Back Attack!

Well, things have been going slowly this past week. We successfully got all of our stuff moved into our home from our storage unit. All the couches and furniture and lots of boxes etc. It actually worked out really well because our storage unit was only 5 min away form our place. We rented a moving truck for the day, and it is based on a flat rate of 20 dollars plus kilometers and gas. Because we had such a short distance to drive, we didn’t have to put any gas in the truck, and traveled only 30 kilometers because we made several trips. So the truck for the day only cost 35 dollars! I thought that was a pretty good deal.

The house has been coming along, the kitchen and bathrooms are all nice and clean, we have our fridge and freezer stuff moved over, I got a coat of paint rolled out in most of the main floor, and we have some of he light fixtures up now that the ceilings are all freshly painted. It was a busy week.

Anyways, the day after we moved, I was at the house doing some sanding of some wall fills, getting ready to paint some walls. Even after moving, my back was feeling good, not sore at all. So there I am, working away, and all I did was bend over to pick up a cd rack, which must have weighed a good half pound. Pop! Out goes my back. I guess the stress of moving had weakened it and made it open to injury. Basically it is the same area that I hurt back in 2003/2004.

So I have been to the chiro, and it turns out I have a major back sprain along with a swollen disc. Woohoo! Basically this means that I have the week off work, and get to do lots of laying around schoolwork. Which let me tell you, gets boring fast. I actually am pretty funny to watch as I hobble around. You really appreciate a healthy back when you need help with such things as putting your socks on.

Each day it is getting a bit better, it is just a matter of time…

On the upside, I get lots of time to focus on school…

I have too much to do to be waylaid for long, so look for me to be back in action asap!

Update coming soon!

I know, I know it has been a long time since I have done a post.

Here is what is happening:

We sold our condo, and bought a house.

Right now Anna and I are living at my parents as we renovate our house.  The previous owners were smokers, so it is pretty gross, nicotine everywhere!  Good thing I know how to paint.  I will post a video tour of the house pretty soon, to give you a rundown of everything and all the renovations we plan on doing.  Very exciting!

School is back in session, and Anna and I are both getting back into the swing of things.  Midterms and papers are coming very quickly.  I am taking 12 credits, and Anna is taking 6 I believe.  So with work, school, and now home renovations, you can only imagine how busy we are.  I think the key thing is to pace yourself and plan things out as much as possible.

Just wanted to let you all know that this blog is not dead, and I will have more posts coming soon.  Look forward to the video tour!

Summary of Events

Well It has been a while, so I thought I would throw up a blog post for the masses.

Leading the news is that I have joined facebook. If you are on facebook, search for Dan Zupancic and add me to your friend list. Facebook is pretty cool application that lets see others photos, there are tons of groups to join, it is pretty cool.

I went fishing last weekend with my friend Matt, out to silvermere lake, in Mission. We had a great time, and both caught lots of fish. Here are a couple of pics, now remember, it is the quality of the fish, not the size that matters, right?
Matt and I don’t see each anymore… Just kidding of course, now we have to go out more so that I can catch bigger ones than him.

In other news, Anna and I have discovered the benefits of french press coffee. We are now officially coffee snobs. The preferred method involves grinding up some starbucks beans, and then using the french press to obtain optimal results. MMMmmm good. You really should try it, it makes the coffee alot smoother somehow.

A while back Anna and I went to a vancouver canadians game, which is semi-professional baseball. Anna’s work paid for us to go, and they paid for a pre game BBQ which was pretty good. The only bad thing was that you had to pay for beer. And at 6.50 each, we got one each and that was it. A couple people got hit by foul balls. Ouch, that would suck. The only fowl balls I like are chicken nuggets.
Moving right along… umm yeah so things are busy with work and taking a class online. Today we are gonna go buy some fresh berries to eat. Abbotsford rocks for berries, we get grow strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, and even blackberries abound.

We got an offer on our condo, so we will see if that pans out.

Till next time, keep those fingers busy.

