Arone eat Xmas!

The recap: (I've been told some people care about this stuff)

The Christmas holiday was relaxing and fun. It was my parents' turn to host us (we stayed in Calgary last year) and so we kicked it old school at the Le Bray bed and breakfast. It was the type of holiday I really wanted/needed. Here are the highlights:

- snow (it is Edmonton)
- spending the time with the complete Le Bray family (all six of us, give or take a couple of other surnames)
- a decorated home (I'll miss that place when/if mom and dad leave)
- reading by a fire with a twinkling Christmas tree
- a huge crab dinner (no turkey here)
- watching movies with the family (Night at the Museum, National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Muppet Family Christmas)
- dinner with friends (I'm glad Kim suggested Louisiana Purchase. Mmm... alligator)
- sleeping in every day (Natalie may argue that)
- seemingly non-stop great food (the gym and I have a date... or five)
- and more, but those are like rides at Disneyland: more notable for me than you.

Of course, there were also the exchanging of gifts as a family with a roaring fire in the background. Last year I made the mistake of suggesting my family didn't follow any traditions at Christmas. This year, I was reminded again and again about the traditions we have and how wonderful it is to share them with the people I care about.

The kids

The parental units

Randomly reminded

You may have heard this one before... but consider it a Christmas story since I suspect the next post will come after the holidays...

In the month leading up to our wedding, I developed a canker sore. Normally, these things last a few days and then disappear, but this time around this canker sore stayed around for a while. In fact, it stayed with me for at least three weeks becoming, eventually, a problem.

As a disgusting aside, I remember seeing my doctor about it at the peak of the affliction. His response upon seeing it:

"ew. That's pretty gross." Yeah, I'm enjoying it too.

So, he prescribed some antibiotics and a simple topical anesthetic gel. The gel is great for quickly making things feel a whole lot better. The only problem is that it needs to be dabbed on form a small tube, and that needs a mirror and a steady hand. Remember these facts, because they will become important.

Two weeks prior to the wedding, I went with a client of mine up to northern Alberta to look at a well site. Not the sexiest in corporate travel destinations, but, hey, at least I get to travel in my job.

Getting to the site requires a flight from Calgary and then a few-hour drive from Fort McMurray. It's a lot of driving but this time I'm not the only other person in the SUB, so I can comfortably sit in the back while the client speaks with some of his colleagues.

Now, a canker sore is normally only a problem when you can feel it. And you can only feel it if it's being irritated by something (IE: food, teeth, tongue). So, typically, a canker sore isn't a problem until after lunch and it's had a half-day of irritation.

It's now late afternoon and I'm in the back of an SUB half an hour into a long ride back to the airport. The gravel road seems bumpier than normal and with every jostle, I'm painfully aware that I have a gross little demon in my mouth intent on making me tear up in front of a client. Fifteen minutes later, the pain is starting to become a serious issue for me. My face has begun to feel sore and the beginnings of a migrain are in play. The three others in the vehicle with me are talking away while I feel like I'd do anything to numb the pain.

And now all I can think about is that I have a tube of topical anesthetic in my pocket. No one's looking. I could easy just palm the tube and subtly open my mouth to dab some relief onto the canker sore. How hard could it be to do this thing blind? I do it fine in front of the mirror. No problem.

Yeah, no problem.

Ever-so-carefully, I reach into my pocket and grab the tube. I look around to make sure I don't have to do any explaining and then quickly unscrew the cap bringing the tube up to my mouth and under my lip toward the offending canker. I have to say, I thought the motion was achieved quite deftly. I then applied a slight pressure to the tube to urge out a bit of gel.

Suddenly, the SUV pitched violently on a pothole. My body tensed to gain some stability.

My hand tensed too--filling my mouth with all the anesthetic gel that had been in the tube.

There's a moment when instinct is all your body knows. And at that point--sitting in the back seat of my client's SUV with my mouth full of numbing chemicals--my body knew that the next step was to simply spit out the junk.

My mind, on the other hand, was quick to override instinct. I mean, how embarrassing would it be to quietly vomit a mouthful of gel onto the client's upholstery? Never mind having to explain the whole canker sore thing and how I'd clearly screwed up applying a simple medical gel.

My lips and tongue were starting to lose feeling. Panic was percolating. Can I spit this into my hand? Should I just let it sit in my mouth and hope no one asks me a question? Neither option seemed preferable.

So I swallowed it.

I have to admit, while that gel tastes awful, it does the job. I could no longer feel my canker sore. Nor my lips, tongue, gums or throat while the chemical gob is sliding toward my stomach. I'd taken decisive action on what to do with the gel and that had made me feel better, but now I was suddenly concerned about what it might to do my innards. I suspect this is not a medicine meant for major ingestion.

But, I'm on company time and panicking the client is on the list of things to avoid, so I sat silently in the back seat--a bit worried but mostly comfortably numb.

The canker sore problem was totally solved by our wedding day. So was the twitch I'd recently developed, but I suspect that's a different story.

A hidden mickey and the Blue Bayou

The rest of our trip at Disneyland was rides, rides, rides, and an occasional clam chowder in a sourdough bowl.

But we discovered two cool things: hidden mickeys and the Blue Bayou.

In the Pirates of the Caribbean, just before you enter the dark tunnel with the talking skull, you pass through a dark and quiet bayou. Did you know there is a restaurant to your right as you pass through the faux bayou? Daorcey mentioned vaguely that there was a restaurant and his family never did eat there because the place was always booked up.

Thanks to our well-earned Disney Dollars, we ate at the Blue Bayou. The food is expensive but that did not deter the family of eight, with six small kids, from eating there. The quality is okay but really its big attraction is you're eating in the Pirates of the Caribbean ride. Luckily, we did not sit near the ride and did not have to endure inane comments of the riders.

Also of interest was the cookie boat plundering the dessert seas. Most of it was edible... we think.

