Burrito West Blog

Peter and I spent the last few hours of 2016 dancing to great live music with fellow dancers & friends. It was at a party where we were possibly the youngest people there, but that's just how it is at dance things - younger people aren't into it, people our age are at home with babies, so it's mostly retirees. That's okay, we had a great time!

2016 was a weird year, wasn't it?

Peter and I started the year by making our second trip to Vienna for another ball, this time with my sister and her partner. It was fabulous. Vienna is one of our favourite places, and we kind of like going back to the same place repeatedly - you get to develop favourite places and you've done the touristy stuff so you can relax; it's good. We're planning Vienna 2018 and trying to talk some dance friends into joining us. Fingers crossed it works out!

We continued to get to know Carlos, and he and Bernoulli figured out how to co-exist. I spent a lot of time cuddling = success. Still miss our little Kitty.

Work started off a drag as I was stuck doing compliance reviews still, but that got moved off my plate when someone awesome was hired. Then I applied for and got a promotion in June, which was cool except that we did not backfill my old position so the rest of the year was hectic and left me feeling like I was not doing a good job. I'm optimistic this will be better starting in February. I'm lucky to work with a great team on interesting stuff, so even when it's crazy, I try to be grateful!

Peter did a lot of night mountain bike riding, which sounds like a strange hobby to me, but makes him happy. We passed our Bronze 4 dance exam and moved to Silver 1. I'm able to follow most of the random stuff Peter makes up, so social dancing is super fun for us now. We made a short trip to Harrison Hot Springs to celebrate our anniversary and dance in the Copper Room which was pretty lovely.  Also on the dance front: we got to be back up dancers in a music video - that was fun! It was a good year for dance.

I did some kickboxing with friends which was fun. Need to do more of that. Peter and I did some local hiking. I went on a camping trip with several friends in Manning Park and had a great time. Went on a cruise with a friend (neither of us really cruise-type people; had fun anyway).  Peter went to Thailand and Malaysia with a friend to celebrate their 40th birthdays.  My sister and her partner arrived in June and set out on their trip across Canada by bike (which they made look easy).  I traveled for work for the first time since I was an Engineer (to Baltimore and Toronto)!  Peter and I did a short trip to Silverstar.

I got back into donating blood. Did some fundraising & photography for local cat rescue groups.  Need to find some additional volunteer work for 2017 I think.

Peter turned 40 and in addition to travelling in Thailand and Malaysia, he had a surprise glider flight, a surprise party organized by his family, and went skydiving.

We saw Christine and the Queens in concert and it was amazing.

I had awesome chunks of blue hair all year until I chopped it all off in November (so good to have short hair again!).

Hoping for better work/life balance in 2017 for both Peter and I. Also: more fun times with friends and finding new ways to contribute to community.

It's been a strange winter in Vancouver. Multiple snowfalls! Temperatures below zero for multiple days! Weird. I finished work on Dec 16, stacked up some unused vacation days to spend the rest of the month relaxing.

Peter and I went to Whistler on Dec 16. Peter went boarding despite the fact that it was -16degC! That's like real Canadian winter cold. Two pairs of pants cold. It's been a long time since I've experienced that. Funny to think I spent the first 26 years of my life in places where that was normal in winter and now I'm quite ill-equipped to handle it.

I spent some time in Whistler's lovely library, happily tucked into an armchair by the fire with a hot chocolate and a view of some snowy woods. It took me a while to figure out that the library is by far the most relaxing place to hang out in Whistler. Also, free magazines to read.

I had a chance to meet up with an old friend (former varsity teammate) and meet her cute 1 year old son. Peter and I even managed to stay up late enough to go to the concert that brought us to Whistler in the first place - Willa. She's from Whistler and was doing a gig there. We lasted until 12:30am and then bailed - definitely feeling how much older we were than the partying young'uns. Was nice to enjoy some live music though.

I've since been puttering around the apartment doing the occasional productive thing (today I will wash the dishes!) but mostly binge watching netflix (The OA!),cuddling cats, crafting (beads!), going for walks. It's exactly what I wanted and it's lovely.

