they're even more fun when you're just a guest! the only stress i encountered was trying to find something to bloody wear! so this year i have 4 weddings to attend, pretty manageable, especially since they're spread across the seasons :-) sunny & geoff's was in may - my (spring) dress was already picked out me - yah! jannie & pierson's wedding was this past saturday. for the past couple months, i've been on a rampage to find something summer-y to wear. on friday night, i finally bought a brand new outfit from banana republic - a black flow-y skirt and a white sparkly tank top (both new to the late summer/early fall season). my next (fall) wedding is priscilla & dave's.....i might pull a deja-vu and wear the same black & white outfit. alternatively, i do have another dress i picked up from banana republic on friday......it's brown with an empire waist and "sash". it's definitely more fall-ish. or i could save that one for viv & chris' wedding which is in november, borderline winter. i'm so pleased i actually have options now :-)
anyhoo, back to jannie & pierson's wedding.....we didn't make it to the ceremony because chris had to work, and i was actually having a roll-screen door installed in the morning. the reception was at floata (chinatown), and it was the standard 10-course dinner banquet. our table was the high school group, and ironically i was the only non-hamber person at the table. mind you, i started hanging out w/this group in grade 12 (on an almost daily basis) so sometimes i forget i went to point grey :P
this was the largest wedding i've ever been to - we had heard that the invite list was somewhere between 600-800 ppl! when we walked in, we were escorted right to our table (#39) because there didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to the table placements. once we sat down, i took a look around, and two tables behind us was #92. good grief, i thought! could there actually be over 920 ppl attending this wedding? i thought the max. capacity of floata was 1,000 ppl. turns out that the table numbering was a little less than conventional - there were no number 4's anywhere, and i think they were grouped by family/friends, etc. so at the end of the night we found out there were about 600 ppl in total AT the wedding.
i think pierson's very thankful that they didn't have a videographer - he probably wouldn't want anyone to replay his speech over and over again. after he openly admitted that he didn't have a speech prepared, by the time he was finished speaking he needed a backhoe to dig himself out of the hole he had dug! it provided a lot of laughs from us at his expense. i don't think any of us will forget his opening line to jannie. it started along the lines of....."my wife. oh my god, what a hard word to say. wife!" hahahahah! hopefully he's learned to say "wife" a bit better :-)
ah, good times, good times.
Monday, July 31, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
i think i failed my eye exam
i'm not sure how it's possible, but i obviously didn't answer the questions right, because i have to go back for a 2nd exam next week :P i think my eyes were just getting lazy.
i wanted to post last night, but due to my dilated pupils i wasn't able to read anything. i went for my regular eye check-up yesterday - i'm getting in the habit of going every 2 years, especially since i think my eyes are still changing - the optometrist (?) did the full work-up on me, and measured my eyes, checked for gloucoma, tested my prescription, etc. etc. in the process she informed that i have an astigmatism. well, i nearly fell off my chair! of course, i had no idea what an astigmatism was, so i'm not sure why i immediately started panicking (actually, i think it's due to my undiagnosed ocd/paranoia disorders). she told me exactly what i found on the internet this a.m.....
Astigmatism occurs when the cornea is shaped more like an oblong football than a spherical baseball, which is the normal shape. In most astigmatic eyes, the oblong or oval shape causes light rays to focus on two points in the back of your eye, rather than on just one. This is because, like a football, an astigmatic cornea has a steeper curve and a flatter one.
In regular astigmatism, the meridians in which the two different curves lie are located 180 degrees apart. In irregular astigmatism, the two meridians may be located at something other than 180 degrees apart; or there are more than two meridians. Regular astigmatism is usually easy to correct, but irregular astigmatism can be complicated and more difficult to correct, depending on the extent of the irregularity and its cause.
Many people with astigmatism believe that they can't wear contact lenses, or that only rigid contact lenses can correct astigmatism.
This was true many years ago, but now there are soft contacts that correct astigmatism; they are called toric contact lenses. Toric lenses have a special correction built into them and may also contain a prescription for nearsightedness or farsightedness if you need it.
While soft torics work well for many people, if you have severe astigmatism, you'll likely do better with RGP contact lenses or eyeglasses. Your eyecare practitioner will advise you.
so now i'm somewhat better informed on my astigmatism :-) once she gets my prescription nailed down, i'm going to get a trial pair of toric contact lenses and see how they feel. hopefully i'll pass the test on thursday :P
the one good thing about having your pupils dilated is that it makes it hard to read recipe books, so we ordered take-out from white spot :-)
ah yes, one more thing to post about yesterday......i was very glad i had my eye appointment, because that meant i was out of the building when the fire alarm went off! this time, it wasn't exactly a false alarm.......someone's cooking set it off! hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!! the only after-effect that sucked was the elevator was out of service for a couple of hours. luckily i got home when the resident manager was trying to re-activate it, so she dropped me off at my floor. chris wasn't so lucky.......he had to walk (run) up 8 flights. oh well!
i wanted to post last night, but due to my dilated pupils i wasn't able to read anything. i went for my regular eye check-up yesterday - i'm getting in the habit of going every 2 years, especially since i think my eyes are still changing - the optometrist (?) did the full work-up on me, and measured my eyes, checked for gloucoma, tested my prescription, etc. etc. in the process she informed that i have an astigmatism. well, i nearly fell off my chair! of course, i had no idea what an astigmatism was, so i'm not sure why i immediately started panicking (actually, i think it's due to my undiagnosed ocd/paranoia disorders). she told me exactly what i found on the internet this a.m.....
Astigmatism occurs when the cornea is shaped more like an oblong football than a spherical baseball, which is the normal shape. In most astigmatic eyes, the oblong or oval shape causes light rays to focus on two points in the back of your eye, rather than on just one. This is because, like a football, an astigmatic cornea has a steeper curve and a flatter one.
In regular astigmatism, the meridians in which the two different curves lie are located 180 degrees apart. In irregular astigmatism, the two meridians may be located at something other than 180 degrees apart; or there are more than two meridians. Regular astigmatism is usually easy to correct, but irregular astigmatism can be complicated and more difficult to correct, depending on the extent of the irregularity and its cause.
Many people with astigmatism believe that they can't wear contact lenses, or that only rigid contact lenses can correct astigmatism.
This was true many years ago, but now there are soft contacts that correct astigmatism; they are called toric contact lenses. Toric lenses have a special correction built into them and may also contain a prescription for nearsightedness or farsightedness if you need it.
While soft torics work well for many people, if you have severe astigmatism, you'll likely do better with RGP contact lenses or eyeglasses. Your eyecare practitioner will advise you.
so now i'm somewhat better informed on my astigmatism :-) once she gets my prescription nailed down, i'm going to get a trial pair of toric contact lenses and see how they feel. hopefully i'll pass the test on thursday :P
the one good thing about having your pupils dilated is that it makes it hard to read recipe books, so we ordered take-out from white spot :-)
ah yes, one more thing to post about yesterday......i was very glad i had my eye appointment, because that meant i was out of the building when the fire alarm went off! this time, it wasn't exactly a false alarm.......someone's cooking set it off! hahahahahahahahaha!!!!!!!! the only after-effect that sucked was the elevator was out of service for a couple of hours. luckily i got home when the resident manager was trying to re-activate it, so she dropped me off at my floor. chris wasn't so lucky.......he had to walk (run) up 8 flights. oh well!
Tuesday, July 25, 2006
the BEST sandwich EVER!
oh my god. seriously, oh my god. today i had the best sandwich i've ever had in my life. and anyone who knows me realizes how much i dislike sandwiches. they have to be prepared a certain way in order for me to eat them. first of all, it has to be the freshest and softest bread around, or a croissant, or if i'm in the right mood, a bagel. then, it can't have any toppings such as mustard, mayo, salt or pepper - i like my 'wiches plain. weird, i know, considering i can't eat french fries without a dip of some sort. so if those two criteria are met, then the fillings have to be right - i'm not a big fan of deli meats, but i do like canned tuna :P
so about today's sandwich......it started out with a super-soft baguette.....so fresh, i almost squished my sandwich completely! then there was the smoked salmon......i'm not talking about 2 thin slices of salmon, i'm talking multi-layer slices of salmon, i was definitely going to need gum afterwards! then there was the cream cheese - YUM! as if cream cheese wasn't enough, i added brie - holy cow! and the piece de resistance, CAPERS! good lord, this was going to be a good sandwich!
when i finally sat down to eat my sandwich it was pure bliss. every single bite of sandwich covered all the major food groups - oh my god, holy cow, ooooohhhhh, and aaaaahhhhh! i don't think a meal has ever caused so much excitement before. next time i order it, i'm gonna make sure i have my camera on standby - i can't imagine anything better than this sandwich for lunch! i might have to try it on the olive sourdough next time :-)
The Deli - Family Gourmet
1055 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC
Phone:(604) 605-3354 Fax:(604) 605-3354
Web Site: www.delivancouver.com
so about today's sandwich......it started out with a super-soft baguette.....so fresh, i almost squished my sandwich completely! then there was the smoked salmon......i'm not talking about 2 thin slices of salmon, i'm talking multi-layer slices of salmon, i was definitely going to need gum afterwards! then there was the cream cheese - YUM! as if cream cheese wasn't enough, i added brie - holy cow! and the piece de resistance, CAPERS! good lord, this was going to be a good sandwich!
