Mike and I came home about 9:30ish tonight and were surprised to see 3 skunks in the next door neighbour’s yard. THREE OF THEM!

Mike stood guard as I tried to get a decent photo. At first I turned off the flash and got a couple of photos in focus, but not too many. I eventually had to turn on the flash and really only got photos of one guy that walked right through our front yard/field of weeds. Yah. Remember how I mentioned I have lost interest in the garden? I totally had, until I scored an amazing pile of plants yesterday. Those weeds will be GONE this weekend. I promise. I’ll even show you pictures.

Oh great. Now I’ve really got to do it. Crap.

Anyway, here’s what we watched from a distance – although still dangerous. If they wanted, they could have totally stampeded us and sprayed us and clawed us with their tiny bear-like paws:

The little guys (?) were either fighting, playing, or they weren’t all guys and someone was, uh, being courted? In the end, we decided that they were hooligan brothers, just playing and being goofy. In the same way Oscar and Donner are hooligan brothers.

I ended up following this one brother as the others skipped off through the other neighbour’s front yard, but this last guy took his time checking out our front yard. I can’t be sure what he was doing, but it seemed like he was rooting around a bit while casually making his way across the yard in front of us.

And then he just waltzed away in front of us.

See you later, then.

No skunks were harmed during this photoshoot. And no humans were sprayed, either. Even with the flash. I just made sure not to get too close.

Dairy Queen was giving away free mini Blizzards today and Maëlle Ricker was there signing autographs WITH her gold medal. Remember her kicking all that a$$ at the Olympics? Here’s the video of her winning the Snowboard Cross race in February. I got to the event around 11:20 (I took an early lunch – I promise. The event was only 2 blocks away from my office.) and there was just the right amount of people there. That steadily increased as it grew closer to the noon mark.

There were plenty of treats for everyone who arrived – little cups of ice cream and some cookies. And a gold medal.

I know! It was just sitting there! She had it sitting there beside her as she cheerfully signed autograph after autograph and then picked it up for photos. Like this:

Then something weird happened. A person came up to me and asked me if I was a member of the press. I am sad to report I said, “No.” and I was a bit unfriendly about it, too. Why did I do that? What a weird response. And it turned out she was a PR person for the event company putting on this event. GAH. Dudes, I am the worst shmoozer ever.

Meanwhile, Maëlle joked around with the people that came to see her.

She is a far better shmoozer than I am.

Sooooooooo….I picked up my roll of film today and got a big goose egg. Blacks Photography gave me a new roll of film, though. I guess it’s the pity policy, but the woman at the cash register assured me it’s the policy of the film company. So, even though the only 2 photos I have of Malcolm’s birthday are on my blog here, I don’t feel discouraged by my lack of film skills at all. I’ve got a free roll of film to figure things out with.

After that errand, I went to London Drugs to pick up some food for the kitties and then decided to head over to the cathedral to see what I could take photos of over there. I hadn’t been in some time, so I thought I’d check it out. I got there just in time to see the bride!

I stumbled on a wedding at about 1:30 on a Monday. Odd, but seizing the moment, I took a few photos. There were two professional photographers hovering around – with huge lenses and lots of gear. I tried to blend in to get a photo, just because it was happening right in front of me. But then it seemed a little weird that that a wedding photographer would have 2 grocery bags full of cat food with her, so I thought I’d better move along before anyone asked.

And that’s my story.

Also, my story today? I got a PILE of plants for the garden today from Cathy Mechanic. She’s moving into a new place and gave me all types of potted plants! We moved them tonight at around 10 pm. I’m all sweaty and hot. Mike was really happy to help move gigantic plants about. But in the end, this weekend I’ll be planting all weekend long. With sedges! And lilies! I have to admit, over the last few months, I’ve totally lost interest in the garden – whacking down weeds is not much fun. But now I can fill some pieces in with plants! Huzzah! I feel I’m in the mood to take care of the outdoors again.

I had the great idea to start shooting in film last night at Malcolm’s super late birthday dinner. Due to a busy schedule, the reservation was set for 9:30 pm. Hey! We were eating like the French do! Super late. Unless you’re the French Soccer Team – then you can eat whenever you want, because you’re not playing football against the Norwegian team, is all I’m saying.

But enough about the French team’s situation. I had a situation myself to deal with. I wasn’t a total bonehead. I brought my digital camera with me. I fact, I loaded up my Nikon with a card I pulled out of my camera case without looking at it. I had my film camera and my backup digital camera (at one point, both around my neck simultaneously) at the restaurant – feeling very proud of myself and all my photographic bravery.

I snapped photos of the birthday boy and all the dinner festivities with the silly blue camera and the old fashioned flash, not really sure if I was really winding the thing right or not. But I decided to take out my Nikon once the cake arrived – which was funny because Malcolm had no idea that was going to happen and thought the waitress was being rude and rushing us out by “resetting the table”. He thought the plates and forks they were putting on the table were for the next guests. Heeeheee! In the whole time I’ve known Malcolm, I’ve never seen him get snippy, but here he was, on his birthday, getting a little testy. This was the perfect time for me to take photos of him! I clicked 1 photo and then my camera stopped working. I checked the message on the LCD screen to see this:

CARD FULL

What? I took 1 photo. How did that happen? I pulled the memory card out and looked at it. Apparently a 16 M card can only handle 1 photo when shooting in high resolution. I just learned that at that moment. So, I changed the settings on my camera and was able to take 2 photos. I would take a photo and if I didn’t like it, delete it. Here are the only two digital photos I kept from the evening.

