https://theducks.dreamwidth.org

Sorry brad, it's not you, it's the ФСБ.

(2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006)
1. What did you do in 2014 that you'd never done before?
Not filling out this questionaire

fin.

I've been a fan of the Arrogant Worms for at least 8 years now - back on Canada 2006, we wandered through the streets of Airdrie Alberta, singing "Canada is really big" to the applause of passers by.

Annnyway, I picked up the newspaper in the lobby yesterday, and saw the 'Worms were playing at the Steveston Salmon Festival Canada Day concert. Count me in!

Best band ever to book for a Canada Day concert. They didn't play "Canada is really big", but they did play a bunch of other ones. I posted an Instagram on Facebook, and found out one of my friends works with the lead singer - he's an English teacher in Ontario! Small world - wish I knew beforehand - I would have said hi.

(This friend - I don't think we've ever met in Canada - but she was one of the incoming exchange students at ECU when I worked there in like 2000, so we hung out in Perth a few times. Added difficulty of Perthing.)

I love all the concerts we've been able to go to here. Canada is really bigawesome.

On June 24th, we moved to Canada for a one year working holiday. Five years ago.

Oops.

You might remember from when people used LJ and my ranting years ago, about how missing friends was an issue. It still is. I've just become comfortably numb, or something like that?

This week though, we had stephiepenguin visiting us! Stephie was my Best Man at our wedding, and we shared a house for an awesome year in 2003-2004. Hijinks from which are in the annals of history and LJ archives.



So nice. She moved to Melbourne at about the time we moved to Vancouver. We've seen each other three times since then, for a couple of hours each time, but this time she stayed with us for 5 days, and we got to do almost all of the things we've done over the years and said "stephie would like this". Totes awesome.

Dropped her off at the airport on Thursday morning, and when we came home, I was in a bit of a funk because I missed her. We went to clear off the sheets, and found a present..



Really cheered me up. Bless you Penguin ♥

I'm finding I'm less introspective these days. Maybe I've found peace with a lot of questions in life? or maybe I'm just too busy to worry. I think it's mostly the first - I feel like I have plenty of free time, so.. y'know.

I went to Tucson, Arizona in January. Mmm t-shirt weather. Loved it. Installed NetApps, saw planes.

I had an old friend from Western days visiting Vancouver last week, and hung out with her for a day. Lots of fun. It's amazing to be able to just pick up a friendship again after so long. We've caught up a few times over the years, but only for a few hours at a time.

I'd say that's all the updates in my life.. but really, who doesn't use facebook these days? You know what I'm doing.

Mostly, anyway.

(2012 2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006)
1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
Fired a handgun. I was in Las Vegas and decided I wanted to know what it was really like to fire a Glock. Curiosity is satisfied. It _was_ kinda cool ;)

( Read more...Collapse )

.. and I got was a DuckDuckGo Tshirt.

Well, that and two Arduinos.

Let's take a few steps back.

Last year, I almost impulsively went to NYC for MakerFaire NYC. NYC and the Bay Area are the two big ones, and erikarn was going to be at the NYC one last year. Like, it was 8PM and I was looking at a 11PM flight for $cheap$

I didn't go last year, in the end, but I decided afterwards that I regretted that decision, so this year, I went, leaving poor lizbyrd home alone. I've been doing a fair bit of evening and weekend work for customers, and so had a bit of extra leave built up, so I took off last Wednesday night, and spent Thursday->Sunday in NYC. I was pretty happy I went :)

On wednesday, when getting the MacBook Air ready to take, it was clear that it wasn't dissipating heat properly, probably because I'd got the heatsink kinda loose when fixing it a few months earlier, and it probably displaced some heatsink paste or something. Anyway, so I decided to go get some more from the local computer store, and replace it. From leaving for the car, to rebooting the fixed computer, took 20 minutes total. I'm impressed by that.

On the thursday, I arrived in early from an overnight flight. It was a Cathay Pacific flight that was HKG-YVR-JFK. Because it was only stopping over in Vancouver, people continuing on to JFK had to get off the plane and get hand searched, since they didn't go through customs. Also because of that, it is essentially the only flight from Vancouver to the US that doesn't clear US Customs in Vancouver. I had had a bit of a nap on the plane, which was good, so after the dreary welcome of US Customs, I decided to rent a car and go driving around Long Island. Awesome place. Saw some nice seaside towns.

