Gotta catch 'em all!

Right after Candytown!

Candytown, hailed as a holiday festival, was somewhat less than that.

We wanted to go as it was largely the first "Christmas event" of the season. I was picturing elves and candy and Santa and reindeer and peppermint all around. I was greeted by food trucks and tent for a community college and one for bicycles. There was a Santa. We could not see him as he was swarmed by the line, hoard, of folks hoping to get a picture of their child on his lap. There were a few candy canes. All of them fake. There was popcorn. All of it fake. There was a sleigh. Made of ice.

Hrm.

We still had fun. It was really nice to get out. We hadn't explored Yaletown much, and it's definitely somewhere we'll visit again. Candytown, not as much.

 Also this hilarious sign.

 And this gorgeous little park

But then there was Pokemon to be played!!! They released two new games yesterday. Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire. Ruby and Sapphire were both originally released in 2003, but they have redone them for the Nintendo 3DS. Quite exciting! 

So once we returned from the adventured in Yaletown (via Starbucks), we snuggled up on the couch to play some video games. Quite a great day.

Mom's Grilled Cheese and Passion Planner!

What a great weekend! The miraculously beautiful weather prompted us to stretch our legs and spend some time outside.

I had also stumbled across the Passion Planner earlier this week! They have a free layout of the weekly pages that you can download for free. I wanted to give it a shot, but didn't want to wait for the backlog to eventually get one in 2015. So I Excel-jigged a spread of the months and printed a whole calendar!

Yesterday I took the copies for Max and I up to Staples to have them spiral-bound. I also found a really cool drawn map of Vancouver at Granville Island. It has our actual building on it! I took that to Staples as well to have it laminated.

On the way back we stopped at the food trucks by the Vancouver Art Gallery. I have had my eye on Mom's Grilled Cheese Truck for a while now and finally got a sandwich! They also make a mean tomato soup. You can get a cup, or if you just want it for dipping as I usually do, you can get a shot of soup! 

I took my grilled cheese and we went to Chipotle. At least we're trying to eat locally.

I snagged a couple of seats while Max got in line.

A couple sat down next to us, and they were speaking Spanish! They asked if I'd gotten my grilled cheese sandwich from Chipotle. That's my in! 

No, from Mom's. Would you mind me asking where you're from?

The one gentleman was born and raised Vancouver, but his husband was from Mexico.

I'm from Texas!!!

They've been here about 14 years, and were trying Chipotle for the first time (it is rather new to the area) and weren't so impressed.

I asked where they frequented for good Mexican food. 

They recommended La Taqueria and The Mexican.

My goodness. I told them that Mexican food here is like Asian food in Texas, there's just something a little wrong about it.

I went back to Staples today to pick up our calendars. The laminating was going to take a little longer and won't be ready until Tuesday. I grabbed them and headed toward the Marketplace IGA for a few groceries. It's really a gorgeous weekend out! There hasn't been rain for several days!! That's crazy here!

I made it into the building to find both elevators working!! WHAATT?!!!? YAYYY!!!

Put away all the groceries and finally sat down to look at my beautiful Passion Planner.

And Staples put some of the pages in backward.

**UGH**

They apparently take small sections at a time off of my perfectly in order calendar to punch the holes for the spiral. They punched one of these sections on the wrong side. This meant January was followed by March and then February.

No.

Nope.

Wrong.

I spent an hour pacing around the apartment trying to figure out how much of it I could live with or what I could do about it. I am aware that this is the epitome of a first world problem. However, it was also something I was going to change.

I un-spiraled the spiral binding and removed the pages that were in the wrong spot. I then proceeded to reprint said pages. I took this with me and went back to Staples, hoping they could just punch the holes in them so I could rebind everything. 

They punched the wrong holes in it.

-_-

The nice man kindly said he would make a copy of all the pages and re-punch them. No, that's what I had already done. Alright.

HE COPIED THEM ON TO A HIGH GLOSS PAPER. THAT DOESN'T MATCH THE REST OF THE PAGES. I will survive this. Surely, I will survive this.

Day 43: There are Belugas?!

Mom and I went to the aquarium today! 

We walked there, of course. Took about an hour and a half. It was a nice walk though. Over to Canada Place and then along the sea wall until we hit Stanley Park. 

I was oddly surprised by how many joggers and bikers there were at 11 am on a Wednesday, by themselves, just doing their thing. It was a gorgeous and very peaceful walk.

Then the aquarium!!! It was amazing!! 

It was the two of us surrounded by nannies and moms and toddlers. Until around 4, when the post-school rush hit! 

