Cable Bay Loop Diddy Loop

Yesterday was outstanding... A sleep in, then coffee with Nashi, our upstairs neighbor, then homemade potato pancakes (!!!)... Following the pancakes (ooober good, thanks Brian), we put our bikes in the car and drove out to Cable Bay, a small community about 15 km from our neck of the woods, The Glen. We ditched the car at the ocean side parking lot (a gravel patch next to the beach), and rode our bikes back home along the road, making it past the sign that reads, "Soft Annie's Saddle, 90m" (which makes road signs in the Rockies at 1400m seem slightly less than ridiculous). Once we got home, we changed clothes and started hiking up the mountain trails from our place along the coastline and up the hills over to Cable Bay. It was SO BEAUTIFUL (as if capital letters actually indicate that it was so much better than "so beautiful"). First stop on the photo tour is a pic of The Glen, and our house being second from the left at the bottom corner. Pretty sweet, we think.

The day was gorgeous. A balmy 11 degrees Celsius, no wind, and no clouds in sight.

Part way through the hike, we stopped for a snack. I had the choice of a healthy apple or a rather unhealthy cookie, so I took four cookies.

Our fellow hikers were not human, they were sheep, cattle, and goats, with their main activity being eating the trail, not really hiking it.

As we approached Cable Bay along the ridge line, the coast was fantabulously gorgeous, made even more so by the golden colours painted from the setting sun.

What may appear as not so pretty were the many, many piles of poop we came across. One in particular made me question how much poop can a poop-cow poop if a poop-cow could poop poop. The answer lies in the next photo (keep in mind that I wear a size 11 shoe):

We also found many skid marks - no, not of that kind, rather real skid marks in the mud going down the steep hill towards the beach. The sheep must really be givin' er when they book it down hill:

The hike ended with a lovely golden-kissed view of Cable Bay (a place we'd like to kayak sometime soon):

... plus our car waiting to take us back home, and a sweet view of the sunset over the water:

So, all in all, a splendid outing for us yesterday. Today so far, however, brought clouds and cooler weather, 8 hours of work for Brian at Kathmandu, and a job interview for me at 2:00, and then spaghetti potluck party tonight! I've been gearing up for this for a week now, I hope at least a couple people show up...

Days off are as sweet as lollipops

This is my first day off after six days of BIG ARSE SALE DAYS at the ol' gear store, and I have to say, I'm pooped. My intentions were to sleep in really late this morning and then wake myself up at 11:00 AM with a strong coffee, but my body woke up at 6:30 AM instead, and I drank a softer tea rather than the harsh coffee. So, the day hasn't gone quite as planned, but the idea of an unplanned day is so satisfying, isn't it? Except, I made a rather lengthy 'to do' list while eating eggs for breakfast and now I find myself trying to fit too many things into this supposedly unplanned day. How does that happen? But, the only real scheduled event is a hair cut at 2:30 this afternoon, and it should prove to be interesting because I don't have much hair to cut but I feel the need to clean the shag a smidgen because I have a job interview on Thursday(!) and I think I should look rather spiffy. The sales gig is probably going to end rather soon, so I figured I'd better find another way to support our necessity for nourishment (Hey Sarah, isn't this your favourite word? heh heh heh - she's going to peg me for that one). The job I'm hoping to land is for a Community Recreation Coordinator position at the local District Council. Wish me luck. I'm hoping that I won't have to resort to becoming a M.Sc. Barista at Starbucks. The things on my 'to do' list are rapidly decreasing; I've been rather quick and efficient this morning including washing our bed sheets and putting them out on the line. The only problem with the sheets now is whether they will dry when there is frost on the ground and a big block of ice in the bucket that used to have liquid in it yesterday. Me thinks no for the poor sheets, but the sun has just poked out over the mountain and hopefully will bring the air temperature up to a level just high enough to dry out all our laundry in time to put the sheets back on the bed and retire for the evening. Not having a clothes dryer is awesome. One last story before I go: Yesterday, Brian and I were rushing around in the morning in fear of being late for work. We hopped in the car and bolted down the country road at a rate I calculated to be fast enough to get us to work on time... when suddenly we had to slow down to a crawl because of a traffic jam - a cow traffic jam. About twenty soft, young cows were gallivanting along the pavement apparently looking for the hole in the fence that allowed them their so-called fifteen minutes of freedom. The cows, startled a bit by our oncoming car, began to run down the road in the same direction we wanted to go. So instead of being able to drive around the cows and move on, we had to follow them down the road for a while at a cow's running pace before I managed a bit of rally racing technique to dodge them safely and leave them in the dust, and make it to work right on time. You know, cows look really awkward when they run. It can't be good for the joints.

