We went to a wedding

Hi Everyone,

It's two months since I've posted, and a lot has happened since then.  Instead of trying to write about two months of events, I'll just start from yesterday, and maybe post some random pictures down the road.

Yesterday Carmella and I went to our friends' Tony and Mary's wedding.  It was really nice and a great time.  After our own wedding, it's a treat to attend a wedding where you only have to begin preparations an hour before!

Tony and Mary got married at the UBC Boathouse, which is a rowing dock and also an acclaimed wedding venue.  It's not near UBC at all though, it's just where the team trains I guess.  It's in Richmond (the airport is also in Richmond) on the mighty Fraser river.  I've heard rumours of sturgeon in the river, but didn't see any.

Here are some pictures!

Weddings are always a good time for pictures!  No claw really, I've extended the fingers instead.

The Groomsmen and pastor.  The Fraser river is in the background.

The presentation of Tony and Mary Kwong.  I apologize for the head, but this is the best one I had.

While the family had pictures, we enjoyed the venue.  I liked the balloons.  They were quite large.  We were told we couldn't release them, because we were in the airport's airspace, I supposed because a crashing plane would obliterate the venue and cancel the rest of the wedding.

It was a fun wedding.  We left at about 1am, and there were still quite a few people there.  It's nice that Tony and Mary stayed at the party, because I find that once the main attraction leaves, the rest of the revelers start trickling out and the party dies.

A very nice wedding, and a great way to spend a Saturday.  Tony and Mary's wedding weekend was much like ours, almost a year ago.  Dark, cloudy weather for the whole preceding week, sun for the wedding day, and more clouds the day after.

Congratulations Tony and Mary!

Great News!

About a month ago, I submitted a piece to the Globe and Mail, hoping they'd publish it in the Facts and Arguments section.

I was about to start shopping the piece around elsewhere because I hadn't heard back from them.  This morning, I recieved the following form email:

"Hello,

Thank you for submitting your essay. We are interested in publishing it, but need to confirm a few details before proceeding.

1. We only run original, non-fiction works on the Facts & Arguments page. We do not run pieces that have been published anywhere else -- in print, on a blog or anywhere else online.

2. We will contact you before your essay is published with any questions and suggestions, and to let you know on what date it will run. Please expect the piece to be edited to suit the mandate and style of the section, and to make it fit the space available on the page.

3. Unfortunately, The Globe and Mail no longer pays an honorarium for published essays.

While you retain the copyright and are free to sell it elsewhere after it's been published in The Globe and Mail, as a condition of publication, you grant the paper first-print rights and a non-exclusive right to The Globe and its assignees to publish, store, distribute and sublicense the essay in whole or in part, in print or by any other means, including but not limited to electronic, worldwide and in perpetuity, without compensation to the author.

If you agree to the above and would like to proceed, please let us know so an illustration can be commissioned and I can schedule your essay for publication.

Thank you
The Eds

Woo!  Emphasis mine in the first line.

I like how they'll commission a picture for it.

Sorry, no hints what it's about.  That will come with publication!

Successful 5K Race, and Cross-Border Shopping

Saturday was an eventful day.  It was St. Patrick's Day, and Carmella and I signed up for the St. Patrick's Day 5K.  I've done this race three years in a row, and I was able to convince Carmella to run it this year.  It's in Stanley Park, and it attracts a big crowd.  The race is limited to 1500 runners, and they reached that before race-day.

You get a free beer glass, and people wear green costumes.  There's an after-party as well, where people are excited to buy $7 beers at 11am.  This race has an official race shirt you can buy, and also an official after-party shirt too.

I've been training on and off for the race, which is better than most years.  Most years it's my first race of the season, and it's painful and it makes me want to train more.  I was looking forward to this year because I was a bit more prepared.

Carmella meant to get some training runs in, but it didn't go as planned for her.  We ran together Friday night for about half an hour, and that was the extent of her training.  It looked like she'd be running this one off-the-couch.

We arrived at the race, and I was getting nervous as I always do before a race.  I looked into my bag to discover I'd forgotten my running shoes at home, and it was too late to go back.  I was wearing my skate shoes, and didn't want to try and run a fast time in them. 

I was distraught for about a minute, and then Carmella suggested that I just take it slow with her instead of sitting out of the race.  I thought that was a good idea, so we paid for parking, and made our way to the start line.