We were a little surprised when we arrived to learn that half of the exhibits are outdoors! The animals are naturally use to the colder temperatures, so they just built outdoor habitats. A little chilly, but fun to see. 

There were belugas that did tricks. A couple of port dolphins, some adorable sea otters, a pair of seals and sea lions! Pretty much every one of them knew a couple of orders. The team doing the shows were having the animals do body presents to check them for injuries. Mom bought memberships for Max and I as an early Christmas present! We're excited to take Michael when he comes up in a while. 

Mom wanted to walk home. I wasn't as convinced. It would have been a good 45 minutes, plus the sun had set and it was getting pretty cold out. Max driving up to get us was a much better option. Only about 5 minutes instead! 

We stayed in for the rest of the evening watching Downton Abbey. I got mom absolutely hooked on it!! We watched most of the first season! Then I talked her in to letting me drive her to the airport the next morning since we would be heading out before the sun rose! That meant we got to watch one more episode of Downton!

Day 42: Remembrance Day 2014

Mom's plane came in yesterday around 2! I met her at the airport and we took the train back to the apartment. Well, first to the gorgeous Waterfront Station, where we switched to the train line that runs by the apartment. Then up to the apartment! Thankfully there was one working elevator, so we didn't have to climb any stairs. She and I stayed in last night, made some grilled chicken and pasta for dinner, and looked through my wedding albums. It was a pretty perfect evening. Max had an evening class, so it was our ladies night of her visit.

This morning started much earlier for her than it did for Max and I. She usually wakes up around 5:30 am Dallas time, which is 3:30 am Vancouver time, which is four hours before the sun rises. She says she stayed in bed until about 6:30, which I found to be very impressive. Max and I, on the other hand, got up around 9. 

We went to Ricky's for some breakfast. It was beautifully sunny outside, but a little too cold to sit on the patio. From there we wandered over to Victory Square for the Remembrance Day Ceremony and Parade. 

Today marks 100 years since the end of World War I.

The War to End All Wars.

Sadly, this was not true. Yet the members of the Commonwealth of Nations still pause every year to remember those who lost their lives in the war, and those who have dedicated their service and lives to the armed forces since then. 

In the States the day still holds meaning. We don't wear poppies or sing the songs of the fallen. We don't consider the day a holiday, giving everyone the day off work to gather round war memorials across the country. We remember every person who has worn the uniform. 

Max, mom, and I honored Matthew. We honored grandpa, my dad's dad. We honored those we knew, those we never would. 

There were poems, songs, flyovers, and 21-gun salutes. It was spectacular and elegant.

From there we went down into Chinatown so that Max could show us his campus! I'd seen a very small part of it when we went to Jake's graduation back in July. Max gave us the whole grand tour though! Then we wandered back down Pender to stare at the outside of my office building because I didn't want to deal with unsetting and resetting the alarm. So that was nice.

The day was still young and there was much to see, so we decided to head over to Granville Island. Miraculously, Max and I had yet to make it there. We decided to take the Aquabus to get a nice tour of False Creek. Only, the closest Aqaubus stop to us was at Plaza of the Nations, down behind the casino. What an adventure. We took a wrong turn and wound up at some other docks that were not the correct docks. Back up and around the front of the casino and then we could see the plaza. Of the Nations. With tons of flagpoles. All flying the Canadian flag. They tried.

Our Aquabus took us to another Aquabus that took us to Granville Island. It was really cool! I can imagine it would be buckets and buckets of tourists in the summer. On this gorgeous Vancouver day that was still very cold, there were not as many tourists. Adorable children with their parents because everyone has the day off? Check. Adorable couples grocery shopping for their dinner? Check. We wondered all over the island. Through the market, past all the stores, all through the amazing toy store, by the concrete factory who paints all of their trucks and their massive silos, and around the nifty art University.

The sun started to set and it was only getting colder. We hailed an Aquabus back to the casino and traipsed back up the hill to the apartment, via the Abbott St. Starbucks of course. We warmed up our toes and then went out for dinner. Max and I had never eaten inside of Back Forty's before. It's shocking that we hadn't been since it was nice out! But it was a perfect atmosphere. Even on a game night, the place was spirited but not overcrowded or unreasonably noisy. 

A great ending to a great day. 

Birthday Weekend!!!

I'm 23 years old now!! Hurray!!

The weekend wasn't quite what I'd imagined, but it was still spectacular. My Maxwell was also feeling a little under the weather, so we largely stayed indoors. 