when i finally sat down to eat my sandwich it was pure bliss. every single bite of sandwich covered all the major food groups - oh my god, holy cow, ooooohhhhh, and aaaaahhhhh! i don't think a meal has ever caused so much excitement before. next time i order it, i'm gonna make sure i have my camera on standby - i can't imagine anything better than this sandwich for lunch! i might have to try it on the olive sourdough next time :-)
The Deli - Family Gourmet
1055 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC
Phone:(604) 605-3354 Fax:(604) 605-3354
Web Site: www.delivancouver.com
too hot for the puppies!
ah, yes, if you thought you were hot the past few days, the puppies were just falling over from heat exhaustion last night! i thought i was going to have my hands full last night by myself w/3 boys and 3 girls; however, the girls (paris, lilly and terra - all yellow labs) just wanted to sleep inside their kennel, so i just let them be. the boys (robo - yellow lab, killarney and flip - black labs) stayed outside and were a bit more rambunctious, but that lasted all of 10 minutes before 2 of them just keeled over. the youngest pup, robo, had the most energy, and just lay down while keeping an eye on my whereabouts. he tried and tried to get the other boys to play w/him, but to no avail.
the puppies were really sweet last night, mostly because they were just too hot and tired to get into any mischief :-) just the way i like them! hahahaha! next week i'll take my camera with me - i haven't taken any decent pictures of the pups recently.
the puppies were really sweet last night, mostly because they were just too hot and tired to get into any mischief :-) just the way i like them! hahahaha! next week i'll take my camera with me - i haven't taken any decent pictures of the pups recently.
Sunday, July 23, 2006
weekends go by too fast!
well, it's another sunday night, and i'm sad to be going to work tomorrow. it was another jam-packed weekend.
friday night i had take-out sushi w/van and rog from kita sushi. another yummy meal! it's a bit more pricey than some other take-out places, but they have a different kind of flavour to them. i like them. now knowing natasha's daily routine, i kicked back while she ate her dinner (i fed her 3 bites before she screamed her head off at me), and then read my book during bathtime. i've seen the show a few times now, so there's nothing new there :-) natasha and i chatted for a bit - for the past month i've been trying to explain to her that it's somewhat gross to stick one's foot in their mouth and suck on your own toes; i guess at 8 months, there's nothing more amusing then sucking your toes :P
later that night we headed out to see you, me and dupree @ oakridge. for those ppl who haven't been there in a while (that would be me), please note that they do not have air conditioning inside the theatre. the lobby/concession area is air conditioned, but that's about it. the theatre was quite stuffy - i will never go there again on a hot summer day. so much for escaping the heat. the movie itself was cute - not hilariously funny, but i'll give it 1.5 thumbs up. i really like kate hudson, so she made the movie worthwhile.
saturday - the heat meter is rising in our condo. i woke up w/a headache from the sheer stuffiness in our bedroom. it's like the morning sun rises in our room, and just stays there for the rest of the day. of course on this particular day i had decided to clean the condo. it's been a few weeks, and the dust bunnies are out of control. needless to say i sweated my way through the cleaning. gross. then as a reprieve from the hot condo, i headed d/t to pacific centre. i had a bunch of shopping to do. originally i was planning on skytraining, however, the skytrain ride home on friday after work was enough to make anyone want to vomit. the heat is disgusting, ppl stink something horrible, and for some insane reason everyone's trying to cram in, rather than wait for another train. ugh.
in the evening, i hooked up w/my co-workers for hot pot. i did most of the ordering, and went with the following: soup combo (chicken broth and satay soups), fatty beef slices, chicken fillets, salmon sashimi, snow pea tip, chinese mushrooms, fish balls, shrimp balls, japanese udon, vermicelli noodles, wonton and chive dumplings. a very yummy meal, enjoyed by all!
on sunday i attended priscilla's bridal shower. i was kinda lazy and didn't take any pictures - i figure everyone else will eventually share their photos :-) it was an asian fusion theme, and appropriate attire was recommended. i did have an "outfit" in mind, but due to the heat, i packed it along in a bag instead. i was wearing the jade pendant my in-laws brought back from china, along w/my gold bracelet they gave me during the tea ceremony at our wedding. my parents had gone to japan a few years ago, and my mom brought back a japanese robe for me. obviously it's not something i would just wear out anywhere, so the shower was the perfect occasion to bring it out. i had it on for about 5 minutes before the heat got to me :P even in an air conditioned room, i have trouble aclimatizing (sp?). the shower was lots of fun w/lots of good food to eat :-)
tonight chris and i finally saw superman. it was just another excuse to stay out of our hot condo. we saw it in imax, and it was pretty cool. i tend to get sick during 3-d movies, but there were only 4 clips that were in 3-d so i managed ok :-) SUPERMAN IS HOT! i wish i were in kate bosworth's barefeet so i could actually kiss him and ride on his boots! bloody hell, i love him lots! i think i'm going to have to rank him above my beloved #16 now. sorry trev! actually, i think i'd put superman right up there w/my other husband from the thunder from down under! anyways, i really enjoyed this movie because superman's just so hot! he's got abs of steel :-) yum yum!
friday night i had take-out sushi w/van and rog from kita sushi. another yummy meal! it's a bit more pricey than some other take-out places, but they have a different kind of flavour to them. i like them. now knowing natasha's daily routine, i kicked back while she ate her dinner (i fed her 3 bites before she screamed her head off at me), and then read my book during bathtime. i've seen the show a few times now, so there's nothing new there :-) natasha and i chatted for a bit - for the past month i've been trying to explain to her that it's somewhat gross to stick one's foot in their mouth and suck on your own toes; i guess at 8 months, there's nothing more amusing then sucking your toes :P
later that night we headed out to see you, me and dupree @ oakridge. for those ppl who haven't been there in a while (that would be me), please note that they do not have air conditioning inside the theatre. the lobby/concession area is air conditioned, but that's about it. the theatre was quite stuffy - i will never go there again on a hot summer day. so much for escaping the heat. the movie itself was cute - not hilariously funny, but i'll give it 1.5 thumbs up. i really like kate hudson, so she made the movie worthwhile.
saturday - the heat meter is rising in our condo. i woke up w/a headache from the sheer stuffiness in our bedroom. it's like the morning sun rises in our room, and just stays there for the rest of the day. of course on this particular day i had decided to clean the condo. it's been a few weeks, and the dust bunnies are out of control. needless to say i sweated my way through the cleaning. gross. then as a reprieve from the hot condo, i headed d/t to pacific centre. i had a bunch of shopping to do. originally i was planning on skytraining, however, the skytrain ride home on friday after work was enough to make anyone want to vomit. the heat is disgusting, ppl stink something horrible, and for some insane reason everyone's trying to cram in, rather than wait for another train. ugh.
in the evening, i hooked up w/my co-workers for hot pot. i did most of the ordering, and went with the following: soup combo (chicken broth and satay soups), fatty beef slices, chicken fillets, salmon sashimi, snow pea tip, chinese mushrooms, fish balls, shrimp balls, japanese udon, vermicelli noodles, wonton and chive dumplings. a very yummy meal, enjoyed by all!
on sunday i attended priscilla's bridal shower. i was kinda lazy and didn't take any pictures - i figure everyone else will eventually share their photos :-) it was an asian fusion theme, and appropriate attire was recommended. i did have an "outfit" in mind, but due to the heat, i packed it along in a bag instead. i was wearing the jade pendant my in-laws brought back from china, along w/my gold bracelet they gave me during the tea ceremony at our wedding. my parents had gone to japan a few years ago, and my mom brought back a japanese robe for me. obviously it's not something i would just wear out anywhere, so the shower was the perfect occasion to bring it out. i had it on for about 5 minutes before the heat got to me :P even in an air conditioned room, i have trouble aclimatizing (sp?). the shower was lots of fun w/lots of good food to eat :-)
tonight chris and i finally saw superman. it was just another excuse to stay out of our hot condo. we saw it in imax, and it was pretty cool. i tend to get sick during 3-d movies, but there were only 4 clips that were in 3-d so i managed ok :-) SUPERMAN IS HOT! i wish i were in kate bosworth's barefeet so i could actually kiss him and ride on his boots! bloody hell, i love him lots! i think i'm going to have to rank him above my beloved #16 now. sorry trev! actually, i think i'd put superman right up there w/my other husband from the thunder from down under! anyways, i really enjoyed this movie because superman's just so hot! he's got abs of steel :-) yum yum!
