color schemes

So I was bored tonight and wanted to change the look of this blog again. :-) I don' t think I will ever be satisfied with the layout. "A work in progress" is its moto. I changed the color scheme to something more drab (but more consistent with the header color). Played around with some text enhancements - nothing spectacular though. I wonder if any of you will even notice the differences?!? Ahh...who needs TV when you can sit infront of this laptop for hours on end trying to decide if that "green" you selected is the right shade...hmm...I need a life!!!

Dodge for the Cure

On Saturday Chicky and I played in a "Dodge for the Cure" dodgeball tournament in support of Weekend to End Breat Cancer walk. The tournament was hosted by the Vancouver Dodgeball League. There were 12 teams in the tournament. We submitted 2 teams: "Don Hos" & "Ninja with Balls" (total of 20 players - missing Hamid and myself from the picture). The Don Hos won the Team Spirit award. The tournament was fierce and fun. 95% of our team members had not played dodgeball since elementary school - and that is a LONG time ago for most of us. We were abit unnerved when the demonstration game was performed by 2 "league" teams (people that played dodgeball competitively). But all-in-all we did well and had a great time with each other. The teams placed 9th and 10th (out of 12). There were a few minor injuries (players from the Don Ho team) but they grinned and bore the pain in the spirit of sportsmanship. If we can generate enough interest then we might put together a team for the fall league.

Frederico's Supper Club

On Friday Chicky and I went to Frederico's Supper Club for dinner and entertainment. I've recently joined the executive of ICBC's Social Club therefore I will be dragging him to all our events. For $10 (the price that the social club members pay), we got a 5 course meal (which wasn't spectacular but what the hey...it's dirt cheap!), unlimited pop and juice and 3 entertainers.


One of the entertainers was Aliz the male belly dancer. He looked exactly like Prince! I was awed by the way his body could move so fluidly. He didn't just belly dance, he also did a fire dance and pranced around like a stripper while people stuffed money into his pants. :-) He was very entertaining and always smiling.

There was a comedian too - but he was a bit nervous and the crowd wasn't as attentive (too much alcohol for us was probably the culprit). The main show was of course Frederico. He's very entertaining in a "wedding singer" kind of way. He played mostly 50-80's music (which is perfect for me as I LOVE that era). His co-singer was this lady with a great voice (I thought she was better than Frederico). She pulled off everything from Madonna's latest hits to music by Eva James. But what Frederico lacked in voice talent he made up in enthusiam. There was one point where I looked up and he was wearing a Phantom of the Opera mask - he was playing/singing a Phantom song. I would totally recommend this restaurant. It's equivalent to Baci's (on Hastings Street).

miracles of modern medicine

So I finally went to see a professional about the state of my health. After a 2 hour wait in the walk-in clinic I was ready to call it quits and take my mom up on her home remedies. The doctor that I saw was strange. I think he was suspicious about my cough as I got it after I came back from Vietnam. He was asking me all kinds of questions related to the Bird Flu. I told him that I didn't have any fevers in the last month (as that was the only symptom that I didn't get on the Bird-Flu-symptoms list). I did request for steroids (as suggested by KA) instead of antibiotics. He ended up giving me this fancy inhaler thing. It resembles an inhaler for asthmatic people. I find that after I inhale the powder - the coughing subsides. Hopefully I will be cough-free by the weekend! Yah...looking forward to being "healthy" again.

Mom's home-made remedies

I've been hacking up a lung for the last month now. The pilithera of drugs that I've swallowed have not alleviated the coughing (though it's cured the other cold-like symptoms). The attempts at getting into a walk-in clinic has been futile. There's some new rule now where doctors cap the number of patients they see daily. So my mom has decided that she would try to "cure" me herself. She's started with lime/honey/sugar hot drinks but has threatened to make "medicinal" drinks if I don't get better. I only worry as my mom is notorious for boiling roots and other dead creatures in the name of "good health". My famiy's book of home remedies includes (and is not limited to) bleed letting, cupping and steaming a cold out of you. If that doesn't raise an eyebrow then drinking animal body parts that have been boiled for hours on end should do it. Yes - who needs Tylenol gel caps when you have glass cups that are super heated then pressed against your skin to draw the "bad blood" out of you. :-)

Viva Las Vegas

This weekend I went to Las Vegas for Betty's bachelorette party. There were 6 of us that attended. Betty and Thia are both brides so it was really convenient for the other girls to do it all in one trip (as everyone that came was a bridesmaid for both of those girls). I had a wonderful experience and it was great getting to know these girls. The weekend we spent living the "high rollers" lifestyle. This is very different from my other Vegas experiences - which included the "poor-student" and "family-adventure" trips. I must say - if I ever have the money again...I would definately recommend the high-roller experience. :-) Limo rides everywhere is cool. Kudos to Jackie for organizing all of this for us!