Actually, this first one is a keeper. At the time I took the picture, the whole restaurant joined in with us singing Happy Birthday to Malcolm. It was totally spontaneous on the other guests’ part. So. Fun.

For my other photo, I was determined to get the Jello in somehow. And I did.

This is Tyler and his girlfriend, Ashley, looking lovingly at the little Jello squares. Heh. I certainly Forrest Gumped those 2 photos.

However, this may be where my luck ended. Once I got home, I figured I didn’t want to ask Mike how to wind the film out of the camera, did it myself, and opened up the back of the camera to find the film hadn’t been wound at all. I then closed the back of the camera, handed it over to Mike and went to bed, feeling terribly sorry for myself.

I took the roll of film to be developed today, explaining my film faux pas. The person at the counter said it’s possible that some of the photos I took may be okay despite being exposed to the light – just not the section that was saw the light of my craft room. I’ll find out on Monday when my photos/photo/strip of nothing will be available for me to pick up.

Things I learned from this scenario:

1) I need to read the manual for the film camera. I also need to watch more youtube videos on how to work the Diana+. I also need to ask for help instead of just assuming I can figure it out on the fly. I’m not sure at all how forgiving film can be. I’m assuming it’s not.

2) Check the memory card before I put it in the camera next time.

And I’m throwing away that 16M card immediately.

We’re on our way out for late birthday sushi because today is Malcolm‘s 30-something birthday. And for an added challenge, I’m shooting with our toy camera. I’ll be bringing the wide angle lens and the fisheye lens for a good time. Can I change lenses in the middle of a roll of film? Good question. I’ll find out tonight.

I’m shooting film today because I think I may do the next 12X12 photo marathon like we did last winter. I thought I should at least pretend to practice this time. So here we go!

I found this licence place on a car in the BCIT parking lot downtown – located at 555 Seymour Street, Vancouver.

Just an aside – that’s a good parking lot because 1) it’s $14 for the day = a good price for an entire day in these parts and 2) it’s well lit and very clean. And by clean, I mean it doesn’t smell like a toilet. For realz.

But I laughed when I saw this because it was only a few hours after Mike found out he got a new job that he’ll start on Monday morning. Thank goodness. The last few months have been pretty worrisome, but I don’t like to talk about that here. This is the place I get to talk about my favourite things, and I’m glad to have my blog to remind me to remember the good things.

Anyway, tonight we drank iced tea and watched a show called Monkey Thieves on the Oasis Channel.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…..

I was invited to my friend’s place this evening. She has a beautiful flat roofed house up the street from us with this view of the Strait of Georgia. The North Shore is directly opposite Sharon’s house and you can see all the way up to Deep Cove and this leads up to Indian Arm. That’s where we’ve gone kayaking in the past. The tankers make me a little bit nervous now, and to be honest, a few months ago I wouldn’t have even noticed they were there. Sharon told me that one tanker (bottom left) has been sitting there for about 2 weeks.

Also in the neighbourhood? Lots of butterfly bushes like this one in our yard.

They smell nice – like honey and I’ve seen birds in there, but no butterflies spotted yet. I’m on the prowl for butterflies, though. Once I find them, you’ll be the first to see them.

Sometimes I forget how pretty the neighbourhood is where I live.

I ran out of stuff to do with Mom & C@thy yesterday, so we ended up in Stanley Park and walked about 5 kilometers along the beach. The temperature was perfect with a nice breeze. I’ll have to remember that the next time it feels too hot at home – the seawall is where it’s at.

We took them to the airport early this afternoon after watching the British Open for a few hours this morning. For some reason, I’m unable to stop watching any competitive sports. Now I’m watching golf – I know the difference between a birdie and a bogey and I know that a South African is pretty much cleaning up after today. I can’t wait to see guys in funny pants whack a ball into the wind – and where many of the competitors have nearly the same score. That’s what I’ll be doing tomorrow morning. Thanks Mom!

Meanwhile, Donner’s been keeping cool on top of one of the cabinets in the dining room. It seems to be his favourite new spot. He can lay flat and still see everything going on around him at the same time.

We were on the road quite a bit today – first to the Vancouver Police Museum, and then a road trip up to Squamish where C@thy (bottom, left) found a rather large moth in her salad. It was pretty gigantic, actually. Good thing the bread they served was good, or else I would have totally mentioned their name just then.

After the Silence of the Lambs dinner, we took a little walk around Murrin Park – a tiny glacial lake just outside of Squamish.

I’m not sure what the plan is for tomorrow, but we’ll do our best to stay out of trouble.

Now wait just a darn minute. No washing a) unpaid berries and b) feet? What kind of place is this?

I guess running a berry farm is a tough gig. How many people did they have to stop from washing their feet in this very tall sink? And who thinks washing their feet in the sink is a good idea in the first place? I think I’ll get a sign like this for the kitchen. Better safe than sorry.

Today we washed the 3 buckets of berries we picked yesterday…

and made 6 batches of jam – which made 27 assorted sizes of jam. We froze the rest of the raspberries after about 3 hours of slaving over the hot stove. Phew. If I need to make more jam, I can make it from the frozen ones.

We opted for a simple recipe – just berries, lots of sugar and some Certo. We gave the jars a hot water bath of 13 minutes each. Tomorrow we’ll try it on some toast.

And just because I liked this sign when I saw it at the farm:

I share it with you.