point and shoot (random pics)

i lost our point&shoot camera at the end of january while taking my neice and nephew snobording at whistler. luckily it was turned into the mtn's lost&found and i was finally able to go pick it up this past monday (i put it off for 3weeks hoping my health would improve and i could make a snobording day out of it - but no luck on shaking this cold yet). so, i ended up with some very random shots from january...

ryan and me and nick at the railway club

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shane in a wheelchair with seanmaxey in a headlock at joel's houseparty

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odd shot of kevin up at whistler
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whistler - jersey cream chair? that day there was incredible powder!

the flood

ugh. i dont even want to remember any of this! my parent's headed out of the country on dec.26 and just a few days later they had a basement underwater. on new years day, i returned to my parents house around 10:30pm, we had picked up pizza, rented a movie and were all set for a relaxing night in. well, all of that changed pretty fast! when we were eating pizza in the kitchen our family cat showed up and kept pacing around in front of us while constantly meeowing (this cat is usually in permanent hide-out mode and sticks to the basement 98% of the time). it was very strange for her to be doing that so I went to chek on her food/water on the landing btwn the main flr and the bsmt. as soon as i took a few steps down i could hear running water. when i looked down the fight of stairs i could barely believe my eyes... there was standing water everywhere! the hot water tank had burst and was spewing out water non-stop for who knows how long. that night was filled with wet-vacs and the same went for the next couple days. by the time the restoration company showed up on tuesday we had sucked up most of the standing water but everything was still very damp. they brought in all those fans pictured above and they were going 24hrs p/day for a few weeks... the hum of all the motors made it very difficult to sleep at night and during the day it caused many a headache. now, a month and a half later the basement has yet to have the dry-wall fixed or get re-carpeted but all i know is i am very glad not to be the one having to deal with it... its good to have the parents bak at home!

nye 05-06

new years eve... house party at tanya-chenoa-brenda-erik's place... comfy drinkin with friends to bring in the new year... immediately followed by a drunken expedition shortly after midnight... jacquie, chenoa, andrew and myself head out on a packed bus to pat's pub (let me tell you there are definitely pro's and con's to riding free transit!)... all the bands had finished playing and most people had already moved along... we went in for awhile but got kicked out fairly quickly... next stop we tried to hit up the after-hours studio which also had bands scheduled to play... we managed to catch a cab right into gastown, only to find our destination had already been shut-down. andrew and i decided to end our night at that, while jax and noa went on to chek out a few more bars. well, almost 2 hours later the girls were home way before us! andrew and i being of the non-bus-riding type had been waiting at the wrong bus-stop for about an hour watching all the full taxi's pass us by... we ended up walking all the way home! lessons learned: 1.when taking transit at early hours of the morn make sure you wait at a stop labeled "Night Bus", 2.when trying to catch a cab on a busy weekend/holiday dont go along the route most taxis take to leave the city (because they are already full) instead go towards the way most cabs re-enter downtown-eg. georgia street viaduct (because they are now empty) - this lesson was thanks to noa AFTER we walked all the way home! It's funny cuz andrew and i had never run into this problem before - usually we dont drink or one of us will stay sober to drive - otherwise we just ride our bikes. bicycles are always our easiest mode of downtown transportation- i guess we know for next year!

dave's visit

my old roommate from 444iloko street was visitng from hilo... he was on vancouver island for theholidays and took a kwik trip to the city to unite with alex (hilo frend from seattle now living in new york) and ryan miller (his current roommate in hawaii whose from anacortes,wa). anyways, we gots the stat touristy shots - rcmp riding in stanley park, us on the seawall, group shot by the steamclock and alex gettin down'n'dirty in gastown with a polar bear.

sww-vipers-jw-jt

these pics are from a show at the railway club (sometime btwn christmas and new years). i took all these pics with andrew's cam and being that i had downed my fair share of drinks i was really needing some photoshop lighting help - but i figure they are better up then just sitting in a folder on our desktop. photos of joel rockin the acoustic guitar followed by johnny wakeham's sweet soundin guitar&harmonica and finishin up the night with sean wesley wood and the vancouver vipers.

Our Christmas

my first time hosting christmas dinner... i made almost all the courses (auntie kay brought the dessert and a tossed salad), and most everything turned out great other than andrew's veggie moussaka which got a little overcooked - as u can see in the pic above (dish in front of me). i made a yummy garlic soup (as seen above-naked chef recipe) topped with orange slices and fresh mint leaves followed by a second starter of sliced pear halves with watercress and cheese (as seen below). In attendance was andrew's family - his dad, his uncle david and auntie kay, his cousin jon and girlfriend laurie, and the two of us!

christmas collage: me and the uncooked turkey (mr.veggie could hardly stand taking the photo!), the table all set with dishes borrowed from mum, the appie table - with lotsa different cheeses, crackers, olives and gherkins, our lil norfolk pine christmas tree (it was hard to find ornaments light enough to stay on the branches - spongebob ended up crowning the top), and ofcourse the standard apres-meal slumber photo.

Ghosthouse

the marine club - december 23/2005: jesse gander-keys/lead vocals, steve matheson - bass/ some vocals, al boyle - drums/ guitar solo, marissajohnson & shannon wood-backup vocals

[somehow we didnt get any pics of the opening bands, skort and pete&skye's band the co-pilots]

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my first attempt at using the picassa collage- definitely a nice way to show a bunch of pics all at once but i wish it let you center the photos... had to post a few of my favs solo

another month gone by...

so here i am yet again doing my catch-up once-a-month post... it's past midnight right now and i have been doing computer work for the better half of the evening (very boring)... and now wanted a little internet downtime before i go to sleep... i had a coffee this afternoon and that's probably the only reason my eyes are still open (extremely sensitive to caffeine)...

anyways, i am just now feeling like i am truly getting over the 'cold' i have had for the past month and a half... the past few weeks were the worst with my chest being very congested which made it difficult to be outside, do any physical activities -my doctor specifically outlawed any running :( and i have been house-bound longer than ever it seems -i have more or less stayed at home for the past few weekends (very unlike me) and although i did sneak out a few times i usually felt so awful that i ended up going home early and leaving andrew to continue partyin on his own. i even missed almost an entire week at science world because my coughing fits were so bad (i ended up with a lot of internal bruising and was prescribed an inhaler). But now after my second round of antibiotics almost finished i think i'm finally regaining my health.

So onto better and happier things...

andrew and i are planning a big trip for april-ish to early may-ish... i'm gonna stop by some travel agents soon and hopefully get plans a little more secured. we're hoping to hit montreal, new york, and then spend some time exploring cuba! [more details to come]

also, i have a ton of photos to post from ages ago as andrew switched operating systems awhile ago and we have been without photoshop ever since... being that i am a bit pre-occupied with editing pics to the best of my ability, i have found this very frustrating. i am used to tinkering with levels and other stuff that user-friendly programs just dont have. regardless i will be posting all the photos i can tomorrow (schedule dependent) sans photoshop fixins.

tis all fer now...

pre-christmas potluck (we arrived early -so we got first picks) -here's jenny with her veggieplate masterpiece!

me always tryin to get the animals together... never quite works but its still fun