Tuesday night I walked to the Vancouver Police Museum, which is a real hidden gem located in the former Coroner’s Courtroom. I had signed up to participate in their first-ever Forensics for Adults Workshops. Tuesday, March 16 was the first evening with Forensic Pathology, which was all about autopsies. Kim Werker has a great post up at the Vancouver Is Awesome blog about the forensic event. Not only did we get to hear, smell, and see what an autopsy was like, it took place in Vancouver’s former morgue. We got a chance to walk around the exhibits and had a personal tour from the museum’s curator, Chris Mathieson.

The Vancouver Police Museum has organized two more Forensics for Adults Workshops: tomorrow night is Blood Splatter and the following Tuesday will be Ballistics (Bullets). I loved learning creepy and gruesome things about my city’s history that I never knew (even growing up here) and would definitely recommend a visit even once the workshops are done.

Wednesday and Thursday were full of dental and doctor appointments. Let’s skip over that… I’ve got much more interesting things to talk about.

On Friday afternoon, I met up with Chelle for some sushi before going to see Handmade Nation. We arrived early at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) and got a chance to look around the current exhibit, The Art of Craft. The Art of Craft is part of the Vancouver Cultural Olympiad and showcases handcrafted art from western Canada and Korea. The exhibit is on until April 11 and really is a gorgeous display of unique art. Our only complaint was that crafting is such a tactile activity, but the exhibit wasn’t meant to be touched (as is similar in other museums).

The main event at MOV was a screening of Handmade Nation. When Got Craft? did a couple showings in the summer, I was really bummed I missed it. When I heard that MOV was screening it on Friday, March 19th, I jumped at the chance! Overall it was a good documentary and I’m certainly glad I got to see it. Although, I initially thought it was going to focus more on the community of crafting, it was certainly interesting to explore the small business side of handmade goods. MOV had also arranged for several local craftspeople to have a Q&A afterwards: Kim Werker, crochet/knitter and author, Erin Boniferro, owner of CollageCollage, and Rob from GotCraft? Vancouver’s largest indie craft fair.

This weekend I celebrated my twenty-second birthday. I haven’t had a proper party in my new apartment (not that I’m much of a party-er) so I decided to rent a button-maker and have some friends over on the Saturday. Yes you read that right… we made buttons, and it was pretty awesome! I rented a button-maker and circle cutter from Blim Art & Craft Facility and bought button parts in bulk from Six Cent Press. I designed a bunch of buttons ahead of time but also made sure to have lots of funky paper and pens for anyone who wanted to draw button designs. We had a good time through the afternoon and it quieted down in the evening.

And last but not least, on Sunday (my actual birthday) we had a family dinner at my parents’ house with my uncles and cousins. It was a really nice night and I enjoyed sitting around and laughing with my cousins. Overall a very busy (but good) week and I am looking forward to something a little less hectic this week/weekend.

I know this post is a bit late, but a couple weekends ago the BookCrossers went on a daytrip to Granville Island during the Olympics. Our pretense was to deposit books… but I forgot to bring them. Instead, here are some highlights and photos from the trip. If you’d like to see all the photos, visit my Flickr set. Also, Marina got some fantastic photos too… I hope she doesn’t mine if I post a few here!

Marina snapped this shot of us sitting on The Bench art installation. I’m crouching in a swoopy-crevice that was oddly comfortable.

We met at the Olympic Village skytrain station where the city has borrowed a streetcar from Brussels. We rode the lovely, efficient, sleek, sexy Bombardier tram to Granville Island. The Bombardier “Olympic Line” had been running since February 1st and in just 30 days had over 300,000 riders! I wish we could keep it… but we have to return them to Brussels as they are far too expensive for Vancouver to keep.

We arrive at Granville Island and began wandering around. Here is the pond beside the Kids Market.

Wandering around the Public Market… to our left and behind were lines and lines of people waiting to get into Atlantic House.

Marina got interviewed by Slovak TV on who was going to be in the Gold Medal Hockey game.

Oh yea and we left books to roam…

Red and white admiring the Burrard Street Bridge.

Me basking in the Spring (February!!) sun

Marina snapped a shot of me scratching the Swiss mountain goat’s ears… and Dale is grabbing it by the horns.

Then we wandered around Place de la Francophonie (The French Quarter).

All in all it was a lovely day!

Here’s a video I took of the tram leaving Granville Island. Please excuse the shaky camera, I was reaching up a wall and under a fence to film this.

It’s hard to describe and/or summarize the chaos going on here. Everyone is wearing Canada gear and I can’t tell who is a tourist unless they’re wearing a different country’s gear. Here are some photos and links I like. For all my photos, view my Vancouver Olympics 2010 collection on Flickr.

Countdown to the Olympics — 8 Days to go (taken February 4, 2010)

Lantern Trees at LunarFest on Granville Street

Vancouver Biennale art installation “Cabeza Vainilla, Cabeza ordoba, Cabeza Chiapas” by Mexican artist Javier Marin

The Olympic Cauldron! ….. wait a minute….. what’s that fence?

Let’s try that again (with some zoom)…. The Olympic Flame!

Inside the Four Host First Nations Aboriginal Pavilion. Photo taken (with permission) during screening of “We Are Here”.

Inside Canada’s Northern Pavilion highlighting the Yukon Territories, Northwest Territories, and Nunavut.