Yar, even the plastic mast is "edible"

The menus are also a bonus souvenir. Wow, what bang for my buck!

Daorcey says it's blurry because it's dark. Right.

However, the adult menu did not convert to a hat like the kids' menu so naturally we had to clothe ourselves in such high fashion. We also wore them on the ride because if you can't wear a menu/pirate hat on the Pirates of the Caribbean, that's just sad.

If Daorcey had a pirate name, it would be Squinty.

The other excitement was the Hidden Mickey. We were sitting in the front seat/row for Pirates of the Caribbean and usually only two people sit in the front row. These two girls join us just before the boats leave. So the boat was a little front heavy. However, we learned the secret of the Hidden Mickey.

In every ride there is a at least one Mickey Mouse-shaped something. In the Pirates of the Caribbean, in the battle scene between the ship and the fort, the fort has a large Mickey Mouse-shaped hole in it.

So as soon as we got back to the hotel, we popped online to write a quick post and find out more Hidden Mickeys. This is definitely a feature for:

a) Disneyland creators and workers leaving their mark by sneaking in the Mickey ears, and
b) Disneyland guests who have done the rides so many times that they're ready to add on the extra fun of searching for Hidden Mickeys throughout the rides.

A quick Google search found a few sites dedicated to this phenomenon. So we printed out what we could and focused our efforts on finding the mickeys on the Indiana Jones ride (we knew we'd be doing that one a few more times).

The are two easy ones to spot. In the lineup to watch the orientation film (Salah!), there is a large mickey in the lineup on the wall which is made through a trick of the light and the colour of stone. Once you see it, it's hard not to see it all the time--it just jumps out at you.

On the back of the well where you can pull the rope and cause a researcher to drop into a pit, there is a series of symbols on the cover of the tomb/excavation site. Among these symbols is a Hidden Mickey.

Holy Mickey's Head, Batman!

The best Hidden Mickey can be seen on the ride in the first set of skeletons. One of the skeletons is wearing a Mickey Mouse hat with "Bones" written on it! Sadly, I never did see it, but every time we went on the ride Daorcey said he saw it and he kept adding new details:

"Oh wow, it has a pink bow on it! Didn't you see it?"
"Geez, the Bones script really stands out in the black light!"
"How can you not see it? It's a sparkly pink bow!"

After the third time, Daorcey shut up when he realized his observations were not helping.

The Happiest Place on Earth - Monday

Monday was our All-American Day (AAD). Not to make fun of Americans (maybe just a little) but to live their lifestyle, or as we imagine it.

We took a quick shortcut through the empty Timon parking lot. The crowds would eventually materialize but for now there was a tram all for us.

On my tram. Look at how empty it is...

The tram put us much closer to our first destination on our AAD: McDonald's. Where else would you go for breakfast?

I chose a bacon McMuffin and Daorcey an egg McMuffin.

Bring on AAD! Yay, potatoes!

Daorcey told me once that Americans did not know of English Muffins and thus all their McMuffins were on biscuits. He lied. He got an English Muffin and I got, well, something else. Normally, the English muffin does not contribute much taste. It serves as a grease sponge and meat holder. All I could taste of the bacon McMuffin was the immense amount of butter in the biscuit. Even the egg is done incorrectly.

Behold its greasiness

Agreeing we should take it slow on the rides, we wander in to California Adventure. Maybe we'll start with Muppets 3D or A Bug's Land. The park officially opens at 10 a.m. but they allow people in before that time but rope off the paths to the rides. So we walked around, eventually deciding to join the crowd going into the Hollywood Backlot area.

Crowd control is a really interesting phenomenon, especially in Disneyland. It's like waiting in line or standing in an unmoving crowd waiting for something to happen is an established social convention. It takes very little persuasion to keep a crowd behind a crack in the pavement. Interesting too, that once the rides were opened, the crowd remained controlled because the "cast members" employed eager kids to lead the parade. The crowd would police itself because who would knock over an innocent child to be first in line? Brilliant!

So now we find ourselves as part of the throng headed down the Hollywood Backlot toward... well, we've already told you how that story ended. Let's just say, it wasn't the relaxing start we'd intended. It ended with lots of screaming (Natalie) and a bit of maniacal laughter (Daorcey).

The bulk of our AAD was spent exploring California Adventure, doing many a ride and eating with our newly gained 100 Disney dollars. Another requisite for AAD is having our photos taken with various Disney characters. The top of the pyramid would be Mickey and I guess the bottom would be the cars from Cars. We picked characters that were mildly cute and had a short line.

Goofy, Eeyore, Chip and Pluto!

As part of our AAD, we knew we had to conclude things with a trip to a buffet. According to Daorcey, buffets are arguably the American dream--it represents the freedom to choose excess. No one goes hungry in America.

We wanted a Sizzler but strangely there wasn't one in walking distance. The only available buffet was Captain Kidd with the requisite flair on the walls. This was the world's saddest buffet. Everything had a dried out heat shell thanks to the red heat lamps.

Hence my sad face over a plate of pasta and canned corn. Daorcey had fish sticks, french fries and refried beans.

Why must I be so hungry?

If you follow the pictures you can see my excitement at my egg McMuffin and my blues at the buffet. I think AAD was not the success we wanted it to be.

Apart from memories that may come back to us, this is pretty much the end of our trip recap. It was easy, moderately fun and almost relaxing. Not France, but a good bit of travelling together.

Huh.

What happens when you leave mushrooms in the fridge too long?

Do they grow more of themselves?

Diversions

While I think Batman is one of the coolest superheros, I'm pretty sure he and I are different in personality. Apparently, I'm much closer to:

You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man 75% Superman 60% Robin 60% Supergirl 45% Green Lantern 35% The Flash 35% Wonder Woman 30% Catwoman 30% Hulk 25% Iron Man 25% Batman 20%

You are intelligent, witty, a bit geeky and have great power and responsibility.

