I resolve to not hate on the new years resolution gym people (starting tomorrow)

The New Years Resolution crew is hitting the gym early this year - it was absolutely packed this morning. Compared to this time of day two weeks ago, we're looking at about 200% more people. I'm such a jerk to mock these people's efforts at resolving to lose weight for the new year, but it's always the same, isn't it? Everyone makes a resolution to lose weight, then they flood the gyms and the yoga studios through January and the better part of March, then just as swiftly as they appeared, they disappear and are never to be seen again.

I think it's great that so many people want to better themselves and lead healthier lifestyles, but I'll be honest, it grates on my nerves when all of the elliptical machines are taken because 15 chicks in brand new workout gear are slowly bouncing up and down on them as they focus 99% of their attention on the US Weekly magazine in their non-sweaty palms. And I'll be honest, I'm completely one of those people who keeps trying to lose weight and get into perfect shape (I feel like I've been on a diet for the past 10 years of my life) and will never be happy with their body - but at least when I go the gym, I work my ass off. Starting January 1, 2010, BC is banning cellphones while driving - they should do the same for the gym. Because no matter what anyone tells you regarding the magic of workout balls, sitting on one while talking on your cellphone will not help you lose weight.

Design Stuff

These are links to some portfolio material from my Masters of Publishing program. I'll be making periodical additions, and nothing boring for now - just design stuff! I've also added all of my blog banners.

Book Redesign



Magazine Redesign



Catalogue Redesign



Blog Banners



And if you'd like to see the rest, you can find them here: http://issuu.com/kage

Obsessed with

Avocado slices drizzled with ranch dressing.

Coveting

Our new Cuisinart knife that could cut through a frozen turkey stuffed with rocks. Yes, it's that awesome.

Messing with a good thing

I got the cutest apron in my Christmas stocking from Luc's parents - it looks like a saucy little cocktail dress. Luc got one too, but his is much more manly. And since receiving these aprons, we've had several culinary adventures, including homemade guacamole and my very first lasagna.

Tonight was the lasagna. We were at Superstore when I decided that I would make one, and since I've never made one before, I nipped over to the book section and grabbed a cookbook that could tell me everything I would need to make a lasagna. But of course, I missed something - BASIL! Who doesn't have basil at home? Apparently we don't, but my neighbour Callie (who is also a wizard in the kitchen and one of my lovely bridesmaids) always has a stocked kitchen. And as I ran across the street to borrow basil from Callie, decked out in my new apron, I didn't even feel silly. From behind, I was dressed normally, and from the front, it pretty much looked like I was wearing a dress....with jeans underneath...so maybe a tiny bit silly?

I found a recipe online for a meat lasagna, and it had a ton of great ratings. So, naturally, I made some substitutions, added some stuff, and then kinda winged it. I'm writing this as it bakes in the oven, so I don't even know yet if it turned out well. Fingers crossed!

The original recipe only called for a meat sauce, but that seemed kind of boring.

One of the additions I made was vegetables: mushrooms, red peppers, celery, and carrots.

I also added chopped spinach to the cheese mixture and used 1/2 ricotta and 1/2 cottage cheese rather than only cottage cheese. So nothing revolutionary - just tidbits from other recipes. I'm not going to add this to my list of "healthy go-to recipes"...because I'm pretty sure this contains somewhere between 8-10 pounds of cheese.

ET VOILA!

It was Miller Time...a week ago

What's worse than leaving a can of pop in the freezer overnight?

Leaving a glass bottle of beer in the freezer for a week and having it explode glass and frozen beer everywhere.

Our Prairie Winter Wonderland

Christmas in Saskatchewan

Reading

Beloved - Toni Morrison

Home for the holidays

We're flying out to Saskatchewan in a few hours to Luc's home town. It's always really fun when we visit, and this time there's something even more exciting than Christmas to celebrate - we have a new baby nephew (as of yesterday morning) to visit!! 

We'll be flying home on Christmas Day for dinner with my family, and hopefully the flights this year will go smoothly. This will be fourth time that we've flown home from SK to BC on Christmas Day, and so far only once have we spent the day drunk in the airport because of delayed flights.  

Looking for an out

Walking up the 3 flights of stairs from the parking lot to the gym.

Me: Weird...it smells like someone's been burning candles.
Luc: Maybe the gym's on fire and we can go home and eat.
Me: No....
Luc: But maybe?

#63 - Being festive

63: Paint my nails candy-apple red


My original intentions for going to Shopper's Drug Mart were to mail Christmas cards and buy Christmas cards. After mailing the cards, I was left to battle with about 5 old ladies who were also buying Christmas cards. They were all crowded around the rows that held "for someone special", "for mom", "for dad", and "funny", leaving me with the "for grand-daughter", "for grand-son", "religious", and all of the other crappy ones. It's just that I don't have any grandchildren yet, and I don't like to be too intense with my card-giving. So to kill time before the crowds around the good cards cleared, I loitered in the makeup section. I ended up picking up some red nail polish, and voila! 

Going for a manicure would have been way more fun than painting my own nails while watching Seinfeld reruns, but this still turned out all right.

Time to get real with myself

I'm sick of complaining about trying to lose weight. I'm done with going to the gym and getting no results. I'm going to actually try really hard and get into great shape. Please note, this is not me fishing for compliments. The reason I'm writing about this is because if I actually announce my intentions (rather than continue with my secret futile efforts), then I at least have some real expectations to live up to. I know what it takes - really hard work at the gym, dedication, and clean eating habits. So hear me now, I'm done with eating cookies then bitching about my love handles. I'm giving myself 6 weeks and it's going to happen. I won't bore you with the details and the numbers, but know that I have a goal and I'm going to reach it!

Reading

The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie - Alan Bradley

The Avocado-Oven Club

I love our apartment, but there are parts of it that are vaguely reminiscent straight out of the 50's. Exhibit A: our stove. Our stove prompted the beginning of a club called the "avocado-oven club", because the colour looks like someone fed a bag of avocados to a dog, then the dog pooped them out, then a designer saw the poop and said "hey, this would be a smashing good colour for a stove, dontcha think?" Keep in mind this all happened in the 1950's so it's not like it's part stainless steel with a funky avocado trim. Our other good friends have the same 50's stove, so the four of us are the reluctant members of the avocado-oven club.

