97. Invent a bold (i.e. stupid) new recipe, possibly involving cheese and a blender.

Okay, so there was no cheese, and no blender. But I'm still completely satisfied with my bold and stupid new recipe - rest assured that it totally met the spirit behind the goal. Without further ado, introducing for the first (?) and probably last time...

Mockery Pie

Regular (boring) ingredients:
* apples
* pears
* pie crust
* cinnamon, sugar, flour, etc.



Extra (highly experimental) ingredients:
* gummi bears
* Swedish berries
* slivered almonds
* Smarties (for pie top)





Directions:
* same as regular pie, except add to apple/pear mixture: gummi bears, Swedish berries, and slivered almonds
* once pie is assembled, carve M for Mockery on top, and arrange Smarties around the place willy-nilly
* bake as usual, something like an hour

Results:
The pie came out looking very colourful, but not in the way I intended. I had hoped the Smarties would melt and leave colourful smears all over the top of the pie. Instead, most of the little candy shells survived the hour in a 375 degree oven, with only a few of them changing appearance at all (to an unhealthy moldy tan colour).



Another surprise was that the inside of the pie. Rather than being the usual thick, viscous apple mixture (with added goo from the gummi bears and Swedish berries) that I had expected, it was completely liquid. Even after setting it outside in the cold December air to cool for an hour or so, it was just a sloshing soup of apples, pears and mostly-unmelted Swedish berries.

The smell... Well, it smelled like what I could have guessed, but a lot stronger. The gummi bears completely took over, and infused the rest of the pie with that warm, chemical smell of liquified gummi that I'm sure you're all familiar with. It was overpowering.

It was at this point that we decided to try it. Well, I decided, and Holly and Janet were too overcome by gummi fumes to think it through and object. I ended up eating a whole piece, but Janet and Holly were a little brighter than I was, and stopped eating much quicker than I did. Here are the reactions:



Of course, this was without waiting for it to properly congeal, which is obviously the best course of action when dealing with mockery pie. I cleverly went to work the next day, leaving Holly and Janet to take the pie out of the fridge, and discover that it had, in fact, gelled. So much, in fact, that the inside of the pie was now a solid mass of gummi with bits of apple stuck in. As Holly said, when you pushed it, it pushed back.



Holly cut a slice of pie, and was amazed at how well it stood up on its own.



Janet seemed more impressed with how a gummi-infused pie managed to stick completely to the pie plate.



All in all, I consider this venture a great success, if only to be able to warn the rest of the world not to try this, and to have that little itch of curiosity forever scratched.

Of course, now I'm kind of curious about whether a more savoury pie might work, maybe one with french fries and cheese...

65. Buy a big widescreen computer monitor.

We just took another step towards flying cars. One of the signs of living in the future, Holly and I have always agreed, would be merging screens - having your TV and computer all on one screen. We finally entered the future by purchasing a Samsung T240HD monitor/HDTV.



It works beautifully for the computer, running at a crisp 1920x1200 widescreen resolution. I'm instantly hooked on the extra screen space. Games look amazing, browsers have so much more room, and images and videos show beautifully.

The extra reason that we went with this one was that it has extra connections, including component (for DVD player) and coaxial (for VCR and rabbit ears). (Plus, if I ever join the gamer revolution and get a XBox360 or PS3, it'll connect too.) The upshot of being able to connect the DVD player, VCR, and rabbit ears is that we were able to put my old 14" Electrohome TV into mothballs. That crazy TV - I bought it around 17 or 18 years ago, and it's still running perfectly. I wasn't able to justify getting a new TV with the old one working fine, but finally we found a reasonable justification in merging screens!

The other bonus here is that by taking the TV and assorted equipment out of Sophie's room, we now have more shelf space for books! Hooray!

So, a single monitor. The future is now. Bring on cheap space flight, personal jetpacks, and of course, flying cars.

