all i do is complain

on sunday at fright night, it was absolutely pouring rain. i had a small backpack w/me containing all of my leon-essentials, including my wallet and cell phone. chris was carrying an umbrella, but after a certain point, it just wasn't doing any good, so we got a bit wet. probably not the smartest idea considering my cell phone was in my bag. well, of course it got a bit damp, but the good thing was that my phone still worked when we went to earl's. yah! later that night when i was setting my alarm for 5:45 on monday, 1/2 my screen was bright red. so i closed it, and re-opened it and then my entire screen was bright red. the next step, i turned my phone off. well, it never came back on again :( i tried removing the battery, hitting all the buttons, charging the battery, but nothing was working. my phone was dead.

now, i love my phone.....the motorola v710.....true, i've had issues w/it, but still, it was a good phone. i was mostly upset because i couldn't access my phone numbers to transfer them over. i'd also lost the few pictures i had on my phone as well :P

so on monday i went to cell1 and explained my situation, and they told me that even though my phone wasn't drenched, it just takes a bit of water to cause the damage, and yes, sometimes it appears to work at first and then dies later. so i asked what my options were. the guy advised me that i could have it sent in for repair, but i would get charged since water damage isn't covered under the warranty. or i could buy a new phone at regular price, since i'm already locked into my contract for 2 more years. well, i didn't have my wallet on me at that moment, so i went back to work for a bit.

i went back downstairs 1/2 hour later (i had leon with me, of course), but the guy was helping another customer, so i was assisted by a girl sitting at the counter. i explained my situation again, and i started asking her questions about the phones.....it went a little something like this.....

me: "so, here's my v710.....what phones do you have that are comparable to it?"
her: "oh your phone's been discontinued."
me: "yes, i already realize that. i want to know what i can get that is similar."
her: "um, those ones over there." (she points toward a glass case that contains about 15 phones)
me: "what? which phones, i don't understand!"
her: (she reluctantly gets off her seat, and walks to the glass case) "these ones right here."
me: "ah, i see. so i don't want to spend too much money on this phone, what cost am i looking at? i also want something w/a camera and bluetooth technology"
her: "they start at $149."
me: (exasperated) "well, which ONE is $149?"
her: "oh, this one."
me: "ok, what about the one beside it?"
her: "it's $x amount."
me: "hmmm..... ok, well, maybe i'll get the $x phone."
her: (she's sitting down again) "ok. well, it doesn't have bluetooth."
me: (WTF? did i NOT just say i want something w/bluetooth?) "well, ok, i'll get the OTHER phone then."

so that was the gist of our conversation, and by the end of it i was pretty pissed off at this girl. i was hoping for better customer service, like what the guy had provided me with 1/2 hour earlier. basically i wanted some information about the phones and what i was committing myself to for the next 2 years of my contract. i also tried to inquire about a loaner phone so i could at least think overnight....."yeah, we don't have those here." "uh, ok." end of conversation.

so i was pretty revved up after she programmed my phone, and i continued to be pissed by the time chris came home. i remembered receiving a letter from telus about their service standards....

"at TELUS, we're committing to providing you, our valued client, with exceptional value, a state-of-the-art network, cool new phones, and customer service that is second to none."

well, i agree w/the "none" part of the letter. if i hadn't just received the letter last month, i probably would have just let it go. but because i had this letter in my posession, i was going to give telus a piece of my mind about their customer service! so i called :-) i was ready to let the CSR just have it.....i was on fire! but then the guy came on the line, and he was so nice and friendly and he explained in kind words that cell1 isn't exactly telus.....they just sell the telus products, but they do give the feedback to each store location. i explained that i continue to stay w/telus because my dad is a retiree and he still does volunteer work at "the boot", and i expect better customer service when i go to the stores to spend my hard-earned money. he listened to me babble on for almost 10 minutes :-) the unfortunate thing was my timing.....their computer system was going down for the night, so he wasn't able to file my complaint, but he told me that at 8 a.m., someone would be glad to take my call. i felt a whole lot better after i talked to him. my jets had cooled, and i was smiling again. that girl at the store was going DOWN!

so i called telus back on tuesday, and relayed my message from the night before. since i was on a complaining roll, i also commented on the customer service i didn't receive a few months ago (at a different store) when i tried to explain to the guy that my phone didn't always ring, and sometimes i couldn't see my camera pix, to which he basically replied "and what do you want me to do about it?" WTF?!

