Yes. Kids. Plural. We had another this past July. A beautiful, if not vociferous, baby boy. It’s been tough being far from family. With Elise, we had our parents help whenever we needed it. But now, we’re not just a few blocks away. Planning is now even more paramount as is travel. Heck, lunch is a massive planning operation – guess my project management skills do serve some good outside of work.

Speaking of Lunch, there’s not much in South Surrey that we would consider worthy of our hard-earned dollars. There are some but very few. If there’s one thing good though, it’s been that I’ve forced to cook more. But cooking after work is a rush enough – throw in a longer commute and it’s precedent for a cooking show.

Oh well, still a nice space we have and I’m thankful for that. Let’s see what I have to say after a year here…hopefully, I post a bit more before then.

#10) The international visitors – I live about 5 minutes from work in Richmond.  Everyday, on my very short commute, I would see tourist ride bikes from the Sweden house down to the Sky Train station.  That’s just my 5 minute commute.  Anywhere you went in the city, you would see people visiting our city.  It was awesome.  I loved having them here and I hope they enjoyed our fair city.  The weather, though not cold, was beautifully springy with lots of sunshine and touch of rain.

#9) Mellissa Hollingsworth – She was sitting second and dropped to fifth after hitting two walls in her final skeleton run.  And after her run, she tearfully apologized and we all felt for her.  We all realised how stupid counting medals became and that, that should not be your sole drive to win.  She put things in perspective and relieved a lot of pressure.

#8) Curling – This one is a little bitter sweet because Canada women’s came so close the gold – they had in the end but pushed their last rock a little too far letting Sweden back for another end.  But I didn’t understand curling before the games.  I barely understand them now but I loved watching them.  The fact that they reeled in a Gold and Silver was awesome too.  Now, I’m all geared up to watch the Brier.  Odd.  Never thought I’d get into curling.

#7) Opening ceremonies – A few miscues but overall, a fantastic opening ceremony.  I can’t compare it to the Beijing opening.  Heck, their opening ceremony budget was probably the budget of the entire winter olympics.  But ours was fantastic in the sense that it filled me with pride.  I loved the slam poetry – probably the highlight.  I’ve included a link to the text of the poem.  Could it have been glitzier?  Sure.  But for what it’s worth, it conveyed the message of what Canada is about.  Particularly west coast Canada.  It set the tone and if there was a Canadian who was skeptical or apprehensive of the games coming to their town, this changed their mind very resoundingly – I speak as one of those converted.

#6) The vibe.  The buzz.  The pride – The talk of the town is and will be for a few days to come yet, the Olympics.  Every citizen is proud to be a Canadian and we celebrated with gusto – in some cases too much so but it was all in good fun.  The city was alive.  Alive like I have never seen it before and likely never will.  I would challenge that should the Canucks win the Stanley cup, we would never see crowds this large in Vancouver streets again.  This was Vancouverites, fellow Canadians, and foreign tourists all mashed together in one ebbing mass.  Amazing to see and behold.

#5) US men’s Ice Hockey – I wish there is solace in Silver but I know there isn’t.  In many ways, ‘winning’ bronze would be better than ‘losing’ gold.  But this was a US hockey team that I pegged, when the team was announced, would give us the biggest challenge.  Built by Burkie, he knows how to assemble a squad.  Two top flight lines, two hard hitting, checking, role-playing lines.  Sounds like an NHL champion to me and one built to topple Canada’s roster.  But what impressed me the most was how badly they wanted the gold.  I’m proud to say that Ryan Kesler is a member of the Vancouver Canucks – to have players like that, who bleed to win a game, to me, means more than winning or losing.  I never thought players outside Canada cared that much about hockey gold until tonight’s game.  To me, the other Euro nations cared…but the US and Canada took it to another level.  On a side note, there’s a lot of heat that Kesler is taking from Canucks fans for his so called ‘betrayal’.  Come on…would you want him to say, ‘ah, silver’s great.  We played hard but it’s just a game…we have a Tuesday tilt with Columbus I need to get ready for’.  No thanks…he wore his heart on his sleeve.  He hated Canadians for two weeks – I don’t blame him if that continues for another two more.  Losing this game should sting.  It should hurt and it should hurt for a long time.  If it doesn’t mean that much to a player, I don’t want that player on my team.  Bravo Kesler, Parise, Miller, Kane, et al.  You deserved better – only not at the expense of my sanity.