77. Paint a mural on a wall in our apartment.

Wow. I never thought I'd manage to pull this one off. Painting stuff on the walls of one's home isn't usually the kind of type of activity one could reasonably expect a "sure, go for it" reaction out of one's wife, even if said wife is wonderful and supportive and generally a good sport. To be honest, I'm still not quite sure how this snuck under the radar. But it's on there now, and I figure the hassle of colour matching and going out to buy cream paint and actually painting over it will keep my little critters safe for at least a few months.

Oh yes, and that brings us to the subject of the mural. I decided it would be fun to decorate the little wall that we recently put some rain gutter bookshelves on for Sophie... And thought I'd decorate it with various insects - at least, a few of Sophie's favourites. Here's the addition of Mr. Worm...



... and a little caterpillar climbing up the side of the bookshelf...



... and finally, the finished Mr. Worm, and the entire scene - complete with two bees (insert tired Shakespeare joke here), a dragonfly, a caterpillar, a butterfly, Mr. Worm, a flower, and a ladybug.



It was lots of fun, although very stressful. The brush I bought was a little too cheap and a little too big, so I didn't feel like I was getting the detail I wanted. Plus, Sophie kept bumping into me while I was painting until I finally banished her to her highchair until Mommy came home. But all in all, I'm pretty happy. One wall in our house makes our daughter smile a little more than it used to.

54. Make a significant effort to have a cool Hallowe'en costume at least one year.

I like Hallowe'en. I find it to be one of the least objectionable holidays. You've got candy, you've got pumpkin carving, you've got silly costumes... The funny thing is, I always, always, ALWAYS let it sneak up on me, and only ever have time to carve a pumpkin until late in the night - usually Hallowe'en night, long after it would have been cool or useful. And I almost never get a costume together in time. (At least, not since the good old days of bonfires at Van Koy and trick-or-treating as a killer Unicef box.) So I decided to add the task to my 101 Things list to get my costume act together, at least enough to actually have a costume.

When I say "make a significant effort", I don't mean like with a $1000 budget and film-grade makeup or anything. I mean, decide at least a day or two in advance what I want to be, and then put more effort into it than pulling off a mask and cape combo at a dollar store rack.

This year, I decided to be Shaggy, from Scooby Doo. I did harbour some thoughts of being a cowboy with a gigantic beard, but that didn't ever take off. The Shaggy thing was much more in character, and easier to visualize. I got a pair of slightly bell-bottom brown cords and a bright green shirt (both women's clothes) and a ginger wig at a local Sally Ann, and wore my regular brown shoes. The wig needed a trim, which Holly helped me with, and the shirt needed sewing up, as it had a bit of white fabric exposed in the front. I did the sewing myself, as evidenced by this picture, and by the gigantic, wobbly stitches going everywhere which Holly will surely deny helping with.



I also made up a box of ginger snaps into a passable box of Scooby Snacks (which, being packaged in Canada, were required by law to be labelled "les Snacks de Scooby" on the opposite side). A yummy prop!



Other than that, all that I had to do was wear my contacts, shave off most of my beard (leaving the trademark goatee), and say "Zoinks" a lot. Most people at work got who I was, although a few coworkers didn't recognize me at all! A disguise as well as a costume! It really worked better when I was hanging out with the rest of our partial Scooby gang - Kristi as Daphne and Holly as Velma! They were both awesome. Well done, gang! (And take that, lack of costume-preparedness!)



And finally, here's a bonus shot of me with my lovely wife Velma and our little killer bee. (I taught her that face, which is now her permanent camera smile. Yes!) Happy Hallowe'en, everyone!

Goodbye beard, hello hat!

Thought I'd take the opportunity to take a snapshot of my look today, as (a) I've got a big (for me) beard that will be getting shaved off in a day or two as it doesn't fit my Hallowe'en costume plans, and (b) I got a new hat today, a brown Canucks one with a yellow whale logo. I'd much prefer a stick and rink logo, or even the Johnny Canuck one, but this was the only one I could find that fit and had a stretch back. Comfort trumps logo choice, it seems. Stupid whale. Anyway, the hat purchase is a momentous occasion, as my previous hat is an ILM crew hat for Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith (2005), which I didn't work on, but a friend did. Before that, it was a free hat from work, and before that... I don't even remember. So new hats (that I actually wear) don't come along that often in my life, so I'm excited to welcome this one into the fold. And at the same time - goodbye, beard! It's been a blast - keeping warm in the rain, repeatedly accidentally dipping you in my drinks and meals, annoying Holly with you... but it's time to move on. I'll see you again, I'm sure.

