On Sunday, we played tourist in our own town and visited the Capilano Suspension Bridge. I had won a pair of passes from their Twitter account (@capsuspbridge). The “attraction” was better than we expected, with more than just the bridge … there was a boardwalk over the Capilano Canyon as well as their “Treetop Adventures” elevated boardwalk and tree-platforms. Also, they have several wild birds on display … a great horned owl, a kestral, and a red-tailed hawk. These birds were accompanied by some rather knowledgable handlers. Further, they have a significant First Nations display and interpretive area. Much more than just the bridge we expected!

Here’s a short video of our visit:

• Our cat is back from the vet. Not clear what’s going on but she doesn’t seem too bad right now. Waiting for results from blood + urine tests #
• If you only watch one #geocaching video today, why not make it this one: http://bit.ly/FIYrQ , the finale of our trip to Gold Country! #
• So the sick, blood-in-the-urine cat has been running around here like a young kitteh tonight. :eyeroll: I don’t get it. #
• Hi-ho, hi-ho, it’s off to sweat in bed I go. TMI? 24C is not comfy sleeping temperature. #
• Network outage at work, eta noonish for repair. Cell, txt, or DM to reach me. #
• Network connection restored. Hopefully the shakes will stop now. Glad to see I avoided the latest #TwitterPhisher. #
• Pottery? What kinda weird anniversary theme is that? Happy anniversary @LeftCoastMama #
• Dear minions: Please branch *before* making changes, not after. It’ll save us both a metric tonne of frustration. #SVN #
• VIA Rail overwhelmed when offering tickets discounted 60%. Surprise! If you make prices reasonable, maybe CDNs *will* take the train! #duh #
• Damn. Sidney Crosby parades the Stanley Cup through Cole Harbour on August 7th. We’ll be there 8 days later :( #
• RT @JohnHenryBikes: Put the rubber to road & actually sign up for an @AC_Cyclebetes cross Canada relay ride NOW. http://bit.ly/jz9xJ #
• Just signed up for the @AC_Cyclebetes relay from Hope to Vancouver http://bit.ly/jz9xJ Why don’t you join me for the ride? #
• Vet called with results of tests for our sick 11 yr old cat. Blood-work looks awesome, but blood in the urine. Prob UTI, waiting for culture #
• /relieved #
• So with the #twitter makeover, will it now remember me for longer than a one-night stand? #
• Distracted @ lunch by video of the Airbus 380 landing at Oshkosh – It was a bit of a hard landing. But then found this: http://bit.ly/wpCma #
• RT @AmberStrocel My summary of how Canadian health care works http://tinyurl.com/n8lkve (@donttrythis will probably be interested in this!) #
• Vancouver breaks a record: 33C is its hottest day ever. And we’re still climbing. #
• Think it’s hot here in Vancouver? It’s *37C* (98F) in SEATTLE right now! #
• Took an alt (less hilly) route home tonight on my bike. Saw more #asshat cyclists than normal. They give the rest of us a bad name. :( #
• 6am. 23C/74F outside, hotter inside. Both boys up for an hour. Ugh. #
• What new wonders does my 12892nd day hold in store? #
• Dumbfounded that there isn’t more backlash on this H00tsuite spam. It has guaranteed that I won’t be using it. #DontSpamMeBro #
• #hootsuite got even more annoying! Spam all your followers at http://hootsuite.com/upgrade #
• RT @kabutar: Holy crap, forest fire literally EXPLODING on Blackcomb. It was just a couple trees and 5 mins later a huge plume. #
• RT @Teddy2kk: @AnthonyFloyd holy crap, you can see the smoke on the Blackcomb webcam – http://bit.ly/3KxU0 #
• The Blackcomb fire from the peak of Whistler: http://bit.ly/zBXw5 (h/t @Teddy2kk) #
• Record temperature for Vancouver for a second day. And, 2 hours to go to our typical hottest time of day. #WeCantDealWithTheHeat #
• Had to build gcc/gfortran from scratch on an obsolete SLES 9 system to support a customer. Took all afternoon to get deps & compile #ImAGeek #
• RT @illied: @DixonTam Heatwave tip No. 073: Baby wet naps. Not just for babies. [AMEN! There *is* an upside to buying wipes in bulk!] #
• Seems that the heat wave has killed our Xbox 360 :'( Hopefully it’ll come back to life after it has cooled down a bit. #
• Nope, Xbox is hooped. Damnit. #RROD #
• While everyone is up on their high horse about tonight’s #CriticalMass, consider I had 3 drivers nearly run me over on my ride this AM. #
• If there were *any* traffic enforcement in YVR everyone would be less combative. But then there’d be whiners complaining about speed traps. #
• RT @Kimli: #criticalmass starting early? Cyclists armed with waterguns shooting anyone in path downtown. [sigh, that’s *great* PR, guys] #
• Wow, the Burrard St Bridge sees 2-3x the number of cyclists after bike lane introduced! http://bit.ly/nFOEN Vehicle traffic *UNCHANGED* #
• OK, maybe not 2-3x. 30-40% increase (oops, scanned too fast) #
• Wow, the Burrard St Bridge sees 30-40% more cyclists after bike lane introduced, vehicle traffic *UNCHANGED* http://bit.ly/nFOEN #
• GPS Spot Messenger causing people to call for help when they don’t need it? http://bit.ly/7HG5o (sorry, don’t recall who originally Tweeted) #
• Down to Google Reader 0 from GR1000+. I’m not convinced this was a win. #
• http://twitpic.com/cksz4 – 12 years in Vancouver and I've never been to Grouse Mtn #

