Oh man, I am a very sweaty pig. The clouds have gone away, and I’ve been sweating pretty much non stop. I’m about to jump in the pool and relax, but as I swung by the open wireless here I thought I’d do a quick update. I made my way to the Plaza here in Playa Dorada, which is a unique collection of outdoor shops. I purchased some Cuban cigars (not sure why, but when in rome…), and just booked two excursions for the next two days. Tomorrow I’ll be spending the day drinking and sightseeing on a Safari into the heart of the Dominican Republic. It will be a good opportunity to see what the ...

Thankfully the clouds are overhead today, because yesterday was absolutely insanely hot. So hot in fact, that most people didn’t even hang out by the pool bar. I’m pretty much all pooled out I think, so I’m going to find something else to do today. I’ll probably walk down to the Plaza and book an excursion or two. They have an all-day catamaran trip to a remote island (with an open bar I might add) that sounds fairly appealing, as well as a safari trip to a waterfall you can swim in. Talking to people around here, it sounds like nearly everyone has had a lackluster summer back home, ...

This will be a short entry, but I just wanted to say how great this place is. The people I’ve met have been super friendly, and the weather is pretty amazing. I took a pile of photos yesterday from around the pool. Unfortunately, upon waking up this morning, I’ve encountered some fairly serious camera problems. The first is that my DLSR body refuses to turn on now. It was working last night when I went to sleep, but now it just refuses to do anything. I suspect that due to the heat and humidity it’s being stubborn, but it’s not looking good right now. The other serious issue is that ...

The first thing to note is that I cannot seem to find my little Canon camera, and it’s the one I took all the photos with at Rob and Anna’s wedding. So while I’m pretty sure it will turn up, unfortunately I do not have any photos to go with this entry 🙁 Oh well. The wedding was quite lovely, and it was absolutely great to hang out with old friends again. It was a bit shocking to me to remember just how good some of these friends were. I guess my time back in Vancouver has sort of dulled my memory of what Ottawa life was like, but I received a lot of hugs and a lot of people went out of ...

‘Nuff said. ...

Well here I am, in the Dominican Republic, taking a quick break from drinking to write a small blog entry here. This is the first time in quite a while where I’ve just relaxed and been content with reading. Last night I tried to use the wireless internet here, but it wasn’t working. And as soon as I learned it wasn’t, I almost felt a bit anxious. And that’s when I realized just how important it is that I just put the computer away this trip, and enjoy my time by the pool. So, I doubt I’ll do more than a quick blog entry a day, most likely in the morning on my way to breakfast. The ...

I managed to convince the hotel staff to give me a room at around 10:30am yesterday, which meant I could finally grab a few hours of sleep. I woke up close to 3pm, which meant I only had an hour or so before I had to head down to Manotick for the wedding rehearsal. I did a quick tour of downtown Ottawa with the time I had, took a few photos, and then got picked up by Alison. Afterwards, we all headed down to Collenade Pizza about one block from where I used to live in Ottawa. Thirty of us proceeded to catch up on lost time, eat lots of pizza, drink beer, and in general have a really great time. ...

So, after work tonight I hit the bar with a few of the guys from work.. I feel great. I haven’t been this exciting about anything in a long time. I am pretty excited to see Ottawa again, the Byward Market, the Ottawa River, Parliament, and of course, my friends Rob and Anna. Packing and leaving on a plane are always a bit stressful for me, partially because I am sort of afraid of flying, but in this case, given that I’m gone for nearly two weeks, I was worried I had forgotten a few things. I nearly forgot all my socks the first time I tried to leave the apartment, and completely forgot my ...

Well, I’m exhausted. I can rarely sleep on planes, and this trip was no different. We landed about 20 minutes ago, and all I want to do is curl up in a ball and have a nice sleep, but unfortunately I have to transfer plans in a bit and head to Ottawa. Normally I’d find a chair and try to sleep, but given that my body is about 8 hours behind on sleep now, I don’t think it’s a good idea to close my eyes, since I probably will sleep right through the boarding call on my plane. The flight out here was rather uneventful, although I have to say flying in business class kicks some major ass. ...

