So people have asked for a wishlist (for the new apartment, for xmas and for the birthday in march!?) First of all, thank you so much for the thought, but know you don't have to get me anything. Folks here have been quite generous. I sent out a 'Hand me down wish list' and received 90% of the items with in a few weeks (dishes, kitchen ware, a toaster, a DVD, a runner for my hallway, a blender). All things that people had and were willing to give to a new home. It was awesome!
But since it was asked (I know I am slow in finally posting) here it goes, in no particular order...
Skype wireless headset (compatible with Mac)
Jewelry (earrings and long stone necklaces)
Gift Certificates:
1) Bodacious Gift Certificate (www.bodacious.ca) - great local clothing that celebrates a woman's curves.
2) Mountain Equipment Co-op (rain gear for scooting, biking, gear for my ski/snowboard lesson pass, winter gear for the cold and more rain gear) - www.mec.ca
3) Spa gift certificates are always appreciated. I don't have a favorite her in Vancouver, so recommendations are welcome!
Art (a few bare walls in the apartment):
1) Mark's sister is a painter and I have a few pieces I hope to work with her on this year. So maybe arrange a credit with her? http://www.triciaaviss.com
2) Great art that is representative of my two favorite West Coast cities -- Vancouver and SF
Gadgets....
1) iPod touch since and iPhone sounds a little excessive... (but loving the potential for calendaring, twitter, facebook, blogging, and so on)... a girl can dream - right? :)
2) Flexible Camera tripod such as http://bit.ly/HpONT
3) Kitchen gadgets - love 'em!
Cute Rain boots (mine broke)
Plants - plants for the apartment or a great plant for my desk at work.
Recipes, great cookbooks, etc.
If you want help here in Canada to buy something, you can connect with my friend Mark. Send him an email and he can help coordinate. He is just good like that. His email is heykahuna (at) gmail.com. Tell him I told you to email him. :)
And as always, if you see something that screams Heidi... well you know I would love it! :)
Thanks for the thought! It is appreciated! :)
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Tuesday, January 6, 2009
The office is moving...
 200-163 W. Hastings St. Telephone and fax remain the same: p. 604.844.7474 With four floors of LEED certified commercial office space, the Tides Renewal Centre will also be home to Tides Canada, Hollyhock Leadership Institute, Raised Eyebrow Web Studio, Forest Ethics, Penner & Associates, and Rainforest Solutions Project. If you are interested in sharing space with this diverse group of social entrepreneurs, contact Lynne Whenham regarding leasing opportunities. We look forward seeing you in our new offices soon. | |
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Effective Monday, January 12th, you can find 
Saturday, December 13, 2008
Remembering Ben Banky
Ben Banky - a friend. He attended SVI last year. Part of my community. One of my people. My facebook friend.
Kirkpatrick - my neighbor. Like next door apartment neighbor
Shock. Tears. Confusion.
Watch this news report: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081213/christmasparty_shooting_081213/20081213?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
The apartment building in the news clip is mine. The news crew interviewed the dude outside just before I walked out. Then they started asking me questions. I didn't know the man, but that didn't keep them from shoving the camera and mic in my face and asking more questions. at the time I didn't know what had happened. They were just asking about something something Kirkpatrick. I did my errand and went home to look it up to find that he was the shooter in a murder last night. A murder that killed a friend of mine. Granted we were not close. But we know each other. We are in the social change community here. It is small. We had a great, great connection last year at SVI and ran into each other a few times since I moved here. We became facebook friends. He was invited to my work holiday party tonight. I noted last night that he had RSVPed 'no' and was sad to hear this. He could just make people smile. Chill. Wonderful. Full of life. One of my people. I noted to send him a message to say we would miss him at the party. And then this news...
Senseless violence. why? To good people. I don't understand. It is a sad day. A day when horrible reaches too close to home. It reminds you that... life is precious.
Kirkpatrick - my neighbor. Like next door apartment neighbor
Shock. Tears. Confusion.
Watch this news report: http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081213/christmasparty_shooting_081213/20081213?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
The apartment building in the news clip is mine. The news crew interviewed the dude outside just before I walked out. Then they started asking me questions. I didn't know the man, but that didn't keep them from shoving the camera and mic in my face and asking more questions. at the time I didn't know what had happened. They were just asking about something something Kirkpatrick. I did my errand and went home to look it up to find that he was the shooter in a murder last night. A murder that killed a friend of mine. Granted we were not close. But we know each other. We are in the social change community here. It is small. We had a great, great connection last year at SVI and ran into each other a few times since I moved here. We became facebook friends. He was invited to my work holiday party tonight. I noted last night that he had RSVPed 'no' and was sad to hear this. He could just make people smile. Chill. Wonderful. Full of life. One of my people. I noted to send him a message to say we would miss him at the party. And then this news...
