I pulled a pile of boxes out of storage today and started the packing process. I don’t technically have to be out of my apartment until the end of November, but my plan is to have a storage facility rented for November 1st. At that point, there’s no reason why I can’t load it up and get most of the big stuff done. I’m also going to be pretty busy in November (I’ll be in Mexico for a week, and have a few weekend activities going on), so I’m not sure how much time I’ll have then to get it all done. I packed up about 50% of my office today, and the majority of the electronics in my ...

Well, I cooked my first thanksgiving dinner tonight, and for the most part it went off without a hitch. First, based on suggestions people made on this site, I decided to brine the turkey before hand. Brining involves soaking the turkey in a salt/water solution for 12 hours or so before cooking it, and ultimately forces moisture into the turkey, keeping it nice and juicy. My grandma hates dry turkey, and she couldn’t believe how moist the one was that came out of my oven, so definitely mission accomplished. I was a bit worried the meat would taste too salty, but that wasn’t the case at all. On ...

This morning I put a deposit down on a nice apartment right in the heart of the trendy area in Buenos Aires, Palermo Soho. Soho, of course, is a reference to a hip, upbeat area in New York City. Given that I’m only staying for three months, I thought I would spend my time in the cool part of the city. Palmero Soho is extremely green, with lots of parks and trees. In addition, it’s also full of great restaurants, pubs, patios, and shopping. In Buenos Aires it’s next to impossible to get a super cheap apartment unless you have a local guarantor. That said, the place I’m renting is a pretty ...

Last week I went over to my grandmas house to finally organize some boxes that had been there since my university days. At the bottom of one such box was the majority of my hockey and baseball card collection from the late 80s and early 90s. In fact, I probably have around 5 or 6 smaller boxes of cards, many of which come close to being a complete set. If you were around in those days, you probably remember how hockey cards went from being considered little cardboard things that came with gum to investments basically overnight. Most of us starting selling transformers and whatever else we could ...

Given that I’m hitting the open skies in a matter of months, I’ve been trying to spend more time with the family. For easter of this year I went out and bought a pretty nice organic turkey from JD Farms in Langley, but never got around to cooking it. Since I’ve always been an eater of turkey and never a cooker of it, I offered to do thanksgiving dinner for my mom’s side of the family this year. I have to say, I can cook a pretty mean chicken these days. So I’m hoping I can pull off a turkey. If anyone has any suggestions, then by all means, drop them here. I’m hoping to turn the awesome ...

A few days ago I pulled the trigger on a trip to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico. I’ll actually be heading down there with Dale, mostly so we can drink a few beers and also strategize a bit about the next year before I head off on my little adventure. While we sometimes meet in Hamilton or Chilliwack, it’s obviously much nicer to be able to have those kind of meetings around a pool in Mexico with some nachos and beers. And truthfully, it’s really not much more money to meet down there: a typical trip to Hamilton during high season probably runs $700-$800 for the flight, plus all the expenses ...

Well, according to my little Excel spreadsheet, my trip begins in 96 days now. Depending on whether or not you’re a glass is half full or half empty kind of person, that will seem like a lot of time or not very much. It doesn’t seem like very much time to me, considering how much I need to still do before taking off. First, I gave notice on my apartment the other day. My landlord confirmed it today, which basically means the clock is ticking on this place. I’ve been waiting for October to officially arrive before starting the mad craigslist dash to sell pretty much everything that isn’t ...

I just sent an email which effectively gives my landlord my 60 day’s notice for leaving my apartment. I’ll probably drop one off in person in a few days just to cover my butt, but assuming I get a reply tomorrow, I’ll officially start packing this week. My goal over the next two months is to get rid of as much stuff as humanly possible. Books, clothes, furniture, you name it. If I get my whole life down to just a few boxes, that would be ideal. Probably not possible, but I’m going to do my best. The unfortunate part of this process is that as my furniture starts to sell, it’s going to ...

As I mentioned before, I have tons of engineering and science books here, most of which I’m looking to get rid of. I could of course just drop them all off at the library, but I’m aware that some libraries actually give receipts for charitable donations, and I would prefer to use one of those (for obvious tax purposes). Can anyone recommend any library in the Fraser Valley or Greater Vancouver Area that might offer something like that? Thanks. ...

Without a doubt, probably the best book I’ve read on food, nutrition, and the ongoing obesity epidemic raging through the world is a book called Good Calories, Bad Calories by Gary Taubes. Gary Taubes is a New York Times best selling author, and has been featured on quite a few TV programs, including Larry King Live. I’ve probably read Good Calories, Bad Calories in its entirety around four or five times now, each time managing to soak up a little more of the content. Shortly after returning from Cancun last year, I went searching for Gary Taube’s website, only to find that he didn’t ...