I dropped the car back in the afternoon, and caught the train to my hotel in Manhattan (Days Hotel on 94th). Nice enough, but still really expensive, but it was nice to get a place to change out of clothes I'd had on for almost 24 hours, and settle in for the night. Had a good night's sleep, then went to the WTC memorial on Thursday morning. Was in line behind a farmer from Newdigate, Western Australia. Of course. Then headed up to Central Park, and had a wander through there for a few hours, before heading back to the hotel to charge my phone (important things in life, of course). I headed out around 5 to meet up with TofuCousin Janet to see a TofuCousin of hers' movie at an indie film festival in TriBeCa. After the movie, we went out to dinner and had a good chat. We saw her briefly at her wedding here in Vancouver back in May, but understandably, she was a little busy then, so it was really good to talk with her 1 on 1.

Saturday morning, I headed out to Corona NY (Flushing?) for the Maker Faire! Met up with erikarn and his girlfriend, as well as another friend from Australia, who I'd originally met in California at WWDC, back in 2007. Hung out with combinations of that group for the day, while looking at cool stuff from various makers. Lots of boring FDM 3D printers, but Formlabs was there with their STL printer, which is AMAZING. I wants one I does ;) Heading out after the day there, Adrian and girlfriend Ally and I went to dinner at an amazing steakhouse in Manhattan called Quality Meats.

Had brunch on Sunday with Janet and her husband, and a friend of theirs and his wife and kids. Gluten-free waffles with maple syrup and bacon. Sooo good. Janet gave me a shirt she'd got from DuckDuckGo after writing this opinion piece on CNN. Yay duck shirts. Went back to Maker Faire for the afternoon, then out to the airport again, and back to Vancouver.

I think I'll try to make Maker Faire Bay Area next year though. 

Replaced the wifi card i lizbyrd's macbook pro today, which entailed removing and disassembling the screen.

Ahh takes me back. Still got it ;)

(2011 2010 2009 2008 2007 2006)

1. What did you do in 2012 that you'd never done before?
Got a redundancy!( Read more...Collapse )

Last night I got to see someone in concert that I'd been wanting to see for 19 years. Back in 1993, I was over at my Grandparents' house in Selby St, playing with my Powerbook 145, having the windows open and listening to Paul McCartney playing at Subiaco oval, and wishing I was there. I said to myself that if I ever had the chance to see him in concert, I would go.

So, 19 years later, he came to Vancouver (for the first time in 48 years!), and we went to see him in concert last night. Let's say it cost an awful lot of money, but it was worth it. The man has been involved in some of the most iconic musical acts in history, and to hear him play and sing Beatles songs is amazing. The crowd of ~45,000 were very impressed. His stage banter was also impressive - you get the impression even he is stunned sometimes by what he's done. My favourite bit (aside from his drummer doing "the horsey dance"..) was saying before a song - "I'm going to get you all to sing along for a bit of this next one - don't worry, you know the words". And of course, it was Ob-la-di-bla-dah, so yes, yes we did.

Set list was:
1. “Magical Mystery Tour”
2. “Junior’s Farm”
3. “All My Loving”
4. “Jet”
5. “Drive My Car”
6. “Sing The Changes”
7. “The Night Before”
8. “Let Me Roll It”
9. “Paperback Writer”
10. “The Long & Winding Road”
11. “Nineteen Hundred and Eighty Five”
12. “My Valentine”
13. “Maybe I’m Amazed”
14. “I’ve Just Seen A Face”
15. “And I Love Her”
16. “Blackbird”
17. “Here Today”
18. “Dance Tonight”
19. “Mrs. Vandebilt”
20. “Eleanor Rigby”
21. “Something”
22. “Band on the Run”
23. “Ob la di ob la da”
24. “Back in the USSR”
25. “I Got A Feeling”
26. “A Day In The Life”/“Give Peace a Chance”
27. “Let It Be”
28. “Live & Let Die”
29. “Hey Jude”
Encore:
30.“Lady Madonna”
31. “Day Tripper”
32. “Get Back”
Encore 2:
34. “Yesterday”
35. “Mull of Kintyre”
36. “Helter Skelter”
37. “Golden Slumbers”/”Carry That Weight”/”The End.”

So in a rather interesting turn of events, I got a new job a few weeks ago, and one of the first things they did was send me to London Ontario... for 48 hours of meetings and other work stuff.



