Here I am violating “Blog Vacation Day“. Mine usually is Sunday but since there’s only a few minutes left, I think I’m in the clear. This isn’t much of a blog post, just a tribute to a person in a whale suit.

I’ve become quite the Fin fan ever since I met’em last year at Sapperton Days in New Westminster. Great team spirit, a head that spews steam, and since the friendly whale mascot of the Vancouver Canucks started to blog well, that just won me over.

Although he’s not a cool, athletic, and in-your-face as Super Grizz [Sportsecyclopedia]. Man that guy was fun, eh? He used to come to our high school and do fancy slam dunks off mini trampolines… but I digress.

There are some pretty hideous mascots out there, not to mention a couple that just freak the bejesus outta me. I think Fin’s also much better than having cheerleaders or double the amount of ice girls prancing around the rink.

And if that photo above doesn’t learn’ya a thing or two about calls, check out the post JJ’s got up. It’ll educate AND make your teeth ache – it’s just that sweet.

Sorry folks! We’ve been MIA for episode 3 but here’s a very basic rundown:

The teams white water rafted, carried fish and raced across South America. Charla and Mirna continued to be aggressive and the Beauty Queens ended up doing the Detour task BEFORE even finding the clue. They weren’t penalized at the mat, instead they had to go back and find the clue. It took them no time at all and still came in 4th. Rob and Amber were first to the mat – so far dominating the race.

For a general, generic episode recap, try the official site. Yes, I know, that’s really crappy of us to do but maybe we’ll get a proper recap for episode 3 up soon enough, in honour of David and Mary who were eliminated.

I’m going to be live-blogging the west coast feed of Episode 4 in about 5 minutes so stay tuned!

LIVE BLOG!
To make up for not posting anything for Episode 3 I’ve decided to live-blog the West coast feed of tonight’s episode. Teams will take off from Playa Petrohue, Chile.

Everyone will need to get to the airport and fly to another part of Chile, once on the ground they will have to drive to their destination: Lord Lonsdale’s Shipwreck.

After checking in at the airport Rob & Amber hop on the internet and investigate their clue, searching around and finding out that they will probably be looking for a painting when they land, and not an actual shipwreck.

Other teams begin to arrive at the airport and book similar flights out at 9:40am. Terri and Ian are too late and do not get this flight, which means Joe & Bill and Charla & Mirna who are just on their way from the pit stop, won’t be able to make it either.

Terri and Ian luck out as the airline finds them two seats. Joe & Bill are SOL and as Charla & Mirna arrive they all get on the same flight at 11:15am.

COMMERCIAL

As teams land they ride to get their clue, it is at the sight of a shipwreck.

DETOUR – based on Magellan’s voyages.

1) Navigate it
Use a map to get to the plaza where they get a compass, heading straight South to find the nautilus building where they will get their next clue.

2) Sign it
Choose a pole and building supplies, use a map as reference to figure out where Magellan’s voyage began, building a sign post with all visited cities’ names nailed to it – spelled correctly.

Eric & Dani and Oswald & Danny finish Navigate it first, meanwhile Rob & Amber struggle with Sign it as their city names are spelled wrong. Terri & Ian also finish Navigate it with ease and advance to the airport.

Teams must then travel 165 miles by charter plain to get to Argentina.

Joe & Bill and Mirna & Charla JUST arrive at the FIRST airport location and head toward the shipwreck where they will get their DETOUR clue.

Uchenna & Joyce are the first to finish Sign it and head to the airport where they are on the second flight out. Amber urges Rob to quit and head to Navigate it but he won’t give up. FYI Rob, it’s not spelled “Philipeans”. The Beauty Queens convince Rob & Amber to quit and head to Navigate, they team up and head to the OTHER detour. Charla & Mirna head to Sign it, foolishly. Joe & Bill head to Navigate it around the same time at Rob & Amber and the BQs.

I seriously think the BQs have a very sensible and straightforward approach to their game this season. Working reasonably with other teams and leaving the drama for Charla & Mirna.

COMMERCIAL

Charla & Mirna give up on Sign it, meanwhile Joe & Bill complete Navigate it – Rob & Amber and the BQs finish their detour while Joe & Bill are arriving at the airport, they all get signed up on charter #2.

Charter #1 lands and teams race to the next clue. Terri & Ian and Os & Danny search for the clue box. Teams must tarvel by taxi to a bay where they will take a boat which will only take 2 teams at a time. It will bring them to an island where they will need to get their next clue from the post office. The name of the island means “end of the world” as it’s the southern-most tip of South America.

The boat leaves every 20 minutes – Eric & Dani and Os & Danny get on the first boat and get to their clue – a ROAD BLOCK

Choose a full mail bag, search through 1600 letters to find a letter addressed to their team. What they don’t know is that the letters are written by some of their competitors from the first season. Once they find their letter they will have to read it out loud and get their next clue.

Once their Road Block is complete teams must follow a path from the post office to Mastil de Belgrano to find the pit stop.

Terri & Ian make it on boat #3, Uchenna & Joyce, Joe & Bill and the BQs are all behind, lining up for a boat.

