Random is as random does

Well, not much of a theme to this post. Maybe that's the theme. A few random shots that caught my eye in the last week or so. I *am* going to eventually plan a photography outing to get the rust out of my shooting elbows. There's no excuse for not shooting -even the crappy weather- if you're a photographer, you should be photography-ing. So, I better get it in gear and dust off my equipment. But until I do get out there in all the rain and fog, I'll take random things that catch my eye - like these...

 

The cats got hand made beds from a great little etsy store called weez wear kitty beds for Xmas. Pixel and Dakota have had 'discussions' about who's turn it is to cuddle down for a cat nap. Pixel usually wins....

  

The sky was beautiful behind the Lion's Gate bridge as we headed over to North Vancouver.

These bottom two images are of a friend's paper lamp shade taken at two different white balance settings. I thought they make for cool texture photos, dontchoo?

Snow-magedon ended up looking more like a mocha slushie

So the "STORM OF THE CENTURY" hit last night and dumped heaps of very heavy wet snow over night. The city freaked of course and by noon we were wading ankle-deep through brown slush. *sigh* Anticlimactic is an understatement. But I did cuss-out the stupid 'property owners' who didn't shovel their stretches of sidewalk - interestingly the major offenders between work and home were the 'houses of worship' in the area. Sloppy people, sloppy. And for the next Gawd-knows-how-many-days we can all go back to grumbling about all the rain we get out here. And there are buckets on the way. I'm glad I've got my old-lady rubberized winter boots. Fashion be damned. I'm not sitting at work with pruned toes in chilly, wet, soggy footwear in the name of fashion. Anyway, while splashing home in the mocha slushie I took random pictures. Like these...

 

First real outing in 2011: Surrey's Green Timbers Park

Well, it's too late for Happy New Year's wishes and all that seeing as we're nearly three weeks into the new year - and decade. Can you believe it? The new century is already a decade in. Why does time feel like it's speeding up?
The new year came in very low key. Don't know if it's going to get much better, the remaining three hundred and some odd days will tell. Hopefully issues will improve.
Anyway, managed to get out on the 2nd for an hour or so and boy oh boy, what a stunning day it was! Bright sun, a clear, crisp blue sky and a terrific bite in the air that makes you smile and sniffle.
My friend and I took a short drive and we ended up out in Surrey's Green Timbers Park. I'm not sure just how big this little gem of a park is because we took only a short walk around a small loop and called it a day.
If anyone was looking for where all the snow was should trot over to the park. It was like a post card winter wonderland in there. I took some pictures.

 

The winter storms haven't hit yet - if at all - but hopefully I'll be able to get out again from time to time to take a couple of pictures in and around the lower mainland.

So, welcome 2011, I hope you've brought along a little bit more health, happiness, love and laughter with you than 2010 did.

Spent the weekend in Portland

Vancouver BC to Portland OR is 313 miles one way. 6.5 hours.
Last Friday we headed south mid-morning. The sky was brilliant blue, a rim of impressive clouds hung over the horizon and the sun was shining like crazy. It took forever and a huge part of our gas tank just to get across the flipping border!!! I was ready to stab myself repeatedly in the eye by the time we got to our grumpy border guard's little hut. And You know those 'border notices' giving you the 'wait at the crossing' - they're a massive joke. But anyway. We got across and headed down the I-5.

We stopped in Blaine for breakfast at "Tony's White Spot & Cafe".

Spotted an interesting mural around the corner from 'Tony's'.

 

Got a little experimental after the sun went down and still had an hour or two to drive before we got to our hotel.

 

We stayed in a two bedroom suite! We had a full-sized fridge and a microwave in our 'kitchen' area. Each room had a flat screen TV and each bedroom had its own bedroom. Pretty amazing luxury!!! We stopped for food to stock the fridge and we found goodies like this mocha and whipped cream beauty at "Fred Meyers". Holy smoly!! What a place to shop. And they have aisles and aisles of booze RIGHT IN their supermarkets. One stop shopping. In the morning we had a buffet style continental breakfast in the dining room off the main lobby.

