Canada Wins Gold!

It was an exciting game, Canada vs Finland for gold.
I wish I was talking about men's hockey, but it was curling instead that stepped up to the plate in talent.

I have to admit I like watching Olympic curling - the pressure is high on a sport that has weird variables, like surface texture, rink temperature and wrist rotation accuracy. I've tried curling and therefore have a deep respect for a game that pretty much secures gold with Canada taking 6 points in the 6th end! The 3rd man, Nichols, had a 97% accuracy and some of those were amazing throws (like hitting 3 rocks out on incredible angles!). And, to make this game even more interesting, the Lead guy was kind of cute.

I do wish I could have seen the women's hockey gold winning game.
(Glad i missed the men's)

300 sq. ft

300 sq. ft is very small.
Imagine the average size of a bedroom and that would be the area of the suite that I walked in to. The small window looked across at the corner of Abbott and Cardero, Gastown (this was it's good feature). There were no cupboards. There was no countertop to prepare food. The silver unit that had two burners and a sink on top, also had a fridge, rather than an oven, in it's belly. The small bathroom DID have a half tub, shower and toilet, but there was no sink to brush your teeth or wash your face - the silver unit, it appeared, was multifunctional.
All that and no parking or storage space for the fine price of of $525.

I don't know. Call me middle class, but I think I'll pass on this one.

Too bad...I liked the idea of living in Gastown (and throwing the world's smallest parties).

Traveling with my phone charger

One sign that could indicate you don't really have a home yet, is that you travel with a phone charger.

Yesterday I realized a disadvantage to this when I pulled out said phone charger and tried to charge it (in my car of course) since I had talked it down to dead.
Nothing. I looked it over, figured I had broken it (I don't think I had looked that closely at the charger before) and thought "Great, I'm now that much harder to get a hold of". Luckily this morning I discovered I had not in fact broken the charger...however now I wonder what the problem was. Since I was in the middle of calling someone about a place (a home for my phone charger) I decided to walk the blocks in search of pay phone. This is not an easy feat these days but after covering many blocks of pavement I finally found one. Ironically this one died on me halfway through my conversation and I had to move to the next stall over in order to finish hearing about a place to live that is 300 sq ft! - I can't even imagine how small that is. The size of my room with a kitchen attached to it? Probably. Anyway, the way this suite hunt is going, I might as well check it out - it could be the golden egg that my phone charger is looking for.

In other news, I am now an official diver at the aquarium, got some sweet, red, Rock and Roll underwear for valentines, danced a tiny solo in El Jaleo, an in-house casual performance, and I'm going on a trip in late April for 5 days to sail the Gulf Islands as a naturalist on a grade 8-9 Albertan school field trip.

And for those of you wondering about Canada's medal count, so far we have 2 Golds, 6 Silver and 5 Bronze medals. In half an hour the women's hockey play for gold! Go Canada go!

Gold - Women's Freestyle Skiing, Men's Skeleton
Silver - Two-Man Bobsled, Women's Cross Country team sprint, Men's Skeleton, Men's Speedskating Team Pursuit, Women's Speedskating Team Pursuit, Women's Speedskating 1000m
Bronze - Men's Figure Skating, Women's Snowboarding Cross, Women's Skeleton, Women's Speedskating 3000m, Women's Speedskating short track 500m.

When does it end?

Emerson switches to the Conservative party, Canucks lose to St. Louis Blues, and I just saw a commercial for a razor that has 5 blades.

5 blades? That's out of control...

giant clam

giant clam
Originally uploaded by lindsayj.

Big Jim?

Big Jim?
Originally uploaded by lindsayj.

I havn'et processed or scaned any negatives recently, but I found some I took on James' camera... :) heh

North Van Sunlight

North Van Sunlight
Originally uploaded by lindsayj.

BIG powder...

(...why did I think that I could tele ski in that??)

well got back from our "back country" (read: front country cleverly disguised by the several feet of powder and no visibility) trip and we had a great time. Spent many hours "training", hiking and getting ready for our one big back country powder run so I was quite disappointed in myself that I pretty much slide down the slope and experienced several deep faceplants along the way - to my credit I had been convinced to borrow some extra long rental "real tele" skiis that were incredibly awkward to ski on (stupid nerdy non-tele skier rental guy). (sigh) oh well, live and learn eh?

