Dine Out - Aqua Riva

Tonite, Val and I dined at Aqua Riva for Dine Out Vancouver cos they had an amazing DO menu for only $28. We both ordered the Fire Grilled Prawns & Scallop with grilled endive risotto and basil vinaigrette appetizer, Val had the Seafood Linguini with clams, mussels, prawns & salmon and a pesto cream sauce and I ordered the Grilled Lemon Maple Glazed Wild Sockeye Salmon with basil polenta, cucumber salsa and ginger butter sauce and we both had Apple and Cranberry Crisp with vanilla ice cream for dessert!!! We ordered a glass of wine, well Val ordered a 2nd and we ended up staying there almost 2 1/2 hours!! We had an amazing view as I requested a seat by the window and it was hard to leave since we were having a great conversation with the view. Val is an amazing person to work with and I'm so lucky to have her as a coworker and friend. We always have a great time and she is an awesome person. It was an amazing nite and a great way to end the week. I think we must need to do it again and more often!

COAST

Today, I met up with Jen and Rae for a late birthday and postponed lunch at Coast on Alberni Street. I have been meaning to try this place for a long time but could never get a decent dinner reservation or didn't have a lunch occasion to dine there. I had heard they had some amazing lunch specials and gosh, the Coast "his" lunch box special did not disappoint! It's served with Manhattan clam chowder, fish and chips, wedge of salad - very delicious and I can't wait to go back! I'm hoping to go there with HonHon on this trip for dinner or for mother's day brunch and will probably ask Val to take me there for my b'day lunch! :)

BFF back!

Tonite, after my swim, we headed over to visit Rhoda cos she's back from HK after 5 weeks! Gosh, we miss her! She looks great altho she's pretty tired and a bit sick. Must be all those late nites! It was great catching up with her and wow, so many great changes are happening for her. She told us about her trip and how much she missed Hong Kong, she's only been back less than a day! Her future plans for HK is relocation in 20111 and there are a few opportunities she will take to get herself situated there. I am so proud of her and we are going to miss her when she leaves but we know she's got to do this right now at this moment cos she just needs to. She brought me back a few goodies like a purse charm, Starbucks mini coffee cups, Hello Kitty oven mitt and fresh pineapple cake from Taiwan! Pineapple cakes are for my mom and I to share, I'm saving them for Sunday cos I'm afraid if I eat them and they are really good, I'll end up eating them all before Sunday! It's so nice to have her back and so much to catch up on, altho I'm a bit sad that she really is leaving next year.....

Too Close to Metrotown

OMFG, we are too close to Metrotown!!! Walking distance to the shopping mall..... before heading over to the mall and as I was waiting for Kay to get ready but she took forever so I left without her and went over to Blim Market at the heritage hall on Main Street cos I had pre-ordered cupcakes from Coco Cakes. Reba, an old friend of mine, kept insisting that I try these cupcakes as I love cupcakes and I am always posting whatever cupcake I am eating on FaceBook! She mentioned to me that I should try these cupcakes before her last market as she is off for the summer cos it's wedding season so I order 2 boxes of the sampler she had for this market. The following cupcakes are Coconut Dream (yummy coconut cake with vanilla creamcheese frosting and toasted coconut), Coco Cake Matcha (green tea buttered-topped vanilla buttermilk cupcakes), Coco Cake Vanilla (lovely vanilla cake topped with vanilla buttercream), and Coco Cake Chocolate (dark chocolate cake with chocolate buttercream with Belgian chocolate sprinkles)! These were so delicious, I'm def a fan of her cupcakes! So much so, I ate 2 right away and had 3 more this evening! Altho, they are a bit smaller than Cupcakes by Heather & Lori, Coco Cupcakes are much less sweeter and tastier! Eating 2 is not so guilty altho, eating 5 today is probably not the greatest idea either! But they are so yummy! I can't wait to order more from Lyndsay but she's super busy with the upcoming wedding season and I would need to order a minimum of 2 dozen with at least a month ahead. The only upcoming event I can think of is my birthday! I think I'll order them for my birthday and share it with my friends! :) What would be even more awesome is Hello Kitty cupcakes and birthday cake! After devouring 3 cupcakes, Kay and I headed over to Metrotown cos she wanted to get her 2nd piercing and I wanted to look at skinny jeans at Aritzia. I did not end up buying skinnies cos I am too paranoid about wearing them so I went with a pair of 7 for all mankind straight cut in a dark denim. So very pretty and slim looking, I can't wait to wear them! Dangerously living too close to Metrotown!!!

