Road Trip to Springfield (sort of)

“OK, we’ve got a new car. I know it’s mainly to make the commutes to our jobs a little earlier and gas is expensive, but whaddayasay we take a little drive?”

“Great idea! Where shall we go?”

“Well, we’re in Beautiful British Columbia, surrounded by mountains, beaches and parks. We could drive to the Ferry and take a trip to the islands. Or we could take a trip to the south of the city to the berry fields and pick some loganberries or blueberries.”

“Um, it’s raining. Pretty hard, too.”

“Drat.”

“I know, let’s take a trip to the only Kwik-E-Mart in Canada!”

And with that, we packed our bags with cameras and were on our way.

The Kwik-E-Mart, for those who aren’t familiar with this bit of pop culture, is the fictional Convenience Store chain in the Simpsons TV Series (now in it’s 18th season). The store in the show is run by Apu Nahasapeemapetilon (No one can ever pronounce his last name, so he just goes by Apu). In ‘the real world’, the 7/11 chain has picked stores sprinkled throughout North America and redecorated them, in many cases renaming their own products, so that they closely resemble the fictional stores. It’s part of a tie-in with The Simpsons Movie, which is due to open in theatres in 6 days. The result is…a 7/11 with some fun, often hilarious decor and signage, and a steady stream of smiling people, either customers or like us, tourists. It’s truly, marketing genius. On the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons mentioned that the Kwik-E-Mart transformed 7/11s were the first time he’d ever seen ‘happy people’ in those stores. Our Kwik-E-Mart is in Port Coquitlam, a suburb to the east of Vancouver. It was a bit of a drive, but we did some shopping on the way back, and generally enjoyed our new freedom. The traffic, on the other hand, I could have done without. Doh!

Our Lunch with Wanda

Since it was Saturday and the sun was out (a rare combination if there ever was on in Vancouver in Winter), we took a walk, and ended up on Granville Street, up near Meinhardt’s. We had met with someone earlier and didn’t have lunch, so we were a little hungry. We stopped and went into the narrow little restaurant that is run by Meinhardts called ‘Picnic’, which offers some of their salads, sandwiches and quiches from a glass case at the front, and has seating in the form of 3 or 4 tables for two and a large, marble-topped picnic-style table that runs roughly half the length of the room. We took our seats, the two of us next to each other on the bench, and were just about to dig into a lunch of Endive Salad, Chicken Sausage roll (in my case) and Yam salad, when Pam’s eyes go wide and her jaw drops. Across from us, about to sit down right in front of Pam, is Nancy Robertson, who is the woman who plays “Wanda” in the Canadian TV sitcom “Corner Gas”. I knew that Ms. Robertson and her husband (and creator of the show), Brent Butt, were both Vancouver residents and lived nearby, but this was the first time we’d ever run into any of the cast.

It’s important to note that Pam is a Corner Gas Fan. Actually, she’s more than a fan. She’s a big fan. As in not ever missing an episode (and thank goodness for the TiVo, we don’t have to rush home to catch it when it’s on).

After letting Nancy eat her lunch and read her Georgia Straight, Pam couldn’t hold back any longer and said what an honour it was to meet her. We chatted for a little while, and Nancy was very gracious, and hopefully not too put upon. We noted that it was a nice thing for her to be able to get a vacation, and she related the shooting schedule (4 1/2 months) in Saskatchewan, where the series takes place. She told us that the series was being released in the US this coming September, and Australia as well. I’m hoping it’s a hit in the US, partly because it will be nice to see Canadian characters on American TV who are not Mounties or the McKenzie Brothers .

After we said goodbye and headed out for other errands, I asked Pam if this made her day or perhaps her week? She just grinned from ear to ear.

Trips, Gadgets and Upgrades

Come to think of it, I’ll tackle these three items in the title in reverse order:

The reason that it has been so long since I’ve posted anything to this blog was because of the new-and-improved release of Wordpress, version 2.1 (referred to as Ella, as in Fitzgerald), which is the software that I use to publish this blog. I needed a block of time of about 3 hours, I thought. The first step to doing the upgrade was to download both a backup of the database that Wordpress uses (SQL), as well as all of the files that made up the initial blog, taking care to insure that if anything went wrong, I could partially or even completely reconstitute the roughly 200 postings from just the text. I did this once, but then saw some comments. So I put off the upgrade, and therefore, put off any new posts. Finally, yesterday evening I had enough time to very carefully back everything up, delete all of the old blog files (except for the content), and then upload the new version and run the upgrade script. To my surprise, everything worked perfectly. Either I’m better at this than I thought, or the many people who have reported going through an ordeal moving to the new version had more complex sites than I did; I really can’t say.

At any rate, the blog is back, upgraded and improved, and despite deleting and uploading all of those files and performing a few other tasks extremely slowly and carefully, it didn’t take 3 hours; More like 90 minutes. The changes to Loud Murmurs are invisible to you, dear reader. It does serve the pages far faster, and the editor for doing posts has been dramatically improved. There are a few other administrative screens and security rewrites, etc., but again, it’s all behind the scenes. Take it from me, on the other side of the site, we’ve all got new furniture. So welcome to Loud Murmurs 2.1. Long time, no see.

