Where did the week go? I can’t believe that it is Thursday already. Time has just flown by this week.

It all started on Friday. I left work early so that Sue and I could travel with Krista, Clint, and Elizabeth to Kelowna for Elizabeth’s Christening. We missed the 5 pm ferry, but luckily for us there was a 6. More and more I am missing ferries, and it is a royal pain in the ass. I certainly hope that the new Ferry Services company can improve their throughput. To me that is the single biggest problem with the ferries. I digress.

We arrived in Westbank quite late, and quickly went to sleep. Saturday Sue and I went exploring. We headed to Kelowna, and I did some shopping. 2 new pairs of shoes, a pair of pants, and a Christening gift later we left Orchard Park Mall.

We needed lunch, and we had heard that the Quails Gate Winery had an excellent dining room. We also planned for a tour of the facilities. Those plans were dashed when we got there. The dining room didn’t open until May 1st, and the tours didn’t start until the May long weekend. Darn.

We then headed to the Vintage Hills Golf Course for lunch. It was pretty good. The broccoli and cheese soup was excellent. From there it was up to Mission Hill Winery. We were hoping to get a tour, but they were all booked up. We did walk around the grounds though. Beautiful winery. Very modern looking. I took a bunch of pictures which I will put up soon. It was back to Westbank for dinner.

Sunday was the Christening. Nice ceremony, but it was an odd feeling for me to be sitting in a church during service. Honestly I felt like a fraud, and that I shouldn’t be there at all (for the days service, not the Christening). After the service it was back to Krista’s parents place for brunch.

Sunday afternoon Sue and I went for a drive to Penticton. Very nice drive right along the lake.

Monday we came back, and Tuesday I went back to work.

Next up: This weekend I have my first (and perhaps only) Downhill race of the season. Hammerfest 10! I am looking forward to it. I have a lot to get prepared before I leave. I am leaving tomorrow night after work (the current plan), so that means I will most likely miss the Canucks Game.

Here are the promised picture galleries.

The Art Show of Elementary self portraits.

A Thetis Hike that Jason, Cathy, Chester, Yoshi, Sue and I did.

Some random Downtown shots I took.

My Easter long weekend started Wednesday (sort of). Chester, Duncan’s chocolate lab came to stay for the weekend! His parents were heading to Fairmont for the weekend. Yoshi was in love with him, and wouldn’t leave him alone. Poor Chester.

Thursday Sue and I went to an art show on the top floor of Victoria Eaton’s Centre (to be renamed Bay Centre). The local elementary schools had chosen two students from each class to do self portraits. Some of them were great. We were there to see one special one though. Jessica Timmins. Sue has known the Timmins’ for a long time. Again I took a bunch of pictures, but I haven’t posted them to my site yet. We had dinner out at Red Robbins. I had the Banzai Burger! The kids had the Mile High Mud Pie. Very yummy.

Friday Sue and I went for a hike with Yoshi, Chester, Jason, and Cathy at Thetis Lake. We took some trails we had never been on before. It was a pretty cool trail. I took a bunch of pictures, but I haven’t made them web ready yet. I will try to do that tonight. We were out for around two hours. It was a beautiful day out.

Saturday Sue and Yoshi left for Sechelt where her brother was in a dinner theatre play. It sounds like Sue had a good time. Chester and I had a lazy day. I spent most of the day on the couch watching TV, and Chester on his dog bed sleeping. I did get out for an hour or so to look for some new shoes for mountain biking. I didn’t find any, but I did have fun wandering downtown Victoria taking pictures (again they are not web ready). I finally got to see the big blue Johnson St Bridge go up! That was quite a treat. A large Tugboat and barge made their way under. Saturday night I rented The Transporter. It was a decent renter movie. Good action sequences with a thin plot. A good guy movie.

Sunday I was determined not to get stuck on the couch like I did Saturday. I ate breakfast, drank some Starbucks Sumatra then started on the house work. I managed to tidy the family room, the bedroom, the computer room, do 4 loads of laundry, clean the dishes, and fix the bathroom sink all by noon! I was on fire. I knew that if I sat at anytime, I wouldn’t be able to get up. I then got a call from Rhiannon saying that her and Steve were going to have people over to watch the Canucks! Woohoo! I took Chester out for a nice hour long walk right on the ocean. There is a beautiful boardwalk that goes from near my place over to Spinnakers. I didn’t make it to Spinnakers (or I would have stopped for a frosty BEvERage), but instead turned around at the half hour mark. Again it was sunny and warm. A perfect day for a walk on the water. After the walk I had a shower, then it was off to watch the game. I am happy to report that the Canucks won.

Monday I was off to work. I now realize, after typing this all out, that I had a pretty good weekend. I need to process those pics PDQ though. I never did catch up on my sleep. It didn’t help that Chester woke me up Monday at 5:45 am whining because he had to go out and pee. Oh well. At least I can function like a normal human now, and not the Zombie I was last week.

Note to all motorists: when you are driving near a pedestrian walking a dog, and they are carrying a small bag that looks like it has something squishy in it, it is not recommended that you piss off said walker in any way. The walker may retaliate with the aforementioned goody bag.

Today while walking Chester (a friends dog I am watching for the weekend), I had two instances where I was very tempted to fling the stinky poo bag at some cars because their drivers were being very stupid.

I am running on empty today. I have been on empty all week actually. I have been sleeping really poorly for over a week and it is starting to take its toll. I am exhausted. My mind is not functioning correctly. I cannot think straight. That is why there have not been many updates as of late.

