HQ UPDATE, DAY IN CANADA

Good morning, you beautiful people. I just got back from the grocery store and I have quite the haul, as you can see. Starting off strong. You know, I can't even deny our addiction to Zevia because it speaks for itself, specifically the cream soda flavor. But, you know, we also, we also dabble in the root beer. So starting off with 3 cases of those and we also have some in the fridge right now. This is Mike Andes' favorite. Favorite flavor of Wild Chips. If you don't know what these are, these are like protein chips made with chicken and egg whites. He really likes the Korean sweet and spicy flavor, and I have not been able to find these. Oh, this is a haul from Fred Meyer, by the way, which is a local grocery store here. It's kind of like a branch off of Kroger. Um, they have like all of Kroger's products, Kroger-branded products. But anyways, Costco used to sell these, have not been able to find this flavor at Costco, so I got a little bag from Fred Meyer. Also mushrooms. I can use this for the pizza tonight too. I got mushrooms for a recipe I have planned for later this week, but I'm also making keto pizza tonight, and I could also do that as a topping for that. I got, you know, I felt a little dumb today. I did not realize that scallions were another name for green onions. So I asked Jorge, I was like, where's the scallions? And he's like, over there, and it's actually green onion. So the more you know. Bag of green onions for a recipe I also wanna make later this week. I got buttermilk because I'm going to make a chocolate cake. Not a keto one, not a healthy one, but a normal one because I wanna learn how to like frost and do really cool designs and piping. I really, really, really wanna get better at baking and cooking, so I'm really leaning into that. Anyways, the recipe I'm gonna follow to make the chocolate cake, I needed buttermilk for. I don't really know what I'm gonna do with that cake. Here's my problem, okay? I really wanna learn how to make bread, but more specifically sourdough. Right now sourdough is not in my meal plan. Mike doesn't eat— I mean, he— I guess he kind of would. I should just start making sourdough instead of talking about it. I should just do it because I've been talking about it for months. Anyways, I want to learn how to make things, more complicated things like cakes and desserts and breads and pastries and whatever, but we don't eat those sort of things, so I just give them away. But it's great practice for me. And I just realized this cocoa can is slightly open. Let's pray this is still sealed. Okay, we're looking good. It was just bent. But yes, this is a can of cocoa powder to make the chocolate cake with. We have 2 packs of salted butter because I will need that. 2, 3, 4 packs of 100% grass-fed ground beef because it was on sale. And wow, ground beef is expensive. Beef, like beef itself is expensive. But I did not know. We kind of got spoiled, okay? Because we were able to get 2 quarters of a cow, like on 2 different separate occasions. And we, like, whenever I did the math, I was like, okay, per pound of beef, that price is not bad. And then now we're like pretty much out of everything from that, from those cows. And now that I'm buying beef from the store, I'm like, oh my word, it's so expensive. So maybe we might be looking into getting another cow. We'll see. All you health freaks, Please don't watch what I'm about to pull out of the bags now. Yes, these are energy drinks. Yes, they were on sale. Would I have gotten them anyway? Probably. Let's just skip over that. We have heavy cream, also for the cake, and some cottage cheese. I think I'm gonna make like a chicken zucchini bake, keto chicken zucchini bake, so I need this for it, and obviously zucchinis. I love me some sweet potatoes. Look at how big these are, you guys. These are huge, but these are the best sweet potatoes that's in my meal plan, so I got 6 of those. They are massive. Bag of cauliflower, bag of low-fat mozzarella cheese for tonight's pizza. That is my Fred Meyer haul. Came out to be pretty expensive, but if you're a Fred Meyer member, you have like a card or phone number with them, some of those things were discounted, but not everything, so That is my overly expensive haul due to the beef. You guys, this is my first attempt at a chocolate cake, and I have to say, she has her flaws. You know, she's not like perfect, but it's not too bad for my first one. I feel like it could have been so much worse. Oh no, the side's kind of— she's a little ugly. Um, I've just been having so much fun experimenting with things that I've never baked before. I don't think I've ever baked a cake from scratch, like not using any cake mix, and then decorated it. And I had so much fun decorating it. There's like a lot of things that could easily go wrong, like especially whenever you get down to the frosting, like the buttercream and stuff. It's, yeah, it's, it's so fun though. Like I want to make another one just so I can decorate it, but I'm gonna let this sit in the fridge for a little bit and then take it over to Command Center. That's actually the nice thing about having an office nearby where I could just drop food off because I— we're not gonna eat this and hopefully other people can enjoy it. I hope it tastes good. This is one of those things like you can't look too hard for too long, but it's, it's cute. You know, obviously here the bottom looks bland. It needs something, but I'm very limited on like my tools. I didn't have a turntable or anything, or even like a cake plate to put it on, but that is coming in the mail. It just didn't get here in time and I'm too impatient. So I'm gonna deliver this one and then definitely be making another one soon just so I can decorate it, because I want to get better at decorating, doing design, stuff like that. Just for fun, and I think it's a really cool skill to have. So let this chill and then deliver it. You guys, I'm doing something very exciting. I made that chocolate cake that I showed, and I had so much fun decorating it. That's actually the area I feel like I'm lacking in the most as far as just like being creative and getting good at designs and piping and everything. So I want to practice it as much as possible. So I baked some sugar cookies, they're chilling in the fridge right now, and I want to decorate them with Augusta colors and like kind of do it like Augusta-themed cookies and just take them to command center for everyone. Um, so I got like a light green, dark green, and a yellow. Hopefully that's close enough to Augusta yellow. I don't even know what I want to do, like what designs. I want to do like a grass one, so the piping tip I need is probably gonna be either this one, like more serrated for that grass effect, you know. Oh no, this one for sure. This one has like tinier, tinier holes or like tinier serrations. Okay, so I'll do a grass one with that. I'm not using royal icing, I'm doing buttercream, so I can't really— I'm not gonna do like the super detailed defined ones like pictures. That's later. I ain't there yet. I'm still learning. I'm still learning the basics. So, oh yeah, okay, so I might do like a green flower.

