Shopping in the US

What a long day of shopping! Rhoda, my BFF and I decided to do our "Boxing Day" Shopping in the States even though it had snowed the night before and both of our moms wouldn't let us take one of their cars, we were heading out there anyways! Besides, it wasn't really snowing when we left and we were praying that it would be clear when we got back. Since, I had missed out on Boxing Day yesterday which I heard was super busy and I cannot shop in all the madness, we decided to head down to the states to do some "boxing day" shopping. Wait, ! I did have an early Boxing Day shopping at Aritzia, picked up a pair of Rock and Republics for $175 (normally $235+) cos they started their Boxing Day sale earlier in the week. I still needed to find a pair of denim for my runners and flats cos both my 7s and RRs are 34" inseam which are perfect for my heels not so good with my flats. Our goal was to find a pair of inexpensive designer jeans at Nordstrom Rack in Bellevue! First stop of course was the Seattle Premium Outlet in Tulalip cos Rhoda had to hit a few stores in there, she ended up buying a really beautiful Michael Kors winter coat at a great price plus she's been wanting this jacket for a while and it finally dropped to an affordable price. I didn't find anything in the outlet but that's ok cos I was very focused on what I wanted and needed. We decided to head out after an hour cos we still had a long drive ahead of us. We drove for an hour and decided we should now think about lunch, every time we head to the States, we always lunch at Jack in the Box. We started to head towards {a city where the rich people live, can't remember the name}'s downtown but could not locate the Jack in the Box, after 30 minutes of driving in circles, we decided to find the next thing closest place where they serve food and it was Denny's. Boy was that a mistake! Our tummies did not feel good for the rest of the day! After lunch, we headed our way to the first destination which is the mall that we had gone to last time which has Sephora, Forever 21 and Wet Seal. I picked up a cute knit sweater with a hoodie for $10 USD and Too Faced Lash Injection mascara which I have heard can do wonders for Asian eye lashes! After shopping at the mall, we were on our way to Nordstrom Rack in Bellevue. Gosh was it ever super busy!! We headed towards the designer denim rack and I was a bit disappointed to see such a small collection of the smaller sizes. I quickly scanned through it and grabbed an armful of jeans in a few sizes to try on. Right after the jeans, I headed over to the shoe collection. Wow, there were so many designer shoes!! At such low prices!! Marc Jacobs for $120!! But I was focused cos I only brought $150 USD and that is all I'm spending! Luckily I didn't find any shoes that really stood out or maybe I wasn't really looking for anything in particular. I went through the rest of the store and picked up a couple of tops to try on as well. Once inside the changing room, I didn't like the tops but really loved the jeans! I really liked the William Rast pair but they were priced at $80 (normally priced at $240!) and were def. too long which meant I would have to wear them with my heels, the Rich and Skinny pair were perfect but in the wrong size, I needed one size up (which I tried looking for but all of them were gone!!!) and finally ended up buying a really nice pair of Vigoss Studio jeans for $40 USD!! Just within my budget! I really like them too, back pockets are set a bit lower than the usual and very dark denim which is what I love! Feeling a little bit bad about leaving Kay at home, I picked up a really cute Vans purse for her which only cost $10USD! Rhoda ended up with a couple of pairs of shoes but in the end decided against them (not in love with them) but she did find a pair of work shoes for Nel. After the Rack, we headed next door to the DSW and another great place for shoe lovers or not (I have a terrible addiction to shoes), Rhoda picked up a beautiful pair of heels by Michael Kors (her fave. designer) and I picked up a cute pair of brown shoes with pom poms for only $25 USD and a pair of leopard red trimmed slippers for $5!! After our shopping, it was def. time to head back and we thought we were doing great time until we realized we were now stuck in the middle of rush hour traffic! Traffic wasn't too bad all the way but we kept getting stuck in it when there was an exit to another suburban neighborhood. As we were getting close to the border, we had the strangest weather, at some points, it was snowing pretty hard and other parts, it was just rain or clear. Very strange. Finally when we were 5km from the border, we were stuck in the traffic to get into Canada, we had to wait an hour before reaching it and lucky for us, the customs officer decided to wave us through even though we spent over the tax free amount! It was a great day and lots of great shopping finds!

Merry Christmas!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Finally, the day has come and gone (thank goodness!)!! The stress and overdraft in my bank account leading up to this day was insane but worth every bit of it!! Christmas arrived with a white bang, yes a white Christmas! Vancouver got snow on Christmas day which is unheard of since we haven't seen snow in many many years.

The day started off with me driving out to Richmond to pick up my brother in my grandma's car cos my car and the tires cannot handle the snow. Gosh, I forget how far my brother lives! His car is out of commission and therefore, I had to go and get him. Before heading home, we decided to hit the local Starbucks for a coffee to go boy, was that a mistake! It took forever to order and get my Americano! I guess everyone was getting a bit edgy cos nothing is opened on Christmas day except Starbucks and 7-11!

Once we got home, I helped mom prep for dinner, we were having a very Asian dinner, sirloin steaks wrapped in bacon, steamed King Crab with butter dipping sauce, veggies and dip (mine of course), buttered corn, ceasar salad (didn't have that cos I don't like Caesars, that's why I brought up the veggies and dip), and of course, butter seasoned roasted baby white potatoes (my grams' specialty). Gosh, there was so much food and leftovers! We were totally stuffed! Kay was getting a bit anxious cos the new rule is no Christmas presents until after dinner! She didn't even get to open one this morning cos she opened all her gifts from Rhoda et all last night! After dinner and clearing the dishes, we decided to rest a bit and have coffee with dessert, mom made a chocolate kahlua and vodka cake with a rum glaze (that was my idea). Delish!

Finally, after all that waiting, Kay was able to open gifts around 9pm! What a sight! All those gifts under the tree were really for her!! She got so spoiled!! Every year my mom gets really creative in trying to trick my brother when opening his gifts and this year, she got him good. She put a bottle of Coke in a big box with lots of tissue and when he went through every tissue, that was all. Boy was he ever disappointed although he tried to hide it but of course, taped to the bottom of the box was a lucky red envelope! Christmas with the family is always very entertaining! Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

Christmas (Eve) Dinner

Tonight, Kay and I headed over to Rhoda's house for Christmas dinner. This is our very first Christmas dinner together since we've been reconnected. Rhoda made a delish meal, all home cooked and she started early in the afternoon! We most def. appreciated everything she made, it was super yummy! It was also nice to see Jess and Mom since they've just got back from Hong Kong. It was a great night with lots of yummy food and great company. We decided to open our presents since this will be the only time we will see each other until after Xmas and since Kay and I, well mostly I, started a new tradition of opening Xmas presents after Xmas dinner on Xmas day, I thought it would be nice for Kay to open a couple of presents tonight. Kay got some great gifts from Rhoda and Jess! I can't believe Nel and Rhoda bought me something cos she was not suppose to!! They had already gotten us an early Xmas gift! Ari!! It was a great night and we really appreciate having such good people in our lives! Wish you were here HonHon!

