Wide World Books and Maps in Wallingford should have copies of the British Columbia Recreational Atlas, a large format book covering the entire province. Or maybe one of the other equivalent atlases; there's one for just SW BC. None of them are as good as the DeLorme atlases for US states. Tear out the pages with the island on it. It's not going to be a whole lot better than the International Travel one, though -- I think it's 1:200,000, while the IT is 1:250,000.

I've looked at the IT maps, and I would think they'd suffice for cycling. Once you get out of Victoria, Vancouver Island is pretty simple. Alternately, you could print screens of Google Maps of the tricky parts to supplement the atlas or IT maps.

Best of all would be to buy the 1:50,000 topographical sheet maps from the Canada Map Office (the equivalent of our USGS sheets), but that's going to be expensive. It looks like Vancouver Island is covered by parts of seven different sheets, at $12 a pop, ouch. Wide World can order them for you, though. A cheaper way is to print them yourself, for free, but you'll have to figure out how to navigate the remarkably obtuse system here:

http://geogratis.gc.ca/geogratis/en/product/search.do?id=08F1CB77-F351-0F8A-EF30-CA081CA0CE61

Wide World Books and Maps in Wallingford has everything you need.

The WSLCB is actually pretty helpful. You can search, and it will tell which stores have what you're looking for. Sun Liquors claim to have a distillery, but I don't see any products listed there. Other WA distilleries are, though, like Dry Fly and Fremont Mischief. Search on this page:

http://www.liq.wa.gov/LCBhomenet/StoreInformation/BrandSearch.aspx

Distilleries are also allowed to sell out of their distillery premises. You might try calling Sun's distillery number and asking them. Apparently they make a gin.

The $10,000 reporting limit applies to bank transactions and coming into the country (and going out, but only because you will simultaneously be going into another country). And it is a reporting requirement only; it's not illegal (though it will attract scrutiny).

If you're just driving around in your car, or walking from the Baccarat table to your hotel room in Vegas, you're in the clear -- though you're also stupid to be holding that much cash. Put it in a bank. If you're paranoid put it in ten banks, or one bank ten times, $9,999 at a time (the extra tenner is for your cab ride). The person who I would be afraid of searching me in that case is not a cop but a bad guy who just found a guy with a hundred grand on him.

What makes a book valuable is when more people want to buy it than there are copies readily available. It's very difficult to predict. Generally speaking, books with small print runs are going to be more valuable than ones with large ones; but the vast majority of books of any kind, especially in the internet age, turn out to be completely worthless almost as soon as they are bought.

Signed copies are not in themselves valuable; it has to be an author with some cachet, or scarcity. In that case, it can make a big difference. Presentation copies (signed, with a handwritten dedication to another famous person) can be valuable too, but in general you sound like you're not in the market for signed editions, unless you are getting them signed yourself.

The bog-standard "collectible book" is a modern first edition, i.e., a novel written by an author of high stature. First novels are often good, if (but only if) you hit upon a first novel by a nobody in a tiny print run who turns out to be a superstar later. But if you just bought every first as it came out your investment would be wasted, because most of them will be worth $0.01 on Amazon within a year.

The other thing that matters so much is condition, condition, condition. Perfect books hold their value, and maybe appreciate; bent, knocked, or dented ones don't. It's as simple as that.

Genre fiction can be a good area to collect in, especially sci fi. Another area where books often appreciate is photography books, monographs of top photographers. They go out of print, and if the photographer is hot they can then sell for a ton of money. But again, you have to guess who's going to be hot.

In the internet age, all sorts of oddities are turning out to be hugely valuable, while the wide availability of other stuff that had previously been assumed to be fairly reliable has collapsed its prices. For instance, I've tried to sell some books in the past, and the only two I ever made a quick killing on were a rare aquarium book by this Japanese guy, and a collector's guide to Hamilton watches. I was shocked -- they both sold for over $100 within minutes after being listed. Loads of other really good collectible stuff never attracted any interest at all. Supply and demand.

The best place to learn is used bookstores, specifically ones that do a lot of collectible business. Go to Wessel & Lieberman in Pioneer Square, or John Michael Lang in Ballard, and just browse. Browse and browse and browse. Look at the books. Look at the prices. Find similar books where one is $10 and the other is $200, and see if you can tell why. Look on Ebay, and sort the books section by price, and see what goes for a lot of money, and why. Get ahold of bookseller catalogs, too -- same thing. Also, learn the lingo -- learn what words like "rubbed" and "chipped", "octavo" and "12mo" mean. Look on sites like Abebooks and see the difference in price between different editions (or even the same one) of something.

The trick is to find out what's available now for cheap that will be dear tomorrow. The only way to really do that is to learn the business a little. Ask questions; a lot of booksellers love to jabber endlessly about their trade, and most of them are pretty smart.

