excuse me, please don't grab my tail!

it's been fun having buster around for the past 5 days. this 4 month old pup has been the most laid back guy i've ever had. he's mellow, polite, well-behaved, and cute as can be :-) we attended puppy class on monday night and his sisters, lucy and cary, both ganged up on him. poor guy :-(

today's experience was interesting...i wasn't even sure what to think of it. as we were walking back to the office from starbucks, we passed by several ppl. one of them was a businessman, and he kind of veered towards us, and as we were passing him, he grabbed buster's tail. i'm not sure if he was trying to pet buster and missed, or if he was just being mean and grabbing his tail. i didn't even have time to react, because for once buster was moving at a good pace, plus my hands were occupied, and i just didn't know what to think. such a strange thing to do.

oh well. i just need to start telling ppl not to touch the dogs without asking first. puppies are so irresistable...everyone just wants to say hello :-) plus, buster is keen on any attention he can get!

getting caught up

i can't believe how much i have to catch up on!

• before we went on vacation, we celebrated chris' 30th birthday w/dinner at earl's and then everyone came back to our place and played guitar hero. fun :-) that weekend happened to coincide with having cary again. double fun!

• father's day weekend - action-packed! on saturday we had dinner at my parents' house, and i got to see my cousin's baby, bethany, who was born while we were away. that fateful weekend i discovered i'm somewhat baby-challenged. i was given one of the feeding and burping duties...apparently i'm not very coordinated w/"floppy" unswadled babies. nonetheless, i gave it my best shot, and bethany was not harmed (well, she didn't cry!) :P

• and then on sunday, we went to provence for brunch w/my family. the service was a bit slow, but the food was excellent. even though i can make it, i always enjoy eggs benedict...this one came w/smoked salmon :-)
  
• this week also marked my return to my puppy-cuddling! i was overjoyed when i got to the kennel and saw two new dogs....grace (a 3 month old yellow lab) and delaney (a black goldendoodle). lucy and cary are still in the kennel awaiting puppyraisers within the next month or so.
  
• on thursday chris finally put our new bbq to use. we had his parents over for dinner and chris fired up the steaks. he's had to adjust his cooking time because our bbq has more burners so it cooks a lot faster than he was used to. mmmm, looking forward to a lot more bbq-ing this summer! maui ribs, baby :-)
  
• and now, i'm taking it easy this weekend. sort of. we have buster w/us, and he's just as cute as can be! i'm booked for back-to-back puppies...after we say farewell to buster on thursday, i've been asked to puppysit for linus! we'll see how the rest of this weekend goes...

boyz ii men, abc, bbd, the east coast family!

ah, the 1990's...back when we were young...life was easy back then...so carefree! last night chris and i were at the boyz ii men concert at the riverrock, and i suddenly felt 1/2 my age! it's hard to believe that boyz ii men were "it" a dozen years ago. i still remember being at their concert in 1994 (or was it 1995?). granted, i was only 16 back then and us girls would scream at anything. i guess not a lot changes as we get older :P haha! at one point the boyz were giving out roses, and it was a total frenzy in front of the stage! (i managed to control myself and stayed in my seat.)

after not hearing their music for so many years, i couldn't believe how easily i remembered all the lyrics to their songs. they've released a new album, but i think most of the fans were there for the oldies :-) somehow r&b has gotten lost in all the hip-hop/pop music out there...i'm glad boyz ii men are making a comeback...i've missed their ballads. great, great memories.

seeing them perform at the riverrock was great. it's a smaller venue, so it feels a lot more up close & personal. it was also a stark contrast to the last concert chris and i attended....christina aguilera :P last night was fairly civilized w/a late 20s/early-30s crowd. crazy enuf, we even saw our old dragonboat friends, roz & harry, who were actually sitting right behind us!

the next concert i go to will be JT w/selena. i can only imagine how crazy that's going to be!

oh where has my wisdom gone?!