...

Boy, blogs are sure useless, aren't they? Over and out.

93. Get an autograph from a famous person.

On October 21st, 2009, Hol and Soph and I were lucky enough to meet Gordon Korman, a prolific young adult author (65 books and counting!), Canadian, and all-round funny and cool guy. He also happens to be my favourite author from when I was a kid, so it was a great thrill to hear him speak and get to meet him, albeit briefly.

He talked about how he got started as an author, about his various books, and he seemed like a really down to earth guy. It was an honour to give him a big stack of books to be signed - we got his first ever book, This Can't Be Happening At MacDonald Hall, signed for Sophie. I'm sure she'll be reading our vast collection of Gordon Korman books at some point in the not-so-distant future.

I also got "I Want To Go Home" signed for myself - it was one of my very favourites, and retains the ability to make me laugh aloud when I read it. Here's a compilation of some of his book covers, to take a trip down memory lane, and to see a few of his more recent publications.



A big thanks to Kidsbooks for putting on the book signing event!

90. Write a letter to the city about Burrard Bridge's bike lanes.

Several years ago, the city of Vancouver tried to take away a lane (or two?) from the regular Burrard Bridge vehicle traffic and give them to bikes. The plan was cancelled after an uproar from the driving community.

Fast-forward to sometime last year.

I was going to write a letter to encourage the city to retry the Burrard Bridge bike lane trial, but never got around to it. The plan came up again, regardless - this time, with better planning, more support, and the promise of follow-through.

I was going to write a letter of support and encouragement not to cancel it due to the vehicle lobby (after all, it's just a trial), but never got around to it. They went ahead without my support. There were some complaints from "the cars", but not with the same indignant outrage as before - possibly because the trial was better planned and advertised, or possibly because bike traffic was on the rise while vehicle traffic was dropping. The trial began.

I was going to write a letter to tell them how great it was to commute on my bike over the bridge during the initial week, but never got around to it. They didn't cancel the trial, even without my voice.

By now, I'm thinking that my opinion is just being beamed telepathically into City Hall, and that I should start approving tax cuts and free transit for anyone named Dean, but I got hold of myself and decided to finally write my letter - this time, showing support, offering suggestions, and encouraging them to make it permanent, at least through the Olympics. Seems like the kind of neat thing that would generate the right kind of buzz about our city - and prove that we're still working to improve our much-vaunted high standard of liveability.

Anyway, the letter has been written, and will be on its way to the mayor shortly. Here I am in biking regalia, showing off my mad letter-writing skills.

41. Finish a Sunday NY Times crossword with help from only three people, chosen beforehand.

I love the New York Times crosswords, especially the Sunday ones. Once upon a time (a few years ago), Holly and her cousin Polly and I worked together to solve a Sunday Times crossword, and it was a very satisfying puzzle to solve. Since then, I've been wanting to try again, and see if I could solve another one, still with help.

I made a start on this quest during our trip out east for Richie and Amanda's wedding this summer - I eventually tracked down a book of NYT Sunday crosswords, although it took forever to track down. The airport shops were crawling with NYT crossword books, but none of them were Sunday-specific, or even included Sunday puzzles! (Too hard for all those dumb people in airports, I guess?) I finally tracked down a book of 50 Sunday puzzles in Provincetown, MA, just before the much-hyped drag queen incident. (But that's another story.)

Even getting help from lots of people, these puzzles proved to be ridiculously difficult. After a month or so, we got one solved called "European Journal" (August 18, 2002, by Michael Ashley), but with the help of Holly and Kristi and Janet and various others, so that didn't quite count.