Friday, July 21, 2006
what are ppl thinking?!
ok, so it's 28 degrees outside right now. throughout this week it has been getting hotter and hotter, right? this weekend is supposed to be the mother of all hot-ness in the lower mainland. to us, it's as close to desert-like as we can possibly get without actually having to be in the desert :P i can't even imagine being in europe right now where temperatures are approaching 40 degrees! yikes!
on the skytrain the past few days, i have seen ppl wearing the most ridiculous things. it's pretty safe to leave your taiga jackets at home ppl! i don't think we're gonna get some crazy rainstorm in the middle of the day! i also don't understand ppl who have layered their clothes. i think a t-shirt/tank top and a cover-up are more than enough - i can understand that sometimes air-conditioned environments can get chilly, but do you really need a sweatshirt on top of that? put your ugg boots away, girls! bring on the flip-flops and strappy sandals!
on the skytrain the past few days, i have seen ppl wearing the most ridiculous things. it's pretty safe to leave your taiga jackets at home ppl! i don't think we're gonna get some crazy rainstorm in the middle of the day! i also don't understand ppl who have layered their clothes. i think a t-shirt/tank top and a cover-up are more than enough - i can understand that sometimes air-conditioned environments can get chilly, but do you really need a sweatshirt on top of that? put your ugg boots away, girls! bring on the flip-flops and strappy sandals!
Thursday, July 20, 2006
back to cooking / physical activity is highly overrated :P
so tonight i cooked a proper meal. it's been awhile! tonight's menu was halibut steaks w/tropical salsa and roast potatoes. i forgot to buy some vegetables to accompany dinner, so i made sweet corn soup as a filler. asides from the labour required to make salsa from scratch, this was a pretty easy (and healthy) meal to prepare. my original recipe called for tuna steaks, but for some reason they're hard to find, so i substituted w/a different white meat. i had my camera out to take a picture, but then i completely forgot about it. such a shame since it was a really good meal. oh well :(
i'm actually glad we ate a light meal, because we didn't eat dinner until almost 9:30 :P chris came home from work early (early for him is 7 p.m.), and decided we would finally seek out a tennis court and play together. i bought a prince racket from tad's (on granville street) several weeks ago, but due to chris' work schedule and my social schedule, we just haven't had time to put it to use. well, i was pretty gung-ho when we first started playing - the first 3 minutes were great! the black lab puppy running around the park was really cute! he kept chasing his ball while his owner talked on her phone. why do ppl do that? i don't think the puppy was older than 10 or 11 weeks. so cute :-)
anyways, back to tennis. so at the 3 minute mark i realized that i suck. we hadn't hit the ball back and forth for more than 2 hits. total. that would be one hit each. hmmmm, this isn't so much fun. we spent more time chasing the balls from the other courts than actually playing. the cute puppy is still running around! but now there's another dog playing w/him. ah, i wish i could run around w/them! oh wait, i am running......after the freaking tennis ball! chris has more skillz than me - i'm not sure what part of the racket i was hitting the ball with. every time it connected, it made a different sound. ah well, perhaps it's cuz chris said i don't even hold the racket properly. chris was kind and went to retrieve the balls that i hit over the fence :P
all i could think of was how hungry i was getting. what was the last thing i ate today? why am i so hungry? hmmm.....damn it, i still have to go home and cook dinner. darn tennis......what was i thinking? i'm not sure if we even played for a full hour, but i was pretty sick and tired of chasing after the tennis ball. now i know how dogs feel after playing fetch. it just isn't amusing anymore. of course the ppl in the courts around us were good players, and rarely crossed into our court. i felt slightly bad for these ppl having to put up w/me apologizing and yelling "HEADS!" is that what you say in tennis if the ball is about to hit someone on the head? what if it's in your own head, and you don't see the ball coming? not to worry, i made it off the court blood-free, but i had a couple close encounters w/the ball. again, i'm not hitting the ball right and i've developed a skill to hit the ball straight up above me. i guess the word would be vertical. i don't think two's or doubles are anywhere in the near future - anyone who played on the same side of the net as me, might risk serious injury. ok, so i don't know any tennis terminology. i know the word "love" is involved somehow. right now, i can't even imagine tennis & love being in the same sentence.
ah well, it was my first time playing tennis in 10 or 12 years. what did i expect? i'm no ______ (fill in the blank w/a female tennis player - i don't actually know any)! i only know pete sampras. does he still play? oh yeah, and kirsten dunst from wimbledon (the movie).
i'm actually glad we ate a light meal, because we didn't eat dinner until almost 9:30 :P chris came home from work early (early for him is 7 p.m.), and decided we would finally seek out a tennis court and play together. i bought a prince racket from tad's (on granville street) several weeks ago, but due to chris' work schedule and my social schedule, we just haven't had time to put it to use. well, i was pretty gung-ho when we first started playing - the first 3 minutes were great! the black lab puppy running around the park was really cute! he kept chasing his ball while his owner talked on her phone. why do ppl do that? i don't think the puppy was older than 10 or 11 weeks. so cute :-)
anyways, back to tennis. so at the 3 minute mark i realized that i suck. we hadn't hit the ball back and forth for more than 2 hits. total. that would be one hit each. hmmmm, this isn't so much fun. we spent more time chasing the balls from the other courts than actually playing. the cute puppy is still running around! but now there's another dog playing w/him. ah, i wish i could run around w/them! oh wait, i am running......after the freaking tennis ball! chris has more skillz than me - i'm not sure what part of the racket i was hitting the ball with. every time it connected, it made a different sound. ah well, perhaps it's cuz chris said i don't even hold the racket properly. chris was kind and went to retrieve the balls that i hit over the fence :P
all i could think of was how hungry i was getting. what was the last thing i ate today? why am i so hungry? hmmm.....damn it, i still have to go home and cook dinner. darn tennis......what was i thinking? i'm not sure if we even played for a full hour, but i was pretty sick and tired of chasing after the tennis ball. now i know how dogs feel after playing fetch. it just isn't amusing anymore. of course the ppl in the courts around us were good players, and rarely crossed into our court. i felt slightly bad for these ppl having to put up w/me apologizing and yelling "HEADS!" is that what you say in tennis if the ball is about to hit someone on the head? what if it's in your own head, and you don't see the ball coming? not to worry, i made it off the court blood-free, but i had a couple close encounters w/the ball. again, i'm not hitting the ball right and i've developed a skill to hit the ball straight up above me. i guess the word would be vertical. i don't think two's or doubles are anywhere in the near future - anyone who played on the same side of the net as me, might risk serious injury. ok, so i don't know any tennis terminology. i know the word "love" is involved somehow. right now, i can't even imagine tennis & love being in the same sentence.
ah well, it was my first time playing tennis in 10 or 12 years. what did i expect? i'm no ______ (fill in the blank w/a female tennis player - i don't actually know any)! i only know pete sampras. does he still play? oh yeah, and kirsten dunst from wimbledon (the movie).
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
mosquitos, firetrucks, sushi - oh my!
as much as i love seeing my puppies on monday night, sometimes they just suck up all your energy! the 3 little boys were rambunctious as heck - they were playing/fighting with each other, and i could barely get them back into their kennels. what a different the 3 little girls were - they couldn't care less, and they play/fought with very little energy. they kind of sauntered quietly back into their kennels. it's hard to believe that these 3 energetic boys and 3 indifferent little girls are going to be assistance dogs for somebody next year.
after a solid hour of being outside in a tree-d area w/6 puppies, with the washed down smell of pee and poo in the air, it's no wonder i got nasty mosquito bites! i have matching bites on my ankles, just at my sock line. i always wear my runners w/the puppies, because one time i wore my old navy flip-flops, and on the wet concrete i walked right out of them, and almost landed in some poo :P anyways, back to my ankles......the bites have turned a shade of purple, and i can't sit cross legged, because i'd be resting on the bites - and they hurt like a bee-atch! i've been scratching at them, but nothing's popping or bleeding. it just turns to a darker shade of purple. i put after-bite on them last night at my parents', but that didn't help much.
tonight, i was at home watching tv when i heard sirens in the distance. since i'm a naturally nosy person, i kept an eye out the window to see what was going on. good grief, i thought, they're coming down my street! oh my, they've stopped somewhere in front of the commercial property! darn it, now i can't see what's going on. ring, ring, chris, where are you? i proceeded to tell chris the news, and told him i expected a full report of the happenings outside. (mostly i was curious cuz i thought it could've been an incident at the sushi place we were gonna have dinner from tonight!) anywhoo, he was home within 5 minutes and reported that the 3 firetrucks arrived for an incident across the street from us. the sushi place was safe!
so we decided to try the new sushi place, kita sushi, for dinner tonight. it only opened on monday, so obviously it's very clean inside. the only problem i see for us is that they don't have full cooking functions - no gyoza! no chicken karrage! ok, that's all i wished they had. but they've got a decent selection of (standard and "inventive") sushi. today i had the spicy tuna sushi bowl with a miso soup. the spicy tuna sauce is definitely different than what i thought it would be - usually it's the vietnamese hot sauce, or something red and similar to that sauce. but this was more liquidy and orange - i'm not sure what was in it, but it was quite tasty. chris is always willing to try new things so he ordered the dragon roll (california roll topped w/bbq eel), dynamite roll (same old), house roll (a variety of fish sashimi - looked like an alaska roll) and a miso soup.
