I feel I should be scared…

flaming man

This warning label always cracks me up – it looks like it belongs on some sort of highly sensitive device housing unstable gases at some top-secret government lab. The reality is far more mundane as this is the label on the water heater in my building. It seems to me that regular folk shouldn’t be allowed near something that can cause an area to burst into flames…

Moreover, I feel a little scared that this label is attached to the back of a water heater that looks like:

decrepit hot water heater

thoughts on 100,000 miles

I had the opportunity several weeks back to drive an old Hyundai Excel – this thing had to be like 100 years old and had about 4 zillion miles on it. I don’t know anyone that owns a new Hyundai, I think they come off the assembly line with 100,000 miles on them. I am just impressed that these cars last so damn long. I was immediately reminded of my roommate’s Hyundai that he had in college our Junior and Senior years… for the amount of use it got, it was certainly the best bang for the buck out there!

I think everyone should own one of these at least once in their lives or live with someone who does.

The day before

Well the big presidential election is coming up tomorrow… I view this as a choice between 2 planks of wood – one candidate with the personality of a board of wood and one with the brainpower of a board of wood.

100,000 Miles!!

I am very excited… last Saturday afternoon (Oct 23), my car made the big jump from:
99,999 miles

to

100,000 miles

I can’t believe I have had my car that long… I can’t believe that I spend that much time in my car! I can’t believe that I have driven the equivalent of 4 times around the planet at the equator!

Canadian Hater

I need to set the record straight. It seems that I have been mischaracterized as someone who hates Canadians. This is totally not true – I did marry one after all…! 🙂

I think generally speaking Canadians are more warm, friendly and socially active than the average folk.

However, I also find them irritatingly smug and self-righteous (especially about how un-smug and un-self-righteous they think they are). This is by no means meant to imply that Americans aren’t, however nobody ever calls Canadians on this whereas bashing Americans for their arrogance and hypocrisy is practically a national sport in most countries.

Comments on a Canadian wedding

I must say that being back in not only Canada, but Powell River, two weeks back was probably one of the trippiest things that I have experienced in a long time. Actually I cannot possibly express enough thanks to those that invited, housed and put up with me that weekend because I had more fun than you could possibly realize.

However, I just want to say that the only thing which did not cause me JOY on this JOYous day, were the comments of a few rabidly-anti-american folks :).

Moreover, it needs to be stated that when bears come up in more than one conversation about unrelated incidents – there are too many bears in the area.

In any case, here are the pictures from Christina and Percy’s wedding in Powell River.

Salim vs His Freezer II: The Revenge

Before defrosting
Before the defrosting battle – note the pot pie that is embedded into the *CEILING* of the freezer!
Defrosting 1
The steamer is just warming up…
Defrosting 2
*Now* we’re talking!
After defrosting
After I prevailed!
Exactly 30 years ago, in the late months of 1974, well before the term "no-frost-freezer" had entered the American lexicon, my Tappan Refrigerator-Freezer was born. I inherited it in 1996 and I knew from the beginning that it didn’t like me. It was responsible for numerous instances of freezer-burn and I am pretty sure that it ate half a tub of ice cream. For seven years we endured these little "border disputes" when finally my freezer made a full scale attack. After about a week of battle I defeated it. This battle was chronicled in the first movie in the installation – Salim Vs His Freezer.

Embittered by its defeat, my freezer bided its time while rebuilding its strength. A year later it struck setting the stage for the sequel in this series.

Like all sequels, the bad guy is bigger and badder – in this case, the ice was *quite* a bit thicker and now caked across all four sides instead of three like last time.

But, also like all sequels, bigger and better weapons are featured as well, namely the Euro-Pro Shark Super Steamer

Unlike the marathon weeklong battle that ensued last time, the Shark Steamer took care of even more ice in (just) under an hour!