Usually I line up a few people back from the line, to be sure I'm with people of my speed.  If you line up too far back, you'll be stuck behind people with strollers and walkers, but if you line up too far forward, you'll be in the elite runners way.  Neither is good, so it's important to slot yourself in correctly.

Carmella and I headed for the back, and started behind about 75% of the runners.  It was a new experience for me.  The air-horn started, and we just stood there for almost 30 seconds.  Then we started walking, then stopped again in some more congestion.  Finally we crossed the start line and began to trot along.  All 1500 runners were packed onto one access lane, so it took awhile to get moving.

Carmella picked 40 minutes as an arbitrary goal to shoot for, so we would try and get in before that.  We began running, and Carmella enjoyed the atmosphere.  Everyone around us was happy to be moving.  We passed some walkers, we were among people waving to family members, and beside many people wearing elaborate costumes.  Headbands with shamrocks mounted on springs so they looked like ears, people with signs about St. Patrick's Day stuck to their backs, and people wearing green underwear over tights.

After the first kilometer, the party atmosphere was gone, and it was down to business.  Carmella felt like stopping to walk, but didn't.  Instead, she made it her goal not to stop during the race.  I was making observations about the people around us, the distance to go, or random chatter.  Carmella asked that I stop doing that, because she needed to concentrate. 

We stayed at the same pace for most of the race, seeing the same people around us.  We'd pass some people, and they'd pass us back.  A couple girls around us carried on inane conversation for more than a kilometer, and Carmella was frustrated with them.  Roomates, exams, and probably boys were covered.  However, we weren't able to leave them behind, and they didn't pass us, so we were stuck!

The last kilometer was mostly uphill, and Carmella did well not to stop.  She got in a zone and just kept plugging away.  The last 200m were especially tough, with many around us opting to walk.  Carmella persevered and we crossed the line at 37:21.  Carmella achieved both her goals, since she ran sub-40 and also didn't stop.

They had a big food tent, like the kinds people erect at weddings.  To keep people orderly, they only opened one door, and didn't roll up any of the windows.  There were hundreds of sweaty people in there, and no ventilation, so it was kind of like a cool sauna in there.  Very stuffy.  We grabbed some Irish Stew they were doling out, some water, and found a place to sit.  Before we left, I also found the free beer glasses, emblazoned with the sponsor and race emblems. 

Carmella enjoyed herself, but not enough to start mentally preparing for another race.  Her back hurt a bit, and she was tired.  We went home, and she napped.  I headed out in the car, going south towards America.

My post title was a bit of a lie.  I realize that getting into my America trip would make this post too long, so I'll create a new one for that.  Our race was good, and I was happy to have run it with Carmella in my skate shoes.  I'll start preparing for my next race, on April 1st.  It's a half-marathon, and I aim to beat my time from last year.  I'll remember my running shoes this time!

I finally hit Send.

I finally did it.

For the past four or five weeks, I've been working on a writing piece that I wanted to send out into the world.  Just a few minutes ago, I finally did.

I wrote it in about three or four drafts, and just needed a few extra pieces to make it complete.  I added those tonight, after thinking about them for far too long.

I'll keep the details to myself for now, but count on an update if I receive good news.

Vancouver Aquarium

On Saturday, Carmella and I went to the Vancouver Aquarium.  We got there at about noon, so we had to battle kids, tourists, and impatient parents a times, but the place is big so it wasn't a huge deal.

There were three beluga whales there, and while the Aquarium talks about conservation and preservation, I still wondered if these animals would prefer to be out of the tank and in the wild.  This one is swimming upside down.  The whales were much whiter than I would have expected.

We also saw a big sea turtle, swimming with small sharks and manta rays.  It was fun to see them, but I wondered if they also yearned to swim freely.

As far as I know, jellyfish aren't sentient, so maybe they didn't care that they were in this small tank.  It was back-lit in a way that made them look really great in pictures.

These guys had a really big tank with real coral and regular feeding times.  I'm sure they'd rather be in this tank than a small tank in someone's house, but they'd rather be on a real reef than here.

The Aquarium staff, programming and advertising are really good at forwarding an agenda of conservation and behavioural change that will benefit the world's oceans and sea life.  And there are probably hundreds of people who wouldn't have thought about ocean conservation if they didn't come to the Aquarium, so maybe it's OK to sacrifice a few soulless sea creatures for the betterment of many.

