who the paintings are of but they are old oil paintings of men who knew how to dress for dinner. it's not a cave but it is dark. there are no windows and the main attraction behind the glass at the end of the restaurant is the cook flipping steaks on a mesquite burning grill. old school.
we sat at a table that overlooked the joint and could see other patrons enjoying their various cuts of beef. it was cool. ailsa ordered a filet and i a rib steak - a manly 16 oz. cut or prime red meat goodness. there are, of course, three types of baked potatoes to choose from, sides designed to be eaten by two people - asparagus, creamed spinach, mushrooms, etc. and the service is amazing and very personal. or so it feels. my steak cut like butter and garvie looked like she had no issue with hers as she cut into it and gave that look of someone really enjoying a nice bite.
it really is a neat place that found something that worked, and has worked for decades, and they see no need to really change it...and they make a decent margarita. i was a little surprised by this but they do.
so thank you to rethink and to garvie for taking me to Hy's for dinner, something i may not have ever done.
side note...mishi reminded me today that her father had once been the manager at Hy's and that he had met her mother there. small world.

g. xo

lightening bolt and redhead.

well. it happened. just like my bok choy last year before it, my broccoli bolted - went to seed and flowered over the course of a couple of days. it looked great the other day and i thought i would pick it soon...now it's too late. more goods for the compost pile. between it and the zucchini, this garden is not what i had hoped for...oh well. i'm still learning.

 
on the good side of things i have seen my first red tomato of the year and with the amount i have on there right now in the green stage, lots more red is on the way.
good times...somehow i always get decent results with the tomatoes...
nice action.
get outside.

g. xo

nothin'.

just checking in.

but i got nothin'. lots of thoughts of things that would only open up a can of worms so i won't bother.

have a great weekend.

g.xx

watertown.

well, i made it through tennis without injuring myself....barely. pretty good fun but it's a workout even if we were just rallying back and forth - a lot of the time either hitting the net with the ball or launching the ball into next week. ailsa made me run for it more often than not - which i guess is the point. and man, i do not have a backhand in this game - i remembered being a little better than i was...i think i last played with the garbs and mishi a couple years ago and before that probably twenty years, at least.
good times. then we went for well deserved tacos for dinner. pretty, pretty, pretty, good.
made my morning appearance at corie and katherine's to water the veggies and plants - it's become my morning routine this week and will continue until they come home (i should really find out when that is...) i get there and start watering and before i know it, i'm late for work - i find it very easy to lose track of time and before i know it....oops.
ok. back to it...have a great wed.

g. xo

ps...happy birthday beefie! my man, bomber brother and o/o of black dog video, darren 'beef dip', 'beefie', 'beefstick', gay is 47 years young today. go rent a dvd today and give him a slap on the ass...

passport stamped: white rock visa

where have i been? well, i know where my camera has been - in white rock/south surrey at my aunt and uncle's new love pad. they moved from dunbar out to the cozy confines of the crescent beach area and it's quite a spread. i thought i'd kill a couple bird and go out there - last friday, and cut the lawn of their new place and afterwards get some accounting lessons - between glen and kathryn i may actually learn something soon. and i'll tell you what, that's a hell of a lawn. the back yard is more like a small soccer field.

while i was there the local lawn dude was next door and he came over and made a bid on the lawn that i was stunned by - how this guy makes any money i have no idea but glen and denny are happy and i say good for you...don't ever let that guy know he doesn't charge enough. good guy, maybe not so good at charging the right rate. but maybe that's what the market will bear out there - as long as he doesn't come and try and steal any of my clients we'll be fine.
what else?

it was a tough week. lawns, bummer action at school, more and more homework...dinner and tutoring with kathryn on sunday night...some nights and early mornings watering the garden at corie and kathryn's, a bbq this weekend coming up at the fawnz's for her man's birthday and back to work this monday - two days in and i'm tuckered out (though that could be due to the late night hockey last night...).
off to play a little tennis now and see exactly how bad i am at it. hopefully no one i know walks by when we're playing - me and garvie - as the sight of me trying to run and get to balls and get them back to the other side of the net could be funny. for them. not me.
ok...

i'm off...

g. xo

lost.

i was just doing some clean up here on my laptop and somehow just deleted my entire photo library. i have most on a back up but have lost all from april to now...
i need a snack.

g. xo

hard day out.