Brunch at Crave

Today, Jas and I woke up early (on a freaking Sunday!!) to have brunch with Vince and Meryl at Crave on Main street. Apparently, they have a really great brunch and I agree, brunch was delish! But boy was it super busy today!! Lucky for us that Jas and I headed out early to get ourselves a table cos Vince said he was going to be there early, no reservations for brunch - first come first serve basis but me knowing Vince a little too well knew he wouldn't be there early if on time (which he wasn't by the way) and we got a table for us, 10 minutes after they arrived! The restaurant is really contemporary and I wish I could have taken more photos but my camera died before I got the chance. I, of course had pancakes but the next time I'm there, I'm def. gonna try the eggs benedict cos that's what Vince had and it looked delish! What a treat when Vince and Meryl took care of the bill as a Xmas present for Jas and I. Those two are super sweet and it was so nice to finally catch up with them! It's been too long!

Midnite Shopping!

OMG, I could not believe how busy Metrotown and Walmart were! It was madness!! Guess all those last minute shoppers were doing their last minute shopping! Kay and I headed over to Metrotown to pick up a few more gifts and then over to Walmart cos they were open 24 hours until Xmas eve! We just had to go and check it out, it was crazy how long the line ups were!! We waited in line for almost 35 minutes!! But now I can say, I've done the 24 hour Walmart!

Cute Ari!

Olive Garden

Tonight, Rhoda and I had dinner plans with Travis, Grace and family. We headed over to La la land (Langley), a party of town that is very far far away when you are from Vancity, for dinner at the Olive Garden. I had no idea there was an Olive Garden in the lower mainland. What a great dinner deal they have, every entree comes with unlimited amount of soup or salad and bread sticks! I ate too many bread sticks with soup and couldn't even finish half of my pasta! Lots of leftovers to take home which means I don't have to worry about the next lunch or dinner!

It was so nice to see Travis, Lisa, Grace and the babies. Rhoda and them were meeting up to exchange gifts and Travis and Grace felt bad that there was nothing for me but I reassured them I was only there to see the kids and I didn't pick anything up for any of them either. I had given them both a Christmas card with a lucky red envelope for the babies. The food was pretty yummy and as always the company was great. They are really really genuinely nice people and so good to be around with. I can't wait until Lisa is due, she's expecting another little boy and they've picked out the name already! Can't wait! I am def. not ready to have any more babies of my own but so happy and excited about Lisa's newbie!

Xmas Lunch

Today we had our division's Xmas lunch at the Renaissance Hotel in the Coal Harbour Bar which is a rotating rooftop restaurant. The view was spectacular but I didn't feel so good sitting or standing at our table. I could feel the restaurant moving and even though it wasn't moving that fast, my tummy and head def. knew it was moving. I had to leave the restaurant a few times to be on solid and still ground. But the buffet was very yummy (what I could swallow down) and I didn't let a little queasiness stop my tummy from sampling the dessert table! All you can eat dessert, mmmmm......A nice treat (besides the dessert table) was an award that was given to one of our draft person who has been with the company for 35 years! Wow, what an achievement or is it??? Kidding! Good Job Scottie!

Happy Birthday Rhoda!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RHODA!

What a great house party, intimate and cozy! Many of Rhoda's good good friends showed up and a few didn't but it was still a great night without those party poopers! No I'm joking, I'm pretty sure Lisa was not up to visiting cos she's so pregnant! It was nice to see everyone and everyone brought something yummy. I was suppose to bake the cake and feel so bad that I didn't but I did make a homemade dip with a veggie platter. But there was soooo much food left!! It was such a fun night and I think Rhoda had a great time! I was the last to leave cos I'm the BFF and I helped her clean up after the party. Great night, must do these more often. More photos of flickr.

PS. The black Xmas tree with the purple decorations look so awesome! Great job in decorating it! Head over to my flickr account to see it!

Busy Afternoon

I have been sick for the past week and it really hit me hard on Wednesday and Thursday (out of commission for two whole days!) but today, feeling a bit better but decided to not take the chance of getting really sick so I decided to take two (or four) cold / flu pills that my mom bought from the USA. These pills are super strong and mask your sickness for up to 4 hours!! It's not even legal in Canada and I am waiting for the side effects to kick in. I was suppose to bake a birthday cake for Rhoda but didn't have enough time since I was running around all afternoon with my mom. I ended up picking a really pretty cake at Michele's but not the one I wanted, I wanted a fresh mango cake but it's not in season, so I settled for a fresh fruit cake, we'll see how that taste. After all the running around with my mom, I finally went home to prepare my dip for the veggie platter and wait for Kay to come home. She's got a babysitting job tonight but both she and Erin are running a tad bit late. Can't wait to hit the party, it's going to be super fun!

Louis Vuitton

I made a trip to the Louis Vuitton store at Hotel Vancouver cos HonHon is going to buy me a new agenda! I love having an excuse to go into this store even though I don't really need an excuse but having one makes it all the better! He is taking my Medium Monogram Agenda which means he's going to buy me a new one and I've decided on the Small Agenda in the Vernis line (cos it's my fave. line!) in the Pomme D'Amour cos I love this red, it's one of the best reds LV has come out with. So excited, I'm going to get it next month! Yeah :)

Busy Busy Weekend!

