happy thanksgiving

my trip to toronto:

- streetcars
- weird drinks in the korean village
- mexican food and leather jackets in kensington market
- second largest oktoberfest in the world and two pitchers of molson canadian
- mennonite market and perogies
- pumpkin patch near waterloo
- real beer at "cest what"
- beer, politics, and garden gnomes on leith's front porch
- lake ontario beaches
- not being able to play frisbee golf on the toronto islands
- the hedge maze with no exit
- matt arm wrestling a robot
- thanksgiving dinner with fried rice
- good times with sprout, matt, and other fun people

photos

mopeds

as per matt's request, here are the two new mopeds:

1985 yamahopper, this one is for liz


1978 sachs hercules, this one is mine

Dodge, Duck, Dip, Dive, and Dodge

sweet sassafrass! (what the hell is sasafrass?, and how do you spell saasaffrass? sasuphras?) my arm is so sore from some excellent dodgeballing action. i joined my buddy's dodgeball team and tonight we had our first games. i got off to a slow start, but once I got into it i turned from my normally mild-mannered self into a crazed ultra competative dodging machine. this is not to say i did superbly well, although i did hit a few people with the ball. it was fun had by all i'm looking forward to the next round of mayhem, although i might have to ice my whole body tomorrow. speaking of upcoming fun: i'm going to toronto in one week! woot!

in other news:
- i took a screen printing class last night to hone my screening skills and it was a good time. people will be receiving custom t-shirts soon.
- i now own 3 mopeds... eat your hearts out (don't literally eat them, i'm pretty sure you need it)
- i renegotiated my contract and i get an extra week of vacation
- this weekend i'm going to saltspring island
- i have resisted playing halo 3 for three full days now
- i'm tired and i'm going to bed

fyi: according to wikipedia, sassafras is a genus of two to three species of deciduous trees in the family lauraceae, native to eastern north america and eastern asia.

and you thought i was crazy for moving to canada...

free money

highlights

i'm so domestic....

i put stuff on the walls...

i have a table...

i got a plant...
put up a curtain....

attached a rug to the wall...

stained some chairs...

went on a zip-line...

back in vancouver

oh work, you why can't you be fun? it has been a brutal week as i'm trying to make up for the time i was away and to make it worse another manager is on vacation, so i have to take over his stuff as well. the good news is the mopedery has been sweet. i'm workin on gang logos. i'll probably carve it into my chest soon. i think that's what all the badass mopeders do...

birthday dinner with the fam

fun in colorado!

what sort of fun has been had in colorado:
- hung out with neice and his fiance amanda in seattle (this is not in colorado)
- beers with the gang on saturday night
- relaxing with jesse and tina
- wandered around pearl street and the abomonation on 29th street with teresa
- veggie sub at snarf's with anthony, patty, and t... mmmm... so much avocado
- more delicious beer and good times at the mountain sun with mindy and janet
- trivia night at conor's, where i apparently know absolutely nothing about mystery science theater
- dinner at sherpa's with $2 happy hour beers and excellent south asian food. you hear that british columbia!? $2!!! and this beer actually tastes good. plus it's got more alcohol in it than molson.... i'm sorry canada, there are so many things i love about you. i just think we need to have an open and honest relationship and you're just not providing me with the beer i need.
- honestly, the whole trip has not revolved around beer. it just seems like that.
- catchin the bus to gj in the morning and excited to see the fam.

dad

the doctors found a small blockage in an artery in his heart and this morning he had an angioplasty. he's doing really well now.

o canada... day

best canada day ever! that's slightly less bold of a statement considering this was my first canada day ever, but it kicked ass none-the-less. let me enumerate (or perhaps innumerate) the highlights of the long weekend:

1. richmond night market with kevin and his parents. it was right up there with asian day.

2. bogging with leah, followed by beer and crafts (an excellent combo for those curious).



3. 80's movie marathon. marathon = 3/4 of cocoon with steve guttenberg
4. relaxing on english bay and then eating the worst sushi ever (the later is not technically a "highlight")
5. vicious tennis match next to lost lagoon.
6. bbq with bella and company.


