Day 320: Dylan and Yuri's Wedding

This weekend I was in Seattle to attend a wedding. It was a family friend's wedding. My mom is friends with the groom's parents. I have known the groom since I was a little girl. It was really nice to attend this celebration and share this special day with them. It is my first time meeting the bride and she seems like a really fun person.

My mom and I arrived on Saturday morning. It is Chinese custom to have a tea ceremony. It was at the groom's house only. The bride is Japanese and they didn't hold a tea ceremony at her place. The tea ceremony is only for family members. We just hung out till that was finished. In the afternoon we headed to the wedding venue which is an hour away from Seattle. It is called Lake Wilderness Lodge in Maple Valley (http://www.ci.maple-valley.wa.us/index.aspx?page=107).

The wedding ceremony was held upstairs. The groom's father passed away 10 months ago and there were many acknowledgments to him. They wrote their own vows. When the bride was reading her vow it had reference to the groom's father and I'm sure many people teared up. After the ceremony, everyone was directed downstairs for a cocktail hour. While everyone was downstairs, there were people upstairs rearranging the setup for the reception. Cocktail hour lasted about an hour. People were mingling and taking pictures with the bride and groom. The was an open bar and some appies.


The reception was pretty good. The buffet food was a mixture of Chinese food and Japanese food. I heard someone from the bride's side owns a Japanese restaurant and they were they one that brought the sashimi. It was a beautiful presentation of sashimi (as seen in the pictures). I have never seen sashimi at a wedding before and was pleasantly surprised. Another item that I have never had at a wedding is Peking duck. They had two servers preparing the item. The one server took the bun and put some Hoisin sauce and a piece of onion on it. The other server put the piece of duck in it. It was pretty good. They called tables in numerical order to get food from the buffet. There were 25 tables and I was table 21. By the time I went to the buffet, there was no more sashimi. I was so sad and disappointed. I was really looking forward to tasting the sashimi.


After dinner, they had some entertainment. They played the slideshow. They had speeches. The grooms cousins had a special presentation from the bride and the groom. They had a special dance number for them (video to be uploaded soon). Then the dancing started downstairs. I was upstairs at my table and I was talking to people at my table. It seemed like a wild party on the dance floor. The night ended quite early for me at about 10ish. It takes an hour to get back to Seattle and my ride needed to get home.

Day 319: "I don't get any."

If a family member did something you didn't really like, what do you do? Do you tell them? Do you just move on as if nothing happened? What if an aunt or uncle gave all your cousins a gift but nothing for you? Wouldn't you wonder what you did wrong? Why you were left out? Would you act differently around them because you feel resentment against them?

Day 318: The Restaurant Experience

The other night we went to The Keg by Costco by Still Creek. We had some steak. It was a Keg that we haven't been to before. It was really nice inside. It is very modern with lots of dark woods. It was very dark inside. Of course I took some pictures of my food. When I viewed the picture, that was when I saw how delicious my food was. The service was really good. He was very attentive and always refilling our water. We shared a prime rib and a teriyaki steak. The prime rib was served with mashed potatoes and vegetables. The steak was served with yam fries and vegetables. I had a tea. With tax and tip, my bill came to $87. I was very surprised on how quickly that added up. It was for two entrees and a tea and tax and tip. The price was quite high but it was a lovely experience.


Last night we went to Koon Bo on 41st and Fraser. My mom had a recommendation from her friend that they serve good quail and peking duck. We made a reservation for 6:30 but we were a bit late. We arrived and it was quite busy. All the tables were full. The tables were squished together. It was kinda cluster-phobic. There were only 3 servers for the whole restaurant. In turn, our service sucked. My dad had to go to the counter to get us more napkins. We had to put our empty plates on an empty table beside us. They didn't come to our table frequently to collect the empty plates. We ordered the three course peking duck which came with the skin and the wrap, the meat stir fried and the bones in a soup. My parents also ordered some fried rice, veggies and the quail. The restaurant was filled with noise from people talking. It was too much for me. It gave me a headache. I thought the food was ok. But I think it was effected by my whole experience. If the atmosphere and company is good, my food is good. But if the atmosphere is disturbing or too noisy, it seems like the food isn't as good.