#4) 14 gold, 7 silver, 5 bronze = 26 medals – Own the podium.  Crap from the get go but maybe it worked?  I don’t know and I don’t care.  I told myself early in the games that I didn’t care about medal count – though I said this after Alexandre Bilodeau won his gold that now that we our first gold, I don’t care how many more we get (except for Hockey).  I knew that if I got caught up in the projections, the medal counts, the Canadian favourites, I could end up disappointed.  I wanted to enjoy the games, the competition and our country competing in our backyard.  And I did.  Then, the medals came rolling in and it was icing.  I saw Charles Hamelin disappointed early on the short track only to be vindicated in the later competitions.  All our Canadian athletes, medals or not, gave these games a face.  And once the pressure was off to medal, we took off and went nuts.

#3) Alexandre Bilodeau – What can I say.  First gold on Canadian soil.  Big deal.  Courage under pressure.  Big deal.  His support and love for his brother who suffers from cerebral palsy – now that’s heroic.  Ok, so the first two are pretty good too but he is a testament to humanity and I can’t be happier for him and his family.  He set the stage for many more golds to come – and for once, I actually did believe.

#1) Joannie Rochette – Tied here for first.  First, not many Canadian women medal in this sport.  There’s only been five.  But obviously, the most amazing thing about her performance is the the circumstances that lead up to it.  To lose your mother three days before you compete – I can’t imagine continuing on in a scenario like that.  I don’t even enjoy figure skating but I was very moved as she took to the ice.  I believe she was skating for her mother.  Forget about the medals – I don’t think she cared at that point and frankly, neither did I.  She was doing this for a greater purpose and it was beautiful.

#1) Canada men’s Ice Hockey – What a way to end off the Olympics.  I was hoping for a rematch with the US.  I knew we would beat them.  I knew it would be a close game but if Canada came out like they did against the Russians in the first period, game over.  But they didn’t – and I knew we were in for a war.  I’ve seen Luongo play better but that’s ok.  The team in front of him did what needed to be done.  I don’t care what anyone else thinks, we owned the overtime period.  US had one chance but we were controlling the play.  Lucky bounce on the goal?  I don’t think so.  Crosby shot before he got too close and it slid in five-hole.  In the third period, Canada played not to lose the game.  That changed in OT.  We went out to control, and to win.  When we do that, we cannot be stopped.  Funny how that kind of thinking resonates in all our medalists.

It was a good games – certainly the best I’ve ever witnessed.  Let’s do it again next year.

Cheap Inexpensive Ikea kids furniture, painted and dressed up.  I’m going to have to do this.  The acrylic cut out table top might get scratched up pretty quickly b ut it’s easily replaceable.   Lots of options here too in terms of paint colour and fabric design.  No need to stick with the fabrics you get at Ikea.  Heck, you can do this in vinyl for easy cleaning but you may have to forgo the cool prints.

Sung by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Kate passed away in January of 2010. She’s the mother of one of my favourite artists; Rufus Wainwright. A lot of talent in that family.

Speaking of change, we’ve stopped using a gro-bag for Elise. Mainly because she’s too big for it and also because we want to have her start using a blanket. She uses a blanket for naps and has no problems and prior to us switching over for her night times, she was kicking and screaming in her gro-bag so we thought she was uncomfortable. But even in a blanket, she’s still waking up. More frequently actually. The last few nights have been terrible. She’d wake up six or so times whining and calling out for me. I’d go in and tell her to go back to bed. She would until the next time. The nicer and gentler I am with her, the more frequent she wakes. The firmer I am with her, the less she wakes but not by much so I don’t know if that’s simple correlation or fact.

