ASLE 2009, Day 1
After a looooong day of travel that began at 3am and is now finally mostly over (at 9:30 pm my time), I've reached Victoria. I'll admit that through most of the flight from Seattle I was distracted from the magnificent scenery of the San Juan islands and the Olympic Mountain range by the fear that Canadian Customs would find the half-eaten bag of peanuts in my luggage, AFTER I'd checked off "no" on the customs form stating that I had brought no nuts into the country. (These ARE the things that keep me up at night.)
I was relieved and surprised when, after I declared that I had no tobacco, alcohol, or firearms, they were happy to let me enter the country. With that fear aside, I had a chance to take in some of the sights after straggling into my hotel and flopping down on the bed for a while. (A caveat: I wish I were as good a travel writer as jucundushomo, but alas it is not to be):
My first issue is with The Empress hotel, a grand old resort where the groundskeepers made an interesting landscaping choice:
In my opinion, the grasping Snuffleupagus-like tendrils of the shrubbery are the landscaping/architectural equivalent of putting a ghost sheet on a building and making it go "oogity boogity" at the guests. Am I wrong here?
Note the bottom right quadrant of the photo. See, it WANTS you. It wants to GET you:
Next is a statue of Victoria Herself, of which I did not get a good shot but that is because I am a crap photographer:
Now, just for some contrast, a picture I took specifically for Dan:
Dan has had two major dreams/life goals: 1) to get a kilt (which he did, when we got married 7 years ago), and 2) to get a bear costume to snowboard in. This he has NOT done yet, mostly because he has not found a bear suit that fits the image he has in his mind of what he wants, which I cannot for the life of me figure out. He wants it to look "realistic." This photo demonstrates that you can have kilt and bear at the same time, and still be wicked cool. Why not try it, Dan?
Next, a shot of the government/parliament building:
And a First Nations totem sculpture:
And THEN I went to a pita joint and met the FRIENDLIEST CANADIANS IN ALL OF CANADA!!! And the guy working there convinced me to have pineapple AND hot peppers on my falafal and I DID and it tasted AWESOME.
Next:
Here are a few photos of my day out with my parents, brother, and Moira in Rhode Island on Sunday:
Stormy and I:
Moira doing some farm chores:
Point Judith Light:
The Coast at Point Judith, toward Jerusalem:
Moira and I at Sand Hill Cove, the beach I always went to growing up. It was REALLY windy:
FINALLY finally: I picked up the James Patterson book "Sundays at Tiffany's" at the airport because I blew through the novel I brought with me before I even reached Seattle. I have never read any of his books. I tend not to read too many bestsellers, to be honest. Basic plot: A little girl has an imaginary friend who's a 35-year-old man, who later comes back into her life as this perfect guy who falls in love with her. I'm finding it eerie and uncomfortable to read. The writing is acceptable, ie better than "Twilight" but otherwise quite utilitarian. It has some funny lines. However, the only reason I can think of for a 35-year-old guy to be that interested in an 8-year-old is because he is a pervert. So, in summary: cute (cute?) idea that does not cut it in the execution because it raises all my pervert warning flags.
AND: Weirdly, reading the back cover, I find that he has written many (if not MOST) of his books "with" other authors. This raised all my WTF? flags. All of them.
I was relieved and surprised when, after I declared that I had no tobacco, alcohol, or firearms, they were happy to let me enter the country. With that fear aside, I had a chance to take in some of the sights after straggling into my hotel and flopping down on the bed for a while. (A caveat: I wish I were as good a travel writer as jucundushomo, but alas it is not to be):
My first issue is with The Empress hotel, a grand old resort where the groundskeepers made an interesting landscaping choice:
In my opinion, the grasping Snuffleupagus-like tendrils of the shrubbery are the landscaping/architectural equivalent of putting a ghost sheet on a building and making it go "oogity boogity" at the guests. Am I wrong here?
Note the bottom right quadrant of the photo. See, it WANTS you. It wants to GET you:
Next is a statue of Victoria Herself, of which I did not get a good shot but that is because I am a crap photographer:
Now, just for some contrast, a picture I took specifically for Dan:
Dan has had two major dreams/life goals: 1) to get a kilt (which he did, when we got married 7 years ago), and 2) to get a bear costume to snowboard in. This he has NOT done yet, mostly because he has not found a bear suit that fits the image he has in his mind of what he wants, which I cannot for the life of me figure out. He wants it to look "realistic." This photo demonstrates that you can have kilt and bear at the same time, and still be wicked cool. Why not try it, Dan?
Next, a shot of the government/parliament building:
And a First Nations totem sculpture:
And THEN I went to a pita joint and met the FRIENDLIEST CANADIANS IN ALL OF CANADA!!! And the guy working there convinced me to have pineapple AND hot peppers on my falafal and I DID and it tasted AWESOME.
Next:
Here are a few photos of my day out with my parents, brother, and Moira in Rhode Island on Sunday:
Stormy and I:
Moira doing some farm chores:
Point Judith Light:
The Coast at Point Judith, toward Jerusalem:
Moira and I at Sand Hill Cove, the beach I always went to growing up. It was REALLY windy:
FINALLY finally: I picked up the James Patterson book "Sundays at Tiffany's" at the airport because I blew through the novel I brought with me before I even reached Seattle. I have never read any of his books. I tend not to read too many bestsellers, to be honest. Basic plot: A little girl has an imaginary friend who's a 35-year-old man, who later comes back into her life as this perfect guy who falls in love with her. I'm finding it eerie and uncomfortable to read. The writing is acceptable, ie better than "Twilight" but otherwise quite utilitarian. It has some funny lines. However, the only reason I can think of for a 35-year-old guy to be that interested in an 8-year-old is because he is a pervert. So, in summary: cute (cute?) idea that does not cut it in the execution because it raises all my pervert warning flags.
AND: Weirdly, reading the back cover, I find that he has written many (if not MOST) of his books "with" other authors. This raised all my WTF? flags. All of them.