We stopped in a Target on the return trip home, but found nothing. We ate at a Shari's restaurant. OMG You have to try the strawberry/rhubarb pie!!! On the way out of the parking lot and on the final stretch home we stopped to take pictures of this amazing mountain. I believe it's Mount Hood. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

We bought some American beer called "Alaska", some pretty crystals and a few books from Powell's City of Books. I want to be locked in over night in Powell's one day. The place is AMAZING!!! I hope we get back down there again in the future. 

It's fun to go south for the weekend, but let me tell you, it's the greatest feeling to get our passports handed back to us and to roll back onto Canadian soil.

The stink sisters

Okay. So, my buddy Deb pointed out the little orange terror Pixel hogged all the lime light the other night, so I snapped some shots of the 'girls' tonight and made a post just of them. So without further ado, here are the stink sisters.

Agatha and Dakota.

They're not sisters at all. But they're both old bony females and kinda stinky. Dakota came to me the size of a baking potato. That was close to fifteen years ago. Agatha ended up on my doorstep at the ripe old age of thirteen or fourteen because I couldn't bear the idea of her being brought into the S.P.C.A. with hopes of being adopted. Senior cats don't get adopted. So I took her in. And after a couple of years of unpredictable and unprovoked biting, that have thankfully cleared up, we are buddies.

I think she adopted me

Sittin' pretty

I have a cat.

Actually, I have three cats. I think I'd have more if the landlord said I could. I guess it was kind of good he capped me at three.

If I could, I'd have (multiple) dogs too - if my lifestyle and residency warranted it. 

I'd considered getting a couple of song birds once but, umm, seriously. cats + birds = ?!?!?

So, I have cats. Three of them.

I have two stinky old girls, Dakota and Agatha who are both over 15 years old. One came from a friend's unspayed cat. The other was an adoption from someone leaving the country. One is stinkier than the other, they're cranky, sleep most of their days away and don't do much other than work on gooy, stringy hairballs while I'm at work. But they're my old girls and I love them.

Pixel, the newest addition to the herd, has been with us for four years already and I can only figure out that his purpose on earth is to get the two old girls so pissed off that they poop in the most inconvenient places in the apartment - none of them ever being in either of the litter boxes. It's usually in the middle of a hallway, under a piece of furniture or on a shoe. He's a big orange mama's boy. He's extremely vocal - at the wrong times of the day - especially night. He's big. Not over weight big - just a big boy. He's a bit of a suck though and needs regular cuddles from me - whether I am ready for them or not. He clamours up the front of me and parks himself there until he's feeling loved enough - before dashing off to torment the stink sisters. He seems to play endlessly with imaginary 'friends' and is great at fetch, but when he's done, he crashes like a rock. I swear I can hear the crones let out matching sighs of relief when he's conked out. I try to scold him when he gets really wound up and terrorizes the poor girls into a lather. But when he's being good and cute and charming and adorable, he's the most lovable critter ever and I forget he's the reason there's a little turd at the foot of the bed when I get home. He has one major flaw (like tormenting the other two cats isn't enough) . . . He hates any people that are not me. He loses his shit when people visit. We all laugh nervously at his noises and posturing as we back away making sure we don't make eye contact until he calms down. I have no idea why he does it, I wish he'd stop. It's embarrassing. Anybody have any suggestions?

The other night I was fortunate to catch him in one of his quieter moment. He hadn't decided if he wanted to take a power nap, find one of the girls and corner her or bound off the cat tree and check out the noises coming from the hallway. He ended up having a good stretch, turned around three or four times in one spot before settling in for a nap.

Oh, and he snores . . .

Hell's Gate

Hell's Gate got its name from an 1808 log entry by Simon Fraser after coming upon this section of the Fraser River; "...surely this is the gate of hell."  It must have been pretty unnerving to see and hear the raging river crashing into and through the narrow gorge.

Hell's Gate is roughly a two and a half hour drive from Vancouver up highway one. The four of us headed out early. We made a now officially traditional stop in Hope for a delicious breakfast at "Darryl's". Highly recommended. The coffee is great, the hash browns hit the spot and I dare you to hate their cinnamon buns!

One of the seven
tunnels you drive
through to get to
Hell's Gate.

The Fraser River.

Looking down at the
churning water below us
from our air tram.

There were tonnes of these
little chipmunks racing
around everywhere
like they were on crack.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The other air tram heading
back across the gorge.

Can you see the seals
in the rock formations?

Mesmorizingly water smooth
white rocks.

Puzzle pieces.