i love cupcakes!

so yesterday at work we ordered some cupcakes from cupcakes. these aren't your regular cupcakes from back in your childhood. these are AMAZING cupcakes, that IMHO, are the best ever! the cake is super moist and comes in different flavours, depending on your cupcake order; the icing is smothered beautifully on top of the cupcake, and then the icing sometimes has a little topper as well, be it sprinkles, a candy of some sort, anything!

my absolute favourite cupcake is the lemon drop. i first tried the lemon drop 1.5 years ago. i went to cupcakes in the hopes of hiring them for my wedding cake, but for various reasons, i didn't end up with them. on that day, i met with heather (co-owner of cupcakes) to go over my ideas and see what they could offer me. well, it was the best time of my life! i'm not a big cake fan, so i almost didn't care what it tasted like, but OH MY GOD! she brought out 6 different mini-cupcakes in a variety of flavours and icings. i ate them all :-) from that moment, i was hooked on cupcakes. yes, it may seem pricey ($2.50 plus GST) for a little cupcake, when you could make 2 dozen from scratch for less than $10 i'm sure. i, too, was a skeptic when they first opened, but there's something about them that's so appealing. when you step into the store, and are hit with the smell of baking in the oven and the sweet icing, HOLY CRAP! game over......give me a 6-pack! oh hell, i don't even have to be at the store, i can smell it already!

wow! i got side-tracked from my lemon drop cupcake! anyways, it's a lemon cake with lemon butter cream icing, topped with a candied lemon wedge. heavenly! i tried to savour it and make the pleasure last, but seriously, once i took a bite of it, i just shovelled it right down. so yum! sidenote.....it wasn't quite a real lemon drop......they didn't have the lemon cake, so it was just plain vanilla cake, but still, there's so much icing on top, that you get the lemon-y taste every time. yikes! i'm starting to drool.......

so today, we celebrated a milestone birthday in the office, and i had ordered a cupcakes cake. it was the mocha motion cake......3 layers of chocolate cake, 3 layers of espresso butter cream icing, topped with little pink flowers and pink piping. wow! it was so delicious, and went really well w/my iced latte from starbucks. oh good grief, what a yummy 2 days i've had!

my 2nd favourite cupcake is mint condition. it tastes just like mint chocolate chip ice cream. how can you go wrong?! if you surf over to the cupcakes website, one thing to note......they don't always have the flavours listed on their website, and they do have "seasonal/promotional" cupcakes that aren't advertised online. so if you're doing a same-day phone order, it's always good to check before you ask ppl what cupcakes they would like!

free coffee!

this morning i passed on my usual morning starbucks because the line-up at royal centre was quite possibly the longest line i'd very seen there. mental note: 8 a.m. is a bad time to go at. so i opted for the coffee shop in my office building. i ordered a medium mocha w/whipped cream and a very yummy rice krispy square (since i can't make them properly myself!). as i was yawning while waiting for my coffee to be made, the barrista asked if i would like an extra shot in my coffee. i actually thought she was making a cute remark about my sleepiness, but she actually had a shot that she was going to toss out anyways. so i said "YES, please!" now, i don't know how coffee's work in non-starbucks establishments, but i saw her pour two shots, and then she grabbed another two shots and dumped them in my medium cup. hmmm, a grande latte at starbucks only requires 2 shots. so off i went w/my 4 shot medium mocha and rice krispy square. i have to admit that the coffee's a bit strong for my liking, but since i've been up since the crack of dawn, i am definitely appreciate for the extra boost in my step today!

monday's off to a good start :-)

what would you do?

if you saw domestic violence in a public place? would you run and help the victim? would you just stare and do nothing? would you confront the abuser? well today, i opted for staring and doing nothing.

it started out strangely. chris and i were at a mcdonald's eating lunch, and i was just staring out the window toward the parking lot. i noticed a car in the parking lot, with a man standing beside the driver's door. he was just standing there for a while, and i asked chris if he had noticed anyone inside the car. he confirmed there was a woman in the driver's seat. the window was open about 4-5 inches, just enough for the man to be able to reach inside and grab something.....i thought he was trying to get something from the backseat. because we were inside i wasn't able to hear the conversation, but he appeared to be yelling at the driver.