Last Friday, after an eleven-hour day at work, my darling fiance came home with a frozen pizza the size of an elephant's head. All he wanted was to eat it, and to eat it now. I was on board. Nothing starts off a lazy weekend of binge-drinking like a frozen pizza that you bought on sale. But to our horror, the oven wouldn't heat up. That avocado-coloured sonofabitch chose the one night that we not just desperately wanted a frozen pizza, we freaking needed this thing. I was no help, of course. I draped myself across the couch, sighing with utter melodrama at the tragedy that had befallen us while Luc broke the frozen pizza into pieces and started cooking it in the toaster oven. Yes, in the end, we got our pizza, but a week later something even more sensational than pizza on a Friday night happened.

Actually, it happened this morning. Our landlord arrived at the door with the best Christmas present I'll get this year (unless I get a hardcover Oxford English Dictionary...seriously), a new oven!! A non-avocado oven! See below, as it sits in our kitchen in all its non-avocado glory.























To celebrate, I'm going to bake a lasagna. I've never made a lasagna before so this should be fun. First though, I have to devise a plan to destroy the yellow countertops so that it's not actually my fault wherein we have to pay for new ones, but so that they're so incredibly damaged that we need new ones. I know, it's never going to happen, but is it wrong to dream of a world where mustard-yellow and avocado-poop-green aren't the main players in my kitchen's colour palette?

Fantastic Mr Fox

Last night Luc and I saw "Fantastic Mr Fox" and it was a quirky delight. The combination of dry humour, off-beat music, stop-motion animation (which never ceases to amaze me), and a clever story made for a one-of-a-kind movie. And the casting was spot on - the voices enhanced the look of each fuzzy little character. I sat there with raised eyebrows and a cartoonish grin the entire time.

Initially, I didn't understand why there were so many children in the audience, because the humour must have flown right over their heads. However, I think a person of any age could appreciate the movie for the characters alone. Each one is so irresistibly adorable and charming. If you haven't seen this movie yet - I urge you....go now!

#30 - Basically using whatever is left in the fridge

30: Come up with 12 healthy "go to" dinner recipes (5/12)


Chunky Salad on Rice

Salad:
2 coarsely chopped avocados
1 coarsely chopped red Pepper
3/4 of one long english cucumber coarsely chopped
1/4 cup coarsely chopped white onion (or more if you're a big onion person)

Toss ingredients (delicately) in a bowl

Dressing:
3 tbsp olive oil
3 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp honey
1 clove of garlic, minced
1/8 tsp paprika
dash of salt and pepper to taste

Put all ingredients in a container with a lid that won't leak. I like to use one of my magic bullet containers and the screw on lid. Once all of the ingredients are inside, throw that lid on and shake like hell.

*You can play around with the portions of dressing ingredients - I always just wing it, eyeball it, whatever you want to call it.

Basmati Rice
*I like to use basmati rice and cook it with slightly less water so it turns out light and fluffy.

Serve the salad on top of a pile of rice and drizzle (or dump on!) as much dressing as you prefer. I don't dump, but I drizzle until it's smothered...

My voracious appetite got in the way of remembering to take a photo of the finished product, but I'll be sure to snap some next time around and post the photos here.

Obsessed with

French Onion Soup

I said "yes" to the dress (and got a free veil!)

I honestly thought I would never have the decisiveness to pick out a wedding dress I loved, and then actually go so far as to PAY for it, thus making the decision official. But I did! I found the one! I fell so far in love with this one dress that when we went to another store, I was totally disinterested...I didn't want to try on any other dresses than this one dress. This is how it all went down....

It was the last dress I tried on at Store #1; the fabric was the kind I had always pictured myself wearing, the style was a hybrid of my favourite dresses so far, the silhouette was incredibly flattering, and it had a badass train, but the price tag gave me the same feeling as the flower appointment. I couldn't move on though - I really loved the dress, and so did my lovely fan club (my mom, cousin [the matron of honour] and aunt). We moved on to Store #2, hoping that they would also carry "the" dress but at a better price. While the saleswoman searched their stock for "the" dress, I busied myself by trying on a dress from my first excursion a few weeks ago. All of my bridesmaids had loved this dress, but I had some uncertainties about it, and my mom still hadn't seen me in it. I put it on and felt underwhelmed - all of the uncertainties were now magnified, and everything that I didn't like about this dress was perfect in "the" dress.

The saleswoman returned to tell us that they could order "the" dress in, but they didn't have it in stock at the moment for me to try on. They also offered a way better price than Store #1. I won't bore you with the details of our back and forth between Store #1 and #2, but the point is - after a long lunch at Cactus Club and some clinking of glasses, we went to Store #3 (the place I went a few weeks back), who also carried "the" dress, tried it on again, and after my amazing matron of honour chatted the store manager down to a WAY better price than Store #1 AND Store #2 (and a free veil), I was getting measured for the garment of a lifetime!!

I called Luc asap to tell him the good news. When I got home, I marched in the front door wearing my veil, feeling very giddy and bridal. And wouldn't you know, that sweetheart was waiting for me with a big box of chocolates to say congrats on finding my dress. It's a good thing the dress doesn't come for another 5 months though, because I would probably wear it around the house every day. The number of times I've put on my veil already is incalculable. I may even be wearing it right now....but nobody will ever know!

Finally understanding why brides stress out

I had my first wedding flower consultation today. Why did I think it was going to be quick? Or simple? Or remotely within the budget? It was all so much more than I thought. I was just thinking of centerpieces - but there's corsages, and boutonnieres, and the bride's bouquet, and bridesmaids' bouquets, and flower girl gear, and ceremony arrangements, and cake flowers.....and about a million choices for each one. And wouldn't you know it, all of my favourite flowers are the pricey ones. And when I asked her about peonies in September. Her answer: "mortgage your house", and my answer: "what house?" The verdict: we were over budget before even discussing the centerpieces or large ceremony arrangements.

It wasn't until the end of the appointment, when I was actually contemplating carnations to save money, that I realized I was completely overwhelmed and we had gotten off track. Needless to say, I won't be walking down the aisle with a bouquet that looks like a high school Valentine's gift, but there's much more work, number crunching and deciding to be done.

Tuesdays with Luc

This afternoon Luc and I did some Christmas shopping and celebrated Taco Tuesday in the food court in the mall. We're fancy like that.

