Friday Nite Fun with GirlFriends

Tonight I met up with Jas, RL and RL's friend at Tinseltown to catch a movie, A Mighty Heart with Angie Jolie. Before heading to Tinseltown, Jas and I headed over to Aritzia at Pacific Centre to pick up my pinstripe suit which I put on hold the day before. Aritzia is having their summer sale with discounts up 40% off on some of their seasonal fashions. I had tried on a jacket at the Robson store but they did not have my size in the pants. The PC store did and I asked the sales girl to put a hold request on the suit for tomorrow. I wanted to try both pieces on to see how it fit. Suits are hard to find and stylish comfy suits are even harder! Boy do these suits ever fit beautifully! Beautifully tailored and at a reasonable price. Reg. price for this suit is $310 but I got both at $228! Now that is something I could not pass up, every girl should have a nice tailored suit in their closet. After picking up my suit, we headed over to Robson street and had a quick bite/drink at Cactus Club. I love CC's bellinis. So yumyum esp. after a long week at work! Jas and I chit chatted and caught up on life while having chicken wings, fries and nice refreshing bellinis! We decided to make a stop in the Robson MAC boutique before heading over to Tinseltown to meet RL and friend. She picked up a lipstick and blush while I browsed through the lipstick and bronzer line. I am in need of a foundation and bronzer but not too keen on the MAC bronzers or foundation. I owned a few different pressed compacts from MAC and that didn't seem to work on me plus I broke out the last time I used the MAC pressed powder. Not good! I think I will hit Laura Mercier for foundation and Bobbi Brown for the bronzer. I have done a little bit of research online and found that although LM is a little bit expensive, she does have the best foundation on the market. Bobbi Brown has an incredible line of colours suitable for all types of women and the products are outstanding quality plus not unaffordable. I am really eyeing her new fall Stonewashed Nudes palette for the eyes! Once we arrived at Tinseltown, we picked up our movie tickets and headed for the theatre. The movie was really great and it was a bit emotional but def. worth the watch! Angie Jolie is amazing and I barely recognzied her in the role! Def. worth it.

CRITICAL CONSENSUS
Angelina Jolie conveys the full emotional range of a woman in a desperate situation in A Mighty Heart, an urgent yet tactful film about a difficult subject

SYNOPSIS
On January 23, 2002, Mariane Pearl's world changed forever. Her husband Daniel, South Asia bureau chief for the Wall Street Journal, was researching a story on shoe bomber Richard Reid. The story drew them to Karachi where a go-between had promised access to an elusive source. As Danny left for the meeting, he told Mariane he might be late for dinner. He never returned.

In the face of death, Danny's spirit of defiance and his unflinching belief in the power of journalism led Mariane to write about his disappearance, the intense effort to find him and his eventual murder in her memoir A Mighty Heart: The Brave Life and Death of My Husband Danny Pearl. Six months pregnant when the ordeal began, she was carrying a son that Danny hoped to name Adam. She wrote the book to introduce Adam to the father he would never meet. Transcending religion, race and nationality, Mariane's courageous desire to rise above the bitterness and hatred that continues to plague this post 9/11 world, serves as the purest expression of the joy of life she and Danny shared.

Midnite Madness

OMG, the guest visiting in suite 302 started blasting music at 12.00am!!! He was playing a song by REM and BEP over and over again with the windows opened!! Tenants on our side of the building except for the two kids, were awaken from the music and with much banging and shouting, the guest ignored us and we had to call our manager and the police. It was awful. The police finally arrived an hour later and he had turned down the music. But the police realized that we were not bs'ing coz there were quite a number of us sitting in the lobby. I finally fell asleep at 2.30ish .... omg, it's going to be a loooooong day at work....

Graduation

Today, Kay had her Grade 7 Graduation. Yes, a Grade 7 Grad. In my opinion, grade 7 does not really need a graduation as they aren't really graduating. High school - yes, college or university - yes but elementary? Please.

Both Rhoda (her godmother) and I took half the day off work to attend her special event as per her demands. Haha, kidding! Well, not about the demanding part! Rhoda custom designed a very cute grad dress for this occasion and it is so beautiful. Once we arrived to her elementary school, we picked a spot on the side wall somewhat near the middle as I wanted to capture her moments clearly on my camera. As the gymnasium filled with the primary students from the school, one very cute little boy sitting on the benches looked over at me and asked if I was Kay's mom. I was shocked at his accuracy but as people have told me, Kay is a mini version of me. Although I don't think we look alike! :) Apparently, Kay had been punched earlier and I was a little surprised and shocked. I asked if she was ok and if she was still here. He told me she was in her classroom and she would be coming out on stage. I was getting a little bit worried and upset but once I saw her, I realized she was ok just a bit glassy eyed as if she had just stopped crying. After the ceremony, parents were allowed to come up and take photos with the students. Kay told us what happened and I could not believe that neither teacher or principal had spoken to this boy who punched Kay. Rhoda def. did not like what happened and went up to the boy's mother to speak to her about what had happened. After some discussion, we spoke with the boy about it and he was not happy with us. Apparently, this was not the first time he behaved this way, he had hit another girl (younger and in a different class) a few weeks before and hit a boy in Kay's class the day before. I am so glad Kay is finally finished at this school, the principal and her teacher are a joke! After taking photos and the excitement died down, Rhoda and I headed back to my place to wait for Kay to finish up her day.