yesterday was a hard one for a few folks in my immediate orbit...i'm hoping today is a little better for all of them.
one of them, my friends having a rough day yesterday, is still feeling the effects of his 'action' yesterday as he, while trying to chase down a ball on the tennis court - in a class, not in a game, as eight other class attendees watched in shock and horror, tripped and had his face meet the asphalt taking off some skin on his face plus, in the end, required five stitches to the inside of his mouth and four to the outside of his upper lip...and...and...sore wrist from trying to stop himself, scrapes on his knees and sore shoulder...i am awaiting approval that will allow me to show you a couple of pics i took last night at the VGH's emergency fix 'em up area. 'he who can not be seen on the blog' may indeed be seen on the blog for what would be the third time ever.
we'll see. but it is a sight to see.
had a very nice dinner last night at corie's and katherine's place as they were back in town for one night and one night only before heading off to ontario and the heat. it was what the doctor ordered too after eating a lot of meat products, that i do love, in the last few days. huge wicked salad, nice piece of salmon, warm potato salad and, to prevent scurvy, a fresh squeezed lime margarita...oh and pie from savary island with DQ soft serve. it can't all be super healthy - damn, it's summer afterall...and shockingly i see sun in the sky today...it was during dinner that i started getting the texts from 'he who can not be seen on the blog'...or named...and knew that i would be heading to VGH at some point after dinner.
cut four lawns yesterday as well, none today as i need to do some studying as i haven't opened a book in a while now and need to get back up to speed before i lose everything i have, kinda, learned thus far.
ok...oh yes, and lunch today with the queen of the universe - that's exciting!

have fun today.

g. xo

dog dish heaven

oh stella, you were quite a pooch.

g. xo

o canada victoria style

ailsa, fiona and i packed up the car saturday morning and headed over to victoria to attend janine's birthday party - (happy birthday janine!) at her and floyd's place. and it was a full family affair - glen and denny (floyd's brother and his wife) were there, tracey and kathleen made the scene (janine's daughters) and tracey's daughter maya was in full effect. it was a full meal deal - bbq, drinks, laughs...good times.
we got over there around noon saturday and found a great parking spot downtown and roamed around downtown and around the parliament buildings seeing all the people dressed in red and dressed in all manner of costume celebrating canada day. i am not a patriot but liked walking around and seeing what was what. we ran into a woman from singapore, i believe, who wasn't aware until we told her that it was canada's birthday...had to get a picture with her. took a picture of a wicked canada day gut. sat on the lawn of the parliament buildings and enjoyed the sun. ate some good bbq at pig. took a pee at an outdoor open air urinal! highlight! well, i shouldn't say that but i thought it was pretty unique. had some good coffee. nice. then it was off to the house for the party.
today we had a pancake breakfast, had coffee with ailsa's pal tara and her kids, i had a burger at big wheel burgers, ailsa and fiona went for a bike ride, floyd and i hung around the house and i finished the set up of their new apple tv....the movies come to their house...and then after we got off the ferry we had dinner at ton and doro's in tsawwassen....and now, i am ready for bed.
i need to really study this week...i am behind.

have a great week.

g. xo

below a few of the pics from the weekend...

out of here.

i have a pair of vintage...as in really old - boston acoustics speakers. they are for/were for my surround sound. i bought these in the early 90's. yup, they're old. and they do show their age but before i put them in the alley i thought i'd see if anyone needed some speakers for their garage or studio or...they sound pretty good...
let me know...

g. xo

busy slacker

(my pal coco e.mailed me the other day and said she had lost the battle with her lawn...yes coco. yes you did...)

i got up today in plenty of time to get shit done early but, really, i didn't have that much to do early on....so i spent the first part of the day just hanging around the house - drank some coffee, had a smoothie, looked at really, really interesting stuff on the interweeb...then. action. dan, BOC co-founder, just bought a new place and asked me if i could help him move some of his planters from his old place to his new place. sure. i love moving. ok, that's not true but i like dan and i don't mind lending a hand and i get to see his new place in the process. so off i went. and it was fine. i haven't seen dan since the end of our last show which has been a while now so we caught up, shot the shit and moved some zinc planters. good times. his new place looks great and will only get better once he makes it his own - fresh paint, new deck, etc...nice work.
then it was up to judy's to cut her lawn and say hello to the neighbours and see if they ask me to cut theirs as well. they didn't and i was fine with that today. i have no doubt i'll be cutting it again sometime, just not today.
hey. roy oswalt is pitching for the rangers...weird.
'he who can not be named on the blog' has a friend who has moved into a place up on dunbar that needs a little TLC and i said that i could, for a price of course, lend a hand....so after judy's lawn i went by to have a look and see what needed t be done...really, it's painting at the moment and they're trying to tackle it but i am now in the wings if they need me...i love painting so very much.
i came home, had some leftovers from last night and then hoped on my bike and rode over to corie and katherine's to water their garden. just making sure everything keeps on growin'...it was a slog up first ave on my bike - it's not really designed for hills - but otherwise it was a great ride over. now i'm home and ready for a second round of leftovers - just different leftovers. good times.
have fun.

