Friday, December 29, 2006

Days with Mom & Auntie Cece

For the last two days, I have been hanging out with my mom and auntie cece whom is in town from Alaska. She comes up every few months to buy stuff in Vancouver for her restaurant. She also comes into town to be Asian because she has no one in Anchorage to be Asian with! Things like play mahjong and shop in Chinatown. She is also a huge fan of flea markets and pawn shops and boy do we have plenty here in Vancouver. Yesterday, I had to drop Kay off in Richmond to her friend's place because she's going over there for two nights and three days. Since I was already in Richmond, I drove over to my brother's and we headed over to Parker Place to meet mom and auntie cece for dim sum at Floata Restaurant. The dim sum was ok and not the best I've had but it filled our stomachs just enough. After dim sum, we headed over to Aberdeen Centre to show auntie cece around and to check out Daiso and BMW store. Auntie cece was not too impressed with Daiso as she thought it was a little too expensive! Yes, $2.00 for every item is still too much money! She rather enjoy spending her $$ at the Dollar Store which really is the $0.80 store for her! ($1.00CND = $0.80USD) But she did end up buying something at Aberdeen, a beautiful sapphire pendant at a real bargain esp. in a Chinese jewellery store (Asian jewellery stores always jack up the price so you can bargain it down). She haggled for this piece until the poor sales lady was forced to phone her boss to see if he would let it go for $600. Auntie cece is an expert bargainer. She would not leave until she got the sapphire at her price! While she was discussing the final details with the sales lady, a pair of peridot earrings caught my eye. Even with the 50% off boxing sale price, regular price $750, she was only willing to bring down the price to $320. But my mom and auntie cece thought the earrings were still too expensive at that price. Mom and auntie cece tried to get it down to $220 but she would not sell them at that price nor call her boss for approval. She said another day maybe. Since none of us knew what the value of the peridot was, we had to say good bye. I checked out Ben Moss and found a lovely pair (with more diamonds) at $299! I think I will have to take a look at those and see them in person. I do have to say, the peridots at the asian place were very pretty and def. quality stones. We left the mall and headed over to OK Tire to check out my brother's tires which was the main reason we were out today. Found out some very bad news. The tire technician checked out my brother's tires and told us that they were so bald that these tires are not legally allowed to be on the road!! OMG, that is terrible! Mom was offering to buy my brother some used tires for his birthday but it looks like now she's got to buy them for him sooner!!! (His birthday is February). OK Tire did not have any used tires in his size nor would they be getting any soon as these tires were pretty hard to locate. New ones looking at $127.00 a tire. Ouch! That's about $600 with taxes!! Headed over to Sam's (mom's old friend who also owns a tire shop) but Warren and I do not trust Sam and we were very hesitant on going to see him. He did not disappoint us. His attitude STINKS, he is rude and obnoxious, has no clue what size the tires were (also not really wanting to give us the information), stated the tires were not that bad (what??!!) and offered to sell a set of (not so great tires) for $139 each!!! HELL NO. Kiss my @ss!!! Warren was not pleased and pretty damn upset with Sam. That was pretty much our day/early night. Mom and auntie cece headed home for mahjong and Warren drove me back to his place so I could pick up my car. It was a nice and quiet evening to myself.

Today, I went back over to my mom's because they were heading over to Chinatown to run errands and have all you can eat Japanese for dinner. What a crappy day to go to Chinatown! It was pouring rain and not a great day to be walking around windy Chinatown. Yesterday, it was sunny and warm but ended up in a mall instead. We headed over to have lunch at a Vietnamese Restaurant by my mom's. Yummy! Good day for noodles in soup. After lunch we headed over to the Dollar Store because auntie cece wanted to pick up some items. R calls it the 20 Dollar Store because I always end up purchasing many items but I did good today, I only picked up $10 worth of items! :) And all very useful too! The traffic heading to Chinatown was pretty bad and it took us nearly 20 minutes to get there! It's a 10 minute drive! Gosh, it was cold in Chinatown and we were really in a rush because auntie cece decided last minute that she wanted to play mahjong instead of going to all you can eat Japanese! Mom was a little pissed off because auntie cece is only in town until Sunday morning and she already had two nights planned for mahjong. Also, how did auntie cece expect to get her shopping done if she was planning to play tonight? Didn't leave us much time. I think mom also really wanted to eat all you can eat Japanese as well! After Chinatown, we headed home and I decided I wasn't going to stick around for dinner mostly because there wasn't any dinner (they picked up some bakery items at Maxim's - no time for dinner, game started at 5:00pm!). It's going to be a nice quiet evening to myself again.

I also managed to finally update most of my blog these last two days. One reason being Kay is not home to hog the computer and another, I finally had time to edit all my photos for the blog! Hmm.. time to order some take out!


Thursday, December 28, 2006

Night out

This evening I had dinner with KD and her new (boy?)friend / roommate, A~. KD wanted me to see the place and spend an evening with them together. Although I have already met him once before, she thought it would be a good idea if I came by for dinner and a DVD. Russell Peters to be exact. I have never seen a Russell Peters show and apparently, I am missing out. I agree, this guy is hilarious! Anyways, A~ owns a beautiful condo is Yaletown and although the condo is spacious, I do not think it's spacious enough for two adults. But she is an adult and she can make her own decisions. Although, KD dominated the conversation tonight, it was still a fun and interesting night. A~ is really a genuine nice guy and I don't think he knows what he is getting himself into.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Boxing Day Sales

I really haven't gone to a Boxing Day Sale in a long time and we were planning to have a quiet, relaxing day at home but V called to let us know he was in the area and planned on heading over to Richmond to check out Broadway Camera's Boxing Day Sale. He asked if we were interested in joining him. I didn't think I would buy much of anything at Aberdeen Mall because I have gone there many times and walked out with nothing too dangerously expensive. Not counting Daiso or the asian Anime Stores because those are cute cheap items. But boy, did we do some damage today! All three of us were quite surprised how much we spent. Poor V, he picked up quite a few items for M (and she was already at Metrotown shopping for the Boxing Day Sales!). Well, he did pick up a couple of items for himself like a tripod for his camera and a cool F1 Track Jacket by Puma for BMW. After doing our shopping, we decided to stop ourselves from doing any more damage so we headed over to Northern Cuisine to have a snack but then M called to say she was going to catch a movie and since V wouldn't make it back in time to catch the flick, we decided to have dinner instead of a snack. Mmmmm yummy stuff, we ordered 2 dishes of Siu Long Bai (steamed pork dumplings with soup inside), a dish of handmade noodles with beef and scallions and deep fried fish with sweet and sour sauce. I didn't think it would be enough to feed us but it was just right. Kay practically finished a dish of Siu Long Bai all by herself! She is such a pig! :) After dinner, we headed over to Leisure Tea House to have bubble tea and to rest before heading back into Vancouver. Boy, did time fly by fast! After chatting and debating on a bunch of different issues (it's never boring when in conversation with V), we realized it was 9.10pm and we had to head back. On time, M called just as we left the tea shop and she was cool about having to wait almost 40 minutes before V could pick her up. He dropped us off and now I am super tired!