Just recently, though, we completed one with just three people - myself, Holly, and Janet. The puzzle was "High Definition" (April 29, 2001, by Elizabeth C. Gorski), and we solved the whole thing with only one or maybe two educated guesses - which turned out to be right, phew! We solved it on September 30, 2009, while Janet was over visiting. Thanks, Janet! Thanks, Holly! Yay for us! And yay for Will Shortz and his awesome puzzles!

32. Watch all six Star Wars movies plus Clone Wars in one weekend.

This Thanksgiving weekend (Oct 10-12, 2009), Sophie had a cold, and we decided to stay home and get her all better, rather than travel to the Island for the usual family/turkey extravaganza. Trying to find a silver lining, rather than dwell on the lack of good company and jellied salad, we each took consolation where we could - for Holly, with the knowledge of how bad the ferries were, and for me, by seizing the opportunity to have a giant Star Wars movie marathon.

The idea with this 101 Things List item was to reacquaint myself with the Star Wars universe in the short space of one weekend. Since this would be a painful amount of movie watching in a regular weekend, I've been waiting for a long weekend with no other major commitments - just like this one. So off to the video store I went, and embarrassed myself thoroughly by asking for all the Star Wars movies they had.

I watched Episode I and II on Saturday, Clone Wars and Episode III on Sunday, and the originals (Episodes IV, V, and VI) on Monday, finishing around 10:30pm. Whew! Harder than it sounds to watch them all in such a short time, especially with a daughter running around that we figure is still a little too young for the movies.

Here are some thoughts on each one:

Phantom Menace: Holy cats, Jar Jar is annoying. He's not getting any better with age. Add this to generally bad acting (Liam Neeson being the main exception), racial stereotyping, and a generally convoluted plot, and this was a tough one to watch. Pod racing was kind of cool, though.

Attack of the Clones: Getting better, more intrigue, more fun than the first one - but still has some bad acting and bad writing... Pluses include first appearance of Kit Fisto (coolest Jedi around), a neat city chase scene, and some decent monsters.

Clone Wars: For an animated movie, I thought this was excellent. It was stylized enough to skirt right around the uncanny valley, the characters were solid and true to the movies, and they managed to take a plot that didn't matter one whit to the main story, and make it gripping, believable, and well integrated. Well done.

Revenge of the Sith: Not too shabby - I thought they did a good job of easing from the Republic into the Empire, in terms of Palpatine's slow reveal, the soldiers and technology getting closer to what we recognize from IV/V/VI, and Anakin's transformation into Vader. This one was darker than the previous two, which I think helped it immeasurably. (RIP, Kit Fisto.)

A New Hope: Love it! Brings me right back to kindergarten, when I saw this for the first time. Love the trash compactor, love the X-Wings, love the Millennium Falcon, love Mos Eisley! Even Luke's whining is endearing with age, since it's all part of the growing-up process. I must admit, I partially fell asleep during the attack on the Death Star, but was awake for the final explosion. :)

Empire Strikes Back: So awesome. The AT-AT Walkers attacking the Hoth base is one of the coolest things ever. And Han getting frozen in carbonite - an incredibly dramatic thing for a young kid to watch - and it still gets me, right there. *sniff*

Return of the Jedi: The whole rescue around Jabba's palace - brilliant. (The only bummer was having Boba Fett meet his fate as the result of a Three Stooges move.) As for the Endor scene, I think it was just because I had just sat through all that Jar Jar, that I didn't find the Ewoks as annoying as I once had. They were pretty cool this time around. And those speeder bikes? Forget about it. It's a toss-up between them and the AT-ATs for the coolest vehicle distinction. Solid ending, too. Take that, Dark Side!

All in all, it was 892 minutes of lightsabrey goodness, just shy of 15 hours. (Maybe 15 if you include the music video to The Saga Begins by Weird Al Yankovic, which I also watched...)

