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...