Friday night we were crumbled on the couch and didn't want to travel the 20 feet into the bedroom. That's when Max said we should bring the bed to the living room. This sounds amazing. We made space in the middle of the floor and pulled the spare mattress in. This is so snuggly, the grown up version of a blanket fort. 

Saturday we went outside!! We drove to the grocery store and shuffled through as quickly as possible. For the first time in our lives, we didn't buy anything NOT on the grocery list! Feeling crummy, wanting to be home quickly, and having no appetite can do that to you. 

We spent the rest of the day baking muffins and watching movies from our blanket fort. Quite splendid. 

Sunday was my birthday!! I made it out of the office as far as the mailboxes downstairs. However, I did watch two seasons of Downton Abbey! So, you know, trade-offs. We had leftover chocolate chip muffins for brunch and Max made me dinner. Really, a perfect day.

That date night

Max met me for dinner after I got off work. :)

There's an amazingly delicious restaurant, White Spot, one block down from where I work, on the way back to the apartment. I'd heard great things about it from folks at work and wanted us to try it. They have a great menu! Burgers, shakes, rice dishes, turkey dinners, everything scrumptious.

Max's first term finished on Wednesday, so he had the whole day off! It was particularly nice for him to take some of his time off to make my day!

Then we both started playing Hearth Stone, an online card collecting game Max has had his eye on for a while. A little bit of both of us for an evening together!

Double dates all over the place

Excellent Saturday!!! 

First was breakfast as Ricky's. A new favorite place! It's like a really nice Denny's. It's reasonably priced (for Vancouver, which is not reasonably priced) and very delicious. Plus right across from the apartment! So, delightful.

Then we got Max a haircut!!! He was getting a little mountain man-y, and was long overdue for a haircut. He had it cut a lot shorter than usual, but it means he'll get to avoid the place for even longer this time around. Plus he looks really sharp :)

Max headed home for some work as his first term is wrapping up this week. I went for some shopping! It's been months since I'd gotten any new clothes, and I was feeling itchy. Plus it's getting chilly here and I am not prepared. I snagged a haircut as well. I was trying to remember the last time I had a haircut. I think it was around last Thanksgiving!! I didn't get it cut before the wedding since I was just doing an up-do. I trim my own bangs on a regular basis but it always becomes time for the rest of your hair to be trimmed up.

Dinner plans next!!! Max's good friend Taylor from VFS lives a few blocks over from us. We met up with Taylor and his girlfriend Marisa for some dinner and drinks. 

They laughingly told us they were taking us to McDonald's, weren't sure if we'd heard of it. We actually went to Elephant & Castle which has a couple of pubs around Vancouver and across the country. It was delicious food! The drinks didn't measure up quite as far, but still a great spot.

From there we headed to Granville Street for some crepes and people watching. Saturday nights bring out the best worst side of Vancouver all over Granville. There were street magicians, 3 cos-players (exactly 3, it was very odd), gals with large advertisement backpacks, folks on first dates and tons of locals hitting the club scene. The crepes were delicious though. Max and I split a cinnamon sugar crepe and enjoyed every last bit of that thing. 

It was great to be out with friends. That was the first thing we'd done together with folks we've met here. Quite the splendid evening.

Day 21: What do you eat at Canadian Thanksgiving?

Turkey, apparently. Similar to that of the American Thanksgiving. Though, there is less poultry-mixing (no turduckens) and a significant lack of deep-fried anything.

There was actually no work today. But I'm having a tough time getting off the beautifully clean five days a week numbering system.

We, however, did not have turkey today. 

Thankfully, Loki and I are both feeling much better after our rough and tough Friday. As such, I felt up to particularly special Thanksgiving dinner. 

Home-fried chicken sandwiches it is! Admittedly, not the best thing for me. But after three days of protein shakes, apple sauce and tomato soup, it sure sounded amazing! So far, the body is holding up fine despite the solid food interruption. Good news things. 

What else are we doing to celebrate the festive day? Why, watching all of the Harry Potter movies, of course! Man, things have really improved since 2001.

Burgess Family Infirmary

This weekend wasn't what we were expecting.

We had plans to go down to Seattle for the three day weekend. Visit Michael, see the Space Needle, visit the site of the World's Fair. All the Seattle things. 

But things were working against the Burgess clan.

I've been having constant stomach pains since Sunday night. They got worse at night, when I moved around or lied down. They got better when I ate. Sometimes the pain radiated through to my back. I finally gave in to go see a doctor on Thursday. He told me I have mild pancreatitis.

