Life in the Lower Mainland (BC, Canada)

You may have read my recent post about Marcello's on Commercial Drive . Now Commercial Drive has a lot of moderate-to-cheaper restaurants, unlike often-overpriced to way-overpriced downtown Vancouver and Yaletown. I coughed up $14.95 for a medium pizza (plus 12% HST plus tip). The very next day, this landed in my fridge: Turns out Superstore (Metrotown, Burnaby, BC) was having a sale on Nestle (formerly Kraft) Delissio pizza. $4.97 (maximum 2 at this price; otherwise $7.57). They aren't kidding that it's garlic bread pizza because the garlic flavor came through strongly, though not overwhelmingly or making the pizza bitter. On top of that are bruschetta-style toppings evenly on the pizza and all the way to the edge. The square shape makes maximum use of the box (and your oven). It weighs in at 880 grams. IT WAS TASTY. So, looking back at Marcello's... I could have gotten THREE pizzas for the same price, in the comfort of my own home, and not have had to ti

Sometimes it really pays to accept some advertising. Way back when, Capones had a do to rustle up some business via social media with a pre-re-opening event for Vancouver Tweeters. I was into the Twitter scene then and attended, and ended up signing up for their e-mail newsletter. They haven't flooded me with stuff, but there were definitely a few each season, with such interesting offers as half-price pizza nights. The latest to hit my inbox was free tickets (probably for estimated headcount and/or crowd control on event night) to an in-house concert by touring indie soul-music songstress Lady Daisey (of course also on Myspace ). You can hear extended samples of her astonishingly catchy feel-good fuzzy-warm tunes on her website . Not to say local jazz talent is second-rate, but this lady is a cut above. It's absolutely amazing what comes by free nowadays. Thursday, September 2nd, 2010. Capones Restaurant and Live Jazz Club No cover change. Call for tickets/rese

Surprise surprise! There actually is FREE STUFF to be had. I suppose that's the convention with wineries and wine tastings. Check out Taylorwood Wines -- Complimentary wine tastings every Thursday and Sunday in the late afternoon/early evening.

I had heard about Marcello Pizzeria & Ristorante's forno roast chicken (from their website: "The forno roast chicken is spectacular...") and wanted to try it. Everyone knows Marcello's is famous for their Neapolitan pizza , but pizza is better with a whole gang of friends who aren't waist conscious, and I was dining alone. Turned out to be a non-event... I got there around 9pm, and the first obstacle was the fact that they had run out of chicken (!). Then the server balked when I asked about their famous oven-roasted chicken, and said it really wasn't anything special. So, on to pizza then! The first thing that struck me was how the pizzas were mostly 1 or 2 topping pizzas. If you look at their online menu , you'll notice that most of the pizzas are "Tomato sauce, mozzarella, X, Y". Honestly, doesn't every pizza come with tomato sauce and mozza? You'd really only mention those basics when a pizza DOESN'T have them. There w

Looks like some affiliate program scammers on Craigslist men-looking-for-women personals just really don't care, or they've totally automated their system, including the production of e-mail addresses to use, presumably because they fully expect to be caught as spam and blocked. Initially a "they", this responder later became a single woman and sent me an X-rated pic. The crazy-looking e-mail address was the first clue, but I decided to respond anyway to see how it turned out. Sorry, I can't post the picture of her naked in bed (face cropped from the picture, so it could very well have been lifted from one of any number of adult sites). E-mail #1 We are really interesting and I'm searching for an older gentleman to own entertaining with today E-mail #2 Hey how are you Im interested in some thing that's long term, NSA. I want to keep this a secret - my ex-boyfriend is kinda a psycho ever since we broke up. haha .... 4 year relationship. Anyways..

In my last post, I mentioned " sexxci_horny " ( ejkeliu4aviola9c@hotmail.com ) who wanted me to sign up with securedater.com. Well, since I didn't respond to that, she's now sent me an even more direct take-my-money site: Her E-mail #3 Heey I still haven't heard from you on that other site..... I'm still interested in hooking up, but I still want to be safe about it. Can you please contact me on this site.... http://meetagirlnow.com . I've just never done a online hookup thing before so I don't know what works and what doesn't but this one does for sure. i'll be online waiting for you in the chat room. Hope to hear from you soon. xoxo meetagirlnow.com redirects to datingsecure.com and up front it asks to charge your credit card $1 for 3 days of access. From the name of the site, it looks like whatever cheezy affiliate company is behind this is tying up the "secure date" search results with their websites. Oh, and she'

