have a very merry day!

warm wishes to everyone at christmas
and i hope the new year brings big changes to all!

not lucy liu

i don't know how many times i've heard people comment on how i look like lucy liu. i remember being at the bergamo airport this year and dolly and i were dropping off our rental car and this italian hertz rep kept calling out - "lucy, lucy...you are lucy liu!".

some people are blind, i think. the only thing we have in common are the scattered freckles on our faces. uncommon to most asians, i guess i would have to blame that on my mother.

anyways, i found this silly facial recognition site and thought it would be funny to see if i matched up with miss lucy. it's hilarious the only asian person that popped up was some guy named, stephen chow. wtf? i know i was a tomboy growing up and sometimes wondered if i was half man/half woman but i'd hate to be in some foreign country one day with someone hollering at me, "look...there's stephen chow!".

happy birthday kerbear

to the sweetest little birthday girl...

thank god her party was up in vancouver. i could only imagine if we organized something down in seattle - it would of been a party with no lights, that's for sure. we all got together to have dins at the hamilton street grill on saturday night, the home of the infamous ginger bread pudding that ker always raves about. it was nice seeing ker's rock girls again and i'm sure at some point ker thought she was being followed by the paparazzi. at one end of the table we had kells, dante and myself going trigger happy with our little digi cams. i guess for those who want to capture precious moments in the most creative way ... it's all about da pix.

congrats mr.d

just thought i'd congratulate my friend dante on his new position that commences in mid jan'07 as VP, director of strategy for a top notch marketing/ad firm based out of san fran. yay!!!

the three t's

i was driving home last thursday night and was only minutes away from the house when the torrential downpour began. ker called me on my cell phone telling me she had never seen the traffic this backed up before and that the weather was completely spinning out of control. i immediately called work to give them a heads up of the sudden change in weather and nutty driving conditions that i was faced with. as i drove through the main street leading to the house, i freaked out by the depth of the water that had accumulated and how my mini was nearly covered in the feet and a half pool of rain.

almost 700K of puget's customers were out of power by late thursday night. it had been reported that this windstorm was far worse then was recorded back in 1993. no lights were on when i got home and it took nearly three days for the crew to restore the power in our area. thank god i had plans to be out of town. it would of been miserable to have been stuck here with absolutely no power - i would of gone nuts.

so it's wednesday now and about 100K customers are still without power. i was at work yesterday and was told that many executives are fielding phone calls at the call centre from severely irrate customers. i witnessed directly a well dressed elderly man walk up to our front desk at pse's headquarters demanding that he speak to someone about his power situation and refusing to leave until he did so. though the outage was caused by natural forces it makes you wonder about the basic human needs and how best we can function when things aren't as easily accessible to us.

so here's to the three t's in reference to the eastern seaboard outage that happened over three years ago. now that wasn't caused by an act of nature....moreso by miscommunication and units tripping in ohio and ny state (NOTE: can't blame canada). but what further escalated the widespread outage came down to: trees, (sagging) transmission lines and lack of training.

so in respect to trees and transmission in our pacific northwest situation...

shout out loud

what a lovely evening it was to see mr. amos and his band play at the commodore. kells was given a ticket for her birthday and she was quite excited to hear his sound live. he's smooth, he's soulful and he and his band groove like no other. i was introduced to his music from nic a few years ago and really took to his lyrics. we were talking about that the other night about what kind of genre of music that connects with your soul. nic and kells, both major music lovers, dig all kinds of sounds but for some reason soulful chill really hits the spot for me. and i gravitate to music that is written from the heart or from an artist's life experiences that can move or inspire you and take you to places where you'd never thought you'd go. i'm gonna keep placing tabs on amos and i think i'll look out for martin sexton and patty griffin next...

enjoy the famous amos pix!

da animal hospital

wtf? it has been confirmed that my dog is officially a re-re. i had mooks down here for shy of a week so we could reconnect again. i felt a bit horrible as mr. alpha male mooks was taking over da pepper's homefront. on saturday morning he was playing with her stuffed squirrel so i thought i'd go to the pet hospital (and retreive some long lost stuffed animal that had already been destroyed). i gave mooks this little doll and to my pleasure, he joyously walked away with it. i went up to take a shower and twenty minutes later took his toy away and threw it back on top of the fridge - da pet hospital. so on monday, when i was back home in vancouver i was awoken at about 5am by mooks' stomach convulsing erratically. i'm thinking, 'god no....not another landscaping rock again!". so in the haze of the early morning i managed to clean up after him and then realized that there was this soggy four inch cylinder shaped piece of mush. i figured it could of been an old raw hide bone that he might of gobbled up when he was in the petting zoo at rob & lana's. but then i realized ... i wondered why the stuffed animal i gave him only had one arm? such an idiot - but i love him to bits.