We even went to costco, which was 100% more pleasant than the last time we went. Our first mistake was going on a Sunday afternoon when the entire city is also doing their grocery shopping. This time we went on a weekday morning, and the crowds were as thinned out as a 13 year old's first mustache. Even still, I got lost within 2 minutes of walking in. Luc found me shuffling around in the electronics section - proof that I was seriously lost, why else would I be in the electronics section when there are food sample booths to be exploited?

The rest of the week is chockfull of wedding stuff - flowers, decor, dresses, guest lists....and the gym every day so that I can fit into a sample wedding dress straight off the rack, save millions of dollars and go for a 3-month honeymoon on our own private island. That's what I tell myself to get to the gym every day. Crazy, but crazy seems to be working these days.

Thoughts

Displaying a giant poster for "The Taking of Pelham 123" in the sky train seems.....kinda dumb.

27 - Being all domestic...or giving it my best shot

#27: Bake a batch of cookies and surprise a friend (in this case...I gave cookies to the neighbours, still counts!)

Friday night, making cookies with my friend....

The instructions say to "put the butter and sugars in the bowl of your electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment..."

So naturally, I pull out this....

Please note the tape holding it together, the stylish shade of green (yellow?), and that both of the beaters are broken on the ends where they are inserted. And so, my dear friend Kate, not wanting to make me feel bad, goes along with it and tries to mix the batter with this ugly, semi-functioning, relic of a hand mixer. One minute later...

Kate: "Uhhhh...is it supposed to sound like that? I....I think it's broken."
Me: "Yeah....yeah don't worry, it always sounds like that...and smells like that...."

a few minutes of futile effort pass....

Me: "You know what, maybe we should just use a wooden spoon?"

And that is why the first item on our wedding registry will be a kitchen aid mixer.

79 - Does this count?

#79: Do a hilarious group costume for Halloween

Just to prove that I haven't completely forgotten or abandoned my "101 Things to do in 1001 Days" list, I'm doing a few posts on things missed and things recently accomplished.

Yes, this is old news ....but since Halloween fell on a weekend, which is (as my friend put it) "the last time we'll have Halloween on a weekend before we have KIDS"....it's worth reposting!

It's a good thing

With only 3 classes left this term, my giddy Christmas break grin is beginning to broaden. I already finished one for-pleasure book, and started my (December) wedding to do list. The newest development is that I've decided on decor for the ends of the church pews. Originally, I envisioned lush bunches of flowers tied to each wooden pew, but my budget-savvy cousin told me that it wasn't a good idea - it ends up costing too much. For what it adds to the aisle (she said nobody really notices anyway), the juice isn't worth the squeeze. However, I still like the idea of walking down a semi-decorated aisle, so I'm amending the idea with some budget-friendly tweaks. I'm tossing aside the real flowers for tissue paper creations. And rather than getting the decorator to do it, I'm going to DIY the hell out of these things! And the part that I'm MOST excited about....this is definitely a project that I can turn into a wine-soaked, bridesmaid event!

Monthly Photo - December 2009

In anticipation of a great snowshoeing season....

December Banner

Reading

French Lessons - Alice Kaplan

Does this necklace match my bra size?

Classes were done by noon today so I headed home for some much-needed relaxation. I turned on the TV, and I found the most hilarious episode of "Steven and Chris", wherein some woman (whose job title I don't even want to know) is giving advice on what earrings to choose depending on your face shape. It's the most inane, silly advice someone could dish out. The really funny part is how seriously they take it. Straight-faced commentary on how women with square faces should completely avoid angular earrings, because that creates another angle...and it will emphasize your already angular face. Yeahhhhh...

After the face-shape bits, they moved on to choosing other jewelry for your body type. Busty ladies should wear long necklaces, because your boobs already draw the eye out. Whatever happened to liking a pair of earrings and buying them? Christmas is coming up....should I ask my friends and family for face and body measurements before buying gifts? I just don't get it.

My new BFF

In between working hard at school and planning our wedding, I make stuff like this for shits and giggles:

Thoughts

I remember back when I first met Luc, and I asked my roommates, "how do you know when you're in love?" (gag...so cliche, tell me about it..) and they both said, "honestly....you just know."

Will it be like that for finding a wedding dress as well? Not to equate finding the love of your life to choosing a garment....but the dress is pretty darn special!

Obsessed with

Animal Crackers
















And this one is a....squirrel cat?

A letter from "the fiance"

I just received an email from Luc. He's fairly disconcerted with my treatment of our son (pet fish) on my blog and wanted to tell me that he was posting this in my comments section....but I thought it was too funny for just the comments and decided to post it front and centre for all to see!

I would like to say a few words about our fish Hansel who has been frequently referred to as "the fish" on your blog. Umm… yeah, what’s up with that? I don’t call you “the human.” Where is the love? He is small and scared and needs attention.  His life hasn't exactly been easy since his brother committed suicide by eating himself to death... by which I do not mean overeating but actually eating 1/3 of his body in one night… which was impressive as he was so small and never had much of an appetite… but that’s not the point! He may be a fish, but he’s our fish and he’s a part of our family dammit. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to get home to feed Hansel and “the human.”

Love you blog Kristen,

Luc

Small Victories

I feel like I haven't had as many crazy adventures lately. Not adventures, per se, but weird things that happen to me that make life feel like an adventure. Lately it's been all about the small things. Little sprinklings of good fortune that keep life fun and interesting. Here are some of my recent triumphs:

-A book that I needed for a paper was already out from the library and wasn't due back until January 4th, 2010. However, after putting a hold on it for when it returns, the previous borrower brought it back! I wish I could thank them!

-I left my beautiful, oversized, red and white golf umbrella at Starbucks this afternoon. About ten minutes after I realized my mistake, I ran back....and it was still there! On a rainy day in Vancouver, nonetheless....THAT, my friends, is a miracle.

-Last night I ran out the front doors of the school into the pouring rain, missing my bus by a split second. Missing my bus that closely, that late at night means waiting at least twenty more minutes. But before I even had time to feel sorry for myself, another #16 rolled right up!

-And the last little victory I will divulge before I delve back into my school work......is this:

See that little sliver of sunshine? In November, in Vancouver, that is the ultimate victory of victories. And man, am I looking forward to it....

Kitties are people too, you know!

We had an interesting discussion in editing class this morning regarding the use of "who" and "which" when referring to animals. Many people believe that language shapes culture; especially when a language labels nouns as being male or female. The same can be said for choice of pronouns.

