rearranging

Tonight I decided to change the layout of my room. It was prompted by months of nagging from my parents to get rid of the computer stuff we have in the living room. Ever since the wedding the home office was converted into a bedroom and has stayed like that. KA and I don't want to sell any of the office furniture because someday we'd like to take it to our own homes (the desk units, etc we bought are trendy and functional). Alas...not enough room to store stuff. So now pieces of the office equipment are scattered between the 3 of us. :-) KA has taken some of the junk into her room. I've taken the smaller extension of the computer desk and claimed it as my own in my room. :-) It's a bit awkward looking but works well as now I have a place to sit and work on the laptop. I kinda like sitting at a desk instead of bed - I get so sleepy in bed. and the side tables make nice storage compartments for PC parts. Lol - should be interesting as time goes on and we're in need of more storage space for mismatched furniture, etc. Just finished rearranging the corkboards on the walls and wired the speakers...now I'm all ready to bum around in my room and blast music!

connecting with friends

This weekend Chicky and I had a chance to hang out with our dear friends. Saturday afternoon the girls and I had a wonderful lunch at Joey Tomatoes. The food was great and the company even better! I highly recommend the open apple pie...mmmm!!! It's been a couple of months since we've done the luncheon thing and it was nice to catch up with everyone. That night Chicky and I went over to Toshiki's new home in Port Moody to enjoy some more food and catching up with the regular groupies. It was great to see Joshua - he's growing up so fast and is always smiling! The good thing about these parties is that we can all see the kids.

Sunday Chicky and I slept in till noon - we're usually pooped out after a full week of work. After lunch we headed over to Chris' place so that he could do some car stuff. Cindy, Chau, Joshua and I went to the mall to see if there was anything interesting - watching the boys play around in the yard wasn't our cup of tea. Joshua was a good sport and didn't fuss while we tried on clothes, etc. There wasn't anything new or interesting to see at the mall - we did pick up a few things though then it was time for a quick detour into T&T for some groceries. Sunday night was Little Michael's birthday so we went over to Betty's place for some hotpot. Chicky and I were rushing a bit as we left Chris' place late and had to stop off at home to get the hotpot supplies. Betty made tons of food for all of us - she's famous for being the Martha-Stewart-type of hostess. Nyah has grown up so quickly. I can't believe how mobile she is! She zips around the floors so fast that we can't keep up. It's so cute - she's got quite the fascination with food and wants to put everything into her mouth. Unfortunately I didn't bring my camera so I didn't get a chance to take pictures of her in action. She's 7 months old but I think she'll be ready to walk in a month or so as she crawls over to things and wants to hold onto them to stand up. She even played with Chicky and wanted to use him as leverage to stand up and walk around. Aww - how cute! I feel like I missed out on a lot of her life as well. :-) I think the last time I saw her was for a few minutes at KA's wedding and she was barely sitting then.

I'm looking forward to this weekend though as Chicky and I don't have anything booked into our calendars so I basically have declared Saturday as PJ-day. Good time to watch my FAVORITE tv show - HEROES! I have school on Monday nights so I have to record the show to watch later. Boohoo! :-) It's nice to just bum around for a weekend and not have something to go to. The only thing on the agenda that is semi important is studying for my first of 3 Economics midterms. I skipped class last week (which is crazy as I've only had 3 classes so far into the semester). Went to school yesterday and was lost in the financial jargon. :-) Duh! Time to cram before the exam. Bumming around won't last long though as it's back to busy weekends after that till Christmas. :-) The downside to being on these social clubs - too many events to attend. This is why I need the HIGH levels of caffeine surging through my veins...to keep up with you guys!

paddle on!

This weekend Chicky and I attended his annual Kelowna Dragonboat Festival.

Friday - we had intended to leave early to beat the rush but by the time we got off work and got the car packed it was nearly dinner time - so it was food before adventure. By the time we got on the highway the sun was setting and there was nothing to look at. I spent the time playing around with the camera and trying to do some homework. We were bored so we played around with lighting at night. This translates to Chicky turning off the headlights while driving so that I can attempt to take pictures of the stars, reflections, etc while the car was in motion. This served only to confuse the drivers infront of us. :-) 3.5 hours later we arrive in Kelowna and pull up to the Willow Hotel. Upon looking at the front of the hotel - I proclaimed "this is it?!" - mostly in disbelief. The place was super scary and I had no intention of getting out of the car. It's a hotel/strip club. Hmmm...Chicky's dragonboat team's cost saving ideas taken to the max. Reluctantly I got our stuff out of the car and went inside. The wave of cigarette smoke hit me like a wall and I cringed at what the rooms were going to be like. :-) We walked down the low lite hallway with it's questionable stains on the carpet and pipes sticking out of the ceiling. Upon walking into the room I said to Chicky - "it's just like Singapore!". Lol - memories of our Singapore hotel room...ewww. So Chicky inspected the bed for bugs and stains. I looked into the bathroom - at least it was white. I regretted not bringing sandals as I didn't want to take off my shoes (the carpet had interesting stain patterns). How classy was this room?!? We got red plastic beer cups to use (unwrapped of course). Yup - looks like one of those pay-by-the-hour rooms. :-) Which is fitting because the adult entertainment is just downstairs! After settling in we turned on the tv and tried to air out the room (smoking room - how can we tell? 2 ashtrays so that you don't have to get up from bed to smoke). Can't air out of the room - they've locked the windows! Guess they don't want their guests escaping.