Day 317: Luke Skywalker

My cousin Luke has twins that just came home from the hospital. Tomorrow my sisters family and my family are going to visit them. My cousin Luke and his wife are Chinese.

I was eating a snack with my niece tonight. I was mentioning to her that we are going to visit Uncle Luke tomorrow. She had this weird face and wasn't sure what his name was. I had to spell his name out to her. Then I said it's like Luke Skywalker. (She is very into watching Star Wars and knows her characters.) She looks at me with this wide eyed face and said 'he's white?' I said no he's not white but he only has the same first name.

I had to giggle because she says the cutest things sometimes.

Day 316: Koko's

Their mom was going out for dinner and I wanted to take them somewhere they haven't been before. The other night I took them to Crash Crawly's and I wanted to take them somewhere similar. I read on a site where this lady rated all the indoor activity centers. She rated Koko's a 9 out of 10. She only rated Crash Crawly's 5 out of 10. I thought if she rated it a 9 it must be a pretty good place. The price is about the same as Crash Crawly's. We walked in and they already noticed that Crash Crawly's was better. It was ok they made the most of their time here. It was located in Port Moody. It is really close to the Golden Spike Pub. Going to Port Moody wasn't fun in rush hour. We tried to get there as soon as we can so the kids can play longer. It was only opened till 8 pm. Through out the night they had to remind me that Crash Crawly's was better. We took some pictures and had some chicken strips with fries.

After Koko's, we went to White Spot for dinner. It was getting late for the kids but I wanted them to try the Pirate Packs. They enjoyed it. It was a lot of food for them. I had to help my nephew finish off his ice cream. It wasn't that hard to convince me to eat ice cream. When I got home, my sister told me she was taking the kids to meet her friend for lunch tomorrow and they are going to White Spot. Her friend mentioned that they have Pirate Packs for the kids. The kids will enjoy having Pirate Packs two days in a row.

Day 315: Richmond Oval / Rocky Mountain Flatbread

There was a park that my sister wanted to take the kids to in Richmond last year. Because she didn't take them last year, she wanted to take them this year. She forgot the name of the park. We tried to look for the name online and from her emails. We couldn't find it.

We decided to head to Richmond to try to find the park. Because we were heading to Richmond, we decided to eat dim sum there also. We went to Gingeri Restaurant in Landsdowne Mall. It is good for dim sum. My niece loved the deep fried squid. It came as a surprise to me that my little nephew loved chicken feet. He just took the feet and used his hands to eat it. He ate almost the whole dish.

After dim sum we walked around the mall. My niece (like her wonderful aunt) wanted some bubble tea. In the middle of the mall was a mini train with a Halloween theme. The kids went on the train. Beside the train was a merry go round. My niece wanted to go on it and wanted me to join her. Man, I'm so weak. Just going in circles a few times made me dizzy and nauseous.

My parents suggested going to the Richmond Oval. I have never been there before. I wanted to go. We went there and took lots of pictures. We only paid parking for an hour so we only spent an hour there. On the way to the Richmond Oval, there was a playground by the UBC Boathouse. It was shaped like a boat. The kids loved it there. There was a slide. The climbed up and slide down, up and down, up and down. They did that for almost an hour. It was time to head to dinner.

We went to the Rocky Mountain Flatbread Co. in Kitsilano. We went there last year. On Sunday and Monday nights the kids get to make their own pizza. My brother in law has two sisters and they have a few kids. We met with them for dinner and my brother in law's dad. It was fun for the kids. We ordered 3 large pizzas for the adults. It was $23 each for a large pizza. I think it is a bit expensive. We ordered a meat lover's pizza which was too spicey for me. I really like the BBQ pulled pork pizza. The third pizza was good. It was a chicken with tomato and spinach.

It doesn't seem like a busy day. By the time we got home at about 8ish, I was pooped. I was ready for bed. But my sister had to make some phone calls, so I had to give the kids a bath. Wow! I have never seen kids so eager to take a bath. When the water wasn't ready yet, they took off their clothes and were ready to jump in. I got my nephew some figurine from Cars which changes colour in different temperature water. It's the coolest thing! They loved playing with the color changing cars. We have glass shower doors. The kids have sponges and they just played 'window cleaners'. They just loved cleaning my glass shower doors. I was happy with that because then I didn't have to clean them myself. It was a struggle today because they were loud and restless. Nevertheless, we got them bathed and dried and ready for bed. Now it's my turn to head to bed.

