it was touch-and-go, but my baby's gonna be fine!

last night was a little stressful. we had dinner at my parents' house, and upon my arrival, my dog was sleeping on her bed at the front door. she was so peaceful and cute, it's hard to believe that she's now a 14-year-old! well, that lasted all of 15 minutes, because once she got up, it's easy to see her age. she took a little stroll 6 feet into the kitchen area, and promptly fell over. i didn't witness it, but she quickly got up and came back to bed. and then she fell over again. just like a tree falling down, one minute she's standing on all 4's, and then the next, she's actually fallen over.

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!

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 :-)

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!

summertime, summertime, sum-sum summertime!

so i have a lot of thoughts on my mind right now. renee, perhaps i should be on the THOUGHT leadership committee?!?! good thing i'm on the IDEAS xchange committee! hahahaha!

anyways, back to my next topic...... it's the dog days of summer (i don't know what that means, but i've heard it before, and i'm using it now!), and after suffering through our first extremely hot week of the summer, i have a few things to say.......

1. everyone should take a shower EVERY DAY!
2. after taking a shower, everyone should use anti-persperent or deodorant! come on......it's only $3, and the blasted thing lasts for a long time! definitely $ well spent.
3. don't stand in the skytrain (or other mode of transit) and hold onto the ceiling - first, we don't need to smell your pits since you obviously don't take item 2 into consideration; second, how on earth is finger-tipping the ceiling going to prevent you from falling onto someone else?; third, there is no third - just don't be so stupid!!!!
4. why is it so hard to follow the office dresscode? i don't like to be a snitch, but seriously, if i get busted for something (the eternal flip-flops vs. sandals debate), then the wrath of tres will fall upon everyone else. these are dress code violations from this week........why are ppl wearing jeans when it's not friday? is it so hard to put on a bra that doesn't show any nipples? or to wear the proper thong when you wear a light coloured pair of pants or skirt? ugh! i don't care what these ppl do outside of the office, but come on, we're in downtown vancouver, and there's a certain standard to follow, right? or am i wrong?
5. why can everyone take summer friday's off except me? today, out of my team of 14 ppl, only 5 of us are working in the office (1 person is leaving at noon) and 2 are working from home. i hate friday's because with so few ppl in the office, it's less motivating to do any work, hence my blog update :-)
6. starbucks came out w/more new bevvies! i'm definitely going to try them this weekend! i was slightly upset this a.m. when i found out there was no banana creme crunch bar for breakfast, and i had to settle for a date bar :-(
7. hey! today is keah's 14th birthday! when she was a puppy we used to buy her new toys and treats to celebrate, but now since she's on a rice/chicken/senior food diet, we don't get her anything. plus she's a little crotchety in her old age......she bit me a couple months ago, when i approached her from behind to pet her. i guess that's what happens when you're 80% deaf and 50% blind.
8. both of my grandma's are turning 96 years old next week. if it's genetic, then i guess i still have a lot of living to do :-) sadly, my grandpa's both passed away in their late 80's, or one of the might have been 90......i can't remember, but the creepy thing is they both passed away on the exact same day, one year apart. yikes!

well, on that happy note, i think i'll go pretend to work now. i've been blogging long enough.

eating out

so last week we were really good about eating at home every night. this week, not so much.

mondays are awkward because i visit the puppies from 7 - 8 p.m., so we tend to eat a really late dinner, and i usually opt for something easy like pasta. having said that, we weren't very organized on sunday so i ended up buying a frozen lasagna for dinner. of course, i should have looked at the cooking time on that sucker........didn't realize it would take 90-100 minutes to cook. needless to say we didn't actually eat dinner until after 9:30 :P

tuesday night was the canucks state of the franchise event at gm place. the event itself was pretty boring......dave nonis managed to dodge around most of the questions. i was further disappointed that our new head coach alain whatever-his-name-is wasn't at the event. every year in the past it's always been the gm and the coach at the event to meet-and-greet the season ticket holders. they've even had a few canucks players attend in the past - no one super popular, but still the effort was there. whatever. so after the event, we headed to honjin w/mike and sandra. of all the things to eat on a super-hot day, i chose the tempura udon. i had a craving!

wednesday night i headed out to cactus club w/vanessa. a delish meal as always! we even splurged and had dessert.....i had the key lime pie - it was more on the tart side, but i LOVE sour things!

thursday night i was supposed to go out w/my former co-workers, but at 3:30 things started to fall apart. sort of. my friend bal is/was pregnant and her due date is/was july 4. well, her son decided to arrive 8 days early! so needless to say, she wasn't up for dinner. so i trudged home, and contemplated what to do for dinner, since chris was working late. i really, really wanted sushi garden......after talking to ang earlier this week it's all i can think about.....btw, ang, if you're reading this, we DEFINITELY have to go next week! mmmmm, spicy tuna roll, alaska roll and gyoza! but then once i got home, i didn't feel like leaving. so i dug through my kitchen and heated up some tator tots (w/frank's red hot sauce, of course), 2 eggs (benedict style, without the ham or english muffin), and sweet corn soup. a stupid dinner, but it didn't cost me anything.