If we say, "the four kittens, which had always lived together, went to different homes," the kittens are seen as objects. The argument is that if we treat them as objects in language, our culture will reflect that treatment. Giving animals a personal pronoun will give them more rights and respect in the real world. So, if we say, "the four kittens, who had always lived together, went to different homes," they are treated more like people, and this will be reflected in our culture with a more humane treatment of animals.

What do you think? Does language shape culture?

On my list of things I will NEVER do again

#1: Get my hair done at training salon.

How was the hair appointment at the training salon, you ask? Well....for starters, I'm blond. No, that isn't what I went for. I asked them to "add some dimension" to my mousy brown hair with light brown highlights so I don't look so bland. I specifically told them that I didn't want blond, even after the girl made me look through 2 magazines to find the "right blond". We even agreed on a picture of Penelope Cruz's dark hair with a few wispy highlights. I kept telling her, "no, I don't want blond, and I don't want my hair to look much lighter overall, just some brown that's lighter than what I already have." All I wanted was to add a second tone of brown.....BROWN. B-R-O-W-N!!!!!! And they seemed to get it, the instructor even said,  "I know right, people ask for highlights and then they don't get highlights, the base colour of their hair is completely changed to look way lighter....they go WAY too light and put in WAY too many foils." So I thought to myself, good, she understands.

It wasn't until I noticed how many foils the girl was putting in my hair that I realized it wasn't going to end well. The worst part though was when they came to check on me after the foils had sat in my hair for 10 minutes.

Instructor: "Ohhh...holy crap....uhhhhh....your hair lifts REALLY fast."
Trainee: "Ohhhh......."
Instructor: "Uhhh....."

AWKWARD SILENCE and LOOK OF TERROR ON MY FACE

Instructor: "OK...take her out from under the dryer and let her cool for 10 minutes then rinse....."

At this point I knew that it had gone terribly wrong. When I saw myself in the mirror though, it wasn't as bad as I had anticipated. And then I arrived home, with dry hair and proper lighting...and there it was: Blond Kristen. They did EXACTLY what I didn't want and exactly what they said they wouldn't do: WAYYYY too many foils and WAYYYY too light. I am steaming mad. I spent so long growing out my hair with its natural colour, I go in for some "dimension", some "light brown accents", some NOT BLOND....and what the hell happens?

All I can say is....at least I did this 10 months prior to my wedding and not 10 days. Screw budgeting, I'm going back to my regular guy, even if I have to eat Mr. Noodles for a month.

Never a dull moment

A lot has happened lately - our car was broken into, I finished a huge project at school, our landlord spilled ABS cleaner all over our kitchen floor and now it has two giant fluorescent purple spots, I finally got back into a gym routine, 

AND.......

I'm going wedding dress shopping today - for the second time! The first round was quick and the store didn't have much selection, but it was still really fun. Today, all of my bridesmaids are coming along and we're going to a store that also carries bridesmaid dresses. I was going to post my favourite dress on here, but just in case it turns out to be "the one", I don't think I should....Luc reads my blog and I'm a big fan of not letting the groom see the bride in her dress. Or see what the dress looks like!

We also went to a couple of concerts in the past month - Pearl Jam at GM Place, Collective Soul at the Commodore Ballroom (my favourite venue and one of my favourite bands) and U2 at BC Place.

Despite my earlier predictions, we weren't sitting around TOO many weirdos at the Pearl Jam concert. There was one guy who danced the same way to every song; slow, fast, medium paced, or Eddie Vedder talking to the crowd....he just kept dancing away. The Collective Soul and the U2 concert were both a different story....amazing shows, lots of amazingly weird events and people....

The money saving tactic that may go horribly wrong

Because of the associated costs of being a student, I'm making compromises in other areas of my life. Rather than buy coffee at school, I make it myself each morning...pretty standard, I think most people do that regardless of their financial situation.

Instead of buying a new, expensive jacket, I found an XL that was on sale at a huge discount and had it tailored for just over $10 - turned out pretty well. I got a compliment on it the other day from a charming old lady on the bus.

Now that my natural hair colour has grown out, I need to do something to liven it up so that I don't look quite so mousy for our wedding. Here's the thing that may just blow up in my face and end up costing me more money in the end: I'm forgoing my regular stylist (who knows how to handle my ravenous mane of thick curls - I straighten it - and who knows the deal with my hair colour situation) for a student salon that I've never been to before....where a student will cut and dye my hair....on Friday the 13th....possibly causing irreversible damage....

Am I crazy?

Mind blowing

This post on Joanna Goddard's blog is remarkable - with one 20 minute helicopter ride over New York, this artist drew the entire skyline....to scale.....perfectly....

Check it out here

The Farmer's Almanac told me so

According to my obsessive bridal research, there has been ZERO RAIN on September 5th (our wedding date) for the past 10 years.

Monthly Photo - November 2009

Flowers on Lombard Street, SFO

The last hurrah!

We decided to go all out this year for Halloween. According to one of my best friends, "the next time Halloween falls on a weekend, we're going to have KIDS!!!" This alarming fact meant that Luc and I, and Kate and her fiance had to party like we were 18 and dress up like we were 8. Done and done. We won a costume contest and got a private booth and free bottle service at a club, so at least the effort that went into making the costumes was rewarded.

By the end of the night our go-karts were a little bit trashed, but that was to be expected. We crashed into each other, we crashed into other people, we crashed into cars on the street....we crashed into each other some more. Among the many unsolved mysteries from the night are the toy gun I found in the pocket of my vest, and my thumbs, which are both stained green. Nobody knows how this happened.

November Banner

I'm like, totally professional

For a class we have to choose a magazine to completely redesign. I'm not sure that I'd like to do one of the magazines that I currently read, because I like them...that's why I read them. I enjoy the layout, the content, the photography... There are some things that I would change, but in general, they're pretty good.

But here comes the dilemma...I have an idea for a different type of magazine that I would like to redesign. Not a magazine that I read, not a magazine that I would read were it better designed. Just a really atrocious magazine. It is called.....Tiger Beat! I used to buy Tiger Beat back in the day when the walls in my room were plastered with JTT posters and staying up until 9:00pm meant we had a cool babysitter. But the problem is this: I think these magazines look like shit and are a disrespect to the teeny boppers that read them. Just because the content is trash, doesn't mean that the magazine should look like trash. HOWEVER, I don't know if my design teacher will take me seriously if I hand in a project with the cast of Twilight on the cover.

