Fri, Jul 15, 2005
Young and naive Alicia Plecas is behind in her rent. She is unemployed and unskilled. Although she is going to hairdressing school, hairdressing is a skill that she lacks. Yuri hopes to trade sexual favours for rent, but Alicia refuses. For protection, she finds Hal, who is also sexually interested in Alicia, and hopes to get her into bed eventually. Hal manages to get her a cleaning job for Carlisle, despite the fact that she doesn't have the necessary skills to do that either. She ends up being an awful, clumsy cleaner, but she and Carlisle end up bonding over similar personal issues, and admittedly a bit of lust on Carlisle's side. Sexually, she and Hal continually almost make Hal's wish come true, but Alicia's missing pet hamster, Bushy-Bush, always gets in the way. Ultimately, Hal can't control his urges any longer; his actions cause a permanent rift between himself and Alicia. Despite knowing that Carlisle has his own unspoken lusty thoughts toward her, Alicia at least gets the necessary confidence from him to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life.
Mon, May 5, 2008
What came first: Sault's negative attitude or her string of very bad luck in Vancouver? Specifically on the work front, she has lost one contract after another to her arch rival, Richard, or Dick as she calls him. Positive thinking may help her in an upcoming request for proposal for a "Yay Vancouver" campaign. In general, Geoff thinks her negativity came first, and he convinces her to accompany him to a positive thinking seminar. After attending, Sault thinks it's a load of rubbish. Trixie also attended the seminar and uses the positive thinking message to her benefit. But after one good thing happens to Sault, a string of good luck seems to follow, including getting the contract for "Yay Vancouver". Sault's perspective turns 180 degrees where she feels that positive thinking will get her anything regardless of anything else she does. After some bad things happen, including learning about Trixie's ulterior motive in doing that first positive thing for Sault, Sault realizes that there is a balance between positive thinking and making things happen for oneself. Sault decides to take charge of her life.
Mon, May 26, 2008
Carol starts dating Matt, a handsome, intelligent renaissance man who respects Carol as a person. The dinner party crowd of Toni, Bao, Geoff and Stanley all like Matt. But Carol keeps him at a distance. Carol then meets Jason Rogerman, the single father of one of her students. Jason is brash and crass, but deep down is more like Carol in terms of personality than Matt. They start a passionate sexual relationship, all the while each stating that it is only sexual since Carol was up front about her relationship with Matt. The dinner party crowd do meet Jason, and cannot understand why Carol would spend any time with Jason when she has Matt. Public perception takes a hold of Carol's mind set until she realizes that being sympatico with someone is more important than what other people think. Meanwhile, Fred continues his by-the-books running of the building fronting for the Hoskins. Geoff and Stanley can't agree on a wedding date. And the Hoskins start the process to turn Robson Arms into an expanded building of high end condos.
Tue, Jun 24, 2008
Val has come to stay with Yuri as Val's been placed under house arrest for some minor infractions and as Val has no where else to go. Once at Robson Arms, Val sees that Yuri is acting a little differently, especially doting on one tenant, namely Bobbi. Val instinctively knows that Robbie is Yuri's son. Providing some brotherly Kukoc advice, Val tells Yuri that Kukoc men make terrible fathers and that he should keep his distance for Bobbi and Robbie's sakes. In a moment of drunkenness, Val kind of lets slip to Bobbi that he knows who Robbie's father is. Bobbi finally comes to the understanding of Robbie's true parentage when she sees Yuri's Texas-shaped birthmark, exactly like Robbie's. After that, Bobbi decides to keep Yuri at an emotional but kind distance. Meanwhile, Geoff and Stanley's wedding is fast approaching. Stanley likes all the free swag they are getting from being "Annabelle Bonaduce's story", but Geoff is finding the extravagance overwhelming. By association, Geoff is also finding the thought of being married overwhelming. Or is Geoff just having a plain case of cold feet? Will he show up to the ceremony? An unexpected incident at the wedding site - Robson Arms' courtyard - may just place enough ease in Geoff's mind to go through with the marriage.
Mon, May 12, 2008
Stanley and Geoff make some compromises in their social life, each committing to do activities the other enjoys. Of late, Geoff has been spending much "mentoring" time with newly out of the closet ex-Robson Arms tenant, Andrew Colton, which has made Stanley slightly jealous and somewhat suspicious. But he doesn't worry about Geoff and Andrew for the time being as he is looking forward to a visit from Toronto by his ex-wife, Frances. Frances is a smart, beautiful woman who has much more socially in common with Stanley than Geoff has with Stanley. Stanley would probably still be married to her if she was only a man! But with Frances and Stanley having such a good time together, Geoff decides to let them go to the opera together instead of Stanley's original commitment of going to Seattle for Pride weekend with Geoff. But Geoff also decides to go to Seattle anyway with Andrew and some other friends. But when Geoff arrives home unexpectedly, he finds that Stanley and Frances have caught up more with each other than would have been expected. But with this major jolt to their relationship, Stanley and Geoff have to make some tough and radical decisions regarding their relationship. Meanwhile, Fred recognizes Chuck as former children's television star, Captain Bed Head. Chuck uses Fred's idolatry of him to his advantage.
