Baby Kyle!

This afternoon, Jas and I went to a party held by Fran & Ryan to meet their little guy, Kyle. Wow, he looks like a white baby boy and I don't see any asian in him but I'm sure as he gets older, he'll have some asian features. It was good to catch up with Fran and I saw people that I haven't seen in years. Altho I don't really have much in common with these people esp when it comes to their babies and kids, it was still good to see everyone. Thankfully, I don't have to do these sorta things too often. It's really strange to see Fran as a mom since I've always known her to be so career oriented and not so interested in raising a family. She still plans on heading back to work real soon and they will be getting a live-in nanny when she goes back to work. I also saw Bryan and his new family which is cool since I can't believe how grown up we all became. I remember the days of partying in Seattle and now all these guys are married and having babies! I think it was hard for Jas to be surrounded by kids and babies since she's not interested in having any. I also felt a bit uncomfortable since I've already had one and mine is a teenager! With all the kids running around, I def did not feel the baby bug and I think I'm done with having any more babies! Mine is almost out of the house! After the gathering, we were suppose to head out for dinner with Fran and family but it looked like everyone was leaving and Jas and I decided to take off as well. I'm sure Fran will have an awesome time raising her little boy and hopefully, she'll be able to juggle baby and career!

1st BBQ of the Summer

Late this afternoon, I met up with Rhoda to catch up since we haven't seen each other in 2 weeks. Wow, what a change, she cut 13" off her hair and I was shocked how short it looked. She looks really good though and so much younger! Once she got her nails done, she was getting a manicure and pedicure at Brentwood, we weren't quite hungry yet so we decided to head over to Metrotown Centre to walk around while we decide where to go eat. We wandered through the mall and chatted about what's been going on before deciding that we would eat something close by cos she may have to go out clubbing with some out of town friends who were in town for the weekend. Before heading over to the restaurant, she got a bbm from her god-brother inviting us over for a (very last minute) BBQ and wanted to know if she wanted to swing by for food. Luckily for us, we had not left for the restaurant so we decided to head over there, who would turn down a BBQ?? Altho he was holding the BBQ, he was holding it at someone else's house! Cathy & Benson (old friends from high school) just moved into their newly renovated house and Rhoda missed out on their housewarming party the week before so it was the perfect opportunity to see their new place. Also, we wanted to see how much baby Chase has grown, oh my has he grown so much since the last we saw him! He is soooo cute and so chubby, perfect for kissing and hugging! The BBQ started late as it was a last minute but once the grill was set up and food was cooked, it was a great evening on catching up and visiting old friends. The inside of the house is beautiful and you wouldn't be able to tell from the outside what it looked like on the inside. An amazing job and I can't wait to see what they do on the outside! It's too bad that their neighbors don't take good care of their side (it's a duplex) cos it would be nice if they could repaint the entire house. Also, the next thing to be renovated is their patio, it's a bit old and feels unstable like it's going to fall down, luckily we didn't fall through! Altho he said as long as we didn't put too much weight, it should be ok :) Good times!