One reason (among many) that I wasn’t able to find time for the upgrade (or posting) was a new gadget. Our newest piece of technology is a gift from my brother and his family, a TiVo. After a long wait, we’ve finally gotten it set up and recording away. It was no small task, because getting Canadian listings require a network connection if you don’t want the box making weekly long-distance phone calls to the states, because the setting for retrieving Canadian listings is — and I swear I’m not making this up — Leo, Wyoming. So, after getting a wireless adapter so that we can use the TiVo with our home network, and after a few other electronic, hardware and software hoops, I’m pleased that I no longer have to choose between catching an episode of Heroes or writing an entry here. Let’s hear it for time-shifting! I should mention that the other advantage to having this PVR (Personal Video Recorder) on the home network is that I can copy any recorded show from the TiVo to my computer, and after some compression and conversion, to my iPod. Too cool.

After my trips to Buffalo and San Francisco, our little drive down to Seattle felt quite short. We visited for a brunch and afternoon with my brother and his family. We had a terrific meal at Monsoon, an upscale Vietnamese restaurant where you can not only get that wonderful classic, Banh Xeo (pronounced Bann-show, it’s a sort of crepe/omelette that actually contains no eggs; the ‘crepe batter’ is a mixture of water, coconut milk and rice flour with a trace of tumeric and folded around handfuls of beansprouts, shrimp and lean pork), but also a terrific Vanilla French Toast made with brioche (which my niece ordered and many of us tasted). We only visited for a short time, but managed to fit in a chilly walk on Seattle’s new Olympic Sculpture Park. We also picked up that afformentioned wireless adaptor for the TiVo, and were back in Vancouver before midnight (but not that much before, due to a stop in Bellingham to do some minor shopping at Target).

There’s lots more to add; when you don’t take note of things right away they pile up. I’ll try and catch up in future posts.

My Office’s Starring Role

Some months ago we all had a day off from work because a television crew was using our offices to shoot a mini-series for ABC called “Kyle XY” . A couple of weeks ago, that episode aired on the ABC Family Channel, and a digitized version showed up on the Internet. Without too much trouble, I was able to get a DivX version that I can easily play (and even grab the odd screen from). What is particularly humorous to me now, is that it seems ludicrous to have the office (in the show) with all of those exposed beams and wood ceiling on the fifth floor of a six story building (We’re on the 3rd floor, but the rickety elevator just didn’t suit, so they used a stock shot). Nevertheless, the show is mildly diverting. (The plot in a nutshell: A foundling teenager with no memory, no belly button, and extraordinary talents for mathematics and computer hardware/software is either an alien or escaped lab experiment. He teaches his adoptive family of 2 parents and 2 teens valuable lessons in togetherness, honesty, tolerance, etc.) Oh, and the lead, Matt Dallas, who plays Kyle, manages to be both a hunk, and dewy at the same time.

Happy Canada Day!

I think that a national holiday is a good enough excuse for me to get back into the blogging habit.

We had a great holiday today, even if we did start a little late (got up a little after 9AM after playing the board game ‘Ticket to Ride’ with Matt, Oana, and their friend Ryan last night until very late). We did a little tidying up of the back patio and moved a few small blocks of concrete that had been sitting there for a year, and then we went out to Stanley Park. At the Boat House, we caught the free shuttle, which just started up a couple of days ago. It took us all around the perimeter of the park (this takes about 30 minutes or so). It really gives you an idea of how huge Stanley Park is. Afterward, we walked over to a park bench by the edge of the Lost Lagoon, and caught a few rays of afternoon sunshine while watching the sun-dappled water, the ducks, and the fountain, while listening to our iPods and generally just relaxing.

On the way home on the bus, we heard the best ‘Overheard in Vancouver‘ -style exchange:

He: So have you heard of this Canabis Day Celebration?

She: What are you talking about? I’ve never heard of it.

He: Just another chance for them to smoke it, I guess.

While this sounded like suspiciously like a snarky malaprop, sure enough, there indeed was a huge congregation of teens and slightly older people all celebrating some kind of Cana - day by the Art Museum (the standard place for all events that take place in the city), and this one did seem to involve smoking, although I must admit that I really didn’t smell anything, and that’s saying something.

Later we came home, where Pam went down to Granville Island to pick up some fruit and veggies, and I went up the street to get some beer. We munched on pizza and beer while watching the Corner Gas marathon on the Comedy Channel.

Outside we can hear the music from the park, and soon, the fireworks will start.

In just two weeks, we’ll have been living here exactly a year, and we feel more settled than ever. This three-day weekend holiday has come at just the right time for us to sit back and enjoy our new home more than ever before. I’m starting for feel a lot more Canadian these days. It’s not a bad feeling, eh?