The last time I was in Brazil, I was there from June until August in 2013, which was basically the tail-end of their winter. The weather was actually quite nice (compared to a Canadian winter), with most days hovering around 20C. But I haven't experienced summer in South America since my first trip to Argentina in 2011. Given that it's been snowing and below zero here in Hamilton for the last two weeks, seeing the sun again and 30C days is going to be a great change. I'm flying out of Pearson in the early afternoon on Wednesday, with a brief 4-hour stop over in New York City. I found a flight ...

It's November 1st, which means that shortly we are going to start seeing Christmas lights, trees, and of course all the great sales leading up to Christmas. It's only about 7 weeks away now, and I'm sure that time will go by quickly. Christmas Presents for Travel After travelling the world for almost three years now, I thought I would share some of my best ideas for Christmas presents for people like me. If you have someone in your family that loves to travel, or is thinking about taking a big trip, then hopefully this list will help you. I've ordered it by price, lowest to highest, so hopefully ...

Well, given that it's already Christmas in some parts of the world, I wanted to write a quick post and wish a very Merry Christmas to everyone. I hope the next day or two for everyone are spent in the company of family and friends, surrounding by love and laughter. Yesterday we had Christmas over at my dad's house, and today I'm heading over to have a mini-Christmas at my sister's house. Tomorrow I head over to my mom's house for dinner with that side of the family, and then Christmas is done for me. At that point I'll finish my packing and start getting ready to head to Argentina. A very Merry ...

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 ...

It's not officially Christmas yet where I am, but it's only about six hours away on the east coast of Canada, so that's close enough. As most people know, I moved back to my home town back in January to be closer to some of my old friends and of course my family. The last time I lived in Chilliwack in any capacity was when I was 18 years old, right before heading off for the city and university. So, this is my first Christmas as a resident of Chilliwack in about 14 years. Pretty wild now that I think about it. Thankfully we don't really buy many gifts these days (since I'm pretty crappy at buying ...

Ah yes, here we are. Given that we're only four days away from Christmas, I'm starting to think that maybe I should do some of my Christmas shopping. I'm a pretty big shopping procrastinator though, so I imagine it'll be down to the wire. Strangely enough, I haven't really gotten into the Christmas mood yet, which is rather unusual given how much I enjoy Christmas. Last Christmas I ended up working through most of the holidays, so this year I've decided to take it easy and enjoy a bit of downtime. While I have a few things that I'm going to be working on passively, I'm just going to be laying ...

Everyone has a bunch of movies they like to watch over Christmas. Without a doubt, my favourite Christmas movie is actually Die Hard. I love watching Bruce Willis blow stuff up over the holidays. If there's a special someone on the couch next to me, Love Actually rates fairly highly as well. How about you guys? What are your favourite movies to watch over the holidays? ...

Back in grade twelve, the graduating class of my high school, Sardis Senior Secondary School, performed a pretty cool version of the Grinch Who Stole Christmas for the entire school. I was kind of in the choir, even though we didn't really sing. My friend Landy was actually the grinch, and he looked pretty hilarious wearing those green tights. The title of this post is a reference to something the grinch says near the end when he ponders the real significant of Christmas. Without a doubt, Christmas is a hard season for a lot of people. The commercialization of the season puts a lot of pressure ...

With the economy still kind of in the toilet and Christmas just around the corner, many food banks are finding that their coffers just aren't as full as they used to be. Recently in Chilliwack there was a big food bank drive to try and remedy some of that. While many people have the luxury of being able to afford a nice Christmas dinner at home with their families, not all of them do. To that end, Dale and I have put together a Food Bank Drive where the proceeds will go towards the purchase of many non-perishable items that will hopefully make Christmas a bit brighter for a few families. For every ...