What a day we had! All that shopping.... for boxing day sale items, head over to Trishaopholic for great deals!

Monday, December 25, 2006

Merry Christmas!

It's the first Xmas without R being in Vancouver and our day took off quite slowly (I didn't wake up until 10.30am). There is a rule about opening Xmas presents and that rule is no one can open presents until everyone is up. No cheating which means you can not wake the other person up. Poor Kay, she was up at 8.00am and waiting patiently for me to wake up. When I finally got up, Kay rushed over to the Xmas tree to open her presents. Wow, did she ever get some good presents:
  • Pink Canucks Baseball Cap ~ Thank you V & M
  • Pink Gap Pullover ~ Thank you Great Auntie Ingrid
  • Garage White Zip Pull up Hoodie - Thank you Jas
  • Nintendo Game Cube Cordless Remote - Thank you Uncle Warren
  • Ice Age DVD ~ Thank you Santa
  • Nintendo Game Cube Mario Party 7 ~ from us
  • Fergie CD ~ from us
  • Pink Ipod & zCover silicone clear case ~ from us
  • Lucky "lai tse" (red envelopes) filled with $$ ~ Thank you Grandma and Great Grandma
It was awesome to see the excitement in her eyes when she saw her new pink Ipod. Yes, she's a spoiled little girl but she doesn't act like a brat and she's a very good girl. After opening gifts, she tested out her new video game with her new remote control while I checked out Best Buy and Future Shop's Boxing Day sales. I could not purchase the HP Colour Laser printer online because the site servers were super busy and overloaded, it seems I may have to go out to the store to purchase one if there are any left. I hope I can get one tomorrow or Thursday because it's a really great Boxing Day price and it would be nice to finally have a colour printer for Kay.

Before heading over to my mom's for Xmas dinner, I asked Kay to run over to Starbucks and grabbed me an Americano. It's crazy how Starbucks is open on Xmas day and I bet it totally sucks to be there! Kay said the bar people didn't look to happy being there and although they were not too surprised by Kay's request for an Americano, she got quite a few stares from the customers in the shop. We headed over to my mom's for dinner around 4.00pm. My brother was super late and we were starting to worry about him but apparently, he had a super long night (partying of course) and sleep in very late.

We had a non traditional style dinner, we had steaks as the main course for dinner. Super yummy! We love steaks esp. tenderloin steaks. Also included were potatoes, garlic bread, baked pasta, and ceasar salad. Very yummy! After dinner, we rested at the dinner table while Kay was patiently waiting for us to give her the ok to open her presents under my mom's very interesting Xmas tree. The time finally came and Mom did an excellent job at fooling my brother. It was a good night and nice to be around family on this day.

Hope everyone had a joyous and happy Xmas Day!

Xmas Dinner Photos

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Exchanging Gifts

This afternoon was a busy afternoon! First off, we met with V and M to exchange gifts and cards. They dropped by around 11.00am and we headed out to the local Blenz for coffee and chit chat. They both had a busy day ahead of them, 2 Xmas outings with both their families. After catching up with the two of them, the wind picked up and I nearly lost my Burberry hat! Gosh, it's pretty windy and cold out there. By the time V and M left, I had to get ready for my next get together which was lunch with KD at Il Cafe on Broadway. Heading out in the pouring rain is no fun and at first, I wanted to take the bus down because Il Cafe is so close but decided I did not want to get soaked in the rain standing at the bus stop nor walking to the restaurant from the bus stop.

Gosh, there were quite a few things she had told me to keep me updated with her life. I am not quite sure about her choices in life, how she handles her finances or her position of where she is with herself but she is a big girl and only she can decide what is best for her. I am not going to say what is on my mind or pass any judgment. I have enough of my own worries to worry about than to consume myself with other people's problems.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Off on Holidays!

Woowee! I am officially off on holidays until Jan. 2. Our offices are closed until Jan. It will be nice to have 10 days off. Lucky Kay is back at school on Jan. 5, I can't believe she gets an extra 3 days off.

Just a couple more days until Xmas and gosh I would hate to be the person who is still shopping for Xmas gifts. I bet the mall is going to be crowded this weekend! Oh wait, I need to be up early tomorrow to help with the Xmas dinner shopping with my mom. She wants to head over to Costco but I told her we better get there early, I want to beat the crowd/traffic rush.

Time to log off work and shut down for the week!


Tuesday, December 19, 2006

Erin & Katie's Visit!


Wow, I can't believe how much she has grown! Today started off being a really "off" day but after visiting with Erin and Katie, its turning around. I love seeing these two, they are my happy rays of sunshine on a cloudy day. I love them both and I really miss having Erin around the office. Can't wait for her to come back!

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Happy 30th!

Tonight we celebrated RH's 30th birthday! Wow, I can't believe she's turning 30! It seems like yesterday that we were hanging out at the mall and skipping out on classes in high school ......

BF & RH

Wow, I've known RH since I was 15 years old and over the last 10 years, we haven't really been in touch. Over the years, we've managed to run into each other in the mall or downtown, we chat a little about what's going in our lives and yes, one day we should get together for coffee or something but never do. And every year, she sends me an evite to her birthday dinner and I always reply with a thank you and to wish her the best birthday ever even though I can't make it. But this year I decided to make more of an effort and be there to show her the love because she is one of my oldest friends. We also found out that we work about a block and half from each other, making lunch one time last month to catch up. She is doing great and there may be a future promotion in the upcoming year. She has always been very determined to do things and once she sets her mind, she's doing it or done it! She has a few things on the side and although it's not money makers, she's doing it because she loves fashion and enjoys it. It doesn't surprise me how well she's doing, she's always had it in her.

At the dinner, I got a chance to see some old faces and wow, how things have changed. Although, R is not married nor does she have any children, a few of her high school friends are married wit children or getting ready to settle. I can't believe how grown up everyone is. It is nice to see how supportive and strong her close friends are. Also a nice surprise was her little sister! I can't believe how grown up she is. She's turned into quite a beautiful young woman and I remember the days when she was a little girl helping my out with Kay. Now look at her! Wow. Gorgeous.

Well it def. was a nice night out and it was good to see everyone. Although I am not part of this group of friends, everyone was super nice and friendly. Some new faces in the group but def. a close knit group. I haven't really gone out for dinner with a group of friends in a long time so it was def. nice to eat out and have good company.

Lil Sis (her old babysitter) & Kay

RH, Kay & Lil Sis

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Canucks Game!



VS
WOW!! WHAT A GAME! IT WAS AWESOME!!
Canucks kicked A$$! 3 - 1.... watching the game live at the stadium is a totally different experience from watching it on TV! Esp. watching it with a rivalry team. The hype and momentum in the stadium is crazy! I do believe Vancouver Canucks fans are the best fans in the league! It was an awesome game!!

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

O Xmas Tree


Here is it. A little late in the month but only because originally we wanted a 7 foot tree this year which we did purchase at HBC but when Kay and I put it up, we did not realize how UGLY FAKE XMAS TREES ARE! I mean our little one is fake too but it doesn't look like a fake. Also, our little one is one piece and when we pull it out of the box, all we have to do is fluff the tree up. We are going to return the ugly fake tree and maybe next year we will buy a really Xmas tree or see if we can find The Christmas Store in the mall or in the city somewhere to purchase a new fake Xmas tree. But I haven't seen this store in a long time! I don't even know if there is one in Metrotown this year. That is where we bought our little Xmas tree....

