Month: June 2007

Brilliant Starbucks review

Kyle Darbyson, who writes for vancouver.com, has this to say about Starbucks.  I post this in fond memory of Dr. Filk, who will undoubtedly concur with every word.

Howard Schultz has built his java empire on a foundation of warm interiors, canned music and surly service from condescending and over-pierced kids.  He forgot to include good coffee.  With a flavour best described as “burnt mop water”, the Starbuck blend is bland, harsh, tart, sour and tepid all at once.

The generic interior was a study in corporate focus-group cool, with muted hues of brown and beige matching perfectly with the day old spills and crumbs that covered most surfaces.  Mix in some James Blunt and the contstant din of coffee orders more complex than driving directions in Richmond and you’ve got one of the least enjoyable coffee drinking experiences possible.

With my apologies to those I know who actually work at Starbucks…..

Well, that was fast

Joined Crackbook yesterday around 4 o’clock and I have 17 friends already, all of whom I have met in real time BUT if you took out my coworkers I’d be friendless as a Grandview Highway squeegee kid.  I’m trying to get at least one virtual facebook person (hopefully the amazing dude in Belize) by the end of the week.  Collect them all.  I’m counting down to the first p!ss!ng match, personally, ah one, and ah two.
Keith is here, me happy.  Katie will come by to work on homework later on today.  Around 4 I’m going over to L.E.’s place to hang… SO looking forward to it, she has lots of lovely family news and will be doing her one woman show in Toronto (the Joseph Workman theatre…) in September, yahoo.  She’s my recovery Gurutrix.

Much alcohol

Poor Burnt and PhD had SOOOO much alcohol left over from their wedding that they threw a party to get rid of it.  I made myself one appletini, but mostly I stuck to the Rum Punch, which was superb.  I stopped drinking early in the evening, but I didn’t leave early enough – I got to Production Way half an hour after the last bus.

I’m thinking, erm, doesn’t look good, but I’ve memorized the Bonny’s Taxi number and honest to Murgatroyd, the taxi came around the corner just as I came up from Lougheed to stand where I could be easily seen. I called for a taxi at 1 on the nose and was in the door at 1:13; I was somewhat perturbed to see that the taxi driver had ditched another call to pick me up.  I suspect my tipping habits have stood me in good stead with the drivers.  I’ve only failed to tip once in ten years, and he deserved a tip alright, the tip of my boot.
Sigh.  Wish I’d taken my makeup off before I crashed; fortunately the massage oil worked great at sluicing it off this morning.  I did wear the flight suit and Scary Clown immediately asked if I was jumping out of an airplane tonight as soon as I showed up.  Wise ass.  All was forgiven later as we (me, one of LTGW’s nephews and Shorn) drifted over to Scary’s apartment to admire his artwork and for him to check if his site was down (I told him it had been earlier, but it wasn’t, it was just really freaking slow).  I was waiting for the reaction shots of the guys who hadn’t been there before and was not disappointed….Shorn looked around and said, “How many computers do you HAVE?” plaintively.

I had one of those party experiences where virtually wherever I was standing or sitting, I was in someone’s way.  Finally I tried to sit as far away from everybody as I could and just kibitzed…  it was fun in a low key way.  Myself and a coworker traded sad stories about having teenagers, and it was all very pleasant.
Today I think I’m finally caught up on laundry, so I’m going to lie back down with Lucky Jack Aubrey, who’s just been sprung from a French pokey by his best friend’s squeeze (also his cousin in law), and take up the 7th book, Ionian Mission.  At least Stephen and Diana are finally married now.  I mean, he’s chased her across the ends of the earth at this point.

Later, off to see my Livejournal pal….It’s bucketing rain, think I’ll break down and take my brolly.

wandering around town….