Am I going to hell?

I'm fairly certain I'm going to retreat to a very hot place when I leave this world. Why? Well.... besides allowing one very ugly blanket to remain in our household (more on that in a minute), I sell stuff to people all day. Ugh, I'm a salesperson. And, well, I sold a $450 Gore-Tex jacket (that's the 50% off sale price) to an eighty-year-old woman whose sole purpose for choosing the jacket was because she liked the colour. The jacket is going to outlive her, no doubt, but she doesn't really need an expensive, purple, three-layered Gore-Tex jacket with pit-zips and a snow guard for the waist - not unless she's moving to Banff and picking up backcountry skiing as her other hobby next to lawn bowling. The only thing that makes this all okay is that she seemed happy with the jacket and will probably wear it and say to her friends, "Oooh, isn't the colour perfect to match my hair?" (and her hair was a tad on the purple side, as many older ladies manage to obtain, somehow). Well, if I'm going to hell, at least I won't be needing a Gore-Tex jacket.

And now onto the dreaded blanket that still lives.... My brother, Greg, who must be in Edmonton visiting our friends Russ and Tara, thought he would do a little fancy action on the computer and sent me this photo below. He wrote, "I've just bought a new Blankie - I found it at the Bo-Yah-Brian store."

I love it. See? Even on the blanket here, the moose is bigger.

Even though the blanket lives on, somehow we're managing to make new friends here in Nelson (we'll wait to see if they're keepers once they've been formally introduced to the blanket). This evening, we had a beer and some dinner with Lisa and Dana, from London, ON and Seattle, WA, respectively: two separate friends who came up to us randomly at Kathmandu over the past two days and gave us their phone numbers because... well, because they think we're cool? I dunno, but these gals are great. We've decided to meet up on a weekly basis to keep in touch and have some fun. A big group friends back in Halifax do a weekly stitch and bitch plus spaghetti potluck - it was on a Monday night, the same night as Hockey Night in Canada, so they called it, "Spaghetti Night in Canada". We're thinking of doing the same thing, but here in New Zealand, so we'll call it Spaghetti Night in New Zealand for now and change the name appropriately when we're good and roused up on wine and spaghetti next Thursday.

Until then, we'll be working our pants off at Kathmandu selling more outdoor goods to folks. "You must need a pair of gaitors for the office, right?... It's 50% off, how can it not be a good deal?... No, that doesn't look too tight on you [the person is sweating and obviously uncomfortable], but these pants are usually a small fit so perhaps one size up would work better... Hmm, yes, purple is indeed your colour... How about some merino boxer shorts for those cold nights?..." Actually, I got a pair of the merino boxers for the ladies and they rock. Okay, I'm not going to sell you stuff on this blog, so I'd better get to bed and prep for tomorrow's havock: the first weekend day of our big winter blowout sale. It's going to be cah-ray-zee.

The House Rocks

The other night, when the whole moose versus horse thing came about, Brian and I were on our way to the pub to watch a rugby game with all our coworkers from Kathmandu. The world famous and number one All Blacks were playing Canada and the kiwi's thought the Canucks were going to get squashed. One guy put a $25,000 bet on a 71 score difference... Heh heh, the Canadians can give their knickers a yank when they need to: the final score was 64 to 13. That'll be $25,000 please. And as for our new place of establishment, we've really scored... BIG. It's awesome. Check out the sunset from the beach other night:

And here's the kitchen/livingroom/familyroom/dining room/entry way:

The next picture is the same as above but from a different angle making the place appear spacious and luxurious (oh, and note the posters on the wall - free decorations from work):

Here's the view from our deck, complete with blooming flowers in the winter (huh?) and the teeniest view of the ocean down the hill:

Our plant collection includes a basil plant, a mint plant, a corriander plant, and what used to have two flowers but now has one because we squashed it in the car on the way home plant:

So things are going well. Work is about to get insanely busy with the 50% off winter sale starting on Thursday (the reason we were hired, so we shouldn't complain). Today is our only day off this week, so we'll go for a hike later on to make the most of this sunny and stupendous day. And to top off the splendicity (is that a word?) of today, Brian made scones and they make our place smell like a bakery -- oh yummy yum yum.

The Horse Will Burn - er, the Sphynx Will Burn

I laughed pretty hard at all the comments we got on our online battle of horse versus moose. There are an overwhelming number of votes in favour of the moose being bigger, with the exception of Brian's brother, Gerald, who must only be in agreement with Brian because he's a blood relative and hasn't yet seen the ugly blanket due to be burned should the moose win. I'm sure you've all been anxiously awaiting the revealing of the one and only blanket of wasted recycled pop cans. Well, here it is: Ugh... I'm embarrassed to put that photo on my blog, but yes, my future husband actually paid the equivalent of 40 minutes of his salary at Kathmandu for that rubbish blanket. And what's worse is that his efforts will be destroyed because I think he's lost our friendly little bet.

I think the blanket should burn, don't get me wrong, but I feel the need to ask you normal (somewhat normal) folks if you agree with me, or if you can find some reason to keep the blanket - or at least come up with a better use for it than proudly displayed across our couch or, heaven forbid, our bed.

Moose? Or Horse?

Okay, so Brian and I were talking about how much damage would be done to our Corolla wagon if we hit a horse on the road versus a moose. We have a bet going about which animal is bigger, and would therefore do more damage - a moose or a horse? I think it's a moose, by far, and Brian seems convinced it's a horse (he can't be right, and no, Clydesdale's don't count). The conditions of the bet were that we take a poll of our friends at the pub and if the popular vote is that moose are bigger, then I get to watch Brian take a match to that silly and retched Sphinx fleece blanket he somehow managed to buy and bring to our lovely home . However, if Brian is right, and horses are in fact bigger than moose, then I agreed to get my photo taken (smiling and appearing to love the situation) while wrapped in the silly and retched blanket, and then post it on my blog as if I actually liked the UGLY blanket. Well, I guess that really doesn't do much now that I've blurted this out on my blog, but if he wins, which he won't, then I'll gladly do it for merely a few laughs... The commoners at the pub seemed to agree with me that Moose were indeed bigger, especially in height, but they weren't totally sure about the weight. Any thoughts?

Home Sweet Home!

No more hostels, free-loading with friends (thanks Craig and Hazel), or elementary school yard camping... It's true, we found a place to live! It's a sweet little furnished pad overlooking a palm tree and the ocean in a small farm-like community called The Glen. It's absolutely perfect. Our first purchases for the new place include a tea pot for two bucks, and a pretty flower plant which cost three times as much as the tea pot. During our browsing at the Warehouse (kind of like Walmart, but with a ridiculously annoying catchphrase/jingle heard far too often), Brian also bought a new fleece blanket -- that I don't particularly think is very, well, cool, at all. I actually thought he was kidding when he put it in the shopping cart. He wasn't. There is no way to describe how hideous this thing is; I'll just have to take a picture of it and post it later. I should have a poll asking if anyone on god's green earth actually agrees with Brian on this one. This is almost a deal breaker - that's how bad it is. Anyway, we're off to clean the new place and make our first dinner. Hooray for the queen-size bed! And the flannel star sheets we just bought! WOo-hooo!

Beer and Pie Don't Mix

A few days ago, Brian and I picked up some lard at the grocery store and tried our hands at making an apple pie. It isn't quite as easy as we thought it should be, and had we refrained from drinking Heinekin beer during the whole pie-making process, it may have come out fine. I think, though, that for every down point the beer brought us, Mr. Diamond's lyrics brought us back up to par... Neil belt out some great tunes for us on the ol' ghetto blaster in the kitchen. I think this photo on Neil's cover is a bit on the creepy side, but we'll let that slide because it is, after all, Neil Diamond.

