an early XMas

Christmas it a time for giving. In my case it's time to give ME something nice for all the stress I put myself through during the year. :-) This year's XMas gift to myself is a new camera. Thanks me!!!! *** pat myself on the back ***

On the weekend Toshiki, Chris and I went down to PhotoExpert in Surrey to do some shopping. We picked up some camera gear for discounted prices (I have a friend who knows the sales staff). Anyhow we pretty much made Dave's sales quota on Saturday. Toshiki and I bought the Canon 50D and Chris picked up a new lens. The Canon 50D camera is bigger than my old one so I'm still getting use to the weight/size. Chicky says the camera fits his hands much better now. I sold my other camera so I've only got this one now. No little-pocket-size camera for me! :-) I like the features and response on the 50D. I'm looking forward to taking more pictures with it. Maybe I'll even pick up a photography course in the spring - it's always nice to have dedicated days to go out and just shoot pics.

tasking turned tragedy

Alas I must say adieu to my beloved phone. It had an untimely drowning last week. :-) Note to self, DON'T try to multitask while taking a bath. Though I was able to revive it from it's watery grave - it just didn't act the same. The buttons didn't work which made making outbound calls next to impossible. I've been able to receive calls but lately it's been possessed and turning on/off by itself. Weird....

I tried to take it to Telus and plead death due to negligence but they were not empathetic at all and told me that there's nothing to do but buy a new one. I was frustrated that they wanted to sell me another data phone when this one was barely 1/2 a year old! Good god - data phones are NOT cheap either. Unfortunately I'm locked in the 3-year-prison-phone-term-plan with no chance of parole. I've been searching for a used data phone but nothing has caught my eye yet (maybe it's the prices that is making me hesitate). I think in the end when I have no more means of communicating with the outside world I will invest in a crack-berry. I like qwerty keyboard phones and that seams to be the "best known" one on the market right now.

did you know?

I went to a presentation this week for IT techs and was amused by one of the videos they played during the break. :-) For your amusement...

who am I?

Yesterday I embarked on the next step of post-marital bliss...the name change. :-) For most of you this process is simply taking your marriage certificate to everyone who would care whether you're a Le or a Yee. To me this presented an opportunity to get "me" reorganized. You see, when my parents came to Canada they didn't know the traditions here and gave Immigration the Viet version of my name. This meant that I'm legally known as "Hoang Dang Kim Le". I'll bet not many of you knew that Kim is actually my second-middle name. :-) Through frustration in early grade school from people not being able to pronounce my first name, I adopted a "known as" name. So unofficially I slowly changed my name to Kim Hoang Dang Le. This presented a problem because I ended up with not one ID with the same sequence of names. I was only able to rearrage the sequence on some IDs but not others. On the bright side I might be spared identity theft because no one really knows what my "real" name is. On the other hand - I can never prove that I'm really ME! A real pain in the ass when you have to show someone your drivers licence and a credit card for ID...I always have to explain why the names are all jumbled up. Did you know that your DL is probably the most secure piece of document you own? Next to your birth certificate or citizenship card that is. It's more secure than a passport as you cannot use your passport as a primary piece of document to obtain a DL.

I took the day off to go downtown to Vital Statistics to pick up my fingerprint, criminal record check and immigration papers. I rolled my eyes as the clerk informed me that after I get the cops to fingerprint me, run the criminal records check and the notary to stamp the rest of the documents, I would have to return to the office with the package and pay another $200 processing fee. That almost made me want to say "forget it". :-) Hoang isn't such a bad first name afterall! Lol...but Kim Anh reminds me that it's better in the long run to have one official name that is on all documents. So at the end of the long process I will become "Kim Hoang Yee" in the eyes of the Government of Canada. I have an appointment with the notary next week.

I've discovered that some agencies are easy (just need the marriage certificate) to change your name while others are much more difficult (need tons of supporting documents).

Easy = work, credit cards, banks, carecard, passport (you can basically be whoever you want on your passport!)

Hard = citizenship card, drivers licence, SIN

Your Song

Just for fun...what was the #1 song for any date in history? See below to find "your song"...

http://www.joshhosler.biz/NumberOneInHistory/SelectMonth.htm

Kim's b-day = "Don't Leave Me This Way"
Kelvin's b-day = "A Star is Born"
wedding date = "So What"

finding Nemo

On the weekend Chicky and I went to the pet store in search of love. You see, while we were on our honeymoon, all our goldfish went to the great bowl in the sky. Sadly enough we had to dismantle the tank when we got back in preparation for the move. In the pet store I stood by the puppies pointing at them in hopes that Chicky would change his mind about fish and get us a dog. I was disappointed.