Regardless of my backcountry failure run, and my subsequent frustration, I had such a great time and can't wait to give it a try again some time soon. I could be addicted...(now if only I could stay upright in powder).

back country tomorrow!

I'm so excited.
The views, no crowds, the fresh air, the exercise, the potential for powder tele skiing (!)...

Junky

Almost done this book. An incredibally realistic perspective on being a junky, and a great read- as someone who was taught in Psych 101 that the body is instantly addicted to heroin from the first hit, I was shocked to find out that Burroughs estimates that it takes at least a year before you ever expererience junk sickness.

Some words I've learned from Junky:

Sepulchral

1. Of or relating to a burial vault or a receptacle for sacred relics.
2. Suggestive of the grave; funereal.

Effeminate

1. Having qualities or characteristics more often associated with women than men. See synonyms at female.
2. Characterized by weakness and excessive refinement. (grrrr....)
   

Reticence

1. The state or quality of being reticent; reserve.
2. The state or quality of being reluctant; unwillingness.

Garrulous

1. Given to excessive and often trivial or rambling talk; tiresomely talkative.
2. Wordy and rambling: a garrulous speech.

I heart big dumps...

Just got back from Whistler- Blackcomb. Had good times, found some good powder runs, used my fantastic new telemark boots, and have sore legs. It feels good to be active in the outdoors again...

Thanks mel for having us! I've added another bunch of good stories to my collection -
including encounters with two hot tub visitors; 19 yearold drunk J-rock who feared Big Bunny (Jim) and Big "Median/Meridian" and brought me free beer, and chatty 13 year old "senior" boy scout Mark who had yet to learn sarcasm.

It was fun also to win the "word guessing" game with Miranda, Sparky, Devon and Heather. I like winning. Guess that means I'll never be a monk.

____________________

Holy how selfish do I feel. As the weather gets worse the chances grow slimmer of findding the lost person on Cyprus Mountain. Reports are saying that even the search team is coming back with hypothermia...

B'gwus

So, today I started reading a book, given to me by my Secret Santa, called Monkey Beach.
It was written by a First Nations lady from Kitamaat, where the story also takes place, and I love reading books about places I've been, as the images are that much more vivid and real in your mind - I'm enjoying this one already.

What's interesting is that already in the first few pages of the story, sasquatch legends and sightings have been mentioned and I get the feeling that this will be a reoccuring theme throughout the book. I've heard rumors that this part of BC was sasquatch territory but this book seeks to confirm it, Monkey Beach being a place where several sasquatch (b'gwus in Haisla) have occured.

In the past, I've been a sasquatch doubter but recently I've changed my tune. It could be because of loud arguements coming from Big Jim, or Jane Goodall's B'gwus belief, or the discovery of a new carnivore in Australia (http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17485571%255E30417,00.html), or maybe it just stems from the fact I hadn't really given it too much thought until now, but either way I'm finding myself turning into a fence-sitter, unsure whether to join Owen Sound boys in their steadfast Bubbles 'Samsquench' faith and admit that there could be this beast that lurks in our deep forests that we haven't discovered, or to keep with my doubt, waiting for some sort of hard evidence of these mysterious beasts.

Thoughts?

Happy (ridiculously mild) Holidays!

Well, for the first time I find myself (sick) at work on Christmas Day.
Working today is actually not as big of a deal as I thought it would be and the extra ski money is definitely appreciated.

What DOES suck however is I am stuck with some sort of virus or bacteria that refuses to leave my system. At first it was the fever chills, then the headaches came, followed shortly by the bed-shaking coughs and free flowing snot, and now, today and yesterday, it is the loss of appetite - it feels like I have rotting guts and, very strange for me, I'm not the least bit interested in eating sweets. Dammit this is the wrong time of year to get this symptom. I started taking ColdFX however and am sort of sold on this product. I don't think it's curing the sickness, however it is holding the symptoms at bay, which in turn prevents me from curling up and hibernating for a week.

Tonight is Christmas dinner with my family and, another first for this season, we have 2 boyfriends joining us for Christmas dinner. I personally think it's better with the addition of other people (and a puppy) - the more the merrier. I also think my family argues less and acts less crazy when we have guests over. That being said, I did stress out last night worrying about how boring my parents can be. Some people wish their parents didn't get drunk or didn't fall off the roof, but me I wish my parents would do something exciting, drink a bunch, or even argue loudly about the colour of Santa's shoes. (sigh) The Christmas tree is always greener....