Nonetheless, we’re at wits end. We’re so tired lately. I think it’s just for the attention but I don’t know – she won’t tell us. All I can say is that this better be resolved by the time #2 comes along.

Oh crap, we need a name for the boy.

Honestly, the only difference I saw between this night and yesterday (Friday) and St. Patrick’s day is about thirteen times more people on the streets. The differences end there. The Olympics, from what I can see, is just a glorified beer garden. An excuse for youth to drink like it’s going out of style or die trying. St. Patty’s day is no holiday. It’s nothing. There’s Z.E.R.O. reason to be celebrating. And yet people do. People use it as a vehicle to consume tremendous amounts of cheap beer. Here at the Olympics same deal. Oh wait, one more difference, the beer ain’t cheap. The food ain’t cheap either.

Don’t get me wrong, I love that the city is alive and buzzing with activity. For the most part. When the sun goes down though, it’s a different type of buzz and when you see 18 year old kids, wearing shorts and a Canadian flag as a cape…and that’s all (I think they have shoes) screaming up and down Granville, sorry, but that’s not the Olympics unless you want a gold medal in stupidity. Damn I feel old.

Anyhow, today, we made it out to our beloved Main St. Had the opportunity to have lunch at Liberty Cafe, check out the shoes at Umeboshi and then we visited a new (to us), chocalaterie. Viv and I LOVE our chocolates – not the candy bar, mass produced, run of the mill brown crap – though in a fix…those can do too. No, these are hand made, single-origin, cocoa truffles, caramels, molds, etc. Lovely stuff. It’s a small, simple shop 15 steps away from Main St. proper on 21st Ave. The name, Chocolaterie de la Nouvelle France. Very friendly, very inviting, excellent wares.
I had 3 truffles; spicy cayenne pepper, earl gray tea, and black currant tea truffle.
In that order was my preference. The spicy cayenne was sublime – excellent kick which really warms the palette and the cocoa really swells after that. The earl gray was very subtle. Initially I tasted the sharpness of the tea but it was gone shortly after that. The currant was too overwhelming – the berry flavour took too much away from the chocolate and reminded me of an artificial sweetness – almost bubble gum like effect – but the chocolate was still pronounced.
Check it out…

I was just thinking. What if I qualified to take a second mortgage on my home and keep this townhouse that we’re in now. Use that second mortgage to buy our new house. Use that leverage to go into the buying market with our offer – no subject to sale but with a subject to financing – assuming we’ve done our homework and are certain we can get the cash. However, at the same time, we list our home. We set the closing and possession date to be flexible but far out enough to give us time to close our buying offer. And then, if we’re able to sell our home, remove the subject to financing on the new home purchase, ditch the not yet finalised second mortgage and complete the sale.
Would that work? Is that possible?
I’m so glum…we’re being bid out of the market here. Can’t keep up with the Jones!

You DO need a dutch oven though- ideally one that is not enameled. You could use one that’s enamled but the coating might crack under the high heat (500 degrees).  So I headed off to Amazon, ordered the Lodge but fell short a few bucks of free shipping. I struggled to find something small to purchase so I ended up ordering Lahey’s book on the subject of bread.  Now, I can’t wait.  I know Elise will LOVE it – she loves bread.  Viv and I love sandwiches too.  I predominantly use ciabatta or pizza bianca from a local bakery called Terra Breads – fantastic stuff.  But costly.  Now I get to make my own.  I’m looking forward to experimenting with flavours like raisins, rye, garlic, herbs, oil, etc.

The only downside…more cookware.  As if my kitchen isn’t stocked enough as it is.  I need more space.