He then told us I should eat really gentle things for a few days to give my pancreas a break and let it heal itself. You know, steamed vegetables, bananas, mashed potatoes, rice. All of the things that I don't eat. Great. 

I did some internet medical research on my own and figured out that an all-liquids weekend was probably the best thing I could do for it. The doctor also gave me some pills that are essentially Prevacid to help calm down my stomach. 

After we got home from the doctor and propped me up with a heating pad, tomato soup, and tons of pillows, we noticed Loki was keeping his right eye closed. Because we weren't already up to our elbows in ailments. 

We called a vet to make sure there wasn't anything more seriously wrong with him. Initially we got the all clear, with instructions to bring him in if it didn't clear up. 

Friday night, of course, it hadn't cleared up. 

We'd already decided to stay in town for the weekend. My pain was getting worse, and walking around Seattle all weekend really wasn't in the cards. 

Loki had a trip back to the vet. He asked us a series of questions and we were initially hopeful as our answers were all "no." He hadn't been sneezing, or coughing, or itching at the eye, eating less or not drinking, there was not watery or gunky discharge. Evidently these were not the right answers and only made the vet more concerned. 

He gave Loki some drops to "freeze" the eye (still not sure what that was, but he said it would help with the pain he was having). Then he dropped in some dye that would stay in any scratches. Then he had to flush the eye with water.

Now, even with humans, flushing an eye with water is not an easy or pleasant experience. With cats, even worse. Loki hated every minute of this. The vet had a very large syringe without a needle so that he could repeatedly squirt the water at poor Loki's eye. 

The final step was to turn off all of the lights and use a florescent flashlight to look for any dye remaining in Loki's eye. To our horror, a spot the size of a pea shone bright green on his cornea. This is a corneal ulcer, one of the largest the vet had seen. Holy moly. 

He said the pain would be very harsh and it was odd that there had been no discharge. It would have started with a small scratch while he and Amelia were playing, or while Loki was grooming, or with a small foreign body, such as dust. The most important thing now was making sure that any treatment avenue we chose worked as fast as possible.

The vet brought in a gel-like eye drop antibiotic, dropping one drop into his eye and making sure it spread across the whole eye. This would need to be done every 2 hours for 24 hours, then every 4 hours for another 24 hours, then every 6 hours for 4 days. However, if there was no difference in the first 12 hours, we would need to switch to a stronger dose of two different antibiotics. 

Welcome to the long holiday weekend.

THAT MAZE RUNNER

Oh my goodness.

So I read all three Maze Runner books and the fourth to be released but first in the story prequel while I was on my way to/in/on my home from Colorado. They are amazing. Well, by the prequel I was skipping through a lot of the fighting sequences to get to the actual content that moved the plot forward. But the concept is amazing, the twists are really clever and I like it as an addition to the teen post-apocalyptic craze that is current literature. 

The movie came out last night.

So of course we went to see it this afternoon!!!

They had to change a few things to make it work for a movie audience, time frame and overall story telling purposes. Overall, I thought the changes were fine. There was nothing that made me question their ability to continue to tell the story as it was in the books moving forward. 

It was absolutely amazing. I will see it again. I will be anxiously awaiting the next movie.

Fatburger

We have taken Fatburger off of our favorite new restaurants list. Every time we go, we wind up disappointed with the quality of the burger! It would just leave us sad and wishing we'd walked all the way to the Five Guy's. 

I know this leaves us with a very unimpressive list of favorite places to eat. Here's the thing, we're stinking homebody's! We don't like going out for food, or if we do it's inevitably for a burger and we go to Five Guy's. Our grocery store adventures were stressful enough, but now provide us with a solid recipe list each week.

Alas, maybe we will start to go outside again one day soon.

Food is sustenance

We live on the edge of China Town and downtown. This means the most reasonable way to go to the grocery store is walking, but most of the surrounding grocery stores special in Asian cuisine. 

Not particularly our cup of tea. I am one of the pickiest eaters around (I do not consume fruits or vegetables, it's a texture thing I don't want to get into right now), so I to say I was overwhelmed by the Asian supermarket is an understatement. We ventured out to the T&T Supermarket one of our first weekends here, and were scared into Target for the next month.

Target is 14 km (8.5 miles) and at least 30 minutes from our apartment.

That is ridiculous.

We reconsidered and did some googling, to find Nester's Market. It's much more Americanized. Of course, when I looked it up, I found the one that was twice as far away. We walked there. We walked all the way there. A 20 minute walk largely uphill. All the way to the grocery store because I was emblazoned with a passion to find a local grocery store.

Jake was still living with us then, and was very confused when we returned. The Nester's Market he goes to is a 5 minute walk, tops. 