And finally, with apologies and admiration to thehaydenclone for the original art, here's what I figure would have improved Episode I:

45. Take Sophie to a movie.

A few weeks ago (August 21st), we took Sophie to her first full-length movie. This wasn't just any theatre movie, either, this was an outdoor movie, watched under the stars in Connaught Park! It was a great community event, with free popcorn, and a movie screen about the size of our apartment. (And it didn't look that big...) They were showing "Up", which word on the street has pegged as one of Pixar's best in years (which is really saying something). I thought it was really good - maybe not as great as the buzz made it out to be, but solid. Sophie enjoyed the dogs and the bird and the house floating away. She didn't squirm too much, although her attention did wander a bit from time to time. Overall, she did great, and it was a pretty idyllic first movie experience - at least from the parents' point of view!

SHOWcase

Here's a fun little project - following strict rules, make a young adult novel cover. Here's what I ended up with:



Would I read this book? Probably not. Would I read it if the Spock look-alike had pointy ears? Probably. Who wouldn't want to hear about that time Spock won the big surfing competition on Risa?

Oh, and here are the rules I had to follow:

CREATE YOUR DEBUT YA COVER

1 – Go to “Fake Name Generator” or click http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/

The name that appears is your author name.

2 – Go to “Random Word Generator” or click http://www.websitestyle.com/parser/randomword.shtml

The word listed under “Random Verb” is your title.

3 – Go to “FlickrCC” or click http://flickrcc.bluemountains.net/index.php

Type your title into the search box. The first photo that contains a person is your cover.

4 – Use Photoshop, Picnik, or similar to put it all together. Be sure to crop and/or zoom in.

5 – Post it to your site along with this text.

15. Do the Grouse Grind.

I've only been up the Grouse Grind once before, and it was carrying a 25 lb. baby Sophie on my back for part of the way. (Holly carried her the rest of the way, I didn't just give up and leave her by the side of the trail - although I probably would have considered it, had I been up there without Holly...) Anyway, you'd think that my brain would have remembered the pain of it all the first time up, but nooooo... Apparently, the Grouse Grind is similar to childbirth insomuch as your brain immediately wipes all the horrible bits away into forgetful oblivion, and remembers only the good bits. Since I went up there this morning with nothing but excited thoughts of a rousing hike to start the day, I figured I ought to write down the bad bits before my brain edits them out and I decide to go again next week.

It started well, with the usual jockeying for position with the other hikers. Don't want to get stuck behind someone slow, right? Then the sweating began. The sweating, and the asthma. I was pouring water like an overflowing dam, and sucking air like an ancient vacuum cleaner. This went on for 15-20 minutes, and then I reached the 1/4 mark sign. This sign is like a mental kick in the groin. Such a lot of effort has been expended to reach this sign, and then it has the gall to tell you that not only are you only 1/4 of the way up Grouse Mountain, but that from now on, the trail will get dangerous and difficult! Good grief. This is where people were getting lightheaded and considering going back down. Nothing like other people's despair for making it more difficult to go on. Somehow, I sucked back a bit more air and continued on.

The wheezing and puffing continued up to the 1/2 way mark, where I had some water and a rest and let a few more grannies toddle past me. After that, I think I got a second wind, but my ankles started threatening to shatter. Whiny old ankles. They made funny noises up until the 3/4 mark, when it was time for a new affliction - just for a change, my heart felt like it would explode up until the top of the mountain, where it completely failed to do so, and I got that wonderfully triumphant feeling that overwrites all the preceding nonsense. Hooray, the top!



A quick change, a bit more water, and I was ready for the gondola trip back down. The trip down takes about 8 minutes. The trip up took 1 hour, 21 minutes, and 47 seconds. Whew!

P.S. This hike was also (officially) the last wearing of the notorious roller hockey coach shirt that Holly has been trying to get me to throw out for the last decade or so. I believe it's about 17 or 18 years old, and has served me well. But I suppose that when you try to pull a shirt off, and it instead just rips more holes in it, it's time to let it die. Goodbye, awesome shirt. It's been a blast.

11. Get a hat trick in a hockey game.

FINALLY. I've been trying for this one for ages, and I finally got it.

