The Married Life

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Vciy_LYiU4&feature=youtu.be The sidewalks of NY are packed with people who came here to achieve their dreams and ended falling belly up. Whether their dream was to make it big, be at the center of creation or otherwise escape whatever reality dissatisfied them, they took the leap from comfort into the unknown to pursue their passion. Those who succeeded are inspirations, but so are those who failed. For somewhere between the departure of their journey to the place where they are [...]

Last weekend I was standing in the waiting area of the ferry terminal with all the other walk-on passengers, people watching as I waited for the doors to open and let us through. While I scanned the crowd, I started zeroing in on everyone. Instead of seeing a crowd of people, like I usually do, I started to focus on all the differences between each person in the group of over a hundred people. Sure, we are all fundamentally the [...]

This year we flew off to Ontario for Christmas at Sven and Christine’s castle of a house. Lots of fun, adventures and pictures ensued. This post is less of a play-by-play, and more of a photo strip of our holiday.  

Here’s the list for our favourite bands and groups this year. True to form, it mainly involves danceable tracks, trail blazers and guilty pleasures. Although not comprehensive, the list is a good summary of what kept us grooving all year. For more of what we’re listening to, check out our Rdio pages: Tim’s Rdio, Alan’s Rdio. 1. Azealia Banks One of the most original artists to come out of 2012. Many have compared her to Missy Elliot and Niki Menage, [...]

Our first big project is done, and not a moment too soon. Shortly after we moved in, we moved the contents of our pantry into the dining area making that area unusable and cluttering up our living room. Nearly a month later, we can finally move all of this junk back where it belongs, because THE PANTRY IS DONE! I couldn’t be more thrilled with how it all turned out, and I’ve found myself constantly going over and looking at [...]

After three full days of moving we’re officially living in our new condo. For the first time we own 850 square feet of space, and we can do with it as we please. Before we even moved in we couldn’t help but get excited about the endless possibilities for decorating and renovating: Build space-efficient shelving in pantry (inspiration) – DONE Re-tile fireplace and rebuild mantel (inspiration) Paint everywhere New ceiling lights everywhere Mix-and-match dining chairs Rebuild kitchen (inspiration) Plants on [...]

Just a month ago we were gearing up to start looking for a place to by. We had done our research, got pre-approved for a mortgage, and assembled our team. After months of looking at listings, we finally went to some open houses. Our first and only day of going to open houses was more like a marathon. We looked at a half dozen different places in Kitsilano (and one in Fairview) and weighed the pros and cons of each. [...]

Ever since we learned that I am inheriting enough money for a down payment, Tim and I started thinking of buying a home. We first made our first home wishlist so we could clarify exaclty what we are looking for. After using this wishlist to look what’s on the market, it was clear to us that we needed a lot more money than we originally though. It became clear to us that buying a home was a little out of our league. We [...]

After, “when did you get married?,” “do you guys want to have kids” is probably the most common question we are asked. Not that we mind. We talked about kids long before getting married and know for sure that we want them. Two children, in fact. We have even gone as far as to pick out our kids’ names (which will remain unpublished until we actually have kids). In addition to names, we have taken our musings about children one step further [...]

Every now and then you find yourself going out your way to look for the perfect item for home improvement that would make your life easier. That was exactly where we found ourselve in figuring out what to do with our keys. For months we would go out of our way looking for our keys in different well-hidden places in our house. We looked for a key rack, but couldn’t find one with the look we wanted. This is when [...]

Wowzers! Our blog hasn’t been touched in quite some time! It’s time to get reposting and reupdating the tale of Alan and Tim. While we work on more detailed posts about our recent explorations and research into adoption, house buying and dreaming about our future, here is a quick look into one of the trips we took in March. The winter can be a bit of a downer. With the days ending early, the weather being a deterrant from going outside, [...]

Well, I didn’t quite achieve my goal of watching all the movies nominated for the big 5 Oscar awards (Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Screenplay (adapted/original)), but I came close. I’m missing out on War Horse, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and My Week with Marilyn, but these are also the movies I have the least interest in. Here are my predictions for who is going to win (and who I think should win) Oscar awards this year. Best Picture Who I [...]

March 2007 I was in the third year of my Psychology undergrad at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario; by this time I had made the decision to leave school and move back to Vancouver, a move that was long overdue. Alan was in fourth year of his International Relations undergrad at UBC in Vancouver, and living on-campus as a Residence Advisor. We met through Facebook and started chatting. After a few weeks I was hooked, and regularly stayed up until [...]

As we travelled around Europe last year, we collected a fair amount of souvenirs. From ticket stubs, to maps, to coasters, to tacky tourist toys, we ended up filling an entire pocket of our suitcase with memories from our travels. These tiny momentos were important to us. Sure, we could be satisfied with our hundreds of photos taken of our travels. Yet, no matter how many photos we took and no matter how many blog posts we wrote, a ticket [...]

After having such an amazing time celebrating New Years in Scotland last year, we decided to try to one up ourselves this year in our attempt to continually make each year better than the last. Unfortunately we don’t have enough room in our apartment, so we needed to get a bigger venue. Luckily, Tim’s parents were out of town and have more than enough room for what we had planned. After weeks of preparation, and many hours of decorating, it [...]