i'm losing steam

argh, i started my blog last year with entries almost every day, sometimes even twice a day! now, i'm lucky if i can come up w/something creative once a week :P

i did a lot last week, including dining out at 2 *new* restaurants. i've even been cooking with new recipes! and yet, i have nothing to say about any of it. i've got stuff coming up, like the PADS open house and graduation that i'm volunteering at, and i'm getting a puppy in mid-march. yet, nothing is inspiring me to write. as i was watching oprah winfrey's leadership academy i thought "wow! this is something fabulous to blog about!", and yet, nothing.

i think i'm in a *writer's* rut. perhaps later this week i'll kick my butt into gear and write something fantabulous. in the meantime, i have my ever-changing vacation itinerary to work on. planning a vacation is a full-time job :P

oh, oh, oh! i DO have something to blog about today!

so, a while ago chris and i ate went for a late dinner w/ang and ryan after volleyball. they had ordered silverfish....a tiny tiny fish (not the horrible bug/pest) that's battered, deep fried and then tossed w/garlic and chili salt. asides from the small black eyeballs staring back at me, i managed to eat a few of the tasty fishies. then, funny enough, we were out for dinner on friday night, and yasmina (a friend of priscilla's) was talking about a tiny fish she ate at dim sum. ang was convinced it was silverfish, but i was skeptical because i thought they were larger than the description from yasmina. yesterday, chris and i went for dim sum, and crazy enough, they served silverfish! so of course we ordered it, and oh my god, it was yum! in my effort to solve the silverfish/not silverfish dilemna, i pulled one apart and discovered that indeed, it was 10% fish, 90% batter. mmm, silverfish!

it's me!

i always loved responsing to these "about me" facts. so i thought i'd copy an old one that my fave cousin sent me :-)

1. FIRST & MIDDLE NAME: first = tracey; middle = i'm not sharing that info!

2. WERE YOU NAMED AFTER ANYONE? one of my middles names is after my grandma

3. WHEN DID YOU LAST CRY? earlier this morning....i had pvr'd "building a dream: the oprah winfrey leadership academy"....it was really touching - i cried from start to finish!

4. DO YOU LIKE YOUR HANDWRITING? no

5. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE LUNCHMEAT? none, yuck!

6. KIDS? just my weekend puppies

7. IF YOU WERE ANOTHER PERSON WOULD YOU BE FRIENDS WITH YOU? that's debatable :P

8. DO YOU HAVE A JOURNAL? my blog!

9. DO YOU USE SARCASM A LOT? uh, yah! duh!

10. DO YOU STILL HAVE YOUR TONSILS? what are they? i guess so....

11. WOULD YOU BUNGEE JUMP? no, i'm afraid of heights :P

12. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE CEREAL? frosted flakes

13. DO YOU UNTIE YOUR SHOES WHEN YOU TAKE THEM OFF? no

14. DO YOU THINK YOU ARE STRONG? no

15. WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE ICE CREAM? my homemade lychee sorbet

16. SHOE SIZE? 8 for shoes, 9 for sandals

17. RED OR PINK? red

18. WHAT IS THE LEAST FAVORITE THING ABOUT YOURSELF? my short temper and quickness to judge

19. WHO DO YOU MISS THE MOST RIGHT NOW? no one

20. DO YOU WANT EVERYONE TO SEND THIS BACK TO YOU? not really possible

21. WHAT COLOR PANTS AND SHOES YOU ARE WEARING? no pants - i'm in my pj's

22. LAST THING YOU ATE? tator tots

23. WHAT ARE YOU LISTENING TO RIGHT NOW? my typing, and the traffic outside

24. IF YOU WERE A CRAYON, WHAT COLOR WOULD YOU BE? purple

25. What are your FAVORITE SMELLS? fresh baked cookies

26. WHO WAS THE LAST PERSON YOU SPOKE TO ON THE PHONE? chris

27. THE FIRST THING YOU NOTICE ABOUT PEOPLE YOU ARE ATTRACTED TO? hair

28. DO YOU LIKE THE PERSON WHO SENT THIS TO YOU? of course! i love my cousin!

29. FAVORITE DRINK? it's a 3-way tie between starbucks latte's, coke and mug root beer

30. FAVORITE SPORT? i still can't believe that poker is a "sport"

32. EYE COLOR? brown

33. DO YOU WEAR CONTACTS? yup

34. FAVORITE FOOD? food is my friend....i can't discriminate!

35. SCARY MOVIES OR HAPPY ENDING? happy ending

36. LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED? can't remember

37. WHAT COLOR SHIRT ARE YOU WEARING? my pj's are black

38. SUMMER OR WINTER? both

39. HUGS OR KISSES? both

40. FAVORITE DESSERT? creme brulee

41. WHO IS MOST LIKELY TO RESPOND? not possible

42. LEAST LIKELY TO RESPOND? again, not possible

43. WHAT BOOKS ARE YOU READING? re-reading "something blue"

44 WHAT IS ON YOUR MOUSE PAD? my mouse

45. WHAT DID YOU WATCH LAST NIGHT ON TV? hubby was watching tv last night, so i didn't watch anything

46. FAVORITE SOUNDS? when the puppies go running to the door to greet chris, and he's equally excited to see them :-)

47. ROLLING STONE OR BEATLES? neither. how about new kids on the block?

48. THE FURTHEST YOU BEEN FROM HOME? thailand

49. DO YOU HAVE A SPECIAL TALENT? yes, i can spend money like nobody's business!

50. WHEN AND WHERE WERE YOU BORN? december 28 in vancouver

green oscar?

this was taken from www.oscar.com.....

"This year, the Academy, the Oscar telecast producer Laura Ziskin and the entire production team endeavored to select supplies and services with a sensitivity toward reducing the threats we face from global warming, species extinction, deforestation, toxic waste, and hazardous chemicals in our water and food. With guidance and assistance from the Natural Resources Defense Council, a non-partisan environmental and advocacy organization, we learned that it was easy (and often cost effective) to make simple changes to reduce Oscar's ecological footprint. Here are a few of the things we learned (with help from the NRDC website http://www.nrdc.org/)"

what i would like to know is WHAT exactly did they do that made this the "greenest" oscar ever? did celebrities carpool (HA!) in hybrid cars? were all the lightbulbs fluorescent? were the secret envelopes printed on recycled paper? what was so green? if being environmentally friendly is going to be preached throughout the 4 hour show (especially when an inconvenient truth won an oscar - which is now on my list of movies to watch), they could at least point out specific examples of what they've done. something like this sets a good example for the rest of us - we all look at what celebrities are doing, it gets reported in the news or entertainment shows, and then all of a sudden everyone's doing it. think brangelina....

anyhoo, that's my only observation from the show last night. i actually watched the entire show, and most of the red carpet walk. did anyone else think there was going to be a wardrobe malfunction during jennifer hudson's dreamgirls performance? i was just waiting for it :-) ellen made a fabulous host, i wanted to die laughing when she gave the "screenplay" to martin scorcese and then asked steven spielberg to take a picture of her with clint eastwood. she's too funny!

anyways, for my first oscar show, i thoroughly enjoyed it. of course, i multi-tasked during the acceptance speeches, cuz seriously, i don't have the patience to sit through that.

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 :-)