Tuesday, September 02, 2008

What a Year

It's been well over a year since I last posted to this blog. Apparently there are still a few people that check it now and then (well, at least Ben) and I'm sorry for not posting any updates. This past year has been full of events and I'll just run through the highlights instead of making a series of posts.

This time last year was incredibly busy for me because I agreed to teach the 3rd-year course on databases. I really looked forward to teaching a bunch of motivated 3rd year students. Instead what I got was a collection of people that took the course as one of the few required electives. It was good though, but very time consuming as I was also the marker for the course due to an interesting loophole in our union rules: if you are instructing a course then you fall to the lowest priority level when being considered for a TA position, however you can be moved up to the highest priority level if the instructor requests you. All it took was a quick email to recommend myself (I've always liked working with myself in the past) and I had the job. The extra money was crucial to making the wedding work.

Sometime last October I got to experience the Canadian (actually BC) medical system in all its glory. After a few days of feeling ill, I woke up and couldn't move and so Rebekah took me to the free clinic around the corner. They told me to go to the emergency room instead where I was diagnosed with appendicitis. Waiting a while in an emergency room bed, I was glad I paid my BC medical plan because next to me was an American student who never looked into paying and was then charged $200 for a nurse to look at him (he was dehydrated from too much drinking). They eventually told me that they booked me a surgery for later that night and everything went well and I ended up in a hospital room for a few days. After I was fit to leave, the doctor said I was good to go and they left me. I sat puzzled waiting for someone to come with some forms to sign and wondering how much I owed. Rebekah thought I was crazy and told me to just leave because I don't owe anything--I'm in Canada. What a weird feeling to just get up and leave your hospital bed.

Christmas was a good time, Rebekah and I went to spend a few weeks with my parents in SC. Coming home US Airways lost our luggage (again) and then it arrived later broken, but they paid us back for more than it was worth (even more than we requested).

The spring time was very busy as Rebekah has been working at the Christian Book and Music store full time so that left me as the wedding planner. We did pretty much everything ourselves and with a year to plan, it went well. Another semester went by with getting hardly any research done.

Finally, it was wedding time in May, which went very well. About 85 people showed up--a lot of her family and not much of mine--but that was very understandable due to the distances. After a year of planning, it was nice to see it all come together. In some sense it was anti-climactic in that way, but certainly not entirely anti-climactic. The reception was quite the party, with a large buffet dinner and lots of dancing. Our 8 months worth of dancing lessons paid off (not taken entirely for the wedding, and will probably continue this fall).

Then it was off to our honeymoon, an Alaskan cruise on Norwegian Cruise Lines. We'd recommend NCL as we liked how they ran things in many of the details (not that we really have anything to compare it to). The only problem is the lack of someplace to eat between 11am and noon. It stopped off in Ketchikan, Juneau, and Skagway. Ketchikan was mostly shopping (they all were) but we wandered around the streets and attempted to get away from the 4 cruise ship loads of people. Juneau was just a morning stop and we booked a whale watching excursion (not through the cruise ship) which was very good--we saw 4 or 5 humpback whales (killer whales are boring--we see those on the ferry to Vancouver). Skagway was great as we rented a car and drove it to the Yukon to knock that off our list of places we've been and to see Emerald Lake. The drive was quite fantastic and even made the skeptical Rebekah love the event. We saw tons of wildlife along the drive and cruise and lots of scenery that we don't see in the Victoria/Vancouver area. If you ever take a cruise, make sure you get a balcony room, they are definitely worth the extra money. The food was outstanding too and you can order as much of it as you want, all included in the price of the cruise. One thing we didn't expect to have on the cruise was 3 art auctions. Making a long story short, we ended up buying 3 signed and numbered prints of Mediterranean scenes and then won 3 free poster type prints of other items and got 2 other smaller pieces for free just for registering to bid. We figure some day we'll go on a Mediterranean cruise and buy some Alaskan art.

Over the summer I've been very productive with my research (still not sure when I'll finish--December?) and otherwise it's been fun settling into married life and getting our place furnished. We got the 3 prints we bought framed and bought a new couch and found a 27" used TV with the stand for only $60. We got a new bedroom furniture set, desk, kitchen table and chairs and a bookshelf as well.

This past weekend we went over to see the in-laws at a cottage a few hours up the island. We've also been camping this summer here and here, the former of which is a 17km hike each way to the NW corner of Vancouver Island and the latter of which is front-country camping overlooking the ferry route from Victoria to Vancouver.

That's it for the quick update. Any questions? Maybe I'll expand on a few things if you want.

Thursday, August 09, 2007

Hiking in the Snow

It's August and the BC Day long weekend, so you know what that means. Time to visit the glaciers! Rebekah and I went with Brad and Gulcan to Strathcona Park to hike the Elk River Trail (click that link, its cool and turn on satellite view if it's not on) To see the hike even cooler, click here and open it in Google Earth, then you may have to double-click "Elk River Trail" in the pane at the left, then lower the viewing angle so it's not a bird's eye view so you can see the mountains.