upon my return from vacation, i had immediately scheduled a few more days off work so i could have my wisdom teeth removed. yes, all 4 teeth needed to come out....my mouth was getting overcrowded and i wasn't cleaning the teeth properly. i had been putting off the inevitible for the past 3 years. it started out as a general comment form my dentist, followed by the occasional pain once or twice a year, but then this past year, the pain was more persistent, so i finally caved in and admitted defeat.

i have this tremendous fear of pain (i have been known to pop pills regularly for any possible ache/pain), i'm afraid of needles (mostly because my veins are hard to find when they're actually needed), and i'm just a plain old chicken of the unknown. i had warned my oral surgeon about all of this, and he just laughed at me.

anyways, all my worrying was for nothing. on monday morning, i arrived right on time for my appointment, and 30 minutes later, i was back on my feet and on my way. i started off with the laughing gas (which ironically doesn't make you laugh), and then the iv was inserted into my arm (just a small pinch, which seemed a lot worse at the time), and then i was off to la-la-land. afterwards i was in such a hurry to get out of the dentist's office that i completely forgot to grab my newly extracted teeth. oh well. at that point all i could think about was getting my tylenol 3 prescription filled up to the max. i didn't want to know what possible pain i could possibly face.

all-in-all, i have to say that i lucked out - no facial bruising, not a lot of pain, just some wooziness from the all prescriptions :-) and now i'm almost back to normal eating...whoo-hoo!

vacation highlights, lowlights, and everything in between

so where to start? or end?

first....the red-eye flight from west to east may not be the best idea. the personalized tv's in front of you are great, but probably not a good idea when it's the middle of the night. by the time we arrived in halifax, i was feeling pretty crappy. nothing a 3 hour nap couldn't cure :)

why do american's not have sweetened iced tea? seriously, they have no problem drinking pepsi at 10 a.m., but they can't add sugar to iced tea? what gives?!

one coffee shop we went to, i tried to order a latte. espresso, steamed milk....how hard could it be? instead, i got some chocolate sludge from the fridge with regular coffee poured on top...mix, mix, mix. uh, yeah. i think that was their version of a mocha :P gross. i didn't have the heart to complain. at least the donut was good.

my favourite dessert...nobu's mochi ice cream :) i was sooo tempted to buy the cookbook that included the recipe for it, but since we were backpacking for that portion of our trip, i just didn't have the room for it. shame.

nyc....definitely need more than 3 days there. 5 would've been perfect...we could've biked around central park (chris' idea), gone shopping along 5th avenue and to the woodbury outlets (my idea), and just more time to eat at all the great restaurants. also, for the next trip, i'd stay in times square, rather than in midtown. we just enjoyed the upper part of manhattan a whole lot more. what chris and i found most surprising was how friendly a lot of new yorkers are...every time we pulled out our street map, someone would ask us if we needed help. i guess we looked really lost!

seeing our friends and family...we sure made our way around the east coast and got caught up with everyone. good times, good times.

but, after a fabulous vacation of sightseeing, lots of eating, drinking, shopping, sleeping and everything else we did, we are both glad to be home. nothing beats the comfort of your own home (or condo). i'm even looking forward to going back to work on thursday. after all, it's a short week for me, so i can't complain too much, right?

and now that we're home, i've managed to post some pictures along with each of my blog entries. enjoy!

vacation part 5: toronto (part 2 of 2)

ah yes, back to toronto....the center of canada :P we've used a lot of traveling options throughout our vacation, and i have to say that i'm quite impressed w/via rail. if i lived on the east coast, i would definitely use that as a viable travel option. the seats are far more comfortable than economy seats on an airplane, and it costs a fraction of an airline ticket. plus, you don't have to go through security! the only downside is that it takes longer....on par with driving by car. the quebec city to toronto route was a bit painful...it was an 8 hour travel day for us :P but at the toronto end, we knew geoff and sunny would be waiting for us! en route, chris thought it would be a good idea to hit a bar and watch the senators vs. ducks game, but instead, sunny (being the hostess w/the mostess!) offered to whip up a quick meal for the 2 of us. isn't she the best?! besides, at this point of our trip, i was pretty tired of restaurant food.