Click here to take the Superhero Personality Quiz

In other news, my designer friend and I bond over Star Wars and a mutual dislike of a certain circus perfomer (no telling in public). So, today he sent me links to these:

Daorceyland

While I appreciate good theatre, ballet, opera, classics in literature and film, independent music and local television, I have a few cultural guilty pleasures. Next time you visit, take notice of the DVD collections: Three editions of the Indiana Jones Trilogy, two editions of the original Star Wars trilogy plus at least one of each of the new films and both volumes of Clone Wars, The Best of the Muppets DVD series, Lord of the Rings extended edition, Futurama: The Complete Series, etc, etc.

I guess the point is that I'm all over some of the most accessible artifacts of pop culture. I can't help it, but I get a huge kick out of Star Wars and Indy (the archeologist, not the style of car or under funded art). If only they could make a theme park for me; one that lets me interact with the characters I've come to think are so cool.

Oh, wait, they did.

Disneyland is more than Sleeping Beauty's Castle, Dumbo and It's a Small World. Since the park teamed up with Lucasfilm in 1988 to produce Star Tours, Disneyland has become a homing beacon for experiencing the films I enjoy. Add to the mix Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye, and we have two great rides for Daorcey. Not to mention Muppets 3D with a real live Sweetums!

Lego Vader - Just outside of Disneyland

Holy crap! Now I can fly through the Death Star and race past snakes, rats, bugs and a rolling boulder.

To make it even more geek-tastic, Disney is embracing Star Wars even more with a Jedi Training Academy and plans to do an updated Star Tours. Plus, there are tons of cool Star Wars toys in Tomorrow Land from lightsabres to Imperial Blasters to collectible Jedi Mickeys.

Who knew the little girls loved Stormtroopers?

So on our last day there, we made sure we enjoyed the Star Wars experience fully. I put on my Darth Vader shirt, and we got to Jedi Training early. Sadly, we were too old to participate, but not too old to push kids out of our way for a front row seat. I was excited.

Elbows up! Make way for the "adult" geeks, kids.

And then out comes the Jedi Master with his rad light sabre moves and they get 20 "younglings" to learn the light sabre basics. On one hand, so cute. On the other hand, so cool.

Admit it: cool and cute.

And then, in the middle of learning how to thrust and parry (or whatever), who should show up but Darth Vader, Darth Maul and two Stormtroopers.

Darth Maul is hard core.
Unfortunately, Vader's crippling arthritis got the best of him.

Next thing you know, kids are living the dream and dueling with the Dark Lord, himself. One kid was even so good that he broke through Vader's defenses and was accosted by the Stormtroopers. But before anything bad could happen, the Jedi Master yelled out "Use the Force!" and the kid threw up his hand to Force Push the Stormtroopers back against the wall.

I may have freaked out.

Some days I wish I was actually 12 years old... not just acting like it.

Point being, in the absence of a Daorceyland in which I can live the movies I love, Disneyland will have to do.

He liked my t-shirt. Gave me a thumbs up.

The Happiest Place on Earth - Sunday

I was too excited to sleep... which made me restless and very awake when the fireworks went off ("we're under attack!!").

Natalie slept... soundly.

So, when the wake-up call came at 6:30am, I was ready to giv'r and jumped out of bed to shower and get dressed. Natalie made fun of my eagerness. How cruel.

Fortunately, we were staying at a hotel that was close enough to the park that we could easily walk to Disneyland inside 20 minutes. We arrived at 7:30am for a 8am opening. I think Natalie may have been getting at least a bit excited now. Disneyland helps to heighten the excitement and anxiety by ensuring we stand in long lines waiting to get in the park and then they did a countdown until the gates opened.



Relevant aside: I remember one of my previous trips to Disneyland with the family. We in a similar situation: waiting in line until the park officials release the hoards. Once the barriers come down, they are very specific that there must be no running and that you must walk calmly to your first distination. The next thing I remember? Dad sprinting like a middle-aged gazelle toward Indiana Jones Adventure. As I recall, mom started sprinting after him and Arone and I were left to exchange glances and wonder if we'd all heard the same walk-don't-run warning.

Yeah, that pretty much describes how Natalie approached the morning. Elbows up!

While I was speed-walking to keep up with her as she passed through a gate into Adventure Land, a stern security guard reminded us loudly "There's no running in the magic kingdom."

"Yes," I called back over my shoulder. "I'll be sure to explain that to her."

Indiana Jones was the first ride we did. It would be riden 15 times over the next five days. Good times indeed.

So we did rides. That's more exciting for us than you, so I'll spare the details.

I've always been under the impression that it's cheaper to eat outside of the park then inside, so at lunch we were walking down Harbor Bvld when we were randomly accosted by a lady who said "Where are you from?"

"Um... Canada." I've learned that you start big and narrow down depending on your audience. Sometimes Canada is really enough.

"That's great. And how old are you?"

"Uh... 25." We're a bit worried now.

"Hey, would you like to have a free lunch and $100 to spend at Disneyland."

"Um... yes."

And so a free lunch and money roped us into a time-share presentation. You may cringe, but you may not know that a communication degree adds +10 to Rhetoric Shield.

We'd agreed well ahead of time that this wasn't for us, so we both were looking forward to hearing an argument and poking holes in it. Yeah, we're nobody's friends.

Since we're not inviting you to our condo in faboulous Wikiki, you can guess the outcome. It was supposed to take 90 minutes and we extended it to at least two hours with our questions. In retrospect, our salesman didn't adjust his argument to suit his audience (us). For two people who would rather do a tour of military battlefields while staying at a 2-star hostel than lounge in a luxury condo with marble countertops and singing angels and dolphins in the bathtub and micro-brew beer coming out of the taps... um he didn't seem to get us. He might have been thrown off by Natalie's first comment that her dream trip would be to Antarctica and my final comment that our next trip might be to Old Montreal.