Gosh another weekend of shopping! Household shopping that is. We were all over the place today. After lunch, I headed over to Rhoda's to help her finish the last bit of cleaning at her house, we've been cleaning out her house for the last couple of weeks cos she's having her b'day at her place, it's going to be a potluck party. After a bit of cleaning, we decided to take a break and head out to shop. First stop was IKEA to pick up some stuff, I ended up picking a few items up, over to Superstore to pick up some more household items and I ended up with an under the bed storage plastic case (great for storing shoes!). We then decided to head over to Metrotown to do a bit more shopping, we wanted to check out Home Outfitters for a shoe rack but the shoe rack wasn't as nice as it looked in the ad and it was a bit costly. We decided to try Zellers for shoe storage and I found a couple of shoe racks on sale for 50% off! What a deal!! I also picked up some Rubbermaid storage cubes for Kay's room to store all her crap! After shopping, we met up with Kay cos she was already at Metro with her friends. She had a babysitting job so we drove her home to pick up her stuff and headed over to McD's to pick up some dinner for her. After dropping her off at the sitter's, we decided to come back to my place and put together my shoe racks, wow, they actually fit quite a bit of shoes! It doesn't seem like I have THAT MANY PAIRS of shoes after putting them on the shoe rack and putting the "summer/spring" shoes in the plastic storage case. After that, we decided it was time for dinner so we headed back to Burnaby to try this new Thai place on Kingsway (new to me cos I've never been) and it was pretty authentic and yummy! Must bring HonHon there to try since we'll be spending a bit of time in Burnaby while he's visiting Vancouver. After dinner, we headed back to Rhoda's to finish cleaning her room and boy, does she ever have a ton of clothes!! I can't believe how much she can cram in that small bedroom closet of hers! Well her place is now ready for her house party next Saturday, I can't wait to see her black Xmas tree with all the ornaments!

Shoe Shopping

Me bad.... me very very bad..... I picked up 5 pairs of shoes in the last two days. I could not help it, I know I am very bad. I have been looking for snow boots since the snowstorm last weekend and I thought I found a couple of pairs at Aldo but instore and online are very different. The ones online had a faux fur trim but not fully lined with faux fur and the soles on the bottom of the shoes did not have a good grip for the winter which meant these were really "fashion snow / winter" boots. After no success at Aldo during my lunch break, Rhoda sent me a text to tell me the Aldo Outlet store was having buy one, get one free! That's better than Payless BOGO! (Buy One, Get One half price) We decided to head over there after work to take a look and see if I could find anything, I didn't find any boots but I did find two pairs of really cute shoes for $50! Buy one, get one FREE, that's $25 each! After Aldo Outlet, we headed over to Shoe Warehouse on Granville cos we noticed a huge sign on the front window saying 2 pairs of boots for $90 and that's a great price esp. since the both of us were looking for snow boots! Well, the sale did not apply to the snow boots only to "fashion" pleather high boots :( But Rhoda and I found a great pair of boots for the snow and faux fur lining for $90 a pair. We both got a pair, she got them in brown and I got them in black, they even have cute little pom poms :) After Shoe Warehouse, we headed over to Holt Renfrew to look at Fidelity jeans cos there was a Fidelity Sample Sale we were going to and I wanted to check out the jeans and see how the fit is but we didn't end up there, we ended up at the designer sale!! Designer shoe sale!! But I couldn't find any Stuart's in my size :( but I did find a pair of funky Pumas in my size and at a really good price, $50!! We did try to find the Fidelity jeans but we couldn't find any :( We decided to call that a night as I went home with 4 pairs of shoes! Then today, I ended up checking out B2 on Robson cos they are also having a designer shoe sale! My boots were on sale!! I went in to see them and try them on again but found a pair of Stuarts that I was looking at the other day in my size!! Soooo pretty!! I have a huge shoe problem, I loved them so much, I had to have them! Five pairs in two days.... but I didn't buy ANYTHING at the Fidelity sale cos I didn't like the way the jeans fit on me so I saved $100 from there!

Shopping in a Snowstorm

Nothing stops us from shopping! Not even a snowstorm! Rhoda and I had plans to hit the Family and Friends Warehouse Sale at Torre Tagus in Richmond. I wasn't even sure that it was open but yep it was and gosh, there were a lot more shoppers than I had expected who would trek out in 10 cm of snow to shop at the warehouse sale. There were a ton of great stuff and gosh, I couldn't believe how great the prices were, although I was trying to stay within a budget, I had to put a few things back :( But when we got to the cash register, everything was 50% off the white tags so everything was even CHEAPER!! I quickly went back to grab the two items I put back :) I picked up a really cool laundry hamper for Kay and I, some candles, a really nice wine bottle holder, a couple of Xmas gifts. It was great, all under $50!! Nel and Rhoda ended up picking up a really cool black Xmas tree for $65 which is a great price cos these usually go for $300+! After the shopping, Nel headed home and we headed over to Canadian Tire (to find a shovel for Rhoda and a ice defroster spray for my mom) and Aberdeen Mall to Daiso. I love Daiso! So many great things for $2.00!! I was looking for plastic file folders with clips for my important and bulky documents and some regular flat clear plastic folders for other documents. I wasn't sure how many I should pick up but don't have enough and def. need to get some more. After Daiso, we headed back through the snowstorm to have dinner at my mom's. Mom had a ton of questions for Rhoda about her chinese movies and dvd burning which I could not be any help of. It was a great night and so cool to go shopping in the snow!

Snowed In!!!

First day of December and the first day of SNOW!! Amazing and what a beautiful sight!

Today, I was suppose to have lunch with Jas and we were going to do a bit of shopping downtown but the weather was super cold and it was snowing!!! Jas and I decided to call lunch another time, maybe some time during the work week as we both didn't really want to head out in the snow. I also had to cancel my evening plans which was a birthday/housewarming party in Mission. But I didn't want to take the chance of driving out there and getting caught in the snow storm. Earlier on the news, there was a snowfall warning and I decided to take the warning seriously. Besides, my little VW bug would def. not make it to Mission and back through 5 or 10 cm of snow!!

Since I canceled my plans, my mom decided she wanted to go out in the snow and that we should take my grandma's car cos grandma's car/tires can handle the snow to run a few errands. The snow was not coming down too hard in the beginning so I figured it would be ok to drive out there and the main roads aren't so bad cos the salt trucks and snow pushers were already out on the roads. My gosh, were we ever wrong!! The snow kept coming and it was so FREEZING cold out there!! Already, I had on a couple of layers (including a cashmere sweater) and a big down filled jacket with a hood and scarf but my rain boots did not work in the snow. My feet were freezing and my jeans were def. not warm enough, I should have worn some long johns or tights under my jeans!!! I def. am investing in a pair of snow boots cos I think everyone should have some esp. living with weather like this!! It was predicted that we were going to get snow for the weekend and I actually went on Robson to look at some but didn't buy any cos I didn't think it would actually snow and if it did, not like this! Plus the practical ones are ugly and the fashionable ones, hmmm... not sure if I actually want to spend that much money on a pair of snow boots. We quickly ran our errands so we could get home as soon as possible. After our errands, mom was upstairs making dinner for us and Kay decided to take Ari out in the snow. Gosh, did Ari ever enjoy the snow! He is so cute, he was jumping and chasing Kay and eating the snow!! It was great to finally come in and have some hot chocolate though :) After playing in the snow, Ari needed to take his bath and he was not too happy about that. But now he is so soft and clean! Great day in the snow!

