oh baby!

Today Chicky and I went over to see Josie and Gregory. He's such a cute baby. :-) The whole family is doing well. Katarina looks like she loves her new brother very much as she wants to kiss and hug him (though she's unaware of her own strength and has to be restrained by Josie).

Katarina is in that 'repeat-after-me' stage and it's adorable hearing her name things. She even showed us how much of a good helper she is by diligently wiping the coffee table. Lol - forgot to take a picture of that. So cute!

Josie is as chipper as ever and always the multitasker - happily breastfeeding Gregory and entertaining us at the same time. I think Josie will post more pictures of her boy once she gets settled into her routine. :-)

Lily time

On Friday night KA, Mike and I went up to see Carol and Lily. Lily is 3 weeks old now and getting more interactive. She's a healthy weight and is pretty strong for her age. She's able to roll over and lift her head up if on her tummy. I suspect she'll be walking by 7/8 months (like her sister Angelina).

Carol has been stuck at home for a month now and is looking forward to freedom. :-) She's following her mother-in-law's strict chinese traditions. It's so fun playing with Lily. She's curious and is beginning to mimic emotions. I hope she learns to smile as that's always an endearing trait. Joshua learned that from an early age and it's what makes him adorable.

newest edition to the Mackey clan

Congratulations to Josie, Jonathan and Katarina! They welcomed the newest edition to their clan this morning. Gregory Theodore Mackey was born at 9:06am and weighed 6lbs 8ozs. The whole gang is doing well and are expected to go home tomorrow evening. :-) I'll post a pic when I get one.

phrrreeezzzing cold!

Today has been a photo-focused day. I met up really early with one of my buddies at work and we went to the roof of our building to take some pictures of the sun rising. Yup - it was freaking early and COLD. I was doing this more out of guilt as I bailed out on the weekend outing with them to Cypress Mountain. Feeling sleepy and unmotivated I lugged all the gear on top of my regular work stuff up so many flights of stairs. :-) What a workout! We snapped some pictures of the downtown core and of surrounding buildings. there's not much surrounding my building except for cranes. My fingers and face froze. After that we packed up our stuff and thawed out at Starbucks with some well deserved chai lattes before going into the office to "work".

After work Ian and I decided that we'd make another short trip as we already had the camera equipment. So the 2 of us went over to the "Dam" in North Van (forgot it's name - but it's on Capilano Road). Still cold as ever - probably due to the fact that we're wearing our work attire instead of snow attire - . We ran into Haydn at the park. He's and Mike are real enthusiasts and tend to go out daily to shoot images - hence why their pics are spectacular. :-) We spent about an hour there waiting for the sun to set over the Lions. Took some pics then ran back into the car to thaw my toes. I wasn't able to bend them. :-) I was happy to see that I wasn't the only one suffering from circulation problems.


Here are 3 pictures that I took throughout today. This one is of the Lions. I was enthralled by Haydn lens as he was able to capture the trees on those peaks. Talk about super-duper-zoom! Ian and I had lens-envy. On nice days the boys tend to encourage each other (and me) to come out and use our cameras. It's quite a noble thought but I have a trend of bailing at the last minute - especially when the weather forcasts anything other than "sunshine". :-) The next "adventure" is to go with the girls to Seymour on the Girls-Snowboard-free nights and hopefully catch some good aerial shots of them. The excitement isn't roaring yet because I'm thinking about how much colder it will be at night and sitting in the snow waiting for them to snowboard past us. :-) Hmmm...will need to wear like 10 layers to stay warm....

no news is good news?

You know that saying "no news is good news"? Well that's what I thought about the bone density test I had done in Dec. 2006. During my annual physical last week I mentioned the test in passing and said to the doctor "no news is good news right?" He pulled my records, read something then said "not in this case". So I was confused and irritated at having to book a separate appointment to discuss the test results with him. I felt that this should have happened last year if there was something on the test that they needed to tell me. Stupid clinic - don't they call patients back after exams?!