Tomorrow I'm going to scan the shelves in the neighbourhood 7-11 in search of a respectable magazine in need of a facelift. And if I can't find one...then I need to find the perfect font to encapsulate just how totally HOT Miley Cyrus's fold-out poster is.

Thoughts

There's nothing quite like watching someone run after the bus. It's like an awkward little glimpse into their character.

It had to start somewhere

When I was a kid, someone told me a lie. A specific lie that lead to compulsive behaviour that lasted for years. I don't know who told me this lie or why it stuck with me, but someone once told me that if you found a mistake in a book, you could call the publisher, and you would get an award. I believed this person, and for years I would copyedit books as I read them. I still do. Back then it was an obsession. I can't remember when I found out that this "award" didn't exist, but I do remember that it blew my mind. It was like the time in grade five that my teacher corrected my spelling of the word "believe". I had been spelling it "belive" for my entire literate life. THAT blew my mind. I still remember feeling shocked and disgusted. I'm pretty sure that's when I became fixated on proper spelling. These just might be the reasons that I grew up wanting to be an editor.

Maximum Capacity

I've learned a lot being student again. I can spread takeout over 3 days of school lunches. I can get ready in the morning, eat breakfast, make coffee, check bus times, and get out the door in less than 15 minutes. I've learned that the motivational factor of Timbits outweighs anything and everything. I've also learned so much in my classes that it feels like my brain needs to stand up, stretch its legs, and take a big deep breath. We're nearing the end of one of our major projects and the days are getting longer and the mornings are getting earlier.

Despite my crammed schedule, the never-ending pages of readings, and my to-do list that has grown so quickly it must have discovered how to asexually reproduce...I'm continually trying to keep up with wedding planning on the side. Back at the end of August I told myself that I was putting the brakes on wedding planning until Christmas break, but any bride (or woman, for that matter) can tell you that it's impossible. There's no switch in your head that you can flick on and off, willy nilly, to block out invitation layouts and dress styles and centerpieces. I should also mention that Luc's older sister had a fabulous wedding this weekend that threw my brain into wedding overdrive.

So now, after telling myself to focus on school, start a wedding dress diet, and leave the planning until Christmas break, I'm sitting at the computer, eating a chocolate bar and fawning over flower arrangements and hotel options for our guests. Go team!

Derelicte

I have an objection with people who dress like slobs and carry designer handbags. I’m not a fashionista, and I don't live by a stringent set of couture codes, but I do think a Chanel purse coupled with a pair of inside-out, frayed sweatpants makes you look like a FOOL. Knowing that this getup is the outfit-equivalent of putting ketchup on a filet isn’t some kind of clandestine knowledge. I wouldn’t even call it a rule – just common sense. For instance, I know that if I’m wearing a gown, I’m probably not going to pair it with an old hoodie. Just like I wouldn’t wear a pearl necklace to the gym. Everyday sensibility. So the next time you see some crazy girl walloping a hobo over the head with a Louis Vuitton clutch, it’s just me trying to smack some sense into another lost soul.

Confessions

I bought a pair of Spanx to wear under the dress I'm wearing to Luc's sister's wedding this weekend - and then I put them on, looked in the mirror, had a hearty laugh at the lengths that we go to in order to look a certain way, and then I returned them.

Ladies and gentlemen, the crazy recorder neighbour...

I was only able to dangle the camera out the window for the the tail end of her performance before the battery died, but I think you get the idea. I'll be sure the battery's fully charged when we're treated to another splendid musical performance.

Neighbour playing the recorder from Kristen Gladiuk on Vimeo.

Is an eBook really a book?

One of the readings for a class this week was about eBooks and reading on the Amazon Kindle. As you can imagine, in a publishing program, this topic comes up often. I think it's great that people are reading, I just don't like the idea of the eBook trying to replace a real book. I hate it when people try to predict the extinction of print - whether it be books, magazines, or newspapers. But I don't see eBooks as real books. To me, eBooks take all of the elements that make a book a book and get rid of them. Poof! Or, I guess "zap" would be better. Click? Whatever.

One of the comments in the article I read was from a man who said eBook pages are great because they don't flutter in the wind. That right there is an example of how we're taking the human out of everything.  Obviously a screen doesn't flutter in the wind - but I would call that a con, not an advantage over print books. I want to feel the pages, even if they flutter out of my fingers every now and then. I like running my hands over the textured pages and tracing the tips of my fingers over the cover design. I want to see what kind of font they used and how the chapters are organized.

My feelings towards eBooks are akin to the feelings I harbour for screw top wine bottles. I'm not a wine snob. I just like the old fashioned way; the romance and the routine. I recognize that it's easier to skip the corkscrew and get straight to the drinking, but that doesn't concern me. Taking the time to open the bottle is all part of the process. I understand that the introduction of the screw top wasn't intended as a time saver, but I'm just saying...I like doing it the old way. Some people won't agree, but I think uncorking the wine can be just as pleasurable as drinking the wine.

It's the same with books. I know that I could download an eBook from the web in seconds, but I like visiting the bookstore. And the feeling of finishing a great book is doubled when you file it on your shelf, and it sits there obediently, looking beautiful. Or when you lend that book to a friend. A few years ago I got a used copy of The English Patient that someone had written notes in.

I had no mirrors in my house for three years. Yet - I could always see my reflection: the children, the neon lights, the faces of the Filipino and Russian prostitutes, the eyes of taxi drivers in the rearview mirror, in the raindrops, in the journals, in the music, in the movement. I was never as unaware of what I looked like as I was in Japan - and yet, I was most conscious of how I appeared. 

As soon as I can find something like that in an eBook, maybe I'll change my mind. Maybe. Because it's not just about the words on the page. Reading an eBook is convenient. Reading a print book is an experience. It's about everything that goes into making them, everything that comes out, and everything that follows.

I will say this: eBooks aren't all bad. Just like screw top wine bottles. But I think print will disappear at the same time the french warm up to the idea of twisting a lid off their wine.

I suppose I'm the crazy neighbour now

Late last night, with my hair in wild tangles, dressed in my sponge bob pajama pants, an old tshirt, and my pink rubber boots, I ran up and down the streets outside our apartment looking for my friend's car. She lives across the street from me and it's her birthday today (Happy Birthday Callie!), so I wanted to leave something for her to find this morning. I had printed a picture (and put it in a ziploc bag to avoid the morning dew), and planned to slip it under the windshield wiper so it would be there waiting when she drove to work this morning.