g. xo

ribs, margs, corn and pudding.

holy crap fat and happy. that was a feast. tonight for ailsa's birthday i had her parents and her daughter fiona over and we ate like champs. and now it's couch time to relax and watch baseball - giants/dodgers - and digest a little.

ribs - three ways, three fresh made sauces (last night's action), corn, mini burgers, salad with lettuce from my garden and a wicked fruit pudding made by ailsa's mom dorothy...so good. oh, and i made myself a very nice freshly squeezed lime marg. good stuff.

 happy birthday ailsa!

g. xo

happy birthday garvie!

happy birthday to you.
happy birthday to you.
happy birthday dear ailsa.
happy birthday to you.

i love you! have fun golfing today...

g. xo

oh.

that was a weekend.

lawns, a birthday, hockey, more lawns, another birthday coming up....
saturday morning found me heading back to langara for my accounting class and i have figured out that i seem to take more in during the week after class (reading the textbook, etc.) than i do in class - and not because i'm not paying attention but my teacher moves very quickly and is a messy writer. i'm getting it done and did well on my first assignments but i think everyone did - we got to take it home so really the score should have been high. still good. i have some more assignments to do over this week and next as i don't have a class this next weekend due to the long weekend.

saturday night was birthday dinner at chambar on beatty street with ailsa and her parents, tom and dorothy...it was a landmark birthday for tom, 75, and it was great to see him enjoying a nice belgian beer, having a nice steak and a fancy 'scotch' desert. he's a good guy that tom and looks amazing for 75! he claims a good shot of scotch has helped him keep his youthful look. i may have to start trying that. happy birthday tom.

sunday was the annual, kinda, yard/courtyard sale at the manhattan building - home to mishi and the garbs. i had told mishi that i had a few things from issy's basement that i needed to get rid of so i may as well try selling them before they ended up in the alley or the landfill. and it was a a huge payday because i made that decision - i bet i made a cool 25 bucks...maybe more and i found a pair of small speakers that i will use in my bedroom to replace the ones i have there now...good times! it was also a reunion of sorts in the courtyard. LLB came by with her new little fella (rescue dog) carlos - though i call him dog carlos. and what a great dog! lots of spunk, well behaved and good lookin'. i got so caught up talking to leeanne that i forgot to take a picture of him...or leeanne. great to see her - i haven't seen her that much in the last couple years or so since she moved out of the building i used to live in. maybe now we'll actually have coffee....and! then there standing before me was ang. yup that ang. the ang that moved to the sunshine coast to chill. it was great to see her as well. she was in town to get an MRI...holy cow. i hope that went well.
then it was time for bomber hockey...we played well - we had to only having eight players and a substitute goalie as drew couldn't make it. i have to say we all had a great game and came close to winning in the final minutes...next time.
today, the start of another week, didn't start out well but i'm hoping it gets better as the week rolls along. tomorrow is garvie's birthday and i'm gonna make dinner here for her, fiona, tom and doro. ribs and three different home made bbq sauces...nice action. 
ok. let the sauce making begin.

g. xo

Yard sale Sunday

Manhattan Yard Sale
Sunday June 24 10am-3pm
784 Thurlow (Thurlow & Robson)
Household items, Kitchen wares, Furniture, Clothes, Shoes, Vintage goods & Collectables (clothes, patterns, shoes, nic naks), kids stuff, electronics, cd's, books
arts & craft supplies,sports equipment and much much more!
12+ people selling! Come find a treasure!
See You There!

data mine rain delay.

i managed to get out and get the three lawns i had on my slate today done and done and done. as i was finishing the dog lawn the drizzle that had been threatening turned to rain but i was all but done so all good. i have some lawns to do over the weekend and am hoping for some breaks in the rain action to try and get them done...if not...oh well.

one for the lawns i do in richmond is over near five road and not far from the que pasa deli, which is awesome, and next door to it is this house that seems to have more cars in the yard every week - which isn't exactly true but today there were two more than usual. i understand that who ever lives there is not popular with the locals but it doesn't seem to deter the love they/he/she has for crappy old hondas and such.
after the tax bill i received the other day i was hoping that would be it for a while, but no. i was lucky enough yesterday to get another email saying that my personal tax had been reassessed and i, after already paying a few thousand in tax, owe five hundred bucks more. payable any old time. but soon.
i'm feeling it. feeling awesome. feeling good.
ok. i need to get some food before i hunker down and get into some homework. have fun today.