I—

here's the thing, it's probably not gonna be like lawn care coded, like I'm not gonna be designing a mower, but like flowers and grass and you know the vibes. Oh yeah, this one was so cool, the green and white swirl. Sorry, there's such a bad glare. I'll just have to show you guys. How did she do that? Oh yeah, she put two different— yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, I'm probably gonna do that one first. Off camera, I did a little thing with Saran Wrap where I like mixed two colors so it can be a spiral design. First, decorate your cookie. Can you guys tell I'm having fun? Okay, she's not the prettiest.

Yeah.

Oh, okay, it's a little ugly and I know that, but that's okay. Maybe I'll do— instead of like trying to do a spiral rose design, I'll just do a lot of dots. All right, um, these cookies definitely scream, "This was my first time ever decorating sugar cookies." I just boxed them up so I can get them delivered, and this is half of them. This is the other half. Uh, this one's definitely the challenge box. Like, this— the only one that looks semi-decent maybe is that one. I was going for a grassy look, but I'm actually really proud of these flower ones. But the rest, I just didn't really know what I was doing. My first mistake was walking in with no game plan, so I should do a better job of that next time. They should taste good, hopefully. Hopefully. Goodness, they need some redeeming aspect of them.

It's July 4th and we're at the Headquarters building. It's being built. It is a little cold. It is a little bit windy, just a little bit in the 60s. But we're not complaining because out East Coast, it's like 105 degrees. So this is not so bad. But let me give you a little tour around the place. We now have some of the structure going up. Now it becomes a little more real looking. Two stories. This side will be one story because it'll be just like the shop space. But this will allow us to not have to rent anymore for the Bellingham shop. They'll have a ton of space in here. It's like so much space. We've never had this much space or this nice of a shop space. But what will be nice is the crew being here on site will allow them to be around anyone else that's working here, whether that be command center or homeworks or the media team. The media team is going to go upstairs. This was a few weeks delayed because all of the metal— all this had been sitting here on site, on premises for the past 6 years— was getting all rusted and beat up. So they had to strip it all down, paint it all, and that literally took the past 2-3 weeks. Like, every single square inch of all the metal framing was that way. But progress is being made. We're also somewhat delayed because we are moving what used to be over there, which the water tower. We're trying to move it over here. We have to do some engineering for that. But the reason we're doing that is that we can build— number— building number 2 is going to go over here and it's going to be twice the size of building 1. So that way when the 3-year lease for Command Center ends, we'll be able to actually move the entire team here. But it's going to be a while and we're not in a rush because we still have 3 years on that lease. In the end, if we get everyone at the same spot, that's the dream. This is the parking area. This is probably my biggest concern right now. Is that once this building is done, it's going to house the Bellingham shop. It's going to house Homeworks. It's going to house the media team, probably Home Service CPA, Nick and Lee. They'll probably all be here. The problem— the biggest problem we're going to have is the fact that this is the parking lot that's going to become a construction site. And so my biggest concern is like storing of any debris because we have to bag clippings here in the Pacific Northwest. And then just the amount of vehicles are going to be parked. Along with the traffic that's going to come with the construction. Once we have the second building done, then we have like all of the permitting done for all these trees to get out of here and make a big parking lot. Then won't be so bad. But honestly, sounds like first world problems because it is. Parking will probably be our biggest problem when we're on building one and waiting for building two. But we're going to hopefully build— get some ecology blocks in here, build out like a storage facility for the green waste and all the rest of it. That is it. That's the update from the headquarters building. We are making progress finally after 6 years. The building is great, but it's what we needed 6 years ago. Go. That's why we're going to need building 2, cuz when I first got the designs for this thing, I was like, it's so big, there's no way we're going to fill it. I also thought we were going to be inside the building by the end of 2021, so here we are in 2026. And so I'm trying to make sure that the building number 2— I also think, okay, what are we going to need in 5, 10 years? Cuz I don't want to be building another building before the end of building 2 is even done. Anyways, all right, headquarter building update complete.