Anyhow I went in for my appointment today to find out what's wrong with me. I sat there as he told me that I have osteopenia. All I could think of was "what?! I'm not old!" I didn't really react to this news and while he went on with more doom-and-gloom news, all I wanted to know was if there was a treatment plan and if it was curable. Treatment plan - yes...curable - no. I find that as I get older and fall more apart - it takes more to get a reaction out of me. The doctor's main concern was why I developed this condition as I'm too young to be at risk for osteoporosis. Man - if I get it now...I'm screwed when I get older. My thoughts were focused on his dooms-day speech about the onset of osteoporosis. We went through a questionnaire on the factors that attribute to osteoporosis - I didn't think they applied to me. I consider myself reasonably healthy. It's not like I'm a couch potato (often) and eat "bad" food (other than my McDonalds cravings). Only goes to show that going to the hospital (in my experience) just digs up stuff you didn't necessarily want to know about yourself...such as that mysterious bone growth on my left tibia...lol....

So this weekend is going to be kim-the-guinea-pig weekend. I have a series of blood tests to participate in. Oh joy! My doctor is leaning towards a thyroid problem - hyperparathyroidism to be precise. Even more fun eh? I tried to make light of the topic when he advised that I'd be susceptible to bone breakage/fractures - I told him that he should have told me that last week as I spent Friday night dangling precariously from wall climbing ropes really HIGH up! :-) Duh...that would have sucked even more if I fell and broke something. To keep on the positive side - I've got my fingers crossed for only having osteopenia. If I had to be diagnosed with something more - then let it be something that doesn't require surgery or tons of meds. I'm non-compliant when it comes to taking pills. :-)

shell shocked

Yesterday was my first day on the new job. Within the first hour I got a taste of what's to come for the next 6 months. I went into a project meeting with no experience and no clue what the project was about. I've been assigned to work with this established project team that's developing an resource management application. My first day was basically attending that 3 hour meeting at the start of the day in which I came of there just dazed by the amount of information being presented and anxious of what I had to "catch up" on. Unfortunately I've got to read up on a year's worth of work in prep for the design phase workshops that begin in 2 weeks. With any job change - first and foremost was to get a workstation, phone and computer access. I lost my god-like access and have now become just a regular "user". This is very frustrating as I now have to fill out forms for tasks that I would normally had administrative rights to perform.

I find that project management involves LOTS of meetings (like 75% of my day is spent in a meeting). I'm booked for an average of 2 per day - so far I haven't been able to contribute to the meetings and take notes like a mad woman. Deja vu of university life...someone at the front of the room spilling out jargon that I don't understand. This week I've been paired up with a business analyst to learn what she does and to spend the next 2 weeks getting my hands dirty in that field. I been asked to present my first "deliverable" for a meeting early next week. *sign* A business process diagram based on an interview and documents from some finance manager. :-) Should be interesting as I've never done a real-life one before.

Because this is a "developmental" position - I don't really have a manger, time schedule or core responsibilities. This is advantagous and dibilitating at the same time. I've been told that I can work what ever hours I like but I'd have to make sure I work 8 before going home. Coming from a restrictive environment - I didn't know what to do with this freedom and felt obligated to tell my mentors what my hours of work would be. I've picked 7:30-3:30. I've discovered that most of the project team don't come wandering in till 9am. I've also discovered that everyone has their own "preferred" meeting times - times in which they've had enough coffee in thier system to be coherent. On the downside - my time is shared between 2 project managers who have very differing ideas of what I should be engaged in. One person is very task oriented and the other is very "go with the flow". The personality types are challenging to work with as I haven't been able to adapt well to the "go with the flow" lady. Her ad hoc behaviour worries me as without defined goals - how will she measure my success? Duh - hopefully it won't be based on her "intuition".