Here's another Craigslist Personals scammer who sends mail to men posting on the man-looking-for-women section of Craigslist Personals. I know for sure the person behind the originating e-mail ( ejkeliu4aviola9c@hotmail.com ) is running a scam because they say I "don't look like the sort of man that would do anything bad" -- except I haven't sent them a picture! If you follow the link to the website they've sent (www.securedater.com), be sure to scroll down and read the "fine print"... Her E-mail #1 We are extremely attractive and I'm searching for an older man to obtain fun with these days My reply (no picture sent): I'm sure you're both extremely attractive ... but how old are you? Send me a picture if you've got one. Hoping you're of legal age, S. Her E-mail #2 Hello there! :) Cool, sounds wonderful! :) Let's hook up at either my or your place, we have fun for a while and then go our opposite directio

You may have seen an earlier post where I mentioned " Catherine ", who replies to man-looking-for-woman personals on Craigslist and follows up with a shortened link to some kind of affiliate site, with the promise that you'll get to contact her more directly there. Well, it turns out she also has considerably different opening lines, which suggests the more serious affiliate program scammers might actually do ad split testing to see which initial contact e-mails get a better response rate. Here's the latest in response to my ad: (she gave no name, and was writing from ryliepi@aol.com; e-mail reply goes to cat.f23209xx@mailprotected.com). Hello there, Send a reply if you are still looking for someone I am 38,, no kids, not married and would like to meet a nice person. I am a a good conversationalist and fun type of person and like to have a fun time with the right individual. I have my studio downtown in Vancouver, BC. we can hook up for a drink. I am see

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There are Craigslist Personals spammers, and lame Craigslist Personals spammers. Check out Elena, who sent me two e-mails, almost identical, responding to the same ad. And what are those nonsense letters at the bottom? Bulk mail tracking numbers?! E-mail #1, from "Lena" ( amayakjcyvws@aim.comamayakjcyvws@aim.com )   Hi. My name is Lena. I wish to get acquainted with good, serious person and make strong relationships. Repite, I am find for serious relations only! Reply on my mail: elenalenaaaa@yahoo.com Good bye dsmypd dgmrt gxhg     E-mail #2, from "Elena" ( amandalvxioa@aim.com ) Hi. My name is Elena. I dream to get acquainted with good, serious person and make strong relationships. Remember, I am find for serious relations only! Reply on my mail: elenalenaaaa@yahoo.com Faithfully yours ywplc jlsjwav dlfkvvo

Whoop! Even more spam profiles are contacting me through my Craigslist ad. It's sort of ironic, really. On dating/matching sites like Plenty Of Fish , guys can expect to have to do all the initiating. Also, no matter where you go (even real women on Craigslist), generally women will want to see a picture first and be in a position to reject the guys. But when it comes to finding suckers, every post by a man creates a feeding frenzy. Are men more vulnerable to the desperation of loneliness? Anyway, here's the message from Jan ( jan@ectarereplied.net ), who has a more subtle way of hinting at being easy with "fun" in quotes. Email #1 Hi I kind of like your message, I am too lokking [sic] to meet someone but it's been kind of tough to find a decent guy. How about we meet at the mall or Starbucks? We could see if we are compatible and then maybe move on to more "fun" stuff, lol. We can also meet at: http://www.kakoulechiot.net/ and see if

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Sadly, there is probably some truth to these statements...

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Sad to say, after Taylor and Melissa , the Craigslist affiliate program scammers dropped in quality. schlatterbeckie554@hotmail.com didn't even send a picture before sending me a shortened link to her MeetLocals.com affiliate page! Her email #1 Hi Her email #2 Due to the unbelievable amount of men not serious about meeting just picture harvesting and emailing me false photos of themselves I have found it necessary to use a photo verifying service. I use http://twurl.nl/6k6viz because they do not charge. Have your picture verified and contact me. My profile id is LollyPopQT. I apologize for the hassle. See you soon. Her email #3 Haven't seen you yet... I'll be online for 20 mins. to IM if ya are up to it. The third e-mail is a classic marketing trick to elicit an urgency to take action. As we'll see in my next post about Catherine, even if all you have are words decent copywriting skills can be more powerful than sexy pictures.

Oh boy! I had no sooner finished posting about the lovely Taylor Burch responding to my personals ad on Craigslist when Melissa Gaines (e-mailing from erikmcclure858@yahoo.com) mailed me a couple more pictures of her lithe body and selling her profile on the same looks-like-a-phishing-scam site (http://craigslistsafe.net/profiles/melx3/). One of them was an NSFW naked-breasts pic which I haven't posted here (sorry -- but honestly, nothing to write home about, especially with the serious bikini tan lines). Here's the e-mail exchange: Melissa e-mail #1 Here is my picture as attached. Please e-mail me details what you are looking for along with your pictures. Thanks and waiting to hear from you soon. Melissa e-mail #2 hey thanks for getting back to me we should definitely meetup sometime... if youre interested of course :) a couple things i should set straight though: 1 we use condoms 2 you join a dating site that I belong to safedates no worries though its fr

