Evan and Christy's Visit

So FINALLY some of our friends came and saw us last week (the rest of you are deadbeats!!). I've already posted our Chinese New Year pics, but we also went cross country skiing and to the Vancouver aquarium. Here are a few pictures from then :)

We saw the little owl outside a coffee shop in Horseshoe Bay while Evan and Christy were waiting for the ferry. He was so tame (until Evan tried to pet him). We were standing probably two feet from him! Mom, Kat - any ideas on what he is?

Sarah

P.S. More pics to come from the aquarium.

Chinese New Year

Evan and Christy are visiting before they head off to China and we decided to go to the Chinese New Year parade and then some Dim Sum in Chinatown on Sunday. Thought it would be a good warm-up to their trip!

We're not sure about this guy on the left... Does he seriously think he looks Chinese??? Fat white guy with lipstick and a fake beard... Hmm ;)

And this kid balanced himself on his Dad's shoulders for the ENTIRE parade. It was very cool!

That's all for now. I hate using Blogger lately because it's too hard to upload pictures and get your post to look good, but I tried ;)

Hope all is well with everyone!

Sarah

Terrarium

The terrarium is finally set up. It not only provides a better home for our poor Betta, it also brings a touch of life into Sarah's office. Now I need a new hobby.

Remi

Lynn Valley

Sarah and I went bumming around the north shore mountains today. Well, more like the north shore valleys, but it was still pretty good. A lot of snow fell recently, so it felt like we were back home, except that nature hasn't yet been trammelled. If global warming means we'll get cooler (i.e. more civilized) winters out here, I guess it's not all bad. I'll decide for sure when we see how summer turns out.









Her are a couple of pictures to show you (yet again) why you should be visiting us out here. Or, better yet, leaving that squallid Ontario for a better life out here.

Remi

HAPPY 2007!

Our first post of the new year! I hope everyone had a fantastic holiday season -Christmas/Hannukah and New Years.

Remi and I enjoyed a nice relaxing Christmas morning here at our apartment complete with phone calls from family and present opening with my parents via skype (a great idea if you have to be away from your family for the holidays). Remi made a quiche for breakfast (yum yum!) and then we headed over to Vancouver Island to spend Christmas afternoon and dinner with some friends. Our friend Nicole was nice enough to ask her parents to allow us to have Christmas dinner with them and they were nice enough to agree. We had another present opening ceremony there and then a fantastic traditional Christmas dinner. We spent the night at Scott and Nicole's house and did some Boxing Day shopping before heading back to Vancouver on the 26th.

As for New Years, Remi and I had a wonderful dinner with some new friends of ours in Vancouver, Chris and Laura (I know Laura through pharmacy). Laura made salmon steaks and this delicious salad that Remi neglected to try blaming the French in him for not being able to eat a salad WITH dinner, instead of before or after ;) He missed out, let me tell you!

Anyway, we find ourselves back into our routine in 2007. I started classes on Monday (at 8 am - the injustice!!) and Remi is back to work on his regular schedule. We have both, however, taken up some physical activity in the New Year (part of a "resolution" of sorts, I guess). Remi is now taking Kung Fu two to three times a week at a community centre a few kilometres from our house. He's really enjoying it, although his body is screaming in pain right now! He's extremely keen on it and was even practicing at home last night! For myself, I start pilates next week. I found a class on campus that fits wonderfully with my class schedule. I'm really looking forward to starting it. It looks intense!

So that about wraps our lives up for right now. I hope all is well with everyone back east! Please feel free to leave messages on here after you've read our posts! Just in case anyone missed it, here's how you post a message - just click on the "post comment" at the bottom of the blog entry and enter a comment under 'anonymous'. Make sure if you do that to "sign" your name at the end of your comment or we won't know who you are :)

Take care!

Love, hugs and kisses,

Sarah

Here are a couple cutsie pictures of Maggie with some of her new toys :)

Christmas time!

Sarah and I have finished all our shopping and wrapping about a week ago, and now we're basking in the easy to do last minute stuff like cooking, hiking, and napping. Well, actually, Sarah is watching some insipid interview with our fearless and intrepid prime minister. But the fact remains, we're maxin' and relaxin' around here.
If you didn't receive a Christmas card from us, this is the picture we sent:
If somehow we missed you, well, it was a tragic oversight...








Have a terrific Christmas (or holiday of choice) and all the best in the new year.

Rémi & Sarah

Environmental Destruction!

BC is a terrific place. It prides itself on its stunning scenery and its pristine and inviolate wilderness. But look in virtually any direction and you see government sponsored destruction (it isn't illegal if you have a permit).
Take for instance the loggers: They chop down old growth forests, taking with it important habitat for a number of endangered species. As if that weren't enough, they illegally chop trees down right to the edge of salmon bearing streams and rivers, causing erosion and further habitat destruction.

