A lot of things have happened within the past couple of years:

It was a little over 2.5 years ago, in January 2005, that I first signed up for a site called grab.com, initially playing games and then branching out to boards and chat.

A little over 2 years ago, in June 2005, I received the privilege of being offered a spot on the moderator team. It was in my heyday of being very active on the boards and all but forgetting why I initially came here-- the games ;-)

Almost exactly 2 years ago, in August 2005, Grab rolled out blogs. It revolutionized my online activity. I had never regularly kept any kind of online journal before that, but being able to blog on Grab, receive feedback from my friends and read what they themselves wrote, opened up all kinds of doors that I didn't even know were there! I am forever indebted to Lex for making his brainchild a reality.

Since then, I've written over 300 blog entries, all with the intent to either provide little glimpses into the life of Helly, or share some amusement with my friends about life's foibles.

In this past 2.5 years of being on Grab, I've met and made many friends, not all at once. In due course, as is true in "real life", I've lost several of those friendships. Some were falling outs. Some simply fell by the wayside and atrophied. And I still keep in touch with only a mere handful of those I met in the very early days of Grab... but rarely on here anymore.

I've truly enjoyed my time here. I still do, from time to time. Unfortunately those times are growing less and less frequent and when I find myself with a story to share, it is growing increasingly difficult to answer the question: "Where shall I blog it?"

So it is with a bit of nostalgia and wistfulness that I close this post with a link to the answer that keeps coming up more frequently too that question-- my Myspace blog:

http://blog.myspace.com/hellykwee

See you around on the other side ;-)

A year ago this past weekend, Allan and Todd and I were braving record-breaking heat and humidity while enjoying Summerfest '06. This year, with temperatures over 20 degrees cooler, we enjoyed Summerfest '07.

What is Summerfest? It's basically a work-sponsored festival/carnival, right on company grounds. Free food, beer, games, music, shows, and rides. Because of last year's heat wave and the coincidence of Summerfest with the hottest day of the year, it was held in the evening rather than in the early afternoon this year.

We started off the late afternoon with an early dinner-- apparently we arrived just in time to avoid the lines at the cafeteria. There was a bit of a line indoors, but it wasn't too bad, and we got our food within 10 minutes, making our way back outdoors to grab a seat. While sitting there eating, we observed the line get longer and longer. First it started spilling outdoors. Then it started snaking clear around the other side of the building! Considering all we had to contend with was an indoor line and THAT took 10 minutes, I hate to think how long the folks lined up outdoors had to wait until they got their food. 30 minutes? Maybe more? Yikes!

After dinner we enjoyed a magician's show, where the jokes were corny and the tricks old hat, but still entertaining nevertheless. We then made our way to the midway, where we took in the sights of all the rides, almost all of which had lines a mile long, even the little kiddie rides. We ended up going on the Merry-Go-Round, and even managed to secure the same dragon that Todd and I rode on last year!

Here we are LAST year, can you see us sweltering in the heat?



And here we are THIS year, same dragon, Todd a bit bigger (and yes, I'm wearing the same shirt. Don't worry, I've washed it a few times since last year :-P)



Afterward, we made our way back to the stage area, where none other than Little Texas (one of my favorite country bands!) was playing. They played one of my favorites "My Love" (that sparked a discussion amongst my friends about how much they loathe country music), but unfortunately we didn't stick around long enough for me to get to hear them break out their famous tune "God Blessed Texas" :-) I tried to get up close and capture a shot, but it was too dark by then. This is my attempt at getting a pic of Little Texas on stage:



I was hoping to get Todd's face painted but alas, the lines for that were just as long as the lines for anything else, and I didn't have the patience to wait. So we settled for temporary tattoos. Todd got a happy face sporting a football helmet, and I got a rose. He picked mine out for me :-) Here we are showing off our leg artwork (don't ask me what Todd's expression is supposed to mean, my son's just a ham):



We grabbed another quick bite to eat (some fruit, shrimp salad and nachos) before making our way back home. All in all, a very fun day. It helped loads that not only was this event in the evening, but it was nowhere near as hot as it was last year (as you can see by the pic of me and Todd, both clad in our sweaters, brrr!). No potential sunburn or heat exhaustion to contend with. Another memorable summer day! :-)

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I was idly clicking around Grab, marveling in the little changes and fixes that seemed to appear before my eyes like magic. Then I went to the main Blogs page. And this is what I saw:



I had to blink and make sure my eyes weren't playing tricks on me. I'd long since lost any hope of ever making the "Most Popular Blog" spot, as it was consistently overrun with the cutesy-email-forward-pics blogs that had become, quite, frankly, predictable.