now both of my complaints with two cell1 locations had been officially entered into the telus computer system for someone else to deal with. i was feeling pretty good about it all....i mean, do these ppl get annual reviews like we do at work? i think they benefit everyone involved....come on, i don't always come out smelling like roses after my review, but at least i know what i'm doing right and/or wrong!

so, that's the end of my rant. if you're going to be in customer service, then show some respect to your customers (or at least FAKE IT!)....it doesn't do you any good if i'm going to walk away and give my money to rogers or bell, or whoever else comes along! pretty soon our cell numbers are going to be portable, and believe me, i'm going to the provider who gives GREAT customer service and great prices.

leon - day 4, we're working!

monday morning.....up before the crack of dawn! i had to get up early so leon could do his business and eat breakfast before we went to work. i even made sure to pack my own b-fast and lunch so i could avoid the hassle of going out in the potential rain w/the dog.

our skytrain ride into work was fairly uneventful. i did notice a few ppl step away from him as he got on. i like to think of myself as a considerate and respectful person (except when it comes to complaining - i'll blog about that later), so i made sure leon stayed out of reach of everyone - he didn't lick anything, he didn't step on anyone, and he sure sat nicely against the pillar :-)

i had hoped to get to the office by 7:30, so we could have some quiet time, and get him settled, but we were running late.....my commute was an extra 15 minutes because of puppy. anyhoo, we finally made it and took a tour around the office to say hello to some ppl. he was a big hit! leon had ppl rolling on the floor with him, it was ridiculous! yes, everyone was dressed in their business casual, but it didn't matter :-) i designated a few play times for leon and my co-workers, so we wouldn't get interrupted throughout the workday. i think when the leash and jacket go on, the puppies know that it's time to "work". he was the best behaved puppy....he slept at my workstation, and he played with his toys, and he was soooooo cute! a few times he got too comfortable and i had to pick him up to get him going, but come on, he's just a baby!

i think our employee engagement went up 500% on this one day alone - we should've done a survey - but our productivity probably went down as well (especially mine!). even ppl who don't like dogs wanted to get a peek at him, and commented on how well-behaved he was. all in all, he was a great hit in the office.....i can't wait to take another one to work with me!

when we finally came home and he was off-duty, he went crazy! he had so much pent up energy, that he just ran around in circles for a while. when i took him back to the training centre, his friends were so excited to have him back! i let them all out in the "yard", and they went nuts, running around and barking up a storm! renee thinks they were probably asking leon where he had been all day!

leon - day 3, we're chilling w/the canucks!

on sunday afternoon, the canucks were hosting fright night at playland for their fans. upon arrival in the pouring rain, the coaching staff was introduced, and alain vigneault said a few words. nothing terribly exciting....i was just interested in getting my free hot dog, chips and pop! after all, it was a free event :-) at 4:30, the crowds were let loose, and chris, sandra, mike and i started searching for our favourite players. right away we saw markus naslund at the derby game, and "bingo, bango, luongo" (as mike kept calling him), was a few games down.

we saw other players as we wandered about, but no one worth stopping to chat with. sandra and i were on the hunt for trevor linden! since the rides were free for all, the 3 of them went to ride the hellevator. since i'm not a fan of rides, and i had leon with me, i opted to stay dry under cover :-) this is where i struck up a conversation with ryan kesler and josh green! i tell ya, if you want to meet people, you've GOT to get a dog! make sure it's cute though, cuz no one's interested in an ugly dog. so ryan and i started the dog-talk.....he asked about leon, and he started telling me about his 3 dogs. we were interrupted a few times by kids wanting pictures and autographs - how rude! it would have been great to get our picture taken together, but i wasn't feeling very coordinated to make it happen. oh well.

afterwards, we finally found trevor linden - he was at the coaster the whole time. unfortunately we didn't realize that the players' appearance ended at 5:30, so by the time we had gotten in line, he was just getting ready to leave :P i was hoping that in my overactive imagination, trevor would see me w/leon and make a dash over to us. at this point leon was completely soaking wet, hadn't slept in several hours, and was actually shivering from the cold. after chris and sandra rode the coaster, we called it a day, and leon was whisked away to the warmth of the car.

after we all dried up a bit, we headed to earl's for dinner. leon immediately lay down and slept for the duration of our meal....nothing was going to interrupt his beauty sleep! and actually, he was going to need the rest, because after dinner it was off to watch chris, sandra and the rest of their team play some v-ball.











at 11 p.m. we all called it a night and fell asleep :-)

leon - day 2, plus we were cooking!

so today (saturday), leon and i took a skytrain ride to gm place to pick up the fright night tickets through the vancouver canucks. he was a very good boy on the train :-) after we came home, i loaded him into the car and we had a few more errands to run. leon's a very docile labrador retriever - he doesn't get fazed by anything, he doesn't bite very hard, and he loves to chill.