a few minutes later, he walked around the car, towards a cement pillar, grabbed a mcdonald's drink, and just blasted it at the passenger door of the car. the woman then took off in the car, leaving the man still yelling at her. he huffed around in a couple of circles in the parking lot, and then he started to walk away. chris kept an eye on his whereabouts, but then all of a sudden the guy came into the mcdonald's and ordered a meal to go. i tried to avoid eye contact w/him, in case he wanted a piece of me and chris, because he saw us watching the scene unfold outside. while he was waiting for us order, he tried calling someone on his cell phone, who didn't answer his call. his woman perhaps? after he grabbed his meal, he stomped out the door and headed on his way, wherever that may have been.

the whole turn of events happened in about 7 minutes, and i really wasn't sure what to think of it all. i can't help but wonder what set him off and made him so upset? where was he going to go now? will she take him back? it's very disturbing to see events like this transpire in public. i can only imagine what goes on behind closed doors at home :-( personally, i can't imagine anything getting so bad as to want to cause harm to another person. but i guess that's just me, because somewhere in north america, someone is a victim every day, every hour, every minute.

babies everywhere

so we all know that big headline when brooke shields and kate holmes babies' were born on the same day, in the same hospital, apparently next door to each other. and then earlier today we heard that gwen stefani had a baby boy. and finally, the news everyone's been waiting for......angelina and brad have a daughter, shiloh, who earlier in the day headlines were saying would be named by an african governor, mayor or leader of some sort? who flipping cares?!

now that all these celebrities have had their babies, what else is there to report on? ah yes......how much the photographer will get paid for catching the 1st picture of baby jolie-pitt. it's disgusting that it's rumoured to fetch multi-millions of dollars. good grief!

there's the latest rumour that jennifer lopez is pregnant now. i read that in my $0.25 in touch magazine today :-) and of course everyone knows that britney spears is pregnant again. yuck. i just don't even want to imagine anyone doing anything with that kevin federline. eeewwww! someone needs to give that guy a vasectomy. do we really need 4 federline babies in this world?

now, what do celebrity parents do w/the money they make from selling their photos to magazines? do they set the money aside for the baby's future, in case their own celebrity-status takes a downhill spiral? do they go out and buy the newest and hottest car or tech gadget for themselves? upgrade from a $5 million mansion to a $6 million mansion? ah, to have dilemmas like that......i can only dream!

prelude to a headache

with the rising price of gas (i can't believe i saw $1.27/litre on thursday night!), i decided to take transit to kerrisdale for dinner on friday night. it required taking 2 skytrain lines and 1 bus. from home to broadway station was uneventful. when i hopped onto the expo line, there was a couple on the train who seriously needed to get a room. it was bad enough to see them going at it, but do we all need to HEAR it?!?! yuck! thank goodness i was only on for 3 stations.

then i lined up for the 41 UBC bus. there were quite a few ppl waiting, but i managed to get a seat :-) unfortunately, after i sat down, a young man who was talking on his cell phone sat in front of me. he was on the bus until just past victoria drive, and he talked the entire time.......seriously, i don't think the other person got a word in edgewise. he kept talking and talking and talking. i think he was speaking tagalog......except every once in a while he would say "EXAAAAACTLYYYYY!" for goodness sakes! it was really grating on my nerves, and i couldn't focus on my magazine. i kept reading the same paragraph over and over. after a while i just gave up and stared into the back of this guy's head.

so this older asian woman (i think chinese) was sitting beside me, and she was quiet the entire ride. due to my inability to read, i would occassionally look around, and i caught her picking her nose on more than one occassion.......she was really digging around! eewwwww, gross!!!!! mental note......don't touch anything on transit!

then to top it all off, there was a man standing behind my row (right by the rear door) who had a distinctly gross odour about him (i'm pretty sure he wasn't homeless either). it was enough to make me gag. i tried to discreetly cover my nose, but i just couldn't. the only fortunate thing was he only stood there for about 3 minutes. i felt absolutely sick at this point.

