Thanks to Graeme for passing on photos taken by Gary Anderson:
more Mike & Tosca wedding photos
These photos are excellent! (Sorry about all the Ofoto advertising, though – that's the price one has to pay for 'free' online photo storage.)
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
The Chickens are Back at YVR for the 2nd Time in 26 Hours
Iris Says Sayonara to Vancouver (once again)
After a very, very late night that included some tasty martinis, some incredibly stiff cocktails, homemade white wine (thanks Gisela!) buffered by only a couple of hours of sleep, the three of us dragged our pathetic selves out of bed well before 6am (!!!) so we could get Iris to the airport on time for her flight back to Germany. There was, as you could imagine, a lot of complaining, but it was a beautiful bright morning and squinting did wake me up a bit more during the drive. It was a slight improvement over my usual one-eye-open-in-the-morning routine. My last early-morning long-haul flight was from New Zealand to Singapore (that's a whole 'nother story), which -- after a big night in Auckland -- felt like the longest flight of my life, even though it was only about 10 hours. Since then, I've sworn myself off those...
We skipped the entire Air Canada queue by going to the Express kiosks, which apparently you can use even with a paper ticket. Very convenient. I thought you couldn't use it once you had a paper ticket. She also wanted to change her seats, so we thought we'd give it a try. She inserted her credit card as reference, and a number of touch-screens later we obtained 3 boarding passes (Vancouver, Toronto, and Frankfurt), declared how much luggage she had, and selected seats for all three segments. That's such a time-saver, especially since she wouldn't have to take her bag off the carousel in Toronto for her flight to Frankfurt. Then we went to the GST rebate office to try to get some of her tax back, but her purchases were $2.51 off from the minimum requirement for a claim... well, you win some, you lose some. Iris won some money in Las Vegas, so it was her turn to lose a bit, even though it wasn't very much compared to her wins at the Vegas slots.
We said our goodbyes after some breakfast and industrial-strength coffee, and tossed up the idea of meeting in Spain next spring, before I fly to England for Lucy's wedding on May 1. I was thinking of Barcelona... the architecture there is something I want to see for myself.
Tschüss Iris, see you in seven months or so!
Speaking of early mornings, I had a reminder of another early morning meeting in July, when I read Ramon Stoppenburg's latest update:
Ramon Finally Posts His Last Photos of LetMeStayForaDay.com in Canada
Just what Christa was dreading... Ramon Stoppelenburg posted on his website the photo of her sleeping after I picked him up from the train station at an almost-equally-ungodly hour of the morning on July 21. We brought his stuff to the apartment for a layover before his trip to Vancouver Island. I took him to my local coffee shop for breakfast to let Christa sleep and so we could have a bit of a catch up. By the time we returned, Christa was showered and awake, so I plugged Ramon into my home network and got him high-speeding on the information highway so he could post his updates. After getting him a healthy start to the day, I gave him a bit of a mock interview.
Here's the link to that post with his PhotoJams and video clips.
After a very, very late night that included some tasty martinis, some incredibly stiff cocktails, homemade white wine (thanks Gisela!) buffered by only a couple of hours of sleep, the three of us dragged our pathetic selves out of bed well before 6am (!!!) so we could get Iris to the airport on time for her flight back to Germany. There was, as you could imagine, a lot of complaining, but it was a beautiful bright morning and squinting did wake me up a bit more during the drive. It was a slight improvement over my usual one-eye-open-in-the-morning routine. My last early-morning long-haul flight was from New Zealand to Singapore (that's a whole 'nother story), which -- after a big night in Auckland -- felt like the longest flight of my life, even though it was only about 10 hours. Since then, I've sworn myself off those...
We skipped the entire Air Canada queue by going to the Express kiosks, which apparently you can use even with a paper ticket. Very convenient. I thought you couldn't use it once you had a paper ticket. She also wanted to change her seats, so we thought we'd give it a try. She inserted her credit card as reference, and a number of touch-screens later we obtained 3 boarding passes (Vancouver, Toronto, and Frankfurt), declared how much luggage she had, and selected seats for all three segments. That's such a time-saver, especially since she wouldn't have to take her bag off the carousel in Toronto for her flight to Frankfurt. Then we went to the GST rebate office to try to get some of her tax back, but her purchases were $2.51 off from the minimum requirement for a claim... well, you win some, you lose some. Iris won some money in Las Vegas, so it was her turn to lose a bit, even though it wasn't very much compared to her wins at the Vegas slots.