It was literally packed with meetings and other work things - the first night I had some spare time at about 8:30PM, so went for a walk around Western, which was right next to the conference centre. Was the usual spooky experience - empty streets and buildings, which had once been filled by friends and memories. Thinking morosely about how after 14 years, I obviously valued friendships with many of those people (present company excepted :P) more than they valued them. Yay! :P

Second night we went out for dinner downtown as a group at a new, about to open restaurant called Blu Duby. We got there at 6:15PM, and by 8:00PM they hadn't served anything more than very light snacks. But I left at 8:00PM, because even though I was only in London for 48 hours, I couldn't let a visit go by without seeing blu. We walked to William's Coffee House, and sat there for a few hours talking and catching up. After waiting for a bus for a while and talking about life, the universe and everything, I gave up and we got a taxi, dropped her off home, then me. It's been almost 3 years since we last saw each other, and almost 14 years since we met, but it was so good to catch up with a friend again :)

More meetings this morning, proof reading and finding a giant error in a bid for a giant contract at work, then back to Vancouver by plane. Watched 21 Jump Street on the way back (and Hunger Games on the way over). Time flies!

So lizbyrd and I plan to be back over Christmas, and we'll totally plan some visits with everyone then :)

Just to keep track of them all.. events may change at a probability based on inverse proximity

- June - jphoenix visiting Vancouver June 25th (noon) and depart on July 4th (6pm)
- July - Dad visiting us, might do a weekend in Washington state
- August - greteldragon in US, we might head down to Washington State for a visit, also bug ilumiari?
- September - unfoldedreality visiting Canada, staying with us for a while
- October - Visit Quebec City, or PEI or something
- Christmas - Visit London Ontario
- April 2013 - Perth again for swancon?

So I have lots of numbers from the Canadian government. But notably these three.

• SIN - Social Insurance Number (Tax)
• UCI - Unique Client ID (Immigration)
• T-Number - Visa Document number

For shits and giggles, I have two UCIs - one from my days as an exchange student in 1998/1999, and one from my most recent visits. They should have used my original UCI from 1998 when I got my first work permit Letter of Introduction in 2009, but it hasn't really caused any problems. 

I've only had one SIN - It's a temporary one (begins with "9") that we got in 2009 when we first arrived on our "temporary" work permits, which was then extended again in 2011. Now that we're PR, it changes to a permanent SIN, which issued in BC will begin with "7", theoretically. 

I have had at least 5 T-Numbers on various study/work permits and one final one on my Confirmation of Permanent Residence (COPR) document. I discovered today however that my COPR T-Number (#5) invalidates the second-most recent work permit T-Number (#3), while my current SIN is linked to T-Number #4. Change of status from worker to PR means changing SIN, by invalidating the SIN that refers to the T-Number that the COPR invalidates. Do you see the problem?

All this means that I couldn't get a new SIN on the spot this morning and instead have to wait for a paper application for one to be processed, which hopefully should happen before the current SIN becomes invalid. I couldn't get a straight answer on what happens if it doesn't arrive by then, only that I should really call if I don't get a new card by May 7th.

Yay!

We just spent the last two weeks in Perth.

While there, I saw alias_sqbr,alkland,ataxi,auntpol,azhure,bookbuster,carywin,distantcam,dr_jekyl,drayke_,ducts,e_bee,elaran,evilspyn,flyingblogspot,frenchiephish,frostlight1,grahame,greteldragon,hipikat,kadeton,lathiat,maelkann,helen_jess,mkj,nightmancyr,oliverm,originalnilson,paperishcup,reaps,stepham,tevriel,the_riviera_kid,tommmo,torque_635,unfoldedreality,utopos, and it was awesome.

On the way back, we got this stamp - which means we can stay in Canada as long as we want, which is also pretty awesome:



This brings to a conclusion secretprojectnumber5

But it's not all good - I think lost my iPhone SIM removal tool, and the Prius's battery was flat when we got back, so I took it for a jetlagged 45 minute drive yesterday.

Tonight we got to see Steven Page in concert! He is an incredibly complex guy.. and his voice is out of this world. I just love his music.