In addition to knowing books, you have to know your subject. If you're just wandering into B&N trying to guess what's going to make you rich, forget it. If you're buying SF, you have to REALLY KNOW SF, and you have to be able to tell what's good and what isn't. Same with photography or anything else. What are you interested in? Those are the books you should be looking at.

You probably won't find anything you're interested in on this blog, but you should read it, for his insights into what makes books worth more or less, and how that changes over time: http://www.bookride.com/

Go to the library and check out a few book-collecting books, starting with the classic "ABC for Book Collectors" by John Carter and Nicolas Barker and "Book Finds" by Ian Ellis, or whatever else they have. Be prepared for a lot of stuffy, stuck-up guff from some of these books, which sometimes appear to be written by semi-senile old duffers droning on and on about that 1732 Principia Mathematicus by Sir Ethelred Bunnywhip QV RSC Msc.PRSD that they spilled port on during that terrible thunderstorm in 1919, blah de blah de blah, but there's some good ones too. Carter is great.

Whatever you do, don't turn into one of those pricks who goes to yard sales and thrift stores with a scanner and scans everything and leaves it in a big pile afterwards. Everybody hates those guys. Yard sales are a terrible place to look for books, anyways, unless you're looking for 1980s college textbooks or the complete sermons of Billy Graham in two hundred baby-blue volumes. The only time you'll ever find a good one, it will have been dropped in a toilet. It's easier to find good books in a thrift store but you have to have the patience of Job. Stay out of antique stores.

If you mean an ad inside a video, that has to play before you can watch the video you want, I don't know how, but if you're just talking about ads elsewhere on the page, you want Adblock.

http://adblockplus.org/en/chrome

You can also block videos that start with Flash (almost all of them) with Flashblock. It allows you to start the Flash items you want (say, a menu or something) while leaving blocked the ones you don't (Ford ad, autostarting video, etc.)

See some tips here:

http://questionland.com/questions/12724-whats-a-girl-about-san-francisco-to-do

Basically I like to walk around and enjoy the street vibe rather than head to specific destinations.

Valencia Street is in the Mission -- loads of coffeeshops, bookshops, restaurants, etc. Have breakfast at Boogaloo (corner of 22nd) (if you don't mind waiting). Mission has loads of trendy white hipster bars now but still has plenty of old Chicano flair. Eat tacos here, or the burritos for which the Mission is famous.

Haight is in the Haight-Ashbury and is a bit grisly BUT it has Amoeba Records if you like records. If you don't, skip the Haight. Fat Slice pizza is a good classic punk rock pizza joint.

Another place you should definitely go if you like records but probably not otherwise is Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. For out-of-towners the fun sci-fi BART ride under the Bay might be attraction enough.

One place you MUST go is Caffe Trieste, at the corner of Vallejo and Grant just off Columbus in North Beach (just to the NE of Chinatown). Not only is it the best coffeehouse in America but it has been since the beatniks were unironic. Buy coffee beans to take home, too. If you end up in Caffe Greco on Columbus instead you won't be sorry, either. While you're there be sure to stroll around the corner to Columbus and Broadway, to laugh at the wonderfully ridiculous neon signs of the strip clubs.

Another place that will blow your mind and make you realize how bland and boring Seattle is is Swan Oyster Depot, on one of my favorite streets and very off the tourist track, at California and Polk. You can take the cable car there and not feel like a tourist gomer -- it's an actual transit line used almost entirely by locals (in other words, it doesn't go to Fisherman's Wharf). Get off at Polk, and go in and have the best clam chowder in the city. Get crazy and do it at 8 AM. Go ahead, have the oysters too -- best in the city. You sit at the counter and watch the guy slice the lox freehand thin enough to read the newspaper through. This may not sound that fascinating but it IS -- it's like living history. Polk Street is a wonderful stroll, too, with shops and neighborhoody stuff. Royal Ground Coffee up past Vallejo is a good spot.

If you're more of a bookstore person than a record store person, run out to Clement Street out in the Richmond district, which has turned into a new Chinatown now but still has many holdovers, making for a fascinating mix. The bookstore is called Green Apple, at 6th, and it's great.

Slap the hood? Sure. Give 'em the finger? Absolutely.

Taqueria El Sabor, 15221 Aurora (just south of Sears and Central Market) is really good. Maybe not so vegetarian (though their refried beans are heavenly, but maybe have lard in them). Actually, a good rule of thumb is ANY Mexican restaurant located in a former Taco Bell is going to be pretty good.

Amazing Korean up around there, too -- try Old Village across the street, or Hoo Soon Yi waaay up at 238th SW in Edmonds.

Best pho in town is at Than Brothers, between 77th and 78th. You might see me there.

If you like your groceries crunchy-granola style, PCC is where it's at. Little-known secret: five of the six most gorgeous checkers in the entire city work there, not that I'm a pervert or anything, but jeez.

