the WU reborn

sunshine continues

new photos in the august album!

lots of great weather in vancouver, so lots of frisbee and going to the beach.  mike, em and i have been playing a good deal of settlers of catan as well.

there was a lot of hubbub about the richmond night market, so we decided to head down there one night.  god we ate so much.  never before have i witnessed so many stalls with (insert random food) on a stick.  then we cruised around the crappy stalls and found next to nothing.  well, mike and i found nothing, and em and mike's mom found infinite shit.  i guess that's how it goes.  i hate shopping.

also got out with the dog, andy.  he loves the water, and loves smelling other dogs' asses.  not that i can blame him. 

my stove isn't nearly fucked up enough, so i bought some cheap mispriced rotisserie chickens and made a bunch of chicken soup. 

lastly, it was serena's birthday recently.  she turned 8.  when i was 8, my dad spanked me real hard for bringing a penthouse magazine to school.  i was in third grade.  i'm unsure if he was more mad that i brought it to school, or the fact that my teacher must have known that it was his.  the whipping hurt, but i became a hero to my class for, i duno, a week.  then a note got sent home, which i had to have signed, and the teacher didn't believe that my dad had signed it because his signature is so scribbly.

re: poker, i'm cold as ice!  hopefully that turns around today though.

this afternoon's music

per iTunes shuffle, idea stolen from BK.

cocoa - clipz
jah by my side - capleton
hello - oasis
gone daddy gone - gnarls barkley
return of the jedi/jabba the hutt - john williams
funky fresh dressed - missy elliott, ms. jade
soldiers of peace - CSN
lost ones - lauryn hill
forbidden fruit (bt & pvd's food of love mix) paul van dyk
gossip folks - ludacris, missy elliott
mothers of the disappeared - u2
yellow submarine - beatles
or wah - capleton
time & space (a new refutation of) - digable planets
words of love - beatles
discogoogfiesta - big fat
odyssey - inflexion
out comes the evil - lords of acid
ain't never learned - moby
essential mix 8.6.2003 - sander kleinenberg
heaven (way out west mix) - ultraviolet
pixels (pete heller's old skool mix) - ubu
hard on me - tom petty

amazing fireworks

last week wednesday and saturday, tonight, and next saturday there are fireworks scheduled in vancouver.  the hsbc celebration of light is coordinated to music, with four countries competing.  the big bonus for me is that it's shot off in english bay, where i live, so it's literally a three block walk to the beach where you can get an up front view. 

traffic becomes a madhouse, and i need to move my car on these days to a side street because at 22:30 when the fireworks end, an flood of people leave the viewing sites and clog up the main streets.

i've been a fireworks fan for a long time, so i was excited to catch one or two.  so far, i've seen all three, and probably will go see mexico and the finale on saturday.

the first one was italy, and mike and em i got there early, dug in on the beach, and waited a few hours.  the wind blew away the smoke, so it was very good.

the second one was china.  this one i watched from my neighbor's balcony, and once again, good wind, and great visibility.  i really liked their ground effects show, and general choreography.  i'd say these are the best fireworks i've ever seen.  up until now, it had been a particular year at festa italiana that was my favorite.

tonight was czech republic.  loong and eliz, em and mike, and i sat on the grass back a bit.  not as good a view as the balcony or the beach, but i don't think it mattered because unfortunately the czechs didn't have the luck of wind; a gigantic cloud of smoke accumulated above the barges, and subsequent shells didn't illuminate the way they would have if not through smoke.  tough beat.

saturday is mexico.  i think if i go i'll hit the beach again.  it's closest and probably the best view. 

the nice thing about it being a competition is that the countries are really trying to outdo each other.  when you see random fireworks, it's hard to make an assessment because there's nothing to compare it to except your distant memory.  so, we really get the best stuff that's out, the newest shells, etc.  pretty cool.

damn i'm hot!

this is what happens after pokering online until 0500, being awoken at 0800 and unable to fall back asleep.  if the sun wasn't so damned bright, i wouldn't have this problem.