sunshiney day(s)

The weather has been lovely the last couple of days. It's been really easy to force myself out of the house this weekend.

Friday night I headed to Jill & Mark's for a dinner party. Mark's cracked pork roast was awesome, and I pulled my copy of "Cook with Jamie" off the shelf to look at the red cabbage he made that was so tasty. I haven't laughed so hard for a long time; my side hurt so bad that I had to clutch it and beg them to stop playing Stewart's YouTube videos because I couldn't breathe. So fun to hang out with an interesting bunch of people and listen to Canadian music circa Video Hits.

Yesterday I decided to try to get to the Superstore in Richmond to look at the spring collection from Joe Fresh. Despite it taking forever to cross Cambie and all the crazy construction on #3 Road, I got there in about an hour. There are insane sales on that stuff, but the regular price is equally crazy. Only $19 for a pair of jeans? Just $39 for a spring coat? I bought a couple of things and spent way less than seems rational. It took a while to get out of Richmond, but by the time I did I connected the hell out of those other two buses I had to catch. Last night I headed to Rich & Christy's and watched the Oilers/Canucks game and ate barbeque and drank beer. It's funny to watch the Oilers and have another person in the room cheering for them who I didn't go to school with. It just so happens that he talks about the Gretzky-era Oilers with the same adoration as I do. It was a fun time.

Today I met up with Terry for a JapaDog and mini walk to Burrard Station to check out the cherry blossoms. (They're not quite ready for o-hanami.) I fricking love JapaDog; the terimayo one is so good (though I get it without nori because I don't like how it sticks to my mouth). We noticed a big inflated thing near the water, but because the meter was going to expire he headed off and I wandered toward it to see what was up. Surprisingly I stumbled upon the convention centre open house. The red velvet ropes were up and everything. The public space outside is massive, though sterile: very little foliage, nothing much other than concrete stones and a lot of railings. The inside of the convention centre will likely be pretty impressive for delegates. Lots of windows looking out toward the mountains. There's a wooden block wall lining the largest conference room, the interior furnishings are fantastic-looking. It's sustainable, but I didn't see that it was LEED certified or anything, though they do have sod on the roof. Too many people for me to absorb much more than that.

I walked around downtown for about 3 hours taking pictures of buildings and flowers. I also stopped into Mink for chocolate (vodka grapefruit in dark chocolate ganache, raspberry in dark chocolate ganache, fresh mint and Kentucky bourbon in dark chocolate ganache, and amaretto and dried cherries in dark chocolate ganache) and Rocky Mountain for fudge (Irish Cream). In retrospect, it was probably crazy to buy $20 worth of chocolate, but whatever. It's all good. By the time I walked to catch the bus all I could think about was a slurpee, which I picked up on my way home. Mmmm, slurpee!

In short, a good weekend.