the power of awesome

Burn the libraries down - kids can learned stuff on there oan. Let's just say, I love me some pro-readin' trickery!

fleas/nipples

as i was sitting, scratching nalla's belly today, i suddenly remembered how, when we first got her, i was scratching her belly and freaked out because i thought she had fleas. turns out they were her nipples. oops. in my defence, i'd never had a girl cat before.

welcome to the family, iTampon

SAWEET! in celebration of the upcoming full moon, i got an iPad today. huzzah!
extra awesome is that you can rent books from the library, and download the classics for free. yahoo!

summer goes on and on

as hockey season starts, we're going to give the Canucks some time to warm up. while they're doing that, we're off to Cabos San Lucus!

we're going to stay at: Royal Solaris Los Cabos and hopefully get to enjoy some SCUBA diving and lots of sun! whoo hoo!

Canuck Pucks

for last night's game (meh - it certainly wasn't great, but I do believe that a loss is a loss, and it's gonna be better to write that one off and bounce back for Wednesday) I made these:


I got the idea from the Fort Nucks website, and decided to modify (of course) and try my hand at these tasty treats.

Basically, I made two chocolate cakes (I just ended up throwing the extra one in the freezer) and then crumbled the cake in the mixer, added about a cup of pre-made chocolate icing (which I don't normally do, but I was going for easy since we were already doing loads of other stuff) and then mixed it up again, formed them into puck-ish shapes and threw them in the freezer for a bit. After I melted half of the chocolate chips the recipe called for, I dipped the top half of the pucks into the chocolate and put them back in the fridge. Once the chocolate hardened a bit, I decorated them. I should have let them dry between icing colours, but the game had already started, so that wasn't really an option.

In the end - super tasty, easy to make chocolate Canucks puck cake success!

round 4

well, it's only been since 1994 that we've seen this show. i for one, am ready to see this team finish the post-season in the same way they finished the regular season: on top.

i've been to a few games now, including game 5 of the last round, and let me tell you, the Canucks are playing well and with Manny potentially coming back into the line-up, things are looking good.

normally i'd want a sweep, but since i don't have tickets until game 5, and it is the Stanley Cup finals, I'm not going to hold my breath on that one.

finish strong, Canucks! Canada is cheering for you!

must crochet a beard for tonight's game

etsy playoff beard

it shouldn't be too hard to make. i just need to get some playoff beard yarn. do i join the ginger beard club? perhaps!!

watch for me at the game tonight. go canucks go!

'tis the season

ah, it's that time of year. the flowers are blooming, the vegetable garden is planted, it's warm enough for a drink on the patio, as long as it's not raining, and the Canucks are down to do-or-die.

this year, more than ever, was supposed to be the year. the first two games played out as planned, and though the third was a bit rough, we were still on track. then came game 4, which could have made it a sweep. and wouldn't that have just been showing it to those damn Blackhawks? and game 5 followed. it was scary and depressing.

game 6 started off right, except for a couple of assists by schneider... assists to the Blackhawks that is. a game rife with uncalled penalties, cheers and moans of disbelief. a game that the Canucks showed up for, but still somehow lost. and now the city, the provice, and i do say, even the country is waiting for game 7. it will either be followed with tears of joy, and bitter upset.

i'm hoping for tears of joy. in fact, i think i'm going to sign up for season tickets first thing tomorrow (they're closed on holidays)... sure, i won't get through for years, but i'll be ready, hoping to have a good view of the 2011 Stanley Cup Champions banner that will be hung from the rafters.

a letter to the annoying american girl

Dear Annoying American Girl,
You were sitting behind me at the Canucks game, and I really wish you hadn't been. Unfortunately, your lack of knowledge and ability to read did not stop you from voicing your opinion on basically everything.

Here are some tips that may help prevent fists/drinks/too buttery popcorn from flying in your face at the next game you go to:

1. The guy from Michigan? He's not number 23.
2. There isn't anyone (hot or not) on the team named Bee-es-ka.
3. The crowd isn't saying, 'Boooo' every time Luongo makes a save.
4. The crowd *is* booing the icing being waved off.
5. I don't really care about your friend's room mate who stole from her and is apparently doing coke. Also, just because she's doing coke, it doesn't not stand to reason that the whole Canucks team is doing crack. That's not sound logic.

I encourage people who don't know anything about hockey to go to games. I'm not an expert, but I do know that at some point during the game, it would be nice for the people around you if you just spoke your load opinions a little bit softer, or even took a break for a breath.

Yours truly,
Ursula Hoefer

pumpkin carving!

gerry and i carved pumpkins tonight!




gerry's is the pumpkin carriage.




mine is a bird in a cage.

i'm on a boat muthafuckah!

saturday we sailing. since we'd had the camping fail, we were pretty okay with the idea to head out to the bay when claude suggested it.

well, gerry was more okay with it than me, since i have mostly had the experience of feeling ill on the boat. armed with my 'quease ease' aromatherapy, since all the gravol does is conk me out, so while i don't feel like barfing, i do feel like sleeping, i decided to suck it up and enjoy the perfect weather, and excellent company.

i did still feel ill, but it wasn't as bad as other times, and i wasn't as tired after sailing, because i avoided the gravol.

