• Christmas 2007 in Victoria

    Yeah, these are WAY late but better late than never, right? Clicky for you-know-what.
    [picture: IMG_2239.jpg]
    Waiting the in Tampa airport, en route to Victoria
    [picture: IMG_2261.jpg]
    Having Tim Hortons for the first time in a long time
    [picture: IMG_2281.jpg]
    Cam’s parents and Joe
    [picture: IMG_2284.jpg]
    Me en route!
    [picture: IMG_2289.jpg]
    Arrival in rainy Victoria
    [picture: IMG_2291.jpg]
    Melissa and Owen hike off the tarmac
    [picture: IMG_2298.jpg]
    Avocado tree growing in Mom and Dad’s dining room
    [picture: IMG_2309.jpg]
    At Daniel’s get together, held the night I arrived; shortly before I got sick and had to spend two days in bed (but unrelated)
    [picture: IMG_2312.jpg]
    Mom with one of her paintings, and the mother of the girl pictured
    [picture: IMG_2317.jpg]
    At a little cafe in Estevan Village in Victoria, with Dani and Davin *dumple*
    [picture: IMG_2324.jpg]
    At the ECHL hockey game, Victoria Salmon Kings vs Alaska Aces
    [picture: IMG_2338.jpg]
    Some of the action
    [picture: IMG_2373.jpg]
    Final score — home team wins!
    [picture: IMG_2377.jpg]
    Me, Cal and Nick
    [picture: IMG_2380.jpg]
    Cal, Amy, Me, Nick, Tex
    [picture: IMG_2382.jpg]
    Island microbrew
    [picture: IMG_2383.jpg]
    A refined pool hall, who’d a thunk it
    [picture: IMG_2388.jpg]
    View from the outside
    [picture: IMG_2390.jpg]
    Lori, Nick, Mavis, Me at the Blue Fox cafe for breakfast
    [picture: IMG_2391.jpg]
    From the outside
    [picture: IMG_2418.jpg]
    Carla and Mark and family, Mavis, me
    [picture: IMG_2427.jpg]
    Christmas eve, mom killing time…
    [picture: IMG_2431.jpg]
    …while Anand plays
    [picture: IMG_2438.jpg]
    Hanging out in the livingroom
    [picture: IMG_2440.jpg]
    Anand snaps a couple shots
    [picture: IMG_2442.jpg]
    Caroline
    [picture: IMG_2446.jpg]
    Neil
    [picture: IMG_2451.jpg]
    Davin showin off his new duds
    [picture: IMG_2460.jpg]
    Caroline gets canvases from Mom!
    [picture: IMG_2469.jpg]
    Anand is now part of the exclusive Elbow Patch Network, or EBN for short
    [picture: IMG_2474.jpg]
    Me being arty.. did I succeed?
    [picture: IMG_2475.jpg]
    Dad gets a giant book of guitar tabs from Anand and Davin
    [picture: IMG_2481.jpg]
    Davin and Caroline
    [picture: IMG_2495.jpg]
    Santa rocks!! I mean socks
    [picture: IMG_2499.jpg]
    Neil offers Anand some of the traditional Greenwell potato chips, haha
    [picture: IMG_2501.jpg]
    At the family reunion up at Auntie Arlene and Uncle Hans’ place.. Uncle Neil
    [picture: IMG_2502.jpg]
    Uncle Hans
    [picture: IMG_2504.jpg]
    Auntie Arlene
    [picture: IMG_2506.jpg]
    Auntie Carole
    [picture: IMG_2507.jpg]
    Auntie Maureen
    [picture: IMG_2510.jpg]
    Uncle Bill, my cousin Cathy, and Anand
    [picture: IMG_2511.jpg]
    Auntie Sylvia
    [picture: IMG_2512.jpg]
    Neil gets the golf ball on the tee.. much harder than it looks
    [picture: IMG_2514.jpg]
    Cathy and Cheyenne
    [picture: IMG_2517.jpg]
    Mom
    [picture: IMG_2519.jpg]
    Anand with co-op coffee
    [picture: IMG_2520.jpg]
    Cousin Kelly capturing the action
    [picture: IMG_2523.jpg]
    Alicia and Auntie Arlene
    [picture: IMG_2525.jpg]
    Davin, Anand and Uncle Neil
    [picture: IMG_2527.jpg]
    Uncle Steve
    [picture: IMG_2529.jpg]
    Sharon and Lucy
    [picture: IMG_2530.jpg]
    Eloy
    [picture: IMG_2532.jpg]
    Gail
    [picture: IMG_2533.jpg]
    Cheyenne and Uncle Hans
    [picture: IMG_2536.jpg]
    Eloy and Alicia
    [picture: IMG_2538.jpg]
    Singing carols
    [picture: IMG_2539.jpg]
    And back to Victoria… Out with Kathy and Sean for sushi
    [picture: IMG_2541.jpg]
    Sean and me after a brisk walk up Mount Doug… Sean you’re gonna kill me if we keep that pace up
    [picture: IMG_2545.jpg]
    Me and Aaron at Tim Hortons
    [picture: IMG_2547.jpg]
    Aaron’s pimped out iPod touch
    [picture: IMG_2553.jpg]
    Aaron and Tex
    [picture: IMG_2559.jpg]
    At 5th St Bar and Grill with Kathy, Daniel, Nicky, Ben, and later, Sean and Jackie. Here’s Kathy.
    [picture: IMG_2560.jpg]
    Sean
    [picture: IMG_2565.jpg]
    Jackie
    [picture: IMG_2576.jpg]
    At Rene’s place. “How to Fix an iPod nano”
    [picture: IMG_2579.jpg]
    Fixed
    [picture: IMG_2581.jpg]
    Out front of Rene’s; Tex, Nicole, Paul and me. It’s 3am and pouring rain.
    [picture: IMG_2582.jpg]
    Out at Shizen sushi with Brian, Hilary and Todd.
    [picture: IMG_2587.jpg]
    Sean loves him some banana bread. Mmm good