I play some casual pick-up hockey through my work, and we have ice slots twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday mornings. I play once a week if I can. It's a great bunch of guys, the pace is just slightly faster than my skill level, and I really enjoy it.

Generally, I can get an assist or two per game, maybe a goal, but hat tricks are few and far between - I've had maybe three at most in my 1-2 years playing.

Today, the stars aligned - I had a good breakfast, we had three spares on the bench (not too many so you don't get any ice time, but not so few that you get exhausted), and a couple of the dark team's key defencemen weren't there. :)

I managed to get one on a breakaway deke (never happens for me), one on a cut across and shoot back, and one on a quick grab and stuff from behind the net. Generally, the only way I get goals is to make a big fuss (lots of head fakes and twitching around) like I'm going to do something awesome, then trip and fall over and watch it slide between the flustered and confused goalie's legs. But today's weren't so terrible, which I take it to mean that I've spent my hockey karma for the next year or so. Oh well, works for me.

12. Bike to work and back 40 work days in a row.

My original goal for this was 60 days, but Holly reminded me that this was not just the two months I had in my head - at 4 work days a week (at most), this would take roughly 15 weeks - more than three months! So I scaled it back to 40 days, and I just finished my run yesterday!

I'm mainly impressed with the fact that my bike held up for that many trips in a row. Usually, I would have had a couple flat tires and several tune-ups during that amount of (biking) time, but I think I made it through with maybe one tune-up. I attribute this mainly to our awesome local bike place, Dan's Bike Shop, as Dan does a great job keeping our bikes in tip-top shape - and what's more, he turned me on to these kevlar tires which I don't think have gone flat since I've bought them. Excellent tires. Even so, there were days when my bike was creaking like an old wooden galleon under full sail, and my chain was twitching around, trying to decide what gear it liked the most. But it made it all the way through - nice work, bike!

I bused to work on May 8th, 2009, and then biked (there and back) every day* that I worked after that until now: May 11th, 13th, 14th, 15th, 20th, 21st, 22nd, 25th, 26th, 27th, 29th, June 1st, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 8th, 10th, 11th, 12th, 15th, 17th, 18th, 19th, 22nd, 24th, 25th, 26th, 29th, July 2nd, 3rd, 6th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 14th, 15th, 16th, 17th, 21st, 22nd, and one bonus day, today, July 23rd. That makes 41, so I have a buffer day, just in case I counted wrong.

The * asterisk above indicates a justification slash cheat that I am allowing myself, based on full disclosure. On June 19th, we went to the Island for a train ride and a Father's Day picnic, so I had to leave my bike at work that Friday and bus to the ferry. That also meant that I couldn't bike to work on the Monday after the weekend. To make up for this, I (a) walked to work on the Monday, so as not to take transit, and (b) biked to work and back on my day off (Tuesday) to make up for the missed trips. I'm waving off the offside, and you can't argue with the ref.

40. Take Holly to Bard on the Beach.

Prithee, after roughly 14 years of living in Greater Vancouver, we finally got our act together (act III, if you must know), and went to see Bard on the Beach. For our first play, Holly and I chose a comedy - one of Shakespeare's earliest, The Comedy of Errors.



We were at the main stage, which had bleacher-style seating, and a big stage open in the back to views of the city and the mountains and the passing sailboats. (Beautiful.) Apparently, there were 520 seats, and I think they were all full, except for one beside me! Not only that, but they were full or spoken for 20 minutes before the show started - we were lucky to get two seats together. We were off to... I guess stage right, and we had a pretty good view of the stage and the steps and whatnot. They had a very clever center stage piece that acted as door, house front, abbey front, puppet stage, and more.

The play itself was so much funnier and more accessible than I imagined it might be! The way I understand things, Shakespeare himself was not above the crude, pander-to-the-masses jokes (the sort of Elizabethan equivalents of the football-in-the-groin gags), and the cast delivered them beautifully. The Comedy of Errors is all about cases of mistaken identity between two sets of identical twins. Lots of double takes, lots of "but I thought you said..." and lots of being arrested and punished for the other twin's transgressions. Mayhem ensued.