Once we arrived home, we decided to make reservations at the Sala Thai (Kay's grad dinner) and we went through my sewing and knitting boxes. Rhoda took some of my material and patterns home with her as she was going to finish the projects I never started! Rhoda and I decided we wanted to go to Oakridge Centre and when Kay finally arrived home, she decided to hang out with her friends outside. I ended up picking up a couple of great deals!

After shopping, we dropped off our stuff at my place and headed out for dinner at Sala Thai. Yum yum, we love Thai food. That was pretty much our day. Check out Grad Photos on my flickr account.

GG

1 HR 3 MINS

I did not stop once on the GG and a little disappointed that I only skimmed one minute but I assume it's because my body is not used to going straight up and I did managed to slow down at the 1/2 and 3/4 mark to see if Rhoda was close behind me. Maybe Thursday I'll skim another minute or two, getting really close to my 40 minute mark!

Facebook

Got a Facebook account? Hmmm.... check out this interesting piece....

Dreamgirls

Tonight I finally watched the movie Dreamgirls. I have been holding off on it coz I wasn't that interested in watching this movie but someone burned a copy for me. I was not that impressed with the movie and realized during the first 20 minutes or so that this was a musical. Yuck, I do not like movie musicals. Oh well, it was free I didn't pay for it so I don't feel terrible. I didn't like it and I don't know what the big deal about this movie is.....

Dinner Party

Tonight, Kay and I were invited to a dinner party thrown together by Rhoda at AW and KH's place. It was a potluck gathering and we made a chicken with yellow peppers in a pesto sauce served with whole wheat pasta to share. We don't live too far from them, only about 20 blocks, but we decided it would be easier to drive in case we left late. Tonight, I met most of Rhoda's close friends, these people are part of her group or "crew", they have plenty of gatherings and I assume Rhoda wanted me to meet them coz I'm sure I'll be seeing a lot more of them now that Rhoda and I have become such close friends again. It was really nice to meet some new faces and reconnect with old faces. It was a pretty relaxing night until Kay spilled blue nail polish on the carpet and the hostess became a little bit upset and frantic about the carpet. Most of the night involved cleaning and removing the nail polish, everyone had a turn scrubbing and cleaning the nail polish off the carpet. Only 4 or 5 people worked on the carpet at a time while the rest were sitting in the living room chatting. I felt terrible about what happened and I thought the night might have been ruined but the ones on the floor scrubbing were chatting, joking and enjoying the conversation. After a couple of hours, when the nail polish was 98% gone and you could barely see the nail polish stain on the carpet, Rhoda, Jess and Nelson were getting ready to leave which meant Kay and I were going to call it a night as well. Everyone seemed really nice and fun to hang with and overall, it was an entertaining night except for the nail polish accident. Although I did feel a little bit out of place due to the fact that I am the "newbie" in the group and everyone has history and inside jokes, I did enjoy meeting everyone and hopefully will get to know them in the future. Oh yes, an announcement was made tonight, two of their good friends, CN and SS have announced their engagement! Wow, congrats.... I bet Rhoda is the next one!

Car Insurance

I just renewed my car insurance and I saved about $100 this year! Yeah! I can't wait until I am at the 10 year driving experience mark, this means I'll be a super road star or something. It basically means I'll get a larger discount on my yearly insurance! :)

Happy Birthday Vince!

Tonight, Kay, Rochelle, and I headed over to the Richmond night market to surprise Vince because today is his birthday! MH, his girl, had arranged to have all his close friends and family to come out tonight to surprise him by singing him Happy Birthday and presenting him with a beautiful fresh mango cake from Maxim's. Boy was he ever surprised! It was great! Check my flickr account for photos.

In the afternoon, I had a few things to do before heading over to the night market. First of all, I had to get my car AirCare'd and thankfully I passed; I have been procrastinating and worrying myself that I would fail. If I failed, I would not be able to renew my insurance and my insurance expires at midnight on Sunday! The reason I was really worried about it? The last time I had to take my car to Air Care, I failed twice! I used to own and drive a 1988 Mazda RX-7 and it was a fun car to drive but very bad for the environment!! Thankfully, my VW Beetle passed with flying colours! After AirCare, I headed over to Fraser street to pick up a b'day card at the Dollar Store and get my eyebrows threaded. I usually get them done once or twice a month. It costs $5.00 and she is quick. I love it, no more waxing or plucking, except for the clean up in between threading appointments. On my way home, I decided to stop by Creo Bellus to pick up my custom pearl ring from Tai. Ohmygosh, it's beautiful! I love it, so perfect and it only cost me $100 for gold and labour! Last weekend, he had given me a couple of pearls on hand to choose from. One was a small black pearl and the other one was a perfect round cultured pearl. The one my grandma had given me is a natural pearl and although it's not the most perfect pearl, it's my grandma's and I really wanted to keep this one on the ring. He is so generous and I love what he did. He is awesome! Thanks Tai! I helped him make up some professional invoices so he threw in a couple of navel rings in for free. After I finished off at Creo Bellus, I headed home and waited for Rochelle. Once she finally arrived, 30 minutes later, we headed over to the night market to surprise Vince. We didn't stay too long, only about 2 hours and I managed to get to the stand that sold make up brushes and cases, it was pretty packed, but I found him and bought one of his professional make up brush kit for $40. Before heading home, we stopped by Leisure Bubble Tea House for Kay so she could pick up a bubble tea because I didn't get one for her at the food fair in the night market. First of all, the bubble tea stands make yucky bubble tea and the line up was insanely long! No thank you, I don't wait more than 10 minutes for take out bubble tea. Plus we were already in Richmond, land of the best bubble tea houses, why the heck would I want to drop my money on an overpriced and blech! bubble tea at the night market? Picked up a few drinks from Leisure, dropped Rochelle off at her apartment in the West End and headed home. Gosh I'm tired!