Selling the Condo

Well, if you have been reading Anna’s Blog, Random Deposits, then you may already know that we are selling our condo! We are looking to get into house here in Abbotsford, something with a wee bit more room. People keep asking if this is because we need more room for more people, for example, children. No, this is not the case. Perhaps one day though.

You can check out a virtual tour of our place by following this link. We have been looking at houses, but we cannot buy one until ours sells, so we decided to stop looking until ours sells. Otherwise a house we may want might not be available when we are ready to buy. It is better this way I think.

Anna is already thinking of all the parties she can host. Garden Parties, wine and cheese parties, the list goes on. She is even getting library books about event planning. Ok…

So to get our place ready to sell, we spent alot of time cleaning. Not that the place really needed it, but stuff like washing windows, and dusting things that normally have large intervals between cleanings. I painted the front door, recaulked some of the tile, just little stuff like that. It’s all in the details.

Now if you took the virtual tour, you can see the colors that we chose for our place. Well, I chose them, and Anna had to be convinced. After it was all said and done, we both love it. Vibrant and energetic, while relaxed and calm. Does that make sense? Anyway, what I am trying to say is, don’t be afraid of color! Color is your friend.

Being in the painting business, we see all too often people who play it safe and choose boring bland colors. While there is a balance between style and garish, there are more colors than taupe and off-white that can really liven up your place.

Being a painter does come in handy. We can even negotiate repainting the place into any offers that we get. Hmm, now I guess we need to start looking at colors for a home…

stinkn’ hot

Temp reached 38 today. I was working outside. By the end of the day I was 6 pounds lighter. It’s hot. Real Hot. None of this fake hot stuff…

Last Saturday

Saturday my friend Matt and I headed out to Hatzic Lake for our first time ever to see what we could find for bass. Seems like we fished the whole lake, with nary a bass to be caught. We saw a few followers coming after our lures but no takers of the bass variety. Before arriving, we thought we were pretty clever by printing off a map from the internet that showed depths and the locale of a public boat launch. While we followed the map very well, turns out there is no public boat launch. At least not according to where the map indicated, and according to some of the locals that we asked. So we kinda had to find our own way onto the lake, which we managed to do…

Although no bass were caught, I did catch a huge black crappie on a baby bass pattern crank bait. It was the biggest crappie I have ever seen, about 1.5 to 2 pounds, an absolute slab. Of course forgetting the net was a bit of an issue… I had ‘em right to the boat, and Matt and I were quite surprised when we saw that it was a crappie that I had caught. It was so big we just assumed that it was a bass. I lifted him out of the water so my buddy could grab him and bonk ‘em, but as I did, the hook popped out. Of course. The biggest crappie I have ever caught, gone… Talk about motivation to remember the net.

We had a fair number of hits but our only other landed fish was a large pike minnow that Matt caught on a black and silver crankbait.

Of course the day ended off perfectly with me falling into the lake as I disembarked at our “public boat launch”. Nothing too bad, just a couple of soaked legs. While I was unloading stuff from the boat, my buddy thought it would be a good idea to unload as well, only he failed to secure the boat before he left it. Of course a passing boat threw up a nice wake, and pulled the boat off the shore as the boat was left unattended. When we get back from the 30 sec. round trip to the truck, of course the boat is floating in the lake about 15 feet offshore. Of course. Seeing as I already had wet pants and legs I volunteered to go out and retrieve the boat. I stripped down to my boxers which were white. Of course. So into the lake I went, with my boxer and boots. Matt owes me big time.

Well an eventful day always makes for a memorable one right? Plus we were out fishing, so how could we complain…

After fishing we met up with our wives for a homemade feast of hamburgers, fries, and cinnamon buns with cream cheese icing. Mmmm cream cheese icing is so good. We played a game called take two, which is essentially speed scrabble. Everyone starts with two tiles, and makes their own “board” by lying the tiles in fron of themselves. When you have layed all your tiles, you say take two, and everyone takes two more tiles, regardless of whether or not they have laid them all. This continues until all the tiles are gone. Any tiles that are not laid when the first person finishes count against your score.