Day 314: Family Tree

I originally was planning a get together with my second cousins on my mom's side in the summer. I thought it would be nice to just hang out at the beach and let the young kids play outside. The whole idea is to meet outside of weddings and funerals. Then we get a chance to talk. I found out my sister was going to be in town in October. I decided to postpone the get together till October. I thought it would be nice for her to meet with the cousins as well.

A few weeks ago I mentioned to my mom that I was thinking of doing a family tree for the get together. She thought that was a great idea. I was thinking it would be easy to just put the names and pictures of people and that was it. It was more complicated than I expected. My mom's relatives have a Chinese name and a Vietnamese name. First she wanted to put their Vietnamese names. Then she was thinking of using their Chinese names. Both was difficult because it was about translating into English. Finally my mom decided to use their English name, if they had one. I am really lucky that my mom knows most of her aunts and uncles names.

The family tree is on one of our walls. The other challenge is to make sure we had enough space to put everyone's name. My Grandmother from my mom's side had 10 siblings. Some siblings didn't get married and didn't have any children. Two siblings got married, divorced and is remarried. The ones that had children had 4-6 kids. Those kids now have kids and some of those kids have kids. I tried to include some pictures to make it more interesting. Some cousins sent me recent family photos. Other cousins I just found some pictures on Facebook. Luckily I had space for everyone. Luckily some of my cousins are on Facebook. It made it easier to connect with them.

I think most of my cousins enjoyed learning about their family history. Some cousins didn't know how we are related. But since they saw the tree, they know now! I know most of the significant others didn't know about the linage. It is overwhelming and can be hard to digest.

Day 313: WHY GOD MADE MOMS

http://lisasfunnies.blogspot.com/2010/10/why-god-made-moms.html

Day 312: Crash Crawly's

I have seen this building many times when I drive by the No 1 Hwy in Coquitlam when I used to work in Coquitlam. Today at work I asked my co-worker, who has kids, more about it. She said it is a fun place to take the kids. I was really excited because I have never been there before and I thought the kids would like it.

We got there about 6:45pm and it closed at 8pm. It was more than enough time for them to run around and play. It was a really neat place for the kids. It is kinda like a large jungle gym. There are tubes where you can slide down and tubes where you have to climb up. This equipment is made for kids, not adults. I had to crawl most of the time. Some areas where the kids can stand up, I still have to bend down. My knees are a bit bruised from crawling so much. There are several ball pits (kinda like the ones in McD's and Ikea). I was allowed to go climb with the kids around the jungle gym. There was a tube where it was dark and we were a bit scared to slide down. Yes, being the whissy that I am, I did scream. In the far corner at the top there were air guns. You load it with a foam ball, pushed the button and aim! They kids loved it there. I think they spent the most time there. My niece aimed at me a few times and hit me with the foam balls. I'm glad they didn't hurt or else I would be all bruised up.

I can really feel my age when the kids are running around and wanting me to chase after them and I'm getting tired. My 7 year old niece was the leader. She decided which direction to go. My 4 year old nephew followed her. I went last to assist my nephew if he needed a push up or helped carry him down. By the end of the night, I was tired and ready for bed. But our night wasn't over yet. We got some pizza and bubble tea to end the night.

Day 311: showering - women vs men‏

http://lisasfunnies.blogspot.com/2010/10/showering-women-vs-men.html

Day 310: One baby, two babies, three babies..more?

At the hockey game, I was mentioning that Daniel and Henrik can trick anyone and everyone because they are identical twins. I'm sure if they switched jerseys no one would know..or would they?

My brother in law has identical twin sisters and I can't tell them apart. Im sure each one has their own identifying marks. Before they got married, it was a guessing game for me. Both of them are very bubbly. They have very similar demeanor. I didn't see them very often and it made it more difficult. If I saw them all the time, I think I would be able to tell them apart. They made it easier for me by getting married. They didn't get married to identical twins. If they did, boy it would be super confusing for me. Now to tell them apart, I figure out the husband first, then I figure out their kids. One sister has three kids and the other only has two. Then I figure out the twin.

