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.