Bikram & Cobre Restaurant

This afternoon, I decided to head over to Bikram yoga in Kits cos I wanted to check out the studio and my fave instructor would be teaching a 4pm class. I'm so glad I did cos I didn't realize how much larger the Kits studio is and the washrooms are so much bigger than the downtown location! I arrived a bit early so I walked around West 4th to check out the boutiques, luckily I did not have that much time so I did not end up buying anything! It was a great class and I do really have to say that he is def the best in the business! As he should be since he is the one who brought Bikram Yoga to Vancouver! After my class, I quickly headed home to take a shower and get ready for dinner with Charly. We were meeting up for dinner since we had not seen each other in such a long time plus he's my foodie buddie since he enjoys dining out as much as I plus he enjoys trying out new restaurants. I really wanted to try out Cobre Restaurant as I heard some interesting things about this place. The restaurant interior is rustic and warm with lots of dark woods and cream coloured walls. It looks as if the building was once a loft which has been converted into a restaurant; with 3 main levels, the bar and kitchen on the second level also ground level, a basement which looks like it's used for private parties and the top floor with a few more tables for dining, all open concept which made is look very spacious. We ordered a few dishes to share as the menu offered a selection of tapas and is meant to be shared. The dishes were very tasty with many lovely flavours throughout each dish that we ordered, the fusion of the south american flavours with north american dishes like BC sable fish with chili salsa and fry bread or the maple chipotle wild boar belly or the pulled duck charred scallion with garlic taqueria (also know as tacos) were very unique and flavourful. Great combination of tastes with the different types of meats and SA recipes. Although I found the dishes uniquely delicious, I would probably not go back for dinner unless I was with a larger party and we were coming back from drinks or lounging. The dishes were quite small and the two of us were still a bit hungry after our meal. Esp myself since I had finished a 90 minute hot yoga class and was starving. We ended up picking up a cupcake for dessert as we were in the neighborhood of my office to pick up more boxes for our move. It was really nice catching up with Charly and I hope he has a fabulous trip to Europe next month, lucky guy, he's gone for the entire April!

Dim sum yum yum!

Today at lunch, I met up with Robyn and Ingrid at Kirin Seafood Restaurant in Richmond Centre. This is one of my fave places to go for dim sum cos they have this glutinous sticky rice dish THAT IS THE BEST THERE. I love that dish! But Kirin does not serve it as a small dish, it's a regular dish that you have to order so I ordered it to go for later and for Kay's lunch. It was nice to catch up with Robyn and Ingrid since I hadn't seen them both in at least 2 years! Since Robyn moved out of the Cambie Area back in 2007, Ingrid left the downtown insurance company (in the same building as I) and moved into a government job in Richmond. We caught up on all sorts of things, I can't believe that Robyn's daughter Jessa is now 18!!! Wow, how time flies! Her little Leo is getting so big too, I can't believe he's almost 4!! Wow!! It was so good to see them and both are doing pretty good. We made a promise to meet up with each other again, very soon not letting 2 years pass. I wish I had taken photos of all my pretty and yummy dim sum but I was so hungry and we were talking so much that I didn't even think about taking photos! Next time! Yum yum Dim Sum!

Happy (early) Birthday Rhoda!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RHODA!!

We celebrated Rhoda's birthday with dinner at Nu Restaurant under the Granville Street bridge with a group of friends but our party was so large that we had our own room to dine in, this room is meant for small events and such, bonus is that it's complimentary. This turned out to be really nice and it was so awesome to see and catch up with everyone even though it was such a large group, I did find it a bit hard to mingle with everyone. The menu was simple and it was cool to see a number of 100 mile entrees. The food wasn't too bad but I def think brunch at Nu is much better than dinner. The service was not too bad altho by the end of the nite, we had some issues with our bills and it took them forever to get them organized and straightened out. Right before the end of the dinner, our friend, Tim picked up a 3 D Hello Kitty birthday cake for her and it was the coolest birthday cake ever but it was super sweet and the cake inside was just so so. After dinner, some of us headed into the downtown core.....