Portobello West, Canucks Game

Wow, what a weekend!!! Weekends go by so fast esp. when you have a ton of things to do!

Saturday (all afternoon) consisted of helping my mom with the leaves in the yard and tiding up the garage a bit cos Kay and I are storing some of our stuff in the garage. We didn't get as much done in the garage as we hoped (after cleaning up all the leaves in the yard which took a few hours) cos it was getting dark and cold but we did managed to rearrange and throw some stuff out. Mom bought a new leaf blower / vacum and she was having a great time using it! Although I preferred the rake and the blower isn't strong enough to blow the leaves out of the yard (we had left the leaves too long in the yard so the pile was heavy and wet!), we had to rake all the leaves from the yard into the parking space and then use the blower to blow the leaves into the park. Gosh, what a tiring day! I am suppose to pay 1/3 of the blower but decided I didn't like the blower and I wanted to return it but mom likes it a lot so she wants to keep it. I am going to buy a new rake instead of paying 1/3 of the blower. She has two really old rakes and I think we could use a new one with a larger rake at the end. After the leaves, we got to the garage and did tidy a bit an hour, we had to rearrange Kay and my items around so that it wasn't taking up too much space or room. Actually, we don't really have that much in there only our bikes, portable (small) bbq and a few misc. gardening items but mom's garage is PACKED! PACKED WITH LOTS JUNK!! We will have to do a full cleaning in the summer but right now it's way too cold.

After all that, I decided to go online and check my ebay bids. I am watching a couple of items on ebay and finally ended up buying one and bidding on the other. Rhoda sent me a text in the afternoon asking me if I wanted to join her for Andy's hotpot b'day dinner at his sister's place by UBC and since I didn't have any plans plus Kay coming home with her BFF for a sleepover, I thought it would be nice to be out of the house while the two girls were home. I'm really glad I went cos it was a really fun night and those people know how to have fun! Lots of food and hot pot was so super yummy, great esp. the cold and busy day I had, soup and food, yummy!!! Plus these people know how to throw a party well ignore the fact that we were all wearing our jackets in the house cos the heat was turned off and we didn't realize until much later that the boiler wasn't even on!!! No one lives in this house (it's empty most of the year) and it's too bad cos the place is huge and beautiful! Andy's sister is thinking about expanding the house outwards cos there is so much space in the backyard. Wow, what a view, it's amazing! A view of the golf course (can't remember which one but not McCleery). It was a really fun night and lots of drinking (after dinner of course) and poor Andy, all that chai miu with the hard stuff got him out before midnite!! Thank goodness I don't know how to chai mui cos I'd pass out after two shots of that hard stuff!! Nah, just kidding, they were good to him! I just can't drink any more..... too old and not enough partying.... not complaining tho cos I wouldn't want to drink to pass out anyways! Not even on my birthday!! (more photos on my flickr account)

Sunday consisted of Shopping, Shopping and Shopping! Of course, NOT all for myself! Although I did end up with a new pair of pants from Barefoot Contessa on Commericial and a cute jewelery box (hand made in Vancouver) from Portobello West. We left the house a little later than we wanted to cos the girls wanted to come out with us to the Portobello West Art + Fashion Market at the Rocky Mountaineer Station. It happens every last Sunday of the month (except for December, xmas shopping!) and there are a ton of local and Canadian artists displaying all sorts of great things! The girls were done in 10 minutes, it's not their kind of thing and Rhoda and I probably went around a few times and we were done in a little over an hour. I picked up a few Xmas presents for some friends at work and spent within budget plus I saved enough to pick up a cute item for myself. The market is full and so many more tables and designers than the last time I was here! Gosh, it gets bigger and bigger every time I go! Love it, lots of great new designers and items that I haven't seen before and lots of great gift ideas! Will def. be back for some more Xmas shopping! After shopping around the market, we decided to stop over at Home Depot (to check out storage cubes) before picking up the girls from Starbucks, those two decided to leave and have a drink cos there isn't much else around there. Rhoda and I picked up a drink and then we headed over to Commercial Drive to do a little bit more shopping. Rhoda wanted to head over to Mr. Pets to pick up some stuff for Bosco and I wanted to take her to Barefoot Contessa where I ended up buying a pair of really nice pants (at a good price too!) and she picked up a really cute black jacket! I love this store, I am going to have to check out the one on Main street, apparently the one on Main is larger and has more stock and designers. After Barefoot, we headed up the street to Mr. Pets and Mintage (a consignment plus new items store that carries a lot of vintage items), I stopped into Cobs Bakery to pick up some bread (love their bread) and the little Italian deli to pick up pasta sauce. The one place we wanted to go but closed right after we find parking on Commerical is Fratelli's, the very famous and popular italian bakery that we missed out the last time. We were all very disappointed cos we were all craving for some sweet baked goods. After all that shopping, it was time to take Kay's friend home and Rhoda and I to make a quick dinner before the hockey game. I had won the corporate club seats for the hockey game and I love going to these games. These seats are incredible and it's always more fun to be at the game than to watch the game on TV. It was an awesome game (lucky for me, I've been to all WINNING games) and it was a really great day/night spending it with my BFFs :)

Disney On Ice - Princess Wishes

{click to enlarge}

Wow, what a show!! I got free tickets to this show from a coworker because his daughter told him that she was too old to attend these shows. The tickets were free cos he received them for free and he didn't want me to buy them from him. I have never been to a Disney On Ice show and always wanted to go but I figured this one would be for little girls cos the show is called Princess Wishes. But to my surprise, I really enjoyed the show and Kay, who I thought might be too old for it, really liked it as well! We had 4 tickets and I invited Rhoda but forgot she was already going to this show with her little sis. Those two go every year, it's a tradition and she purchased tickets months ago. Since I had 2 extra tickets, I asked Kay if she wanted to invite her BFF, Nana and I would invite Karen, Jess's friend. Rhoda offered to give us a ride cos they were driving down. The show was at the Pacific Coliseum and it's not easy to get there by transit so that was a super nice gesture. Although these tickets were free, they weren't really cos I ended up buying $50 worth of stuff!! I had to buy the girls the princess crown mouse ears with cotton candy (cos they were cute and I couldn't resist the girls' pleas), a box of cold popcorn and of course, I needed a souvenier so I bought myself a Disney On Ice water bottle filled with yucky lemonade. The show was about 2 hours long with an intermission and Karen and I were suppose to meet Rhoda and Jess during that time but we ended up having a smoke first and losing them in the crowd. After the show, we met them outside and it was FREEZING, thank goodness Jess drove us cos there would have been no way for us to be home by 10.00 pm if we took the transit! Kay and I liked the show so much, we are planning to make this a yearly tradition, next year though, we are going to get tickets with Rhoda cos she gets the tickets a couple months ahead and at VIP prices!