Those thoughts aside, Carmella and I had a really great time.  One of the highlights was the BC section, where they showed what kind of sea life is living in select regions of our province.  I also enjoyed watching the dolphin show from the underwater viewing section.  The dolphins would swim, jump up and out of the water, and be out of the water for a really long time.  Then they'd suddenly re-appear and swim around a bit under water, and then do another trick. 

The dolphins in the show were netted dolphins from fishing boats that probably wouldn't survive in the wild again, so they live in the tanks at the Aquarium.  Maybe it's not such a bad life.  They don't have to hunt for food, and they just get to swim around all day and don't have to worry about orca whales chasing them.

It was a fun day with Carmella, and I got some fun pictures of the sea creatures.  The day made me want to journey to other spots in the province and experience the ocean and the sea life there.  There is so much to learn about the different species and habitats, and it'd be fun to travel around checking it all out.

Sunday is almost over, and I'm not ready for the weekend to end.  But I'm really tired, so I might as well go to sleep.

Snowy Owls in Vancouver

Carmella and I stepped out of the car at the Boundary Bay Regional Park in Delta.  After a 45-minute drive, we were happy to arrive.  On this grey, overcast day, the pothole-filled, gravel parking lot was almost empty.  A big full-sized pickup truck was there, the driver idly chatting on his phone.  A few other vehicles were present, but not the numbers we were expecting.  Where were the bus loads of kids, the nature guides, and the live-on-location radio station trucks?

Instead, there were a number of birds swooping around, a quiet construction site, and the cold waters of Boundary Bay.  It was cold and windy, and very quiet.  A few intrepid souls were out walking their dogs and toddlers, and a small disgruntled teenager stormed by.  This seemed like a regular day, and we joined the locals on the trails.

Cold and desolate. 

We came to this park looking for birds, because Delta is a popular bird-watching area.  The Fraser River delta is globally significant for birds as it's on a major migration route, and a popular wintering destination.  250 species occur annually in the region.  (Head over to Birding BC for more.)

While working last week, Carmella heard that there were Snowy Owls in the Vancouver area.  Since this happens only once every four or five years, all the kids at pre-school were encouraged to see them.  There was a poster showing where the birds were, and how to get there.

No Snowy Owls here!

We didn't have that poster with us, but there were no Snowy Owls here.  I stopped a couple of septuagenarians who were out for a walk, and asked if they'd seen the Snowy Owls.  They were happy to stop and chat, and said they've never seen them here, but they figured they'd be more north.

More north, as in the Arctic Circle?  That's where Snowy Owls usually live.  Their white speckled plumage blends in with the tundra, where they hunt lemmings and try not to lose body heat through their beaks.

Thankfully, more north meant just a few kilometers up the coast and we'd be able to drive there pretty quickly.  We were told we should take 72nd Street, another entry to the Regional Park, and where you can access the dike.  Before heading out to continue the search, Carmella noticed a few birds sitting in the nearby trees.

After a quick stop we were on our way.  We found 72nd street, and also found that while we neared its foot, there were cars parked on the sides of the street.  A tour bus was parked on the shoulder of the road, and people were walking along the gravel with big cameras.  Thankfully there were no live on location radio trucks!

We knew we had come to the right place.  There were lots of people walking along the dike, often clustering in spots.  There were lots of cameras there that had lenses longer than my forearm, mounted on tripods and monopods.  Success!

The Snowy Owls were in attendance too.  They were just sitting on the ground, waiting until they got hungry I guess.  Photographers trained their cameras on them, and the really serious ones banged off numerous rapid fire shots whenever the owls moved.  Which wasn't very often.

It was an interesting how the Snowy Owls just sat on the ground, and also how their feathers contrasted with the surroundings.  It obviously wasn't their normal habitat, but it made it easy for all of us to find them. 

Two nice women with high-powered birding telescopes set them up, trained them on the birds, and invited Carmella and I to take a look.  It was amazing!  They were so close, and their feathers ruffled in the wind.

The women told us that owls can move their heads 270 degrees, and that's because their eyes don't move, so owls have to pivot their whole heads to shift their gaze.  I saw the owl blink too.  The owl's version of eyelids live at the bottom of their eye, and move like an upside down venitian blind when in action.  The birds like to sit in wide open spaces that mimic the tundra surroundings.  They also sit on the ground, because they're not used to the concept of trees.

