Gordon's Graduation and BBQs

This last weekend was an action packed one. Well, at least there were a lot of events and I ate a LOT. This weekend was Gordon's convocation ceremony on Friday afternoon and then a party for him at his place on Saturday evening. In between these two events I went to 2 BBQs.

So I found Gordon right after he put on his hat at the hat station. A moment after this photo a voice announced "Everyone who is not a graduate please clear the area", so I went up above to the AQ gardens to wait for the graduate walk.

It seemed to take forever for the graduates to finally appear and Gordon was more than halfway down the line. He was the first graduate with a BSc (yellow ribbon). Once he got up by the Terry Fox statue the line stayed there for a long time. Some girl volunteered to take our photo together. That afternoon many people wondered if he cut his afro off just so the graduation cap would fit on his head.

So after the long graduation ceremony and the SIAT reception, I hopped on a bus and headed over to my bosses house near UBC. The skytrains were running slow since there was a power outage downtown so I arrived fashionably late. This is what the lamb looked like when I got there. It was already being picked apart. Walter had been cooking it all day since my boss Mark had to go to a conference.

Here's what it looked like when we were done with it. Pretty bare! It was a good BBQ with good food and company. While I was there Rob messaged me to ask where I was and when I said I was at my bosses he asked "She hot?". Uh, not a "she", Rob, and no.

That night I crashed at Rob and Q's place in Vancouver. I slept on some couch cushions on the floor of the kitchen. I didn't want to intrude on either of their rooms or sleep in the entryway, bathroom or outside hallway where I might get stepped on. I also didn't dare sleep in the mystery void behind the closet.

The next day I arrived at Kitsilano beach bright and early at 10am to save a table for the grad student's BBQ at 2pm. Unfortunately I found that around the central area there are no tables, just benches. I walked along to near the end of the beach and found a couple tables near each other. I sat down and did some work on my laptop. There was a few tables taken before I got there by a group preparing for a kid's birthday party.

Between 11:30 and noon is when lots of people started claiming tables. Some people asked about the other table where I had left my bag but I said it was taken because a big group was showing up and we needed both the tables. Despite this, an annoying guy decided his group was going to take the table anyway. He argued that I could not save 2 tables with only 1 person, since they were a limited resource. It pissed me off but he kind of had a point. Anyways, it didn't matter because by the time many people showed up for my BBQ another nearby table was free.

Around 1pm Diego, the organizer of the event, showed up with this food which he claimed was all for me to eat for lunch. I did not eat it all because it was a bit too much but I did finish the burger and tried everything else. The sun was melting the chocolate chips so the cookies were almost as if they were freshly baked.

Ben was one of the first people to show up and we threw the frisbee around for a while. At first he claimed to be terrible at throwing it but once we started he decided that my disc was simply much better quality than what he was used to and in fact he was quite good at throwing.

Eventually many people showed up and Diego created this line
of condiments and pita fillings he had brought.

The BBQ was a lot of fun. Again there was some good food and some good company. I even went swimming in the ocean. It didn't seem as cold as I expected, however it was still a couple days before summer and only Diego dared enter the water with me. We both ran in and then he ran out shortly after. I stayed in for a while and swam way out to the buoy which said that no boats should come any closer than 300m to the shore. Unfortunately I could not climb onto as it kept tipping over.

After the BBQ I took transit back to Surrey and went straight to Gordon's house for the graduation party. There was lots of food there including a couple different types of meat but I had just eaten a ton at the BBQ. I ended up eating a LOT of Mars bars squares that Gordon's aunt made using actual Mars bars. They were amazing. Mars bar is one of my favourite chocolate bars.

Greg showed up to the party later. Q, Brad and Tanya were also there.

All in all it was an awesome and fun two days in the sun. This weekend I really don't care what the weather is like since I will be at the school working like a maniac finishing up a project, but the weekend after it better be damn good weather for the Canada day lamb bbq and camping in Osoyoos with Toni.

The Shearing of the Afro

Friday, May 28th, 2010 marked the end of era. It was on this day that my friend Gordon had his head shaved to raise money to send kids to camp. It was on this day that the afro disappeared. He grew it for 6 years.

I decided to bike to the momentous occasion even though it was raining lightly and about a 2 hour ride. I biked down the hill and over the Pattullo bridge into New Westminster. Then through an industrial area by the river and up and over Coquitlam.