If you couldn't tell by my hair, we just got done Oh, that's perfect. Doing like, I don't know, 3 miles?

Yeah, 3-4 miles.

3-4 mile run with a little bit of walking in the mix.

It's 12:06 and we're gonna have barbecue.

There's this cute little spot here in Bellingham called The Portal and it's where a lot of shipping containers are converted into restaurants.

Yeah, show it to them.

Or like food trucks and things. There's also like a little bike park over across these tall things. I forgot the name of them, but uh, we're gonna get Michael some barbecue.

Hey, what do we got?

What do we got?

Good, how you doing? Cool, yeah, I'll get the uh moro and then I can't have hush puppies, but I'll have the salad. Okay, and then black bean and corn or potato salad? Oh wow, it's— oh, it's and! Oh my goodness. So yeah, generally if you don't get hush puppies, I give you a little extra of the whatever side. I'll just have salad. As much— I guess two of those? I don't know. Just salad? Just salad and meat.

Okay.

That would be fantastic. Okay, we got mango sweet chili, cherry chipotle, blueberry balsamic. That's gonna be the salad. Then the regular barbecue, ranch, and South Carolina mustard.

Thank you very much.

I got to try these. Oh my goodness. Yeah, this is going to be great. Okay folks, this is looking pretty good.

Mmm.

Wow, this is good.

This is the mango sauce.

I'm going to wait. I like to have them dry for a little bit and then I'll have them.

That might be for the salad or for the meat. I have no idea. This is the cherry chipotle, so I assume that's meat. That might be Saudersingh. How would you rate the barbecue?

7.8.

7.8. So that's the entrance, the Portal Entrance Container Village, and then you have a pizza situation. I think that's like alcohol over there, and then you have like the eating area and the track, which is just like a bunch of bike ramps, skate ramps, pump track. Seems like it gets cuter every year. We got a stage over there. What do you think that's for? Music festival?

Yeah, they're doing a thing tonight.

Oh, for the Fourth of July. Today is the Fourth. Oh, this is new. The hot dog spot.

That is dope.

What is that?

It's going to be a spot to be able to start the bikes on the ramp and they can go down into the big, the big jump.

Very, very cool. Very vibey spot. It's only open May through September, like 5 months out of the year. They add on to it every, every year. It's super cool. Really cute vibey spot. What's up, vlog? It is Sunday, July 5th. It is A perfect day to have a perfect day. Am I right?

Yeah, always a perfect day.

Always a perfect day to have a perfect day. The weather is gorgeous, bright and sunny outside. We went to church this morning and now we're headed up to Canada. I don't really know what the plans are. Mike's kind of taken over and surprising me. Today's the 5th, which means Tuesday's on the 7th, which means, Mike, we have a pretty exciting announcement coming in just a couple days. Mike will be posting on his channel the announcement and then we'll announce it on here as well, but you guys should stay tuned for that. Bonus video is coming out tomorrow, so stay tuned for it. That's all I'm going to say. In the meantime, let's go have ourselves a little fun day in Canada. Do you have anything else you want to add to that?

Hi vlog, my name is Maito and I had to drive her for Ben's as she's a passenger princess.