Commercial Drive

Kay and I headed down to Commerical drive this afternoon to check out Mr. Pets cos we are planning to switch Ari over to a more natural diet. We also wanted to shop on Commercial cos there are so many neat shops and delis on Commercial. We ended up walking into quite a few placed, Barefoot Contessa, Mintage and Wonderbucks which I love, lots of great things for a great price! It was a nice day to walk it cos the sun was finally out. We did end up at Mr Pets and I spoke to someone about Ari for a little over 30 minutes. They are great, these people really know their stuff and I am def. going to try (slowly) changing Ari's diet to a natural diet. Maybe not raw diet but def. steamed diet. I love walking and shopping at the little boutiques and although it was getting cold, we made one last stop at Fratelli's Bakery but the line up was so huge that we decided we would do it the next time. It's a famous Italian bakery on Commercial Drive which I really wanted to try but it was getting a bit late and we still had a few more errands to run before heading home for dinner. We ended up making a pit stop at Poutine shop and Kay ordered a small size for us to share. Boy it's super yummy and maybe one of the best I've had in Vancouver! I really wish I had brought my camera cos it would have been a great day to shoot photos of Commercial Drive, it's such a great little street buzzing with people. Lots of nice coffee shops too not your average Starbuck's (which they did have) to go to chill and relax with a friend. Will def. think of heading over there the next time I have a friend who wants to have coffee after work. A great day with my girl.

Christmas Craft Market

I love this Christmas Craft Market that happens every year! Today, I decided on taking a "sick" day off work so I could have an extra long weekend! (It's been a very stressful and long work week!) But I had plans to meet Rhoda so I had to meet her at Canada Place after work, we decided to meet around quarter to cos there is a coupon for 2 for 1, kids under 12 free. Kay decided to come along and gosh, the line up was insane! I have never seen it so busy before, it's def. becoming more popular over the last year or two. We only spent about an hour and half there and I did good. I didn't end up buying too much for myself but I did buy this gorgeous leather waist pouch by Matteo Mio for carrying small items when I'm going to the hockey game or berry picking. Over the summer, I went berry picking and I carried my huge Louis Vuitton handbag, silly me, I know. Rhoda picked out the colour and it's just gorgeous. Only $80 and handcrafted in Montreal. Love Montreal's style. I almost bought a dress from Momo but decided that it wasn't about me and today I was trying to pick up some presents for co workers. I ended up picking some sweets for my boss and for myself. I picked up some amazing rustic italian herbs, basil garlic pepper and dill garlic sea salt from Maisoncote which smelled wonderful and inspiring, now I can't wait to use them! All these spices are made locally in Vancouver, going to try to the dill garlic sea salt and basil garlic pepper on chicken when grilling. Yum yum! We also couldn't forget Ari and we picked up some healthy snacks by Kali Wags which we tested with him and he loves them. Overall, it was a great shopping night and I love spending time with my two bestest girlfriends, Rhoda and Kay. Wish I had photos but I, hate to admit this, too lazy to take photos, edit and post! Sorry!

Anducci's

What a great night I had tonight with Rhoda and friends. It was so nice of Rhoda to invite me to their dinner which they have monthly cos she knew I hadn't seen the babies in a while. Little Jordan and Baby Isabella have grown p so much since the last time I saw them! Jordan has become such a big boy and he is so much fun! Isabella is becoming such a darling little girl.

The babies are so cute and the food so yummy!! It was great to see Grace, Isabella, Travis, Lisa and baby Jordon, who's not such a baby anymore. Very cute!

Anducci's is never disappointing, love the pasta! I can't believe they have expanded and now a location is close to me! Yum yum, will def. have to go and check it out again soon, I love pasta!

(More photos on Flickr)

Happy Halloween!

BOO! HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Poor Kay! She missed out on Trick O Treating cos she sprained her ankle in PE class today! She had decided last minute to go with her friends and this would have been the last year she could have gone cos she's getting too old!! Although I think it was a sign from the candy gods to make her stay home cos she had already gotten a 100 pack of chocolates from me (bought them for her last week cos she wasn't planning on going out), it was raining and bitter cold plus she really didn't decide to go out until Sunday! I felt terrible for her so I decided to cook her pasta for dinner and pick up a chick flick for her, In the Land of Women, def. not something I would have chosen but she quite enjoyed it. Although she didn't go out, I think she had a not so bad time with her mom ;-) Gosh, the poor girl, missing out!

PS. HAPPY BIRTHDAY HONHON!! YOU ARE NOW THE SAME AGE AS ME!! :)

Rushed Weekend

Wow, what a weekend! My mom's friend from Alaska flew in on Saturday morning for the weekend to get her hair done and to pick up a few (ok maybe a bit more than few) things before she heads back to Fairbanks, AK on Monday night! Phew! What a rushed weekend we had. Mom picked her up on Saturday morning or early afternoon, her flight was delayed (she's on standby cos her daughter works for the airline which means she doesn't have to pay for her seat) and she didn't arrive into Vancouver until 11.00am! I guess there were a few flights that landed as well so mom was stuck in the arrival car line up for over 30 mins!! Mom asked if we wanted to go with her to pick her up but we were still in our jammies so no thank you! Kay had a birthday party later in the afternoon and I was going to drop her off at Metrotown, that's where part of the party is and I planned on checking HonHon's mail since I hadn't done so in a number of weeks. I also wanted to pick up a few items from IKEA and Linen N Things (rec'd a 25% discount coupon in an email). We ended up getting ready by the time mom called, she told us they had just planned on eating at the Viet restaurant on Kingsway (planned on going for dim sum but she arrived way too late). Asked us to meet them there and place their order. I had already eaten a breakfast wrap so I didn't eat a the Viet rest but Kay was a slow poke so she got to eat there! After lunch, Kay and I headed out and mom dropped off Aunt Cece to the hair stylist. Kay and I headed home to pick up the car so I could drop her off at Metrotown, she's going to a b'day party / sleepover, this will be my first weekend at home by myself in our new place! We went over to check HonHon's mail and then I drove her over to Metro but it seems the girls were just finishing up a Bonsor so we decided that I could just drop her off there. After dropping Kay off, I decided to make my way over to Linen N Things and IKEA but my brother called and asked where I was which triggered my memory that I was suppose to attend a Grand Opening to Creo Bellus's new store on Victoria street. I headed back home to pick up mom before heading over to Creo Bellus. Wow, the store is beautiful! Looks so professional and I love how they renovated the store. It's also so much larger than their last place! (Check out muy flickr account for more photos) After an hour, we had to head back and pick up Auntie Cece from the hairdresser. I was driving so I had to drive back to their place to drop them off before heading over to Richmond so I could FINALLY make my way over to IKEA and Linen N Things. I picked up quite a few nice items at IKEA and a few needed items at Linen N Things and with a 25% discount! I can't believe their prices, a bit expensive! After shopping, I was getting hungry and decided to head home. Gosh, the house was empty and it was pretty quiet. I had rented Transformers but we didn't watched it yet (although she has already watched it in the theatre) and I decided I better watch it before I returned it. It was a little bit scary (to me anyways) in the beginning and I wasn't sure if I should continue to watch it, I had to call Jas and ask how much scarier this movie got but she reassured me that it wasn't scary and it was more of a comedy or action flick. I found the movie to be a bit slow (the story line and acting) although I did enjoy the last 30 minutes of it. I didn't think it was THAT great and glad I didn't pay to watch it in the theatre. Mom, Auntie Cece and grandma didn't come home until pretty late but I was doing ok at home by myself.

