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!

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.

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!

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

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.

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!

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!

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

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!!

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....

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!

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!

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 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......

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.

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......