phew, what a weekend!

on my friday off, we started off fairly early and headed over to granville island. we hit the market, walked around and enjoyed a lunch outside. mid-afternoon we made our way to white rock. i can't believe i've never been there before. we managed to find our way to crescent beach for ice cream and then we found the boardwalk/pier area and did some more walking. we were very lucky on friday and the rain held off :-)

it was fun to be a tourist in my own 'hood! it was also really nice to have the day off!


sunday was a very hectic day...we hit central park for the PADS 5/2 km walk/run fundraising event, where we would spend the day w/cary, my black labrador friend. unfortunately the weather was kind of miserable and we were surrounded by wet dogs :(

also on sunday we headed over to pris & dave's for a farewell bbq to stan, who's heading off to toronto for more school :-( dave is quite the webber-bbq master...i was super impressed with the pulled pork sandwiches...i actually ate too much pork and didn't have room for the caribbean chicken, maui ribs or boerwors. the grilled bananas and ice cream for dessert were really yummy as well. i'm inspired...i think chris should try to make those recipes as well :-) after all, we do have the same webber book!

being fully satisfied, we were off to chris' parents house for yet another bbq! this one was in honour of andrew (chris' cousin), who was visiting for 2 weeks from south africa. coincidentally, he had just celebrated his birthday earlier in the week, happy 29th! andrew has now reluctantly left vancouver, but he hopes to return in the near future...hopefully w/his wife and son in tow :-) my fingers and toes are crossed...he really wants his son to grow up in a safer environment than johannesburg. ironically, an opportunity has risen that might see me make the trek out to SA for a couple weeks in november. it requires a lot more research and thought before i jump into anything! it's been a busy year for travel...big white, the maritimes/east coast, and las vegas.















oh well, lots to think about right now. tough decisions ahead!

damn this cold!

i'm tired of being sick. it's just sucked the life right outta me! i also just don't have time to be sick either. for the next 2 days i'm going to be a tourist in my own city. i offered to show chris' cousin from south africa around vancouver, so i'm trying to think of rainproof activities for us. i'm armed w/the tourism vancouver guidebook, my entertainment book, and my imagination. wish us luck!

well, the weekend is finally over

i've been pretty miserable all week due to a nasty cold i caught after being in vegas. i blame it on the hot weather and cold air conditioning. it had NOTHING at all to do w/the sleepless night of playing pai gow!




anyways, another crazy busy weekend is over. on friday after work, i spent a couple hours chillaxing at the spa getting my french manicure and pedicure. with an event-filled weekend, i had to have my nails looking good :-) afterwards, chris and i joined stan and pris at nanchu for dinner. we shared a bunch of dishes including: gyoza, fried rice balls, udon noodles, ebi mayo, yakitori, beef tataki, etc. etc. delish!

on saturday, my sister-in-law melanie married ivan. to prepare for the day so i was looking my best, i headed over to blo to get my hair straightened. i was somewhat disappointed by the experience. the "stylist" only straight-ironed the "top" of my hair, not my entire head as my stylist at statik normally does. also, she didn't use my product to keep my hair in check either. bottom line, i ended up waxing my hair at home and the final product looked like any other hair day for me. i think i would only go back to blo for a totally different hair experience, such as an up-do or curls, which won't happen for awhile given my short hair :P

anyways, right after my appointment i walked over to beautymark to buy a heated eyelash curler. now, this is the best $22 i've spent in a long time. well, it's the best thing i bought since my kate spade handbag last week in las vegas :-) i could blog about my handbag for awhile...i quite like it. anyways, back to the curler...i have a fear of the standard eyelash curler...i'm always afraid my eyelids are going to get pinched in them, so i always pull back and nothing gets accomplished. w/the heated curler, i just apply my mascara, and then use the curler and gently manipulate my lashes into the desired curl. easy peasy!

finally, it was wedding time. chris was running around doing errands all morning, and then we made our way to the celebration pavillion at queen elizabeth park. it was standing-room only for the 20 minute ceremony. the wedding party looked great, albeit a little nervous. it must be a lok family thing - they just can't repeat words after someone...when chris and i got married, he messed up the lines he had to repeat after the minister, and then melanie messed up the similar lines she was repeating after the justice of the peace. hopefully whenever clarisse gets married, she can break the "curse" :-)

in hindsight, the rest of yesterday went by pretty quickly...i'm just glad our wedding day is long over. the nervousness, the stress, the excitement...it was weird though because some of the relatives we saw last night, we hadn't seen since our wedding day nearly two years ago. i felt bad because as we were receiving the guests, i couldn't remember anyone's names :P oh well.

