Last night we battled the snow and slippery roads making our way down to the Commodore for the Cat Power concert. It was the last stop on the tour for Cat Power and the Memphis Rythm band (I think that was their name). What should have been a great show was marred by most of the band being sick and Cat Power herself struggling to make it through the set. Will give her credit for trying but it really was a bit of a disappointment when the show was noticeably short and her band had to do a few numbers without her.

Got my third Green Earth Organics delivery today and wow...it was bountiful! This week I got tangerines, chinese pears, apples, bananas, bosc pears, green apples, red apples, a zuc, a cucumber, rainbow chard, brocolli, potatoes, onions, mushrooms and a squash. I have no idea how I am going to get through all of this but I'm up for the challenge.

Watching Ellen right now and she has Sarah Ramirez on who plays Callie. I think she might be my favourite character on the show. She is such a great role model for girls/women, she's not waifish like the rest of the characters and plays a strong sexy women.

I forgot how much I love the snow. While most Vancouverites are cursing the snow and the ensuing chaos I have been walking around with a big smile on my rosey jacck frost kissed cheeks.

I finally got lights up on my balcony. Its looking rather Christmas..I quite like it.

Before I forget I needed to get this post up.

I had the craziest dream last night. I was in a motor boat with a bunch of people when I spotted a giant lobster. And when I say giant, I mean giant...like killer whale size. We are all facinated by it and then begin to get a little worried as its heading right for us. All of a sudden the captain screams that its going to try and attack us and we are racing off in the boat at full speed with it following us. The only way we can escape is by beaching the boat. After a bit we head out in the water again (there was a reason but I can't remember why) and then a giant whale starts trying to attack us and I am in the lower level sub deck on the boat as I was sent down to fix something and I can see this thing come at us time and time again and all I am thinking is if it takes a chunk off of this hull I'm a goner. Then all of sudden I see an orca and it drives away the killer whale and happily circles around our boat protecting us. He's not huge though...he's regular size.

Interpretations anyone?

Damn...just when I started brushing my teeth with tap water again.

E-coli found in Vancouver water

Trent says I am bragging but I really believe these double chocolate almond cookies may be the best cookie I have ever made. It's not like I invented the recipe, I just substituted the almonds for the walnuts (boring) called for in the recipe. I'm going to have a hard time packing these babies up to send up North. Cookies...what cookies?

Mike V is in town today so I'm just waiting for him to get back from Whistler where he says the powder was waist deep. It will be nice to grab a beer and catch up as the last time I saw him was in Bala on the August long weekend when we shared a hitched ride back from the Sloan concert.

I am addicted to Top Chef. I'm glad that stuck up Stephen was finally sent home tonight.

I've managed to score some tickets to the European Union Film Festival that is running here in Van from November 23rd to December 7th. There are so many films that look good that its going to be hard to choose.

Here are the ones that I am considering:
It Will Stay Between Us - Slovkia
Eastern Sugar - Hungary
A Woman in Winter - UK (unfortunately I have hockey the night it is showing)
Men at Arms - Estonia

Ughh...no end in sight to my feeling dirty after my shower. Hopefully my little corner store will still have a few cases of the exorbinantly over priced water left by the time I get home this evening.

Besides not ever really feeling clean the only other part that I am struggling with in this water advisory is the washing of my dishes. Even after boiling the water and letting it cool down it is still brownish and there is a layer of silt/dirt in the pot so rinsing my dishes in it seems kind of pointless. I've also been trying to hold off on doing laundry as I can't imagine my whites being too white after a run through the brown water.

I had forgotten until yesterday that I had tickets to the Decemberists concert tonight. So at 9:00 PM we headed down to the Commodore to catch the show. Thought ourselves very lucky to get a parking spot directly in front of the club.

The reason for the good parking spot is explained by the following photo. Oh well...looks like we'll be catching the show December 14th instead. As we were already downtown we decided to grab a drink at Doolins before heading home. Somehow I scored the money chair. I managed to get not one, but two different drunk guys at the table beside us try and befriend me over the course of an hour. And no...I do not like to be called Sweet Cheeks...not even by friends!

SLF just provided the best comment yet about this whole boil water advisory here in Van.

"Remember the time when we became a third world province over night?"

SLF, JC and I are meeting for grilled cheese and fries for lunch today. I wish I could say it was because we don't feel safe eating salad right now but we had this planned all week. A little comfort food as we all deal with the rain and remember how it never rained this much in TO...not that any of us are complaining.

