In the Neighbourhood


These are some pictures I took in my neighbourhood...


This is the front entrance to my house. It looks a bit crusty from the outside, but inside it is all nice and wooden and there is a giant brushed steel fridge and that kind of thing. However, the little front porch is very nice for reading and drinking coffee on.
Here is moi, holding a cat I caught on the street. It didn't want me to hold it, but I made sure it didn't escape until I was ready to let it go. As you can see, I am grasping its back paw pretty tightly. It was soft and fluffy. I bought this shirt the other day, it is pretty awesome and flannel and it is like grunge never died. Either that or I am a lumberjack (I cut down trees, I eat my lunch, I go to the lavatory, etc.)
This sign was taped to a power box near where I saw the cat. And then further along the street, there was a jump set up (bits of plywood, bricks, a pile of sand to land in) over a homemade wooden coffin. It was pretty sweet. I saw kids biking over it later that day, and I asked how they were doing but they said no one wanted to lie in the coffin and be jumped over, not even for free. I would like to be able to say that I paid a quarter and lay in the Coffin of Death, but I didn't. It looked pretty scary.
Ummm... I made some scones. This photo is for the North Americans who have some confusion over categories of baked goods. This is a scone, people, at least according to ye olde England and her commonwealth outposts. It was delicious.
Anna eating a scone and some tomato soup that I also made and which was also delicious. And drinking some wine that was cheap (by Canadian standards, anyway) and not so delicious. In my back yard with some kind of hippy cloth on the table. The downstairs neighbours put it there, not me. I swear.
BABY SKUNK! It was in my garden! Seriously people, most exciting Canadian moment so far. All these mammals, it is pretty exciting I tell you. Anyway I thought it was a squirrel at first, but then noticed its STRIPES and realised it was the cutest, fluffiest baby little skunk in the world. I followed it like a skunk paparazzo so I could take photos, and it was totally freaked out. I don't think its stench producing mechanisms were fully developed yet, because I'm sure it would have tried to spray me otherwise, as I was being a total pain. But it was so so cute.
We chased the skunk into the alleyway behind my house where people put out their rubbish and so forth. It looks like this, which is pretty nice at moments when the light is just right. Soon after, the skunk shimmied out of sight (well, it didn't really shimmy at all because it was too fluffy and wasn't wearing gold lame or anything) and that was the end of that. Goodnight!

Road Trip!
We drove a bloody long way, from San Diego to Vancouver. Look on a map. It's far. My car didn't die. There are a lot of photos, here are a few, at random and probably out of order.
Freedom! on the road. This was after my car got a flat tire 2 blocks after leaving the house. But I've got a swanky sunroof, so that makes up for the car's crapness.
Park in San Francisco, can't remember the name. Named for some dude who has a woman's name I think.
Somewhere by San Francisco. One some ruinous buildings. Kelly and Brian, presiding over their land, oppressing peasants, etc.
San Francisco, steep streets etc.
Rest stop, somewhere. Family photo.
And already I can't be bothered ordering or labeling these. You can guess what order they go in and make up your own stories about them.

Vancouver!

Anna, on bike. North towards Hastings. Hottest day of the year.
I dropped my camera in a fountain and now it doesn't work. I borrowed Anna's camera, and took photos as I biked down a steep hill. She asked me not to drop it, and I didn't.
Main, Chinese night market. I bought a $2 tie dye tshirt with an iron on picture of some Chinese festival, and a hat that is midway between fashionable and comically unfashionable.
We rode to the Gaslamp district to see some art openings. It was really attractive! The neighbourhood, that is. The art was shit.
yep.
The light was really nice.
Beer.

Smile.
Building.
We rode over to Kitsilano beach afterwards (for some reason which we later abandoned), rode through the semi-industrial area behind the train station.
On grass by Kits beach. Anna writing something in her journal. She told me it was a list of things to do tomorrow, but is she writing the word "FEAR"? Hmmmm...
Me, on grass by Kits beach. I'll put up a photo of the tie-die soon.

xoxo everyone.