i have to admit that i had more fun than i thought i would. it was great to see some of chris' old friends...mostly ben...that guy cracks me up :-) he kept calling chris "stains" after chris spilled red wine all over himself. by the end of the night my feet were sore, i was super tired thanks to my cold, and i had a very sick husband thanks to the alcohol - so sick that his dad and cousin from SA had to escort us home and help him inside :P

after chris overindulged at the wedding, we were off to church! yup, my cousin was having her daughter baptized. red-eyed and still somewhat sleepy, chris and i survived the 30 minute ceremony. bethany is just a super cute baby...she slept almost the entire time and didn't cry. the only time she was caught crying was about 30 minutes after we got to my cousin's house and i couldn't find the baby. in fact no one had seen the baby inside the house! crazy enough, bethany did leave the church in a car with 4 adults, and yet no one remembered to bring her inside! silly parents! no harm done...she was safe in the van inside their carport.

and now, i'm feeling slightly refreshed after a short nap, and chris is still sleeping away. it's been a really long weekend :P

vegas all the time, party all the time, gamble all the time :-)

ah yes, what a weekend it was! exactly 1 week ago, we headed down south to sin city. i thought i loved new york, but las vegas has everything a girl could want! food! gambling! clubbing! shopping! so much to do and so little time :-)

(thanks for the picture pauline!)

thursday night...angela, sandra, sharon and i had dinner at daniel boulud @ the wynn hotel. i started with the tuna tartare - delish! and for an entree i had the moules frites! double-yum! how's that for an in-depth food review?! and to burn off some calories after our filling meals, we walked along the strip and saw 3 performances of bellagio's water fountains. later that evening, i was in a gambling sort of mood, so i took ang and sharon to the TI casino w/me. one by one, i sucked all of the girls into my pai gow poker fixation - luckily there was a $10 table...low enuf to suck you in, but still high enuf to turn anyone into a gambler :-) that night, it was all about the girls...we took over one of the pai gow tables, and had a blast! we finally called it a night around 4:30 a.m.

well, after hearing about our win on thursday night at the casino, the rest of the girls wanted to play some more :-) on friday, after a day of shopping and some dancing at tangerine, we were back at the $10 pai gow tables! this time i had my gambler in crime, sunny, along for the ride. lady luck was definitely on my side this night...i hit the fortune twice with a straight flush! the rush of the first straight flush was inspiring, but the second one sent me right over the edge. at that point, there was going to be no sleep for me or sunny! so, at the bright hour of 7 a.m., sunny and i sheepishly made our way back to our hotel room to freshen up for breakfast and a day at the premium outlets. at that point i was just so giddy from my big win, that i didn't need sleep! or so i thought. by mid-afternoon, i was falling asleep on store benches :P at least sunny and i were in the same boat together, so we took a late-afternoon nap :-)

saturday evening was jam-packed...buffet dinner at bellagio, chippendales (ang did some serious booty-shaking!), clubbing at pure (the big celebrity was mr. belding from saved by the bell...however, coolio was also at the club but we had already bounced out by the time he showed up). and of course, no evening is complete without some more pai gow poker :-) seriously, who'd of thunk i could've gotten any luckier? well, i did! my 3rd straight flush of the weekend, plus i got paid out more money when the guy beside me hit a royal flush! yah, baby! all in all, it was a great weekend for gambling, and then on monday it was a great day for shopping :-)

and of course, all good things must come to an end :-( sometimes it sucks to have such a good time on vacation...after it's over, what do you have left to look forward to? it seems a bunch of us are suffering - physically, mentally, and perhaps in the wallet... but a good time was had by all.

i'm already trying to figure out when i can take my next vegas vacation...any takers?!

ready or not, here i come!

vegas, baby! even though i was in las vegas last year, i still get ridiculously excited about going again! i'm looking forward to a weekend of lots of fun for ang's stagette! shopping! gambling! eating! oh my :-)

that reminds me...i better pay my visa bill so i have room to shop...!

later gaters!

my own personal "crocs-oseum"

the addiction continues...


i ordered via telephone a week ago, and the shipment arrived today...yah, that means i can wear them in vegas, baby! my newest additions are: capri (hot pink & white), cleo (like my pedicure?), and the sassari wedge (seafoam & white).

i'm also very excited because there are crocs stores in vegas! whoo-hoo :-) mind you, i think i've bought everything i wanted... nonsense! a girl can never have too many shoes!

