Last Saturday Jasonda and I went back to our old neighborhood in New Westminster, and wandered around for a while before going into Starbucks to redeem our gift cards. I had a Cafe Mocha while she got some Chai. We sat on the front patio and held hands and tried our best to ignore the fact that there were people smoking all over the place. It turned out to be pretty good though. Initially we were planning to watch a movie, but we had to abandon that plan due to time constraint, and the fact that there wasn't really anything good playing. After that we wandered around some more, and skytrained our way to the ribs/bowling/arcade joint in Burnaby. Man Alive! The BBQ ribs were good. Not as good as the ones you find in the States, but still scrumptious. We thought about bowling, but it turned out to be a little too expensive for that day. However, that didn't matter because we found the perfect Air Hockey table. We played four rounds, and let's just say Jasonda was not very happy with the scores. The fourth one she insists was a draw. Air Hockey: I rule this pseudo sport.

We ended the day with a visit with our new pastor. He wanted to get to know our family and we actually had a very good time. Later he gave us a ride back home. So there you go...our perfect day.

One a completely different note, Simon Wiesenthal, who was responsible for tracing some 1,100 Nazi war criminals from his small, file-crammed office in Vienna, passed away last week at the age of 96. Wiesenthal was a former concentration camp member who lost 89 of his own relatives in the Holocaust. He was best known for helping with the discovery of Adolf Eichmann, the man Hitler entrusted with carrying out the genocide program against the Jews.

The story of Adolf Eichmann and the crafting of the infamous Final Solution (known as the Wannsee Conference) are brilliantly told in the movie Conspiracy. I saw it a while back and reading about Eichmann just brought back memories of it. The entire movie revolves around 15 government officials having lunch, and discussing Germany's overwhelming "storage" problem, and ultimately coming up with a solution. I am not going to review it because there are lots of really good reviews on amazon. If the Holocaust is something that you wonder about, you should definitely check it out.

About the song: I discovered Jack Johnson at work. "Better Together" is the first song from his album In Between Dreams, a perfect tribute to our day together. We love his songs because they are mellow, groovy and seem really unrehearsed. It's almost as if he gets up in the morning, scratches himself, sits down with his guitar and writes them. Enjoy.

That's it for now.

There is a stack of dusty, old copies of National Geographic at work. Today at my break I was going through them and came across an article on Bangladesh. The topic was famine and how there might not be enough food for the world someday. The words were heart-wrenching, the photographs were surreal. I kept thinking about any recent or not so recent news of a famine that I might have missed about Bangladesh. I closed the magazine and looked at the date of publication. It said: July, 1975. I was holding a 30 year old piece of history in my hand, reading about how life was like for most people after the independence war of 1971. I am going to ask them if I can have it.

I am very much looking forward to this Saturday. Jasonda and I will finally have our long-awaited and much deserved date. We are planning to spend our Starbucks gift certificates on some over-priced novelty beverage, maybe take in a movie, maybe, and top it off with a nice romantic dinner. Now we just have to figure out how to squeeze in two not so romantic chores usually reserved for Saturdays. The weekly grocery shopping and my haircut: Snip. Snip. Oww! Sorry! Snip. Snip. Oww! Sorry!

My sister has a new Xanga. She also has a new apartment, a new city and a new life. In the States, she was in the North, while I was in the South. Here in Canada, I am in the West, and she's in the East. This also pretty much sums up our personalities and the way we look at life. However, I like to believe that we share a bond that most siblings don't, and I love her very much. Mote, I am very proud of you for all that you have done, and for all that you are. Life has been a charging bull to you, and you have grabbed it by the balls. Hang on sweetheart, and never let go.

 
About the song: The Dream Academy's "Life in a Northern Town." I can't think of much to say about the song. Except for...hey-oh ma-ma-ma, hey-oh. Obviously.

That's it for now.

I have two important pieces of news:

Number 1: I got the job at Henry Schein Ash Arcona. I start Monday.

Number 2: Sin City is coming out on DVD Tuesday.

The planets are lining up. Life is good.

There was no church Sunday, so Jasonda and I decided to check out the book sale at Lougheed Town Centre. We love going to these events and digging through piles of books and buying them for extra cheap. For example, this time the deal was: all books 3 dollars each or 5 for 10 dollars. Once in a while we find really good ones which were originally 35-40 dollars, but are now marked down to 3 or 4 dollars. Anyway, this time we got:

1. The Astronomy Cafe by Sten Odenwald

2. I Ching for Teens by Julie Tallard Johnson

3. The Responsible Entrepreneur by Craig Hall

4. Tigers in the Snow by Peter Matthiessen and Maurice Hornocker

5. Every Man's Marriage by Stephen Arterburn and Fred Stoeker

I can't wait to go through them randomly.

On a different note, the heat is really getting to me lately, as it always does in summer. Most people have the notion that Canada is only a few degrees warmer than the Artic Circle. That's really not true. Especially in Western Canada it can get pretty toasty in the summer. When we were walking back home from the bus stop, I kept thinking how much I am looking forward to autumn. Actually my favorite time of the year is winter, but autumn in Vancouver is one of the most beautiful scenic experiences in the world. The trees turn bright orange, red, and yellow. The maple leaves fall on the concrete sidewalks, it rains, people walk on them, and after some time when the wind blows them away, you can see maple leaf shaped stains all over the sidewalks. They look like art projects for city sidewalks.

About the song: Every once in a while Jasonda hears a song on the radio that she thinks I would love. I always do. "Collide" by Howie Day is her latest find. She says it reminded her of me, about when we met: I'm quiet you know/ You make a first impression/ I've found I'm scared to know/ I'm always on your mind.

That's it for now.