Senseless violence. why? To good people. I don't understand. It is a sad day. A day when horrible reaches too close to home. It reminds you that... life is precious.
Snow!
It snowed today!
It was so amazing. right out my window. the snow was falling. It didn't stick, but it was beautiful to watch as I commuted to work.
I hear we are headed into a cold spell (thank goodness for the winter gear I bought over Thanksgiving in the states).
It turns out, where I live is slightly higher elevation than work, so I am more likely to get snow than at the office (like a mile away). They say it snows like 3 times a year here. I hope for more! But the Vancouverites say they are all freaked out drivers in the snow, so it gets a bit scary. I guess kind of like LA drivers in the rain, hey?
Well it was an exciting morning to wake up to the beautiful snow. It is now really winter! And soon I will be heading to the mountains and using my season pass (5 lessons, rentals and one night a week of night skiing/boarding). woohoo!
It was so amazing. right out my window. the snow was falling. It didn't stick, but it was beautiful to watch as I commuted to work.
I hear we are headed into a cold spell (thank goodness for the winter gear I bought over Thanksgiving in the states).
It turns out, where I live is slightly higher elevation than work, so I am more likely to get snow than at the office (like a mile away). They say it snows like 3 times a year here. I hope for more! But the Vancouverites say they are all freaked out drivers in the snow, so it gets a bit scary. I guess kind of like LA drivers in the rain, hey?
Well it was an exciting morning to wake up to the beautiful snow. It is now really winter! And soon I will be heading to the mountains and using my season pass (5 lessons, rentals and one night a week of night skiing/boarding). woohoo!
Christmas in Vancouver
I have decided. I am going to spend the holiday season in Vancouver. I am so excited!
There are so many great events to do including the lantern ceremony for the winter solstice, a xmas eve cocktail party, xmas dinner with my friend Mark and his fam (same family as Turkey day, so it will feel like going home in a way) and then a Boxing Day Brunch at a friends.
I will miss being home. I will miss seeing friends. I will miss my family. But I am really looking forward to challenging myself to doing this alone. I think there is tremendous growth for me in this decision and I look forward to the challenges it brings and the rewards.
Back in October I thought long and hard - if I had to pick one holiday to go home for, what would it be? Knowing that my older sis and nephews weren't going to make the trip to Cali this year, it was an easy answer. My fav holiday - Thanksgiving. So I went home. It was wonderful and so good to see everyone. But I don't think I am ready to go back. I feel like I just left. So I am banking my 2008 Xmas trip for one in 2009 - like for all the awesome weddings or a birthday or when I get really homesick and need my Bay Area fix.
Since I will being spending the holidays here, I have decorated my apartment in true Trojan Holiday spirit. I bought a wonderful smelling tree from the lot a few blocks away and carried it home. A coworker dug out their 2nd tree stand for me and Mark came over to help set it up. It has all my USC coloured ornaments, my Russian ornaments and a smattering of old ornaments that have my name and a date on them. It is decked out with red LED lights and my window has white LED lights. Mark (the film lighting guy) brought over plugs and things so I have a key chain button that I push to turn on/off my lights. It rocks! I have a little Rosie the Reindeer hanging and a couple of poinsettas adding some colour. It is all very cozy and festive.
So long story short... Christmas will be in Vancouver this year for this one. And rumour is it is supposed to snow on Christmas Eve.... :)
There are so many great events to do including the lantern ceremony for the winter solstice, a xmas eve cocktail party, xmas dinner with my friend Mark and his fam (same family as Turkey day, so it will feel like going home in a way) and then a Boxing Day Brunch at a friends.
I will miss being home. I will miss seeing friends. I will miss my family. But I am really looking forward to challenging myself to doing this alone. I think there is tremendous growth for me in this decision and I look forward to the challenges it brings and the rewards.
Back in October I thought long and hard - if I had to pick one holiday to go home for, what would it be? Knowing that my older sis and nephews weren't going to make the trip to Cali this year, it was an easy answer. My fav holiday - Thanksgiving. So I went home. It was wonderful and so good to see everyone. But I don't think I am ready to go back. I feel like I just left. So I am banking my 2008 Xmas trip for one in 2009 - like for all the awesome weddings or a birthday or when I get really homesick and need my Bay Area fix.
