Vancouver - German Christmas Market

Today we went to the German Christmas Market!!! None of us had ever been and we had high hopes for this! Well... let's see... first off there was a Honey stall with Free Honey Tasting... YES!!! Jerry, did you hear that???

They also had stalls with traditional German Christmas decorations...

This was a lot of fun...

I think I know a little Hamster who might like a mushroom like this in his yard!

This little guy is a smoking St. Nikolaus - he opens up and you put an incense cone in there and light it and then he releases smoke... We have one at home, I'll see if I can get Mama to demonstrate!

Lots of pottery as well - not sure what this has to do with Christmas...

And then... I saw someone I thought Rose might be interested in!

Yup... she was! Can you tell what Roses's favourite colour is?

But then I saw something I was interested in... oh yum!!!

Belgian waffles on a stick!!!

 Rose and I both got one... although we had to share with the adults. Phooie!

I didn't want my picture taken with Santa... but did want one with this Nutcracker dude. I have a nutcracker outfit you know.

There was also a carousel... no bears allowed. Sigh...

So someone found herself a horse with a pink mane and hooves...

I also saw this beary cool chocolate melter thing.... the chocolate cascades down and it is beary easy to coat things with chocolate... like little bear paws!

Oh... munch... yum... chomp.... a big pretzel... beary beary yummy!!!

Vancouver!!

As some of you may have guessed from the previous posting... I went to Vancouver last weekend. It was a beary good trip but I had to get up super-duper early. Luckily there is a Starbucks at the ferry terminal. Have to keep a little bear happy you know...

And then... on the ferry, I crawled into Mama's laptop cover and had a nap while she worked away on stuff.

On this trip, we got picked up!! Which is way better than taking the bus.

My cousin Rose came along as well... she is getting super tall!

The sun was coming up... beary pretty.

And this is why I don't like living in the city - traffic!

Although, being as how it was so early... the Lion's Gate Bridge was pretty smooth and breezy.

Normally, after the bridge, you drive through Stanley Park on the Causeway... but we are taking a detour!

Oh boy!! Are we going to stop at Prospect Point and take photos of the awesome views??

Apparently not.

How about the Hollow Tree??

Again... no!

Second Beach along English Bay... nope...

Oh look... some Canada Geese!! These tourists stick around all winter down here... I wonder if I could convince one of them to fly me down to visit Little Fox?

A Starbucks!!! Can we stop here? Huh? Can we, can we???

Nope... do other stuffies have this problem??

But... at the house... there was someone who was beary excited to see me!! Daisy!

Ah-hah... heh-heh... stop, stop!!! She is tickling me... heh-heh... no doggie kisses!

The Bears in the Bus Shelter

I know all you were beary shocked to see the bears stuck in the bus shelter window. I was shocked and appalled myself... I went up to the window and called through to them and told them that I was going to look for a baseball bat to rescue them!! They shook their heads and said "NO"... they were doing an art exhibition.

(Honestly... these artists... giving little bears heart failure!)

This troupe of artist bears are protesting the fact that only 1 out of 5 bears (not sure if this is just bears or stuffies in general) gets to go out on adventures with their human companions. Can you believe that??? That means that 4 out of 5 bears are stuck at home doing absolutely nothing - no adventures, no hot chocolate, no cards from their stuffie pals and no blogs... Oh the sorrow of it all!

I have to say, it was a beary impressive exhibit... has anyone else seen anything like this? Or is this just a Vancouver thing?

On the streets of Vancouver

Locked in a bus shelter window. Poor bears!

Time for a Hot Chocolate

Ahhh... all that hard work has made me beary thirsty... wait a minute...

Is that... is that an EMPTY hot chocolate container????

NOOOOO!!!! Call 911!! Send out the Home Guard... or the National Guard... or the Bear Guards... this is horrible!!!

Oh... I should look in the cupboard, should I?

