here's magic!

magic is such a sweet little boy!

chris and magic....having a snooze :-)

looking forward to a magical weekend!

yah! i'm getting another puppy :-) tonight i'm picking up magic....he's spirit's brother, and i'm so excited to get him. we bonded on monday night at the kennel....he crawled right onto my lap, got comfie, and fell asleep for a little nap. of course, he's not so little. in fact, he's quite large for a 3.5 month old puppy. no more cuddling on the couch :-(

chris and i will have to enjoy our puppy-weekend....we won't be getting another dog for 3 weeks after this....in addition to a jam-packed girls night next friday, i think i'll hit the spa next saturday, and then my parents are on yet another cruise in early march, so i'll have to spend some QT w/my old girl, keah, at their house.

oh well, only a few more hours till i pick up magic! can't wait!

happy valentine's day!

ah yes, february 14 :-) in honour of valentine's day, i actually baked sugar cookies, used my heart-shaped cookie cutter, and iced them w/royal icing. unfortunately, my "red" dye isn't very red. so my hearts are hot pink :P argh!

so now i have lots of valentines at work as i share my baking. i also gave some to my mom who's alone today :( my dad & bro headed up to big white and don't come back until tomorrow night. i'm also going to share some cookies w/my physiotherapist - she loves me, and she's got a sweet tooth. a couple weeks ago, i even took her ice cream. i'm such a suck :-)

i actually got a valentine's surprise at work today. yum!

happy v-day!

february - a lot of anniversaries :-)

february 10, 1998 - chris and i went out on our first date. with his grandma :P kind of weird, i know. she wanted to see titanic, so we took her with us. so actually our 2nd date would have been our first "official" date....i believe we went to earl's for wings :-) ah, the good'ol days!

february 11, 2002 - i started working at hewitt. can't believe it's been 5 years! this year i get an extra week of vacation :-) and then i accrue 1 extra day of vacation every year going forward. sweet! god forbid i'm still here at 10 years, i'll get a 2 week vacation splash!

february 8, 2006 - chris and i got possession of our brand-new condo!

february 12, 2006 - chris and i moved into our condo!

ah yes, the condo. we've had our fair-share of deficiencies.....and in typical tres-style, one more thing went wrong after our 1-year was up, and it's now our responsibility to fix.....another cupboard door came right off it's hinge :P we've learned a lot of lessons this past year....

1. before you use any water, make sure all the pipes are tightened properly, otherwise you'll have leaks under all your sinks :P
2. before you hang shower curtains and take a shower, make sure the shower rod is actually securely fastened to the walls. otherwise there's a good chance you'll wake up your significant other when the shower rod comes crashing down during your shower.
3. if you can, make sure all cupboard doors have been securely fastened. it sucks when you open a cupboard door, and it just falls on the floor :P
4. check your walls. you never know when someone's played X's & O's on your bathroom wall with their fingernails :P
5. when you have that crackly ceiling finish, look closely for cracks. we're still waiting for our 12-inch crack to be patched up.
6. beware of falling light fixtures! unfortunately these things are hard to predict....i never saw it coming :P
7. figure out how to remove bath tub pluggers before it's too late and you've got a clog :P

all-in-all, it hasn't been a bad year. it sucks to be on the hook for everything going forward. it's been nice to make a one-stop call and have someone bring the equipment and tools required to fix things for you. ah, well.....i guess that's what husbands are for :-)

happy anniversaries, dear!

SOUTH AFRICA: President acknowledges crime is a problem

ever since chris and i started going out 9 years ago (almost to this day!), i've always been interested in his south african background. i had never known there to be such a large chinese south african population in vancouver, but surprisingly enough, there are a lot of them!

when i was growing up, a special needs teacher at my elementary school was a chinese south african. she had immigrated to canada with her children and they were raised here. but when i was a kid, i just knew her as the nice (short!) lady with the funny accent :-) also in elementary school, my best friend's background was south african as well - her dad was from capetown, not johannesburg, like chris' family. in high school, i found out my friend tara's mom was from jo'burg as well. and now a co-worker of mine is actually the son of my father-in-law's good friend from jo'burg. such a small world!

i've always had this picture in my head of what south africa was like, and chris always reminds me a little bit deluded :P there aren't zebras and elephants walking through your backyard. the crime rate is ridiculously high, no one leaves their barricaded homes after dark, and anyone could be killed over anything at anytime. so sad.

so when i saw the news headline today, i was captivated. i can't imagine living in such terrifying conditions. hopefully someday in the future, it will be safe enough for us to visit the country, johannesburg in particular, since that's where chris' history is. chris still has lots of family in south africa, and many of them are trying to escape from the fear of daily living. unfortunately it's not as easy as packing your bag and booking a flight out of SA.

i guess i really am a naive city girl....

not the weekend i had in mind :(

waaahhh, i got sick! i guess it was only a matter of time before i got the office bug :P it seemed as though everyone was coming down with a version of the cold or flu, and i finally got it. strangely enough, chris also came down with the bug, but not nearly as bad as me. he was just sick at x-mas, so i think he's suffered his fair share of illness.

needless to say, i spent most of the weekend sleeping in bed. this wasn't the ideal situation for my PADS puppy, diamond. she was just a bundle of energy that wasn't well matched for my laid-back sick mood. i had called pads on saturday afternoon and overnight i made the decision to return diamond. i just needed to stay inside in bed, and taking her outside constantly wasn't improving my condition. also, diamond didn't seem to like chris very much, so he wasn't able to help out. oh well.

