(From Jonathan’s email to the Impromaniacs)
Special thanks to Danielle for setting this up and to her parents for
letting us crash their B&B!
We had a great time! All in all, we had myself, Rosalind & Conall, Morgan, Michele, Bronwyn, Silvia, Neil, Chris, Josh, Adrian & Jen, Diane & Myuki, Danielle & Silvia make the trek.
On the way up we made a bit of a convoy… I scrounged together 4 FMS radios… Adrian had one too so we could do a little “good buddy” chatter on the way up… And for a bit on the way back.
We stopped at Mrs. Riches in Nanaimo for dinner Friday night… Part way through the Port Alberni / Uculet mountain range my windshield wiper got loose… And the rest of the convoy came to the rescue… We made it… Despite the river (literally) of water pouring down the road!
It rained all weekend.. But it was sunshine and good laughs inside. Neil, bless that boy, played mister Fix-it and tried his darndest to get the hot tub going (besides fixing the pump a few times and Danielle’s parents’ bed)… But it would not cooperate. We played Balderdash… Pictionary… “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus” game, Chess… Had a pot luck… Jonathan got stuck in the driveway backing up (DOH!) and a bunch of Impros came to the rescue and pushed my car from the edge of the driveway! Adrian ran into my car door… OUCH! Silvia and Danielle heard squeeking from Adrian and Jen’s room… Jen wore a toque and I did not recognize her… The Men are from Mars, women are from Venus game revealed many secrets! Got fresh crabs from Tofino from Danielle’s connection… Jen was very excited about the crab! Picked up gas for the BBQ… Went to Uclulet and “shopped”… Went to Tofino and got a little bit of Salmon (crazy! For a fishing town it’s impossible to get fish!!!)… A bunch of folks trudged through mud and waist-high water to get to a beach and then went for a polar bear swim (pictures coming!)… Chris, Neil and Josh needed an oven to warm up their room… Chris has bullseye underwear… Danielle wore a thong in the ocean… We left Sunday around 4:40pm…met up in Nanaimo for dinner at the Cactus Club and trickled into Victoria around 10 – 10:30pm.
It was very cool to see everyone together having a good time…! A memorable trip which will probably be repeated!
J
That was high-quality good times, I agree. Pics are on the way. Amazingly my camera survived the excursion, which included a very close call while piggy-backing Jen through the swamp. And I thought Neil was crazy for putting all the cameras in the oven when we got home.
There are people who do the drive through those mountains almost every weekend. Maybe they do it in broad daylight in ideal conditions or something, but I’ve done the trip twice this year and that’s probably enough til next summer. Actually, I was fine. Jen, the passenger, tried to time her naps so she’d miss the worst of it each way. She’s a trooper. =)
Pics are coming soon.
So I have to start actual work on AdrianTaverner.com. I know what I want to do but I don’t really have much clue how to go about it. Guess I’ll have to figure out this Dreamweaver business. And some sort of merchant scheme. I figure I’ll build the site with the merchant side in mind but add it later. I can accept cheques for now. Or money orders or something. I don’t imagine it’ll be too hard to meet demand for a while.
I do have people asking about my services as a photographer though. Must do research. Figure out where to place myself in that market. Especially seeing as I don’t do developing or even prints myself.
Much to think about but it’s all fun stuff to think about. Kinda exciting to craft your own future.
In other news I’m reading an article about Dick Cheney and his perspective after serving under presidents going all the way back to Nixon. I’ll have to get back to you but so far I’m really glad to get my teeth into it. Us “Bleeding Heart Liberals” need to keep our education well-rounded. He draws some interesting parallels between the Viet Nam era and today. Stay tuned.
try http://www.paypal.com and click on ‘merchant tools’. it’s completely free, and gives you the ability to accept credit card or paypal payments in any monetery form from anywhere in the world. you can customize your buttons and links – so they’ll blend in with your site. It’s what I’m planning on eventually using with my jewelry/art/design website if I ever get off my lazy bum and do it.
and dreamweaver is fairly easy – you can download the 30 day trial from http://www.macromedia.com and find a free crack for it online. It’s got tutorials and whatnot – or you can just play with it. A good photo manipulator by macromedia is Fireworks, also.
*ps, i’ve become a complete nerd :(