Oh thank goodness!!! We had run out of Starbucks hot chocolate a few weeks back and Mama couldn't find it in stores anymore (hence the third rate Carnation stuff)... but she is happy to report that she found some of the quality stuff!

Oh yummy!!!

Uh-oh... one of the packets had burst a gasket in the box and now there is hot chocolate everywhere!! Luckily we salvaged most of it.... whew... Except for the bit on my boots... what a waste!

Sandy's Electrical Repair Service

Hello again. Today we are doing some electrical work in the house. This isn't serious stuff - just changing out a light fixture and replacing some electrical plugs. I am going to supervise, of course.

First up... yes... that is an ugly brass light fixture!! It is in our dining room and it is... ugly. It is from... like... the Middle Ages... or something.

Beary ugly!

Did I mention ugly yet?

Anyhow... Mama got the scoop on a free brushed-nickel fixture that someone was getting rid of. It has nice clean lines and... there is more to it than what you see, but the glass bits are getting washed.

So... first off... we need to take the old one down.

Before you do anything... you turn off the power...

 Then you go to the breaker panel and turn off the breaker for that fixture/switch. When we moved in, our breaker panel was beary poorly labeled but Mama and her partner (through trial and error) figured out what was what... so this is easy. Switch off Breaker #2.

There we go... and the light fixture is gone!! It was a bit harder than it looks... someone had painted the threads of the screw thingie that holds the fixture up so... there was some muttering and cursing.

And now we connect up the new one. I would have liked more action photos but Mama was having a hard time holding me, the camera, the screwdriver, the flashlight... not to mention Mama's partner holding up the fixture!

Anyhow... then you phone downstairs to Grampa who has the breaker panel in his suite and say "turn it on please!" Just to check that it works. Then you have him turn it off while you get everything else connected... and then turn it back on again!

And there you go... it looks pretty good I think... much better than brass!! We are still playing with the height of it... there is a bit too much chain so we'll see what we do...

Part 2 of this electrical adventure was... replacing some electrical outlets. Plugs were a bit too loose in them, which isn't a good thing... and kept falling out. This was Breaker #32...

The wires went right into the back of the outlet so we knipped them off...

And now we need to strip a bit of the plastic sheathing off the wires so the copper is showing...

Hmm... I see why the old outlet was't working too well...

The new one is on the left (duh)... and the old one is one the right... First off, it is painted a bit... and second... there are plastic bits missing beneath the little "mouth" opening...

There we go... it's all connected... now we radio down to Grampa - he switches the breaker, we test the shredder (it works) and everything gets switched off again so we can shove all the wiring back in the wall.

There we go... except... the new outlet is white and the plate cover is beige...

Let's see what's in the electrical supply box...

Hmmm... every plate under the sun, but no white one for what we want!

I think someone needs to keep a better inventory!

In the end... we did use one of the new beige ones because the old plate was dirty, painted and it was using a wood screw to hold the plate to the outlet. That's just wrong... see the new screw on the right - that's what they should look like - a metal screw!

There we go!! One down and one more to go...

That last one went quicker but it was a tight space so I let Mama handle it herself....

The other plug was... if anything... even worse than the first one... it was completely painted white!! Ugh.

And then the breakers all get turned on again... Beary easy!!! Do you help with little repairs around your place?? I know Buttons the Bear is in full-blown renovation mode so he could probably tell us all sorts of stories!

Post Script...
There was a question about the possibility that the light fixture was a back alley deal. Nothing quite so dramatic. Up here, we have something along the lines of Craigslist or Kijiji called Used[cityname] - like UsedVictoria, UsedVancouver etc... Same idea. And so... this guy posted that he had a free brushed nickel light fixture!! So Mama phoned and left a voicemail and sent an email and... she was first one out of the gate! The guy phoned back... they live about 5 minutes away... so Mama jumped in the truck (without me) and zoomed off. It was a driveway deal - handshake, grins, thank you's etc... They are "upgrading" to LED fixtures... and hate to throw things away. Excellent! At least we have upgraded from hideous brass!!