now i'm all relaxed and drugged up, and ready for another good night's sleep!

bling it on!

oh yeah, i'm getting some bling bling this weekend! diamond's are definitely a girls' best friend, especially when they come in the form of an 11-week old yellow lab! that's right girls, we're bringing diamond home w/us this weekend :-) similar to spirit, she's been out with puppy-sitters constantly, and hasn't spent much time at the PADS kennel, so i've been told she's pretty good at the housetraining....i guess we'll see tomorrow!

i've got diamond until wednesday night, so look for us out and about! so far, we'll be going out for dawn's 30th birthday on saturday, and then keeping an eye on chris' v-ball team on sunday. other than that, we'll just be chilling :-)

fab weekend at big white!

greetings from the big white bear! we're back from our weekend ski trip at big white. the skiing was fabulous, the weather was gorgeous, and the food was plentiful! and of course, the laughter just kept on going! this bear at our condo was a conversation piece and a barrelful of hijinks :-) i'll post more pix after everyone shares theirs....this year, i wasn't very camera-happy, so i didn't take any pictures. so unlike me! but also, this is the first year i've skiied both saturday and sunday ALL DAY! i know! usually i get sucked into the hot tub after lunch and never get out. but this year, i was so stoked about skiing, that i couldn't get enough :-) i think i'd be up for at least 3 or 4 days of skiing next year. we'll see how the plans for that go!

my Spirit is gone

what a weekend! chris and i welcomed spirit, a 12-week-old yellow lab into our home on friday night. right away, spirit and i were out and about. it was our monthly girls night and we headed to milestone's for dinner. being the adorable little puppy she is, spirit attracted a lot of attention at the restaurant :-) all the attention tired my baby girl, and she slept through our entire meal. so calm!

chris was very excited to meet spirit when we got home, and the two of them spent some quality time together......

(she just crawled right into chris' lap!)

on saturday, spirit and i spent the day chillaxing at home. in the evening we went for dinner at earl's, and then went to soho to wish pauline a happy 30th birthday :-) thank goodness pauline loves puppies, because i think spirit stole a bit of pauline's thunder! we had ppl flocking around us trying to meet the puppy. i think it was the most attention any of my puppies have ever had!

on sunday we went to visit grandma at the old ppl's home. spirit was very well behaved and wasn't bothered by the wheelchairs. and then she had playtime back at home with ang, who came to visit us while ryan played v-ball. speaking of v-ball, i took spirit to harry jerome to watch chris' team play. she was a bit overwhelmed during warm-ups with all the balls flying everywhere :-) she quickly realized that they weren't going to come her way, so she settled down for a nap.

since i had spirit until wednesday night, she accompanied me to work. as always the puppy was a big hit in the office. several associates were smitten with spirit.....

and finally our time had come to an end and i parted ways with her. her brothers and sisters were very happy to have her back at home w/them. and now i don't have to worry about carrying a puppy down 8 flights of stairs at 2 a.m. when our fire alarm decides to go off :P bloody hell, that was a rough night!

(phew! work is tiring!)

a week of food

such a busy week!

on tuesday night my workmates and i ate dinner a hapa izakaya with a co-worker from our toronto office. unfortunately the restaurant was having technical difficulties in the kitchen that prevented them from making the enoki bacon maki and the asparagus bacon maki. i was very bummed :P but, we managed to fill ourselves up on the other food.....ebi chili omelette, avocado ebi salad, gyoza, chicken karaage, one of the rice dishes in a stone bowl, beef tataki, sablefish and a few other dishes i can't remember. as usual everything was delicious!

on wednesday night i had such a busy day at work that i just wasn't in the mood to cook. but i persevered and i pulled a meal together. we had garlic mash potatoes, brocolli and chicken roasted on eggplant and tomatoes (from donna hay, the instant cook). it was ridiculously easy and tasted really good!



1 eggplant, thickly sliced
1 tablespoon oregano leaves
sea salt and cracked black pepper
4 chicken breast fillets
1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
1/2 cup grated mozzarella cheese

preheat the oven to 355F. line a baking tray with baking paper. place the eggplant slices and on the tray and top with the tomatoes, oregano, salt and pepper. top each pile with a chicken breast and sprinkle with the parmesan and mozzarella. bake for 20 minutes or until the cheese is golden and the chicken cooked through. serves 4.

after i was finished cooking, i had to start my ice cream for girls night on friday. pris had made a request for something chocolatey, so rather than make plain chocolate, i found a recipe for cappuccino chocolate chip ice cream (from a passion for ice cream by emily luchetti).

8 large egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup coffee beans
2 cups whole milk
2 1/2 cups whipping cream
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped medium fine

in a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, 1/4 cup of the sugar, and the salt. coarsely crush the coffee beans with a rolling pin or the bottom of a saucepan. combine the milk, cream, the remaining 1/2 cup sugar, and the coffee beans in a heavy saucepan. cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until almost simmering. slowly pour the liquid into the egg mixture, whisking as you pour.

return the cream mixture to the saucepan. cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly with a heat-resistant plastic or wooden spatula, until the custard reaches 175F and lightly coats the spatula. cool over an ice bath until room temperature. refrigerate for at least 4 hours or up to overnight.

place the chopped chocolate in a bowl and put it in the freezer. strain the ice cream base through a sieve, discarding the coffee beans. churn in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer's instructions. place the ice cream in the bowl with the chocolate and fold together.