We probably hiked about 25km, which was nice and enjoyable. The first day we hiked about 8.5km with all of our stuff up to the 2nd campsite:

That hike had us walk by a really cool ice tunnel:

Then the second day we did a day hike from the campsite up to Landslide Lake:

The trail continued in on an unkept path that was dangerous at times, but worth it when we got to Iceberg Lake, surrounded by glaciers, tall cliffs and almost frozen over:

Glaciers are cold:

On the third day, we hiked back from our campsite and drove home. The whole trip was a lot of fun. Dehydrated food tastes pretty good these days.

If you'd like to see more awesome scenery including some pretty cool waterfalls, check out the rest of the photos then go hike it yourself. It's even better in real life. And the amazing part is, it's all on our Pacific island!

Adam's Visit

My best-man-to-be Adam just decided to come and visit me in July for a weekend plus some, one week after I got back from Europe (and on a week's notice). I'm glad he finally made it. We drove around the southern part of the island and saw a lot of the cool stuff, like:

Mile 0!

Adam Kerr on Adam Kerr bridge in Adam Kerr park!

Mt. Doug!

Kissing a totem pole!

Ocean Blvd!

Vancouver!

Aren't you jealous?

I also saw whales on the ferry on the way to Vancouver to get him from the airport. Much closer than the legal range of 100m, but you can't help it when they appear out of nowhere.

See more photos in the photo album, including more whale pictures.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

London and Bled, Slovenia

In June/July, I was flown off to Europe again for a conference to tout my new algorithm to the world. My ultimate destination was to Bled, Slovenia, a little resort town that is like Banff, only half the size and then move the town to the front of Lake Louise, then add a small island with an old church and a cliff on the side of the lake with a castle. So pretty much, not like Banff.
My journey took me there through London, purchased as 2 separate round-trip tickets. So, naturally I decided to stay in London for another week and check it out.

The food in Slovenia is excellent and really cheap. I had a nice variety of things from turkey in peppercorn cream sauce to cheese dumplings (which resemble brain-looking twinky shapes and are oh so tasty) to excellent pizza with tartar sauce on it (a really great idea) to cheese sauce filled squid. All of it was outstanding and about 1/5 to 1/3 what you'd expect to pay in Canada. Other than the food, I'll report that the people were friendly, then again it was a tourist spot, but everyone seemed to smoke. Oh, and they have really cool signs like these.
A very elaborate sign.

Dads with 3-armed rabbit girls cross here.

The conference was a lot of fun, and I got a large amount of questions after my talk, which I am used to getting. Most talks get 0 or 2 questions.
I got 6.

London was a lot of fun to explore. The first day I went on a walking tour, then I went back the later days to see other places that were omitted. Here are some of my favorite pictures.
This picture needs no caption.

How to park your Smart car.

The Physical Energy Monument.

Of course, there are many many more pictures in my photo albums, including the usual tourist pictures (I think these are better). Sorry to those who waited sooo long for me to put them up.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Deep Fried Oreos

Also while we were visiting my family (it was a jam packed week), we went to Freedom Weekend Aloft. This is an annual event in the Upstate SC where many hot air balloons are launched. There were over 130 balloons I believe, and when we were there (Sunday), they were launched in 2 batches. Here's just one sample photo, but I'd encourage you to look at the variety of balloons that there were.
I think the real highlight, however, was that one of the many junk food stands was selling deep fried Oreos. This is a fantastic American invention. Oreo cookies are coated in a funnel cake batter and then deep fried and finally coated with powdered sugar.
The Oreo in the center comes out no longer crunchy, but not overly soft. I'd say they are just right and very delicious. Here's a picture of the inside of Kevin's Oreo:
Kevin also managed to take a picture of Rebekah, me, Crystal, and Brian. The two (as of Thursday June 14th) engaged couples, with an eerie alien glow from the Goo Goo Dolls concert we were eavesdropping on.

Engaged

On Saturday May 26, after we had arrived at my parents' house on Thursday morning, Rebekah and I drove down to Charleston to see the Atlantic Ocean, since she had never touched it before (only flown over it). It was Memorial Day weekend, so the path to the beach was packed with people. We drove to the Isle of Palms where we walked out a ways on the beach to where there were fewer people (but still many). We had a nice picnic lunch on the beach. Since she was in jeans, I told her to roll them up a little higher and we headed out into the water.

