Gastown Freaks

Posted on June 28, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

Pat and Dario got back from their Brokeback Mountain time in the woods on Thursday so we all went out for one last dinner of togetherness Friday night. Naturally I wanted to plan the evening out. My goal – get Aimee & Pat to eat the best pizza of their lives and then show Pat that the be all and end all is not THE CAMBIE.

We got down to Nicli at around 6ish already planning that we’d have to wait a bit. We put our name down and headed off to the Blarney stone for a drink.

The waitress’ clearly had better things to do than serve us so after 10 minutes of being ignored the boys went up the to bar to get us drinks. Then, naturally, the waitress came over to see if Aimee and I wanted anything. Thanks, but no thanks, the boys are taking care of us. Seriously have no patience for shitty service.

Just as Chad got to the table with the drinks he noticed that Nicli had called him. What! Our wait was for 45 minutes and it had only been 20. He tried calling back but no one answered so he made a quick jaunt over to see if our table was ready. Thank God for Gastown and its conveniences. Turned out our table was ready so we downed our drinks and made our way over.

I guess it was a good thing we didn’t bother waiting around for the waitress, we would have totally missed our table.

I love you Nicli Antica Pizzeria.

Pat & Aimee got me Blogiversary presents. Yay!

A dog collar for Patton (even though he doesn’t exist yet), sunglasses so I can be cool (are you trying to say I’m not already cool Pat?), and the necklace I’ve always wanted (because they know how to read minds).

We got the Olives to start this time. They were warmed. Warmed Olives. How have we never thought of this before. They were amaaaaaaazing.

Hello my love.

Sneaky Ciavarro eyeing Pats Pizza!

We got Pat and Aimee hooked. Well, I guess Nicli and their amazing pizza got them hooked, but still, we brought them there.

Of course, I had to get dessert. I know I get the same thing every time I go, but when it’s good, it’s good. There is no point messing with something that works.

We definitely need to make room in our next house for this bad boy.

Yet another outstanding experience at Nicli!

I think Pat was secretly unimpressed with my ideas to go to a bar that wasn’t the Cambie, but sometimes you just need to experience something a little different. Plus we’ve always had an awesome time when we’ve gone to the Charles Bar.

Pat ordered a girly and only too 3 sips of it. Clearly his last trip out to Vancouver tainted his drinking experience.

Unfortunately I was suffering from Friday Night Sleepiness due to a super stressful week + late night blogging + one too many glasses of wine, so by 10pm I wanted to go to bed. The DJ came on at about that point and so did the strobe lights. I was so exhausted and my eyes were being really sensitive to the lights so I closed my eyes and leaned against Chad for a minute. Just as I did that one of the employees at the Charles Bar tapped me on the shoulder and said ‘Lift up your head Sweetie, the cops are here’. Uhhhh what?

I look up and there are 10 members of the VPD Integrated Gang Task-force walking through the bar checking things out. I guess the guy thought that I was totally wasted leaning against my husband trying not to puke, when in reality I was exhausted and getting a headache from the lights!

It was nice of him to look out for me though.

I wish I hadn’t felt so shitty by the time I got to the Charles Bar. I also wish we had taken the skytrain down so that I could have had a couple drinks, but then in reality, I probably didn’t need any.

Chad and I love Top 40 and dance music, so I always love what they play late at night at the Charles Bar, but I don’t think Pat was too impressed. No Du Hast or Bohemian Rhapsody over the loud speakers for him. Oh well, you can’t win’em all.

It was a good Friday night. The perfect close to the week. If only those two lived here all year round.

F.U.B.A.R.2.0.1.1.

Posted on June 27, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

Here are some of the highlights of the trip…

Dario had a series of hats that he brought camping. This was probably the most useful one. I didn’t think they actually made umbrella hats.

I was contacted by the good people at Palm Bay (well, technically their marketing team) asking me if I’d like to try out some new Palm Bay flavours. I was all over it, expecting to receive a couple of delightful beverages. Little did I know I would receive a giant ice bucket filled with Summer Time treats! What an excellent surprise!

It was so awesome that the Palm Bay came just in time for camping. I brought half up with me and am saving the second batch for our Canada Day Long Weekend Adventure of Awesomeness.

This little guy kept coming around eating all of our crumbs off the groud. He was very friendly and so beautiful! It’s not every day you see a bird this pretty in the forest!

He’s just adorable so I had to throw in a picture of him!

Stick ball commenced as soon as everything was set up. These guys were laughing too hard to actually play, but it was amusing to watch.

1) Pats nipple were on display all weekend. 2) Pats got a gut. 3) Pats t-shirts are too small for him.

Lady hung out with us all weekend sniffing stuff and eating chips.

Chad is 76% Dog.