Since I will being spending the holidays here, I have decorated my apartment in true Trojan Holiday spirit. I bought a wonderful smelling tree from the lot a few blocks away and carried it home. A coworker dug out their 2nd tree stand for me and Mark came over to help set it up. It has all my USC coloured ornaments, my Russian ornaments and a smattering of old ornaments that have my name and a date on them. It is decked out with red LED lights and my window has white LED lights. Mark (the film lighting guy) brought over plugs and things so I have a key chain button that I push to turn on/off my lights. It rocks! I have a little Rosie the Reindeer hanging and a couple of poinsettas adding some colour. It is all very cozy and festive.
So long story short... Christmas will be in Vancouver this year for this one. And rumour is it is supposed to snow on Christmas Eve.... :)
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Vancouver Municipal Elections - Go Gregor! Go Vision!
So check it out online.... http://www.visionvancouver.ca/
I won't go into much about Gregor's bio or the Vision platform, cause you can read about that on 100 other places, but rather you will get my take on it and why I am excited!
When I was weighing out the options of moving to Canada there was many great things and many challenges. One of the great opportunities that helped tip the scale for me was to be involved in a campaign to hopefully elect a strong values based business leader into a political position with some power and see how effective their organization, their values and their entrepreneurial spirit would be at effecting change. So here I am, living out my very own experiment.
Gregor is a thoughtful, smart business man. The company he founded was Happy Planet Juices (the Odwalla or Naked Juice of the North). He has a great history in sustainable agriculture and business. His values are deep. And his support groups (including those with some wealth) are rooted in mission based work. As someone termed him the other day, he is the catalyst for change in the North, he is Canada's Obama. He has a great group of people running under the Vision umbrella.
Since I can't vote, I am donating my time and my energy to this campaign. I have volunteered at several events, will be doing some phone calling this evening, but my favorite was mainstreeting. I wasn't sure what it meant, but basically I stood on the street corner with some of the candidates and other volunteers (and Libby Davies - a Rep. on Parliament from Van) and danced around with Vision and Gregor signs. The carnivale band was even out playing (I brought my trombone to play, but chickened out). It was sooooo much fun! Waving at everyone, Talking up the Vision platform, Smiling, Dancing and just plain ol' having fun. Shoot - if I wasn't a vision fan already, I would have been watching all these people having so much fun on the street.
So if you know anyone in Vancouver, tell them to go vote this Saturday, November 15th!
Some articles about the election and the candiates:
General Info --- http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/election2008/index.htm
Recent article on Homelessness -- http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081110/BC_homeless_mayoral_race_081110/20081110/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
Long article with both candidates bios -- http://www.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/story.html?id=bb20f405-56fe-4b1b-a6f4-ab3ecaec2d8c
I won't go into much about Gregor's bio or the Vision platform, cause you can read about that on 100 other places, but rather you will get my take on it and why I am excited!
When I was weighing out the options of moving to Canada there was many great things and many challenges. One of the great opportunities that helped tip the scale for me was to be involved in a campaign to hopefully elect a strong values based business leader into a political position with some power and see how effective their organization, their values and their entrepreneurial spirit would be at effecting change. So here I am, living out my very own experiment.
Gregor is a thoughtful, smart business man. The company he founded was Happy Planet Juices (the Odwalla or Naked Juice of the North). He has a great history in sustainable agriculture and business. His values are deep. And his support groups (including those with some wealth) are rooted in mission based work. As someone termed him the other day, he is the catalyst for change in the North, he is Canada's Obama. He has a great group of people running under the Vision umbrella.
Since I can't vote, I am donating my time and my energy to this campaign. I have volunteered at several events, will be doing some phone calling this evening, but my favorite was mainstreeting. I wasn't sure what it meant, but basically I stood on the street corner with some of the candidates and other volunteers (and Libby Davies - a Rep. on Parliament from Van) and danced around with Vision and Gregor signs. The carnivale band was even out playing (I brought my trombone to play, but chickened out). It was sooooo much fun! Waving at everyone, Talking up the Vision platform, Smiling, Dancing and just plain ol' having fun. Shoot - if I wasn't a vision fan already, I would have been watching all these people having so much fun on the street.
So if you know anyone in Vancouver, tell them to go vote this Saturday, November 15th!
Some articles about the election and the candiates:
General Info --- http://vancouver.ca/ctyclerk/election2008/index.htm
Recent article on Homelessness -- http://www.ctvbc.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20081110/BC_homeless_mayoral_race_081110/20081110/?hub=BritishColumbiaHome
Long article with both candidates bios -- http://www.canada.com/vancouvercourier/news/story.html?id=bb20f405-56fe-4b1b-a6f4-ab3ecaec2d8c
Canadian Elections... too many to count!
Four elections in three months - for real!? I don't know if I could do it...