Upon finding her car, I noticed that the sunroof was open about 4 inches. This opening presented a second option: dropping the picture inside the car onto her seat. But what if it fluttered down onto the floor? What if she sat on it and didn't notice? MAYBE....just maybe I could stick the edge of the ziploc bag in the sunroof track so it got caught and was left hanging there. That would be awesome.

For you to understand how this looked, you must know that I had the crooked smile of a completely ravenous lunatic on my face. And I was still laughing to myself about the cat picture that I had printed out. As I had part of my arm inside the sunroof, still laughing away like a fool, someone was walking by and staring at me. Sure, I knew what I was doing - just something nice for a friend. But what did it look like to the passerby? I didn't consider that at the time. But probably like a crazy woman trying to find a car to break into to talk to her invisible giraffe in private.

But whatever...at least I don't play the recorder.

Wake up call

Someone new moved in downstairs, and of all the annoying habits and quirks that neighbours can possess, ours plays the recorder. That stupid little plastic "instrument" that is only capable of hitting so many notes, making each song sound strangely similar. The same instrument that is generally reserved for children who can't manage the intricacies of a real instrument yet. The instrument that, in most households, ends up being hidden, deep in a cluttered closet because it produces the most inelegant, irritating sound that drives families to the brink of insanity. Ours were taken away repeatedly as kids. It was really more like a weapon of extreme torture than a tool of musical expression.

This morning Luc lined up for a Mountain Equipment Co-op sale at 5:30am. He snagged some really great showshoes at an enormous discount, so it was worth it...but obvisouly he hit a wall of exhaustion this afternoon. Being the supportive fiance that I am, I joined him for an afternoon nap. The sun was shining in through the bedroom window and a light breeze blew in every few minutes. It was very pleasant until our awesome new neighbour started tooting away on their recorder.

Initially, I was confused. I was in the sort of state where dreams and reality blend together and you're still mad at your boyfriend for ditching you at the miniature monkey museum to make jam with Hannah Montana. Upon opening my eyes I was face to face with Luc, whose eyes were also wide open. The slight raise of his eyebrows told me that I wasn't hearing things. I wasn't dreaming. Someone was playing the recorder and he heard it too. If I stood up and looked outside, I wouldn't find a Medieval Fair below our bedroom window. Even still, I kept expecting to hear a wench yell out "huzzah" and tent full of drunken jesters to break out in old-timey laughter...whatever that sounds like.

We slid out of bed and walked on shaky legs to the window. It was our neighbour, no question about it. The out of tune notes sailed up and smacked us in the face. I hope to god it's a phase.

Reading

White Teeth  - Zadie Smith

My fiance, the ass...

It's been brought to our attention that Luc and I aren't the only pair of our kind. As I mentioned a few days ago, we sent out our save the dates, and our guests have begun to peruse our wedding website. One of Luc's friend's tried to get to our website by googling our names: kristenandluc
He found a site...he found Kristen and Luc...but not the ones he was looking for. Here's my favourite highlight from the site:
"Kristin jumped on Luc giving him his first bareback experience"
And here is the site itself:
AWESOME DISCOVERY

October Banner

Monthly Photo - October 2009

Kits Beach at sunset

Cool as a cucumber

While dining at our friends' house this evening, we began to talk about how school is going and what kind of internship I'm looking for. Despite being very intrigued by 3 months in India with a publisher who creates hand-made books, I just couldn't stomach 93 nights away from Luc. Until these creepy man-replacements make their way to Canada, I'll be looking at opportunities close to home.

This conversation lead into marriage talk, of course. Our friends aren't engaged but they're thinking of tying the knot in the next year or two. Our wedding still seems so far away - less than a year now, but still leaving us ages and ages to plan everything. I left their house feeling relaxed and laid-back about planning our wedding. Until I got home and opened my email...and realized that our family has started receiving the save-the-dates in the mail...which means that people are actually coming to our wedding....which means I actually do have to plan an entire wedding this year and complete my degree and keep doing the laundry all at the same time. For the love of god, who will teach Luc how to wash the delicates??? I have a project to do and fabric swatches to choose from!!!

Thoughts

You can't entirely trust spell checker in Word; I nearly handed in an assignment on boob publishing in Canada rather than book publishing.

Uhhhh

The concert last night was amazing, and I'll write more on that later. For now, just a few words on how my brain has turned to mush this week.

Last night when Ben Harper was on, he took a second between songs to wave and acknowledge all of the people who were sitting in the crap seats behind the stage....and they went WILD.
Me: "Wow...one little wave of the hand can elicit so much....excite?...uh...excition....uhhh...excitation...?"
Luc: "You're all out of words...you used them all this week! And I think you meant excitement."

Just another Saturday afternoon

Me: Sitting at the dining room table, hunched over my computer, surrounding by books, working on an assignment. I notice that Luc is dressed with his shoes on, like he's going somewhere. I give him that inquiring look....
Luc: "Oh yeah, Kate and Tom are coming over. They'll be here in a few minutes."
Me: "What?? A few minutes?? Shit...."
Luc: "You don't need to come out with us, we're just going to Best Buy."
Me: "Yeah I know, I just thought I should make myself look like less of a gargoyle before our friends walk in." I'm thinking along the lines of washing the sleep-drool off my face from last night and putting on a bra. Nothing much.
Luc: "Aww, you're going to take off your Sponge Bobs and put on pants?"
Me: "What? No! My sponge bob square pants pajamas are nothing to be ashamed of..."
Clearly Luc and I have a different idea of what is acceptable and what is embarrassing.

The winning combination

There are some combinations that really make the world a better place to live in. Peanut butter and chocolate. Popcorn and movies. Chocolate chip cookies and milk. Wicker baskets and bikes. Ice cream and chocolate sauce. Wine and cheese. But I think I found the combination that trumps any other combination known to mankind. Ben Harper and Pearl Jam. Tonight we're going to the Pearl Jam concert, with Ben Harper and the Relentless 7 as the opening act. I've been so intensely and insanely busy since the start of school that I actually forgot about this concert until yesterday. There's really no story to tell here, just that I'm excited to have a night off! However, there will surely be a great story to follow, because every time Luc and I attend any sort of seated event (concert, sports, etc), we are always surrounded by a dense population of completely bizarre people.

Speaking of bizarre, I promised a few more tidbits about my former job....please note, I was NOT a personal assistant. I did, however, spend an afternoon with the boss's wife shopping online for wedding and bridal shower gifts.

