Silversun Pickups show

Silversun Pickups

Wednesday October 14 I got a special treat.

Normally I am stuck in the house all day while my wrangler, friends and hangers-on are at their paying jobs.

Imagine my surprise when at around 11:30 my wrangler bursts in through the door, grabs me, grabs the camera and says "Hurry we've got to get a move on!  Going to a rock show!"


So off we go!

Here I am in my portable cave all set to go!  I still wasn't sure where I was going but that was all right.

Apparently my wrangler had won tickets to a rock show hosted by one of the local radio stations.  He had won it through MY Twitter account which apparently he uses behind my back!

Now I didn't know much about the band.  I thought they were called something like the Shiny Silver Pickups or something like that?  They were certainly not Sharon, Lois and Bram or the Wiggles.

My Wrangler put on the headphones before I could ask.

We ended up at this place called the Live Lounge, it was a good thing I didn't have to find the place myself because it wasn't that easy to find and it was far from home.

When we got there I asked to get a seat, and as we weren't the first ones there, I just sat at the a ledge at the back.

It was a really good show!  We ended up seeing the Silversun Pickups.  I guess the Shiny Silver Pickups couldn't make it.

Silversun Pickups played six or seven songs after a 20 minute interview.  The songs were a-coo-stick which has something to do with pigeons, and all I know was that no electricity or stuffed bears were harmed during their show.

The band was really cool and all, and they seemed to know all of the Shiny Silver Pickups songs.  They even sounded like them!

The best part was after the show!  They hung around for a bit after the show and I got to chat with them and ask a bunch of questions.

Here I am talking to Nikki and Brian from the band.  Brian can sing and play the guitar at the same time which is pretty cool.  Nikki plays bass which is what I play on Guitar Hero.  I had just asked Brian if he knew "The Itsy Bitsy Spider".  He knew the song, but told me that they didn't have time to sing it to me because they had to sing later that night.

Apparently they have never heard of the Wiggles, which surprises me, but they did know the TV show "You Can't Do That on Television" was made in Ottawa.

It turned out to be a pretty cool day!

~Cheers~

British Columbia - Coffee!

Hey everyone,

I was sipping a coffee, and my mind wandered again!  This time to about a year ago when I took a trip to British Columbia  I got to visit there in August 2008!  There was a wedding and lots of other commotion, I remember that, but I also remember lots of other things too.

Mainly I remember the coffee and the coffee shops, yes, there were lots of those, and berries!  August is berry time.

Coffee

Coffee in British Columbia is wonderful, and there is lots of it! There are coffee shops everywhere, and I mean everywhere! Better yet, not everyone there drinks Big Coffee either! There are lots of small, independent coffee places to get a good cuppa! Here are 3 of my faves:

Bojangles - local chain of 4 cafes.  People watching was pretty good at this one: 785 Denman Street, Vancouver, BC V6G 2L6.  In fact, this is where my Blog Header photo was taken, on their outdoor patio! Like any good coffee shop they also have a variety of good baked things that are great for nibbling or dunking with coffee.


Grouse Grind Coffee Bar - After a long climb (or cablecar ride) up Grouse Mountain, you need coffee! This place place has coffee and an awesome-tacular view of Vancouver and region from the mountaintop. How cool is that? Not only that but you can watch everyone arrive at the top of the mountain either sweaty (hiking) or smug (cable car riders like me!) I promise next time I'll make the climb (paws crossed)


Bamfield Boardwalk Cafe - Lattes in the town of Bamfield - accessible only really by boat! Who knew? Yet there I was having a latte with a bunch of other tourists and locals.  West Coast Cool! As it is at the end of the Coast Trail, anyone looking for a sign of civilization will appreciate a latte / cappuccino bar at the end of the hike!

Okay, so I was holding out, there's a fourth place, a really good place, with cool staff and well, really good coffee! Dancing Bean Cafe - Box 905 - 9752 Willow Street, Chemainus BC V0R 1K0 - they roast their own coffee too, and it's a really cool place to hang and check out the local arts scene.  Staff were really cool, and have to say one of the best lattes this bear has ever had! As a special mention, they also had the coolest sign posted in their cafe which was:

That's just a quick tour of BC coffee shops! There are plenty more to explore! Do you have a favourite Coffee place?