GG

1 HR 4 MINS

Another 2 minutes off my time which is totally awesome! This time, we did not stop at the 1/4 mark and only briefly took a break (1 minute) at the 1/2 mark. I continued pass the 3/4 mark because I realized if I stopped, my momentum would disappear and I would lose the pace I was at. It's awesome! This time Rhoda brought her camera and we took some great shots at the top, I'll post them when I get them from her. After the grind, we headed back to my place for dinner because we had decided last week that we would all bring something to share aftewards so we wouldn't have to go out for dinner, it gets way too expensive! Yesterday, I ordered Jess's her final b'day cake from Kreations, a chocolate cheesecake with white chocolate passion fruit topping and I must be getting old because I forgot that she was not going to make it tonight. Oh well, we all enjoyed a little and very rich piece and damn, was it ever delish! Def. worth the $$ and much better than Cheesecake Etc. This gourmet bakery just opened in our neighborhood and I hope it won't be forced to close it's doors coz of the Canada Line construction. Many many business have gone out of business coz of the Canada Line. Since Jess missed out on her b'day cake, I'll bring the rest to her tomorrow for her to enjoy!

GG

ONE HOUR AND SIX MINUTES!!!

Today, I had to drive into work because CJ could not make it out to our weekly GG workout, he had a conference to go to, yes he is that geeky! Haha. One of my biggest pet peeves is driving in rush hour and driving around downtown, Vancouver. The traffic is so congested and people drive like maniacs in the morning. When I drive downtown, I would usually take the Cambie Street bridge because it takes you right into downtown but currently the Canada Line construction makes it impossible for local traffic to get onto the street. My only route options were Main street behind or Granville street after Cambie. Taking the Granville street route would involve me driving through Cambie and I decided that is a hassle that I did not want to deal with first thing in the morning. I opted for Main street and decided to take 16th to Main, my mistake. I should have driven to 12th instead because I was stuck on Main street from 16th to 12th for about 15 minutes. There is a new condo being built on 12th and Main which means the construction company had decided to turn the normally 2 or 3 lanes to 1 lane! When I finally made it through, the traffic was not so bad until I hit the Dunsmuir viaduct towards downtown. Dunsmuir is 4 or 5 lanes of one way traffic, I knew I had quite a ways to go before making my left turn but I decided to change lanes and stay in the farthest left lane. As I neared Burrad street, I realized my lane was going to be a left turning lane but I did not want to turn left on Burrad, I wanted to turn left on Thurlow (the cheap parking lot was located on Thurlow / Alberni). I nearly smoked the car beside me when changing lanes, thankfully I checked before turning the car! Ugh, I have a really bad habit of doing that! Not checking before switching lanes. I really do appreciate CJ picking us up and driving us to the GG much more so than ever! I hate driving downtown, I hope I don't have to ever do it again!

Today was a really long day for me because I became very busy right before I was suppose to leave the office. I ended up staying almost an extra 30 minutes later to finish off some last minute items for the project manager of a new project. I did not have my cell phone and was in a panic trying to get a hold of Rhoda because I knew she was waiting for me. Thankfully I found her and we ended up at the grind before her friend took off on us. We were meeting one of Rhoda's friends at the Grind. I didn't think I was going to make it to the Grind because my tummy was not feeling well and I wasn't sleeping well which meant I was feeling really tired. But we made a commitment to do it twice a week, Tuesdays and Thursdays and damn it we are going to do it!!! I'm happy that we did because I felt bloody great by the end of the hike! One more minute skimmed off my time! Sweeeeeeeeeet!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day!

Tonight for father's day dinner, we (Kay, my brother and I) took my dad to place called Spicy and Garlic which used to be Honolulu Cafe, a Hong Kong style diner/cafe. The food is still pretty much the same and it was an inexpensive meal. My father picked it out because he did not want us to spend too much money on him because that is just how my father is, always considerate of our bank accounts. My father always has some funny story to tell, like how last Friday was a very bad Friday. He ended up scratching the passenger's side on his volvo at the gas station. Let's say my father was a bit impatient and underestimated the width between two cars while maneuvering his car to the next pump. Yep I am sure you can now just imagine the situation. My brother and I found it quite amusing and how he continued to drive through the opening once he realized he was scraping the other car. His thoughts? He had already done the damage so why stop since the reason he got into this "accident" was to reach the other pump! Hahaha ... my dad is so damn amusing!