In fact, I captured a screenshot of what I thought would be the last time I ever made the top 10 list, and that was in April 2006, well over a year ago! (the screenshot is in my photo album)

I guess there's something to be said for the bug that's preventing people from leaving comments very easily, LOL!

EDIT: Haha, I just looked again and it seems that not only have they updated the featured blogs, but the Most Popular list is back to being filled with the usual suspects. Ah well, it was fun while it lasted :-D

EDIT again: Or not, LMFAO... well, I for one am not gonna complain about the wishy-washiness of blogs, whether it be the ever-changing Top 10 or the countless server errors, BECAUSE I take it as a good sign that they're working on fixing the blog-related bugs. And you all know where those lie on Helly's bug priority list :-D

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We're home! Hallelujah, we're home at last! Arrived in Santa Barbara at around 5pm, put away our stuff, returned the rental car, and kicked back and relaxed. I've spent the better part of the past couple hours sorting out photos. So I've decided to dedicate this blog entry to catching up on all the photos that I haven't been able to post, here. To keep it from getting too cluttered up, I'm putting up one representative photo from each key event, and then linking to an online photo album I set up that houses the rest. The album I chose has sub-album, picture info and even comment capabilities :-)

Here goes:

First up, a shot of the monument in Peace Arch Park, the beautiful bit of greenery on the border between the USA and Canada.

More shots of sights along the way can be found here.

Next, here's the staffers I got to meet while visiting the Case's Ladder office in Mt Vernon, WA. From left to right: Sprouty, Christy, Kate, me and Case.

More shots of Washington here.

Here's one of the shots of our suite in Vancouver, just a small sampling of the many photos I took of the inside of the room and of the views from the windows:

And here's Allan and Todd at Dinotown:

More shots of Vancouver here.

Here's Todd and his new friend in Salem, OR:

More Oregon shots here.

So there you have it. Tons more photos to enjoy in the album.
And although I've linked to individual albums, you can find the entire album at the parent folder here:

http://hellykwee.myphotoalbum.com

EDIT: Okay, it appears that links aren't getting parsed correctly on Grab blogs at the moment, so if you're having trouble getting to the photo album by clicking on any of the links, just copy and paste the above bold URL and open it in your browser, and it should work!

Today things finally started looking up for me, health-wise. I got a good night's sleep and woke up feeling much better. Of course, I was still weak and even a chore as simple as dressing myself and washing up left me feeling exhausted and beat, but at least I had a bit more energy and a bit more of an appetite. I still can't eat full-sized meals but I'm eating more than I was this entire week. I'm sure I've lost a few pounds from not being able to eat much all week.

I slept in while Allan and Todd walked around the hotel grounds and hung out in the hotel room this morning, then rested while they went to lunch and brought me back a to-go box from IHOP. Then naptime yet again before getting ready to head to San Rafael and meet Allan's old high school friend, Benn, for dinner with his wife.

Whereas we crossed the Bay Bridge last night on our way into SF, this time we went across the Golden Gate Bridge. Of course, it was typical SF weather and too foggy at the bay to really see much. We drove through parts of downtown on Lombard St (not the winding parts, though!), and passed by the most beautiful and ornate City Hall I'd ever seen.

We met Benn and Kristin for dinner at a Chinese restaurant, where the boys promptly bored the girls to death with endless geeky chatter about computers and code and whatnot. Our server was a sweet lady who took to Todd as if he were her grandson, and really doted on him. Luckily he wasn't too shy and responded to her all on his own when she came by and asked him questions :-) I managed to eat a fair bit of dinner, too, not as much as I usually do, but more than before, so it's an improvement.