to finish up our trip, chris had to take care of some business, so we went to visit some of his suppliers. i also took the opportunity to hook up w/sophia and lisa from our toronto office. i got to know both of them when they were working in vancouver over the past 2 years :) chris and i also visited w/my relatives again, this time we lunched at oliver & bonacini....i've made reservations there for work events, so i thought it was pretty ironic. we enjoyed another delicious meal with geoff and sunny at go for tea - we were dying for chinese food, and were not disappointed either!

on our last day of vacationing, we headed to pacific mall in search of some great deals. i managed to get the modify-thingamajig for my ds, so now i can download games from the internet, and i got 100 "free" games w/it. very cool. in the evening, sunny and i headed off to brigette's stagette, while the boys went off to the beer market. i went to my very first gay/drag/latin club. it's crazy, but the club is really popular for stagettes and there must've been at least 8 other brides there! i'm not really sure how to describe the evening, except.....fun, weird, hot (as in more a/c is required), in-your-face (literally!), and funny! it was kind of like the thunder from down under, except some of the dancers were dressed in drag. my ears are still ringing from last night. i'll have to find the website....apparently there might be pictures of us online!

and then before we knew it, we were having our final breakfast at casa lowe. just over 3 weeks of vacationing....it was fun while it lasted, but i have to say i am glad to be home. i'm not really sure why.....i'm getting my wisdom teeth pulled out, i have a ton of e-mails to catch up on, and it's a lot colder in vancouver than in toronto!

stay tuned for my next post....i've been saving up my memories for a "highlights", "lowlights", "gripes" and everything in-between! but for now, i'm off to my bed. yah!

vacation part 4: quebec

after finally arriving in montreal shortly after 11 p.m. on friday, geoff, sunny, chris and i hit the "happening" area of montreal. we found a patio to have some drinks and late night snacks, and do some general people-watching. just when i thought that 2 a.m. was a late enough night, the boys decided they wanted to smoke some shee-sha's (did i spell that right?). so off we went, and tried something new. pictures to come! it wasn't really my thing....even though it was apple-flavoured, i didn't like the licorice aftertaste it left in my mouth. chris and geoff really enjoyed themselves though :)

on saturday we walked around old montreal and along st. catherine's street. even though montreal is supposed to be a great shopping mecca, i didn't find anything for myself. i tried, and i tried, but i just didn't find anything. oh well, no biggie. for dinner, we headed to buona notte..... while the food was very good and worth every cent (i had the calamari and the roasted chicken w/marsala sauce), the real reason people (er, men in particular) dine there is for the hot servers in the red dresses. i have to save that we were privy to a LOT of cleavage action that night :P

apparently a trip to montreal isn't complete unless you've had the montreal smoked meat at schwartz's. so on sunday, that's where we headed for lunch. i admit that i was skeptical at first (i've never been a fan of the stuff), but it was actually quite good (and cheap!). the best part of the meal was the very large dill pickle....yum! that day we also did more (window) shopping, as well as driving up mont royale, and checking out mcgill university.

on sunday evening, chris and i said farewell (again) to geoff and sunny, as we headed to the via rail station for a train ride to quebec city. we were both super impressed with our train.....the seats were very roomy, lots of leg room, and the headrest provided enough support so you didn't keep falling over :) nice! once we arrived in QC, we wandered around in the hopes of finding some delish french food. instead, we ended up at Times and ate italian food.....pizza and pasta.

in hindsight, chris and i probably could've spent 1.5 days in quebec city instead of 2.5.....we walked around all of old quebec city, rode the funiculaire, saw chateau frotenac and did a bunch of shopping. my quirkiest purchase was made at Crocs. yes, those weird looking light-weight shoes. i bought 3 pairs :P the salesguy saw "sucker" written all over my face. i was mesmerized buy the weird designs and the array of colours! i bought white/green flip-flops, black mary janes, and pink "roman" shoes that i can only describe as weird. this particular model is only made in quebec city and they don't have plans to distribute it elsewhere (or so i was told).

