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.