Saturday - we get up early and head down to meet the rest of the team. Apparently those that had children or did most of the work fundraising got to stay at the Travelodge. A definite upgrade to our "novel" palace. We were happy to learn that our room didn't suck as much as some of the other "single" paddlers - as it's only the guys on the team that thought it would be "fun" to stay at a strip joint. Lol - the couple staying in the room next to us had a hole in their wall and their smoke detector was destroyed (guess someone wanted to smoke in freedom). The first race was good. Chicky's team didn't do that well but they were happy to paddle. The groupies and roadies sat on shore and entertained ourselves with food, cameras or chit chat. After the first race we walked around downtown Kelowna and did some shopping. Ate some food then headed back to the festival for the second race. Paddling hard the crew finished 4th out of 6. Time to head back to the hotel to shower and get ready for dinner. Lorry was buying pizza for the whole gang - he's the senior manager of marketing, the team captain the main "motivator" for the team. Hard to say "no" to dragonboating when your senior manager "insists". Lol - not to mention 4 other marketing/customer service managers are on the team - thus prompting their cohorts to join as well. I think I was getting sick from Nick S. (who was already sick and spreading it to the rest of us). Julie didn't come this year so I didn't have anyone to talk to. Boohoo. I passed out in bed while Chicky and Nick got ready for dinner. The 3 of us went shopping for a poker kit after that. They wanted to start a poker tournament that night. After many shops and driving - we came back empty handed. We went over to the Travelodge and had the pizza party with the team. Lots of eating and drinking. Most of the girls were drunk when it was time to go to the paddlers-party on the beach. They also took this opportunity to do some fundraising for their team. All team members stuffed glow sticks, necklaces and bracelets into their pockets to try to sell at the paddlers party. :-) The girls were sucessful at selling the glow sticks. I think being drunk played a big role in the sale of those things - can anyone say "girls gone wild"?! More drinking and dancing there then it was a walk over to the local dance club to party some more. Chicky and I were getting tired by then. We're not drinkers so it was funny watching the team get wasted and taking pictures of them but by midnight our old age kicked in and we called it a night. I don't know how the rest of them do it but if I had to paddle early in the morning - I probably won't be drinking till the break of dawn! :-) Yes - I'm an old foggie!

Sunday - hurricane Kelowna hits us. The blustering winds causes all teams to stare at the white caps in anxiety. On shore teams that came with tents try to tie down their gear so that it doesn't blow away. Chicky's team huddle together to keep warm. Most are suffering from hangovers and the notion of getting out on rough water is totally unappealing. We're losing team spirit by the second. The race is delayed by an hour. After an hour the officials decide to change the race course - cutting it in half. More delays due to high winds. The expensive dragonboats are taken off the water in fear of damaging them and only the crappy practice boats are brought in. All novice teams were advised that their boat steer people would be replaced with 1 of the 12 official festival steer people (highly trained and experienced). The reasons NOT to paddle are mounting. The third hour - the race officials announce that teams won't be "racing". They would do timed trials instead and then the times would be compared. Meaning that teams would be escorted by a speedboat to the start and then they would be timed individually on the "race" course. All paddlers line the shore watching in anticipation/anxiety as the mens diamond division teams are sent out on the water to "test" out conditions. Lol - these guys are pro paddlers. Big, brute muscular men who compete internationally. They had a hard time just turning the boat to head out to the start of the course. The steer people were putting all their weight and muscle power to take control of the boats and not have it wash to shore. This only adds to the anxiety levels of the group. Instead of music playing on the large speakers throughout the festival - the radios from the 3 escort boats play. It sounded like mayday calls. All we heard was static and interjections of "boat 3 taking in water", "we are not ready...repeat we are not ready" and "we've lost control". :-) The crowd gasp and mutter to each other - either adding to everyone's anxiety or quelling thier own. This prompted some of the novice teams to pull out of the race. Potentially good for us as the less competitors - the more likely we'd win a medal - winners by default!!! Lol....Chicky's team captain kept asking the group if they still wanted to paddle. They didn't respond right away - but they agreed that the challenge would make an interesting ending/story to the festival. When the winds got worst and the race times more delayed. I decided that I was not in to mood for huddling by myself with the rest of the groupies. I told Chicky that I was going to head out to mall for some heat, food and shelter. :-) Lol - totally not supportive eh? So off I went - left everyone else to fend for themselves. The mall was so warm and inviting. Mmmm...didn't want to head back into the cold. I didn't bring my rain gear with me on the trip. So after 1.5 hours at the mall - out of guilt I headed back to the festival. I found the group where I left them. Wearing 3 sweatshirts, trying to keep warm and listening to my IPOD - I sat in my folded chair and watched other teams deal with the wind and cold. :-) It was too windy and raining to take pictures. Plus the weather was doing nothing for my cold - feeling miserable I look at the girls on the team. They're only dressed in their short sleeve team tank tops and shorts. I feel guilty for complaining about the cold. The girls team outfits this year are much more "feminine" but they had to sacrifice comfort for fashion. :-) Chicky's team finally got to paddle. They made a heroic attempt at getting a good time. It was a bit boring to watch as timed trials have no excitement. I took some pictures but they were uneventful too. They were suppose to race twice but the team decided that once was enough for them. Chicky was soaked right through - poor him. Another fun adventure in Kelowna! Looking forward to next year!