After dinner we headed back to our hotel and collapsed, too tired to do much else but relax and watch some TV. Tomorrow we are heading back to Santa Barbara, thankfully it's only a 6-hour drive. And I am sooooo looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again!

It's been 2 days since I blogged, not much to tell, I'm afraid. Felt poorly all day yesterday, so Allan took Todd by himself to go see his cousin in Salem. I'm bummed out that I didn't get to meet Jason and his family, especially his doggie-- they have a sweet ol' Rottweiler, and you all know how much I love Rottweilers :-D

Today wasn't much better. I was still terribly fatigued and weak when I woke up this morning, and every slight exertion left me feeling exhausted. Something simple like brushing my teeth made me feel like I'd just worked my arm out on some heavy-duty weights.

It was like this all during the drive from Salem to San Francisco, which took us about 11 hours including some leisurely stops along the way for meals and gas and whatnot. I ended up sleeping most of the way. I had hoped to try to drive by Kendra's house along the way, but because I was feeling so poorly this morning, we got a later start than intended, and couldn't make the visit without arriving in SF super late :-( Not to mention thatI was in no condition to share the driving with Allan. But I did get to chat with her on the phone, that was pretty cool! :-D

We got here at around 10pm, checked in, and collapsed. It is waaayyyy colder here than in any of the other places we've been so far-- that's SF for ya!

Tomorrow Allan hopes to meet up with an old high school friend of his. I am hoping to feel well enough to join them, but the way things have been going lately, it's not looking likely :-/ I'm just grateful to be back in California and only 6 hours from Santa Barbara... and for the time being, resting in a hotel room for the next couple of nights :-)

I went to sleep not long after writing the last post, and was feeling terrible when I woke up this morning-- fever, chills, aches and nausea were still there. With a little help, I managed to drag myself out of bed and into the car, where Allan drove me to the ER of Salem Hospital just a couple miles away.

I wanted very much to take an ibuprofen or Tylenol so I could managed to sit upright in the waiting room, but didn't want to reduce my fever and end up giving a false reading on my vitals.

We arrived a little after 10am and were checked in efficiently and speedily. As soon as I got called by the nurse, everything moved on rapidly. I registered a temperature of 101.9 degrees, whew! I was taken to an examination room, whisked to X-ray for some chest x-rays to rule out pneumonia, and then finally saw the doctor, who prescribed me some azythromycin, an antibiotic.

It wasn't even 12pm by the time I was discharged, prescription in hand. And I have to say-- it was the smoothest and fastest process I'd ever seen, not to mention the friendliest service. Everyone we encountered along the way was very friendly and courteous. So it was quite a change from the typical experience in LA, with hours of waiting and unfriendly, sometimes downright rude service.

We hit the local Wal-Mart Supercenter along the way to get lunch, fill my prescription and re-stock our supply of fruit, since I still don't have much of an appetite for anything. And even there, everyone was friendly, from the pharmacy to the checkout lines.

We got back to the hotel and I took a nap before Allan took Todd to the seafood cafe next door, watched a bit of TV, and then slept some more... let's hope I can get to sleep at a decent hour after this ;-)

I'm faring a bit better now. I am still exhausted and weak, mostly from not eating much all day, but I've been staying well hydrated and I think my first dose of medication is starting to kick in. We've decided that, rather than battle 4th of July traffic to San Francisco tomorrow, we are going to stay yet another night here in Salem. Allan's cousin managed to get a hold of him earlier today, and we'll be going to a BBQ at his house tomorrow. Guess this town is really growing on us ;-) Hopefully I'll be doing well enough tomorrow evening to make it to the BBQ with the boys!

It is late at night and I am still sick as a dog :-( It is only the Day-Quil with its heavy duty dose of Tylenol that is enabling me to actually sit up in bed and type this. I am still feverish, chilled, achy-muscled, congested, nauseous and exhausted. But I had a GREAT time today!

