this story is called sucky july

The title of today's post references a story found in an abandoned notebook found at the library yesterday. It's very apropo. I just received a huge tax bill on top of my already huge payment I made in April. I renewed my monthly community centre gym pass and now they are on strike for what could be the long haul. My iMac is dead and is now in the shop hoping to be revived. My computer access will be very limited this week. No work, no blogging, no flickr, but I'll manage. I also have a family emergency that needs attending to and I may find myself on a plane to London, Ontario instead of London, England. We'll see what happens.

what can you buy for $15?

Apparently, quite a bit. I headed out for some groceries at my local Chinatown market and came back with 3 really heavy bags of stuff for only $15. Not bad!

1 can each of lentils, black beans, chickpeas
2 cans of fire roasted organic tomatoes
1 box of Annie's mac & cheese (it's a rainy day guilty pleasure!)
3 doz corn tortillas
1 bag of organic carrots
1 bunch celery
2 yellow peppers
1 red pepper
2 green peppers
1 head purple cabbage
1 cauliflower
1 bag of local nugget potatoes

Where all the other Chinatown markets had 3 english cucumbers for $1, Sunrise had them 6 for a $1! I didn't end up buying any because 1 cuke keeps us going for a week. But seriously, if you want to shop cheaply, Chinatown is the place to do it. Vancouver is lucky because cheap eats are everywhere! Cheap groceries, cheap restaurants, and most of it is really, really good.

the case of the invisible city

Yikes. This is July!! Oh well. I spent the day testing out my newish Keens and my new REI rain jacket by walking like a crazy lady all over town. No busses or bikes for this lady! No way! I tested life out in the rain and i came back home 4 hours later a happy (and dry) camper. The jacket, which I bought on sale in Portland is perfect and will be coming with me to Europe where i'm certain to encounter a few days of rain.

sockettes

I love wearing mary janes but I hate wearing socks with them in the summertime. For years, my summer footwear has always benefited from those old-lady style footie socks. They're usually a gross "nude" colour and sometimes have an uncomfortable seam running on the underside. Once I stocked up on some hot pink Banana Republic ones because I figured I didn't mind if a bit of fushia showed up alongside my shoes. But now I've discovered some awesome footie socks that don't show up under my mary janes or whatever girlie shoe I've got one. They're by Secret and they are "Ultra Low Cut" Kushyfoots and man, they aren't doing the peekshow thing on my feet. I got them at the drugstore so they are probably easy enough to find. I love them!! Yay, kushyfoot!

how about you and me in the nude, me and you in the nude, if that's what you're into

Even though I don't have cable, I LOVE this show. Flight of the Conchords. Awesome.

budget travel

I'm started to get excited for our 5 week trip to Europe. We haven't booked a flight yet (tho I'm hoping we can find something this week) and we haven't decided whether our roundtrip ticket should fly from Vancouver to London or Amsterdam. We'll let our cheap-ass budget decide! Accomodations are another matter. We're not booking anything other than our first night's stay in advance, and while that's never been a problem anywhere we've travelled in North America (where we never book anything in advance), Europe may be a bit crazier. But I'm sure things will be fine (I hope!) and we've registered with CouchSurfing.com so we can sleep on stranger's couches for free!

If anyone has any tips for good food, good shops, galleries, museums, and good (cheap) accomodations in London, Belgium (Brugge, Antwerp, Brussels), The Netherlands (Amsterdam, Utrecht, Haarlem), Berlin, and Lithuania (Vilnius) leave me a comment!

I wish however we were going to Austria because if we were, we'd definitely stay at the das park hotel (via poppytalk) where rooms are built out of old drainage pipes. The beds and sheets are provided, showers and toilets are served by the surrounding public space and you pay what you can. I love it!

we are so good together

I've had my eye on the lovely We Are So Good Together print over at I Am Still Alive but it had been out of print. Not anymore! I just got an email letting me know that it's in stock and ready for purchase. The only thing is....I'm broke! What's a girl to do? Maybe I can convince Cornelius that it would make the perfect totally-late anniversary present. Let's hope he reads this before it sells out!

nice to meet you, summer

I almost can't believe it...summer is finally here! It's been a strange spring (meaning long winter) and the West Coast truely lived up to its name. But enough of that, I'm all about enjoying the sunshine! Picnics, barbeques and bike rides 4eva.

A few days ago, I posted my new summer soundtrack (look to your right). Enjoy!


And check out my tomato plant! Not only does it live...but it bears fruit.