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.

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!