I went down the other side and into Port Moody. I biked through a park near the ocean and up the hill over to camp Sasamat where the shearing took place. It was their annual dinner on the patio fundraiser. Dinner consisted of burgers and salad followed by some fruit and cake for dessert.

Rob was at the camp with his crazy shoes with the toes.

Q was at the camp and went out in a canoe by himself while drinking wine. Greg, Jon, and Josef also showed up to the camp later.

They had a climbing obstacle course that I raced Q to the top of. I won by a great distance but I was on the left which had a much easier route.

Of course Gordon was there too with his afro and all. We didn't actually get to see the afro in its full glory until after dinner was done since he had to have it contained while cooking. He works in the kitchen at the camp.

I had my last photo with him before the shaving.

Then when everyone was ready, it began. His hairdresser was the camp's executive director who was not exactly skilled at it. Photos were being snapped left, right and center.

Gordon wore a garbage bag to protect him
from the massive amounts of hair that fell to the floor.

In the end he held some of his afro in his hands, no longer attached to his head. I'm not sure what was done with it but there was no going back.

The Meadowlark Festival

This year on the May long weekend I went to the Meadowlark festival in Penticton. Some part of my family has gone to it every year for the last 5 years, but I had never been. The festival is about bird watching and I am not much of a bird watcher. Every year they always have fun though and everyone else in my family has already gone at least once. Even my grandma took a turn and went last year, so this year I figured it was my turn to experience it.

I went with those who have gone every year, my two little sisters

and my mom and dad.

It takes 4 to 5 hours to drive from Surrey to Penticton and we left Friday morning. I took my laptop with me because these days it's not a good idea for me to completely take a weekend off work. I did most of my work on the ride there and the ride back.

At a road side stop before Princeton there was a whole bunch of fearless groundhogs. They were popping up from a number of different holes and probably get fed way more people food than is good for them.

My mom had looked on the Internet for accommodations in Penticton and apparently she hates looking on the Internet for this stuff. Sometimes my family camps and sometimes they stay in a hotel but either way they've had bad experiences with noisy groups partying on the May long weekend.

So the plan this year was to stay in a quiet place away from all that. She booked two nights at a campground up in the mountains overlooking Penticton. For the third night we would decide where to stay. The campground had a great view.

Unfortunately the campsites were not very good, with rocks spread out all over the place making it hard to find a place to put tents. The sites also weren't very far apart from each other and we had been told when we booked that there were only two sites left to choose from. Mysteriously, when we went to bed almost all the sites were empty.

To get a better view of the valley, my sisters and I hiked down through a little valley and up the other side.
He we could see for miles in many directions over Penticton and the two lakes and many mountains surrounding it.

That evening my dad had his first scheduled festival event, a walk through the dark to look for owls. He left, while the rest of us spent the evening at the campsite.

We discovered it was really cold up in the mountains at night! We played some cards with my sisters both bundled in their sleeping bags and sat around the fire.

I had trouble sleeping for any long period of time during the night. Most of me was warm except my feet which were a little too cold. In the morning we found frost on our tents. We decided it was a little too cold for camping and that we would get a hotel even though we had already paid for a second night at the campground.

We left the campground early in the morning so my dad could get to the meeting spot for his second event, a 7 hour birding tour with an expert.

The rest of us had an event in a couple hours so we ate some breakfast and then hung out at a nearby playground.

The event we went to was a tour of a bluebird box trail on the Blasted Church vineyard. Apparently a long time ago in this area when they wanted to move a church to a new location they used controlled dynamite to knock it down and then reuse much of the wood. If they failed at using the right amount of dynamite they got a blasted church.

The bluebird boxes were simple a set of boxes set up along posts around the vineyard for birds to make their nests in. Every year they are cleaned out and then filled with cedar shavings.

Many of the boxes were empty but a few had baby birds in them or eggs. We didn't disturb the baby birds but here are some bluebird eggs we peeked at.

After our tour we looked for a good motel with a pool. Unfortunately it was colder than usual for the May long weekend and so none of the outdoor pools were ready yet. We choose to stay in the Flamingo motel. Then we met my dad after his tour and drove back up the mountain to take down camp. Afterwards we drove south to Okanagan Falls where my family has a tradition of visiting Tickleberrys for ice cream and kettle corn.