We started off with breakfast at 8:30, followed by leisurely packing. We made it out the door and out of Seattle before 10:30, where I collapsed, drained, into the car and tried in vain to sleep. But I couldn't get to sleep, and ended up dozing off just when Allan pulled over 2 hours later for lunch. We saved time by getting our food to go and eating on the road, and made it to our hotel in Salem by 2pm.

What energy I had left was quickly consumed by unpacking what we needed, and I collapsed into bed for a nap before we headed out to Carl's house for a BBQ. Unfortunately I only managed about a half hour snooze, and I took some Day-Quil to help me survive the evening, intending to stay only a couple hours.

We arrived at Carl and Katharine's house around 5:30pm, and about an hour later, more of their friends started trickling in. Allan had a great time chatting away with Dave, one of Carl's partners, and his wife Kim. Me, I was my usual quiet self as I ate brisket, chicken and a burger, but the real fun started when Brian arrived with his daughter Molly, who is 6 months younger than Todd. She's adorable in the pictures I've seen of her, but is an absolute doll in person!

To my utter surprise, Todd actually wandered away from Mommy and Daddy by himself (something he NEVER does, he usually has to drag one of us along when he wants to explore another corner of wherever we are) and played with Molly! I turned around and the two little toddlers were actually engrossed in conversation! I was so fascinated I lost all interest in the adult conversation taking place at our table, and turned my attention (and camera) to the two little kids.

Now, you might not think that this is a very spectacular occurrence, but Todd is a very shy child when around new people, and this is the first time he's ever hung around another kid near his age, so it was fascinating to see him shed his shyness and actually talk to her and play with her! Just like parents get excited and crow over baby's first steps, first words, first tooth, etc... I was bowled over with excitement at seeing Todd's first real socialization.

Todd observed Molly's shoes lighting up when she walked, he showed her the sticks he was collecting for the fire, and they wandered the yard looking for more. Then she wandered inside the house and after some encouragement from me, he followed her inside, where they played in the living room, and where he told her that the remote control she held in her hand was "not a toy." She placed it on the coffee table and said "put it here?" to which he replied "yeah!". I also had to laugh at how much Todd took to her like a big brother, showing her things and practically bossing her around "come here!" and the like. Molly had ideas of her own, though, and just did her own thing when she didn't feel like going along with Todd :-) And when her Daddy admonished her to hold her milk cup with 2 hands so she wouldn't spill it, Todd listened attentively and then turned to me and repeated the lesson learned, LOL.

A hilarious moment occurred when Molly reached out to give Todd a hug. This surprised him, and he didn't know how to respond. So we encouraged him to give her a hug back. He stretched his arms out... and Molly backed away! He took a step towards her... and she backed away some more! Apparently Todd found it funny because he started laughing hard. Both fathers dissolved in a fit of giggles as Brian praised his daughter for giving the proper reaction, and Allan teased his son to get used to this and to take such rejection in stride with laughter ;-)

It was also funny when Allan and Brian got to talking and discovered just how many similarities they had-- growing up in adjacent towns, attending adjacent (and rival) high schools at roughly the same time, same college connections... talk about small world!

I got to meet Ryan and his wife briefly at the end of the evening, as they stopped by for a few minutes to say hello. And of course, tons of other friends of Carl and Katharine, the BBQ turned out to be a real huge shindig! :-) All in all-- good food, good beer, good company, good weather... I couldn't ask for a more fun evening (well, aside from no allergies and good health :-P)!

Alas, I started feeling a little unwell towards the end of the evening. Not only did it start getting chilly after the sun went down, but my allergies were kicking in full force. I was shivering and thoroughly chilled by the time we left, and we barely made it back to our hotel room before I crawled into bed and took some more Day-Quil, waiting for it to take effect so I could actually get some sleep in relative comfort. And here I am now. First thing tomorrow? Visit the hospital in town and see a doctor about this illness that has dragged on nearly a week. We're also staying an extra night here tonight, so we can all rest and recuperate.