chilling

i drove back home last night and was once again thrilled to be reunited with my little one. my uncle from new jersey will be flying in tomorrow to visit my gma and to celebrate my dad's bday (a tad earlier). going to go boarding up in whistler with pat's matt and hopefully hit some fresh powder. it's insane how much free time i have right now but i can't complain, can i? i have to report back to work for nights on the 13th...but then again that'll be just a day after catching amos lee play. yipeee!

it's all about hot pockets

tis the season to get your gear all ready and to prepare yourself for a fun filled winter on the slopes. whistler has reported some record breaking snowfall and i'm planning to rip it up next week. more pix to follow...

fender bender

lesson learned:

keep your foot on your brake at all times when you're at a stop, don't get distracted by reading a flyer.

missing home

i went to the canucks hockey game on saturday and realized how much i miss home. they were playing a video montage for remembrance day and after they sang the national anthem it struck an emotional chord within me. canada is such a lovely country and hockey has to be one of the greatest sports on earth. i think i'm going to do some investigating this week and i'll see if kerry will join in on a women's hockey league. i know it's a bit ambitious to think i can play when i've only laced up figure skates and i've never chased after a puck on ice but i'm determined to find some kind of fun, organized team sport and to be all that i can be ...

on a different note, here's a cute little video that i took of mr. mooks this weekend.

flying into cowtown

i had a lovely weekend going to calgary for the first time and hanging out with a bunch of folks in the industry. epcor hosted the texas hold'em event at the stampede casino where four full tables were filled with highly competitive poker players and my lonely female self, just attempting to outlast a few good men.

the top five winners walked away with some great prizes. kevin ended up taking home the xbox 360 as the grand prize. a few ipod nanos were given out, as well as a portable dvd player and a sony radio/cd player. the game got intense when it came down to the final four with the blinds going into 4K/8K ... insane!

after the tournament was over the epcor guys were so hospitable. they took us to a great little club/lounge called mynt and then shortly after we checked out another place called whiskey.

saturday we decided to make a trek out to banff. we had brunch @ the banff springs hotel and it was just mediocre. i think if we came in on a sunday or arrived earlier the selection of grits could of been better. we walked through the streets of banff in search for my baby blue snowboarding jacket - but to no avail...couldn't find it!

feds invited dean, his wife and some temu colleagues for dinner to a great little restaurant called the river cafe. the food was great and it was located in a cute little area in prince's island park. i'm hoping to come back to calgary one day and spend more time there. i didn't really get a chance to check out 17th ave or the kensington area.

i had a great flight back to seattle and was pleased to add calgary to my list of travels. i'm so embarrassed that i haven't travelled to more canadian destinations. my goal in '07 is to spread my wings to parts of the east!

i only have a few calgary pix to share as feds thought it was inappropriate for me to bring out my deadly ammo - the lovely canon 630. i'm all about documenting memories because we only live one life...i guess feds doesn't value it as much as i do!

going commando

grrrrrr!!!

the light shines on all of us ...

but on this particular day it was shining on ms. kelbel. although we had to celebrate it twelve days later from her actual birthday, it was well worth the wait. not only did we get a chance to meet up the night before for the halloween party, but we added nic, pat and JT to the festivities and had a wonderful meal at a trendy little moroccan restaurant on granville street called sanafir. afterwards we made our way to the republic for a few drinks and i would think a few too many for our little kerbear (sorry, girl!). the music wasn't too great so after a few hours of some drinkin', dancin' and some lickin' we decided to head over to forbes' to unwind and chat.

kells was thrilled having all the girls together for her birthday and it was a great way to celebrate her 'coming of age' as well as her little adventure that lies ahead of her next week. she's part of a key group of ten people who will be living and working together in new orleans and assisting families and the habitat for humanity group with the construction of new homes. way to go, sista!

here are some 'classy' pictures of us celebrating the night away...