It was a bit sad because when we finally said no, it was easy to identify the exact moment when his heart broke in two. We simply did not choo-choo-choose his time-share.

After rejecting him, we had to reject two others to get to our prize of $100 Disney dollars.

Then we got their limo to drive us back to our hotel where we had a nap and prepared for the rest of the evening doing Disneyland. We skipped dinner so we could spend our new-found bounty on clam chowder in the park. With an extra $100 in our pockets, we had no fear of eating in Disneyland, which would mean churros, Dole whip, pineapple, frozen bananas and a number of soups/chilies in a bread bowl.

I use to fear time-share presentations. I fear them no more.

The evening ended with three more hours of rides, the brilliant spectacle of Fantasmic and fireworks. Oooooo...

The Happiest Place on Earth - Saturday

Photos are at Flickr.

We wake up early on Saturday (4:00 a.m.) to get final packings in order and await Ryan and Karissa to pick us up. The Boleys awesomely offered to drive us to the airport at an ungodly hour when those with sense are still sleeping. They saw a bright side to being up so early: catching a McDonald's breakfast. I hope Ryan's agony on the couch was worth it.

Arrive at the airport, breeze through the check-in line as we're going to just take our backpacks on the plane. And then we arrive at American security. Picture a vast room with a high ceiling. Around the walls near the ceiling are massive pictures that represent the United States of America. An astronaut, black children wearing Statue of Liberty hats, mountains, desert, New York skyline. The security officers sit in booths with glass that covers only their faces so I can't imagine what the glass does. We notice a guy ahead of us who looks slightly Middle Eastern and he gets fingerprinted. Luckily, we breeze through with no fingerprinting.

I thought of my co-worker Khaled who was in the States for business. Khaled is a Muslim and he hates going to the States. And he was proven right. He was taken aside into an office for questioning and they told next time he goes on business to have the company provide a letter stating his intentions.

Then we arrive at the actual screening point. People are agitated as they're late for their flight and the line is hardly moving. When we get to the front, we dutifully pull out our pitiful 3 oz. bottles of toothpaste, conditioner, etc so we aren't accused of being bombers. I notice everyone take off their shoes and I do the same because no one wants to visit the office.

Fast forward to LAX. We get off the plane and it is warm. The bus which will take us to our hotel is standing-room only but we grabbed seats. An hour later we're in Anaheim. Our hotel room isn't ready but we got to Disneyland to confirm our passes purchased in Canada do not require extra lining up.

Anaheim has a nifty bus service which takes the tourists hordes to different hotels, malls, restaurants for only $3 a day. We take the bus to the closest mall. We pass the Crystal Cathedral which is considered a tourist attraction but is a giant glass church. I think it's hideous but Daorcey replies it's just an update on stone cathedral. At least the stone cathedrals look beautiful. This glass monstrosity looks like it's waiting for a movie crew.

We eat at the mall at some faux Chinese place because we are ravenous. We walk around the open air mall and buy nothing. The most interesting place is the indoor skate park. We probably see the skinnest kids there.

Then to Vons, the USA Safeway, to pick up food. We walk there since we just missed the bus because we were snacking on a Krispy Kreme donut. Supplies are picked up and we start walking for an unknown transit stop. We figured being south of Calgary the sun would still be up at 7. Nope, it goes down at 5.

Back at our hotel we fall asleep watching TV.

Ads I can watch twice

We went to see James Bond last night. If your first response to that is dissapproval, I recommend seeing. This is the Bond "reboot." More serious, darker, more aware and mostly rid of the spy fantasy world the franchise had created for itself. While it may be a tad long, it was worth the money for the ticket.

Anyway, since I don't have TV nor do I get out much, I was excited to see a few of the ads yesterday played prior to the movie. I love advertising that feels fresh--that feels like it's earned my attention and the emotional response it got out of me. For me, that makes an ad worthy of recognition and a brand worthy of the time people are giving it.

Two ads were shown that are particularly noteworthy.

This was produced by Toronto-based company for the World Wildlife Federation. The mix of music and discordant images really make you think about the message at the end.

The next one is for a first-person shooter video game... but it's noteworthy because it destroys the conventions of FPS advertising. Have a look.



It's hard to believe this is the official ad for Gears of War. Unlike any other advertising for this genre, there is no sound of gunfire, no embedding you in the fight, no shouts from the command post, no screams of the enemy. I love watching this ad.

Ironically, Natalie and I will be renting Call of Duty 3 this weekend. This WWII FPS also had an ad last night that was everything I just described in the above paragraph. It's important to remember that a Globe and Mail review that says the game brought tears to the reviewer's eyes will always trump advertising.

Yeah, yeah, the photos of the vacation will be up this weekend. Hold your horses.

Nerd quotient

I'm such a poseur.
- Daorcey



To be fair, it's more to a technical nerd question than pop culture nerd. But I do have a calculator preference.
- Natalie

Behold! The Tower of Terror

The ghosts of lost tourists from the Hollywood Tower Hotel

After our first experience with the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror, Natalie prefered to snack on mango and frozen bananas while I rode this cool ride myself. I only did it twice without her, but I enjoyed the ride every time. While the drops give it that extra excitement, the theatrical nature of the ride and the details put into everything from the abandoned lobby where you line up to the dark basement where you get in the "service elevator" make it a great ride.

Even the attention to special effects (doors appearing in the distance, the hotel around you dissappearing into a starry night, you and your co-riders turning to shadows in a mirror) make this a ride as super as the venerable Indiana Jones Adventure (we did that one 15 times). I recently read that the bellhop uniforms are the most expensive Disney cast uniforms to produce at $1,000 a piece.

So, yes, I recommend this cool little ride.

