I'm a big kid now!

Before I show you my Cool New Toy, a couple more pics of Granville Street from the weekend. First, The Bay put on a big pancake breakfast for all the volunteers who had come downtown to help clean up on Thursday, and afterward. What I wish you could see in this pic from my  bus: they had B-52s just blasting, and everyone on the sidewalk - servers, eaters, bystanders & cops - were all dancing. It was awesome!

The VPD car which has been on the news, with all the sticky notes...what you can't see in this pic is the big sign the VPD put on the windshield, thanking all the other agencies that had helped out on Wednesday.

And a last shot of The Bay: the plywood covered in scrawls was taken down today, and will be preserved at the Vancouver Museum. But on the weekend, people were still adding messages, and had started a line of "prayer flags" that wrapped around the block:

Downtown was packed, but mellow. As if people just wanted to be there & soak up - and add to - the community vibe. (And let me tell you, those few blocks of Granville & area have never been so clean!)


Meanwhile, back at the ranch...life goes on. We're "out with the old, in with the new" today @ Chez Q. We had a great, skinny old toaster that we got at a garage sale for $5 when we first moved in together. It has served us well for many years, and took up very little counter space. I'd say we've definitely got our $5 out of it. But today...today, after I'd toasted my bagel, I unplugged it, and the plug was hot. Now, I'm no electrician, but even I have a pretty good idea that a hot plug is A Bad Thing! 


So after dinner, Mr.Q & I went down to London Drugs, and we bought our very first new toaster ever. It was quite exciting, and I felt, of course, that the momentous occasion needed documenting. So here it is, in all its shiny beauty:

  

It has a separate setting for bagels! And a pull-out crumb tray! Crazy! I feel so grown up now. 


But it's going to have to wait for its maiden toasting. Today was also the first day I've seen local, in-season strawberries at the market. I'm off to gorge myself on their juicy, sweet-tart tastiness. NOM!

Well, that was...interesting!

So, yeah. This hockey thing. Kind of....well, I'm still processing. The last few days have been rather a roller coaster! I've gone from this (celebratory community fun! And donuts!)

To this morning's wake-up (please note, fambly members who are prone to panicking, and you know who you are! I was nowhere near the downtown madness after the game!):

And then after work, I found this, largely due to countless volunteers, including food truck vendors who donated lunch to the clean-up crews....had I known in time, I would have early for work, with some garbage bags and work gloves, and pitched in:

And there were some pithy messages for last night's hooligans:

I think I still like hockey. And I really like what the people in Vancouver did today; best response ever to a really stupid situation.  (Also, knitting at a hockey "fan zone"? Gets the best reactions ever! Will definitely be taking my knitting to the arena next season!)


And now I have to go to bed. Between the let-down of last night's game, the shit-show afterward, the emotional roller-coaster today - and the wicked cat fight outside my window just as I was falling asleep last night! But that's maybe a post for another day - I am a mighty tired Quimby. 

Hello Canada...

...and hockey fans, in the United States and Newfoundland!


Mr.Q got mega-brownie points today for venturing downtown to watch part of the hockey game, with about 12,000 of our new best friends. We got there early - about 3:00, the game started at 5:00 - found a sweet spot to park our chair, and had some very fine fish & chips from the Kaboom Box, one of the new food trucks hanging out around the city. (Very fine fish! A nice, light tempura batter that wasn't too heavy or greasy, and didn't overwhelm the delicate taste of the cod.)


We only stayed for the first period - it got windy and cold when the sun went behind the buildings (and I have to say, it's pretty weird watching hockey and worrying about sunscreen!). But it was So. Much. Fun!  I have never sung the National Anthem with such gusto, nor heard in sung so enthusiastically.  


A few pics of the adventure:

Probably just as well we left early, as getting a bus home would have been...interesting!  And I was both sun- and wind-burned, & my throat is still raw.


But I 'spect I'll be back for one of the games next week. You know, since I'm downtown for work already...

Pretty in Pink

Had a bit of an impulsive falling-down at the liquor store on payday. Went in for a bottle of wine for my book club (We did talk about the book....for about 15 minutes. I seem to recall lighting Sambuca on fire later in the evening, and singing along really loudly - and badly - to Tiffany and the Bangles...good times!)

Anyway. I was buying my bottle of wine, and saw a display for Granville Island's summer ale. I would have bought a 6 right then, but I was loaded down with coffee (JJ Bean is discontinuing my favourite roast e-var, so I sort of cleaned them out of what they had left...). Mr.Q kindly went out and fetched me some of the beer on Saturday, while I nursed a bit of a(n apocalyptic) hangover. 

I may have waited a day or two to actually crack a bottle, but it's So. Good. NOMS!:

And so very, very pretty!

Also, quite tasty: light, and tart. Not sweet at all, but still a clear hint of raspberry at the back of the tongue. Perfectly refreshing for a hot summer day.

If, that is, we ever get a hot summer day! Or even a sort of tepid one.