My shower smelled like the Rouge this morning

Ohh....and the mascot has been found. In Halifax! Explain that one for me?

The reason I haven't posted lately is that I've been busy building my arc.

This article goes a long way to explaining the brown water today in all of the toilets on my floor at work. There just wasn't any pretty way to get that line out, but I have to tell you, it had been baffling me all morning.

The good thing about all this rain in Van...it means its snowing in Whistler.

Whistler is opening early...November 18th. SWEET! I just signed up for my edge card and if all goes well I will be able to hit the slopes this weekend with Mike V when he stops by TO after his interview at UVIC.

Woo hoo!

It's Friday, it's still raining and I still have a missing mascot.

It's been a busy week. Wed night I attended the Whitecaps State of the Franchise meeting. Got me excited for next season and confirmed my suspicions that Martin Nash (Steve Nash's brother) is the cuter of the two Nashes.

This afternoon I am off to Chilliwack for the BC Sectionals for Skate Canada...ahh yes figure skating. Should be interesting. To my horror I discovered that Chilliwack wasn't like Mississauga is to TO like I had assumed but it is a good 2 hour drive...on a good day. Today is not a good day. It's a Friday, on a long weekend, and its pouring rain. Chilliwack has got a lot of news coverage lately, even on the weather network (which I only realized when I got out here, is rather TO centric). You may have seen the cows stranded in the new river...yes, I will be going to lovely Chilliwack. I've decided to head out early to try and avoid some of the traffic (apparently its the bridges that kill ya) and was going to try and take in a movie somewhere in Chilliwack. Well..maybe not. They have two theatres and neither have weekday matinees. I was going to make a crack here about your being able to take the city girl out of the city but then I realized..that isn't really me. I mean yes, I was born in and grew up in the big city but I'm as comfortable, if not more so in small towns too.

Time to run and get a few last things done before I head out on my expedition. Have a great Friday of a long weekend.

UPDATE - The bear is still MIA but I did receive a box with knapsacs, scarves and some fleece jackets that I never ordered

S%*$!!!!

Our giant blue bear mascot has gone MIA on route from Victoria to Van and I need him for an event tomorrow morning at 7:00AM. How does one lose a giant blue bear?

AGHHHHH!

Ok...apparently even people from Vancouver think all this heavy rain is unusual. Someone just stormed out of my office all angry as his flight out this morning on the float plane to the Island has been cancelled as they can't fly with this rain.

The beer beef stew last night turned out quite well, though next time I will cut the amount of beef in half and add potatoes and carrots. The cheese biscuits though...wow...soooo cheesy and yummy and really easy to make. I see them becoming a staple.

I was just looking online for some information on scales or darkness for beer (for the beer beef stew). At Rate Beer I found the following...too funny.

lawnmower beer - a beer best consumed while in a hot environment and/or after vigorous physical activity. a beer with drinkability and refreshing flavors as paramount characteristics.

I'm still trying to see if I can use a red or wheat beer for my stew as I don't have any dark beer on hand.

I have a busy weekend planned. After my run and brunch tomorrow I am heading up to Squamish. Stopping in to see Tanya for tea before going to a BBQ at Katie's new place with Gary and Cheryl. Sunday its yoga in the morning then prepping for a dinner I am making for two friends from work. I'm testing out a new recipe on them, a beer beef stew I saw on Chef at Home earlier this week. As T-bone will vouch..its a big thing for me to try cooking anything with meat in it.

Right now I have Men in Trees on. Apparently the bar in the show is right down the street from Tanya's in Squamish.

Ohh and I got me some nice new boots tonight. Had to get the people at Feet First to stretch them out because of my fricken boy sized calves. Ohh good line on Men in Trees. "This is what I have been saving for all this time...you are my rainy day."

I'm not sure how I feel about Anne Heche.

I am so excited. I got my first delivery from Green Earth Organics today. Everything looks so great!

It included the following:
4 BC Gala apples
1.5 lbs bananas
2 BC Asian pears
2 pomegranates
2 oranges
1 lb carrots
1 BC rainbow chard
1 BC green leaf lettuce
2 yellow onions
1 green pepper (I got red)
1.5 lbs red potatoes
1 sweet dumpling squash
BC alfalfa sprouts
2 BC beefsteak tomatoes