Mom's Pre-Birthday Dinner

Tonight, we celebrated my mom's ??th birthday! Her real birthday is Tuesday but we are all working and it's on a weeknight so we decided to take her out tonight instead. My brother chose the restaurant as my mom hates making restaurant decisions. What I had in mind was a Northern Italian restaurant in downtown Vancouver but I don't think my brother wanted to drive back into the city so he picked a place in Richmond called Shanghai River. It was not too bad and typical Shanghainese food, very greasy and full of msg. But my mom really enjoyed her dinner and having my brother around (he hardly visits!). He also dressed up for her which was sweet as he normally looks like a bum! Well, he says it's not bummy but casual..... yeah ok. On my birthday, he came right afterwork in jeans (bummy looking), sweatshirt and a baseball cap!! Oh well. It's nice of him to be so thoughtful for my mom. My brother and I paid the dinner bill (OMG, it was a little expensive for Shanghainese food) and we gave her a Sears gift certificate as I knew she wanted to pick up a product from Estee Lauder. Overall it was a good dinner and my mom was happy. Grandma didn't make it because she forgot and had plans for Mahjong with her friends! The next time mom gets a visit from my brother will be Thanksgiving in about 2 weeks :)

This afternoon, I headed over to my mom's place a little early because she wanted to run some errands but when I got there, I smelled gas in the TV room. She called Terasen gas and put in an emergency call for someone to take a look at the fireplace. But someone had to wait at home until he came and I needed to run down to Henley on Grandview to check out a custom bookcase for my living room. I headed down there first without mom and I was there for about an hour looking at a couple of different types of bookcases. I found 3 styles that I liked (contemporary no country) but I need to measure the space in my living room against the wall where I will be placing it. He needs the measurements and then he can give me a quote on two of them. The third one is a new style but not custom (standard, already built) but he did not have the measurements because it is a new product. I will call him on Tuesday or Wednesday with the measurements and he will quote me and give me the measurements on the third piece. Right now, I am also looking for a new bedframe because the IKEA frame I'm currently using is cheap and my very expensive Serta mattress (a little bit thicker and heavier than an IKEA mattress) keeps falling through the bottom frame. It's driving me crazy but what do you expect when you purchase a $150 bedframe. Because I am in the smaller room (Kay got the huge room), I need a simple platform bedframe with no head or foot boards. He stocks one called the Yaletown for $198 to $249 depending on the stain, I would like a dark stain to match the rest of the furniture in my little room. Also there was a cute little piece on sale good for DVDs or videotapes and I asked him if he could give me a better price if I were to purchase all three pieces, he said he would work out a package deal.Sweet :) Love it. I am going to go to Shilo Living on Broadway to get a few quotes on their pieces and there are a couple of places on Main street to check out. Hopefully, I can get all three pieces for under $1000 including delivery, we'll see.....