Set list was:

(BNL) Alternative girlfriend / sheep in wolfs clothing
(BNL) Jane
(Solo) Manchild
(BNL) Upside Down / (Solo) Set a course for a new shore
(VP) Wilted Rose
(VP) These Wasted Words
(BNL) What a good boy
- intermission-

(?) Something good is gonna happen
(BNL) Old apartment
(BNL) Bull in a China Shop
(BNL) Break your heart
(Solo) Different sort of Solitude
(VP) Glitterbug
(Solo) Leave her Alone
(BNL) It's all been done before / it falls apart
(Solo) The chorus girl

- encore
(BNL) Brian Wilson
(BNL) Call and Answer / Bridge over Troubled Water

Today I also had some fun installing an HP BladeSystem c7000 enclosure. It's about 40 x 40 x 100cm, and weighs about 150kgs, and is worth about $250k (in fairness, as configured, the one I installed today is only $120k). We have 8 of them already, most of them at the bottom of racks. Those are easy to put in - we have a cart, which can be jacked up to either put it at the bottom of a rack of servers, or on top of one already in a rack. This one needed to go at head height.

So cut about 45 minutes taking it down into component parts that can be safely lifted, and then installing it, and reassembling it in place. And to make matters worse, there's a chance HP will want this back one day (it was a freebie - buy 8 get one free.. kinda :P) and we'll have to do it all over again in reverse. Yaaay. 

We saw Elizabeth's parents and brother and sister off at the airport last night.



.. it now feels like we're rattling around in the apartment. It's 2 bedrooms. There were 6 of us here for a few weeks. It was cozy, but worked pretty well. We rented a Dodge Caravan and did thousands of kms in it. Ugh, 11L/100km. We also spent 5 nights in Tofino in a 4bdr house, which was awesome, and they spent 3 nights up at Whistler too, which was also nice.

So much fun. I miss them :(

I know, who says that about their in-laws? Me.



The weather was great, and on the last two days here, it snowed finally! They loved it, we loved it... this morning driving to work in near blizzard was a bit special, but whatevs ;)

Perth in April for a visit (03 - 21)

(2010, 2009, 2008, 2007, 2006)

1. What did you do in 2011 that you'd never done before?
Went to Costa Rica, Went to New York Comic Con( Read more...Collapse )

lizbyrd's parents + brother and sister are coming to visit over Christmas, and we're going to Tofino, on Vancouver Island with them. Should be fun. But the question comes, how do we get there?

Cause there will be 6 of us, and Priuschan seats 5. Also, the road over there is hilly and you are legally required to have winter tires (tyres) or snow chains to traverse them.

Option 1 - Rental from Avis/Budget

• Can guarantee a van


• Can guarantee a vehicle with winter tires


• Can't guarantee a van with winter tires


• $1700 for the time of our visit only - will make doing stuff in Vancouver difficult

Option 2 - Bus

• Doesn't include transport in Tofino


• $890 for 6 return tickets, plus maybe another pile for transport to/from bus terminal

Option 3 - Buy a minivan and sell it again (ugh)

• Minivan - $5000


• Winter tires - $400


• Registration and insurance for 3 months - $660


• Sell in 3 months -$4000?


• So about $2000 for this option, but we'd have a minivan to do stuff around Vancouver too, and go up to Whistler in Feb

Hmm!

Panels we went to, they were all REALLY amazing. We did have to spend almost an hour lining up for them though:

• Fri: Felicia Day Spotlight
• Sat: "Vintage Tomorrows" Sneak Preview
• Sat: Girls Kick Butt: Strong Female heroines in young adult fantasy
• Sun: Mad Special Video Presentation and Q&A
• Sun: The early works of Jim Henson screening, with special "Tale of Sand" discussion

People we saw:

• Stan Lee (comics)
• Mark Hamill (Star Wars)
• Peter Mayhew (Star Wars)
• Jewel Staite (Firefly, Serenity)
• Al Jaffee (Mad Magazine)
• John Ficarra (Mad Magazine)
• Ian McNeice (Dr Who, Hornblower)
• Cory Doctorow (The Internets)
• Kevin Sorbo (Hercules..)
• Sandeep Parikh (The Guild)
• .. and of course, Felicia Day (The Guild, Buffy)

Shops/artists to give props to:

• Imaginism Studios - did the character designs for Alice in Wonderland
• Amy Mebberson - Loved her art, and was fun to talk to another Australian living in the PNW
• Echo Chernik - Again, loved her art
• Laura Lee - Likewise, great artist
• Abram Books - Publishes some really cool books
• Sanshee - Tshirts
• TAG Galleries - Prints and stuff
• Level Up Studios - Tshirts

The artists alley is also an amazing experience.