Alas Chicky's need for his saltwater tank has come to fruition. He sacrificed his Subaru car and is now sporting a Honda Fit. To make up for a flashy car - he's invested time and effort into setting up this pretty tank. It's a whole new tank and supplies. It's now day 4 and he's still trying to get the ecosystem right. We've discovered that our floor in the cubby hole (where this tank has taken residence) is not level. It's too late to try to fix that problem.

What's in the tank right now is bacteria, sand, coral and a little crab. When the water temperature and saline stabilize - we'll begin getting the sea creatures. Where's Nemo?!

More pictures of the tank can be found in my web album.

pictures are up

I've begun loading some of the pictures from the trip. Check out my web album if you want to see them.

guise and ghouls

It's that time of year where our alternate egos get to come out to play. I've been thinking about what my costume should be for Halloween. It wouldn't be so hard if I didn't have to parade around the office in it. I'm looking for something funny and easy to make this year. I've checked out some sites and came across this one that had some unique and hilarious ideas. Incase you're in need of some inspiration...

http://www.costumeideazone.com/CIZ/CostumesByCategories.aspx?c=8

it's a boy!

Congratulations to Kim Anh and Michael! They welcomed their baby boy into the world at 7pm tonight. Tyson Chen came in at a whopping 7.4lbs and one week late. Mom, dad and baby are doing well. We went to see him tonight - he's as cute as button! By the looks of his measurements - he's going to be a tall kid! :-) I've got pictures but no time to post them right now. Will do so later....

settling in

Yah! - we're 90% settled in. Most of the boxes have been unpacked and there's food in the fridge. Kel and I spent the weekend sorting through the must-do vs the can-wait-till-later chores. Things are coming together nicely and we're enjoying the "buying new stuff" phase. The last week was tiring as it was our first week back to work after a month off (for me anyways). After work each night we spent time putting things into boxes. It was only till Thursday that we actually started sleeping in the condo (as we just put together the bed). There's still much to do with the condo but the bare essentials are in. As long as I have clothes, food and internet - then I'm fine.

We have this big TV but no cable. :-( So it serves as another pc in the house. :-) The good thing is that most of my TV shows are downloadable. We're getting use to condo living again. The neighbor downstairs is quite atuned to what we do. He's expressed his concern (in person) over our need to build IKEA furniture at night. He even came up once to tell me that his ceiling light feel down from all the banging we're doing. I was tired from work and trying to put together a dresser before dinner so I didn't have much patience for his complaints. I stood at the door and just stared blankly at him. What did he want me to do? Pay for the light? Jeez - if there was an earthquake - he'd be killed by his falling lights! I told him that he could blantenly see that we're moving in and have to do everything at night (after work). Therefore I can't help with the noise. I was considerate enough to build the dressers in the bedroom where there's carpet instead of the laminate floored living room. Kel says he's not going to be a prisoner in his own home. So what do we do? Trade "notes" with apartment 308. We're all on first name basis. So it's Kim & Kelvin against Terry and Jonathan. :-) Terry is not confrontational so she likes to slip notes under the door for me to read and I do the same for her. Jonathan on the other hand likes to complain in person. I joke about inviting him for coffee one of these days as he's up here often enough. Kel doesn't think my joke is funny... Oh well - that's all part of communal living. They actually are getting better. Since we've completed putting together the IKEA stuff - we haven't seen Jonathan in a couple of days. :-) Wonder if he's keeping tabs below us...

"going to the chapel and we're...

going to get married..."

It's been almost a month now since the wedding but I haven't forgotten about the big day. I meant to post a blog about it but things have been a bit hectic with the wedding, honeymoon, moving, work, life...blah blah blah.

I just wanted to say that the wedding was fabulous. I had a great time and found that the day zipped by so quickly. I hope you guys enjoyed it just as much as Kel and I. I have not seen any photos/video yet of the ceremony, etc but I'm sure they turned out great. :-) We haven't even picked up our marriage license (which is at Chris' house). Thank you again for all those that helped out!

I'll write more about married life later...

Cairo

We took a two day adventure through the desert visiting the spectacular Alabaster Mosque of Mohamed Ali, the National Archaeological Museum, then the Giza Plateau and a papyrus factory. The tour name was "Best of Cairo Overnight" and was the only tour that we felt we got the most for our money.

The trip was very safe. There were about 400 of us on this tour and each bus had it's own bodyguard equipped with a gun AND a machine gun "tucked" into their suits. The machine gun didn't fit so it stuck out. Kel was facinated by the artilary and wanted to take pictures of of our bodyguard. We also had police escort out of Alexandria to Cairo - just incase of terrorist attacks? :-) It was reassuring nevertheless.