For the long weekend I am dog sitting. I am taking care of Chester who is Duncan S’s chocolate lab. Yoshi has some weird fascination with him, and always wants to play with him. Maybe it is a weird form of dominance. Anyway, Chester is a little ticked at Yoshi and is always growling and barking at him. Last night we separated the two dogs by creating a barricade at the bottom of the stairs. Yoshi was upstairs and Chester downstairs. First Yoshi was whining because he wanted to play with Chester. Then Chester was whining because he wanted Duncan (I think). This was all at 11 pm last night.

This morning Yoshi woke up at 5:30 and was thumping around and whining. I couldn’t sleep. This woke the cat up and she was wandering around the bed. Sue got up and put Yoshi outside. I tried to get back to sleep but failed. At 6 am I was wide awake, so I got up and went to work.

Sue is going away for a couple days on Saturday, so everything should be fine then. Until then I will be pounding back the Starbucks Sumatra. Today is an exception. I started the day with a yummy Americano. I need some “Fueled by Caffeine” stickers.

This past Sunday I awoke to a huge rainstorm. I was planning on going for a bike ride, then watching the Freecross race at the dump. Well, the rain cancelled my ride. I was all about to cancel on watching the race when I said to myself “screw it, I am going”. I dressed in my best rain gear, grabbed the umbrella, and headed to the dump.

Am I ever glad I did. The race was super fun to watch, and I stayed mainly dry. Bonus! I took my digital camera, but never brought it out because of the rain. Too bad too. I saw lots of action.

The FreeCross race is basically a downhill race with time bonuses for hitting certain trail features. For example hitting the easiest line give no bonus, but a drop off the side of the trail may give you a bonus of 5 seconds. The rider with the lowest adjusted time wins. This give the rider a strategy to think about while doing his runs. Interesting twist on a simple concept.

Initially I balked at the idea of the race, but after arriving at the dump to watch the race, I wished I had entered it. It really looked like a lot of fun. I will be doing the Hammergest DH race in early May though.

Today I had Yoshi at work like I do every Thursday. At lunch I decided to take a walk over to Bosley’s to get him some tasty treats (all natural peanut butter and apple biscuits). I went to grab my leash from my backpack, but found it missing. I looked all over but I found I had left it at home. To top it off I had no vehicle today.

I did what any self respecting computer geek, MacGuyver wanna be would do. I fashioned a leash out of some extra Cat 5 cable that was of no use to the Voice Mob!

last night Sue and I had a wonderful dinner at Blighty’s Bistro. this is a small restaurant in Oak Bay that has the friendliest waitresses, a wicked atmosphere, and excellent food. while we were waiting for our appy’s (I highly recommend the mussels) Joy McPhail stopped by for some dinner. she talks very loud. she was seated next to our table, and even when the restaurant was full, we could hear most of her conversation. when the restaurant was empty though, we couldn’t really hold much of a conversation because she was so loud. oh well, the experience was still wonderful. get the lemon mousse!

Happy Birthday to me! 28 years ago to the day I was born (sometime after 8 pm). I awoke this morning to a nice sunny morning, and got to open a couple presents in bed. Woohoo! Sue had framed a couple pictures that I took a while ago, and they look fantastic. She also found me a wonderful black spring jacket (I have been wanting one for a while).

So far the only plans I have for today are to go for dinner with Sue at the SouthBay Pub. This Sunday we are having a bunch of my friends over for a brunch. Should be fun!

after last night’s late night driving session I was looking forward to sleeping in. 7:30am my cell starts ringing. it’s mike wanting to know if I was still in for riding. the destination was mt prevost for some shuttle runs. I hear the word shuttle and decide instantly that I am in. I then found out everyone was meeting at 8:15. crap, better hurry. I ran around, and managed to find clean riding gear, eat breakfast, drink some coffee, pack clothes for after the ride, load my bike and gear into the truck, the zoom out to the Helmken Park N Ride.

we gathered into two vehicles and headed to Duncan. wee! when we finally got to the top I was pretty excited. I haven’t ridden my Bullit in quite a while, and this was a good time to ride it. we quickly learned the trails were very sloppy. tires became clogged, and you could tell how fast you were going by how much mud your tires were throwing. the trails were steep, greasy, and fun. after the first run I was ready for the next.

our second run we started off on a different trail. again, it was steep, but this one had a shale base so traction was great (at least for me it was). we popped out on to a fireroad and were a little lost. since I had never been there before I relied on the rest of the group to lead the way. they did good though because we did find the trail we were looking for.

pretty much everyone had a crash of some sort. nothing serious, but somehow I had escaped. until “the incident” . I am not sure exactly how I did it, but while going down a steep pitch quite quickly, both feet slipped off their pedals, hit the ground, and then flew out behind me. there I was with my belly on my seat and both legs extended out behind me flying down the trail. I was braking for all I was worth, but I couldn’t stop. I hit a bump, got a little airborn, but managed to pull it together (still in the superman). I couldn’t do anything about my position, and I wasn’t gaining speed so I wasn’t too worried. eventually I wrangled my bike to a stop, laid it in the bush then proceeded to laugh for a few minutes. Jason was right behind me when it all happened and he was laughing pretty good too. the rest of the run was a blast (but uneventful).

we only got two runs in, but it was sure fun. in the summer that place would absolutely rawk. I can’t wait to get back there.

here are a few aftermath shots of my bike