Today was a pretty rushed day as well with shopping in Chinatown and other places. We basically just went around Vancouver picking up asian things for Auntie Cece. It was a really windy, wet day and not really a good day to be out shopping but it needed to be done. Hopefully, she'll have the room to pack everything!

Moving

Moving is a B*TCH and I'm so tired of it! I can't wait to we are almost finished! The movers came in this morning at 9.00am to pick up all my furniture and misc boxes. Moving some of my furniture and boxes over to my new place before heading over to my brother's to pick up his stuff and then storing all our items at my dad's! What a terrible day to move, it rained (downpour at times) on and off all day and my stuff got a bit wet (not soaked, thank goodness). I hate living with boxes so I had to unpack most of my stuff before heading back to the apartment to pick up a few more items. I will be so glad when I am finally out of the old place, I still have to clean the entire apartment... oh that is going to take me a while.....

Dinner with Dad et al

Tonight, we went out for dinner with my dad cos he is leaving for HK the following Friday so he decided he wanted to get everyone together. We went to this Chinese Seafood Restaurant in Richmond and the food wasn't all that great. I think he ordered a set meal and the only thing I liked really was the seasonal veggies. Another reason for dinner beside getting us all together was to thank Tom (my brother's real estate agent friend) who is selling the condo without charging his commission. Also for all the hard work he has put in trying to sell it. There were a couple of opportunties but the buyers backed out which means the condo is still on the market. It is def. harder to sell a condo in the fall/winter.

Overall, it was an interesting night for both sides of the table. One side being my father, Tom@ss (his friend), a lady (Tom@ss's mistress) and a girl (lady's daughter, the other side being, myself, Kay, Tom (Warren's friend) and my brother, Warren. Our table had two separate conversations going cos my brother and I cannot stand Thomas, my dad's friend. The only person talking in both conversations was my father. It was a terrible and icky night with the downpour of rain but being the good kids that we are, we made it out even in the very cold and wet weather. I have to say, it's nice to see my dad not so stressed out and enjoying his food and company. Gonna miss my dad when he leaves but he'll have a ton of fun in HK.

Last Dinner with the Girls

Tonight was our official last girls night out (yet again!), Karli is leaving for Edmonton, AB for a new chapter. We are so very happy for her but very sad to see her go. I can't believe there is now just the two of us left!!!

Kar decided on the place and she choose, BIN 941 on Davie Street, it was a little place with tapas and drinks. Very interesting place and super small! But cozy enough for two or three although it seemed more like a "date" place to me cos the tables were a bit squished. We ordered some plates to share (the most interesting plate, fries served with balsamic vinegar and salt - they have NO KETCHUP!) and drinks. We caught up on life in general and all about Kar's new place and job. She has already found a job and it's the perfect job for her! She also loved her gift and we decided that she needed an Edmonton Oilers Beer Mug for her new place. Gosh, I can't believe she's leaving, we are going to miss her so much!!! It still really hasn't hit her yet but I've already been tearing up since she told me that she was leaving!! Overall, it was a great last night out and we def. will have to visit her tons in the new year! She's got a huge house and lots of room plus she's going to be a great tour guide when we visit the Edmonton Mall!

Gonna miss you tons KarKar!! Love You!!! Be sure to keep in touch!!!

Goodies from HK

This morning, we picked up mom from the airport and darn, her plane was early! She actually called to wake me up saying that she had already landed and I should try to get out as soon as I can! Gosh, she really did have a ton of fun in HK cos she brought back a ton of presents and stuff! Her suitcases were so heavy!

Once we arrived home, she started to unpack some of the presents and boy was she ever upset that Air Canada changed the luggage weight! She had to leave her XO sauce behind :( She only managed to bring back 2 of them and those 2 weren't even hers! Extra Spicy for Auntie Ingrid. Her suitcase was filled with my Nestle 3 in 1 coffee and my Tempo tissues and since she was a bit over the scale (which she had to pay at the airport), I have to pay for my coffee and tissue. Oh well, $40 is still worth it cos I can't get those items here in Vancouver unless I pay a hefty price for it. Mom also brought back a few dog bags for Ari, a cute rain jacket, a sweater and some cute booties. She also brought back a few pieces of clothing for us. I got a couple of tops which are ok and I'm not sure if I'll wear them cos it's sorta Asian, a little too Asian for me, and a few leggings for Kay.

Mom was tired but didn't want to take a nap cos if she did, she would be getting up early in the morning. We decided to go out for dinner and let her rest after. Gosh, she's gonna be jetlagged for a week or so!

Sunny (early wake up!) Saturday

OMG, this morning the construction started at 6.00am!!! That is incredibly ridiculous!! It's a bloody Saturday for f*ck sake!! Do these people not know that most people like to sleep in over the weekend? Gosh, what can you do? Nothing just move out of the area!!