when i finally got to my stop, i booted over to london drugs (i had some shopping to do) and used their washroom to sanitize my hands. of course, the bathroom there was less than ideal, and it had a strange odour to it as well. i just can't catch a break!

anyhow, i did my shopping, complete with advil and a bottle of water for my now-throbbing headache and headed to dinner. it was at dinner that i noticed that the In Touch magazine i had just purchased only cost me $0.25! it almost made my transit adventure worthwhile. almost. not quite. i still had to spend $7 on advil and water that i really shouldn't have needed in the first place.

to summarize.....

• if you talk on your phone on transit, use your quiet voice. i don't care what language you're speaking, it's just not nice to hear every detail.
• don't pick your nose in public. we all have nose issues, but seriously, that's why a really smart person invented tissues and bathrooms.
• take a shower once in a while! AND USE DEODORANT, DAMNIT!

ugh, just re-living last night is enough to make me want to vomit.

birthday celebration!

today was chris' 29th birthday! i took him out for a surprise dinner, well it wasn't a complete surprise, just the location was a surprise :-) i've been talking about trying rodney's oyster house for over a year, since chris developed a love for raw oysters. he had no idea where i was taking him tonight, and he was quite excited to find out what was for dinner.

we did have a reservation, but unfortunately chris ended up working quite late, so we had to wait for a table. no biggie....it was already 9:30, what was 20 more minutes? most of the diners were caucasian averaging over 35 years old, the music was loud and old skool.....it bordered on what my parents listened to......american pie (not the madonna version), you're so vain, etc. etc. good stuff!

our server started off by asking how many oysters we wanted, and i was quick to say "none for me!" so he recommended i try the scallop gallette......totally yummy! they were large breaded scallops with a sweet chili-like sauce served on a chinese soupspoon, and accompanied by some mixed greens with a vinaigrette dressing. it was somewhere in between appetizer and entree sized. chris went all out and tried 3 of each oyster.......chef creek, kussi, gorge, metcalf bay and fanny bay. here are some of his comments (verbatim)......"mmmm, the cream filled kind!" (think of timone and pumba from lion king), "juicy", "hmmmm, kinda fishy", "ooooh, that one was really good!", "interesting aftertaste....." of course, we had no idea which ones were which afterwards :P i have to say that i've always turned my nose at raw oysters......they seem like such a weird thing to eat, because you add toppings to them which i thought would overpower the oyster, and then you swallow them without chewing. so today, i gave in and tried 3 different oysters, again, i don't know which was which. my toppings consisted of lemon juice, tobasco sauce, cocktail sauce, whiteboy sauce (i think it was cocktail sauce w/a kick), and a vinegar of some sort. i admit they weren't as horrible as i thought they might be, but i'm going to stick to my scallops!

after our first course, we quickly ordered more food......chris wanted the manhattan clam chowder and i chose the crab cakes. the chowder came with oyster crackers, which we wondered if they actually tasted like oysters, but they didn't. they were just shaped like shells. the crab cakes were delish and were also accompanied by the same mixed greens. two forks up!

one last thought.......i don't understand how raw oysters can be an aphrodesiac......they're pretty ugly to look at, some of them taste really fishy and leave you w/undesirable breath, and when i ate my 3 oysters i couldn't wait to just swallow them and be done w/it. the only yummy thing about them is the toppings! i do like oysters when my dad bbq's them w/ginger, japanese soya sauce, worchestire (?) sauce and green onions. mmmm, yum yum!

a delicious meal, and now it's bedtime and i'm completely stuffed. tomorrow night chris' parents are taking the family out for chris' b-day dinner. lucky boy! hmmm, or lucky me......more crab!

