Pandalus platyceros

Mmm… Today I had my first taste of spot prawns, a prawn of the North Pacific. We had some for dinner today and they were very very very good. Wow, yum. You should get some. They are sweet, very tasty, and a little bit expensive – which adds to the allure and makes you feel like you’ve got something damn good. We actually made some nice tasty sauce for them, but found they were so incredibly delicious by themselves (just being steamed) that we ate most of them sans sauce. When we got them they were still kicking and squiggling around all prawn-like (until the nasty man cut off their heads), so probably quite fresh. If you get some old rotten ones, don’t complain to me that they weren’t as good as I made them out to be, because the fresh ones are. Damn good.

Apparently a lot of the spot prawns in BC get sent elsewhere (90% of BC’s spot prawns go to Japan)…and here in BC we decide to eat prawns from elsewhere. That doesn’t really make sense except to the shipping companies who make a lot of money in sending prawns from here to there, and prawns from over there to over here. A bit like when we eat New Zealand lamb here in BC instead of our own lamb (which, incidentally, WE don’t do – we have a very good lamb supplier here in BC). Or when we buy New Zealand apples here. Insane. Maybe better to eat something else and then get some good BC apples a few months later (except for russets which I wish I could import 365 days per year from England because BC’s crop isn’t large enough to satisfy my taste).

So, all I will end with is: you should buy some spot prawns. They will make you happy.

(You will be even happier if you eat them while watching District 9.)

Manners at the breakfast table

Today a yummy breakfast of bacon, poached eggs, toast, and fried tomato was had by all. (Incidentally, some medical or nutrition journal recently published an article about how that fried breakfast is healthier than the average bowl of cereal). We gave Linnea the same amount of bacon as we had expecting that she wouldn’t eat it all – more for us! Yum!

One little problem. We cut her pieces a little too large, which meant after chewing a little she would spit some out. Very classy.

…even classier was when she then offered the pre-chewed stuff to us!

The long-awaited Galliano Hotshot

Well, it has been over ten years since I last had one in a random bar in Prague. But, I’ve finally put the 2 cl Galliano, 2 cl hot esperesso, and 1 cl cream into a shotglass and now bask in the warm after glow of the Galliano Hotshot. Mmmm. It was everything I remember and more.

No use crying over spilt beer…

So, it’s been just over a week since liquid was spilt on my running MacBook Pro (unibody, late 2008). I immediately turned it off, swore, took out the battery, hard drive, and RAM, and poured three litres of isopropyl alcohol over the thing. It’s been left to dry for about a week, and about twenty minutes ago I turned it on. I’m using it to type this blog post.

So, what’s working and what’s not?

The keyboard is still a bit sticky, but all keys function. Hopefully over time the stickiness will go and with any luck the corrosion will hold off. The only thing not working on the keyboard is the backlight. I can live without that as the light from the screen is more than sufficient to see what I’m doing on the keyboard and I don’t usually use it with the light off anyway. Now and then when watching movies/TV on it, but not often.

The trackpad works fine except for the click. The physical click doesn’t seem to work at all, but I can get around that by using the taps which is what I do most of the time anyway. There are a few occasions (such as when highlighting text) that I use the physical tap, but if that’s all that’s wrong then I’m not going to complain too much.

The monitor works, WiFi is working, the USB ports are working (just doing a backup to an external drive right now), obviously the hard disk and battery are working, the headphone jack (analogue) is working. I don’t have anything to test the digital out with. Never used the mic input or the whatever-it’s-called card slot. The DVD drive seems to work (just played 20 seconds of a movie, not a rigorous text by any means, but it’s not totally fried yet).

So, overall things seem ok. Keyboard seems to be a bit better now, too. Some of the stickiness has subsided with typing this e-mail. Not on all keys, but most. All the letters and common keys (return, shift, caps, delete, space) are ok.

Well, we’ll see how long this lasts. I’ll be doing regular backups for sure.

Canada vs Norway – Sledge Hockey

Sitting here at the pre-game warm up for the Canada vs Norway sledge hockey game! Very cool – first time at a sledge hockey game but so far so good and it hasn’t even started!

(Sorry to those of you who couldn’t get tickets!)

Go Canada! Heja Norge!

Cosy warm for Canada vs USA at German Fan House!

Brrrr….

Canada 1 – USA 0

Go Canada Go!

Linnea cheering after Canada scores the second goal in the Canada vs Slovakia game (Olympic hockey for those of you in non-hockey places)!

Linnea out for sushi lunch with Daddy after viewing the Olympic cauldron

Making a such silly face

Here is our little one making a silly face down by the hundreds of rock piles and inukshuks around False Creek.

Good times in Vancouver

This place is an absolute zoo! It’s great!