Kate’s Birthday barbecue

Kate had a tasty birthday at Dundarave Beach in West Vancouver.

Rockin's Jerk Chicken Wings

She was pleased the whole fam damily could celebrate on a perfect day.

Kate and Zoe
Rockin' Ronnie's cooking the envy of the beach
Jake
... the family that swims together ...

See more photos from Kate’s Birthday

See more RANDOM Shewchuk photos.

Amy and John in Vancouver

Lucky me.

I got together with Amy and John TWICE last week. First at a wonderful Indian joint near Granville Island.

Kate, John, Amy

Can you believe the size of these Dosas?

And later at a celebration of Taiwan culture. Here we are getting a photo with new students just arrived from Japan.

happy Birthaversary Kate !!

Kate and her daughter Zoe are taking in a chick flik this afternoon. Then the family is doing a beach barbecue picnic to celebrate her 29th birthday.

It’s partly a wedding anniversary celebration, too. She married some old, forgetful guy named Stanley about this time of year, decades ago.

“Create your own” whole leaf teabags

Ron makes Kate teabags of ideal strength by putting loose leaf into an empty bag.

These are 64 bags for £4.45 out of the U.K. …

In Vancouver Ron found the bags imported from Japan.

By the way, have you found Twinnings tea bags to be getting weaker and weaker over the years?

Pink Salmon Festival, Vancouver

I really enjoyed a complimentary outdoor Salmon dinner yesterday.

… The event is organized by Robert Clark, sustainable fish advocate and chef of divine cuisine, who teamed up with Pacific Salmon Foundation to celebrate pink salmon as one of British Columbia’s most sustainable seafoods. A total of 1.5 tonnes of free, barbecued-to-perfection pinks were prepared and served by chefs to hundreds of visitors …

Rockin’ was one of the chef / evangelists.

Denzel had a booth selling their barbecue sauces. He’s attending Barbecue on the Bow next weekend.

The weather was perfect.

more photos

my favourite animal is lamb chops

Dave Adlard would love Iceland.

Pretty much anywhere on the island you can reach out the car window and grab a lamb by its wooly nape.

photo by harrisj

… the breed is very cold-hardy. Multiple births are very common in Icelandic ewes, with a lambing percentage of 175% – 220%. A gene also exists in the breed called the Thoka gene, and ewes carrying it have been known to give birth to triplets, quadruplets, quintuplets, and even sextuplets on occasion. …

Here’s that same lamb (the one on the right) I later enjoyed in Reykjavík. Like Mark Zuckerburg, I like to look my lunch in the eyes before chomping.

I was treated to this feast by gymnastics coach / judge Gummi Brynjólfsson.

New Zealand has a lot of sheep, but almost all is exported. Iceland seems to keep a few of theirs for the platter.

This island nation has about 450,000 sheep, 300,000 people and 500,000 (2008) tourists.

lamb and ham …

It’s breakfast in funky Reykjavik, a lamb & ham sub at 3pm.

In the Iceland of the Midnight Sun, day and night become fairly irrelevant.

Enjoying a lazy Sunday off, I’m still pondering whether or not to hike over to the ‘hot pots’ for a soak.

Tomorrow morning I’m contemplating a Puffin McMuffin breakfast before heading back out trekking.

They eat Puffin and Minke in Iceland, don’t you know.