spice up your life

When your feelin', sad and lone
We will take you,
Where you gotta go
Smilin' and dancin',
Everything is free
All you need is positivity
Colours of the world
Spice up your life
Every boy and girl
Spice up your life
People of the world
Spice up your life
Aaahh!!!

i attended the pwx halloween party this past friday at the mouse and the bean in vancouver. we had a blast and it was great seeing some interesting costumes and reconnecting with people that i hadn't seen in years. here are some pix to the fun filled event.

happy birthday mr. mooks!

today mr. mooks turns one

and will be pleasantly surprised tomorrow when he gets to

frolic around with other doogles at the dog lounge in seattle.

disclaimer

hey nic...

i have removed gunt out of my 'cobblestones and the gunt' posting. you know i'm not mean spirited and would never ever want to insult a single soul. thanks to you,

say bye bye to the gunt!

you have a piece of my heart...

so i had an interesting day today. i drove into seattle this rainy afternoon to go get an echo exam done on my heart. it was part of my routine physical exam from last week where i got some blood work done and the doctor went over a few things to inform me on my health and diet. i told him i worked out about 3-4 times a week and he actually insisted that i go five times a week. umm ... what else am i suppose to add into my work out routine?

he then asked me personal questions such as am i sexually active? i giggled. and then he was applying pressure on my stomach to ensure that there were no abnormalities - i laughed hysterically. see why i never go to the doctor's? but the good news is, it's confirmed ... i'm 5'5.5"! just 3.5 more inches away from my ideal height. yah!

anyways, though i fray away from going to the doctors i would have to say that today's visit was very educational for me. i asked the technicians a tonne of oddball questions and found out that officially they are called ultrasonagraphers. at one point when i looked at the monitor and watched the valves in my heart pump away, it literally looked like some kind of alien saying, 'hello' to me. the sonographer, melissa, applied that funky gel on the ultrasound tranducer and kept pressing away on the left side of my chest and over my chest bone. did i tell you that she was an intern? and she was putting so much pressure on my chest that i thought it was going to crack.

so just thought that i would share something with you. i was thinking that when you actually look at a human heart it doesn't really look like the shape of a heart as one would normally sketch it out. but after closely examining the screen today, it just came to me like a lightning bolt. if you tilt your head sideways to the left and look at the picture below ... from the view of my aortic valve, you can see the shape of my heart - enjoy!

my new rollerblading partner

Peppa - my new rollerblading partner

sleeping beauties

here's a fabulous picture of my dear friend pat. the only one friend who has an issue with her picture on my blog and who thinks it's unsafe to have your face plastered anywhere on the world wide web. sorry, just had to do it!

forbes and pat drove down this weekend to pay me a little visit and to do some shopping. funny how it works. forbes is always claiming that she's here to visit and refuses to waste time shopping. i think this is the second time around she's walked out of nordies after dropping five bills. and then to 'boot, pat insisted on going to trader joe's to stock up on some goods and reluctantly convinced forbes to drive her. then once again...forbes walks out with $70 of groceries! nice.

here's to another wonderful bitch fest and to my sleeping beauty!

feeling the love

so it was pretty much a lovefest this weekend. i drove up to vancouver (with minimal sleep coming off my fri night shift) and spent the saturday evening celebrating my cousin's birthday. it was great to see soohee, suzi, stephen and paulina again. think we should do it more often and get everyone out next time. perhaps a good game of cranium.

prior to dinner, i paid a visit to the senior care home and chatted with my gma. she's such a funny lady to be around. it's the never ending question of whether or not you've eaten. how come i'm not married? where are my kids? to once again, have you eaten? too funny... but what can you say, she's still in great spirits for a ninety-two year old and i am sincerely grateful that she has played an important role in my life. think i have to thank my lucky stars for having allowed her to teach me to be resilient and strong, yet at the same giving of myself to those that i care about. got to love her!

met up with forbes and J briefly on saturday to grab the keys to my place. i took a bunch of pictures and was sure not to interfere with the xrated love sessions that took place in my unit. easy there forbes! but here's a view of what you can see from my living room window. had brunch with the two lovebirds on sunday @ NU and then met up with my hungover bro at barber's apartment. it's been eons since i last saw mike and i was surprised that i remembered his cell number after trying several times to track my brother down. it was a pleasant reunion.

