Burrito West Blog

Peter and I took two days off, made a super long weekend for ourselves and headed down to Portland, OR. We took the train, because trains are so civilized and relaxing. Slow, but civilized and relaxing.

We had a lovely time. Visited a small distillery, walked around a lot. Peter had a lot of microbrew beers. (BC/Vancouver could use some relaxed liquor/distilling laws.) We went to a cuban salsa club! We loaded up on books at the insane Powells Books - an enormous bookstore that sells a mix of new and used books. And we met some school chums of mine in a neat Thai place for dinner. It's very good to get away every now and then, and it's very handy to have an alternate universe version of your hometown to go to.

Last night a friend of Peter's offered us tickets to a show. We said yes, with no idea who we were going to see.

The good news is that Tuesday night parties have returned at our dance studio. Yay! So much better than Friday night parties where I'm all tired from a week of working. The bad news is that my Wednesday morning headaches have also returned. There's something so demoralizing about waking up with a headache - it's like you don't even get a chance to start your day and have it deteriorate, it just starts off sucking immediately. And you still have to get out of bed and go about things. This is the side of being a grownup that I dislike. On the upside, I may get some cookies on my way to work to make up for it, just because I can.

Random item: one of the blogs I read recently posted about these sheets. Yes, sheets. I admit that I love a good set of sheets... and yet, I've never really had super nice sheets. I look at the expensive high thread count sheets in stores and I wonder if they're actually so much better as to warrant the high price and I just can't buy them because I have no reason to believe they're really any better. But these sheets - described as being the thick, crisp sheets like from olden years.... that sounds promising, sounds like the sheets you get in a fancy hotel room. It is crazy to consider spending that much money on a set of sheets? It seems crazy.

The Canucks won the first game of their conference (if they win this series, they're in the Cup playoffs), which is very nice (and also a relief - I find playoffs stressful).

I missed the start of the game because I was at a friend's baby shower, meeting all sorts of lovely people. I got to deliver my handmade gift, which was great because it's not often that a handmade gift for a baby is ready in time for the shower! This time it was a crochet baby blanket - details are over on my craft blog or my ravelry page.

Peter and I booked train tickets for a long weekend down in Portland OR, just because we need to get away and some relaxing time on a train sounds perfect. And Portland is like the Vancouver alternative - very similar in attitude, but different in approach to things, so it's a cool place to hang out. We used one of those "name your price" websites for a hotel room and snagged the Hilton downtown for a steal. That's where we stayed last time we visited Portland, so it's becoming our hotel in town, which is funny, because it's posher than our usual kind of place. The moral of the story is, don't be afraid to lowball on those sites - you never know!

Things that have been keeping me busy:

- Canucks playoff hockey. They just made it through to the next round, for the first time in 17 years! I'm totally a bandwagon fan - I only get excited when the stakes are high. It's been a stressful series so far, so I'm glad for a few days off. I do love how the whole city seems to get energized by the playoff run - and I really love the noise that erupts downtown when they win (honking, cheering, etc).

- the foxtrot. Peter and I have been really struggling to make progress with the new, floaty version of the foxtrot (it's SO similar to waltz). We've made a point of practicing more over the past week so that when we go in for our private lesson tomorrow we can learn new stuff, instead of being re-taught the same thing over and over. Fingers crossed that we've imprinted the new foxtrot on our brains.

- reading. Have I mentioned lately that I love my Kobo ereader? LOVE IT. I almost always have it with me, and it's loaded with a whole pile of books (mostly classics). Recently I won an advance copy of a new book, The Blue Light Project, and it was very weird to be reading a print book again - so bulky and heavy! But at least the battery never died. Speaking of reading, I do keep my list of books read each year in the sidebar here (on the right), but I also use http://www.goodreads.com/ where I can make reviews/comments etc, read reviews, and see what my friends are reading and liking. It's a nice tool. If you're on there, let me know!

Random - someone tell my dad that I bought an LED lightbulb the other day in Canadian Tire. He was going on a year or so ago about why we don't have LED lightbulbs since they're so much more efficient... apparently they figured out the kinks and you can get them now. They're pricy though (I got one on super sale with a BC Hydro rebate), and last for ~20 years, so when you move, you'll have to remember to take your bulbs with you, I guess!

Finally - several days of sunshine in a row! It's been fabulous here. Today Peter and I went for a walk (as did everyone else in the City, apparently), got some ice cream and sat by the water for a spell. It was so lovely to be outside and warm!

Monday is election day. I hope everyone goes and exercises their right to vote - given all the unrest in the world, people fighting for the chance to choose their leaders, would be pretty terrible if we didn't appreciate our opportunity to do so.

I'm so keen to vote that I voted in the advance poll in April (shorter lines, generally). I've voted in every election since I was old enough; I feel I'm quite good at it actually. ;)

Here's the link to find your polling station.

In much more frivolous news- Peter and I have a whole new living room setup, including new (to us) couches. We're getting rid of our old couch on Monday. It's been quite the craigslist dance and jigsaw puzzle (there are currently 3 couches in our tiny apt living room, plus a floor loom), but we're getting closer to the living room we want.

This is the first time we've ever picked out our own furniture - we've always inherited it prior to this... a byproduct of always being temporary residents of a place, I suppose. The beauty of craigslist, especially in Vancouver, where people move in/out frequently, is that you can always find good stuff for a deal. (Also, thank goodness for the carshare - I don't know how we'd move all these couches around otherwise!)

I'm being a bit of a tease, since I won't have photos for a while, but I'm excited about new living arrangements, so I had to share. I do have this photo of Kitty on one of the new couches, to tide you over. :)