since we weren't eating during the "dinner rush", our food was ready promptly, and we came back upstairs to eat. the prices were a bit high, so i'm not sure if i would eat there very often. i'll admit that it's very convenient to have take-out nearby. they do have seating for about 10 ppl. hmmm, obviously my food critic-ing skillz aren't quite like tara's.....i'll be the simplified and small-word version of tara :-) hahahaha!
after a solid hour of being outside in a tree-d area w/6 puppies, with the washed down smell of pee and poo in the air, it's no wonder i got nasty mosquito bites! i have matching bites on my ankles, just at my sock line. i always wear my runners w/the puppies, because one time i wore my old navy flip-flops, and on the wet concrete i walked right out of them, and almost landed in some poo :P anyways, back to my ankles......the bites have turned a shade of purple, and i can't sit cross legged, because i'd be resting on the bites - and they hurt like a bee-atch! i've been scratching at them, but nothing's popping or bleeding. it just turns to a darker shade of purple. i put after-bite on them last night at my parents', but that didn't help much.
tonight, i was at home watching tv when i heard sirens in the distance. since i'm a naturally nosy person, i kept an eye out the window to see what was going on. good grief, i thought, they're coming down my street! oh my, they've stopped somewhere in front of the commercial property! darn it, now i can't see what's going on. ring, ring, chris, where are you? i proceeded to tell chris the news, and told him i expected a full report of the happenings outside. (mostly i was curious cuz i thought it could've been an incident at the sushi place we were gonna have dinner from tonight!) anywhoo, he was home within 5 minutes and reported that the 3 firetrucks arrived for an incident across the street from us. the sushi place was safe!
so we decided to try the new sushi place, kita sushi, for dinner tonight. it only opened on monday, so obviously it's very clean inside. the only problem i see for us is that they don't have full cooking functions - no gyoza! no chicken karrage! ok, that's all i wished they had. but they've got a decent selection of (standard and "inventive") sushi. today i had the spicy tuna sushi bowl with a miso soup. the spicy tuna sauce is definitely different than what i thought it would be - usually it's the vietnamese hot sauce, or something red and similar to that sauce. but this was more liquidy and orange - i'm not sure what was in it, but it was quite tasty. chris is always willing to try new things so he ordered the dragon roll (california roll topped w/bbq eel), dynamite roll (same old), house roll (a variety of fish sashimi - looked like an alaska roll) and a miso soup.
since we weren't eating during the "dinner rush", our food was ready promptly, and we came back upstairs to eat. the prices were a bit high, so i'm not sure if i would eat there very often. i'll admit that it's very convenient to have take-out nearby. they do have seating for about 10 ppl. hmmm, obviously my food critic-ing skillz aren't quite like tara's.....i'll be the simplified and small-word version of tara :-) hahahaha!
Sunday, July 16, 2006
the end of a great weekend
i think this ranks as one of my better weekends in a long time.
friday night - girls night :-) after work we all headed over to van & roger's to spend time w/baby natasha. she definitely kept mom & dad busy, and us girls entertained, when she pooped in her bath water. take 2.....a new tub of water, and no sooner had she sat down in it when she decided to pee. take 3.....she's all empty, and bath is a go! after an exciting start to the evening, we headed to continential centre in richmond and enjoyed dinner at Ellie. pris ate her own meal of noodles & soup and a green onion pancake. the rest of us shared snowpea tip w/garlic, 3 sauce chicken, hainanese chicken rice, vermicelli noodles, deep fried tofu w/fish flakesss and roti canai. for $13/per person, this was a great meal :-)
we then watched the devil wears prada. i read the book a couple years ago, so i remembered the gist of it - i give it an OK rating. it had it's funny moments, and great outfits, but i didn't think the movie was a 2 thumbs up calibre.
saturday morning - any day that starts with a skoah facialicious facial can't be wrong! van and i shared a dual treatment room where i was promptly reminded how heavenly it is to have someone pamper your skin, and give you a mini-massage. oooh, so nice! i think my esthetician, lisa, thinks i'm a facial junkie - i've seen her 3 times since may :P judging by the amount of time on my extractions, i think it was a much needed facial. $90 very well spent :-) i also had to buy some products as well for my dehydrated skin. skoah is really great, because they have great products - for once i can actually see the results - and if you don't see results, you can exchange their products for something else in the store. i might have to do that w/my face skotion - it's leaving me a bit dry, but hopefully the hydradew mask will help out :-)
unfortunately i did develop a headache later in the day, but thank heavens for excedrin, advil and a 2 hour nap :-) i really needed to kill my headache because we had dinner plans at milestone's later that night. again, more good eats this weekend.
then the best part of my weekend. the rock. initially i didn't really want to go because i was still on tilt from the elbow, but i also didn't feel like staying home alone on a saturday night. so off i went w/chris and mike to the casino. i was back in my $2/$4 element! i was having unbelievable luck last night. most of the hands i played held up......crazy enough it was the 2/5 clubs that won me the flush and the 2/4 suited that got me 2 pairs. i also had higher cards, like ace/3, ace/5, and i would win on the flush or the straight. i was having unbelievable luck, and when we left the poker room @ 3:30 a.m., i was up almost $200 :-) i think i stunned the other players at my table w/a few of my hands, because i could see them shaking their heads. what can i say, i just lucked out? er, i mean "I'VE GOT SKILLZ!" hahahahaha!
friday night - girls night :-) after work we all headed over to van & roger's to spend time w/baby natasha. she definitely kept mom & dad busy, and us girls entertained, when she pooped in her bath water. take 2.....a new tub of water, and no sooner had she sat down in it when she decided to pee. take 3.....she's all empty, and bath is a go! after an exciting start to the evening, we headed to continential centre in richmond and enjoyed dinner at Ellie. pris ate her own meal of noodles & soup and a green onion pancake. the rest of us shared snowpea tip w/garlic, 3 sauce chicken, hainanese chicken rice, vermicelli noodles, deep fried tofu w/fish flakesss and roti canai. for $13/per person, this was a great meal :-)
we then watched the devil wears prada. i read the book a couple years ago, so i remembered the gist of it - i give it an OK rating. it had it's funny moments, and great outfits, but i didn't think the movie was a 2 thumbs up calibre.
saturday morning - any day that starts with a skoah facialicious facial can't be wrong! van and i shared a dual treatment room where i was promptly reminded how heavenly it is to have someone pamper your skin, and give you a mini-massage. oooh, so nice! i think my esthetician, lisa, thinks i'm a facial junkie - i've seen her 3 times since may :P judging by the amount of time on my extractions, i think it was a much needed facial. $90 very well spent :-) i also had to buy some products as well for my dehydrated skin. skoah is really great, because they have great products - for once i can actually see the results - and if you don't see results, you can exchange their products for something else in the store. i might have to do that w/my face skotion - it's leaving me a bit dry, but hopefully the hydradew mask will help out :-)
unfortunately i did develop a headache later in the day, but thank heavens for excedrin, advil and a 2 hour nap :-) i really needed to kill my headache because we had dinner plans at milestone's later that night. again, more good eats this weekend.
then the best part of my weekend. the rock. initially i didn't really want to go because i was still on tilt from the elbow, but i also didn't feel like staying home alone on a saturday night. so off i went w/chris and mike to the casino. i was back in my $2/$4 element! i was having unbelievable luck last night. most of the hands i played held up......crazy enough it was the 2/5 clubs that won me the flush and the 2/4 suited that got me 2 pairs. i also had higher cards, like ace/3, ace/5, and i would win on the flush or the straight. i was having unbelievable luck, and when we left the poker room @ 3:30 a.m., i was up almost $200 :-) i think i stunned the other players at my table w/a few of my hands, because i could see them shaking their heads. what can i say, i just lucked out? er, i mean "I'VE GOT SKILLZ!" hahahahaha!
what stampede?! i didn't make it past the elbow!
the elbow river casino, that is!! hahahahaha! mind you, my time would have been better spent inside the stampede grounds, rather than outside at the elbow. so i have to recap my experience. i took a taxi en route to the stampede grounds area, to go to the elbow river casino. the taxi driver confirmed that i would have to pay the general admission (it's similar to pne), and then i could get to the stampede casino. i said, screw that, i don't want to pay any extra $$ than necessary!
so i arrived at elbow river casino at 8 p.m. and i was gone by 9 p.m. it was pretty sad actually. the lowest limit game was $4/$8. i figured, what the heck, i might as well play - i can muddle my way through it. i got my $100 in chips, and got my perfect end/corner seat. as we were waiting for the dealer to check the cards, the chatter started and i found out it was a kill game. (so for all the poker rookies out there, kill means that the blinds are raised when someone wins 2 pots in a row, so it becomes a $8/$16 game.) i thought to myself, ah shit, what have i gotten myself into? screw it, i can't just get up and leave now! 'sides, the only other thing i could play at the casino was the slot machines. game on!