g. xo

lookin' for mr. kawsbox.

 good lord.
i have been emailing back and forth and back again with a guy regarding selling some Kaws toys to him. i think he's a nervous sort and is asking all sorts of questions - some reasonable, some smart and some just paranoid. but it's his cash and i understand, he's never spent a bunch of cash on something like this before so i'm giving him the best answers i can and taking pictures including pictures of the original boxes - which is a big deal in this game. problem was i couldn't find the boxes which meant - if i couldn't locate them - the price would drop by at least 400 bucks...nice. i was sure, as i could be, that the boxes were, along with a bunch of other toy boxes, in issy's basement. so, this morning i drove out to her place and went through the closet that should have had them in it. it didn't. not after the first look or the second or the third. i didn't lose my cool, sure a few choice words but no freaking out, but inside i was wondering, 'where the fuck are those boxes...?'
not wanting to waste a trip out there - issy was not there when i first arrived but came home after i had been there about half an hour maybe more - so i decided today was as good as any to do a little purging of things i had in the closet. i was ruthless. pictures of people i didn't remember - tossed out. blurry pics of people i did know - tossed. books of bad stories i had written - gonzo. crappy nick-knacks - adios. all in all two small garbage bags of old memories i had long forgotten.
and in the other corner. pictures in frames that took up far too much room. so out with the pictures and into another box with the frames - that are not being, probably, devoured by the art kids on granville island as i take such things down there and let them have them.
and now in the back of my car awaiting disposal at mishi's yard sale this sunday (the manhattan building at robson and thurlow) - pool balls (eight ball), books, pictures, model paints, a car model, t-shirts, and all sorts of odds and sods. and i'm going to be taking some more stuff from here as well to that sale...and once it's outta this place it ain't coming back.
but after all the purging. no kaws boxes. but i had to get going so i left, after some great tuna salad sandwiches made by issy, and came back here to get my trailer and go cut grass on the north shore. i thought i would completely obsess about the boxes but i didn't, the lawns did their job and took my mind off of them.  but when i got home i looked, once again, through all my cupboards and nothing. and then. there they were. in, literally, the first place i had looked this morning. thank christ - or someone. so now pictures of the boxes have been sent and maybe he'll want them, maybe not, but either way i know where the boxes are now.
now dinner needs to be made. hopefully i'll find everything i need to get that going.

g. xo

eye to eye.

 
last week i interrupted a mangy coyote in the back yard of a client's place and thought that may be that. nope. today there was some more evidence that he/she had still been frequenting the yard and then, as i made my way into the back area to start cutting, there he/she was again and now only feet away from me. it was pretty clear that it was not interested in coming at this thing making a loud sound and made eye contact with me and then ran in the other direction and away into the corner of the yard. i got the fuck outta there too. after some searching, jim and i couldn't find the critter but are going to look into ways to make the back yard less of a place it's gonna want to hang out in...more as it develops.
you know, i am pretty liberal when it comes to personal adornment. and when it comes to tattoos i'm open to most but lately i have to say i'm a little mystified by all the young women getting full chest tattoos. huge, all encompassing pieces that can only be covered with a turtleneck or high and tight t-shirt collar.and i am not talking about a piece that comes a little across the chest or that sort of thing. i'm talking about the full on sailor jerry 'don't tread on me', snakes and flags and all seeing eyes up to the collar bone full side to side numbers. sure, the artwork is pretty good - not in all cases but tattooing has come a long way and a decent artist can really do some great work. anyhow...just something i'm noticing and while i have never been one to support the argument that always comes up, 'how are you gonna feel about that tattoo when you're 60?'....in this case i may be on side with that one.
i saw a woman yesterday standing near the eternal flame thingy - which is never actually lit - near cornwall and burrard and in front of the lululemon building. and she was all dressed in lululemon gear and looked to be someone who probably worked out or ate nothing, and she was hacking a butt right there while facing towards chip's empire. so awesome. would have been a great lululemon ad...'even while hacking up a lung, you can do it in style in lululemon...'....
just got my tax bill for big rookie inc...nothing like being out of work, temporarily i hope, and getting a five figure tax bill. good times. and that's not all, i have another one coming due very soon as well....i better get cutting some more lawns. (i may have sold some kaws toys this week so that will help a lot...)
ok..go OKC!

have fun.

g. xo

i really am missing something....

wtf?

g. xo

i should know better.