We said our goodbyes after some breakfast and industrial-strength coffee, and tossed up the idea of meeting in Spain next spring, before I fly to England for Lucy's wedding on May 1. I was thinking of Barcelona... the architecture there is something I want to see for myself.
Tschüss Iris, see you in seven months or so!
Speaking of early mornings, I had a reminder of another early morning meeting in July, when I read Ramon Stoppenburg's latest update:
Ramon Finally Posts His Last Photos of LetMeStayForaDay.com in Canada
Just what Christa was dreading... Ramon Stoppelenburg posted on his website the photo of her sleeping after I picked him up from the train station at an almost-equally-ungodly hour of the morning on July 21. We brought his stuff to the apartment for a layover before his trip to Vancouver Island. I took him to my local coffee shop for breakfast to let Christa sleep and so we could have a bit of a catch up. By the time we returned, Christa was showered and awake, so I plugged Ramon into my home network and got him high-speeding on the information highway so he could post his updates. After getting him a healthy start to the day, I gave him a bit of a mock interview.
Here's the link to that post with his PhotoJams and video clips.
The German Chicken's Last Day in Vancouver
bye bye van
The weather held out! A wee bit chilly, but sunny, at least. The day started way too early... Iris and Christa flew back to Vancouver from their weekend in Las Vegas at 4 o'clock in the morning, so I pulled an all-nighter and picked them up... I went to bed after they did and woke up before they did!
After nearly 3 weeks in Vancouver, Iris's last day went something like this: funny eggs for brunch, dinner at the Sandbar on Granville Island -- on the top-floor patio with views of False Creek, finishing off the evening at the revolving restaurant/bar at the top of the Landmark Hotel on Robson Street for more views.
We go to the airport in a few hours!!! Where did the night go??
Monday, September 08, 2003
New York City photos
Ofoto is great!
I've FINALLY posted the photos of my memorable trip to New York City last New Year's: New York City, Dec 02/Jan 03
I flew to New York on Boxing Day and did a lot more while I was there compared to the previous trip at the end of 2000... and, a lot has happened to the city in the two years between. I spent some time at Ground Zero, walked all over the city, went on a museum crawl (MoMA, Guggenheim, The Whitney, Museum of Natural History) and stopped at major landmarks (Rockefeller Center, Empire State Building, Times Square, etc.). I also attended three performances: De La Guarda (Union Square), Proof (Walter Kerr Theatre), and -- my favourite -- Chicago (Schubert Theatre).
On the afternoon of December 31, I took a boat trip around Manhattan, then watched the final sunset of 2002 in New York Harbour. That was really special. Watching the ball drop on New Year's in Times Square with over half a million other people (!) was surreal. I have never been in a crowd of that size... it's a good thing I'm not claustrophobic.
Some of my favourite photos:
Grand Central Station
Metropolitan Museum of Art
George Washington Bridge and New Jersey
Museum of Natural History
Empire State Building and Madison Square Garden
Times Square just after the ball dropped
The Guggenheim Museum, New Year's Day
Sunday, September 07, 2003
The 3Ms at Science World
Look! A snake!
I took Cheryl and the kids to Science World today, since the weather was pretty dodgy....
... good thing, too, since it rained when I picked up some food at Urban Fare. I think Science World has come to be my favourite indoors place to take the kids. With its different age levels of games and activities, plus the steady lineup of live shows, it entertains them for hours on end.
All the photos from today have been posted to the Ofoto album:
Melissa, Michael, and Madeleine at Science World
The Mighty Michael Tower
Tosca & Mike's Wedding
The beaming bride.
Saturday, Sep 6
Hopkins-Rulli Wedding
Harrison residence, Kerrisdale
I've uploaded all the photos I have to Ofoto and they can be viewed here:
Tosca and Mike's Wedding Photos
***********************
Added Wednesday, Sep 10:
Thanks to Graeme for passing on photos taken by Gary Anderson:
more Mike & Tosca wedding photos
These photos are excellent! (Sorry about all the Ofoto advertising, though -- that's the virtual price one has to pay for free online photo storage.)
***********************
Ofoto has a slideshow feature (see right side menu), or you can view the photos as a PhotoJam, set to music (I'm limited to 3 songs, and I have to use Shockwave's music, so I apologize in advance for less-than-optimal selections...):
The Wedding PhotoJam
I threw this PhotoJam together with the intention of making improvements later, but my photo collection of the wedding is pretty limited. If you have any photos you would like to add, please send them to me! (I will add Gary Anderson's photos to the 'Jam shortly.)
I've also posted the video of The Grand Entrance, which is in AVI format, so you'll need Quicktime to view it. (*It's more than 20MBs, so if you don't have high-speed, chances are you could go out for dinner and be back before it finishes downloading.)
