i really don’t like shopping at safeway but living downtown there aren’t many other options. IGA is too expensive and Capers is *shudder* …well i don’t own any lululemon pants so i don’t think i should be shopping there…. so anyhoo – safeway.

i met john at the davie safeway today (since it’s conveniently located doors down from the liquor store). they had no basil… we thought – that’s okay, there’s so many lil markets between here and home, we’re bound to find some somewhere else. it took a couple more trips to local stores/markets before john located some basil at the Robson Public Market – he says we always underestimate that place. i think we do… we usually end up at Robson/Denman safeway.

Per my conversation with laura earlier this evening, what the heck is with all the “express” lanes over there? there’s like 5 checkouts and 4 of them are 15 items/9 items or fewer. so i told her we should just call it Safeway Express… although she said there’s really no point of the “express” since it takes so gosh darn long to get rung through any way.

okay that’s my supermarket rant

ps – check out the Robson Public Market :p

we’re still getting wedding pics sent in to us from all over north america. my new sis-in-law in illinois keeps sending these wicked digital shots, while someone at my church yesterday handed us some pretty great prints.

my sis is taking off again! my mom and sister took off to england/parts of europe in the fall and my sis is off again tomorrow. she’s borrowing my ipod so i’ll be lost for the next week and a half… or i’ll just have to steal john’s but i don’t want to deprive him of his podcasts while he’s out on his morning run. as i’m writing this she’s leaving rude comments and telling me to blog about pizza because ‘it’s good’. i think her 3 toddlers are starting to rub off on her. if she comes at me next with a ‘poopoo’ joke, that’s it.

you can really tell that it’s spring break around the lower mainland… high school boppers on the bus talking about how cool tequilla is and “how it makes your clothes fall off *giggle giggle*” and as if Robson wasn’t already packed with enough shoppers and tourists, all the kiddies are out to play with their parents’ money … buying all the latest mini skirts and fuzzy boots for spring time – or they’re getting flip flops… going right from racoon feet to bare feet – not an easy transition around here. Edit: I know other people feel my pain.

not that it’s horrible to spend your parents’ money :p but i think earning your own is slightly better – even if it is for minimum wage… or a rediculously huge bloated salary. at least *some* people are out there fending for themselves instead of being locked up in their lil princess towers only leaving the house to take their lil baby puntable dogs for a walk and go get a latte on their way home from pilates – ooh what a day…

hmm i appear to be a lil punchy today… on another note…

reading about darren barefoot’s ‘issues’ with wordpress but also seeing john‘s transition to it recently… i’m torn… meh, who reads this stuff anyway… do i make the move – all the cool kids are doing it… meh, who reads this stuff anyway… hmm…. i need mull it over while enjoying more coffee and cookies oh yes… and work.

Brewing everything from Labatt to Bud, the plant’s been a fixture of Sapperton for over 100 years. We noticed a few weeks ago that Labatt’s in New Westminster was looking um.. a lil shabby. Did a lil googlin’ this afternoon to find out what was up. There’s signs around the area for new condo developments but I just hadn’t heard anything (prior to seeing the big demolished pile of bricks) regarding the reshaping of Sapperton.

When Don was in town he introduced us to this site – where these people venture into old buildings, basically trespassing and checking out what the heck is going on in these deserted spaces (if they are even deserted). Their adventures are classified by how easy/hard it is to get onto the premises. Labatts was one of the places listed on the site which lead us to put two and two together A-HA! Demolished building, these people venturing onto the site of the old brewery hmmm a CLUE! hehe

According to the Royal City Record, “In September 2004, Labatt Brewery announced it was closing down the brewery after 46 years on the site.” Well heck, where have I been?? The demoliltion only started recently though but man… that’s news I thought I would have heard about already.

going to go change my name at the bank now – many other places to go and do that as well but will probably get to that monday.

tomorrow we embark on a journey to pick up photos in kits and then head out to surrey YAY SURREY! have a great weekend everyone. and remember — really grumpy, deeply disturbed male coworkers that like to make you feel like crap… really don’t really matter because they’re just not-nice people… who should have bad things happen to them :p

So last night we’re sitting on the couch and talking canucks and i said – they wouldn’t trade trevor linden, at this point i’m not sure how much of a barganing chip he is – he’s just valuable to the city of vancouver. and john mentioned (and i forget where we saw/heard it) that he has potential to run for mayor, then said ‘captain vancouver’. this triggered an “aye aye and good buy!” and john had no idea wtf i was talking about.

Those of you who have lived in vancouver long enough to know “THE” captain know what i’m talking about. those late night 30 second cheap, homemade, budget commercials for the Captain’s Bargain Store on Alma. He was a rather large man, who did his own commercials and ended every one with “Aye Aye and Good Buy!” saluting the camera. So this was probably early 90s…

From Profit Magazine Dec. 1999

“…John “The Captain” Kut… who owns two Captain’s Bargain Stores in Vancouver, says he took up tacky TV advertising five years ago when ordinary newspaper ads failed to boost sales at his second-hand-goods outlets: “After paying my rent, there was almost nothing left over for me.” Kut couldn’t afford a camera crew or professional spokesperson, so his first piece, filmed with a home videocamera, starred the 350-lb. entrepreneur rattling off in-store deals while dancing a jig to the “Popeye” theme music. “I wanted to make sure people noticed,” he says.

That they did. Kut began airing the 30-second spot 10 times a night on local TV, between 1 a.m. and 3 a.m. Within a few weeks, customer traffic began to increase steadily. “Not a bad deal, seeing as I was only paying just over two bucks an ad” as part of a volume deal, says Kut. He’s produced dozens since, most of which feature “The Captain” promoting the latest gear in his stores, then signing off with his ready slogan, “Aye-aye, and good buy”…”

The captain dissapeared for a while but you could sometimes spot him driving around vancouver in his boat… i mean car. a really large 70s/80s style boat-of-a-vehicle with a HUGE sail on the top. Yep, it was the Captain!

Late 90s early 2000… the commercials are back on, local, late night, it’s the captain! he’s lost about 100 lbs and found Jesus! I haven’t seen any commercials lately (or in a few years) but at least he’s still around somewhere and i’m sure if you’re looking for used goods, you can check out his shop in Kits.