Soo.. just finished the first week back at work, after a week in New York City, and a week in Washington DC. I guess I didn't post about that. Oops. Sorry.

So let's re-cap!

2011-10-08 - Saturday
Left Vancouver at about noon, flew to Minneapolis, then onto Newark NJ. Arrived late, just missed a shuttle bus to NYC, and so spent 30 minutes waiting for the next one. Arrived at Port Authority Bus Station at about midnight, walked the three blocks to our hotel, Yotel Times Square. Which, since it was Saturday night, had a nightclub in the lobby. Which was a little exciting.

Bed was really hard, shower was very.. integrated into the room. But we slept.

2011-10-09 - Sunday
"Hop-on, Hop-off" tour. Which it wasn't really - took us about an hour to get going, then the bus was so packed that we didn't really want to get off. Got off around .. well, somewhere. Walked around lower Manhattan. 

2011-10-10 - Monday
Caught the bus uptown, got out at Museum of New York (which was mostly closed, but we had free entry, so.. it was ok). Walked down through Central Park, then via SMS, arranged to meet up with Anne and Sarah, two sisters from Australia who I've known via IRC since about 1995, but yet never met. So we finally did, and had a fun few hours hanging out and chatting.

Went to 5th Avenue Apple Store, got directions to nearest AT&T store, got a micro-sim for the iPad. Activation was.. less than seamless, due to the way AT&T want to check the card address. So I had to use my Australian credit card. Heh.

Went to Zen Palate on 9th avenue for dinner

2011-10-11 - Tuesday
Did a tour around the river in NYC. Very pretty. Was very pissed off at some kid who insisted we have a photo op for the $20 souvenir before the boat tour, even after I said no. Little fuck face even got in my way to prevent us boarding. Perhaps I'm more angry with myself that I didn't rip into him and just went along with it. So many belittling responses I could have used! Sigh.

Afterward, we we right next to the Intrepid Museum, so we went there and went on a tour of their Concorde. That was pretty cool. 

Had some dinner at a mexican place, then went up the Empire State Building - beautiful clear night. Accidentally backed into one of the panic buttons, probably installed after the 1997 Shooting. Oops. 

2011-10-12 - Wednesday
Went to Museum of Natural History. Had a bit of a quiet day other than that.

Caught up with tofu-cousin Janet for dinner. 

2011-10-13 - Thursday
Went to Museum of Modern Art in the afternoon, then went to Loving Hut for dinner. 

Went to Bodies in the evening, by myself. Felt quite voyeuristic, but it was interesting. And thankfully didn't smell. 

Went out for a late dinner at a Mexican place in Times Square. Very glitzy. 

2011-10-14 - Friday
New York Comic Convention - I'm actually going to write another post all about the Con, so no details on that in this one. 

Arrived just before opening, so we had to go to the end of the line to get in. Which was about a mile long. I'm not even kidding. It took us a good 15 minute walk to get to the end of the line. But there were really good about actually getting everyone in quickly. 

Went through the dealers room. Or, four football fields of dealer rooms. 

Met up with Anja, an old friend of mine from Mandurah, who through various connections, now works in the US, and happened to be at NYCC too!

2011-10-15 - Saturday
New York Comic Convention

Walked along the Elevated Railway Park, back to the Convention Center.

2011-10-16 - Sunday
New York Comic Convention

Went to an awesome Korean Vegetarian place for dinner, called Hangawi

2011-10-17 - Monday
Train to Washington DC. Worked out Metro system via internets on the train using my iPad. The future is pretty awesome. As mentioned vaguely on twitter, I was thinking of a similar trip I took back in 1998, where I pondered the possibility of one day being able to see my location as we travelled. Yeah, iPad with GPS + 3G internets is pretty awesome at that. 

Did laundry - I wish we had awesome washer/dryers here. 

2011-10-18 - Tuesday
Went to Bureau of Printing and Engraving Tour. Saw about half a billion dollars cash in production. Niiice. 

Walked to Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial, then walked past The White House

I went to the Holocaust Museum in the afternoon. It's really well done, I can't say enough good about it. 

2011-10-19 - Wednesday
Went to Museum of the American Indian, just for lunch. They have an amazing selection. Loved it.