For some strange reason our pie tastes better cold than it did right out of the oven... but at least it is quite edible, and we've feasted on it every day since we made it. We'll have another go of the whole pie-making process next week, pas de beer, and perhaps after consulting with my Uncle Bert on the perfect pastry recipe. That's guaranteed sweet golden results!

We won't be sharing our pies with our co-workers at Kathmandu until we do a better job of it, but perhaps we can share our banana muffins because boy-oh-boy those are taste-a-licious (thanks Brian)! By the way, the job selling gear and clothes is great. The people we work with are fantastic and fun, and we juggle hacky sacs at work. It's all in the name of customer entertainment and a bit of employee stress relief.

Today is our day off, so Brian and I are looking for a place to house sit or rent for the coming months. One of our coworkers, Stacy from Victoria, BC (woo-hoo!), is looking for a place as well, so we're starting our own family. We just need a pad to chill out after work and hold Stitch and Bitch parties where we gab while we knit and crochet. We've switched the name to 'Stitch and Ba-a-ah' for the sake of talking about our club in ear shot of customers. It's going to be good times multiplied by 2.3! Can't wait. We will also be looking for free furniture if anyone has anything useful for us....

And before I go, I wanted to share with you my new decorations on Brian's diary. I quite like it. He said he'll get used to it, but he really digs the "Books Are Stellar" part. Who wouldn't? I hope he doesn't get beaten up because of that...

Jobs for Two!

Well, I've got less than six minutes to share the latest and greatest with you. Brian and I both had interviews at a coffee shop this morning to work at the local Kathmandu store in Nelson (an outdoor clothing and equipment store just like MEC but four times more expensive). Before letting Brian leave the interview, they told him that we should both show up at the store at 9:00AM on Thursday morning. Yep, WE'RE EMPLOYED! It must have been the apple pie story that really sealed the deal! I should show up on my first day with a warm apple pie. That'd go over well, for sure! Hmm... I wonder what the employee discounts are? Probably pretty sweet. One minute to go. Ahh!

Chicken Pox

The following quotes are entirely made up, but the content is true. Dee: "So, Brian, besides getting officially engaged, what else did you get?" Brian: "Um... the chicken pox." Yes, the chicken pox: little itchy red marks spaced nicely apart on his body. Good thing I had the chicken pox when I was six. Instead of spreading chicken pox to the residents of Nelson, we rented a bunch of movies to get us by as we stay locked up in Craig and Hazel's house. Try this on for size - we got a movie rental deal that will swipe your socks off! Ten movies for ten days for ten bucks. That's one heck of a steal! Tonight's showing will be Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels at 7:35 PM in the living room; popcorn and beer will be free. We feel awfully bad about having a contagious agent in Craig and Hazel's house. Craig is coming back to Nelson for the next few days, and he can't even stay in his own home because it's too much of a risk spreading the pox to the rest of his family when he goes back to Wellington. Instead, he's going to stay with his uncle here in Nelson, and will likely be calling us on his cell phone to say a hearty hello when he's out on the open ocean fishing without us. Craig, you just remember the three good luck charms you had on the boat when we caught that 95-cm king fish! How do you go to job interviews when you have the chicken pox? I'm thinking you stay home and suggest a phone interview. Speaking of jobs, do you think you'd hire me at the Kathmandu store if my application form included the following? Reasons for seeking employment: To be brutally honest, I've run out of travelling funds, and after six months of tenting, food made in a single pot, and being completely exposed to the elements, I'm looking for a nice place to settle, a fun job for a few months, and my own oven so I can learn how to make apple pies... I'd hire anyone wanting to make apple pies. The last bike trip update.... Brian did a tally of the number of kilometres we rode, and the total comes to a whopping 1530 km. Nice. That's like riding from Edmonton to Chilliwack. Maybe we should do that when we get back to Canada.