Day 266: Les Faux Bourgeois

This wasn't my dish, it was my friend's dish. But it looks great and it was probably tasted good..

More review and pictures:

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/07/les-faux-bourgeois.html

Day 265: Long Table Series - Ribs

Another venture to the Long Table Series:

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/07/long-table-series-ribs.html

Day 264: Who wants some serial?

I mean serial numbers. I know this is a long shot but it's worth a shot. One of my friends suggested that I give out the information of the items that were stolen during my break in. I think it's a great idea because then my friends can be my eyes and ears to find the items. I think the items were probably sold or floating in the Downtown Eastside somewhere. I know there are pawn shops and a new 'market' where they buy and sell stuff in the Downtown Eastside.

There were important documents and pictures in all the stolen items. I will be grateful (and maybe a reward) to whoever finds the missing items with the important documents and pictures.

Things that were stolen:



External Hard drive
Western Digital - 500GB
MyBook Essential Edition
Model # WD 5000H1U - 00
Serial # WCAUF1285402



Laptop
Gateway
NV5370h (black)
Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit
AMD Athlon II x 2 M300
LCD screen: 15.6"
3 GB memory
320 GB HDD
DVD - Super Multi DL drive
Multi - in - 1 card reader
Serial # LXWGD02056945C1C842200



Digital Camera
Canon
PowerShot SD780IS (red)
Serial # 8956102283

Day 263: Listen Mr Thief I'm Not Scared of You!

This break in has made me more aware. I am now aware of how many people care about me. They have given some good advice to prevent future break - ins.


Here are my replies to comments for me:


Franklin Lung-Pham As your unofficial "stalker", I want to inform to you that there is a new Methadone Clinic / Pharmacy that has opened on Kingsway by Slocan. Apparantly this "pharmacy" closes by 1pm. Their stock is behind the counter, and the guys offer free Rice Krispy squares as well as hot chocolate. Supposition is that there is more deals behind the doors.

- It doesn't make me feel better that there is a 'pharmacy' so close to my house. It makes me more nervous. I have to take extra precautions since there are more druggies close by.

Randy Lee you should report it anyways because they might recover it and return it to you in the maybe distant future but at the very least they will have a record of it

- I did call the police the next night on Friday night. They were too busy to come on Friday night so they came on Saturday night. I guess being a pack rat came in handy. I had the boxes for the items which were stolen (I had 2 boxes out of the three items which were stolen). The boxes had the model number and the serial number of the items. I did get the model and serial number of the external hard drive that was stolen.

Les Leep How did they break in? Was the door jimmied or a window was open? Prevention is your priority now that they know they can get in. Also, you should report it especially if you have any insurance claims.

- I am 100% sure how they broke in. I was sure I locked the door the night before. But my dad and the police officer thinks I didn't lock the door.
- I didn't report it to the insurance company because my dad says our deductible will be about $1000. The value of the stolen items is about $700 (new). It is not worth spending the deductible if we don't get all that money back.

Antun Zirdum Lisa, You should have an alarm set up.
It's not the thieving, but for the piece of mind when you are at home.


- I do have an alarm system. But I always think I am safe because it's my home. I take it for granted. I didn't think to arm it.

Alvin Yip commented on your link:
 "Sorry to hear about that... I've been broken into a whole bunch of times myself.
You should still report it and file a claim to try to get your stuff replaced.
That what insurance is for.  Most likely the culprit will never be found, but
you've bought insurance for this type of thing.  And yeah. break-ins don't look
like they do in the movies anymore. The people that do it are very organized
and probably don't mess up you place so that they'll buy themselves as much
time as possible.  If you have anymore questions let me know."

- We got broken into a few times in our old house. It was the typical robbery
where things where flipped upside down.
- This was such a 'clean' robbery that I didn't even notice I was robbed until
I was looking for my digital camera and couldn't find it. I didn't walk into
my suite and noticed I was robbed. All my stuff was in it's place except for
the stuff that was stolen.

Denny Ko commented on your link:

1) dad saw your door unlocked - and didn't lock it?
is your replacement lock one which locks automatically when closed?
2) good on catching your pattern - also take a hard look at your
blog and see what information is being revealed there as well.
3) nothing personal on that laptop? no resume, no cached
browser passwords to banking sites, nothing?"

- 1 - My dad saw the door unlocked after I told him I was robbed. Yes, he did lock it after I told him. That's why he thinks I forgot to lock my door the night before. My parents don't usually go down to my suite that's why they didn't notice my stuff was missing before I got home. My replacement lock is another bolt lock. I think I should add some more chain / link locks.