business for sale

Betty and Hanif have decided to sell their business. With the addition of Nyah - Betty's priorities have changed and she wants to spend more time with her before she totally grows up. So if anyone knows of someone who'd like to become an entrepreneur - here is there chance to own a spa at Lougheed Mall!

learning from experience

Tracey stopped by tonight to drop off my hiking pack and punch bowl. I was starting to load pictures from the b-day party on the weekend to the blog site but didn't end up doing it. KA was working on scrapbooking and that got Tracey to rethinking about the idea of making her own invitations. We had mixed opinions about this. After some talking and looking at samples I've collected over the years (I like collecting hand made cards as I know the people put a lot of time and effort into them) - I think she's going to explore the topic a bit more before deciding. I've seen the amount of work it goes into creating a hand made invitation (from Josie, Michelle, KA's wedding). Nah - not my cup of tea. I'm efficiency driven remember?! Tracey and KA talked more about wedding planning in general. Tracey was interested in what worked and what challenges KA faced for her own wedding planning and wedding day.

The 4 of us went out to dinner and it was good to hear how Tracey's wedding plans are going. She's very organized and has booked all the major vendors. She's now at the stage where she can work on the small ticket items. It was funny hearing KA and Mike share their experiences, what they would redo if they had to plan the wedding again, etc. :-) I'm sure Tracey is getting all kinds of advice from those who have gone through it before. :-) A wedding is a very personable event. Never the same as someone elses but if you can avoid making mistakes - then why not right? I truly think the stress that she (and all other brides) feel during the planning stage is what makes the wedding the most memorable. I think we might check out some more paper/stationary vendors one of these weekends. I like stationary so I wouldn't mind going along with her. Lol - though I might end up buying stuff I don't need! Paper Poet here we come!

back to school back to work

It's back to school this week. *sigh* Didn't feel like it was that long ago that I wrote my finals. Blah. :-) Monday I kicked off my first night course. What are we taking this semester? Macroeconomics. Yup - I'm thinking the same thing too!

Mondays are especially rough days for me as I tend to go to bed late (carry over from the weekend) and after about 4-5 hours of "sleep", I have to get up for work. It's getting darker and darker in the mornings (I leave for work at 5:30am) so the drive in is tiresome. Thank goodness for my 2 cups of coffee which keeps me alert enough not to run over pedestrians. :-) At a call center - mondays are "high call volume" days as people tend to be come stupid over the weekend and are useless when they get to work..which translates to calling us for help. I have a bad habit of not leaving work right after my shift is done as I carry over tasks. When I'm done with my "real" work then I evaluate the time and begin working on Social Club tasks. So yesterday I figured I had a few hours to kill before having to head to out on the road to class. I stayed behind and worked on some action items for the Social Club meeting today. We have monthly meetings and because I'm efficiency-driven, I tend to delegate all kinds of tasks out to the other Board members to prepare for the meeting. I'm a task master. By 5:30pm I've lost most of my energy and need to refill on caffeine. By the time I reach class it's 7pm. By this time my body is full of caffeine to keep me motivated and whatever food I grabbed enroute to class. The quickest choices are usually not the healthiest choices. In class I find myself yawning - it's only 8pm and there's still another 2 hours of lecture. This course the instructor is the "lecture" only type. Which means that I'll have to pre-read the material beforehand so that I'm not scrambling to write down every word that comes out of his mouth. Those poor young students - some of them were trying to understand his shorthand on the whiteboards. :-) The topics we discuss are interesting and it's amusing to see how my view of global enonomical issues has changed now that I'm older. Some of my classmates still hold very "value based" reasoning (concepts of "fair trade") whereas I'm more to agree with mean/drastic changes such as cutting back on EI benefits to lower the national unemployment rate. The good thing is that there is no homework or group work for this course. YAH!!! Trade off? 3 midterms and one final worth 50% of the final grade. Boo! It's fun being in class. Though my energy level is not always high - I enjoy the discussions and views of others. :-) Looking forward to the next class!