couch potato

boy, oh boy. i don't know what's happened to me this week, but i have absolutely zero motivation or energy. last night after work, i sank into my lazy-boy wanna-be couch and didn't move for many hours. many, many hours. there were so many things i needed to do yesterday, like buy new bristles for my toothbrush, shop for new work clothes for spring/summer, venture to the 3rd floor to see if in fact the gym had opened (not like i would have worked out anyways!), tidy up the kitchen table, etc. etc. i accomplished nothing. well, that's not true. i did try to look out my window to see if anyone was going to the gym. but in that 5 second period, i didn't see anyone outside, so that was the end of that.

my mom would call that "sheer laziness", and then tell me to "get my butt in gear". what would i call it? i think "mental relaxation" sums it up well. or perhaps "personal day". i like that, too. ah yes, now my memory's clearing up.....i did a load of laundry last night! phew! now i feel like last night was really productive :-)

tonight, i'm going to do everything i didn't accomplish last night, minus the gym thing. well, i'm going to try. i'll have to see what's on tv first before i go out........

it's all over :(

where does the time go? a week ago i couldn't believe how much stuff there was to do before geoff and sunny's wedding. and today i can't believe the wedding's actually over. i remember all the details from their wedding day, here are some highlights......

(sorry for the random placement of the pictures.....not sure why i can't move them :P)

• us girls getting our hair and make-up done in the morning while a curious seagull perched on the windowsill, hoping for a morsel of our breakfast.
• helping sunny get into her wedding dress. she looked absolutely beautiful!
• the tea ceremony, where i was caught off-guard by the emotion in the room. tissue anyone?
• singing in the limo en route to the church.
• it was a little deja-vu when i walked down the aisle at canadian memorial :-) it was even weirder when chris and i walked out of the church arm-in-arm (have we gone back in time?).
• the photo sessions at coal harbour and the library. their photographer was absolutely crazy. i loved him! however, i was afraid to be near him after he almost jumped on my feet at the hotel earlier when he tried to get a shot. it's a little weird when random ppl want to take pictures of you as well.
• seeing the boys carry geoff for a picture. "turn him!" "turn him?" "turn him!" "what?!" ah yes, that moment still makes me laugh!
• the tea ceremony for very important family members.
• eating, eating and more eating.....i didn't even get to try all the courses, i got so full! the cake was delicious! chocolate cake with (i think) chocolate icing inside, and finished with a fondant icing and topped with burgundy calla lillies. i wish i had room for seconds!
• the speeches......the lowe's, the yang's, wilson and brigette all made nice speeches and toasts to geoff and sunny. true testaments to how wonderful these two are, and how much we all care about them and their future together :-)
• geoff and sunny's joint speech to their parents and to us, the bridal party. when sunny talked about brigette and me, it brought tears to our eyes. little happy tears that got stuck in the corners of our eyes :-)
• and then the dancing! oh yes, the dancing! my feet were killing me by the time we hit the floor, but the music was totally hot, and we wanted to party! there were a lot of sweaty bodies, and perhaps a little too much closeness at some points. at least wilson kept some of his clothes on :-) as for my own husband, i can't even begin to explain what he was doing on the dance floor!
• did i mention the drinking?! craziness! insanity! 'nuf said!

and then all too soon, the night was over. geoff is heading back to toronto now, and sunny's spending a few more days in vancouver w/her parents and relatives from atlanta and argentina. and now i can kick back and relax. my duties are (almost) over, and now i have nothing but free time on my hands. what should i do next? as sunny wisely said to me last year when she asked me to help coordinate her wedding, "i (tres) need a project!" stayed tuned, you never know what i'll come up w/next!

geoff and sunny, all the best for a long and happy marriage! now, when are you coming back to vancouver FOR GOOD?!?! :-)

big day tomorrow!

it's finally here.....geoff and sunny's wedding day!!

after a very busy week of running around meeting vendors, dress fittings, tux fittings, meeting helpers, trips to the airport to pick ppl up, it's come down to this.....the last few hours before they walk down the aisle and say "I DO!"

