Last week I got to tell my stolen cow story to my friend Steve. It was a story I never told him before. I remembered it when, waiting for him to close down the restaurant he owns, I saw this nice porcelain elephant by the front door. It stood about 3 feet high, and was painted in bright colours, and it reminded me of our stolen cow.

The stolen cow became an episode in Carleton University history. It made the press three times (I still have two of those clippings), it almost got us killed, and it made us quite a reputation around the University. Intrigued? Well guess what! I've finally updated and released the whole story, complete with new and shocking uncovered details for your reading pleasure! Check it out, hopefully you'll find it a good read.

In fact, thought it's now Tuesday, I started writing this rant last week, but put off upping it to my site (as you see it now) until I finished my cow story. I wanted to get the right mix of graphics and story flow for it, since it's pretty long (about 3000 words in total). One thing I'm not sure on these days is if you even want to check these things out. I used to get a ton of feedback on my stories, but haven't gotten any for ages, with the exception of the quick fix feedback I do very occasionally with my more important "tales" such as the vimy story etc. Let me know if you want me to even bother with continuing to put new tales up every month or so.

On other fronts, Vancouver is ruining it's reputation as the land of the Wet Coast lately. With the exception of last Thursday, we've had almost three weeks of glorious, sun-filled weather. Summer's definitely on the way, with all of our trees blooming (Vancouver has more than it's share of blooming-type trees, much to my pollen allergy's chagrin). I love summer (and winter) here - it's so much better than where I grew up. Mild winters, with maybe a 50/50 chance of seeing any snow at all, and comfortable, mid 20 Celsius temputeratures in the summer, complete with low humidity is the life for me.

You know one thing that completely freaked me out when I first got to Vancouver? No bugscreens. I grew up with bugscreens on windows, grew up with mosquito, black fly, and other assorted flies as a normal infestation every summer. Bug Zappers were a god-send to my kin and neighbours. After I arrived in Vancouver and moved into my first rented place (after living the hostel life for a while) one of the first things I noticed was the lack of bugscreens on windows - they simply opened into the great outdoors, with no hinderance for pests at all. I asked the landlord, hey man, where's the screens, and he gave me a strange look... no need for them, he said. You'd have to out to Surrey, Langly, or the Fraser Valley before you'd find a real need for 'em, he said.

And sure enough, he was right. I can't tell you how glorious it is to live in a city where I don't have to put up with mosquito bites, black flies, and the like. I love it, and it's probably my favourite thing about Vancouver, with the mild winters and summers a close second.

In even other news, Jean and I found a new coffee house recently. I can't remember if I mentioned it before, but I'll mention it now anyway. As you may or may not know (and if you didn't know, go read my coffee section) I worship at the alter of the bean, and I'm always in search of new coffee haunts. Recently, I found one on upper Tenth, on the way to UBC, called Bean Around the World. I guess I would say it sort of vaguely resembles the coffeeshop on Friends, but I don't really want to say that, since I find it much more "authentic" and cool.

My one complaint about the Friends coffeehouse (on TV, in case you don't know what I'm talking about) is that the setting seems to "try too hard" to be hip. It seems so obviously trendy. I've known a few coffeehouses in my day, and the Friends setting seems to try to incorporate all the coolest things a coffee house can be. Bean Around the World does have a few couches, but they look like cottage reject couches. The prices are probably the cheapest anywhere in Kits, with a huge bowl of Mocha going for $2.75 (Canadian dollars, so that means about $1.90 US) and excellent coffee, made from beans roasted on the premises, for $1.40, with refils for only 60 cents. Definitely my kind of place.