San Fran

The travelling tour is going crazy fast, already a week gone by! I figured I better get up some pics from San Francisco considering the fact that I'm already skipping out on most of my plans here in Sydney to hit 5:30am waves, no joke.

So here's a quick photosnapshot of how great San Fran was (more to cum):

Want a workout? Try trekking through San Fran all day. The hills are killer on the knees!



Of course I checked out the local tourist hot spots, including the warf. Ok that's enough of that...



There's also lots of hidden treasures around the various parks and plaza's around the city:



Another great hide away, and fantastic spot for a pint I might add:



There's nothing like a lazy afternoon nap :-)



Love the sea lions. I sat here having lunch and could have let them entertain me all day:



The Art Museum, very cool:



Five hours after leaving the downtown core I finally arrived at the Golden Gate Bridge. Way more impressive in movies and TV than in real life. Well cross that one off the list:



Looks like rain, the view of the city from the GG Bridge:



The rain threatened to move in but the surfers were happier than ever as the waves started rolling in really nice like:

The Other Side Of San Francisco

Come and climb to the other side of San Francisco:

Things You Should Know

Here's a list of 16 things you should know by the time you're 50. My favorite? Definatly number 3:

"You should never say anything to a woman that even remotely suggests you think she's pregnant unless you can see an actual baby emerging from her at that moment."

Amen brother. Amen.

Esslingen IS Ugly

Everyone in Stuttgart says (knows) Esslingen (small suburb of Stuttgart) is ugly, well they're right... Coyote Ugly that is! Yes that is the actual name of the bar:

The Diagnosis

The results of the biopsy are in. We met with Dr. Wunder and his team today, and were told that Earl has osteosarcoma. This is infact the same type of cancer that Terry Fox had, but the good news is that medically we are much more advanced that we were back then. They want to do a few more tests here and they will make an appt. with the oncologist who will take care of Earl's treatment (chemo) in Winnipeg. We will come back to Toronto for the surgery, which will take place half way through the chemo therapy. There are 2 types of chemo ranging in the drugs and the length of treatment and we could be back here as early as 9 weeks or as long as 20 weeks. When we come back we will likely be here for about 3 weeks. Earl is doing well and is determined that he is going to beat this. Please please please keep him in your prayers.
Debbie

Arrived

Toronto Update

Today is Monday and Earl has just had a biopsy. The team here is amazing and Earl is comfortable and making his way in to the hearts of everyone here. He is in recovery right now and will be coming down within the next 1-1 1/2 hours. Dr. Wunder has told me it is a sarcoma, but the specific type will not be known until we get the pathology report from the lab. That may or may not happen before we come back to Winnipeg. Earl will take a few days to recover and get back on his feet. He will probably have a few more tests before we come home, such as, a CT Scan and another Bone Scan. Take care and we would love to hear from you. Earl does have a phone in his room. Debbie & Earl

On The Other Side

That's it, I'm off. The next time I post something, it'll be from the other side. And when I say from the other side, I really mean, from the other side! Get ready Australia, you've never experienced EuroRoss before! ;-) :-)

Barenaked Diddy

The Barenaked Ladies (famous Canadian band) absolutely rock! Take a gander at this jingle they posted up on YouTube. Watch closely as Steve joins the song... frigging priceless!



Can you tell I'm happy? One more report and one more day to go before the big trip... :-)

Well the day is drawing near. We will be heading to Toronto at 7pm on Saturday evening. Earl will be admitted on Sunday morning. I will be staying at the Chelsea Delta Hotel, which is only a 10 minute walk to the hospital.

To post to the BLOG, you will have to have a google account. Click on the work Comment and follow the instructions to set up an account. Alternately you can click on the little envelope and send us an email. The BLOG email address is dhopkins@pembinatrails.ca. If you have any questions, or problems you can email those to me at the above address.

Darby is also at home, so you can call him if you want, as he will know whats going on.

First Century Tech Support

Had one of these moments today when I helped out someone at the office:

Who's On First?

