Kindness Confetti

I kind of love that we live in a time of memes, cliches, bumper stickers and car stick figure families, and all that. The other day I was working with a student whose notebook cover read, "Spread kindness like confetti." Part of me is totally into sayings like that and finds myself reflecting on them quite often.

The other part of me is cynical and prefers only to deal with people, kindly or not, from a great distance. Jesus loves this part of me. He's super proud.

But then today. In the midst of all our adulting over the long weekend - what G now refers to as The Great House Unscrewing - G called me to the door (he was out working in the front yard) and said he had a gift for me. He was interrupting my 3 hour Netflix break and let's just say I stomped up the stairs with the teensiest bit of annoyance.

And.

It's not what you're thinking. No, G did not present me with flowers. He moved out of the front door way and there was my neighbor from a few houses down, with a vase full of beautiful roses from her yard. I was like, Um, Wut.

She said, "My mother loved roses and these were her favorite colors. I just wanted to give you some."

That was it. I was speechless and then I was just gushing. I thanked her profusely and promised to get our own yard in order soon so she wouldn't be staring at the mess that it is now - which was ironic because G was out there working on it for like, ever today. She just laughed and shook her head and went back to her house...

I mean. I can't even.

Cynicism? What cynicism? Made my day.

Every Year Gets Better

No, this isn't a post about aging, although the title makes it sound that way. Ha.

The adulting has started with the yardwork, friends. We're switching it up this year though, and are starting out back instead of out front.

Remember last summer when I transformed the backyard swamp into, well, a bare dirt pile? Well, we haven't done anything with that yet. But that's not the focus of this post. There's a small strip of land right behind the house, between our house and the fence separating us from the neighbors. I've ignored it entirely ever since we've lived here, and that's why it was my starting point this season.

See what you think about these small changes.

Before

After

I pulled up all the weeds and put down barrier. Eventually we'd like to put down pretty landscaping rocks, but that's low on the ole to do list.

This change is also strategic because now we can see plants and flowers outside of the living room, dining room, and kitchen windows. It makes a difference!

I'm slowly but surely building up the inside plants as well. The key to sneaking them past G is to go gradual. Not to make any sudden movements that might draw his attention. Not to talk about them or look at them too often or, God help us, not to swat at anything that might be misconstrued as a bug inside the house.

A few weeks ago a student brought me some African violets. I tucked them away in the side room and laid low while I researched re-potting tips and supplies. As G was cleaning out the gutters yesterday, I made my move. With the theme music from Mission Impossible playing in the background, I quickly re-potted them and set them up in their new home.

See the little Chinese girl in the middle? We got her in Vancouver, at the Classic Chinese Garden. She's so cute; I just love her.

Nice changes so far, right? Now we just have to foam roll, take Ibuprofen, and stretch out our muscles before tackling the front of the yard. One of these days I really will do something with the dirt pile out back. But not today.

TGIF, people!

So much better than those fake gift shops.

Oh Canada

We're back home with this one now. My how time flies on vacay.

It goes without saying that it was wonderful to get away. But this trip gave new meaning to the term relaxation. There is only a one hour time difference between Denver and Vancouver, and the first morning we were there, we didn't set an alarm. We woke up at ten in the morning. TEN. In the MORNING. I can't even tell you the last time we slept in that long. Truly!

Lest you think all we ate was gourmet seafood, I'd like to point out that we started every day at Canada's Dunkin' Donuts: Tim Hortons.

The coffee was just as good but the donuts were way better. So good, in fact, that I grabbed some yesterday in the airport and may or may not have had them for breakfast today. Because I can't let it go.

Other highlights of the trip were walking around the Classic Chinese Garden and Stanley Park. We did a lot of walking, every day. And chatting. And picture taking. And eating. And then sleeping some more.

Enjoy the pics!

Wife of the Year

If you've followed the blog during any of our vacays, then you knew this post was a'comin'.

There are a lot of seaplanes here.

So, I was wife of the year.

Yesterday I gave G credit for finding some of the best restaurants ever. Which is the truth. What I left out, though, is that one of them was right next to the seaplane dock, because he is strategic that way.