because i haven't been cooking, i don't have anything to take for lunch, but i did plan ahead, and bought michelina's frozen pastas and a few chicken buns from new-town bakery. only $3 for my lunch! it's still cheaper than going out and buying something from the foodcourt :P

tonight, i'm meeting up w/lea squared (hee-hee!) and we're heading out somewhere nearby my home, i think.

an update on last night/this morning

so, i finished off at 4:24 when we got back up from the 3rd fire alarm. well, after this 3rd one, there was no way we could sleep. the sun was starting to rise, it was a bit cooler in the condo, and i was hungry. so i had breakfast and watched tv. chris watched a movie. 5 a.m. rolls around and the alarm goes off AGAIN! this time i put my ear plugs in to dull the shrill sounds. a few minutes later it was turned off. 5:08.....this is the 5th time! but before i even have time to get my ear plugs, it's been turned off. i hope someone threw an axe into the control panel. blasted alarm!

well, after only an hour of sleep the entire night, i finally threw in the towel, and i passed out at 5:30. well, my alarm went off at 6:30......lucky me. i almost threw my cell phone out the door (i actually fell asleep w/the balony door open) when the alarm went off because all i could hear in my mind was the freaking fire alarm. good thing i set a back-up alarm, and at 6:35 i rolled out of bed and got ready to face monday.

it's not looking like a good day today. i'm feeling really cranky. i've already stared down a few ppl en route to work (and at work). the only person who got a smile from me today was the starbucks barista......triple grande iced latte :-) i think i'll get another after lunch.......

oh yeah, and i saw a huge billboard for the new summer drink......pomegranate frappacino.....i love pomegranates! i'll have to try it tonight. but still, it's not enough to make up for last night.

perhaps i'll just sleep in the roundabout tonight.......

what a night :P

yes, it's 3:30 a.m. PST and i'm working on my blog. i really wish i were in bed fast asleep, but apparently that's not meant to be tonight.

today at 10:45 p.m. our fire alarm went off. we made our way downstairs, and our resident manager was there as well. she was pretty sure it was a false alarm, but the fire trucks were en route so we had to stay outside. as predicted she was correct, but the firemen still had to do a complete inspection at the source of the alarm, so we were outside for about 1/2 hour. not too bad, and after shlepping up 8 flights, chris and i were asleep by 1 a.m., which is sometimes our norm.

well, the 2:15 a.m. wake-up call was not the norm. yes, our fire alarm went off again. if i were one of those ppl who could sleep through anything or didn't have a conscience, then i would have been content to stay in bed. however, i am neither of those types of ppl, so off we trudged back down the stairs to "safety". also, since i'm a fire warden at work, i guess i feel some moral obligation to set an example.......even though none of the ppl in my condo know this. at 2:15 a.m. i also didn't really care what i looked like......i was the only person outside in a bathrobe and flipflops. everyone else (including chris) put on some clothes. i couldn't care less. even the possibility of really hot firemen couldn't motivate me. but of course, they were the same crew that had visited us 3 hours earlier. why would anything change in the middle of the night?

so after the pretty hot firemen let us back into our building, we trudged back up the stairs to our home, where it's like 30 degrees inside.......so much for a cool north-facing unit :P perhaps i can't sleep because i'm anticipating the alarm to go off again, so what's the point of sleeping? btw, the alarm was tripped at the same location in both instances. or perhaps it's because i know i'm getting up in 3 hours to go to work, and seriously, my night is shot already, so i'll just order myself a quintuple-shot latte in the morning, and see where it gets me. i'm going to be soooooo cranky!!!!!!!

and to top it all off, earlier today there was the sound of splashing water outside our balcony, and since it was a super-hot day, i peeked outside to see what was going on. there was a torrent of water cascading down onto my balcony......someone above us was washing their freaking balcony! well, i stuck my head out and looked up, only to get my face splashed with dirty soapy water. so gross! i called our resident manager and left her a message indicating that the unit 2 floors above me was conducting this disturbing offence. hopefully this person will get fined - after all, we've had warnings at our AGM and in our strata minutes, as well as notes posted in the elevators! i tried yelling up at the unit above, however, they were obviously ignoring me or else they just didn't care.

so it's now 4:24 a.m. no, it hasn't taken me an hour to enter this blog. at 3:44 our fire alarm was tripped yet again and we've just come back from sitting outside. this time only 5 ppl actually left the building. the only reason we left was that i was up anyways, and chris couldn't sleep through the annoying alarm - i'm not sure how it didn't bother other residents!?!?

now i only have 2 hours until my alarm is going to wake me up for work. after trudging down and shlepping back up the stairs 3 times, i just don't think i can sleep. but how can i make it through a MONDAY with only 75 minutes of sleep? wish me luck!

i think hell has frozen over!

chris and i have cooked dinner at home for 6 nights in a row! here was our menu......