7. doom II levels 16-32 with camaroon.
8. and then lots of sleep

old skool

last night cameron and i had an epic session of doom 2 over the lan. there was much nostalgic video game fun, arnold schwarzenegger impersonation (rather sub-par on my part), and sweet bella tracks to be had. i know you're jealous.

list-tastic

informative tid-bits about geoff's life:
-my moped gang (my nameless, logo-less, jacket-less, gangless gang) has gained a member. unfortunately she doesn't have a moped.


-i've thought a tiny bit more about traveling to colorado and ontario. i'm going to visit a travel agent this weekend.
-saw emm gryner last night at the railway club. she's amazing.
-i'm exhausted from hosting people from couch surfing, but it has be an awesome experience.
-i made some wicked cool map magnets for the fridge.

-i got some sweet local t-shirts and a messenger bag last week during a day of hedonistic consumerism with liz.
-ukrainian cognac is interesting
-cam got his 486's up and running again and there should be some killer doom action any minute.

sorry, no vacancy

a couple weeks ago i started hosting people from couchsurfing.com and who would have thought a lot of people want to visit vancouver? for those of you unfamiliar with couch surfing, it's a way to sleep on someone's couch as opposed to a hostel or hotel or gutter. it's free and it gives you the opportunity to meet people who actually live in the city/hamlet that you wouldn't normally meet, plus you tend to avoid the lame (expensive) touristy stuff and see the real parts of the city. thus far i've hosted a guy from Switzerland who's been traveling around north america for a year and just started hitch-hiking across canada. his final destination is newfoundland (really freaking far away). i hosted a cool guy from wisconsin and a awesome girl from montreal. tonight a guy from the ukraine is coming. so, if you are ever traveling and looking for a cool way to experience a city check it out.

incentive?

two posts in one day, what the hell is wrong with you!?

mopedery

i took the moped down to portland for the victoria day weekend. abby and i installed a new carb and i lost a piece for the muffler. all said and done she is now 5 mph faster (i.e. she tops out at around 30). i say "she" because my swiss friend yvonne named her vreni, which is apparently a girls name in switzerland. that or a venereal disease, but either way it sounds good.


so, by now you're probably asking yourself, "why doesn't geoff post very much on his blog any more? it has been the highlight of my internet surfing for the past 8 months and now it's disappeared quicker than george bush's approval ratings." ok no one has ever said that and if you have that is really sad. anyway here is an update in convenient list form (i know how much you love lists):

- moved to a new apartment
- bought a new comfy futon that theoretically someone could sleep on if they were to venture to the 'couv... hint hint
- worked 35 hours of overtime in less than a week and wanted to die
- the sun's out, i have been taking lots of time off, and i'm glad i'm not dead
- i'm planning a trip to colorado in august (by "planning" i mean i thought about it once)
- i feel this list should be longer, but it isn't, so this bullet is really just filler to make me look more exciting

who the hell is luciana salazar!?

at least she's hot! but i'm not so sure about the natalie merchant resemblance.

http://www.myheritage.com

5 days until freedom!

my apartment is on the left side of the house

that's the place

living space. small, eh?

killer counter space... eh?

hockey history

thousands of fans left before the 4th overtime, but one lanky american stayed the whole time to witness henrik sedin score with less than 2 minutes left in the 7th period, which just happened to be the longest game in nucks history... classic!

where were you sun!?

with the re-emergence of the sun i can start enjoying vancouver again. the big news: i signed a lease on a really nice basement suite. it's a little more expensive, but a good deal compared to my current situation. it is really small, which is great since i don't have/want much furniture. it's located on the east side (my old stomping grounds... by "old" i mean 6 months ago). i have my own little patio and even a place to plant some herbs (my dad would be proud). once i have a couch or a futon i'll be able to host visitors... hint hint. i might even cook you something with fresh herbs. my move in date is april 21st, so i have over a week to move all my stuff, which will make the whole process much more relaxing. i'll post some photos when blogspot stops being lame.