everywhere we went, i tried the french onion soup, but the best soup i had was at le charles bellairge in quebec city. we went to town for this dinner.....i obviously had the soup, then i had the shrimp, scampi and scallops (the trilogy) with vegetables and rice, followed by the african pineapple mousse. chris had the chicken liver appetizer, cream of asparagus soup, fois gras, rabbit stuffed with figs, and their signature maple and praline creme brulee. needless to say, by the end of the meal, chris' shirt buttons were ready to burst :-) that was a VERY enjoyable meal.

vacation part 3: CT & NY

after a 1 hour flight and a 3 hour amtrak ride, we made it to suffield, connecticut to visit angie (chris' cousin), jeff, keira and andersen. we stayed w/them for 2 nights and chris and angie got re-acquainted and caught up on the last 15 years. pretty crazy! she was in heaven when chris pulled out the biltong :-) we drove around the neighbourhood.....chris and i were impressed with the large properties. i was telling angie & jeff that you could fit our entire condo complex into their property and still have room to spare. the energy the 2 kids have.....i was tired before lunch! props to angie & jeff for keeping up w/them!













after our time in connecticut, we headed back on amtrak to new york city. i was kind of scared, kind of excited. new york did not disappoint either. we spent the 3 days walking around like crazy. it was totally overwhelming, but thank goodness for the subway! we avoided taking the taxi's.....the way they drive is like being in china all over again :P we saw everything: empire state building at night, chrysler building, united nations (we did the tour), trump tower, walked 1/3 of central park, times square, saw chicago (TKTS rocks for prices!), grand central station, madison square garden (again, we did the tour.....and i shed a tear for the canucks), world trade centre site, financial district, soho, tribeca, battery park city, staten island ferry (to see the statue of liberty for free). i'm probably forgetting stuff.....but i think that about covers it :)












the big highlight of the trip was lunch at nobu.....chris and i hit the tribeca area, and walked in and managed to get a table right away. we shared a spicy tuna roll, soft shell crab roll, black cod w/miso, and the lunch special (miso soup, green salad, pepper beef w/sashimi), and then we finished with the mochi ice cream. holy crap that was a delicious meal! i was in absolute heaven after that :) but the day was not over.....that evening we headed to the meatpacking district and ate at spice market. again, no reservation, just a short wait. we shared the pork satay w/pickled vegetables, seafood lhaksa, red curried duck, finished w/a strawberry rose creme brulee and the gula jawa tart with ice cream. we dined like there was no tomorrow! prices were reasonable as well, considering we were in nyc.



a trip to nyc is probably not complete without airport delays :P we arrived at the airport early for our flight since we were travelling during friday rush hour. turns out there was a thunderstorm approaching the area, so flights were grounded for awhile. i got a bit panicky because we had to meet up w/geoff and sunny in montreal before the b&b closed for check-in! those 2 were also running late due to toronto traffic. our flight finally left nyc only 2 hours later than scheduled, and in the end, geoff and sunny happened to be very close to the montreal airport when we landed, so everything worked out well :-)

vacation part 2: toronto (part 1 of 2)

we flew into toronto on wednesday night, and enjoyed some yummy asian take-out :-) after settling into geoff & sunny's condo, we got ourselves oriented with our neighbourhood. they're right in downtown toronto....nice!

on thursday, chris got to relive his "stick-driving" days, as we busted our way down to niagara falls. after a few wrong turns, we managed to find our way onto the highway. because we got a later start than anticipated, we only managed to walk around the falls and view it from the street. we had filled our entire thursday with plans.....we had to leave the falls to go visit derrick, chris' uncle, in st. catherine's, and he took us out for lunch. after that, we went back to the falls to go on the maid of the mist boat ride. chris and i both had a near catastrophe when we approached the falls......both of us almost lost a contact lens. blimey! i can't believe that in 1991 my brother and i were too scared to bo on the upper deck during the boat ride. instead, we both huddled under cover and looked from afar :P the only disappointment was that even after my 2nd trip to niagara falls, i still haven't done the "journey under the falls" walk. oh well, maybe if/when there's a 3rd trip, i'll make it happen.












