I took last Friday off work to go camping with: smokes_outside, darcymercer, rowdyllama, coralcoralcoral, fakesharkstore, codycallon, mikesleckyesq, KC!, Joe & Marina!

The whole trip could probably be summed up with the words: FOUR SQUARE!, A WHOLE LOT OF FOOD!, SCOOBY SNACKS!, PHOSPHORESCENCE! and CAMPFIRES!


( click here to see a bunch of pictures of us just sitting around )

I've had a really, really nice few days.

Last Tuesday Amanda came by for one final afternoon on the fire escape before I move and she headed off on her week long vacation in Portland. I bought a bottle of white and we grabbed the camera and computer and sat outside in the sun the last few hours of the evening.. it was lovely ♥.


( girl talk.. )


Wednesday was the first night of the fireworks and coincidentally it was also poker night at Darcy & Jordans.. who happen to have a really sweet deck with a pretty sweet view of the whole thing. Nigel stopped by after work, I won $8 and watched Canada compete for .. what exactly? Does anyone know what they actually win?..


( explosions in the sky.. )

Two days ago Lindsay & I met up after work and had some terrific sangria at la bodega on Howe (@ Drake) - sort of expensive but the next time we can't figure out where to go and don't mind splurging a bit, I definitely recommend it. They had the very best peach/vanilla/brandy ice cream too... mmmm...
We stayed a few hours then headed back to her house with that Grey Goose that I STILL haven't finished for some much needed quality time. I wish I'd managed to go out with her & JHames, but it's just not in me these days.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Last night was the second night of the fireworks. Basil, one of the people I work for, invited us to his house (like last year) to watch and ooomg, it didn't disappoint..


( the good life.. )

July 5, 2008

Our second morning in Ashland. We all got up surprisingly early and lazed around for a while. I finally decided to throw on my bathing suit and get outside to lay around the pool instead of my uncomfortable cot. Coral & Darcy eventually joined me, leaving the boys to finish watching Punked until we all got hungry..
We spent the rest of the day riding up a mountain with Marshall, Risa, Trevor & their friends to the faerie ponds to swim (sit) - we picnic'd, we returned the bottles from the day before and bought a kick ball, we bbq'd more, drank more, did more biking, went bar hopping in downtown Ashland, skinny dipped in a pool none of us owned, hunted for grease for a grease run car, and finally (FINALLY) made it home for 4:00am - just in time to close our eyes before we were on the road again, headed back to ( Canada-Land. )

I've been back for four days and I'm already counting down the nights until we get to go back. The July 4th long weekend in Ashland was a dream. Actually, my whole ten days off was pretty fantastic.



Malcolm, Coral, Darcy & Jordan picked me up at my place at 5:00am last Thursday morning. I don't think I've ever managed to get going that early on a road trip before, much less with four other people all trying to get their shit together on time. It was perfect. ( Starbucks hadn't even opened yet.. )

There was this roll of film in my camera from last fall to early last week that I just couldn't seem to finish. It felt like I took a million frames with it, but there was always a picture or two left on the roll.. ( well, finally I'm done.. )

I had the rest of my film developed this afternoon, the guy at the store gave me an expired roll of 100iso slide film for free - so I spent all day at work trying to figure out cross processing & pushing slide film without much luck, I need help. (help?)

I love the way the rest of our Barcelona photos came out.. ( they've got more character then the digital pictures. )

Everything else is just bits of pieces of the past few weeks. Like when Nigel & I went for breakfast at The Templeton with Malloreigh & ( met Ali.. )

..and then when Lindsay & I went out to East Van one Saturday morning to get Adrienne & meet up with everyone ( for greasey eggs & toast )

Nigel & I went to Playland last Wednesday.. we were too cheap to buy the pictures they take on the rides, ( so we took our own. )

Then Sunday afternoon was my Dad's surprise 55th birthday party, Nigel & I went out early to help my mom.. Dad was amazed to see us there at noon with four cases of beer, I don't think he believed he was really having a party until the guests started showing up. ( Erica was there.. )

What I'm most excited about though, is that I was waiting to get some photos back before I posted about the most amazing thing I've ever owned IN MY WHOLE ENTIRE LIFE. (you may recall this post a few weeks ago..) omg omg omg omg omg ( I totally bought it!! )

8:00am - no one is in the office yet except for me.

This morning I was checking my email and wasting time on my computer while waiting for Nigel to get out of the shower... I have this widget on my computer that tells me the wireless networks in my area and I noticed something kind of weird... Usually there's like four or five networks, mostly my neighbors, but this morning - in BIG GREY LETTERS, it said 'CIA Mobile Surveillance'. Half an hour later, the signal was gone. Does the CIA really check stuff out in Canada? How about the West End? More importantly, if they were watching someone, do you think they'd actually broadcast it? Yeah, I didn't think so either - but it's fun to speculate.

------------------------------------

The past four or so days have been exactly what I needed. On Thursday I went to malloreigh's house for dinner and to show her all the photos from my trip (and get some Mal lovin' in.) She made the most amazing cous cous/tomato/chick pea creation (which I plan on making myself this week) and we gossiped until late (my idea of late) and nikala came home. Nicola shed some light on a roll of slide film I'd stolen from her room about three weeks ago, thinking it was half mine, and had developed - only to find a picture of someone I didn't know, sitting on a chair, in my own house! ( This beauty was also on the roll.. )

Friday night was the usual debauchery. An impromptu party at Louis' was followed by a short cab ride to Mod Club and an even shorter walk to ( the Columbia.. )

I woke up Saturday feeling a lot better then I should have. Nigel & I were out the door by 11:00 and headed down Granville to Urban Outfitters to do some serious shopping. Unfortunately, it was only Nigel who got serious. Like Joanna said, I'm just not feeling the 'Spring & Summer 2007' Collection... I'll probably go back and get some shoes though at some point.
rijjer's Housewarming/St. Paddy's day party started at 3:00, we went over to decorate & check out here new pad early.. braving the ants (and then the aunts). I'm not sure if I ever mentioned it, but I booked my trip over the Meatloaf concert I'd bought tickets for (for Nigel, for christmas). Erica went as the replacement girlfriend and she had some amazingly sneaky footage to show me of Nigel singing to Paradise by the Dash Board Light (thank you!).
Mid-hockey game Nigel & I headed home to relax and watch the rest of the game, mostly I just wanted to edit some of the photos from Wednesdays Fake Shark! Real Zombie! show at the Lamplighter.

SUNDAY:
I didn't even leave the house Sunday. Nigel & I spent the entire day watching missed episodes of LOST, drinking tea & making food. ♥

So there's my weekend.. It's an hour later and everyone has made it into work so I guess that means I have to actually work too.. xo