so, i've been cruising around town on my puch magnum. it is definitely the way to go. even though it tops out at 25 mph i'm usually faster than cars since i can use bike lanes and weave around traffic cones. yesterday i started volunteering again at the vancity theatre and i somehow managed to accidently (don't ask) cross all three bridges over false creek on my moped. anyway, the people i volunteer with seem really cool and now i can see lots of free movies.

i've met a few new friends, so now i have someone to go to concerts with and another that i can practice spanish with, excelente! the best news is i'm going to game one against dallas tonight! it is hard not to have the avs in the playoffs, but since they finished strong and the team is young and they resign joey they should do well next year. plus, we can't embarass dallas every year. this year it's the canucks turn.

we miss you forsberg

"It's great to be back [in Colorado]," Forsberg said. "Sometimes you don't know what you have until you leave. We'll see what happens if I continue to play in the future. I've got nothing but good words about this place."

worth a blog entry? probably not

this local news blog "beyond robson" has a little contest to identify an intersection based on a google map. using my intimate knowledge of vancouver geography i won todays contest and the prize was super sweet:



happy easter!

pillow fight!

someone organized a pillow fight in downtown vancouver last weekend. not being able to resist hitting a stranger over the head with a pillow I stuffed one in my messenger bag and treked over to robson square. now, the point of the pillow fight was to be as incognito as possible. i.e. keep the pillow conceled, arrive at the exact moment of fighting, and start bashing eachother for 15 minutes. then disappear as quickly as it started. unfortunately a fair number of people gave up on the concept of mock-spontineity and just stood around in the square with their pillows until the fight started. but as silly as the whole thing was i did have fun. it was like a mosh pit with no music, pillows, and someone dressed up like a giant rabbit.

improvements

small improvements:
- moving out of place with lame roommates in a month and into my own place (tbd)
- they hired two new engineers at work, which means less crushing stress
- i went to portland and it was awesome, read all about it in previous post.
- been hanging out with kevin, from ohio and edmonton and kuala lumpur
- have new swiss friends, they don't speak english very well, but we have fun none-the-less
- daylight savings time
- fuego and company are coming up to vancouver in a couple weeks for a boarding trip to whistler
- i have a surprise for a certain someone in toronto
- i am going to sell my car as soon as i move, or perhaps sooner
- bought a 1979 puch magnum. eat your hearts out:

i heart portland

need i say more

comatose blog

it has been a while, which probably means no one checks this any more, but in the event that you stumbled upon the blog, here is a convenient (read that lazy) list of what is going on:

- i ended up working 41.25 hours of overtime over two and a half weeks
- they are hiring someone new and life is less stressful now
- i knit a scarf for my grandma for her birthday
- saw the canucks beat the thrashers last week
- guitar class = fun
- drawing class = lame
- i'm going snowboarding saturday for the first time in nearly 2 years
- i might go to portland next weekend

unfortunately that about sums it up. and this is why the blog is gasping for breath, no time to write and nothing to write about.

all work and no play...

15 hours of overtime this week and more next week. hooray for fun!

almost a rock star

i had my first guitar class today. it was a lot of fun despite the disappointment of discovering i'm not a guitar virtuoso. prose is for story telling, my life fits better in list form:
- i learned how to knit (yes, that was the last of my masculinity)
- the job is good, but stressful.
- the first part i designed got machined this week, and it worked! it was a piece of plastic with holes in it. thank god that $40k is going to good use.
- apparently a list is not as applicable as i thought, since i have run out of things to list...

list of stuff

- i am starting a guitar class tomorrow
- i tried to take a curling class, but apparently there wasn't enough interest... in canada?
- i was lying in bed the other night and i realized i was a nihilist. hopefully that clears up soon, but on the plus side maybe i'll get a marmot out of it.
- it was windy and we lost power at work today.
- all my anti-consumerism was destroyed by the iphone by apple.
- i saw the movie "mutual attraction" and didn't enjoy it.
- it snowed today.
- i was reading about moldova on wikipedia today. whoever wrote the politics article hates the government.
- it was really windy today.
- i burnt my tongue on my coffee.
- i look very pretentious when i sit in a coffee shop and read ayn rand.
- the dome on bc place (stadium in downtown vancouver) deflated last week.
- i took two pictures with my camera the other day.
- i am not really a nihilist.