In conclusion, we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, and would easily recommend this to anyone. Holly and I both agreed that a comedy is the way to go - we have trouble seeing the point of going to see a tragedy. The Comedy of Errors was the perfect play with which to kicketh off our Bard experiences.

72. Go 100 days without a major computer malfunction.

This one is a bit arbitrary, so I should define what I meant by "major computer malfunction". I suppose I meant anything from "installed a bad service pack and internet stopped working" right through to "any part of it being on fire".

Apparently, I started counting on January 16, 2009, and forgot about it. Forgot about it so thoroughly, in fact, that it is now July 17, 2009 (182 days later), and I still haven't had any malfunctions to speak of. The internet has worked, the programs haven't crashed, we've had no viruses, there have been no instances of data loss (that we're aware of), things have been ... good.

Of course, I take all the credit for this, as I built this computer with my own two hands and my credit card, and installed all the software myself as well. As much as people have knocked Windows Vista, I've found it to be surprisingly stable, if a little goofy in places.

Anyway, I'm well aware that by writing this generally positive and satisfied post, my DVD drive will start projectile vomiting, our programs will all start eating each other, and pictures of monkeys doing crude things to each other will be emailed to everyone we know, as Vista goes down in flames... But that's a small price to pay to have another thing knocked off my list.

P.S. One grievance that I must air, one black mark against Vista (64-bit)... There are a largish number of games that just won't install or run on it! (e.g. Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic II.) I mean, this is Windows - the main reason for having Windows is to play all the popular games. Having them not work makes me think I'm right back on Linux...

94. Eat an entire pizza (medium or large) in one sitting.

What better pizza to pig out on than one made at home with help from Sophie?

I thought I'd let her help put a couple pieces of (veggie) pepperoni on there, so she'd feel like she was part of it, but turns out she's a fantastic pizza chef! She smushed the sauce around at the start, and then put on all the pepperoni, most of the green peppers and mushrooms, a few of the pineapple tidbits, and even some of the cheese - although she got so excited that we were almost done that she piled most of the cheese in one spot.

The pizzas were delicious, and I was able to eat an entire one by myself in one sitting. (It was officially a medium pizza, 12" across.) I did have to push myself on the last couple of pieces, which just goes to show that we all get older and our stomachs eventually get wise and stop taking so much flagrant abuse without objection.

With this pizza, I'm afraid that my days of rampant overeating are behind me. Well, at least they're becoming less pronounced than maybe they once were. It was a good ride while it lasted!

22. Drink nothing but water for an entire month.

I had no one particular reason for making this one of my 101 things, I just vaguely wondered if it would make me feel healthier, wondered if I could resist other drinks, and wondered if I'd be able to remember to stick to it.

I was helped along in my endeavour by Holly, who stuck to water for the month of June, right along side me, just for support and solidarity. Thanks, Hol! We managed to drink nothing but water, making exceptions for things like milk in cereal, and having a slice of lemon in our water jug.

It wasn't as hard for us as it might be for some people, as neither of us drink coffee in the mornings, and we don't drink alcohol - it was basically giving up milk, juice, and pop. This does have its moments of difficulty - no milk with cookies, no pop with pizza, no green tea with sushi, no (very thoughtfully given) cold chocolate milk on a hot day on the ferry... This has made me more aware of the times when a special drink is called for.



It didn't go perfectly, but as I am the sole referee for this list, I waved off a potential offside and allowed play to continue. I was getting Sophie a cup of watered-down apple juice, and I filled it a bit too full. Out of habit, I slurped a small amount out of the cup to make it less full and less likely to be spilled. I say it didn't count because it wasn't a full drink, it wasn't for me for the purpose of quenching my thirst, it was merely an alternative way of pouring some down the drain. I'm fine with the distinction, but Holly demanded that I document it if I were going to let it slip. Fine, done.