These logs were a hatchets worse nightmare. We destroyed the hatchet by the end of the weekend.

Dario found a giant log and tried to play stick ball with it, turning stick ball into Log ball. It was way to hard so him and Mike tried to split the log by ramming it into a tree. This is what happened (notice the look on Mikes face). His chest was never the same after that.

The log got the best of Dario. That’s what you get for killing the ecosystem.

Dario dropped a turd.

Jeremy liked using Lady as a Machine Gun.

Flank Steaks are my best friend.

Dinner cheers!

(Ryan & Elise are not here because Ryan had to go back into town to join Elise at a work dinner, just so you know)

Chad thought it would be a good idea to do Olive Oil Shots. Yea. Like he needs more grease.

Of course I Italian Housewifed it.

Pat & Aimee brought cigars.

Dario found his own cigar.

They dubbed me Ernest Hemingway. Yes, we bought stainless steal wine glasses. Yes I wrote notes by the light of my lantern while smoking a cigar. Yes, I am amazing.

I don’t know what the hell happened here.

Another Hat!

This is how Jeremy fell asleep.

Dario decided to get Zen.

I didn’t get breakfast because the raccoons stole it. First time wildlife has ever stolen our food, which we typically leave out everywhere in a drunk fashion. OK NATURE, WE’VE LEARNED OUR LESSON!

This hat really came in handy on Saturday.

The boys discoverd that Palm Bay is the perfect mid morning drink.

Harry, where is Marv?

Bahahahahahaha.

It was pointed out that all the couple were wearing similar shoes which was kind of weird.

See, same shoes. What does that say about us?

Pat made his famous bacon burgers again, except this time they didn’t make us feel like we were going to die.

Pat Zaph Nipple Antennae

MIKE. Omg was he on fire this weekend.

Sleeping in the rain.

Darios beard pic.

We finally decided to put a tarp over the fire. We were prepared to sacrifice it if the fire wanted to melt it, we were just so sick of sitting in the rain.

The boys were handy.

Pat and Dario put together chicken on a spit. This was a total experiment that worked!

Swiss Chalets got nothing on us!

nom nom nom

Jeremy was the official chicken carver. We did 2 beer butt chickens on the BBQ and then Pat & Darios creation. It was the greatest chicken dinner of all time. If only my camera didn’t die after taking this photo. DAMN YOU CAMERA!

Another great year of FUBARing it!

Happy Blogiversary

Posted on June 24, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

Today is my Blogiversary!

6 years ago today I wrote my first ever post on Blogger.

While technically I started blogging back in February of 2005 the site that I used no longer exists, and at the time, you weren’t a blogger unless you used Blogger. So I made the switch and the rest was history!

In celebration of 6 amazing years in the blogsphere I ordered 6 pretty cupcakes from Heidi of the Cakelicious Cakes Company. Heidi is the Queen of Cupcakes. I have honestly never had a better cupcake in my life! I figured after 6 years I deserved something sweet to celebrate.

Todays Treat – Raspberry Chocolate Cupcakes with Lemon Cheese Cream Icing

Back when I first started on this journey there was a small community of us bloggers who all shared a common thread, our love of music made by Vancouvers own Matthew Good. Through our love of his music we came together organizing Blogstocks and parties where we all meet up and enjoyed each others company (in person, not through our computers)! One of the most amazing nights was seeing Matt Good perform at the Commodore where I was surrounded by people who I only knew through the blogging world. We all knew each other and yet we had never met; something that was so foreign back then.

That night was probably one of the most memorable nights I have ever experience. I mean, it does help that I met Mr. Ciavarro that night too ;)

Things have changed so much since then. Our little community is no more with most people chosing to close down their blogs (though we still all keep in touch) and social networking taking over the world. It went for me becoming friends with someone after finding their blog and enjoying it to all my friends starting blogs of their own.

Technology moves so fast that it kind of feels like I started blogging in the 80′s and in 6 short years is already 2011. I feel so old school haha! It must feel even weirder for epic bloggers like Tony and Raymi who were around way before me. So many people have come and gone yet they are both going strong. Their blogs truly stand the test of time. I just hope that one day I might get the chance to join their ranks as Epic Bloggers.

This blog has offered me amazing things over the past 6 years. It has given me an outlet to express myself, a place to post my 5 billion pictures and tell my 10 page long stories. I have met some of my best friends through this blog (The Jew & Shazzi B) and even met the love of my life (which IS the greatest gift this blog has ever given me).

I love my blog and I can’t imagine myself ever slowing down.

Cupcakes of Thanks

Posted on June 23, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

I had this feeling that the Canucks weren’t going to win. I don’t know what it was but part of me looked at game 6 as our real chance to win, and when they lost I reacted as if they had already lost the cup. So when Wednesday came I was calm while the rest of the city buzzed.

