down to the beach (to play

So for my last pre-Clarion West week-or-so, Joe took me to Vancouver. (We left the day before the hockey riots, so we didn't get to witness any of that.) Having no particular plans or anything resembling an itinerary, we set out armed only with a list of restaurant recommendations courtesy of my camerado Nick and vague expectations of moose and mounties (neither of which we encountered). The fella manning the security booth on the other side of the border seemed highly suspicious of our confessed aimlessness and asked increasingly specific questions about our purpose in Canada which we were unable to satisfy, but eventually let us through.

Okay, so technically the first place we ate in Vancouver was a place serving flax rolls, but since I figured that my Canadian friends would never let me live down not having any Tim Horton's, we went there immediately afterward. Evidence: 

We went a-wanderin' and saw this whilst crossing a bridge. An ad hoc shrine to the False Creek gods?


At some point we roamed about through Stanley Park (still searching), where we came across a couple raccoons that we at first took great pains to avoid startling, but came to the realization were all but domesticated:

Yonder fields of tasseled corn

Sorrysorry -- I've been teeeerrible at updating my blog in the past, oh what'sitevenbeen, MONTH. As I mentioned when last I wandered through my own corner of the Wired, my poem, "From Blood and Ash and Embers," originally published in Goblin Fruit, has been reprinted in the June 2011 issue of Expanded Horizons. Incidentally, it shares an issue with a story written by Pamela Rentz, who I briefly met through a mutual friend at WisCon a few days before this issue went live! It also marks my first byline as Jei D. Marcade, so that's exciting.


The following few posts will primarily be photodumps. Warning: Most of them will contain pictures of animals, both real and imagined. 


This post will chronicle my last couple adventures in Iowa. 


I saw some neat flowers growing out of trees!



Camerado Stephanie visited me in the Athens of the Midwest, and we enjoyed pie shakes (well, this red velvet cupcake shake) at the presidential favorite, Hamburg Inn!




Meet Logan. He lives in the Haunted Bookstore. He is a very stately and dignified cat.
 Sometimes. And sometimes, he likes to engage in ferocious battle with the strings of my hoodie.
Vince sent me a lovely, if somewhat belated birthday card!