Cheers!

~Biff~

Camping Bear Style - part 2

Camping Eating - Bear Style 
(Well, you already knew this series was about camping - didn't you?)

So I had the tent all set up and ready to go, I stuck myself nearby in a corner to make sure I wasn't spotted immediately, and then waited.... and waited... and waited.  Wow, come to think about it, there was a lot of waiting.  It felt like forever!

I kept myself distracted by watching the wacky squirrels running all over the park.  Wacky squirrels, yes sir, they were funny running all around everywhere and everything and what with the throwing of pine cones on my head!  Owie!  Okay, so I don't like squirrels much anymore.


The Buffet Arrives (Sort of)

And then I saw a blue car pull into the campsite!  YAY blue car.  SCORE!  Score one for the bear!  Yes (insert victory dance here!).  I held my breath, and the car door opened and.... AW NUTS!  It was my wrangler and some of his friends!  Stupid GPS chip in my paw.

Wait a minute, they are unloading food!  Lots and lots of yummy food!  Oh Goodie!

Where to begin....

Well after all that screaming and yelling at squirrels, I was pretty thirsty.  Now those of you that have been following along or who know me understand that this bear's favourite indulgence is coffee of the latte variety.  Now my particular bear wrangler knows that the situation would be simply unacceptable without a coffee-making thingy packed for the trip.  

Here I am with a Mocha Pot.  Now it looks like I was cooking my bum but I wasn't!  Nope, that side of the stove was turned off!  The pot on the right was full of milk in order to go with the espresso coffee.  I don't much like espresso on its own, milk makes it yummier.  As we didn't have a milk steamy thingy, my plan was to blow bubbles into the how milk through a straw.  My wrangler told me the straw would melt, so no bubbles in the the milk 8-(

Dude, where's my Lunch?

Since my wrangler was here I thought I would be well fed.  Was I ever wrong about that!  I was told politely but firmly that we were each on our own for making lunch!  How terrible!  I complained bitterly only to be handed a stuffed-bear sized BBQ and some tongs and told to "Get on with it!" or something like that.

So, I did the only reasonable thing: lit the stupid BBQ and started cooking. I think I burnt a paw, but at least the burgers were yummy if I do say so myself!


Dude, Where's my Dinner?

Just as soon as I was done cooking and eating my lunch I was starting to get hungry for dinner!  I knew watching the squirrels was out.  What to do, what to do?

I know!  I'll sneak another coffee! 

In this case the stove lid provided perfect cover.  They never knew who kept drinking all their coffee!


FINALLY it was dinner time!  and what a dinner it was.  There was Steak,  yummy, yummy steak.  Oh sooo good and tender and cooked on the BBQ just the way I like it, and (droooooooool) was it ever good!  Such good steak.  Oh, and broccoli, but I'd rather not talk about that.  

You Promised me Dessert!

Being the end of Summer, it got dark pretty early. To keep warm and let other bears know this spot was spoken for I had my wrangler and his friends set up a campfire. This was immensely clever of me because it allowed them to make me s'mores! I demanded that they put two marshmallows in my s'more instead of one. Made it gooey on the paws!

The "Morning After Breakfast"

After eating all that chocolate and marshmallow the night before, I was feeling "queasy". Good thing there was coffee!

Well, shortly after that I "perked up" and breakfast was well underway.

Nothing tastes quite like oatmeal, partly because oatmeal doesn't really taste like anything!  My wrangler suggested that I try just plain boring oatmeal without anything on it to try to settle my tummy. I went off to find some, 'cause I wasn't gonna cook it myself!

I found some!  Score again!  Just as I was digging in, who should slow up by Goldilocks.  Party Pooper.  She threw a hissy fit and demanded that I stop eating her oatmeal. *sigh*

Back at the camp, I found some scrambled eggs to eat instead. I like mine with lots of pepper. Again done myself as good waiters are difficult to come by while camping.

Well, that was pretty much how the weekend went.

It was pretty good eats!

~END PART 2~