I don't understand how this keeps happening.

Target was back in the rotation.

Eventually the gas was too expensive and the drive was too long so I was determined to try the Nester's Market again. 

Nester's is now our regular grocery store. We plan out our meals on Sunday and make one trip for the week. I'm still anxious every time we go there, but I'm starting to learn the layout.

Rules of (Our) Cats

1. Though shalt not let humans poop alone. Remember, all doors open when you pull them toward yourself. So get that door open and make sure they know you're there for them. If you are Amelia, they are cornered and stationary => approach for love.
2. Check in with the humans at 3 am every day to make sure they are still alive and will feed you in the morning. This is a requirement. Every. Single. Morning. Use whatever force necessary.
3. Human-given "rules" are really just suggestion. If they're not looking, it's not even a suggestion. Do as you please.
4. The only blinds in the house that matter are the ones still covering windows. Disregard all other windows, you need access to that one, immediately, every time. Get yourself on the other side of those blinds. 
5. It is a 100% guarantee that both food bowls are different and you are being treated unequally from the other feline in the house. You had better check out both food bowls in a continuous, alternating fashion in order to ensure your complete satisfaction with meals.
6. Don't be afraid to let the humans know where you are. This could mean several things, from an obnoxiously loud meow or series of meows to engaging your claws with their skin. Your choice, really.
7. If the humans give any indication that they may need something soon, sit on it immediately and remain there until further notice. Laptops and tablets are especially high  priority, but this rule can apply to literally anything.
8. The front door is the ultimate challenge. It is to be feared or taunted, however you see fit. If you make it into the hallway, the first corner is not to be turned. Proceed to give your human a work out up and down the first hallway segment. Particularly if they are on their way somewhere, make it last, make it count.
9. The human's sleep times are merely suggestions. That doesn't mean you have to keep it down or stay in one place. Carry on with your regularly scheduled activities.
10. Engage with other cats in whatever manner you see fit. The humans know you love each other, but a test of their will is always welcomed. Hiss and scream and whap at one another. Then snuggle in the recliner for an afternoon nap.

Quick comparison

I recently found out that I need to obtain a Social Insurance Number (SIN) to be paid in Canada. No one tells you this when you fill out your work permit application. I found it buried deep down in a Yahoo! Answers page when I asked about how on earth I wasn't able to download a work permit application form (more on that fun story here). 

The Social Insurance Number is the Canadian Social Security Number.

Great. I have just danced a lovely dance with such a government agency once this summer. The Social Security office was my least favorite of all the offices.

So I prep. I know what documents I need, I know where the office is, I know what time it opens, and I am ready.

Max kindly agrees to go with me at 8 am for moral support.

We arrive at the office to find no line. There are about 6 people sitting in the lobby, but no one is standing in a line, no one is talking, no one smells unnecessarily, no one even looks the slightest bit unhappy.

What is this place.

We walk up to the front desk and I hand over my paperwork, I get entered into the queue (because it's queues here, not lines) and we go sit down. 

Not even 20 minutes later, I'm called back to a desk. I once again present all of my paperwork and the nice gentleman tries too hard to converse and joke with us at 8:30 in the morning (remember, we're still unemployed and out of school -> 8:30 am is about 3 hours before when our day usually starts).

Next thing I know I'm handed a sheet of paper with my new SIN on it.

There were no numbers, no security guards, no lines, no bullet proof glass windows. Just friendliness and a clean environment. 

You go, Canada.

FINALLY got my work permit

When we first moved up to Vancouver, we went through the Peace Arch (super cool place, don't let the horrible .gov website make you think any differently) and tried to get the study permit for Max and the work permit for me. That didn't go as planned, but they were very nice about it and assured us that when we reentered after the wedding Max would get his permit and I'd be able to get mine as long as we had our marriage license, proof of funds, proof of Max's acceptance, and proof of his school program being paid for. They told us it would be fine. That we would both be able to get our permits. Even if I didn't have a job offer yet. That things would be fine.

Mmmhmm.

Then we flew back in.

Things were certainly not fine.

I went online to try to apply for a work permit. I successfully went through the process to BE APPROVED TO APPLY MY REQUEST to get a work permit. Quite seriously. They ask you a series of questions and then tell you that you might be eligible for X or Y type of work permit. Then the program sets up an account with the required paperwork for the application for the permit. I had to upload copies of several documents and download one they provided, fill it out, and reattach it. This is fine. I'm very capable of all of these things. I clicked to download the form.