i know it's june. the calendar says so but really. come on. i looked outside this morning and said it, 'look at this weather...it's suppose to be june'...to which ailsa said, 'it's like this every year. you should be used to it'. and she's right but somehow i just have it in my head - and i'm not the only one, that it should be better. and summer it's not, i know it's spring but come on. i'm not really sure what drove sylivia plath to it but if she saw this rain every day or every june she'd have had a good reason to stick her head in the oven. and it is at times like these that i start having hippy thoughts - sell it all and move to the country (the country being mexico or tucson or....) and get a job at the local hardware store and just live out my days. because this weather isn't helping my brain. and then more hippie thoughts...what am i chasing, man? who needs a new TV....man? quit workin' for the man, man. i could sell everything and have XX in the bank and just drive, man. see the sights and figure it all out later when the money runs out. i kid you not, i have these thoughts and sometimes i wonder if i'm gonna be the guy who one day loses it and next thing i know i have liquidated everything and am heading south. i have these thoughts. i really do.
i need to eat. i'm feeling faint.

g. xo

really? friday?

holy crap. it's friday. and really it means nothing to me that it is it's just i have not said hello to any of you via the blog since monday. weird.
i was going to have a few folks over for a bbq on the deck tomorrow but cancelled that action as the weather this june, and really every june, has sucked hard - or as my pal erin said the other day, it has sucked donkey balls...so, the bbq was moved to july when there may be some better weather. maybe.
more lawn clients on-board since last week. when people have asked me how many lawns i do i quickly respond with the number 12 for some reason. but after some jotting down with a pencil the other day - ok it was actually in the 'notes' on my phone - i discovered that i am close to twenty lawns now. pretty good. keeps a guy out there in the sun and rain most days for a few hours. and over and above those twenty are my 'stringers' or random cuts that come along here and there. good times.
i have a question...why is it that some, not all, vegans and vegetarians like to let you know that they are....but in a kinda subtle way. like, when someone asks me what i had for lunch i may say, 'i had some tacos', or 'i had a sandwich'...but i know some folks who say, 'i had a vegan sandwich'...why specify? makes no nevermind to me. it's like some with gender issues...oops...can of worms opening...closing now. my garden is out of control. i can trim back zucchini right? and just pick the lettuce and give it to the binners in my alley? when i plant my garden each year it seems like more space than there actually is out there and before i know it there's a ton of green out there...i learned my lesson with tomatoes after the first year - i had four or five plants the first year and was over run with red ripe goodness.
yesterday my uncle came by and helped me with some issues i was having with the course i am taking at langara...between he and kathryn and the help they have given me, a light may have actually gone on in my head...i finished all my homework and am ready for class tomorrow...bring it on.
ok. i need to get out and cut. just finished up my non-vegan breakfast and am ready to rock.

g. xo

under me wheels.

i love my bike - not in a 'let's fuck shit up and give the finger to people driving cars and fuck up traffic in a critical mass' kind of way...but i love my bike. i love that it has a basket and i can cart shit around and put groceries in it and head on home, or to a picnic...well, maybe not a picnic but i have done that too. what i don't care for is that because the bike has no suspension, things rattle and bounce around in the basket and sometimes fall out and take a dive to the road or sidewalk. that happened today. i had been running some errands, after my day of lawn cutting, and was riding home after leaving london drugs and my toothpaste decided to do a header to the sidewalk and make sure it was right in front of my back wheel as i then rode right over it. nice. i still have no opened the box to see if my $1.99 purchase survived, but i will. it was some nice timing action though.
speaking of nice timing, my long time pal kathryn came over last night and helped me with some addition and subtraction as she's an accountant of sorts - more of a big wheel now and gets her minions to do her bidding in the accounting dept. but she is well versed in that worls - is a CA - so her help was awesome last night. i feel a little less dumb than i did the day before. thanks kathryn. she and i go way back to the days of CiTR radio up at UBC. she's had and is having a very interesting and cool life. her husband and she have lived and worked in mexico city, traveled the world, both have pretty great jobs in their chosen fields, live a cool downtown lifestyle. pretty good. i made steak tacos with all the fixin's and over and above the tutoring, it was just great to see her and catch up and have some laughs.
yesterday while cutting in east van i had a little weirdness...i was weed whacking in the backyard and all of sudden, as i came around a tree, something scampered off running but i only saw the tail end of whatever it was...i thought it was a cat at first, then i saw the 'present' it has left behind and knew it wasn't a cat...maybe a big dog. maybe...and i carried on. then as i came out front of the house i saw over on the other side of the yard what it was...a coyote. a mangy, sad, hungry lookin' coyote. he/she took one look at me and crossed the street and then, while staring right at me - as if to say 'fuck you'...stopped on the neighbours lawn and deposited another 'present' and then ran away down the street. i had never seen a coyote in town....not that i remember. cool and weird at the same time.
tonight there's some bomber hockey so i better eat something...

