Just as Robot Chicken was finishing we could hear swearing and yelling outside. When we got up to have a look (by the way, awesome job guard dogs! NOT), we saw this in our drive way:
And this in front of our house:
There was also an RCMP SUV down the block and they had someone on the ground in cuffs. It would seem someone was breaking into houses and then running down our street trying to get away. Dumbass. No tasering that I could see. 
Wow, and it’s only Monday, too!
Posted in life
On dialup? Don’t even try today’s post. It’s all about the photos. Sorry.
Okay, we planned nothing and just left the house at 7:00 am and headed for the ferry terminal. Decided to go to Victoria first and see how it went from there.
Let me just say right up front that I saw two seals and a killer whale but the moment I brought the camera up – poof, they were gone. Must be shy.
We just made the 8:00 ferry, the Queen of New Westminster and we were on our way.
Deltaport
There was knitting:
Super secret lace & bead knitting is growing! I got almost 6 hours work on her yesterday.
Hubby was laughing at me at this point so I asked him if he’d like a pici of his lap. He said no, I did it anyway. No knitting, heavy on the coffee:
Once in Victoria we headed to the inner harbour. There you will find the historic Empress Hotel:
The Royal BC Museum:
The tallest spiral staircase I’ve ever seen. Unfortunately, we couldn’t climb it, it was being worked on. ;(
A lovely little garden & pond in the inner courtyard:
Then there were the Parliament buildings. Victoria is the seat of government for British Columbia. Not currently in session so I couldn’t chat with anyone about scrapping this whole HST thing. Next time!
View from the harbour.
From the lawn:
Mr. B strolling on the grass
Queen Victoria
Honouring soldiers who died in Korean War:
Very cool place. I wish we could have seen it at night when it’s all lit up. We also had a really nice lunch at The Swiftsure Restaurant. I highly recommend the halibut & chips. Homemade tartar sauce. Mmmm
Oh yeah, and I saw what I think might be the world’s biggest bottom whorl spindle at the harbour:
Human for scale:
After all this we were sure if we should hang out here all day and then head back home or if we should head up to Nanaimo and take the ferry from there. Decided to head up island and see what we would see.
Along the way we passed the Whippletree Junction where I looked over and saw this sign:
Are you kidding me? A yarn store in the middle of nowhere and it’s having a sale? Squee! This place was wild. Yarn, floor to ceiling, little aisles that two people could not pass in. Amazing. Plus, they had stuff there that I’ve never seen here in the big city! LOL. Know what else they had? 7 skeins of Noro Kureyon in colour 128. No, really, they did. Now I have it! Colour 128! I can’t even express myself. I also got a nice braid of Handmaiden spinning fibre (30% sea silk/70% silk), and 2 balls of Mini Mochi. So soft!
At this stop we also fulfilled another mandatory car trip rule and purchased fudge and nice smelly soap. It’s a bylaw, you have to do it.
More fortification and then back on the road:
Then we got to Nanaimo and because we didn’t know what the ferry schedules were like out of Duke Point back to Tsawwassen so we decided to just head to the terminal and make sure we got back home in a timely manner. Creatures wanting their dinners and all. Turns out, we just missed getting on the ferry that was about to load when we got there and had to wait 3 hours for the next one.
I remember this from when I was a kid but I was smaller then and I’m sure cars in the 70′s had more leg room and were more comfortable for extended sitting parties. Got a tonne or knitting done though!
I got three hours of knitting done and then we got on the 5:45 pm ferry and we were heading back home. It was some kind of windy and you almost felt like you would be swept off the deck. Which explains the lack of focused photos. LOL. We were on the Queen of Alberni on the way back.
How cool would it be to live here:
Tired, wind & sun burnt, and ready for some food:
And that was our big adventure day. The best part of a mini cruise? You get to sleep in your own bed that night.
Today, Harry Potter on Imax. I understand the first 12 minutes is in 3D so that should be interesting. Happy Friday all.
Posted in Harry Potter, life, vacation, yarn
So, I think I’ve got a bit of a problem, and I’m laying it all at Maslow’s doorstep. Well, him and every motivational speaker who’s ever given a seminar (I’m looking at you Tony Robbins!) on how to ‘MAKE HAPPY EMPLOYEES!’ Okay, wait, some background would be helpful here.
I used to be one of those really driven people who would take on any task at work and git ‘er done! Almost always under time and well under budget. It’s what I did, I was proud of it, I was young and stupid. This included things like staying at work until 3:00 am with a sick server and an IT person, cancelling one week of my holidays during my honeymoon because of staff shortages,, getting to work 2 hours before the rest of the staff to run backups – for three years – and on and on. After 16 years of being ‘that person’ I stopped it. Found a new job and decided to be a new me.