When I have my land and home and dog and family ALL will be invited. I consider friends as family so screw this blood relation thing and bring on the big Christmas gatherings!
Merry happy day of the seasons!! Enjoy your winter solstice however it be spent.

19th floor

The apartment that I've been housesitting (aka my boyfriends apartment that I sort of moved into for the week - somehow that sounds a lot worse though) is on the 19th floor. This presents many opportunities to ride the elevator with a variety of residents and it amazes me how awkard each ride with a new face is - unless of course I'm drunk and then I can't shut up. I feel snotty for not engaging in conversation, but I'm shy and my fellow elevator riders usually don't say anything anyways.

Purely by coincidence I was looking up 'funny things to do on an elevator' the other day and I thought I'd post a few amusing ones:

~ Tell people their clothes are stuck in the lift door and when they look around and see that it isn't, apologize, then 5 seconds later say it again in exactly the same tone of voice.

~ Pretend to be a flight attendant and instruct people on what to do in an emergency. Especially effective in costume.

~ Say that you have just won the lottery and you are on your way to collect your winnings. See how many people are listening to you.

~ When the elevator is silent, look around and ask "is that your beeper?"

~ Stand silent and motionless in the corner, facing the wall, without getting off.

~ When arriving at your floor, grunt and strain to yank the doors open, then act embarrassed when they open by themselves.

~ When there is only one other person in the elevator, tap them on the shoulder and then pretend it wasn't you.

~ Push a button, pretend it gave you a shock. Smile and go back for more.

~ Ask the others in the elevator which floor they're going to, but push the wrong buttons.

{sigh}
I want to live on my own...

Travellers Itch

The last couple of days I've been housesitting for Jim - well he didn't excatly ask me to housesit, but I volunteered, worried that the rowdies here in North Van might burn down the place and shit.

Anyways, I don't own a TV, so while here I've been taking advantage of some fine CBC programming and Sunday afternoon was the best. First I watched the end of some tales of travellers who faced the desolate yet gorgous Dempster Highway. (I want to go North...)
Then I watched a special on a Newfie who claims to make the best snow shoes, possibly ever - he walked us through the process and I was convinced.
Now I've been thinking about travelling to Cornerbrook, Newfoundland in February/January with the sole mission to purchase and test out these amazing shoe shoes.

I like to have themes if I can when travelling - they don't need to be ridgid themes, but things that keep me focused, such as diving, or surfing, or photographing the "World's Biggest [fill in the blank] !". It keeps me amused.
Maybe snowshoeing could be a theme.

Heh, likely I'll be using the "saving money" theme yet again....maybe travel to Sooke or something wild like that :)

Inactive....

I heart dinosaur comics

...even when it's guest week.

Anyone know someone whose nickname applies to this comic?
Makes me feel a bit better about some of my nicknames...like Haenus Janes (spelled incorrectly on purpose).

http://www.qwantz.com/index.pl?comic=663

And (not) speaking about photography, my current photo class is conjuring up a strange mix of utter frusteration, excitement, and humbleness and I'm left wondering why I'm spending so much time and money on this hobby. I spent 5 hours in the darkroom yesterday and 3 hours tonight for (drum roll please) possibly a total of 6 good prints.
sigh.

Half ironman transition

half ironman transition2
Originally uploaded by lindsayj.

This my sister in the summer transitioning before her 22km run.
I'm so proud of her.

At the moment I'm taking a Black and White Photo course where I'm learning how to make prints. I can't talk enough about how fun it is.
Anyone think this photo is good for printing?

Another year older...

Well, my day of birth was great.
I figured I'd have been lost in reflection, feeling old and wondering where my mis-spent youth had gone but when the big day came there was no celebration formally planned but I had a perma-smile on my face from thoughts of all my good fortune in life - good friends, good family, good times, good job, and a sunny day.
(Thanks to all of you who made it special).

Oh yeah and yesterday I photographed Marcus Naslund while he and his family had a beluga encounter. He laughed at my wit. He also asked for my phone number but I told him I was taken. I'm what you call a loyal girlfriend.

It's raining again today.

What is the price of absent-mindedness?

$1

That's the cost of upgrading your expired bus ticket because you didn't pull the cord at the right time and you somehow ended up on the North side of the 2nd Narrows, several km's, many minutes and a bridge away from your home.