Hits and Misses

Life is full of hits and misses.  Every day in my life has some of both.  Yesterday was no exception.

MISS #1
We are planning to renovate our kitchen.  It is long overdue.  Our 31 year old kitchen is literally falling apart in our hands.  It should have been done years ago, but the seductive call of Europe has been too strong for us to ignore.  We are weak!!!  Instead of staying home and replacing our broken down cupboards, counters and linoleum, we have jetted off to France for the past 5 summers.  Well, those days are over my friends.  At least for now.  A new kitchen is in order!

I suggested to Joe that we take in the Vancouver Home + Design show yesterday.  It was a beautiful day for a drive and I thought we could pick up some much-needed ideas.

Beautiful downtown Vancouver.

I thought WRONG!  The west ballroom of the new Vancouver Trade and Convention Centre was full of vendors selling everything from stuffed animals, to vacuum cleaners, to Ginsu knives!  I watched a man steam-cleaning a toilet bowl.  Joe almost gagged when he witnessed a salesman pulling a bunch of hairy gunk out of a demonstration sink with a 'turbo snake'. To be fair there were people selling windows, countertops, and flooring.  But come on!  To call yourself a 'home and design show'?  Not even close!

Eggplant Penguins

A huge section of floor space was dedicated to selling ZOKU home popsicle makers!

This refrigerator had a glass panel so you can see what was inside without opening the door.

Sign me up!

A man appeared out of nowhere when I stopped to look at his little jars of no-snore green liquid.  Apparently, you take 5-6 deep breaths of the herbal concoction before you go to sleep and VOILA!  Your snoring woes are over.  Yeah, right.

We left the Home Show after 40 minutes of wandering its aisles.  What a waste of money.

MISS #2

A foodie friend of ours (hi Colleen!) suggested we go to the Tableau Bistro in the Loden Hotel for lunch.  She told us all about their delicious French fare.  We were hungry after wandering aimlessly around the Trade and Convention Centre.  We could hardly wait for lunch!

Beautiful buildings, beautiful windows.

We walked the pretty streets of Vancouver to the hotel only to discover that 'Tableau' isn't open for lunch on Saturday.  What restaurant is not open at 1:00pm on a Saturday?  The short answer?  Tableau!

Closed for lunch.

HIT #1

With rumbling bellies, we walked towards Burrard Street searching for sustenance.  We decided to stop at the Japadog food cart.  Vancouver Magazine says the Kurobuta Terimayo hot dog is one of the "101 things to taste before you die".  Why then, we figured we needed to eat one of those pronto!

"Our Mission:  Making the world happy and alive through hot dogs!"  Who can argue with that logic?

We loved seeing which Hollywood celebrities had endorsed Japadog.  When we saw that Joe's hero Anthony Bourdain had eaten here, we knew we were in good company.

Mmmmm....Japadog with seaweed and wasabi mayo.

Mission Accomplished: Happy and Alive.

HIT #2

As we were blissfully chowing down on our hot dogs, who came marching around the corner?  Why, the 'Occupy Vancouver' protesters!  "Come on, Joe!"  I yelled.  "Let's join them!"

We marched (with hot dogs in mouths) to the lawn of the Art Gallery and joined 7,000 others.  There were signs, there were tents, there were TV cameras.  There were babies, dogs, teenagers, young men, old women, children, and us.  There were speeches, there were interviews, there were free hugs.  There was laughter, there was music, there was dancing.

Amen, sister, amen.

FIGHT THE POWER!

HIT #3
On our way home from protesting corporate greed, we stopped by Colony Major Appliance Warehouse (winner of the "Best North Shore Appliance Store Award" in both 2010 and 2011, I might add) to check out their wares.  We chose a refrigerator, stove, dishwasher and microwave for our new kitchen.  Joe can hardly wait to get cooking on his new Bertalozzi Italian gas range.

Joe's new girlfriend.

HIT #4

No sooner had we walked in our front door, than we were invited up to a friend's home for dinner.  (Thanks, Colleen!)  This was, by far, the nicest hit of our day.  Dinner was delicious as always.  We talked kitchens for most of the evening.  An enjoyable end to a very enjoyable day.

HIT #5

I am so grateful that the hits far outweigh the misses in my life.


*As always, click on the photo to enlarge it to see the details.