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Xmas Lunch

Today, we had our group's first Xmas Luncheon! This being our first Xmas lunch (with a small and last minute budget) meant that I had to capture the moments with my camera! It was a little nerve racking trying to plan a lunch last minute for 50 people. But V manage to do it and it was a really nice place with great food. Many of the people in our division showed up and that was pretty impressive but who could turn down a free lunch and a glass of wine? Our lunch was held at the Savory Coast on Robson Street. Val decided to limit the menu by choosing a few of the entrees off the regular menu to be served at our lunch. With a little bit of organizing and dealing with the restaurant owner, we got it down to a few yummy dishes which seemed to be a big hit with everyone. Included with our luncheon was a raffle draw for Canuck club seats tickets for 3 upcoming games. Guess who was a lucky winner?!?! Yes ME. I won a set of the tickets and I never put my name in these draws only. But V decided that everyone should be entered and if the person who won them didn't want them, she could draw another name. But who could turn down these awesome seats? Not I. It was a really nice lunch and I can't wait for next year's lunch when the budget is a little more and we have more time to plan it! Photos from Lunch

Merry Christmas!!

Go Canucks Go!

Saturday, December 09, 2006

Blood Diamond

Tonight I watched Blood Diamond with a few friends and I found this story quite interesting although a little bit bloody with the guns and rebel violence. My friends were hoping to be able to rest throughout though movie as it was a long day for them but it was not possible because of all the gunfire and explosions during the movie. Oh well, I warned them about the movie. The movie contained a lot of blood, guns and war conflicts in the story but def. worth the watch. It's very interesting story about conflict diamonds and it makes me wonder where my diamonds came from. I am sure it did not come from Africa but still makes you wonder how much more valuable a diamond is worth. Not just a stone, it could have been worth hundreds of lives. Scary thought.

Leonardo Dicaprio did an amazing job in his role and it was a very impressive role. Although I have always loved him, his movies (well most not all) and I believe he is such a genuine person in real life, not just a pretty Hollywood star but also the fact that is HOT overall 100% awesome person. He is not just another pretty boy in this movie, his character made him quite scruffy but he did an execellent job and his accent very believable. Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou also did a fantastic job in the movie. Go watch it if you get the chance, you def. don't want to miss this one.

For more information on blood or conflict diamonds, please see Real Diamond Facts.

Lunch with my Socabutterfly

What a nice surprise! Today, I managed to see a very dear friend of mine for lunch! Marie, my sweet sunshine cheery lovable friend, dropped by for lunch so we could catch up on each other and for her to pick up a package she is going to courier. It's really nice to know someone who works for Fedex because of the great discounts I get for shipping. I don't usually ship with her though only when something needs to go somewhere FAST. She's such a funny and lovely person to hang out with. We had lunch and caught up a little bit with the drama in her life. She may be moving to my area soon which is really exciting, that means I can see her more often! But probably won't be moving until early Spring of 2007. After lunch, we headed back to my apartment and I gave her the Xmas friendship gift I purchased for her earlier in October. Apparently she does not celebrate Xmas or Birthdays or any of those made up holidays because she found the origins of Xmas and Birthdays. Huh? Yeah, freak. Just kidding! Still love her even though she's WEIRD. hehehe... It was a short but sweet lunch/gathering and then it was time for her to go and meet another friend, yeah, she is a busy busy girl!

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Xmas Party


MERRY CHRISTMAS!
(ok I'm a tad bit early but it was our company's Xmas party tonight)

This evening I went to the company Xmas party at the Four Seasons Hotel. It is such a lovely hotel! The food and the ballroom was perfect! Gosh did I have a ton of fun! We stayed until the end of the party which is a shock because last year, I didn't stay very long, I had two drinks and left right after the raffle draw. But this year, I managed to get a hold of 7 drink tickets, these tickets are priceless because for each drink ticket means you get a free drink at the bar. I was a bit surprised and happy to see that my division showed up, most of them anyways. The group I work with are not very social and we do not have social lunches or gatherings like other divisions. I managed to capture the moments with my camera. See photos for Xmas Party.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

Sunday Family Time Together

Another Sunday has gone by and my weekend is almost over. I spent the day with my Mom and Brother and Daughter. OMG. I need a vacation. I basically work all week, 7 days with no days off. I know I am sounding a little selfish but really I just need one whole day for me. Just me. No one but me. I feel guilty when I think this way because I have family obligations and yes, I could say no to my mom but then I would feel even worse. Ah well... what can one do? Deal with it......

Today was spent running around doing errands. First, we headed over to Chinatown to pick up some groceries and to have lunch, we went to a very yummy Vietnamese place in Chinatown. After picking up a few items for ourselves and my brother, we headed over to the new Costco located on the outskirts of downtown, near Chinatown. Wow, is this Costco HUGE or what? I can't believe there is finally one near where I live although it's no real good to me because I don't have a membership. We headed over there for my brother because he has no job and little money. We thought we would help him out by buying him some food and bulk items. I ended up buying MORE STUFF like I always do when I'm in Costco, I had to buy 2 boxes of truffles from France. Mmmmm.... so yummy! After Costco, we headed over to Best Buy and Canadian Tire. At Best Buy, we returned an item for my mom and I ended up buying a pack of DVD+RW for my new Pioneer DVD HDD Recorder because I want to burn some of my TV shows onto a DVD for future viewing. At first I was worried about how many shows I could keep on the HDD but it's pretty darn huge. I have 160GB of hard drive in that little machine, I love that machine, I don't know how I ever lived without one! :) Afterwards, we headed back towards my mom's place but did a stop at Superstore (for more stuff) and a place called XS Cargo. Apparently, this place sells a lot of stuff at a really low cost. Mostly junk but we found some nice kitchen knives for my brother and it only cost $39.99. I did not pick up anything oh wait, yes I did. I ended up purchasing a really large bamboo cutting board because the one I got from IKEA (cheap one) is falling apart. After the shopping, we were all very tired and it was time to start dinner. My mom and grandma cooked us a lovely Chinese meal and after helping out with the groceries and dishes, my brother and I decided to call it an early night. Since I did not drive, my brother drove me home. One of the reasons why I didn't drive is because I was afraid I would not be able to get back into my parking spot like the night before. Another because I didn't want to drive. There is still a bit of snow on some of the roads and I didn't want to test out my tires.

Sheesh, what a long night. I am so ready to go to bed......