IT WASN'T THERE. A full Adobe PDF downloaded and opened. Across the top of the document were the following two statements: "This form requires the latest version of Adobe Reader. Try downloading the latest version here." It just said "here." Like it could be a real link you could click. But it was a PDF. It was a whole PDF.

I thought maybe, just maybe, this actually was on my end. I downloaded and installed the latest version of Adobe Reader. I got the exact same form. I tried to download it on my phone. On Max's laptop. On my tablet. On Max's old MacBook. I then uninstalled Adobe Reader and installed a slightly older version, but one which they explicitly listed on a help session page. Every single time I got the PDF telling me to download Reader.

I figured I could email someone and let them know that the wrong form was out there. I wound my way through the contact us center to find the exact page for the problem I was having. If I had already submitted my application, they provided an email address I could contact. Otherwise, if I was still working on my application, I should navigate to my home page and click on the "Tell Us" link in the upper right hand corner. THERE IS NO SUCH LINK.

I am now frustrated beyond belief.

Meanwhile, I've been applying for jobs. Because I need a job.

I've had an excellent interview with a company I really like, and they ask what my work permit status is. I check online one more time to see if the form issue is fixed. 

It's not.

Of course.

I start to cry from frustration. 

Max asks what's wrong. We need to drive to the border. NOW. He grabs his keys and we head down to the parking garage.

The line at the border wasn't awful. We would have gone to a crossing with a shorter wait time, but I was worried about the ability of other facilities to file the proper paperwork. The guard at the US entry wasn't that bad. He asked a TON of questions. He was right in line with the personal inquisition of the DMV workers we encountered a few weeks back. Something about the States, man. 

We headed down to Blaine for dinner. This might be the cutest city in the whole of the United States of America.

In case you couldn't read it in that first picture:

WHERE AMERICA BEGINS. 

I just can't. It was too cute. We had pizza (well, Max had a calzone) at the local pizza place on the main street in town. It was picture perfect. I didn't want to leave.

We drove the 5 minutes to get in line to enter Canada. The line was just as exhausting and never ending as the line to enter the US.

We then encountered one of the most intimidating and accusatory people I have ever met.

Max handed him our passports and he asked where we lived. Max tried to answer.

"Vancouv-"

"Vancouver, Canada? Vancouver, Washington? I don't know which one you're talking about."

"Canada, sorry."

"Why were you in the States?"

"We just got dinner."

"Where?"

"Blaine."

"How do you two know each other?"

** My passport already has Burgess as my last name...

"We're married."

"What are you doing in Canada"

"I'm here for school, we're hoping to get her work permit now."

"When did you enter Canada last?"

Max - "A couple of-"

"I was asking her."

Cathy - "August 5th, after our wedding."

"Ok, where was the wedding, when was the wedding. I don't know what wedding you're talking about. I don't know where you were or whose wedding it was or what you were doing."

"Ok, sorry."

"No, it's fine, I just need to know the information."

"Ok. It was our wedding on Saturday, August 2nd, in Dallas, TX."

"Ok. Do you have anything to declare."

** It's important to note here that there is nothing else in our car. The back is empty, there's nothing in the back seats. I have my purse on the floor in front of me.

"Nope, nothing."

"No weapons, no food, no animals, no drugs? You didn't pick up anything when you were down South?"

** We had just been in Blaine for maybe an hour to have dinner....

"No, nothing at all."

"Alright, pull ahead and hand this form to the officer."

OH MY GOSH. That was by far our worst customs/border experience! Even the lady we dealt with when we forgot to declare the cats was nicer! The worst was really just the accusatory tone he had at all times and way he kept jumping on our answers!

I am now terrified that I'll just be deported and won't see Max or the cats again for a year. Shaking in my boots. Ready to pass out.

We park and head inside, go stand in the proper line and wait to be called to the front.

The nicest young lady comes up and calls us over. We hand her Max's passport with his study permit, my passport, and our marriage certificate, explaining that I'd like to apply for a work permit. She has the softest, friendliest voice I have heard in my entire life.

"Oh you JUST got married?!"

** OH GOD PLEASE DON'T THINK THIS IS A GREEN CARD MARRIAGE AND DENY MY REQUEST OR POSTPONE AND START AN INVESTIGATION

"Well congratulations! Alright have a seat."

I'm visibly sweating at this point.

Max tries to calm me down and we joke about the Border Security show I've taken to, saying we should have been at least 5 episodes by now (I'm honestly going to do an entire post on that show, because it's hilarious!). 

I see her walk over to the printer and finally I start to feel hopeful and relieved. She calls us back up to the counter.