Maybe we have a fascination with multiple births? First it was 'Jon and Kate plus 8'. '19 and Counting' has been around for a few years. I remember watching an episode when it was '15 and Counting'. There was another show where they had 12 kids. Tonight it was my first time watching Texas Quints. It was about a couple in Texas who already had two kids and they wanted one more. They couldn't conceive naturally. They went to a fertility clinic and what they got was quints. Two of the quints cry alot. I just watched an episode and that was enough for me. There was crying and screaming and it seemed like it was never ending. I really give props to the parents. Because the quints are only 3, the mom is a stay at home mom.

I would like to have twins or triplets if I had the choice. Go thru the labour once and get it over with. I heard about really long labour sessions and I don't know if I want to go thru that many times. But my friend brought up a good point. If you are pregnant with a multiple birth, you only get one year of maternity leave. I guess the government sees that as one pregnancy. I would feel ripped off if it happened to me. I would be putting in twice the effort because I would be taking care of two children. It would be great if your maternity leave is dependent on how many fetuses you would be carrying to full term. If I was pregnant with twins then I would be able to get two years of maternity leave.

Day 309: Special number days

Today is 10/10/10. Few years ago the lucky number for Chinese people was 8/8/8. Are these dates really 'special'?

Today we had a birthday party for my cousin. I never remembered his birthday. The only reason I remembered his birthday this year because it was easy to remember. It was fun today because everyone was there and there was lots of food. What's a birthday without balloons and cake? There is a scarce level of helium so it's really hard to find a place that sells helium balloons. We went to Brentwood Mall to try to get some helium balloons. The person at the store said the management of the mall doesn't allow them to sell helium balloons because of the roof. They said I can't get any helium balloons in the mall. Luckily we found Save on and they sold helium balloons. We had a Chinese fruit filled cake. I like Chinese cakes because it is a very light cake with whipped cream. Our cake we had today was filled with fruit. It wasn't the normal fruit cocktail, it was fresh fruit.

I remember when it was 7/7/7 and 8/8/8 there were lots of weddings because they thought it was a lucky number. I know dates like that don't come around very often. Some people think the specific date that they get married will give them good luck and their marriage will be long lasting and prosperous. I am not a big believer of that. I would think I will pick my wedding date depending on my availability and how easy I will remember the date.

Day 308: Thank you Lady Luck

Today was the big Canucks opening game. The big 40 year anniversary for the Canucks. The big highlight tonight was the Canucks naming Henrik Sedin as their team captain. It was a very celebratory occasion. Everyone was clapping and cheering.

Because it was such a big game tonight, they had many more volunteers tonight selling 50/50 tickets. There was a short meeting before we started at 6pm. The meeting was held while we were preparing our tickets. We usually get a certain amount of tickets. It usually doesn't take us that long to prepare our tickets. But today we were expected to sell way more tickets. They gave us a bunch more tickets. It took us longer to prepare the tickets. During the meeting, they did a draw for a Canucks jersey. It was all the volunteers name put in a container and drawn randomly. They picked two names. Lady Luck was on my side. They drew my name! I had to tell the staff member what size I wanted, what colour I wanted and the name of the player. I picked a small jersey in blue with Luongo's name. I was told I can pick up the jersey at the end of my shift.

During my shift, I was excited because I was looking forward to picking up my new jersey. I had to focus on selling my ticket instead of my new jersey. My location was 323 tonight. I didn't have to do the stands. It seemed like every 10 feet there was a person selling 50/50 tickets. I was by some concession stands and I sold some tickets there. After the first period, I walked around and I was selling tickets as I go. I was walking up the stairs back to my section and I sold some tickets there. My new friend and I were walking during the second period and I heard someone yell '50/50 tickets'. We turned around and there were people chasing us down to buy some tickets. Tonight's jackpot was $150,000. It was $80,000 carried over from last year and $70,000 from tonight.

It was time for us to finish up our shift. We had to submit our money and our tickets. You put the tickets in the large ziplock bag. You put the money in the small bag. Then you hang out and help rip the tickets to put in the large barrel. After you finish ripping the tickets, then you get to hand in your shirt and see if you get a ticket to watch the rest of the game. While we were ripping the tickets, there was an old man behind us. I thought he was just being nosey and just watching what we were doing. I found out that he was the one that would be picking the winning ticket. Then a fellow volunteer said that it was Larry Campbell, our previous city mayor now a senator. Wow! I felt stupid that I didn't know what our old mayor looks like. His face was so red and he was so round that I didn't recognize him.