Our tour guide has a masters in Egyptology. He is very vocal and full of energy. He gave our bus a nick name. "Habibi" (Arabic for "my beloved") - so everywhere we went, we'd here him shouting "Habibi!" and referring to us as his Habibis. Some of the people on the bus even started calling themselves Habibis. Lol -we were all getting brain washed.

When I think of the Pyramids of Giza - I have the Indiana Jones movie image of having to cross a vast desert on camel to reach them. In reality - we got off the bus at the base of the pyramids and I turned around to see the Hard Rock Cafe. So disappointing. I think in the next 5 years the city will surround site all together. The first night we saw a "Sound and Light" show at the Pyramids. It was basically a cheezy Vegas style laser light show on the Pyramids.

Kel and I got to ride camels. It's such a scary experience as they stand up. You don't realize how high up you are on them! Plus they get up with their back legs first so you get thrown forward. :-) I was screeching and nervous giggling the whole way up.

Admist the glory of the Pyramids is the dust of poverty. There are a lot of areas in which we saw garbage (including a dead donkey) in the ditches. Recycling is not important either as the area around the Pyramids are littered with empty/dried up water bottles.

The Egyptian Museum is large and over crowded. There's so much security in Cairo. We get scanned at every site and walk through many metal detectors. The streets are lined with armed guards. Some are even behind metal sheild type of things. I didn't bother asking what it's for. I figure it's incase there's an "incident" and they can safely shoot their machine guns from behind these barriers. The tour guides rushed us through the museum. Because of the lack of space - tour guides were shouting above each other trying to get air space. It only resulted in a night-market-style-screaming-match. Most of the time other guides were mad at ours for talking so loud. :-)

We stayed overnight at a 5 star hotel - the Conrad. The pillows were absolutely to DIE for - so marshmellowy soft! I was trying to figure out how to "borrow" one and bring it back onto the ship. :-) By now Kel and I are use to sleeping in our own beds - lol...not really a "romantic/sexy" honeymoon but that is life under "double occupancy" room layouts. :-) I was just delighted that we scored an "Executive" floor (20th floor out of 24 - the rest of the tour group was on the lower floors, 3-5). How cool is that?!? Jacuzzi bath here I come!!

the love boat

Life on the ship has been pretty good. The majority of the people on the ship are pretty old. I guess it's cause of the time of year we're going. The weather has been variable. Some ports are stinking hot and some are cold and raining. I regret not bringing many things with us - which I fondly remind Kel daily. The list so far:

1. conditioner - the water here is so hard and horrible for my hair. I've been stealing all the bathroom products from each hotel we stay at. The ship is cheap and has only a dispenser for shampoo.
2. laptop - Kel had decided when we booked this vacation that we would live in luxury while on land. Well - that means that all of our hotels are equiped with free internet...yet no laptop. Doh....should have brought it....
3. more ZOOM! - there were so many times when we needed a longer zoom lens for the camera....being on the ship - we're far from the things that I want to take pictures of. Plus there were occasions were having a smaller camera would have been good - like sticking a camera into the hole of a sarcophagus
4. another camera - having one camera between the 2 of us was sometimes futile as we struggled to capture what each thought was important
   
5. papyrus - in Egypt we went to the papyrus institute. Papyrus is that reed paper that Egyptions use to write on. Anyhow we had the opportunity to get one professionally made just for us. Kel thought it wouldn't go with our "Ikea" decor so he said no. We ran into a couple of other honeymooners our age and they got the famous "honeymoon scene" made with their names in cartuses and their wedding date. How romantic! Kel says "how cheesy!"
6. shoes - in the haste to pack - we forgot to bring more formal shoes. We only have runners and thongs. We celebrated our one-week anniversary at a swanky steak house. Looked kinda funny in our nice clothes and not so nice shoes. :-)

Overall the trip is going well. We're seeing and experiencing a lot of different traditions. We're trying to document most of it through pictures. :-) One thing we didn't get on the camera was our super-expensive spa treatment. We had a seaweed wrap and massage. It was Kel's first time wearing see-through underwear for a room full of esthetians. I think he was super embarrassed. I laughed as it was a "couples treatment" and I've reached the age where I alright walking around in my naked-flabbyness. You should have seen the look of horror on Kel's face when they told him that he would have to wash the seaweed off his body for the second part of the treatment. Less just say the see-through shorts became wet kleenex. Hahahha!!! We were feeling pretty ZEN after the massage - though I telling him he was disturbing my zen with his groaning and wincing (he had asked his girl to "beat him up" on the massage table as she was petite and didn't look very powerful). Oh did he ever get a beating! Lol...beware of what you ask for! Our zen dissipated when we got our bill. $600!! We blinked a couple of times and signed the bill. The thing about the ship is that we all have these magical cards that allow us to buy anything without ever having to pull out our wallets. The card also is our ticket on and off the ship, plus it is also our room key. They are are the only thing we carry so we never know how much we're spending as it all goes on our "tab". I think this is the point...