Figure 1. Clearcuts and burning woodpiles.






Then you might think the damage is done and over with. But no, the logs are then placed in waterways, where bark falls to the bottom and obliterates anything that may have once been alive. They travel like this all along the coast where they're delivered to pulp and paper mills, which are another story altogether.

Figure 2. Log booming on the mighty Fraser River. Salmon swim through here every year.





Figure 3. Sunken boats rotting in the water.






Anyhow, that's my rant. Come visit us in "the most beautiful place on earth", we'll show you some cool stuff. Not all of it will be ugly.

Rémi

Christmas tree!

So this year we couldn't go and cut down our own Christmas tree, but we still got a real one. Remi bought it yesterday at Ikea (it actually came with a gift certificate!) and we decorated last night.

Here are a few pictures. Had a little trouble with our old tree stand. We were unable to MickeyMouse it (the tree trunk was too big), so we had to buy a new stand. From then on though, it was smooth sailing :)

Hikes!

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been busy, and Sarah hogs the computer because of "school". But I'm here, at last. Things are going great out here. We've had one sunny day in the last month & 300+mm of rain (that's a lot... 3x average), the computer is dying, I had to replace the battery in the car, and now the brakes are on the fritz. 'Tis the season.
Despite it all, we're still having fun. We went to Cypress Falls yesterday for a little hike, and it turned out to be a lot of fun. The weather held and we had a good time, despite the fact that Sarah always complains about having to walk uphill (she chose the wrong province I think, perhaps southern Saskatchewan would be more appropriate). We only ran into one other person and it makes me happy that I don't have to run into everyone and their brother when I want a quiet hike.

Sarah just got home, so I'll break the news to her about the ABS... Yay me.

Remi

We aren't in Vancouver anymore...

I noticed in my last post that I was complaining about not having rubber boots... Well, things have changed! I'm thankful for my full-size snowmobile boots! Vancouver has had record snow fall over the last two days. The island too, actually. It's insane! There's at least 6-7 inches of accumulation out there right now. The roads are slushy and many aren't plowed and I guess therein lies why UBC often closes for snow days... The buses don't run when the roads are icy. Imagine if it was like that in Guelph!! We'd never be at school! (I guess the funniest thing about that was that Guelph never closed, even if the buses WERE cancelled.)

So anyway, I've been taking pictures. The first few are of the mountains Saturday morning. This was before the "snow" hit the fan (haha).

These next few are from this morning. CRAZY! And it continued to snow ALL DAY.














Maggie obviously thought it was the greatest thing that's ever happened in her ENTIRE life ;)

Anyhoo, so that's what's new with us! Hopefully tomorrow will be a snow-day for me. Remi has the day off, as he's now working Tuesday to Saturday for his work week. The last day of school for me is Friday!! VERY exciting. I've made it through term I! Only 3 1/2 years to go ;) Oh, and exams, I guess.

Well, bye bye for now!

Sarah

Testing, testing...

I haven't been able to see our blog for a couple days, so this is just a test to see if updating it fixes it.

But while I'm here... IT'S POURING OUT HERE!! I've never seen anything like it. Flooding, evacuations, mudslides!!!! It's insane. And insanely wet. I need to buy rubber boots!!

I hope everything is well with all our readers ;)

Sarah

Mt. Seymour (butts)

I had originally planned to head towards Whislter this weekend so that we could see the mountains and potentially some snow. Unfortunately, I forgot that this is BC, and it pretty much never gets nice here for the period of 5 or 6 years between November and April. So figuring we could go for a hike anyways, we put on our stoutest rain gear (it was pouring) and took off for Mt. Seymour (elevation ~ 1000m) just outside of Vancouver. Then, partly up the hill, the rain turned to snow. We were in the clouds, so visibility was about 100m at the best of times, but we decided to push on anyways. By the time we got to the parking lot at the top, the whole area was completely covered in snow. We figure two feet at least. Not bad for Vancouver. We were afraid of getting lost, so we didn't get to go for much of a walk, but we hiked up part of a ski hill and let Maggie run around in the snow.





After having been up there for about 5 minutes, I decided that snowshoes would make a terrific Christmas present (hint hint). There are probably also some places up there where I can go play with my cross-country skis. I can't wait for a nice day (if/when).

Rémi

Our house

A lot of people have been asking where we live and in what kind of squalor and what it looks like, so I decided to take a few pictures today because it was actually nice outside! I thought for SURE it was going to rain and be miserable all week. You never know just what the weather is going to do in this crazy province! But I digress... Here's a look at our house and our neighbourhood.

First of all, the big monstrosity in which we live. Our apartment makes up only about half of the basement area of this baby!! CRAZY. Most of the house in our neighbourhood are giant and have no yards. Our landlords actually just PAVED their backyard. We're not sure why...














