Yesterday was an eventful day. After lazing a bit in the morning, I headed out to do the grocery shopping for the week. Once that was complete, and after a little house tidying, I was off to watch the Bastion Square Grand Prix. The men started at 1, but I never got downtown until 1:30 or so.

When I arrived it was obvious that one guy had broken away from the pack, and was holding a sizeable lead. Slowly the main pack closed in on him, and caught him. There was one team that was pretty sizeable too. I think there was at least 6 riders, if not 7 on that team. I ran into Duncan and Todd, and talked with them for a bit. Todd mentioned that if I had the right pass, he could have taken me out. Before I knew it, Todd had to go work at one point, so I tried to get a few action shots of him.

Pics are here.

The last few days Victoria has been in the midst of a heat wave. I have been eharing a lot of complaining about how oppressive it is, and how unbearable the heat has been. I don’t get it though. The high for the past few days has hovered around 26-28 (Celcius of course). I have been thoroughly enjoying it. I think part of it for me is that I haven’t found it too hot at work. That makes a big difference. The building I work in doesn’t really have any useful air conditioning. In the middle of summer it can get oppressively hot in there. Makes working very difficult some days. So far though, it has only been warm in the office. Something that I can handle.

I have also noiced how quickly a heat wave can affect the environment. When I cut the grass on Wednesday, it was still lush and green. Two days of 28 degree weather, and it has mostly turned brown. I don’t mind the brown grass since I wont have to cut it as often, but I was sure surprised at how quickly it changed.

The heat certainly affects out pets though. Both Yoshi and Aphro feel the heat. Yoshi spends most of his time flaked out on his side relaxing, boviously not as energetic as normal. Aphro spends a lot of time sleeping too, but we have noticed that when it is hot out, she tends to sleep inside her cat tree. This thing she sleeps in is a little cat house on the top of her perch. I can’t imagine how that would be cooler than sleeping on the floor, or under the bed. She seems to think so.

Of course with increased warmth comes increased outdoor activity. The last few days I have notcied a dramatic increase in the mosquito population. Thursday I went for a walk with Coreman and OTP out at Island View beach. The mosquitos there were horrible. Even as we were walking at a brisk pace, the mosquitos would land one me and bite. Aaargh. I hate mosquito bites. Also, since it has been warm, Sox and I have been having some of the windows open in the evening to cool down the house. The little buggers fly in the open windows (which do not have screens, something that a house we buy will definitly have, or soon have). I hate the noise of themflying around my head as I am trying to sleep. As soon as I hear it I cringe. Everytime I feel a little tickle on me I have to scratch it in case it is a mosquito. Friday night I could take it any more. It was 1 am, and I had to turn the lights on, hunt down the mosquito and kill it before I could fall asleep properly.

Small price to pay for such glorious weather though.

Tuesday myself, Sue, kaptaink, JJ, and Jim all headed over to Vancouver to go see Collective Soul play at the Commodore. The road trip started when we took the 3pm ferry over to Vancouver, dropped our stuff off in Tsawassen, and had dinner with the kaptains parents who were house sitting.

The doors opened at 8, and we planned to get downtown just after 8. When we got there, we were greeted with a huge lineup that was at least a block and a half long.

Once we finally got in the doors I was pretty impressed with the club. It has a huge dancefloor, lots of seating, and a few different bars to get drinks from.

The opening band was the Waking Eyes. In a word, they were awesome. They blew me away. Opening their set I was prepared for a mediocre band. As they tore into their first song, the lead singer was barely audible. I looked over at their guitar tech who was gutting himself laughing. A few seconds later he ran out and started picking at the mics. Apparently someone from Collective Soul had placed condoms over all the microphones as a prank for the Waking Eyes’ last gig of their tour. The lead singer quipped up that that was the first time he had ever had tasted a condom. He also swore that he would get them back.

Musically the Waking Eyes were excellent. Their songs were great, and their on stage presence was very strong. They were putting out a lot of energy. This was especially evident during Taking the Hard Way. The lead singer was jumping around, and every time he shook his head the sweat created a mist that surrounded him.

At the end of their set, they were greeted by the Collective Soul bassist and drummer who had a tray of shooters for them all. Very nice.

There was the prerequisite break between the bands. I hate waiting around like that.

Collective Soul took the stage and the crowd went nuts. Now I don’t know their song names very well, but I do enjoy their music. Their set was very good, but I couldn’t get over the lead singer. He was rather exuberant on the stage, and it was just weird. A lot of his hand motions, mic stand playing, posing, and jumping seemed very forced and unnatural. As this review stated, it was creepy. Once he got a guitar strapped around him, everything was good though.

They did a mini acoustic set that was pretty awesome too. He played Satellite solo acoustically and it was an excellent rendition. I kept hoping they would play Under Heaven’s Sky acoustically, but it was not to be. After they brought out the electric guitars again, they then payed the song I was waiting for. It was good, but I think it would have been better acoustic.

I was pretty happy, when they started playing Gel, one my favourite Collective Soul songs. That was when the drummer from the Waking Eyes made his appearance. He was clad only in his boxers that had been fashioned into a g string. Nice image. On his chest was the word Gel, and on his butt cheeks were CS. Very nice. The band continued to play, but the drummer went around dancing and strutting around the stage. Soon he began humping the legs of the Collective Soul band members. CS was cracking up, having a great time.

When they left the stage, the crowd erupted. It was pandemonium. The lead singer Ed Roland had promised we would be there a long time, and he was definitely right on that account. When they came back they picked up where they left off. During one song the entire Waking Eyes band came back on stage with another tray of shooters.