weekend celebrations

Saturday night we celebrated Shawn and Shannon's 30th birthdays Mexican style. It was fun having a themed party. :-) They hosted a wonderful party filled with yummy food and fun games. It was good to see everyone and catch up with those that I haven't seen in awhile. It's amazing how time flies! Joshua is getting so big now - soon he'll be crawling around or walking! Josie is in her second trimester and looking great. :-) She's a great mommy (look at Katarina) and will have her hands full with 2 kids soon. Shawn's half brother Gab was at the party with his new wife. She's a sweet girl and it's nice to see him all grown up and settled down. The rest of the gang is enjoying life on a day by day basis. Most are involved with work or with their families. We played a few games at the party. I think the funniest one was the pinata. Wow - some people can sure take out their aggression on a poor stuffed toy! I'll post the pictures later.

Sunday Chicky and I attended his cousins Audrey and Adam's baby (Elliot) red egg party. Again - tons of great food and family to celebrate. Chicky's family is going through a cycle where the cousins are having kids close to each other. Which means the next generations of cousins will similar in age (just as Chicky is with his current cousins). :-) I think there was at least 2 kids under 6 years old at each table! It just reminds me how big his extended family is (and still growing). It was good to see all the babies though. It's amazing how fast they're growing as well. I feel like I'm missing out on a lot of the kids. I know I've missed out a lot on what Nyah is doing (as she's standing now!) Oh well - I'll just have to count on the parents to share their baby pictures with us. :-) Keep them coming!

slideshows

It started last year when I began my quest to hunt down some good slideshow software. There were a few things that I was looking for:

• image editing
• different transitions
• ease of use
• FREE
• zoom & panning features
• preset layouts

There were many contenders

• Memories on TV was good for zoom/panning and had preset layouts - problem was that it was difficult to export the project to something that can be viewed.
• I have to mention Picasa just because I live by Google. Nothing spectacular - but FREE.

Those are good...but what if you wanted to build something like what Storybook Weddings does?! The final product from this company is spectacular. Of course they have multiple photographers/graphic artists and do this for a living therefore they have the "right" pictures to tell the story of your life. :-) Oh well - there's always trusty old PowerPoint, an oldie but a goldie.

assisting opportunity

This afternoon I had the opportunity to join my coworker on a wedding photo shoot. He does wedding photography on the side and knows I share an interest in it. This is the first time I've attended a wedding as photo assistant/secondary photographer. Pretty cool not knowing anything about the wedding and learning on the fly. Due to the time constraint - Mike wasn't able to show me some field tips but I did get the opportunity to play around with different lenses and settings on my own. Mike had his own photo assistant who fluffed dresses and held onto the reflectors (really boring for her - felt bad as she had to stand around for many hours and not do too much). It was also good to learn about lighting and reflectors - in case I ever aspire to buy one...not likely the case right now.

The wedding was for Jennifer & Tim. That's about all we knew before coming to the site. We were pretty much astonished by the location - behind a trailer in a field in Langley. Hmm...a bit to "rustic" for my taste but made it even more interesting. After scoping out the area and doing a couple of walkarounds - I swapped out my dress shoes for a pair of runners (luckily I had a pair in the car). The ground was uneven and muddy - not good for leather shoes. The weather held out and with not too much resistant from the wedding party - we finished the photos in a timely manner. The bride was more excited about the pictures than the groom - he must have been tired or just a plain out grumpy guy. I got the task of keeping the wedding party entertained with candids, etc while the bride/groom did their "formal" shots. I really enjoyed talking to some of the family and guests. Lol - I'm pretty friendly and because I wasn't the primary photographer, I wasn't focused on following the bride around before the start of the wedding. Ample time to joke around with the little old ladies. :-) The ring boy and flower girl were absolutely adorable!

After a couple of hours I called it a day and left Mike to stay with the band-of-bandits to finish off the rest of the pictures. We would have loved to do more fun or artist shots but lack of cooperation from the wedding party proved to be challenging. Can we say "drama"?! Lol - lets just say that between super unhappy kids (which belonged to the wedding party), a semi-chained up pitbull and an emotional bridesmaid who was going through some kind of breakup that day - we came out with over 10GB of photos. MUCH more than the couple had signed up for. Lol - good deal for them. Because the experience was good for both Mike and I - we might team up for another gig soon. Of course - it's all for Mike to coordinate as I'm basically doing this for experience and he's the one getting paid! I'll load the pictures another day as it's time for bed!