2 - good idea about looking into my blog. I don't think I put anything personal on there but I will double check.

3 - In that case I do have some personal information there. I do have an updated version of my resume. There may be cached browser passwords. There was my friend's external hard drive that was also stolen. He had real personal information like his credit card number, SIN number, and drivers license number.

Carlos Lau commented on your link:

"Sorry to hear that Lisa.  Several units in my building have been robbed over
the past year and I know much it sucks.  Definitely, you should report it to
the police even if they can't do anything now, if they have records of multiple
houses  being  hit around your area, they could increase patrol around the
area.  You should call your insurance company as well, they can tell you
if it's even worth making a claim.

Two things would have helped...
1) A monitored alarm system, you can still arm it with people in the house
it just disables the internal motion sensor.
2) Get yourself a dog.  Thieves usually don't enter houses with a dog barking
inside."

-my cousin and her daughter were home at the time of the robbery
- the police officer said the thief was here for a short time and was probably scared off maybe because they heard a noise
- i don't mind dogs. my mom doesn't like dogs too much.

Norman Davies commented on your link:
"Sorry to hear this.  Get your locks rekeyed right away just in case that
is how they got in.  I know a man who owns a lock company and he told me
that with practice a normal deadbolt can be opened in 15 seconds. It happens all
the time - which is why insurance rates have gone so high. An alarm system helps! "

- I did get the lock replaced the next day.
- It's really scary to know that people can pick deadbolts in 15 seconds.
I guess you can call that a 'special skill'.

To sum up all their advice:
- change my lock
- get a monitered security system and use it
- use timers (they turn electronics on and off at certain times) when I am not home
- get a dog
- report the incident to the police and the insurance company
- be careful because they may be back in a few months to take the new replacements electronics

Day 262: I got robbed!

A thief broke into my suite and stole my laptop and my digital camera.

I walked into my suite tonight after work and didn't realized thieves took the items until about an hour later. In a robbery, sometimes they throw things around and go thru drawers and closets to see if there are any valuables they can steal. Nothing like that happened. My drawers and it's contents are fine.

My parents and I were heading out to dinner. I like taking pictures of the food I eat. I downloaded some pictures from my camera last night and I left my camera on my couch. Today I was looking for my camera on my couch and couldn't see it. I asked my parents if they had it or saw it. They didn't have it or saw it. I turned around and noticed that my laptop was missing also. I felt so devastated, hurt and confused. During dinner we talked about how it could've happened. My dad said I didn't lock my door last night. But I was sure I did. He noticed that the door was unlocked. I asked my mom to ask my cousin, who lives in the suite next to me, if she saw or heard anything. She didn't see or hear anything. My parents tried to figure out what time they were in the house and what time they left. They figured that they left the house at 11 am and came back at around 3 pm. If the thief was swift and quick, no one would've heard him.

My mom asked me about preventing the robbery from happening. I have been doing the same thing for about a year. I use it while I'm blow drying my hair in the mornings. I use it after dinner and night time when I check my emails and write on my blog. It's a pattern that maybe someone (a stalker?) has been following and knows when I leave my house and when I come back. My laptop is usually on my coffee table because I use it everyday. Maybe I have to hide it every night when I'm finished with it? Maybe don't own so many items that are valuable?? :P

It made my night really crappy. I felt so violated. I had so many pictures on my laptop. I did make a backup a month ago. Luckily I did. I would've cried if I didn't. Pictures are irreplaceable. Luckily I didn't have any files with personal information in it.

I don't think I will be reporting it to the police or anything. I don't think they will be able to do much about it. I don't think insurance covers my losses. It is hard to prove a break in without any visible signs of forced entry. I guess I just have to suck it up and accept my lost :(

Day 261: Cho Sun BBQ

Finally, I managed to try some good Korean food: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/07/cho-sun-bbq-restaurant.html

Day 260: BC Renassaince Festival

It was a last minute decision to go to this festival. It was located in Langley and we carpooled. Because it is in Langley, and I don't know Langley very well, I printed the directions from MyTelus. We followed the directions and we got to the location where MyTelus directed us. It gave us the wrong address. We were a bit confused but we used my iphone and stopped at a gas station for the correct directions. We finally arrived at the festival.