Really...

Anyone who reads this blog regularly knows how I feel about vanity license plates. Not cool. Never OK. So you can imagine how I felt this evening as we were being cut off by a douche bag in a little mercedes with plates that read: STOCKS.

What is with these postal workers?

Despite finishing our save the dates weeks ago, I still haven't mailed them. Part is because I made the conscious decision to wait until after the one-year mark. Part is because someone is stealing all the GOOD STAMPS! Yes, I'm trying to find pretty stamps for the envelopes for my save the dates...I'm THAT crazy and anal. The trouble is, every time I go in (about 5 times now...to a different location each time), they don't have any nice looking stamps. Lots of Vancouver 2010 MukMuks and Sumis and so forth...but no flowers, no simple designs. What's the worst part, you ask? The worst part is trying to hide the look on my face every time I go in and the postal worker suggests that I use this:

Yeah...I'm serious. Every single time, at every single different post office I get the same response: "No, sorry, no flowers." And that's fine...it's not their fault. Obviously someone is just running around Vancouver to all of the post offices and buying up all the nice stamps in attempt to sabotage our wedding. No big deal. But why....why do they always suggest this hideous stamp? It must be like in a restaurant before the doors open, "OK everyone, we've still got a ton of this stuff and it's about to turn, so really push the meatloaf tonight." At the post office each morning the manager rounds up the crew, "OK guys, we still have boxes of those hideously ugly celebration stamps, people are actually starting to refuse to accept mail when it's delivered bearing one of these things...we need to find a way to get rid of a TON of them at once. Alice sold a box to some bride for her wedding invitations last week and we were so pleased with her that we gave her a 40% raise." So now, obviously, everyone's trying to push these things on me. But I will not cave.

And I learned something today

Taking the bus home at the same time as the schools let out is not a good idea. Unless you want to hear Suzy and Sally and Sarah talk about how if they can't go to high school A they're totally going to drop out of school all together because high school B is totally gay. Totally. Can you blame them though? I would way rather be an uneducated drain on society than go a totally gay high school. Totally.

Ding dong the hornet's dead!

Which hornet? The fire-breathing, monster-sized hornet that was hiding in my makeup case this morning. Not be the confused with the quadruple-winged, ridge-backed, mutant hornet that was crawling up my dining room wall when I arrived home from school ten minutes ago. What the hell is with all the creatures migrating into our apartment? "Hello, landlord? This is Kristen....GIVE ME A FUCKING WINDOW SCREEN!!!" The lights in our apartment must emit some kind of frequency that's like the cocaine for giant insects. They see it in our living room, they know it's wrong...they see their friends fly to the dark side (the bright side in this case) and they have to try it for themselves...and they figure while they're here, they may as well go into the bathroom and try on some of my makeup.

Back to this morning where I nearly fell into a shock-coma after discovering a hornet bumbling around in the bottom of my makeup case. Now that I'm back in school, I don't get up until 7:30am, (Luc is already at work by then) so getting ready in the morning is a solitary activity. After putting in my contact lenses, my muffled morning senses detected some sort of irregular sound. I looked at the tap and there was no action there. I looked at the bottle of eye makeup remover that crackles when it's all shaken up and foamy, but I hadn't touched it yet. I lowered my ear to the counter and followed the noise to my makeup case. By the time I had my nose 1 millimeter away from the opening, I realized that it wasn't bubbling, it wasn't crackling...it was buzzing. Through the piles of mascara wands and powder cases I could see a giant insect bum waddling back and forth. Obviously I screamed. Obviously I jumped on top of the toilet....only to realize that the area had to be secured, and FAST. Every girl reading this knows what I did next.

Yes...I got a container to trap the bugger. This was no ordinary situation though - he wasn't stationary, he was already angry (after screaming I told him there was NO WAY he could use my mascara, even if it did bring out the multiple colours in his multiple insect eyeballs), and he was awkwardly lodged at the bottom of my makeup case. This called for an extra large yogurt container and a whole lot of courage.

I ran back to the bathroom with the container, and I went for the band aid method - no thinking, just fast and furious. I picked up the makeup case in my left hand, turned it upside down and threw/shook everything out onto the counter, yogurt container in my right hand (for maximum speed and dexterity), ready to pounce. Through a sustained scream, I pushed makeup off the counter and isolated the hornet underneath the yogurt container.

He was PISSED. He was super-sized hornet, psycho, I'm going to fly inside you and sting you in the heart, PISSED. I acted fast and put our Costco-sized bottle of mouthwash on top of the yogurt container. He kept buzzing and flying around ferociously. I honestly thought he was going to topple the heavy container over from his persistent and crazed ramming of the container wall. Honestly.

BUT....to my enormous relief, he was dead when I got home today. He may just be playing dead though, so I left him under the container for Luc to handle when he's home from work. As for the other hornet, he was a tricky case too. I had to trap him against the wall under a clear container, so that I could see his position inside as I slid the container down the wall and then maneuvered him from inside and against the wall to inside and on the floor. I can see him from where I'm sitting right now and he's clearly plotting my death through some sort of maniacal hornet scheme. Another one for Luc to deal with. And this has been the story of why I could never live alone.  

Is that thing real?

About a week ago, while picking up some shoes from a friend's new apartment, I was privy to a pretty big revelation in her life. She just moved into a two bedroom suite with another girl whom she met through a friend of a friend of a friend...or something like that. They both needed roommates, and BAM...just like that, they moved in together.

Anyhow, she was lamenting over the petiteness of her new bedroom, but I didn't think it was that small. Not like the place she had about 4 summers ago where her bed left only a sliver of walking room...if you were inside that room, you were on the bed, because you literally had nowhere else to go. To make me see that she indeed had a small room, she let me peek into her roommate's rather large room. It was big. It was spacious. It was large enough to have a zebra-skin rug spread out on the floor....meaning, her roommate actually had a zebra-skin rug on the floor in her room. I laughed..."wow....niiiiice, that a real zebra carcass?..ha..." Um...yes. Yes it was.

It's revelation time. My friend dragged me out to the living room and pointed to a magazine on the table. Some hunting magazine....rifles and guns and wilderness and HOLY SHIT....on the cover was her roommate: a 3 page exclusive interview with her roommate was inside that magazine. She had inadvertently discovered that her new roomie is some kind of huge celebrity from a different universe. I glanced around the room - things started to pop out at me that I hadn't noticed upon my arrival, like the photos of her with guns....EVERYWHERE! It's funny the things you learn about people.