...to a new club called Barcelona (previous known as Crush) night club. It was a bit difficult to find parking but Rhoda and I found a small and shady lot not too far (walking distance) from the club. The front entrance of the club was crazy packed and even tho we were on the guest list, we'd still have to wait in the VIP line up! OMG, I am too old to wait in line to get into a club!! Some of the girls "greased" the bouncers to get in first but I would never ever grease to get into a club! Luckily, Fel managed to track down a friend of hers and he managed to get 7 girls in but the guys had to wait and it was suppose to be only about a 15 or 20 minute wait time but they ended up waiting for almost an hour!! They were not pleased and left even tho they were the next ones to get in but it was a super freezing nite so I don't blame them for leaving :( Once inside the club, we manage to get free cover and it was time to party. Since I was in charge of the birthday girl, i did not drink one ounce of alcohol and kept a close eye on her, many people were buying her birthday shots, I even had a guy from Calgary buy her a birthday shot altho I manage to give it to one of the other girls cos by that time, Rhoda was too wasted to be drinking any more alcohol!! There was a guy who seemed to like Rhoda cos he was very protective over her :) It was a fun nite and I don't club very often which I know why cos girls don't know how to hold onto their glasses nor do these drunk asses have any manners!! The floors were disgustingly sticky and lots of broken glass all over the floor plus people kept spilling their drinks all over the place or people were just shovers!! Besides all that, it wasn't too bad of a nite and all that was important was Rhoda had a great time! She looked like she had an awesome time and everyone came out for her tonite and she totally deserved it! Every year, she looks younger - amazing!! I got her home at the end of the nite safely and almost into her bed :) Happy birthday and love you tons!!

Earls

Tonite, I met up for dinner with Charly, we had dinner plans at Earls Restaurant on Lougheed Hwy in Burnaby. Usually, Tuesday is reserved for the Grouse Grind but he had bruised a muscle last week and is unable to hike up the trail. This was fine with me since I had thought our last time was the the last time cos last week, I was on holidays and he was moving out of his condo. It is so hard to get back into the Grind after skipping it a week and half and I wasn't too upset that we were not doing it. So we planned for a dinner cos I had something for his trip up to the Okanagan and we wanted to catch up before he left. Jas and I were suppose to head up to the Okanagan with them but I had to cancel since I do not have enough funds to go on this trip. I hadn't been to Earls in a long time and I wondered why, now I know why I haven't gone in so long. The quality (and quantity) in the food has gone down and I was disappointed with my salad which is suppose to be my meal but it wasn't a meal size! For $15, I expected a much larger portion and they forgot to add the cheese! I asked our server about it and she says it doesn't come with cheese but she did end up bringing me some from the kitchen. Also in my salad, they were not generous with the fruit (strawberries) or the candied nuts but added a whole lot of Quinoa!! I ordered a Bellini (Bellini Tuesdays $4) but was also disappointed with that, it was not that tasty and with only 1 oz of alcohol, I had to order another drink so I ended up with a glass of red wine. We did order a dessert which was pretty good but I don't think you can really screw up dessert. Overall, the experience was just ok and I will not be going back.

*Note: I am comparing the salad plate size to Milestones which are huge portions. For $15 I do expect much more than what was served by Earls*

House Warming Party

Tonite, I headed over to Val and Adam's new apartment in downtown for a mini house warming party. Wow, what a really nice place altho a bit on the small side at only 535 sq feet, a rare thing is they have a nice size balcony which can fit up to 4 adults comfortably. I can't imagine how much the rent cost but I bet worth the convenience of being downtown. These past few months, I have been thinking if I were to move, I think I would move into an apartment downtown for the sake of being so close to work and I love the downtown atmosphere at night, so lively, fun and entertaining. But the condos cost way too much and for the price you pay, it's def for the convenience factor not the size. There are many condos being built downtown and they are super tiny, good for a single person or a couple without children. But Kay is growing up quickly becoming a young adult and she is constantly hanging out either in downtown or Richmond so when the day comes when we have to move out of the basement suite, I will seriously consider moving downtown with Kay - I'm sure Kay won't mind. Back to the gathering, Val had picked up some Phnom Penh chicken wings (mmmmm...wings), chili tofu from T&T, fruits, veggie, dips and chips! I had brought over a fresh mango cake from Regent Bakery (famous for the fresh mango cake, mangos from the Philippines!!) and the other friends brought over beer and cheesecake. The mango cake was a huge hit and so worth the drive out to Richmond, the crazy traffic and drivers almost killed me! It was so much fun chillin' out with everyone, talked and discussed world events (not seriously), watched a lot of YouTube videos and lots of goofing around! The twins are so much fun and so goofy esp when they are a bit buzzed! We took a ton of photos but this one is probably my fave, the girls sitting on Shy and in photos after this, it's pretty funny - Rhoda tangled up in Shy's legs, hmmm... you need to have been there to find it hilarious! I had brought over my fave red, a Malbec and wanted to test out my red wine aerator so I ended up drinking about half of bottle of red and could not drive home until I sobered up so Kay had to wait until 3:30am before I could pick her up! She wasn't that impressed and I told her she needs to hurry up and get her driver's license so she can start picking me up on nites like this! Hehehe, reverse psychology my friends, she's now thinking twice about getting her license! Even tho, it was late nite, it was so much fun and by the end of the nite, it was just us 3 girls and it was nice. Thanks Val and Adam for having us over!