Today is July 1st, Canada Day, and we have big plans to say goodbye to our month of water with root beer, pink lemonade, and with any luck, milkshakes!

88. Ride in a June Critical Mass with Sophie and Holly.

June 26, 2009 (last Friday of the month, as per usual)

My goal was to ride in a June Critical Mass with Holly and Sophie. (June, because June is bike month, and the June CM is the biggest one of the year.) I exceeded my goal by a sister-in-law and a visiting Italian third cousin-in-law. Kristi and Nicola joined us for the ride, and it was great! There were tons of people (my estimate is in the low thousands, although Holly figures it was more like hundreds), the weather was good, and the motorists weren't overtly aggressive. (Except for Ice Cube guy, and he was swiftly corked.) Here's the scene, gathering for the ride at the art gallery downtown...



We were pretty impressed by the fact that, when we were heading north on the Burrard Bridge (we were near the front), we could look over and still see Granville Bridge being taken over by the tail end of the Mass, heading south. Here's a pic of the group coming down the Burrard Bridge, near the end, where it had thinned out signficantly.



We ducked out partway through the ride - it was getting late, and we had to get some food (Nicola's first sushi!) and get Sophie home to bed. It was a great event, and I feel truly fortunate that we have the ability and freedom to do something like that.

14. Swim in Kits pool.

It's somewhat embarrassing, having lived in Kitsilano for six years, and having never gone for a swim in Kits pool. At 137 meters (almost three times the length of an Olypmic pool), it is Canada's longest pool. Add to this the fact that it's Vancouver's only salt water pool, and is situated outdoors right by the ocean and Kits Beach, and this makes for a pretty amazing swimming experience.

Of course, we wouldn't know much about the actual swimming side of things, since we spent all our time shivering in knee-deep water while Sophie went down the little yellow slide over and over again. We had to keep pulling her out when she fell face down in the water, and to keep her from drinking the water. Silly girl.

But still, it was good times. We plan to go again soon.

16. Walk to work at Radical.

As part of a justification for shuffling around my biking to work days, I walked to work on Monday, June 22nd. It took about an hour and 20 minutes.

3. Ride the Dayliner on Vancouver Island.

I lived on the Island for something like 19 years, and I'd only ever taken the Dayliner once, when I was too young to remember. So when we were over on the Island for the annual Father's Day picnic, we seized the opportunity, and took the train from Duncan up to Parksville.

Mom was kind enough to drive the car up, so we could have some time in Parksville (rather than coming home again on the train three hours after we arrived). This meant that Dad and Holly and Sophie and I could take the two hour train ride north. Here's one of Mom's shots of the Duncan train station - in my opinion, the nicest station by far, at least of the ones we saw.



Here are some pics of us on the train. Sophie spent a lot of the time standing on the seat, looking out the window, and at the other passengers. We had a bit of a chat with the conductor, and learned that we were only going around 40 mph (about 65 kph) at our top speed, although the train was rated for 120 mph (about 195 kph). The way we wobbled going around corners, though (especially in the bathroom!), I'm glad we weren't going any faster.





We enjoyed seeing things from a different point of view than the usual highway drive. The scenery varied from dense forest (with branches brushing the train as we went by), to wide open farmland, to a few overpasses and tunnels, to some beautiful rivers. We went right by WildPlay Element Parks (formerly the Bungy Zone), although we didn't see anyone jumping at that moment. We were right near the back of the train, so here's a shot out the back window to finish this post.

18. Climb a tree.

About a month ago, Holly and Kristi and Sophie and I went on a bike ride along the beach, right to the end of the line at Spanish Banks. There's a good little climbing tree there, with easy-to-grab, strong branches that let you climb right up into it - at least to a point. Seems like I've gained a bit of weight since the last time I really climbed a tree, so I didn't try to go as high as I would have liked to, say, 20 years ago. Regardless, it felt great to be in a tree again.

We didn't have our camera with us, but this might be the tree I climbed. I got the image off of Google maps, and it seems to be pointed in the right direction and everything.