Poked my head into the New West library to pick up the next two books in the Aubrey/Maturin photo-15.jpgseries; purchased soy sauce (how is it I haven’t purchased it earlier???) and other comestibles including items which will make the young’uns happy, also beer, also picked up a Georgia Straight and a very satisfactory haircut both in terms of the gossip quotient and the results; also satisfactory in that the first words out of Shelene’s mouth were “Girl, you’ve lost a ton of weight,” which of course made me crack up.  I’m thinking I should cruise down to the office and weigh myself, I can’t trust the scale I’ve got here….  Now all I have to do is piles of laundry and wait for 7 o’clock to roll around so I can get dressed for a party.   Part of me wants to get entirely dolled up (plucked eyebrows….MASCARA!) but the sober portion of my personality has said, “They are engineers – if they do notice it would only be to make fun of you for taking the trouble.”  Sad, but I think true.  So I won’t wear the outfit I bought for Katie’s grad, but I will wear something comfy.  Maybe that flight suit?
I had amazing bus luck today.  I never had to wait more than 5 minutes.  On the way back I had a ‘brrrrr’ experience; the lad sitting across from me on the 145 was a DEAD RINGER FOR STEPHEN HARPER, right down to the icy blue eyes and man boobs.  The poor kid.

I can’t stop smiling.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me…. or what’s right with me.  Subjects were removed on the house; looks like the deal is a go.  Something may go wrong between now and the end of July but I’m good with everything.  I will roll with whatever comes my way.

Zeek! has been to the vet, courtesy of Paul, and he has a lesion on his chin which Paul got cream for and which seems to be working.  Zeek! and Kira appear to be otherwise happy and healthy and adjusting to the new place okay.

I light a candle for all my friends, who have stood by me in a lot of ways, not all of them readily apparent, while I’m going through the transition.  I feel so blessed, so borne up by the good wishes of those who love me, that it’s getting increasingly easy to feel positive, stay positive, and not be so easily moved to anger and irritation all the time.  My current emotional state reminds me of how I felt when I was expecting the kids; occasionally worried, but mostly, thanks to the hormones, feeling almost imperturbably happy and expectant.  The world’s an awesome place.

And I’m practicing mando at least an hour a day.  My guitar is bitching me out from its corner…. pick me up YOU!

I’m going to see a gal from a recreational group I was a member of for a brief while a couple of years back.  She and I are on Livejournal together and her relationship of 27 years busted up under much the same circumstances as mine.  We will get together tomorrow and compare notes, hopefully with buckets of tea and much self-deprecating laughter.  I am SO looking forward to it.  One of my requirements of myself is to quit hanging around with male engineering types who are fifteen years my junior and start hanging out more with sympatico women my own age.  My  visit with Gail made me realize that I am hungering for circumstances under which my childbearing and my middleagedness and my life experiences will be grist for the mill, not something to be shrugged off.  I want to own my life, not have to make excuses for it all the f(cking time.  Although I can’t make excuses for being happy.  Because I am.  I can walk around naked in my apartment!  Who couldn’t be happy about that!?  (Okay, there are three of my regular blog readers who just threw their hands in front of their eyes, but there are also two at least who are thinking other, possibly less critical thotz…)… Oh, and I saw Anne McLeod, one of the revered church elders, in the Safeway in New West today.  It was good to see her!

Missed the Meenies

I was supposed to go yesterday to see the Blue Meenies at the John B Pub in Coquitlam, but somehow I got really antisocial and didn’t go.  Yesterday was a day remarkably unproductive of forward progress with any activities except that today I am feeling better than I have in ages, my bills are all paid, the garbage is out, I’ve finished the 5th O’Brian book (The Fortune of War) and I ate at home twice – remarkably, because there’s no denying I’ve been eating out a lot.

Mike was over and loaded the computer up with goodies and ate dinner here; we had planned to go to the B but he jammed and homework called him home.  I know it’s really anti-social, but I’m to the point that I’m really preferring interacting with people in real-time one on one.  I just feel overwhelmed, except at work, that seems to be a different case.  Any rate, Mike’s out of his place in Burnaby due to the elderly plumbing at his apartment, so he’s back with his folks.  This just means that every evening he has three dogs and a cat to take for a walk, because Winky walks right around the block with his dogs…. I have posted the best pic ever of animal companions previously, showing Winky, Tasha, Spud and Mila all basking in the sunshine in Mike’s folk’s front yard.
I now have access to a really remarkable internet radio station.  The music on it was so good that I literally slept on the living room sofa so I could continue to listen to it in my sleep…. then I realized that this was not too intelligent on a number of levels and crawled back into bed long about 3:45 am.  Now it’s off to get my hairs cut.