Over the last couple of weeks, I'd posted a Man Seeking Woman profile on Craigslist. I'd had enough of "friends" who were really needy I-need-a-shoulder-to-cry-on women latching on to me while they were in some drama/crisis or another, only to vanish after the crisis was over. So I thought I'd take more initiative and try to be more choosy. Anyway, it looks like tricking emotionally vulnerable men (i.e., guys posting personals on Craigslist) into signing up for pay sites or credit card phishing sites is big money. The girl with the gorgeous boobs you see above is "Taylor Burch" and she (probably a "he"?) wrote to me twice with canned responses from emshandleysk044@yahoo.com and essasingletonyd318@yahoo.com. Here is one such exchange: Taylor e-mail #1 Your ad interested me. I am friendly, easy going and love to have a great time. I think we could have fun together. Send a pic and lets see what happens. Taylor e-mail #2 cool :)

After yesterday's disappointing inhaled-in-three-minutes burger at Romer's Burger Bar , I wanted to salvage my culinary vacation and finally got around to trying Cobre , tucked away past the main busy-ness in Gastown at 52 Powell. At 5pm when they open, there's practically nothing else open within a half block radius although in the very next block, a dozen or so restaurants are packed to the gills. I got in shortly after 5pm, and there were a couple of small parties but nothing serious. By 6pm, things were pretty busy and they had reservations stacked up for the night. Although the server said the food would come quickly, it was paced out, and for my unexpectedly large order for one person, that turned out just fine. No buxom servers here -- All guys in plain dark Ts and jeans (which I thought helped with the casual ambiance, but could still have been upscaled a tad to black pants, or at least all black jeans, eh?). Important tips: (1) Ask about dessert. It's

Yesterday I popped over to Romer's Burger Bar on West 4th at 5:30pm, hoping to beat any sort of dinner rush. The place was bare, as most restaurants typically are at that hour. When you go that early, you get prompt and attentive service, and, hopefully, nice window seats if you're inclined to watch the world go by or get a cool breeze in on a hot day -- and I got the latter when I asked for "someplace cool". Big screen TVs are positioned to occupy the single diner, so between waiting for summer-clad hotties to go by and watching the latest adverts on high def TV, waiting for my burger wasn't so tedious at all. There are so many restaurants to go to in Vancouver, and I wasn't sure when I'd be back, so I went for the "Gold" package -- fruity drink of pomegranate, cranberry, ginger beer splash ($5), "drunken donuts" ($5), and their most prestigious burger, the Ultimate Kobe Classic. The drink was okay. It was basically a fruit j

Miku Restaurant first got my attention when I poked around the Dine Out Vancouver site to see who'd landed the Best Bite Awards this year: Best Appetizer - COAST Restaurant Best Entrée - MIKU Restaurant Best Dessert - COAST Restaurant Best BC Wine Pairing - The WESTWARD HO! Best Overall Dine Out Menu - COAST Restaurant Best Service - MAURYA Indian Cuisine In what used to be The Spotted Prawn Bistro , a place reputed with so-so food and less than so-so service, revitalized with refreshing and vibrant decor, Miku Restaurant serves pricey sushi that looks great and tastes good if you take it slow. I dropped by on a Wednesday Celebration of Light fireworks night to find it packed and gave it a pass, to come back the following week for lunch. A missed connection meant that I was, alas, dining alone. :-( I got there around 12:15pm and found it not so busy that I couldn't be seated right away. By 12:30pm, however, the lunch crowd had packed the place and some accept

Surely one of the great allures of video games is the simple way in which you can be rewarded for vigilante justice and solving the ails of the world through deadly violence. The bad guys can be unambiguously identified, and since their solution to everything is to try to kill you (and will do so unto death), you are forced to defend yourself with lethal force. Bad guys die, you collect the reward, problem solved. Hmm...

If you've had a peek into the history of this blog, you may remember that late last year, I went to Germany to visit an old friend , and a few days in, her father died. She was already contracted to work in Austria shortly after, and after some wrangling decided a change of scenery might do her good. I kept in touch with e-mail and the occasional phone call while she was in Austria, and when she returned to Germany earlier this year. Her new challenge was finding another position as, while she was in Austria, her seasonal German employer bailed on her and hired someone else. She was always spotty on e-mail so I really hadn't expected anything that way. I had trouble reaching her on the phone, but in the last month or so, I couldn't reach her at all. Finally I left a couple of voicemails expressing that I still wanted to keep in touch and asked what the latest developments were. Last week I sent her a birthday card for her August birthday. I do think, however, that she&