Time with Bebe & Charity Event

Today, Kay and I spent a momma and baby day! She helped me with groceries, we were suppose to get up early for the last Winter's Market but she didn't get up til almost noon and the weather terrible, wet, rainy and freezing cold! We ended up heading over to Superstore and Save On Foods, I'm very disappointed with the limited selection of organics at both of these places! Yikes! I think I will need to check out the Pro Organics on Saturday, many years ago, this distributor opened their doors to the public on Saturday only from 9am to 2pm. I am also excited for the Vancouver Farmer's Market which will open for the season in 2 weeks!!! Wednesday at Main Street Skytrain and Saturday at Trout Lake Community Centre! I did some searching and there is a Burnaby Farmer's Market known as Artisan Farmers Market which starts on the first Saturday of May but I don't think this market will be as large as the Trout Lake Market but I will try to head over to the opening to see the selection of vendors and availability of my fave summer vegetables! Kay and I headed out to do some grocery shopping for our fruits, veggies and stuff for the week. Once we were done grocery shopping, we stopped by Bubble World to pick up a couple of BBTs to go as we were heading into Richmond Centre and we hadn't eaten lunch yet but we didn't want to be too full for the charity dinner. We had a bit of time before the dinner so we headed over to RC so I could finally pick up my TNA Canada wool intarsia sweater which finally arrived at Aritzia after I had been waiting for almost 2 months! I had to pre-order/pay for it in February cos it is a limited item and only available one time, I am excited and cannot wait to wear it! Esp when I travel cos it clearly shows "I. A.M. C.A.N.A.D.I.A.N" :) We met up Tashna and Laurie before the charity event cos we invited them to join us for dinner which was held at Legends. This charity event was being thrown by Josh for his Ecuador trip next month. All proceeds for this charity event go directly to the supply fund for the homes that the group will be building for the kids that need it. His group will be leaving in the first week of May and will be gone for 5 weeks which they will have to use their own money to pay for the trip expenses. We are so proud and will support all his charity events for this cause! I can't wait to hear and see the photos of his trip. What an awesome thing to do! After dinner, I headed home cos I was tired but Kay decided to head out with her friends for bubble tea (yea again!) before she called it a night.

Azia Restaurant

Tonite I met up with Jas for dinner at Azia cos we had some catching up to do before her trip to Costa Rica for a week! I'm happy that she is finally getting some real holiday time cos her last trip to Asia was not really a vacation. She's going to go get some well deserved rest and sunshine! We talked about what was going on with life and work, her company has finally offered her a full time position but with no salary raise nor title change. She really was hoping for an increase in salary and a title change but I said it's not about your "title" altho she thinks otherwise. IMO, it's HOW HAPPY ARE YOU at your work place or environment??!!?? More money is nice too but if I'm not going to be happy with who I work with or where I'm working, why would I stay??? But she's got a couple of days to think about it and I wish her the best luck in making the right decision. We decided to try Azia cos I've been dying to try this place, I did some researching and found out that the owners of Azia is also the owner of Shanghai Bistro on Alberni Street. Knowing this makes me feel a little better knowing this is at least authentic chinese food and not fusion chinese food! I do love the Mongolian beef at Shanghai Bistro, it is one of my fave dishes! I don't get to eat at SB very often as the only way to enjoy a variety of dishes would be to go with a larger group for lunch. We ordered a few dishes to share and noticed that the dishes were def much smaller (def for the non asian crowd) than what you would find a SB but flavours very yummy with the bonus of the dishes being less salty or oily. We did enjoy the meal but I don't think we'd go there again unless someone wanted to. I would rather go to SB and pay the same amount of money to get larger portions and to take the leftovers home. After dinner, we headed over to The Bay before calling it a night. It was so nice to catch up with her before she left cos HonHon is in town in 2 weeks which means I'll probably won't get a chance to see her again until Kay's SIXTEENTH birthday! Woah, 16 years, where did the time go??!!??

Kay's added Grillz

Kay had an orthodontist appointment this morning to have her monthly adjustment. But lucky (or unluckily) she got a couple new brackets added to her back teeth and a thicker wire has replaced the thinner one around her teeth. I can't wait when this process is complete and we get to see her remove the brackets / wires, she's going to have beautiful straight teeth! Although, I think she is already so beautiful, she really has felt very insecure about her teeth so it'll be an amazing moment, when they come off and it'll boost her confidence by 150%!!

Moved In

Almost! We have a few things left to move from the suite in East Van and hopefully, we will have it out by tomorrow morning! The spacious suite is crammed with our boxes and some of our furniture but even with all the boxes, furniture and his parents stuff, we still have plenty of space to move around. With all this new space, we are really enjoying it and it's nice that when we are shouting at each other, we can barely hear ourselves! Also, it's nice that we both have our OWN BEDROOMS WITH DOORS and we now have a spacious kitchen to cook our meals in! I love baking and cooking so it's really nice to have so much counter and cupboard space, although I only have 2 cupboards in the kitchen. The downsides of moving to Burnaby? I have to pay for a 2 zone transit pass instead of a 1 which costs me $25 a month :( plus I don't have an underground parking space which means I'll have to alternate from parking on the street and the visitor's parking lot! But I think those downsides are worth moving into such a beautiful and spacious place! Plus I do enjoy living in Burnaby, it's a beautiful green city and we are so close to Metrotown! :)