Turns out, I did a super bang up job and got myself all kinds of praise and so far it’s been working out great. I was cruising along under the radar, doing my job, being helpful, etc. etc. But now, and here’s where the Maslow comes in, my bosses decided that if they want to keep me happy and therefore keep me with them, (seriously, throw a cider and some yarn at me and I’m happy. Put cheese on that baby and I’m yours!), they needed to ‘challenge’ me. With new (who thought of this crap?) and interesting (impossible) tasks/projects/blech. See, damn Maslow, they think I need my Self Actualization Needs met. Umm, yeah, I don’t, really. I can completely take care of my own self actualization needs. That’s what the cider, yarn, and cheese are about. And books, always with the books.
Anyway, not sure how I’m going to deal with this. I’m pretty sure it’s in bad corporate form to say to your bosses “Yeah, hi, I really don’t want to be a better/smarter/more useful person. I’m actually really happy doing exactly what I’ve been doing for the last year for the next few years so I can finance my stash.” Then you’re labelled slacker. Huh, maybe that’s it? Maybe I’m just a 40 year old slacker!?!?!?!?! LOL. Hey mom, you must be so proud!
Anyway, in far less self absorbed navel gazing news (okay, slightly less self absorbed), I finally signed up for the fall semester. Decided to fulfill my Humanities credit requirements and signed up for Classical Mythology. I put in a request at the local library for Homer’s Odyssey so I could have a little sneak peak before my books get here. Seen here with a half eaten cheesy bacony biscuit. Hey, Mrs. Quimby, when you coming for breakfast girl?
I also took Thursday and Friday off work this week. Gonna knit and read and knit and read and then go watch Harry Potter on Imax and then eat some Olive Garden and then knit and read some more. Hmmm, that sentence probably could have used a comma or two. 
Hubby also booked those days off. He says he wants to go on a mini cruise. He means take the ferry to Victoria and have the breakfast buffet. Oh yeah, we’re very high end. At least you don’t need a passport.
Had a rather challenging day at work today and decided at around 10:00 am this morning that when I got home today I’d make some biscuits or some muffins. Something that I could have for a quick breakfast in the morning as I run to the bus so that I am suitably fortified for the day ahead. If only I’d thought of it yesterday, I could have been fortified today!
The weekend was loverly. Saturday Mr. B and I headed out to the momma and the pappa’s house for a little visiting. My dad got a nice little Canon camera a couple of months ago and he’s been playing around with it. Here’s a shot he took of this new super plant in mom’s garden:
Good job eh? He’ll be stalking the dogs & neighbours with that camera for weeks, I’m sure! LOL. Expect to see pictures of their dogs here very soon.
We weren’t too sure the plant was until Mr. B looked it up on the handy dandy iPhone and turns out, it’s a Cleome. Very pretty flowers that just keep on going and going. Strangely though, the leaves sort of look like a pot plant and it unfortunately, really sort of smells like one too. I wouldn’t recommend it as a cut flower, but it is gorgeous in the garden. What? How do I know what marijuana smells like? Dude, seriously, I spent my formative years in Surrey. Whalley actually. For those of you not local, think of the most ‘interesting’ neighbourhood in your city/town, got it? Yep, that’s us!
Anyway, then on Sunday it was off to meet with the knitting gals. Very nice time at the coffee shop. A couple of us were (didn’t bring her new stash yummies, although I’m sure there must have been some!) newly returned (this one? Yeah, she got a tonne of people to knit on her wedding shawl, one of them was Barbara Walker! Yes, THAT Barbara Walker. Isn’t that sort of like meeting God?), from Sock Summit and had BAGS of yarn & yummies. The drool, it was flowing. Later we went to Three Bags Full and I sort fell off the truck and got some new pretty yarn, ’cause I was completely jealous of the Sock Summiteers.
There was also a wonderful little gift received by yours truly. A cunning and brilliantly thought out little object. I shan’t tell you from whom, but let me just say, it’s part crochet hook (for dropped stitches, etc.)
And it’s part knitting needle, (for cabling, slipping stitches, etc.):
Cunning yes? All combined into the all fixing all correcting wonder tool:
This is a wondrous thing and I have already placed it in the knitting travelling box of honour. Now I can fix all my mistakes immediately and pretend they never happened. Thank you mystery gift giver! You are THE awesome. If you ever decide to leave that husband of yours (not bloody likely!), you just give me a call. I will absolutely set up a knitting commune with you.