Today was the grand opening for PetSmart in North Vancouver and we were quite excited about having another pet store chain opening near us. We invited Rhoda and Bosco but didn't hear back from them until we were done, apparently Rhoda got a new phone and she does not like it coz it doesn't work. She's a bit peeved about that. I'm sure she'll find something eventually. Kay, Ari and I picked Jas up from her place and we headed down to the opening. Gosh, it was super busy but not as busy as I thought it would be, we were one of the first 500 people to visit the store and we got a free (XL) t-shirt and some goodies for Ari. We also signed up to be a member coz you get discounts and specials if you are. We picked up a couple of new collars for Ari and a toothbrush/toothpaste set for his teeth, we don't want to get his teeth fixed! It's more expensive than getting your own teeth fixed and Poms are prone to bad teeth. I'm not looking forward in brushing his teeth though, he doesn't even like getting his hair brushed or his paws washed! Can't imagine him liking the toothbrush or toothpaste! We needed to pick him up a new body collar (baby blue with bling) coz the other one is kinda ugly and it covers up too much of his hair which is not a pretty sight. We also wanted to get him a neck collar (for easier dog leash access) and a gold bone dog tag with his name and phone number on it. After browsing through the entire dog section, we decided to stop over to Tim Horton's and Michaels before heading back into Vancouver. Yummy, haven't had a donut from Timmy's in a while! Double chocolate donut (or donut cake as HonHon calls it!). Kay and Jas had a bagel with cream cheese and gosh, does Kay ever like cream cheese! But she is a strange one, she doesn't like cheesecake!! After catching a quick snack, we headed over to Michaels to find Kay some plasticine or play-doh for her sciene project but gosh, Michael's is super expensive! We decided to try Zellers or Superstore since we were heading back to Vancouver to do a little grocery shopping.

Once at Oakridge, we headed into Zellers to see if we could find Kay some play-doh but it was too expensive for one jar and she needed a few colours for her "cell" project. We decided to browse the shopping mall before heading to Superstore, might have been a mistake coz I ended up buying a pair of Nine West shoes and a pair of Seven jeans from Aritizia. The Nine West shoes were an awesome find coz they are super sexy and they look like Christian Louboutins! The signature red on the bottom and the mini peep toes perfect for fall! I do have a couple of pairs of black peep toes but those are obviously for the summer. I love these shoes, so hot and sexy plus 4" heels! Also decided to suck it up and buy a pair of decent jeans for myself. I realized I've dropped well over $400 on GAP jeans that do not fit me well at all which I ended up giving them away or to consignment instead of spending that amount on a pair or two of decent jeans. I tried on a couple pairs of 7 for all mankind and ended up with this pair that fit me perfectly like a glove and I love the colour! Yes they were a bit steep in price but worth every single penny! The length and fit is perfect and these are def. super comfy jeans! Really, I only need one or two pairs of these jeans coz I don't wear jeans too often but do like to go casual on some days but not too casual (like pumas and sweats!). Can't wait to try them out! After picking those up, we decided I had done enough damage in one day and headed off to Superstore. We had decided that Jas should come for dinner and we could rent a movie coz we hadn't done that in a long time so we picked up dinner for tonight and some groceries for the rest of our last official week at the apartment. But since we are moving our furniture this upcoming weekend, we decided to pick up frozen dinners and easy pasta / sauce for the rest of the week coz a lot of our dishes and kitchen stuff has already been moved over to our new place or packed away in storage. After Superstore, we headed home to prepare dinner while the girls went over to Black Dog to pick up a movie. We all wanted to watch Transformers (I hadn't seen it yet, those two didn't mind watching it again) but Black Dog was out so we ended up with Fantastic 4: The Rise of the Silver Surfer which is not that good and I really don't want to review it. After dinner, we had apple pie with ice cream (Jas's treat) and walked Ari before driving Jas home. It was def. a fantastic day / evening!

Random Act of Kindness

This morning, Kay woke me up in a panic yelling it's 7.08am!! But in reality, it was only 6.08am as I checked all the clocks in the house! She must have accidentally put her clock one hour ahead and so begins my morning in panic mode! Once I realized I was not running late, about 6 minutes later, my adrenaline was already pumping and I was in quick mode. Ari is so very cute in the morning, I don't think I can wake up without seeing him EVER. We love him so much and brings so much happiness and love to us. After I was ready to go, I had about 10 minutes extra to spare, I decided to pick up a Starbucks for both Kay and I since the poor thing was up an hour earlier than she usually is. It is so wet and rainy outside but not very cold, thank goodness! Once I dropped Ari off at my mom's place, I realized then I was about 15 minutes behind, I try to catch the skytrain before 7.20am coz the trains aren't so packed at this time but once you hit 7.30am or later, it gets very crowded and you have to squeeze pass people to get on! Which I ended up doing this morning (PET PEEVE: people who crowd the door and do not move into the middle of the train coz they are in such a panic to get out of the doors once they've reached their stop!!), squeezing myself into the train and getting a nice comfy spot in the MIDDLE of the train. I didn't have a plastic bag to put my umbrella in so I placed the umbrella against my coat so that I wouldn't drip on anybody sitting on the seats. The very kind lady sitting in front of me noticed that I was dripping the very wet umbrella against my coat and offered a plastic bag to carry the umbrella in so I woudn't get any more wet. Wow, how nice! I thanked her very much and as she got off at her stop told her to have a very nice day! She made me realize, hey life is too short to be pissed off, I was a little pissed as I am every time I get onto a crowded train with room, that being kind and happy is a much better way to go than being pissed and wet.

Thanksgiving Long Weekend

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! (or belated)

Love the three day weekend, these are the best weekends besides vacation weekends! Too bad the weather wasn't so nice. I had quite a few boxes / items to move to my storage and to my new place. Gosh, there is so much more to pack and so much stuff to go through, it seems like a never ending job. Just looking at Kay's room is giving me a headache! She collects stuff and doesn't know how to throw things away!! But she's got a couple more weeks to go and if she doesn't pack up her room, her father and I have decided 3 days before the move, it's going in garbage bags and to the dumpster. So now, I've decided not to worry about it too much coz it seems that I will get most of my packing and storing is done by the end of the week. All I need to do now is make sure I can get rid of all the furniture that is not worth storing.

Saturday, Jas came by to help me pack up and move my boxes over to my dad's for storage. The weather wasn't too nice but it was not pouring rain. We manage to move a few boxes over and since we were in Richmond and had some time, we decided to stop over at Winners to check out their deals. We were planning to visit Meryl and Vince and have dinner at the Roti Grill in the night market but we were starting to get hungry so we decided to share a BBQ pork with rice between us at No. 9 restaurant. This weekend is the last weekend for the Richmond nightmarket and we both decided to pay one last visit to the Roti Grill before it's closed for the season. The rain started to come down pretty hard by 7.00pm and when we got to the night market, gosh it was pretty much empty! Only 40 stalls opened that night and the crowd def. hardcore nightmarket fans! It was super windy, wet and freezing and I can see why so many vendors bailed out. Brrr... but the beef/chicken pita Vince and Meryl made for us was well worth the trip! Hopefully, the two of them will carry on the Roti Grill and open a little stall in the near future. Out of all the food vendors, their stall was the busiest one at the night market!!

