green basil

Tonight I went out for dinner with Tanya, Tracey and Shannon. It was a bit of a last minute thing and after much confusion we managed to gather our thoughts and come up with a plan. Due to traffic and coming from various locations - we ended up meeting at Metrotown. Tanya was already there doing a bit of shopping.

Tanya's coworker recommended a new Thai restaurant across the street from Superstore at Metrotown. The name of the place is Green Basil. We all left our cars in the safety of the mall and jay-walked across the street. The weather was nippy and we were hungry. It was nearly 8:45pm when we got to the restaurant.

We sat down and looked at the menu. All the food sounded yummy! I see the waiter walk over and I'm puzzled for a second as he looks so familiar. I'm horrible at remembering people's names! He sees me and grins. Now I know that he knows me! So he walks up and says "cashew chicken?" to me. Then it hits me. Thai House - North Vancouver! Across from work is a Thai House. I go there at least once a week and always have the same dish - special #19 (cashew chicken). I burst out laughing at the relization that Eric (the waiter) has ended up here. There was a change in management at the Thai House and they let go of all the waiters. Which really sucked as part of the reason why we liked going there was that Rav (my coworker) was good friends with all the waiters and they'd give us "perks" (usually in the form of icecream). Being my nutty self - I wanted Eric to take a picture with us so that I could show my coworkers that I ran into him. Lol...that amused some of the other waiters. Then another guy came up to us and I recognize him as well (another ex-thai-house-waiter). I can't remember his name and can't cheat as he's not wearing a name tag here. I know he's the shy one though and doesn't talk often. Anyhow it was fun to see them as it just shows what a small world is it. Plus we got big scoops of icecream at the end of our meal because of Eric. Bonus!

It was nice to get out with the girls and chit chat about girl stuff. There was a lot of candid moments and giggles around the table. Good food and good friends - the best combination! I'm looking foward to doing more of this with the rest of the girls this year.

new blog look

I've finally been granted access to the new blog look. It's so much nicer. Things publish faster, it's much more user friendly. The interface is better as well. Only inconvenience was having to create a Google account in order to make the switch. I'm not use to the labels section yet. Don't know what to put into that field..

dark times

On Tuesday we lost power to the house. I'm not sure if it's our location but we've lost power about 4 times in the last month. I've learned that I can't sit still and furthermore suffer from technology withdraw when there's no electricity.

I came home to a house/street/neighbourhood lit with candles. The irredescant glow was mesmerizing, almost to the point of being eary. I found myself wrestless as my family was plague with indecisions. No power = no cooking = no food. So the debate was whether to venture out to a restaurant or order in. I gave up on them and went to play with the laptop. It only had an hour worth of battery life on it. I couldn't blog - no power to modem = no internet.

When the power died on the laptop, I picked up my camera and started shooting random pictures. Soon the camera battery indicator was flashing. Mental note to self - keep all electronic toys charged! The flash on the SLR works wonderful - lights up the room. But it must of have looked weird to the neighbors as it's so dark and all of a sudden you would see these flashes coming from inside our house. Plus there was one point where I was taking pictures of our street from the safety of my living room. Now that must have looked strange from outside.

Eventually we made our way to Westwood Cafe. It was packed - I guess there were other people who had the same idea. Westwood Cafe has become my parents favorite eating spot. The food is good there and the prices aren't bad. Hopefully the power will be reliable for the rest of the week! If not then it's more opportunities to eat out!

snacking

I was just looking at some of the food-centered blogs out there and began thinking that I should cook more. Many of you are great cooks and are having lots of fun experimenting with recipes. I haven't done much cooking since moving back home. Realistically - I barely cook as there's always food in the fridge (between my mom and my sister cooking). I use to go to these cooking-get-togethers and "learn" how to cook different things. It use to be over at Michelle's house or at one of the other girls. Tracey and Frank tried to start up a little cooking club but I haven't seen a recent meeting from them. Maybe I should should spice up the dim sum routine with the girls and have some cooking nights. Of course I loved things that are themed - therefore we'll have cooking themes! Don't quite know how to work it around everyone's schedules though but we can figure that out later. Here's a good dip recipe I got from my coworker.

Recipe for Mango Salsa

Ingredients:
6 Mangos (not too ripe) (peeled and stone removed)
2 Red Peppers
2 Green Peppers
1 Red Onion
1 Bundle of Cilantro
4 Limes
Jalapenos (I just use the jar ones)
2 tbsp honey (or more...)
**************************************************************************
1. Chop mangos, peppers, onion into a bite size pieces.
2. Combine the chopped ingredients.
3. Chop cilantro into fine pieces and add to the above ingredients.
4. Drain and chop jalapenos into fine pieces also and mix into the mango mixture.
5. Squeeze the limes into the mango mixture and add honey and blend it into the mixture. Try the salsa...might have to add more honey and or some more lime juice....

**Serve with Taco Chips**

2007 toys

I'm estatic!!! Chicky bought the Canon Rebel XTi for me yesterday! He's so sweet! Everyone knew I wanted a dSLR camera and for the past 2 weeks we've been debating between the Canon Rebel and the Canon S3. One justification for the camera was that I wanted better pictures from vacationing. Now I'm looking forward taking some photography courses and going out with some of my photo enthusiast friends to learn more.


He got the lens kit and an extra telephoto lens for the camera. I couldn't wait to come home and test it out. We went to the mall to get a bag for the gear. Initially I wanted a backpack. But after holding it - I realized that it's WAY too big to carry around on our trip. So we continued the search. Our journey ended at Kerrisdale Cameras. I picked up a Lowepro runner pack. It was the most compact bag that I found that allowed for easy access to the equipment. :-) Plus I can wear it like a purse! Because it's a runner's pack - it has a waist belt. Chicky insists I carry my own camera when traveling. We ordered a compact flash card but it won't be delivered till next week. Chicky picked up a CF card at FutureShop but it's over price when compared to the web one. But can I return the CF card when all I want to do is shoot pictures?!

Chicky proclaimed that he believed in fate yesterday. When he went to buy my camera at Futureshop and low and behold there was a PS3 staring back at him. It was the only one in the whole store. So he saw it as a sign and bought it. It's so shiny! Of course there's no games for it so he went out and bought a game. Poor Chicky sat on my livingroom floor for 2 hours wondering if it was a good choice to purchase the PS3. He stared at it for a long time before finally cracking the seal. :-) Now we'll both have things to play with on the weekend!

stage 3

Stage 3 - the interview. Today I had my interview for the Analyst 2 postion. This was the final stage in the hiring process. The journey has been long but I feel confident that it went well. When they scheduled the interview for 1.5 hours - I was astonished. What in the world could I say or do to fill up that time?! So anxiety set in. Luckily they only gave us 2 days notice for the interview - not enough time to get really paranoid. I expected it to be the standard panel interview consisting of behavioural based questions ("give us an example of when...."). I walked into the room after having a filling lunch. Shook hands with the panel, straigtened my suit, smiled and sat down to begin the grilling. I was happy that it was only 13 questions. Lucky number 13! From past experience with panel interviews, I was not at all nervous or surprised with the methodology. I got into my comfort zone and ended up talking for more than 1.5 hours. :-) Ooops...I can go on a tangent if someone doesn't keep me in check.

I know many of us have gone though many interviews. I've been working since I was 15 years old. The majority of my teenage working life consisted of 2 jobs at a time therefore I have an array of interview experiences. Here are some of the more interesting interview scenerios I've gone though - just for laughs.

• Canadian Airlines - 5 stage interview
• stage 1 - reaching for a box up high without shoes. There's a height requirement for all airline attendants. Yah - finally something that I am good at...being tall! Imagine hundreds of pretty girls lined up with high heeled shoes on having thier dreams of flying around the world shattered when told that they can't do the test with shoes on! Good bye mile high club!
  
• stage 3 - panel interview - this was my first experience with a real panel interview where 8 other contestants were present. We lined up in a row and the 6 judges asked each of us the same questions. Really sucked if you were first or last as your answer had to be "unique" so that it didn't appear that you just said the same thing as the person before you. It was more intimidating as the recorders were walking around the room taking notes on what we said.
• Banquet waitress - balance test
• unlike regular waitresses, banquet waitressing requires you to serve 30+ people food at once. Which means you have to be able to stack an absurd number of plates down your arm. Amazingly I had the ability to do that and even survived it when the plates were COOKED to provide maximum heat for the customers. That's when you layer your left arm with cloth napkins and pray to god that the 4 dinner plates you have stacked on that arm don't burn through!
  