The definition of irony

Luc proclaiming that the dishwasher was the best thing to ever happen to us, only to be followed by a cycle that leaked an enormous pool of water all over the kitchen floor.

A few things we still need for the wedding

Bow chicka-wow-wowww

I was organizing my itunes by genre to isolate all of the instrumental music (for studying purposes) when I noticed a particularly intriguing genre. A genre that I have never seen before, a genre whose existence I haven't given much thought. Most people are familiar with Chris Isaak's sexy song "Wicked Game", but do they know that it can be categorized in the genre known as "Porn Groove"? Because that's the genre label it has in my itunes. Porn Groove. Not what I expected.

One of these things is not like the other

Our apartment reached unacceptable levels of "hot and sticky" today, and by 6:00pm I had to abandon my school work and get the hell out of there. We placed an order for Thai food and headed to Blockbuster to get Luc a video game. I helped him choose....."hey look sweetie, this one takes place in a destroyed city....OHHH and this one is a sporting event....oh hey look at this one, it's in a destroyed city....oh but THIS ONE is set in a destroyed city...or this one, it's a sporting event....oh no wait, this looks good, it takes place in a destroyed city..." So obviously what followed was Luc telling me that I'm an ass, then him renting a video game that takes place in a destroyed city.

It was all pretty normal until we got to the front to pay for the game. The girl working there was absolutely, unquestionably, one of the most beautiful people I've ever seen. She wasn't wearing any makeup, her skin was flawless porcelain, her hair was dark and silky, and she looked INCREDIBLY out of place. Yes, we were still at the video store....yes, she was the one working behind the counter, at the VIDEO STORE. I'm not saying that attractive people have no place working in a video store, I'm just saying that it's not normal to see a girl who looks like she fell out of a Clinique ad ringing in your video game purchase at the neighbourhood Blockbuster. We both agreed that it was an anomaly, but I maintain that there has to be some other explanation.

Book worms

My return to school has introduced a whole new swirling mass of thoughts into my already crowded stream of consciousness. Today, day 3, was amazing. I spent the bus ride home thinking about something other than the wedding. And speaking of taking the bus, this public transport thing is going to make for A LOT of weird and interesting blog posts....like the guy who went nuts trying to open the doors before the bus had stopped moving, or the girl who had a cut out "V" on the back of her pants to show off her tattoo...or the guy who was reading over my shoulder as I wrote those two things down in my notebook! Yes, the colourful people of Vancouver are at my fingertips, quite literally.

But back to school...we're already bogged down with a bunch of readings and assignments but it's so exciting- we actually get to create things. We get to create a company, a company name, a logo, books...and we get to learn SO FREAKING MUCH.....I think I'm on a natural high just from thinking about this! Also, it's been really great to meet all the people in the program, people I can relate to...other people that spend days trying to find the right day planner, people that look through book catalogs with the same enthusiasm that a child watches toy commercials, people that unpack their books before their furniture when moving...and people whom I will get to experience the highs and lows of the next year and a half with, commiserating, studying, and obviously getting drunk together every now and then. It's really nice to be around other people that will be going through the same thing and that understand what it is we're doing here. It's also really nice to not be someone's slave anymore.   

361 days until our wedding

After watching about 8 consecutive episodes of "How I Met Your Mother" and NOT going to the gym tonight, we finally achieved something....we booked a wedding photographer! This thing is really going to happen and we're going to have PROOF! Professional, photoshopped, artsy proof! Everything is coming together and if I can find a hair stylist and book the DJ in the next couple of weeks, I might have a semi-clear mind for all the school work coming my way.

With this photographer comes an engagement session. We've been thinking of locations and we want to do something unique. And now I'm going to completely contradict that last statement by saying I want to do photos like the ones I saw on another site. All you need to know is this: big field, giant red balloon. I've been thinking of emailing the pictures to the photographer with the subject: Make it happen......but that will obviously come off as completely Bridezilla. So I know what I have to do....add a sideways smiley face.

Make it happen :)

7 - What a ride

#7: Ride a cable car in San Francisco

While I understand that riding a cable car for the first time can be an exhilarating experience, I don't think it calls for constant screeching, giggling, hollering and uncontrollable flapping of the arms. On a ride from Nob Hill to Union Square (which is downhill the whole way), I was one of the standees on the inside track - meaning, when another cable car passed by, you sucked it in and hoped that the oncoming standees were doing the same.

On this particular ride I was second from the front, and beside me was an extremely over zealous, screechy arm flapper. This girl was white knuckling the handrail with one arm and waving at people, animals, trees, and storefronts with the other arm....all the white emitting a constant stream of high-pitched giggles, squeals and of course, "ohhh...ohhhh...OHHHHH, WOOOOOOOO!! Heee hee heeeee....WOOOOO...heee heee hee." It was hard to enjoy the breeze ruffling my shirtsleeves and whipping through my hair when this girl (and when I say girl I mean roughly 25 years old) was 5 seconds away from a self-induced hyper-excitement seizure. I kept thinking to myself, "how do I tell her kindly to shut her pie hole? Would people think I was rude if I held her flapping arm down and tied it to the handrail? Doesn't she know the whole Kate & Leo Titanic thing is only funny at the front of a boat? Did she just wave at a mailbox?" When all of a sudden, like the universe was doing me (and everyone else on that cable car) a favour.....SLAP!!!! Someone in an oncoming cable car reached their arm out and slapped little miss screechy across the face. It happened so fast but it my mind I could almost see it coming in slow motion. Screechy was hanging her body out and flapping her arms in the wind, she was doing one of her crescendo oooh's when someone in the oncoming cable car outstretched their arm, cocked their wrist, and intentionally or not, slapped screechy right in the middle of her cheek. SMACK! The cracking noise of palm to soft cheek silenced her only momentarily, and then it was a whole new kind of screeching, but a quiet, indignant screeching. She wasn't really hurt, so I didn't feel bad laughing. I still turned my face away so that she couldn't see that I was having a pretty good giggle over this, and I noticed that all of the people sitting down were doing the same thing. We laaaaaughed and we laaaaaughed!

It was certainly the most eventful of all my cable car rides while in San Francisco. Although we walked most places, I managed to get a few good rides in. Below is a picture of a cable car down at Fisherman's Wharf.