Also right around there are some very useful holes to drink in -- Ueber for German beer, St. Andrew's for Scotch, and Kangaroo & Kiwi for mad-as-hatters Aussies and New Zillanders. Skip the Fosters and have a Cooper's Sparkling Ale. You'll thank me. All between 73rd and 76th. I've never been in Duck Island, alas.

The Jack in the Box at 85th can usually supply all your crack cocaine and meth needs; if no one is around, dash across Aurora through traffic to the Arco station. Shari's is also good if you want to lose faith in humanity; I once watched a waitress there attempt to sweep a little tub of cream that had fallen to the floor into one of those dustpans with a long handle FOR TEN SOLID MINUTES.

Aurora is my favorite street in Seattle.

Oh dear. How on earth did you end up THERE? The correct answer is of course Tottenham Hotspur, the finest club in all the land. But if you're set, you're set. At least you're not taking the obvious, scumbag route of choosing Man Utd (spit), Chelsea (spit), or the Arsenal (spit).

Of those three, I'd say the proudest tradition is Everton's. They've won the league more than the other two combined, and have been in the top flight since 1954, which is longer than Manchester United, Liverpool, or indeed any other club besides Arsenal. They're overshadowed by their close neighbors Liverpool FC (their two stadiums are about a mile apart), but Liverpool is a lovely city to be from. In Liverpool they're known as "the people's club", unlike those prima donnas over at Anfield, with whom they have a bitter but oddly cheerful and blessedly non-sectarian rivalry. Liverpudlians and Evertonians will talk each other to death but are unlike to get out the knives and bombs like, say, Man Utd v. Man City or Rangers v. Celtic. In fact, red and blue are not segregated in the stands, unlike most Premier League games -- and nearly every Liverpool family has supporters of both clubs in it somewhere.

Everton has always played beautiful football, and had a great deal of success, though in the modern billionaire they are not serious contenders -- they're on the outside, in the second tier, with Spurs and Aston Villa, hoping against hope to get enough lucky breaks to play in Europe and maybe, just maybe, get rich enough that way to sneak into the top tier -- but to be honest it's just not likely to happen. They're playing for fourth or fifth at best.

WHO YOU HATE: Liverpool, Manchester United, London clubs.

The nicest thing I have to say about Newcastle United is that I like their shirts, the black and white stripes, but their fans are rarely wearing them -- the classic Newcastle fan being an obese shirtless man shouting pornographic abuse in zero-degree weather. They have a less storied history than Everton but an impressive one. I've never been to Newcastle, but one possible drawback (or perhaps bonus) is the Georgie accent, which is absolutely impenetrable -- they sound like Germans trying to dislodge a severe mucus problem. Good beer, though, and you'd be able to show your support in a lot more places -- Newkie Broon is pretty commonly available.

Their football is somewhat tragic, I'm afraid; Route One all the way, and they've just come back from a terrible run of form including relegation. The club owner is one of the most obnoxious and meddling in the league, which is a problem. If the recent past is anything to go by, you'll be seeing two or three new managers every season, which will be extraordinarily frustrating.

WHO YOU HATE: Sunderland (currently in a lower division), London clubs.

Blackburn Rovers are an interesting team. They're probably the most likely to get relegated of the three, which is a tragedy you may not be strong enough to endure. Your choice here is for life, you know.

Blackburn are in a category best described as "plucky". They probably shouldn't even be in the league at all. Blackburn is an obscure place in Lancashire best known to Americans for the Beatles lyric about "4,000 holes" (which was a real newspaper story, about road potholes). The city of Blackburn is not high on anyone's tourist route, being purely working class and a crumbling remnant of the Industrial Revolution, but they have carved out a niche with imaginative and resilient football. They've even won the Premiership before, something neither of your other choices can say, though their one win was two decades ago in a brief period of insane spending that nearly destroyed the club. They were relegated shortly thereafter, though they've been back for a decade and are now a mid--to-lower table club, though they will struggle every single year -- the struggle to stay up is a hugely stressful one that will cause you to lose sleep. But they're usually a fun team to watch.

WHO YOU HATE: Manchester United, Bolton Wanderers, London clubs.

All three of these clubs will give you some cred walking down the street, as any nimrod with a credit card can find himself a Man Utd shirt to parade around in without even knowing who the hell they are, but if you're wearing a Newcastle, Blackburn or Everton shirt it can only be on purpose.

For an interesting perspective on being an American following the Premiership, you might read "Bloody Confused: A Clueless American Sportswriter Seeks Solace in English Football" by Chuck Culpepper. He settled on Portsmouth, a small team from the south that just happened to have an improbable run of success while he was writing, though they have since fallen into deeply dire straits and have not only been relegated but are in danger of being wound up entirely (i.e., going bankrupt). He's a rather silly man, and Portsmouth is a silly club, but it's an entertaining story of learning how English football and culture work.