Seattle

Went on a field trip with the band students this past weekend. It was very tiring, just being around teenagers us enough to drain a copious amount of energy out of you...

My favorite was going to EMP and checking out the Jimi Hendrix museum. Man does Seattle love him (and Nirvana).

We also saw some young musicians at the Moore theatre (famous theatre I guess) which was fantastic.

Oh yeah, we also got to do a more realistic rock band, I've included that picture too. Want to see if the teachers understand the "machine gun"part of the band name...

Thought I'd send a picture or two at least.

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Movember Update

Here is a latest picture of the soup strainer, as Ned Flanders would call it. Any donations would be much appreciated - I'm being outdonated by my other team members!

 http://ca.movember.com/mospace/903760

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Day 6: Kayak Tour & La Perouse Bay

I am going to update this post later with some commentary when I have time, but for now I'll let you look at some pictures:

Day 3: Molokini & Big Beach

We decided to sign up for a snorkeling tour to a small, crescent-shaped island off the coast of Maui called Molokini.  The snorkeling part of the tour was uninspiring - we a saw a couple of different types of fish than we had seen the day before off of the beach but there were so many people around that it lost most of its appeal.  We did see a box jellyfish, which everyone became aware of after a couple of people from our boat swam through its path and the jellyfish's tentacles became wrapped around one person's wrist and another's upper arm.  I tried to take a picture of it but the throw away underwater camera was not such a good performer...  Apparently the reef has taken quite a toll with all of the tourists traffic and in retrospect, we probably shouldn't have gone.  The tour did incorporate a few other stops that made it worth while.


We figured that we couldn't top our whale watching exploits from the day before, but we ended up pretty close to another humpback while on the way to Molokini.  Inadvertently, a whale watching portion was included in our tour as the skipper had to come to an abrupt stop as a humpback and its baby surfaced within 100 yards of our boat.  We were told that if you end up within 100 yards that you must stop and let the whales pass by.  This put us quite a bit closer to the humpback than the day before and this time I was able to have my camera to take pictures:


The above was a time-lapse of a humpback starting its dive.

On the return from Molokini, we stopped at a spot where there is a sunken ship and did a quick dip to take a look at it.  It was quite far down so most people saw it from afar - I dove a little of the ways down, but not quite that far.  So, I did see a little more of the boat and the fish that were hovering around above it, but I discovered something unexpected - the sounds of the humpbacks.  By equalizing the pressure in my ears, it allowed me to hear under water a lot better and thereby the humpbacks.

Our last stop was at "Turtle Town".  As soon as we approached this area there were many sightings of turtles surfacing for breath and looking for food on the ocean floor below.  Once we dove in it seemed that this "town" of turtles was some sort of imaginary myth designed to bring tourists in and their money but after a while I saw one swimming around, and then another, and then another.  Then, I looked at the ocean floor and among the different coral in the reef I saw a turtle hanging out, just lying there.  We also saw a turtle with some white, fluffy tumours all over it, fish hovering around it, picking at it.  Jenn said that she could see through the shell...

In the evening we went exploring a little further south to watch the sunset from Makena Bay.  We found Big Beach and as its name says, it was a very big beach.  A lot of sand, large crashing waves right at the beach with people boogie boarding those waves, humpbacks swimming out in the distance with Molokini and the sinking sun as a back drop.  The breaking waves were very large - I took a series of pictures with some kids in front of the waves to demonstrate how large the waves were:



Afterwards we went to Maui Taco again for some really good Mexican fast food.  Jenn had more of the mango chicken taco salad (this was all that she would have at maui Taco..).

Slideshow of the pictures of this days action is below!

The Dead of Afternoon

Not being able to handle the stress of the impending overtime of the Canada vs. U.S.A hockey game (and thinking that it was over for Canada) Jenn and I decided to leave our house and go to an open house.  As expected, the streets were eerily silent as we walked.  After hearing a brief squeal I began to wonder that if Canada scored, would we would be able to hear it?  After a second or two Jenn mentioned that she thought she heard a cheer and expressed the same sentiments.  It wasn't but a few steps later that we heard a muted eruption and our musings were verified.  We heard cheering and car horns honking during the whole half block that we walked to the open house.  It was quite something - I'm not sure whether anyone in Canada would NOT know that we had won the gold medal hockey game.

Walking home from the open house, Jenn and I both, at first, wondered who scored the overtime goal.  We both picked Sydney Crosby but then dismissed it because it would have been too corny, too poetic.  Then we started picking other players (Jenn: Eric Staal, but only because he is from Thunder Bay) because the initial option would have been just too appropriate...

I have to say that I've been impressed with Vancouver - it wasn't looking like there was going to be a lot enthusiasm for the games with all of the negative press and a muted mood that suffused through the lower mainland.  Once things started though, things were quite euphoric.

It's hard not to be a naysayer though.  Millions, if not billions of dollars were spent on an event that did not improve the overall well-being of all the people in our society.  Albeit, the Olympics were remarkably galvanizing - it was near impossible to not get swept up in the euphoria.  But, there is always the homelessness issue, not to mention that Jenn and I's jobs will be in great jeopardy because of funding shortfalls.  So, hard to approve of something that does not affect truly important and essential things in our lives, you know?  The depression that would have fell over the country if the men's hockey team had lost would seem so absurd - why waste all that energy over something that will not really affect our well-beings?  We should be more depressed over a lot of the things that Harper and our government are doing to our country...

Aside from that, it is a great day out here.  The magnolias are flowering alongside the cherry trees and pockets of rhododendrons.  The air was on the warm side of 12 degrees and you could tell that it has turned to an official beginning of spring (at least here on the west coast and the Okanagan valley).

Now if Jenn and I just shed our colds...

Sewing Project (Part VI)

I sewed the side seam together and now I have something that actually looks like a jacket.

I now need to sew the hood on, the front zipper and other finishing including the cuff.  I'm not sure which type to do.

The following type seems to be traditionally done on all of the outdoor technical jackets that I have with velcro straps. (I'm going to sew in a velcro tightening strap)

This next cuff is traditionally done on most types of other, seemingly "non-technical" type clothing.  It is an extra strip of fabric sewed on to the end of the sleeve.

My only worry with the first one is that it will shorten the sleeve length too much.  On the other hand, the second one will make it too long and maybe not as robust?  But if the cuff wears out, I can easily replace it then...

Anybody know what I'm talking about and have their own preferences?

Night Market

We went to the Summer Night Market in Richmond Saturday night with El Matador Gigante (a web site generated this for his first and last name. Let's go with Huracan Picante which was achieved using "Doctor LastName") and Zhan-ay. There were many stalls with cheap knick knacks and some interesting items...

A lot of Korean socks, a vendor with LED shirts that light up and respond to sound, Taiwanese DVDs, and many other "Canadian" type items. We went primarily for the food. I had some skewered meat and twisty potatoes with Huracan Picante...

You can see a few of the interesting stalls, one with Jenn in front of the "Waffle Ball" stall...

...or where we got the twisty potatoes...

Here's Jenn and I...

By the way, my generated name was "La Fenix Mejor", Jenn's was "El Griego Mas Macho". My teacher name (Mister Winkler) would be "El Kulo Famoso".

Gone Hikin'...

It was a beautiful weekend this past one.  El Matador Gigante suggested we go for a hike.

It may have been a bit early to go without snowshoes but it was packed enough that using snowshoes was just silly.  The pay off at the top was pretty good though...