On Dec 20th I went out for dinner with some friends: a dinner I worked hard to schedule - everyone is so busy - and it was fabulous to get us all in one place. I was thinking back to how I met both these ladies, both are kind of funny stories. One is a weaver who had a blog I stumbled on whose work I fell in love with. I connected with her somehow - probably asked for local advice on learning to weave and she was kind enough to respond. Shortly after she started a yarn-dying company (which is doing very well now!) and I went to her studio for a knit night and we just kept meeting & enjoying each other's company. Helped that she was a ballroom dancer in university, so we unexpectedly had that in common! She even invited us to her lovely wedding to her great husband (some pretty amazing dancers on that wedding dance floor). She had also become friends with the other woman at dinner who I met separately. This second woman wrote a book on crochet (she's written several, actually) and had a book reading in a local yarn store. I went to the event with some crafting friends and we ended up chatting with her and inviting her to join us on one of our craft nights. And somehow we actually connected and turned that into a friendship.

They're both such wonderful, creative people. It's so interesting to me how tentative connections - meeting at a book reading, emailing someone because of their amazing blog, can turn into lasting friendships. They both have kids now, so scheduling this is hard, but we all agreed last night that we have to get together more frequently, so I'm going to follow up on that, even if it takes a doodle poll and 47 emails to lock in a date! One of the advantages of getting old - being able to look back at all the interesting and unlikely ways you've connected with the people who are your friends.

 Today was brought to you by my apparently regular Friday headache... what's that about?  Despite that, I took a few photos....

stairs

escalator

alley

I tend to take my camera with me on Fridays when I work in the Downtown Eastside because I'm in a cool building with fantastic photo ops from every window (I have to sneak into other people's cubicles to get to said windows, however).

Today included a big group lunch at a neat pizza place I had never heard of - I had an amazing pizza that involved prosciutto, garlic, cheese, and figs. Seriously, figs on pizza? delicious. Is this a sign my days as a picky eater are over? I wouldn't have gone anywhere near that pizza 5 years ago.

To keep the universe from exploding, I did abstain from anything containing mushrooms, so there's still that.

Old ad on the side

Have I mentioned I love my camera?  Love love love.  Panasonic G2 with a 20mm lens - it's beauty.

Happy 2013!

Very exciting news for Peter and I!!

Starting in April, we'll be moving to Europe for a year-long 'sabbatical'!

Yup, we're taking a year off to go live abroad and travel! Thanks to my awesome bosses*, I've secured a 1 year unpaid leave from my fantastic job, meaning we can go have this adventure and then I can come back to continue doing the work I love.  I'm feeling pretty lucky!

Peter and I have been saving for a big trip for several years, and all the pieces fell into place for a 2013 start.  The plan (subject to much change as we work out details) is to go live in a college city in Poland called Wrocław, establish a bit of a life there, do short trips from there (hello Prague & Vienna!), then we'll spend the last month or so traveling further afield (Korea?).

Soon this blog will be written from someplace old & European

We've got a lot of big things to work out, such as: subletting our apt, finding a superhero (or two superheros) who will take care of our cats for us (and dote on them), getting my visa, planning our travels, etc. but - it's real enough now that I can announce it!

The official approval from my work came through just before the holidays so Peter and I have started the serious planning. We decided a few days ago that one thing we're going to do is go to a ball in Vienna at the Imperial Palace in January 2014.  A chance to waltz in a palace ball room?  oh yes.  Just need to step up our Viennese waltz practice over the the next year... which I think we'll have time to!  Dance will be a part of our year off; the point is to spend time doing things we try to cram in the margins of normal life - dance lessons, reading, learning photography, taking some courses (the Polish uni has courses taught in English), and most of all - travel.

Stay tuned for desperate pleas for leads on people who might want to sublet our apt for a year and for the hero who will take a cat for us!