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 following is guest post by my good friend, Keira Mellis, who happens to have a really amazing blog herself over at Keira-Anne.com. Also, we've received another donation, one that's eligible for my free photo giveaway. Here's a list of recent donations. Michelle Palazzo YOU - if you click here and pledge Also, to sweeten the deal, any person who donates $50 or more to the Union Gospel Mission will receive a free 8x12 photo of their choosing from my HDR gallery located at SmugMug. Since it's rather apparent that our blogalicious friend, Duane, has such a deep love for the spirit of all things ...

Why? Why not. ...

Ahh, relaxation. Definitely enjoying it. I've been sleeping lots, eating lots, and watching a pile of movies. For the most part, my ass has been firmly planted on the living room couch, but I've managed to get outside a bit and see some relatives. Today is Christmas over at my sister's house. Since my parents are split, today is Christmas with my mom's side of the family. I have two gifts each for my niece and nephew, so I'll bring one set over today and leave the other here at my dad's for tomorrow's round. Us adults don't really buy for each other, but we've always sort of enjoyed getting the ...

Went shopping with my mom this afternoon. Shopping for toys. She wanted to check out the exercise bikes at Sears. I don't think she has room for one though. I put that one on facebook, so go check it out there. ...

Well, I made it. I am currently sitting on the couch back in Chilliwack, debating going to sleep, even though I just demolished a two liter of diet pepsi. I spent most of tonight just watching TV and the odd movie. Everyone around here went to bed hours ago, but I kept myself entertained with Saw and Wrath of Khan on TV. I brought all my camera gear out here, but somehow left my cable at home. So for now, I won't really be able to post any photos.. I'll head out tomorrow when I wake up and try to grab a new one and snap a few photos from around Chilliwack. I have to do some shopping in the local ...

I had a few people over sort of on a whim last night, and we all sat around listening to music and enjoying Christmas nachos. I'm not sure if this is officially year two or year three for the nachos, but I've been trying to up the ante each year to see if I can outdo myself. They Almost Don't Fit I had a few Christmas decorations sitting around in boxes, so we all took turns throwing a few up on the tree. Keira helped herself to R2-D2, and I think I got stuck with Yoda. Good times. Only five more days of work and then I'm off for a while. I'm getting excited about heading back home for a few ...

Last night I got together with some of my old high school friends for an evening of games and Christmas cheer. It was great seeing that old group again -- we don't nearly get together enough. We played "Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader", which was actually harder than we thought. That being said, I demolished the competition and walked away with the "you totally fucking rule" badge. The final winning question, answered by yours truly in a display worthy of it's own Rocky film, was "What Year Was Toronto's CN Tower Completed?" 1976 Bitches. 1976. Tonight I'm having ...

Chad's party last weekend was the first of the Christmas bashes, but they are coming hard and fast starting tomorrow. I just picked up a new pair of dress pants and my altered jacket from the tailor, and tomorrow I'm spiffing it all out down on Granville Island. There should be a small little pre-party at my pad near False Creek, and then a small little ferry ride over to Bridges, which is a fairly nice seafood restaurant right on the edge of the marina. Kasia won't be coming to my place beforehand because she apparently needs a gazillion hours to get ready before hand, so we'll just have to manage ...

This is a pretty important week in the life of Duane. On Tuesday I'll meet up with my plastic surgeon which might potentially be the last meeting I have with him regarding this whole affair. My first meeting was about twelve months ago and resulted in two surgeries to my eye socket. I've spent this last year bouncing between doctors offices, getting eye exams, several CT scans, and will meet this week to probably wrap everything up. In terms of my vision, it's still not perfect. I see pretty much everything perfectly below the midline (i.e. looking straight or down), but as I look up I tend to ...

Last night I made the long trek out of the downtown core and ended up near Metrotown, which surprisingly isn't as far away as I imagined. Chad has a really nice pad out there, complete with an outdoor deck that would be just killer for summer parties and BBQing. Chad has a tradition at his party where everyone has to pick a decoration for the tree, and then proceed to make love to it somehow. Not sure how this came to be, but everyone eagerly began licking and kissing their decorations. After everyone had hit the beers in the fridge, Chad promptly dove straight into his massive scotch collection ...