It's been a week and I haven't written anything in here. Duh - sorry about that. Nothing really exciting happened on the weekend. Just hung out with my family. The upcoming weekend will be full of events to blog about though. Check in next week for updates.

I do write in my photography blog though if you guys are in dire need of reading something from me. Most of it is about pictures, etc - nothing worth gossiping about.

I'm having fun with my photography class and really enjoy the class, student and teacher. My instructor cares about us (must be the fact that there's only 5 of us in the class). I missed last weeks class as I was so sleep deprived that I fell asleep before class and didn't wake up till the next day. Glen (the teacher) called my cell phone the next day to see how I was. I didn't have time to reply to his message (partially out of guilt as well). So on Friday he called back to see why I hadn't returned his call the night before. I told him the truth and he was nice enough to give me the whole photography lesson on the phone. It was strange but useful doing it that way. He didn't want me to be behind in class. :-) I'm always the (last) one walking in exactly at 7pm and everyone has to wait for me before the class starts. Ah...such a bad student. In my defence I attribute it to travel time from North Vancouver and not knowing where to park when I get to the school and not knowing how to find the classroom. :-) Thank goodness for the PDA (has all my class information on it).

khai

On Tuesday Chicky and went out for dinner at Khai on Seymour and Robson. It was Thai food with flare! The restaurant is nicely decorated in traditional Thai fixtures. The waitresses are pretty in their traditional costumes as well. :-) Yes - I enjoy my food more when it's presented to me by good looking people!

We ended up ordering an appetizer sampler. Spring rolls, calamari, fish cakes and an unknown purple-flower-looking thing (can't really see it in the pic). I made Chicky be the guinea pig. The purple mass turned out to be some kind of rice roll with a sweet filling. I would rank it as a dessert than as an appetizer. For our main course Chicky order "chicken with garlic rice". What he envisioned was not what appeared on our table. :-) Oh well...learning experience. I went with my usual "spicy green beans" dish. Can't go wrong with that...or can you?! The waitress asked me how hot I wanted it - so I said..."sure...make it hot". Ah...my version of hot and theirs is totally different. Chicky and I were in tears after a couple of bites. We frowned at our food (as neither of us was really satisfied) and managed to eat as much as we could. My dish was too spicy so we had to compensate with more rice, water and slurping down Chicky's MSG soup.

The food wasn't as good as Green Basil. I think I'll take Chicky there sometime so that he can compare. :-)

time flies

On Saturday we celebrated Chris' 30th birthday. I can't believe how fast time has flown by. It seemed like just yesterday that we were all gathered in Chris' basement and playing video games. Duh...wait...that was yesterday! :-) Well - some things haven't changed much. I'm happy to have been able to celebrate many of the big milestones in his life. Looking forward to celebrating your big 4-0!

Chris has been sweet enough to organize the pictures into one central location. Check them out here.

http://www.pbase.com/cindyandchrislee - PASSWORD: elsa

high 5s

I was watching the Oprah show today with KA. It's one talk show that I don't mind as the content is not full of crap and most of the stories are inspiring. In the Oprah mode - I went to her website to see what else she offers. I found this - might be good for you gals to read.

High Fives!

• 5 books everyone should read at least once
• 5 things you can do for your relationship
• 5 friends every woman should have
• 5 ways to get a life
• 5 quotes to open your heart
  

to the next level

Good news - I got the Analyst level 2 position. I'm pretty happy with the promotion. More work with a minimal increase in pay. Whooppee!! Just kidding - it's all good. The work has not changed and realistically I haven't felt a difference in what I did last week as a level 1 analyst to this week as a level 2. I do notice more requests for reports though - blah. :-) As long as I'm moving up the corporate ladder is all that counts.

word of the day

I'm not sure if any of you have noticed but I've changed my side bar again on this blog. It's one part of the blog structure that consistently changes. This year's focus is on "learning". I recognize that I have a vocabulary of a child and realistically can't converse at the adult level. It also doesn't help that I speak in acronyms at work and write in point form. So what better way to educate myself (and those that care to look to the right of this post) then present a new word daily? The good thing is that I don't have to generate these words. They come off of my Google webpage. Yes- I've customized Google so that it has all kinds of silly things on my home page. From intellectual stuff like Word of The Day to silly stuff like my horoscope. So look over once in awhile because you can learn a thing or 2!

how smart are you?

Just because Frank mentioned how sporatic the topics of my blogs are and in turn how entertaining they can be (depending on what's on my mind that day). Everyone elses blog seem to have a central theme (relationships, family, kids, food, work, news, etc). I'm still working on what my central theme is to this blog. :-) For now you'll just have to deal with the random thoughts.

I'll throw this in for those of you who enjoy a challenge (or like to boast that you're smarter than the rest of us).

How smart are you? Well - click here to find out.

photography class

Tonight was my first night of photography class. I had a great time and learned many things. I'm taking night classes at Centennial Highschool in Coquitlam. I didn't know where the school was and had not given myself extra time for detours. When I finally found it - it was 7pm and I still had to figure out parking. I haven't been in a highschool in so long and felt lost. I was lost! Luckily I stumbled across a reception desk and the guy there pointed me in the right direction - to the "main" reception desk! Duh! After a few more wrong turns I walked into the classroom.

My class consists of 5 other students and the instructor. All of us have digital cameras. This other guy and myself have the same camera but in different colors. There were 2 extended zoom cameras and a couple that shared an Olympus SLR. The skill level really varied. The lady with the Canon A630 (extended zoom) was delighted to have learned that she can twist her view finder (I think she's the least skilled in the class). While my camera twin was busy switching lenses - he had 3 different ones (most skilled). The guy with the S3 had a memory card problem so I lent him the one from my little camera (sad to say but I carry 3 SD cards in my bag). The class took note of my little camera and commented on it. I told them that my Canon SD500 is my "every day" camera and the SLR is for "special" occasions.

You can find out what I learned in my class in my photo blog. :-) Usually people who read this blog (versus my other one) aren't really interested in the gory details of that class. Don't worry - I won't bore you.

Ponchos

On Tuesday night I met up with Chicky for dinner at Ponchos. It's a little Mexican restaurant on Denman. My coworker had recommended that I try it.

Getting downtown was a hassle (one of the reasons why Chicky and I don't see each other during the week - traffic). I'm not fond of Lions Gate Bridge in general and try not to cross it if necessary. When I got to the other side - I discovered to my dismay that the traffic lights were out service. It was a grid lock around Chicky's place. I finally got to his apartment and waited for him to get home. I'm off work pretty early (at least a couple of hours before Chicky) so I had stopped by the gym before heading downtown. So you can imagine what being tired and hungry did for my road rage. After 1/2 hour, Chicky's car pulls up to the building and I follow him in.

We decided to drive over to Denman because it was raining and I didn't feel like walking in the cold. Normally I would insist on walking anywhere in the downtown core from Chicky's place as it's so close to the main streets. Chicky's not so fond of walking and grumbles when I make him do it.

Ponchos is a quaint little restaurant. Full of Mexican flare. We decided to order the "dinner for 2" and keep things simple. While we waited for our meal, we got spicy salsa and taco chips...yummy! The meal that came out was alright. There was a lot of cheese on everything. I don't know if real mexicans eat that much cheese. I don't seem to remember cheese being melted on our quesadillas when we were in Puerto Vallarta. Oh well - it was good food. The meat was a bit chewy for my liking but everything else was good. I wouldn't mind going there again.

So in my mexican mode - I made mango salsa tonight! I haven't had a chance to eat it yet but will do so tomorrow. Nothing like mango salsa with ("hint of lime") tortilla chips.

your road sense

Last week was focused on education. I attended 4 courses at work.

1. Listening in a Hectic World
2. Speaking to Influence Others
3. Principles of Insurance
4. Driver Licensing

I had a great time in these courses and learned many tidbits about myself and the company. I've been with the company for almost 8 years now (wow - time sure flies!!) and have worked in various departments. There are still parts of the business that I'm unfamiliar with. Here was an opportunity to get an general overview of some of the other departments.

1. The listening class. I discovered that I have very high "filters" and tend not to listen in great detail about anything in particular. Therefore the best way to relay info to me is visually! I took this other test to see what kind of information I listen to. I scored really low (0) on the "listening to build relationships" category. Duh! But scored high under "listening to authority" and "listening to task related items". :-) I guess I develop select listening when it comes to friends talking! The instructor was quite surprised by my results as she knows I'm highly involved in 2 social clubs and figured that I must care about people and therefore want to listen to their concerns. She was wrong! Muahhaaa...it's all about me me me!!!

2. In the speaking class I continued my rebelish ways and didn't listen to most the instructions - not on purpose though. I was absorbed with recruiting new social club members and missed out on what the instructor said. Duh...didn't learn anything from the listening class! Lol - in my own silly self confidence I found myself sitting and speaking to the class (instead of exerting confidence and standing while speaking). Tip: when speaking to an audience of peers - stand up as they will listen to you if you're visually bigger than them. When the observation was made later I said it was because I had the loudest voice in the room and figured people could hear me fine from where I sat (plus I was already comfortable in my chair and was too lazy to stand up). I use to have fear of public speaking but now it's alright for me. No more of that paper-shaking-in-hands syndrome. Some of you may not believe it but there was a time when Kimmi would turn bright red and studder if someone called her name out in class and she had to answer. Nowadays it's a matter of other people trying to get a word in edgewise.

3. The insurance class was interesting. We learned about general insurance and contracts, etc. All contracts have the same 4 principles. There's a loop hole in the contractual system. Start screaming "Contra proferentem" and you'll be free from those annoying gym contracts. Also learned about other types of insurance and reinsurance (insurance for insurance companies). There's a big market for reinsurance. There's huge job market for actuarians. :-) Looking for a career change? That is the road to go down!

4. Licensing was a fun class. We learned about the Graduated Licensing Program. The changes that were made to it and future changes down the road. It's getting tougher and tougher for kids to drive these days. But on a off topic note...here are a few facts that you probably didn't know.

• Anyone can be called in for a driving reexamination (not just old foggies). All it takes is for a neighbor/relative to snitch to us about your bad driving habits. The kicker is that if you fail - you have to go through the GLP (graduated licensing program) again!
• The only time your eyes are tested is when you first get your license - after that we just assume you have perfect vision for the rest of your driving life. What kind of system is that?!
• If you come from Japan or South Korea - you can hand over your license and we'll give you a BC one (without testing). But if your from Mexico - you can forget about that...off to the testing room you go! We let American swap licenses but if you want to swap licenses in California - you have to get tested first!
• We require that you have an "L" for 24 months (and be restricted to driving with someone 25+ years old) before getting your "N". But there's a loop hole in the system. You can get your class 6 (motorcycle) license within 30 days and be free to ride on your own. You can exit the GLP on the class 6 license (meaning a shorter waiting period).
  

Do you have Road Sense? Do you think you could pass the Learners test if you had to write it again? Test out your knowledge here. This is only a practice test. I wrote the "real" one last year (was "fixing" one of the testing stations and had to run a test) and FAILED! Thank god it wasn't recorded.

Lol - I got my license in Saskatoon. I ran over a curb during the driving test. If a pedestrian was on the curb they would have been dead and I wouldn't even realize it till the hard thud sound f the wheels rolling over them. :-) I'm morbid. The driver examiner told me that I needed more practice but he'd pass me anyhow. Yippee!!! And I didn't even have to pay him - ahem...Dragon Driving School. I don't think any of my school mates failed their driving tests. One of them even crashed into a fence and was cleared for a license. Lol...license-to-kill maybe...But then again - in those days we did driving as part of our highschool curriculum. So many fond memories of hours spent in the simulators behind a washing-machine-type-of-box watching "the street" on a screen at the front of the room and pretending to drive. A very (embarrassingly) LOW tech simulator. Lol - only Tanya will grin and know what I'm talking about.

shower of love

Sunday afternoon Mary and I attended Michelle's baby shower. We had just had dim sum with the girls and rushed over to get some little cakes to bring to the party. We thought that we'd be late but it turned out that we were early. I helped Yen with packaging the goody bags. Then Sue asked me to blow up some balloons. My hot air was being put to use for once! I took some pictures of the girls preparing the place. Sue and Yen hosted the party. They are very creative and gave me some good tips. Michelle's cousins came over and we all chit chatted for a few hours. I can't believe how big Chicky's family is. Lol - it was nice to see everyone though. I totally sucked at the party games. Obviously I can't recognize Mary as a baby and can't decipher Andy's name on a word scramble! I think I was in a constant state of eating on Sunday. The food at Michelle's party was too good to pass up. :-)

dim sum

On Sunday we had our monthly girls dim sum get together. This month we ate at Sun Sui Wah in Vancouver. Anticipating a super long wait - Mary and I went there an hour early to line up. There was no one in the restaurant. We sat at a table for10 and drank tea. Other patrons in the restaurant kept looking over at us. I think the waitresses were wondering if we were there to drink (free) tea the whole time or if we were actually going to order. Luckily the girls came later and joined us. We were spared from having to defend our table against seisure by the hungry mob at the front door. It didn't help that our table was near the door - not only were the hostesses looking over, the crowd were eyeing us suspiciously too! Must have looked funny - 2 girls sitting at such a big table, sipping on tea for an hour!

It was great to see everyone. Mary and Cindy are doing well with their pregnancies. Cindy had a bit of a scare last week but all is well now. She's off from work and intends on spending time making cookies. Katarina came and entertained us all. I had to take a picture with her - I totally adore her! I forgot to take pictures of the rest of the girls. Oopps! Tracey has a new digital camera and is putting it to use. Shannon has a new haircut. It's really stylish though she misses her long hair dearly. Jenny announced that she's getting married this summer. This was wonderful news - her honey is moving so fast! Lol - just to prove that you don't need long engagements (a couple of months will do). Charlene is in a flux with her wedding plans - all is going on schedule though. Josie joked about getting pregnant this summer. We think it'll for sure happen though. I hoping that we can continue with this tradition as it helps brings the girls (and myself) closer. Though we all admit that we read each others blogs frequently and are some-what up to date on what's going on with everyone. Some day Tracey will have her blog ready for us to peruse through *hint hint*. :-)

craft corner

This week I've been a bit obsessed with card making. I go through phases when it comes to crafts. I think it's KA's influence as she's been working on her wedding invitations and it made me get the I-want-to-make-something itch. So I went out and bought some supplies and sat down tonight to see if I could get inspired. Here are a few of the cards I made. Nothing spectacular but it's been a learning experience. Glue stick is STICKY!! Gets all over the table and then things get stuck to it. :-) It's fun going to Micheals Craft store and Staples. I LOVE stationary. There are days when I even wish we could go back to snail-mail, just so that I can buy cute stationary! But then again I'm tech-dependant and can't live without email either. Tomorrow I'm going to try out "embossing". I picked up some rubber stamps in my shopping spree. I have to say though...wired ribbon is the BEST. Totally makes things look better.

email jail

I went to a meeting this afternoon on Email. Here's where you ask yourself "how can someone talk about email tips for 3 hours?!" As techs (I use this term loosely) - we're scheduled to attend meetings on all kinds of topics. Some are relevant - others are a waste of time. Which reminds - I'm scheduled to present next week on a new digital camera that our estimators got this year. Think...think...how to make it interesting.... The awesome thing is that so far (knock on wood), I've only had to do presentations on hardware (cameras, PDAs and cellphones) - which gives me an opportunity to take the stuff home and play with it first!

At work, email is of great concern. Everything from length, size, quantity and quality. I get an average of 100 work-related items cycling through my Inbox per day (this is not counting the personal emails that I send out to you guys!). We use MS Outlook - which I love and adore as I use it a home too. My coworkers and I use all the tricks of the trade to manage the volume of information. From intricate rules that forward messages to subfolders (or sub-sub-folders), filtered views and color coding. Just by sheer volume, I can't keep up with what's being sent to me and most times end up doing the ALT-A --> Delete at the end of each month. Through all of this I've learned that the subject line is the KEY between getting your message dumped and having someone read it.

Here are some interesting things from the meeting: (stats from Email Labs)

• 43.3% of emails are 20-79KB
• most popular day to:
• send emails = tuesday (26.7%)
• send time = 9am (19.1%)
  
• open emails = wednesday (22.8%)
• open time = 11am (7.3%)
• only 4% of the US population personalizes their emails (with a "signature")
• of those that personalize - 76% use 5 points or less (name, job title, phone number, etc)
• when and where online users check their emails
• when
• first thing in the morning (41%)
• in the middle of the night (40%)
• where
• in bed (23%)

So just by looking at those stats...I fall right into the cultural "norm". :-)

going googley

Just when you thought blogging was the end of it. I've discovered the amazing world of Google Calendar. Yes - Google is starting to rule my life the way MS Outlook does. I've posted my life online now for all of you to view. :-) The great feature about Google Calendar is that I can import my MS Outlook calendar into it. Saves me so much time! Just click on the Calendar button below or under the See More section of my blog. :-)

let the celebrations begin

Saturday was Hanif's birthday. His birthday party is the first of the parties that we'll be attending for 2007. Betty was sweet enough to cook us dinner. After working all day, she came home and whipped up a tons of food (Betty style) for us. When I got to her house (at 8pm) she was still slaving away in the kitchen. I grined as it was quite the sight. Big belly and a bit too short to see what's inside all the pots she had going on the stove - she was on her tippy-toes trying to figure out if the curry was done. She made curry and pasta. She was trying to appease those that liked asian food (Minh) and those that like western food (Hanif).

It was nice to just have the kids hang out. We talked and caught up on what's going on with the baby. Hanif is excited and wanted Betty to give birth on his birthday. Betty's due in 2 weeks. Wow - how time flies! She's ready for the baby to come out though. I think she's tired of being pregnant. She says the baby is already 8lbs and we joked about her having a 10lb baby (naturally!). I insisted on taking some pictures of her - took much persuasion from the my sisters though as Betty has not been into taking pictures during her pregnancy. I told her that she would regret it years down the road - when her kid is all grown up. She didn't think so. Lol - I didn't care, I took some anyways! That's the great thing about being "family" - we don't really care what you think because we'll just continue to do what we want to do without hesitation.

After dinner the group had a few rounds of poker. I lost all my chips in the first hand! Boohoo.... Those guys and their over betting pre-flop!!! It was like almost ALL IN for the 3 of us (who were adamant about calling each other's bluffs) before the flop even happened. So having been eliminated in the first 5 minutes - I went to the kitchen with Angelina to see if we could make dessert. Betty was exhausted from cooking and playing hostess. The girls didn't last too long in the game - just a few hours. Soon most of the girls just went to bed. Betty joined Angelina in bed after giving up on the boys. KA and I crashed on the couches. By 5am the boys finally drew their game to a close and we all got up to go home. Thanks for dinner and many hours of entertainment Betty/Hanif!

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!!