• Behavioral therapist - video taped interview
• I was invited over to interact with the child - basically try to engage him in "play". They forgot to mention that they would video tape the whole thing so that they could review it later. :-) After I worked more with austic kids I realized how important it is to select the right therapist as that person plays an integral part of your child's development.
  
• ICBC - mail services
• part of the selection process involved a physical test. It was like highschool gym all over again! I did a reach test, lifted a 50lb weight and carried it a metre.
• ICBC - help desk
• voice test - yes...it's not just what I know about computers...it's also how sexy I can sound while instructing you to reboot! Just kidding - my line of work is all about how you convey information...not about what is actually said.
  

tickle me

Last Friday Robyn brought in her Xmas gift. She got the new Tickle Me Elmo. For a 21 year old - I thought that was a strange gift. :-) But then again...it's Robyn...anything goes with her. She brought it into work just for me as I had mentioned that I saw it at Toys R Us during the Xmas season and didn't know what the big deal was. So she cleared my desk and we demonstrated the product for the rest of the work crew. Well - let me tell you...that thing is so COOL! He laughs, spins around, waves, screeches "again again", falls down, slaps the ground and stands back up (not necessarily in that order). I was remarkably impressed with the way he did extended dog (to stand back up). :-) We tried out all 3 modes. As each mode progresses, the Elmo gets more demonically possessed. It was hilarious. I giggled and tickled him each time he prompted me too. This toy is definately fun to play with but the potential for it to be annoying is high.

I took a verbal survey of robotic toys that intrigued us techies. Top contenders were:

• Sony dog - it has voice recognition
• Raptor - it has AI
  
• Elmo - for small children
• Honda robot - for those who wanted to really SPLURGE on a toy

Though I would KILL for that Teddy Bear in the movie AI!! He'd be the ulitimate gift for me!

all skin

I think this is a pretty good deal. I picked up 3 IPOD video silicone skins (red, black and white) at XS Cargo (Westwood mall) today. All for the price of $14.95. :-) They come with a pretty good screen protector (durable plastic). I still have the original plastic that it came with still stuck on - more for reassurance than for practicality. I've wrapped my baby in white (my favorite color). :-) I like the ridges on the sides - makes gripping the device much easier.

resolving to

New Year's wouldn't be complete without a list of New Year Resolutions! I don't know about the rest of you but my list tends to be short and detailed. It's the factual-type of personality that I possess. Like everyone else, I get really GUNG HO (key phrase here) into the resolutions at the beginning of the year but all hope of adhering to them diminishes as the weeks pass by. So here goes...for 2007 I resolve to:

• drink more water (1L a day)
• excerise (3x a week - get back into hot yoga)
• take 1 "fun" course to save my sanity (photography or sewing)
• adhere to a budget (spend less on dining out and entertainment)
• "read" 3 books for pleasure (not audiobooks)
  

In the past I focused on being happy and the ways in which I could attain that. This year I'll refocus on being healthy. Happiness has been subjective and inconsistent. I can not measure whether or not I'm more happy today then I was yesterday. Unlike health - I can measure my weight and say "nope...I weigh more today then I did yesterday!"

Happy New Year

2007 is upon us! This year is the Year of the Pig.

I rang in the new year at home. We had a quiet night at my house. Chicky and I had dinner with my parents at Westwood Cafe. The 4 of us ate a lot of seafood. After that we went home. I worked on some computer stuff and he surfed the web. We ran upstairs to count down with the TV and said our Happy New Years to each other. A quick kiss then it was back downstairs to our beloved computers. I think both of us are a bit too obsessed with them.

As the years pass by - the number of fancy Christmas and New Year's Eve parties lessens. For us it wasn't a matter of not having somewhere nice to go - it was a matter of how much moolah we wanted to spend. We're trying to budget more this year. Both of us suffer from impulsive buying disorder. There's no cure for us. In the interim we have to just remind each other that instant gratification is not the way out and that good things come to those who wait. Enough with the cliches though. I hope everyone else rang in the new year with family, friends or both. Wishing everyone a healthy and happy 2007!

ostracized

Ok - for those of you on the "new" blogger pages...YOU SUCK! :-) Just kidding...or maybe not...haven't decided yet. I tried to switch to the new fancy features but was unable to. Problem with my blog content - story of my life. Now my window of opportunity has passed and I will remain in the blog-dark-ages till another beta version appears. There is fleeting hope though. Apparently those of us with content problems will see light at the end of the tunnel. I'm talking way down the road here folks. I'm sure no one will really care if there are pretty labels on my blogs anyways. I'm always surprised on how many people read my daily nonsense (ahem...I mean meaningful) thoughts. :-) Now it's your turn to update your blogs! As I religiously check them all daily too!

accessorize

It's all about the accessories. What it looks like, how it feels, how many colors are available and how much it costs. I've spent the afternoon looking at accessories for my iPod. There are so many things available for it that I don't know where to start! I think I'll start with the basics. A case so it won't get scratched (I'm a bit anal about stuff like that). A USB power adaptor so that I don't have to plug it into a computer to charge. Other than that everything else can wait. Now the question is who to buy from. The Apple Store, Ebay or BestBuy. Hmmm...I haven't boycotted any of those stores in the last year so they're still on my "A-Ok list".

keeping busy

It's boxing day. I didn't line up for any door crasher deals. Nothing really intrigues me. Though Chicky and I did debate about purchasing a new camera. We've been playing with the thought of an dSLR or just go with the Canon S3. Neither camera was on sale for super cheap. So we ended up just sleeping in till 11am. We spent the last couple of nights watching movies till day break. Some movies were good - other ones were full out "rental" quality.

I finally woke up and then realized that I had to work. Bummer. I was really lazy and didn't feel like going into the office. I would rather load my new Ipod with audiobooks then travel into North Van for a few hours. I'm at work right now. I missed the big rush at work - thank god! What have I accomplished at work? So far I've cleaned up the buffet table that we left behind on friday. I see that no one else has tried to help with the clean up since then. Just finished doing dishes. Now I might do some real work - after I finish this blog first. :-)

Merry Christmas!

I hope everyone had a wonder Christmas with their friends and family. I had a great time with mine. We celebrated Christmas on Christmas eve. Had finder food and ham this year instead of the traditional turkey. This was good since I get tired of many days of turkey.

What's Christmas without presents? Angelina scored the most as always. Santa is always good to her. The theme around the gifts this year appeared to be health and wellness. People got gifts from personal hygene to magazine subscriptions to excercise props. :-) Santa brought me a few new gadgets! Chicky got me an Ipod video (30GB). It's so cool! Now I can add another device into my bag. Actually it's good as I think I'll take the Ipod to asia this year instead of the laptop. I also got a programable coffee maker. :-) It's for those mornings that I wake up and fly out of the house in a mad panic to get to work on time. For my health and wellness gifts - they were centered around yoga. Is that a hint?! Lol...just kidding. I needed a new yoga mat and bag anyways.

a fuzzy christmas

On Saturday night Chicky and I participated in his cousin's 5th annual "Fuzzies Christmas". It was basically a get together of some of the cousins. What does fuzzies mean? I was baffled at first. I thought it meant that we had to bring stuffed animals for the kids. I was close. We were suppose to bring stuffed animals that we had as kids. Apparently the cousins all have these MGM lions from when they were kids. Some of the lions were lost in the great flood of 2000.

We played games and enjoyed each other's company. It was nice to just hang out with the cousins. Chick and I had a great time. I took some pictures too. We found out that another one of the cousins is expecting next year. Which makes the baby count to 7 for my friends. That's wonderful.

One of the games that we played had challenges. Mary danced with Brandon for one of the challenges and Avery (this 2 year old) was the judge. The whole room burst out laughing when Avery gave the thumbs down to the dance - poor Mary. :-)

stories to remember

Today I was out shopping for a present for Angelina. For the last couple of weeks I've been looking for books for her. She likes to read. But I'm not familiar with what's hot and not for a 7 year old. What I ideally want to buy her is a subscription to a book club or something like that. I remember as a child, my parents had bought this package where each month we received Dr. Seuss or Mickey Mouse books. They weren't thick books but by the end of 3 years we had a whole bookcase full of books. Plus it was fun waiting for the next book to come in the mail. I went to Scholastic's website - as they seem to be the leader in children's books. I ended up getting a book each from 3 different series to test with Angelina - to see if she likes them. Any of you teacher-folk out there have any recommendations on children's book clubs or books in general?

presenting the BlackBerry 7130e

This morning I had do a presentation on a BlackBerry product for my job promotion. Being the slacker, I left the assignment and presentation till the night before. I was up till 1:30am working on it. It turned out to be a much harder task then I had originally envisioned. I discovered that I didn't know much about the topic.

I chose to present on the BlackBerry 7130e because it's one of the 3 corporate models. I basically went to the BlackBerry website and tried to absorb as much information as I could. I was going to be tested not only on presentation content, style and product knowledge but also on "tips & tricks". Since I don't know one and realistically have very minimal exposure to BlackBerrys in general I was nervous.

It was a sleepless night. Slept for about 4 hours but none of it was peaceful. Had dreams of being late for the presentation, it not working and my audience being bored out of their minds by the content (tech specs can get a bit dry). I always have sleepless nights when I have something to do the next day that I didn't prepare for. It's the dread of having people find out that I didn't put effort into this.

I got up, took a shower, put on a suit and packed my laptop. The paper assignment and presentation had to be copied from the laptop to a USB - I didn't have time to do it the night before. I thought I looked very professional - if nothing else I should earn some self presentation points! Look confident = feel confident. People at work asked if I had an interview - that's what we ask of anyone in our group that comes to work in a suit. The whole process of testing for this position has secretive. There are 4 people in my group all competing for the same thing so everyone is tight on what we say to each other.

The meeting started horribly. I was asked to send a Net Meeting invite to some people in Victoria (so that they could also see the laptop/projector screens from their meeting rooms). I haven't done that many net meetings so I fumbled through the software - wasting precious time. The laptop that they had set up only had one USB port. I had to sacrifice the mouse for my USB key. Then my USB key failed. I had to excuse everyone and rush the USB key back to my desk to load the presentation onto a network drive. All the while earning demerit points (we're also being marked on organization). When I finally pulled myself together, I felt like I flew through the slides. People asked questions during the presentation which threw me for a loop as I wasn't prepared to speak on topics such as architecture. Lol...what am I doing in the tech field? I should really be wearing a suit and asking people if they want a chocolate or white wedding cake! Not wearing a suit and pretending to be a RIM salsperson.

So now is the wait. There are 10 other candidates. Only 4 positions though so it's a going to be interesting what happens next. The last stage of testing is the interview. I'm not worried about that - use to panel interviews and am almost comfortable speaking to one.

having a happy anniversary

It's my anniversary today and I didn't even know it! With who?!? Telus! Lol...I got a package in the mail today. They sent me a thank you letter and a handsfree headset for my phone (free of charge). Michael was pretty jealous of my stuff. :-) Telus has earned 2 brownie points. First with the 5 bucks they gave me for my first fight with them a couple of months ago and now the handsfree headset. Ah...it's all good. This only reinforces my opinion that tough customers get better care. But I already have a bluetooth headset that Chicky got for my birthday. Hmm...do I hear re-gifting?! Lol - I think Santa is going to stuff the kids stockings full of ICBC-logoed products this year.

Now I'm giddy with getting a new gadget - even if I don't want/need it. Getting my second wind to finish my presentation and paper. Both are due tomorrow so it looks like I'll be burning the midnight oil tonight and crashing into cars on the way home tomorrow (due to lack of sleep). I'd stay off the roads if I were you...

how dense can you be?

I went to Lions Gate Hospital this morning for my bone density exam. My doctors insists that I get one. She's being overly paranoid.

Hospitals are so scary looking! I had some problems finding it - thank goodness I left really early from home! Got there and the information lady wasn't in yet. Probably because it was pretty early in the morning. I had called the hospital the day before to find out which ward I'm suppose to go to. Nuclear medicine. I checked the wall map and found out that it's located in the basement (next to emergency and cardiology). Found my way down there. Had some time before my appointment so I diddled and dawdled. I took a picture of the sign. I was a bit hesitant about it doing because I feared a big-burly-hospital-attendant would come up and take the camera away. More fear for my camera's safety then for my own. There were various signs stating that all electrical equipment must be turned off. Does that apply to cameras?! So I depended on the 9X digital zoom to get me that image - not a clear image but you get the point.

The exam itself was really short - approximately 10 minutes. I got to wear a hospital gown. Whoohoo!!! Not the paper but the cloth kind. Now that's more classy. I didn't get to drink any radioactive substances or get injected with super powers. Too bad! It would have been a good excuse to take the day off from work. "Ahem...I can't come to work. They injected me with radioactive stuff and I can't be exposed to other people". Computer geeks probably don't know much about biology. :-) Except for our pal - Shannan...computer geek with a deadly bio edge!

The machine must not be that dangerous as the tech-lady sat at a computer next to the scan bed and talked to me during the whole thing. I got my hips and spine scanned. It's an interesting procedure. :-) I wouldn't rate it under the "10 things I MUST do before I die" category but it would probably fit under the "10 things I SHOULD do if I want complete the 10 things I must do before I die" list.

going bananas

On Monday night I went out for dinner with Tanya, Shannan and Kenny. All 3 of them will be away for Christmas. We went down to Kitsilano and ate at Banana Leaf. The restaurant is nice but a bit far away. It's close to Shannan though! Eating out with just a few friends is good because you can actually talk to each other instead of trying to entertain masses of people. Plus the conversation is more intimate. Kenny got to listen to a lot of girl talk. He's a great guy though and gave the "man's perspective" whenever it was appropriate. :-)

The traffic was horrible (for me anyways). Getting off the North Shore proved to be a challenge. I vote that they expand the Lions Gate Bridge. It's in deperate need of work as with the wind storms - it's proved to be a disadvantage to live in the westend and have to cross that bridge. Yet there was a silver lining to all of this road rage. In an attempt to escape it - after sitting in traffic for an hour and not moving anywhere - I turned into my gym and went for a swim in the pool. An hour later I walked out of the gym and the traffic still hadn't moved. I opted to turn around and cross the Second Narrows - that was MUCH faster.

I really like Malaysian food. Roti canai...can't get enough of that. Lol - good thing that Chicky and I are heading to Malaysia in a couple of months. I'm so looking forward to the scrumptious food we can get our hands onto. :-) Going to need to bring my stretchy clothes!

annual potluck

On Saturday night was our annual potluck Xmas party with our friends. The Mackey's hosted this year. Very nice of Josie and Jonathan to share their new home with us. I think it's becoming a tradition for those that have the newest home to host the Xmas potluck.

We all had a great time catching up with everyone. It was nice to see people that I haven't seen in a long time - such as Billy, Kim and their son London. The last time I saw London was when he was born. Now he's 18 months old and so cute. We took pictures and had dinner. Tanya proved to be the only chef. The rest of us are devoted patrons of Hon's.

As we grow older it's harder to stay in touch. I find that everyone's lives are changing at a fast rate. In the last year the lives of Josie/Jonathan, Chris/Cindy and Charlene/Scott have changed dramatically. A baby was born, a couple got pregnant and another couple is getting married. When I think of other friends who's lives are rapidly changing as well, I can't help but think of how it was just yesterday that I was hanging out with them and discussing important things as cute guys and what's in to wear, going hiking or enjoying a day window shopping. I think I'll have to start up the dim sum thing again next year. I miss just hanging out with the girls and catching up on their lives. As mentioned at the party, we seem to stay in touch with those that have blog sites. It's funny how communication styles have changed over time.

the pastry chef

On Friday night I attempted to make some cookies for Josie's Christmas cookie exchange. She wanted everyone to make cookies to swap this year - instead of gifts. It's a novel idea. I didn't realize what magnitude it was until the task was upon me.

Josie had initially stated that a cookie exchange is for a person to make a dozen cookies for EACH of the guests coming to the party. So our party of 10 people meant that I needed 10 dozen cookies!! That was a crazy amount so Josie cut it back to half a dozen for every person coming. So I thought to myself 'doesn't sound that hard'. I was mistaken. As you all know - I rarely cook at home. My mom is the primary chef and if left to my own vices, the dinner menu would consist of a bowl of cereal and a bag of chips. Satisfying but of no nutritional value. That said I was all gung ho into the adventure. I did the research - found a few easy receipes on the net. Printed the ones that I wanted. I might create a binder do as to not kill more trees in my cooking adventures. That or purchase a dessert cookbook. While surfing - I did discover the Cookie Swap Party planner, maybe this is where Josie got her idea from.

I sought out Superstore. Purchased all the supplies and ingredients. When the cashier rang everything in and gave me the final amount. I cringed. It would have been much cheaper to just cheat and buy cookies for everyone. Who even knows if mine will come out right?!!

So at 9pm I started the baking. Chicky came over from work and helped with the shortbread cookies. I had a bit of trial and error runs. Discovered that having one tray of cookies in the oven works best (so as not to burn the whole batch). We baked a couple of batches, taste tested and modified the receipe. Chicky tried putting the dough onto the trays with teaspoons (so that they'd be the same size). We totally forgot that my mom has a cake piping bag. That would have made things go by so much faster. During the baking - I thought about various gadgets that would have speeded up the process. Always thinking about gadgets. Nice to have items would have been: kitchenaid blender, cookie press, silicone molds and 2 layer cooling rack. :-) So for the party I ended up packaging brownies, melt-in-your-mouth shortbread cookies and loaded oatmeal-raisin cookies (for those that don't want sweet stuff). I'll have to make more desserts when there's less pressure and more time to enjoy it.

food bank fill up

On Friday I brought the donations that my department collected for the food bank from our breakfast party. We had hosted and served breakfast to a few departments at work. In turn people who came brought non-perishable goods. Those that weren't able to dig up a can or two offered cash donations. It was a success. We got a full box of food and $63 in cash.

I lost power to my house Friday as well so it was a bit of a struggle trying to figure out how to get the donations to Z95.3's Food Bank Fill Up at the Safeway on Hastings and Willingdon. Michael was my hero in shining armour. He responded to my desperate pleas and brought my car to me after work. I had this vision of pulling up to Z95.3 while they were broadcasting and be able to say something about ICBC's Help Desk. You know...do some PR work as well. Kill 2 birds with one stone. In reality - Micheal and I rushed to the Safeway (as it was nearing their 6pm cut off) and some kids unloaded the car. There was no fanfare. No appreciated thanks. I felt jipped. I even wrote a nice envelope with how much we raised and from who the cash donations were from (ICBC's Help Desk). One kid grapped the envelope, said "thanks lady", ripped it open without looking at it and dumped the contents into the big donation box that they have there. Shaking my head in dismay, I asked for my box back (as it's a nice box from Ikea and I can still use it to gather more food donations at work) and drove away.

holiday blues

I'm feeling tired and sad tonight. I went to Chicky's dragon boat team dinner thing. Unfortunately I chose the wrong route to Richmond from North Van. I went over the Lion's Gate bridge and through the downtown core. Factoring in the rain, Canucks game and holiday shopping - it took me 2 hours to get to his workplace. During my drive I developed road rage. This lead to more a foul mood. I had plenty of time to think about how many times I've shown my support for Chicky over the years and how many times he's supported me. I'm not suppose to keep tab but it's not an even mix. That train of thought just lead down a dark road of where and what Chicky and I have been through the last 4 or 5 years. By the time I reached his office I was not feeling social. The dinner lasted 1/2 hour. I wasn't going to drive home right away as it took me so long to get there so I told Chicky that I wanted to go to the mall. He didn't want to go - that annoyed me. He had picked up on my foul mood so he eventually agreed. So I dragged him to Daiso - I wanted to get some wrapping paper. Didn't see anything at Daiso so we went home. Took me an hour to drive home. I told him that he has to help me bake for Josie's cookie-exchange party on Saturday. I'm not going to let him off so easy.

I think most of my foul mood stems from my family. We've been having wars at home. Same old issues between my parents for the last 20 years. They can never resolve it and end up ignoring it. Now it's reached a point where KA and I can't take it anymore (Carol is lucky - she's lived on her own for nearly 8 years now and doesn't have to deal with this crap). The family is all broken up but we live behind a visage of happiness. It gets really tiring trying to pretend that everything is ok. Our house is like a hotel. Everyone has their separate rooms. No one really talks to each other. KA and I are eating less and less at home, in feeble attempts to escape having to deal with the issues. We feel sorry for our mom and have reached the conclusion that we will do what it takes to make her happy. If that means screwing over my dad then be it. My dad seems to screw up every Christmas for us anyhow. Sometimes I fear that I will have the same type of relationship that my parents have. Not really happy together but not making an effort to cut it off for good. Oh well - 2007 should kick off with some major changes to our family structure. Ah - dysfunctional families...wish we could be "normal".

cooking for a good cause

Calling all Iron Chefs - no...that's not me. I've been tasked with cooking and baking this week. At work my department is hosting it's first annual Christmas breakfast. Our sister branch in Victoria does this yearly and we thought that we'd start the tradition on this side of the water.

As leader of the Gung Ho committee (our departmental social club) - I was given 2 weeks to put it all together. The committee participation is pretty pathetic - just Robyn and I are members now. I gathered money from everyone, sent out invitations and intended on going to Costco to shop last night. On the way home I nearly fell asleep at the wheel again as I was so tired - it's been really busy at work - so I decided to take a nap first before going grocery shopping. My nap turned into a 3 hour power nap. I woke up in time to rush to the mall, grab a secret santa gift for my coworker, go to Save On Foods and pick up all the groceries needed for the breakfast party. This morning I lugged all the stuff into work. Good thing was that I found parking in the shipping and receving bay, loaded a trolley with my items and took it upstairs.

Part of the breakfast includes collecting donations for the food bank (in terms of canned goods or money). I'll be dropping off those items on the way to Richmond tomorrow. Z95.3 is having their Food Bank Fillup campaign right now. One of the locations is the Safeway on Hastings and Willingdon. Going to drop off the donations there after work tomorrow. We're cooking for a good cause. So that makes me feel better when I have to be in at 6:30am tomorrow to scramble eggs, fry bacon and stuff. I'll post pics later.

sleep is over rated

It's nearly midnight and I feel wired. This is despite the fact that I've only had about 4 hours of sleep since yesterday. Sunday a lazy day. The adventures in finding a place to have lunch was amusing. Chicky and I found ourselves in West Vancouver after perusing the streets of Vancouver to no avail.

After lunch Chicky was a tired (probably emotionally) and not in the mood for Christmas shopping so we went back to his place. Nick and Lisa had gotten up much earlier than us and had brunch. They had a Christmas party the night before and got home at around the same time as us. We watched a bit of TV with them before going to bed. Lisa is so cool - she made her own Christmas gown. Since I've known her (which has been on and off for the last 4 or 5 years) she's like making fancy dresses for parties. She's quite the seamstress. Nick and Chicky relaxed the rest of the afternoon by playing computer games with each other. Lisa and I watched Pirates of the Caribean: Deadman's Chest. After that Lisa went out for a bit and I took a nap on the couch. Nick has new couches - so big and comfy. Only thing is that they are leather and VERY cold. I feel like I have to be bundled up while watching TV. Unfortunately Nick doesn't suscribe to cable to the TV channel selection is limited. That's not too disappointing to me as I normally watch channel 25 and 50 (cartoon channels). Once in awhile I'll mix it up and watch the space or discovery channels.

When I woke up from my nap it was nearly dinner time. Lisa had come back and had changed the channel - she's not as much of a cartoon freak as I am. The 4 of us ordered pizza and all watched Da Vinci's Code. Some times it's just nice to just sit around and relax.

After Da Vinci's Code - it was 9pm and I was heading out to go home. Chicky and I then debated if we wanted to watch a new movie (in the theatre). That would have meant that I'd be up past midnight. He didn't really care as he had monday off. I said "what the heck - sure!" So we watched Blood Diamond. That movie was almost 2 hours long! I got home at 1:30am - had to get up for work 4 hours later.

on being impersonal

Chicky picked up a voice message from his parents Sunday afternoon. They wanted to tell him that they had put Elmo to sleep that morning. We were having lunch at the White Spots in West Vancouver. What a horrible way to find out about something like that. He quickly called his parents to find out why they had done that. Elmo was apparently sick and they thought it would be better for him to be put to sleep. When he told me what happened afterwards, I couldn't help but think about Mui Mui. I think we've invested moocho mula on her (as her last surgery was more than a couple of thousand). I think KA and I would be extremely upset if my parents put her down without consulting with us first. As long as Mui Mui avoids being another midnight snack for a coyote - the less we'll have to pay in medical fees. Mui Mui should live a long time, she's quite spoiled at home.

Elmo was technically Chicky's pet and they should have asked him what he thought about the procedure before doing it. That or at least told him in advance what was going to happen. No one wants to hear about it after the fact. Elmo was nearly 10 years old, he could have lived longer but would he have been happy?

So at lunch we mourned Elmo for a bit. Talked about his good kitty days. Though Chicky may not have directly taken care of Elmo since moving back from Victoria - he still loves that chubby kitty. I didn't really know Elmo. He was a bit of an unsocial creature when I met him. Elmo never lived with us - we had white furniture back then and I wasn't so keen on his shedding. When Mui Mui came into our lives, Elmo was over shadowed by her playful/needy ways. I remember Mui Mui as a puppy and wanting to play with Elmo (she thought he was a bigger version of her toy bunny). He wasn't into playing and enjoyed slapping Mui Mui on the head with his claws. Soon after that I didn't let Mui Mui have play dates with him.

I think Elmo was lonely. I don't think many people played with him. Chicky's parents have tried to give him away twice in the last couple of years. That can be damaging to a cat's self esteem. I think it's best that he went onto his next cat life peacefully.

waterfront Christmas

On Saturday was Chicky's company's annual Christmas party. They held it at the Fairmount Vancouver Waterfront. It's a gorgeous hotel. Chicky and I walked to the party from his place. It was quite the stroll - about 3 blocks in the sprinkling rain. It was romantic. We had his golf umbrella so that I wouldn't have frizzy hair by the time we got to the party.

The party was really good. The food was spectacular - Chicky even had seconds! As usual it was an open bar. I had an array of drinks infront of my but it was the glass of wine that put "color" into my cheeks. I was glassy-eyed by the time dessert came around. :-)

For entertainment the company hired some performers from the Drum Cafe. I've heard of them before and seen some of their team building events. I was very impressed with the precision of the instruments, the excitment from the crowd and the excersizes that they had us do. We clapped rhythms in harmony to the beat of the drums and when the bag of morrocos came out - the crowd went wild! An enjoyable experience which left me to ponder whether I should look at hiring them for one of our own Social Club events. I'm ever on the lookout for Social Club ideas. I did speak to a lady at our table who just finished with a Survivor event hosted by Canadian Outback Adventures. Sounded like lots of fun. I told her that I'm looking into hiring that company for an event as well and asked for feedback. She was most willing to give me some.

We also played Heads & Tails for a chance at winning 2 airfare tickets for anywhere in the continental US. I was close to winning! But got eliminated when my "heads" streak came to an end. :-) Oh well - I was fun to be one of the last few people standing on the dance floor. After dinner and dessert, Chicky and I mingled with his friends, danced a few songs, watched some good dancers show the rest of us how bad we look on the dance floor and went home. Here are a few pictures from the party.

testing completed

I finished my final exam tonight. Whew! So happy that it's done with. I put in about 6 hours of real study time. Procrastinated all yesterday. Didn't crack open the textbook till 1:30am Thursday. Read it for an hour then fell asleep. Woke up 6 hours later, took a shower to wake myself up and hit the books again. There was no retention involved in all of this. It was basically going in and out of my head. The exam was only worth 20% so I figured I'd be ok if I failed miserably. Having this type of mentality to start with does not help with the procrastination. During the day I studied, ate breakfast, slept, studied, watched TV, snacked on junk food, cleaned the kitchen, studied, fell asleep again and did laundry. Yup - not very productive in the academic field but my house is much cleaner! Plus Muimui was making it hard to study, she kept walking all over my papers and wanting to play. So instead of playing, I went on the web and searched for doggie biscuit receipes. Going to make Muimui some home made goodies for Xmas. Wait - I've been down this road before. It's cheaper to buy doggie biscuits. You can get a HUGE bucket full of Milk Bones from Costco for $8! Kimmi is all about convenience...Costco here I come!

Now it's time to start Christmas shopping and concentrating on more important things such as decorating the house for the holidays. I love Christmas - it's such a colorful time of year.

hanging with the girls

I took 2 days off this week to "study". Didn't get too much of that done though. I spent a good part of Wednesday with Josie and Katarina. I went over to see Josie's new home. It's so nice. They've done a lot of work renovating it. Plus it was pretty easy to find - despite the directions from Google maps. I think Google purposely gives you the roundabout way of getting somewhere. After missing many of the turns listed on the map - I chose my own stealthy ninja way.

Katarina has grown up so much since I've last seen her. She can now sit and fully interact with you. She's such a happy and easy baby. Josie is so lucky! I really like it that Katarina is not afraid of strangers. She was a bit tentative at first and kept staring at my pink toque (maybe she liked it) - but after awhile we were buddies. :-) I have no problems stealing her from her mommy!

Jasmine and Josie's mom were visting too so the 4 of us went out for dim sum. It was yummy and Katarina kept us entertained. She's in that phase now where everything needs to be "tasted". She's really strong for her age and has a really good grip. My hair is the perfect length for pulling on. I figure she'll bypass crawling and go straight into walking/running. She like to be held up so that her feet is walking along the floors. But the cutest is her ability to giggle whenever a camera is pointing at her. :-) Do we have a model in the making?!

After dim sum, Josie and I went to Richmond Centre to do some shopping. I wasn't in any hurry to study and Josie had a few hours before cardio bootcamp with her sister. I'm proud that Josie's so hard core. My attempt at working out this week was yoga. I went on tuesday and felt nauseous. The room was spinning after a few poses. I thought I was going to throw up on the mat so I layed down - that only made me want to puke more so I had to sit up in fear of choking on my own vomit. Ah - not hydrated enough before going in. I'm so bad at not drinking water. It's not good either when you know that you have a hot yoga class that evening too. The room was heated to it's normal 45+ degrees but it felt like 100 degrees to me. :-) Todd (the owner) was surprised to see me walk in at 6pm and asked me where I've been these last few months. I said I was bad and haven't been practising. Part of the appeal of this studio is that I know the owners and instructors well (from the days when I was diligent and practiced daily).

test time

This week is test time. Today I wrote a test for the Help Desk Analyst II position. It's basically the next level up from my current job. I applied for this job 2 weeks ago and now they're starting with the testing. The exam was super long. I cringed at most of the questions. You can't really study for these kinds of tests cause it's one of those "you know it or don't know it" exams. The first part was "technical". This is one of my weaker areas so I had anxiety after staring at the first 2 questions. "Name the port numbers for the following..." Kay...port 80 is for internet. But that was only one port. I accomplished nothing on that section. Moving on...networking...not so hot there either. Lol - it's kind of funny how we're suppose to know a little about everything. But I don't think anyone will do superb on the exam (or I hope). If I pass this stage then I move onto Part 2 of the application which is an assignment and PowerPoint presentation. Topic is given 2 days prior to presenting. Wonderful. If I clear that stage then it's the interview. I think that if you get to the interview stage then you're probably a sure thing. I was hoping to get another job in another area. Getting a bit tired of IT support. My tolerance for computer illiterate people is getting low...especially if I haven't had my morning coffee yet!

Thursday night this week I'll be writing my Marketing final exam. So that will be another exam over and done with. After Thursday I can concentrate on my work load and try to catch up before the end of the year. All the social club stuff has been interfering with my real work and someone might ask (not that anyone does) why things aren't done this month. :-) Back to writing boring technical documents. Too bad we can't write technical documents with more flavour! Imagine if reference document for MS Outlook had a story line like a suspense novel. :-) That would be more interesting! If you think these blogs are boring - you should check out the stuff I write for work. It's like an alien language - full of acronyms!

let the partying begin

This Saturday I kicked off the Christmas season with my first Christmas party. It was the social club's annual adult Christmas dinner & dance. After months of preparation - the event was finally here. We had a pretty busy week getting ready for it. A few glitches along the way (including a floor plan change by the hotel at 2 days prior to the party) but we survived. Robyn and I even had an eventful Thursday night shopping for door prizes at Metrotown. That proved to be challenging as I had lost power to the house that day and didn't have a car. She didn't either as the weather caused both of us traffic misery. So we skytrained to Metrotown after work intending to buy lots of gifts then bumming a ride from a relative. KA came to the rescue. I managed to convince her and Michael that they should come shopping at Metrotown. They came with their big car and we managed to load the (super heavy) gifts into it.

Saturday had it's own challenges too. Being busy with our own little tasks for the party - we forgot to think ahead. So when Robyn was running late and she was the only one with the guest list and seating plan - I had to stop people from entering the ballroom as I didn't know who was suppose to sit where. Luckily she came and we frantically seated people. :-) I getting hot from running around! Lol - reminded me of a wedding. The food at the Georgia Hotel was wonderful. We had opted for a sit-down meal (instead of a buffet) and it was nice. Everyone got to eat at the same time. Poor Chicky had to hang out with my coworkers as I ran around and did errands. Between eating, taking pictures, running the games and making sure the DJ did his job - I got to eat a few bites of food. Overall I was REALLY happy with the turn out and that fact that it was well organized (minus those few moments when we scrambled to find people seats or dealt with the DJ power problem). I'm happy that the 2006 events are coming to an end as it's been a long week and I'm ready to crash.

Next weekend is Chicky's company Xmas party then his dragon boat team Xmas party. After that is just friends and family Xmas parties. So much food - looking forward to eating it all!!

snow day

"Oh the weather outside is frightful, and my dear it's so delightful. And since there's no place to go...let it snow, let it snow, let it snow..."

Tis the season to crack open the hot chocolate, put on some ski pants and pick up a shovel for some heavy duty snow removal! As many of us survived (or possibly not) the snow fall on the weekend, we didn't know if it would be possible to face the elements this morning. The road conditions were treacherous! I was saying that to myself this morning as I dug my way out of the garage. Having broken a sweat from shovelling a path for my car to weave it's way out of the garage, I was shivering from my wet pant legs. Time for some booties!

I gave myself almost 2 hours to get to work - what a keener eh?! As I traveled along my merry way, sipping on some Starbucks coffee and contemplating if choosing the Highway 1 route was really a wise decision, I discovered that people in Vancouver just don't know how to deal with snow. People either drove way too slow or were tailgating each other. I made it into work in one piece and with minimal road rage. I park 5 blocks from work - which mean it was a good hike through unshovelled streets. By the time I got to my desk I had already composed a list of "necessities" - including a new toque, mitts, scarf, booties and longer coat. :-) An excuse to shop?! The day passed by uneventful. Only a handful of my department actually came in. Darn those with kids! Just cause it's a Snow Day for all kids doesn't mean that the parents get to stay home too. Yes - I know...it's hard to find a babysitter at the last minute. I need to find an excuse to take a day off because of Mui Mui. She's like my child...I should start reaping in the parental-benefits!! :-)

On the way home I noticed that Jerry had made a snowman - he was no where in sight. Maybe it's too cold to stand outside all day and wave to drivers. I quickly dug out my camera from my bag as the car was coming to a halt (yes - I'm not a cautious driver). I frantically snapped a shot before having to speed up again to make the left turn onto Hastings. A "drive-by-shooting". The picture is blurry but you get the gist of it.

winterland adventure

This afternoon I went to see Disney On Ice: The Incredibles in a Magic Kingdom Adventure with my mom, sisters, Angelina and her cousin. I got these tickets for Angelina for her 7th birthday last week. The reaction on her face when she got the tickets was the best. She screamed out "tickets to Disneyland?!" Unfortunately for her I'm not made of moolah - so Disney on Ice here we come!

We went down to the PNE an hour earlier to find that the line ups were already long and the usual parking-vultures were trying to get us to park at their houses for $5. PNE parking is $6.50. We went with the safer choice - PNE.

I've never seen so many kids gathered in one place. After relocating each other and being rejected for wanting a cool kiddie wrist band, we headed over to our seats. I was really happy that we weren't in the nose-bleed section and a pretty decent view. You never know with what sections the Social Club bought (I didn't manage this event). So we sat with a whole bunch of other ICBC employees. The girls wanted toys that were being sold by a very seductive guy. Everything for this show was $10+. My mom got suckered into getting twirly-toys for the girl - at least they lit up (because each plastic toy was $22 bucks!!). I bought a $10 bag of popcorn and passed on the drink as the show hadn't even started yet and we were being milked for every piece of cash in our wallets. PNE really knows how to get kids to want stuff from the sellers.

The show itself was spectacular. The skaters very talented. My favorite was Buzz Light Year - his boots shot out flames and they had him suspended in the rafters for a bit. At one point the show resembled a Cirque Du Soleil show with the arials, music and pirotechs. We weren't allowed to take pictures during the show but I still saw many flashes go off in the dark. What I liked about the show was that they made it interactive. Near the end the Incredibles asked all the children stand up and use their wristbands to help save the day. The wristbands were given at the door to the PNE to all kids. They are equiped with lights - color depends on the button you push on it. So in a sea of blackness - there were red lights flashing from all the little wrists. Reminded me of the Cold Play concert when everyone used their cell phones instead of lighters to croon to the music. Would have made a cool picture. I snuck a picture of the girls "saving the day" though (turn the flash off so that I wouldn't get yelled at by the other parents). See the show here.

After the show, we walked out into a winter wonderland. Big fluffy flakes of snow was pouring down. This proved to be a challenge. Getting out of the PNE parking lot without hitting a child was interesting. It's still snowing right now. I can't wait to for tomorrow - snow is so pretty!

there's a serial killer at work

So I've had this twitchy eye problem the last 2 weeks. It's my left eye. Every now and then it twitches. Makes me feel a bit psychotic. No - I'm not going crazy. It's just a symptom of stress. Do you suffer from stress? Here are the signs.

I'm getting near burnout (again) and haven't put time into just relaxing. If I haven't had time to talk to you lately, here's what I've been preoccupied with...

• applied for 3 different jobs at work (all in different fields)
• got notified that I didn't get one of the jobs (problem management department)
• pretty much guaranteed of the one at the Help Desk because of my recent nomination by Help Desk BC
  
• hosted a go karting event on sunday (lots of prep work for that)
  
• wrapping up the movie ticket event and Disney On Ice event (this saturday)
• doing last minute preparations for the 2 Social club events in December (adult and children's christmas parties)
  
• build marketing campaign boards and media for the Social Club (at night and on the weekends) to show off at the events
  
• tested (technical and customer service wise) for Help Desk Analyst of the Year with a panel of judges --> very nerve wracking as you couldn't prepare
  
• attended the Help Desk Analyst of the Year award ceremony and did a speech --> didn't win but ICBC won anyways which is still awesome!
  
• wrote a term paper for school --> was a collaborative piece of work therefore required many conversations and meetings with my group
  
• created a PowerPoint presentation and pamphlet for class today
  
• group meetings 2/3 times a week in prep for the class project and paper
  

How I'm going to relax: I intend on spending tomorrow night watching Heros. It's a new TV show and I've never seen it before. I basically follow whatever KA is watching. She like CSI, I grew to adore CSI. She became a Desperate Housewives and Grey's Anatomy fan, I did too. I think it's a matter of convenience. She tapes the shows that she likes. I'm not much of a TV watcher. I have no loyalty to any show so I watch whatever is available and that means KA shows. I heard Heros is a good show so I'm looking forward to my TV night!!

With school coming to a near end. I can fully devote my life to the Social Club. I think my whole life revolves around it. I spend all my weekends working on stuff for it. The only gratitude is that when I see how happy people are with the Club (as it was a sinking ship before I joined) I'm happy too. I totally believe that people mirror your attitudes. That some of the Club's executives were so negative about the Club in general that they were poisoning the others. Members are drawn to happy and excited people. We're suppose to be social right?! I totally believe that there are members on the executive who are burned right out (not their fault as there's so little help when it comes to planning and hosting events) and because of that they are grumpy, agitated and irritable. They try to spread this contagion to the other executives and that makes me mad. My cure is to get rid of those that don't truly want to make a difference. Lol - 2007 is going to be when I am going to force the Club to flip it's executive positions. Phrase for 2007: "You're fired!" :-) I'm not being bossy for the fun of it. I want progress and genuinely care about the Club (hence the numerous personal hours spent doing promo stuff for them). I've worked hard in the last few months and don't want any leeches sabotaging what has been accomplished or the potential for growth.

Ah...I sense a disturbance in the force....and that disturbance is going to be me!

molson canadian

Tonight was my last "real" class for Marketing. It was time to hand in the term paper and do our presentation. I had quite a busy couple of weeks and realistically didn't do the presentation till today. My group buddy wanted many things and she's so lucky that I'm pretty proficient with computers! As I don't think many people can throw stuff together on the fly.

I took the day off intending to get up early and build the PowerPoint presentation. What actually happened was that I was enjoying the aspect of not having to get up at the break of dawn and slept in till noon. After that I had lunch, watched a bit of cartoons (as I thought I still had a few hours to spare) and then fell asleep on the couch. I'm sleep deprived so I fall asleep easily...in front of TVs, at meetings, while driving, etc.

Waking up late, I panicked and slapped together a half-ass presentation. Nothing that I would be proud of. :-) But it was good enough for our purposes. My partner then thought it would be cool to hand everyone a pamphlet - so she told me to build one, I told her to get me content. In an hour we had our tri-fold pamphlet ready to go. We were presenting Molson as our project. I've never drank the beer before and to top it off am not a beer fan at all. So that was the greatest challenge for me - not the public speaking part but the task of trying to sell/promote a product that I have zero interest in. :-) As you can see I didn't pick the topic.

I convinced my team mate that we should go first. She was a bit freaked out about having to speak and gets flushed when people look at her too long. Poor kid. I had tested the equipment prior to class, copied the files over to the Cdrive, ran the presentation a couple of times to make sure the embedded video clips worked and checked the slide transitions/timing. If we lost marks in content, we would at least get full marks for organization! I told Christine that going first for any kind of group presentation has it's advantages:

• if the clas is allowed to evaluate the presentations...going first means that there's no one to compare your presentation against (unless you have a spectacular show that will capivate the audience - you're better off going first)
• it'll be over and done with, so you anxiety levels won't increase as you await your turn
  
• there are 14 groups presenting therefore the interest/attention levels of the class will deplete with each presenter

The teacher asked how we wanted to choose who goes first and last. I shot up my hand right away and roared out that my group is going first. That made it easy for other groups as I saw some of them their eyes away when she said the words "who wants to go first". So I kicked off the presentation in my loud and cheerful manner - I'm pretty sure people didn't have problems hearing me. I blabbed on about beer, Molson, hockey and alcohol in general. I think there was more BS in my speech then facts - thank goodness for slides (which did have facts on them). I don't like reading straight from slides - that's very boring as people can read it themselves. Add spice to your talk by using "fillers"! Over all I felt that we did well. Our presentation wasn't too long and it hit the major points. I was proud of Christine for keeping her cool - though she was bright red by the end of her section.

I think being so actively involved in the Social Club has greatly improved my public speaking skills. I may not have anything interesting to say but I can definately talk loud and for a long time! :-)

the Oscars

On Tuesday I went to the awards ceremony for the Help Desk Analyst of the Year. It was a spectacular event. I was super excited and pumped full of caffeine. I worked that morning and grabbed some comfort food (McChicken meal...mmm..."I'm loving it!") and headed over to the Holiday Inn at Metrotown.

When I walked through the doors the room was decorated like the Oscars. Black tie event. Lol - thank goodness I made the correct fashion decision in the morning and wore a comfy yet "professional" outfit. :-) I wasn't in suit mode and didn't want to appear as if I'm off to a job interview. The committee had asked the finalist to arrive a bit early so that we can get aquainted with others and get our question beforehand.

I was thrilled when I found out that each of us would get different questions. Ahem...yes...I believe in world peace and kindness to women and children... Seriously - it felt like a beauty pageant. We then signed waivers that would allow them to post our pictures, bios, etc on their websites and in the paper. Lol - that's right baby...Kimmi is going to be in the paper! Under what section?!? Who the hell knows. :-) I chucked and said to the photographer that he need to airbrush me well as I'm going to catch myself a man! He laughed and said that the only guys that would be reading this story would be geeks. Duh!!

Having had a can of coke (as Burnaby and North Van are still under water restriction - all beverages come in cans) with my McDonald's meal. I proceeded to pour myself a coffee...which later turned out to be 2. This would later turn out to be not a wise choice.

The main reason we were doing this event was that it's PR stuff for the organization. Realizing this I felt for them - as we're going through the same advertising/marketing struggles with our own Social Club. I was super nervous when it came to walk up. The agenda was that they would announce all nominees, introduce them one by one then call each of the finalists to the front separately and in alphabetical order. From there the MC would read a bio on us, we'd each give a speal about the company we represented, the MC would read us our question and then we'd answer it. Simple enough eh? ICBC had 2 finalists therefore I was counting on my partner in crime to do a lot of the ICBC stat stuff.

Chris - my coworker went up first. He's a good speaker and charismatic. I think it's funny that the 2 people selected from the Help Desk are former psychology majors. :-) Just goes to tell you that personality plays a big role in the techie world as well. Chris did his thing up there and I sat at my table wishing I could slow down my heart rate. I always get a blast of super stage fright before having to talk to any crowd. :-) Though I may seem smooth and calm when giving speeches, etc...deep down inside I just want to throw up. So I used refocusing techniques to gather myself. So what did I refocus on?! My need to go pee! After that it was just downhill. I could no longer concentrate and told my supervisor who was sitting next to me. He burst out laughing. This was super inappropriate as another finalist was up on stage and doing her thing. She was struggling already and we were making her feel worst with our giggling.

Then it came time for me to march up to the front. I walked by the 7 foot screen with my name blasted across it (ah...the glories of powerpoint). I should just be thankful that they didn't have an old picture of me pasted for all to see. :-) I was still giddy from trying to conciously work on not doing the got-to-go-pee-dance while standing next to the MC. The crowd was silent and when I looked over, the MC was short! There was a photo op and the photographer pointed at us to smile. I was taken off guard and must have made a funny face at the height difference as I bent my knees so that the MC and I were closer in height for the picture. Darn those high heels! The crowd laughed at my unconcious move. It's an ice breaker. I appreciated the laugh though as it made me feel more at ease. I didn't have anything prepared so just spoke freely. I thought I did well and it appeared as people were listening (that or they were secretly leaning forward to check their blackberries!).

The winner was announce at the end. Chris won and I came in second. I was super thrilled for him and for ICBC in general. We kicked ass! Both of us jumped up and down in excitement. When the MC asked for the envelope please...*drum roll*...we all smiled at each other and gave the other 2 girls a "good luck" whisper. When Chris' name was called out he was stunned and I was bubbling over with happiness. I think I might have pushed the girl next to him to one side in a mad dash to hug him and say congrats. :-) Then there was a flurry of flashes. We were blinded, someone rushed Chris forward to accept his award and the rest of us were pushed to one side so that we wouldn't be in the pictures. :-) Wow - this is a long post. Going to stop here. As you can tell I'm still pumped about the event and look forward to seeing the pictures when they are released.

Kim's Krazy Karts

On sunday I hosted (on behalf of my social club) a Go Karting event at TBC Indoor Racing. There were 85 participants and 12 teams. Chicky, Chris, Toshiki and Brian were on a team called "Kart" (yes...the creativity oozes out of them). The other teams had great names (such as Road Ragers, Dragon Driving School, etc).

The skill levels ranged from "new" drivers to those that brought their own race helmets. The age range was vast too. My youngest drivers were 14 and oldest were 50+. One team (the Power Rangers) consisted of 16 years old who were celebrating one of the driver's birthday (their mom was mooching off the club's event). Good thing she didn't have cake for him as I'm sure the other drivers would have raised an eyebrow to that.

There was a lot of organizing and time put into this event but I was REALLY happy with the results. I've received a lot of positive feedback and the club's image has gone up (which is part of the goal of this event - advertising for the Club). Things that went well and added icing to my cake:

• the pizza arrived on time (as I had multiple conversations with Panago last week about the delivery time and date - as Panago doesn't officially open till 11am but I needed 30 pizzas to be eaten by 11:15am). I was a very demanding customer and didn't take any of their crap. My conversation with them even stirred comments from coworkers about my assertive/aggressive mannerism. Lol...just part of being a dictator!
  
• All the participants arrived on time! I was actually flabbergasted to see that the majority of them were there before 11am (as the facility was not official open till then). I had spoken to the manager about letting "early" people in first. I turned out to be "late" (though I was technically 15 mins early)! This really struck a sentimental chord in my type A personality. :-)
• no one melted in the boardroom as it was small and getting warmer and warmer by the minute - thus making attention spans shorter and my ability to convey the necessary information harder
  
• Brian came to my rescue as there were no other Social Club executive members to help me out with the set up, food, drinks, etc. Brian is an executive member and made an awesome pizza box cutter.
  
• everyone coordinated they own driver changes without mishaps, collisions or arguments
• no one got seriously hurt. The only injury was from Pete's daughter who took a hard hit to her kart and then said her neck felt funny. She soon regressed to not being able to turn her head. I pulled her off the course and had her watch for the rest of the race from the stands as even the spectators on the floor were not safe from the karts!
  
• No one got black flagged and asked to leave. Yah! But many drivers were given lectures from the staff about aggressive behaviour. Some teams were out to win at all costs.
  
• Chicky's team came in second - which I didn't doubt at all. I figured they were going to be first but then I met the drivers of team "Drift Kings" and they turned out to be the guys from my old location (all professional drivers). Pete is roundy-bout driver, Jeff is a drag-race boy and the other 2 guys are motorcyle fanatics
• I didn't lose my voice from all the "talking" (more like screaming) that I did throughout the day. I'm really happy that there are people in the world that can whistle really loudy to get the attention of 85 people.
  

I took pictures from the event and have posted them here. I didn't post everything as most of the pictures are dim (due to a lack of an external flash). While shooting pictures I thought about how wonderful it would be to have an SLR. Especially when it came to taking action shots. I missed many spectacular crashes because my camera was trying to "focus" on the target.

pushing up

Just got back from my marketing class. As usual I was staring at my cell phone and wondering when the torture would end. :-) Just kidding - that's an exaggeration. Every once in awhile my little-brown-humorous-teacher gets WAY off topic (this tends to happen as the night progresses and as the number of students in the class "all of a suddenly" diminishes after the first break). In marketing we spend a lot of time discussing advertising - what works and what doesn't.

Tonight's mindless wondering brought us into the lingerie business. In her bantering I learned that Victoria Secret had bought out La Senza for $710 million this morning. Shares in La Senza soared and so did my consumer excitement. I was thrilled! This would mean that I can get those nice lotions that I like at Victoria Secret now without having to deal with the border line ups. The delusion came crashing down when my teacher said that Victoria Secret would keep La Senza as is (meaning they would not merge product lines) - boohoo!

The funny part of this whole conversation in class were her analogies. The events which lead up to this merger came out of a lawsuit against between the two companies. Back in March this year Victoria Secret was suing La Senza for a million dollars over the copyright of a "wireless push up bra". The companies went from enemies to lovers shortly after that. As Padma puts it: "Victoria Secret was a shark and La Senza said "hey...I'm a shark too! I just look different." So instead of trying to kill each other, why don't we go after all the other little fishes in the pond together?" Padma is full of wacky analogies. Maybe it's her foreign sense of humour that amuses me. Or her accent and facial expressions when she tries to imitate people or products. Brownies...got to love them! She's like my own little Thursday night Borat! show.

lazy long weekends

Enjoying the relaxing long weekend. I didn't do too much - well anything productive that is. I went to Frank's birthday on Friday night. He had it at the Banana Leaf in Kitsilano. I've never eaten at this location but the food was good and they had a party room which suited us well. After dinner we went to Rev's Bowling in Burnaby. The line ups were horrendous but we did manage to get a few lanes. Bowling was really fun - I managed to get near 100 each time. :-) Check out the birthday pictures.

The rest of the weekend was mostly dedicated to sleeping. It was Angelina's birthday on Monday as well. She turned 7 - what a big girl! On Saturday the kids came down and we got together with Betty, Hanif and little Michael for a game of poker. During poker we discussed pregnancy and birth (as Betty is getting closer to giving birth). Poor Chicky was sitting in the middle of the girls so he was bombarded with the gruesome details (nothing like 2 nurses and a pregnant woman to gross you out). The interesting part is that Betty's got a new game with her baby. When her baby sticks out, she pokes at the bulge on her belly and sometimes it pokes back! Lol - a bit freaky but cool at the same time.

assession

If you have not heard - Vietnam has been accepted as the 150th member of the WTO today. This was exciting news for me as I'm proud of my country of origin and like to hear positive news about its people or economy. Plus my parents close friends are all entrepeneurs in Vietnam and it will be good for their businesses now that the country's economy is improving. Now Vietnamese folks won't be known for their yummy Pho noodles and infamous poker playing skills (go Johnny! - World Poker Series). Lol - but what will this all mean later on? Will I still be able to go there and get a bowl of pho for $0.35?!? No...don't let the Dong catch up to the Dollar. "Third world" country status still has its novelties. :-)

give us an example of when...

Behavioral interviews: inescapable elements of the working world. I had my interview for the Help Desk Analyst of the Year award today. I felt that I was disoriented as many other things were happening at work today which had me distracted from the main event. Inevitably I went into the interview hungry and irritable - as I had missed lunch due to another appointment.

The interview was done by a panel of 5 judges. Each with their own cryptic question. I tried to answer as best as I could but I found myself sucuumbing to the use of "ums" and "uh" a lot. Not a great way to portray confidence. I was happy that none of the questions had a technical spin on it. I think the questions were the same for the other contestants. The real challenge was to invoke a sense of confidence and determination over the phone. The whole interview was done via teleconferencing. Fortunately or unfortunately they were not able to see my facial expressions.

After the interview I was informed that when I go to the seminar on November 21st, they would ask me another question for the audience to "experience" the process of the award selection. The silly part to all of this is that they will announce the provincial winner prior to the 21st. Therefore all the "losers" will still have to play the game and go through the motions of a "pretend" interview at the seminar. Yipee...not! It's like one of those WWF wrestling matches where the wrestlers knows who's going to "win" but they still have to pretend that they don't know and put on a show for everyone. I don't think I'll be selected as my counterpart finished his interview and sent me an email saying it went really well for him. I didn't share the same kind of enthusiam after mine. But I'm hoping that an ICBC person (him or I) do win as it would be a very prestigious recognition for our Help Desk. Putting us up to the "industry leaders" level!

kareoke girls

I went over to Carol's house today to fix her pc. I set them up on the internet and got them all the essensials such as torrents, msn messenger and burning software. The wireless connection was a bit tough to pick up in some parts of the house (cold spots). Baby wanted to be set up in MSN too as her classmates are all online. That's just crazy - I never realized how technologically advanced the next generation is. When I was 6, I didn't own a computer and definately didn't trade email addresses with my friends. After it was all set up, Baby sent her friends her first email. None of her friends were online though.

After playing on the computer, we monopolized the TV with some good old kareoke fun. Baby really likes some singer called "Trish". I don't think Trish is "known". But it beats singing kiddie songs. Her favorite song is "big big world" - I think we sang it 5X. Trish sings english, vietnamese and french songs. I like the cordless microphones though - makes "back up dancing" much easier! I don't know any of the songs so I'm her backup dancer! Baby's birthday is next week, she's going to be 7. I can't believe time has pass so quickly. It feels like only yesterday when we were sharing baby cherios. Now we're fighting over which song to sing to. Time is flying by. Before I know it we'll be discussing the latest fashion or her latest boyfriend.

meaning of life

This week's audio book was the Dalai Lama's "The Meaning of Life", excerpts from his lecture series. I thought the audiobook would be a nice change from my usual genre (self-help and thrillers). I found that not only did the audiobook was hard to understand (circular reasoning) but also contributed to my falling-asleep-at-the-wheel-syndrome. Don't get me wrong, I did learn much about Buddist philosophy and the meaning of the Karma, etc but I would probably recommend that this book be read instead of listened to. As some of the concepts are cyclic and normal comprehension is unfeasible.

Sort of related to the Dalai Lama...here's a personality test sent to me by a coworker that has quotes from the Dalai Lama. Take it and see what you're true inner self is like. I was pleasantly surprised with the answers. It's true - Chicky (to me) is "somone that you will remember for the rest of your life".

On a more fun note - I started another Dean Kootnz (my favorite author) book. I'm now listening to "The Husband". Much more entertaining as I'm at the part where the wife's kidnappers are going to chop off her fingers if the husband tells the detective that someone has kidnapped his wife. I think I enjoy the fictional audiobooks more as they don't require that much concentration and the most of the storylines are good. Unfortunately my only mode of listening to them is burning them to disk and loading them into the CD player. A bit of an inconvenience as after I listen to the audiobooks, I have ot store the CDs somewhere. The probability of me re-listening to an audiobook is minute therefore I need another form of media to store it in. I've got to figure out a way to hook up the iPAQ to the stereo system. That or get an IPOD and FM receiver. Ah...more gadgets...

5 bucks and I'm all yours

I received an automated voice message from Telus on my cell phone today. The electronic voice of the lady informed me that they have reviewed my last call center experience and are sorry that I was not happy with the service. That was an understatement!! So to make up for their slow response time - they are giving me a credit of $5 towards my next bill. I was thrilled! All evil thoughts aimed at them in the last couple of days have been dimished by the hopes of meager earnings.