so i left van in the early afternoon and was worried that i wouldn't be able to pay my final visit to see brynja before she headed back to iceland. she had din plans already so i managed to swing by to rob and lana's new place in sammamish for a quick visit. OMG...talk about architectural digest/frontgate - their home is insane! i'm hoping that luck in some form will come my way via the villagio connection. i was thoroughly impressed by carrie's place in mercer island but she kept going on about rob and lana's killer pad. their backyard is landscaped so beautifully and in the springtime they'll be putting in a heated swimming pool (with a hard covershell that will protect the pool and easily allow luba, their bullie, to run around freely without any danger). they've inquired about wanting to babysit mookie so luba could have a playmate and now there is no question that my mooks would be in good hands with the pledger's.

after a quick visit, i drove out to snoqualmie ridge to bring some dessert and icecream over to the myren's. had a great chat with bryn about her life in iceland and how exciting it is to work for the us embassy. she's met a lot of interesting people along the way and is looking into putting in her time and then returning back to washington state and working for a local government agency. yippee... i miss her so!

an interesting joe

check out this short film by joe.
now i know why your knees are all banged up...

reunited

reunited and it feels so good...

mr. mooks was here for a little visit

arrived alive

so i arrived safely back into the us of A. i noticed when i was leaving heathrow that they had us departing from an older area of the airport where we had to walk through this dodgy maze inorder to board our plane. i think they had all the US direct outbound flights situated in one area where you had to pass by a few police officers with these massive automatic uzzis. you then had to walk through a long ramp towards a bunch of other security guards that were staring you down. then we had to board a shuttle bus that was strategically situated beside some kind of bomb squad truck...totally unreal. nonetheless, the flight back was great and i had no issues going through us customs. the agent was kind enough to even extend my h1-b visa with ease and at no charge. pretty sweet!

but i must say, i feel sorry for a lot of minorities who can't really speak english. i noticed through the random custom searches they were all of asian and middle eastern decent. and then the guy in front of me must of flown in from africa via europe and he was being bombarded with a bunch of questions that he didn't seem to understand. i hate it when customs agents go on their power trips.

ker was kind enough to pick me up from the airport and we chatted and caught up on what's going on with work, the girls and our crazy lives. i decided to fight the jet lag and lace up my blades for a nice cruise along the lake washington waterfront. i'm seriously on this high right now. i know you can get it from traveling and such and i've been fortunate to have this chunk of time off but it's the coolest feeling. i'm learning to love myself again and just enjoying every little moment i have with my nearest and dearest friends and even with absolute strangers. i guess this is suppose to be some kind of springboard to the big unknown. as vic once told me, 'no guts, no glory, cath'.

so on that note...here are some pix from my bday trip to london and another video clip just outside of dolly and 'drew's flat. enjoy!

along the thames...

so it's a sunday night and we're all just hanging out at dolly & drew's flat until we head out for dinner. i knew this would be a short trip and can't believe that i have to leave in a few days. it's kind of strange. though i know i'm in london, there are times when i don't feel any different being here. not sure if it's some kind of sign or it's because i'm hanging out with good ol' friends. it was great to see dolly on weds night when she got back from work. we went for a jog along our usual route (from tower hill to the millenium bridge, over to the tate modern and then along the south side of the thames river and over tower bridge). it's always nice to hang with dolls and continue from exactly where we left off...

the first night we walked over to the wapping area and had dinner at il bordella. a fabulous little italian restaurant where the portions are huge. dolly and i shared an alfredo dish and the rocket parmesan salad. i realized after eating this fine meal that when i go home, i will get back into the swing of things and try some new dishes out.

the following morning, i made joe go for a morning jog with me. joe (andrew's younger bro) was in town since mid august and had come here via vancouver but had spent an entire year over in japan. the boy is fluent in so many different languages...it's pretty impressive. we took a leisurely jog and i thought it would be funny to document the start of it. by the time we hit the south side of the thames, joe thought it would be funny to run through a water fountain and then i thought it would be even funnier to follow suit.

later that night i took the tube over to the marleybone area to meet up with rick for dinner (and gave the alchie his bottle of crown royale). we ended up going to a great thai restaurant in st. christopher's place and had dessert in leicester square. the funny thing was along the way we were roaming the busy streets of london and this range rover turned the corner ... all in slow-mo. rick was like, 'hey, that's ross!' as i raised my head up and took a quick glance at the passenger seat (with the window rolled down). low and behold he nodded his head and gave us this quick hand signal to say 'hi'. david schwimmer must get that all the time. here's to another celebrity citing.

