Samosa Firecrackers

tidbits

Tidbits from the first half of the week.

Somehow I lost my favorite MEC vest. I am so ticked off! :grr:

Yesterday was my latest blood donation. It was insanely busy there. Turned out that the Sikh Community had chosen yesterday for a large turnout. They had a tent setup outside with warm food for donors. After I donated I was offered a samosa. I turned it down in favor of cookies and juice.

Since a week before Halloween Yoshi has been afraid to go into the backyard while it is dark. We think it must have something to do with him getting scared from firecrackers. We used to have to take him out into the front yard and wait while he pees, but last night was the first night he ventures back out into the dark yard. 🙂

I had a good scare at work today. I plugged my Visor in to sync it, but as soon as I plugged it in, my computer reset itself (that happens every once in a while). Everything seemed fine at startup, but when I started Eudora, it complained that two folders were missing. These were container folders that housed mailboxes. Specifically the one housing my work and project related email was missing. I didn’t know what the other one was. After a couple frantic moments, I discovered that they had reappeared. A restart of Eudora and everything was hunky dorey. Scarey for a few moments though.

Lethargic Technique

almost airborn
Sunday morning arrived too early. I didn’t get to bed until some time after 2am, so when my 8am alarm went off, I wasn’t at my best. My goal was to pick up Mike at quarter to nine, then head to Duncan to ride on Tzuhalem.

After eating some toast, drinking some coffee, and getting changes, I was already running late. Shortening the story a lot, I picked up Mike, we zipped up to Duncan, and discovered that James was running late.

When everyone finally showed up and was fully geared up, we started the long march to the top. Tzuhalem has lots of climbing followed by lots of really fast, fun, swoopy downhill, punctuated by a smattering of stunts along the way.

It was a hard ride for me. I was a little hung over, which for me means I was very lethargic. By the time we got to the top I was wiped. I really wanted to ride some of the stunts on Sunday, but I was just too out of it to do it safely. Plus, I wasn’t a big fan of the construction technique used on the stunts. The rung on the ladders were very angular pieces of wood that were set quite far apart. This made traction (in my mind) spotty. Mentally I wasn’t on my game, and I didn’t want to push myself too much, so I took it easy and tried to have fun.

In the end it was a great ride. I was thoroughly exhausted by the time we got back to the vehicles, but I was glad I got out. The whole ride had a wonderful chill in the air. I love fall riding!

Organized Retrieving

almost edible almost edible

Halloween was lots of fun last night. Sue and I had some guests over for dinner and a movie. Before the movie started, we all wandered down the block to check out the fireworks. Some people from the block had organized everything so that everyone with fireworks was welcome to bring them down to get shot off. They also had hot dogs, hot chocolate, and coffee. Very fun! Read more for my shots from last night.

Today Yoshi and I ventured out to Elk Lake. That is where I took the above two shots. We started with a half hour warm up walk, then followed that by a round of retrieving the ball. Great fun for him. Darn chilly for me! 🙁

Tonight we are off to a friends 30th birthday party. Tomorrow I am riding in Duncan, then attempting to do some yard work (weather dependant).Talk about a busy weekend!

sparkler fun
sparkler fun

sparkler fun
sparkler fun
fireworks fun
fireworks fun

Flesh Candles

oooooOOOoOOOoooOH
Last night was the annual pumpking carving session. Loads of fun! We had all sorts of Halloweeny treats, and about 10 adults and 6 helpers all gathered to carve some wonderful creations from the flesh of pumpkins.

Once everyone was done carving we set them up on the front porch and had the ritual viewing/photo session. The wind was pretty blustery and some of the candles had a hard time staying lit. I had lots of fun trying to take quality shots. I think I did better with these creations, than I did with the Government House ones.

View the pics.

Dropped Chance

happy day!

I dropped my new camera off there yesterday and got them to check it all out. I just talked to Victoria Camera Service, and it was all good news. Everything checks out on it, and the only thing they recommended was to replace the light seals, so I told them to go ahead. They are a bit backed up, but the guy said a couple weeks. No problem 😛 I am just happy that there is nothing wrong with the camera. I took a chance on it, and I was a little worried, but not I am just stoked to get it back and start using it.