So I will continue to plug away and hopefully feel more comfortable with the material. My stress levels are still high and I feel mentally exhausted by the end of the day. Each day is a learning experience and as soon as I get past the information overload stage - I'm sure I will enjoy working with this team. :-) I have justified buying myself a new work bag as I don't get to sit down at my desk much now and have dropped some of my file folders in the hallway. My backpack is handy but looks too kidish when walking around the office. Lol - it's all about fashion too!

resolve to...in

It's that time of year where the onslaught of other people's New Year Resolutions pulls at my I-should-do-something-too strings. The usual empty promises of eating healthier and exercising more spill out of my mouth as others ask me what my resolutions are. I'm peer pressured into joining the gym at work. I hesitate as I had only canceled my Fitness World membership in November and feel that joining another gym will result in the same behavior of paying money into something that I never use. The only good excuse that keeps me from filling out the forms is that I'm starting my new job tomorrow so I don't know where I'll be working or what my schedule will be like.

I'm a habitual list maker and tend to contemplate about exciting "opportunities" to check off long awaited activities off my list. I'm not going to school this semester so I've been looking at the local Continuing Education and Leisure Guides for inspiration. There are lots of hobby-type classes that intrigue me.

As I was reading Frank's feeds - I came across this article - which lead me to write this blog...
how to make exercise last

new baby in the family

Congratulations to Carol, Minh and Angelina! Carol delivered a healthy baby GIRL on January 10th. The baby is still nameless - not surprising as Angelina was nameless for a week before they decided on her name. She was born at 7 lbs 14 oz. We went to the hospital Friday night to visit the family. It's been so long since we've had an baby in the immediate family so I was really excited. :-) Carol had a really fast delivery that was drug free (not by choice). The baby wanted to get out so much that Carol nearly didn't make it to the hospital! The hospital pics are posted to my web album. More pics to come in the next few days.

gateway of India

KA and Mike left for Mumbai, India at the beginning of the month. They are on a one month adventure in the land of marble and spicy food. Their journey will take them through a few south east asian countries as well. KA has succumbed to creating a blog to keep us abreast of the sites and sounds of Surat. You can find their ramblings here. This is funny as she normally makes fun of my blogging habits and says that I don't enjoy life but enjoy narrating it. :-)

happy new year!

Happy 2008 everyone!

I hope you all had a great time off. December went by in a flash. Lots of things happened and tons of parties to attend.

First off I guess the most significant (for me) is that Kel and I reconciled our differences and are back together. Some of you may have been confused to see us out and about but I didn't mention it as it's gets to be a pain in the ass to explain our topsey-turvey relationship to inquiring minds.

New Years Eve we attended Nick & Lisa's wedding. Nick was Chicky's roommate downtown. The wedding was wonderful and it was great to see all the hard work that Lisa put into it come together so nicely. I was astonished to find out that she hand made 80% of the wedding decor, etc - including her own wedding dress and catherdral-length veil. :-) The veil was longer than the dress and the dress was right up there with in the princess-length category. I like the idea of a new years eve wedding as there was a theme to the party and it's guaranteed that all the guests will stay past midnight. Chicky was on the wedding party so I found myself wandering around and trying to befriend strangers. We ate, listened to speeches, did all the other normal wedding things then after that it was dancing and the count-down. The good thing about it was the way Lisa had set up the head table. Chicky was able to sit with me and I didn't have to be stuck at a table with strangers. Head table was basically the bride, groom, bestman and maid of honor. The other bridal party members sat at 2 tables right below head table. All other guests were spread out on their respective sides of the room.

life changes

I don't really feel like writing but thought I should let you all know that I will be taking a hiatus from blogging for awhile.

Kelvin and I have broken up for the last and final time yesterday. This was unplanned and stressful for the both of us. We have come to realize that we're not meant to be with each other. For the best interests of both parties - we've departed. It's a really crappy time of year to be breaking up when others are getting together with their loved ones. The decision was not a light one but it had to be made as we were going nowhere with each other and external influences were basically what kept us together.