Well, I made it. I got to the hotel at around 10:30am and prompt went to sleep. I just woke up, and feel a bit more energized now. I’m going to go take a few quick photos and then try to find the group. ...

So in about 24 hours, I’ll be boarding a plane and heading to Ottawa for Rob and Anna’s wedding.. I’m getting pretty excited about the whole trip, and it will be good to check out Ottawa again after all these years. As I mentioned before, I’m flying the whole trip in business class (thanks for air miles), so I’m hoping it will be a pretty enjoyable flight. Sunday I fly to the Dominican Republic for a well deserved week of rest and relaxation. Tonight I had a few friends over for what will probably be my last BBQ of the summer. Keira, Rebecca and John swung by for a pretty meat-heavy ...

Tonight I went down to the Urban Fare in Yaletown to get a few BBQable items. I figured the trip itself would probably only take 30 minutes or so, since I knew exactly what I was going to pick up. As soon as I put my car into the parkade, I reached into my pocket to pull out my wallet, only to realize it wasn’t there. Since I’m less that 48 hours away from getting on a plane, the thought of not having access to any of my bank cards or visa was a bit scary at that moment. I rushed back to my apartment, searched a few places outside that I thought it might be at, but couldn’t find it. Thankfully ...

Well, my dad is officially on vacation right now, and I’m only a few days behind him. It seems weird that in just four more days I’ll be getting on a plane and disappearing for nearly two weeks. The next couple days are likely to be extremely busy. I have to get some new clothes and sandals for the beach, and also get my place cleaned up and my bags packed. Hurricane Dean is hitting Jamaica pretty hard right now, and is supposed to head towards Mexico next, so it’s likely it will be completely gone when I get down there — hopefully nobody down there gets hurt while it’s passing through. ...

This bad boy is going through the Caribbean right now. I sure hope it’s gone by the time I get there. My trip to Cuba in 2001 had to be postponed due to Hurricane Michelle, and I made it as far as Toronto before they sent us home. Back then they gave us a full refund, but usually when this happens you lose your money entirely. ...

Tonight I’ll be heading down to the Alibi room in gastown for the opening ceremonies of BarCamp Vancouver. For those of you who aren’t aware what BarCamp is, it’s essentially an “unconference” where the participants meet and generate their own discussions about things that interest them. The closest event to this that I’ve been a part of was the unconference at Northern Voice back in February, which had a really great turn out. Here’s the official description from the BarCamp website: BarCamp is an ad-hoc un-conference born from the desire for people to share and learn in an open ...

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Last weekend, I got together with Boris, Dustin and Dori, and headed up north of Whistler towards Birkinhead Lake. It was a last minute trip, decided upon while we were all under the influence, but we all decided we could use a break from the city. So on Saturday morning, at the crack of dawn, we all piled into my car and set out on the quest for fish (which would later become the quest for nachos). Surprisingly, everyone’s camping gear fit into the back of my hatcbback, but I think next year I’m definitely going to get a roof rack for it. I picked up my car last January, mainly because ...

Someone sent me a link to this a few weeks ago, and I thought it was pretty cool. So here it is. ...

A few years ago, I was the best man in my friend Jeff’s wedding. One of the responsibilities of the best man, as you probably know, is to organize the stag and to get the groom insanely drunk. I didn’t do anything amazing crazy for Jeff, but I did organize a big drinking pub crawl with some of his friends around town. I also bought a bunch of disposable cameras and distributed them to all the people attending, hoping that we would get some great shots of the event. After I got home that night (and I can’t honestly remember how I got home), I ended up with a plastic bag of disposible cameras, ...

What do the following things have in common? The Caribbean All You Can Drink A Topless Beach Adults Only Three Pools Six Bars Sandy Beach Dominican Republic All Night Dancing The “Boob” Cam If you guessed me, then you’re right. In about 13 days, I’ll be hitting the beach of the Dominican Republic, enjoying the sun, warmth and liquor of an adults only, all inclusive resort in the middle of the Caribbean. If there’s enough interest, I’ll set up a daily iChat from the pool bar for those people who want to see how much fun I’m having. I’ll ask around and see if there are any volunteers ...