I didn’t watch the game because I thought, if they actually had a chance at winning then my watching the game would just be bad luck. It’s the mentality I went along with through most of the play offs.

Once the game was over I didn’t pay too much attention to what else was going on in the city. Part of me was terrified that 1994 would happen all over again, but then part of me hoped that we had learned and grown as a city and were much too mature to riot.

Then I checked twitter.

My blood immediately started to boil.

The thing with being overreacting Italian is that not only do you get the benefit of being passionate but you also get the drawback of being a rage machine. I am someone who takes both of those feelings to the extreme.

I don’t think I have ever felt so angry, upset, and helpless at the same time. I couldn’t watch the news because it got me too riled up and yet I couldn’t not watch the news because I was obsessed with finding out what was happening next. There I was, sitting in my Burnaby apartment and all I wanted to do was something, anything to make it stop. I burst into tears I don’t know how many times. My body was filled with emotions like never before. I just couldn’t believe this was happening to my city. My city that only a short year ago threw the greatest party of all time, with out anything like this happening.

It all felt like a horrible, horrible nightmare.

The next morning it was all Alicia, Claudia, and I could talk about. We were all so upset that a group of people could do this to OUR city.

But then we started to see the out pouring of love that was flowing back into the downtown core. People were cleaning up and joining together and it really inspired us to do something.

The Vancouver Police Department, Vancouver Fire Department, and Paramedics all did an amazing job of helping our city during the riots. I remember sitting there watching the VPD, so calm and brave in front of those crowds of rioters as I was going crazy with rage in front of the TV. All I could think about was how I would probably be beating down on all of them if I was a cop, which is probably why I am not a cop and am just an I rate I talian!

After seeing a tweet that Keira-Anne posted about baking cupcakes for all the Men and Women who helped protect our city that night, I got really inspired to actually go and bake cupcakes to show my appreciation. I wanted to turn my negative feelings about the riots into a positive action. So we organized a little group and we baked cupcakes!

Since Keira-Anna has connections with the VFD and Chad has connections with the VPD we decided to split the duties. Today at lunch we headed over to the VPD Headquarters on Cambie to show our appreciation.

Probably the coolest elevator doors I have ever seen!

It was great to see all the other Thank Yous that were on display from people showing their appreciation too. We were obsessed with all the drawings from kids around the city. So adorable!

We were prepare to just drop off our card and goodies at the front desk figuring they would be passed along to the right spot but were surprised to find out that Cst. Houghton and his public affairs team were actually coming down to meet with us!

Alicia got to chat with the lady who runs the VPD Twitter and we all got our photos taken with a Sargent (whos name escapes me) and our cupcakes! (Hopefully I can get a copy of said picture from the VPD!)

They were really appreciative of our gesture and it was great to actually say Thank You in person.

It’s heartbreaking to watch a city you love get destroyed right before your eyes, but it’s comforting to know that in times of trouble there is always someone there to protect it.

It definitely felt good taking a negative and turning it into a positive!

Chad vs. The Tent

Posted on June 22, 2011 by Smelly Danielly

There is really no point in me telling you I am crazy because you already know that. I’ve got a lot of scheduled posts I need to do this week so I will throw in a camping post every now and then just to keep you on your toes. Plus breaking it up like that will be a lot easier to digest.

Two years ago, before our first ever camping trip, Chad went out and bought all our supplies. This was a very bad move because I don’t think Chad fully thought it through. I have erected many a tent in my time yet somehow Chad picked the tent with the most random set up I have ever seen.This has proven to be the source of many frustrations each time we go camping.

Normally when we go camping Chad and the boys leave Friday morning and Elise and I join up with them Friday after work, so I don’t get to see the epic fail that is Chad vs. the tent, I only get to hear about it. This year I was pumped to see the disaster unfold.

This year Chad had the benefit of having 3 guys help him out. Didn’t matter though, it still took them forever.

I still think that left to my own devices I could probably set up the tent, by myself, in less time. Honestly, it’s not that difficult to figure out, it’s just set up the opposite way that every other tent is set up and because of that, Chad can never figure it out.

Thankfully Work Place Dario showed up to get boys motivated.

WHERE IS YOUR SAFETY VEST!?

45 later they were finally done. Yea, you heard me. 4 guys 1 tent 45 minutes.

Pat, Aimee, and I just sat back and watched with amusement. Next we got to witness Chad try and blow up 2 air mattresses which barely fit into our little tent. Each year we try to make small improvements to our camping lives but we never quite make it to full on comfort. I think Chad is secretly hoping we have a kid soon so he is forced to buy a bigger tent.

Camping. It never fails to amuse.