talk soon.

g. xo

lordy, lordy, look who's 40!

ok...she's only nine....but it is fiona's birthday today! new bike, new shoes and a probably a bunch of other fine giufts - plus the bumps at school. (unless they're not allowed to do that anymore due to people getting sued and allergies and....)

happy birthday fiona.

g. xo

me, the garbs and the coolerator. POV.

g. xo

how would you like to pay today?

i have a lawn in west can that's one of my favorites...for one thing the clients - elizabeth and barry - are awesome. super nice, funny and always good for a interesting chit chat...also, elizabeth is a wicked cook/chef and gives me both food that's ready to eat and, like today, raw product that i can cook any way i desire in the end. and it's always top shelf in quality and when it's something she's cooked, good god it's great. today i was paid with a thing of borscht she made, some beef stock, prime USADA Grade A beef short ribs and pumpkin loaf. really? for cutting grass? that's awesome. i'll be slow cooking those ribs shortly and then passing out after i eat them. nice.
it was a day i'll say that. i got up early and got cutting as soon as i could. the rain puts me behind so i have to play catch-up on weeks where i have missed a few days due to the usual shitty vancouver june weather. starting in dunbar at judy's, i was later in west van, north van, east van, and richmond. and the rain seemed to be following me the whole time and then as the day wore on the sun finally cam eout and is suppose to stay for the weekend and maybe into next week. which is good since i have four lawns on sunday and five on monday. good times.
it was a bust week - lawns when i could, fixed a garbage disposal for refuel jane - had to take it out and take the entire thing apart and fix it, then put it back together and back in the sink, put up a bunch of shelves at the pickle and have been taking care of the neighbour's cat - so great for someone who is basically allergic to cats and hates cleaning out litter boxes...
ok. now i need some food - tomato pie in the oven as i write this - thanks issy!
have fun...

g. xo

shades of sparklehorse....

well, shades of mark linkous...the garbs does his best linkous/jazz hands/mountain explorer/tom waits/brazil extra look for the kids at propellor...nice. it's been a while since the garbs made a splash on the blog...
nice.
ok. i'm off to try and get some lawns cut...

g. xo

eeeeeee (buzzer sound)...wrong answer...

so it turns out - after several emails back and forth with my teacher, that the answer i was getting on-line in the quiz was, indeed, correct. i still don't totally understand how it works but i am closer. i think. i actually enlisted the help of a few of my accountant pals and they were on my side initially, and maybe still are, but...well...i was wrong and in class saturday will ask how the fuck that one works. and sunday night a good friend of mine, kathryn - who is an accountant and super smart, is going to come over and give me some tutoring. i am blessed.
i just picked some lettuce from my garden - pretty cool...problem is i'm going to have far too much and need to get rid of some...i'm hoping garvie will take some home after she leaves tonight after dinner, maybe you need some and live close by...it's a very nice purple and green number, i'm hoping it's tasty.

ok...more studying.

g. xo

flawed.

i'm no genius. that's the truth but i may have found a 'bug' in the software they've given us to us in this course i'm taking. there are on-line tests you can do to test yourself as you're doing the homework and readings, and one test keeps coming up with the wrong answer - at least as far as i can see. i have done the question over and over and it makes no sense. i have sent screen grabs of the question to the teacher and am waiting to hear back. if it's wrong, the on-line answers, then i'll be bummed because i kinda rely on it to correct me when i am wrong - it takes the numbers you have submitted and changes them to the correct numbers but as you roll over the ones that are incorrect - they are marked in red - it shows what you put in and what should be there. but in this case, that's no help. so far. if i am wrong, and the numbers they are showing are correct, then i have no idea...
ok...back to reading...

g. xo

ps...nice fucking rain out there.

and on into it.