After our dinner, we all headed our separate ways except Kay and I had to drive daddy back to his place and he also wanted to show us his new electronic gadget. He was very excited about it and can you believe he got it on sale, his new Acer laptop with a 17 or 18" monitor. Yes very pretty but not necessary. He does not need it, he's already got 2 or 3 PCs. Oh well. Kay and I stayed a bit while we waited for Rhoda and Jess, we made plans with them to visit the night market. We parked the car at daddy's and headed to the night market in Jess's car. You know it's not free parking unless you plan on parking far away so we decided on taking one car only. Although, I've been to the night market a few times already, I was told that last weekend was the official grand opening for the night market. Tonight, the night market wasn't too packed as we arrived around 8.00 or 8.30ish and the start of the market is 7. There were def. a lot more booths than the last time I was here. Tons of stuff to pick up but I was good, I didn't buy anything! I have to go back for some pretty bling bling hair clips (coz I love hair clips esp. jewelled ones) and a set of professional make up brushes. The set was reasonably priced and the quality of the brushes were pretty close if not the same as the ones I could get at the professional salon/boutique. Rhoda and Jess ended up buying a cool nail kit. The kit includes metal plates, nail polish and a rubber stamp. Professional looking nails by a salon except you DIY. Very cool, I think we might have to pick up a set of those too coz those are cool! After we walked around the entire night market except for the food part, we headed back to my dad's to pick up my car and we headed home. Boy, it's been a long night!

Fibrominn Biomass Power Plant

Artist Rendition - click to enlarge

Forgot to mention and share this piece: Turkey Poop Plant

In the beginning of 2005, I was hired by my current employer to work on this project, Fibrominn Biomass Power Plant. Of course I was not hired to do the engineering, construction or commissioning of this plant but I did a lot of the administrative work for the Vancouver office. It's really cool to see the final outcome of this project as I have been working on it for the last two years. The final completion date for this power plant is for November 2007 and the project schedule is at 95% complete. It's really cool to see what I have been working on .....

Grouse Grind Workout

Click to enlarge 3D photo of the Grouse Grind Trail.

Skimmed another 2 or 3 minutes off my time! 1 hour and 6 or 7 minutes! WooHoo!

The Grouse Grind Trail is located in North Vancouver, B.C., at the base of the Grouse Mountain Resort ski area. It is an extremely steep and mountainous trail that begins at the 300-metre-elevation and climbs to 1,100 metres over a distance of approximately 2.9 kilometres.

Currently on Play |>

Loving these albums!

Maroon 5 "It Won't Be Long Before Soon"
Enrique Igelsias "Insomniac"
Rihanna "Good Girl Gone Bad"
Robin Thicke "The Evolution of Robin Thicke"

Also thinking about purchasing:

Amy Winehouse "Back to Black"
Lily Allen "Alright, Still"
Pink "I'm Not Dead"
Linkin Park "Minutes to Midnight"
Rolling Stones "The Biggest Bang" 4 Disc Set
Bon Jovi "Lost Highway" release date June 19 2007

Happy Belated B'day KD

Tonight, Jas and I celebrated KD's birthday because neither one of us made it to her big b'day bash/party on Saturday night. KD choose the restaurant, Browns in Yaletown, because it was our treat and we wanted her to pick a place. The menu is similar to Cactus Club or Milestones, Westcoast Casual Cuisine. Before meeting for dinner, Jas and I did a bit of shopping on Robson and Holt Renfrew. I have been looking for a pair of white shoes for quite sometime now and have not been able to find a really great pair. When I do find a beautiful pair of white shoes, it is more than I am willing to pay for white shoes because white shoes are a seasonal wear! I did find a really beautiful pair by Stuart Weitzman but I am not willing to pay $200+ USD for them. At Oakridge Aldo, I had a pair of white shoes on hold but I wasn't going to make it there on time to try them on because we were having a dinner a little later than usual because KD gets off at a later time than Jas and I. We decided to hit the shoes stores and Aldo on Robson to see what was available. A couple of days ago, I was searching on the Aldo website and found a cute pair of kitten heels in glossy white. Robson store did not have my size but Oakridge had one pair in stock, the pumps are on hold until the end of the day but I ended up leaving the office late (yesterday) which meant I did not make it to Oakridge before closing time. I was planning to go after dinner tonight but we were meeting later than I expected which meant again, I would not make it to Oakridge on time. I figure why not try the Aldo on Robson to see what they had in store. I ended up find a really sexy and hot pair within my price budget and in full leather! Only $80, how could one go wrong? I love them, so hot and sexy! I also found a cute pair at Stephane De Raucourt, white peep toe pumps with a thin small buckle strap, sale priced at $50 but they were man made uppers and I do not like man made materials esp. on shoes. I am so extremely happy that I found a pair of white pumps and now I can finally wear my white dress with my pink coat! After Robson, we decided to stop into Coach because Jas wanted to show me the sunglasses that she was going to buy. I did not like them and not only because they were Coach but I really didn't like the design all that much either. I convinced her to check out Holt Renfrew even though she said she had recently went there but couldn't find the same pair of Burberry sunglasses that she had once tried on before the move. Lucky for us, Coach did not have the sunglasses in the black and only in the pink, Jas is not a pink person. Guess what she found at Holt Renfrew? Her Burberry sunglasses but she found another pair on display which she even liked better! Ha! How funny is that? Yes, pretty darn funny :) The sunglasses that she picked up were HOT, DAMN HOT! Love them and I love Burberry! Now I just have to save up some $$ and buy my Dior sunglasses :) After HR, we stopped by Future Shop so I could pick up the new Enrique Iglesias CD before walking down to Yaletown to meet KD.