or game over! i was getting mediocre cards, so my first few hands i played tight, but then i had an ace 10 (unsuited), and figured how can i go wrong? it's the best hand i've had. yeah, i got beat out by a 4/7 (big blind special). eventually i was kicked off the table before the button had moved around the table. i was pretty choked, but not completely surprised i didn't last very long. so i called chris w/an update and he laughed at me. bad husband! i was so pissed off at what i had done, that i tried to win it back on the slot machines, but then i lost even more $$. before i lost my taxi money back to the hotel, i decided to leave the casino. i was not a very happy camper. i'm never playing a kill game, or $4/$8 again! i'll stick to $2/$4 thank you very much!
damn calgary!
well, all was not terrible. on wednesday night i met up with a former co-worker who moved to cow-town a couple years ago. we had dinner at cactus club, since it was near my hotel. since all my expenses were covered, i splurged and had a 7 oz. steak. ok, i don't know why i've never had a steak at cactus club before, but it was super yummy! i am definitely going to have it again :-) after hours of chatting, i was back in my hotel cursing the elbow river casino for taking my money. but alas, so you think you can dance was on tv, so that kept my mind occupied for the remainder of the night.
so i arrived at elbow river casino at 8 p.m. and i was gone by 9 p.m. it was pretty sad actually. the lowest limit game was $4/$8. i figured, what the heck, i might as well play - i can muddle my way through it. i got my $100 in chips, and got my perfect end/corner seat. as we were waiting for the dealer to check the cards, the chatter started and i found out it was a kill game. (so for all the poker rookies out there, kill means that the blinds are raised when someone wins 2 pots in a row, so it becomes a $8/$16 game.) i thought to myself, ah shit, what have i gotten myself into? screw it, i can't just get up and leave now! 'sides, the only other thing i could play at the casino was the slot machines. game on!
or game over! i was getting mediocre cards, so my first few hands i played tight, but then i had an ace 10 (unsuited), and figured how can i go wrong? it's the best hand i've had. yeah, i got beat out by a 4/7 (big blind special). eventually i was kicked off the table before the button had moved around the table. i was pretty choked, but not completely surprised i didn't last very long. so i called chris w/an update and he laughed at me. bad husband! i was so pissed off at what i had done, that i tried to win it back on the slot machines, but then i lost even more $$. before i lost my taxi money back to the hotel, i decided to leave the casino. i was not a very happy camper. i'm never playing a kill game, or $4/$8 again! i'll stick to $2/$4 thank you very much!
damn calgary!
well, all was not terrible. on wednesday night i met up with a former co-worker who moved to cow-town a couple years ago. we had dinner at cactus club, since it was near my hotel. since all my expenses were covered, i splurged and had a 7 oz. steak. ok, i don't know why i've never had a steak at cactus club before, but it was super yummy! i am definitely going to have it again :-) after hours of chatting, i was back in my hotel cursing the elbow river casino for taking my money. but alas, so you think you can dance was on tv, so that kept my mind occupied for the remainder of the night.
Tuesday, July 11, 2006
richmond night market
i have to go back a few days and talk about the richmond night market. last year, dianne and i took our co-workers to the night market for their first time - 4 locals, 1 aussie, and 1 dutch. everyone had such a great time that we decided to do it again this year.
so off we went on saturday night! for 5 of our friends it was their first time at any night market, so dianne and i took it easy on them. between the 9 of us we ate curry fish balls, sui mai, steamed rice rolls, mango shaved ice w/fruit, bubble tea, pineapple fried rice, (artificial) shark fin soup, the list goes on. everyone agreed the food was great. sue especially liked the candy-coated strawberries. i think she's going to be at night market a lot more now!
a little bit of shopping was also done, but the food was the main attraction of the night. btw, for anyone who hasn't gone to the night market this year, they've raised the parking price at home depot/sears/surrounding area to $4. i think last year it was only $1 or $2.
it was on this night out that i discovered that sue and neil have never gone for dim sum or hot pot. well, at least the chinese version of hot pot. they've done the english version that involves potatoes. so not like the chinese version! so dianne and i are taking our friends to garden city hot pot in a couple weeks. i can't wait!
so off we went on saturday night! for 5 of our friends it was their first time at any night market, so dianne and i took it easy on them. between the 9 of us we ate curry fish balls, sui mai, steamed rice rolls, mango shaved ice w/fruit, bubble tea, pineapple fried rice, (artificial) shark fin soup, the list goes on. everyone agreed the food was great. sue especially liked the candy-coated strawberries. i think she's going to be at night market a lot more now!
a little bit of shopping was also done, but the food was the main attraction of the night. btw, for anyone who hasn't gone to the night market this year, they've raised the parking price at home depot/sears/surrounding area to $4. i think last year it was only $1 or $2.
it was on this night out that i discovered that sue and neil have never gone for dim sum or hot pot. well, at least the chinese version of hot pot. they've done the english version that involves potatoes. so not like the chinese version! so dianne and i are taking our friends to garden city hot pot in a couple weeks. i can't wait!
Monday, July 10, 2006
off to cow-town
nothing new to report today. no notices were posted, no arrests were made, no nothing. it's back to business as usual on the homefront.
and now i'm off to calgary, where i'll probably catch some of the stampede action. perhaps the pigeon races. or the cowboy poetry. here's a snipit from my chat w/renee today:
t: there's pigeon races and cowboy poetry.
r: really? cowboys? HA!
t: :)
r: "my horse is brown, my horse is blue, oh my, i stepped in poo."
t: you've got skillz.
r: thank you.
t: why's your horse blue?
r: underutilized.
t: is he sad?
r: yes, he really wants to be in the stampede
t: hahahahahahahahahaha!
and now i'm off to calgary, where i'll probably catch some of the stampede action. perhaps the pigeon races. or the cowboy poetry. here's a snipit from my chat w/renee today:
t: there's pigeon races and cowboy poetry.
r: really? cowboys? HA!
t: :)
r: "my horse is brown, my horse is blue, oh my, i stepped in poo."
t: you've got skillz.
r: thank you.
t: why's your horse blue?
r: underutilized.
t: is he sad?
r: yes, he really wants to be in the stampede
t: hahahahahahahahahaha!
Sunday, July 09, 2006
in the news.....
From www.cknw.com:
Shootout in Burnaby
BURNABY/CKNW(AM980) - More gunplay on the lower mainland Friday night, this time in Burnaby. Around 6pm, several shots were fired in parkade in the 41-hundred block of Dawson Street. Burnaby RCMP corporal Pierre Lemaitre says investigators are looking for more information.
"We've got numerous witnesses from the various high-rises in the area, so it's a long process but we have to do it because one of those people may have some piece of information that could be a clue."
Some witnesses saw two men flee the scene, and a black convertible sports car speed away. One man, who is known to police, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
**********
From The Vancouver Province:
Man wounded in Burnaby
The ProvincePublished: Sunday, July 09, 2006
Police suspect a young man who showed up at Burnaby General Hospital's emergency ward with a gunshot wound to his hand was shot in broad daylight near a parkade on Dawson Street. Burnaby RCMP said it's unlikely the shooting was random and is likely related to drugs and organized crime.
Witnesses told police that after hearing a number of shots being fired at about 6 p.m. on Friday, they saw two males running from the area and a black convertible sports car with its top down speeding from the parkade, which is under a high-rise in the 4100-block.
It's not known if the car is related to the shooting, but police would like to talk to the driver.
Later that evening, the injured man, who is known to police, showed up at hospital. He refused to co-operate with police and told them he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Anyone with any information about the crime or the car is asked to call Burnaby RCMP at 604-294-7922 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-669-TIPS (8477).
*********
CTV news also covered the story in the first 2 minutes of their broadcast. it first aired friday night as a very brief clip, but on the 6 p.m. saturday news they had more information to share, which is the same as above. the 11 p.m. news played a repeat from 6 p.m.
*********
so now i know that i had JUST missed the action by 1/2 hour. if i had come home at my usual time, then i would have been at home blissfully watching tv.
Shootout in Burnaby
BURNABY/CKNW(AM980) - More gunplay on the lower mainland Friday night, this time in Burnaby. Around 6pm, several shots were fired in parkade in the 41-hundred block of Dawson Street. Burnaby RCMP corporal Pierre Lemaitre says investigators are looking for more information.
"We've got numerous witnesses from the various high-rises in the area, so it's a long process but we have to do it because one of those people may have some piece of information that could be a clue."
Some witnesses saw two men flee the scene, and a black convertible sports car speed away. One man, who is known to police, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
**********
From The Vancouver Province:
Man wounded in Burnaby
The ProvincePublished: Sunday, July 09, 2006
Police suspect a young man who showed up at Burnaby General Hospital's emergency ward with a gunshot wound to his hand was shot in broad daylight near a parkade on Dawson Street. Burnaby RCMP said it's unlikely the shooting was random and is likely related to drugs and organized crime.