While I enjoyed my seafood, he enjoyed the view and told me all about engines and wingspan and propellers that pull planes rather than push them through the air, and at that point my wine kicked in and I didn't really hear anymore. Which is not to say that he stopped talking, it's only to say that I stopped hearing.

Afterwards, we watched them take off and land even more.

I'm throwing him a bone and including a few of his precious shots here, juuuuuuuust in case you happen to be interested.

Aaaaaaaaand wife of the year. The end. 

Where the Trees Eat the Fish

On the whale tour yesterday, we talked about seafood, appropriately. Killer whales are meat eaters, as are eagles along the shore line. But did you know that the fish even feed the trees? When birds and bears leave fish parts on the ground, the trees absorb their remains along with other minerals from the shore. It is very common here for scientists to study trees to calculate their age, and to find fish remains within the rings. Usually salmon. Isn't that wild?

Since so many people come here for the seafood, especially the salmon, Canada is making huge efforts to fish sustainably and we were told what signs to look for when picking restaurants. Like, literal signs. We have done that and the food has been amazing. There's just no other word for it.

Above is a Beet and Burrata Salad. Seafood aside, it is my favorite dish in Vancouver so far. The flavor combination was perfect: fresh, tangy, robust, and topped with just a bit of crunch. There were dollops of Balsamic on the side which provided a zing every now and then.

Sashimi, of course. The best I've had since Hawaii, oh, and Japan. Sushi Den (in Denver) comes close. But really, there's no comparison; it's so, so good here.

One of our desserts was a big macaron. Two almond-flavored cookies sandwiched a dark chocolate and mint cream, topped with fresh cream and fruit. We savored every bite (not kidding).

Today I outdid myself with seafood. I had a tuna stack, which was tuna poke (ahi, avocado, mandarin oranges, tomatoes, cilantro, and sauces, topped with panko breadcrumbs and served atop won ton strips). 

I also had a tuna sushi cone (ahi, avocado, fresh ginger, rice, spices, and cucumber, in a soy cone wrap).

Here's a special shout-out to G, who found all of these excellent - truly superb - restaurants, and he's not even the foodie!

Cheers!

We've also had some killer drinks, in addition to what is pictured above, some amazing Italian food, and great coffee roasts. More to come! One more day before we drag ourselves back to Denver.

Call Me Ishmael

Because I chased whales all day. In Vancouver.

We spent the morning with this local pod of killer whales, known as orcas (also the name of the lil old lady bun bun we used to have, do you remember her?). They were known as the T101 group: one small female and three enormous males that all travel around these waters together.

At one point G leaned over and said, "How much of our lives have we spent waiting on animals?"

Um, a lot.

But this was so worth it! These whales don't migrate; they live in this area and simply swim around looking for food. So, once we found them we were able to just slow down and hang out with them. They surface and breathe "regularly"a few times in a row before diving deep for about 10 minutes or so before they resurface. When they come up for air, you are able to see more than their dorsal fin; you can see pretty much their whole middle section.

They only jump and splash around if they are being social (like, greeting another pod) or if they are celebrating a kill. Neither of which we saw today, but it was so nice to enjoy the Pacific Northwest coastline for a few hours and bond with our aquatic cousins.

Orcas, like our buds the elephants, are matriarchal. Although the females are smaller, they lead the pod and make all the big decisions, so to speak. Their gestation period - this is for all you moms out there - is seventeen months. !! The baby feeds only on mother's milk for the first year of its life, and for the second year it mainly drinks milk but supplements a bit with food. Babies stay in the pod with mom until they are in their teens, or longer: boys, too. Only adult males really go off on their own.

Unlike elephants, though, killer whales only hang out in groups of three or four. That's the ideal size of a group to hunt the type of prey that they do, which consists of seals, porpoises, and even other whales.

Not a bad way to celebrate our anniversary. I think the rest of the country (world?) was watching the royal wedding, but we didn't because those kids just copied our big day anyways. :) We celebrated our own big day, our own big way. And we had a whale of a time! :)