i'm very excited to be a bridesmaid in their wedding party, and i'm extremely honoured that i was entrusted to be the wedding coordinator over the past many months, as they finalized details from toronto. i've had mixed thoughts throughout this entire process. on the one hand, i love organizing events and coordinating logistics and getting hands-on, but on the other, i feel like it's a lot of pressure to meet other ppl's expectations and it felt like i was planning my own wedding all over again. that's both a good and bad thing :P

the "early" stage was probably the easiest, just keeping track of correspondence and payments, meeting the vendors sunny and geoff had chosen and just keeping in touch w/everyone on a regular basis. the "middle" stage was more involved.....my bridesmaid responsibility kicked in and the las vegas weekend was coordinated along with the vancouver dinner/movie and bridal shower. more payments were due, my dress fittings were coordinated. then came the home stretch.....sunny arrived in vancouver, and it was go, go, go from that point on. we did have a couple relaxing days to just shop on robson (albeit for my shoes on the wedding day....who knew i had to wear new shoes?), had quickie facials at skoah (the skoah-glowah, baby!), and the week finished with our manis and pedis.

but as of now, i've relinquished all my organizer responsibilities and passed everything onto priscilla, and she's going to run the show tomorrow. i've packed my bag for tomorrow, along with our "emergency kit" for the limo. i hope i haven't forgotten anything!

see ya'll at the church :-) good night!

a funny thing happened last week

my aunt was supposed to drop off some sushi for me and chris on thursday night. she was running late, and i wasn't sure why, so i called her house. she and my grandma live together, so of course, my grandma answered the phone. now, i should explain my grandma......she's a tiny 95 year old lady (96 in a couple months!) who speaks very limited english. it's usually not a problem, because my aunt or someone else is around to translate for me. except for this phone call.

once she remembered who i was (having 8 children, 17 grandchildren, and 14 great-grandchildren will do that to ya!), i could only understand her first sentence......"auntie arlene not home." i should have hung up right then, but instead i asked, "oh, is she on her way over?" it was game over at that point, because my grandma started rambling on in japanese. yikes! my japanese is very limited to the following words.......me, house, telephone, school, teacher, sushi, ice cream, i am fine, thank you, good-bye, good morning, etc. etc. so during my 20 second conversation w/grandma, she threw in a few english words, but all i could understand was "cell phone" and "your mama". my mama? what about my mama?

after getting nowhere w/my grandma, i called my mama to get the 411. i took japanese for 3 years in high school, but because i never used it on a regularly basis, and my parents giggled at my lack of a proper accent, i stopped trying to speak it. but now, i'm more chinese than anything else. ma-fan! hahahaha!

ok, good night again.

where do i start?!

my goodness. it's been absolutely crazy busy this week. i went to calgary for 2 nights earlier this week for work. then we went out on wednesday to celebrate renee's birthday, and later on i met up w/chris so we could visit my grandma - she and my aunt just bought a new tv. i like to think we played a part in her happiness......she saw ours and decided she liked it so much she wanted her own :-) on thursday night i went to see my videographer about getting some still photos developed. the past two days have just been crazy. but good crazy. for the most part :-)

this is the weekend before the big day.....geoff and sunny's wedding. so i spent much of friday getting ready for the shower. looking back, i'm not really sure what i spent all my time on, but i know i've been busy. sunny arrived on saturday morning.....it's good to have her HOME again, but i have to admit, i've eaten a lot this weekend because of her. talk about gluttony! for lunch we had wonton noodle soup (i added beef brisket to mine!), then we had an afternoon bubble tea (she had watermelon slushy w/pearls, no milk; i had a mango lychee slushy w/milk and pearls. ah, so tasty and refreshing :-) then we took a break until dinnertime. we were at paramount earl's and we ate like we'd never eaten before......we shared a pound of hot wings (extra hot sauce on the side!), sunny had a side mixed green salad, i had the roasted chicken quesadilla w/fries, sunny had the linguine and then to top it all off, we shared the chocolate mousse for dessert. yikes! needless to say i was pretty restless (and somewhat ill) while we watched MI:3 :P

and as if that wasn't enough eating, i hosted sunny's bridal shower. we had a high-tea theme, so i did my research and clutched up......english breakfast tea, iced tea (made fresh by my mom), tea sandwiches, scones w/creme fraiche and jam, lemon tarts (yes, i made them myself!), butter tarts, smoked salmon dip (courtesy of my mom), nanaimo bars, brownies, and a variety of other sweets, and to finish off the day, a triple berry mousse from sweet obsessions. sunny and i are going to meet my mom for lunch tomorrow and have leftovers! yum-yum!

