Most recently...

So, sadly, our camping trip for this week was cancelled because Remi's work got a new contract and the girls he works with were unwilling (unlike my dedicated sweetie) to change their plans so Remi got stuck working the whole weekend (except Saturday). Apparently it was "man's work" anyway - hauling nets and such. His work actually "hired" some guy who was just hanging out around the docks to help them! He's now in charge of looking after the boat and the $4000 net they're using and they all call him "Crazy Bob"... He allegedly joyrides on the boat when they're gone, but they need the help and don't have a choice, I guess. I, personally, think the idea of hiring a "river" person (apparently the people who live along the river are of an interesting sort of folk) and trusting him with your gear is absolutely hilarious!! But I digress... The following are what we've been up to lately.

Firstly, our friends from Nanaimo, Scott and Nicole, are moving (as we speak actually) to Saskatchewan. A couple weeks ago they had a "house cooling" party at their place in Nanaimo and we hopped on the ferry and went over to hang out with them for the weekend.

Maggie decided to ride in style. As you may or may not know, dog owners are considered third-class citizens by BC Ferries and are forced to ride on the vehicle decks. The ride there was pretty nice, actually. We were out of the wind on the back of the boat. But the ride home was BRUTAL. We took a late ferry and froze our asses off INSIDE the boat while breathing in noxious and cancerous car/oil/truck/trailer/etc. fumes. AWFUL. Remi actually wrote a letter to BC Ferries, but I don't think he's heard back yet. He was polite and everything!! Either they get a lot of complaints (which wouldn't surpise me) or they don't give a horse's ass. Both are likely options.




The house cooling... We played twister. Bums in faces... What more can you ask for at a party?? Oh, and Remi passed out at about 10:30 pm. He actually wasn't the first, but Nicole only beat him by two or three minutes ;)


Maggie got to see her best friend Koda. They played. As you can see from the look on Scott's face, we all became a little tired of their rambunctiousness after a while. Every time we tried to put them outside to play they'd stop playing and stare dumbly at us. Kind of like cows in a field... Maggie was also freaked out by the grass in their backyard. It was just regular grass!! But try telling her that... I've never seen her tread so lightly!!


These are a few pictures of Remi's solo hike up Mt. Strachan, near Vancouver. The helicopter was being used for some concrete work for something to do with the 2010 Olympics. More habitat destruction for a one-time event!! Good job, BC.

There was a plane wreck up there. He took a bunch of pics thinking my Dad might be interested. If you are, Dad, let us know and I'll email you a few others.


This was just yesterday on our only day off together for the long weekend. Maggie, as usual has to have the biggest "stick". This was at Indian Arm Provincial Park. It's about a half and hour drive from home and has a bunch of great hikes, so we'll definitely be going back. Unfortunately, not many photo ops on the hike we were on, so no pictures of that.

What Remi likes to call a "perk" of his job. Because they're out doing sampling they catch a lot of pink salmon as by-catch (accidental catches) in their nets. Although Remi claims to have tried to rescue several of the fish, he still managed to bring home FIVE fish of his own. How we're ever going to eat five entire fish, I'd love to know. Luckily our landlord took one and we're hoping to give another to Chris and Laura, our dinner-date buddies here in Vancouver (Laura is a classmate of mine). This is after our whole fish on the BBQ dinner. It was quite good, but too garlic-y. The recipe didn't call for garlic, but Remi put in 7 or 8 cloves anyway. Yuck. Next time, no garlic ;) We had hoped to use the rest of the fish for some salmon pate, but it didn't actually turn out very well. A little bland. Any suggestions?

And this was today... Maggie decided to CHEW the fishfood bottle. We ran over to the grocery store before her afternoon walk and I guess she didn't like that. It was all over the freakin' living room!! This made me especially mad because I just cleaned the house today! We both gave her heck, so hopefully this doesn't happen again. She seems to be going through some kind of rebelious phase right now. The other day she chewed apart a bag of calcium carbonate (another fishtank item) and ate a chunk of fertilizer (also fishtank related). Maybe she doesn't like the placement of the 10 gallon tank in the living room. Which reminds me, Remi bought a 35 gallon fishtank which is now set up in the kitchen. We'll post some pictures when it's set up a bit more.

I guess that's it for now. I head back to school on Wednesday. I'm sort of excited but also a little scared. Let the drug memorization really begin!! Here at UBC you actually only learned pharmacology for two years of the program, 2nd and 3rd, so it's pretty intense. I'm also getting sick of school and assignments and the like. I don't wanna do homework anymore!! I'm too old for this nonsense!!

Anyway, enough whining ;) I'm off to cuddle with my boyfriend and listen to some Mozart. We're relaxing tonight.

Hope all is well with everyone and remember, if you read this, post a comment!!! We'd love to hear from everyone :)

Sarah

P.S. This is the next day. Sarah and I went out for some fancy Italian (pronounced eye-talian)food, and the stupid dog chewed some more useless aquarium crap. So I cursed her out good for a while and sent het to bed. Tomorrow I put an add out in the paper for a dumb dog. Hopefully we can sell her to the gypsies.

Rémi