MORE MUSINGS

Did you know that blogging on blogger with different browsers will give you a different feature set and options? That's crazy. Some of it doesn't even make sense. In IE, you have this option to e-mail people everytime you make a new post. It's basically a text field where you enter in addresses. In Netscape, this option is nowhere to be found. Why? Netscape can handle text fields and I'm pretty sure the e-mailing is done server-side and not client-side. Mysteries of the world.

I had dinner at the Macaroni Grill downtown tonight. It was Kiyoko's farewell dinner. The turnout was impressive. What was even more impressive was that no one had to take the bus. We had enough cars to take everyone. A rarity to be sure.

I must admit, I've had better meals there. Tonight's meal was missing a certain level of quality. The linguine with clams in a white wine sauce was severely lacking in flavour. I was looking forward to it, but it just disappointed me. The rest of our paisano-style meal, however, was good. No one left our table hungry. In fact, we were quite full.

About half an hour ago, a huge moth flew into my room. It was probably the largest moth I'd seen in years. When it flapped its wings, I'm pretty sure I heard a discernable woomp, woomp sound. Anyways, it landed on my armchair. Instead of killing it, I captured it in an empty glass container. Usually, I would try to shoo it out my window, but I've learned a new trick. Do all your catching and releasing in the hallway.

It works wonderfully. I placed the container outside my door and the thing took off like a C-5 Galaxy loaded with Bradleys. It went down the hall three or four doors hovering near the ceiling lights and then it took a 180 and headed straight towards me. I went back into my room and closed my door.

I hope it doesn't happen, but if I catch a mouse, I'm letting it loose in the hallway too.

Well, I need to go to sleep for about ten hours. I'll leave you with one of the more interesting blog posts I've read in a while.

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CAMPUS MUSINGS

Like most days, I'm spending my lunch hour at home. It certainly is pleasant to have your work five minutes away.

At noon, I was tired and hungry, and I managed to stumble out of the Ag Sci building to head on over to the Barn. As I made my way, I noticed a girl on a bike riding towards me. I didn't really pay that much attention to her, but when she rode past me at the last moment, I realized she was a former high school classmate of mine. I swear she saw me. As she passed, I wanted to say something, but I was too tired. Weird. I wonder if she recognized me.

It's another beautiful day on campus. There are a lot more people here in the daytime now. Term 2 of the summer session has started. Most term 2 classes are held in the daytime whereas term 1 classes were held at night.

Holy crap I'm tired, I think I'll nap for a few before going back to work.

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WEB CAM WORKING AGAIN

After breaking for an extended period of time, I got my web cam working again. I took a snap shot of some flowers I bought yesterday.

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NAKED LIKE WILL FERRELL

We had a super-duper Canada Day BBQ at SJC yesterday. In my excitement, I rushed home from softball to gorge myself on charred meat. I did, however, shower first. Unknowingly, I left my door unlocked while I cleansed. I also had my bathroom door open slightly.

While I showered, I distinctly remember hearing a loud banging noise coming from the vicinity of my door. It could have been one of my neighbours' doors closing, or it could have been my door closing... after someone had come in, peeked at my naked, wet body, and laughed and/or shuddered in revulsion.

It's weird to think someone at SJC has seen me naked. Weird I tell ya!

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SO THE END BEGINS

From imdb.com:

Filming for the last ever Star Wars movie started on Monday - just one week after producer George Lucas put the finishing touches to the script. Shooting will take place in Sydney, Australia as well as Italy and Switzerland - and Obi-Wan Kenobi actor Ewan McGregor has already lined himself up a luxury apartment in Sydney for the duration of the Antipodean shoots.

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I HOPE THIS STORY WAS MADE UP

Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!!!!

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SIX-TWO COMING OUT

I am so glad the weekend is over. I'll finally stop spending money. This morning I woke at 10am and got ready for dim sum. We went to Sun Sui Wah on Main and 23rd. I've been there several times over the years for dinner with my parents, but never for dim sum. It was also my first time going to dim sum with SJC people.

The place was packed and it was fortunate that Kiyoko made a reservation. There were eight of us, a mix of SJC residents past and present, plus one of Adrian's friends. Adrian had a hard-core weekend, I'm so proud of him. Anyways, Kiyoko did most of the dim sum ordering. I did however, make some special requests, one of which was chicken feet steamed in black bean sauce. It seems to me, this is the ultimate test of a dim sum eater. I also happen to like chicken feet at dim sum. My mom and dad make fun of me because of that. They say only old women like that stuff. Oh well.

When the cart with the chicken feet arrived, I quickly motioned for the lady to give us a dish. As she put it on our table, I saw that everyone other than Kiyoko eyed it nervously. I said, "Come on everyone, this is the stuff that makes dim sum unique". The responses I got were varied:

"No way man."

"How do you eat it?"

"What do you do with the bones?"

"Why don't you show us?"

I took one of the feet and plopped it on the plate. "You just put one of the toes in your mouth and bite it off," I told everyone.

All eyes were on me which was weird since usually when I eat it, my mom and dad think I'm just eating normal food, which it is. I took one of the toes up to the second knuckle in my mouth, ripped it off from the foot, and worked it around in my mouth. I got all the skin off, and then I spit out the bones.

"There! That was great, now you all try," I offered.

There was still some hesitation among the others (Kiyoko, who's a dim sum veteran, doesn't like chicken feet in general). To everyone's credit though, everyone did try it and some liked it more than others.

