You cannot believe how much I LOVE THIS GUY!!!

Wayne White - Artist Extraordinaire

A friend told me about the documentary currently airing on Netflix, Beauty is Embarrassing - the profile of Artist Wayne White.  Fascinating guy and an absolutely adorable human.  

I laughed out loud at some of his painting series - a collection of found yard sale art that he buys and then augments and embellishes with outrageous slogans. Of course that's not the only art Wayne creates.  His large puppet heads are also well known.  

My favourite: HOOZY THINKY IZ?

And then, as always, people like this I have to attach a soundtrack to.  I pick Magnolia Electric Company, Sun Kil Moon (Mark Kozelek), Band of Horses, and some Wilco.  

Here's to Plan B

What the cats are talking about

Lost Memories. Found, naturally, on Facebook. Thanks Jim.

Ain't it the truth.

Where's your Polaroid?

Kitty Cats are AMAZING

In honour of my kit-cat Bugs-Buddy getting his eye sight back, after a horrendous week of almost losing him (eye hemorrhaging and all), I'm so happy and grateful today, I just want to spread the love of cats.  This is the best cat video I've ever seen - and I've seen them all.  Meet Henri.  He reminds me of my Bud in attitude.  I just never tire of this.

The North Shore Bike Shop

Meet Matt - local guy, owner of North Shore Bike Shop off Lonsdale on East 14th Street in North Vancouver. Great knowledge and top notch service. They do it all - custom-built bikes and accurate service and maintenance. Recently Matt has taken on something they'd never consider before; -selling a new line of amazing electric bikes. The line is called EPIK pedElec - completely revolutionary.

Summer is for Beautiful Birthday Celebrations

On Saturday we celebrated Alexandra's birthday in her beautiful garden - at the gorgeous table that she set so personally for us. The sun was shining, the wine was chilled, and the food was fantastic. The five of us just enjoyed the time over many hours.
The table Alex set was simply gorgeous - the place looked like it was out of a Victoria magazine!






Alex went over the top with the theme - including glow in the dark sticks we made into bracelets, bubble rings, temporary butterfly tattoos included! A lovely summer memory for sure.

Pleased as Punch

I came across this cute post via Pinterest today. It originated from the Wouldbewritersguild.com blog and she's hilarious. I'm copying her post on her amazing punch recipe. I gotta try this soon. In the meantime, she has moved her site and it's at blogger, wouldbewritersguild.blogspot.ca, so check it out.

So, from Tiffany's blog - here is the instalment on the best punch recipe ever:

I’m the Punch Master. Queen of Punch. Snoop Punch. David Punchuleta. I bet you didn’t know this about me, but I seriously rock the punch bowl like no other.

I invented one very special recipe that I’m about to share with you. And I have to tell you—you’re really lucky because all you have to do is read the recipe, buy the stuff, put it together, and serve it at a party and have everyone tell you that it is the best punch in the universe.

Whereas I had to create, puzzle, reflect, and ponder the recipe in the first place in my special Punch Laboratory. I had to contact chemists from ivy league universities to perfect the chemical makeup of this recipe. I had to search the globe for the exact ingredients. I had to throw out hundreds of thousands of batches of lesser punches on my quest to attain the ideal ice-to-punch ratio.

But now that I’ve arrived at Punch Perfectdom, it’s hard for me to contain it and keep it to myself. I feel that I owe it to the world to share. You all have been so nice to me lately, and I feel so intoxicated with goodwill, that I am ready to freely give you this recipe for the betterment of mankind. If the war suddenly ends, I will know that The Punch has done its job.

OK, are you ready?

The Punch

Ingredients:
1 can frozen pina colada concentrate, thawed (Bacardi makes a good one)
1 can frozen orange pineapple juice concentrate, thawed
4 liters of diet lemon-lime soda (That’s two 2-Liters for the mathematically challenged.)
1 bag of pebble ice (You can buy it at Sonic Drive-In or at most grocery stores in the deli or meat departments.)
1 bag of frozen raspberries

And now for the directions:
*Pour the thawed concentrates into your punchbowl and stir.
*Use one of the empty cans and fill it with water four times and add it to the mixture. Stir.
*Add your diet soda to the mixture. (You can use regular sugar-filled soda if you want, but I think it gets too sweet and you will also feel guilty when you fill your glass for the sixteenth time. Which you WILL.)
*Next, add about half your bag of pebble ice.
(NOTE: Please do not insult The Punch by using crappy ice cubes from your freezer. The Punch will hate you forever.) (ANOTHER NOTE: Please do not screw up the order and add the ice before the soda. You will get an ugly foam at the top of your punch bowl.) (ONE MORE NOTE: I’m sorry if it seems like I’m micro-managing this recipe. It’s just that I have already suffered bad punch experiences so that you won’t have to. I micro-manage because I care.) Let’s see….where were we? Oh, yes. We’re ready for the crowning ingredient…
*Add your frozen raspberries to the top.

Viola! You have just created the Mona Lisa of Punch!

Your punch should be a lovely dark yellow at the bottom of your punch bowl, light lemony yellow in middle, almost white on the top, and then bright magenta on the very, very top! So pretty!

And then, when you start serving the punch with a ladle, it all mixes together and becomes this dreamy pink color.

And then, when you lift the punch bowl to your lips when it is almost gone to swallow the last few drops of punch, it is an even darker pink because the raspberries have really mixed in.

And then, when you pass out on the floor because you tipped the punch bowl too far and lost your balance, falling backward to the floor with the punch bowl hitting you square in the jaw—you will see lots of lovely yellow stars and magenta raspberries floating above your head.

Go now. Make Punch.

Jeff. The Big Lebowski.

then I got this reminder.

Nothing more lonely than an old school in the middle of July

This is Kitchener Elementary School in North Burnaby. I attended Kindergarten to grade 5 here. Leaving the neighbourhood and this school in the summer of 1979, going into grade 6 in North Vancouver was a very difficult - well, traumatic experience for a 10 year old. Whenever I'm driving near the area, I always detour around the school. A few days ago, I drove by and got out of the car to walk around the empty property. These are the photos I took.

Our "old house" at 4263 Napier Street was demolished about 4 years ago so I can't bring myself to drive down that street any longer.

But in my dreams, I'm still taken back to the grounds of Kitchener School.

idiosyncrasies and whimsy: Moonrise Kingdom does good