Phnom Penh, True Confections & OWFS Fall 2009

Tonite, we (Jas, Charly & Rosa) headed over to Phnom Penh for dinner. Jas and I had originally planned on making dinner but decided it was a long (altho in reality it's a short week cos of the stat on Monday) work week and it's Friday night which means it's dinner out nite. Plus I was much too tired from the work week to cook dinner for 4 people and I was craving those chicken wings. Phnom Penh was super busy of course and we waited about 15 minutes for a table but it was well worth the wait cos those chicken wings are the best and as always, so delicious! After dinner, we decided to head over to True Confections on Broadway and Alma for dessert cos we didn't get a chance to talk about our trip to the Okanagan during dinner, it was much too loud in the restaurant. During dessert, we accomplished quite an itinerary for the trip in October, we are getting really excited about it! I cannot wait to head over to the Okanagan Wine Festival and do the wine tastings! We discussed and arranged our itinerary, well Rosa and I did while Jas and Charly chatted, both of them wanted to "wing" it but Rosa and I agreed, we need to set up a flexible itinerary for each day. Of course I can be quite an psycho organized freak and I had a draft itinerary set up in excel (thank you microsoft office templates!) with tabs and all. I received some great feedback from everyone and will finalize the itinerary next week. Also, a great excuse to get together again and enjoy some yummy food and wine :) We will also need to make decisions on which tours and events to book as it's getting close to the dates. Hopefully, we will get to do all that we want and booking 2 weeks in advance will not be cause any problems. So EXCITED.

Also, I finally finished Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane and ohmygosh, I am so excited about the movie now!! I can't wait for the release, it will def be a really interesting movie esp since the ending of this novel was NOT WHAT I EXPECTED. Dennis Lehane is an excellent novelist and I am def looking forward in picking up a few more of his novels!

Coffee with Kate

Wow, talk about a blast from my past! This afternoon, I met up with Kate (back in the Seattle days....) for coffee in Richmond. Gosh, it's been 5 years since the last time I saw her (her wedding in 2004)! So much has changed like she's become a mom of 2 gorgeous boys and she's moved into Richmond. Wow, it's awesome who you can reconnect with on FaceBook. So many faces from the past. We talked about everything and everyone we knew from the Seattle days, we also agreed that we need to keep in touch and get together more often. Cos it's hard to find good people and friendships that can last over so many years. Hopefully, we all can get together for lunch and it would be so nice to see and catch up with Eliza. Jasmine will be excited to know that we are all going to get together and catch up!

Organic Nite In

Tonite, Ana and I had a lovely organic dinner served with an organic Malbec at her place. I hadn't seen Ana in ages cos she's a world traveller and she could not make it to my birthday dinner last week. It was so great to catch up with her and we had a great time talking about everything! She is such an intelligent and interesting person, full of life and stories with an amazing personality. We talked about her travels and her new career path (wine of course!) and I'm happy to hear she will be back for at least a year before she takes off to another part of the world for another year or as it seems. She has def inspired me to do more travelling so I think next year I will def have to do a trip or two! It's so nice to catch up with Ana, we must do it more often.