I wanted a professional to check it out, so that when I start using it, if the shots turn out crappy, I can blame me, and not the camera!

Zipped Information

my first SLR
I found out before yesterdays ride that there was a Camera Swap N Shop running until 3:30. After the ride I zipped home, got cleaned up and headed over to see what was left. While driving over I glanced at my watch and it read 3:30. My heart skipped a beat until I realized I hadn’t set it back yet! :O

As you may have guessed by the above pic, I bought a new camera!

It is a Yashica FX-103, and it came with the original manual. I am going to print out a new one and keep the original in a safe place.

I am pretty stoked about the camera. I got it for a great deal, but it only makes me wonder if the camera is fully functional. Walking in to the Swap N Shop, I wasn’t expecting to buy anything, but I got talking to the guy, and this sounds like a good camera. When I got home I searched the net for more information on it, and I found some people selling it for $200 CDN. I got it for half that, so that further fuels my paranoia about it not working properly. I am going to buy some film today, burn off a roll tonight, and get that developed to see if it works. Cross your fingers for me. :cross:

Swooping Balance

big drop
Yesterday was a great ride out at the dump. Myself, Mike, Shane, Sean, James, Val, and Dave??? headed out for a great ride. The highlight trail was Snakes and Ladders, but we tooled around on lots of different features on several trails.

big air Mike
medium air Shane
After warming up at the TTA, we headed up Skull, Inventive, and up to C-Section. After C-Section it was up the Switchbacks we headed up to Snakes and Ladders, then it was down to Skull, and back to the vehicles.

Skip to the pics.

fall colors
fall colors
fall colors

The temp was awesome, the blue skies spectacular, the trees beautiful, and the trails difficult. Swooping down some of them reminded me of summer times, yet here it is in the waning days of October. Crazy!

skinny Shane
skinny Mike

Mike and Shane tried their hands at riding a skinny, skinny, skinny. I have ridden this one to the end exactly once. It is hard since getting on to it requires lofting the front tire onto it, and lifting the rear on as well. Then you have to negotiate a twenty foot long log that widens from 4 inches wide to about 6 inches wide. The exit is a 2 foot wheelie drop. I gave it a go yesterday, and got about three quarters of the way down the log before I lost my balance and jumped off the left side.

The rest of the ride was too fun for me to stop and take out the camera. We blasted down Snakes and Ladders, then went up the fire road and raced down Skull trail.

skinny cement Sean

Back at the vehicles Sean wanted to give a skinny a go, so he attempted the barrier ride a few times.

Great ride. I totally forgot to mention that Yoshi was with us too. He had fun, but he was pretty pooped by the end. He was tired before we left the lot, so he was pretty slow the whole ride. Being th good pooch that he is, he hung in there until the end.

Haunted Concession

punkins!
Saturday morning was Pumpkin Fest out at Le Coteau farm. What fun!

It started off with a haunted hay ride. This would through a very, very scary haunted building. I think I captured a picture of a ghost!

The hay ride dropped us off at the Festival site. There was a live band, Twiggly Wiggley the clown, a haunted house, goats, ponies to ride, a concession area, mazes, and more!

Very fun place, especially for kids (or adults accompanying kids).

And of course there were lots of pumpkins, gourds, and squash.

Lots of fun. Here are all my pics.

Eventful Hedge

spoooky!
Eventful weekend. It all started with Friday nights pizza eat and Government House Pumpkin Art viewing.

Pizza was good, and the kids were out in full force. Here they all are relaxing on the couch after eating a ton of pizza! It was quite the feat to get them all sitting still there for even a second.

Once it got dark it was time to head off to Government House. Here are my shots from the night.

I found the pumpkin art interesting, and some of the carvings were exquisite, but I found them rather boring to shoot. I had trouble making artsy shots. There are a few artsy fartsy shots there, but most were boring. Interestingly enough many of my shots were ended up being out of focus. I can’t believe I wasn’t paying more attention. Anyway, the artsiest shots I could come up with were a string of decorative pumpkin lights that were strung up in a hedge. I also found a line of pumpkins that was neat too.

It was kind of neat, and I might go back again, specially if Sue wants to go. She wasn’t there cuz she was still on her way back from Seattle.