Pacovilla22’s blog

June was quite a good month to be Shane, as several exciting things happened during that time. First off, we had our yearly company satisfaction survey at work.  To encourage as many employees as possible to take it, they distributed a raffle ticket to each employee and had a daily prize drawing.  The winner each day got to choose an item from the big box o' prizes.  I won on the third day and selected a very nice Port Metro Vancouver jacket.  It came down to that or a foot-long Toblerone bar...I think I made the right choice.

On June 12, I ran in the Longest Day 5K, which took place on the UBC (University of British Columbia) campus.  After my half-marathon earlier this spring, I decided to take advantage of being in good running shape and attempt to break my PR (Personal Record) in the 5K, which was 22:45.  My goal for the race was 22:00, and I ended up running a great race and finishing in 21:24, blowing my previous time out of the water.

I probably won't try for another PR in the 5K, only because running a race that fast is not really fun.  You're pushing yourself the entire time and concentrating hard to maintain your speed.  There's really no chance to look around and enjoy yourself. Longer races are more up my alley.  Still, it felt damn good to finish that fast!

Finally, I flew back to Minnesota the last week of June to go on the annual baseball road trip with friends.  Details (and pictures) are coming soon in a separate post.  Stay tuned!

Legos

When Tisha's brother, Ian, was in town a while back, we decided (over drinks, of course) to dig out some of my old Legos.  I was a big collector of Castle-themed Legos in the late 80's and early 90's.  We all put together a couple of sets, which made me decide I wanted to create an inventory of my collection.  This involved putting together each set, recording its Name, Year and Number of Pieces on a spreadsheet, and then taking it apart.  I finished up a few weeks ago and found that I have 26 sets (23 Castle-themed, 1 Space-themed, 2 Technik-themed), totaling 4148 pieces with (amazingly) no missing pieces.  They are once again safely back in storage in only the finest of Ziploc bags.

Strato

Another project I've been working on lately came about when Tisha and I undertook a big-time apartment cleaning a couple of months ago and really made an effort to minimize the amount of stuff sitting out.  Two such items taking up space were a couple of large three-ring binders, chock-full of my old Strato games.  I have the boxscores from every game dating back to our second season in 1996, when my team, Pacovilla - led by Craig Biggio, Tim Salmon, Greg Maddux, and Mike Henneman - went 21-11 and was upset in the first round of the playoffs.

Upon seeing these two behemoths, I had a great idea  I would take the binders to work and use our state-of-the-art scanner/copier (and ladies, I hear it collates as well) to scan each of these games by season and have it emailed to me as a nice, compact PDF.  I did just that, and it worked out beautifully!  I now have all of my old Strato seasons on my computer, the binders are gone from the shelf, and the old paper boxscores have been recycled.  Mission accomplished!

I listen to a trance music podcast by Matt Darey (a trance DJ) called Nocturnal Sunshine.  In a recent one, he played a track by Moussa Clark & Terrafunka called "She Wants Him (Blake Jarrell's Panty Dropper Remix)".  (Remix names can be awesome.)  The track consists of a line from The Police song "Don't Stand So Close To Me" that is looped repeatedly and put to a trance beat.  It's pretty damn cool and a little hypnotic.  Sting comes in at around the 1:00 mark.  Enjoy!

Bowling For Big Brothers

Every year my employer participates in a fundraiser for the Big Brothers of Greater Vancouver called Bowling For Big Brothers.  This year, I chose to participate because 1) I'm an actual big brother (to Lucas and Amy), and 2) I'd never bowled in Canada.  The theme was 'outer space' and they encouraged costumes, so our group decided to dress up as the Men In Black, meaning white shirt with black tie and sunglasses.

At the event, we bowled a couple of games and enjoyed free pizza, compliments of the Flying Wedge.  I also found out that Canadians are terrible bowlers.  My co-workers were calling me "The Ringer", because I showed some semblance of form, and after I told them I participated in league bowling in my youth, they looked at me like I had two heads.  Apparently, bowling isn't the blue-collar rage here that it is in the States.  However, they did tell me about another common variety of bowling in Canada that uses only five pins and a smaller ball that doesn't have finger holes.  Tisha and I might have to try that out some time.

Thanks again to those who donated!