Saturday, December 02, 2006

Lunch & Shopping

Vince came by for lunch today as he was in town because M was at SFU studying. We decided to go out for lunch and bubble tea for Kay. We headed over to a new restaurant on Main Street and it served Filipino cuisine. It was pretty yummy and the dishes had Chinese and Malaysian influences. After lunch, we strolled into a few stores on Main Street, it was a really good day to walk Main as the sun was finally out but it was still pretty darn cold. We went into this cute little place called Voltage and it sells Anime toys and stuff. We found the cutest toy for the office, it's mechanical and solar powered. While it flaps, you are mesmerized by the soothing movement of it and it's very calming and comforting. I think I will pick up one of these to replace the plants that die at my desk due to having no natural light in my cubicle. After walking Main, we decided to head back home because Vince was running late (as usual!) to pick up M. He dropped us off so we could pick up our car to head over to Burnaby to check R's mail and hit the mall for some skinny jeans for Kay. She has been moaning for skinny jeans forever.

Gosh, the traffic out there was pretty GROSS. I guess shoppers are now in the MAD RUSH to start and finish their Xmas shopping. We were stuck in traffic for a good hour, it is usually a 25 minute (tops) car drive. So it seemed to be forever before we reached Burnaby and the traffic light at Boundary Road is terrible, that was even a longer wait! I was SHOCKED to find out that R's parents were actually checking the mail because they never check the mail when they are in town. So when I finally got through the crazy traffic to check on the mail, to my huge disappointment there was none which meant I didn't have to drive all this way. UGH. This means we didn't have to go to Metrotown, we could have gone straight to Oakridge instead which also meant I really didn't have to drive because I would have suggested we take the bus up there instead of trying to get through the congested traffic on Cambie Street. Oh well, since we were already in the area, we headed over to Metrotown. OMG, it was madness! We drove around the parking lots for almost 25 minutes and we still could not find a parking spot that is how insane it was out there! We decided to call it in and head over to Oakridge instead. Of course the traffic was just as bad and I had to make a U turn on 41st to get into the parking lot (I was not going to wait in line anymore). Lucky for us, Oakridge closed early on Saturday (6ish) and when we got there, there was a huge line up of cars trying to get out of the parking lot which meant there was a good selection of parking spots.

At Oakridge, we headed over to Zellers first because that is where we found parking. I bought a pair of fleece gloves to go over my black leather gloves because the leather gloves are not keeping my fingers warm. I also picked up a very cute cream ruffle blouse (pretty for Xmas work parties) for a great price! Next stop, the Gap because Kay was looking for her skinny jeans (I received a 30% off coupon by email) and we found a pair in the adult section. The sales associates in the Kids Gap were clueless (probably hired for Xmas Madness) and had no idea what skinny jeans were or if the Kids Gap carried them. We went over to the adult side and found a pair of jeans close to what Kay was looking for but a size 0 is way too big / long for her. We headed BACK OVER to the Kids Gap and I found a pair of jeans which were pretty darn close to skinny jeans (what do you think?) and helped ourselves to the change rooms because again, the SAs were clueless. At the cash register, I got a coupon for 15% off at Banana Republic and $10 off (purchases of $50 or more) at Old Navy. Well, how could one say no to 15% off at BR? Of course not I, esp. since I have been eyeing a few cute dresses at BR. We stopped by Coach first and checked out their fall/winter collection. During the holidays, Coach will release a few items for their holiday collection. Nothing too interesting in the store except for the crazy tourists in there buying out a lot of handbags! Headed straight over to BR and I found 2 of the dresses on my list (yes I was carrying my dress shopping list with me). Cap sleeve wool dress and knit empire waist dress, I did not like the empire dress and the cap sleeve wool dress was one of the ones I was considering buying because of the classic shape. After picking out the dress, I found a Merino wool v neck sweater in a taupe colour. I love the BR for their size charts, I am always a 4 or a Small in their clothes. I love it that I am smaller there because everywhere else, I'm usually a 6 or 7 in a Medium fit. After BR, we headed over to HBC to pick up a 6.5 feet Xmas tree. We found one on sale for 50% and it's called a slim tree which is good because we live in a small apartment and I did not want a huge towering tree. This one is not as nice as our little one because it comes in pieces unlike our old one which comes right out of the box, fluff it up and ready to decorate! Oh well, our old Xmas tree has had it's run, we've had that tree since Kay was 2 or 3. (Shopping Photos Here)

Finishing off at the mall, we headed home which is normally a 5 minute drive but took us 30 minutes. Congestion on Cambie street was horrible; people in the city were heading towards downtown for an evening out on a Saturday night. When we finally arrived home, I updated my blog with a banner and a link to the Devil Wears Prada as per my instructions on receiving my FREE copy of the DVD to review. But somehow I messed up the template and had to upload the template again which is a pain because I need to add all my fave. links and so forth. This whole mess took me over an hour to fix. HTML coding is so hard work with esp. if your template is a little more complex. After working on my blog, I cleaned up a little around the art room (in preparation to move my computer and desk over). Swept the living room and packed up some stuff to give away. That was that, it was time to call it the end of a long day. I wanted to catch a movie tonight but it didn't work out. Still hoping to catch Casio Royale next weekend.

Oh yes I must blog about one more thing.... when I finally arrived home, I could not back into my parking space because of the snow and my landlord did not shovel the snow around the parking spots. It took me a good 10 minutes before someone in a taxi (getting impatient as he watching me try to back in) got out to push the car while I put it in reverse. Thank goodness! I did not know what I was going to do at that point.

Friday, December 01, 2006

Beginning of December....

Wow!! Can you believe only 24 days until Xmas?? Sheesh... the year has gone by pretty darn fast!!

The DraMah
A very good friend of mine is going through some major changes in the next few months and IMO, not at all good. Even though at this time, it should be a celebration as this is an engagement, I feel very strongly about how wrong this is. She has worked so hard to get where she is and what she has become. In the years I have known her, she seems really happy with where her career is going. If she is not 100% sure of this, I do not think she should go through with it. It is not right to be pressured into this commitment by GUILT. I really really want (so badly) to tell her how I feel and how insane this is. This whole drama (me on the side, she hasn't told me how she feels) feels so unreal, like a soap opera on TV. AND I must remain quiet about how I truly feel and let her make her own choices and mistakes. She has a few people (close friends) helping her sort through this and hopefully, she will make a rational decision. I hope this all works out but no matter what I will be there for her. With smiles. Yes, I will be quiet and not give my honest opinion. Sometimes it's better just to stay quiet...... and that will be very hard for me to do!

The Good
  • My new Pioneer DVD Player works awesome. I was able to set up the system all by myself with no men around and it's taken up so little space because it now replaces my VHS Recorder and my old DVD player. Love it. Lots of functions that I will have to learn but I'm sure it'll be a snap once I read the manual.
  • I got a cool email from a marketing company (based in the US) asking me if I would review a movie on my blog, YES MY BLOG! called "The Devil Wears Prada". Apparently, they found a mention of the movie on my blog in June and sent me an email wondering if I would be interested in reviewing the movie. It would have to be posted on my blog and they will send me a copy of the movie. Mine to keep I assume. How cool is that?? I did reply back and said HELL YEAH! (ok, not in those exact words) but I do really love the movie and I am waiting for this to come out on DVD to purchase. But hey, if they want to send me a pre-release copy, why not? This movie is really really good but GO AND READ THE BOOK!
  • Most of my Xmas shopping is done. I said MOST. Not all but pretty close. A few items I need to pick up are some lotto tickets for co-workers and then I am pretty much done. I had pre-ordered some of my Xmas gifts online or purchased a few items a little earlier in November.
  • Weather is looking great! No snow and warmer temperatures to hit Vancouver this weekend.
  • It's FRIDAY! YEAH!!! (been a very looooooooong and tiring week)
  • Lots of Xmas parties/lunches happening soon which means I don't have to eat leftovers!
  • Planning a New Year's party with my closest friends! House party, yeah! But NOT at my place! ;)
The Bad

  • Xmas Gifts need to be wrapped. Xmas cards need to be filled and sent out.
  • R will not be in town for Xmas.
  • Need to fight the Xmas crowd this weekend to pick up a Xmas tree for Kay.
  • Need to head over to the mall to do some Xmas shopping for Kay.
  • Need to visit my Mom on Sunday which means not one day of rest for me.
  • Weight gain due to all the Xmas lunches and parties for this month.