I won, so I really enjoyed myself. Woohoo!

School is coming and is already here

Well I just found out that I missed my registration date for school in september. Again. Apparently I could register on May 31. Which is super early for freakn’ september. This happened a few years ago too when I thought that the registration started in july. Apparently I always think registration starts later than it does. Huh. The school does not notify you when your registration is, you have to look it up on-line. Lame.

Well I did get two out of the three courses that I need, and am on the waiting list for the other course I need. I am #5 on the list so it shouldn’t be a problem to get in, it will just be a bit of a hassle. The courses that I am taking are all crim.

Crim 420 is a research methods class where I will carry out a research study I designed in crim 320. I will survey several classes of students about the issue of software piracy, input and analyze the data, and draw some conclusions. It will be a crapload of work.

Crim 310 is called Advanced Theoretical Perspectives. Sounds like a barrel of monkeys eh? Could be a bit dry…

My third class is crim 410, which is about terrorism. This is the class I am most looking forward to. It will be very interesting, especially with the relevancy of the topic to current events. Plus, I like the teacher who is teaching it, so double good.

Those courses start in september, and I am taking one summer course right now. It is an online course about Website design. It is nice not to have to go to school, plus I am interested in the topic, so all in all it is not too bad. September is when it gets really crazy. 12 credits worth of school plus full time work, means I will have just enough on my plate to keep me slightly busy.

But After september I have only three more courses! The end is in sight, and it cannot be soon enough. After all is said and done, I will have my Bachelors of Arts in Criminal Justice. It better be worth it.

I wonder if they give refunds…

Recently Overheard

Little boy at grocery store,”Daddy, wait for me!”
Dad,”why?”
Little boy,”so you can smack the poo-poo off my bottom!”
Dad, “Whats that supposed to mean?”
Little Boy, “It’s just a joke daddy…”

two days two posts two thumbs up

Another Monday, another adventure. Today Anna and I headed south to do some grocery shopping in the states. Because we live only 5 minutes from the border, it is quite close, less than 6 minutes away. We had a bit of a wait to get across the border because it was a long weekend in the states, and all those americans were trying to get home. Speaking of americans, did you know that Anna is half american? Yep, its true. Anyway, the border guard asked some weird questions, like, hoe come you guys are not working today. What does he care if we are working or not? He also wanted to know what we did for work. What kind of work would make you suspicious? Oh, hey Mr. border guard, oh I grow pot and sell it for a living. How about you? oh yeah, I guess you are a border guard…

There are some things that you just can’t get here in Canada that are very tasty. For example, chicken. In a can. A whole chicken in a can to be exact. At 7.99 it really is a steal of a deal. Too bad we already have enough chicken at home.

Also lots of manly food, like manwich filling. A sandwich only a man could eat. Or maybe a determined woman could try.

I also counted eight different kinds of wheat thins. 8. That is a lot of wheat thins. If you are thinking of checking out Bromley’s Market in Sumas, Washington check out the website for some money saving coupons. We purchased some green salsa, flamin’ cheetos, sangria soda, and some other misc. items.

After shopping we drove to Edaleen dairy to pick up some milk and Ice cream cones. As we were selecting our milk, who did we run into but the pastors of our church, Rob and Janet Thiessen. They were buying mozzarella cheese for pizza, and of course ice cream cones. Oh the people you meet.

Notice our matching sweaters? Thats just how in sync we are, better than a boy band!

I had rum rasin and cookie dough, and Anna had cherry and blackberry. The icecream was no bad, but I think that Birchwood Dairy ice cream is better. It seems to have more chunks of stuff in it, making much better. On the way back thru the canadian side of the border, we dutifully declared our goods ( get it, dutifully…haha) and I don’t know if he didn’t believe us cause he checked our trunk to make sure we were not trying to sneak some illegal cheetos across the border.

Later on in the evening we met Mom and Dad, Dustin and his friend Jake at Albert Dyck Park to go fishing. The fishing was mostly good. I caught 8, Dad caught 4, anf Dustin and Jake tied for last with zero. I don’t know what the problem was ’cause they were using the same lures that we were, but they got skunked. Must be an age thing.