At Browns, we decided to sit on the patio for dinner since the weather was nice and the patio had outdoor heaters. I ordered a beef burger with bacon and cheddar cheese with fries but without the top bun. I have been craving for RED MEAT for quite a while now, it must be all that chicken breast I've been eating! Jas ordered a sandwich and KD ordered halibut and a crab dip to start. I was very disciplined and did not at all eat any of the crab dip, do you know how many calories and grams of fat that little dish has? A TON. Way too many for me to burn off! Besides I had french fries coming and those are a HUGE SIN. We caught up on each others lives and of course, we couldn't end dinner without photos :) After dinner, KD offered to drive us home, thank goodness as I had a long and tiring day, once I arrived home, it was off to bed.

Ears Pierced

Second Piercing at Claire's for $31.95 (14kt white gold studs)! I finally worked up the nerve to get a second hole..... boy did it ever hurt! But not as bad as my belly button piercing. I am loving the second earring and can't wait to get my third :) Now I just have to get HonHon to buy my diamond hoop earrings for my birthday! hahaha...

Birthday Fun Weekend!

Saturday - Jess's 25th B'day
First stop, Kay and I picked up a mango birthday cake from Michele's Cake shop in Kerrisdale - best mango cake in Vancouver for Jess's b'day dinner. We headed over to Rhoda's to hang out for a bit and to fit Kay's mock up. Rhoda is designing and making a "grad" dress for Kay's grade 7 graduation which is happening at the end of this month. It's going to be a really cute dress and Rhoda will even have left over material to make herself a top! As we hung out with Rhoda, we watched her get ready and apply her make up (that was interesting, she has some great make up tips!). Jess finally arrived home and once we got everything together, we left for the restaurant. The rest of the guests (mom, cousin, boyfriends) were going to meet us at the restaurant. The chinese restaurant that we were headed to was the same one that my family had celebrated Chinese New Year / Brother's B'day dinner at. Isn't that funny? Tonight was the first time Rhoda's mom and I were meeting Jess's boyfriend, B. Apparently, Jess and B have been together on and off since highschool. Rhoda and her mom are not the biggest fans of B and I think both wanted to ignore the fact that he even existed. Too bad for them and for him, it was Jess's birthday and she wanted all of us to be there together. At first, I though there might have been a bit of draMAH but surprisingly there wasn't any. Mom and Rhoda really did a good job at ignoring B throughout the dinner except for once or twice where it seemed they might have acknowledge his existence at the table. Poor guy. I do not know the whole story about B but I do know she can be with any guy out there and she chooses him. I highly respect both Mom, Rhoda and Jess so I was trying to be somewhat polite and respectful. Which is hard to do but I thought I would try to have a conversation with B and get to know him as I didn't know him at all. But it was hard as I was sitting on the other side of him. Dinner was alright, a typical chinese dinner, a little greasy but very filling. Mom ordered way too much food and everyone except for B got to take some leftovers home with them. After dinner, we had sweet tofu dessert which came with the meal and mango birthday cake. Jess opened her gifts, boy did she ever get spoiled by her big sis, sis's boyfriend, and mom. B paid for the entire meal and mom slightly acknowleged him by looking over to him and thanking him for dinner. After dinner, we all went our separate ways, Rhoda, Kay and I headed back to my house to wait for Jess cuz she was dropping B off at home. The girls and I except for Kay, were planning to hit a club with Jess's friends to continue celebrating her b'day. As we waited around for Jess's friends, Rhoda and Jess looked over some old photos of ours to catch up on the last few years which they missed. We even found some really old photos from back in the days when we, ourselves, were teenagers! Wow, I can't believe how time flies! By 10.30ish pm, we headed to Plush nightclub to meet up with Jess's friends. Clubbing is clubbing, just like how I remembered it. Loud and obnoxious. But clubbing with Jess's friends was fun, those tiny asian girls, boy can they drink! I found out that I could still hold down my liquor, although by 1.30am I was ready to go home and hit my bed. Rhoda was a designated driver and she doesn't drink much, lucky her, she didn't have to drink those shooters ordered by Jess's hard core friends. I think I had about 12 or 15 shots in about 2 hours and only started to feel buzzed by the end of the night. Damn, I can still drink :) But I def. don't miss clubbing.... as we were leaving the club, the police were coming in. Thank goodness we didn't stick around but Rhoda knew the cops were on their way as there were a few fights breaking out in the club. I found out the following day that the girls had decided to hit an after club party, thank goodness we didn't stick around for that coz I know I wouldn't have made it to that!