so on friday, we decided to pick up the rental car for the weekend and head over to the putney area to check out a place that dolly and 'drew were interested in getting. it was an old woman's college (with a chapel) that was designed by sir giles gilbert scott and was recently converted into new apartment units. drew was interested in this great 3bedroom set up that had this huge living area with a terrace that was equal if not greater then the living space. i would say that this unit was a gem but the location was a bit questionable and dolly wasn't happy with the small bedrooms. later that night we had dinner at the rocket bar and shared a chorizo calzone that just melted in your mouth. yum scrum!

by the time we got home, we were so exhausted! andrew works long i-banking hours and the commute time for dolly to and from (four hours total each day) work made it a very long week. so we debated whether or not we'd call it a night. but i bit the bullet and popped into the shower. i figure, let the married couple rest...i'm in london, it's a friday night and i better not fall asleep at 11pm. hit the shower and headed out to the soho area and had a tasty little grape martini at a cool place called cocoon. ended up having late night chinese at HK diner at about 3:45 in the morning. yikes!

so saturday was one of my favourite days so far. for several reasons. one, i was proud of myself for actually getting into a UK rental car and driving on the other side of the road while handling a stick shift in my left and driving on the right. we drove into putney in the afternoon to check out a place that dolly and 'drew were interested in buying. and now onto the second highlight...they signed and reserved a place in this quaint little area in putney (carlton square). i'm sooo excited for them. it's a beautiful unit and i know that it'll be a great investment for them. later that night we sped back to the flat and got ready to celebrate my belated bday. now, this is the part that got me totally floored. they made reservations to this great restaurant called the wolseley and i didn't know that it's a place where british celebs dine and it's ubber hard to get reservations. i just read in the paper today that catherine zeta jones and her hubbie m. douglas were there last night celebrating both of their bdays. anyhoot... after being seated at our table, dolly gave me my bday card and i was on the verge of tearing just reading it. she has been such a solid gem to me and i'm so grateful to have her and 'drew in my life. so then shortly after, she hands over this blue box and said, 'happy bday'. OMG. i'm thinking why do i have a this tiffany box in front of me. even before i opened it, i hugged her incestuously and thanked her and drew over and over again. and then at some point drew looked at me and said, 'don't thank me, it's not from me' and then seconds later, out from under the table he hands me another tiffany blue box and says, 'now this is from me'. what the fu? i was in so much disbelief and at that point so stunned and shocked by their generosity. i will forever remember that special night and will cherish my 'return to tiffany' heart necklace and bracelet. thanks for making me feel like a million bucks!

so later that evening we ended up going to 'the long bar' for drinks. according to 'drew it was another pretentious place in london but dolly really wanted me to check it out. after having a few rounds of drinks (obviously not me) dolly and rick got into a lengthy discussion about their family history and some of the interesting life lessons that were passed down to them from their respective gmas. at one point, drew and i figured out that there could be a possibility that dolly and rick are long lost relatives. their gmas come from the same village in china, they speak the same dialect (which is very rare among most chinese immigrants) and have so much in common in terms of family background. too uncanny.

so sunday was yesterday. we ended up sleeping in and decided to hop into the rental car and head to spitafields mall ... a cool little district in london where on the weekends it's sort of like a flea market but better quality. had a bunch of cool knick knacks from local designers (jewlery, clothing, design, furniture, etc). i guess you would say a huge open forum like pike place/granville island but with less food and more design. got a few things to bring back and hopefully my friends will like 'em. i ended up ditching dolly, drew and joe and took off with rick to hit 'wagamamas', a great little japanese noodle shop. i think they have a whole bunch of them franchised throughout europe. not sure if it's in nyc yet but i know it would do really well in the pacific northwest. anyhoot...had my chicken ramen and then went over to rick's to go over some alberta pool stuff. i'm really thinking that work life would be more exciting if we got involved with the alberta or cali pool market. headed back to the flat for dins and then had an interesting convo with joe, on the eve of his departure. for the first time since i got there he actually opened up to me and we yammered away on the meaning of life and what makes us tick. how happy we are in our lives. what do we need to make us happy. what really is happiness? joe is an interesting fella. i told him that i still want him to email me his best man speech. once i get it, i will be sure to post it on my blog. to this day...it had to be the best friggen best man speech i've ever heard anyone present to the groom. deep in thought and purely genius. here's to joe and pulling himself out of his happy numbness.