The rest of dim sum was slightly less interesting, but nonetheless good and filling. On our way back to the cars, Evelyn wondered if we were interested in going for gelato at this place by Clarke and Venables. We all agreed and soon we were in this industrial warehouse area. Then out of nowhere is this gelato place with parents, kids, and cyclists out front. The store proudly proclaimed it had 198 different flavours. As we entered the store, we could see that this was no false boast. We sampled some weird flavours like roasted garlic, balsamic vinegar, durian fruit, and curry. The garlic is actually pretty damn good.

We finally got back to SJC around 3pm. I cleaned up a bit, did some dishes and I ironed four shirts which nearly took me half an hour to do so. It was so humid around that time. I did some web site stuff until dinner. Dinner itself was a bit uninspired, but then again I had been eating quite well the entire weekend.

After dinner, I noticed that I had a box of brownies in my room that I hadn't made yet. I left my room to go pre-heat the oven upstairs when I ran into Misato in the hallway. Misato is unfortunately moving out of SJC. She's a real asset to the SJC community and a wonderful person overall. "Erwin, do you want to keep my fridge over the summer?" she said to me. I said yes immediately because I knew she has a big, waist-high fridge and I have a little midget one.

I asked her why she was offering it to me and she said I was the first person she saw in the hallway that she knew. Sweet. I love random luck. Ten minutes later, I have Misato's beautiful refrigerator in my room. It's so awesome. It probably holds twice as much food as my current one. Misato cleaned it out meticulously too, so it's spotless inside. I felt like shopping for food right then and there just to fill it up. I was so happy!

I remembered that I still had to make my brownies, so I went upstairs to that. After my baking was done, I went up to Dana's room to tell him the brownies were cooling. He had given me the brownie mix and we agreed I'd make it and we'd split it. When I got to his room, he thanked me for baking them, but he also asked me if I wanted to go to DQ for some ice cream. DQ and gelato in the same day? Hmmm.... sure, why not I thought.

Some other SJC people joined us and we piled into Dana's car for the trip to DQ. I had a shake which I thought had less fat than ice cream did, but I could be totally wrong on that. We had this really funny conversation about how we were all nerds in high school. I tried to convince them all that it was quite the feat for me to be "King of all Nerds" in high school since I had to fight off all the other nerds in a class of 1000 students.

So, the weekend has brought me to this post. Man, what a weekend. It was a lot of fun, but boy, did I spend a lot of money.

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RANDOM PICS

I have a new gallery up on your favourite place in cyberspace. Check it out!

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MORE MONEY! MORE!

I woke up at 1pm today. I had about eight hours of sleep. I can't remember the last time I got so much sleep. I immediately tried to think about where the Seattle crew were. They were supposed to be back at 2pm. Wow, I almost slept through their trip I thought.

I noticed it was a beautiful day but I tooled around in my room for about an hour. I cleaned, put things away, and did my dishes. Around 2pm, I left my room to go grab some lunch. There were so many people streaming down to Wreck Beach. It was a hot day.

I got back around 3pm and did some more cleaning. Around 4pm, I heard Adrian, Pat, and Kiyoko outside my room. They were back! I went out and greeted them. They all looked tired. They got into Seattle really early in the morning. I believe they hit Pioneer Square first, but it was kinda boring, so they went to the Pike Place Market. Nothing struck their fancy there, and somehow they wound up at the Marriott hotel for breakfast. On the way back, they made a little stop in Bellingham. They said it was all go go go during the trip, not a moment to rest. Adrian didn't sleep the entire time. That guy is a machine. After I got their stories, I bid them farewell, and they went off in their separate ways to recuperate.


Then it was time to get ready for dinner. Dana had graciously invited me to join him and Ian at Cin Cin on Robson. I've wanted to go there for years. I've read about it so many times in the local media. I've passed it countless times along Robson and wondered what was up those steps.

We went for their prix fixes special, $28 for a three course meal before 6pm. It's really the only way a grad student can afford to go there. I chose the bruschetta, tenderloin, and the gelato & sorbetto. The food was excellent. It definitely lived up to my expectations. The bruschetta was the best I've ever had. The tenderloin was superb. The risotto was almost too rich.

After dinner, it was still quite early, so I went to London Drugs and bought a Swiffer. I've needed one for months and I finally decided to take the plunge.

Dana and I drove back to SJC around 8pm. There was this police car chase show on Fox. I'm fascinated by these types of programs. When it ended around 9pm, I went and put my laundry in. I also vaccummed my room. Then I put my Swiffer together and cleaned my floors.

Around 10pm, I remember that Adrian said he was going to meet a friend tonight and that I should page him. Part of me thought he was going to be still sleeping off Seattle, but then again Adrian is super-human. I call his pager but I didn't expect much. I continue to clean my floors, when 10 minutes later, I get a phone call. It's Adrian! He says he wants to grab a bite to eat at Cactus Club and his two friends are going to join us.

Even though I should be saving my money, I agree to go with him. About half an hour later, Adrian meets me at SJC. He's only slept two and a half hours since I last saw him. He's good to go though. We go to the Cactus on Cambie. I limit myself to one drink and I split a plate of wings with Adrian. The first sign of restraint from me all weekend.

I just got home and I'm going for dim sum tomorrow. It's going to be an expensive weekend, but like I've said before, you only live once.

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