Concert History

A while back, Brian and Jon each had posts that listed bands they'd seen in concert.  I thought it was a great idea and dug through my scrapbooks looking for old ticket stubs.  Now I'm finally getting around to posting it.  This list doesn't include bands from the three Edgefest concerts I attended.  Try as I might, the Internet failed me in my search for those band lists.  So here it is by band, along with the number of times I've seen them:

The Reverend Horton Heat (6), Tenacious D (3), They Might Be Giants (3), Hanson (2), Mason Jennings (2), Jewel (2), Los Straitjackets (2), Mogwai (2), Sliver (2), The Suburbs (2), Weezer (2), 12 Rods, Accident Clearinghouse, Air, The Amazing Crowns, Ashtray Hearts, Astronaut Wife, The B-52s, The Barenaked Ladies, Belle & Sebastian, Ben Folds Five, Beth Orton, The Butthole Surfers, Dido, Duncan Sheik, Eastmountainsouth, Garth Brooks, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Jimmy Eat World, Kathy Mattea, Kensington Prairie, The Legendary Jim Ruiz Group, Chris O'Riley (playing Radiohead), Placebo, The Plastic Constellations, The Rivulets, The Rugburns, Saturday Looks Good To Me, Southern Culture On The Skids, Semisonic, The Shins, Smashmouth, Songs Ohia, The Toadies, Tortoise, Triangle, U2, Rufus Wainwright, Work Of Saws, and ZZ Top.

 

A couple of months ago, I received an email from a co-worker inviting me to play on the company soccer team.  Other than a few times in high school gym, I've never really played any soccer in my life, but I viewed this as a good opportunity to socialize and get some exercise.  In my idealistic mind, soccer is just a combination of two things I enjoy: running and kickball.  I figure I would catch on easily enough.

On game day, a group of eight of us played against another company at an indoor sports complex, in nearby Burnaby.  This facility has several ice rinks and one indoor soccer field, complete with half-walls and artificial turf.  Because of all the ice in the building, it's pretty chilly until you run around for a bit.

Once the game started, I quickly realized one thing: I did not like the ball.  If the ball came to me, there would be no dribbling (running while keeping the ball in front of you) - that thing got passed like a hot potato.  I tried to dribble, but couldn't do so without looking at the ball the whole time.  So when I looked up to pass it, I would usually whiff, or step on the ball and pretty much fall over.  No good.

I did eventually found something that I was decent at: defense.  It works out well because I have the agility and stamina (thanks to basketball and running) to shadow the other team's better players and prevent them from taking quality shots.  Also, when I do get the ball, I can just pass it ahead right away.  No dribbling whatsoever.

We won that first game 6-5 and have since played again and won 6-3.  We've got a few guys on the team that grew up playing soccer (much more common in Canada), so at least some people out there know what they're doing.  I'm actually starting to appreciate the game a little more and am looking forward to next time.

 

When we first moved here, I started looking around for basketball courts (both indoor and out) that I could go to periodically for pickup games.  As it turns out, Vancouver is not a big basketball city (which partly explains why their former NBA team, the Grizzles, moved to Memphis), and instead of basketball courts, our parks have tennis courts.  So I played tennis this summer and fall.

Now that it's winter and tennis isn't really an option, I decided to look for basketball opportunities again and picked up the winter edition of the Vancouver Parks & Rec brochure.  I was excited to find that they were offering adult basketball, and signed up to play for two hours each Monday night from January through March.

I was a bit nervous for the first one because I hadn't played since the previous March as part of Tenacious D (who eventually went on to win the championship).  Also, I didn't know what we were playing, 5-on-5 full court, 3-on-3 half court, who knew?

It turns out that there are 15 people total, and we break up into three teams of five and then play 5-on-5 full court.  Two teams play a game to eight by 1s and 2s (normal 2-pointers are worth one point and normal 3-pointers are worth two points), and the third team sits until the next game.  Each team basically ends up playing for two games and then sitting for one.

The first week went about as expected, as I shot well for the first few games and then poorly after that.  It was a good time though, and the level of competition is about what I'm used to.  Unfortunately, I missed this last Monday due to a bullshit cold, but I'm looking forward to getting back into this week.  In the end, it just feels good to be playing basketball again.

On Saturday, December 6th, Tisha and I attended my company's Christmas party.  It was held at the Sheraton Wall Centre, a nice hotel in downtown Vancouver (I think Joel and Elena stayed there once, so they can vouch for it).  Tisha and I dressed for the occasion like we were going to a wedding reception, a good thing since many people were dressed similarly and even fancier, in suits and floor-length evening gowns.