Some highlights from the trip:

• The room we had at Caesars Palace was on the 83rd floor and over 1000 sqft. It was a GORGEOUS and spacious suite.
  
• 
• We went to a few REALLY nice night clubs on the strip. The cool part about it all was that we had a hosting company take us around all weekend so we didn't have to stand in any lines (we even bypassed the "VIP" lines). Just pulled up in the limo - get out and be escorted in (no line ups or cover charges).
• Clubs included Tao (at the Venetian), Jet (at the Mirage) and Drais. (an after-hours club).
  
• Ate at posh restaurants such as Fix (at the Bellegio) and Mix (at Mandalay Bay).
• Paid $850 for a bottle of Grey Goose Vodka and Malibu at Jet. Realistically the price was to get a private table as seating is a commodity there. We ended up just staying 1.5 hours therefore the limo came to take us to another club.
• Went shopping at the Premiere Outlets in our bachelorette-party-street-wear.
• Played penny-slots and didn't win anything.
• Tia got to wear the candy bra for us to "test". She didn't get a chance to wear it out though.
• Pauline got Betty and Tia special "party favors" to take home. These toys are not PG-13.
• Pauline getting kicked out of Jet for being too rowdy.
• Not having a direct flight to Las Vegas and spending a lot of time in Denver's International Airport. There I learned how the "standby" system worked when my plane had mechanical problems and they were going to ground us for a long time. I also realized that using only CARRY ON baggage is the BEST way to travel (as you can hop onto any other carrier in the event that you might be trapped at an airport for a very long time).
• Spent most of the weekend in a drunken stupor. Which doesn't say too much as one drink will pretty much do it in for me. :-)
• Got to drink weird mixes such as vodka and red bull. Nothing like downing 5-6 cans of red bull to keep you going through out the night. Needless to say I brought along a "medical" supply bag for us girls to rumage through the morning after.
  

my "True Color" is gold

Today I went to 2 training courses at work. It was a nice break off the phones and the weather was absolutely gorgeous. The whole time I was in class, I was daydreaming about being outside enjoying the sunshine. The courses I took today were "Handling Emotions Under Pressure" and "True Colors". The emotions course is self explanatory. It was basically how to control your own reactions to other people's behaviors and vice versa. Most of the course content was basic stuff like "if you're going to be pissy at someone then they will reflect it right back at you...". Duh!

The afternoon course was called True Colors. It was basically a personality profiling course. I really like these kinds of courses cause I indulge in psychoanalysis. :-) It's all those years in psychology that got me hooked! I found out that I have a "Gold" personality with "Green" right on my tail. I wasn't surprised though as the description of the personality matched me and the job that best suited people of my personality is the job that I'm in. Find out here what your True Color is. You might be surprised what you find out! During some of the group work exercises I discovered that I'm better off working on my own. :-) We did a structure building exercise and a "survivor" exercise. My teams structure fell over eventhough I warned them that the most stable structure is a triangle...but of course they only listened to the loudest person in the group (which for once was not me). In the survivor game we were given a list of things from a plane crash site. We had to list them from most important to least important. We did this task in 2 phases. In one scenerio you have to do it on your own and the other scenerio you have to come up with the rating with your group. Needless to say that only 2 of us in the group have "survival" smarts. I think my group was doomed from the beginning as they were mostly Blue and Orange people. You'll know what I mean if you take the True Colors test. Note to self: when stranded in a desert; the number one thing to have (according to survival specialists) is a cosmetic mirror.

Happy Mama's Day

This weekend we celebrated Mother's Day. KA really surprised us with her (well) hidden technical expertise. She built a very touching PowerPoint presentation about my mom's life.

It told a story of how my mom went from a young lady...
...to a mom
....then to a grandma.

Mom was very happy to see all the old pictures as it brought back tons of memories. My sister's and I had a good laugh reminiscing about the "old days"...not to mention what our style sense was like back then.

KA also pointed out my mom was not the only "mom" in our family...
Carol joined the "mom" ranks in 1999...

and all of us got to play "mommy" when Mui Mui came into our lives.