monday - spaghetti w/ground pork
tuesday - steaks w/roast potatoes & brocolli, sweet corn soup
wednesday - sweet & sour prawns on rice
thursday - chinese-style spareribs on rice, soup w/baby bok choy
friday - baby back ribs w/baked potatoes and green salad
saturday - leftover ribs w/rice :-)

here are some pictures of our thursday/friday dinners.....

offensive cars = exploding heads (w/great haircuts!)

there's always something to bitch about. a day that started out w/great hair and leftover spareribs for lunch (super yum!), dwindled after work and has ended w/my head exploding.

i get so riled up sometimes, that i don't think i'm fit to live in a shared environment. chris and i own 2 parking spots - one came w/the condo we purchased (my spot), and then we ended up buying a second one (chris' spot) shortly before we moved in. today when i came home from work everything was fine and dandy, until i went to my car. i didn't notice right away, but as i was pulling away, i saw it. someone had parked in chris' parking spot! well, i had stuff to do, so i went off to run some errands, but as i'm driving, i frantically call chris and scream at him the upsetting news. now chris isn't one to get upset easily, so he brushed it off, whereas apparently i'm off my rocker. meanwhile, i'm at the mall doing some shopping, and all i can think about is that offensive car, and hoping they've moved it in the 10 minutes i've been gone. nope, no such luck. ok, i was gone for 1/2 hour, but it was still there.

in that 1/2 hour, i had drafted about 30 different nasty notes (containing various profanities) to leave on the offensive vehicle. i went upstairs to drop off my shopping, and ran back down w/a note (i went through 3 drafts). i was fairly nice, considering the nature of the violation (i categorized this under HUGE!), and indicated this person was parked in MY (chris') parking spot. as i was about to tuck it under the offending windshield, there was a note on the car's dash......"i own parking spot #xxx." uh, ok, so what does that mean? i'll tell you what it means......it means this idiot has knowingly parked in MY (chris') spot, due to whatever reason......(i'm not sure, but it's possible someone else parked in their spot). so i left my original note on the windshield, and went to see my puppies......after all, it is monday night! how could my mood not improve? well, i had an hour of distracted bliss as the puppies kept me entertained :-)

then i came home. ok, the blasted car is still parked in MY (chris') spot. so upstairs i go, and draft yet another note......this time addressing the issue of their spot (#xxx), and how they shouldn't inconvenience other owners (that would be ME (chris), and perhaps they should leave a note (as i had done to him/her) to the person inconveniencing them. or "ALTERNATIVELY, PARK ON THE STREET!" so i tucked my 2 page note (i used a thick black felt pen :P) under the wiper and discarded my original note. (at our AGM, we were told to leave notes for fellow drivers if we have issues w/them....i.e., don't hog the line when you park or use care when you open your door so you don't hit my car. i figured a note was suitable for this situation, as i didn't want to totally piss off the ppl chris has to park beside.)

then i had to cook dinner......i called chris 3 times in 5 minutes because i was totally obsessing over this. i ate dinner solo, and then i conveniently had to throw out the garbage, so i headed back down to the parking lot to see if the car had moved. nope. my head is starting to hurt at this point. i'm out of my mind trying to decide what to do. in my mind i had resolved to wait 24 hours before taking drastic action........but when you're pissed off, it seems like an eternity. chris finally came home shortly after 10, and announced the car was still there. bloody hell! it was a bit too late to call the resident manager anyways, so i opted to e-mail the property management firm. i very nicely explained the situation, and asked what further action could be taken by the end of the day tomorrow. they're pretty quick at responding, so i should know first thing in the a.m. basically i want the blasted car picked up, and thrown into the garbage bin! how dare this person take the liberty of picking a random parking stall to use as their temporary home?!

i took yet another trip down to the parking lot - i'm not sure why i thought the car would be gone, but i was sure hoping. my 2 page note was still under the wiper, so i gave up for the night. my head was just throbbing at this point, and nothing was going to make it feel better. i swear, perhaps it's a good thing i'm not on the strata council - i'd hand out violations and tow ppl left, right and centre! don't even get me started about the time someone's balcony water splashed on me as i walked home, OR the fact that i see residents regularly park in the visitor's parking after chris and i PAID to get a 2nd stall so we could be bylaw-abiding residents!!!!!!!!! ARGH!

i think i have pms.

saucy! sassy! you look like you're 12! (????)

yes, these are just a few of the many, many, many words i've heard this morning about my new 'do! i took the plunge on saturday and chopped off all my hair. i don't think my hair's been this short since i was in grade 4 and my mom gave me a "bowl" cut :P yikes! my hair is the talk of the office today - it's like being back from vacation, and everyone wants to know the details! i've been called young before, but i think 12 is the lowest! hahahaha!

chris took the new look quite well - he had a week's warning that i was going to cut it to at least chin-length, so it wasn't a big shock when it turned out to be shorter than that!

the only thing i would love right now is to add some red highlights. i opted for the short cut so i could actually have my natural colour back and to keep my hair healthy for awhile. it's been so dry and damaged for the past 10 years, i'm going for a new look. plus this 'do is gonna keep me nice and cool for the summer months! rock on! whoo-hoo!