One

Happy Tuesday, friends! My good friends Douze and Michelle are in town from Edmonton this week. I’ve been having a great time showing off Vancouver to Michelle, who has never been here before. I’ve mentioned before that Douze is all about outdoor sports and enjoying nature. Remember the time she tricked me into climbing a mountain? Well, the good news is that Michelle is way more like me and enjoys artsy things and exploring cities. And we both have curly hair. She spent nearly an hour in Paper Ya on Granville Island on Sunday—my kind of girl.

Two

There are quite a few touristy things in Vancouver that I’ve never done in the five-plus years I’ve lived here. One of them is riding the Aquabus. On Saturday afternoon, we gave Michelle a little tour of False Creek via the Aquabus. I’m not sure about using it as a legitimate mode of transportation, but it was a pretty fun thing to do with out of town friends. Plus hey, boats.

Three

My friend Joel has started a new blog. He’s trying to record the first and last sentence he says every day for a year. I think this is a neat idea and Joel is a great writer so I’m excited to follow it over the next 365 days. Check it.

Four

Due to its proximity to my new workplace, I have become a Caffe Artigiano regular. I had been going to Starbucks for the first few days but they kept running out of blonde roast so I tried out CA’s and their coffee is so much better. It is still not as delicious as JJ’s and I think spelling Caffe with two f’s is totally pretentious, but overall I’ve been enjoying my experience.

Five

I was browsing through the Nora Ephron archives on the New Yorker and stumbled upon this photo exhibition, One Steinway Place. Photographer Christopher Payne was given access to the Steinway factory in Queens to document the making of a Steinway piano.

Apparently there is also a documentary about the making of a Steinway, Note by Note. I am nerdy enough that I really want to see this.

Six

One of the things I miss the most about Alberta is the sky. It sounds weird, but it is just bigger there. It makes you feel small in a good way, a reminder that we really are just vapor—here for a moment.

They had a crazy thunderstorm there yesterday and Douze was obsessively checking the weather and calling her parents and roommate and everyone she knew to make sure they were indoors with their windows closed. Natalie drove through it on her way back from Saskatchewan. Crazy girl. These photos were sent to me by my bro and Nat respectively. When I look at photos like this and think back to huge thunderstorms I experienced growing up on the prairies, I feel like I understand the fear and awe the disciples must have felt when Jesus spoke and calmed the storm.

Seven

AbFab takes on the Olympics. I need to watch this, obviously.

Eight

This guy turned 25 on Saturday. We had a joint b-day barbeque for him and the legendary James Tweeds. They sang Happy Birthday and brought out the cake for themselves. Hilar.

We were joking around about something a few days ago and I said, “Sure in the past TWELVE YEARS that I’ve known you…” and I had to stop and do the math in my head. Yep. Twelve years of friendship. If you had told me when I first met him (when we were making balloon animals at VBS) that we’d still be friends twelve years later, living in Vancouver and singing/leading worship together I probably would have laughed. I guess it just goes to show you that you never know when you first meet someone if they will be your friend for the long haul. Happy Birthday, JZ.

Nine

The Great One.

Ten

Some of you will get all up in my grill when I admit this because it is only July 24th and nobody is even thinking about it yet… but I’m starting to get excited for fall. There are so many good things about fall. Namely: ROUTINE! But also hockey season starting, Community Groups, pumpkin spice lattes, big scarves, all the good tv shows. Summertime can feel like life on steroids and it seems like a lot of people use the summer as an excuse to run wild for two or three months. Everyone wants to take advantage of the sunshine and nice weather and so there are one million things happening….it’s overwhelming. I’m just saying sometimes normal is nice. But then, I tend to like boring more than most other people.