right after the shower, i headed home to get chris and we were off to surrey for mother's day dinner. i tell ya, the excitement just never ends. as my cousin richard said, it felt like we were in the middle of a daycare. i have 17 (i think) first cousins, and they've all got children now, so there were 6.5 (my cousin's expecting her 3rd child later this year) great-grandchildren at dinner. i think my grandma has 14 great-grandchildren already. i have to admit that i have a hard time remembering everyone's names......every family dinner, there's a new name to add, plus i met another cousin's new boyfriend today. our ever expanding family. it never ends.

and now i'm really really tired, so i think i'll go to bed soon. i'm hoping to get at least 6 hours of sleep tonight :P wish me luck!

zzzzzzzzz!!

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i don't think my starbucks is having the same normal effect. g'night.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

facialiscious - it's more than a cool word!

has it been so uneventful this past week, that i actually have nothing to blog about? or have i just been so busy that i can't remember what i even did yesterday? i'm not sure what's going on. everything seems like such a blur......

however, having said that, one of the highlights of the weekend was my facial......i went to skoah, after finding it on internet and finding out that sunny enjoyed her last experience there. facialiscious. what more can i say? the name says it all! for 75 heavenly treatment minutes, i was cleansed, toned, exfoliated, extracted, detoxified, and foot/leg, back/neck and scalp massaged. i have also had facials at beverly's spa on 4th, eccotique and the kingfisher.....and i have to say that skoah is by far my favourite (mind you, kingfisher ranks a very very close 2nd place thanks to the heated mud pack for your back). those 75 minutes were totally focused on me......my personal trainer devoted almost every single minute to my needs. i wasn't abandoned for more than 2 minutes when she went to get my "personalized" skin care products. i said up front that i was really looking forward to the extractions of my (many) blackheads. girls, she got every single one of them out! it's a slightly painful experience, but i focused on the greater good of my skin, and suffered through the enjoyment (except for the few minutes where i fell asleep! - it's THAT good!).

skoah is definitely going to be the place i go to from now on. girls w/sensitive skin might want to beware......one of the masks that was used was a bit strong......she warned me to tell her if my skin started to burn. i'm not sure what that would have felt like, but there was some extreme tingling for about 5 minutes. beauty hurts :-) when i was finished, my skin had the skoah glow-ah. i can't wait until my quickie facial next monday. i'm very excited! this was the best spent $90. beauty also comes at a small price :P

so my facial was a great start to a rainy saturday. the afternoon went by as mediocre, and then we went out for andy's b-day dinner at keg caesars. i was all steak-d out, so i opted for ribs and added a cluster of dungeness crab (the special). we had no plans for after dinner, so of course i suggested we play a little poker! so off we went to the rock.....again. i love this place. i was doing even better than monday night.......at one point i was up almost $100, but then i wasn't quite ready to go home, so i left up $5. but then i thought i'd try my luck at MY slot machine again. this time it ate my money, so i left the casino even. oh well. better than down.

i love the rock!

well, i only love it today because i got paid out :-) if i had lost i would say i HATE the rock, but then again, i probably wouldn't post about a loss......

my evening started out fabulously......i went to see my puppies. i knew there were at least 3 yellow lab puppies - terra's been there the longest (she's several months old), and paris and lilly were new additions last monday, so they're around 10-12 weeks old. so cute! but yesterday i got a big surprise......there were 5 new lab puppies - 2 yellow and 3 black. unfortunately i can't remember their names, but they were so pudgey and cute, who cares what they were named! to identify all the puppies, PADS paints a small stripe on their back, so i just started calling them by their colours. these little guys are going to be a handful as they grow up!