Some more Bush humour, this time Domi (Paris native) gets it in. But I do have one question, who was on first?? ;-)

Duck Thief

Today I checked out my blog stats as I haven't really looked in a long time and I noticed that quietly I've passed the 100,000 visitors mark. That's right, over 100,000 people have come by the blog since it's inception. That's insane.

Welcome to Monday, don't let the fuzzy ducklings distract you ;-)

Travel Death

Only 4 days until I start my next big journey, crazy. While gone however I'll try to avoid dying by one of these top ten ways tourists die, epecially number 5: falling coconuts



Am I ever afraid of falling coconuts!! ;-)

Slow M... o... t... i... o... n...

Wow, totally hung today, everything seems to be going in slllloooowwwwww motion:

We are off to Toronto

Well, the time has come and we are off to Toronto on Saturday March 24,2007. Earl will be admitted to the Sarcoma Unit @ Mt Sinai Hospital on Sunday morning. The tests begin on Sunday with an MRI and other test's/procedures will start Monday. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers as he is obiviously upset and concerned.(to put it mildly)

We would love to here from you, and I know he will appreciate your posts to his blog.

We are planning on staying for the week, and hoping we can get out to a Leafs Game and to the Hockey Hall of fame. And who knows maybe we will take a trip to Niagara Falls.

Take Care,
Debbie, Darby & Earl

Fat St. Pat

Happy St. Patty's Day everyone!! :-)

On The Trail

I'm off on the trail one week today... I'll let you know where exactly in a couple days :-)



(Thomas Hawk)

Sidewalk Parking

Everyone knows people in North America don't have a clue how to parallel park. There's just no need, with ample parking lots and huge streetside spots people just don't learn how. Even your driving test only requires a parallel park behind one car, not in between 2.

Europe on the other hand trains and develops master parallel park'ers. My friends in Paris could fit a buick into a spot the size of a matchbox... like a glove!

This is how they try to parallel park in Hamilton, ending up on the sidewalk, on top of a poll:



That was the scene when I came back from work today. Thank god tomorrow is Friday.

Four Burgers, Three Fries, Some Backbacon...

Hockey rocks, if you don't know who these players then for god's sake get yourself to Canada to watch some NHL playoff games!! Great commercial:

Total Eclipse Of... Memory?

There was a total lunar eclipse last week. Here's what it looked like from Stuttgart:

300

Yes we went to see it Sunday. "300" has a very simple story (300 Spartans defending their homeland vs. the entire Persian empire), very little plot and ton of fighting scenes. Excellent for a hangover Sunday afternoon :-)

To the Iranian government: yes it is cultural warfare (in a way) but not because of the reasons you propose. Hollywood has been spreading American culture throughout the world for decades by introducing billions across the globe to their stories and values through films. 300 is no more warfare than everyone's old fav "90210"... which was a #1 TV show in Iran by the way!

(300, 90210, 23,... what's with all the numbers today?? ;-)

Buggy Stuff

What bugs look like after being crushed on your car windshield:

Euro 2008

Well in the shadows of an amazing World Cup 2006 in Germany there's already preparations for Euro 2008 to be held in Switzerland and Austria (co-hosts). Sign-up for the first round of tickets is already underway (March 1 - March 31) and will be a lottery system (I didn't even get a sniff in all three World Cup ticket rounds last time and had to get my tickets... elsewhere ;-)

Even if you're totally not interested SIGN UP NOW! I'll give you 100% markup if you snag Germany or England tix, seriously. Can't wait for next summer!!! :-)

Rottnest Island

The countdown is on, less than 2 weeks away from Australia. Something to wet the appetite, cycling around Rottnest Island:

Where In The World Is Carmon Sandiego?

Where in the world is Carmon Sandiego? Probably chilling with EuroRoss somewhere ;-) Even Google maps can't find us, but when they do their fly-overs for maps sometimes they do find things they probably arn't supposed to... like this missle in flight!!



I'll be back on the map come Monday morning, see you all then :-)

Link-O-Rama

Six reasons why travel makes you more attractive, the last being key to your very survival. ;-)

This is cool, pick which photos you like better and after a while the computer analyses your picks and trys to tell you something about yourself.