Well, today doesn't have much for me to blog about, as I spent most of it in bed, sick. I'd started doing better since my brief bout of feeling poorly in Vancouver, but I think yesterday's long trip across the border, accompanied by dehydration, only compounded things. I slept fitfully last night, completely congested and with a persistent cough bothering me. When I awoke at 8:30 this morning I thought about going downstairs for breakfast (which ends at 9am), but when I got out of bed and shuffled into the bathroom, I realized it was a bad idea. My head and muscles ached, I was as stuffy as ever, and was running a fever. So I crawled back into bed, where I remained until about 2pm today.

Allan took Todd to the Port of Seattle, and went on a harbor cruise, seeing the sights of the mainland from the port. Allan even managed to capture a picture of my company's office in Seattle.

They returned at around 3:30pm, and rested a bit before trekking up north to Ballard to visit some old childhood friends of Allan's. We had dinner with them at the Lockstop Cafe, a little place near the Ballard Locks. Then it was back to our hotel, after stopping off at a Walgreen's along the way for some cough syrup and decongestant for me.

I felt better after my long rest in bed, and subsequent shower. Though I was weak from not eating much besides fruit and salad all day, I made sure to stay hydrated and drank tons of water and juice all day long. That seemed to help quite a bit in enabling me to feel well enough to join Allan's friends and their families for dinner later that evening.

And now it's off to bed-- tomorrow we have a long drive to Salem ahead of us. Better keep up my newfound good health and get plenty of rest tonight. Plus, given the luck we've been encountering with horrid traffic this past week, my fingers remain crossed that we won't have much going to Oregon!

I am typing this offline as we battle traffic along the I-5 on our way to Seattle. It is 6:30pm and despite having left Vancouver before 11am, we are just now within several miles of SEATAC.

Things were pretty smooth getting out of Vancouver-- a few congested spots here and there, but nothing too horrible. That is, until we got to within 1 mile of the Canada/USA border. The signs we encountered did not lie-- wait times of 2 or more hours were expected, and it took us just a little over 2 hours to inch through less than a mile to get through customs and immigration.

We were moving along so slowly that we even killed the engine in several spots, to save on gas, as the fuel cost for restarting the engine was less than it would've been for idling so long. We popped in "Finding Nemo" and watched about half of it on the laptop before we finally got to within 800 meters of the border. By then, I was feeling restless and took Todd out so we could walk around a bit. It was amusing-- a bit like the opening scene in "Office Space"-- despite walking as slowly as I've ever walked, we still managed to outpace Allan in the car-- by leaps and bounds!

We watched a bunch of protesters marching in protest of the embargo on Cuba, and Todd enjoyed blowing dandelion seeds before rejoining Daddy. A little while later we arrived at Peace Arch park, a large strip of greenery with a huge monument in the middle, straddling both countries. I took several pictures of the monument, which commemorated the unity between the United States and Canada, as well as flowerbed arrangements of the respective countries. I even got a picture of an obelisk marking the official international border-- just as Allan was driving our rental car past it :-)

When we finally got up to border patrol, things went smoothly from there. I couldn't understand why there was such a long delay-- there were twice as many US border patrol agents manning US entry as there were Canadians when we were going the other way last week! And last week, crossing into Canada, we only experienced about a 15-minute wait. Related to the long weekend, maybe, what with Canada Day being celebrated this weekend? What IS Canada Day anyway-- is it the equivalent of our Independence Day on July 4?

We stopped by a Super Wal-Mart to do some more shopping and replenish our grocery supplies, and now we have to return the rental car at SEATAC, and get the new contract for our new car (because this previous week's rental is being paid for by the university, and we're footing our own bill for the second week's rental). It is now 6:45pm and I am hoping to be into and out of the airport within an hour, and on the road to our hotel by 8pm, giving us just enough time to eat a quick dinner and put Todd to bed. Again, just as with the very first travel entry, the time of my actual posting this will show exactly how close I am to my time predictions ;-) At any rate, it's still loads better than a checkin of 3am at the hotel, whew! Never again! ;-P

whew, it's 10pm and we've just finished showering and eating. We tried visiting this neat looking restaurant right next door to the hotel, but were met with really high prices and really poor service-- the servers and busboys all but ignored us for about 10-15 minutes, and probably would've been longer if we hadn't given up and left. Nobody even came by to offer us water or get our drink order! We tried another restaurant on the other side of the hotel, but it was part of a casino and wouldn't admit anyone under 21. Sigh... Burger King it was :-P

And now I'm ready to wind down for the night and get some good sleep before visiting the sights of Seattle tomorrow. Good night!