Anyhow - time to go find Kel. He's playing in another poker tournament and I'm left to amuse myself (again). The last time he got to the final table but didn't win.

Corfu

Corfu aka Kerkyra

The weather was windy and raining today. Luckily I had a hood on my jacket. Kel and I joined a tour called "Timeless Villages". We were suppose to visit all the small villages on the island. What we ended up doing is spending 6 hours on the tour bus driving around. Kel was very disappointed and wanted to cancel all future tours with the ship. The highlight of the bus ride was that the driver is spectacular and can maneuver through super thin streets with ease. There were points where if I could open my window - I'd be able to touch the window pane of the house beside the road. We had a near miss though - a car came swiftly down a hill and didn't see us. He plowed into the side of the hill and the bus driver screeched to a stop. Luckily no one was hurt.

We visited the Monastery of the Virgin Mary where many cats reside. The town appears to be littered with kittens. The tour guide said that in Greece they rarely spay/neuter their pets and that at the end of the tourist season - the cats get euthenized. So sad - but it's the tourist that keep them healthy and strong during the summer with all the scrap food. Haven't seen many stray dogs though...too bad as I'd love to see a puppy!

Katakolon

We didn't join any "shore excursions" for this Greek isle. Figured we'd explore on our own - or follow one of the tour groups. *wink* Kel and I met a fun Mexican couple named Alejandro (pronounced "Aliandro") and Gabrielle. We shared a cab with them to Olympia to see the birthplace of the Olympic games. English is their second language but Alexandro managed to keep the conversation going - he's very outgoing for a 50 year old. :-) We found out Gabrielle was only 36 and his second wife. Lol - we could tell he's the thrill-seeking type.

We listened in on a few of the louder tour guides and got a bit of history from the place. Did you know that they use to create huge statues of the cheaters from the first Olympic games and placed them at the entrance to the stadium for all to ridicule. :-) Boy were there a lot of cheaters! The weather was really hot so we ran around and took pictures of the highlights before heading back to meet up with our taxi driver. People in Europe drive like mad men - it's just like Asia where the safest seat is the back seat (with your eyes closed).

Spending the day with Alexandro and Gabrielle - we got to know them better and they became one of our buddies on the ship. It's so much fun meeting new people!

Athens

The hotel Kelvin booked - Classical Baby Grand - is quite funky and in the downtown core. This makes exploring by foot much easier. We had a very busy sightseeing day. Visited some monuments and bought 2 outlet converters. The one Kelvin's dad gave us didn't fit into the hotel's wall. The hotel even gave us a "love" room when Kel told them that we're on our honeymoon.

Things to do in Athens

Acropolis (Akropolis)

• this was a spectacular site to visit - a MUST do while in Athens
• the acropolis was within walking distance from the hotel so we went up to see it in the morning and then went back to Plaka to have dinner while watching the sun set over the acropolis, very romantic!
  
• the crowds are horrendous during the daytime but we managed to get some pictures with no people in it

Ancient Agora

• more columns, ruins...I'm beginning to think we should have done some research or reading before hitting all of these ruins to find out what so great about them...
  

National Archaeological Museum

• lots of traditional types of statues - with or without heads
• would probably take half a day to go through it word for word - we didn't have that much time so we ran around a looked at the highlights
  

Parthenon

• I like the symmetry...columns in rows is becoming a photographic theme :-)
  

We managed to crap a lot of the Athen highlights into the day and end it with a wonderful dinner overlooking the Acropolis.

freestyle cruising

This is the first time Kel and I have gone on a cruise - let alone one to Europe. How exciting! The ship is called the Norwegian Jade. It's quite a large ship so I can't wait to see what it has to offer. This is our home-away-from home for the next 2 weeks. We'll post more pictures later on. I must say, "freestyle" cruising is much different from the conventional cruise ships. Everyone is so laid back. I love our room stewards - Micheal and Zaldi - they're always so cheerful! Plus they call us "Miss Kim" and "Mr. Le". That hilarious as the minister at the Church had also pronounced us "Mr & Mrs Le" on our wedding day. :-)