The hotel had a weird system for purchasing drinks.  First, you had to get in a long line to buy drink tickets.  Then, once you got to the front, you needed to know exactly what kind of drink you wanted.  There was no, "I'll take four tickets."  It was more like, "I'll take two domestic wine tickets, an imported wine ticket, and a single shot drink ticket."  It was dumb, so I just went ahead and bought 20 domestic wine tickets (kidding, Mom, I'll leave that for next year).  Once we took care of drinks, I introduced Tisha to a few people and pointed out others I've worked with.  So she finally got to put (some) faces with names.

We eventually found a table with some of my better-known co-workers (including a couple we met at the wine and cheese party a few weeks ago).  As luck would have it, we were one of the first tables to be released for the dinner buffet!  The buffet was incredible; many salads, grilled vegetables, potato and rice varieties, and vegetable lasagna, fennel and pecan-crusted salmon, and cranberry turkey for entrees.  (I really tested the weight limit of my plate.)  The dessert buffet was equally amazing and included tortes, cookies, mousses, yule logs, and Christmas pudding.  We definitely got our fill.

After dinner, there was a dance/DJ and a casino set-up (just like The Office).  I wasn't in the dancing mood, so we checked out the casino.  I got our fake money ($10,000 a person to start) and traded it in for chips.  The casino had roulette, blackjack, and poker tables.  I (of course) sat down at a poker table and proceeded to do well.  In the first six hands I got two flushes and a straight.  My luck earned me the respect and disgust of the rest of the table.  Tisha eventually took over for one of the players and ended up holding her own quite well, too.

After the casino portion of the evening ended, we mingled for a bit longer and then prepared to leave for the night.  The dancing was still going strong, and right as we were saying our good-byes, a song came on and everyone suddenly flooded the dance floor.  It turns out (as my co-worker James informed me), this was a hugely popular Canadian song by Spirit Of The West called "Home For A Rest."  Take a listen below and experience a taste of Canadian culture, pub-style.

The week after Amy and Joe's wedding, our friend Joel (who was here in June with his wife Elena) attended a work conference in Victoria, BC.  He was able to change his return flight to leave from Vancouver instead of Victoria, allowing him to spend a few days with Tisha and me.

On Saturday, Joel took a ferry from Vancouver Island and then hopped on a bus that brought him into Vancouver.  We picked him up at the bus station that afternoon and headed straight out to the UBC Apple Festival, being held in the University of British Columbia's Botanical Garden.  This yearly festival is heavily attended, and had over 50 varieties of apples for sale.  Other activities on-site included a demonstration in cider-making, an apple tasting (which was sold out by the time we arrived, damn), and a food fair selling hot apple cider and apple-based desserts.

The Canopy Walkway was also open and the tickets were half-price, so the three of us explored that.  It was a bit different from our previous visit in that we weren't part of a group with a tour guide, but instead met up with different guides at each platform station (where they talked about  aspects of the walkway and forest).

That night for dinner, we introduced Joel to our favorite sushi place, Shima (which crazily had their window smashed in the week before).

On Sunday, after a lazy morning of football-watching, we decided to go geocaching again.  In our previous attempt this summer, we came up empty-handed.  This time, we would not be denied.  Once we got near this geocache, it only took a few minutes to find it.  Victory!  This inspired Joel and Tisha to put together a geocache of their own for us to hide.  I couldn't get a GPS signal for our first hiding place outside our apartment, so Tisha and I are in the process of looking for a new location to hide the cache.  Later that night, we chilled out at The Boathouse over drinks and dinner, where Joel and I had another opportunity to watch and talk football (much to Tisha's delight).

The next morning, Tisha dropped Joel at a nearby hotel, where a shuttle picked him up and brought him to the airport.  Our next step is to get Elena out here for her own visit to even things out.

My sister Amy and her fiance Joe got married on Saturday, October 11th, so Tisha and I headed back to Minnesota for the first time since we moved here.  It was a great time to be in town, as many extended family members and friends were around.

We drove down to Seattle on Thursday evening to stay the night at Ian's apartment in Bothell.  This allowed us to have a short, 30-minute drive to the airport on Friday morning, rather than have to drive directly from Vancouver to Seattle and risk missing our flight due to customs lines at border (which has happened before).