This passenger princess is sipping on Summer Splash from Bloom. What is your beverage of choice?

Choco Orange. Choco Orange version 2, significantly better than version 1.

They redid their drinks, so like the first ingredient right now is reverse osmosis water. I don't really know how that affected— like, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know what that— what difference that makes, to be honest. But there's a difference.

A very scientific version of it is it tastes like the bubbles are smaller. Also, they did change some of the ingredients. All natural stuff, like it's still very clean. Definitely the most clean energy drink.

Yeah, exactly.

Realistically, you should never really have energy drinks. But, you know, life is short.

So we're gonna make it shorter.

If we're gonna over-optimize life, then I probably wouldn't have energy drinks, but I enjoy energy drinks. And one of my favorite things the past 3 months, 2 months have been on Sunday afternoons, little 10, 15, 20 minute nap, cold plunge, energy drink. Talk about having a great rest of your day.

I think a canon event in everyone's lives is like they go to the extreme health side, and that was me for a while, like several several years. We did carnivore, like super healthy, nothing off carnivore.

You're still very healthy.

We're still healthy, but we make exceptions. Yeah, energy drinks and the beverages are our kryptonite. But if this is the worst we do, there's not like— it's not like it's a Twinkie in my hand. So I would rather take this, a 10-calorie drink, over a Twinkie. Pick your poison. We came up to Surrey, did a little bit of damage at the mall at Aritzia. Specifically, and Lululemon. Now we're at this little cafe that was just like across the street. I would never come here again because no, they didn't have any sugar-free options, first of all. Totally fine. So I got a matcha with almond milk and I put like 2 packets of Splenda in there because they didn't have stevia. It's not good. Like, it's not awful, clearly. I shouldn't say that. It's good for matcha. I just like it to be sweet. And they didn't have any sugar-free flavors, but that's totally fine. It's actually not that bad. It's growing on me. And then I did bring my own food in here, and they have signs everywhere that says no outside food, but I did get a matcha to pay our rent, and we're about to go to a restaurant for Mike to eat his food. But I'm like getting my meal plan out of the way. This is so bad. This is all like awful, horrible public etiquette. Don't do what I do. Don't do as I do, or as I say. That's all So words to the wise. Getting dinner for Michael at Earl's, which is a chain, correct?

Yeah, and we're dreading the drive on the way back to the US because the borderline's like crazy. They got the World Cup in Vancouver.

Yep, it was funny because the mall we were just at, there was like an area with a huge screen and people were watching the game. It had already ended, it already ended, so like I don't know why people were still watching. But was it like replays of the game or something?

Yeah, I think it was just the whole thing. Norway and Brazil.

Yeah, I don't know anything about all that.

Canada lost yesterday. Very sad, very sad.

3-0 to Morocco.

Been following all every game, religiously following along with sports. You know me. I have to say, the menu here is incredibly diverse. They have everything from steaks to sandwiches to tacos to sushi to some vegan options. They do brunch. What else do we have over here? Pasta, bowls, salads, pizza, the whole nine. We're in the lounge area, which is super cool because we got this little booth and we're just like in a little pocket of the restaurant. What did you just order?

Uh, wings.

The Earl's Wings, salt and pepper.

I only had breakfast this morning, so this is my only other meal for the day.

When a place has this wide of a menu like they do every kind of food under the sun. It's almost hard to be like, okay, is it actually gonna be good? Because they don't like niche down to one thing and focus on that. But they're very highly rated, like 5,000 reviews and like 4.5 stars. Totally forgot to vlog whenever he got his main meal. You ordered chicken and ribs?

Chicken, ribs, and chicken wings.

And he's finishing off the chicken wings.

We didn't quit.

How would you rate the food?

Salt and pepper chicken wings, solid 8.4 out of 10.

Ribs, 7 out of 10. Doesn't have enough kick to them, needs some more salt or spice or something. And then the blackened chicken breast, that was like a solid 9.2. It was really good, very salty, very yummy.

And the salad, it was Caesar salad. Overall, 8.2.

There you have it. I don't think you can see that far ahead, but the border lineup right now is insane. Going back to what we said earlier about the FIFA game that was in Vancouver, everyone's coming back to the States from that. So we're gonna be— and long weekend, right? From the 4th. We're gonna be chilling here for probably a good hour. But thank you so much for watching. That was the vlog. Stay tuned for the very exciting announcement that's coming up tomorrow. Comment what you think it could be.

Bye!

Bye!