Witnesses told police that after hearing a number of shots being fired at about 6 p.m. on Friday, they saw two males running from the area and a black convertible sports car with its top down speeding from the parkade, which is under a high-rise in the 4100-block.
It's not known if the car is related to the shooting, but police would like to talk to the driver.
Later that evening, the injured man, who is known to police, showed up at hospital. He refused to co-operate with police and told them he was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Anyone with any information about the crime or the car is asked to call Burnaby RCMP at 604-294-7922 or CrimeStoppers at 1-800-669-TIPS (8477).
*********
CTV news also covered the story in the first 2 minutes of their broadcast. it first aired friday night as a very brief clip, but on the 6 p.m. saturday news they had more information to share, which is the same as above. the 11 p.m. news played a repeat from 6 p.m.
*********
so now i know that i had JUST missed the action by 1/2 hour. if i had come home at my usual time, then i would have been at home blissfully watching tv.
Saturday, July 08, 2006
crime in my backyard.....er.....parking lot?
part 2 - a continuation from last night's posting......
so i got home at 6:30ish yesterday......i obsessed over what was happening outside my building, and unfortunately chris was working late and fixing a leaky sink at the townhouse, so i hunkered down and watched the security channel for most of the night - it was like being on the set of CSI (almost), except it was actually a real-life incident. 6 hours of security camera watching, and staring outside my window, and this is what i found out......practically nothing.
there was a lot of traffic in our driveway. obviously i don't spend every night watching the driveway, so i can't say it was more than normal, but for a friday night, it seemed rather busy. i think traffic lights should have been installed :P 1/2 the ppl going by were either stopped or voluntarily stopped by the police blocking one of our parking lot driveways. i didn't know what was going on at that point. the security camera in the parking lot entry just showed a lot of cops walking around, as well as our resident manager. and then the action unfolded in front of my eyes! the cops were putting down those yellow numbers on the ground beside bullet shell casings! oh my god! and then the camera started flashing! yikes! there really was something down in my parking lot!!!!!!
when i called chris at 8:30 to report this latest development, he confirmed he wouldn't be home for a while, so dinner was going to be extremely late. so to satisfy my curiosity and hunger, i decided to go to starbucks and get a snack. when my elevator going down arrived, my neighbour was just coming home, and we started talking. this is when i found out more juicy stuff! the incident happened between 5 and 6 p.m., cuz that's when she heard all the sirens approaching (i guess 9 cop cars will make a lot of noise!). she didn't hear the gunfire, since we're away from the parking lot (actually, i was the one who told her there was gunfire involved - she didn't know that detail). as she was coming in, she also found out that the cops were stopping all asian males for questioning. obviously they knew who they were looking for.
so off i marched to starbucks. i passed the driveway parking entrance and peeked in, but didn't see much action, asides from all the yellow numbers on the ground - i did see a #15, but i don't know if that means anything. so i turned the corner, and trotted towards the starbucks, and then put on the brakes. the cops were indeed stopping all asian males approaching the building. i tried not to blatantly stare at the commotion, but my curiosity got the best of me. identification was asked for, state your business on this property, etc. etc. then i finally got my banana creme crunch bar, and hurried back outside. this time as i passed the driveway, i saw the investigators taking pictures under a car in the parking lot. ooooh! action!
as i ate my banana creme crunch bar, i called chris with another update - i think he was starting to get annoyed w/my incessent calls :P after that there wasn't a whole lot to see on the security camera or outside in the driveway. cops were just walking around, doing "cop" stuff. then i saw the resident manager w/a cop on our 3rd floor greenspace. they were checking stuff out, looking at all the stairwell exits, and taking a peek down at the driveway. this took all of 10 minutes, so obviously they weren't looking for something in particular. just as it was getting dark around 9:30/10:00-ish, 2 cops were walking around the 3rd floor greenspace. then they were knocking on all the doors to the lofts. i guess they wanted to see if anyone heard or saw anything around 5-6ish. then they were gone.
finally at 11 p.m. a tow truck arrived. at this point i was very curious and focused all my attention on the security camera. i wanted to see what happened. well, chris came home at 11:45, so i never got to see what car was involved in the incident. off we went for "dinner" and by the time we got home an hour later, the street was clear. i was left to my own imagination as to what happened :P
well, i didn't have to wait too long to find out. my mom woke me up at 11:30 this a.m., cuz my aunt had driven by last night, saw the commotion, and called my mom for info. of course my mom knew nothing, cuz i didn't want to call her last night and freak her out. which of course, is what she was this a.m. anyhoo, i watched the noon news, and there was a 10 second blurb - the burnaby rcmp are on the look-out for a black convertible w/its top down that was involved in a Wild West-type shoot-out in my parking lot. here's the report from www.news1130.com:
Burnaby shooting linked to drugs and organized crime
Burnaby RCMP say drugs are behind last nights shooting on Dawson Street. Police are looking for 2 men, and a sports car which fled the scene. Police say they have many potential witnesses, since it happened near a high-rise complex in broad daylight. They now also have a victim, as a man in his 20's showed up at Burnaby General Hospital with a gunshoot wound to his hand. He told Police he was in the "wrong place at the wrong time". But Corporal Pierre Lemaitre says drugs were involved, and it was apparently NOT a random shooting. He says the victim is known to police, and was not very cooperative. Witnesses reported seeing two men running away, and then seeing a black convertible sports car with its top down leave the scene. Police now say the car was connected to the shooting. Call crimestoppers if you have any information.
that's it. that's all the information we have right now. i don't know what's going to happen now - we don't know if it was a random person who parked in our lot and was working on a deal, or it if was someone who had a visitor in the building and it went sour, or what. i am not impressed, but at this point what can i do? who are my neighbours? what are they all doing in the privacy of their own homes? is anyone safe?
all i can say is my god! if i had come home at my usual afterwork hour, then i could have seen more, i could have been a potential witness. if i had come home at my usual afterwork hour, i might have been cutting through the parking lot (which i often do) at the exact time the incident happened. all these "if's". i'm feeling very unsettled right now even though the chances of these ppl re-appearing on our property are so slim. we have security cameras everywhere, and now every owner in the buildings are probably as on-edge as i am and monitoring every move ppl ar emaking. plus the incident is in the news, so these ppl would be stupid to try something here again. on the other hand, you NEVER KNOW! criminals can be stupid.
so i got home at 6:30ish yesterday......i obsessed over what was happening outside my building, and unfortunately chris was working late and fixing a leaky sink at the townhouse, so i hunkered down and watched the security channel for most of the night - it was like being on the set of CSI (almost), except it was actually a real-life incident. 6 hours of security camera watching, and staring outside my window, and this is what i found out......practically nothing.
there was a lot of traffic in our driveway. obviously i don't spend every night watching the driveway, so i can't say it was more than normal, but for a friday night, it seemed rather busy. i think traffic lights should have been installed :P 1/2 the ppl going by were either stopped or voluntarily stopped by the police blocking one of our parking lot driveways. i didn't know what was going on at that point. the security camera in the parking lot entry just showed a lot of cops walking around, as well as our resident manager. and then the action unfolded in front of my eyes! the cops were putting down those yellow numbers on the ground beside bullet shell casings! oh my god! and then the camera started flashing! yikes! there really was something down in my parking lot!!!!!!
when i called chris at 8:30 to report this latest development, he confirmed he wouldn't be home for a while, so dinner was going to be extremely late. so to satisfy my curiosity and hunger, i decided to go to starbucks and get a snack. when my elevator going down arrived, my neighbour was just coming home, and we started talking. this is when i found out more juicy stuff! the incident happened between 5 and 6 p.m., cuz that's when she heard all the sirens approaching (i guess 9 cop cars will make a lot of noise!). she didn't hear the gunfire, since we're away from the parking lot (actually, i was the one who told her there was gunfire involved - she didn't know that detail). as she was coming in, she also found out that the cops were stopping all asian males for questioning. obviously they knew who they were looking for.
so off i marched to starbucks. i passed the driveway parking entrance and peeked in, but didn't see much action, asides from all the yellow numbers on the ground - i did see a #15, but i don't know if that means anything. so i turned the corner, and trotted towards the starbucks, and then put on the brakes. the cops were indeed stopping all asian males approaching the building. i tried not to blatantly stare at the commotion, but my curiosity got the best of me. identification was asked for, state your business on this property, etc. etc. then i finally got my banana creme crunch bar, and hurried back outside. this time as i passed the driveway, i saw the investigators taking pictures under a car in the parking lot. ooooh! action!
as i ate my banana creme crunch bar, i called chris with another update - i think he was starting to get annoyed w/my incessent calls :P after that there wasn't a whole lot to see on the security camera or outside in the driveway. cops were just walking around, doing "cop" stuff. then i saw the resident manager w/a cop on our 3rd floor greenspace. they were checking stuff out, looking at all the stairwell exits, and taking a peek down at the driveway. this took all of 10 minutes, so obviously they weren't looking for something in particular. just as it was getting dark around 9:30/10:00-ish, 2 cops were walking around the 3rd floor greenspace. then they were knocking on all the doors to the lofts. i guess they wanted to see if anyone heard or saw anything around 5-6ish. then they were gone.