Boom baby, Boom!

Passing out drunk? Watch out.

EuroRoss gets on "Wheel of Fortune"!



10 diet tips.

This is how you should not drive:



Have a great weekend everyone!

Karaoke Reid

Tara Reid use to be hot. Case in point:



Now not so much...



...and a bit loaded tonight:



Best quote is right at the beginning "karaoke is fun, it's not about American Idol". You're so right Tara, you're so right.

Take-out Links

These are the links you take with you on the road when you can't sit down and eat a full internet meal:

Sometimes public TV is frigging hilarious, this guy just keeps taking it... and taking it... and taking it... jeebus does he ever take it! :-)

It's frigging cold in places like Canada and Russia. Don't believe me? Even vodka freezes here, did you even think that was possible?!



Probably my fav commercial ever, double click the vid screen to go to youtube and see the other ones in the VW "un-pimped" series:



I leave you with this, if you don't get it congrats, you've successfully passed politness school, if you do get it... shame shame! ;-)

Sydney Is Electric!

There was an amazing electrical storm in Sydney over the weekend and my pal Al was there (Manly, across the bay) to take first hand photo's of the commotion. Three weeks and I'm there, three weeks and I'm there, three weeks...

The lightning was all over the place, which incidentally gives a great view of the bridge and city:



Powerful:



Ka-BOOM!!!



Very cool, but hopefully it'll be a bit more sunny and calm for our 2 week VW ride up the beaches along the coast. Here's my fingers crossed!

Just Another Toronto Night Out

Damn, I've really gotta stop doing this. Calling up my friends in Toronto to hook up for "one beer" while watching the hockey game and then... 6am crawling home. What am I talking about?! What a great night!! :-)

It all started with a $50 Nike scarf, bought in Moskow and made somewhere in China. What style!



Well that about does it for photos that are tastfully able to be posted, I guess you'll have to use your imagination for the rest. To aid in your cause, imagine what it's like for a bunch of guys to drink this much beer:



...and requiring to pay the cab driver $5 to stop the taxi just so you can get out and pee... on some random house downtown T-dot! And that wasn't even half way through the night!



Oh what shame, what shame! Can't wait until next weekend ;-)

Update: The end of the video seems to be cut off, in answer to the statement "you just paid the cabbi 5 bucks to pee!" Stevie responds with "I paid him 20". Hilarious.

Update 2: Rumour has it that I was dancing to "I'm too sexy" on top of the bar at Jack Astors. The rumours are true, I even rubbed some guys bald head :-)

Earls BLOG

Welcome to Earls BLOG,
Earl has many friends and many many people in his life. In order to make sure that everyone who wishes to support him and be up to date on what is going on in his life, we have decided to try setting up a BLOG. (phoning all the time is just too time consuming)
As we continue the journey of his life together

• you can keep up with what is going on in his life and his treatment
  
• pray for him
• communicate with him
• send jokes
• send pictures

We hope that this will be the right tool to keep in touch with all of you.

Debbie, Darby and Earl

JetBlue Appologizes

How a great company appologizes to their customers (after a JetBlue flight was sitting on the tarmack with a full load of passengers for 5+ hours):



Wouldn't it be great if all companies owned up like this?

Weekend Relaxation

Friday night is almost here, time to relax!

We Are VFB Stuttgart, And We Are Going To Berlin!

Que sera sera,
Whatever will be, will be
The future's not ours to see,
Que sera sera...

If I Was Handcuffed To You

"I don't have the key."

U.S. Knows Best

Another edition of "the U.S. knows best":



The best line in the whole bunch comes with 3:29 left in the video: "which one is throwing the rocks"... blows my mind, absolutely blows my mind.

Update: Just when you think it couldn't possibly get worse... er, funnier, I turn on the TV tonight and see this new show hosted by comedian Jeff Foxworthy: "Are you smarter then a fifth grader"

After 3 questions on a 10 question test the guy (27 and with a college degree) had already used 2 "cheats" copying off the paper of the other 5 grader contestants. No joke. I... am... shaking... my... head... right... now.