    [picture: IMG_2589.jpg]
    The van. I am *so* glad Anand is okay. Watch out for black ice people.
    [picture: IMG_2593.jpg]
    [picture: IMG_2600.jpg]
    [picture: IMG_2602.jpg]
    [picture: IMG_2605.jpg]
    From the Dec 2008 photogroffee. I’ll be making a separate post for photos from it.
    [picture: IMG_2657.jpg]
    Karen and Maryanne at Mar’s wedding reception
    [picture: IMG_2671.jpg]
    Dad and Mom’s scrabble game… on an ACTUAL BOARD and not on Facebook!! Crazy. Haha.
    [picture: IMG_2672.jpg]
    At Ferris’ for brunch. Michael enjoying his food ๐Ÿ™‚
    [picture: IMG_2674.jpg]
    Kathy and her anonymous blueberry tea
    [picture: IMG_2681.jpg]
    My meal, mm
    [picture: IMG_2683.jpg]
    Edd and Megan
    [picture: IMG_2686.jpg]
    Coreen, Kathy and Mark
    [picture: IMG_2688.jpg]
    Edd, Megan and Coreen
    [picture: IMG_2693.jpg]
    Coffee
    [picture: IMG_2694.jpg]
    Tex demonstrating the awesome focusing power of his Canon Powershot S5IS ๐Ÿ™‚
    [picture: IMG_2697.jpg]
    OJ
    [picture: IMG_2705.jpg]
    At Capital Iron
    [picture: IMG_2707.jpg]
    At the art shop
    [picture: IMG_2713.jpg]
    At “Liberty”… upscale home furnishings
    [picture: IMG_2718.jpg]
    Nicole and Tex at Bean Around the World… they have the best mochas
    [picture: IMG_2727.jpg]
    Coreen and the BATW storefront
    [picture: IMG_2730.jpg]
    In the world-famous Fan Tan Alley
    [picture: IMG_2742.jpg]
    Out for dinnner with Calvin, Amy, Brian, Derek, Coreen and Tex.. here’s Cal and Amy
    [picture: IMG_2743.jpg]
    Hil
    [picture: IMG_2745.jpg]
    Bri
    [picture: IMG_2749.jpg]
    Me, Tex and Coreen
    [picture: IMG_2751.jpg]
    Best buds
    [picture: IMG_2755.jpg]
    Derek and Me out for Thai
    [picture: IMG_2769.jpg]
    My brother opened for Adam Freeland. How cool is that? So cool.
    [picture: IMG_2771.jpg]
    Great to see tech making positive contributions like this.. Sarasota’s doing pretty well on the solar front, too
    [picture: IMG_2773.jpg]
    De dutch bakery. Love the mix of old and new buildings in Victoria
    [picture: IMG_2783.jpg]
    At A&B sound, which, contrary to opinion I’d heard earlier, is still open (though, with much smaller selection). A healthy selection of blu-ray discs are for sale.
    [picture: IMG_2784.jpg]
    And a good selection of HD-DVD discs, too. Though, now I think the balance is shifting toward Blu-Ray, since most of the major studios are dropping support for HD-DVD.
    [picture: IMG_2789.jpg]
    New Year’s Eve at Sean’s place, hanging out and having fun ๐Ÿ™‚
    [picture: IMG_2790.jpg]
    More of Sean’s living room.
    [picture: IMG_2803.jpg]
    Mark with a “Can I get a woohoo?” Midnight strikes and it’s 2008. Then we ran out on the porch, screamed at the top of our lungs and banged pots and pans, which was awesome
    [picture: IMG_2819.jpg]
    Walking by my old highscoool with Karen, saw they had the old grad photos close to the door…
    [picture: IMG_2820.jpg]
    Oh, and look, there’s Karen
    [picture: IMG_2821.jpg]
    And there’s me! Hahah…
    [picture: IMG_2822.jpg]
    Walking to the new Starbucks by yon olde 7-Eleven
    [picture: IMG_2823.jpg]
    Hanging out with Karen
    [picture: IMG_2824.jpg]
    My old highschool! Man it looks small. Still have the portables in the back, 13 years later.
    [picture: IMG_2832.jpg]
    Me and Tex getting breakfast at Floyd’s
    [picture: IMG_2840.jpg]
    The bumper stickers read “Got Grog?” and “I brake for saucy wenches”
    [picture: IMG_2843.jpg]
    Getting lunch with Jim at Azuma…
    [picture: IMG_2844.jpg]
    Outside of Azuma.. shortly hereafter we stopped by the camera store and checked out the Oly E3… had the fastest autofocus I’ve ever seen
    [picture: IMG_2845.jpg]
    In the Eaton Center
    [picture: IMG_2849.jpg]
    Mom, Neil and Dad seeing me off at the airport
    [picture: IMG_2850.jpg]
    Joe playing with the big toys in Calgary
    [picture: IMG_2854.jpg]
    It was a long trip back

  • Car broken into

    Today sucked.
    My car got broken into sometime last night, along with 4 others from the complex. Nothing was stolen (that I’ve found yet, anyway); a police report was filed; prints were taken. Just the right-passenger side window damaged. Called my insurance, but since I didn’t have comprehensive vehicle damage coverage, it’ll be all out of pocket. That’s okay; the deductible would have probably been more than the repair bill anyway (got a quote at $195).
    I left a message with the apartment complex shortly after I discovered it around 8:30 this morning; so far they have not returned my call.