The reason for the title of my post is that we spent more time on the road than in the amusement park itself. We headed out at around 11am, anticipating a 1.5 hour drive to Fraser Valley, where the only cartoon dinosaur theme park in North America is.

Unfortunately, Google Maps can't predict traffic conditions :-/ After going through the drive-thru at McDonald's along the way to grab some grub and eat it along the way, we encountered a slew of traffic typical to congested downtowns, experienced some of the seedier areas of Vancouver (on the north end of Chinatown), and breathed a sigh of relief after we got on Hwy 1 (the Trans-Canada Hwy), only to be stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic due to an accident. We didn't make it to Dinotown until almost 1:30pm.

It had been raining on and off since last night, and it started drizzling again as soon as we got into the park. Good thing there was plenty of cover from the trees and other little places to duck into. And the nice thing about having a rainy day at the park is that it kept everyone else away, and the place was fairly empty, making it feel like we alone had run of the place ;-) Todd sure had a grand time. He enjoyed meeting the dinosaur characters, even hugged them, high-fived them, and showed one of them his stuffed turtle-- the dino petted the turtle's head and Todd made the turtle "kiss" the dino, causing her to blush :-)

During a nice sunny spell we enjoyed a fun ride in the paddleboats, with Todd sitting in the middle while Allan and I paddled opposite sides with our rubber oars. We floated down a peaceful little stream and got to see all kinds of dinosaur statues along the shore.

We enjoyed playing in the water park (staying dry, or well, as dry as possible with all the rain :-P) and seeing the dinosaur abodes and vehicles, which were built like the stone houses you see on the Flintstones. Managed to get a round of mini golf in before the rain chased us back inside, into the gift shop. That's where I saw old brochures and pictures and news clips from when the park was first built-- it featured Flintstones characters and used to be called Bedrock Park. It wasn't until sometime in the 90s that it was changed to Dinotown and all semblances of the Flintstones removed, due to copyright issues.

We made our way back to the parking lot and headed out a little after 4pm. the park is located near Bridal Falls, the 6th largest waterfall in Canada, and I managed to capture a magnificent shot of it nestled amongst the trees and illuminated by the bright sun overhead, burning through the white clouds.

The drive back was equally fraught with tons of traffic, although Todd and I slept rather fitfully in the back seat and missed most of it. We stopped by a mall in nearby Burnaby and ate at an IHOP before fighting downtown Vancouver traffic again (made all the worse by temporary street closures due to a bike race) and landing back at our hotel.

More fun was yet to come-- when we arrived at the door to our suite, neither of our cards would work. Luckily there was a hotel phone in the hallway right outside our door, so we were able to use it to call the front desk for help rather than trudge back downstairs. After we got settled in, I took Todd for another swim at the health club, enjoying a brief splash in the pool and several minutes in the jacuzzi. I hope the weather warms up this week so that we'll be able to take advantage of the pools at our upcoming hotels, seeing as how much Todd enjoyed playing in the water!

But now it's our last night in Vancouver and tomorrow we check out of our luxurious hotel suite and make our way back across the border. Destination: Seattle.

But before that, a good night's rest :-)

Hehe, forgive the stereotypical title ;-)

Today wasn't much, tourism-wise. We had errands to run and chores to do: laundry and grocery shopping. In the process of looking for good places to shop and do laundry while staying in the vicinity of the hotel, I drove around quite a few parts of downtown Vancouver, mostly the East End and stopping short of Granville Island. As a result, I became quite familiar with the various streets of downtown. Thank goodness they're all square and not funky, so it was easy to remember which streets ran which way and whatnot. After a while I felt almost like a seasoned resident, driving around confidently without having to consult my map :-D I made note of where all the various places were we might need-- the drugstore, supermarkets, fast food joints, and of course, the laundromats.