Sunday - 2nd day of b'day celebration
First thing we were suppose to do today was find a chocolate cheesecake for Jess. She had requested three different kinds of birthday cakes: mango cake, ice cream cake and chocolate cheesecake. Cheescake etc. on Granville did not open this early, opens at 7.00pm and we were not able to pick up a cheesecake for her. I had not picked up a gift for Jess and we were planning to hit the mall with Rhoda to look for something before heading out to Richmond for the BBQ. Rhoda's dad was planning a birthday BBQ for Jess at his place but I didn't think it was going to happen since it was still raining and doesn't look like the sun was going to come out. We ended up having hot pot dinner at one of the small asian malls, it wasn't too bad but I forgot to grab a business card! I think I can find it though and I def. think HonHon will approve. We picked Rhoda up and headed over to Save On Foods on Lougheed to return my huge bag of bottles (we do not have a recycling depot close to us). On our way to Metrotown, Jess called to see what we were up to and where we were headed. Although, I had planned to pick something up for Jess at the mall, it didn't look like it was going to happen. We told Jess to meet us in front of Claire's because Kay was getting her ears pierced - yeah! Finally! Of course, I have been holding off on it for a number of reasons: my ear piercing experience was a horrible one, I do not like to see my baby girl in pain and I was not really pushing her to do it even though I knew she really wanted them done. Rhoda and Jess dragged us in there and did it. I was suppose to get my second set done as well but decided to wait another day to do it since I didn't want to have it done in front of Kay. You never know, I might be the one crying! Kay did really great, she didn't even flinch nor cry just a little glassy eyed. She didn't think it was as bad as I made it out to be. She obviously was not there for my first ear piercing and if she was, she would have never gotten it done! ;-) After the piercing, we were on a mission to find some white shoes for my white outfit. We walked all ove the place and could not find anything to my liking. I did find a really cute top which Jess also picked up in white, at Bedo. Bedo was having their awesome sale of 50% off everything in the store. Here for the new tube top. After walking the mall for a couple of hours and not finding my white shoes, we decided to head over to Richmond and stop by Yohan Centre. Rhoda was looking for a hula hoop in one of the little stores but they sold out and were not getting any more in, she was not happy to hear that. After walking through the mall, we decided to head over to Rhoda's dad's place. Eventually, the sun came out but by then Rhoda's dad did not want to have the BBQ as he had not bought any food for the BBQ. Because of the rain, he had decided we should go out for a hotpot dinner. We met Nelson and we all headed up to the restaurant. It was a small restaurant but yummy hot pot. I think it was a taiwanese hot pot but not sure. He didn't have any fresh seafood which sorta sucked but lots of yummy meat. Jess's boyfriend, B, got lost and didn't find the place until half way through our meal. We were all pretty much stuffed by the time he came around. Rhoda's dad really like B's company coz they were chatting up a storm, sort of. B doesn't speak or understand Cantonese and there seemed to be a language barrier between Rhoda's step mom and B. Now I understand why Rhoda is always speaking Cantonese when B is around, she doesn't want him to hear her conversation or be a part of the conversation. Yeah she really dislikes his THAT much. After dinner, we said our goodbyes, all the boyfriends left in their own cars while we girls headed out for bubble tea coz Kay loves her bubble tea. She also didn't have bubble tea in a while and Rhoda/Jess knew of this yummy place in Richmond. After bubble tea, we called it a night because it was a school/work night and it was getting late. I still needed to stop by my mom's to pick up my grandma's passport application so I can courier it off for her. It was a great weekend and we got some awesome photos. Check out my Flickr account.

SOLD!

Click to photo to enlarge.

I just shipped my Louis Vuitton Damier Portes-Cartes this morning. I didn't make as much as I wanted to because I am a newbie at this. This item is brand new and has never been used so a very good price for the lucky winner. I paid $150 + 13% taxes and he picked it up for a mere $120. Next up, my Louis Vuitton Monogram Medium Agenda and Pochette Wallet...... I am very happy with what I have and am not going to spend ridiculous amounts of money on a handbag anymore. I have exactly what I need minus the one piece that HonHon has to pick up for me! Hehehe...

DAMN....

my home line has been suspended.... so HonHon, if you are reading this, you will not be able to connect to my line when trying to dial. SORRY! I have taken care of it but it will not be hooked up until next week probably mid week! Hope all is going great and stay tuned to the blog for updates! Don't forget to email us! Love You! xoxo

PS. Our itinerary this weekend is looking like this:

• Saturday - dinner with Rhoda, Jess, Mom, Jess's boyfriend, cousin
• Saturday night - clubbing and watching over the girls
  
• Sunday - BBQ with Rhoda, Jess, Jess's bf and Father

Will probably have tons of photos and stories to tell! Will try to post them by Sunday night.

GG

Wow! We beat our time from last week by 16 minutes! Rhoda and I were aiming for 1hr 5mins cuz that is what Jess did last week but I'm still pretty proud of our time this week: 1hr9mins. Today it was the hardcore GG hikers on the trail, you can tell because the weather was not the best (cloudy with a bit of rain) and the trail was a bit slippery and wet. On a nice day, I can usually pass up to 30 people but this time, I only passed 6 people. It's great because the trail was not crowded and that I think might have made a bit of difference on our time. Hiking it in my Nikes were much more comfortable than my hiking boots. But my hiking boots gave me the ankle support and my runners did not. Because I was missing the ankle support and the trail was a bit slippery, my ankles were hurting like a b*tch when I was finished. I am thinking about purchasing some ankle weights for my walking shoes so I can build strength in my ankles. I would invest in another pair of hiking boots except that I don't hike very often, just the GG and sometimes the Stawamus Chief. I don't think I really need a pair of hiking boots and prefer hiking in my runners now that I have done so in them as it feels a bit more comfortable. After we finished the GG, we jumped onto the tram and headed back down to Guest Services so we could purchase a Grouse Mountain Season Membership which allows us to ride the tram unlimited for a year plus there are perks to having the membership. I am so psyched! I think we can hit our 40 mins goal in about a month or so, wish me luck!

Hell's Kitchen

One of my fave. TV shows are premiering tonight! Hell's Kitchen with Gordan Ramsay! He is hilarious and his Scottish temper is very entertaining! I love his passion for food and perfection which I am a huge fan of, just not so much in the kitchen with him! Catch it on CityTV, Channel 13 (in Vancouver) at 9.00pm!