this morning i did some 'homework' and i have to say this - it made me feel like an idiot. seriously. i understand the concepts but the terminology and layout is what is getting me. i won't lie, i'm bummed. but i will keep slogging along, it's only been one week of getting my feet wet in this thing so...we'll see. i do know i learn through doing much more than i do from reading and concepts so hopefully more practicing and writing will help.
i am trying not to sink into a hole but today i was hurtin'. and it just happens without warning - one minute all's well and then...not so much. i am pissed off at the weather and how it makes me feel. i hate not working. sure, i'm cutting grass and it's hard and it's physical and it's work, but it's not what i do. it's often what i do to forget what i really do. make sense? i am bummed that everyone else in our little crew is off working on other shows and i am not. it's my turn i guess to be unemployed in this biz. but there's a part of me that thinks it's all over. i'm not kidding. and not just for me, for others i know as well. there's a shift going on and sadly at 48 i may be part of it. (and i'd be lying if i said i've never i had fantasies about selling everything and moving to mexico or wherever. more often than i would care to admit.) and what to do next? i don't know. as i've said before, driving a bus looks better and better every day.
i think my flowers are done and if not they're not long for this place. the weather hasn't been awesome - like i need to tell you - and they're feeling it. i was out there today pruning, deadheading, trying to help but i think some are just done. the other side of my garden, the food stuffs, are all fine i think. they all seem happy and are growing and showing signs that they may produce but the color, the blooming plants and flowers, not so much.
more cars have been broken into in our underground parking, more and more seem to be getting hit. and, as i noted last week, more lockers are being broken into as well - mine was hit and all my hockey sticks were taken...now there's word of golf clubs and other things gone. and the increase in theft has gone up ever since the grocery store went in below us. shocker. more people in the underground. more theft. even though we have a second security gate to the resident parking, once they're in the underground, they just figure out a way into the second section. easy.
i think my time here will be over in a year or so...i was excited to move here but it may not be worth the heartache. this city's a sucker.
ok...think happy thoughts, i'm gonna try.

g. xo

lights.

i met-up with issy today for lunch in richmond at the que pasa deli - a personal request by issy and who am i to say no to going to the deli started by tom and his brothers.
we had a nice lunch and in the middle of it issy told me that one of her good friends, ruth, had passed away after a long battle with cancer. ruth had also had to endure terrible arthritis for a very, very long time. her passing was not unexpected, and is not without its blessings - in disguise of course - but so very sad at the same time. i knew ruth, not well but she was a constant for many, many years having dinners here and there and was often around when i would visit issy at her work. she was always very good to me and even through her pain would have a smile on her face and was always interested in what i was up to.
issy says she's fine and that really ruth is in a better place, and she's probably right but my heart is still with her right now and i hope she really is ok. issy's awesome and ruth had a very good friend in her. we're all better off with issy around - especially eating mexican at a deli in richmond, having a few laughs about completely stupid and ridiculous things. thanks issy.

g. xo

opinion poll.

the other day 'he who can not be named on the blog' told me that the guys from la taqueria were going to be having a little thing at the cambie location - a tasting session/testing of some of the food they're going to be serving at the new location on commercial drive. and today was the day...

 

good lord. those guys are taking it up a notch. they'll have, of course, all the taco options you've come to know and love but they're also adding ceviche - different types, tortilla soup and chicharron (this was amazing and may be my new go to if i'm not going to have a taco. it was very nice of them to feed us - a lot - and also to (kinda) trust our opinions on the food. if you're looking for some new goods you're gonna wanna go to the new taqueria on commercial drive...they open aug. 01...it'll be good.

g. xo

in the bag...or not.

weird one.
yesterday i went to the bombers game dressed in my best lawn cutting clothes and then changed into clean ones after the game. i grabbed my lawn crap and put it all in my bag and away i went. or not. i left my boots and some gonch at the game but all was not lost - blair took it home with him...well, the boots i don't know about the gonch. so, i went to his place this morning to get them before i went to cut but he had left to go to work and they were in his car so - ji thought they were inside the house but, sadly, they were not...so i was bootless...no biggie. off to richmond i went.
dog lawn done i headed for kits...kits done i headed to joe's place in point grey. all good, except when i got there i had no grass bag. what the fuck? i thought i had left it at ali's in kits but when i went back it wasn't there...shit. it's in richmond. so off to richmond i went. and there it was. all sad and lonely. someone had put it up against the railing. so there i was in richmond, still no lunch, so..off to que pasa i went. again. i love that place. and then back to joe's in point grey to end my cutting day. good times.
ok. gotta go. 14 seconds left in the celtics game.

g. xo

waiting on your call.

it's kind of amazing how fresh 'some girls' sounds...and not the entire album but the track 'miss you' sure does. i had been listening to sam's town by the killers and somehow it merged into 'some girls' and 'miss you'. i remember getting that album brought home to me by my dad when he went to vancouver one week. we were living in prince rupert and i, up that point, disliked the rolling stones - i could muster up some goodness around sticky fingers and black and blue but not much else - and when it hit my record player it didn't come off much. and now, listening to it, the song, 'miss you', it holds. even with it's sax solo - something that makes a lot of springsteen tracks sound like they were, indeed, recorded 20 plus years ago - with all the love and respect clarence deserves i say that.
school was good today. first day. the teacher is a messy writer so you have to listen carefully and squint a little when looking at what she's written and put the two together. all in all i think it'll be a good course and hopefully i'm not too old or too big a dummy and i'll learn something.
it was pretty good at the end of the class, when i was getting ready to leave and go cut some grass, that i discovered that i had lost my keys...oh, and the fun that ensued...but i found them and i was soon off to que pasa for lunch and then to cut a couple lawns in richmond...then bomber hockey...1-0 lose today but a pretty good game i thought...good sweat, everyone played pretty well. nice.
i phoned the girls - ailsa and fiona, after hockey and we went and had a sushi hoss-down on main street at zipang, i think, sushi...pretty good action there. it was nice to see the gals and and share a meal. they had been at granville island all day at the kid's fest, and also saw mishi there and now needed some fuel.

