The Kids

In the beginning of July, we received two foreign imports into our home by the names of Naoto Muranushi and Yuta Hosaka. Through work, I had signed up for hosting two grade nine students from Hachioji, Tokyo, Japan for three days. And we were supposed to entertain them! What to talk about…what to do? Unfortunately their English wasn’t exactly at the level I had anticipated, but thankfully with their Engrish and my Japanese, we were able to communicate good enough to have some overall good times.

Since my lovely dear friend Jean works at the Vancouver Aquarium, I thought that would be an interesting place to start our fun and she was gracious enough to get us in gratis.






This guy looks like Yurtle the Turtle! Actually, Yurtle was more green.






























Here they are, dying of starvation and slightly bored (I believe).

It was hard to really get out of them what they wanted to do and when. Did they have any fun? I don’t know. I don’t know if they knew either. After a fun behind-the-scenes tour from Jean, we headed back through Stanley Park and headed down to my favorite ramen bar of the moment, Benekei. After slurping it all down at the speed of light, we did a bit of shopping on Robson street. In what I imagine is true tourist fashion, they really liked Roots and the Gap. We also stopped at some souvenir shops where they bought maple syrup and an Anne of Green Gables doll. Yes!

Next stop was Vanier Park (again). I thought surely the kids would enjoy some of the beautiful scenery. Alas, they spent their time climbing the rocks and throwing crap into the water. Perfect.





One characteristic that I noted while in Japan was that whenever they are in transportation mode, they tend to fall asleep. This was particularly true on any train or bus. Apparently it carries over to strangers’ vehicles as they were solidly out they whole way into Vancouver and home.

After dinner, the guys requested we play “Gi-ta” and then made some strumming motions. Me, being the superb translator, promptly delivered the Playstation with Guitar Hero and off they went.

After their big day trip into Vancouver the next day, they again insisted on “Gi-ta”. So again they played for several hours until they clearly had enough.










…and on he played.



Just a night at home – me, Marty, and the kids.

After three days, they were gone. Back to Japan, as it were. I imagine dropping your child off for the first day of kindergarten would evoke similar emotions. Sniff sniff. They did, however, leave me with the wonderful gift of origami that I try to practice often and pass onto others. I should really try something more than cranes…



Sayonara Yuta mo Naoto!

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San-jyuu

Otanjyobi Omedetou! Yes, Happy Birthday to my huz-b of exactly two years and nine months, Martin. For his big 30th birthday on July 8, in late June we headed into Vancouver to celebrate his graduation into the next decade of life.

Trying to be the good wife that I am, for months I had planned out what we were going to do. Our first stop in was our loverly hotel, the Granville Island Hotel. I had chosen this particular place as I have stayed here previously and requested the room I had when I blogged about my last stay in THIS post.


The birthday man (no longer boy) holding his card; clearly excited.

Since we were now situated on Granville Island for the next 20 hours or so, we decided to hike along the path I’ve blogged about so many times, the walk from Granville Island to Vanier Park.











After hitting up the usual shops and checking out the market, we headed back to our room to primp and prepare for dinner at the Dockside Restaurant.







After enjoying the scenery and our artfully-presented steaks, we (I) decided we should have some birthday cake to celebrate. Thus, we busted out the new GPS I bought for Marty for his birthday and headed down to True Confections off Dunbar.


Seriously, why aren’t you smiling? Oh wait, this is your “moody emo Facebook shot”. Right.




Dericious.

Now fully stuffed, we headed back to the Island to lounge about and stare out at the views before heading for a late-evening stroll.




Taking pictures of myself again; trying to be an arty bird.








Under the Granville bridge, hanging out with the trippy theatre folk.



The next day we woke up and headed down to the markets for brunch. The next stop on the wild birthday weekend of fun was my surprise tickets to Cirque du Soleil! We truddled on down to Concord Pacific Place in the blistering heat and smushed ourselves under the big top with thousands of others for the greatest show on earth…


Can’t you just feel the heat crackling off the cement? I almost get phantom sunburn.





There were no pictures allowed, naturally, so I snuck this one with my palm pilot. The set up was a round stage in the middle with catwalks leading off either side. You can see the draped mesh curtain in the middle with candelabras and painted circus characters. The show was fantastic. I had never been to a Cirque du Soleil show before and was not disappointed. The show was called Corteo and the premise was a clown’s funeral. I don’t really know how most of the acrobatics and whatnot fit in with that, but they tried to tie it in. Lots of chicks twirling around chandeliers, bed trampoline-ing, tightrope walking, trapeze artists, flying angels, a midget attached to balloons floating around the bigtop, and see-sawing. Highly recommended if you get a chance to see it.

Marty successfully ended his 20’s on a high note with a Delissio pizza on July 8th. RIP 20-something year-old Marty.

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Master Cleanse Completion!

I did it! I arrived at 12:01 AM this morning food-free for the past 10 days. Truthfully, the last few days have quite easy for me which lead me to forget all the hardship I experienced earlier in the cleanse. This morning I was actually a bit sad about drinking the orange juice. Every hindrance aside, doing the Master Cleanse was the best thing I’ve ever done for myself. I feel so much better inside and out that I will be taking on another cleanse in about two weeks or so. In that time, I will enjoy eating a few of my favorites again before going cold-turkey.

Just as a point of reference, I lost a total of 11 pounds and seven inches (from a variety of places). So far, I’m enjoying being skinnier and busting out the smallest clothes I can find stuffed in my closet still. Some other great benefits I’ve noticed are: I don’t smell stinky when working out anymore, my hair doesn’t get as greasy, my skin has cleared completely, great energy in the mornings, teeth are whiter, BIG decrease in daily bloating, internal temperature has been regulated, etc. I’m sure there are many more that I cannot see. Now, if this has cleared up my stomach issues, I’m all set…

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Foray Into Golf

A long, long time ago, my friend Jenna and I used to buy a bucket of balls and head out to the driving range and talk about boys. While I don’t remember exactly how I learned to use a golf club (though I’m sure lots of innocent grass was harmed in the process), I kind of always pretended that I knew. When work announced that for our year-end wrap-up we would be heading to FraserGlen for a round of golf, I decided to pick the clubs back up again and headed to the driving range with my friend Rachel (Jenna, we should really do it again sometime if we are in the same province minus winter!)






Rachel…showing me how it’s done.


Notice how the ball is gone. I cracked out some good ones.


Gone again. Nice. I was primed.

The day of the big wrap-up came and we headed out to the course to jam down a burger before my golfing debut.





After my first tee off (which went disastrously, by the way), we were off and running.




Regina, sending the ball on its way.


Deanna, showing us how its done…literally. We had no clue.


Sara…she worked me over and despite saying she never golfing before, I might suggest she was lying. Might.



Me waiting patiently for my turn…


I think this one and the five swings after were misses.




My team: Me, Deanna, Sara, and Regina. The course marshal tried to drive off with my camera. Sneaky old fart.

Since there is probably more corporate golfing in my future, my team is already determining outside-of-work practice runs. After that, going pro.

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