Namaste

So I signed up for the one month unlimited pass at Yogapod today. I'm quite pleased that I've been able to continue my commitment to it for the past week and a half. Peter has been a great motivator and good yoga partner. We've been going everyday - we even truck in from the boonies to make it to class on the north shore on the weekends. As each day passes by I feel as if my body is getting weaker - I got to taste carpet yesterday in an attempt to do "crow". Maybe my body is rebelling cause it's not use to exercising so much. I'm hoping that after the month pass ends I will have nurtured the workout behavior. There is a 30 day yoga challenge starting June 1st. Peter and I have talked about it. Basically we'd be signing up to do yoga for 30 days consecutively - kind of like a yoga marathon. The only problem is that Peter doesn't work here (he's an Aria contractor) and if he doesn't land a job with my company then they'll be shipping him back to Seattle at the beginning of June. So he's torn as to whether or not he'll be able to continue his practice - the guy has found his calling in yoga. I probably won't be as viligant with yoga without him. I'm the type that needs a "buddy" for all cardiovascular endeavors. :-) I need encouraging expressions such as "I'm going to KILL you if you're not at yoga tomorrow morning!" It pumps up the not-so-hidden competitive part of me which in turns gets the procrastinating part up from her ass and into the studio.

worth 90.21 cents

On Sunday, May 7th Kel and I went down to Auburn, WA to do some shopping and get some things done to his car. The weather was awful when we left Vancouver. Both of us were pretty tired as we had spent the weekend hanging out with family and not sleeping very much. I was in dire need of coffee. I would have preferred it if someone just injected me with caffeine. The I-5 highway was not as busy as I thought it would be. Though we had left at 6am so that we could arrive in Auburn at 9am. During our time down there I perused through the SuperMall. Our dollar was worth cent to the US dollar. We were hoping to take advantage of this fact. Kel found some clothes at the outlet shops on our way back home. I didn't see anything that triggered my interest. But then again I had already boughten a rain coat and pair of Lululemon shorts the day before - both of which were spontaneous buys. I have a problem with buying things that I don't "need". It's a bad habit that I haven't been able to break.

art defined

Day 3 at YogaPod. We've ventured into the realms of Power Yoga and Hot Yoga. Though the journey has been strenuous and I feel a bit sore from all the stretching/posing. I do feel a sense of calm and happiness after each session. I think I will sign up for the unlimited month pass when I'm done with this unlimited week pass. Today as part of our warm up for Bikram (hot) yoga, the teacher explained the meaning behind one of the statues in the pod. The statue is pictured here. I like the way the teacher brings physical and mental learning together. Not only do we get to practice the physical aspects of yoga but we listen to many of it's teachings. The coolest thing was a reference to "Puja" - which means "devotion"- as that is the name of a friend of mine from Saskatoon.

While sitting in these yoga classes, I can help but admire everyone's equipment or clothing. I know I should be concentrating on myself but I'm a sucker for fashion. There are many stores in which you can deck yourself in yoga wear. I will post some of the stores on the "fun buys" links - check them out!

Peas in a Pod

Today I went to YogaPod with some of my coworkers. It's the beginning of summer and Rav (the group planner) likes to kick off each year with a "group activity". This year's fad is yoga. Which I think is much more manageable than last year's Grouse Grind adventures. Though I did feel like I accomplished a lot after each climb up the mountain.

Like always we dived in without thinking. Got ourselves a $20 unlimited-one-week-pass. I'm not sure how many times we'll actually go though. Today we did Hot Yoga. It wasn't as bad this time around as I had already tried out this type of yoga with Tracey at the Bikram Yoga center in Coquitlam. After an hour and a half of sweating and posing; the four of us stepped out of there more refreshed and happier than when we stepped in. We agreed to go again tomorrow. Tomorrow's class is Power Yoga. I'm looking forward to it.

One man's garbage is another man's treasure.

Today is the annual "Spring Cleaning" in my neighborhood. This is the only time of the year where you can throw trash onto your lawn and have onlookers shuffle through it for hidden treasures. Once all the good hunting is over, the garbage men come and pick up the left overs. It's been interesting watching the neighbors bring out their trash. There was a sad looking scarecrow across the street that caught my attention. Unfortunately he was not picked up by any of the treasure hunters. I couldn't find anything to toss. I have to admit - I'm a pack rat. Not to the point of total chaos but I attach sentimental value to too many useless items that should belong in the dump.

It's a beautiful evening and as I sit by the window writing in this blog, I can't help but ponder the thought of doing something more "productive". The thought of walking into the gym crossed my mind after work today. As I walked the 2 blocks to my car the fleeting thought disappeared and I justified it by saying "I've got a long commute home and the traffic will be bad". So I sat in traffic, munched on some carrots (to keep myself from falling asleep - this is actually a very bad alternative for caffeine) and looked at the other commuters who were talking on their cell phones. It made me want to talk on mine too - but alas...I have no one to call. Chicky bought me a blue-tooth headset for my cell phone but I haven't programmed it for voice recognition yet. If you are rolling your eyes (which I'm sure my girl friends are right now) - you obviously don't know about my gadget fetish.

"I think I will go to the gym tonight" - keyword being THINK. I've invested a lot of money into that place but hardly ever use my membership. I think the membership is just an excuse for buying nice "workout" clothes - that are like WAY too nice (aka expensive) to work out in so I would never wear them to the gym anyways! :-) You know what I'm talking about...all you Lululemon shoppers...