Weekend with the Family

This weekend was all about the family. Well I guess like most weekends, I spend a lot of time with my mom and every so often I mix it up and see my dad as well. On Saturday, I headed over to my mom's in the late afternoon because she was having lunch with an old friend and would not be home early. That gave me a bit of time for myself. We were suppose to go grocery shopping but it was way too hot to go shopping and we decided to stay in. It was mid 20s, blah, hot, yuck... After a couple of hours, my Auntie Ingrid came by and we headed over to White Spot for dinner. Auntie Ingrid is chinese but white, she doesn't really eat chinese food and my mom is chinese chinese and prefers chinese food. Mom can tolerate White Spot but not Milestones, Earls or Cactus Club. Finishing off our dinner, I had a triple o burger platter (been craving for burgers for a few weeks!), mom wanted to know where the gelato place is. I had picked up half a litre of Horlicks gelato for her a few weeks ago and she loved it. Mario's Gelato is in the downtown core and one shop located in Richmond. I decided to head over to Richmond because Aberdeen Centre has free parking and there are tons of parking. With a day like today it is unlikely that we will find any parking in downtown and there will probably be a lot of traffic. Once we arrived to the Gelato shop, they did not have any Horlicks ice cream left! Oh well, we tried other flavours and still yummy (although I did not finish mine because I was so full from my platter!). After dessert, I dropped those two off (they were going to catch a dvd) and I headed home to watch my dvd.

On Sunday, Kay and I went over to Richmond (yes again!) to see my father. We hadn't seen him in a couple of weeks and it was a family dinner, I guess you could call it. My father updated us with details on what was going on with the two condos. My brother seemed less angry with my father and the situation. Although I know it's tough for my brother, I realize it's also tough for my father. I really don't want to be in the middle of this but am not left with a choice. For dinner, we decided to try out a new hot pot place in Lansdowne Mall called Mongolian Hot Pot. We obviously ordered way too much food and they didn't have a good choice of soup base. We picked one that had a spicy and non spicy sides but I guess Mongolian style hot pot is different from Cantonese or Taiwanese because they served the soup base with a ton of spices and stuff. Kay did not like the soup base at all and she didn't eat very much. So basically we had a lot of food left. I didn't mind it but I def. prefer the HKYK on No. 3 Road, they serve a really yummy satay soup base! After our meal, we parted ways and Kay and I felt pretty darn sick afterwards. Oh yes, I need to mention that my father thought Kay could use some new dresses and gave four fugly dresses to Kay. My brother and I totally teased Kay a bit with it, we told her she could wear one of them (the tackiest fugliest dress in the pile) to her Grade 7 Grad - hahaha! After dinner, we headed to daddy's place so he could give her a new cellphone apparently he upgraded his Rogers plan and they gave him this phone for $50. He already had a cool phone so he gave it to Kay since she has been bugging EVERYONE for a new one! Then it was time to head home and in bed!

Curse of the Golden Flower

Curse of the Golden Flower. This movie is full of vivid colours and beautifully shot. Like eye candy for your senses. The backdrops with the bright and bold colours attract all your senses and the lavished design sets made this movie into a work of art. The costumes were elaborate and beautifully done. The actors gave amazing performances and def. convinced me of the roles they were portrayed. Def. watch it if you haven't. Love it.

Synopsis provided by Rotten Tomatoes.

In 2004, Zhang Yimou caused a sensation with his astonishing HOUSE OF FLYING DAGGERS, and his CURSE OF THE GOLDEN FLOWER is yet another dazzling, visually stunning film. Calling again upon the talents of the striking Gong Li, Yimou tells an epic tale of lust and power set in the opulent world of the Later Tang dynasty. The plot follows the story of the Emperor (Chow Yun Fat) and his Empress (Li) and the tragic disintegration of their royal family--whose problems go far beyond the merely dysfunctional. For starters, the ailing Empress has long been having an affair with her stepson, the Crown Prince Wan (Liu Ye). Unbeknownst to her, Wan has been dallying with the Imperial Doctor's daughter (Li Man), and has plans to escape the palace with her. Meanwhile, the Emperor himself has just returned from a long trip, and while relations with his wife are obviously icy, it becomes clear that his plans for her are far more ominous than she could ever imagine. Everyone involved has a secret plan for either escape or domination, resulting in an explosive ending wherein the darkest family secrets are revealed and horrifically bloody battles are waged both inside and outside the walls of the sparkling, gold-encrusted palace.

Yimou appears to be trying to balance his flair for telling an emotional story with his talent for thrilling, detail-driven action sequences, and while CURSE's plot does at times seem close to that of a soap opera, the phenomenal performances and breathtaking visuals are more than enough to power the film forward. Fans of Yimou's quieter work (RIDING ALONG FOR THOUSANDS OF MILES) are likely to enjoy the dramatic exploration of family relationships, while there are still plenty of hissing ninjas to satisfy DAGGERS enthusiasts.

Notes on a Scandal

Notes on a Scandal. Wow, great performances by Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett. A very interesting and twisted thriller but def. worth watching. This story leaves you with an ewww yuck sorta feeling but well worth it. Def. recommend this one!

