Quote Fest

M: "Don't forget the child!" (Yelled from his carseat after everyone in front had gotten out of the car, but not yet opened his door.)

L: "We'll tell people it's art and that we got it at SOFA." (Said after standing a couch on end and propping it against the wall next to her side of the bed in our room since it wouldn't fit up the stairs of our place).

M: "I'm gonna go get me a snack." (Next thing you know, he'll be drinking Bud and yelling "GIT-R-DONE!")

The Hills are Alive....

Took the morning off from unpacking and went on an excursion up Grouse Mountain. Awesomely fun, awesomely beautifuly, DAMN cold! Low of 6C on the Mountain today.









Saw some great carving, huge bears, hokey, but amusing lumberjack show. Tram car up and down was thrilling. Too cold for chairlift this time.

Postcards from a Ledge, Day Five through Eight

Location: Vancouver, BC, Canada
Lat/Long: 49.270773,-123.134422
Odometer reading: 3058 mi.

Lessons learned:

- Southwest Wyoming does a great impression of lifeless desert. This includes the highway towns, where the tallest things are the telephone poles.
- Burley ID (42.543216,-113.800507) has a nice and inexpensive hotel attached to the Best Western. Also, the potato thing is no exaggeration.
- They make some damn fine potstickers in Portland.
- Seeing Kees and Kirsten twice in the same year (even if you're counting Mars years) is awesome. They must come to visit us in Vancouver with high frequency.
- The OMSI has some awesome exhibits for both car-weary kids and adults who never outgrew science museums.
- The one sheaf of important papers you don't check earlier on in your trip is the one that you will find to be incomplete the night before you need it. Luckily, the papers were stored on our computer, but we also found out that...
- Kinko's sometimes actually closes when it is located in a small town (Bellingham WA).
- Large armed men show up to talk to you when you drive the wrong way up a street at a US Border checkpoint.
- Exporting a car (if you've done the advance paperwork as required) takes 11 seconds.
- Importing a car (if you've done the advance paperwork as required) takes 11 minutes.
- The best way to really feel like you've moved into the new place is to go and eat Malaysian food, and then go home and have your child vomit hourly from 1:30am to 5:30am on his sleeping bag, every sheet you brought in the car and the beige carpet. Luckily this wasn't the fault of the restaurant, because we love the food.

We're home.

Dirk Gently

Arrived safely early Monday morning.
No net access (except calling Ry to ask him to google for us) until today.
We're all pretty tired (of each other) and have no room for the spices...oh, and the couch won't fit up the stairs so is balanced on one arm next to (my side) of the bed

Hoping for no earthquakes.

A photo is worth a thousand miles

Postcards from a Ledge, Day 3

Location: Broomfield CO
Lat/Long: 39.930801,-105.085945
Odometer reading: 1264 mi.

Lessons learned:

- Stop at the first Starbucks you see. There won't be another one until the other side of Kansas.
- It is possible for the body of a car moving at 75 mph to reach 111 degrees Fahrenheit, given that is the temperature of the air through which the car is moving.
- Cows....they're remarkable cows, whereever we go...they're remarkable cows.

Postcards from a Ledge, Day 2

Location: Lawrence KS
Lat/Long: 38.982097,-95.234985
Odometer reading: 899 mi.

Lessons learned:

- That state park that looks easy to get to and right off the highway is neither, but it IS a good way to eat three hours out of your day.
- When nearing your destination, get a hotel on the near side. Somehow, there are NO hotels on the side of the city opposite your direction of travel.
- The Econolodge in Lawrence is the DIRTIEST hotel I have ever been in. This includes the hostel I used in Bangkok. Calling them "bugs" doesn't make them something other than cockroaches.

Postcards from a Ledge, Day 1

Location: Joelton TN
Lat/Long: 36.316232,-86.863403
Odometer reading: 266 mi.

Lessons learned:
- A Q-Tip can be used to unlock a hotel bathroom door.
- Don't skip the caffiene at lunch.
- The top of the Li'l Oscar cooler works well as an on-the-move water dish for dogs.

Touched by His Noodly Appendage

Number of Entries: Entry Page Time: Visit Length: Browser OS Resolution

1 12th July 2006 20:18:21 0 seconds MSIE 6.0 Windows XP 1280x1024

Returning Visits: Location: Hostname: Entry Page: Exit Page: Referring URL:

0 British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada S01060011d895c84f.vc.shawcable.net (24.87.6.68) www.toomadforpants.com/archive/2006_04_01_archive.html www.toomadforpants.com/archive/2006_04_01_archive.html search.msn.com/results.aspx?q=buy the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster Car in vancouver&FORM=QBRE

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r'amen!

Georgia on my mind...

Georgia,
Georgia,
No peace, no peace I find
Just this old, sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind

Last day at work today. Not the sense of relief I expected, rather, kind of blue and really hoping we're doing the right thing. I know in my conscience that we HAVE to go back to Canada, and leave the US, but today was hard.

Since coming to the US in the summer of 2000, I've met so many good people, real people, real friends. Who are these 50% that we hear about in the news? This 50% who's beliefs and values are so very different than my own?

Spent Wednesday with J&C watching the StoneMountain laser show, an adventure in redneck. Lots of flag waving, lots of patriotism. How can I have loved this state so much?

Spent last night with the Desai's, great food, great company. All of us trying so hard not to show how hurt we are at us leaving and knowing that the likelyhood of us meeting again is low. M and J holding hands walking into the restaurant just about broke my heart.

Today, goodbye's starting with my boss at 9am when he gave me a totally unexpected departing gift. Tears flowed shortly after and continued until a hug with Jinny at shortly after 4pm. The lab was rather dramatic and damp.

Life has been great here, we've been very happy. But we have to go...there are too many things that we can't reconcile with what our souls know are right.

And he played Fire on the Mountain
Run boys, run
The devil's in the House of the Rising Sun

Gettem'up! Roll em'out!

Momniscient!

Raine: McKay, if you want to go get icecream at ColdStone you have to put your shorts back on.

McKay: I don't know where they ARE.

Raine: You could look for them.

McKay: I don't know where to LOOK.

Raine: If I were you, I'd look in your dresser drawer.

McKay: If I were you, I could find them!

Mi Casa

We're back safely (although tired) from our scouting trip to Vancouver.

We found a very very small townhouse that will be fine for the year if I keep all my books in storage. Since this was the ONLY place we saw/talked to that would allow pets and it has the added bonus of being 5 blocks from work for Dan, we decided it would do JUST fine.Rent includes radiant floor heating and hot water which is a bonus. Here's the view from the living room, and the living room set up for our first picnic.


Biggest thanks for Ry for going Commando (different than going regimental) and getting us some stealth shots of the unit from his work. Still trying to figure out what sort of "bed" to move McKay up to...a Queen would allow for guests to sleep over, but might not leave much room for toys. A twin would work for him, but not for most of our friends. Maybe a double, and people can decide how much they like their spouses when they come visit. Holiday Inn is 3 blocks away.

Things are getting a bit crazy here, forgot to renew the Corolla's plates so we've been driving with expired plates for a month. Eep.






Trying to map our our drive to Vancouver...
ATL->Nashville
Nashville->Kansas City
Kansas City->Boulder
rest/rehab/frolic
Boulder->SaltLakeCity
SaltLakeCity->Portland
rest/rehab/frolic
Portland->Vancouver

So 7-8 days...which is ok, other than our stuff will arrive in Vancouver in 7-10 days, and the fact that McKay will be postal by the time we get there.