today i was having 6 people over for dinner....that would be the maximum number i could have at one time, since i only have table settings for 8 ppl :P (my mom has since asked me if i want more dishes - perhaps to seat 10 or 12 ppl - but then i'd need a bigger table, so i passed on her offer.) tara and anna showed up mid-afternoon, and then we met sandra and ang at save-on-foods. we had a few groceries to pick-up for our chicken pot pie accompanied by a green salad, and our chocolate mousse. we caused some excitement at save-on since we had a puppy w/us! i've gotten used to the staring, the whispering "oooh, puppy-in-training", the ppl running forward to pet the puppy, the ppl sidestepping away in uncertainty, and all the questions ppl have.

then we were down to business....once i had taken care of leon, i put him into his kennel for some quiet time so i could actually do some of the work in the kitchen. the chicken pot pie was pretty straight forward.....a bunch of veggies and some chicken.....it was a bit tedious because of the chicken stock.....boil it here, strain it there, save it here, etc. etc. but with 5 girls, the entire prpearation was surprisingly quick. we were multi-tasking today - ang was working on the chocolate mousse.....my only contribution to the dessert was mixing the sugar and chocolate together.....it appeared to be on a downhill spiral, so ang and sandra muddled through it. anna, tara and i focussed our attention on our veggies boiling in the chicken stock, only to discover that some of it had burned at the bottom of the pot. oh well!

once the chicken and veggies were combined, all that was left was the top crust. we went biscuit-style....and to quote tara "it tastes like a scone.....with chicken." (or something to that effect!) i had to agree with her....it was very biscuit-like - i'm not sure why it didn't really dawn on me when we first talked about it either. i would rather have the pastry topping. anyways, the directions for the topping were confusing....i didn't understand why i would knead dough with knives. sandra explained to me what it meant, and everyone has their own preference - anna likes to use the knives and sandra prefers her hands....i was with sandra on this....i think it's more efficient, plus i'm washable! i'm not sure if i've ever kneaded dough before (i might have been 5 the last time i did it), so sandra took the helm, and kneaded away using my plastic cups. (side note to sandra.....add a rolling pin to our shopping list!)

ryan and mike showed up for dinner, and even chris managed to sit down with us all, too. our meal was complemented by a white wine (2005 hardy's riesling gewurtztraminer - a.k.a. our wedding wine) and a red wine that mike brought (2002 cedar creek platinum reserve merlot). since i love sweet wines, i polished off my glass of wedding wine :-) yum-yum!

the chicken pot pies were really yummy, and chris and i managed to take leftovers for lunch today. the mousse was really good as well. i had originally thought it was going to be like a whipped light mousse, but it was a heavier one - still very yummy with the chocolate shavings on top!

today, we used these never-before-used items....
8 martini glasses
8 denby smokestone placemats
plus we even used our DISHWASHER! i think this could be the 3rd time.

good food, good company.....a great night :-)

leon - our first rejection

today i picked up leon from PADS at 4:30 p.m. he was very excited to be going home with someone :-) we got settled at home, and went for a little walk around the 'hood.

we were going out for vanessa's birthday and chose House of Tofu Soup as our location. it would be my first asian restaurant outing with a puppy....should be interesting! well, it was over so fast, i don't know really know what to call it except UPSETTING!

leon and i waited outside the restaurant until our table was ready, since it was a little crowded in the doorway. after a few minutes, we walked the 15 feet to our table, sat down, and then were promptly told to leave - we were upsetting other diners and no dogs allowed. we had barely been in the restaurant long enough for anyone to complain, let alone see leon! i kindly explained to them that the puppy was in training to be an assistance dog for disabled people and showed them the ID badge supplied by PADS (as if the bright yellow cape weren't ID enough!). well, their english wasn't very strong, so the waitress basically ignored me, so i asked to speak to her manager. well, apparently the waitress was only going to acknowledge priscilla (we think they thought she was korean, and would communicate on my behalf), but they were sadly mistaken. priscilla took the ID badge and relayed the same information to the owner, but he ignored her completely. we had a nice mother/son sitting behind us (did i mention that our table was isolated, and leon was sitting on the inside of the table and was falling asleep during the commotion), and they knew exactly what leon's role was, and offered to translate for us. it was a sweet thought, but the manager didn't want anything to do with them either.