I expect this blog will get a whole lot more interesting soon. :)

*The awesomeness of my bosses can't be overstated - this is a huge headache for them (they have to back fill my position and structure all my projects so they can be handed over, and then a year later, transition it all back again). I'm super lucky that they are totally supportive of me doing this!

(not our tree)

We're very lucky in that Peter's family always cooks a big christmas dinner - traditional polish fare (no meat, homemade perogies).  We went to their place for dinner on christmas eve and it was lovely, as always.  After dinner was the traditional singing of the Polish christmas carols, then presents!

Then we were taken to midnight mass where we were given copies of the book "Rediscovering Catholicism" - it appears the catholic church is making an effort to recruit people back... unfortunately for them, nothing turns me off religion faster than a mass/service - even with their video  ad 'love letter from god' I was unswayed.

I can laugh about it - because my family leaves me alone about my religious choices, but poor Peter, always getting lectured/guilted by his family for not practicing catholicism.  Doubly unfair because we're not allowed to question their religious beliefs - it's a total 1-way street that.

Peter opens prezzies

Anyway, aside from the attempt to recruit us into religion, we managed to have a nice time.  And I got to take more photos with my lovely new camera lens!

On the gift side - I asked for minimal stuff and had some great donations to charities in my name, which is fabulous. But Peter wins for secretly going to his parents' place to use his mom's sewing machine to MAKE me something.  I've been wanting a camera bag insert (i.e. turns any bag into a padded camera bag) and he MADE me one. This is something I specifically thought about making and decided it would be too much of a pain - he took that on as his first ever sewing project. Best christmas present ever.

Merry christmas to everyone!  And me too! 

Look - a photo of my cat! So original!

I got myself a new lens for my camera - 20mm (40mm equivelent on an slr), with a 1.7 fstop.  This means deliciously shallow depth of field and fantastic low-light photos and I'm totally in loooooove with it already.


Photographers rave about this lens in the micro 4/3 camera world, so I stalked it on ebay and got one for a decent price (unlike the local craigslist sellers who wanted more for it than it currently sells for on amazon.com even though we all live a 1 hr drive from the border).  Had to wait for my friend to visit (had it mailed to her in the US). 

Low light photos - hand held camera!  *swoon*

Got it yesterday (along with a lovely brunch date with said friends), went to Burnaby Village Museum (super nifty place to go a christmas) and took a zillion photos. May never take this lens off.

Pretty carousel, just for fun.

Photos are over on flickr!

We met two new neighbours tonight when they came over looking to borrow sugar (in the middle of cookie-making).  Makes me think that next time I move to a new building, I might just fake a need for sugar to meet some people - it's a good way to break the ice!

What else has been going on? 

Whale bones

Peter and I went to the Beaty Biodiversity Museum at UBC a few weekends ago - I'd heard it's quite interesting and it didn't disappoint.  The whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling is pretty astonishing!  More photos on flickr eventually.

Did another cat photo shoot last weekend, but the poor cats were pretty scared, which makes it almost impossible (a professional photo of a terrified cat is not better than an iphone photo of a relaxed cat).  The photographer was super patient and got some lovely photos somehow, so yay!

Also sold a lot of the fundraiser greeting cards, which is a relief (sales were very slow before the craft fair).  A co-worker also ordered 30 (thank you Greg)!  So I did another print run of 100 (have to do 100 to get to a decent price).... so now I have 70 of these beautiful blank cards: please buy some!

Got our Christmas tree today - it's wee. I've really grown to appreciate the tiny little trees - a normal sized one would just take over our apartment (though we have high ceilings which would be great for a giant tree).  We strapped the tiny thing to the bike rack on the car, which looked pretty hilarious but was very effective. The small trees are generally less work - fewer needles to drop, faster to decorate (by the time you start to get bored, you're done!), and well, it's just cute!

Only 2 more days of work, then I'm off for the rest of the year (assuming I can get done the zillion things that need doing)!  Cookie baking, here I come!

I've been slowly scanning and editing my childhood photos, since the rediscovery of my photo albums. 