anyways, onto the next highlight of my night.....the rock! i was playing at the $2/$4 table, and it wasn't looking great in the first 1/2 hour......i was down $40 - i was getting decent cards, but the board wasn't cooperating w/me. and then wha-bam! my next hand changed everything. i got the pocket rockets......i try not to get too excited about them, because i've seem them get cracked a few times......in poker, you just never know! i lucked out and flopped an ace, 3 and something else. another 3 came on the turn, and then i can't remember what happened on the river. i was betting strong (i was 2nd to act, and the guy before me was checking). he finally folded on the river, so i bet strong. unfortunately no one wanted to challenge me by raising. but the pot was pretty big and i made a strong come-back. after that i hit a few more good hands, but eventually cashed out with an extra $20 in my wallet.

chris and i went to find ryan at the blackjack table, and they headed over to pai gow. i lost interest after a few hands, so i went to the $0.25 slot machine, and sat myself down w/$10. i usually do max bets, and this one was 5 credits - usually i only play max 3 credits. no biggie.....i was hardly paying attention. i was hitting a couple of credits here and there, and then on my 5th (?) spin, my machine went crazy. the credits were just going, and going, and going. finally over 400 (or so) credits later, i cashed out with $109! whoo-hoo! unfortunately i only killed 2 minutes, and ran over to the guys to show them my ticket. ryan tried his luck at the slots, too, and did ok. chris won $5 and called it a night :-)

so after a really late night, i had a 6 a.m. wake-up call for a meeting. thank goodness for starbucks in my building......i really needed that extra boost!

does everything centre around food?

based on the amount of food i consumed this weekend, i'd say YES! everything social seems to circle around food, food, and then more food.

after work on friday, i headed to superstore to buy some ingredients. i've been planning sunny's bridal shower, and in an effort to save some money, and work on my culinary skills, i've decided to make lemon tarts. i never really imagined making them from scratch, as i don't have a lot of time to spare right now, so i found the instant pudding mix, and frozen tart shells. the entire process took about 30 minutes - only because i had the mix ready, but forgot to heat the shells up simultaneously. now i know for next time :-) i even managed to whip together the meringue - i was most impressed w/myself, since i've never done that before either. when i tasted it, it seemed really sweet (and from me, that's saying something!), but after i threw it in the oven on broil for 7 minutes, and tried it w/the complete tart, it was quite yummy! i tasted 2 tarts, just to be sure :-)

later that night, we had a family dinner w/chris' family, as they had out-of-town guests staying w/them, and i've actually never met these guests before. so we went out for chinese food. i was pretty full after dinner, but i still had room for another lemon tart. dang, i make good tarts!

on saturday, i spent the entire day running around doing various things. it was quite hectic, and i still didn't accomplish everything :P anyhoo, on saturday night chris' sister had invited us to a dinner tasting at her wedding venue to see what we thought of the food. the shop had provided some marinated steaks, just to see how the venue cooked them (we wanted them medium rare!). so each steak took up the entire plate! i wanted to try everything, so i was double-plating dinner that night! then there was the chocolate fountain......so yum! i would love to have a fountain at home......the only problem is that they require a lot of chocolate, so you get the fountain effect. i'll have to settle for my fondue. hmmmm, we should have another fondue night......i still have some chocolate and marshmallows to eat!

then came sunday......the motherload of all food-fests. chris' shop just expanded, so they had an open-house bbq/my mother-inlaw's b-day celebration. we ate steaks (these were more on the rare side), lamb chops (medium rare of course!) and boerwors (south african sausages), and 4 different salads, just to offset all the meat we ate. phew! as if that wasn't enough, chris and i then headed over to rev's for our former dragonboat teams bowling fundraiser, complete w/pizza and pop. i don't think bowling burns off any calories :P after such a busy afternoon, chris and i both took a nap.....perhaps we were tired from over-eating. to top off the evening, geoff was in town from TO, so of course we had to go out for drinks and eats. so we had a super late dinner at Five Point consisting of nachos, a dip platter and a lamb sandwich.

so much eating. and now i'm just trying to digest all that food before i catch some zzz's and start off another week. life's rough :-)