finally at 11 p.m. a tow truck arrived. at this point i was very curious and focused all my attention on the security camera. i wanted to see what happened. well, chris came home at 11:45, so i never got to see what car was involved in the incident. off we went for "dinner" and by the time we got home an hour later, the street was clear. i was left to my own imagination as to what happened :P
well, i didn't have to wait too long to find out. my mom woke me up at 11:30 this a.m., cuz my aunt had driven by last night, saw the commotion, and called my mom for info. of course my mom knew nothing, cuz i didn't want to call her last night and freak her out. which of course, is what she was this a.m. anyhoo, i watched the noon news, and there was a 10 second blurb - the burnaby rcmp are on the look-out for a black convertible w/its top down that was involved in a Wild West-type shoot-out in my parking lot. here's the report from www.news1130.com:
Burnaby shooting linked to drugs and organized crime
Burnaby RCMP say drugs are behind last nights shooting on Dawson Street. Police are looking for 2 men, and a sports car which fled the scene. Police say they have many potential witnesses, since it happened near a high-rise complex in broad daylight. They now also have a victim, as a man in his 20's showed up at Burnaby General Hospital with a gunshoot wound to his hand. He told Police he was in the "wrong place at the wrong time". But Corporal Pierre Lemaitre says drugs were involved, and it was apparently NOT a random shooting. He says the victim is known to police, and was not very cooperative. Witnesses reported seeing two men running away, and then seeing a black convertible sports car with its top down leave the scene. Police now say the car was connected to the shooting. Call crimestoppers if you have any information.
that's it. that's all the information we have right now. i don't know what's going to happen now - we don't know if it was a random person who parked in our lot and was working on a deal, or it if was someone who had a visitor in the building and it went sour, or what. i am not impressed, but at this point what can i do? who are my neighbours? what are they all doing in the privacy of their own homes? is anyone safe?
all i can say is my god! if i had come home at my usual afterwork hour, then i could have seen more, i could have been a potential witness. if i had come home at my usual afterwork hour, i might have been cutting through the parking lot (which i often do) at the exact time the incident happened. all these "if's". i'm feeling very unsettled right now even though the chances of these ppl re-appearing on our property are so slim. we have security cameras everywhere, and now every owner in the buildings are probably as on-edge as i am and monitoring every move ppl ar emaking. plus the incident is in the news, so these ppl would be stupid to try something here again. on the other hand, you NEVER KNOW! criminals can be stupid.
Friday, July 07, 2006
"it's a crime scene"
today we had our summer event (an amazing race), and everyone was in great spirits after the race was over, eating, drinking, chilling - good times were had by all :-)
then i skytrained home. i got off at my station, and as i was sauntering down the stairs, i looked outside and alas, there was a police car outside the starbucks. not a big deal, cuz they come by for the occasional coffee. then i noticed another car and then another car w/the lights flashing. so i broke out into a full trot down the stairs - i finally counted about 8 or 9 police cars by the time i got to street level. 2 officers were taking witness statements. well, being the extremely nosy person i am, i went into the starbucks to buy a drink and to find out what happened. rumour has it that apparently someone heard gun shots in the parking lot! WTF?!?! well, as i waited for my bevvie, i stood by the window and just stared outside trying to see what i could see, which wasn't a whole lot :P
as i walked out w/my pomegranate frappacino juice blend, i slowed to a snails pace trying to find out what was going on. there was yellow police tape blocking the parkade entrance, so anyone who had parked inside and run into starbucks earlier wasn't getting their car back anytime soon :( i continued along my way, because i couldn't tell where the incident happened. as i turned the corner to our driveway, there were yet two more cop cars - one was blocking the other entrance to the parkade. then i bumped into a neighbour from the 5th floor. he had just gotten home and stopped to ask a cop what happened, and he was told "it's a crime scene." well, that was informative :P
so for the past little while, i've had one eye outside and one eye on our security camera to see what's going on. since it's still warm in our condo, i had the windows open and there's been a lot of traffic in our driveway and everyone's talking. i caught a few words from a conversation......"gunshot", "body", there were others, but those stand out in my mind right now. i'm not sure if anyone was shot (injured or killed), since there were no ambulances or firetrucks when i arrived. a firetruck did show up later, but they weren't parked in front of my building, they were kitty-corner so i'm not sure if it was related or not.
some of the police cars have since moved away, but the police tape is still blocking the parkade. it looks like a news cameraman was filming for a couple minutes, so perhaps i'll see something on the news hours tonight.....i plan on recording all the local news channels :P i hate not knowing what's going on, especially in my own building!
never a dull moment in burnaby :P things like this never happened to us in vancouver......
then i skytrained home. i got off at my station, and as i was sauntering down the stairs, i looked outside and alas, there was a police car outside the starbucks. not a big deal, cuz they come by for the occasional coffee. then i noticed another car and then another car w/the lights flashing. so i broke out into a full trot down the stairs - i finally counted about 8 or 9 police cars by the time i got to street level. 2 officers were taking witness statements. well, being the extremely nosy person i am, i went into the starbucks to buy a drink and to find out what happened. rumour has it that apparently someone heard gun shots in the parking lot! WTF?!?! well, as i waited for my bevvie, i stood by the window and just stared outside trying to see what i could see, which wasn't a whole lot :P
as i walked out w/my pomegranate frappacino juice blend, i slowed to a snails pace trying to find out what was going on. there was yellow police tape blocking the parkade entrance, so anyone who had parked inside and run into starbucks earlier wasn't getting their car back anytime soon :( i continued along my way, because i couldn't tell where the incident happened. as i turned the corner to our driveway, there were yet two more cop cars - one was blocking the other entrance to the parkade. then i bumped into a neighbour from the 5th floor. he had just gotten home and stopped to ask a cop what happened, and he was told "it's a crime scene." well, that was informative :P
so for the past little while, i've had one eye outside and one eye on our security camera to see what's going on. since it's still warm in our condo, i had the windows open and there's been a lot of traffic in our driveway and everyone's talking. i caught a few words from a conversation......"gunshot", "body", there were others, but those stand out in my mind right now. i'm not sure if anyone was shot (injured or killed), since there were no ambulances or firetrucks when i arrived. a firetruck did show up later, but they weren't parked in front of my building, they were kitty-corner so i'm not sure if it was related or not.
some of the police cars have since moved away, but the police tape is still blocking the parkade. it looks like a news cameraman was filming for a couple minutes, so perhaps i'll see something on the news hours tonight.....i plan on recording all the local news channels :P i hate not knowing what's going on, especially in my own building!
never a dull moment in burnaby :P things like this never happened to us in vancouver......
96......and going strong!
this week has been about the number 96. on wednesday, my grandma (on my mom's side) turned 96 years old. she's been in a care facility for several years - it all started when she fell down the stairs and broke her hip many, many moons ago. she also suffers from alzheimers, so she's pretty much out of it all the time. once in a while she'll look at you and remember something, but she doesn't talk anymore.
yesterday, my grandma (on my dad's side) also turned 96 years old. we had a big family dinner at my aunt & uncle's house - one of the few relatives who still has a house large enough to accommodate our family :P last night it was a quiet intimate dinner for 46.5 ppl (one of my cousins is 4.5 months pregnant) - and crazily enough that's not even my entire family. as with any family dinner, there was an overabundance of food, so today's lunch is leftovers! yum yum! i always tell chris, because he's such a polite person, that at large family dinners sometimes you just gotta get in there and get your food. if you don't get it quick, you might not get it at all! and true to that, the black cod didn't last very long, so no cod for lunch today. oh well :( but there was lots of crab to be eaten! whoo-hoo!
i have to admit that i don't always look forward to these family dinners. it's such a big crowd, and my grandma has so many great-grandchildren, that it's absolute chaos sometimes. also, being the 2nd youngest grandchild, i don't have a lot in common w/my older cousins. they're always one event ahead of me (i.e., getting a drivers' license, moving out, getting married, having kids (most of them already have 2 each), blah blah blah), and a lot of them grew up in the same neighbourhoods, too. the only reason we've talked in the past year was because chris and i were getting married, and they all wanted to party without the kids and get drunk :P whatever.
yesterday, my grandma (on my dad's side) also turned 96 years old. we had a big family dinner at my aunt & uncle's house - one of the few relatives who still has a house large enough to accommodate our family :P last night it was a quiet intimate dinner for 46.5 ppl (one of my cousins is 4.5 months pregnant) - and crazily enough that's not even my entire family. as with any family dinner, there was an overabundance of food, so today's lunch is leftovers! yum yum! i always tell chris, because he's such a polite person, that at large family dinners sometimes you just gotta get in there and get your food. if you don't get it quick, you might not get it at all! and true to that, the black cod didn't last very long, so no cod for lunch today. oh well :( but there was lots of crab to be eaten! whoo-hoo!
i have to admit that i don't always look forward to these family dinners. it's such a big crowd, and my grandma has so many great-grandchildren, that it's absolute chaos sometimes. also, being the 2nd youngest grandchild, i don't have a lot in common w/my older cousins. they're always one event ahead of me (i.e., getting a drivers' license, moving out, getting married, having kids (most of them already have 2 each), blah blah blah), and a lot of them grew up in the same neighbourhoods, too. the only reason we've talked in the past year was because chris and i were getting married, and they all wanted to party without the kids and get drunk :P whatever.