Synopsis as provided by Rotten Tomatoes

Dame Judi Dench and Kate Blanchett face off with searing performances in this riveting tale of obsession and desire. Based on the novel by Zoe Heller, NOTES ON A SCANDAL is the story of Barbara Covett (Dench), a hard-nosed spinster schoolteacher, and her poisonous friendship with fellow teacher Sheba Hart (Blanchett). When the young and beautiful Sheba shows up as the new art instructor, everyone is charmed by her, including the embittered Barbara. Barbara is thrilled when her lonely life is shaken up by Sheba's overtures of friendship, as Sheba invites her to share in family dinners, and opens up to her about her marital troubles and personal longing. Barbara narrates her own feelings of longing to us from her meticulous diaries, and it becomes increasingly clear that her take on the friendship is uncomfortably intense, if not borderline delusional. Things reach a fever pitch when Barbara happens upon Sheba dallying in the art room with a 15-year-old student. She tells Sheba that she must end the affair at once, but decides not to report her to the school, and instead, to use her knowledge of the indiscretion to draw Sheba closer to her, and put her in her debt. But when Barbara's demands on Sheba become too high, things soon unravel, setting off a chain of events that will leave viewers chewing their nails to the quick, but unable to tear their eyes away.

Both Blanchett and Dench are dazzling to watch as they deftly handle the barbed wit of Patrick Marber's screenplay. Directed by Richard Eyre of the Northern Theatre of London, and with a score by Philip Glass, NOTES ON A SCANDAL takes what could serve as mere tabloid fodder and plays it out on the level of Shakespearean tragedy.

3 day weekend!

Woohoo! Three day weekend! I have Friday off because of the long and stressful week during this crazy proposal.

But the day started early as if I was going to work because I needed to take Kay downtown so she could spend a day with Rhoda. Today, Kay's class is having a "Bring your kid to work" day and since I knew I was going to have a stressful week, I asked if Rhoda could take her. Lucky she did as I ended up with having a day off!

Heading downtown, I dropped Kay off and checked out Rhoda's office, really nice and comfy. After dropping Kay off, I headed into my office to check on the items that I had done yesterday and to be sure they did get published on the site. This is stuff I was working on until 4.00pm last night! The girls told me everything got sent out and they were kicking me out of the office, it was my day off and I shouldn't be in there! Hahaha... yeah I know but it's hard not to think about it when you work on something like this, your mind does not relax until you are completely sure it's all done. AND Even when you think you are finished, there is always the little doubt that something could have gone wrong or something got missed! I hate that feeling!

After checking out the office, I decided to head over to LD to get my passport photos done since I am planning on heading over to Hong Kong this fall (probably October or November), and I need to renew my passport. Mine expired late last year and I have been procrastinating because of the long line ups and wait times at the passport offices! I have heard it can take months to get your Canadian passport! Hopefully, I will get mine within a few weeks or so, I am planning to take another day off this upcoming week or the next probably mid week, to line up at the passport office. At LD, the photo lab person, told me no smiling, hair out of face and no shiny spots on your face. Wow are they ever picky or what! I hate my passport photo, I look horrible and it's already hard for me to take good photos when smiling but when I am not smiling, they always look horrible! UGH. I hate those damn passport photos....

I headed over to HBC because I need nylons and stuff. Also, I wanted to check out the lingerie section. I ended up doing a little bit of shopping there and I needed to head back to Rhoda's office to have lunch (her office was having a Hot Dog Day - proceeds to go to their Christmas Party) but decided to make a quick stop over to Holt Renfrew. I AM IN LOVE WITH THE NEW HOLT RENFREW, it's BEAUTIFUL. Feels very New York - Manhattan like. Love it, Love it, Love it! I love the Dior boutique, it is much larger than their old boutique and I ended up buying a pair of beautiful sunglasses that I have been eyeing for quite some time. After my little bit of shopping, I was getting hungry and needed to head over to Rhoda's office to have lunch and visit Kay. I didn't tell Rhoda or Kay that I had bought a pair of sunglasses but Jess (Rhoda's little sister) kept asking about what I bought cuz she figured out that I had stopped at the Dior boutique. She nearly had a fit when she saw that I had purchased a pair of sunglasses when I should have known better! Every asian person knows that you can buy designer luxury brand sunglasses at half the retail at any asian optical store. Jess and her friend, Karen were heading over to the Holt Renfrew on their lunch break so I dragged my butt back over there to return the sunglasses because I knew better. I will hit an asian optical store next weekend to buy them. We strolled around the store again and those two wanted to look at the Chanel boutique. Wow, I didn't realize how expensive Chanel handbags were and I really would love to own one but I think I will have to wait a while before I can own one. After Holt Renfrew, we went into Pacific Centre mall because those two wanted to go to Aritzia to pick up some stuff with their gift cards. After a bit of shopping, Karen had to go back while Jess finished off her shopping. Apparently, Jess can take up to a 2 hour lunch break, wow how nice is that?

We arrived back to the office and I finally had a hot dog, checked out Rhoda's office / desk area. Chit chatted with her about the following week and talked about her plans for the weekend. I went to say good bye to Jess before I left and she managed to convince me to pick up her cute top from the Oakridge Aritzia so that she wouldn't have to stop there before heading home. I stopped to chat with Karen before I left, she's such a funny and sweet girl!

After I dropped off my shopping bag at home, I headed over to Oakridge Centre to pick up Jess's top from Aritzia and I ended up buying a really cute top from Jacob. No more shopping!

Jess dropped Kay off around 5.30pm and Kay started to get ready for her dance tonight. I headed over to Black Dog Video and rented a couple of videos for the weekend. What a day! It was super hot and lovely weather, not going to last as the rain and clouds are coming in on Sunday night.