They make the kettle corn out front in a giant iron kettle

They have about 50 different flavours of ice cream and this is the size of their "single" cone. You get to choose 3 flavours for it. I had Banana Fudge, Triple Chocolate Brownie and Rocky Mountain Raspberry. It was delicious!

During the weekend we played RoboRally 3 times. My sister Natalie is addicted to the game. I didn't even plan on bringing it but when they picked me up at my apartment she grabbed it off my desk and took it to the van. We played sort of a mini game on the car trip there (it's not really a travel game!) in which I won. Then we played a game at the campground in which I was last and then a game on a much tougher board in the hotel and I won by a mile.

On Sunday my sisters and I slept in while my mom and dad went to an event involving watching many different species of hummingbirds while eating brunch. When they returned we went out for the day to visit beaches at both lakes and drive a loop out of town doing some bird watching.

I forgot to bring my camera for this part of the day! Natalie and I had a lot of fun tossing a frisbee back and forth on the first beach on Okanagan Lake. I was working on my forehand throw to improve at Ultimate and unfortunately I hit a little kid in the head. Apparently his mom didn't seem to mind. It helped her get him off the beach and off to some lunch.

Natalie and I went for a short swim at the second lake, Skaha Lake. It was really cold but not as cold as I expected. I guess I'm more used to the ocean.

In the evening there was the Lost finale but I only watched part of the recap hour before we got in the van to drive to our last event at an observatory. I used my dad's ticket while he went to bed early.

The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory has a huge 26m dish and many small ones.

We weren't there to learn anything about the observatory though. It was just the location for our talk about the earth, the moon, the sun and the stars. The presenter used what he called "high tech" devices to explain the phases of the moon, eclipses and the layout of the milky way galaxy. Really he just used spheres and his head represented the earth. The phases of the moon happen because of the different angle the sun shines on the moon from compared to the angle we see it from, not due to the earth casting a shadow on the moon! That's called an eclipse.

We talked about star charts and part of the presentation was supposed to be to go outside and look up at the stars but unfortunately it was too cloudy to see much.

The next morning we drove back to Surrey taking the scenic route down through Osoyoos to do more birding. The weekend was a lot of fun and luckily it wasn't all about the birding. It was good to get away from the city for a while. I hope to find more weekends this summer to do a lot more camping, hiking and swimming.

The Relay for Life 2010

Last Friday from 7pm to 7am Saturday I participated in the Relay for Life to raise money for cancer research. We had a great time and looked good doing it although it was a little chilly this year.

As we have for a few years now we dressed up as the Justice League, a team of superheroes battling cancer. This year it also fit with the theme of the relay campaign which was to fight back and to give courageously.

The Flash along with Batman were far more recognizable than me. A lot less people have heard of or can recognize the Green Lantern. I'm sure more people will recognize the Green Lantern after the movie in 2011 staring Ryan Reynolds. I may add a photo of me here later if I get a good one from someone else who was there.

We had a ton of stuff to eat at the relay and most of it went home with whoever had brought it. I brought some muffins but I don't think anyone had any. When I got there someone had brought pizza and subway. There was also a lot of candy, nuts, chips, ritz crackers, other muffins and that was just the stuff we brought. At midnight there was a free midnight snack, sandwiches from Baron of Beef and in the morning there was some food from Tim Hortons.

The food kept us going and I also kept track of how many laps I jogged around the track and met my goal of doing 25 laps which is 10km. This is the first year I've kept track and done many jogging laps. It was kind of warm jogging wearing the costume but everyone else was really cold and bundled up.

The relays we have done in the past have been in June at Bear Creek park. This year there was no Bear Creek park relay so we went to the relay in Delta. There were a lot less people than we're used to but apparently more people than the Delta one usually has.

While there was more free food than usual, the entertainment was really badly planned or not at all. The karaoke stretched on way longer than most people could put up with. In order to do some races that were originally planned we had to round up all the people ourselves and really bug the volunteers about running them. Then the volunteers participated in the two races we had and kept the prizes for themselves. I know it must be hard to find volunteers willing to last 12 hours in the middle of the night, but these people were just ridiculous.

See my blog posts about the relay 2 years ago, 3 years ago, and 4 years ago. It is interesting to look back on past relays. I wish I kept my blog more active last year.