And just hands me my passport with a work permit printed and stapled in it!!!!! WHAAAATTT!!!?!?! So exciting!

So now I can work in Canada. Theoretically.

Customs and Immigration: Round 4

Alright ladies and gents. We're old hat at this now. We've done it three times already, and this time we don't have a U-Haul or any cats. This should be a breeze.

DFW still has no Canadian customs forms. I just do not understand how that keeps happening. Oh well. We were prepared this time and made sure we grabbed one before getting in the line to talk to a customs agent. We even had pens at hand to fill it out! Many an inexperienced traveler around us were inquiring about forms as they approached the agents. Not us! Oh no! We were prepared!

We actually went through customs pretty successfully. We told them that we had funds, Max's acceptance letter, our marriage license, and a place to live. They quickly shuffled us toward immigration to fill out our paperwork. 

We had to collect all of our luggage before entering the immigration office. But, you couldn't bring the cart with all of your luggage into the office. You had to be very trusting and leave it in a big hoard outside near the general population. This was not an easy thing for me. We had a lot of precious gifts and valuable items in our suitcases! Who would be watching them while we waited in more long lines to fill out our paperwork!?!!!? 

Once we made it to the front of the line, we presented our papers and requests to the immigration agent. He quickly took everything to ask another agent a question. Once he came back to our window, he informed us that a study permit does not automatically grant a spousal work permit. What? WHAT?! The agents at the land border informed us we would have no problems getting my work permit once we had our marriage license! This is ridiculous!

So much for smooth sailing.

He told me that I might be eligible for an open work permit, but that my best shot was probably through a company filing for me. Great. That takes me back to square one on the job hunt. 

Welp. It's not like we can start a fight with the immigration agent. 

You win this round, immigration.

Target :(

Alright.

First, read the post about Bed, Bath & Beyond. Because that was an amazing experience. You need the full comprehension of what went down there to appreciate what I'm about to tell you.

Did you read it? Really, you can't proceed otherwise. There is vital information I'm not repeating here.

You promise?

Then let's continue.

We went to Target today to get the things off of our registry. 

And a few groceries.

And a couple of things that weren't on our registry.

We make it to the checkout line and everything is scanned. I pull out our gift cards. Then I hear it.

"Oh, we don't accept States gift cards. Our systems are different."

What?

This is a thing that doesn't make sense. You're Target. They're Target. You even have a Starbucks inside. How? What is happening? But we have gift cards?

:(

I still don't know what happened.

Vancouver news

There are things in this major metropolitan area that still boggle me.

I was watching the news tonight when a very interesting story came on.

Several of the lakes around here have recently had something happen to them, so they are not up to drinking levels. 

Yea, don't ye fear, the government is working on it. A few of these lakes are now back up to acceptable qualities! All the others are still a work in progress, but will be back soon.

Do you know what this means? Do you understand what they are saying?

PEOPLE HERE DRINK THE LAKE WATER.

THEY USE IT IN THEIR HOMES.

This is one of the largest cities in Canada.

How???

Bed, Bath & Too Much Beyond

We were blessed to receive many gifts over the course of our engagement and wedding. This blessing posed a problem.

How to get everything back to Vancouver?

We didn't have our address when we registered, and later, Bed, Bath & Beyond wouldn't let us put in a Canadian address. This meant all gifts, big and small, went to my parents' house in Texas.

We didn't even have enough luggage, much less enough money to pay for the checked bags, to get everything home with us when we flew. 

Max's mom suggested a plan: Return everything in Dallas and repurchase in Vancouver.

This seemed like a great idea! 

I, however, wanted to double check with BBB up in Vancouver to make sure this plan would work. Max insisted that it would be fine but courteously agreed to make the 30 minute trek with me to the store in North Vancouver just to ask them if they thought this was the way to go. After wrong turns and tons of traffic, we finally made it. The fabulously friendly folks at the registry counter assured us that everything would run smoothly within the first two minutes of our being there. It was nuts. I could feel the "I told you so" burning into my skull. Oh well. At least we know it will work and now we have a plan in place.

Lots of place settings and guest towels later, we were back in Vancouver with our merchandise return cards (essentially cash for BBB) and gift cards. We arrived at the store around 1 pm. We went straight back to the wedding registry section to get a printed copy of our registry so we would know what they had in the store. 

Now, I wouldn't say that I've ever had a negative interaction with BBB employees, but the folks at the North Vancouver location were above and beyond in the friendliness and helpfulness departments. It was overwhelming at times. They also had what I found to be a remarkably high number of employees working at 1 pm on a regular old Wednesday afternoon... 