I went to hand in my shirt. That is when you find out if there is a ticket for you.They handed me my jersey and told me tonight I didn't get a ticket. I was so sad and disappointed. My friend, who I met since my first day there, said she would rather have the jersey than watch the game tonight. I said, 'I guess so', but was still sad I didn't get a ticket. The new friend I met didn't get a ticket either. I asked him what he was going to do. We ended up watching the game on one of the TV's outside of 101. I saw Fin walking by and I got a picture with him!

Day 307: Large family, small family, close family, far family

During my grand parents' generation they had a lot of kids. My mom has alot of cousins. Each cousin has a few kids. I have many second cousins. I mostly see my second cousins at weddings and funerals and the rare family get together thru out the year. Because we don't see each other that often, I have decided to organize a get together. My sister is in town for awhile and it is a good opportunity for her to see everyone. Since the last time she was here, a few cousins have had babies.

It's very difficult. I don't see my second cousins very often so I don't have their contact information. Some of them are on Facebook and that is an easy way to contact them. Unless they don't check their FB pages. I have gotten my mom to contact their parents for their contact information. It's really frustrating because some of them don't respond to my emails. I'm not sure if they haven't received the emails or just don't want to respond to me.

Family is more important to some people than others. Some families are dysfunctional. Some families are extremely close. I went to an ex's Christmas dinner and his whole family was 12 people. That included aunts, uncles, grandparents and cousins. That was extremely small to me. Maybe I'm used to my family functions? My dad has 4 sisters in the states. They all have families and they have families. Every time there is a family function, there is at least 20 people. If everyone can make it to the function, then there are about 40 people.

I think in my generation will have less children than my parents generation. My parents generation had about 6 - 10 kids. I have noticing my generation having 1 - 2 kids. It is very expensive to have children. I think kids are spoiled with more brand name clothing and toys and electronics.

Day 306: Pictures

When our family came to Canada, my mom wanted to take pictures of us everywhere. She got us to pose in front of everything. In those days there was film cameras. You had to smile and hopefully the picture turns out. We had to be careful on how many pictures we take because it cost money to develop the film. We have tonnes of pictures in photo albums.

Thank goodness we have digital cameras! We get to pick and choose what pictures we develop. With digital cameras we can shoot away and not worry if the picture turns out or not. It's so easy to delete pictures. After someone takes a photo of me or people with me, I check to see if our eyes are closed. If someone's eyes are closed, we take that shot again. With a film camera, there is no way to see if someone looks funny or their eyes are closed. I can take hundreds of pictures and don't have to pay for developing the images. I download them into my computer and post them on online photo albums. It's easy to share my pictures with family and friends.

I am now grateful that my mom loves taking pictures. Without her pictures, I would not remember those events. Once I see the pictures, it jogs my memory of what happened in and around that age / year. Pictures capture moments. She knew that early on. She loves to travel and takes pictures. My sister is the first to get my mom's photography genes. Once she had her daughter, she wanted to capture every moment of her daughter's life. Her daughter is comfortable in front of the camera. She smiles and poses when the camera is pointed at her. Her son will smile at the camera, but not for too long. He's still young and figits.

I like looking at pictures. Whether it be old family pictures, friends wedding pictures or just friends hanging out. A picture is worth a thousand words. I know it's a cheesy saying but it's true. There is a story behind every picture. My favourite pictures are candid pictures. I have a friend who is a wedding photographer. I have seen many of his pictures. His candids are my favourite. I like it when people are natural in their pictures, not so posey. It may be action shots, but there is more of a story. There is also more emotion. Maybe I am just more of an emotional person.

Day 305: Bras

http://lisasfunnies.blogspot.com/2010/10/bras.html

Day 304: CIBC Run for the Cure

After doing the 10K Vancouver Sun Run, I was ready for another run!

