Tomorrow I'll be packing up and making the long journey back home. Truthfully, I'd probably rather leave tonight if that were at all possible -- not because I'm not having fun here, but mostly because tomorrow is just going to involve sitting around and killing time before our flight. I fly out of San Francisco in the early evening, and will land in Seattle sometime around 9pm. From there, we have to find my car and drive back to downtown Vancouver so I can drop Rebecca and John off at home. While they've offered me up their couch for the night, I'm looking forward to hitting my own bed, and will ...

I'm interrupting my photo entries for a quick post about my home garden. As I mentioned in a previous post, I decided the other day that I wanted to try growing a few things on my patio. I used to help my grandma with her garden when I was a kid, and I have fond memories out in the back of her house playing in the dirt. My patio in Chilliwack is about twice the size as my patio was in Vancouver, so I'm definitely sure I have the room now to grow a few vegetables. I swung by the garden center the other day and picked up a few things. First, I picked up some soil, since I don't really have a lot ...

The other day I had the crazy idea of starting a community driven site here in Chilliwack. I pinged a few people online about a possible name, and eventually settled on InTheWack.com. In the back of my mind, parts of the site would be similar to Urban Vancouver, while others would resemble a more traditional newspaper. I whipped something together real quick on Friday night after I got back home from Vancouver, and have been sort of passively playing with it. I've spoken to the odd person on Twitter that has offered to write the odd article. First, is Alexander Patton, a local 20-year old Chilliwack ...

I was doing a little research on carbon offsets this morning, and just for yucks, wanted to price out what it would cost to be a supplier of carbon offsets in Canada. There are various ways to offset carbon, but a fairly standard one is to plant trees in exchange for money. How many trees can you plant on an acre of land? Well, turns out this guy has it all figured out, at least for poplar trees. If you space them 10' x 10', you can get around 436 trees on an acre. The average tree consumes about 1 ton of CO2 over it's lifetime, which according to this website is around 80 years. So over the course ...

Well, given that Rebecca has Surrey covered in terms of blogging, I might as well take the reins here with Chilliwack. I've spent most of my time here at home since I moved back, but I'm going to start venturing out more and more. I've been keeping my eye out for Wi-Fi spots in town, and wanted to present a list for anyone ever looking for where they are. I'll keep updating this post over time as Chilliwack slowly emerges from the dark ages. Starbucks out in Vedder Crossing - (paid hotspot) | map Java Hut (near Future Shop) - (free hotspot) | web | map Major Leagues 2 Sports Pub - (free hotspot ...

One of the reasons I ultimately moved back to Chilliwack is because I wanted to sort of take a well deserved rest from the last ten years of my life. Basically since leaving high school, my life has been one non-stop rollercoaster ride. My time in Ottawa was spent doing 60 hour weeks mostly at work, and I don't even really remember that period of my life. During my master's degree I was doing lots of research at school, and I also did a part time job on the side to help pay some bills. My first few years at CounterPath were crazy hectic as well, and most of us spent the first few years of our ...

Well, after nearly 13 years, I'm finally back home. It's been quite the rollercoaster ride really, looking back over that period of time. I left Chilliwack back when I was 18 years old to attend university. When I graduated, I moved myself across the country and spent a few years in Ottawa working in the high-tech sector out there. Then I moved back home and did a bit more school, and finally ended up at CounterPath, where I have spent the last five years working away. The move was pretty uneventful thankfully. My dad came out in the morning to help, which was totally appreciated as it turns out ...

I left Vancouver yesterday afternoon to head into Chilliwack and pick up the keys to my new apartment. On the way, I stopped and met a really old friend of mine from high-school, and we had a few beers and a plate of nachos. I have to say, it was a rather strange feeling being in my apartment all alone after the landlord left. I sort of just stared around at the empty apartment, trying to digest just how I felt. Without a doubt, I am excited. I am definitely looking forward to what the next year or two will bring, and to enjoying life at a slower pace for a while. I spent the night at my dad's ...

In just four days, I get to swing out to Chilliwack and grab the keys for my new place. First thing I'm looking forward to is turning the heat on in the new apartment, as it was pretty cold there when I swung by for a visit in December. My furniture is supposed to be delivered on January 20th, but I think I'm going to put the call in to deliver it on the morning on the 15th or something. I have to leave work a bit early on the 14th to make it to Chilliwack in time to do the walk-through on my place, but I'd like to do that part myself and meet my landlord as well. I'm planning on leaving my car ...

