17 Mile Bike Rides.... My New Favorite Thing!

Yeah I have taken to taking 17Mi. bike rides from my home to the sea wall and all around the sea wall. If you know me like Mom and Dad do you will know that back home I can't ride a bike for more the 15 minutes before feeling this horrible stabbing pain in my back and not being able to breathe. But here in Vancouver it is relatively flat and what hills there are tend to not be really steep. I could ride for hours and hours and still feel great, and I do just that. Here is a screen shot of a google map I made documenting one of my rides (click it to make the image bigger). Note that I traveled the distance between E and F twice and got on a bus to take me home at point F.
Bike wish list:
over rear wheel bike rack and basket- For picnics. Can't forget about the noms.
bike light
speedometer

Super Late...

Ok so this is super late but I couldn't find my camera data cord for the longest time so these were all stuck on my camera. I use the 4 Gigs of internal memory instead of a memory card. So yeah... Well this year Valentines and Chinese New Year were on the same day and the Olympic started two days before that so it was a pretty "holiday" packed weekend so here are some holiday greetings for you.


Aww... Doesn't Bunny look cute in his heart mask.




The second apperance of the famous Lion Bunny.




Yay! For the  Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Bunny is sporting his hand crafted Olympic Rings Vancouver 2010 hat and read Canada scarf. Looking good Bunny. (Sorry for the bad quality no mater how much I fiddled I couldn't get it to look any nice it was just a crappy picture to begin with.)

Look forward to an ultra image heavy post on the Olympics. Coming as soon as I fix up the pictures.

Tour of My Place

I meant to do this a while ago but my place was always in such a state or it wasn't the way I wanted it. So I finally made this tour video. I know how much my parents wanted to see the place. So here is the video. Sorry about all the head twitching at the beginning, I desperately need a haircut. Let me know what you think about my first place. Oh my god it is so embarrassing to see and hear myself. I really annoy myself. Click here to see it on YouTube. I had wanted to upload it so you could view it on the blog and have it on YouTube like I did with bunny's lion dance video. But the video file was too big to upload to the blog. And apparently the video was too long because last night I left it uploading to Youtube and it was was rejected due to length so I had to edit it this morning and re-upload it (and the file is still to big to upload directly to the blog...).
Oh I watched and I seem like a crazy person and all the turquoise is very obsessive. Hahaha. Oh well I like it.
P.S. the Mucky Brown color I mention that is on the sofa cover looks green but is really a decomposing leaves sort of color. Yuck.
P.P.S. All of my furniture is second hand Ikea stuff found using Craigslist. Basically I went to the Ikea store found what I wanted and took that shopping list to craigslist it cost me a good two thirds less to buy all the furniture and I was also able to get discontinued pieces that I wanted.

My New Favorite Blog

I just discovered a blog that has instantly become a favorite. It is eatyourkimchi.com written but a Canadian couple from Toronto who are living and working in Korea as teachers. Most people know I am a Korea fan. Going to teach English in Korea for a few years is something I want to do... Insert crying parents here.... Like they didn't already cry a river when I decided to come to Vancouver for university. My parents know I want to visit Korea but I don't think they know I want to go teach and live there for a few years... SURPRISE!... Insert parents crying an ocean of tears here. I just wanted to share that with you. I have also been looking for a way to have the blogs I follow listed to the left right (side column was on the left on the old layout) like other blogs have. But for some reason I just haven't been able to figure out how since its not an obvious option for things to put in that side column. I am also looking for a suitable Teal colored blog template (the background and formate). I can't fond that either... Mom complained about the darkness of the background so I switched to a new one about a week ago. I like it but its not teal or turquoise so I guess I will have to see if I can get someone to code (make) a template for me.