Well I think that is pretty much all for now.... will update again......

Wednesday, November 29, 2006

Another Brrrr Day

Sheesh, what a day I had! First of all, it's so berloody cold that my skin feels like it's freezing and peeling off. The temperatures were in the low minus but with the wind/chill factor it def. felt like -15! This morning, walking about 6 blocks from my bus stop to the office was hard and my feet/hands almost froze off. And then coming into a warm office didn't help because as soon as I sat down at my desk to blow my nose, I got a nose bleed! Ewww!! I haven't had a nose bleed in ages! The last time I had a nose bleed was when I was pregnant with Kay! Yuck, thankfully it didn't last very long only bleed for about 5 minutes!!! Oh I guess that is more than enough details.... too much, eh?

This weather must be really hard on me because I have been feeling really tired and drained, no matter how much sleep I get the night before. I feel even more tired after work, this evening on my way home, I almost fell asleep on my bus.

After work, I was suppose to take the Oak Street bus to the post office because I had a couple of packages waiting for me, actually two notifications arrived on Monday but the weather has been pretty horrible and I did not want to drive in the icy snow. Finally, I made the decision to take the bus because I knew one of the packages was going to be my newest handbag. But it started to snow again and it was very very cold. I decided to catch the bus home and drive to the post office instead. Lucky that I did because one of the packages was quite big! I thought the second package might have been one of those samples that I get from my magazine subscriptions (they are always sending beauty product samples) but it was my Pioneer DVD Recorder. Yeah it is finally here! There would have been no way I could have taken that with me on the bus. I also decided to take Kay with me so we could pick up some groceries at the Safeway, could use the extra hands although she grumbled as she changed from her comfy pjs to some outdoor clothes. At first I wasn't sure if we should drive because the snow was starting to stick on the roads but determination and after a few tries, I got out of my parking spot in the back. We drove quite slowly (about 40 km/h at most) on the roads and the only vehicles that were driving faster than that were the SUVs and 4 x 4s. This is normally at most a 5 minute drive but due to the weather conditions and with much caution, we got there in 15. I was shocked to see that Safeway had not ploughed the parking lot and there was a lot of packed snow which bits of icy patches. I decided to park close to the exit so I wouldn't have to struggle trying to get out of the lot. We probably only stopped in Safeway at most, 20 minutes and when we came back to the car, there was an inch of snow covering the car! As luck would have it, I had a snow scraper in the trunk of the car because last year it snowed and I did not have one which meant I was scraping the snow off my car with my credit cards! Kay and I scraped off the icy snow before heading out of the parking lot. These errands ended up taking us almost an hour! On a good day, it's only about 30 minutes at most! Sheesh.... it was a struggle trying to get home and I only slid (nothing major) once while turning out of the parking lot onto the road. The rest of the drive was pretty smooth and by the time we got home, I was really worn out! I didn't even bother with the DVD recorder even though I was so excited and wanted to set it up! Also, I didn't even bother cooking dinner because Kay and I had made pasta sauce a few days ago and we are still trying to finish it off. But I think this is pretty much the last of the sauce..... Oh if we have any left tomorrow, maybe we'll make homemade pizza! :)

The NCIX drama continues.....

Last week, I sent an email to the person I was dealing with regarding the situation I had with the POWER CABLES, my mistake, not power supply. I did not receive a response from him until yesterday. I forwarded the email to Vince and he came up with a response to this email. But it continues.... see below:

His Response to my First Email
Hi Psycho_Pat. According to our Vancouver office, the power supply for your system should have already been installed into the case. It is possible that they may have given you the box for the Power Supply, as we generally do provide the customer with any boxes, cables, screws, etc – anything that the product would come with, is included even when the system is assembled. However, if the case doesn’t have the power supply inside already, please contact our Vancouver office immediately, and they can arrange to install this for you. As for the drive enclosure, this can be replaced for you – the RMA number for you is XXXXX (return merchandise authorization) – simply take the item back to the retail store, and they should replace this for you free of charge. We don’t generally install or test external devices, like an enclosure, so if the cord was defective, we would not necessarily see it. However, the power supply on the system should have been installed directly, and our Vancouver office should be able to help you with both of these matters.
You can call them at either 123-456-7890 – just be sure to have your invoice and RMA number available if calling, or visiting the store in person.
Feel free to contact me directly if you do need further assistance as well.
Regards,

Vince's Response to His Email
Thanks for getting back to me. However, since I sent you the original email,I have visited the Vancouver store. I would like to provide some feedback on that disappointing experience though. First of all, I may have mislead you in my original mail. I mentioned "power supply" when I should have said "power cable". There were 2 main issues with my order: 1) power cable was missing for my computer 2) The external drive's power cable was DANGEROUSLY defective with small ulcers exposing wire. My friend, who installed it for me, luckily had only minor burns. I have pictures of his hand and the cable.When I visited to Vancouver store to discuss the above, I was met with a busy staff member. I explained issue 1 with him first and that led to an unnecessary discussion about it being an order from Richmond store that was merely followed and did not mention a cable. I did not agree with this because I purchased a complete system and do not care whether it was written up wrong. I was unhappy and then mentioned that was not all and explained issue 2. I presented him the external drive box with cable inside. The rep did not even want to look at the damaged cable. At this point, I was very angry with him and expressed this to him. He continued to ignore the root of the issue. My desire was to let him understand that other external drives may be dangerous to other customers. I also wanted him to understand my frustration with picking up a PC package that did not include a power cable. In the end, he gave me a replacement cable for the drive and a cable for my PC but only after having to get to the point of total frustration.I believe that it is negligent for the company to ship without inspection and also negligent for the rep not to care about a potentially dangerous product shipment.Hope you understand my frustration with my experience with your rep. I have to consider carefully my next course of action so that your company will understand the seriousness of this. Appreciate your attention and regards,

My Sales Rep Response to Vince's Email from above
Hi, Psycho_Pat. I am forwarding All this information to our Vancouver Sales Supervisor (Insert Name HERE). I have also asked him to follow this up with a telephone call for you directly.
We are already investigating these enclosures, but have not yet found or had any other reports of defective cables – we are taking this very seriously, and I have reminded the stores as well. Please do understand that these are sealed units, but our stores and our warehouses are all checking into these units as best we can. I am also surprised that our Vancouver staff was not willing to help you readily, especially with the RMA number that was provided. With the RMA, they should not question the replacement, they should be able to exchange this for you quite easily, as the RMA is an approval for exchange.
Again, if there is anything we can do for you, please let us know, and Person's Name will also be in contact with you by phone for you to provide any extra details that may be necessary.
Regards,


OMG, I do not want to talk to this PERSON from the Vancouver office because I know who he is and he was there when it happened. He also ignored the situation and pretend not to know what was going on.... I'll let Vince deal with this one......