I even found myself amongst some residential areas-- aside from the horrid parking situation, it was quite nice! A peek at a real estate magazine while waiting for the clothes to dry, showed that real estate costs about as much here as it does in LA. Hmmm... not a bad place to live ;-) Of course, I haven't experienced winter here yet, but it is a beautiful place to live...

Before dinner, we took Todd to the hotel's gym, where we splashed around in the 40-ft pool and then relaxed and warmed up in the jacuzzi for a bit. Todd enjoyed himself immensely! That boy really loves the water ;-)

We then made our way down to the local Macaroni Grill, which was built in what used to be apartments, designed by one of the area's renowned residential architects at the turn of the century. And OMG, the food was outstanding! It was better than at any Macaroni Grill I'd ever eaten in in the States. I had the Eggplant Parmesan meal, and though I'm not normally a fan of it, the stuff they served tonight was scrumptious. I made sure to leave room for dessert, and it paid off multiple-fold. I ordered the eggless custard served with a mix of dark chocolate sauce and strawberry sauce. And wow, was I in food heaven. Every bite yielded a fantastic sensation on my taste buds that left me salivating and wishing the bowl was bottomless. I had never experienced such culinary pleasure for my palate. I am stuffed to the gills as I type this, and it's a gooood feeling :-)

And on that note, I shall wind things down with a cup of steaming chamomile tea, and get ready for some dino-fun tomorrow :-D

This morning Todd woke up feeling MUCH better. His fever had abated and his appetite had returned. After a leisurely breakfast, we got dressed and I called valet for our car (valet costs only $3 more per day than the regular self-park pass, so we might as well use it :-P) and when I got in I took a little while to adjust myself, as it was the first time since we'd gotten the car, that I'd driven it.

We drove down to Granville Island, and hoo-boy, the traffic in downtown Vancouver is VERY remniscent of your typical big city, crowded and congested. At least I haven't encountered any idiot drivers yet. When we got to the island itself, I was reminded of Isla Vista, the college town surrounding UCSB. Small, narrow roads full of pedestrians, and scarce parking spots. I lucked out-- someone pulled out of a spot just as I came up to them, and I managed to squeeze our gigantic rental car in (that's another story-- we reserved a midsize car, but as they were out by the time we got there [gee, out of cars at 2am? Imagine that :-P] so we got a full-size car instead: a Dodge Charger).

Public parking was limited to 3 hours, but since it was nearly lunchtime I knew we wouldn't need longer than that. We immediately made a beeline for the Kids Market section of Granville Island, which was full of all kinds of toy shops, an arcade, and a play area. We ate at a place called "Beanstalk Bistro", which featured your basic hot dog and sandwich fare, and then Todd got his face painted with a heart on one cheek and a turtle on the other. Afterward, he got lost playing with all the toys in all the different toy shops :-) Who needs an arcade when you're surrounded by toys? We also visited the playground and the water park behind the Kids Market. If only the weather had been warmer I would've let Todd strip down and splash around.

We drove back to the hotel and Todd's currently napping while I type this. And now Mommy needs to lie down for a bit, I hope I'm not coming down with whatever ailed Todd earlier, my throat's feeling a bit scratchy :-(

After finishing the previous blog entry, I thought I'd prevent it from getting too long by keeping today's activities in a separate entry.

As mentioned earlier, we arrived in our hotel-- the Sheraton. And *whistles* boy are we in the lap of luxury! We've got a nice little junior suite-- king bed and sleeper sofa in one room, and double bed in the other room. The main room has a nice 32" HD TV, that's the one I was accessing WebTV on earlier. And a little kitchenette complete with microwave, fridge and little sink, perfect for keeping Todd's baby bottles and our miscellaneous dishes clean. The other bedroom also has a large television in it, so there's no arguing about which program to watch ;-)

We're on the 22nd floor of the hotel, giving us a breathtaking view of downtown Vancouver and the waterfront. We're right across the street from a really neat looking hospital, and down the street from a beautiful old church.