Here's the living room/kitchen area. Note our mascot sitting beside the fishtank. It gets quite dark in here when it's overcast and in the evenings.















This is our bathroom. It's quite a bit bigger than Nanamio and has a bathtub!!! VERY exciting.




















I didn't include pictures of our bedroom because it's very small and it was hard to get a good angle. To give you an idea of size, we can barely fit the queen sized bed and two bedside tables in there, and we've had to put the dresser in the closet. Below is my office. It's perfect for me with my desk and the futon. I can also shut Remi out, which is nice when I need to concentrate. Makes me really miss working full-time when I have to watch him sit around and do nothing all weekend ;)














The steps down into our place. Note the toys. Also note the drain and how there's water draining into in... All the water off the landlord's roof drains down into our entryway before going down the drain. Not cool. We might speak to them about repositioning their spout.















This is the view from just out front. GORGEOUS. Despite the city in the way ;) Next to that is a picture of my favourite house in the neighbourhood. I LOVE the big plants in front (I call them banana trees although I'm not sure how accurate that is). Below that is a picture of the most flamboyant house in the neighbourhood. Very red... Fairly "stately"... And lastly, that's the field (Falaise) where we take Maggie to play off-leash. She couldn't play off-leash today because there were dogs (notably a Jack Russell named Jackie ;) ) and we're always afraid she might get grouchy, so we just walked around.

So that's that. Our little neighbourhood. I really quite like it here, despite my hour commute on the bus every day. We're definately going to stay here until the end of this school year, but we might move closer to UBC next summer.

Bye bye for now!

If you don't comment...

Hi, everyone :) Just a quick hello from Remi and I here in beautiful BC... IF YOU DON'T COMMENT, WE WON'T KNOW THAT YOU WERE HERE!! We'd like everyone to comment. Remember, it's easy using the "anonymous" thingy under "post a comment".

Anyway, not much is new here. Remi's started his new job!! He'll need to post about that and what he's been up to, but I'm quite happy to have him home myself. He made two, yes, TWO, stews on the weekend and they were both quite yummy. It's nice having my little cook back ;) Other than that, nothing's new. We've decided to bring Maggie home with us this month when we're back in Ontario for the wedding. Should be fun ;) We have to go and buy a new crate for her, maybe this weekend, so she's flight-friendly. Speaking of which, I should reserve a spot for her on my flight! We're both (Remi and I) quite excited about getting home to see the family AND about the wedding!!

Well, I'm off to bed. Remember, post a comment and make us smile :) We get lonely out here!

Love Sarah

A little update...

Hi, all. I haven't written anything substantial on here in a while and I guess a few of you might be wondering how my first three weeks of pharmacy school have gone. In one word GREAT. To elaborate, I love it. I really do. We're looking at practical cases, learning about treatment regimens (although very basically), learning how to identify DRPs (drug-related problems - pharmacy lingo!) and stuff. I'm also meeting some amazing people. My class is so diverse! I've met people from all over BC, a guy from Halifax, Asian people, Indian people, Caucasian people... We've all been through different levels of schooling and different life experiences. Lots of people are my age and a bit older, but some are as young as 19, I think, with just one year of university experience!! It's amazing.

What have I been up to? Well, besides attending classes and labs, not a whole lot. I'm getting used to the hour commute (each way!) that I have to take daily. I've finally gotten over my bus-sickness and I'm actually starting to enjoy the bus. I even was able to read a little bit of my personal reading (right now I'm reading "Skinny Legs and All" by Tom Robbins for all who are interested - very entertaining, as is usually the case with him) without getting a headache. Thursday was actually an almost magical bus ride. I was listening to some solid 80s/90s tunes ("Rock Lobster", "Sunglasses at Night", "Let Your Backbone Slide", "Breakfast at Tiffany's"... the list goes on) and the people on the bus were very interesting (as usual) and it was an almost surreal moment. Then the sun came out and was shining on my face and I looked over Vancouver (I can see downtown framed by the mountains) and there must have been a sun-shower because there were two rainbow strips over the city. It was beautiful and I fell in love with BC all over again. Yes, that's all very strange and I'm strange, but you all love me, so there!

But then Thursday kind of fell apart... I got home and talked to Remi and then to my parents, then I changed my WestJet flight for October (all good things) and then ... I walked Maggie (cue evil music). We were merrily trotting along (myself still floating on my bus-ride happiness) and then... out of nowhere... PSSSHHHHHHHTTTT! Maggie is sprayed by a skunk!! (OK, so I'm leaving out the part where she chased and provoked the thing...) I was slow to react because I thought it was just a cat, but no... As we walked away *sniff*sniff* "Maggie... YOU STINK!!"