Our flight arrived in the Twin Cities around 2:30 p.m., and Tisha's mom picked us up in her new Toyota Yaris.  We dropped off our stuff at Tisha's parents' place and immediately headed out to the TeaSource in St. Paul for our first of many visits there.

Friday evening, we headed down to St. Olaf College in Northfield for the rehearsal, and from there, drove to Cannon Falls for the groom's dinner, where we met up with my mom, step-dad and the rest of the out-of-towners.  Tisha eventually headed out to meet up with her friend Becky (for dinner and a follow-up coffee at McDonald's), while I spent the evening catching up with the family.  After dinner we got a tour of Amy and Joe's house, and then headed to my Uncle Rick and Aunt Jo's place to hang out and drink (per usual).

On Saturday morning, we headed to Saint Paul, where Tisha had a hair appointment, and I messed around on Grand Avenue (visiting Jamba Juice, Cheapo Records, Wuollet's Bakery and TeaSource like old times).  We then drove back down to St. Olaf for the wedding.  Everything went smoothly, other than the random rainstorm just before the ceremony.  The reception was held at the Rosemount Community Center.  It was a fun evening that included lots of food and drink, dancing, and good old-fashioned bubble hockey.

The next day, we hosted a BBQ at the Englund house.  We ate burgers, chicken and chicken-bacon-pineapple brats on the grill, along with some fabulous homemade ice cream compliments of Solveig!  I had a good time watching football from the hot tub and chatting with friends.  We were also asked to be godparents!  Later that afternoon, Tisha's cousin Anna stopped by to enjoy the hot tub as well.  We finished the evening visiting more family at another uncle and aunt's house, followed by an excellent, late-night visit to Majors sports bar with Mom, Rick, Lucas and a two-for-one drink special.

On Monday, I ate lunch at the Gopher Bar in St. Paul with former DNR co-workers and stopped in to visit co-workers at my previous workplace, Powel.  Afterwards, I joined Tisha, Solveig and Tisha's grandpa for lunch at Khoury's restaurant.  That night, we went to Jon and Shannon's house for dinner, which was headlined by Jon's awesome homemade fried chicken and David's homemade coleslaw.  We had a great time visiting with the Sexes, Little Joe, Carrie and David.  But this also meant we had a hard time leaving (and probably set the record for longest Minnesotan good-bye).

The next morning we got on a 9:00 a.m. flight and headed back to Seattle.  We ate lunch with Ian (including a tour of his workplace) and stopped in Bellingham at the mall to pick up some supplies (where Tisha found a great new tea store).  The border wasn't busy and we finally arrived home around 7:00 p.m.

All-in-all, it was a great trip back to Minnesota: action-packed, with little time for rest.  Luckily that's what home is for.

Last Monday, we had an all-staff meeting at work to learn about our company's role in the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver.  It ended up being the greatest all-staff meeting in history!

We all shuffled into the lunch area at 10:00 a.m. to find a breakfast buffet offering pastries, mini-quiche, bagels with a variety of toppings (including cream cheese and lox), yogurt with granola, and juices.  There were also Marketing folks handing out high-quality Olympic Canada scarves and Olympic pins to each employee.  We loitered and chatted with each other until 11:00 a.m., at which time we were directed into the common area.

The common area was set up to host a press conference, complete with a podium, cameras, microphones, the whole deal.  When the press conference began, we all looked on as our president announced a partnership between Port Metro Vancouver and the 2010 Olympics.  The Olympic organization is going to use our building as the Media Center during the Olympics.  After that announcement, Canadian Olympic athlete Kyle Hamilton spoke about the importance of Vancouver hosting the Olympics.  Kyle was part of the gold-medal-winning Men's Eight rowing team in Beijing.  At 6'6", he's pretty damn tall.

After Kyle's talk, the meeting was wrapped up with a video.  This video involved the three Olympic mascots, along with our mascot, Salty Sam, doing crazy mascot shit out on a boat in the harbour.  As the video progressed, the mascots got closer to our office, making their way into our lobby and then finally opening our office door.  The video ended, and in came the Olympic mascots!  It was wonderful!  The rest of the meeting was spent with staff getting their pictures taken with Kyle and with the mascots (sans Salty Sam).  I was able to build up the courage to get a picture taken with my favorite mascot, Quatchi.

By the way, work hasn't decided what is going to happen with employees during the Olympics.  But rumor has it that because of the additional security, all non-essential employees (definitely me) would get two weeks off.  Sounds great... but we'll see.