I didn't sleep at all last night and thought about the many years of ups and downs that he and I have been through. It's a relationship that will be hard to forget. I'd like to say the past 10 years have been good but that's not true either - we had our challenges. I want to be diplomatic and say we parted on good terms but realistically - who does? The only thing I'm grateful for is to find closure to this relationship. I try not to let my emotions rule and see the logic behind it but at times it's tough to put on a happy face. This morning I had to host the Social Club's Children's Xmas party and as I was up on stage in my jester costume - I was finding it hard to pretend to be happy/chipper. I guess not sleeping didn't help and as usual - events don't always go smoothly so that added extra stress to my already stressed out mind. After the event I just came home and crashed. I'm physically and mentally tired.

Good thing I have tomorrow off. It's good timing as I'll have time to mope around and adjust/absorb what this break up will mean. Time to start thinking about making myself happy and losing the unhappy thoughts. As a favor, I ask that if you see/talk to me that we don't discuss Kel or "what happened" as I want to move on with my life and talking about unhappy stuff is just like reliving it. Thanks.

I just had a conversation with Kel's mom who was so worried as she just got the news from him. I'm touched by the amount of love and care from his side of the family for me. I tried to reassure her that life would go on and that eventually everyone get use to it. Everyone is hoping that this is just one of our usual "temporary" break ups and that we'd eventually resolve our differences. I told them that it's not and that this time is the final time. Both Kel and I are emotionally drained and will not be attending any of the planned events with friends or family.

If I don't speak to you soon. Have a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and all the best in 2008!

a code green

This afternoon as I was waiting for my next caller, the intercom bursts on with a message from Nancy. She said "this is your site commander - all ERT personel to your muster stations!" Then she announced a "code green". We were all puzzled. I was trying to figure out what a "code green" stood for and other were not even listening. A couple of minutes later she comes back on the intercom and calls the code green again and an immediate evacuation of all employees.

My first reaction? I looked outside and said - what a crappy day to be doing another drill! We had done an evacuation drill a couple of weeks ago and we all remembered standing in the downpour for an hour for the drill to complete. This time it was slightly different. The "fast bells" were triggered right away. We know that slow bells mean "get ready to evacuate" and fast bells mean "get the hell out of there". So I grabbed my stuff and headed towards the stair wells. As we walked a cross the street towards the meeting area - cops, ambulances and firetrucks started pulling up. Wow - they really got the whole 911 crew involved in the drill today!

People were confused, wet and irritated as their day had been interrupted. We all diligently followed the evacuation process and were good little soldiers. The Site Commander finally told us that this WASN'T A DRILL and that there was a BOMB THREAT for the building! OMG! This was a surprising turn of events. There was more confusion and anxiety. Some people had come out believing it was a drill so they had nothing with them. Others quickly called coworkers and family to let them know that all is ok. We stood outside in the rain for over an hour with information being blasted over the bullhorn every now and then. The word was that the police were investigating and sniffer dogs being brought in. They announced that we could all go home. The company bought bus tickets and handed it out to people. No one was allowed to go near the building. They also evacuated our other 2 buildings - just incase. Some people had despair because they only had a shirt on them and nothing. How can you go home if you didn't have house keys?! I wanted to wait out a bit more to see if the building would clear so that I could rescue my car. The thought of going on transit was not appealing.

Too bad - so sad. Another hour passed with no hopes of getting back into the building. I gave up and headed for the seabus. The police had only quarantined off our building. All other businesses in the Quay were not evacuated. Boo! This is my second bomb threat experience at work. That's the "cool" part about working above a seabus terminal - it tends to be a target for such things. :-) I'm sure we'll make the news tonight.

home sweet home

This weekend Chicky moved back home to his parents house. It's been a LONG time since he's lived at home so he's starting to readjust to life with the parents. Of all the weekends to move - we picked the one that was snowing. It took a couple of trips back and forth between the downtown apartment and his parent's house. We got 95% of the stuff all pack up, shipped and unpacked. The only thing that couldn't fit in my car was his bed. I think we're leaving that for the weekend when he can borrow a truck from Lisa. After moving we were tired and didn't really want to rearrange furniture. I think he has most of the stuff put into it's proper places by now.

