Tami and Eddie

We had a great time with our friends Tami and Eddie.
They got to see a the nice view from our apartment on the first day, as the weather was great. Then we walked along English Bay at night.
Then they spent several days in Whistler skiing. While they went skiing, they got snow. But it rained here, and the rain continued upon their return.
But even with the rain, we enjoyed the aquarium and the Sun Yat Sen garden. We only had one nice day upon their return -- their last full day here.
We went to the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge, hiked a bit, then checked out the view from Capilano Park.
We also had some great food around town.
Here are some pictures from their trip, including some views from our apartment.

Foreign-transaction fees on credit cards

I hate those stupid foreign-transaction fees on credit cards.
Friends from New York are coming up to visit, so I warned them about the foreign transactions fee on credit cards.
Visa and MasterCard charge banks 1% for foreign transactions. Initially, banks passed along merely the 1% fee. But then they started getting greedy and realized they could make a profit from it. Some of the banks now charge 2% or 3% for transactions in a foreign currency, or even for transactions that occur abroad in US currency.
Capital One doesn't charge the fee at all, so I use Capital One for all of my charges.
But I recently lost my card, so I had to use my Bank of America card, which I originally got from MBNA.
MBNA used to not charge the fee. Now they were taken over by Bank Robber of America.
They charged me 3% -- a $34.25 fee for purchase of nearly $1,200.
I was livid. I didn't even know B of A charged the fee. MBNA didn't.
I've been with MBNA since 1996, have a $30,000 credit line and have been a great customer.
But I was so mad I called up to cancel, telling them I was angry about the international fee and that Capital One doesn't charge the fee. I figured they would just credit the fee.
Customer service representative answered the phone said, "Thank you for being a customer since 1996. How can I help you?"
I told her I would like to cancel my credit card because of the fee. And she promptly canceled my credit card.
Later I called up and said instead of canceling the card I would rather just get a credit for the fee. The customer service representative told me they have been instructed not to credit that fee. I asked a lot of questions and I was persistent, but I wasn't getting anywhere.
I asked if I would get credit if I returned the merchandise. She said I would not.
I was upset. This was really the principle of it.
Then I called up and disputed the charge. The customer service representative told me that I could not dispute the charge because it was a fee.
I asked for a supervisor. He said his supervisors could not credit the fee. I asked to speak to them. He said they were busy.
I told him that the bank must allow me to dispute the fee under the Fair Credit Billing Act.
He said, "What act?" I said, "The Fair Credit Billing Act."
He came back and said that he could not credit the fee because he cannot access it but that customer service would do so.
He then transferred me to customer service. The customer service representative thanked me for being a customer since 1996 (not realizing I heard he canceled the card) and promptly gave me a refund of the fee.
I don't mind them passing along a fee from Visa or Mastercard that they have to pay. (I do mind Visa and Mastercard charging them because they make money on the transaction itself.)
Anyway, my friends charged a hotel in Whistler. Their fee: more than $55. The comment in her last e-mail: "I'm getting a Capital One card."
B of A and the others will lose customers to Capital One, which lives by its promise to not charge fees. It's the same reason Amazon.com is doing well. Both treat their customers right, and their customers come back.
I miss MBNA. I don't miss Bank Robber of America.

Squirrels in Montreal

I'm not making this into a squirrel blog, but as a close friend and a lover of squirrels is one of the biggest fans of my blog, I've posted some nice pics of squirrel statues from a building in Parc Mont Royal in Montreal. The building was very dark, but I did the best I could.

Banff Squirrel

Luis and I visited Banff and saw many cute squirrels, especially at Lake Louise.
Check out this other cute Banff squirrel.
As a couple was preparing to take a timed shot, the squirrel popped up in front of the camera, which zoomed in on his cute face, leaving the background blurry.
I laught at this photo every time I see it; it's now my desktop background.
Check out the full caption here.

Happy July 4th

This morning Luis and I said "Happy Anniversary"to each other. But we sort of forgot that it's also the Fourth of July. He's working at Staples today and I'm teaching the SAT this afternoon.

It's weird being out of the country for the 4th.

We do have a fourth of July here in Canada, you know. Did you think that the calendar goes from July 3rd to July 5th in Canada???

Yesterday, I was speaking to a PR guy in Washington State. I said, “Have a Happy Fourth of July.” He said, “You, too. Oh, no. You don’t celebrate that.”