Then headed to the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum in the National Mall. 

2011-10-20 - Thursday
Met up with volkischexe! After knowing her on LJ for the last 4 years or so, and chatting/debating a fair bit, it was really good to finally meet her. Went to the Air and Space Annex at Dulles Airport with her and her boyfriend. Good fun. Then back to her place, saw some of her geeky toys and her kitties.

Had hoped to meet up with punquin for dinner, but her husband had to cancel, so.. maybe next time for her. 

2011-10-21 - Friday
Met up with C+J again, went to National Museum of American History. Saw the original Stars and Stripes flag, Dorothy's red shoes from the Wizard of Oz, and a bunch of other cool stuff. Went to the National Archives, saw the original Declaration of Independence

We went to the H Street Country Club for dinner with them, which is a bar with mini golf. Good fun :D

2011-10-22 - Saturday
Went to National Zoo. Saw Pandas. 

Went to National Museum of Natural History. Saw cool stuff.

2011-10-23 - Sunday

Met up with volkischexe+J again, did lunch, hung out at Tyson's Corner, saw the Lego Store, the first Apple Store, then they dropped us at the airport for our flight.

All in all, it was a really good trip :)

Now that it's Thursday, I have to time to write about what I did last weekend..

Friday night: Picked up former UWA co-worker torque_635 from the airport. Went to Aberdeen Mall to show off Lamborghini dealership. Drove around Richmond, showing off the sights. Went to Cronos for dinner, then back to apartment. Showed him around the carpark while he drooled over some of the cars in it.

Saturday: Took torque_635 to UBC to show off some stuff, then along spanish banks into downtown. Did a bit of a tour through Stanley Park, then out of the city via East Hastings. Went to Hananoki for lunch - had deep fried Sushi and other tasty noms.

Dropped Liz off, then went to Lansdowne mall and bought a 100mm f/2.8L IS lens for my camera. Very spiffy. Went to Richmond Centre, he got some tea and saw the large Apple store, then we came back so he could pack up to go to another friend's place and we could pack for a weekend away. Dropped him off at his friend's place (nearby), then headed down to the border - 3 quick questions and they let us in, then drove to Tumwater for the evening. 

Sunday: Drove to Portland in the morning, and went to the Portland Zoo (Photos here). Took many photos. 100mm macro lens is also a good 100mm regular lens, and a lot less.. erm.. attention getting than the 100-400mm I have. And lighter. Tried to go to Portland Rose Garden, but it was too busy, so we went to Voodoo Donuts instead. I got one with Froot Loops on top. Met up with vampireborg , lazulisong  and Dawn at Old Wives Tales for dinner, as is out habit for Portland, then dropped them off, and headed off to McMinnville for the night. 

Arrived in McMinnville and saw that the crazy dudes of Evergreen Aviation had indeed built a waterpark inside a 747, but that it was closed for the evening. Went to Walmart looking for swimwear, but were unsuccessful in finding some appropriate. Went back to hotel and off to bed. 

Monday: Woke up early to get to Evergreen at 9AM when they opened. Saw the Spruce Goose and lots of other cool plane and spacecraft thingies. How do they get all this cool stuff? Well, they're essentially a front for the CIA, depending on who you ask, anyway. Saw a 3D IMAX film about the development of the 787, went to the Space Section of the museum, and then scuttled off to Eugene to see the always delightful tygati. Had dinner with her and housemate M in an old converted railway passenger car, then hung out for a while chatting and watching stuff. Stayed on their airbed.

Tuesday: Left Eugene at 11AM to head back to Vancouver, some 680kms. Stopped.. many times along the way, both to break up the driving, and to get fuel (a full tank on a North American spec Prius does about 550kms, vs I'm told almost 950kms on an Australian one, thanks to a fuel bladder to reduce emissions slightly). Got to Seattle near the beginning of rush hour, but took the express lanes that go under the city and avoided most of it. Yay! Did some plane spotting at Boeing Paine Field in Everett, while Elizabeth finished her book before taking over driving. So many brand new 787 and 747-8's waiting for certification and delivery.

Entry back into Canada was only a 10 minute wait and pretty quick. Stopped off at shops on way home to get milk. The future is almost awesome - self checkout, but my credit card's paywave chip is broken, so I actually had to put it in a machine. In bed by 11PM, then up for work at 6:30AM the next day.