I am in charge our company Facebaook page. I was surfing Facebook one day and saw that one of our clients was running the CIBC Run for the Cure. She had breast cancer and was asking if anyone was interested in joining her in support of breast cancer. I showed my boss that posting and he suggested that we support her and form a team. He designated me as the team captain. I have never done anything like this before. I was a little bit nervous. We decided to form a team in August. To form a team, there has to be a minimum of 10 people. I managed to find enough people to form a team. It included people who worked at A&B and their significant others.

September rolled around and the run was just around the corner. I had to submit our registration as a team by mid-September to get our name on printed on our t-shirts. By the end of September, our t-shirts were printed and I picked them up and distributed them to our team members.

I didn't practice for the run. One team member had a pub crawl the night before and she wasn't going to run. We came to the conclusion that we were going to walk. Once we told our other team members that we were going to walk, everyone else decided to walk. We tried as much as we can to walk as a team together. The 5km route that we walked was a bit around the Tinseltown area, 2nd ave to Cambie Bridge back to Expo Blvd to the finish line. Most of the time we were split in two groups. Luckily one guy in the group that was walking ahead had a magenta umbrella. It was sprinkling a bit when the run started. After a few minutes, it was sprinkling a lot. We used our umbrellas. The only way to find the other group was to find the magenta umbrella. Eventually by the finish line we were all together. Some people wanted to go home right away. But I saw the team photo tent and wanted to take a team photo before we split up. It was a mementos moment because this was the first time our company did something like this since I have worked for the company.

After doing the walk, some of us went for lunch. Concord Pacific is close to Chinatown. We wanted to go somewhere close because some us were tired from walking. We originally wanted to go to Hon's. I suggested Hon's because it's relatively close, it's affordable and fast. On our way to Hon's, I asked my team mates if they wanted dim sum. They said yes. We were at the corner of Columbia and Keefer and Floata was right in front of us. There was 8 of us. We had various dumplings, BBQ pork buns / pastries, spare ribs, and deep fried squid. Chicken feet weren't too popular with them. After we stuffed our faces with dim sum, it was time to go home!

A huge thank you to my friends who donated money to breast cancer research :)

Day 303: Stupid computer!!

In my journaling class the other night, one of the first things my teacher taught us was to write about our feelings, whether it be negative or positive. It makes the readers see you as a more rounded person. It seems like I try to write more about things that are happy or in a good light. There are a few posts that were pretty negative. I don't want to delete them. After I wrote them, I didn't want to write about negative things anymore.

Today is a new day. I'm going to rant. It's not really negative about anyone or about myself. It's just trying to relieve some stress. Tonight I stayed home. It wasn't very relaxing. The other night my dad said that his laptop wasn't loading up properly. My cousin installed a Chinese program on my dad's computer to watch Chinese movies a few months ago. Since then I tried to clean my dad's computer by running Spybot, Avast and Adaware. I noticed that after that program was installed the 'cleaning' programs don't run properly. They just stop suddenly. I had a feeling that his computer will eventually crash. When he told me his computer wasn't working, my first instinct was to run the cleaning programs. The operating system (Windows 7) wouldn't start up. One of the screens gave me the option to start in safe mode. I have had other computers that wonked out on me and I have had to use safe mode before. I ran Spybot in safe mode last night. It didn't find much. I thought I can spend more time on it tonight. I wanted to try to clean it as much as I can before I remove the Chinese program. I tried to install Malwarebytes via USB. That didn't work out too well. (I know you computer people may say that is an easy thing to do). I tried to just deleted the program via 'Uninstall a program'. That didn't work out too well either. In safe mode, it wasn't going too well for me in the beginning. The left button became the right button. That got really confusing. Because I am so used to 'left clicking' but now I had to 'right click' instead. Once I figured that the mouse buttons were backwards, things became a bit better. There wasn't a Disk Defrag button / option / program available. I don't know where it went and I didn't know where to find it. The Disk Cleanup worked. I tried a system restore and that didn't work. I didn't know if I had the Windows 7 disk for me to reinstall it. I pushed some buttons and managed to find a way to restore the computer back to it's factory settings. That was my last resort. I told my dad that he may have to reinstall the Chinese programs at a later date. It took a long time for it to set back to it's factory settings. After I did that, it worked. I managed to find the website where he watches the Chinese movies. I don't think he has to install that stupid program anymore.