Do YOU look back?

Awhile ago, there was a car commercial that talked about looking back at your parked car as you walked away from it. This ad probably inferred that if you bought their car, you'd be looking back every time you park, admiring your purchase.

Well, if the spot was for Chevrolet Cavaliers, then we can all rejoice because there actually is truth in advertising!

Every time I park my car, I look at it as I walk away. I park it away from other cars if I can, so that nobody gives me little dents with their doors.

Here's my car at work, parked in the back corner of the lot.



I'm really enjoying my vehicle, and am really proud of it! And I love when people say "That's a 98? There's no rust on there at all!" or "50 000Km? Amazing!"



Thanks for the car Grandma!

I'm trying to come up with a name for it. So far, The Pickle is leading. But I'll wait until I get my BC plates. Maybe the letters will make a name, or give me an idea.

Any thoughts on what to name this marvel of engineering and convenience? Unfortunately Celeste is already taken by my little red bike!

A regular day

Today was a pretty regular work day for me, even though it was Sunday. Working on Sunday always feels a bit out of sync with the rest of the world, even though working on Sunday is a pretty regular thing around here.

Sundays seem to have an inherent feeling of relaxed composure. People do things more slowly on Sundays. If there was a day when John Q Public would take notice of small flower growing in a sidewalk crack, or a leaf caught in an eddy in the midst of a rushing river, it would happen on a Sunday.

Today was a typical fall Sunday, the kind that you think of if you tell people autumn was your favourite season. Images of brisk air, cool sunshine, and whirling, blowing coloured leaves come to mind when you picture an ideal autumn day, and that day was today.

I felt a bit disconnected from all of these images and feelings though, especially when I sat in church this afternoon. I felt like most other people were in their Sunday routines, and late-afternoon church was an extension of that. They probably ate leisurely breakfasts, did some moderate exercise, and socialized. Church would fit right in.

For me, I went to church almost directly after getting done work. I was tired and lethargic, hoping that the temperature in the building wouldn't be too high, as it would promote an untimely nap. I was not in a restful frame.

When church was over, it seemed like most people continued on with their leisurely Sunday schedule, by visiting with each other and sharing dinners and having a nice evening. I wasn't on this program though, and the idea of socializing was a bit too much for me. It was made worse by my tiredness.

Instead of socializing with my friends, all I wanted to do was go home and be alone. I had things to do; laundry to get at, dishes to soak, garbage to take out. And, a nap to take. I was feeling a tad reclusive, and was happy to go home and be alone.

Before I went home though, I drove to the edge of Green Lake and took the picture of the setting sun you see at the top of the post. It would have been better if I was there a few minutes before, but it was still nice.

Happy Sunday everyone!

Cornish Hen!

Yesterday Carmella and I made quite a nice Friday Night dinner.

I had bought two cornish hens at the grocery store in Squamish, and decided that we should eat one of them yesterday. A cornish hen is like a small chicken, but somehow it's not a chicken but a game hen instead. I figure that they're small and maybe more wild? Possibly they're free-range chickens. I actually have no idea.

I purchased two of these game hens, and put one out to thaw. By the time Friday night came around, it was ready to go. I purchased all the necessary extra ingredients as well. It was cooking time!





It came all wrapped in thick, tight plastic, much like milk bags that you get in Ontario. I had to open it with a stout knife. As soon as I did, a bunch of blood and fluid rushed out and onto the counter. It wasn't pleasant. I prefer to have my meat prepared where I don't have to be reminded that it was alive at some point!





Since I was making the game hen for two, I was instructed by my recipe to cut it in half along the breast bone. I'd never done that before, but I got a large knife and had a go. It took a lot of sawing and hacking, but eventually I divided the game hen into two equal parts.

My recipe was called Herb Glazed Cornish Hens with Pasta. Carmella helped me create a concoction of

melted butter
salt
pepper
garlic
thyme
oregano
basil
sun-dried tomatoes
parmesan cheese (not the canned stuff!) <- The recipe said that!

We loaded it all into a blender, and blended it until it was paste-like and smelling terrific.

While we made that, the cornish hens were baking in the oven. We'd spread browning agent (it's actually full of healthy ingredients) and a mix of olive oil and lemon juice onto the hens. We took the hens out after thirty minutes, smeared our blended paste onto the hens, and then baked them for about 8 minutes more.

When they came out, they looked like this! (edit: Carmella is correct when she says the Hen wasn't done - just look at that raw-looking leg! I probably took this picture halfway through the baking process, when we took it out to baste it with our herb paste, so you can be confident we weren't feeding ourselves with forks full of salmonella!)



This is the final product. Carmella brought over some organic wine, and it tasted great. We added some of the herb puree to some pasta, and laid the hen halves on top. It looked excellent, but tasted better. The skin was very tasty as well, and the meat was moist and good.