It'll be nice having him closer by - that way I don't have to drive an hour to hang out with him. He's 5 mins away from my house so it's more convenient.

exploration exhibit

On Saturday Chicky and I went to see Michael's mom's art exhibit. She's a painter and was debuting her work at the Crystal Mall location for one week. The number of people that came to show support was tremendous. Even Michael's dad came back from Taiwan to be there for the grand exhibit. Chicky and I took in a bit of the art/food in the middle of his move. Plus it was good to see the number of supporters despite the awful weather on Saturday. After this exhibit she and the art will be taking the show on the road. She has another exhibit planned for Taiwan for the New Year.

At lunch today I went down to the Quay to get a cookie from the cookie shop. When I got there I was horrified that they've shut down. Having walked all the way down there from the 4th floor, I figured I couldn't go back empty handed. While waiting for my coworker to get some cash. I looked at the little vending carts that were scattered in the isles. My eyes fell upon the jewellery one. :-) The lady recognized that I was interested in hair clips and got me. I succumbed to 2 hair clips that were "discounted" (though horribly over priced compared to what you pay in Asia). Being Asian - I couldn't resist the extra "cash only" discount. :-)

So a trip that was suppose to be for some cookies turned into a hair clip and icecream run. :-) Oh well - I had fun trying on hair clips and even more fun taking this pic of them.

pan pacific delights

On Saturday I went to the annual Social Club Christmas party. I dragged Chicky with me. He has been sick the last couple of days due to romping around in the mountains in the snow playing paintball games for Nick's bachelor party. He left Whistler and spent the next couple of days recovering from the "fun".

The party was great and it was nice to just come to eat. The event was being handled by 3 other executives and they did a wonderful job. I went around and took pictures of the event. Everyone was dressed up and feeling festive. It was nice joking around with the members and saying "hi" to people that I know or vice versa. Though I wasn't actively involved in the preparation of the party - I still got tons of compliments from everyone about the selection of the location, food, etc. The Pan Pacific hotel is beautiful and the Christmas decorations are so festive. It makes me love Christmas time even more.

Dinner was great - buffet style with delicious food. I took pictures of the guests while waiting for our table to be called to eat. Drinks were not on the house but because I have "special" rights - I get unlimited pop/juice. That's fine with me as I'm not really a drinker anyhow. I did have a lady come up to me while I was taking pictures and give me a story about being a designated driver. :-) We usually give drink tickets to designated drivers - but that's done when you first enter the party. I felt bad for her as she had to walk across the room to talk to me and it takes time coming up with a story. So I said don't worry, apologized for the greeters for not asking her if she was a designated driver (not sure why I should apologize as it's not my fault she didn't speak up when coming though the doors), gave her some tickets and told her that if people at her table were also designated drivers and didn't get their drink tickets - they could come see me. :-) Setting myself up for sob stories - yes...I know. But what the heck - pop is like $4 at the hotel! I'm sure some of the greeter ladies forgot to ask the guests as they came in.

After filling our tummy with dinner - Chicky and I were in line for dessert and it looked like by the time we would reach the table - the cakes would all be gone. This couple behind us (jokingly) said to me "the dessert table is almost empty - someone from the Executive should do something". He was looking directly at me. Then the others did too. I grinned and said "that's right! someone should do something about that" and winked. I gave up my spot in the mega line to hunt down some staff. Not sure what I was going to complain about as I knew they were trying to fill the food tables as fast as they could. I ran into the hostess and asked her to bring serving spoons to the dessert table (as I also noticed that there weren't any) and to see if we could remove the empty cake plates (hinting that we needed more desserts). She was very nice and did it. I went back in line and people were gracious enough to let me butt back in with Chicky. Chicky is really good about me abandoning him at these Social Club events to fend for himself. He's not so fond about attending them but I had assured him that at least this year I'd get to eat with him instead of being infront of the group and running the show. The rest of the night went by quickly. Did some dancing with coworkers and then played the Alphabet Movie game with our table. It was fun and made us think. :-) Chicky and I took off at around 11pm as I was tired of entertaining and he was bored. We spent the rest of the night watching License to Wed with Nick and Lisa. Lisa is suffering from a cold as well and slept through most of the movie.

black friday

Tis the season to spend! No better way to do it then to head to the States for the Black Friday sales. Tracey and I embarked on this expedition at 4am Friday morning. My mom came with us as well. We wanted to get across the borders before they became busy. The Seattle Premium Outlet mall had opened at midnight so Carol had been there a few hours before us.