Sat, Mar 31, 2007
Yuri's older alcoholic brother Val stops by. Although Yuri tries to persuade him to leave and stay somewhere else, Val manages to worm his way in. Yuri has mixed feelings about Val: he loves his older brother, knows he's trouble but feels somewhat responsible for him as Val took care of Yuri when they were little kids. Their mother was taken away when Yuri was four years old, right after World War II, because of her association with Mussolini. Val is currently selling illegal fireworks to neighborhood kids to make ends meet. A motherless for the time being and head-braceless Georgia becomes the center of attention for both Yuri and Val. Finally exasperated with Val's antics and drunkenness including Val's admission to Yuri about what really happened to their mother, Yuri turns him into the cops who came looking for Val earlier on. Yuri thinks that in doing so, he is helping his brother. However the cops aren't looking for Val for the reason Yuri thought, but he ended up helping his brother more than he realized when he called Constable Birnham. It's Georgia who ends up bringing the brothers together, at least for the time being.
Fri, Jul 29, 2005
Following the suicides of the Dubois sisters, the main question on everyone's mind is who will be the new owner and what will he/she do with the building? Yuri and the Tans are the most concerned as their livelihoods are attached to the building. The who ends up being Stu Dubois, Pauline and Bea's second cousin. The what?: he intends on fixing up and selling the building. He does retain Yuri's services but Yuri is still worried that the new owner will not, and as such decides to fix up all the tenant's problems to get good references from them. The only tenant who seems to feel sorry for Yuri is Bobby, since he figures Yuri, solely by association, was the closest to the Dubois sisters. Things change for Bobby when Bobbi tells him of her one time indiscretion with Yuri. When Bobby finally catches up with Yuri, they have a physical altercation. But a physical altercation happens around them at the same time: an earthquake. There is substantial damage to the building, some of which has landed on top of a now pinned-by-rubble Yuri. While the rest of the tenants have evacuated the building (which includes a distraught Bobbi), captives Bobby and Yuri have time to air their issues. It also gives Bobby time to figure out not only what he's going to do with Yuri, but what he's going to do about his marriage.
Sat, Apr 7, 2007
Both Yuri and Toni are facing new nemeses. Yuri's is contractor and television personality Jim Caruk, who Elvis has hired to fix up the building since Stu has a prospective buyer. In essence, Jim is doing Yuri's job. Yuri realizes that his livelihood at Robson Arms is in jeopardy, especially when Elvis gives Jim a set of master keys to the building. Toni faces two nemeses: menopause and Bao's pretty young third cousin Kitty Chong, just arrived from Kowloon, Hong Kong. Initially seemingly sweet, innocent and naive, Kitty tells a heartbreaking story of a recently killed loving fiancé. She is adored by all, especially the men of the building, with whom Kitty uses her sexuality to get whatever she wants. This includes some sexual favours for Elvis, who is threatening to triple the store's rent once the lease expires. Grandma, who has never trusted the Chong side of the family, is the first to see through Kitty's charade. Toni eventually sees the real manipulative side of Kitty, who wants to steal everything that Toni has. Based on advice from Yuri, who will resort to down and dirty tactics to save his job, Toni gets the upper hand on Kitty when Toni discovers Kitty's real background, which includes a still living fiancé from whom Kitty embezzled money; and Kitty's ultimate goal of getting Bao and Toni to sign her immigration documents to move to Canada. Ultimately, Kitty is sent packing back to Kowloon, but not before she gets Elvis to renew the store's lease at the same rate.
Sat, Apr 14, 2007
Andrew wants to have a baby, and wants to make the process as scientific as possible for conception. This direction is different than what he and Chris had previously discussed, which was to have a baby whenever it naturally happened. Amongst their baby talk, Andrew tells Chris about the fact that Geoff tried to kiss him. Initially, rather than be upset, Chris is humoured and flattered for Andrew. However, when more and more indirect signs of gay men being attracted to Andrew surface, including warnings from Chris' overbearing mother Dianne, Chris begins to think that perhaps her nonchalant attitude toward Geoff's kiss is misplaced and that Andrew's want for a baby but otherwise recent standoffishness is really a sign that Andrew is gay. She decides first to confront Geoff, but only finds Stanley, who provides a little insight into the gay male psyche in relationship to Chris and Andrew's marriage. Despite Stanley's assurances to Chris, Andrew, upon probing by Chris, admits to her that he does sometimes think about men sexually, but denies being gay since he has never acted on those thoughts. Confused, Chris turns to her mother Dianne for more advice, who tells Chris that she should have the baby as security to hang on to Andrew. Chris ultimately decides and tells Andrew that now is not the time to have a baby. Although Andrew says that she alone without a baby is enough to fulfill his life, Chris still has doubts about his true feelings.
Sat, Mar 31, 2007
It was a dark and stormy night, which brings with it dark and stormy Georgia or "Georgie", Carol's estranged head-brace wearing teen-aged daughter, on Carol's doorstep. Although Carol has been fairly open about her life with her neighbors, Georgie exposes more of that life: that Carol just returned from India where she spent eighteen months in an ashram trying to find herself, this following the divorce from Georgie's father Manny. Georgie, wanting to stay with her Mom for a few weeks, decides to wreak havoc at Robson Arms as material for her on-line videos: she puts red dye in the washing machines, lets Hal's skunk loose in the building and invites Brent the bum over for dinner. Carol loves her daughter but also finds her exasperating. The last straw for Carol is when Georgie plans to film her own deflowering. This act reveals the reason for Georgie's bad behavior: she feels she is the reason for all her parent's problems and feels she was an accident in their lives. Carol endures an accident of her own after she finally convinces Georgie that she really is the best thing in her life and is proud to be her mother.