so now it's actually tuesday (2:49am).

monday, we had another great day! dolly and drew were at work all day but we agreed to meet up to catch the 'mary poppins' show in the theatre district. dolly scored perfect seats and it was such a sweet little show that brought back that childhood spirit in all of us. here's to 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious'! ended up having a late night dinner at this cute little japanese restaurant that served delicious pancakes that were fried right infront of you on a teppanyaki grill. ended up taking the cab back by midnight and as soon as i heard that ed was coming down for a quick visit, i knew i had to break open my surprise for 'drew. on my shopping stint today, i walked into hmv and bought the latest nhl '07 for 'drew's xbox 360. i was going to save it for him as a surprise when i left but i couldn't resist as his partner in crime was paying us a visit. i was so thrilled to see 'drew turn into a little kid again as he skipped to the tv and popped in his game.

i only have one more day to go...hopefully it'll be just as good as the rest, if not better.... will follow up with a post and with some pix.

i'm headin' to bed!

euro blog pictures

so i finally had the chance to upload all the pictures from my european getaway back in june. for some reason the kodak gallery kept crashing so you'll only get a chance to view some of the pictures. as i was uploading them last night i was in perma-smile mode again and thinking about how fabulous these moments were in such a strange time in my life. i think travelling does wonders for your soul...

enjoy the pix!

before and after

so i'm in the process of uploading a bunch of pictures from dolly's computer from our trip to the italian lakes and barcelona.

once i have them all loaded up, i'll be sure to post them. just came across some funny shots that i thought i'd share.

it's called the before....

and after....

cobblestones

so i'm back in the great city of london for a short little visit to see dolly and celebrate our birthdays together. i told her that since it all started when we were in sardinia, italy last year that we should make best efforts to make this an annual thing. however, we were chatting tonight and she suggested that next year we should do st. tropez again and stay there for an entire week. then i realized, now that we have a hook up through our french captain alec...perhaps we could aim for st. tropez in june for the rolex sailing regatta. would anyone else be interested in joining us?

this is day one of my week long trip and nothing really is planned other then a few cuppa joes and roaming the streets of london. i think dolly and 'drew will be renting a car this weekend so we'll most likely escape outside of the city. take note....upon my arrival, i was instantly reminded that i was in london after i got off the tube at tower hill. welcome to coblestones. you'll find it a bit of a task to roll your luggage and heavy carry on bags while walking in heels through the cobblestone streets of london. my carryon kept getting knocked off as the uneven pavement bounced things around and in turn kept tugging my headset out of my ipod socket. aarrrgghh!

up, up and away...

just about to go to bed but i saw this video of a 2006 reno hot air balloon competition that looked pretty cool. make sure you have your sound on. gnight!

so you think you can dance?

so the girls came down last night, after our eager friend (and closet contemporary dancer) kellbell wanted us to check out this show that was coming to seattle. never watched an episode of, "so you think you can dance" but i thought i'd take one for the team if all the girls were into going. despite the fact that we had to sit in the 3rd mezzanine, row Z and were surrounded by a zillion screaming tweens, i was able to enjoy the show and appreciate the extraordinary talent that some of these kids have. it's so amazing to see how strong yet fluid their bodies are and how moving to music can be so theatrical and pleasing to the eye. i would have to say my favourite routine would be the group dance to JT's sexyback - hot number. it made me wonder, maybe i should grab that purple unitard i got for my bday and head to some open dance class....;)

anyways, it was great to reconnect with the girls again and to just be in each other's company. i enjoyed my late night convo with kells and loved how i talked her ear off once again. lesson learned kells, "it's all about finding the perfect pair of jeans and loving yourself and not having a care in the world of what other people think of you..."

and then it was a wonderful surprise to be woken up by some shadow that was hovering over me. i opened my eyes and there standing was ms big haired forbes. "good morning, girlies" as she jumped right into the centre of my bed - "KATHUNK" - what a fabulous way to wake up in the morning!

getting the zest out of life

have you ever taken the myer's brigg personality test? back when i was in university i was given a condensed version of the test to see what kind of career i would be suitable for. i've always remembered that i was an ENFP type personality and that i always had a zest for life.

