B. Mann Consulting

I'm increasingly getting some interesting notes from my contact page. Stuart McLean on Monday night at the Orpheum was good, and someone from his publisher (Penguin Group Canada) sent me a message, talking about his new blog. Which is surprising, because I think I just mentioned it in passing, and it doesn't look like my site is anywhere in Google results. Anyway, there's the link, because I enjoyed myself at the show.

The Christmas concert was good. Good, not great. There was lots of laughing, and the music was quite good -- a really good singer and a great guitar/horn player...well, everyone was great: the stand-up bassist and piano player too. Thanks for taking me, Rebecca!

Afterwards Rebecca and I went to Bimini's. It was vaguely pub-ish, with lots of black and dark wood. Rebecca said that it goes "clubby" on weekends, and they move some central tables for a dance floor. Apparently South Granville/Kits doesn't really have any clubs on this side of the water. I was hungry so I had chicken wings. Finally back where they actually serve them with blue cheese dip instead of sour cream.

Which brings me back to my notion that chicken wings, buzzard wings, hot wings, whatever, actually got started in Vancouver at Red Robin's. I have no background on this, other than I remember having really good wings at Red Robin's a long, long time ago. And, walking into a random pub, and having wings that are really really good. Like "best in city" good if they were served in Ottawa. And this place definitely didn't even specialize in them.

On Tuesday morning I dragged myself out of bed (thanks, Gibbins!) and started going to meetings. Actually, stopped by Kinko's, then wandered around looking for an Internet cafe. It was so cold (Goretex jacket, just a shirt without a sweater, and the "wet cold" of -5 in Vancouver) that I wandered over to Coast Mountain Sports on 4th and bought gloves. And then proceeded to get a new pack as well, since Kate keeps stealing mine.

I settled on a Dakine 101. Basically, this was the all-around metro pack that I was looking for. It didn't have any snowboard loops or skate straps or anything like that, which was a plus. The front zipped down to an organizer including some padded holders for digital cameras etc. Also, a front entry flap held by some velcro for sticking stuff like bus transfers or gloves. The middle compartment was fairly roomy and nicely square. The back compartment has a padded laptop sleeve, for when I get my iBook or 12" Powerbook (heh). But wait, there's more! The back has a zipper that folds down (yes, the part where the straps are) and has a padded spot for a CD walkman, plus one of those CD holder things with room for 12 CDs. And then a headphone/cord hole, this little rubber doohickey that you can feed the cord through.

Then to Granville Island to meet Colin Brumelle. We talked for almost 2 hours, and could probably have gone for another 6 if he didn't have to get going and I had another meeting to catch. Lots of outcomes, including the fact that I apparently have to re-visit Typo3 as a really good choice for a CMS system.

Then over to Yaletown to meet with Andrew Jones. Also lots of good stuff talked about there, almost running to 2 hours.

Then a quick run to the ferry (yes, complete strike as of noon today), but I came right back over again this morning, and now I'm sitting at Jamie and Allison's place, finally getting a little bit of downtime.

Some decisions to make over the next little while, and lots of interesting stuff on the go.