Carol was still in line at the Coach store when she called me. She waited 2 hours in the cold to get through. I wasn't interested in high end items and was on the lookout for the "steals". Tracey and I shopped from 6am to 8pm. We went to Seattle Premium, another Outlet mall for some shoes at Nine West and then to Bellis Fair as the radio said that the waiting time for north bound traffic was 3 hours. We were exhausted and lacked food - so we ate the yucky food court stuff again. My poor mom reached her shopping max about 2 hours into the game. She gave up and waited in the food court for us. I think she sat in the food court for 6 hours before we circled back to get her. Tracey and I found that the deals that were to be had were for guys clothing. So Shawn and Chicky scored big and they weren't even there! We ran into Chris, Cindy and Toshiki at the Banana Republic store hours later. By that time the crazy deals were most over and the lines weren't so bad. What we discovered late in the game was the VIP Coupon book extra discounts that could have been applied to the sales ones. Duh - we only managed to get reimbursed at Banana Republic (with Tracey's stealthy management skills) for the difference. I was quite surprised as Tracey's assertiveness and persistence. Lol - I thought it would have to be me that would have to put on the "difficult customer" hat today. It was funny watching as a bystander for once. We pissed off some people though as we got this done at the counter and stirred up some commotion as we had to get the management involved. Persistence prevailed and we got our stuff refunded/rescanned on the spot - thus barging infront of the super long lines. GAP wasn't so flexible and insisted that we wait at the end of the line if we wanted to refund/rebuy our stuff with the extra discounts. We weighed the costs/benefits for GAP and figured the savings weren't as worth while. Those line ups went around the whole store. Not to mention the evil glares from patrons who have been standing in line for over 1/2 hour was troubling. :-)

Getting back across the border was a pain. We had a group guard who banished us to the declaration line. Tracey and I had a lot of stuff and we declared it all - wasn't about to lie about our purchases as it wasn't worth the hassle. Feeling depressed about having to pay taxes/duty on our goods, we lined up in the mega line at customs. Due to Canada having not enough staff, a border guard lady came up to us in line and asked us what we bought. We told her 90% mens clothing as gifts. She looked at our bills, took our border ticket from us and told us to go home. Whoopee!!! We were spared! Excited we ran back to the car and scuttled home.

new year - new job

Today I had an interview for a support analyst position with our project office. I had decided to apply for a 6 month assignment with this group as I have been really stressed with work the last month or so and have resented being there. This all translates to Kimmi taking a break from Help Desk before she goes postal on them all! :-)

The interview was a standard panel interview. I knew 2 of the interviewers through the Social Club. Ah - the few benefits of being so actively involved in the Social Club, it provides me with networking opportunities. They asked the usual behavioural questions and stuff. I was a bit nervous when they started asking me about project work, etc. I haven't worked on a project before and realistically don't have leadership experience outside of the Club. One of the ladies wanted to make the interview "equal" (I think she just wanted me to sweat in my seat) in terms of asking me the same questions as they do with their coops. :-) Seeing as I have no formal training in business or management - it was challenging. I think I did well though as I was able to answer an important question correctly. "What is the difference between an issue and a risk." I wasn't sure if was a trick question at first so I stalled for a bit. One guy on the panel felt pity for me and told me that the other people didn't get the question correct so it would be "normal" if I answered it incorrectly. Lol - yup...he had low expectations of me. :-) That's alright though. I thought about the definitions as it applied to my work and what I learned in school and told the questioner. She looked at me and I wasn't sure if it was an approval or disapproval look so I looked to one of the other panelist and that lady grinned. I sighed in relief - passed! The interview as a whole went well and I felt comfortable to speak normally after they finished the "technical" stuff (thank goodness I taken those database and MS Project courses). At the end of the proces everyone looked at each other. There was some pausing and I waited for instructions - either to get my ass out of there or wait for some more questions/answers. One of the ladies looked at the rest of them and said "are we ready to make a decision". I was like "OMG!" - I felt felt like a contestant on American Idol. :-) Waiting for Simon Cowel to strike me down. Luckily the stars were aligned today because I got the job! Hhahaa...I was really excited as they didn't realize how much of a break I was looking for. I thanked everyone and went happily off to another meeting. So starting in January - I'll not be on the phones anymore and mentoring under 2 project managers to learn the in and outs of project management.