Dad poses proudly with his first fish. Maybe a bit small compared to his rod, but a fish nonetheless. A good time was had by all, and Dad and I enjoyed teasing Dustin and Jake about their lack of fish. Okay, it was mostly me doing the taunting, but Dad thought it was very appropriate.

All in all a great day.

Where I have been

well lets see…

We just got our new Mazda 3 from the dealership on Wednesday. Looks like replacement insurance was a good idea! Because of that extra insurance, instead od judt getting payed out for the value of our old car, we get a brand spanking new one. This new one has about 42,000 kilometers less on it right now. It is basically the same car, with a few small changes. After driving rental cars and loaners, it sure is nice to back in “our” car. The only difference between our car and the car in the photo is that our front windows are not tinted. Otherwise, you are looking at our car, SB2. As you can see it is a great looking car. Anna and I both love to drive it. Luckily for her, she drives it most of the time as she does not get covered in paint and dust at work. Now hopefully we don’t get into any more accidents until we need a new car…

Today after church we headed on a special mission. We went to a bonsai conference! Apparently they are trying to make it an annual event, and this was their first one ever. They had a bunch of bonsais of course, and lots of pottery for sale. I was hoping to maybe buy a cool looking bonsai, but they only had one kind for sale, juniper pines. Junipers are very common in the bonsai world, and I kind of wanted something a little less common. I guess I am a bonsai snob. But I did learn that you can make bonsai out of tree cuttings, which is much faster than trying to grow trees from a seed. So I have been inspired to try and create some of my own bonsai from cuttings, because lets face it, 3-4 years for a seedling to mature before you even start to think of working on your bonsai is a long time. As you can see from the picture, standing next to bonsais really makes me look quite tall. I think bonsai trees would be ideal for short people who want to look taller than they really are. Perhaps this is why bonsai trees have a reputation for deception. Wait, never mind, I just made that last part up, it was a deception…
Last weekend we went caving! We headed up past Chilliwack to what are called the chipmunk caves. It is actually on chilliwack lake road, but you kinda have to know where they are because they are not marked in any way. I think that one of my expectations that really was met was how dark it was inside the caves. If you had no flashlight, guess, what, total darkness. I mean darker than a babies diaper that hasn’t been changed in a week. See what I mean?

The first cave we went into was pretty easy, you could crawl around, and even squat an half stand. This cave is just to get you ready for what is fondly referred to as the wormhole. Now the name wormhole may remind you of a shortcut between galaxies that star trek has popularized. But no, we are talking a literal worm hole here. You know, the kind of thing that an earth worm would make in its quest for moistness.

This cave was not for the claustrophobic. You really are worming your way thru the cave mostly on your belly. There are no spots where you can crouch or really kneel. It is all belly crawling of the awkward kind. At many points the tunnel twists and turns, and you have to contort your body in pretzel like shapes to maintain forward motion. The taller, or in this case, the longer you are, it becomes a bit more difficult to navigate the wormhole. Add in the fact that it is very dark, and you cannot turn around to see where your feet are, and oh yeah, you are traveling uphill, it was quite the challenge. Finally I emerged from the cave, victorious. Breathing that crisp fresh air, was like biting into a deep red, crispy, juicy, slightly tart fuij or jonagold apple. Delicious. After manhandling myself thru the wormhole, my knees and elbows were pretty beat up. Sometimes you need to sacrifice your body to attain the peaks and thrills of adventure. Other times you just have to sacrifice your money…

Today after the Bonsai convention and a wonderful roast beef lunch at the Thieles, we all headed out for a walk. On this walk I saw this train, and took a short video clip. It is just a train, but what the heck right? So if you like trains, it is only about 13 or 14 seconds, but the train was quite loud and fast, so see for your self.

Well I think that is all for now, I will try and do another post in a shorter interval than the last few. These blogs are so demanding, not to mention the fan mail…