I was happy to make this with Carmella, because it's nice to make something semi-complicated that turns out well. With Carmella's help, I was a success in the kitchen!

Trip wrap up-wrap up

Guest Blogger-Carmella

So the dino experience was one to be noted. Not only did the dinosaurs come to life while we were there, but they tried to take a bite out of Jonathan's arm. Argh!! I told them to stop. But it's okay because they didn't take too much off. He just has a little scar.

This town called Drumheller was swarming with Dinos. There were dinos at the restaurants, dinos at the hotels, and dinos at the museum. No wonder they have made a spectacle of it. Then we got our picture taken over the badlands and it was one of the best! Next we jumped in the car, grabbed a few dino-shaped flapjacks and headed to Banff. C drove this part while lil' Jon bagged a few Z's. Banff was more touristy than the average ski town, with every chain store you can think of and all the houses painted with chalet strips shaped into diamonds. We busted a lizzy (left turn) and went straight to Lake Louise where we would set up camp for the night.

Well we did make the one hour drive to Lake Louise where we set up camp even though it was negatory 6. Yikes, that is cold! We decided to eat at the hostel because it was cheap and comfy. We had some beer and some nice food and skalked the locals. Then we retired to our tent and practiced some Puritan bundling. There was an electric fence that went around the whole camp site, so don't worry, no grizzlies could get in. I was Cold! The end!

Goal

So here's a blogging goal I could aspire to.

If it feels like something I want to do, I'll make it a goal to blog something everyday. It could be anything; minor, major, groundbreaking, inconsequential. It might be fun. It could also keep my mind churning in a good way, and keep some amount of creativity flowing.

So, I'm going to think about committing to a daily blogging regimen.

Flux!

I'm in a state of constant change over here, and it's quite the mental effort to stay on top of things.

Two weeks ago, I was concerned because while I had a place to live in Whistler, I didn't have a job. Now, the tables have turned and I now have a job, but am looking for a new place to live for November.

I thought I might have to find a new place, but hoped that I wouldn't. Turns out that now I do have to hit the housing market, at probably the worst time in Whistler's history.

Shared rooms are going for $750/mo in Whistler. Personal rooms can be had for 500ish outside of Whistler, in places like Pemberton and Squamish.

I've emailed a few places, and one place seems pretty interested in me living with them. It'd be a huge house though, with something like six Aussies and three from Quebec. I imagine it'll be a busy place, and maybe a lot of carousing. I'm not into that atmosphere!

My friend Derek may have something for me to think about as well, which would be significantly cheaper and better, but who knows how that will go. He's talking to his friend on my behalf, so I have to wait to hear back.

It's tough trying to sort out all the different options. If I get into House A, will House B be an opportunity I should have taken? Will House C become available sooner than planned? It's very difficult because sometimes you have to jump at opportunities when they present themselves, but what if it's not the best one?

I've got a few irons in the fire for places to live, so that's positive. But everything is so expensive! Is it really worth it to live here for the Olympic year, when I can't even afford a pass? These are things I have to figure out.

I've been trying to get into the Vancouver job market for some time now, and haven't been successful. I think I'll try the legal angle next, and see what happens.

So I'm keeping a lot of balls in the air at the moment, and worried that if I drop the wrong one, it could be a bad move. Things could get all sorted out, or they may not. We'll see how it all pans out I guess.

In other news, the Canucks are playing their opening game tonight. I'm going to go over to Victor's to watch it. That'll be a nice diversion!

Some pics

I've grown tired of blogging about the trip, so I'll post some pictures.

The last few days of the trip had us visiting Drumheller, AB and Banff/Lake Louise.

We camped in Lake Louise, and it was -6C. It was very cold, and it was one of those nights where you just want it to be morning so you won't be cold anymore.

Here are some pics that I took with my camera. Since Carmella had hers, I didn't break mine out too much.

Here's Lake Louise. Carmella and I hiked about 1.6K up from lake level to this lookout point.

It was pretty early in the morning, and we were both tired and cold. We knew we had to get to Whistler on this day, so we felt a bit rushed too. In this picture, Carmella is frustrated because she couldn't get the flash to work on her camera. I took this one to see if mine would work.

Here are some dinosaurs in the Museum in Drumheller.

This is a poor shot of the moon-like atmosphere in Drumheller. It's part of the Red Deer River valley, which has yielded many dinosaur bones.

The Dinosaur Museum had many full skeletons, so that was fun. We didn't know which ones were casts and which were real bones, so it wasn't as fun as it could have been.



This was fun, getting to Saskatchewan. The province had big tourism centres at their borders, showing what the prairies have to offer. Manitoba didn't have anything like that, and neither did Alberta or BC.

So, those are some pics I had. When I get Carmella's pictures, I'll post some more.