I said, “I’m American. I do celebrate it.”

Anyway, Happy Fourth of July!

By the way, for those of you who don't yet know, I got a summer job at The Vancouver Sun. It's going great. I love it. The paper has a hiring freeze. So I'm filling in for people who are on vacation. But it's full-time for the summer.

I'm applying for a teaching jobs in the fall.

Luis is still processing his papers to get his licence (<==Canadian spelling) in medical technology.
Oh, by the way, we filed a discrimination complaint with the BC Human Rights Tribunal against the guy who refused to rent to us because we're gay. Even though we're obviously not going to take the place. we want him to know he can't do this.

That brings up the fact that we found a place with an incredible view in Burnaby, which is a city next to Vancouver. We're less than 10 minutes from the SkyTrain (subway) which would bring us downtown in less than 30 minutes. It's more of a hike, but we got a two-bedroom for less than we are paying for a one-bedroom now.

Anyway, enjoy your barbecues.

I'm confused, are you a woman?

We're looking for a new apartment. I was working and Luis was off for the day, so he looked on his own. He saw a beautiful apartment.
Just look at this kitchen...
This is an apartment in a home. An Iranian guy owned the home and arrived here about five months ago.
Luis kept "my husband."
Finally, the guy said, "I'm confused. Are you a woman?"
And Luis placed his two index fingers together, and said, "No, we are together and we are both men."
This part isn't as funny because the guy was reluctant to rent to us. He said he had to talk to his wife and mentioned he had an 8-year-old kid. Luis said he wasn't nasty; he was ignorant at worst and naive. Our current landlord is Iranian and was actually relieved when we told him we were getting married, I guess figuring it showed some stability.
Oh, and did I say there's an ISLAND in the kitchen??? OMG!

Vancouver stars in The Bachelorette

ANCOUVER STARS IN ABC’S THE BACHELORETTE ON JUNE 8
Bachelorette Jillian Harris invites 13 lucky guys to her hometown of Vancouver

Tune into The Bachelorette on City TV, Monday, June 8 at 8pm PT & ET / 9pm MT / 7pm CT

VANCOUVER, BC: Tourism Vancouver and The Fairmont Hotel Vancouver are proud to announce that Vancouver will be featured in the June 8th episode of the ABC primetime hit The Bachelorette.

read more

Luis during a day trip we took to Whistler.

on the subject of medical mishaps

Last week I prepared some delicious lentil soup with carrots, celery and garlic. It smelled so good. But when I got near it, part of my gums in the front of my mouth got a little tight. That night, Luis prepared rice with sausage. When I ate some, it had the same effect and then two glands under my chin started to grow and grow and grow. They were bigger than a Lindt truffle (yummy) and smaller then a plum with the consistency of plums. I didn't have to tell Luis what was happening; he could see them growing bigger and bigger.
I went to the hospital. It turned out that my salivary glands in my mouth were somehow blocked, and so the saliva was building up in my salivary glands.
So just the smell of soup set me off as my salivary glands starting producing saliva.
I have to have a scan Friday to see if I have a stone in my salivary glands. The docs said it's not dangerous.

A little accident

I had a little accident on Monday with a mandolin slicer. I was slicing a cucumber and I accidentally sliced off a piece of my finger.

I never knew that a piece of skin could actually look like a tiny piece of ginger, but that's exactly what it looked like.
The bleeding just would not stop, so I went to a nearby medical clinic. The doctor put on a bandage, and as he was cutting the tape he also cut my finger with the scissors.

Luis, being a medical technologist who has seen a lot of bacteria under the microscope, really freaked out upon hearing that a doctor's scissors pierced my skin. So, on Luis's advice, I called up the doctor and asked him what precautions I should take. He was really trying to say that I shouldn't have to worry. I told him I would really like a hepatitis B shot. So I had to go to a nearby hospital's emergency room to get a hepatitis B shot. They also gave me a tetanus booster.
The doctor at the hospital told me that the doctor who cut me was totally irresponsible in not explaining to me the risk factors. But the hospital doctor also explained to me that the risk of contracting something from a scissor that's mainly used to cut tape is as close to nil as possible.

Fortunately I have voice dictation software because it is very difficult tight with a huge bandage on a finger. But if you do you see some strange words appearing on my blog it's because I'm using this voice dictation software that sometimes makes mistakes.