Sunday, most of the day consisted of packing and cleaning out Kay's dresser / bookcase (I've put these items up for sale on Craigslist) and gosh does she ever have a ton of junk! I don't even know where to begin with her, I even banned her from going onto the computer until she started to clean and pack up her room. The weather wasn't very nice, it was pouring rain and it didn't look like I was going to be able move any of my boxes over to my new place or to my dad's but luckily for us, the weather cleared up by late afternoon. I dropped off some boxes over to my new place and visited with my grandma. We decided to have dinner out tomorrow night coz there was only going to be the 4 of us, mom being in HK and my brother in Mexico. After visiting with my grams, I headed back to the apartment to check on Kay and see how much she got done. I checked my email and got a ton of emails on Kay's white dresser! Yep, it got sold right away. Wow! After we sold the dresser, we decided to head over to my dad's place to store some of my boxes and see if he wanted to go out for dinner. To our surprise, my dad was doing a friend a favour by babysitting their 10 year old daughter. She looked shocked and confused to see us when we busted through the door (I have a key to my dad's place) but after my dad explained to her, it was all good and she remembered who we were. They already had dinner earlier but dad decided to come out with us anyways. We planned on eating at the Shanghai restaurant on No. 3 road but it was super busy. We would have been standing there waiting for a table for quite a while so we decided to hit a HK cafe instead. Food is not so great but the set meals are reasonably priced. Although I was not impressed on how long I had to wait! We waited 45 minutes for our meals, that is ridiculous! Their lateness caused Kay and I to miss the first 10 minutes of Brothers & Sisters!! Plus we had to go pee!! We did not use the washroom before we left, our mistake, and ended having to wait an extra 10 minutes coz my father dropped off the little girl back to her parents. OMG, we were ready to exploded!! Luckily, we both made it home in time :)

Monday, we packed up some more items and lucky for us, the weather was super nice which meant we could move some more boxes without getting soaked! Before going over to my mom's, we had a bit of time and decided to go over to HonHon's condo to check his mail and to recycle our paper/containers (Vancouver is still on strike which totally sucks!). We also made a quick stop to Safeway to pick up some milk / fruit for grams and then over to Petcetera for Ari. After wandering around, we decided we better head over to grams place so we could unload the bug. While we were there, I unpacked and put away some items before heading upstairs to visit grams. We had Thanksgiving dinner plans for 6.30pm at White Spot with Auntie Ingrid, grams, myself and Kay coz mom was in HK and my brother was in Mexico for the week. No one to cook us turkey :( Would you believe that the restaurant was super packed! Gosh, I didn't realize some many people were not celebrating Thanksgiving at home! Since it was a packed restaurant, we waited almost 45 minutes for our meals! Thank goodness, Kay and I had a snack before leaving the house (instant noodles, haven't had those in a long time!). After dinner, Kay and I headed home and Auntie Ingrid drove grams home, it was a quiet but lovely Thanksgiving dinner with family. It's also good to have grams out of the house since she's been home every single day since mom left for HK. Gosh these long weekends go by fast, back to work tomorrow!

Canucks Vs Sharks

WE ARE ALL CANUCKS!

That's the official line for the Canucks.. I guess ... tonight was the first game of the season and gosh was it a very disappointing game. 3 to 1 Sharks. Rhoda won the first game tix at her office and since Jess nor Nel could make it, I was the next person on the list. I would never turn down a free game!!! It was pretty cool to watch the first game even though we lost and I am not so sure that I like the new theme colours but only time will tell I guess. A live Canucks game is always more exciting than watching it on TV so I have to say it was an entertaining night and watching Rhoda yell out obscenities was pretty entertaining too! :)

October Already?!?!

Wow!! I can't believe it's October!! Time has flown by so fast and so much has happened in these last few weeks. I haven't had a chance to update my blog coz it's been pretty hectic and busy! Let's see, I'll try to break everything down in point form:

• Ari, formerly know as Ferarari, is a new addition to our family! He's a 1 1/2 year old Toy Pomeranian and he's the smartest dog EVER!! He is so cute and fluffy, his personality, crazy! Sometimes he's super hyper and sometimes he's super mellow. We love him so much and feel so lucky to have him! He's the new man in the house :)
• Moving back home but not for free! Not exactly back at home but in the newly renovated basement suite at my mom's house. I worked out a deal so that my rent is lower than what I am paying right now and a lot of my costs will be gone so I can pay off some debts and start saving $$ for our future house. Also, home is a great place to be right now since my grandma is 88 years old and I would like to help out. My mom takes care of my grandma full time and since I'm there almost every weekend anyways, it might be handy just to be downstairs.
• HonHon came for a 10 day visit and brought back lots of goodies! Among the goodies, my pink Dior bag (finally!), Coach knock offs for Kay, lots of pink Hello Kitty stuff and goodies (food etc) from all the places he has visited during his business trips. It was nice to finally see him since it's been 6 months since we've seen him and lots has happened since his last visit. Kay grew an inch and a half and I've lost 20 pounds!
  

I think that's about it, those are the main events that have happened over the past few weeks. Oh wait, one more thing, we celebrated my mom's big birthday right before she left for Hong Kong. She has not been back to Hong Kong in a couple of years and she decided to go celebrate her "big" birthday with my sister who is also celebrating her birthday the following day. It will be good for both my mom and sister as my mom needs a break from Vancouver and my sister hasn't seen her in two years. I think mom is having a "big" birthday party with family. With us, we had a Seafood dinner at Sun Sui Wai in Richmond. The dishes we recieved were ok not the best and I think at one time, they were pretty good but not so much now. My grandma did not end up going to Hong Kong this time so I have been spending some time over there making sure she's alright and comfortable. Besides that, not much else is happening except that I am packing up our stuff and storing or moving it to either my mom's or my dad's. My dad has kindly offer (for free) to store my stuff until the time comes when I might need it. Kay and I are doing a lot of downsizing! We are trying to get rid of as much stuff as we can or store the stuff that we cannot part with. I haven't even begun her room yet coz I am not looking forward to cleaning and going through her stuff!! But most of my kitchen, living room, bathroom, art room and bedroom has been packed up! More photos on my flickr account.