since they obviously weren't going to serve us, we thanked the ppl sitting behind us for their effort, got up and proceeded to leave. i wanted to talk to the manager directly and explain to him that i would be reporting this incident to PADS, and that if a disabled person had actually come to the restaurant with an assistance dog, he would be obligated by law to accommodate them (i'm going to talk to PADS on monday and find out the exact rules/laws). however, he was hiding in the back kitchen, so i took out my frustration with the waitress who didn't understand english :P i was quite upset by the turn of events, and was raising my voice so everyone around could hear me. it was a quick education that these are not regular pets....they are assistance dogs who help ppl with disabilities to have as normal a life as possible!

i was curious to test out another korean restaurant nearby, but they had a rather large crowd already waiting at the doorway, so we left. earl's, here we come! as expected, we were welcomed with open arms and enjoyed a good meal while leon slept at our feet.

the problem i now face is "are all asian restaurants like this?" we go out to ethnic restaurants all the time....will we get rejected again? do we need to get our ethnic-cravings taken care of during the week when we are without a puppy? i'll update my blog when i find out from PADS how they deal with a situation like we experienced, and what the rules are about refusing service to someone with a service dog (regardless of whether they are able-bodied or not).

he's coming!

i was so unbelievably excited and nervous last night, that i couldn't sleep! i had puppy on my mind all night :-)

i'm excited because:
i'm bringing home another puppy!
i've got so much planned this weekend, it's going to be insane!
i get to bring leon to work with me on monday!

i'm nervous because:
i've never been around boy dogs. i hope it goes well this weekend :-)
i hope i haven't bitten off more than i can chew.....hopefully leon will be a good boy, and cooperate w/me. skeena was rather lazy and had to be dragged around.
we're going to fright night, and i'm a scaredy cat!

i also found out last night that i was approved to take a puppy to a canucks game at the end of october! whoo-hoo!

i cooked!

wow, after umpteen weeks of not using my stove, i finally did it today! i made yummy mexican meatballs......check it out!

from real simple magazine (july 2006)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, finely chopped
1 jalapeno, seeded and finely chopped
1 pound ground pork
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
1 large egg
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 16-oz jar salsa

heat oven to 400F. heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large, preferably ovenproof skillet over medium heat. add the onion and cook until softened, about 3 minutes. add the garlic and jalapeno and cook for 1 minute. remove from heat, let cool. in a large bowl, combine the pork, bread crumbs, egg, salt, pepper, cumin, and onion mixture. shape into 12 meatballs. wipe out skillet, add the remaining oil and heat over medium-high heat. brown the meatballs on all sites, about 7 minutes total. if not using an ovenproof skillet, transfer the meatballs to a baking dish. pour the salsa over the top. bake until cooked through, about 25 minutes.

the only thing that i realized after was i probably used almost 2 pounds of ground pork. i probably should have used another egg and some more bread crumbs so my meatballs weren't so crumbly.....i only "lost" about 6 of them....which isn't too bad considering i made more than 2 dozen meatballs.

congrats hon, it's a boy!

hahaha, that's what i said to chris as he awoke from his afternoon nap yesterday! if he weren't so sleepy i'm sure he would've had a better reaction than just dazed :-) i received confirmation that we're getting a boy puppy on friday from PADS. i've never had a boy dog before, so this should be interesting. hopefully he won't feel the need to mark his territory all over our condo!

we've got lots of activities planned for this weekend.....much more than my weekend with skeena. hopefully now that the litter is a couple weeks older, they'll have a bit more energy to go out! leon is going to have so many playmates this weekend, i'm hoping he'll actually sleep through the night :-) and, fingers crossed, i'll be able to bring him to work with me on monday! the puppy-sitting coordinator will let me know later this week, just to make sure leon doesn't have any prior committments on monday....can you imagine?! i'm laughing just thinking about it!

when was the last time i cooked?

you know, i honestly can't remember the last time i cooked a meal at home.....it's a little ridiculous, but also a testament to how much i don't like to cook! i have to say that the past week has been crazy busy. after having skeena for the weekend, my weeknights were jam-packed full of activities.

monday night - physio for my shoulder, cuddling w/the puppies, and then chris and i ate at insadong, a korean bbq restaurant on lougheed/north road. it was late, and we were both tired, so we opted to not bbq, and just had soup instead.

tuesday night - dinner at my parents house as usual.

wednesday night - renee, sophia and i went to see dianne's baby daughter, savvie....isn't she cute? then we headed over to hon's for dinner. strangely enough, when i asked what types of vegetables they had, one of them was spinach..... we chose shanghai bok choy.