Air New Zealand is having a contest now where they’ll fly the winner from Canada to New Zealand. I think I’m the perfect guy to go, so I wanted to detail a few of the reasons why. I have a good friend in New Zealand (Belinda) that I haven’t seen since high school! I’ve had a few photos published by other airlines, namely Air Transat, and would love to take some photos of New Zealand I can work from anywhere, even a New Zealand pub. People need to know what the WiFi is like, and I can share it with them I’m a 5’9″ tall hobbit, three times removed from Frodo After reading Lord of ...

Last week I pointed out that I was down 11 lbs or so I believe, which is a fair distance along my goal of being quite a bit skinnier before I take off for South America. I still have three months, so I can still do a lot more damage to my fat cells before I leave. Last month I decided to take an engineering approach to things, so I went out and bought a digital scale. Weighing food is obviously kind of a pain in the ass, but I thought it would be a good spot check to make sure I was actually eating as much food as I thought I was. Surprisingly, I was actually underestimating some food by as much ...

Unless you’ve been living in a cave, you’ve probably heard about BC’s New Drinking and Driving Laws, which are now in affect. Here are the bullet points: Warning range 0.05-0.08 (1-4 drinks): 3-day ban + $200 fine… additional fees make total $600 Greater than 0.08 (2-5 drinks): 90-day ban + 30-day car impound + $500 fine + possible criminal charge… additional fees of towing, interlock ignition device, responsible driver program, etc make total up to $4,060 I fully recognize that drinking and driving kills people every year, but these changes seem like they are completely targeted at ...

In about ten days, I’ll be giving my notice on my apartment out here in Chilliwack. Without a doubt, it’s probably the the nicest place I’ve ever lived in. High ceilings. Crown mouldings. Gas fireplace. Air conditioning. Patio. Hardwood floors. Definitely pretty posh, despite being in the middle of farmland here. I’ve been asked a few times if it’s hard to give this apartment up. Truthfully, not really. Having gone to university for eight years and stayed in university dorms for five of them, you get pretty used to living light and moving in and out of random places. In fact, I remember ...

I booked my ticket across the pond tonight. In April of 2011 I’ll be leaving New York City and heading to Shannon, Ireland aboard Continental airlines. My friend Andy is living near Shannon with his girlfriend right now (she’s in med school over there), and I told him recently here in Chilliwack that I’d like to come for a visit. So, now it’s official! While I’m not much of a golfer, I’m eager to play a game of golf with Andy in Ireland, for the geography alone. I really haven’t seen much of Europe. I spent a week in northern Finland at Nokia a few years ago, and had a brief stop ...

In case you don’t know who Garth Turner is, he’s a former MP and now financial guru who has been predicting the troubled real estate market for years. Obviously not many people took him seriously a few years ago, but the majority of his predictions have panned out. Tomorrow night Garth is speaking to a sold out audience at the Four Seasons hotel in Vancouver. Since Vancouver is thought to be ground zero for the impending real estate market implosion in Canada, many people are obviously eager to hear him speak. The event was originally planned for around 300 people, but due to popular demand, ...

With all the talk of plane tickets on here, I couldn’t resist booking a ticket today. I studied spanish for 90 minutes tonight, and then started hunting around for ticket deals. This morning when I looked they were all around $1,400 or so, but I eventually stumbled onto a cheap Continental leg and it became the basis for my trip. I actually had it down to about $1,000 at one point, but the cheap leg sold out before I got a chance to book it. Anyways, I did manage to get a pretty cheap leg, so we’re go for launch. My official plan is to leave on January 4th from Vancouver and end up in Buenos ...

I just got back from the dentist. Truthfully, it’s been nearly two years since my last visit. Previously I’ve always had really great health and dental, but since leaving my last job I haven’t had anything other than basic MSP. I debated getting a plan at one point, but they were all around $100/mo for anything useful, and most of them had a graduated three-year scale before you received full (i.e. 80%) coverage. So it really didn’t make sense financially. But as a result, I’ve been putting off going, since dropping a few hundred dollars on a cleaning hasn’t really excited me. That ...

I spent a few minutes checking out flight options this morning, and came up with a bit of an idea. Here’s part of the problem. Option 1: Book Second Leg Later Get a return ticket from Vancouver to Buenos Aires, possibly throwing the return ticket away in Buenos Aries and going somewhere else. The cost of that is about $1,500 right now, and then I still have to buy an expensive ticket to somewhere else when the time comes, which will probably be another $1,500. But at least I have a Vancouver ticket already booked in the event I want to come back. Option 2: Use Houston as a Hub Continental flies ...

I got on the scale this morning, and I’m down about 11 pounds since the beginning of summer. I’ve actually been in a steady decline since the start of the year, mainly because I’ve been pretty careful about what I’m eating. I’ve also forced myself to go to the gym a few times a week as well, tossing in the odd yoga class whenever I have some evening time available. My goal is to be down 30 pounds before I leave in January, which would basically put me at the weight I was back when I used to play sports and what not. Still got a ways to go, but with the rain and lack of patio beer-drinking ...