The first election was small, but still an election. It was some weekend day mid-September (just after the Hollyhock SVI that I put on). It was a chance for people in their 'parties' to select who they would want to run for city council and other municipal positions (the municipal elections are this Saturday). The turn out was small, but the candidates were selected and have been campaigning ever since (it turns out I could have voted in this election. I applied, but never received information about how to vote, so I didn't and went to Ikea instead - not a proud moment, but the truth all the same).
The second election... this is the one that really irks me the most. Since I moved to Canada I am trying to learn and understand as much about this place as possible. At first you think it is just like the states, but trust me it is not. Far from it. Any time you see a similarity, something comes out to bite you to remind you that it is not the home you know, but rather a foreign country. So they Parliament (excuse my layman terms.). They have Prime Minister. They do note elect the Prime Minister. The PM gets the job based on who has the most seats in Parliament. They do not have set federal elections every four years. It some how works where the PM can call an election anytime. Stephen Harper, the PM of Canada, called for new elections in September. Last year, he passed some legislation or signed some paper guaranteeing that there wouldn't be another election until 2009. But he broke that agreement and called one anyway because his party didn't have a majority in the Parliament and wanted to get more of his people in there. So another incredibly wasteful election took place (not that I have an opinion or anything). All the parliament seats were up for re-election - there were the two many parties to count (CON - conservative, LIB - Liberal, BQ - the Bloq, NDP - New Democratic Party, IND - Independent, GRN - Green) Phew - that was a lot to remember! The CON party is Right and most everyone else is left of right. So as you can imagine, Stephen Harper and his Right friends of the Conservative party are pretty much a shoe in. No one can decide on which party to stand behind... Then there is talk of strategic voting... (my head is spinning trying to think and remember all this, so look it up if you want more info and probably more factual info). Needless to say, millions of wasted dollars later, the second election happened on October 15th (see results at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/map/2008/) and Stephen Harper is reappointed (is that the right term?) and they still don't quite get majority. one word - frustrating.
The third election was a couple of weeks ago and this was to fill two interim seats in the Provincial elections. This is the one I know the least about. But based on the reaction in my office, the people they wanted elected were elected. These roles are only held until March when the full on Provincial elections happen (Provincial elections are like state elections).
The fourth election will be held this Saturday - which is sooooo exciting! This is for the Municipal elections. And this election I think deserves its very own blog... so stay tuned for more on Vancouver's Municipal elections.
The first election was small, but still an election. It was some weekend day mid-September (just after the Hollyhock SVI that I put on). It was a chance for people in their 'parties' to select who they would want to run for city council and other municipal positions (the municipal elections are this Saturday). The turn out was small, but the candidates were selected and have been campaigning ever since (it turns out I could have voted in this election. I applied, but never received information about how to vote, so I didn't and went to Ikea instead - not a proud moment, but the truth all the same).
The second election... this is the one that really irks me the most. Since I moved to Canada I am trying to learn and understand as much about this place as possible. At first you think it is just like the states, but trust me it is not. Far from it. Any time you see a similarity, something comes out to bite you to remind you that it is not the home you know, but rather a foreign country. So they Parliament (excuse my layman terms.). They have Prime Minister. They do note elect the Prime Minister. The PM gets the job based on who has the most seats in Parliament. They do not have set federal elections every four years. It some how works where the PM can call an election anytime. Stephen Harper, the PM of Canada, called for new elections in September. Last year, he passed some legislation or signed some paper guaranteeing that there wouldn't be another election until 2009. But he broke that agreement and called one anyway because his party didn't have a majority in the Parliament and wanted to get more of his people in there. So another incredibly wasteful election took place (not that I have an opinion or anything). All the parliament seats were up for re-election - there were the two many parties to count (CON - conservative, LIB - Liberal, BQ - the Bloq, NDP - New Democratic Party, IND - Independent, GRN - Green) Phew - that was a lot to remember! The CON party is Right and most everyone else is left of right. So as you can imagine, Stephen Harper and his Right friends of the Conservative party are pretty much a shoe in. No one can decide on which party to stand behind... Then there is talk of strategic voting... (my head is spinning trying to think and remember all this, so look it up if you want more info and probably more factual info). Needless to say, millions of wasted dollars later, the second election happened on October 15th (see results at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canadavotes/map/2008/) and Stephen Harper is reappointed (is that the right term?) and they still don't quite get majority. one word - frustrating.
The third election was a couple of weeks ago and this was to fill two interim seats in the Provincial elections. This is the one I know the least about. But based on the reaction in my office, the people they wanted elected were elected. These roles are only held until March when the full on Provincial elections happen (Provincial elections are like state elections).
The fourth election will be held this Saturday - which is sooooo exciting! This is for the Municipal elections. And this election I think deserves its very own blog... so stay tuned for more on Vancouver's Municipal elections.
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