We've encountered a few Canadian oddities, such as the fact that the highway system is more like that of the UK than the US. Which is interesting because it's not strictly European, for our freeway system is very much like Germany's. The highway signs are a mix of European and American style-- arrows like in Europe, but green background like in the US (instead of European blue). And blinking green lights on traffic signals, which I later learned had a different meaning here in British Columbia than in the other provinces of Canada.

One more curiosity: mailboxes on the sidewalk? We came across a few of these large gray metal boxes emblazoned with the Canada Post symbol, except we can't figure out what they are supposed to be. Places for people to drop off letters? You'd think so, but there's no slot for anyone to insert any mail, not even a postcard! So... if any of my Canadian friends are reading this-- what ARE they??

Last night and today wasn't very vacatioin-like or relaxing: Todd ran a bit of a fever last night, which kept him from sleeping soundly, and that in turn affected my sleep, waking up every couple hours to check on him. He was doing better today, though, and threw up after eating dinner tonight, but that seemed to be the catalyst to getting him well on the road to recovery, he seems to be doing better now :-) Fingers crossed that a doctor's visit isn't in order for tomorrow!

Today was a lazy day, slept in till 10am and had a leisurely breakfast and lunch, a long nap (well, for Toddy anyway-- Mommy was busy wrestling with the spotty WebTV connection) and a trip to the grocery store and some dinner. Tomorrow Todd and I will plan to actually go out and go somewhere and see some sights :-)

I've got plenty of photos, but probably won't be able to upload them until the end of the week, when Allan's done with the conference. When I do get a chance, I promise to share :-)

Yesterday "Helly the Titan" descended upon the Grab support staff in Washington, and enjoyed herself immensely :-)

Okay, here's the deal: I'm typing this from the TV in our hotel room, which is spotty at best and freezes up on occasion. Rather than type a long essay only to lose it before I post it, I shall type a paragraph at a time and post it, then edit the blog entry and add another paragrah, and so on..

Whew, took me a bit longer than expected to come back! Anyway, we arrived in Mt Vernon at around 12:30pm and were heartily greeted by Skate(modee), who led us to the office where she, Christy and Sprouty work. Nice big flat screen monitors they all have ;-) We were then joined by Case right before making our way to lunch. Unfortunately, Skate couldn't join us for lunch, but at least I got a chance to meet her and talk to her a bit :-)

We went to an Italian place a few blocks away. Mt Vernon looked like your quintessential small town, not unlike downtown Santa Barbara with its small streets, many of which were one-way.

I ended up chatting quite a bit with Case, who, as the founder of Case's Ladder, had quite a bit of insight into the company from the business end, very eye-opening for someone like me, who has only experienced Grab from an end-user perspective. It was fascinating to hear the rationale for various aspects of their business model.

I didn't end up talking to Sprout or Christy as much as I would've liked, as we only had a short time there, and besides, when you put 2 naturally shy and introverted people together, you aren't going to get much of a conversation ;-) A bit of a bummer. Still, it was cool to meet the guy I've interacted with frequently on CL-related issues, in person at last :-D It's nice to put a face to the screenname, and now that I've seen their offices, I have a better visual of what it's like on their end whenever I talk to any of them.

We ended the visit with a video that Case had dug out, which put together various snapshots and short video clips of the Grab staff in the early days (early 2005), featuring all sorts of familiar faces such as Lex, Wemmick, deuce, foobonic, ricemag, touchdown and krustykreme (plus more, but those are the ones who I remember primarily because of their frequent presence on the user-visible parts of Grab in those early days). I even recognized a few of the pics from the webcam shots of the "war room" when Grab 2.0 came out in March 2005.

A couple hours after arriving in Mt Vernon, we were on our way to the local Wal-Mart to do some shopping for stuff to tide us over the next 2 weeks-- stuff we couldn't easily pack into our luggage, such as diapers and formula, as well as food and water. We made it uneventfully across the border (where there was a gorgeous flowerbed arrangement in the shape of the Canadian flag on the ground), and into Vancouver by 6pm. Exhausted as ever, but not nearly as exhausted as we would've been, had we stuck to our original plans and gone straight to Vancouver after arriving in Seattle late Sunday night. And so ends this blog entry... and starts a new one :-)