So we made a hasty retreat home and I quickly bathed her (which she hated and we fought and wrestled and she probably thought I didn't love her anymore). I noticed the smell was localized on her face, so proceeded to scrub her cheeks and chin with a washcloth covered first in dishsoap (I thought it would dissolve the skunky oils) then in a vinegar/baking soda concoction (I googled it) and then I gave her three or four treats, hugged her a lot (avoiding her stinky face, which was hardly stinky anymore) and we went to bed. LONG evening. HORRIBLE.

Then there was today... Another fabulously beautiful day. Great bus ride, but... (again, evil music) I left my pencil case on the floor in my first class!!!!!! (I have to make a hasty retreat from one class to the next or else risk sitting on the cold, hard floor, as there are not enough seats for all students - NOT cool) So, after class (during which I was sans highlighters - VERY not cool) I made a hasty RETURN to said classroom only to find (duh duh duh....) my pencil case has been removed!! (I'm not going to jump to the conclusion that it was stollen, but I am suspicious... It was a slammin' pencil case) After searching the classroom and the chemistry office, I left, dejected and headed to work. I'm hoping some kind soul gave my pencil case to my prof and it will be safely returned to me on Monday. It wouldn't be a big deal if it was just the case and a few pens - those things are replaceable. BUT, it contained therein my calculator!!! I've had it since the beginning of high school and I'm old and set in my ways and I don't want to learn how to use a new one *sniffles*

OK, I think this post has gotten a bit out of control. All in all, life is grand. For those of you who don't know, Remi got a job in Vancouver last week!! YAY! Unfortunately his current boss is being uncool (much like the cold-hearted individual who stole my pencil case!) and has asked him to stay until the end of the month. The good news is that this new job is actually a career starter and advancer. His boss has mentioned possibly helping Remi through a masters. VERY cool. But I'll let him elaborate (mostly because that's all I really know besides the fact that he'll be working with fish - surprise, surprise ;)

Anyway, I'm off. Hopefully you've enjoyed my tale of happiness and a little (very little) woe. For those of you who might be wondering, Maggie barely stinks at all now. I think it must have been a baby skunk or something. Lesson learned though!

Good night!

Love Sarah

PS. In case Megan and Julien are reading this, good luck with the rest of the wedding planning. I've been meaning to mail our RSVP for about a week now, so if I never actually get it into a mailbox: Yes, we will be attending and there are 2 in our party. We can't wait ;)

Good News!

Days: 2
Interviews: 2
Job Offers: 2
Casually ignored: 2 months of fruitless searching

I just got an offer from Integrated Resource Consultants, a small firm in Vancouver. It pays decently, by my humble standards and it involves the care of Daphnia and rainbow trout. Everyone wins. And it's permanent. And there's room for advancement.

Life is good here.

Remi

I'm offended!

HEY! I got some pretty good head shots of seals in the past! I'll see if I can dig one up...

Sure, it's a little blurry, but it's obviously a seal!

Give me some credit, hunny!

Anyway, not much is new here in Van. I'm beginning to doubt that anyone is reading our blog!! Come on guys, post comments! It only takes a second :)

Hope all is well with everyone!

Sarah

Sarah isn't here, so I can finally play with the camera to my heart's content. The harbour is full of neat stuff, so I ended up taking a bunch of random pictures. This boat is one of my favourites, it's probably a hairsbreadth away from sinking, but it looks really nice.





This is our best picture of a wild seal to date. It was floating along on its back right until I hit the shutter, when it took off.







More boat pictures...

Back to school...

For better or for worse, I find myself back in classes this September. For those of you who might not already know, I was accepted into Pharmacy at UBC - four grueling years ahead of me! I've been to two days of classes and despite the fact that I feel like I'm going to be clobbered by Organic Chemistry, everything is looking pretty good. My profs all seem reasonable and I've met some nice first year "pharmers", as we call ourselves in pharmacy.

Right now I'm chilling before my "White Coat Ceremony", which is this evening. It's a glorified name for receiving your pharmacy student lab coat ;) I guess it's a big welcome to all the first years and we're so proud to have you here, blah blah blah. Sounds boring. Remi was supposed to join me, but has been lucky enough to have had his contract extended in Nanaimo, so he's on another landmass (good excuse, hunny!). Remi is continuing his summer practicum at Malaspina with the prawns. His boss obviously loves him and is apparently recommending him for all sorts of things around campus, which is great, but we really want him HERE, in Vancouver. So far the job search has been a little disappointing, but I'm sure he'll find something here soon.

Anyway, I should organize some stuff for tonight. Thanks to everyone who's been posting comments on our blog! We love to hear from all of you. Again, anyone can post a comment if they sign in under "Anonymous". Just remember to sign your post so we know who you are :)

Later gators :)