Here’s day 2 of our Gold Country geocaching adventure:

• Back to the grind. Very different than our weekend! Here’s a short video teaser about #geocaching in Gold Country http://bit.ly/Kwou #
• Sweltering ride in. Grateful for A/C in office. #
• You guys don’t remember Bixby and Me? Great Canadiana! http://is.gd/1GQSY #showyourage @bluefur @cathybrowne #
• .@kj_mclean Well, I’m glad *someone* remembers that show. “It’s Bixby and Me, we live in a tree…” #
• 4:30 pm. Just *now* I’m able to do some real work. Crap, needs to be done by tomorrow. Good thing I planned on staying late… #
• Ah-hah! Another one (@rtousi) remembers Bixby and Me. Maybe it was just an East Coast thing? #
• Just blocked 16 ‘%s%d4’ % (name, randomFourDigitNumber) followers. Seriously if your username is NAME1234, I’ll block you. #FunWithPython #
• Celebration of Light fireworks tonight in Vancouver over English Bay (Canada is showing tonight). High tide is at 8pm. Plan accordingly. #
• RT @mynameiskate: Nice video response from Taylor Guitars about Dave Carroll & his guitar http://tr.im/tzEI (via @jgombita & @Terry_Foster ) #
• Fireworks over English Bay. The tree between us and it gets more and more in the way. #
• One cat hiding under the bed, one on my lap completely unfazed at the #CelebrationOfLight fireworks. #CatsAreMysterious #
• Ah, the post-fireworks sounds: RCMP helos circling, angry boat horns in False Creek, sirens on ambulances heading to VGH. #BestPlaceOnEarth #
• Uncontent with merely crawling around, Q has taken to standing on his own … about 8 months before his brother did #
• Well, maybe that’s a bit unfair to A. Call it 6 motnths #
• Or 6 months even #
• Hey you old skool kids: Remember Kennedy Approach for the C=64? You can play it in Windows! http://is.gd/1IZL0 Serious time vampire! #
• Today’s morning music? @StevenPage at the Winnipeg Folk Festival: http://bit.ly/ATk6c #
• RT @bcbusiness: Finance Minister Colin Hansen announces BC sales tax to be harmonized with federal GST. #
• What’s the difference between GST and HST? Other than the provincial surcharge, nothing. http://bit.ly/cwKXy #
• BC HST announcement includes list of “point-of-sale rebates” on fuel, books, kid’s clothes + supplies. Hmm, so any net change for consumers? #
• RT @capsuspbridge: Win 2 Day Passes worth $60! RT “Capilano Suspension Bridge made me do this to win” until 2 pm PST #
• There are now 7 different operating systems on my workstation #HowDidPeopleWorkBeforeVirtualization #
• RT @AP11_SPACECRAFT: SPLASHDOWN! #40YearOldTweets #
• OK Haligonians, my wife and I will be in NS for the last 2 wks of Aug + will be celebrating our 9th anniv’sry. What to do? Any good theatre? #
• Gargh. @twitter purges spam accounts and already I have 6x NAME+4digit spammers following me. Give. It. Up. #
• Off to the #Blogher09 pity party (Vancouver). Come join us at Spanish Banks West! #
• Today I find myself agreeing with @buzzbishop: The echo chamber is in full effect #blogathon #blogher09 #NotEnoughFilters #BackOnMonday #
• Thunder showers in Greater Vancouver. Not what you want to hear when the fire risk is extreme. #
• Thunderstorms, so rare for Vancouver, are getting more intense. Time to start thinking about unplugging sensitive equipment. #
• Ho-lee! Lightning filling the sky here. Time to shut everything down. Later tweeps! #
• RT @alexishinde: The lightning is so dramatic that people on the beach [for tonight’s fireworks] are cheering for each strike. #
• BIG white “cloud” coming from Cypress or behind. Hope that’s not the smoke that it looks like :o #
• Gwen is on the balcony watching the lightning. Aidan is in the dining room, doing same. I guess we’re going to let him watch the fireworks! #
• Geocaching the Gold Trail, Day 1(video) Part I: http://is.gd/1NCZ8 Part II: http://is.gd/1ND1c #
• Checked video rendering, it was on frame 36878. I wanted to POKE it to 11 … #ObscureGeekReference #