Oswald & Danny hit the mat first, followed by Eric & Danielle.

While looking for the clue Rob & Amber pretend to find it and tell Charla & Mirna in passing, that they found the clue way off track. This leaves them to search in a false location. It was actually pretty funny but C & M are right pissed.

Terri & Ian find their letter at the post office and head on foot to the path toward the pit stop.

Joe & Bill and the BQs get on boat 6, Uchenna & Joyce and Rob & Amber are on boat 7 with Charla & Mirna on boat 8.

Rob & Amber are confronted by C & M who say they lied to them about getting the clue. Well of COURSE they lied, they’re playing the game. But Amber perpetuated it and when confronted said, she wasn’t telling THEM she found the clue already, she was just talking to Rob about something. Rob IS rubbing off on her.

COMMERCIAL

BQ and Joe & Bill arrive at the post office to sort their mail. Rob & Amber and Uchenna & Joyce are on the boat. Joe & Bill find their letter first and take off. The BQs find their letter, which is actually from Bama! But only one of the ladies signed it – BQ makes their way to the path up to the pit stop and comes in 5th.

Rob & Amber, Uchenna & Joyce are still sorting mail as Charla and Mirna arrive. Uchenna & Joyce find their letter first and take off finishing 6th. Rob & Amber take off in a foot race vs Rob & Amber with Charla yelling “LEVEL 5 on the treadmill!” They make it to the mat first, in 7th place. Rob and Amber arrive LAST at the mat and are ELIMINATED! They’re in really great spirits but it was interesting that they went from 1st to last – all because of the Sign it detour.

(Original Post by Rebecca Bollwitt on the Amazing Race 11 blog)

I have to admit, I love looking at my stats. I’m not being vain, and I don’t want to spy on people, I just think it’s interesting. The two programs I use are Stat Counter and Site Meter. Naturally the numbers and visits displayed on each vary greatly, but they both have their upsides. I use Stat Counter because the number of visits seems more accurate and Site Meter is better for recent referrals, and to find out what people are typing into search engines that’s leading them to your site. Unfortunately though, Site Meter’s been down for about 4 days now.

The entire site isn’t down, just my server.

s25 – Update
We are aware of delays and lag on s25 and are doing are best to resolve it. In this case we had a particular site that has been running a promotion, nearly quadrupling their traffic. We’re working on relocation this site to another server. We expect to see the lag dissipate over the weekend [Site Meter Blog]

Since I’m on s25 I haven’t had any updates in days, and this also affects any stats I would use to calculate my monthly or yearly unique visitors – this being a number that comes in handy when trying to monetize a blog, eh. I’ll wait it out through the weekend but maybe it’s time to find another service.

After being out of my comfort zone at a new job and with a new computer, today just topped off this crazy week in a most appropriate way.

To start, this is the first place I’ve ever worked where I cannot wear jeans. My first big “office” job was 7 years ago and it was at a dotcom. I’ve gotten used to the open working environments, lots of internet access and casual dress.

Today was jeans day at the office, I guess I didn’t get the memo (no joke). At around 11:00 I went to the ladies room and discovered something rather shocking which made me look up and say, “you gotta be kidding me”. Apparently I had been walking around all morning with a hole in my pants. Not just a hole, it was a slit about 3 inches long and it was in a very… private place. My immediate reaction wasn’t panic, wondering if I’d be walking around the office all morning with my sensitive bits showing, it was just SERENITY NOW! Guh. Someone up there must be playing an awful lot of pranks on me over the last couple weeks.

I kept my wits about me and went into MacGyver mode, “how can I fix this” I thought to myself. I immediately removed the safety pin I had in my shirt (because I was wearing a chesty shirt today and thought I should pin it so that it’s more work friendly… but that’s another story). The safety pin came out, my sweater got zipped up and my pants got pinned. A real band-aid solution but it held out til I could visit the ONLY clothing store I could find on my lunch break to purchase a similar pair of pants.

I found pants, I didn’t care how much they were at long as they fit. I advised the clerks of my situation and I walked out of the store about 7 minutes later wearing my new purchase.

Now I just have to explain to my sister why the pants she lent me during our Victoria trip now have a safety pin in the crotch. This could be fun.

Once everyone recovers from daylight savings this weekend, they can then get completely outta whack next week when CelticFest takes over Vancouver.

From March 14th to 18th, 2007, CelticFest Vancouver will present hundreds of local and international artists at more than 60 events scheduled at dozens of popular venues and two outdoor stages along Granville Street [CelticFest]

It’s a 4-day long event with free concerts, street market, shows, and the grande ol’ St. Patrick’s Day parade downtown on Sunday the 18th. There are SO many events going on, I’ll just highlight the two that I’m most looking forward to.

The entire festival kicks off this coming Wednesday March 14th at the Yale, followed by free lunch time concerts in Pacific Centre and on Granville (@ Cordova).

We’ll be sure to consume many Guinness, especially since John’s no longer puzzled by the elusive ‘widget’ [RadioZoom]. Who knows, maybe we’ll even make it to the Canucks game vs Detroit on St. Pat’s Day. Now THAT would be a weekend from which to recover.