Christmas... A Month Away

Im continuing to work on my Christmas presents. Can't believe Christmas is only a month away. Looking forward to going home and seeing my parents. Also end of term is near  and tomorrow is American Thanksgiving which means more stuffing. Love stuffing. I am not enjoying the rainy weather here in Vancouver. It has been wetter here for this time of year then it was last year and it is also more unrelenting. I hope it lets up a bit and I also hope that all this rain means it wont snow this winter like it did last.

New Hard Drive Number 2

So for the second time since mid August (which happens to be when I came back to Vancouver for the current school year) my little white Apple Macbook has needed a new hard drive... The first time was traumatizing because I lost everything that was on  my computer. To top it of I was relying on my laptop to search craigslist for a basement suite while I stayed in a hotel. Although I have to say that that time was more sudden and definite and the signs were obvious like how it randomly stopped doing what it was doing and went blank and when I turned it back on it showed a screen with a sad broken file or something. This time wasn't so painful because I didn't have much on my computer. The signs were not so obvious it was being extremely slow for a couple of days. I have experienced this before but usually some update pops up and I install it and everything is fixed and back to normal. But when it took 3 hours for my laptop to turn on on Wednesday night I knew I had done the right thing by making an appointment at the Apple store "Genius Bar". So I had hoped this latest problem was going to be a simple fix for the Apple guys but it turned in to another new hard drive. I will tell you something... If it wasn't for the Apple Genius' I would have given up on Apple right about now. If I was dealing with any other computer company I would be tearing my hair out. Despite the problems that you can encounter (which is less often then with other computer brands) the Genius Bar people are what help keep "Mac People" loving Apple. The tech people currently ware blue shirts that say "Not all heros wear capes." and that is so true.

UBC Apple Festival

So today I ventured to the UBC Apple Festival at the Botanical Gardens. I left the my basement suite at about 1:30PM and it was cold and raining and by the time I got off the bus 30 minutes later at UBC it was sunny and warm and sort of humid. Oh the randomness of Vancouver weather you have to both love and hate it. This is my third straight year of going. It is fun going and reminds me of how my parents and I would go to this one apple festival in  Pennsylvania almost annually when I was a kid. So for a toonie entrance fee I can in some way indulge in childhood memories.

So the first thing I did when I arrived was buy a caramel apple to take home and enjoy later this weekend. It cost $4 for one small-ish caramel apple... HIGHWAY ROBBERY! But I only have it once a year so I shelled out for it. I also purchased a small cup of hot apple cider for $1.50 which I think is a bit steep for the size but it was really good. I had a look around and the festival never gets any bigger its been that same size and same stalls every year. Its nice that there is no drastic change to the quality of the festival but when it doesn't grow you wonder whether the festival is truly successful. Over all it was a fun trip.

As per usual to the past two years all the apple tasting sessions for the day were full. Next year I will go super early and finally get to do the apple tasting I swear! On my way out of the festival I saw a sign hanging from a tree with the name of my favorite apple; Pink Lady! So Yummy and delicious!

By the time I got home at 4:30PM it was raining again...

First Blog Post

I've never had a blog before and am a little unsure what exactly I will do with this blog. I assume I will talk about my crochet projects and what I cook as well as tell other random tidbits about my life. For example if someone pisses me off on the bus or something good happens. First off there are a few things you should know about me. I live in Vancouver British Columbia as a student at the University of British Columbia (UBC) But I am an American from the state of Maryland. So I AM an international student but a lot of Canadian students call American international students "diet international" because the US isn't far and it not really that different. I think that is funny. Also I really like to cook and I think about food a lot. I especially love Asian food. This past March I taught myself how to crochet my watching YouYube Videos. I originally learned because I thought Amigurumi were so cute and I wanted to be able to make them. But I soon realized there are only so many stuffed animals you can make so I have  moved on to more useful things. I also taught myself tunisian crochet and have been working of the same "lap robe" since June. I will make a separate post on the project later. Another thing about me is that my favorite colors are Teal and Turquoise. Most of the things I own are some shade of those two colors. I have a theory on why I like these colors so much but that will also be its own post later on. I think thats enough for now.