Tuesday, July 04, 2006
it was touch-and-go, but my baby's gonna be fine!
just watching her try to lie down was painful. she would circle her bed at least 10 times, trying to find her comfortable spot, and then eventually she'd lose her balance and fall down, so she'd just stay where she fell. as time progressed, she picked up another weird habit. she would be looking at you (with her partial vision) and then she'd cock her head to the side and look up above your head. then once it reached maximum stretching ability she would lower her head back into position. all of her movements were to one side - she could only turn one way, her head would only tilt one way, and she was actually walking sideways - so we thought she might have had a stroke.
once it became apparent that keah's falling wasn't going away, my mom made a vet appointment for today. we also confined keah to the (now-carpeted) entryway, so she wouldn't break her legs on the tile or hardwood floor. as horrible as it was, keah still made me laugh last night. i hate to admit it but it was pretty funny to see keah falling down, because seriously, she was just standing, and then falling. and now that we have a diagnosis for it, we're much relieved. apparently keah has an ear problem which is causing her imbalance, and explains her head-tilting. she was probably trying to make the ear feel better, and since she couldn't shake her head (because she'd promptly fall over), the head-tilting was the only thing left to do.
so now she's probably resting at home hoping the infection goes away quickly. because we had no idea what was going on last night, we were braced for the alternate possibility of having to say goodbye to our baby. i had cleared my work schedule and arranged for someone to cover for me, but now i'm sticking it out at work, and am going to spend some quality time w/my baby this evening. phew!
Monday, July 03, 2006
go green!
well, since we've moved to burnaby and live right on the skytrain line, there's really been no excuse to not use transit, especially since i get a (slightly) discounted transit pass through work. i think i've only driven to work twice since february, which is pretty good, considering i used to drive in regularly when we lived on 16th avenue.
having a 2-zone pass isn't too bad, since i can get home door-to-door with minimal outdoor exposure (great, on the piss-rain days), plus i can get to my parents house in richmond on the same pass, without paying an extra money :-) one great feature of having a monthly pass is that on sunday's i can travel with more ppl - the guidelines are 2 adults and up to 4 children can travel for "free".
last sunday, chris and i hopped on the skytrain and made our way to new westminster quay. neither of us had actually been there in a long time, so we thought it'd be fun. well, there's not a whole lot to do there, but we managed to buy our wild salmon for dinner that night. then yesterday, we headed in a different direction and seabus-ed to lonsdale quay. we ate fish & chips in the market, checked out the shops, and watched the "tribute to elvis". unfortunately i have to be really careful when i travel by sea, because i forget that i'm prone to sea-sickness, and yesterday was no exception. by the time we got back to downtown to do a bit of shopping, i was feeling pretty horrid. between the heat and the rocking of the boat, i wasn't doing well. when we finally made it home i just crashed in bed for a while. luckily i was able to sleep it off and recover in a couple hours.
i love lazy days like yesterday......we just chilled out and relaxed. we both actually had afternoon naps, watched some movies on the pvr, ordered in some pizza, and just did nothing. what a great day :-)
having a 2-zone pass isn't too bad, since i can get home door-to-door with minimal outdoor exposure (great, on the piss-rain days), plus i can get to my parents house in richmond on the same pass, without paying an extra money :-) one great feature of having a monthly pass is that on sunday's i can travel with more ppl - the guidelines are 2 adults and up to 4 children can travel for "free".
last sunday, chris and i hopped on the skytrain and made our way to new westminster quay. neither of us had actually been there in a long time, so we thought it'd be fun. well, there's not a whole lot to do there, but we managed to buy our wild salmon for dinner that night. then yesterday, we headed in a different direction and seabus-ed to lonsdale quay. we ate fish & chips in the market, checked out the shops, and watched the "tribute to elvis". unfortunately i have to be really careful when i travel by sea, because i forget that i'm prone to sea-sickness, and yesterday was no exception. by the time we got back to downtown to do a bit of shopping, i was feeling pretty horrid. between the heat and the rocking of the boat, i wasn't doing well. when we finally made it home i just crashed in bed for a while. luckily i was able to sleep it off and recover in a couple hours.
i love lazy days like yesterday......we just chilled out and relaxed. we both actually had afternoon naps, watched some movies on the pvr, ordered in some pizza, and just did nothing. what a great day :-)
Saturday, July 01, 2006
customer service is a thing of the past
so today, i had 2 somewhat disappointing experiences w/customer service, or rather lack of customer service. the first happened after work......
i've been having some trouble w/my cell phone......sometimes my pictures from my camera phone just disappear. they're saved, but they show up as black squares. and then a couple weeks later they decide to reappear. the other problem this week has been missed calls......the incoming calls are connecting, but my ringer doesn't work regardless of what setting it's on. so i took it to a telus mobility dealer, and explained my problem. well, unfortunately for me, the pictures have been responding fine.....it wasn't a big deal before, but the ringer thing is annoying, so i figured i'd lodge all my complaints at once. then the salesperson, let's call him "dave", tests my ringer. well, wouldn't you know it, it worked! well duh! i tried it myself earlier. i thought there was some technical thing he could do to see what the problem was from before. well, then he told me to take it to a repair centre if i thought there was still something wrong with it. all the while he was sitting back without a care in the world. i wanted to tell him to piss off! of course, the actual sequence of events was a little more dramatic and involved, but it requires my in-person story-telling for full dramatic effect :-) hahahaha!
i went for dinner at milestone's w/leanne and leanna. we got there just before 7 p.m., and were seated pretty much right away. well, we waited almost 15 minutes before we were even acknowledged by our server, and we had to flag him down at that! he said he was about to come pour water for us, but i have my doubts. anyhoo, we ordered our drinks and meals simultaneously, because god knows how long we'd have to wait for him to reappear. our meals were delish, and the conversation entertaining. i was laughing so hard that my stomach was hurting :( well, our server must have thought we weren't leaving for a while, so he didn't really bother us at all......in fact, he never even came by to do the courteous "how's your meal?" 1/2-way through. when we finally asked for the bill, he quickly pulled it out of his apron, and left it for us, but when we needed to pay by credit card, he was nowhere to be found. i didn't time him, but i think it took him another 8 minutes to re-appear......long enough for us to all go the loo and back. needless to say, his 15% tip was quickly becoming non-existent. the restaurant wasn't even totally busy, so i don't see any excuse for his inattention (is that a real word?) to us.
whatever, i still had a great start to the weekend, and now i'm looking forward to relaxing over the long weekend. HAPPY CANADA DAY!
i've been having some trouble w/my cell phone......sometimes my pictures from my camera phone just disappear. they're saved, but they show up as black squares. and then a couple weeks later they decide to reappear. the other problem this week has been missed calls......the incoming calls are connecting, but my ringer doesn't work regardless of what setting it's on. so i took it to a telus mobility dealer, and explained my problem. well, unfortunately for me, the pictures have been responding fine.....it wasn't a big deal before, but the ringer thing is annoying, so i figured i'd lodge all my complaints at once. then the salesperson, let's call him "dave", tests my ringer. well, wouldn't you know it, it worked! well duh! i tried it myself earlier. i thought there was some technical thing he could do to see what the problem was from before. well, then he told me to take it to a repair centre if i thought there was still something wrong with it. all the while he was sitting back without a care in the world. i wanted to tell him to piss off! of course, the actual sequence of events was a little more dramatic and involved, but it requires my in-person story-telling for full dramatic effect :-) hahahaha!
i went for dinner at milestone's w/leanne and leanna. we got there just before 7 p.m., and were seated pretty much right away. well, we waited almost 15 minutes before we were even acknowledged by our server, and we had to flag him down at that! he said he was about to come pour water for us, but i have my doubts. anyhoo, we ordered our drinks and meals simultaneously, because god knows how long we'd have to wait for him to reappear. our meals were delish, and the conversation entertaining. i was laughing so hard that my stomach was hurting :( well, our server must have thought we weren't leaving for a while, so he didn't really bother us at all......in fact, he never even came by to do the courteous "how's your meal?" 1/2-way through. when we finally asked for the bill, he quickly pulled it out of his apron, and left it for us, but when we needed to pay by credit card, he was nowhere to be found. i didn't time him, but i think it took him another 8 minutes to re-appear......long enough for us to all go the loo and back. needless to say, his 15% tip was quickly becoming non-existent. the restaurant wasn't even totally busy, so i don't see any excuse for his inattention (is that a real word?) to us.
whatever, i still had a great start to the weekend, and now i'm looking forward to relaxing over the long weekend. HAPPY CANADA DAY!
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