my shadow

nugget...a.k.a. nunu...a.k.a. nuggers...a.k.a. nugz...a.k.a. my shadow.

for the past week chris and i have taken care of nugget while he's recovered from the neutering. the first 24 hours was pretty low-key...nuggers was still fighting off the effects of the sedation. once the drugs wore off, we got to see nuggers back to his normal self (if there's such a thing when your manhood is taken away from you). asides from having friends over on tuesday night, we had a pretty quiet week. i didn't plan to do anything while he was with us, since his activities were pretty limited due to the stitches. by saturday though nugz was bouncing around and playing with his toys. well, destroying his toys is more like it :P

one of his curious little habits was to follow me around all week. it didn't matter if i was moving 2 feet away or leaving the room completely, he hauled himself up and plunked himself down at my new location. it was really awkward when i had to cook dinner...condo kitchens aren't meant for a person and a big-ass dog at your feet. we had a few confrontations, but nuggers was not going to be detered...he was sticking by me through thick and thin :-) such a loyal dog. or lonely dog. when i left nuggers with chris for 10 minutes, apparently all nugz could do was run from the door to the windows and back again. he was absolutely desperate to find me! i left them alone on another evening for 30 minutes...but this time i thought a new toy would distract him. not so much. when i came home, nugz was waiting for me at the door. it was the same deal at work...everywhere i went, he went. which i guess is a good thing...but when someone else is able to watch him or play with him, i thought he'd stay put. no such luck.

when i returned nuggers today, i did talk to the instructors about his unusual behaviour. seems as though nugz could be suffering from separation anxiety. he was in the kennel when he was a puppy, then he went to a raiser, then he was back at the pads (big dog) kennel, then he went to a sitter, then he went to the spca for his operation, and then i got him. poor guy just needs some stability in his life! hopefully he'll get a puppyraiser soon :-)

spa utopia

further to my list of spa's (from way back in september 2006), i've now experienced spa utopia (at canada place). on friday night i went there for a french manicure/pedicure. i arrived the standard 15 minutes early, got the tour of the spa amenities, and then i changed into my robe. as i was waiting for my esthetician, i sat back and caught up on my tabloid reading. there were snacks available for munching and a wide variety of beverages to enjoy.

anyways, on to the treatment. unfortunately, i couldn't do the french pedicure since my toenails were a bit too short :P so i ended up getting pink polish on them, but i got the french for my digits :-) the 2 estheticians working on me were the right combination of friendly, but not too chatty. after the standard small-talk, i got kind of sleepy and chose to rest my eyes. i thoroughly enjoyed the treatment and the parafin dip. it's strange, but my nails actually DO feel different....healthier (?), stronger (?), i'm not sure what it is, but i'm liking it! and then as i was leaving the spa, i discovered that they do make-up touch-ups after treatments, so i got my eyes done up all sparkly :-)

so i did get the mani/pedi for 2 reasons. on friday night, the girls hit chambar to celebrate selena's 30th birthday! now that i've discovered i actually like mussels very much, i ordered the (ocean-wise) moule frite - coquotte mussels cooked with white wine, bacon, vegetables, garlic and a touch of cream. and to finish the evening, i ordered dessert...creme et peach - peach almond frangipan pouch with rosewater creme brulee. delish!

then on saturday, i hit the road to surrey for my cousin's bridal shower. i went, i saw, and at least i had kick-ass nails :-) that's it.

so hot!

nothing beats having homemade ice cream on a hot summer night! i whipped together a batch of creamy strawberry ice cream yesterday. yum!

now, back to the heat...we go to vegas in 3 weeks and the temperature there is over 40 degrees. currently in vancouver, we are hovering in the high 20's. needless to say, i don't fair well in the summer months, and find this almost intolerable. i might melt in vegas! i guess that just means more time will be spent indoors...perhaps more gambling and shopping?! hahaha!

anyways, back to the heat...pet owners should be taking extra care of their little critters. PADS had an incident last week w/closed windors and doors, and really hot puppies inside the kennel. fortunately they were discovered before any harm was brought upon them, and they were quickly rehydrated and cooled down. preventative measures are now in place so this isolated incident is exactly that, an isolated incident. on a happier note, chris and i will have nugget back w/us for a week. should be interesting because nugs' is having "the operation" done on monday...i imagine he'll be pretty lazy on tuesday :-)

meet linus!

it's not very often that a chocolate lab crosses your path, so i jumped at the chance to puppysit this guy while his raisers went away for the canada day long weekend.