We were surrounded. Two nice ladies helped us print the registry and get us started. They then made a store-wide radio announcement that we were in the building, so all the employees would be on the lookout for us to offer their utmost assistance.

This was getting really real.

We found all 6 of our red place settings, but they didn't have enough of our green so we ordered all 6 of those. Since we chose all of our serving pieces in the gorgeous chocolate color, but this location wasn't carrying any of the chocolate, all of them were ordered. They also didn't have our silverware, so that's ordered. They had a different brand of serving utensils, but they were still excellent quality, so we grabbed those instead of the ones we had registered for. We found towels and sheets and KitchenAid Stand Mixer accessories galore. The actual mixer had to be ordered since they didn't have the yellow we wanted. 

We sprung for a new counter top grill! It has removable grill platters that are dishwasher safe (YES!!!!!!) and they reverse to be a griddle. It also opens flat so both the top and bottom panels can be used for cooking. That's one of our favorite new buys. 

We couldn't go home without getting something for the kittens, so we got them a cool new toy. It required 3 C batteries. What?! What needs C batteries? And 3?! That's such an awkward number of batteries. They only come in even packaging!! Why would you ruin everything and request that I provide you with an odd number of batteries?!!?!! WHY?!?!! We also don't currently have any C batteries... We're working on it...

We filled a couple of carts. Every time we were just starting to think that we should find a new one, a helpful employee was there with a brand new cart, offering to take our full one up to the front for when we check out. Unbelievable! It was a great adventure!

We wound up with some things off of my "As Seen On TV" list!! XD We got a sticky buddy and a scrub daddy! They're both pretty great, and Max is an incredible guy who loves all the quirky parts about me.

Nicole was the gal on the wedding registry end who was helping us throughout the day. She was looking up items to see if they had them in a local warehouse. She suggested cool items she thought we might like. She was the best. Then she brought us to Elise to check out. She brought us to Elise because she was also the best. These are just the facts.

The thing you need to know now is that two of my best girls are named Nicole and Elise. They're sisters who I've known since we were in preschool!! I found it just absolutely hilarious that we wound up with a Nicole and Elise to walk us through the checkout process.

One of our amazing guests gifted us a 20% off your entire purchase coupon. This blew Elise away. Lots of things, that day, blew Elise away. She had this adorable gasp that we heard again and again as we went through the check out process.

The first thing that happened was the order purchase of the items they didn't have in the store. Nicole had compiled the list and printed a sheet with all the bar-codes listed on it. Elise appreciated this, but still gasped at the sight of it. She scanned all of them in and we used the first merchandise credit card on that order. Then I brought up the 20% off coupon (I was under the incorrect assumption that the order from the warehouse and the checkout of items in the store were two different purchases, meaning we could only use the coupon on one of them). Elise gasped her adorable gasp and Nicole excitedly informed her that it's a new coupon BBB is offering. They quickly decided that it would apply to everything we ordered/bought that day. Poor Elise now had to re-scan all the items to do a return, apply the discount, and then scan all of them once more! There were many gasps.

Then we started in on the items we had in our three carts. The four of us now worked as an assembly team! Max removed items from the carts and handed them to me, I found the bar code on each item and presented them to Elise, Elise scanned them and handed them to Nicole, Nicole bagged all the items and put them back in the carts. We were very well oiled! 

As we moved through our merchandise credit and our gift cards, Elise began to tell us she was really going to miss the time we spent together. We said our goodbyes as we hauled the carts over to the elevator. After we got it all into the back of the car, we remembered the car-elevator-hallway-apartment process through which all things must enter our home... 

It only took us 5 trips. Not bad.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

One of the coolest things I've seen, ever. First of all, Vancouver is one of the prettiest places I've ever been. It's all green, hills, huge trees, mountains, water. Oh my gosh it's just crazy gorgeous. Then the Capilano Suspension Bridge capitalizes on all of this in the most perfect way. It's not even that far out of the city. That's one of the other best things about Vancouver. You only have to drive for about 5 minutes to see all of this amazing beauty. Stanley Park is just at the end of downtown. There's smaller parks all around the apartment. Capilano was just a 30 minute drive north. It's outstanding. It's a kind of place I feel I could explore for a lifetime, but there will always be a prettier nook I haven't seen yet.

We went with the Becks up to the suspension bridge. It was a little rainy when we first got there, but the rain cleared and held off until we were leaving. Well, really the only thing to do here is look at all the pictures, so here they are!

Selfies are cuter, Jake!