days away

tomorrow morning, early, my ladyfriend and i are heading off to roam/drive, somewhat, aimlessly around washington and oregon for a few days - seattle, bainbridge, portland, yachats - yes yachats, bend, etc. there will be mexican food, wool shopping, reading, staying in dodgy hotel/motels, more mexican food, some not-mexican food, looks at the ocean from the oregon seaside, and more dodgy hotels/motels. love it.
then, after we get home, i am back for one day and then will head off to philadelphia, washington, d.c., and houston to see a few baseball games. three for sure with the fourth nooner thrown in if i feel the urge before i fly out of houston back to seattle on the sunday evening. i may just wanna find the best bbq in houston and settle in until my flight leaves.
so the next communiques will likely be from south of the border...where? i have no idea.

g. xo

potato action

i couldn't wait any longer. i had never grown these before - purple or otherwise - but now i know the drill. i had heard rumblings of some others harvesting their potatoes so today i started digging. sure. i only had one plant, and yes, i only got enough for a few meals...and yes, i could have bought the same amount of spuds for a couple bucks.
but i didn't.

i grew mine.
so there.
and now i have to figure out what to do with them..a salad, boiled up with some butter, baked in the oven....

nice.

g. xo

i do, i do...i don't...

yesterday, after a what seems like years in the making, my cousin roz got married to, as my uncle glen likes to call him, randy andy (real name andrew.) and he's a bit of a quiet sort so you could probably call him a number of different things and he'd not correct you. andy, drew, randy andy, snookums, etc...all workable.

it was a very nice affair out on what could be described as a farm pasture in a rural section of langley not far from the US/CDN border. the actual 'i do's' were said in the shade of a oak tree and once the crying had stopped, we had mr. and mrs. hale, i think...or mr. hale and ms. harry, or  some combination of such things - hale-harry, harry-hale, hey-you-hale, harry-and what's his name...all that. maybe the're just use initials AHH and RHH. either way or whichever way, the taxes are different now.
congrats to them.

the reception was a backyard affair - and i had heard tale that a: it was an all veggie affair (and there's nothing wrong with that i just knew i needed a little something more..), and that the likelyhood of a margarita was unlikely - garvie, floyd, janine and i headed to the local cactus club and had a few pre-game snacks after the wedding i-dos. there was an hour and half gap between the actual wedding and the receiving of guests at the house so it was a good call and gave us all a chance to sit and chat and just relax. the 'family' was off doing photos and such so weren't needed anyways.



i, after many unsuccessful tries, managed to finally tie a bowtie i could live with and wore it proudly for the entire day/night....and i had grand plans of being home by nine pm but we didn't roll in until much later and i am a bit tuckered out today - we made our way to the farmer's market thingy in ladner this morning to meet-up with fiona and dorothy as they had a grand daughter and grandma night last night in tsawwassen watching movies outdoors at the park there. good times.



so here i sit, enjoying the cold air of eco-air conditioning - geothermal - and contemplating seeing what goes in in the world outside my window...but i may just have a nap instead.

g. xo

long overdue

i remember the last time i rode it. clearly. garvie and i rode over to bowen island - well, took it on the ferry to bowen island - to visit my pal hamish. he has, most every year, a gathering at his place - his family's compound - and tons of people go. so we did too.
we rode the bike. and it started off badly.
ailsa burnt her leg on the pipe. nice. i couldn't have felt worse. but we/she  moved on and made our way to bowen. then things went south. actually, the time at hamish's was great. swam in a pool, etc. nice. then, on the way back, i think i/we became the victims of some bad gas. and it was touch and go to whether or not we'd make it back home. but we did and the bike has sat ever since. i was pissed-off. two years pissed-off i guess.
until today.

i had been thinking about taking the cover off and starting it up. so today was the day. and after just a few kicks, it started up. very nice. and i rode it around the underground a little, the tires flat-ish, and it seems ok. the real test will be out on the road for a few miles - get the gas running through (i drained most fo the old gas and will replace it with some nice high octane juice.)
so..we'll see. there could be some riding in my future.

