Yesterday morning I had a particularly bad case of post waking cognitive latency, which was partially cured when I opened my living room curtains and saw this:

In a classic race between the tortoise and the snail, two thoughts exploded off the starter blocks of my mind like a word spoken through a long yawn: 1) Crime scene investigation, wonder what happened? 2) Something isn't right here?

Continue reading Failure to Think Fast Enough in the First Degree

It's been a long time since I've watched a parade. A bunch of friends, under the banner of Vancouver Science Fiction Fans, donned costumes and entered this year's North Vancouver Canada Day parade. There's a lot of common membership among the different groups, so coming together for something like this is a natural. I believe it's the 3^rd year the groups have done it. Since I wasn't motivated enough to make a costume of my own I thought it was past time to show up and cheer them on.

The Stargate fans made an actual Stargate! Very cool. Among the characters escorting the Stargate were Princess Leah, some Battlestar Galactica crew, Men in Black featuring Grga as Zed, and Rorschach (from Watchmen). North Vancouver's very own Spacepug, marching in the oh-so-glamorous orange BSG crew coveralls, inhaled some nasty paint fumes making a nice parade banner. Well done, everyone!

I couldn't believe how big the parade was, clocking in around 2 1/2 hours. I might be biased, but based on creativity and effort the Sci-Fi fans had one of the better entries. There were some local businesses that simply stuck a sign on a vehicle and drove. Boring. Other businesses were more innovative, like the North Shore News who sponsored cheerleaders, er, a spirit squad, and a few who used vintage or novelty cars.

My favourite entry — because of the great band memories it brought back — was the Freddy Fuddpucker marching band. They were having a ball, and the dude leading them could spin and toss his floor-mop baton like no one's business. I wanted to grab my trombone and join them! I also liked the floats with high energy music. Kudos to Mayors Richard Walton and Darrell Mussatto for riding bicycles in the parade while the Federal politicos used cars (though I'm told MP Andrew Saxton was actually walking behind his car). The other great costume of the day was the dude dressed up as Gene Simmon's Demon from KISS.

Here's the pictures I shot of the parade. Clicking on a thumbnail will bring up a full size picture.

Continue reading North Vancouver Canada Day Parade 2009

Even with Vancouver's thriving coffee culture it isn't always easy finding great coffee. A place serving coffee is never too far away, but quality isn't a given. This problem seems doubly bad with coffee beans. In my experience, buying beans from a coffee shop where I've enjoyed the coffee is no guarantee that the same coffee will taste as good at home. And if you live in North Vancouver, the places recommended by the coffee gurus mean some form of commute ... until now.

Enter Moja Coffee — We of the North Shore no longer have to cross Burrard Inlet for great coffee or great coffee beans!

Continue reading Moja Coffee

Sometimes on my walks I'm very inward focused, other times I'm taking in what's around me. It was on one of these latter style walks I noticed the advertisement next to this athletics store:

Is it just me, or does a sports medicine advertisement for knees and feet next to a store selling running shoes and holding running clinics seem on par with stomach pump ads at a restaurant? Inquiring minds wonder how much new business this brings in!

It's the end of an era in North Vancouver's Upper Lonsdale area, and a very sad day for me personally. Inn Cogneato, one of my all-time favourite restaurants on the North Shore, has closed.

I was a customer from the time it first opened and spent many a lazy Saturday or Sunday brunch enjoying good food and reading the current Wired Magazine. The menu was a kind of Iranian/North American fusion. Standard North American stuff with slight ingredient changes. They had the best bread! I think it was an Iranian flat bread (I've always called it "skate board" bread, if you've ever seen it you'll know why) made to rise.

As time went on the restaurant expanded, taking over the space next door. Wired Magazine was bought by Conde Nast and lost its soul so I moved on to other reading. I'm not sure if David was married before he opened Inn Cogneato but he certainly started his family while running it. When his son and daughter were born a prouder father you haven't seen. And along the way his wife, Salima, became involved with the "front of the house". You'd often see the kids playing in the back. In other words, it was a true neighbourhood restaurant where the owners and customers knew each other.

If Inn Cogneato had a problem, it was the portion sizes were large! Although I loved the place, I simply couldn't eat there as often as I liked if I wanted to fit into my pants! As it happened, I didn't make it in during their last few weeks and was caught completely by surprise that first week in August when I did head over for a BLT and discovered the note on the door saying farewell.

Best wishes David and Salima on your life post-Inn Cogneato. And thank you for all the wonderful food you served. You'll be missed.