Couldn't resist sharing this one - got a new bike (though it's too green to be my birthday).  How adorable is my jacket?  Also, banana seat bike!  Good choice parents!

This is 1985.

Whenever I get the urge to refresh my wardrobe, I head to my favorite thrift shop (the one where I scored almost-new fluevogs for $10).  I went on Saturday to discover they are prepping to remodel and everything was 50% off. Score.

Got me some good stuff, including this new coat (United Colors of Benetton) for $5 (dramatic hood), a nifty purple shrug made from Italian wool and cashmere (Club Monaco) for $3, a sweet button up vest (Le Chateau) for $3, etc. It was a very nice day.

Now to cram it all in my wardrobe somehow.

Also - Peter and I finally got around to making soap! Won't be ready for a few weeks, but, first step is done!  This is good because we ran out of soap a while ago and have been using less awesome stuff.

And we've got tickets to see Kimbra live on tuesday, which should be awesome!

I woke up this morning with a terrible headache. Probably because we went dancing last night - this is the return of the morning-after-dancing-headache. Booooo!  I took my headache pills and went back to sleep, woke up again at 11, still headach-y. Got up anyway.  Was a useless lump until around 3 when I finally started to feel better.

This is all to say - it's late, I should be in bed, but I'm not tired and I'm hopped up on caffeine (my headache pills have caffeine in them). So I'll be up for ages, then wrecked for work tomorrow. Am very annoyed at my body.

I've already sewn a new zipper in the broken $4 sequin pillowcase I bought weeks ago (it's fahbulas), finished 2 necklace projects I started months ago, cleaned the coffee table, and made cookies.  So now I'm going to use this bonanza of late night time to share with you the most mind-blowingly lovely cat furniture I've ever seen. Before I do, I have to warn you - it's European and crazy expensive. Of course. I'm sure you're not even reading this sentence, you've totally skipped ahead because of the photos below of the amazing furniture, haven't you? I know, it's good stuff, I'd skip the boring bit of the blog post too!

Stylish cat tree

Bookshelf + cat tree = !!!

It's by German design firm Wohnblock.  I love the mod-shaped cat tree, and the bookshelf with hidden play/climbing spaces for cats. (I found this via Moderncat.net). It's all brilliant. Wish they sold the plans so you could have it made locally.

It's a shame there aren't more options for furniture that provides space for cats while also looking stylish... ikea should totally get into this market.  In the meantime, I'll continue trolling the internet for it in the wee hours of the morning.

 I've got a whole pinterest board of cool pet stuff, if you want to see what I find.

I was thinking about my last post and my complaining about work. I realized that I really don't have much to complain about. Longer-than expected hours, some frustrations, that's tiddlywinks in comparison to what other people have to deal with. I have good co-workers, good bosses, a lovely work environment, a chance to do work that is meaningful to me and challenges me and pays well.  Really? I'm pretty damn lucky.  So ignore any future complaints as being whiny.

On the frivolous side, namely: things I love that you might want to check out:

TV

BBCs version of Sherlock Holmes.  It's the best thing ever. My favorite tv series. If I could marry this tv show, I would.  It's that good.  6 episodes, each 90 minutes (!) and all are well written and entertaining and clever.  The actor who plays Sherlock is Benedict Cumberbatch - that alone is reason enough to watch, so see that someone exists with that name.  It's a modern version of Sherlock, but is actually rather timeless (fashion & setting), which is a wonderful treat. They've crafted Sherlock quite faithfully - because in the books he's.... weak on social skills; this show dabbles on the dark side of Sherlock at times, other times on the very funny side.  It's just perfect.  Go watch it, then you can sit with me and moan about how long it's been since a new episode came out (there will be more but both actors are filming movies right now).

Season 1 trailer.



MUSIC
I've been trying to catch up with Peter who has been adding new music to his collection. Some of it I absolutely love - including these two which I find magical and captivating:

Mission Bells by Armistice


Someone I Used To Know by Goyte (& Kimbra)


If you like that song - you'll LOVE this cover of it by Walk Off The Earth. You may have seen it - 5 people on 1 guitar:

I took Peter out on a date to another storytelling night. We love it and I noticed quite a few couples this time around, so I'm thinking it's actually a popular date activity. Alcohol + cookies + music + entertaining stories by interesting people does make for a wonderful way to pass a Friday night. (It doesn't hurt that I bump into my friends there and get to chat.)