and speaking of mishi, i found a pillow in her store - hammered and pickled - that i thought would go well on my new sofa - and i was right...so one pillow down and a few to go. garvie had said she was thinking about making me a pillow from one or more of my old pendelton shirts that have acquired some moth holes and i'm hoping she re-visits this great thought...just sayin'....
ok. more lawns tomorrow.
good times.

g. xo

book bag.

today is the first day of the rest of my life.
shit. i actually just wrote that. and it's not.
i think yesterday was.
ok. i'm up and at 'em and getting ready to head off to langara's halls of higher learning this morning. from nine to noon i'll be doin' some book learnin'. i have my book bag, my laptop, and i'm ready to go. i wonder if i'm gonna be the oldest guy in the room...
i'll let you know how it goes.
after class i'll be off to cut a few lawns and then head to the north shore to play a little bomber hockey. nice. and speaking of nice...if you're out driving around and see a petro-can gas station, they have a lemonade slushie that's awesome! just sayin'.

g. xo

when you were young.

yesterday i took fiona to her very first film set. judging by the size of her eyes most of the time i'd say she liked it...she got to see a lot of great stuff that not many nine - well, almost nice - year olds get to see. met erin in the art dept. who showed her a few things there, then it was off to walk through the costume dept. and see a few of the things there...then to the main stage where it got really good.

and i can't really tell you what she saw, it's that way, but if you're familiar with any of the percy jackson books you may have an idea. but she met some characters all done up in ghoulish make-up, saw some cool sets, stood just a few feet away from the main actor, had a ride in a cool car, saw some stunts being performed and met a woman who used to be in cirque du soleil. oh..and most importantly, fiona discovered craft service. kit kat bars and chicken strips. thanks to all who welcomed her to set...especially scott who encouraged her chicken eating.

g. xo

ok. done.

bcaa home insurance called, report made...police called, report made. case numbers on both. maybe i'll get some new hockey sticks.

g. xo

not making any pals

i had heard through the grapevine that trevor bird, the owner of Fable on west fourth - in the old Refuel location, had made some comments on his blog regarding the state of the kitchen at refuel, or rather what he was left to contend with...and he called out the former cooks there and that he would be embarrassed to work in such a dirty kitchen.
oh my.
he was taken to task on this by a local writer and to call out rob and jane...hhmm.
maybe i won't be getting old trevor to make me a burger. i think trevor may need an internal editor and may need to figure out that vancouver is a small town and he should keep his mouth shut until such time as he's actually got a successful joint going and he's more than just a TV star.
just sayin'.
you can see his blog here.

g. xo

perfect day for...

...well, not a lot.
there was a break in the rain yesterday and i may have been able to get one or two cut but the sofa took over and after all the waiting and bullshit, i had to get that thing home...and now, it's back to rain and may be like this for a few days. so, i'll try and cut a few in the rain, just to try and get some done, but it could be a shut-out.
bummer.
a little later today i'll be taking fiona to see her first ever movie set - it think she's pretty excited by that, especially since she knows the books that the film is based on. if i was nine i'd think that was pretty cool.
ok....i need to figure out this morning...

g. xo

honey i'm home.

well it finally happened.
i have a new sofa and it's not defective, the fabric is beautiful and the sewing is great. yup. i have a sofa after not having one since approx. the middle of feb. and it's nice to finally be sitting on something that's mine and not some old leather couch that smells like smoke and hurts my ass.

a huge thank you to my pal simon who came to my rescue today and helped me get the leather couch back to fullhouse so i could make room for the new sofa from bombast. i found out at around noon today that my new sofa would be ready for pick-up around 3:30 pm and once i knew that i was on it...and after simon hit the road i went and got the garbs and he helped me get it home and into place.

it looks good. i'm happy.

thanks garbs and simon for helping today. thanks to garvie for helping pick the fabric. and thanks to fullhouse for lending me a sofa in the interim even though i didn't buy a sofa from them in the end. good times. come on over and give it a trial run.

g. xo