Monday, November 27, 2006

eBay Item SOLD!

Yeah! I sold ONE item on eBay! How exciting! I had posted 5 items on eBay and another item almost sold but someone, local, contacted me regarding this item (I posted the same items on craigslist) and he has decided to come and pick it up. This means I don't have to ship it out and I get my asking price instead of starting the bid at $0.99. I feel bad though as one person had been watching the item and then I removed the auction. The ebayer sent me a message inquiring the relisting of this item, I replied with the fact that I was able to sell it locally and if this person doesn't pull through, I will relist the item on ebay. But with the snow and freezing temperatures, I have not been able to meet this person because he is located in Coquitlam and it is quite a trek from Coquitlam to Vancouver. The ebayer that won the item paid instantly and tomorrow I will be sending it off. The winner looks like he is located in the Lower Mainland. The shipping should not be too expensive.......

Update November 28, 2006 12:15pm ~ OMG, I only made a $2something profit on my auction! Shipping and ebay / paypal fees took up most of my profit! I cannot believe that originally the shipping fees (at the Post Office) were over $7.00CDN!! That is basically my entire balance in paypal. I decided against shipping with the Post Office and went back to the office, changed the packaging (smaller envelope) and shipped online with Canada Post (feature with Paypal). I saved over $2.00 shipping with Canada Post Online and it came with a tracking no. Well, I now know better, next time I need to double up the shipping!

Saturday, November 25, 2006

Shopping Day with Mom

What a day! First of all, it's SNOWING! Yes, today is the first day of the season for snow. It's amazing. It's so beautiful, I wish I had a photo of the snow covered city during the day but I did not have my camera during my shopping trip. Tonight it is suppose to get really cold and there may be black ice on the road, I hope the salt trucks come out tonight! Snow to fall until Monday or Tuesday. I bet the mountains are great for skiing / snowboarding.

Today, my mom picked us up in her car to go shopping. She needed to head over to Best Buy and Canadian Tire which is right in our area and asked if we wanted to go with her. I needed to run a few errands and I wasn't going to drive so I decided sure why not, if my mom didn't mind driving us. I didn't want to drive because first I knew it was going to snow and my tires are crap. But also we were planning to shop at HBC downtown and parking downtown is expensive. We headed over to NCIX first because I needed to bitch about the power supply's and to exchange the burnt out one. I must have started to get quite agitated and maybe I started to look like a psycho customer about to make a scene because the sales guy would not look me in the eye, did not address the problems, and tried to get me out of the store ASAP. Basically, he gave me poor customer service and ignored my statements. He had given me three power supply's, an extra one, just so I would leave the store. I was so mad! He's lucky there was a counter in front of me because I could pick up his little geeky @ss and throw him out the window. But he gave me the three, pushed me out of the door so I would not cause a huge scene and although at the moment, there were not a lot of customers, he just wanted me out. I went into the store, in a calm state, tried to explain (calmly) about the defective power supply and how it should have been checked before they sold it but he didn't want to listen to me. Fine. I took the three power supply's and we left. I called Vince to let him know what happened, he's going to write a letter attach the photos and direct it to the management. NCIX is known to have poor customer service but with them supplying OEM parts at the lowest price, how can one expect anything more? After NCIX, we decided to head to Denny's for lunch as it was in the area and while we were having lunch, it started to snow. After lunch, we headed downtown and shopped in the Bay. Mom was looking for rain or snow boots like mine but when we got there, it was super busy with many Xmas shoppers. They did not have my black rainboots in her size but they were stocking 3 new colours! Pink, Green and Yellow. Now if they had Pink earlier, I may have considered it but they were not 50% off, only 30% and 10% if you used your HBC credit card. While mom was looking over their boot selection, Kay and I headed over to Browns to look at the shoes and I found my next pair of Stuart Weitzman shoes! But I decided to put them on hold and go back tomorrow to pick them up. I have a 10% discount and I want to use that on the shoes as I will save $35!! Mom finally tried on a few different pairs and was debating on which two she wanted when Kay found something mom really liked except downtown store did not carry the right size in the right colour. Sales girl found them at Oakridge and Metrotown. Mom wanted to pass on the boots that she was debating on and head over to Oakridge to buy the other ones that Kay picked out. We also needed to find Kay a set of matching gloves/scarf/hat for her school's Blizzard Day, a theme day for the kids. But we couldn't find anything downtown but I ended up buying a Fulton super slim umbrella with a wind resistant frame in a folk floral border. Very cute! After buying the umbrella, we headed to Oakridge to find those boots. Oakridge's HBC was also super busy and when we finally waved down a salesgirl, she tried to look up the boots on the receipt (code numbers/quantities of each HBC) but the downtown's sales girl punched in the wrong code and came up with the boots in brown not black. Mom was a little pissed off as we drove out there to pick up these boots. Now she had to go back to the two she was originally looking at, try them on again, and decide which pair was most suitable. While Kay and I were waiting, we found a pair of tall black boots at a really good price. Such a good price that I decided to buy a pair for Kay, only rule about the boots, DO NOT WEAR THEM when I am wearing them. Agreed. After picking up the boots, we headed over to Zellers and found Kay a matching set of gloves/hat/scarf ($19.99 - thank goodness because the separates were pretty expensive!) Back to Best Buy and Canadian Tire, mom picked up a DVD player that was on sale , I looked over the Sony LCD TVs, and Kay was checking out the game consoles/video games. Next door was Canadian Tire, I ended up buying a ironing board (on sale) because we have a really old one which is stuck to the cupboard and it not moveable. Makes ironing a pain in the @ss. Very tired from shopping and getting slightly hungry, we decided to head over to Hugo's for dinner (yes Hugo's again but that is the only good chinese restaurant nearby). Long shopping day....

Love to watch the snow falling......

Friday, November 24, 2006

Bellinis

I love Bellinis, it's one of my fave. alcoholic drinks. I can have them from any restaurant as long as it's tasty and slushy.

Tonight, I headed out with KD for drinks/appy's. Well, she had dinner but I had already eaten because I had a long day and was not sure if I could make a late night dinner. She's a late eater and I like dinner by 6pm. We headed over to Milestone's for drinks/food. She gets a staff discount because she is on Milestones's payroll although she hasn't done a shift in months but she knows the lingo which gets her the discount at all the Milestone's. We haven't seen each other in a couple of weeks, due to both of us being busy, well mostly me being tired and me NOT wanting to be social. She on the other hand is a social butterfly with lots of dates and late nights. We caught up on life and I found out that her current employer has just laid her off due to the fact that the company was over budget and required to lay off staff. Crap, that sucks! Right before Xmas? What kind of company does that? COLD HEARTED COMPANIES. (I know, I've been there.....) She is one of the earlier hires so she had to be let go. She is working 3 days a week until next week (end of the month) and they are paying her the two week salary plus her 2 week vacation which means her next paycheque will be her last but at least it's a month salary instead of two weeks. I caught up on all the guys she dating (she's dating 4 guys) and one of them being a potential "guy" or "boyfriend". After chatting a bit, I realized I knew this guy!! We went to the same highschool and had a common good friend! How funny is that? What a small world! A couple of hours later, it was getting late and I was getting super tired. Called it an early night and she headed off for drinks with a friend. A good way to end the week. Bellinis are always a great way to end a long work week........