anyways, all was fine after the boat ride, and we booted back to toronto in rush hour traffic. we had dinner plans w/my family to get to! once we got to dinner we were finally able to sit back, relax, and have a great meal and catch-up.

on friday, chris and i slept in and wandered around downtown.....cn tower (that glass bottom platform scared the beejeezus out of me!), air canada centre, rogers centre, and the hockey hall of fame. for dinner, the 4 of us went to pure spirits oyster bar & grill for dinner to celebrate chris' 30th birthday. dinner was sooooo good :-) after my duo of beef entree, i polished off sunny's french fries for my dessert!














a trip to toronto wouldn't be complete without a trip to the niagara-on-the-lake wineries. so we headed off to jackson triggs, where i proceeded to get slightly (or more, depending on who you ask) drunk :P at least it was after 12 p.m.! i even bought 2 of the dessert wines.....i can't remember what they were, but i'll post about them after i enjoy them at home :) i was cut off after my ice wine tasting, so geoff and chris clutched up and carried on at a few more vineyards.














as i mentioned in my previous post, this could be called our gambling vacation.....well, true to form, after the wineries we made our way to the fallsview casino. after i won big on the slot machine, it was all downhill from there. we all walked out losers :-( oh well.

and now, chris and i are off to vernon, connecticut to visit another cousin who he hasn't seen since they all left south africa in 1989! should be fun.....she's planning a cook-out for us.....i'm not sure what that is, but it sounds like a lot of food is involved!

later gators!

vacation part 1: the maritimes

well, we made it. in a whirlwind 6 days, we've been there, done that. we started in halifax and then drove our way up cape breton island to the cabot trail, then headed back down and over to charlottetown, drove over the confederation bridge to new brunswick, and then straight on back to halifax to catch our flight to toronto.

i think the major highlight of part 1 was meeting and then eating "larry". who's larry? well, larry is (er, was) a 9.5 lb lobster. once we set our eyes on him, we knew he would be tasty. geoff's eyes were just sparkling thinking about him. so, not only were we strange to start with (not too many asians make their way across the maritimes apparently), but we now wanted to eat larry. we were the talk of the restaurant :-) even after when we were walking around charlottetown, ppl stopped us to ask how our lobster was! it was quite an adventure eating larry.....his claws were bigger than sunny's hands :-) she could actually stick her hand inside it and use the pinchers! too funny! but by the end of the meal, we were all completely stuffed - also because the meal comes with a plateful of mussels to start. crazy!

at the start of our trip the weather wasn`t very cooperative. it rained pretty much for 3 days straight. but when we were halfway throught the cabot trail, the sun decided to come out, so we did get to see some of the beautiful scenary.

we`ve been calling this the east coast trip, but it could actually be called the casino trip as well. in halifax we hit the casino for several hours.....the boys had fun playing poker and taking money from the locals, while sunny and i got a kick out of the $2 blackjack. since charlottetown`s a quiet city, we were surprised there was a casino, so of course we had to check it out. we sat down at a $1 - $2 no limit table, where sunny and i quickly lost our $40. the boys faired a bit better. oh well, good times, good times :-)

with all the history of the maritimes, we`ve learned a lot....whether it was from the fine folks at the alexander keith brewery tour (proper thing!), the lieutenant at the halifax citadel, to the founders hall museum in charlottetown.....there`s a lot of history here. don`t ask me to remember everything i`ve learned though. after all, i am on vacation :-)

also, we`ve all eaten our fair share of seafood.....shrimps, scallops, lobsters, fish, mussels, oysters, etc. etc. it`s been a great trip so far, and we still have 2.5 weeks to go! i have to say that i`m really looking forward to having some chinese food tonight when we get to toronto.

ta ta for now!