Then, suddenly, Stella felt the need to inspect and help with the wonder tool!
Dogs, you gotta love them. Don’t you? Directly after this shot she did a humongous dog sneeze and blew dog snot all over me. She loves me.
I also started a new transit knitting project. Heather and I were Tweeting/Twittering/Twitting? Whatever, and we think it’s going to be a spectacular winter. I thought a new scarf was in order. I’m doing Baktus in some handspun singles that I got from Birkeland Brothers about a year ago. Lovely smooshy, gorgeous, brainless garter stitch. Mmmmmmmm.
I’ve also gotten almost 14 pattern repeats done in the Super Secret Beaded Lace Knitting Project (caps intentional).
Then today was work. And boy howdy was it busy. You sure can tell when the new moon is coming. Oy. 50 calls by the time I left (the normal is about 20 or 25) and I don’t know how many emails and faxes. It was all just a blur!
Anyway, I have 20 yummy cheezy/bacony baking soda biscuits for morning fortification and I’m going to go make some omelettes for dinner now. Win and win!
the phlox has no chance of remaining the tallest flower in the garden! Remember when it was sooooo hot here? Come on, you must remember me whining (as I so often do in the summer) about the heat? Well, the phlox in the garden was so tall and lovely. The smell was absolutely intoxicating. I would sit out on the deck as the sun went down and just breathe in the scent of the five foot phlox and the eight foot sweet peas. Gorgeous! Felt like my own little corner of heaven.
Then the weather finally broke and last night we got some rain, boo rah! we got some rain. It was glorious and massive and loud and gutter overflowing. I loved every second of it. The phlox? Not so much, actually.
Before:
After:
Yeah, that’s sort of really sad, isn’t it? They still smell really nice but they are smothering all the shorter plants in the bed. Mother Nature is the ultimate equalizer. No wait. That’s not right, is it? As an aside, could there be any MORE English name than Edward Woodward? I just enjoy saying it.
In other news, I’ve finished 10 repeats of the super secret project, lace & beads. Very cool. I promise you, all the kids will be doing this lace knitting soon. I’ve only had to tink one row and having said that I am thumbing my nose at the knitting gods and all knitting hell will now break loose. Lifeline? What’s that? Snort.
Not much else going on really. Oh wait, there was this. I need your opinion. I knit one of these socks. My first sock in Socks that Rock (note, you family members and loved ones, this stuff is the bomb and I would be over the moon to find it under the tree this holiday season! Just saying. I love you!) In eight days. A new personal best, thank you very much. But when I try it on, it’s all twisty and weird and just odd. I’m not sure if it’s just me or if I’ve done something horribly wrong or well just whatever, really.
Exhibit A:
Toe pulls to the left and will NOT sit flat over the top of the foot/toe area.
That’s dinner in the background, marinading.
Top View
The heel pulls funny too. Sort of to the outside of the foot:
With a little bit of Stella:
Oh, wait, that’s isn’t part of the problem. Anyway, I’m assuming the sock is a victim of bias of the knitting form. I was going to do the second sock reversed, so they would be a perfect pair. Now, I’m not so sure. Will I go insane because my left foot pulls left and my right food pulls right? They don’t feel particularly nasty or really odd on my foot, just sort of funny. You know? The fabric from the Socks that Rock yarn is drool worthy and gorgeous and all that it’s supposed to be.
What would you do? Would you knit that second sock? I await your wisdom.
As pointed out by the inimitable yarnpiggy, I had a mistake in my post yesterday about books being applicable under the new proposed BC HST laws. I apologize, hugely. So, in the interest of being absolutely positively right (’cause there is not much I like more than being right), I’ve gone to the Goverment of British Columbia site and lifted a copy of the list things that the government is proposing there be a point of sale rebate on:
These things would not have the PST (7%) portion of the HST charged on them. Sure, fuel is exempt but not yarn? Hello!
Seriously, other than the books, there is not a lot of fun stuff going on with that list. Gee, thanks for the feminine hygiene products & diapers though. Way to woo the female vote! Sigh.
Okay, I’ve found some other ways you can voice out. You can join a Facebook group over here (26, 419 members right now), if your that sort of social networking kind of person. Some Twittering type goings on.
Honestly though, this is what I believe will stop the HST. If you, your friends, your family, your co-0workers, and every other overtaxed British Columbian were to write to their MLA and tell them that you are not okay with this and that the implementation of this tax will effect who they vote for in the next election, those MLA’s are going to think twice about this tax. They don’t want to be out of a job anymore than you do and if it comes down to losing too many votes, they will do what the people say. After all, doing what the people say is their job, right? No really, that’s supposed to be how it is, right? I know, I know, I’m a closet optimist.