Software

Wow! Gosh I didn't realize software could be so expensive! Well I really needed it and could not wait for the bootleg versions as a friend had promised because I hardly ever see him and his fiance. Everyone is so busy and it's no one's fault but I realize I cannot always depend on others. I decided to bite the bullet and pay the prices. I did get two of them on sale and one of them being 10% off of the difference. Future Shop will give you 10% of the difference if you find a product somewhere else at a better price. I bought MS Office (Teacher/Student Version) at $179.99 (I also have a $30 mail in rebate), Adobe Photoshop Elements 5.0 (discounted to $118.99 because Best Buy had it for $119.99) and Zonelabs Zonealarm Internet Security Suite (full protection for my new PC) at $69.99. Boy was it crazy busy at Future Shop, people in Vancouver must be starting their Xmas shopping because it was a madhouse. Most of the sales staff at FS are not too bright and the few that I had dealt with tonight were not too sure about their products, discounts and procedures. Esp. the cashiers (probably just hired for the Xmas season with limited training). I had to argue with the cashier about the FS discount, she didn't think the discount applied to software, boy is she WRONG. I printed off a copy of the Best Buy ad which advertised Adobe at 199.99, showed it to her and asked her about the price reduction. She was a little confused about FS's discount and did not think I could get a discount esp. on software. I insisted that she asked someone about this discount but I think she was just trying to rush me out of her line because there was a huge long line up at the cashiers. I finally convinced her to ask someone and when she did, YES I WAS RIGHT. Ugh. I also paid for an empty MS Office box, cashier again looked confused and I told her someone in the software department told me I had to pay for it and ask the cashier (that is her) to call them so they could bring a copy to the front. She sent me back to software stating that it would probably be faster for me to get it myself! Wow, GREAT CUSTOMER SERVICE!! I ended up back at software inquiring about a MS Office and another guy had no idea what to do and sent me in another direction. OMG, FS NEEDS to train all of their staff - temp or permanent!!! Assuming with such low prices maybe they forego the training!! I ended up at ANOTHER person and he was surprised that the cashier rang in an empty box. How could she scan an empty box? There is no SKU. OMG, he thought that I might have to return the item and buy it again. Due to the serial no. or something. We went back to the cashier and she told the guy, she had just manually typed in the SKU. But the guy was worried about not having the SKU from the original box so we ended up back at Returns (another 5 minutes later), we reach the counter and the staff at Returns stated it doesn't need to be returned as long as the SKU on the empty box or receipt is the same as the box I had in my hands. As we stepped away from the Returns, another guy said we needed to return and exchange!!! The guy that was helping me didn't know wtf!?! So he asked another guy (who looked like he was in management) and he stated that as long as the sku on the receipt matched the sku on the box, it would be fine. Finally, 30 minutes later, it was all straightened out and I was able to leave the store!! This shopping errand should have only taken me 10 minutes. I knew what I wanted to buy, picked it off the shelf, headed over to the cashier, get discounts / pay for it and get out of the store! Ugh. I hate FS, this is why I prefer to shop online even if I have to pay the shipping fees. I don't have to deal with clueless sales staff.

Thursday, November 23, 2006

With A Bang!

Tonight I finally picked up my new PC but not without its problems. First of all, I had already paid for my PC and even though I was just picking up, I still had to wait in the stupid line. It took 20 minutes and I was so worried because I was illegally parked (no parking on Broadway during rush hour). I had to pick it up tonight even though I was going to pick it up on Saturday instead but Vince had cleared his schedule to stop by and help put my new PC / hard drive in enclosure together. After I finally received my unit, Kay and I ran back to the car, terrified that I may have been ticketed but to find no ticket, thank goodness! After we got home, I went over to Hugo's to order take out for dinner (much too tired to prep/cook dinner) because Vince was so nice to come right after a long day of work to help me put together my PC. The least I could do was buy him his dinner. :) While I was waiting for our food, the hockey game was playing on the huge flat screen tv, the Vancouver Canucks were losing to Nashville and very badly. When I finally got back to the apartment, Vince was already there, hanging out with Kay and chit chatting. As I prep'd the take out dinner, Vince started pulling my old PC apart so he could take out my old hard drive and put it in the enclosure. I am too lazy to sort and transfer all my stuff from my old hard drive into the new PC so I decided to buy an enclosure for the hard drive which gave me some extra time in taking my time transferring all my documents/pics into my new hard drive. Vince had no problems removing and installing the hard drive to the enclosure but when he tried to test it out with the power supply cord..... a very terrible thing happened. It exploded in his hands! I KID YOU NOT. He dropped the unit and there was an awful burned rubber/electronic smell in the living room. When I ran over to see what was happening, he told me it just exploded and we were like... WTF? Upon closer inspection, we noticed that the power cord had been tampered with! There were two visible cuts with the live wires showing through. OMG, I was so pissed and upset thinking I might have lost all my info on the hard drive. But Vince didn't think so. Vince was fine, a little pissed and shocked but he did not need to go to the emergency. He was bitching about how unsafe and how could they not check the product before selling it. You would assume it would be safe and you wouldn't have to check it but obviously NOT! Poor Vince. His hand was a little burned but no major damage and his state was reasonably calm. I can't imagine what would have happened if I was the one handling it. I would have freaked out more and screamed like there was no tomorrow plus my impulse to drop it wouldn't have been as quick as Vince. This means that it might have been sitting in my hands longer causing more damage and shock. Luckily there were no papers nearby or flammable items because I'm sure I might have started a fire! ARGH. So very upset. I am never going back to that place again! I am going to go back there in a couple of days to bitch and complain! I could probably sue them although it would take too much time. I did take some photos of the power supply and Vince's hand. What a night!

Well after that fiasco, we decided to put my new PC together but guess what, we noticed they did not give me a power supply cord for my PC. How am I suppose to power this unit without a power supply cord? Magically with my hands or an imaginary cord??? Can you feel the sarcasm?

To the point? My old hard drive and new PC are both working fine although it's been a very long and draining night.








Happy Thanksgiving!


Happy Thanksgiving!

To our American neighbours!

Gobble Gobble, enjoy your turkey dinners!

Tuesday, November 21, 2006

Burberry Wool Hat

Ooooh look what finally came to my mailbox! I have been waiting weeks for this item. Apparently, it arrived to Canada on Nov. 6 but did not get cleared in customs until Nov. 18!! Ugh... I hate Canada Customs, money hungry @#$%^&*!