We started by meeting in the new Terra Bread cafe nearby -  which was packed.  Lovely space, right on the seawall - I will definitely be visiting their patio in the summer!

This edition of Rain City Chronicles was in partnership with the City as part of its work to develop a Food Strategy to plan how Vancouver will increase access to and opportunities for local food, among other things.

I'm kind of proud because I played a small part in setting the City on this path of partnering with great events that bring the community together in a fun way to talk and share their stories on a particular topic. The Pecha Kucha I helped organize was the City's first foray into that kind of partnership and it seems to be part of the regular arsenal of public engagement now, which is awesome!

Anyway - I love the Salt Building, I love Rain City Chronicles, and I love to support the City in creative engagement techniques, so I bought tickets for this event ages ago.  And it was lovely.  The storytellers were fabulous - the best one being an older French lady who started by saying she wasn't really a storyteller and then proceeded to be the most entertaining person of the evening.  I believe they were recording this event, so hopefully I'll be able to link you to a podcast version of the evening at some point.

After the event, Peter and strolled around the Village a bit, even though it was freezing cold. It's lovely to see at night.  A perfect Friday night.

Sometimes having tracking info for a package you're waiting for is annoying. Like when you watch it go from Alaska to Tennessee.... which meant it went right over its destination and will take several days to make its way back here.  That's frustrating.

I took the new camera to work last week to try and test it out a bit (hard to test it at home since it's dark).  You can enjoy my view from work with me now:

1. I think I'm mostly better.  The coughing fits have been reduced to a regular cough. But I do feel like someone kicked me in the ribs recently, which is weird. I don't recall sustaining any rib-related injuries. Also, I go to bed at 10pm and get up at 7:30 and am still exhausted, I'm blaming that on lingering illness.  But all, in all, better, I'd say. Yay!

2. More Argentine tango last night at our private lesson. Peter had an epiphany and said "oh, I have to not think about what I'm doing and think about just her" which was the most lovely thing I've heard in 3 years of dancing. :)  It's the realization that it's not about doing a particular movement as much as it is him doing what it takes to get me to do what he wants/needs.  Guys have a hard job in dancing - they have to think about the step we're going to do, plan ahead, navigate the dance floor, do the step themselves, and make sure they're getting the girl to do the right thing (without pushing, but with a proper lead).  Peter is constantly amazed by how little movement on his part it requires to get his partner to take a step (has to be the right movement!). It is part of the magic of dance - with a small twist of the hips he can make me pivot, with a shift in weight he can make me take a step; it really doesn't take much.  In other dances there are patterns, so when the lead starts something I recognize, I can do it on my own for the next few steps, which means he can slack off on leading me because I know what to do. In Argentine tango - I have no idea what is coming from one step to the next, so I have to wait for the lead - which means, he HAS to lead me properly.  It's a wonderful challenge.  So be very impressed if you ever see people doing Argentine tango!

3. Work is crazy busy. It stresses me out because I worry I'm being spread too thin to do a good job. I hate not doing a good job.

4. It snowed in Vancouver and is -4 today (-10 with windchill).  This is VERY cold for us. I realized yesterday, when preparing to walk to work, that I no longer have proper winter boots. I guess that makes me a true Vancouverite - I'm completely unprepared for real winter weather.

Whatever bug I had on Boxing Day, that mostly went away, seems to have come back.  Most annoying is the dry, hacking cough that makes me miss taking deep, uninterrupted breaths.  Ah breathing, how I took you for granted!

I've been working from home to avoid spewing germs all over my poor co-workers. Working from home is nice in that I have the company of cats, but weird in that it makes me feel like a hermit since I sit at my desk all day and don't leave the apartment until after dark, if at all.

