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Personal Blog of Steve Baumber
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We're officially homeless, phoneless, and living out of our packs. Sort of. No more phone number or mailing address. No more bed, no more kitchen, no more dinner parties. For a while. Did I mention no more bed? Packing the portable unit was an adventure, but truly my Sistine Chapel of packing. A masterpiece. Not one space unused. Only one chair and the vacuum cleaner left over. I packed, Rosemary cleaned, I got the motorbike running, picked up the travel insurance, and we get our damage deposit back. In 24 hours. So there. Okay Rick and Barb helped (alot) (thank you).
We are now at Jesse's place (who also has no phone line). Next it's taking the last of our stuff to Rosemary's Grandmother's place in Sechelt (the stuff we'll need for next summer), leave behind the car and motorbike, and head for the last party in Vancouver at the Hirshy's.
And then it was four days and counting...
posted by Steve @
8:26 PM
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9.30.2005  |
The last couple of days have been crazy. Finished work on Monday, Monday night out with friends. Tuesday trying to get my SSHRC application done to line up funding for my Masters for next year. Tuesday night we went to Sigur Ros, an Icelandic band with amazing music. An amzing show at the Orpheum on Granville Street.
Wednesday I awoke to find that TELUS in their infinte wisdom had not suspended my ADSL service on October 1 as I had requested, but instead cancelled my entire internet account right away. They cancelled my email, my internet service and my website. Two hours of my day and eight phone calls and I now have everything back to where it was, but we are now on a dial-up service on my old laptop and I missed a days worth of emails. It is a bad, bad company.
Got the SSHRC application done and handed in on time. About half of our packing is completed, and we are now awaiting the storage unit to arrive to move our stuff. And the rains are here. And I have to get the motorbike running. Rosemary's folks have been fantastic helping out with packing and cleaning. Rosemary and I still speak to each other. Hoooo haaaaaa. Gotta go.
5 days and counting....
posted by Steve @
9:26 AM
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9.29.2005 |
posted by Steve @
12:04 PM
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9.28.2005 |
Wedding was beautiful, with the ceremony at the Sun Yat-Sen gardens, and the reception at Steamworks in Gastown. Everything was perfect, right down to the mini ice wine bottles on the tables.
One more day of work today to finish up and get a last high school presentation under my belt - one more chance to inspire the young.
Nine days and counting...
posted by Steve @
7:41 AM
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9.26.2005 |
Damn, I missed a day! Last "official" day of work yesterday and they held a nice potluck lunch for me. Sandy did a slide show, and Neil (with Rosemary's help) nabbed shirts from my closet, and the Student Services Team were dressed up as various versions of me. No one came as "Wreck Beach Steve" though...
The gig went very well last night - we rocked the house! Okay the field, but "Undercut" is the Cadillac of bush parties. I wasn't able to record the show as the soundboard wouldn't send a signal out to the recorder so nothign to share. Too bad, as "Suffragette City" went over huge, and by the final song we had a mosh pit going. Only Carl was there to witness the grand spectacle, but if I do say so myself, we were pretty damn good.
Today is Rosemary's cousin Cam's wedding. We have her parents, Aunt and sister with us, so instead of our home getting emptier we're filling up! All part of the fun.
10 days and counting...
posted by Steve @
12:01 PM
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9.24.2005 |
Finished my last "test" dose of Larium (mefloquine) today. The travel clinic suggested a "triple" dose - normally one takes one pill per week, but I took three pills in three days. The philosophy is that if the hit to your system doesn't cause side effects then you should be okay on the regular dosage during your trip. I felt fine - a bit jittery today but that could have been the tea and stress at work, so whatever. No strange psychotic dreams. Except the elephants. Twelve of them came into the bedroom last night looking for their swim trunks. But don't tell Rosemary, because she'll totally freak out. She hates animals wearing clothes.
Tomorrow is our last day of work. It is also "Undercut", the first big party of the year hosted by the Forestry Undergrads. They have three live bands for the party and guess who's the singer/guitarist in the second band? I'm stoked! We call ourselves the NSERC-L-Jerks, as it is three professors from Forestry (who pursue funding through NSERC), plus me, plus a drummer we've borrowed from another band. I'm excited, not only because this is in a sense my going-away party, but also because we're doing "Suffragette City" by David Bowie. And the back-story is:
Once upon a time Ian M. was nice enough to let me "sit in" on a rehearsal session with a band he was playing with in Calgary and sing some songs. They wanted to play "Suffragette City". I didn't really know the song (then) and did such a butchered version of it that by the end they were all singing it themselves to a)help me out, and b)to drown me out. Tomorrow night I will take the stage and redeem myself. If possible a recording will be posted in the next blog, just to let Ian know I'm not a complete waste as a singer.
11 days to go...
posted by Steve @
10:10 PM
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9.22.2005 |
For those who have been eagerly awaiting my return to blogging... hi. Sorry for the delay, thanks for waiting.
Rosemary and I have been busy busy busy over the summer. I finished another course for my Masters, Rosemary passed her exam to enter into the CMA program, we celebrated marriages, birthdays and reunions, and we decided to quit our jobs. Yup. Quit 'em and go traveling. For nine months.
Okay, maybe it wasn't quite as flippant as that, but after careful planning and consideration we are about to embark on yet another Great Adventure. I will hopefully Blog alot and keep everyone up to date on our activities, and what better time to start doing so than tonight! Two weeks from this moment we will be in London with my cousin Tristram realizing that we have no home, and have forgotten everything we'll need and have instead packed a lot of stupid things like guitars, chocolate almonds and that big heavy book I've been meaning to read.
Rosemary and I have two days of work left (okay I have three), and then we have to pack up all of our belongings, load them into a big crate, reduce ourselves to the bare essentials, and say our adieu's. We leave October 4.
12 days and counting...
posted by Steve @
10:31 PM
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9.21.2005 |
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