Blinds, Auctions and Rent

Woo hoo - we got our new blinds installed on Saturday morning! The house looks much more modern now!

Saturday night I emceed our church school's Gala Auction. It went pretty well. Not sure how much we raised but it was a fun night. Kristin, my co-emcee, and I started off the evening with our rendition of "Hey Big Spender" to kick off the festivities. I think it went over pretty well.

On Sunday morning, Susan and I drove down to Seattle to watch Rent. We've never seen it before but we were very pleased to say that it was EXCELLENT. Everyone was very good. The performer who played Roger had a bit of a British accent that sometimes made it difficult to understand him - he sounded very much like Sting. Overall, a very powerful show with some great performances.

Asia's World City

It's Tuesday so it mush be rash-vacation-booking day!!

Yes, that's right, we have booked another trip. We are going to....HONG KONG!

Susan and I booked a flight to Hong Kong on the new budget carrier Oasis. We are leaving at the end of July for 8 days. It should be hot hot hot but we've been to Orlando in August so how bad could it be? We actually took advantage of Oasis' "free ticket giveaway." So you get a free one-way ticket but you have to pay the taxes and fees. Anyway, the bottom line is we are flying to Hong Kong for less than $500 per person all-in. Ridiculously cheap. You can't even fly to Toronto for that much.

I've only visited HK once in my life when I was 8 years old. Susan has never been so we figured this would be a good way to spend our anniversary.

Of course, we'll be visiting Hong Kong Disneyland, which I've heard isn't all that great - but frankly who cares?

There are only 1000 tickets to giveaway so act quickly if you want to go to Hong Kong!!

Spiders and raccoons

We went to watch Spider-man 3 over the weekend.

My quick review (WARNING SPOILERS):







Overall I liked the movie, although I don't think it was nearly as good as the first 2 Spider-man flicks. They just tried to cram too much into this one. There were way too many bad guys. Sandman didn't get enough time. The new Goblin got too much time. Venom was an afterthought and was squeezed in purely to please the fans. I don't think they did justice to any of these characters. And by killing off Venom so quickly, they obviously closed the door on any sequel with Venom. Here's hoping for Carnage in Spidey 4, if there is one.

What the heck was up with the Peter Parker corniness? That was just painful to watch. You're telling me that once you reveal Peter Parker's dark side all you get is a dancing fool? Oh man, that was really awful. It's cuteness wore out within 10 seconds. It left a bad taste in my mouth. Should have been left on the cutting room floor.

Jk Simmons as J Jonah Jameson was great again and Bryce Dallas Howard was a refreshing new face as Gwen Stacy. Despite not being a huge new Goblin fan, I did find James Franco's acting to be quite captivating. He really does look like James Dean! Touching death scene. Sad to see him die but glad that story arc has played out. Rosemarry Harris as Aunt May practically steals every scene she's in. As for Kirsten Dunst - sad to say it but she was getting a little bit on my nerves and that's saying a lot from this Bring It On fan. Not her fault - they just didn't really develop her character at all and I think I'm just getting tired of her being the damsel in distress.

Overall I'd give it 7.8/10. Not great but certainly not a bad kick-off to the summer movie season.

END SPOILERS

So after we cleaned the house on Saturday, we saw a large male raccoon wander into our backyard. No big deal - it has happened before. Burt (yes, we named him) climbed up our Norwegian fir and then promptly climbed down a few minutes later and then scampered over our fence and into the neighbour's yard. A few minutes later a female raccoon (named Roxy) came into the yard. She scampered up our birch tree. She probably went up 6 or 7 stories and then found a comfortable, if not highly precarious, place to sleep! It was hard to see the ball of fur but we think she stayed there for a couple of hours. We assume she has left.

Here is my ode to Burt and Roxy:

Oh Burt and Roxy! Why do you visit us so?
No place to sleep? No place to go?
Has someone left garbage for you to dig through?
I'll have to find them and teach them a thing or two.
I know you are cute but you do have rabies
I have a feeling it won't be long, until we see little raccoon babies.
I can't have a zoo in my backyard, I can't!
Raccoons go away! Here ends my short rant.

Tap dancing and The Ship of Dreams...

Last Friday night, Susan and I went out to the Massey Theatre in New West to watch 42nd Street. It was an amazing show! Huge tap dancing numbers, big sets, inspired performances - it had it all. We had a very enjoyable evening and it was great to see 4 Fiddler alumni performing on stage again. It probably was one of the most entertaining evenings I've had watching a show in long while. Fun factor: 8.5/10

The next day seven of us went over to the Island to see the Titanic Exhibit at the Royal BC Museum. The ferry ride was spectacular as always. I even got to see 2 seals! The exhibit had close to 300 artifacts, most of which were personal items like jewelery, shoes, clothing, personal papers, currencies etc. So if you're expecting giant pieces of the hull, you'll be disappointed. When we"boarded" the exhibit, the "crew" member gave us a boarding pass with the description of an actual Titanic passenger. At the end of the exhibit, I found out if I survived or if I was one of the 1,500 people who died. I lived. Phew. Overall, I enjoyed the exhibit but I wish it had some more impressive artifacts. Certainly worth the visit though. 7.5/10

On Sunday, I gave the bbq a good cleaning and fired her up for the first barbeque of the year! Steak and salmon. Likelihood of me increasing my grill skills this summer: 9/10

Now, on to these Canucks....who's fed up with the poor defensive zone giveaways? Come on! And seriously, we can score over 3 goals in a game, right? Right??! I hope they can win the next game and bring it back to Vancouver but they need to fix some of these stupid little mistakes. My confidence level: 6/10

Oh, and for those of you who watch Heroes, wasn't that the best episode ever?? Very cool.
It's getting very good now. Finale is only a few weeks away! Giddiness level: 8.5/10

And finally, the NFL draft just happened this past weekend. The biggest story of course was Notre Dame QB Brady Quinn being drafted 22nd overall instead of 3rd overall as many speculated. Am I concerned? I guess not. Just a pride issue really. He gets to play in his hometown and if he does turn out to be a great QB he'll be able to command a big salary in his next contract. I still think JaMarcus Russell will suck it up after a year in Oakland. I think he'll balloon to 300 pounds in no time. So the only other pressing football question I have is: Who will be the next starting quarterback at Notre Dame? I think we'll be seeing the California wonder-kid Jimmy Clausen and Chicago's own Demetrius Jones as the 2 QBs this year. Certainty level: 7.5/10

That's it for another update. Glad you tuned in.

Hope everybody has a good week!