Help Desk BC Awards

Today I attended the Help Desk BC Awards ceremony to honour the next Help Desk Analyst. I came as the "photographer" for the event but also as the cheering committee for my two fellow coworkers who were finalists. I'm super proud to work for a company that has produced wonderful support staff. It was no surprise when one of our own won the designation for 2008. I cheered super loud and grinned the whole time. :-) I'm really proud of him and of us as a company.

The week has been really busy so I haven't had a chance to prepare the pictures to be submitted to Help Desk BC. I should work on that soon. On top of that I haven't posted the pictures of the Go Karting event and Chris has been hounding me about them. Lol...falling behind in picture production. Doesn't help that I have intermittent power failures on the laptop. Grrr...sometimes I feel like killing it for good! ;-)

brunch with the girls

I had brunch at IHOP with Cindy, Josie and the kids today. I had scheduled the day off weeks ago and we all managed to coordinate our schedules so that we could catch up. It was nice to see the girls and the kids. Both Katarina and Joshua are growing up so fast! Katarina is speaking and Joshua has discovered that he's got a voice box as well.

After chit chatting and catch up with life we went over to Walmart and did some shopping. Josie manages really well with being pregnant and running after Katarina. The girls are great mommies and I'm happy that we can still see each other even though our schedules don't always match.

start your engines!

Today I hosted the second annual Go Karting race at TBC Indoor Racing. The event turned out to be great. Lots of enthusiam from the crowd. We had 45 participants this year. Less than last year (which was 90 people) but I prefer managing a group this size as it's not so crazy. Because of house stuff last week I ended up slapping together the last minute details on Friday night - which included trying to find a new pizza parlour which would deliver to me at 10:45am. No such luck so I had to go with Panago again.

Everyone had a good time bashing carts and cheering on team mates. The facility has new carts so we were happy with that news. The new carts are much faster and I'm told by the drivers that they were a more comfortable ride too. I only had one injury this year (one of my coworkers managed to crash into a kid and have her cart wheel pin his knee) and zero broken carts. Whoohoo! :-) Last year was 3 injuries and 4 broken carts. Injuries only suck when it's some kid and I have to deal with the worried parent. :-) I didn't race but hung out with the manager and staff at the site. They are pretty young Asians (probably a few years younger than myself). We joked about suped up cars and how to "file" a claim when you have a rice-rocket. :-) Plus they don't seem to mind it when I treat the facility as if it's my own place. Lol - I was surprised that Arthur (the operations manager) gave me the master key this year when I just told him that he should. :-) Asking requires too much work. But it's a logical argument - I usually want to lock the party room (so that people can leave their valuables in there) and I want to be able to access it at anytime during the event. So - instead of hunting him down every 5-10 mins - it's just more convenient for the both of us if I held onto the key.

I think I'll run this event in the summer time as well because it's always fun and the comments from the people that attend is basically that they would come again. I did get a few suggestions for new events such as snowboard racing (hmmm...don't know if I can make that happen) and paintballing (doable). I'll have to see what the Club Executives think about that though.

After the event I drove home and took a nap. I was pooped out from getting up early and not sleeping much the night before. Chicky was in Whistler all weekend for Nick's stag party. He called me Saturday night to tell me that it was raining ice up there and that they had played paintball in the freezing rain. I'm happy he had fun and I'm sure Nick had a memorable weekend.

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.