There were many events happening at the festival. There is a storyline that takes place at the festival. There are actors that are characters for the storyline. You are welcome to dress in costume when you attend the festival. It was really neat to see all the costumes. One of my friends went to the festival last year and suggested that we see the jousting tournament. We arrived at the festival and missed a few minutes of the tournament. After the tournament, we were allowed to pet the horses and talk to the characters. We went to the food court to see what they were offering in terms of food. There wasn't very much. There were hamburgers, hot dogs, tamales, coffee, turkey leg and kettle corn. There were a few stages where there were different events happening. At one stage there was some singing and dancing. We were curious on what it was about. We watched the show for a bit then they asked us to join them. We did some circle dances. The steps were really simple. It ended up to be really fun. There wasn't a large audience and I didn't feel uncomfortable at all. The last section of the festival was the marketplace. They sold costumes, jewelery, musical instruments and other items. It was neat to see all the period items.

Day 259: Badminton

This badminton night was planned weeks ago. The group of friends wanted to start playing more sports. A few of them play badminton regularly and asked us if we wanted to play. Badminton night was scheduled for 7 - 9 pm at Richmond Pro.

When I woke up, I was still sore from my afternoon of playing tennis. I wasn't really looking forward to more extensive exercise. I didn't want to bail at the last minute. I decided to suck it up and see how far I can go. We have never been there before. We arrived late because we were looking the building. We found it and found parking. Once we arrived we noticed that there were several businesses in the same building. We walked in the building and realized that the entrance of Richmond Pro wasn't where we thought it was. There was a lady that told us that the entrance was at the back of the building. We would've thought the back was easy to get to. It wasn't as easy as we thought. There wasn't any signage or walkways to get to the back entrance. We finally managed to find it.

Once we arrived, we found a few of our friends there. They reserved two courts for our group. Our friends were playing on one court and the other one was free. We rallied for a bit. While we were rallying, I stretched to get the birdie. I think I might have stretched too far on one leg. It seemed like I pulled a muscle or over exerted the muscle on my right thigh. I tried to stretch it out for awhile. I thought the best thing to do was to sit out for most of the time to rest it. I only played a few games after that.

There was a total of 11 of us. We rotated playing on the two courts. We were tired and done after the two hours. After badminton we went out for bubble tea.

Day 258: Tennis

I haven't played tennis since 1994. I was really bad then. I didn't know how to play. I was hitting the ball everywhere. It was more about running around and collecting the ball. Because of this lack of skill in my game of tennis, I haven't played since. I was too embarrassed to play with anybody.

With my bucket list, it is time to get over the embarrassment. I attempted to play tennis on Sunday. It was scorching hot. We ended up at Grays Park on W 33rd Ave. There was another couple in the next court. I think they were in the same boat as us. We were attempting to rally after hitting the ball at the net a few times and hitting the ball off the court many times. I even hit it over the fence a few times. I felt like super woman hitting it so far. I tried my best to control my strength. After about 30mins, I finally got in the groove of things. I hit it better and I am more confident in playing tennis. After 45 mins, I was dead tired and ready to call it a day. Because I didn't stretch before and after the tennis game, the next day I was in pain. The right side of my body was aching (and still is aching).

Day 257: Sanafir

My second experience at Sanafir: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/07/sanafir.html

Day 256: Zakkushi - Main St

A location where I didn't even think was open. http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/07/zakkushi-main-st.html

Day 255: My worth

I may be worth something one day! I am hopeful about that. I was watching a bit of Antique Roadshow tonight. There was a lady that had archives from her grandfather. She had pictures and letters that he wrote. I think they are about a hundred years old. The appraiser said because the letters described the lifestyle in detail and it was very descriptive it is worth a lot of money. The archive is important to historians because it helps them piece together the lifestyle of that era. So, if I write in enough detail about my life and lifestyle in a hundred years I may be worth something!

What is my worth? I guess it depends on who is asking. You can determine my financial worth by adding all my assets (which isn't much), investments and money. My skill bank tank is about 50% full. Of course as I get older, I can develop more skills. There are lots more skills to learn. I don't want age to hold me back. It is just about time, money and prioritizing which skills I want to learn. I think self-worth is worth a bit too. Self worth builds confidence which builds more skills which builds more value for a person.

Day 254: The Tipper Restaurant

A review of a hole in the wall on a busy street with ok food: http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/07/tipper-restaurant.html

Day 253: BBQ Season

It's summer time! Or so we think..the weather is so unpredictable. My friend planned a bbq for today. We checked the weather a few days ago and it said it was going to rain. She moved it from an outdoor bbq at a park to a bbq at her apartment. Today came rolling along and it didn't rain at all. The weather couldn't decide if it wanted to be cloudy or sunny.