so why not take an online test again years later just to see if i've evolved in anyway or if i'm still the same old zany self. i was a bit curious to see where i would fall so i took this short test online tonight which only consisted of 72 questions and once again, it concludes that i'm an ENFP type person.

interestingly enough after reading up on it, i found this funny website that had a few bullets points on ENFPs...most particularly, i was pleasantly surprised by the career suggestion that i should be an advertising account executive. perhaps, deep down inside that would be my calling. if you didn't know, before i moved over into the world of power and gas i was seriously contemplating in working for an advertising firm in vancouver. and then several years ago, i even took a short leave of absense from powerex to pursue a multimedia program before i made the move down south. makes me wonder....

anyways, take note dear friends... this is how you can love the ENFP in me.

lucky number nine

my lucky no. 9 comes from the 9th day of the 9th month which just so happens to be my little birthday. i'm flying solo today and unfortunately have to work nights this whole weekend : ( but such as life and i guess it's time again to reflect on the year that's passed and look forward to the next...

i would have to say that i'm ubberly grateful for all the special people in my life. i came into work last night and was pleasantly surprised by a cute bouquet of roses and i woke up this morning to a slew of voicemails and giggled as i heard my half awoken brother wish me a good day to ker and the p singing a cute little bday duet with the "go get bonked" in the end. i am sincerely thankful!

thanks to a bday spa certificate, i treated myself to a european facial this afternoon and bought myself a simple birthday sweater. i'll be heading out to get some grits and will hopefully enjoy the rest of the evening ... all by myself.

in case you wanted to know what my office was like - here's a video clip of me just playing around with my camera.

taking me back to a happy place...

still waiting on my batch of barcelona pictures and the italian lakes from dolly's uploaded computer (draft blog dated july 13 - will update it as soon as i get 'em). but until then, here are a few pictures that rick emailed me today. his family flew out to london to see him graduate from the london business school and were en route to barcelona the same week that dolly and i planned to go. we had such a blast even though dolly and i ended up on the wildest end of the barcelona olympic beach. the kwans decided to stay on their end after we told them that we hung out on the liberal left ... tonnes of fully naked men and women sprawled out and even showering down in the open. it turns out, after talking to our host at the tapas bar that we were on the "gay" side of the beach - whatever that means. dolly and i just thought the spaniards were a lot more open then other europeans - doh!

so here are a few shots that bring me back to that happy place...

couldn't upload all the pictures as some of them were pixelated :(

here's a picture of me and rick in this crazy barcelona club.

two floors, old school r&b upstairs and some house on the main floor.

a lotta fun!

dolly and i were so exhausted. we only had 1.5 hours of sleep and then had to drive to the girona airport where someone mysteriously took a picture of us sleeping. i believe our plane was delayed by about 4 hours so we missed the england world cup match. i had such a blast in barcelona - gives me a perma-smile just thinking about it.

skateboard m

i'm so missing my little mookster. it's kinda embarrassing how i keep calling my parents to keep tabs on him. he's recovering from yet another touch up to his entropion eye issues and will be a cone head for a few more weeks - hence, he's shipped off to canada.

wanna know something funny? a prominent plastic surgeon that my parents know have been asking to see pictures of mooks' before and after. it's hilarious how a doctor who probably does tonnes of breast augmentation and rhinoplasty all day long has somewhat of an interest in my little one. but then i'm thinking with all the costs involved with this entroprion problem and having to go back in several times for re-touch ups, i should just ship him off to a real plastic surgeon.

gotto love him though.

in the meantime, i'm gonna convince skateboard T to teach mooks how to do this....

lake chpd

what a splendid day today. i decided to make the trek out east to go visit opey in wenatchee and check out lake chelan. kinda crazy - but since i've moved down here, i haven't driven any further east then north bend along the I-90. but alas, today was the day where i drove through the scenic route along blewitt pass and through leavenworth on the way back. the weather was scorchin' and we were able to make it to chelan for a quick dip into the immaculate lake.