The photos from the vacation to Disneyland are coming. They are now on our computer and ready to be uploaded to Flikr and the blog.

How the TSA Stole Christmas

Coming back to Canada from the USA was an experience in security. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of ensuring no one brings a bomb in their shoe on board my flight home... but high security is cutting down on the amount of shopping I can do abroad, especially if what I buy needs to be confiscated at the airport.

We were good little boys and girls with our packing. We just brought carry-on, so we made sure we only had toiletries that were under 3 ounces and that fit in a clear plastic sandwich bag of the appropriate dimensions. We stopped ourselves from buying fluids and "weapons" while abroad because we knew they wouldn't make it home.

Yup, we played by all the rules. Except, we didn't count on the Transportation Security Agency (brought to you by the fine folks at Homeland Security) making up new rules.

At Disneyland, Natalie found a cool $10 gift for the Wagner family gift exchange: three packaged tins of flavoured and coloured lemonade crystals, each adorned with a recognizable Disney character.

But at Security Point #2 in LAX, Natalie's backpack was flagged. After going through the scanner twice, it was pulled off by a very serious lady who unpacked it all.

(As an aside, I suspect that's not a fun job. Basically, your job is to rifle through people's smelly dirty clothing all day.)

Eventually, she came to the lemonade. She tried to open the box briefly, but it was taped shut so she simply put it to the side and told us it wouldn't be going on the plane.

"Really? Uh, OK."

In retrospect, we should have offered to open it and test the lemonade crystals, but we were too stunned do anything more than accept that the lemonade was the Christmas gift that got away.

More importantly, I'm glad I stopped myself from saying the first thing that came to mind:

"Good point. We wouldn't want to have a taste explosion on our flight."

And that's how Daorcey stopped himself from getting strip-searched in LA.

Hello from Abroad!

Hi all! Photos to follow when we get home. For now, we just have time for updating with text.

So, for those of you who don't know we're spending the week at Disneyland in California. Yup, that's it... just a laid back trip with rides, shows and food. There's also lots of walking... lots of walking.

To date, we've done all major rides at least once. Some we've done more than once:

- Space Mountain: 2
- Splash Mountain: 2
- Star Tours: 3
- Pirates of the Carribean: 4
- Indiana Jones and the Temple of the Forbidden Eye: 10

We still have a couple of days to go, so we expect that number to go up. There are also a few rides I want to do a lot more, but I have to go without Natalie. These include: Malib00mer, California Screaming, Mulholland Madness and the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror.

The Tower of Terror has been a ride I've always wanted to go on since we missed doing it in Orlando many years ago. Last time the family was at Disneyland, they were just finishing it at California Adventure. This time, it's been open for a while. There's still a lot of interest in going on it, but it doesn't look like there are so many people that it will be a huge line (it's off season now).

Anyway, on our second day, Natalie and I went into California Adventure as soon as the gates opened. We'd just eaten breafast so we'd both agreed that we wouldn't do any "heavy" rides right away. But, while we're waiting to for the part of the park to open that has the Muppet Show (in 3D!) we ended up becoming a part of a crowd. When the barrier went down the crowd was directed toward the end of that section of the park, so we followed everyone. We soon figured out that they were all going straight to the Tower of Terror. A quick decision later and we were following everyone into the ride.

For anyone who hasn't been, it's a really cool ride with a lot of details put into creating an abandoned hotel. We are finally ushered into our "elevator" and strapped in.

That's when the screaming started.

Only seconds later and our elevator is plunged into darkness and we are rocketing skywards and freefalling (three times). It's pretty tense, but it doesn't take long for Natalie to start screaming with the rest of the group and me to start laughing.

Yeah, that was a good time. Natalie won't be doing it again with me.

We have two more days of this action. It'll continue to be laid back with breaks for the pool, shopping and naps. Yup, this is the life.

Still, we're looking forward to watch Battlestar Galactica on Saturday. Tony, fire up the TV -- we have two episodes to watch. (Plus, I need to catch up on Intelligence.)

Sent home from work

In the past two weeks I've been sent home from work twice. That means that over a 14 day period, for two days management has considered me so unfit for active employment that it would be better for everyone if I wasn't there.

To be fair, the second time was because I was dealing with a bit of flu. I looked like poo after coming in for an hour of work that the boss told me my work could wait until the next day. That was nice of him.

But the first time I was sent home was for a less expected reason. The first time I smelled so bad I couldn't possibly stay at the office.

Yes, you read that correctly. And now the story:

It seems I was endowed with a bit of luck and won a slab of smoked salmon in a raffle. My tastebuds and I were excited, so upon receipt of the salmon slab, I toodled up to Tony's place with crackers and cream cheese to enjoy my spoils.

You might call me a noob, but my experience with smoked salmon this far has been quite, um, dry. So when I opened this package of fish on Tony's counter, I was surpised to have it slurp out like an oiled salmon foetus. Fortunately all the salmon-y juices were contained within the cardboard box it had come in, so cleanup was easy.

I went on to eat. It was tasty.

At the end of the evening, I packed up what was left of the fish to go home. The cardboard box was too big to throw away into Tony's garbage, so I brought it home. Realizing it was too big for our garbage too, I propped it up beside the entrace to our place and left it over night.

Apart from the slight smell of smoked salmon in the apartment the next morning, we woke up to another normal work day. I put on my favourite brown suit, my favourite black all-weather jacket and prepared for a great day. On my way out the door, I grabbed the smoked salmon box (not noticing the small puddle of oil it had left behind on the hardwood) and carried it to the garbage on the way out of the building.

On most days, Natalie and I walk together downtown. It's about 15 minutes to the train station where we part ways. Half-way there, Natalie stops and sniffs the air:

"Something smells like crap."

"Yeah, I can smell it too. Probably just the garbage bins a half a block away."

"No, I don't think that's it... oh, baby, look at your jacket."

