OH BABY!

As Serling would say, right before something got destroyed.

"Have you ever wanted to destroy $1000?"

Quick stop at the shop, which sibling and I got to see for the first time. Container #1 is by the side of the shop, and the living area is on the opposite side. It still needs a bit of work, but it’s a nice set-up. Office downstairs with small extra room and kitchen, shower, and toilet in the back. Thin stairs up to large living area with great view, bedroom, and bathroom.

Shoe polisher in the downstairs closet is the exact same model my dad used when he was a young boy and wanted a faster way to shine his father’s shoes.

Still in time to visit Summerland Sweets. Lost of great stuff in the gift shop but there was only about 10 minutes left before they closed. Not enough time for real shopping but plenty of time for maple walnut ice cream, all 1 (read: 3) scoops of it.

Then a walk down to the tressel.


Which has now got extended platforms on each side with fences due to a death that happened in 2002. I’m sorry someone died, but I truly appreciated the extra width and height. Couldn’t walk down the middle, although Dad and Tonbo had no problem with that part at all.


It crosses over Trout Creek and is very cool.


Also has some interesting graffiti.



Drive down the mountain which made me car sick. Tonbo was kind enough to drive me (via the $46 CDN fill-up at the gas station) to Pendicton where we had dinner at Das Gasthaus. Weiner schnitzel and spatzel, can’t go wrong with that. Which was followed by one of the few non-alcoholic desserts I was interested in of hazelnut-chocolate cake.

under the bathroom sink

THOSE TEXANS

you can't see them, but there are also 3 appliances sitting out on the front drive area

DAD'S BDAY

Dad’s bday and we celebrate with the pastries sibling had picked up yesterday in town. She also had gifts for all of the bday peeps. I got an awesome picture of a warrior on horseback with an eagle and what looks like a large hunting cat. Dad & Tonbo & mom got calendars, and Dad also got a fine blue silk scarf that is a “gift given to older people”. Not really worn on the person, but hung on a picture or furniture. They’ve got it on the wooden clock in the apartment. Looks good.

master bedroom

BEFORE


TONBO ON VACATION


SEE-THRU BATHROOM

backyard view

HE CAME TO LOOK AT THE FENCE

Awake at 6 am, which is 8 am my time. Could have slept a bit more, but the thought of being up before anyone else (other than the parents, of course) was a nice thought. Wandered around taking pictures and decided I wanted a chance at the hot water before the rest of them, so showered and dressed for moderate cold. Later came back and added long underwear since it’s cold and rainy.

But the worst day on vacation is still better than the best day working.

Documenting the house as is before the remodeling. Which actually started this afternoon when the guy who came to look at the fence also looked at the house and started pulling of parts of the wall.

Hanging out, started this blog since I don’t have any internet connectivity and am not sure when it will happen. Tonbo is napping and sibling is watching the remodeling in progress.

Little bit of sun, warm house, and the sound of paneling being ripped from the wall. Ah, vacation.

Shopping on Main Street, Summerland, B.C. Found lots of neat little gifts and have almost used up my vacation money. Good thing I get it out of the way now, I guess.

Lunch at The Carrot Top which has an excellent strawberry-rhubarb pie.

vancouver: summerland

DFW: VANCOUVER: SUMMERLAND

Up at 6 to be on the road at 6:30 am. On the road at 6:45 am which is good enough.
Get to airport faster than thought. Use park n’ fly and go to terminal. Each 1 bag each.

Wait in line for security.

Go through security.

Wait for Tonbo to go through security.
- same thing that has stopped him before, the charcoal filter in the water bottle. A long, thin dark object on the x-ray is going to get you hauled off to the side.

Walk down to gate A-33 to A12. no big deal, have lots of time

Sit for a bit, then go to food court for breakfast

Nice to be traveling w/Tonbo again. First travel-somewhere-other-than-the-local-neighborhood type vacation in 4 years.

Sibling shows up

Board plane for 4 hours tour

Hottest plane been on in a while

Try to sleep but sibling kept pointing out interesting clay formations she was seeing outside on the ground below. Thanks. A lot.

Finished Soulware by Paul Black. Think I liked the first book (The Tels) better, but am still very interested to see where the story ends up. Think the 3rd and final book will be out in 2007.

Worked on 101SYOB – decided on a 5 x 8, wireframe, 5 ps per way

Bit of turbulence, not feeling well

Don’t enjoy the actual travel but can’t wait to get to the destination. That whole journey is the worthier part is still crap to me.

Customs in Vancouver – for an hour – on your feet – walking back and forth like cattle. At least you got a preview of what you were in for by coming down the escalator to the pit. Bathroom breaks first. Person space issues with Tonbo and the sibling was getting on frayed nerves that I didn’t realize I had until later.