Yesterday we went to a bbq and a house party. A house party isn't what it used to be. When someone says 'house party', in my 20's, it would mean loud music, lots of people of the opposite sex, maybe some booze and late night. Now I use 'house party' as a friend's house where people get together to chat, eat and go home relatively early.

The bbq we went to yesterday was a potluck / bbq. Everyone brought something. There was pizza, fried chicken, cupcakes, fruit and cookies. On the bbq was lamb chops and our version of Japadog. We sat and chatted for a few hours before we headed to our house party.

The house party was at my cousin's house in Richmond. It was a nice little place, but it had too many stairs. By the time got there, most of the food was gone. It was ok because we ate at the bbq. We brought a chocolate cake. Another person brought an ice cream cake. We got there just in time for dessert and that was right after the UFC fight. We hung out there for a few hours.

Today at the bbq we ate so much food! It was delicious. There was our version of Japadog, a mahi mahi burger, skewers of prawns and fish balls and chicken wings. After all that food, there was ice cream. We were eating for about two hours. It was a busy weekend with lots of food!

Day 252: Canada Day Celebrations

The weather was unpredictable. We weren't sure if we should head somewhere indoors or outdoors. Our friends were heading to Canada Day at Canada Place in the afternoon. We drove by Burnaby Village Museum and the sign said it was free admission on Canada Day. We decided to head to Burnaby Village Museum first then meet our friends down at Canada Place.

I have never been to Burnaby Village Museum before. I was really excited to go because I have always wanted to go. We got there at 10:45 am. We thought heading there a bit early was a good idea to avoid the lineup. A bunch of people thought the same thing and there was a huge line up. It was neat inside. There were lots of activities for kids. There were a few houses that were built in the late 1800's that we got to tour. The houses were decorated with the furniture and items from that era. There was a car from the early 1900's that we got to sit in. There was a street with stores. There was a bank, post office, Chinese medicine shop, automotive store, music store, hat store and general store. There were people dressed in costume to welcome us into the stores. It was a neat place to learn about Burnaby's history. After an hour at the museum, we rested for a bit then headed downtown.

We got to downtown about 3ish. I didn't want to drive downtown. We parked by 41st and Cambie and took the Canada Line downtown. We got to Canada Place and it was packed with people. There were a few stages with performers. We managed to catch one show. It was a dance performance with various dance groups. The highlight of the show were winners from So You Think You Can Dance Canada Season 2, Tara Jean, Vincent and Jayme Rae. The Vancouver Convention Center (the new convention center) was open to visitors. We walked around there after the dance show. It is nice and modern. We met up with our friends at the Vancouver Trade and Convention Center (the old convention center). Inside there were exhibits from the Port of Vancouver and the Canadian Armed Forces. The middle hall was a performance stage. At the Canadian Armed Forces exhibit, we got to hold some guns they use. After a few hours of walking around, we decided to rest our feet and have some dinner. We wanted to see the parade thru downtown. We strategized to eat somewhere close to the parade route. We went to Elephant and Castle on Burrard and Hastings St. After dinner of pub grub, we walked about two blocks to watch the parade. We caught about half of it. There were many groups / organizations in the parade. The Canucks van, Fin and Mini Fin were also in the parade. Mini Fin is so adorable. Since we were in downtown we decided to walk along Robson St then head home. Of course on Robson St is Bubble World. We got a honeydew slush bubble tea with pearls and coconut jelly. On route back to the Canada Line on Granville St, there was a busker. Her specialty was hula hoops. The grand finale had her with six hula hoops; two on her body and two on each arm. It was very impressive. We gave her some of our change. After a long day of walking around and enjoying the Canada Day festivities, it was time to go home and rest.

Day 251: Terracotta Modern Chinese / Old Spaghetti Factory

It was a girls nite out. There was 7 of us. We wanted to try Bao Bei at 163 Keefer St. We met there. It was so busy. It would be over an hour wait for a party of 7. We didn't want to wait that long. We walked down the street to The Keefer. It looked like a nice place to just chill out. We looked at their menu and they didn't have any good food for us. One of the girls found out about Terracotta Modern Chinese and we headed there (full review http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2010/07/terracotta-modern-chinese.html). It got too loud for us and we changed venues to continue our girls nite out. We felt like dessert. We were just walking thru Gastown.

One gal said that Old Spaghetti Factory had good desserts. There were now 6 of us. We ordered all four of their desserts: cheesecake, cookies & cream, deep caramel pecan flan, chocolate cake. It was so delicious. It was a great way to end a night.