Okay, enough ranting for one night. Wanna see a cute dog & cat? Sure you do!
That’s my big Jane. She turned twelve this year so she’s kind of the grand dame of the dogs in the house. She was only 5 weeks old when we got her and weighed about 7 pounds. She’s about 100 pounds now. Kind of grew a bit. The entire litter was dumped on the Surrey BCSPCA doorstep. I believe there were 8 or 12 of them. The whole litter was even on the local noon news trying to find homes. Looking back I wish we had gotten two of them so they could have been together for all this time. We just couldn’t afford it way back then with having just bought a house and all. That’s her with the Beentsy girl.
Now I’m feeling all nostalgic and maudlin. Time to make dinner! Kebabs and home made hummus. Nom! Happy Wednesday y’all.
All you Canadians who had yesterday off for a civic holiday, was today not super-extra-amazingly hard to get out of bed day? Uh, huh, glad it wasn’t just me.
The long weekend was nice though. Not quite as hot as it has been, which is brilliant for me, personally. I got some work done on the new super secret project. Cue graphic:
5 repeats of a lace and beads pattern, thank you very much. Once I just read and followed the pattern and stopped trying to ‘think’ about it so much, it went swimmingly. Note to self, don’t think about it, just get it done. Hmmm, perhaps a new tattoo there. Oh man, I sound like Larry the Cable guy! Git ‘er done! Shudder.
Anyway, I also cast on a new sock/transit knitting project. Took it with me to the knitting meetup with the gals on Sunday. Yep, it’s definitely transit knitting, where I don’t actually talk to anyone because apparently I can’t talk and count. Needless to say I got to frog all my Sunday progress this morning. It’s almost back to where it was though:
That’s Kristel Nyberg’s Sunday Swing Socks in Socks that Rock Carbon Dioxide. Nom and nom and nom. Although, mine has some teal that I’m just not seeing in the skein at Blue Moon. I love flashing and pooling, so this skein is making me very happy! I’m hoping I end up with a big ol’ black/green/charcoal lightening bolt down and around my foot. One needs that type of energy in the dark, rainy, and cold days of winter.
Here it is with the 8 foot sweet peas (on steroids, we think), for scale:
That gate is a little over 5 foot, and the tallest of the sweet peas is a little over 8 feet. I’m ever so impressed. I will absolutely be planting these again next year.
Then my retired turtle light wanted in in the action:
Hubby is trying to fix him as we speak. Wouldn’t it be great if he get him to light up again?
One last thing, specifically for you British Columbia residents. Have you signed the anti-HST petition yet or sent a letter to your MLA yet? You do know that this means that there will be an extra 7% added to all yarn purchases in this province. We cannot let that happen! We need to let our MLA’s know that we are not sheep, (although we love wool), and that we will not take this tax grab quietly.
This is something that will definitely effect the bottom line of all our local yarn stores,coffee shops, book stores, appliance repairman, and that’s something we just cannot have! Can you imagine a world where you spend 7% less on yarn? No? I didn’t think so! How about on books or bicycles or if you by a home? Not so much eh?
The petition is up to 5690 signatures as of this very moment. Wanna be 5691? Come on, you know you do!
Also, please, if you have any other ideas/thoughts/ways to make this tax grab stop, please speak up! We all need to hear from you. We need to unite. We in BC cannot afford this, particularly not with the way the economy is right now. We need to make this tax NOT happen.
Okay, and the soapbox is again put away…until next time! I’m sorry, I can’t help myself and this wee little yarny blog is my best way of communicating my rather strong upset with what is currently happening in my home province. Please, tell your friends, family, paperboy, baby sitter, guy on the bus, girl serving your latte, everyone! – we can stop this from happening. We must stop this from happening or we will truly regret it for years to come. We just need to voice our unwillingness to roll over and accept more tax and force them to listen to us.
He, if you made it this far, thanks for listening to me rant. Now, wanna listen to a great song? Sure you do! Sharleen Spiteri = brilliant Scottish singer! I so want her to do the next James Bond song!
The whole CD is great. Just sayin’.
By that I mean the HST that the provincial Liberal government has suddenly decided to saddle my fair province with. I don’t normally rant about politics but this is oh so very wrong. If you agree, please write to your MLA and tell them so. Or go here and sign a petition that the NDP has set up. I’m not convinced that the NDP is the answer, mind you, but at least it’s one way of saying ‘NO’ to this tax.
It’s time to remind the government that they are there by our good graces, not because it is their right. Okay, putting away the soap box now.