it's always good times when hanging out with opey. such a great story teller and i'm so grateful that we managed to attend the same wecc training class in salt lake. if it wasn't for opey and glen @ gcpd, the week long class would of been so dreadful for me. here's to driggs and fried chicken ;)

i also thought i'd share with you some pictures of opey & kris' place. when i met opey in salt lake we were exchanging notes on architectural plans and my fascination with design and layout. little did i know that this former linesman, now chpd dispatcher, had an architectural degree from UW under his belt. i was pretty impressed with how passionate he was about his house plans and his creative flare. well, if only you had the opportunity to witness it with your own eyes. i was blown away with every little detail of his house. the pictures actually don't do it justice because there is a story with every little nook and cranny of his home. this house is a result of exquisite design, blood, sweat and tools. if you're ever in wenatchee, check out his place - so proud of opey!

priceless

so what can i say about colorado? it was amazing and we were pleased to hear the sounds of amos lee and martin sexton, among other great acts such as blue rodeo, kathleen edwards, kris kristofferson, the waifs, et al...

i can't believe we had the opportunity to do the meet and greet with amos after his show. he and his band sounded superb on stage and looked pretty fine, as well. nic has a thing for his bassist.

we apologized for the obnoxious crowd that was at richards on richards when they came to van. he totally remembered that and said he'd definitely come back again. he asked us about a good venue and nic suggested the commodore. so friends...if he comes back and plays the commodore, it will be a must see for you all. amos and his band have a killer bluesy/chill sound and i just love his music. and amos is not too shabby lookin' on stage! yum scrum.

so here are some additional pictures from the festival and soon to come, i'll add some video clips.

happy bday forbes

only in your dreams...

little miss sunshine

this is a must see movie! a fellow movie goer at sundance this year said that this was the best movie of the festival and that a huge production company had snapped it up immediately. i saw it tonight and it had me in stitches. i loved each of the zany characters in the film and thought it was absolutely brilliant. it's about a dysfunctional family that had so many issues on the forefront but were all brought together in support of miss olivia and her dream to participate in the little miss sunshine competition. though there were some gross exaggerations on some of the characters in the film, it was hysterically well written and it made me leave the theatre with a feeling of elation and bliss. i guess it made me appreciate life more and the importance of supporting and embracing the special people around us. i highly suggest that you check this movie out...

mr mooks

just thought i'd post some pictures that were saved on my parent's computer. i'm up in vancouver for a quick day trip. the weather is absolutely amazing today. just waiting for mom to come home and we'll be heading out for some sushi. i'm starvin marvin....

rock baby

i should have saved the rocks so that you could have witnessed how crazy my little one is. while i was away in maine, i think the little critter got bored laying outside in the backyard and decided to gobble up a few landscaping rocks. much to my dismay, he threw up two rather large irregular rocks (1.5 inches in diameter). i took him to the vet in issaquah, wa and they said if he's in good spirits and his bowel movements were normal that he must of thrown them all up. well...just a few days ago, before being put under anethesia, mr. mooks decided to throw up three more stones out of his belly. after another visit to the vet and $375 dollars later, i was told that he had one more rock lodged in his stomach and that alpine veterinary clinic suggested that i have it surgically removed - at a whopping cost of $1800.

so after giving him some TLC for a night, i decided to get a second opinion and spoke to a very kind vet who happens to own the aerowood animal clinic in bellevue. he gave me a few other alternative options and said that if i brought mooks in on a full tummy that they'd try to induce vomitting again. i was totally stressed out because i had to transport him to and fro (while juggling work) and worried that he'd have to face some invasive surgery.

and voila....after dropping him off at aerowood, i got the amazing call within 10 minutes that he threw up the final stone!

maine 2006

i must say that annie and jeff were so kind in hosting us at their house in cape elizabeth, maine and having us over at their beautiful cabin on the lake (only an hour away from their home). it took us nearly eight hours to get to annie's place from philadelphia and driving through six states (PA, NJ, NY, CN, NH, ME) - but it was well worth it. nic, forbes and i all agreed that it was a perfect little getaway to rejuvenate our spirits with some great R&R and a tonne of giggles. we basically hung out on the lake each day while jeff and annie showed us how to wakeboard in style. forbes mastered wakeboarding without any hesitation and nic got up on the very first day. me, on the other hand - c'est impossible! i attempted every day after that, but i couldn't find the ability to do so until the last day. it was the coolest feeling to finally get up out of the water and ride the wake. kudos to annie and jeff for being such great instructors and being so patient with us.

this trip brought another perm-smile to my face. i thoroughly enjoyed the good times with my girlfriends and just being away in another amazing place on earth - it makes you appreciate the beauty in life.

here's a link to some additional pictures of our maine trip. enjoy!