We waded in the water and then we started dancing around for a bit. Then, when she was not suspecting anything, I got down on one knee (in the water) and before I could finish saying her name (it's quite long), she had said yes three times. Then I finally got around to asking her if she'd marry me. Though I had the ring out, she didn't see it because she was too busy wrapping her arms around my neck. Once I pried her off so she could see the ring, I took it out and put it on her finger. You can see the spot here in the background of this photo taken afterwards.
Our audience waited until they were sure she said yes. Once the ring was on her finger, there were cheers and applause from the strangers on the beach. We went back to sit on the beach for a while and when we left and walked by the groups on the beach, they congratulated us and yelled out "let's see the ring!" That started her off to show the "sparkle sparkle" to everyone she saw.
We spent the rest of the day walking through Charleston, along the battery and through some of the nice historic house neighborhoods. We finished off with as fancy of a dinner as we could have seeing as we were in shorts and rolled up jeans and smelled of sunscreen.
I'm sorry that this post took so long. As usual, there are more photos here. For those wondering when the wedding will be (that's always the first question we get asked, except by Adam), it will be May 17, 2008 in Victoria: the Victoria Day long weekend.

Wednesday, May 02, 2007

Easter

Somewhere in between the weddings was Easter. I didn't take any pictures, because I had been to Port McNeill before. I also didn't get threatened with a bullet this time. Instead I was told, "He's been here before. He knows where the kitchen is."

We had a nice "sunrise" service, about an hour after the sun rose. Then we went back to the house and I discovered that the Easter bunny still found me in Port McNeill. (Rumor has it the bunny also left something for Rebekah in Ohio, which she can claim in SC when she gets there at the end of May.)

I also beat Rebekah at DDR every time (2 or 3 times). Just thought I'd mention that. Emily is too good though. It's scary.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Wedding Season, Part 2

Wedding season continued this past weekend with a trip to Summerland. That's where Elizabeth and Derick tied the knot on April 28. They are the speedy couple who started dating in September. (Unlike Jim and Nicole who went through pre-engagement counseling then got engaged then went through pre-marital counseling.)

The drive out there was very nice. We caught the 9:00 ferry and got there at about 3:15. The drive was very nice and scenic, though more so on the way home since we took the southern route instead of the faster and larger toll highway. It snowed on both the drive there and back. Yes, that means it snowed on April 29.

I stayed with some friends of Elizabeth's family for the first two nights. They showed me around Summerland and we even went on a hike on part of the trans-canada trail. I learned what all the local plants are, including the trees in the orchards. There are tons of vineyards there too.

The wedding was held in Elizabeth's backyard which drops off and has views of Lake Okanagan and the mountains. A large rainbow showed up for the first part of the rehearsal:

On Saturday, my job was to drive around the bridal party to get them where they needed to be. That involved going to the hair dresser where Elizabeth got some sparkling apple cranberry juice and fresh strawberries and chocolate dip to eat while her hair was done.

The weather was supposed to be a 30% chance of rain on Saturday, and kept getting worse throughout the days before. But then Saturday came and it was bright and sunny and warm with very few clouds.

Since I was involved in driving people around and getting ready for the wedding, the wedding itself seemed anti-climatic. It was a nice small ceremony though, with about 50 people. The kiss was so long that I took 2 different pictures, with a few seconds between them.She made her wedding dress all by herself.

We also spent a few hours before the wedding taking pictures in some nearby gardens. I took pictures of the photographer taking pictures.


Now go look at the rest of the pictures.

Wedding Season, Part 1

And now for the long awaited blog update...

Wedding season 2007 was kicked off on March 31 with Jim and Nicole's wedding in Victoria. The photos have been available online since a few days after that, but I never got around to blogging about the wedding.

The wedding was short and sweet. It probably only lasted 20 minutes. They didn't even say "I do." They pretty much just had a slideshow, then said their vows then signed the paper then ran (literally) out of the church.

They are pretty insane and waited until the wedding to have their first kiss. The night before they were practicing the angle, with coaching by the maid of honour, Elizabeth. I didn't get a picture, but I did get their second kiss, I think:

About 4 hours later, the reception started at a nearby restaurant. It took them about that long to take all the pictures! It was a nice buffet dinner and some music lasting late into the night. Jim and Nicole stayed for quite a long time. Then they drove off to some unknown hotel where their car was parked. We were going to then go find their car and decorate it, by waiting for a phone call from the person driving them to the hotel. But at about midnight, we gave up waiting.

Enjoy the rest of the photos in the album.

Sunday, February 18, 2007

Kung Fu Bird Poo

Happy Chinese New Year!
We have the smallest (but oldest!) Chinatown in Canada here in Victoria, so Rebekah and I headed down there to see the parade. We thought that it started at noon, but it turned out not to start until 1:00. But we waited around and had some nice front row standing spots. As we were waiting, a kung fu bird dropped a kung fu bird poo from up high onto about 10 of us. Amazingly, it only landed on people's coats.

The entire thing was kind of a let down because we waited there at the edge of the sidewalk, then right when it started a flood of people stood in the street right in front of us and blocked our view. However, I was able to get a shot of this awesome kung fu mullet (he originally had a stick and looked like he was with a kung fu group), which I call a kung fullet:
Then finally the people started playing the drums and cymbals to wake up the lions:
Then the lions arrived and did a little dance:
The lions left to go collect the money and lettuce that stores hung in front of their door for good luck in the new year. We didn't stay to see them collect the money in the main part of Chinatown (where they started), because that was last.
($150 on that string)