Monday, November 20, 2006

eBay

I am having too much fun on eBay! I have decided to post some items for sale because today, eBay is having a $0.10 listing day sale! We'll see how easy it is to sell on eBay. I really do like craigslist though, it's free and very easy to post / sell your items plus it's local - no shipping fees. But of course, it doesn't get as much traffic as eBay does. Will update.....

Vancity

I just opened up a Vancity account! I have a Vancity Visa and I am tired of going to the teller to pay off my Visa. I decided to open an account because I had a Join our Bank freebie card which I got from the VIFF . When I open a new account with Vancity, I would receive two free tickets to any (?) movie of my choice for the next year's VIFF. I love getting free stuff and free movie tickets to the VIFF, why not? Plus it would make life so much easier to make payments to my Visa online. I am hoping this bank will be better than my RBC account because I have been banking with RBC for 17 years and I am still just a number to them. One day I will change my bank accounts over but I will have to see how comfortable I am with Vancity.

Saturday, November 18, 2006

Saturday Fun in the Sun

Ok not quite sun but no rain either! Yeah! One day without rain but of course, the rain starts tonight and will rain Sunday out. And yes, another day with my mom, the great daughter that I am.

There is so much traffic out there, I guess people in Vancouver get excited when there is no rain and decide they should be out and about in the city. Besides having no rain, there is construction on Cambie street and the street is all windy and rearranged, it's so crazy on that street. Before heading to my mom's house, I needed to stop at Oakridge (return a few items at Zellers) and Vancity (put down a payment on my Visa card) and it was a long and slow process. There is no turning on any of the small streets because it has been blocked off due to the cut and cover construction. But the contracter in charge of building this underground tunnel needs to set up the roads with better signs and warnings regarding the changes with the traffic patterns. Because it is being built in 10 block areas, the street is constantly changing and the street's directions are unclear and without warning. Also since the small streets have been blocked off, people are driving through my alley like it's a freaking large street. There is so much traffic in our alleyway. Last week, I almost got hit twice by speeding cars. Ugh. Another thing which I am not too happy about is the 19th street crosswalk, oh wait, THERE IS NONE. There isn't even a paved road. It's dirt, rocks and sporadic paved blots on that block. There are huge orange cones set up to mark off the lanes but it's not very well done. Plus where the heck is the crossing guard for the children crossing to get to school? Because 20th is now blocked, the kids have to walk to 19th and back to 20th to get to their school. I really hope this situation gets improved quickly as my patience is running thin. Oh wait, I need to complain about the noise, I am pretty sure they are not suppose to start construction until 7am but yesterday morning they starting digging in front of my apartment at 6.45am. The sound of concrete being dug up is like nails on a chalkboard or steel utensils on a cermaic plate. *shudder* It's a horrible sound and spine wretching. I can't wait for this to be finished....only 2 years to go..... Interested in seeing what is happening? I've taken some photos as it was clear and the first day without rain. Cambie Street Construction

Alright enough bitching and on with the blogging.....

After Oakridge Centre and Vancity, I headed over to London Drugs (by my mom's place) to return yet another item and when I got in there OMG, it was crazy busy!! People were in a panic and picking up as many bottles of water as they could carry out. It's crazy. So we get a little rain, ok not so little and our tap water turns brown, yes there is a drinking water warning where we should all be boiling our water for at least a minute and yes, there was no coffee all over the lower mainland yesterday and today but seriously, have we all gone mad?? This water warning doesn't affect Kay and I since we have been boiling our water forever. At work, I have been (and always have) drank the water from the water cooler provided by Canadian Springs. I don't know, it was madness in London Drugs and I'm sure madness everywhere that sold bottled water. Lucky for us, our water supply wasn't as brown and clogged up like the tap water downtown but a little dirt never killed anybody! Ok, maybe the bacteria and virus in the brown water but that's what boiling the water does, it kills all the bacteria! Anyways, after LD I headed over to mom's house. We hit the usual places and went over to NCIX to pick up an online order (DVD+RWs at a really great price!). Over to Richmond Centre to check out HBC's beauty counters for my mom's foundation (I found something very pretty) and Sears for a quote on tires (my grandma's tires are balding and it's time to get them replaced). We also headed over to T&T to pick up groceries, ohmygosh, do I ever miss asian veggies, I don't have an asian supermarket near us and we have been eating frozen veggies or carrots and veggies you get at Safeway. I went a little beserk at the veggie section, picked up about 4 different types of asian veggies. After T&T we decided to go out for dinner so we gave my grandma a call (she opted to stay home) to let her know we were on our way to pick her up. Mom decided on going to Mui Garden on Victoria Street because MG serves some of my grandma's fave. dishes. Although grandma thinks MG has changed their cook and the dishes don't taste as good as they once have. I for one am not a big fan of MG so I didn't taste the difference. After dinner and helping my mom with the groceries, I called it a night. I went over to OD's to pick up Kay and we headed home. Gosh, it felt like a long day well actually it was. Now I'm going to finish my movies, well movie. I rented two dvd movies last weekend and I have not watched My Life Without Me.

Friday, November 17, 2006

14 Hours Only - Future Shop Online Sale!

OhMyGosh! I just made my Pioneer DVD Recorder purchase online with a 15% discount at Future Shop! I have been researching this product and debating if I should spend this amount of cash on a DVD recorder. Because I have been frustrated with my broken VCR (recording my TV shows blurry and shaky) and my stupid cheap DVD player (my Pioneer DVD player was stolen from a crazy ex-roommate) that kept freezing in bits while playing a movie. I decided I might as well purchase a DVD recorder since I am replacing my VCR and DVD player. My heart has always been set on purchasing a Pioneer and yes, it is quite a bit of money but I researched this model and there are great reviews on it plus it's a PIONEER. I intended on paying regular price and was going to pick it up this weekend but while I was searching available stock online at my closest FS, I realized, OMG, it's on sale!!! Discounted at 15% off, now that is A SIGN. Last week, FS had the DVD recorder on sale at $399.99 (regular price $449.99) but I did not make my decision quick enough so I missed out. But I decided that I can't wait for the next sale because I am in DESPERATE NEED of recorder. I was debating between the 80GB and the 160GB hard drive but found out that the 80GB was an old model and Pioneer is discontinuing it. I planned on going to the store this weekend to pick up one but since it is discounted at 15% on the web, I decided to order it right away! 15% Discount on all DVD players/recorders for only 14 hours online! The one not so great thing about ordering online is that I need to pay the shipping cost (but not too crazy, only $6.89 for ground shipping) and this sale was not available for pick up. I am sooooo excited!!! I even called VC and mom to tell them about the sale and the purchase! Ooooh I am so excited, can't wait!! My price $379.99 better than last week's sale price! Sweet :)

Thursday, November 16, 2006

NCIX

Right afterwork, I went over to NCIX to order our new PC. Kay is really excited and counting down the days until it arrives.... she's been bitching at me to STOP BUYING LV PURSES and to buy us (HER) a long over due new PC system for our entertainment..... no, really for her entertainment. But she is right, our computer is so old (7 years at least) and it's becoming possessed.... strange black outs and not shutting down.... it's time for a new one.....