You'll never guess who I ran into this morning!  Unless, of course, you happened to read the title of this blog entry.  Yes!  None other than actor Brian J. Smith (Stargate: Universe's Lieutenant Scott) who is in town shooting something.  I can't believe it's been almost five years.  In that time, Brian has been very…

Woke up at 7:30 a.m., got to the animal clinic for 9:00 a.m., left with Lulu at 9:30 a.m., got back home and had a quick bite at 10:30 a.m., closed the sale and dropped off the car at 11:15 a.m., left for the airport at 11:45 a.m., flew out at 1:30 p.m. I'm flying…

Oh boy.  I'm trying to arrange for the sale of my car, Lulu's pick-up, and my Toronto departure tomorrow - and it's gonna be tight! After much prodding from Akemi, I've decided to sell the car rather than pay insurance on it while it sits in my Vancouver garage during production of Dark Matter's third season.  Granted,…

You know what I hate?  More than being late?  More than driving around, looking for parking?  Even more than the New England Patriots?  Rewrites.  I was a notorious rewrite-hater back in the Stargate days, so much so that years after Paul and I had stopped co-writing, we still shared script credits because, while I was…

My last meal in Tokyo was an unagi don at Chikuyotei in Ginza. My first meal in Vancouver was duck confit, buttermilk biscuit, with onion gravy and a fried egg at Mission in Kitsilano. And their crazy-delicious french toast. Then, over to Beta5 for a Butter Beer Sundae: chocolate stout ice cream, butterscotch ripple ice cream,…

Well, it's been a fun two weeks in Japan and, while I'd hoped the time away would prove restful, I'm actually more wound up and stressed out now than I was upon my arrival two weeks ago.  My bid to "get away from it all" proved fabulously unsuccessful.  And so I'll return, vexed, seething, and…

Today marks our last full day in Japan.  Tomorrow, we head back to Canada and I have very mixed feelings about that. Yesterday, we met up with Akemi's sister, Hiromi, at Tokyo Midtown.  While waiting for her to show, I ate one of the largest pistachio cream puffs I've ever encountered. It was...indescribably good.  I…

Typhoon Malakas rolled through Tokyo late last night and most of yesterday was one long wet preamble to the storm.  To be honest, I didn't mind so much.  It cleared out the crowds, clearly dampening many Tokyoites enthusiasm for shopping, and also cooled things down a few degrees.  Also, hey, I'm from Vancouver.  I love…

I love Tokyo at night.  The bright lights.  The flashing neon.  The sights.  The sounds.  Throw in the time difference, a touch of jet lag, and you have an almost surreal experience Anthony Bourdain once likened to the sensation of dropping acid. After wandering about for half an hour, looking for somewhere to eat, Akemi…

There was a point last night when I assumed the most annoying part of this trip would be the gentleman across the aisle from me who removed his shoes AND socks five minutes into our flight.  The two and half hours in the air were otherwise uneventful and I was pleased to note that we…