Wedding Do-it-yourself & Dinner with Highschool Friend

This afternoon around 2pm, Jes came by to pick me up so we could finish the project we started last nite. On her way to pick me up, she picked up a couple of viet subs from Ba Le Sandwich Shop on Kingsway (close to Fraser) cos they have the best viet subs in Vancouver - oh my super yummy, haven't had one of these in a long time! We decided to eat our subs before starting on the project and good thing cos it took us 4 hours to complete the project. It was completely finished but we got most of it done, all that is left to do is to decorate the top of the box. Rhoda and I had dinner plans around 7pm with an old highschool friend whom I haven't seen in 10 years. Raymond arrived back in Vancouver earlier in the year with his new wife, he left for Hong Kong years ago and decided (once he got married) to raise his family in Vancouver. We had a great time catcing up on life in general and it was so nice to meet his shy wife. We will try to do dinner or dessert more often cos good friends are hard to come by esp ones you've known since highschool!

Spring Break Visit!

It was so nice to finally see Michael, Darlene and their beautiful girls, Hailee and Linnea! They are in Vancouver for spring break (relocated to Tumbler Ridge, BC) and I haven't seen them in over 5 years! Esp the girls, Hailee - whom I've only meet a couple of times when she was just a baby plus Linnea who I haven't met cos she is 2 and born in Tumbler Ridge! Those girls are adorable, I can't believe how fast they have grown and how much time has passed. It was lovely time and good to catch up. Michael and Darlene are getting married sometime this year - that is wonderful since it's been a long time coming. Both confirmed they are going to raise their family in the quaint town of Tumbler Ridge with no plans on moving back to Vancouver and maybe, in a few years, another baby?? Michael has mellowed out quite a bit, he's matured a little (esp when it comes to family and life - buying their very first house!), he is a great father and a loving husband. I am a bit surprised to see the changes esp with his attitude but very happy for him. Although some things don't change like he still acts like a kid (esp around his kids), he still has a bunch of Audis in his back/front yards and he is still driving a Audi (shocking that it made it to Vancouver without falling apart!). He did upgrade to a driveable (not rundown fixer upper) Audi, a newer model in silver with leather seats and all the gadgets of course! I'm happy to get the chance to see them before they drive back up. It's too bad HonHon isn't in town and Kay was not around for this visit cos Mike and Dar would not have recognized Kay, she's grown a few inches and a few years since and they haven't seen HonHon in ages! Maybe we will do a road trip up to see them sometime..... no probably not - 10 hours on the road is much too long for me!

Reunion

Today, I had lunch plans with some old highschool girlfriends whom I haven't seen since highschool! We all found each other on facebook and one of the ladies was in town visiting relatives so last month, she sent out a message to some of us and wanted to know if any of us would be interested in meeting for lunch for a mini reunion. We had messaged each other back and forth for a month or so and it seemed that it was tentative with everyone except one of the girls. I really wanted to see her and so I decided to take a chance to see if anyone would be there. Curry King on Kingsway is not the best place for little ones but I think it was somewhat in the middle for everyone and Curry King is right on the main road, Kingsway and easy to spot. When I arrived, Densie and Victoria were there with their little ones, gosh, how much has changed even though I thought they both look the same from highschool! It was so great to see them and I'm so glad I came out. Victoria could not stay too long cos it was nap time for her little girl plus her husband was waiting for her. She stayed a bit to chat and before she left, we all agreed to do this again the next time (hopefully, the weather will be nicer) and we should all meet somewhere like a park so the kids could run around while the adults caught up on each other. Perfect! Denise and I stayed to have lunch and catch up. Her little man is so handsome and her baby girl is so beautiful! Looks just like her mama! It was so great to catch up and we are going to try to do this again, we have been trying to meet up for the longest time since we found each other but as life gets busy (esp when you got two little ones) we never got the chance. It was such a lovely lunch and I'm so glad I got the chance to catch up with Denise. Enjoy more photos on my flickr account!