Get customs declaration form stamped, get luggage, helpful guy take luggage on cart and over and around and through to the Avis car rental. Free upgrade to a red Ford Taurus.

Get directions out of Vancouver and we’re off. sibling in the front pointing out all kinds of things that Tonbo really shouldn’t look at because he’s driving.

Sushi advertising at the gas station


Miss exit to highway 1. Quick turnaround and then back on track. Make note of landmarks and exit numbers so Tonbo can find his way back to the airport exit when he drives back on Saturday by himself.

Brief stop at Wendy’s for lunch and caffeine to take the edge off the headache. Love their chicken club with red onion and spicy mayo.

Back on the road. Tree line of snow. And then it was winter. Snow on trees, snow on ground, snow in the air, and thankfully no snow on the road.

Hit the other side of the mountain and it’s spring. No snow, golden grass and stripes of sun piercing through the clouds to layer the rolling hills.

In and out of mobile connectivity, but the dominant player appears to be Rogers with better signal strength that what I get at my house.

Darkness as we turn away from Kelowna, head through Peachland and reach Summerland. One wrong turn corrected and then we’re at the house. Parents and dogs welcome us. Quick tour of the fabulous 70’s carpet and wallpaper and then dinner. A bit of talk and then we picked sleeping rooms and assembled the bedding. I’m in the master bedroom, Tonbo in Mom’s office, sibling downstairs in a guest room.

Long day, hoping for a good night. Finally here.

THE NOT-SO-BIG 32

Kestrel turns 32

And gets a very cool plushie Jonasan the seal from Tonbo as a present. ^_^

Jonasan is the cute anime sidekick from the anime Kaleido Star. Think anime does Cirque de Soleil.

Get a hold of BG supplier since left with a nasty Battlestar Galactica cliff-hanger at midnight. Has to check box, will get back with me. Packing and futzing with computer. BG ep will be ready in a few hours. Walk to Quizno’s and realize when get there that the rest of the immediate world thinks of today as Easter and it’s not open for business.

Thankfully, Wendy’s does business on Easter.

More putzing and packing

Temp page on Fandone

Temp page on shopyourownbusiness.com

Update mvs to 4 thanks to uppage in WebSiteSource bandwidth

Loading up computer with stuff to do
- DXG (hope to be able to log in from somewhere or will miss a session)
- stories (never know when have time to Wag)
- 101SYOB
- Music video want to get done to submit to the showcase at Project A-Kon

Dinner at Spring oak BBQ

Drive-by to get BG ep - Good place to stop for 4 weeks - Starbuck kicks ass
Female TV role model that is competent, admired by her peers, extremely resourceful, intelligent, and sexy without using it or hanging around in lingerie

SATURDAY

Kestrel’s birthday observed

3” of rain

Battlestar Galactica (what I have of it thanks to The Dumping Grounds) and Konomini blow-out

Pizza guy

Booze (okay, I'm allergic to alcohol so this is really sparkling white grape juice ^_^) and cheesecake

Only cheesecake have found that comes close to one made by Omi. From Omaha Steaks, called twice baked. Tastes exactly the same except theirs doesn’t have layer of crust on top.

CATCH-UP

Long time, no blog

5 working days to 4 week vacation

For whatever reason, it's really easy to fall out of the habit of blogging for me. Then the other day I came across the 2" printout of last year's blog posts, and realized how much of my life I had recorded and how much would have been forgotten had I not.

So here I am again.

Catching up ...
- finish internal report. well received. parents liked it as well.

- car repairs - about $1300, hoses, idle arm, new shocks all around, almost 94,000 miles today from 1998. Hope to keep running for another 2 years and then I'm looking at a Toyota Highlander hybrid.

- some real projects to mix in with the internal project

- car dies on Beltline & Luna left-turn lane. stupid people abound. very nice tow truck guy from Jordan Towing hauled me over to City Garage where they fixed it the next day. bad battery connections.

- 80 degrees F. sat in backyard and read The Four Agreements that MoonOtter had given me. good stuff. I do the first one. Need to work on the second one.

- spring again so we're down to 50F

- Sibling in town, saw for dinner

- parents sell house. dad sells plane. parents sell shop. anyone want a condo in Keystone, CO?

- 5 working days to 4 week vacation

- EOS yesterday. need to log in and see how much money I have. current combined portfolio is over $2600 with *)% and 90% DXDebit qualified.

- watched through end of ALIAS second season. my copy. bought as consolation prize after car breakdown. hell of a cliff-hanger, but we don't have time to start ALIAS season 3 before vacation.

- did I mention there are only 5 working days to my 4 week vacation?