if there's a co-op near you, and you're interested in sailing, i'd suggest joining it. then, if like me, you love being on the water, and the idea of sailing is awesome, but in the end it makes you want to vomit, you haven't lost nearly as much money as you would have buying a boat. also, unless you're retired, or so rich that you don't have to show up to work everyday, it's hard to get out enough to justify having a boat. just sayin'.

camping fail

we've been working tonnes. heaps of weekends and most evenings. gerry and i were looking forward to camping (without work or computers) for ages. wednesday night, i got home, gerry packed up the escape, and i packed my bag with at least three books, a swimsuit, shorts, and sunscreen. YAY! we were going camping. that evening, after an hour or so wait at the border, we had burritos and drove on pack seattle where we spent the night.

the next day we drove to oregon, we got all the groceries we needed for 3 days camping, and extra batteries for the flashlights. then it started to rain. which was fine, i mean, really - we live in BC... we were prepared for rain. but, then it was really really raining. we got to the campsite and decided we'd better put a tarp up as quickly as possible, to help create a bit of a dry spot. by the time we got the tarp up, there were puddles in our site, and the tarp was so full of water, cups of water were pouring over the edge.

we decided we'd leave the tarp up, go grab a warm drink and wait for the rain to let up. as we were driving out of the campsite, the rain got worse, and we decided we'd just pack up our stuff and head home. and so we did.

we were home by 1 a.m. and the next day, kept the no computers rule, cooked everything on the barbeque, and read and hung out.

it was kind of like camping... but the bed was more comfortable, and there wasn't a line-up for the showers.

happy wedding shower, alicia!

today was alicia's wedding shower. so rachel, becca and i met at rachel's to prepare for the shower early, then we all (angela and alicia met us there) went for manis and pedis, and then we fished stuff up at the house and had the shower.

in what is now a tradition, the shower was a strawberry social theme. there were foods that didn't have anything to do with strawberries - a cheese platter, some chips, and hmm... maybe there was something else. in the world of strawberries, there was strawberry soup, scones with strawberry jam, whipped cream, and some strawberries on top, strawberry-raspberry tartlettes, and some chocolate dipped strawberries. hellz yeah.

we played three games, guess who i am/famous couples style, wedding pictionary, and wedding game of things. good times, yo!

the main gift, and if i may be so bold as to suggest that more people should do this for wedding showers, was a collection of money to spend on a weekend away/honeymoon for alicia and andy. there were a couple of other gifts, so she had something to open, a kitchenaid food processor (i have one, and it's AWESOME) and a beautiful wooden piece, and a platter - just a few things.

long day, but great shower. and thank god i *finally* got that pedicure i've been needing.

v-town calling

today, on the one day this month that i should have been able to sleep-in, gerry and i got up at 6am and went to the island. why in the world would i do that? because i am an idiot. oh, and i wanted to pick up the side board that i bought from julie, and gerry wanted to visit his cousins.

so we got up, dragged our asses to the ferry and managed to get on the 8am to V-town. We had a lovely brunch with miss julie, and loaded in the sideboard without a problem and then headed for his cousin's place.

we went for a little walk to a coffee shop, where i had a nice steamed soy, and gerry talked to his cousin's kid about nerd things, which the kid LOVED, and then we tried to make the 3 o'clock ferry back. we missed it, by like 10 minutes.

it was lovely weather, and despite my insane tiredness and grumpiness, i had a nice day.

pupusas

i'm pretty much getting to be an expert at making pupusas. they are a salvadorian food - mesa flour stuffed with cheese and refried beans. they're basically awesome, easy to make, cheap, and super delish.

but now i'm so full of beans, and salsa that we bought at the mesican place in bellingham that i feel ill. oh wait - maybe that's just because the canucks lost again tonight. *sigh* at least it was a good game.

VW Up! Lite

ohmygosh, ohmygosh!



how much fun would this be? did someone say 70 mpg? and it's meant to be released this year? i'm pretty much going to be one of the first to test drive this. huzzah!

name that tune

tonight we spent the evening at the pub with our new best friends. :o)

we had some extra seats around us and invited some people who were standing to sit with us. SUCCESS!

they were super fun and we started the bar cheering with us, and then we played name that tune after the gloriousness that we will call canada beating slovakia.

all in all, another great olympic party. :o)

canada vs usa // women's hockey

what an awesome game!

the canadian women did us proud.

it was exciting and well played. kudos to the americans for putting up a good fight.

whoot!

canada vs usa // men's hockey

exciting, gripping game - both teams played amazingly well. i do think that canada played better. the problem is that miller out goalied us.

but i have faith! canada can for sure beat germany, and then we just need to beat russia. that's all.

i'm looking forward to going to the gold medal game, and watching canada win!

olympic reviews

Irish House - went around noon, got through the line in about 10 minutes. If we go again, will get Gerry to bring his passport because then we can skip the queue completely. Great place to go if you just want to drink and watch the games. Food's decent, as long as you don't get the potatoes poached in roasted chicken fat; they call them fries.

Canada House - 14 million? What the what? There are a bunch of tvs for kids to play with, a torch you would have to stand in a THIRD line up to hold, a bobsleigh, and mounties. That's it. No really, that's it. At least you can walk over to the LiveCity that has tvs and booze.

Manitoba House - At least it didn't cost 14 million and there are pics of polar bears.

Cauldron - worth seeing.