Food & Drink

So we said goodbye to Burnt yesterday.  Alas, poor Burnt, having to move with his new bride to San Francisco.  What a chore!  Obviously I envy him.

Yesterday was a hang with the kids and install software kind of a day.

Katie did two more of the outstanding projects yesterday.

I watched a documentary called the Great American Songbook.  I’m going to go out on a limb and aver that it was put together by gay men; there are four or five Garland clips and only two of Sinatra, and one of the Sinatra clips makes him look like he’s singing a love song for the ages to Jimmy Durante, who’s quite spectacularly ugly, and the narrator makes the point of outlining the orientation of every songwriter along the way.  Am I being politically incorrect?  I hope so.  It was a pretty good compilation though.

Katie here

Today I have some running around to do.  Keith is joining me and Katie some time this morning and then I’m going to Burnt’s farewell luncheon.  The alcoholic version of said farewell is Saturday, when Burnt and PhD are getting rid of all the alcohol purchased for their nuptials.  Ha!  First time I’ve been invited to a DO NOT BYOB in ages.  Actually since Anna and Paul’s party.

Then other running around.  I’m 48 and have never had a passport, a state of affairs I need to correct soon.  And I should go sign up for the car co-op, as having access to a vehicle would be nice and there’s one parked at the door.  And I need a printer.  It’s only money…..

The inspection on the house was yesterday.  Paul told me that his interaction with the incoming owners (we hope) was ever so civil (he had to beetle over there to provide garage keys so he actually got to speak with them).  We both remain sanguine that the deal will go.

Katie finished another project and called herself pleased about the pamphlet she wrote which I formatted.  Keith is coming over to write up a leaflet about housesitting – he’s wanting another job and is asking the universe if it’s too much to ask to sit down for the next one.

bloody expensive cat

Bengal cats will remove about $600 from your wallet if you buy a decent one from a breeder, and fine bloodline cats go for way, way more than that.  I first became acquainted with them about 7 years ago at a cat show, and I decided that if I was ever made out of money I’d get one.  For intelligence, beauty and temperament, they really can’t be beat.  Here’s a video that shows just how laid back and smart one can be…

Jericho Beach Folk Music

Every Tuesday in the summer one of the upper rooms at the Jericho Sailing Club turns into a Celtic jamfest with one of the highest quality open stages in history (and I’m not saying that because I was there last night). Here’s the link…

Anyway, Linda Allen played her deceptively simple folk tunes, most of which could be Unitarian hymns, such are the sentiments expressed. She writes labour friendly songs, too, which made me wish Dr Filk could be there, as well as a certain co-worker who once worked for a certain aircraft company in Washington state. There was a song about the two feminists who lobbied to get women the vote in Washington state as well, which was perfectly charming and which she performed for Christine Gregoire (current governator of WA).
I performed Buy me a Beer and Wish That I Knew Why. Rick Keating is coming by next week and I represented for Lady Miss Banjola when I innocently remarked “Trouble come by here?” to which Lynn responded with feeling, “Oh trouble will be right in this room,” which made me smirk.

At one point Linda needed a music stand, so I flounced up to the front and became “Allegra, the amazing human music stand,” to the appreciation of the performer and the amusement of the crowd. Linda then sang a song that was irresistably funny, so I had to Zen out and try to keep my shoulders from shaking with suppressed laughter.

Later in the show she had another song that she needed her music for so I reprised my role, this time taking the weight of her music book on my knees which made life a lot easier, and it was a much sadder song, so staying steady wasn’t so hard. I was moved to tears half a dozen times last night. Those looking for mad guitar skills or a strong voice are encouraged to go see another performer though. I’m glad I sat up front.

It took me almost two hours to get there by bus from SFU, and I took the wrong bus as it turns out so I did a LOT of walking. So I was very happy to get my hands on Raven Cream Ale on tap – a brew I was introduced to me by LTGW at the Brickhouse earlier this year. The weather on the deck was glorious and I watched kids and dogs and boats and sunset with a feeling of layered contentment. And a very civilized woman named Jane gave me a lift to Burrard Station, which meant I got home at midnight instead of one.