She found the source of the smell. Day old smoked salmon oil/juice was dribbled decadently down the length of my jacket. Where my jacket ends at my knee, the oily substance was splattered all over my right pant leg and onto my new brown dress shoes. After walking for 4 blocks, I'd already successfully transfered the oil onto my left leg. And now, as I look closer, I can see it's on my briefcase too.

"Oh, that's not cool."

We finish our walk with Natalie no longer holding onto my arm. I'm suddenly hyper-aware of the smell of decaying fish surrounding my. I note that there's some oil on my hand too and I try to wipe it off but only succeed in smearing a greater surface area of stench.

As I enter my building I pray not to share a full elevator.

Maybe I'll just walk up the stairs today. Yeah, that's it, and mix salmon and sweat for a special combo aroma.

In the office, all I can smell is my putridity. I start to be concerned about keeping an oil on my clothing for too long. Is this something they can get out at the cleaners?

I only had to walk into the bosses office for a few moments before he figured out there was only one solution. Through two hands cupped over his mouth and nose: "You need to go home, change and get your clothing drycleaned."

So I was sent home in shame to smell less awful. Ironically, my drycleaner is called Fishman's.

After wasting at least an hour and a half in the unstink I found myself in the elevator up to work. I looked in the mirrored wall at something on my nose... a smear of fish oil. The insult on the injury.

"Hi, Red Leader"

The man who randomly said that to me while I was waiting to cash my paycheque today is my hero. I'd been going through the day with the feeling that no one knew who I was dressed as--that every person who saw me thought "what the heck is he supposed to be?" This morning the boss said "Karissa and I both agree that next year you have to dress as something that doesn't require an explanation."

Fair enough. I'm pretty sure everyone who saw Karissa in her mink stoll and horned helmet knew she wasn't a fairy princess. She has all they right signs on to signify she has no qualms with raping and pillaging.

I, on the other hand, pose a quandary to the ungeeked eye:


Just in case you're still unsure. Here's the original:


Yeah, I could make it easier on people. I could dress up like a vampire or spiderman or something like that, but this way I get to experience a special bond between true geeks. If you recognize me, all you need to do is give me a nod or say something like "one more pass." It's like a secret handshake for nerds the world over.

And to date, I've never been taught a secret handshake, so this will have to do.

You can take the rebel pilot out of his starfigher,

but you can't take the starfigher out of the rebel pilot.

Random story

This story happened when I was News Editor. Every Wednesday night/Thursday morning I would come home to a dark house. I'm not afraid of the dark but I'm not at my best in the dark. As well, we had a problem with mice in our basement and my mom worried they would arise from the basement and wreak havoc upstairs. The combination of the three factors (fatigue, dark, and mice) and what resulted did not endear me to my parents at 3 in the morning.

I come home and drag myself in the door. I shut the door, lock it, and put up the chain. I start to take off my shoes when I can feel a distinct pressure on my leg. In the silence only 3 am provides, I can also hear a squeaking. I can only draw one conclusion from those two impressions. There is a mouse on my leg.

I immediately start screaming and shaking my leg. My parents barrel out of their bedroom, flip on the lights, and frantically ask if everything is okay. Of course everything is fine and there was no mouse. I sheepishly admit I thought there was a mouse on my leg and slink off to bed. My mom still likes to remind me of that story.

Panoramics of the Death March

Daorcey is not athletic. But when we went camping September long weekend, he wanted to hike up to the Meadows of Mount Edith Cavell. I didn't make it to the summit because heights and I are bad friends. Along our climb, we took two panoramics and a few other snaps.


Kim's head and Daorcey's leg are a bit wiggy. That's what happens when people move.

This is at the first landing, and the first place to get a real view. You can see the top of the glacier which normally don't see at the bottom of the mountain.



This is at the summit of the mountain. And Matthew, the dude on the right, was actually beside Tavis, the dude on the left. An odd choice for Autostitch. Apparently, you can keep on hiking on go onto the other mountains.



Me at the first landing point/summit. I like the juxtaposition of the glacier and my shorts.



Daorcey and Matthew.

Why Nicole is so awesome

A while back Nicole posted about her trip to Bath to see Bernard Cornwell do a reading from his latest Sharpe book. When I read that post, I was so jealous.

I was introduced to Sharpe in Gr. 11 when my social studies teacher decided the best way to teach the Napoleonic Wars was to show Sharpe, the TV program. That was the only good thing about that class. I liked the episodes a lot, so I picked up the books.

The books have good plots but not too much character development. That's okay given you can imagine Sean Bean while reading.

Today, I come home and get the mail. I can see this piece of paper with unfamiliar writing in my mailbox. I pull it out and think, "I don't know whose writing this is. And I don't know any Bernards." Then I see Nicole's writing and everything clicks. And that is why Nicole is so awesome. I'm going to frame that postcard.

"There's someone in the car!"

Daorcey and I were going shopping when we realized we had no loonie for the shopping cart. We parked the car in our building's loading zone in front of another car since it would be a quick dash inside. Daorcey went inside while I waited in the car. Out of the building comes a lady with two young kids, a boy and a girl, who's no more than eight. As the girl passes the front of the car, she gives me or what she thought, an empty car, the finger. I didn't know what to think so I started laughing. The mother started to turn to her errant child as if to say don't do such things or please don't do that. But I think she saw me laughing and was immediately furious with her child.

I could hear through the windows, "There's someone in the car!"

They run (!) to their car which is parked inconveniently behind ours. I open the door to tell her I can't move the car because I don't have the keys. Instead I see her reverse lights and she executes a 30 point turn to get the hell away from this embarrassing situation. Given the confined space, this was pretty impressive. She peels out of there and is gone before Daorcey gets back.

Nerdage

Anyone who knows me well, knows I spent an embarassing seven years following Star Trek: The Next Generation and still retain the ability to remember most episodes. Safe to say, TNG was part of my formative years which might explain why I even watched Enterprise to the bitter end...