g.xx

my little garlic

yup.
there is it..or they are. that there in that yellow plastic bucket thingy, is my very first attempt at growing garlic. pretty good i'd say. smells amazing. first i ate all the scapes - a month or so ago. now, on to the main event.
i am patting myself on the back - mainly because the rest of my garden this year really, really blows.

so. hats off to you fine garlic...

g. xx

cleveland rocks

muc sent me a text a while back asking if i would be interested in seeing a ball game in seattle on the 24th...it was my first real week off the big lizard show so i had the time. so, yes. i'd love to go. while he and i worked out some of the details - muc lives in victoria and he'd either take the 'clipper' down from victoria to seattle and i'd meet him there or...he'd come over and i'd pick him up from the ferry and then, when we came back (as it was a day game) i'd drop him back off at the ferry and he'd get the last ferry back home. perfect plan.
i asked pete if he was interested as well, he was and then brent and rave got on board. it was to be a boys day out. good.
day off rave was nowhere to be found - not answering his phone, etc. so he was and hasn't been seen since. brent had to attend an important meeting, so he was out. that's cool - work first. so i grabbed pete and we went and picked up muc at the ferry. all good.

we had a great time at the game - the mariners were clocked by the indians to the tune of 10-1 and i was the lone one with cleveland gear on - hat, t-shirt so i went away a happy cleveland fan (though really i was just happy to be with pete and muc..) we ate some crappy baseball park food, they drank overpriced beer and saw a couple home runs - one grand slam and some very poor fielding my the mariners centre fielder. good times.


after a filling burrito lunch at bimbos in capital hill, followed by a lovely coffee next door at cafe vita - we were on our way back. muc had looked at the ferry schedule and there was a ten o'clock ferry leaving tsawwassen so we were good. got through the border at 9 and we were away. lots of time.
to get the next ferry - at 7 am.
yup. no ten o'clock ferry. hhmmmm.
i mentioned that he could stay at my mom's place in tswawwassen or come to my place and take the bus out in the morning...or, at it turned out in the end - stay at matt (fellow bomber) and megan's place, also in tsawwassen, and get a ride to the ferry in the morning. so a few texts were sent, calls made and shortly we were at matt's place dropping off muc - who made it to the ferry sometime this morning. all's well that end's well...
i took pete home to his fancy 16th floor apartment in the west end and came home to fall into bed.
long day. good fun.

g. xo

and this is where the car broke down

short update.
i was asked a while back to participate in a slide show at the VAG by david wisdom - he of the famous slide show's from years back (including some i attended at his house many years ago).
i was thrilled to be included. and is the company of such others participating as marv newland and james o'mara. good god.
it was great and besides a little awkward speech i gave that made no sense and meandered, like one of my roadtrips (of which most of my slides/pictures were based) it went well.
if he'd have me, i'd love to do it again.
thanks david.

g. xx

a couple of the 'slides' i presented...

bow tie bullshit

yes. i can give up to easily. it's the truth. and today i may be, once again, letting the better of 'it' get the better of me.
i have been trying to teach myself how to tie a bow tie and am failing terribly. i rarely do anything in front of the mirror, so i am pulling when i should be pushing, etc. it's very frustrating. i can tie a regular tie several different ways producing a fine knot - full and half - but this is killing me.
i think the wedding saturday will be sans tie of any sort. none of the youtube videos are helping either...
it's ok...who needs a tie anyways?

g. xx

tonight! words, music and pictures....

i am participating in this tonight.

https://www.facebook.com/events/539002076159190/

i was thrilled when david asked me be in this...or if i would be at all interested. yes. very very much. thrilled. and even more thrilled that one of my all-time favorite people, marv newland, would be showing some of his 'slides' as well. that's worth it in itself.

it's at the VAG tonight starting at seven pm. please come.

g. xo

you there?

let me know...



the blog vacation may be over. maybe.

g. xo

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...