Enough complaining. To amuse you all while I suffer another coughing fit - I'm posting more photos from my past.   One is me as a young'un - look how innocent I appear!


In the second one I'm slaughtering a poor girl in a fencing tournament in Wisconsin. For some reason I have 21 photos of me fencing this girl (and no photos of me fencing others, but I swear, I had matches with grownups too).  Good for her for taking up a sport that's not common among girls her age, but I was way more experienced and did her in pretty quickly from what I recall.  I love how enthralled the scorekeeper lady is by my fencing talents.

I miss fencing. Not as much as I currently miss breathing, but close.

Peter and I bought a scanner off craigslist so we could... well, scan stuff, obviously.  We got a high resolution photo scanner so we can archive our photos properly.  I've started what will be a very loooong task of scanning our 2 boxes of print photos (and culling them as I go).

I'm finding some funny stuff - evidence of some very bad hair and fashion choices in my past. Growing up in the 80s makes it hard to look back without cringing.  Anyway, my photo collection starts in university really, when I moved out of home, but there was one little pile of random photos from my childhood, including this one of my sister and I enjoying popsicles in the park... I'm pretty sure I remember that balloon sweater.  It's these old photos that are most interesting to me, partly because my childhood photo albums have been lost, so these random photos are all I've got, and partly because I have so few memories of my childhood. I don't remember much pre jr. high, to be honest. I remember general impression, bits and pieces... but it seems like I should remember more, that most people remember more.  In any case, it makes looking at photos interesting - I get to study them for evidence of who I was at the time.  Looking at photos of me in high school is just painful, however, I remember all that just fine, thanks! 

You'll notice I'm not posting any awkward photos here for your amusement... because I'm not looking to share that with the information superhighway. That information will stay safely tucked away on my hard drive.

Today was my last day of work for 2011!  Yay!

Peter and have an inherent incompatibility when it comes to the holidays (I say  holidays rather than christmas because I'm not into the christ and figure I'm doing the pagan/secular version).  Anyway, the problem is this: Peter prefers to ignore the holidays right until the last minute, and then have a big day and enjoy the week or two after. I feel very strongly that once the holiday is over, it's over - and trying to celebrate it after the fact is just... weird, and I can't do it. Things are made worse this year by the fact that Peter is going to Poland with his family for Christmas (they're catholic so it's capital 'C', full meal deal Christmas), and he'll be crazy busy with work right until he leaves. He's thinking we can celebrate when he gets back, but - see point above about how that doesn't work for me. So that's kind of a drag, but, you can't have everything!

Anyway, I'll be on my own for the holidays, which will be an interesting experiment.  My friends have been fabulous and I have offers to join several family dinners, so I'm pretty sure I can keep myself occupied.  We'll see how it goes!

Unrelated and random: I've never purchased a set of towels in my life. I went away to university with 1 towel, then my mom bought me a set, then Peter and I combined our university-era towel collections, then we got hand me downs from Peter's family when we moved to Vancouver. So we have a hodge-podge of rather old towels (many of which are pink even though I hate pink).  Out of the blue the other day, Peter and I bought a set of fabulous bamboo-cotton towels at a mad discount. Seriously, they're awesome.  I'm very much looking forward to dropping off our very old towels at the animal shelter and never seeing them again.

Sometimes it's good to spend money on yourself.

We went to a Vancouver Canadians baseball game today. I'd post a photo but it was waaaaaay to hot to think about taking out my camera.  Here are some photos you can enjoy instead.  Even though we were seated under the stadium awning, we were full on in the sun with no breeze at all the whole time.  I think it was 47 degrees C.  That's my estimate.  I nearly died.  I love baseball games, but not when I'm literally feeling sweat dripping down my body.  That's not the mental image you wanted, I know, but I have to convey to you somehow how very very hot it was.  It was so hot I forgot the rules of baseball.  I forgot which team was ours. I forgot that having a rootbeer float, even if the money is for charity, is a bad bad idea.

And we lost.

But I still love baseball, especially when tickets are $12.50.