When I head out the door to make my trek to work these days I immediately take in the fresh fall air then exhale, making ghosts with my breath. It’s November – ALREADY and nothing says “winter activity” like hitting the local ice rink.
Due to the recent civic strike that spanned summer and parts of fall, rinks haven’t been opened on time but they’re gradually getting back up to speed and I personally cannot wait til the Twonie Skate at the WECC kicks off.
Ice skating is definitely a low-dough activity with public skate times available at all hours during the week and on weekends. If you check the schedule there are also a few FREE sessions throughout December, including free skating at the WECC on Christmas Day.
Not sure when the Robson Square Ice Rink will reopen, although it’s slated to prior to the 2010 Olympics. There’s also the pond on Grouse Mountain (albeit not in Vancouver), which is now open and has some excellent views of the city.
It’s been almost a year since I wrote a blog post about an fire in the home of J Stuart from The Cloud Room – a Brooklyn-based band I had been listening to a lot in the fall.
The band was working on their new tunes in J’s apartment, so all of their gear was destroyed, along with the Mac computer that contained the recordings. Amps, guitars, new tracks, plus all of J’s personal items and clothes went up in smoke. Oh yeah, and yesterday just happened to be his birthday. [The Tripwire]
After writing the blog post I decided to get in touch with J via email and see if I could conduct an interview. I asked, and he obliged. The band even posted a link to my entry on their news page, from which I still get several hits every month. [Miss604, Dec 8, 2006].
Through the aftermath of the ‘officially devastating’ fire, The Cloud Room have managed to produce the EP, Please Don’t Almost Kill Me. Once I heard that it was released, I contacted J yet again to find out how I could get my paws on a copy. One email reply and about 2 weeks later and I now have a copy of the EP in my possession. But that’s not the best part….
Upon opening the parcel this evening I smelled something reminiscent of emerging from my tent at a Cultus Lake campground at 6am: smoldering ash. Sure enough, from the envelope comes a crusty CD jewel case and a “nice n’ CLEAN” wet nap, followed by a letter:
Maybe it’s because I grew up buying records and CDs rather than downloading MP3s, but while sifting through my melted music collection (after my house burned down last fall), I found myself unable to throw anything away. So here we are, with 483 melted jewel cases recycled into a Limited Edition of our new EP, Please Don’t Almost Kill Me… – J Stuart, The Cloud Room
This is fantastic. Looking at the case (which isn’t from a Cloud Room album), it is definitely burnt up somethin’ fierce and the first thing that caught my attention was the “Made in Canada” sticker on the front.
Thanks so much to the guys in the band: Dave Horowitz, Steve Milton, Jon Petrow, Jason Pharr and J Stuart, for sending this over. It will get priority podcast play on the next RadioZoom and here’s hoping a tour brings them by Vancouver in the near future.
Sometimes I can be cranky. I know, it’s hard to believe, but I can. Today I have been in a pretty crummy mood. It’s come in waves but man, it can be unbearable sometimes. Luckily for me, John will never hesitate to let me know when I’m being completely unreasonable and intolerable. In the same way, he can make me do a 180 and totally cheer me up. His ability to bring me back down to reality works so well that I ended up doing dishes today AND mopping the floors, just because he suggested we clean up a little. We then went for a walk, to the store to try on shoes together, got smoothies, then came home and sat on the couch side by side to geek out with our laptops in tow. Have I mentioned how lucky I am?
For the last few hours we’ve been talking, blogging, developing sites, and I just spent a good while browsing The Office clips on YouTube.
I love the parts of ‘office life’ to which I can relate, the silliness of the characters, the awkwardness, the pop culture references, and the dynamic they all have with each other. Honestly? I (heart) Jim Halpert. I totally just said it. I don’t mind the quirky cutesy glances at the screen, the wittiness at inappropriate times and the jerkface-d-ness. It works, it’s awesome. So in honor of a) my husband who is Twittering about how he loves watching me giggle til I cry and b) Jim Halpert… here are some clips.
I may have started out the day pretty cranky but I’m sitting next to my best friend, chilling out and laughing my ass off with him. Sweet.
Update: You can vote more than once, check back every 24 hrs.
Inspired by Duane’s post and a Twitter I saw somewhere somehow…. you should go vote for Raymi – here’s why I did.
When I started blogging four years ago there were few influences around. The biggest to me personally being Matt – the next couple of course were Tony and Raymi – as they’ve been doing this fantastically for far longer than I have.
Although I’ve never personally interacted with Raymi (except in a few comments) I believe she and John passed a couple notes back and forth in regards to healthy dinner party foods, which was still pretty rad, and most recently she discovered how fun my buddy Duane is, which is again, pretty awesome.
She’s got a completely unique style of blogging, and has had it for the last decade. It’s often copied, and rarely duplicated in its honesty, reality and blunt ability to tell it like it is. It’s Raymi and Raymi’s style – this is what this entire genre of blogging has become, why she’s up for this award, and why you should vote for her as Best Canadian Blog.
She didn’t ask anyone to do this, really, but she is offering bribes. Sweet.
Yes, we’re still awake. Yes, we did a podcast tonight. In all honesty, it’s one of my favourites to date – despite the fact that we were totally missing DaveO.
Good day, and welcome to episode fifty. This is a long overdue one, and there were some technical difficulties that occurred before this episode saw the light of day. Regardless, we push forward, sadly without our good pal Dave, but he shall return. Alanah actually joins us about twenty minutes in, and hilarity ensues.
Record as of this episode: 5-8-0
Northwest Division: 4th
Western Conference: 14th
The basic lowdown to this recording is that we are just as baffled as you are about our beloved team. There is no easy answers other than trying to pick ourselves up and work hard at being a better team on the ice. The recent 3-0 loss to Nashville is fresh on our mind, and it hasn’t been that much better before that. [TheCrazyCanucks]
Visit the site for show notes, links, or to download and listen. Hopefully things can only get better from here, eh!?