After their drinks Ed started noodling around playing a riff from AC/DC. The crowd liked it, so, on a whim, the band started playing Highway to Hell. The Waking Eyes, came out on stage and sang back up. It just seemed like a lot of fun. Everyone up there looked like they were having a great time.

When the show was finally over I picked up the Waking Eyes CD on my way out the door. It was late, and we had a long drive back to Tsawassen. Having been on my feet for over 5 hours was not treating my back right, and it was letting me know.

Good concert, great time.

Well, Ultimate yesterday was a bust. I had to drop off a movie (Mara Full of Grace), then head over to Ulti. I had already decided to ride, and since I rode the day before, I knew it would take me a little longer than normal.

Hopping on the bike a few minutes late was not a good idea. I pushed it to get over to Thrifty’s to drop off the flick at the movie store nearby. Then from there I zipped up to Lansdowne.

It seemed that every road either had a head wind, or a very bad cross wind. This made for a difficult ride.

Arriving at the field I was quite surprised at the lack of Frisbee’s. I was the only one there. I had overheard at the last game that there definitely was going to be a pick up game, and I was really looking forward to playing. Big disappointment to not see anyone there.

Later that afternoon Sue and I headed over to the house of some friends of ours to show each other pictures. They wanted to see some wedding pics, and we wanted to see their trip pictures.

After that it was off to Jims BBQ. At 5:30 we realized that it actualy started at 3. Oops. We jumped onto our bikes and joined the party. Another good time. It was fun to catch up with folks we hadn’t seen/talked to in a long time. It was also good to meet some new people, and share stories.

Yesterday was certainly a busy day.

This weekend is turning out to be a good one, and it just started.

Tonight Sue and I started the weekend by going out for dinner to the Tapas Bar. Very yummy.

Tomorrow morning I am meeting up with a couple friends for a ride. Tomorrow afternoon I recover from the ride.

Sunday is the big day. I am going to go to play drop in Ultimate, then Sue and I have a coffee date with some friends in the afternoon. Sunday evening is Jims BBQ.

Monday Sue and I will go check out the parade a little, then we are off to go mountain biking with some of her co-workers. After that I will need some recovery time.

I have taken Tuesday off, but I will have some running around to do, and that definitely includes picking up the new Audioslave CD. I have been listening to the mp3 version of the disc, and it totally kicks ass! Tuesday afternoon we board a ferry to head to Vancouver to see Collective Soul play at the Commodore.

Wednesday morn we return, but since I took that day off too, I get to go home and relax a bit.

I had a great Ultimate game tonight. I stuck to my plan of riding to and from the game in an effort to get a good warm up before playing. It seemed to work pretty well for me. I should have left a few minutes earlier than I did though since I arrived right as the game was starting. I was warmed up, but I hadn’t tossed the disc at all. After a quick stretch out, and a change into my cleats I was ready.

The game went pretty well, and I felt good throughout. I also had a lot of fun, which was more important.

Our team is a pretty good mix of very experienced players, and some newer players as well. Teaching is a big part of the game, and the more experienced folks are doing a good job of it.

Overall I felt I played pretty good. I was a handler for many points, and I don’t think I ever screwed up too bad. On one point we were on the offensive, and the D zoned us. The cup never really got set up too well, so we slowly marched up the field, by swinging the disc from one side to the other. At one point I got the disc, and I could see one guy striking to an open area on the opposite side of the field. I fired off the disc, and it was heading there perfectly until a gust of wind grabbed it, and the disc just hung there in the air. I was really hoping he could pull it down. A defensive player got to the spot, and the jump was on. The D missed it, and my teammate came down with it. Phew!

The score was really close too. It was tied 14 to 14. Game point. The play was really close, and either team had many opportunities to score. In the end we came down with the disc and won the game.

A quick ride home and it was time for dinner.

From Thursday night’s dog walk with Jenn and Duke.

Just got back from the All Candidates meeting for Esquimalt. We were there for about 45 minutes or so, but it was definitely enough. There were three candidates

• Maurine Karagianis
• Jane Sterk
• Tom Woods

Each candidate definitely had their own style. Maurine’s opening speech was all about how the Campbell Liberals had screwed everything up, and the NDP would fix it. She basically attacked the Liberal party.

Jane went off on how the economic model was wrong for BC.

Tom introduced us to his latest work in the public office, and some of the problems he has solved, or is currently working on. Immediately you could see the difference here.

We only stayed for a small portion of the questions, but the NDP position is that the Liberals have a huge deficit, yet the NDP will fix the whole province, and not raise or drop taxes. In most of Maurine’s answers I just wondered where the hell she planned on getting the money from.

Jane usually answered her questions about how the economic model was wrong, and they would look at it, and change it so that it was better. Again, I wondered where they would get the money to change all these models.

Tom’s answers never attacked another party, and generally made sense. In my opinion he was the most well spoken of the three.

With 7 days to vote, Sue and I wanted to learn a bit on the issues, but we could only stand the rhetoric so long. No matter what the question was, the candidates still had problems answering the asked question.

It took less than an hour of our time, but it was still time well spent.

Just got back from swimming with Sue. I haven’t been out in a very long time, but I stil managed to get through 450m. This was my first time at the new Esquimalt Pool. It is pretty nice, and the salt water is a good temperature (IMO). Plus the hot tub is an excellent size, shape and temp. Prices are reasonable too. If we end up having a family, and living in Esquimalt, we will most likely get yearly passes. Anyway, nice and tired now. Time to watch a little TV, then off to bed.

Everything went off perfectly yesterday. I couldn’t have asked for a better outcome.

Myself and Suede (err, I guess it is Sox now), had a fantastic time. I hope everyone who attended also enjoyed themselves.

Now on to the honeymoon. More later!