Anyways, Wil Wheaton played Welsey Crusher on TNG and played the worst know-it-all kid. To be fair it was more the scripts than him. Fans hated Wesley and crapped all over him. Wheaton has redeemed himself and has become a well-known writer and blogger, and now is doing recaps of TNG episodes. Besides making fun of the horrible first season episodes, he provides some insight what it was like playing an awful role and act in horrible scripts. It's like Television Without Pity but written by an insider.

http://www.tvsquad.com/bloggers/wil-wheaton/

In other news, our BSG party went well and it was strange to watch a) with other people, b) with commercials and c) without popping in the next episode or disc. The strangers were not too strange so I think a repeat for the finale would be possible.

Photos of our vacation

We're a little slow at DarNat describing our summer vacation, and even slower considering we're going to Disneyland in November. But here's the photographic evidence.

http://flickr.com/photos/nisit/

Robert Munsch

I heard Robert Munsch briefly on CBC this past week as I was staving off boredom at work. He sounded neat and tickets were cheap so we decided to go to his Sunday show.

We knew instinctively that we were probably going to be the oldest ones there sans kids. And we were right. As we shuffled to our seats five minutes before show time, everyone gave us a strange look as we were not towing kids behind us. I looked around and realized we were actually the only ones there without kids.

For an hour he told stories. During first half, he made up stories using names from the kids in the audience. The second half he told the ones I remembered and liked so much like the Paper Bag Princess, Love You Forever and my favourite, Thomas' Snowsuit. He has so much energy but you have to wonder if the man burns out telling the same stories over and over again.

Sprinkled among the stories were bits for the adults. One of Munsch's stories involved a kid climbing a house but was published as the kid climbing a tree. The lawyers told him they could be sued because kids don't climb houses but climb trees and thus save them from a lawsuit. And he told this anecdote using the same voices for the lawyers as he did for a crazy mother. He has a ton of MP3s where he tells the stories so you can get a feel for his voice. http://www.robertmunsch.com/storytime.cfm

There were a few things that flew over the kids' head like the lawyer story. In Love You Forever, the man moves to a trailer in Fort McMurray which the adults found funny but the kids around us were confused.

Robert Munsch is the first in our arts calendar. We're seeing the Ronnie Burkett puppet show 10 Days on Earth. In October we're going to Carmina Burana at the Alberta Ballet. It'll be our first look at the new Jubilee. In December is Peter Pan and we went camping with the lady who will play Mrs. Darling/Smee. And in February is Barenaked Ladies.

Downtown Calgary Frakapalooza

I think know I have the geek gene. My dad is an engineer and my mom grew up watching Star Trek. In fact, we watched all Trek together from TNG on, including all seven seasons of Voyager. Ugh. So when Enterprise was cancelled I was at a lost for a sci-fi show to watch. But then Tony hosted a Cinepalooza of four hour pilot of Battlestar Galatica and I was hooked. Daorcey and I don't have cable so any new TV is exciting and combined with BSG's awesomeness, we raced through the two seasons. Safe to say, we are excited about the season three premiere.

But there are people more excited about the season premiere of Battlestar Galactica.

People who love BSG thought there should be parties in Canada and US to watch the season premiere. So they set up Frak Party to help coordinate others. Their mission statement is

"Everyone we've ever met who's into Battlestar is pretty frak'n cool. So we thought, why not get all these people together and have one big cool nationwide party when the new season Premieres on October 6th."

I found this site on BoingBoing, a fantastic blog, and was immediately curious because of Adama and Roslin in party hats. After giggling to myself at my work desk, I sent the link to everyone I know who likes BSG. And what does Tony do? He signs up because he also equates liking BSG with coolness.

He was a little worried because just after he put up the party details, four people had signed up, and he thought it might be random strangers. But it was just eager people aka Jeff, Daorcey and Ryan.

We'll see who shows up but even if it's just friends, it's going to be fun. See the party listing here.

"Daorcey fell down a mine shaft"

That's what Natalie wrote in an e-mail to her mom from Victoria. No explanation. Just: "Daorcey fell down a mine shaft."

Intrigued?

During our one full day in Nanaimo, we drove to "downtown" and walked about before taking the small ferry to Newcastle Island.

As we walked around the harbour and the park area, we saw a couple of neat things including the ex-Mayor/Pirate of Nanaimo.


We walked onto one pier to see what we could see when Natalie started pointing hysterically:


So I took her picture.

I guess what she wanted me take a picture of was the seal and her pup that had popped up looking for handouts. I was only able to get a shot of the momma.


We talked a bit to a couple of drunks and then made our way to Newcastle Island. This place has a cool history that involves First Nations, the CPR (a vacation spot), and a few mining ventures (sandstone and coal). It was interesting to see an old millstone quarry and an abandoned sandstone block quarry. We also did some beachcombing. There's a lot to learn about and see, so I recommend you go yourself one day.


So, I mentioned coal. A client of mine just used the expression "like bringing coal to Newcastle." I suspect that references the original Newcastle, but it works just as fine here. Newcastle Island was a good coal resource and mines buried deep into the island and even underneath the waters of the harbour.

On the walking map of the Island (which can be a many-kilometre-long tour) there is a point marked "Mine Shaft." Needless to say, that sounds cool. Unfortunately, it's on the far side of the island and we'd already done a lot of walking that day.

As we toodled around, we seemed to be getting closer and closer to the shaft, but Natalie was itching to return and my legs were getting a little tired. Still, a mine shaft seems like a cool thing to see, so I suggest to Natalie she wait for me while I quickly run up ahead to see the mine shaft and then run back. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes.

I summoned up all my energy left from the day and started running along the trail and through the forest.

Five minutes later, I stopped to catch my breath and felt totally lost with no mine shaft in sight. I asked a passing couple if they'd seen it. They hadn't.