The ship is super germa-phobic. They spray us with antibacterial stuff at every turn. We're not allowed to touch any food at the buffet either. Everything has to be handled by them. I guess it's for our own safety. Last thing we need is an "outbreak" aboard the ship. It's only a pain in the butt when you have to wait in the buffet line for the staff to scoop something into your plate. If you dare reach for the anything on the table - you'd get scolded at. :-)

Where are we going for the cruise? Here's the itinerary:

• START = Athens (Piraeus)
  
• Katakolon
• Corfu
• Alexandria (and Cairo)
• Iraklion
• Mykonos
• Izmire
• END = Istanbul
  

honeymooners

Thank you everyone for the SUPERB help and support on our wedding day. Who was tired Sunday?!!! KEL AND ME!!! My god - we left the reception - went back to Kel's house to entertain the out-of-town guests. Barely had time to take a shower and skirted off to Seattle. Kel was to drive to whole way but nearly killed us along the path so I pumped myself full of caffeine for the last leg of the drive. We got to our crappy hotel (Econo Lodge) where I hesitantly gave them keys to my car. I pray that it's safe in their crappy-used-car-sales lot they call a "secure garage". I was not impressed when the driver dumped our luggage out of the van and hitting me in the process. I was also checked by security at the door to the plane - quite surprising as they were mostly checking the middle eastern looking men. Kelvin wasn't there so he got off scott free. We boarded the plane but didn't get to sleep as we were squished in with a bunch of foreigners. Of all the seats to get - we get the only 2 with non-working video monitors. So being crazy-movie fanatics - we complained. They gave us $10USD (between the 2 of us) to spend at the next airport - there was a "work around" so they couldn't compensate us for the seats. The work around was for Kel and I to sit in different sections of the plane. Kel wanted to do it but I said no as this was suppose to be our HONEYMOON - meaning he can't start it off by sitting in another section of the plane for 10 hours. Once we flew over Europe the time/day changed - meaning we had very LITTLE sleep. We transferred in Amsterdam and were getting to the point where nearly 36 hours of being awake was starting to affect us. We arrived in Athens in the afternoon. Got to our lovely hotel with enough time to check the view, unpack and pass out. We woke up the next day. Duh! The next day we crammed in all the sightseeing possible.

reminiscing

Guess where I'm blogging from? The condo! After 2 crazy weeks of renovations, we've finally finished transforming this place. If it wasn't for the help of our families - we would have never finished on time. Big thank you goes out to our dads! They slaved away in this place more than we did. :-)

As I sit in this empty space and admire the finishings, I can't help but recount the memories. The first time Chicky and I moved in (almost 8 years ago), we were so excited and nervous. We had just made a major purchase and were literally moving onto another stage of our lives. It's come full circle and we're back to where things started. This time around it should be much better. :-)

Thanks to the folks in the building that have not secured their wireless connection, I'm able to hop onto my laptop and blog. :-) I've begun moving some of my stuff into the condo as KA is prepping her baby's room. We'll have to have everyone over to the condo after we get back from our honeymoon.

DIY

It was a do-it-yourself long weekend for Chicky and I. We finished painting the condo and began laying down the laminate flooring. Saturday was spent at the Miracle Flooring on Austin selecting and negotiating prices on various types of flooring. I'm surprise how much time it take to select the color and type of laminate that you want. Of course price was a big factor for us so we couldn't splurge on the engineered hardwood stuff. We hummed and hawed over carpet, tiles and countertops. There so much that we can do with the condo but it would mean living there longer to fully enjoy it.

While elbow deep in the renos - we haven't thought about the wedding at all. The only wedding task we completed on the weekend was getting Chicky's blood test done and buying the marriage license. We didn't realize that you can buy at at London Drugs - who figured. Thank you Betty for the advice!

It's now September and the busiest month for the Help Desk. I'm swamped with work and the tasks are adding up. Chicky and I meet Rev. Sandra Nixon on Wednesday. It'll be the first time meeting her so I'm looking forward to it. I have my wedding dress fitting on Thursday. I didn't have time to look around for shoes so I rushed out today and bought a cheapy pair at Le Chateau. They felt alright in the store but only time will tell if they'll last me all night! My family has been great help with running some of the wedding errands. Kim Anh picked up my favor bags and guestbook today. It looks better in real life then what I had selected from the websites. As you can tell Chicky and I rely heavily on the internet and computers for the wedding tasks and communication. :-) My excuse is: we're being environmentally friendly and saving trees!

The next couple of weeks will be very tight with trying to complete all the renos and finishing off some of the wedding things. I'll post pictures MUCH later...