My mom reminded me tonight that at this time in exactly two weeks, I'll no longer be in Vancouver. The time sure has gone quickly. I actually get the keys to my new apartment on the 15th, so I might head out on the night of the 14th and grab them in person. I've been slowly organizing things in my current apartment, and strangely enough, I really don't have that much stuff here. I'll probably load up my car on the 14th with all my valuables and drive those out to Chilliwack myself. I also need to find my Shaw cable modem, which apparently I'm to bring back to Chilliwack for them to reactivate. ...

Someone came to look at my apartment in Vancouver the other day, and their first comment about it was how noisy they thought it would be with all the traffic over the Howe Street on-ramp. I guess after living here for years, I've sort of grown used to it. Truthfully though, it is really loud. While lying in bed this morning I heard at least three loud sirens in about ten minutes, along with tons of trucks, cars honking, and traffic over the bridge. I've never really been one for earplugs, mainly because I'm paranoid about sleeping through a fire alarm or something like that. That being said, I ...

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On Monday I made the trek to Chilliwack out from Vancouver. The timing was actually perfect, since the roads were fairly bare when I left Vancouver, and are now pretty clogged up with snow. It's been snowing off and on here in Chilliwack, but at least driving around is feasible. The forecast is currently calling for rain for the next few days, followed by more snow probably on Monday. That basically means I'll be making the journey back into Vancouver sometime this weekend, hopefully before the next wave of God's winter-fury hit's British Columbia. So far, it's been a very relaxing time out at ...

The landlord let me have the key to my new apartment for a few hours this morning. Traveling from Chilliwack to Sardis was a bit tense as there's so much snow. But once we got there, I had a little bit of time to inspect my new place. Here are a few shots. First, a shot of my office (on the left), and the living room (right), completed with gas fireplace and 12 foot ceilings. A shot of the living room from the dining room. A shot of my step-mom in the kitchen: A shot of the ensuite bathroom and the walk-in closet. I'm definitely looking forward to moving in. Only a few more weeks. ...

Here's a shot I took of around Chilliwack, BC, Canada on my way back from a family visit. ...

My dad is coming out to hang out at my place tonight. We're probably just going to sit around, watch movies, and maybe have a few beers. I don't get many opportunities to head home and visit my family these days, so it's definitely nice when they find the time to come into the city and see me. ...

This weekend I'm going to do something I haven't done in a long time -- I'm going to head home. To be honest, I don't think I've been back to Chilliwack since easter, which is a very long time for me. I'm not entirely sure what my plans are for the whole weekend, but I'm heading back to Chilliwack at least for a few days. I might end up in Osoyoos visiting a few friends, but I'm going to hold off making any plans until after I get caught up on sleep Saturday. I'm also hoping to spend a bit of time with my grandma, since I haven't seen her in quite a while and she hasn't been feeling very well ...

Today is my sister's 34th birthday. It seems like only yesterday we were tromping out in the backyard together in Chilliwack. As most people know, my family is very important to me, and I am very protective of them. My life growing up in Chilliwack wasn't all roses, and most of us had to pull together to get to where we all are today. My university education was basically funded by various members of my family and loans from the government. My sister worked extra hard and offered to pay my phone bill every month, while my mom gave me spending money. My dad and stepmom came in and saved the day ...

I got home from Canada Day tonight and spent a bit of time on IM chatting to people. My friend Jeff, who is one of my best friends from high school, was online so we ended up chatting for a bit. Despite living only a few blocks apart, the sad thing is Jeff and I rarely get to see each other due to both our crazy schedules. I found out tonight that Jeff is moving to Victoria with his wife Michele and his daughter Maya. To be honest, while I want the best for them, it made me feel bad that I've been out of the loop so long with them that I had no idea they were moving away in a few weeks. I'm going ...

I've decided to head back home for the weekend. I haven't been back to Chilliwack since Christmas time, so I figure I'm long overdue. A whole whack of conferences start soon, and I'm going to by fairly swamped up until mid April. So, I'm going to grab a book and curl up on the couch back home this weekend to relax a bit. Also, for those of you that have been patiently waiting for more information about what was previously called "Startup Weekend Vancouver" or "Beer Camp" -- the wait is nearly over. Stand by for the unveiling of the website along with more information. ...