Carmella asked if we could take a picture of the birds through the telescope, and they said we could, offering a few tips.  We got some great pictures!  I've decided to leave them as they are instead of cropping them since it reminds me that they were taken through a telescope.  Carmella took the first, and I took the second.

The Snowy Owls come to Vancouver every few years, when their food sources in the tundra aren't reliable.  While it's nice to have them here, I think I'd prefer if they stayed up north.  If they come down here to eat, it means that things aren't going so well for them at home, and I hope climate change isn't the cause for their being here this winter.

It was an excellent day, and I'm so happy we were able to find the Snowy Owls. While heading back to the car, we noticed lots of BC license plates parked along the road, numerous Washington ones, and even one from Alaska.  So the Snowy Owls being here are a big event, attracting people from everywhere.  I'm glad we got to be part of the action.

The police came to my door today.

After dismounting my bike and turning off my blinking safety lights, I went into our cozy suite and sat down after a day at work.  Just as I picked up my computer, there was a terrific knock on the door.

I was a bit annoyed because our friends know they can walk through the first door and arrive at our actual door, and our landlords know this as well.  Nobody else ever comes over, except for the Chinese restaurant delivery guy who came to the wrong house.  He knocked very loudly too.

I got up from my comfy couch, and answered the door.  As I opened it, a man and a woman were standing there.  It's cold today, (2 degrees C) so the woman was bundled in a stylish black pea coat, and the man was in a more functional shell that was lined with some fleece.  There was some sort of pin on the collar.  They both wore toques.

The man held out his hand, and let his wallet fall open to reveal a badge.  He calmly stated, "Vancouver Police.  We're looking for Jonathan."

At that moment, I was a bit afraid that they were coming after me.  But only halfway through the thought, I remembered that I had been a model citizen for the last few months.  Just today, riding home from work, I had even given a friendly wave to the car that stopped for me at a crosswalk.

He then asked me if I was missing anything, and I looked down to see his other hand holding something.  He then reached out, displaying my wallet!  Oh happy day!

On Boxing Day, Carmella and I went downtown and did some shopping.  Your dollar stretches the furthest in January, and even further on Dec 26th.  So we took advantage.  I bought two pairs of pants, and one fully leather belt. 

I also bought a very large Neal Stephenson tome, called Reamde.  It's 1050 pages long, and hardcover.  If the need arose, it would pack a significant punch if hurled at an assailant.  It took up most of my bag, while my keys, wallet, and phone were shoved into the leftover available space.

When I bought my second pair of pants, the cashier asked me if I wanted a bag.  Instead of inheriting more plastic, I decided I was happy to carry the pants out.  I did that with the receipt pinned under my fingers.  I paid for the pants, but that was the last place I remembered having my wallet.

On the 27th, I woke up at about 5:30am to start packing for our snowboarding trip to Rossland.  I noticed I didn't have my wallet.  I looked all over, and couldn't find it.  I called and visited the store where I bought the pants, but it wasn't there either.

Among other advantages, being married means that your spouse has access to the bank accounts.  This means that you can go on a holiday without your wallet!  Off to Rossland we went, and had a great holiday.  On the way there, I cancelled my credit cards and debit cards, and didn't think too much of it again.

While on the trip, I got my license replaced, and got a bank card reprinted.  The other cards would be replaced over time, but I was happy to have these important ones back.

Then, today, about three weeks later, the police came to the door bearing my wallet.  What kind protectors of civil law and order!  They said that someone dropped it off at the station after finding it downtown.  Once it got to me, the only thing missing from the wallet was about $50 of Christmas money.  I'll treat it like a finder's fee.

I'm not sure how I lost it.  My bag was full of other things, so I may have decided to carry it out.  I could have put it on the roof of the car and forgotten about it, letting it slide off the roof as I safely pulled into the street.  I also could have left it at the till of the store, or it could have been squeezed out of my bag due to the huge novel taking up its normal space.

Whatever the reason, I'm happy to have it back!  I'll be extra careful to make sure I have it with me, being even more vigilant in doing my three-check: wallet, keys, phone.  I do that multiple times a day, because I'm so forgetful.  Looks like on Boxing Day, I did it one time too few.

I was happy with the way I handled the situation.  I didn't freak out (too much), and I didn't let it ruin our holiday.  I'm pretty proud of my self, as I have a penchant to worry about everything, especially something like that.  Maybe I'm maturing!

And the picture on my replacement driver's license is better than the one it replaced.