Last year I also made a PhotoJam of Mario & Roula's wedding (smaller photos on this one), which was in January 2002. (You will need the Shockwave Player to view this PhotoJam)
Mike in his early days of courting Tosca
-- my, how things have changed . . .
Newly-expanded Rulli family.
Newly-expanded Hopkins family.
Friday, September 05, 2003
Chickens at Sea Video Addendum
I've uploaded a video clip of our exit from Horseshoe Bay to my SFU webspace:
Kristin the Ringer
I am soooo tempted to post videos related to the story Alcohol Hits Sesame Street, but it is just too incriminating. Tomorrow **Elmo** and **Cookie Monster**are having a housewarming party on, well, Sesame Street, of course. Tomorrow is also Tosca's wedding, and I told Kristin and Eliza that I probably won't be able to make the big Sesame Street party, with all its cast of characters -- don't forget **Snuffleupagus** and **Big Bird** -- even though Kristin assured me it would go really late. Thing is, I would have to change first. Showing up looking like I just came from a wedding would make me stand out a bit too much.
So, I started writing my speech for the wedding, and it just feels so strange writing something that should be unscripted and sound natural. So, I got out my digital recorder with the intention of practicing.
Kristin the Ringer
I am soooo tempted to post videos related to the story Alcohol Hits Sesame Street, but it is just too incriminating. Tomorrow **Elmo** and **Cookie Monster**are having a housewarming party on, well, Sesame Street, of course. Tomorrow is also Tosca's wedding, and I told Kristin and Eliza that I probably won't be able to make the big Sesame Street party, with all its cast of characters -- don't forget **Snuffleupagus** and **Big Bird** -- even though Kristin assured me it would go really late. Thing is, I would have to change first. Showing up looking like I just came from a wedding would make me stand out a bit too much.
So, I started writing my speech for the wedding, and it just feels so strange writing something that should be unscripted and sound natural. So, I got out my digital recorder with the intention of practicing.
Yahoo Photo Albums
Some of you may be wondering why I haven't kept up with adding photos to the Yahoo albums, then putting links in the Blog. Well, there have been announced changes for Yahoo Albums that won't take effect until sometime between now and October 10, so I'm reluctant to do anything with the albums until the changes have been implemented. In short, the main change for me is that subfolders will be removed, and all current subfolders will be moved and renamed to the parent folder.
Changes to Yahoo Photo Albums
For example, right now I have a parent folder of 2003, and under that I have subfolders for every month, then under individual month folders, sometimes I have more subfolders of separate occasions.
What I could do is to move all the subfolders and rename them myself, but oy vey, what a job.
The other day I had an epiphany. About half a dozen times in the past week I've been at the point of filling out my credit card information to buy more webspace, but -- being a self-admitted commitmentphobe -- I didn't want to pay for a whole year of webspace from what could turn out to be a dodgy company. Then I realized that SFU students probably get webspace as part of having an automatic account at the university, so I e-mailed the webmaster and he informed me that all students get 100MBs. Great! It sounds like a lot, but video clips take up loads of space, and with only SIX videos currently in the directory, I have already used up half my quota!
Changes to Yahoo Photo Albums
For example, right now I have a parent folder of 2003, and under that I have subfolders for every month, then under individual month folders, sometimes I have more subfolders of separate occasions.
What I could do is to move all the subfolders and rename them myself, but oy vey, what a job.
The other day I had an epiphany. About half a dozen times in the past week I've been at the point of filling out my credit card information to buy more webspace, but -- being a self-admitted commitmentphobe -- I didn't want to pay for a whole year of webspace from what could turn out to be a dodgy company. Then I realized that SFU students probably get webspace as part of having an automatic account at the university, so I e-mailed the webmaster and he informed me that all students get 100MBs. Great! It sounds like a lot, but video clips take up loads of space, and with only SIX videos currently in the directory, I have already used up half my quota!
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Cocktails in the Garden
Wednesday, Sep 3
Cocktails in the Garden in Honour of Tosca and Mike
Meekison residence, Point Grey
More pre-wedding celebrations were thrown, this time at the home of Mike's and Graeme's godmother. Family and friends gathered to imbibe, indulge in culinary delights, and enjoy each other's company a few days before the BIG DAY. A glorious sunset over the horizon of the Pacific Ocean was the backdrop for the garden party in Point Grey, with the beach below and the burnt amber shades of sun above. Now, if only we could be so lucky to have a repeat weather performance for Saturday!
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