My pretty beer, in the 5 minutes of sunlight we had on the weekend:

Surreality Check

Bizarre:


Sitting in a chair at the salon on Sunday, getting new blue in my hair. Salon is empty, save for me, my hairdresser, and her 2 co-workers. I hadn't realized the hockey game was mid-afternoon, or I might have scheduled my appointment differently. But the customer service there is great: they turned my chair around, got a cart for my hairdresser to work from, moved the monitor on their computer so I could see the screen, and we all watched the game together. While I was getting my hair done. And knitting. And having a passionate conversation about cheese and coffee and chocolate. Talk about extreme multi-tasking!


More bizarre:


"Not watching" Tuesday's game on my laptop, sitting on the bathroom floor (because the Canucks never score when I'm actually watching the game, so I was just listening to it) with a beer in hand, having an online conversation with a friend in her bathroom (because they only score when she's in the can); a friend stuck in her bedroom (because every time she comes out, the other team scores); a friend really not watching (because they lose every time she does); and our lifeline, who seems able to watch the games without consequence. All of us knitting, of course. 


When I asked Mr.Q to bring me another beer, and he realized I was in the bathroom, he was quite...confused. Poor thing. He's a bit of a delicate flower.


Most bizarre:


Being glad I couldn't wear jeans on Thursday, because it meant the Canucks made it to the finals...What have I come to?!


(Most-er bizarre: actually considering not-watching Game 1 next week - a home game - from a downtown pub....)


Not sure what's happening to me, but I think I'm enjoying the ride!

Smells like Team Spirit

It may come as a shock to some of you, Gentle Readers, but I am not the world's biggest hockey fan. "Puck" is a delightful Shakespeare character; "Face Off" is a game show in the Who-vian future; "Icing" is something you put on a cake, or maybe cinnamon buns.

So, when we were told some weeks ago, that we could wear jeans on game days for the play-offs, if we wore a Canucks shirt...I was all over the jeans. But I actually had to go out and buy the shirt. There was some joking about growing a "play-off beard" on my legs, but that was about it. The only reason I paid attention to the schedule & the outcomes of the games was to make sure I had clean jeans to wear at every possible opportunity - and to make sure I got out of downtown as soon as possible on home-game days. And wearing a t-shirt in that pretty blue was no hardship!

But then...something happened. As they won more games, advanced further...more people started coming out of the woodwork in their team colours on game days. It became a conversation staple with my favourite baristas, as the wall behind the espresso bar was slowly covered in photos of the players from the newspapers. People in t-shirts and jerseys making their way through the downtown core started making eye contact with each other - not done! - and even smiling in friendly acknowledgement. Canucks shirts, hats, jerseys, and scarves have slowly overtaken business suits, jackets, skirts and slacks for work attire across the city. It's a pretty interesting phenomenon to watch.

Last night I realized I was in over my head when I:

•  knew where to find a live webcast of the game
• could accurately estimate which period they'd be in when I went to the site
•  knew what time the game started
•  watched a whole period without diverting my attention elsewhere
•  couldn't knit during the tense moments
•  cheered out loud at more than one goal
• convinced Mr.Q that it might actually be fun to go watch a game at our local sports pub one night next week 

I think I've been replaced by a pod person! Send help! 

(But...not till after the play-offs?)

Lost in Translation

An interesting day at work yesterday. Fun, as a sunny Friday often is, and I've got really great students in all of my classes - none of them are divas or princesses, they like each other, and they work well together. It doesn't happen all the time, at least not in every class at the same time, so I try to appreciate it when it does! Not minding if I make an ass of myself in front of them probably helps. Yesterday I played Patio Lanterns for one class, and then taught them the "traditional Canadian high school dance"  - that awkward side to side shuffle, with maybe a little bit of hand-flailing...They were singing along by the end of the class. So. Fun!

Last class of the day is shorter on Fridays, just an hour. We usually have a pronunciation lesson, but before we started, one of the guys wanted to ask me a question. He had a notebook with a list of idioms and slang he'd heard, to ask about later. So we spent about 20 minutes talking about that, with other students piping up with their own queries. A good class discussion, really.

Right up to the part where someone asked me: "Teacher, can you use the word cock in a sentence for me?"

Me: O.o

Me: Umm.

Me: {stunned silence}

Me: Umm. Where did you hear that? Can you give me some context?

Student: I heard it on a TV show. The police arrested some guy for dealing cock.

Me: {whew!} You mean cocaine! Yes, yes I can use that in a sentence for you. But first, we should really talk about the pronunciation of that vowel sound! 

So we get that sorted, and he pipes up again: "Teacher, what's a dowsh bag?"

Me: Could you repeat that, please?

Student: A dowsh bag.

Me: Could you spell it for me, or tell me where you heard it?

Student: D-O-U-C-H-E-B-A-G

Me:  {bang head on wall}

So we got that sorted, too, and then I put an end to question period. I was too afraid of what they'd throw at me next! We worked on pronunciation for the rest of the class. Then I got to have a walk in the sun, a drink with some co-workers, and two of us went for poutine afterward. I had the bacon poutine. So very, very wrong. And so right!  But I'll be eating celery all weekend to compensate...Holy rich cheese-curds-and-gravy noms, Batman!

Because yesterday it felt like it might be summer, someday, and because this song makes me think of summer, here's a little Kim Mitchell for your Saturday: