used car salesmen

So for the last 2 days I've been involved in negotiations with used car lots in search of dream vehicle for my parents. What they thought was a dream turned out to be a nightmare. My parents are indecisive people. In this exercise I've learned that they are easily pursued by the next shiny new object. Unfortunately their impulsiveness put us into a situation where we had "deposits" on vehicles at 2 different car lots. My parents kept bouncing back and forth between a Jeep Patriot and a Ford Escape.

When they changed their minds and wanted to back out of the deals - they asked me to deal with it. I've been in need of a stress break lately and dealing with their problems wasn't at the top of my "to do" list. So on Tuesday night Chicky and I went down to Maple Ridge Chrysler to back out of a 2008 Jeep Patriot deal. We felt bad as the salesman was really nice and his service was impecable. We ended up leaving our deposit with him with the intention of him finding us a Ford Escape. Marco (the salesman) was nice in the sense that he didn't fuss much about refunding the deposit. We hadn't signed any official papers at either dealership so we felt that getting our money back was legit. I called WestCoast Ford at 9pm and got into a fight with Santino (the other salesman). I was not impressed with his service to begin with and resented the fact that my parents wanted to deal with him at all. ;-) I'm big on first impressions. He gave a bunch of excuses about having to clean the vehicle and having to get head rests, etc for it. He wanted to deduct the cost of those "extra" services from the deposit amount. I yelled at him through the cell phone in a restaurant (as we were starving from not eating and dealing with Marco earlier). I am normally a loud individual and can be heard miles away - when I'm pissed off...my voice goes up to hysterical levels. He was making me hysterical. He was going to sell my parents a stained vehicle that lacked standard safety equipment (head rests) and he wanted me to pay for that?! Is he an idiot?!!! Ah - I have no shame in expressing my frustration. It was ugly and he wanted to escape it so he gave me that stupid line of "I can't make that kind of decision, only my manager can". I didn't gripe about the escalation as I would have done the same. I told my parents the outcome of my "talk" and said I'd deal with it the next day.

I come home tonight after a LONG battle with traffic. Being in a foul mood I hear that the sales manager had called my mom earlier in the day and given her a "credit" to the dealership. I was not happy. What in the world was she suppose to do with a Ford credit?! Already in a pissy mood I figured I'd vent my road rage on the manager. I only had a first name so I called the dealership. The receptionist put me through to his line and I explained the situation. He wasn't budging. His attitude only served to make my frustration levels become exasperation. He tried to redirect my anger and evade the main point (the deposit). After 15 mins of arguing with him about service levels, bylaws, trust, etc. He tried to intimidate me by telling me that my parents had signed a contract to buy the car and that he was being "nice" by giving them a credit for backing out of the deal and that he has the right to hold the full deposit. I flipped out (again). I told him that I had a copy of the Purchase Agreement in hand and there were no signatures on it therefore making it non-binding. I was bad and went into my condescending tone - which only made him defensive. Wrong tactic on my part. He changed his mind and said it was the worksheet that my parents had signed. Trying not to be the hot-headed person and have the conversation drag on for more than it had to, I backed off and went into my "futureshop-mode". I asked him what was on the "blue sheet". He didn't say anything. He said he would fax me the sheet as evidence. I think he was hoping I would say I didn't have a fax machine. I told him I didn't have a fax machine and that he should scan it and email the document to me. He said he didn't have a scanner. I was adamant about seeing this mystery form. I pushed harder and said that if it's truly a legal and binding document - I needed to see it and that I would gladly come down to the dealership to do so. He was surprised. I then told him that because I would have to make an unplanned trip into Maple Ridge to see this document - I would be bringing a copy of the Demand to Dealer Letter with me so that we would save time. He asked me "for what?!" I told him that according the Motor Vehicle Sales Authority of BC (lol - I was Googling while fighting with him on the phone) I had the right to file a claim against the dealership if they were to falsify document for gain on their part. I think that caught his attention as he said I didn't have to come down. He then switched modes and said he couldn't authorize a refund. I was tired of running around the bush with him and said that if he can not solve my problem then he needs to escalate this to the owners of the dealership. He was not happy with that request. We argued some more about his lack of management skills and inability to resolve conflict. When I began asking for his full name and phone number he told me he didn't have a direct line. Yah right! He's the general manager and has his own office - no direct line my ass! He didn't want to give it to me for the fact that I told him I've documented our conversation and would like his direct line so that I can follow up with him tomorrow and the next day and the next day until this situation has been resolved. :-) I'm good at pestering people for updates as I do it for a living! When he refused to give me the names of the owners I told him that I do not need him to get that information and that I can contact Ford Canada for it. I think he was tired of me and finally took my earlier advice for just giving me the deposit so that I would leave him alone. He said he'd call the owners, I asked him for an ETA of when he'd be calling back (so that I know when I should bug him next). He couldn't give a time so he said "soon". 10 mins later he called back and said that a cheque will be cut tomorrow for the full refund and that I could pick it up. Feeling exhausted, happy and relieved - I went downstairs and had dinner with my parents and told them the news.

After the Thomas issue and these dealers - I feel that I'm ready to work in Collections. :-) My skin grows thicker with each new "challenging" situation and I have a more abrasive attitude towards those that try to screw around with me. I've turned "documentation" and "escalations" into an art. That or I've gotten so fed up with salesmen that I have zero tolerance with them. Ah - maybe it's time for a day off for some relaxation.

On a happier note. My manager came over from her Victoria office today for one of her weekly meetings and noticed my quiet demenour in one of our meetings. She bought me flowers and a Starbucks card to wish me good health as I complained about crappy tenants and sleezy salesmen. It's very sweet of her to do so and brightened my day. She's worried that I might stress out and run away from the department for good. Lol....

that time of year

It's that time of year when the pace of life starts to get a bit out of control. I haven't had much time to blog lately due to other obligations. In the last week I've spent time at home repairing the basement suite, finding my parents a car, taking them to test drive cars, haggling with dealers, organizing the year end Social Club events, writing another midterm and in the midst of it all even managed to squeeze in Frank's birthday party on Friday. :-)

Weekends tend to be the crunch time - time to finalize things that were not accomplished during the week. It was nice to see some of the gang on Friday. Granville Island was a bit far and I discovered that taking transit has it's ups and downs when trying to get from one city to another. Since my parents have been carless for nearly 2 weeks now - Kim Anh and I have to split our car time. Good thing about KA is that she has a nurse's schedule so she can go carless for a few days without too much inconvenience.

On Saturday we celebrated Angelina's 8th birthday. Can't believe she's growing up so fast! After dinner and cake, the kids and I went over to Betty's new house to enjoy the rest of the evening with them. We got the house tour, etc. They have a wonderful home and are much closer to us now. :-) Betty, Hanif and Nyah are doing well and in the midst of setting up their nest. There's still lots of furniture and appliances that need to be boughten but they'll hopefully be all unpacked and settled in a few weeks.

I worked today. That kinda sucked as Chicky was in long-weekend mode this weekend and wanted to spend most of it playing poker or watching movies. So I indulged him and we watched movies till 3am. I slept for about 2 hours before having to get up to go to work. Thank goodness it's a stat holiday and only myself and Colleen were working. So I showed up in my sweats, ponytail and a GIGANTIC cup of coffee. :-) I needed it. 5 hours later I called it a day and went home to take a look at another vehicle for my parents. I quickly ate a late lunch and realistically just wanted to take a nap as I was so tired from only having a couple of hours of sleep in the last couple of days. But there were things to do and places that I had to be so I climbed into my car and continued on.

Time for bed. It's going to be a long day at work tomorrow. :-) Talk to you guys later.

more tricks than treats

The final day to our nightmare. Thomas has left the building! He actually vacated some time yesterday (while we were at work). We didn't see his stuff and noticed that he had emptied more little items from the garage - including my work shoes! Dumb ass...

Upon entering the suite tonight - I wanted to puke. It looked like he emptied 2 or 3 garbage bags onto the floors. The bathroom was horrendous and growing something funky in the toilet and tub. He ran out of there without taking his food or dishes. The floor was littered with paraphernalia - including joints, used condoms, etc. Deeming it as a hazard zone - everyone wore shoes. I made some other discoveries. There was someone's stolen credit, debit, health and HBC cards. I took pictures of all this. Because I had told him last week that I wasn't returning the damage deposit (in one of my pissed off talks with him) - he had vented his frustrations with me on the walls. The suite is now engraved with racial slurs, profanity and Nazi signs. Yes - he's real mature. In trying to throw some of the garbage out - I was happy to find bank statements, resumes, phonebooks, etc to which I had evil thoughts. :-) I held back on being vendictive when I discovered pregnancy test, documents and doctors notes. It appears our little Doreen was pregnant. That would probably account for her mood swings with Thomas. Oh boy - they're going to be one messed up family. Thinking that Karma will win in the end and that hopefully Doreen will be my ticket to retribution - I gathered the stolen cards and went to document another email to the Ministry of Childrens & Family and Thomas' parole officer. Of course I had to vent a bit on them so I detailed the email with the license plate and description of Thomas' buddy that has been hanging around here in the last week. I'm hoping that my email will get Thomas into trouble with the law as he deserves it.

That being said - I've been so preoccupied with this matter that I lost my Halloween spirit. I didn't have a costume this year and was a spectator at the annual Halloween Parade. Oh well - there's still Xmas to get excited about. My lack of enthusiasm manifested itself in the inability to plan or decorate my department with Halloween stuff. Lol - it's sort of comforting to know that in some ways my department mirrors my mood. At the same time - it's not good to have only one employee who's always hyped up about "doing" teamwork stuff. Where's the teamwork in that?! On the home front - my parents van has finally died. It's body is still in Richmond. So for the next 2 days I'll be a WestCoast Expresser again till we go buy a car on the weekend. I've been trying to convince my dad to get a truck as that's what he really needs - not another large van. Secretly I'm thinking about how useful having a truck would be when it comes to moving! :-)

Halloween howl

Weekend Update:

Friday

• attended Chicky's company Halloween Party at Mayfair Golf course. They usually have it at this location and is a night of appetizers and gambling.
  
• Chicky and I sat down with his coworkers for some friendly poker playing. I must say I can hold my own against those boys. This was a pretty serious table and eventhough we weren't playing for money - they sure acted as if they were losing real money!
• The good thing about his company is that they hire the Monte Carlo Entertainment group which usually consists of REAL casino employees. Our dealer was actually a dealer for the River Rock Casino. :-) I guess it's good extra income. I've thought about hiring thier company for some of my own Social Club events but they are freaking expensive and we don't have the budget for it.
  
• After the party Chicky, Joyce, Ali and this other brown guy went over to No. 9 restaurant for some greasy chinese food. Mmmm...it's funny watching Ali interact with Chicky though. Chicky is his supervisor/team lead and Ali's a very cocky/ambitious young man. Needless to say they have differing opinions on stuff and since Ali has only been with the company for 4 months - he's still testing the boundaries of Chicky's patience. :-) It's amusing as I'm use to the way Chicky talks and to see Ali tip-toe around subjects that might get him reprimanded on Monday when they are in a "work" environment.
  

Saturday

• hung out at home and cleaned the house, this was mixed in the occasional paranoid looks out the window for evidence of Thomas' whereabouts (only a couple of more days till that boy is outta here!)
  
• had dinner with my family - my parents had made another trip to Steveston (Richmond) market. They love getting seafood there as it's "fresh".
• My dad brought home a sea monster:

• We chopped up the giant squid and listened to my dad's dreams of catching one of these live for himself and not buying it from the market. Obviously he didn't see the danger in giant squid fishing when we watched Discovery Channel.

• After dinner with the whole family - it was the usual Le Family pass time - poker! The kids played till 5am. KA and Mike had to work early the next morning, Chicky and I had a v-ball tournament to play in, Carol & Minh had both girls with them (Angelina and her cousin Teresa) and had been out all day doing Halloween things with them so they were running on low energy as well. I think we all slept for like 3-4 hours max before going to our next commitments. :-) The good thing is that my dad's friend had come over for the day and commented on how close the siblings are and how loud/crazy the house was (in a good way). Goes to show that we're a pretty tight knit family and have no one else to hang out with but each other on the weekend.
  

Sunday

• I dragged Chicky out to Mikey's (my coworker) semi-annual volleyball tournament. I didn't really want to play and when the team all bailed on Friday afternoon my motivations levels dropped below 0.
• Having slept 3.5 hours, Chicky and I were in no shape to play a 6 hour tournament. I can't even do it on a normal amount of sleep! He's a good sport though and volleyball just happens to be a sport that he enjoys so he came along for the ride.
• We showed up to find ourselves lost in the shuffle. Mikey had salvaged together some players to make up a team. So I was the only girl on the team - you're suppose to have 2 girls on each team. They allowed this because it was better than having no team at all.
• Needless to say I sucked. The 3 that were holding up the team were Chicky, Coul (?) and Dale. All were good players and played in v-ball leagues before, Coul is a setter for a Taiwainese division A league team...hahaaa...gives you a sense of the skill levels I was working with. Jack and Dennis are athletic so they held their own well. I tried to stay out of everyone's way as much as possible and was sure that they would have done better without me. :-) Ah...just taking up space on the court. I think some of them wanted to yell at me but couldn't because they didn't really know me. Lol - in the end they just treated me like a kid. Which was fine with me as I enjoyed the cheers of encouragement when I actually made contact with a ball that resulted in a rally.
  
• On the bright side - these tournament have one beneficial thing. Prizes are not based on skill level. Pure randomness - we're all given tickets at the beginning and it's just the luck of the draw. Whoopeee! Mikey guarantees at least one winner from each team. Since there were only 6 of us - the chances of 2/6 getting prizes was pretty good. I won! What did I win? A volleyball! Hahaa...the guys on the team thought it was ironic - yes...give the girl with no skills a volleyball please!

I was happy to have spent the day out doing something active. Otherwise I'm sure Chicky and I would have slept in till noon and basically slothed our way to the TV. When we got home from v-ball we were tired but got cleaned up, cooked dinner and watched 2 movies at with the family. Our bodies were aching from the exercise. Lol - we're definitely out of shape!

locks of love

Last night I came home and was taking off my shoes at the front door. KA came out of her room and was talking to me from the top of the stairs. Something looked different about her but it was midnight and I was preoccupied with balancing on one stiletto shoe while trying to take the other off.

KA had cut off most of her hair! Wow - that was a shocker. She actually donated it to Locks of Love. An non profit organization that works with cancer patient children to create wigs for them. That was pretty cool that she did this. She's always been the humanitarian in the family - working on some charity or another. She encouraged me to do so as I have the right length of hair too. :-) Maybe another time - when I'm feeling more adventurous!

new look to life

On Sunday I bought another lens for my camera. I've been selling my current ones in search of a "walk around" lens that would suit my purposes. Craiglist is full of things to buy and sell so I took the opportunity to pick up the Canon 17-85mm lens for a reasonable price.

This lens has had good reviews. I haven't had a chance to test it out yet but it feels much heavier than my other lens. So I went from 4 lens back to 2. Getting rid of my 18-55 kit lens and keeping the 50mm prime. Lol - now to take more pics and get some use out of the camera! Oh well - all in good fun.

Haunted Trolley Tour

On Saturday night Chicky and I went on the Vancouver Museum Haunted Trolley Tour. This is the second time I've experienced this tour. I had gone a couple of years ago and really enjoyed it. So this time some of my coworkers, Chicky and I embarked on a night of ghostly delights.

Before going on the tour we grabbed a quick bite at the Noodle Box on West 4th Avenue. I've never been to the Vancouver location but did get to eat at the chain in Victoria this summer and really enjoyed it. I ordered "mild-medium" this time as I had made the mistake of ordering "medium" last time thinking that a restaurant full of white people serving South East Asian food can't be that hot. I was deadly wrong! Even mild-medium for the fried rice was too spicy for me so I ended up packing mine to go. I like the portions of food for the price - pretty reasonable.

Nasi Goreng - Malaysian Fried Rice

Hookkein Noodle with Plum Chicken

Want to see a menu? Click here.

After a filling dinner and the hunt for some coffee, Chicky and I were armed with Tim Hortons and ready to tackle the wet/cold night. We started off the tour at the Vancouver Museum. The structure of the museum is very nice. :-) I haven't actually gone inside. I like the metal crab structure on the outside - will have to come back on a sunny day to take a picture of it. Before getting on the bus we had a bit of a teaser. Needless to say I yelped and had a good scare before it all started. Lol - I think my screech scared Chicky more than the actual surprise. Mmmm...dark rooms...you just KNOW something is going to jump out at you...

The tour lasted 2 hours. I felt a bit jipped this year as the hostess was trying too hard to be scary and only accomplished to be slow. She wasn't very familiar with the stories and at times looked distracted as she peered out of the bus windows and looked at the local traffic. :-) It was cool when we made a short detour to the grave yard. There was a "mystery" man lurking around the grounds but we all politely walked away from him when he came near us. Enroute to the Vancouver Police museum, another bus had mechanical problems and we nearly had to rescue them. Thank goodness their driver was able to get a boost from a passerby.

At the Vancouver Police Museum we got to see a real morgue. Chicky took the opportunity to jab the cadavers with his umbrella. :-) Guess he didn't want shrouded figures to sit up during the autopsy demo. The guy doing the demo was pretty funny and actually worked for the morgue. Lol - we learned cool things about bodies in general. I didn't know what the circular bone saw can't cut through skin. :-) Apparently it vibrates instead of spins thus enabling any commoner to cut off a cast without cutting you to shreds. Doh - CSI was so wrong. The other tools of the trade were interesting as well. Lol - I like shows like CSI so this was all interesting.

After the morgue we were rushed back to the starting point. Some of my coworkers didn't know what to say afterwards. Oh well - I guess it's one of those things that is highly dependent on your guide. If you guys get a chance - it's worth checking out once.

role reversal

My dad came into my room just now and asked where the IKEA long bench/coffee table was. We had used it as a brace for the garage door the other night. Pissed off I quickly called Thomas - he didn't pick up. I stormed downstairs to bang on his door - no one answered. After a few more pounds and calling Doreen on her cell phone (she wasn't there either). I contemplated what to do. By this time the whole family has worked ourselves up into a frenzy again.

Micheal ran around the house with a flashlight and peered through all their windows - one bonus of those cheap asses not buying blinds. He saw his poker set on the missing coffee table. That's 2 things in visible sight that has been stolen today. Grrrr!!!! We confirmed that no one was home. I said we should break in and retrieve our stuff. No one argued with me. I had some hesitation and wanted to get the opinion of a cop. So I called the Coquitlam RCMP. Finally getting through on the non-emergency line, I asked them my question. The cop said this was a civil matter and technically Thomas still lives in the suite (eventhough he took stuff) so I can't go in without giving him 24 hour notice. I thanked the cop for the info. :-)

Armed with 5 family members, cell phones and keys. We broke into the suite and rummaged through his stuff. Screw what the cops say - they haven't been any help at all in this whole ordeal. If Thomas thinks he has free reign over our stuff - same goes for us! The suite is basically empty. Looks like he's gotten rid of most of the stuff - or hopefully he's getting ready to move! We grabbed items that looked like ours - poker set and knives mostly. I told them to leave the table as I need some ammo to chew him out with tonight. I'm on the look out for his return tonight. So then we re-evaluated what's left in the garage again as we also noticed that Thomas had help himself to the paper cups, etc that was in the garage. Ir would appear that he thinks that the garage items are "shared" goods. Time to change that train of thought for him.

people and pictures

Lately I've been asked who I know who shoots pictures or video. It's mostly from friends who are planning weddings or are looking for someone to take pictures of them for some reason or another. Or maybe for no reason at all! My little photography group are a bunch of talented folks. Some have websites (the more motivated ones) and some don't. I'll start adding their sites to my photo albums list on the side of this site in case you wanted to do a referral or something like that. Mike and I work together so he's the one I hang out with and shoot pictures often with. :-) He picked up the passion 2 years ago and has really dove into the hobby. Some day I think he should just make the jump to photography as a career. Till then - he's my wedding photography buddy. Another pal is Haydn Eugene. He's was commissioned by Regis (framing company) to do some pictures for their window displays. Unfortunately Haydn isn't as web-based as Mikie so no site for you guys to see his stuff. Oh well - if you ever walk by a Regis store and there are panoramic city-scapes of downtown Vancouver - that's his stuff.

Emergency Response Team

Today was our annual ERT drill at work. I volunteered to be a "secret" casualty this year. I had a great time doing it even though I had second thoughts yesterday when I saw the forecast for today and thought about having to lying around outside in the wet and cold.

At lunch I went over to the occupational health room to get my "makeup" done and receive my script for what type of victim I was to be. Luckily I have the enthusiasm and assertiveness to ask for a "better" script when I was handed the "smoke-inhalation" patient. Boring! I wanted to use the services of the makeup artist that was working on someone else! :-) I happily accepted "burn" victim. Diligently slopping on the cold cream so that the greasy makeup they were going to apply wouldn't stick - I walked over, rolled up my sleeve and had them put on my burned skin makeup. Lol - I should have put more thought into which arm to give them to do up. :-) I'm not ambidextrous. Because there were more complex victims to attend to - the makeup artist let me do my own face. I was to "look pale" from loss of blood. I only had one good arm to use so after I finished smearing my face with paint then picked up a mirror to check out my work-of-blind-art. A clown was looking back at me. :-) Laughing I went over to the makeup station and begged for help. One of the ERT guys helped me look less Bozo and more bloodless.

Done with makeup - one of the ERT people walked some of us up to the floors that we were to be stranded on. My script said I had an electrical burn to my arm and that I was in a kitchen at time of the disaster. :-) Happy to ablige - I went looking for an empty lunch room to hang out in till the start of the drill. I plopped myself down on the ground and read the short script, diligently memorizing my symptoms and responses that I'm suppose to give to the respondent when they found me. I heard the alarm bells go off and the announcements on the PA system. Seconds turned into minutes...many more bells and announcements...then it was well over an hour and I was getting bored. The battery on my camera had died so I was sitting on the cold kitchen floor waiting for a hero to rescue me. The make up on my arm had long dried up and I was starting to pick at out of sheer boredom. All of a sudden someone walks into the kitchen - it's an employee that's come there to microwave their lunch. The drill was over! Wait a minute...I wasn't suppose to die in this drill. What the?!???

I went to the post-incident briefing and got to hear the feedback from the ERT members. I was disappointed that no one found me. I wasn't hiding in the corner of the building - I was in the lunch room! The drill had been chaotic actually and part of me was happy to have NOT been found and dragged out into the miserable rain to be assessed by Triage. Some of the scenerios got out of control and the Site Commander didn't have control of the situation. This resulted in hundreds of people standing outside, getting wet and waiting for instructions. Needless to say the debriefing was full of complaints from every chain of command. On an aside - I was one of 2 casualties that never got rescued. Lol - it was kinda comforting to know that someone else got left behind too. Well - there goes my 5 mins of fame! It only goes to show that our ERT team has to make some drastic changes to improve the process in the event of a real catastrophe.

weekend update

Saturday

• mulled around at home, didn't venture out as I was keeping an eye on my stupid renter kid
• did some chores and watched LOTS of educational TV such as What Not To Wear!
• kept myself occupied with making sure he knew I had my eyes/ears out for him (this was accomplished by stomping around the house and watching TV very loudly - mixed in with the occasional surprise run around the exterior of the house to make sure all windows/doors are intact)
• That night I went over to Tanya's place to celebrate her 30th b-day with her. It was good to see her Hydro friends. Madeline was sweet and made her a brownie cake. :-) Can't get any better then good food and friends to chit chat with! We spent the night enjoying knee-slapping jokes provided by comedians Funny-Sunny and Ha-Ha-Tan. Though I groan at Tanya's ability to tell physics or engineering jokes - I'm very proud at how clever they are and how well she tells them (though 90% of the time I don't get it).
  
• more jokes about your profession
  
• Sunny and I discovered we share interests in tech toys (he's a newly converted MAC-lover) and had discussions on the theories of finance. Don't ask me why we landed on that topic of all things to talk about. :-) I have a knack for starting "odd" conversations.
  
• Stayed over at Tanya's till super late then went home when the others did. Thanks for having us over babe!
  

Sunday

• hung out downtown with Chicky
• did some shopping on Robson Street
• tried to wolf down my yucky Denny's meal so that we could catch a 1:30pm flick - we ended up missing the show time and I had a take out box with my whole meal (which Chicky had to carry around the rest of the afternoon)
  
• we caught a B-movie (The Seeker - Darkness Rising) at 4pm - definitely NOT going to let Chicky choose movies anymore! What a waste of money - *groan*
  
• ate dinner at Royal Thai - which was good. Thai food is pretty trendy - lots of places downtown are centered around that ethnic group.
• rushed home for my shift of watching the house as everyone else also had dinner plans (some of my family still don't feel safe leaving the house empty to fend for itself)
• spent the evening watching TV and listening to Thomas crank his stereo - he had called to say that he was having a "few" friends over. This only made me more vigilant about keeping all the lights in the house on and keeping my ears open for 'odd' sounds.
  
• only heart stopping moment was when Mui Mui and I were folding clothes while watching Family Guy and someone banged on the front door loudly. I nearly jumped out of my skin as I thought someone was trying to break in. I was home alone as I live too far away for Chicky to drive down for "a bit". Cautiously I look out the front window to see a disgruntled older woman. I'm puzzled. So I go to the front door to see what she wants. She's one of Thomas' friend's moms. I guess she's not so keen on her son hanging out with Thomas. I didn't hesitate to point her in Thomas' direction. Nothing like a party-killer than a mad-mom banging on your door. Enjoying the confrontation between Thomas and this lady - I watch from behind the front window blinds. I've made it the weekend's purpose to make everyone who has been involved in this Thomas ordeal to feel as agitated as I was. This included multiple heated conversations with Christie (the youth worker) and calling Suzanna (the social worker) at home. :-) Ah - when I get fixated with being confrontational, there's no end to how many ways I can bug them. Needless to say Christie got off her lazy ass and began looking at the end of the weekend with more "purpose". She just needed to see the light (or be bashed over the top of her head with it). She made some weak promises about getting Thomas into a group home or something like that by the end of weekend. We'll see how it goes. I might have to "encourage" her again midweek so that she doesn't lose focus of our shared interest (getting Thomas' off our backs).
  

paranoia

I haven't slept much. Paranoia is setting in. I took a "sick" day today and will likely take one tomorrow. I slept lightly last night as every squeaky sound made me get up and walk around the house. I wasn't the only one paranoid. The first time I walked downstairs in the middle of the night - I noticed that my parents had shoved a diningroom chair into the front door handle. Goodness - what has it come to?!

Everyone left for work this morning. I couldn't sleep so I took my stuff down here to watch TV, eat breakfast and begin the hunt for the social worker. No luck though - she was out of the office to pick up another child. She had her child protector hat on today and could not deal with Thomas' situation. I basically stayed in the house all morning and talked to AlarmForce. I was really disappointed that they can't book an installation till October 22nd. That's like WAY too late!!! I've tried escalating the situation to them and they said they would book me into the next cancellation. I guess I'll have to follow up tomorrow.

Feeling brave - MuiMui and I went out to get the mail. Putting my key into the mailbox, my neighbor pulls up in his white car. He wanted to give me an update on what's going on. Apparently Thomas' brother and friend came back last night. They were seen walking around the property. The neighbor's dogs were going nuts so he went out to check, he saw them then opened the window to yell at them when they ran away. Great - now my paranoia has been reinforced! That's one great thing about having creepy-snoopy neighbors - they come in handy when it comes to situations like this. Mental note to self - get something nice for the neighbor and his family for putting up with our mess and always watching our property.

I come home and call Thomas. I could hear him and Doreen downstairs all day. I made sure they could hear me too - don't want them thinking about doing stupid stuff thinking the house is empty. I confront him about his brother coming back in the middle of the night. He then tells me that his brother had actually called him before midnight. I freaked out at him. Pissed off that he did not disclose this information sooner. I told him that he's not understanding the severity of the problem and that I can "technically" charge him with possession of stolen property. I don't care how some of my stuff got into his place - the fact that it's there is enough for him to be dragged to jail for at least a day. I'm hoping he will take heed to my strong advice to get himself out of my home asap before I have to take drastic measure and involve more police. So now it's a matter of just installing what we can till we get those kids out. Let it be known - I hate the fact that tenants have more rights then landlords. There should be a bylaw that allows a landlord to throw tenants out on the spot for misdemeanor.

violated

My stress levels mount. The cold I've been trying to fight off is taking over. Today has been EXTREMELY stressful. I feel violated and frustrated.

I received a call at 4:30pm from Doreen (Thomas' gf - who is the renter) - she's hysterical as she says Thomas' brother and friend is trying to kill the 2 of them. I was startled. She had tried to call the cops but they wanted to talk to the landlord (me). I was super worried about my mom (who's usually en route home at this time). Hanging up on Doreen and telling her that I will deal with the cops in a bit, I call my mom on her cell and luckily catch her while she's on the bus. I warn her not to go into the house as it's not safe and to go to the neighbor's. She's freaked by this. I'm still at work so I call Mike to tell him to go home now to deal with the mess.

I then get a call from the cops about a fight and tell them that Thomas is the renter and everyone else has to be thrown out. The Constable by this time has reassured my mom and leaves the home. My mom stays at home but the big-burly-neighbor is worried about her and stays with her until Mike comes home. I arrive home at 7pm. By this time all kinds of negative thoughts are going through my head. I've called Chicky for moral support. Getting into the house, listening to the story of the fiasco, I go on the hunt to find the home phone number for Thomas' social worker. Find it - number doesn't work. Grrr... Giving up on that I go downstairs to inspect the basement and the damage to the wall where the fight broke out (in the garage). I discover that the storage room has been ransacked! Panicking Mike, Chicky and I do a quick survey of the inner storage room. At a quick glance we can see the bikes and snowboard equipment are missing. Now I'm REALLY stressed and pissed off. I call the Constable that came by earlier to deal with the boys - she advises that I have to file a separate report for break-and-entry. That's so dumb! While I'm doing the administrative work and arranging for more cops to come back to the house - Mike, Chicky and my dad go through the garage to see if anything else was stolen. They start making the lists. We feel so violated!

Pissed off - I am on the hunt for Thomas. Realistically - I have no one to lash out at so I was in the mood for his blood. It didn't help that I'm sick and grumpy to begin with. Unlucky for him - I find that he's returned home. So I go downstairs to tear a strip out of him. In the process of doing this I discover that he's let his brother live in the suite for 5 days now - which means that his brother and his buddies could have been stealing from us for the last week! Thomas' ironically "discovers" one of Mike's large rolling snowboard bags in one of the bedroom closets in the suite. Along with a couple of our LCD monitor boxes. The boxes are empty as our computer equipment is in the main house. My mom has her conspiracy theories - some family members agree. Now the other incidents of Thomas and Doreen killing each other aren't so bad. As we weren't directly involved and didn't fear for our own safety and that of our property. It's all perspectives...

So the cops come, scour the place, take our statements, interview Thomas, assure us that there will be warrants out for the brother and friend (who are both "known" to police) and give us recommendations on how to protect ourselves. My mom is scared that Thomas' brother will come back for revenge (for us calling the cops). Thomas is worried that he's going to get beaten to a pulp. To sum it up - the tension in the air is thick enough to cut with a knife. Quickly grabbing what's left in value from the storage room - we bring it into the house. I'm going to take a sick day tomorrow. It's not like I'd have to fake it cause I am truly sick and should have stayed home today (maybe then all this wouldn't have happened). It's night time and the whole family is fortifying the house. We know that Thomas' brother and friends know exactly what electronic equipment is upstairs as they rummaged through all the empty boxes. Mike is putting locks on the bedroom doors. We've barricaded most of the doors and windows. My mom says that the crazy boys had walked around the house and checked out all entries - MuiMui had alerted her to someone walking around the house. Yah MuiMui!! If you were only like a 150lb dog...then that would be better!

So tomorrow - on the agenda is the installation of a security system. We've decided to shove everything from the garage into the storage room and barricade it inside. Board windows that are hidden from direct view from the street. I was told not to go in and out of the house and stay locked inside if possible - my mom is paranoid. My parents worry that more trouble is coming and I will be home alone. I feel like it's so unfair that we have to turn our house into a fortress. I made a suggestion at dinner about shooting the guys if they return with Mike's paintball equipment. KA nodded in agreement - Mike and Chicky shook their heads and said we're being stupid. Plus - some of Mike's paintball equipment was stolen so they could retaliate. The cops tried to coerce Thomas into packing up his bags tonight but that didn't pan out. My mom was disappointed. It's going to take a while to install exterior locks on all the bedrooms. But I think - if someone breached the main entry doors - what's another lock to them right? I guess I feel super guilty to Mike. The bikes are normally chained to each other with 3 titanium locks - Mike's bike is super expensive and mine is like only $400. Since I went on the MS Bike tour - I didn't chain the bikes back together after putting it back into the storage room - I take full responsibility for the laziness. It would have been impossible for the thieves to remove the bikes if they were clamped to each other like before. Mike is so careful with his stuff and I'm reckless. *sigh* Good news? I had Mike remove Renny's bike months ago when I thought the value of goods in the storage room was out weighing the home insurance policy. For a long time the storage room as the primary storage location for our friends' gear...it was a high risk room from the start. Mike is so calm, he lost the most stuff tonight (not to mention the value of his stuff exceeds that of mine and my dad's combined) and all he's worried about is moving stuff into his room and locking it. Oh well - there's lots more to do tomorrow. Primary concern is getting those kids out of here asap!

On the bright side - this gives me something interesting to blog about. Plus it also has brought our attention to how unsecure our home is and where our vulnerabilities lie. :-) I don't think we'll be renting for awhile. We're all so emotionally scared by this tonight. I don't think any of us can sleep. Lol - I've got my ears on the look out for our car alarms. Car vandalism is my sore spot...I think I would literally KILL someone if I caught them vandalizing any of our cars.

crazy tenants

Well - it's official. I've just evicted the kids downstairs. For the past 2 months we've been renting to this super young couple. I consider myself a pretty patient and overall "nice" landlord. I have a few basic rules (which are laid out on paper and signed off prior to any of the kids renting). Thomas on the other hand has tried my patience and made it not worth being charitable anymore. In 2 months there have been:

• 2 police incidents
• domestic violence (she beating on him)
  
• daily fights between the 2 of them that are so loud that we can hear every word through the floors

The primary culprit is the girlfriend as she's an emotional wreck and going through some kind of family crisis. It wouldn't be so bad if they were just crazy towards each other but lately the next door neighbor has been getting involved. Even Michael and KA had to bang on their door last week to give them a "final" warning as their craziness was driving those 2 nuts up here. I guess I'm not home enough to experience the epic fights. When I am home - I'm usually in my room - which is 2 floors above them so completely oblivious to what's going on in the basement.

So coming home after a long day of work and commuting to pull up onto the drive way and see my neighbor come out of his house to give me his daily "update" on what those 2 crazies were doing during the day was a bit too much today. Work has been really busy this week and the traffic a nightmare - I wasn't in the mood for "what they were doing while you were gone" reports. Plus the complaints from my family are accumulating and stressing me out too. I smiled politely to my neighbor and listened to the latest update about the gf running around the neighborhood last night banging on neighbor's doors because he locked her out of the house. Dragged my weary self inside, made dinner, ate it then went downstairs to confront them. They're always polite when we come banging on their door - which makes them even CRAZIER as they try to pretend that all is hunki-dorry downstairs. After I told him - I walked up the stairs and he closed the door to the suite and the fighting began. So they're out of here at the end of the month. I think we'll take a bit of a break from students for the Xmas season. I'll probably list again for the spring semester. Figure the students won't be looking till early/mid December anyhow.

webinars

This week is National Customer Service Week. In celebration to all of us that endeavor to help out the village-idiot - my department is launching a promotional campaign. Not only bring to attention the focus on customer service employees but Help Desk as a whole. For the past 2 weeks I have been involved in the planning and preparation of the campaign. It was a natural fit for me to be on the committee as in some ways it was just another social event to add to my growing list.

I started my new shift today. For the next 3 months I'll be working from 8:30am-4:30pm. I gave myself 1.5 hours to get to work. Wasn't sure what rush hour traffic would be like. The only bottle-neck I experience was on the Barnett Highway. Boy am I going to be relieved when they complete that project! It took me an hour to get into work so that wasn't too bad.

After logging onto the phones for about 2 hours and dealing with all those that leave work for 2 days and forget their passwords every monday morning - I was booked to attend a webinar. Usually I enjoy the webinars that my supervisors send me off to as they are very keen on where my interests lie (in psychology based lectures - not that techie stuff). I was fooled though! The title of the webinar was "How to Survive a Monday". I was thinking it would be focused on customer service - instead it was basically a book review lecture. I felt like I could have gotten the same information by logging into Chapters site and reading the reviews on their business/leadership books instead of sitting through the seminar. The good thing about webinars is that the speaker can't hear you - so I happily groaned loudly and booed his lecture from the comfort of my meeting room. There was only one other person who was doing the webinar with me from my department. He was bored too and hadn't actually read any of the books on the "recommendation" list. Lol - I also gave my colorful review of books that I've read that were also on the list. It gave me something to do while I watched the awful PowerPoint presentation move across the screens.

You know a webinar speaker is going to suck when he starts off his lecture with pleads for the audience to visit his website. :-) What did I get out of this today? The opportunity to participate in polls - the only thing keeping me in that room while he droned on about book reviews. So I've posted my own poll on the blog. It's one of the questions that I answered in the webinar today - except my choices of answers on this blog are less serious.

PJ days

This weekend has been a really lazy one. I think I spent the majority of it in my pjs. It was nice to relax though. Chicky and I indulged in a B-movie marathon Sunday. Crappy shows that were so bad that they went straight to video. :-) The good thing about downloading is that we don't have to confess to renting that junk. We were able to catch up on popular TV series though.

Since I have school on mondays - I have to watch the recorded Heroes episodes on the weekend. The second season started off with a bang. Introduction of MANY new super heroes and the return of the main characters. KA introduced us to a new series called Dexter. It's an interestingly morbid show about a sociopath who works in forensics by day and murders by night. Pretty graphic which only adds to it's appeal. :-)

Engaged in mindless TV watching - I ignored more important tasks such as studying, chores and work. :-) I had decided that I would take whatever mark on the midterm that I "deserved". Lol - my academic goals are far from what they were YEARS ago. I figure - if I pass the course then WOOHOO!! Getting good grades is just icing on the cake.

rearranging

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

connecting with friends

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

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

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

paddle on!

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

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

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

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

business for sale

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

learning from experience

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

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

back to school back to work

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

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

weekend celebrations

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

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

slideshows

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

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

There were many contenders

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

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

assisting opportunity

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

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

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

enjoying the little things in life

It's been a long week full of projects and event planning at work. Haven't had much time to catch up with friends or blogging. Today I brought the camera into work work to give myself an opportunity to get away from my desk at lunch. I have an awful habit of sitting at my desk and eating lunch. This is basically an open invitation for people to come by and ask me to "help" them with something. I think it's because my lunch is so EARLY (10am) that people don't realize that I'm actually on "lunch" and not just taking a coffee break. :-)

Not too much is served at that time in the morning and the parks are quiet. A great opportunity for walking around and looking at stuff without being bothered. Some kids from a pre-school group were running through the playground in the park next to my work building. They all had matching red hats. A very symetrical and bright group. I would have taken a picture but thought twice about it - the probability of an angry parent asking me why I was taking pictures of small children without their permission wasn't my idea of a "relaxing" time. I've seen other pre-school groups tour the Lonsdale Quay area in the past - some groups had outfits that were worthy of a picture. But then again - pictures of children is always a topic that one must approach with caution. :-) I've loaded some of today's pictures into my album - feel free to take a peek.

Tonight I read Shannon's blog about losing a family dog. I felt bad her and their family. There have been a couple of "close calls" for Mui Mui and it would have been heart breaking if we had lost her those times. Mui Mui was running around so I took a few snaps of her - probably out of parental guilt. My dad was BBQing in the yard so we rolled around in the grass for a bit - evading "preparing for dinner" duties. Not too long in the grass though as it's such a pain in the ass to wash Mui Mui (over an hour process!).

I saw a documentary on Discovery Channel (one of my favorite channels) about a hand raised polar bear. He was SO cute when he was a baby! Totally reminded me of Mui when she was a pup. Too bad I didn't take more pictures back then. She was a little ball of white fluff. Absolutely ADORABLE! She's still little enough now to pass for a puppy if need be. Time to ask Santa for a new puppy!!!

weekend blitz

On Saturday I decided take advantage of the strong Canadian dollar by accompanying my coworker for a trip down to the outlet malls. Together with KA & Mike, we head out early intending to beat the morning rush. Pulling up to the truck crossing - the sign said it would be a 90 minute wait. Sure - we were already there - no sense in turning back. Well - 90 minutes their time was actually 3.5 hours! By that time we were too far into the line to get out. So instead of having lots of time - we went across, had a late lunch (as we were STARVING!). Then it was off to the Seattle Premium Outlet for a quick look then back to the car. We were anticipating an equally long wait to get back into Canada. Luckily the line up was much shorter - guess Canada customs aren't that strict!

Sunday I just vegged in the house as it had been a long week at work and late night movies with Chicky had me pooped. It was nice though to just bum around, eat lunch then continue our movie fest.

Coquitlam Clan

So Coquitlam is where it's at! Many friends and family are moving into our neighborhood. Congratulations to Betty & Hanif who has boughten (another) home closer to my house. :-) That's one couple who must love making life changing decisions. Lol - lots of changes to their lives in the last year. They haven't even had a house warming party for their current home and now they're moving again. I guess the good thing is that the good part it is that they don't have to unpack!

bed buddies

As I am sitting in bed reading the latest issue of 24 - something hops onto the page! Naturally I screeched, dropped the paper and leaped out of bed. Upon hesitant investigation - the culprit turned out to be a green grasshopper. So gross! EWWW!!! It was a reputable size - nothing like the locuses of Saskatoon but a contender none the less. Either awed by grossness or the sheer need to document my life pictorially - I whipped out the camera and took a picture of it. :-) I then quelled my inner child from wanting to squash the bug and tried some macro shots. I don't have a macro lens so I tried the technique of inversing the lens and moving backwards/forwards to focus. This causes the lens to bump against the grasshopper's antennae which makes it scurry out of the frame - which then results in momentary panic attacks and a yelps as I quickly back away and look for it. Fear of it jumping towards or onto me keeps me from getting too close. Bugs make such bad camera subjects as they want to run away - what I would do for a big sewing pin! Muahaaa...I have such morbid thoughts. It took every ounce of dicipline to refrain from picking up a tissue and ending it's adventures on my bed! When the novelty wore off - I set the grasshopper free through my window. I then closed the window and pondered what other creatures are living in/under my bed that I haven't "discovered" yet. Too scary to even imagine right now - ignorance is bliss! That's what you get for having windows without screens...

alternatives

In the quest to fine tune my laptop - I've encountered frustrations with iTunes. The product is good for a "first time" type of installation but is unfriendly for situations where you wipe out all the music on the computer and want to transfer them from the iPod back to the PC. iTunes doesn't like that - it considers it as "copying" from another iPod and that's a no-no (probably adhering to some built in copy-right law thing). Plus I'm simplistic and prefer interfaces that are "intuitive". One feature I wish iTunes had was the ability to "search computer for media" to add to the iTunes library. The only way to add new music is to manually select the file or folder from the Windows Explorer.

So what's a girl to do? Lol - well...in my case...if something doesn't work with me - I get rid of it. So bye-bye iTunes - hello what? In need of help? Call on the mighty powers of Google!

Found some forum boards that discussed various skins - nothing substantial. Then came across someone's blog site that did a review on iPod managing software. Check it out:
http://ipodmanagers.blogspot.com/

Now it's time to download....

University Women's Club of Vancouver

Chicky and I attended his coworker's wedding at Hycroft today. The wedding was beautiful - location, food and decor. They had a great blend of Indian and Jamaican traditions. The ceremony and reception was at one location so it was nice - we didn't have to drive around. Only thing was that we had to kill 2 hours between the ceremony and reception. Didn't know too many people there so Chicky and I amused ourselves with taking pictures around the garden/mansion. :-) Good thing we had the camera! I'll load the pictures later.

The food was great - the appetizers that they served to the guests while we waited was delicious (worthy of a couple snapshot!). The open bar helped many other guests pass their time. I really like the decoration of the reception - the primary flower of the wedding was orchids. They were splattered everywhere you turned (even on the ground along the aisle to create an orchid border). :-) I think I'll have to steal some of those decor ideas! Dinner, like the rest of the wedding, was posh. Our plates were about 3X larger than the food that was in it. :-) Chicky was starving but he had filled up a bit on lamb chops prior to dinner (I think he was stalking the lamb chop waiter!). I had a good amount of appetizers before the reception so I didn't mind the portions at dinner either - the appetizers were too good to pass up! Chicky and I aren't drinkers so we didn't get to enjoy the martini lounge, etc. I had a glass of wine and champagne - that was enough for me. Weddings are so emotional. Krishna was teary while doing her vows and Jason tried to make it funny. But then when it came time to do their thank you speech - Jason was in tears and Krishna had to take over. :-) It reminded me of KA & Mike's wedding weeks before - so much emotion from those two as well. I have no doubt that I will probably cry at my own wedding - as I get all teary at other people's!

Monet to Dalí

Henri Fantin-Latour

Marie-Yolande de Fitz-James, 1867

Tonight I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery with a couple of coworkers to see the Monet to Dali exhibit. :-) Every now and then I like to get in some "culture". The paintings were primarily from the "impressionist" era. I like this one as the detail is magnificient (like a photograph but an oil painting instead). Dali's stuff was a bit weird - surealism...he's got some pretty freaky looking "dream" sequences. Makes you wonder what an artist's state of mind is when they create their "work". I enjoyed the history behind the art and reading about the life of the painters as well. Many were eccentric and didn't become "famous" till long after their deaths. The last time I went to the Gallery was in 2002 for the "Carr, O'Keeffe, Kahlo: Places of Their Own" exhibit.

After indulging in the art and gift stores - we headed over to Robson street to join the locals in some shopping therapy. Then it was off to fill our tummies with sushi. After that we stopped by Robson Square to check out the UBC dance club strut their stuff. BC's top ballroom dancers were there as well doing a demonstration. It's amazing how they glided across the floor. Again - another opportunity to take action dance pictures...but no big camera. Sarah and Sillian - wonderful dancers/performers. I was mesmerized by the gown she wore for the waltz and he looked pretty sharp in his tails. Makes me want to buy tickets to the 2008 Snowball Classics! Lol - now...to convince Chicky to go.

After 2 hours of hanging out near Robson Square, I was in full dance mode and had all kinds of ideas on how to revive the interest within the group. That or impose my interests on others at work! :-) Maybe the social club could put together a little dance group! On top of the entertainment from the ballroom dancers, there was a lady who was performing on the side with glow-in-the-dark hula hoops. She performed like a Cirque Du Soleil gymnist. :-) She had other props as well that she could twirl/throw/swing with ease. Behind us on the steps were people from Sprint taking picture for an ad. We noticed them as there as a girl dressed like a ninja runing back and forth with a mini flashlight. A strange thing to see if you're not use to it. At first I thought it was a photography class (as we did something similar to that in my photography class). I explained what the photographers were trying to capture to my coworkers (light waves only - hence why the girl was in black and RUNNING around - only still objects are exposed and thus seen on the pic).

picture this

Tracey came over tonight to hang out. We took some pictures of her wedding ring and shoes for fun. :-) It's good to hear that her wedding plans are on track. She's got lots of good ideas for the wedding and I'm looking forward to seeing them in action. I may have convinced her to buy a bigger camera as she interested in taking more pictures. Realistically - I think the little cameras take more pictures as they are more readily available. :-) Nevertheless - I didn't refrain from promoting a super-zoom camera for her needs. Who knows...maybe she'll get one later!

fire in the sky

The commute to work was even slower this morning. I discovered that the smoke in the air was from a fire burning at the corner of Hastings & Willingdon. I felt so bad as that's where my parent's friend's jewelery store is. Poor Chu Paul. On the way home from work the firefighters were still working on controlling the cinders. As I drove up to the intersection I saw a firefighter manning one of those huge water guns. He was at the top of a SUPER long ladder aiming the gun across the sky - a very cool image. So I quickly whipped open my purse, grabbed my baby camera and took a picture as I drove by. :-) I had my fingers crossed that I wouldn't crash into the car infront of me while I did this. :-) I did get a funny grin from the driver next to me as he saw what I was trying to take a picture of. I wish I had the bigger camera with me and time to pull over to get the whole water stream.

ms bike tour

2007 MS Rona Bike Tour

This is my 4th consecutive year participating in the MS Rona Bike Tour benefiting the MS Society. As always it's a last minute decision to do so. Last night I pulled out my bike from the corner of the garage and cleaned the cobwebs off of it. I truly believe that I own that bike for the sole purpose of this event. :-) Training? None needed. This year Tracey joined us in the ride. This is Frank and Kevin G's second year riding. Everyone did a marvelous job. I was very proud of Kevin who improved in endurance - he actually survived the UBC hill. Tracey rode equally well for her first year. The weather was perfect this morning - cloudy with a hint of rain. It made the ride cool and enjoyable. We opted not to do the 60km route this year as it took too long last year (those that did it with me that is). I don't know if I'll continue with this tradition as the commitment for participation has increased (to a mandatory $100/rider). :-) Too many charities to give to - have to spread out what little "extra" money I have. Plus the number of friends still interested in riding is diminishing (either a lack of interest of a lack of a bike). Mother nature was kind to us as well. When we were hungry and took a detour off Broadway to find food - the rain started coming down. The monsoon didn't hit us till we were under the safety of the Steamrollers canopy enjoying some much needed grub. After we finished our wraps - the sun came out and it was time to ride again!

maple ridge campsite

This weekend my sisters and I went camping at Golden Ears in Maple Ridge. Technically we were at the base of Golden Ears as it's the long weekend and we weren't able to get 2 campsites in the main park.

It was wonderful weather for some good old fashion tenting. The location was about 45 mins away from home so Chicky and I only slept in our tent one night. The rest of the time we drove back to the site to bbq. Carol's tent was the most impressive with it's remote control interior light and a mattress made for a king! :-) The washrooms near the site were consistently cleaned so it made "camping" much more enjoyable.

We spent most of the weekend eating, playing cards and playing badminton. It was nice to get in at least one family camping trip before season's end.