But as I'm walking back to Natalie I see a less-used path that could definitely lead to a mine shaft. I hurry to Natalie to ask her to give me a few more minutes. This time she walks part way there with me so she can get to a nice viewpoint. From there, I start to run again (time is also important because we said we'd be back for dinner by 5pm and that was closing in).

The camera is wrapped around my torso and my sunglasses are in my hand as I take great strides along a path that seems to be getting darker and darker with coal dust.

I'm on the trail. I feel like a gazelle, or maybe something more feline as a I leap over roots, burn up hills and take corners with ease. I'm on the hunt for a mine shaft and I'm sure I'm close.

I feel graceful and powerful.

Seconds later, that feeling leaves. My foot stings as the side of it connects with a rock sticking out of the ground. I've been running down a hill and now my legs are crossed and I'm flying through the air. I try to throw my glasses from my hand before I crush them into the rocks and dirt. I hit the ground hard. I roll. I come to rest against a log after breaking branches on my way down.

"..."

"Natalie!"

"..."

"I'm an idiot." Not a gazelle.

It takes me a few minutes to find my glasses. I guess I didn't throw them so much as place them under my landing body. They're bent so badly that the arms won't open. My body radiates pain that seems to start from my foot. My leg is torn up badly enough to bleed around my knee. Fortunately, I'm now covered in coal powder from head to toe. And coal powder, don't you know, is a great coagulant.

I never did find that mine shaft. Instead I walked sheepishly back to Natalie with broken glasses in hand and looking a bit like Charlie Brown's friend Pigpen. There are no pictures to capture that event because I don't look good when I'm pouting.
---
The day worked itself out, though. The glasses were fixed by a nice lady in the mall and we had an excellent Indian dinner courtesy of Uncle Fred. The wound on my knee has since healed and I've gotten over the fact that I didn't see the mine shaft.

I bet it was boring anyway.

There may be breeding

I have a special relationship with a supplier of mine: when we're not doing work together, he sends me e-mails to random Star Wars stuff he finds on web. That's probably my fault for letting my geekiness slip.

Two weeks ago, he sent me something truely amazing by deschamps:


That's an example of what good can come through the e-mail. Yesterday he sent me something less notable, but the e-mail exchange that came with it made me laugh out loud. Click along with me to see how that went.

"Hey Daorcey: These are Star Wars related, aren't they?"

"And when you buy that, you can join this."

"Christ! There are girls in some of those photos."

"Which means they may even be BREEDING!"

"Now that would be the darkest side."

"shiver"

Day 1 - Calgary to Nanaimo

The day started at 5 a.m. Daorcey was extremely excited to leave while I could barely get out of bed.

Since I'm not a big fan of early days, I rarely get to see the foothills and mountains at sunrise. The light creates an orange hue which the camera is unable to capture properly.


After three hours we were close to Golden and grabbed these pics of giant cement pillars. They are planning a new road with two lanes in each direction but like 10 storeys in the air. It will make driving that stretch of road less stressful. There's something perverse about going around sharp corners with a two-trailer truck coming towards you.


We stopped in Golden for McDonald's which we shouldn't have but I wanted eggs, bacon and grease.

Maybe 3 hours after Golden we briefly stopped at Rogers' Pass. Daorcey had never been since his family always took the Yellowhead. There was a museum but we didn't visit it as we had to purchase a park pass and we're cheap. But we ended up playing with the ground squirrels who have no fear of humans. They are fat and cute mainly due to steady stream of tourists eager to feed these animals.


More driving to Sicamouse, our only non-Superstore fill-up. We love Superstore and its gas stations so we made it a goal to only gas up Superstore and collect Superbucks. But between Calgary and Kamploops there's nothing so we settled for the sick moose. We put in $10 continued on.

We arrived in Kamloops and did a proper gas up. I started driving and I figured I drive to the beginning of the Coquaholla and then let Daorcey drive. I don't drive much anymore since I take the train to work and live near stores, libraries, gyms, etc like God intended. This is a total switch from when I lived when my parents.

Driving isn't bad and we get to the toll booth and I thought, this was probably due to the heat, "Wow, driving the Coquaholla was totally easy." and I continue driving, thinking we'll pull over and switch.

It wasn't until the car was grinding up its third hill that I realized we're on the Coquahalla and I was going to drive it. If any of you have ever driven on that road, you know that it's on the side of mountains and me and mountain views don't get along very well.

We pull into the Abbotsford Superstore and I'm very grateful to hand the wheel to Daorcey. It's about 4 p.m. and our ferry doesn't leave until 7:30 p.m. but we decide to head to Horseshoe Bay just to be safe. As we are approaching the ferries, a sign helpfully points to a "Village" and we decide we could kill time there. However Daorcey misses the turn for some reason and we're heading to the ferries. But a nice ferry employee points us to the exit. Except his directions put us on this winding road along the harbor. We see the marina and some very nice houses but not places to eat.

We make a stop at some sort of park and hike up to a lighthouse where photos ensued. We drive back to the ferry and use our reservation to get a get spot in line (first in, first out).


Neither of us have done a ferry ride for a few years, and this is our first ferry trip on our own without parents. So, we're excited and take some photos and are quickly reminded that it gets windy and cold when the boat leaves the harbour. So we ducked inside and played a dice game that Daorcey's not very good at.


We also came across an pictorial explanation for what we have to do should the boat sink. Apparently, we all jump into a big cube and float to safety. Not sure why, but we found this is hilarious.


The ferry seemed to go quicker than we remembered when we were younger and we pulled into Nanaimo at around 10pm. The sunset was amazing! We weren't far from Uncle Fred and Aunt Barbara's place (thanks again!) where we quickly realized how tired we were.


For a 12-hour drive straight through, it was a fairly eventful day. More eventful news of our trip to follow...