thursday night - i headed out to cactus club to meet my former co-workers, bal & sati, for dinner. bal brought along callum, her 3.5 month old son. i first met him when he was only 6 days old, and weighed in at 6 lbs! how times have changed!

friday night - i met up w/my friend selena and we headed to hapa izakaya. since we didn't have a reservation, we waited about 50 minutes before we actually got seated. but the food was so good it was definitely worth the wait. we ordered ebi mayo, beef tataki, lotus root gyoza, karrage jyan, one of the hot stone bowl rice dishes, enoki mushrooms wrapped in bacon, and another dish that i can't remember right now :P we were incredibly full afterwards, but there was still room for starbucks when chris came to meet up w/us!

saturday - no puppy :( i was terribly sad and lonely so i ended up cleaning the house :P i actually had planned on cooking dinner, but chris insisted we go eat w/his dad. it was worth it.....we had crab, squab and fish for dinner. delish!

sunday - again, no puppy, still terribly sad. we ended up at floata for dim sum. that helped cheer me up a bit :-) since we had thanksgiving dinner at my mom's house that night, i decided to make chocolate espresso cookies. unfortunately, i'm somewhat illiterate and didn't read the entire instructions before i got started. it was one of the those doughs you have to refrigerate for an hour before cutting and baking. well, i didn't have time for that, so i quickly changed gears and turned them into chocolate chocolate chip cookies. they were pretty good!

actually, now that i think about it, this week has been all about kids.....dianne's baby, bal's baby, and then last night at dinner, andrea's baby. well brianna's not a baby anymore, she's 3 years old! she's a really cute little girl, who always talks about herself in the 3rd person (her nicknames are b and beena). "beena not sleepy." "beena go pee-pee." "beena under table." "beena go see keah." "sssh, beena go cache." (keah's my 14 year old yellow lab. cache is french for hide. brianna is somewhat biligual.) well, by 10 p.m., chris and i were exhausted from beena.....she is a non-stop bundle of energy! given this alternative, chris will gladly accept a puppy anyday :-)

well, i gotta sign off now....we're off to ihop for breakfast....

united way - our work campaign

so last week we had our office fundraising campaign benefiting the united way of the lower mainland. we had many activities planned, all of which were a great hit. on friday afternoon, we try to think of something fun for all our associates to end the week, so this year it was a videogame competition. contestants were randomly paired up and played pacman - world rally. the top 8 advanced to the next round which was a boxing match. the winners advanced to round 3 which was DANCE DANCE REVOLUTION! of course, no one knew ahead of time exactly what games were going to be played and when. so off came the shoes, and i performed a demo, since it was my DDR game :-) i love DDR. and seriously, seeing ppl with absolutely no coordination try to DDR their way through, is absolutely hilarious. i thought a few ppl might actually pee in their pants cuz they were laughing so hard! funny enough, round 3 and the finale were all men....even funnier!

and lo-and-behold, i saw this article on the internet today....

Get on Your Dancing Shoes Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA style for the PlayStation 2
28/09/2006 2:53:00 PM
More than 70 songs and multiple music genres are available on the newest version of DDR
Get ready to dance to the music with another DDR title from Konami.

Konami Digital Entertainment told the gaming world today that Dance Dance Revolution SuperNOVA is headed to the PlayStation 2.

DDR SuperNOVA brings the video game phenomenon to new heights, featuring several new gameplay modes while boasting the largest number of tracks of any Dance Dance Revolution title to date with more than 70 songs across multiple genres and styles of music. DDR SuperNOVA features several all-new modes aimed at beginners and DDR experts alike. An expanded Tutorial Mode will teach new users the necessary DDR dancing skills while an exciting Battle Mode lets players compete by altering their opponents' dance steps in real-time.
The popular Workout Mode returns, letting players get in shape while dancing; monitoring how many calories they have burned on the path to their fitness goals.

Online multiplayer gameplay and EyeToy USB Camera (for PlayStation2) support round out the complete music video game package that will keep players of all ages and abilities moving to the beat. Packed with smash hits and dance favorites, the game will feature tracks from Fall Out Boy, David Bowie, Franz Ferdinand and The Crystal Method. New to the series, DDR SuperNOVA will also feature a selection of music videos, letting player dance while they watch their favorite artists perform. DDR SuperNOVA uses a completely new graphics engine to deliver vibrant 3D backgrounds, cool music videos and crisp player models. On-screen dancers are displayed with new animations that offer life-like realism and new visual effects that bring the game's eclectic soundtrack to life.

There is also an arcade version of DDR SuperNOVA now playable at various arcades across Canada.

i think i need to go shopping.....!