**giggle giggle**

friends leave footprints

i just had a lovely evening with hanadi and her sister and i realized that i will truly miss this amazing women. the thought even crossed my mind that had i not moved into the villagio we would of never of crossed paths and i wouldn't of been blessed with her friendship and her kindred spirit. so in the next few weeks we'll be in the hunt for some inspiration on our quest to find the perfect tattoo - something simple, symbolic and a forever reminder of who we are and what we want to become. on that note, i thought i'd post this wonderful quote that nic had on her fridge. if only i could summarize all of these words into a little tattoo....

“Many people will walk in and out of your life, but only true friends leave footprints in your heart. To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart. Anger is only one letter short of danger. If someone betrays you once, it is his fault; if he betrays you twice, it is your fault. Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. He who loses money, loses much; he who loses a friend, loses much more; he who loses faith, loses all. Beautiful young people are accidents of nature, but beautiful old people are works of art. Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t life long enough to make them all yourself. Friends, you and me…you brought another friend…and then there were three…we started our group…our circle of friends…and like that circle…there is no beginning or end…yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That is why they call it a present.” – Eleanor Roosevelt

cat riding charlie

i'm having so much fun tootling around town!

charles in charge

charlie, will be the name of my new little baby! i made my way down to portland this weekend to partake in the ducati northwest event @ the portland international raceway and thanks to the wonderful guys @ eastside motorsports, i landed my new little motobike - a ducati monster 695 dark, of course!

my goal for the next few weeks is to get more comfie with my bike in preparation for my bday ride through eastern washington. i was inspired by a woman named liz, and her journey through the interior of BC, eastern washington, oregon & the gorge in hopes of learning more about power generation in the pacific northwest as well as soaking in all the natural beauty.

i was blessed yesterday riding back to seattle through the mt. st. helen's area - absolutely breathtaking! thanks b for leading the way and challenging me on my first official ride back on good ol' charlie! named charlie for many reasons - sounds fitting to say 'charles in charge', 'ready to take charlie for a ride', 'charlie's angel' and to the connection to charlemagne.

on i ride....

i wuv u!

beer boy bry!

had such a wonderful time @ sinc's wedding in napa and it's always great to reconnect with your childhood friends and to this day i still find bryan to be one of the funniest guys i know - you kill me!

y's & the w's

long live good friends and let's never forget our night @ fuel and the $10 bottle of water from new zealand - oh good times!

moto europe 2007

i'll be posting a video of my lovely moto trip after i compile all the pix and videos. i faced a few issues after accidently formatting my memory card one morning and feeling like the biggest fool in the world. but for the mean time here are just a few of my fav pix but i'll re-blog after i get my work laptop set up as bloggin' from my apple just simply doesn't work! hope all is well....

moto europe 2007

oh - he misses me so!

so i went back home for a quick visit this weekend and got a little lovin' from my dog. i think this seperation anxiety is gonna get the best of him. enjoy!

yeah!

my camera sucks

at concerts that is....
nic took these fab shots from brandi carlile's show in vancouver.

eyes wide open

forbes & i just outside of the moore theatre to catch brandi carlile ... don't we look like b.o.d.'s? here's to living our lives 'eyes wide open' (and i'm still on the hunt down for some crazy bikini shot of you that i will post for the world to see ;)

here's to classy friends!

i had the girls down this weekend for a quick little bitch fest - sans ker :( - and we had a fab time just playing catch up. i am so grateful that these bitches are a part of my life...they add so much technicolour into this world i live in and i know that i will cherish them always and forever....

here's to pink bits, chargrilling it, being mingey, hamburger & buns, green clouds and ensuring that you wash your produce at all times....

happy m-day

“For the hand that rocks the cradle - Is the hand that rules the world”
William Ross Wallace

oh, happy mother's day to all (and that includes mothers of four legged creatures)! i had the pleasure of having my parents and mr. mooks down this weekend for a lovely family reunion. mr. mooks was overwhelmed with joy to be reunited with his mama and it took him nearly twenty mintues to cool off before we shipped him off into my room and grabbed a quick bite to eat. on sunday morning i surprised my mom with her new hiking gear and we made our way over to north bend to hike up rattlesnake trail. i'm thrilled that my parents are becoming more active as they age and being more aware of the importance of staying healthy while enjoying the beauty of this earth. i'm so proud of them - my dad hikes the grouse grind twice a week and my mom participates in a weekly hiking group @ the lynn canyon trail. and now, much to my liking, mister mooks may join them and keep them company (or perhaps, lead the way) on their weekly jaunts. oh - you gotta love him!

so today of all days, my mom said the sweetest thing to me, "whenever i'm with you i feel like a millionaire". i'm pretty sure it had a lot to do with coming off of a high (post hike) but it was how she said it and when she said it. i think she was muttering it to herself as she was looking out the window of the truck and i could see her smile through my rearview mirror. it's genuine moments like that when i realize the importance of family and how we should all savour every little moment we have.

thanks to the bizarre turn of events last year, i truly follow my motto, 'this is the only one life you live - so live it". and despite the worries of my parents of not settling down (in the traditional sense), my mind thinking a mile a minute and friends wondering why i can't sit still, i want the world to know that i'm in such an amazing place in my life as i've learned to let go of a lot of things....to be open and fearless, to be curious and spontaneous, to not have a care in the world of what people think of me, to allow my heart to sing, to enjoy moments of solitude, to laugh at myself always, to be open to new experiences, to bring beautiful people into my world, to inspire and to be inspired, to listen more, and to smile and say 'hello'. to sum it all up, i must thank anya for saying this to me about a month ago - "life is short & days are long". now that really made me think...

so now onto getting me some ginko and playing sudoku!

enjoy the mother's day pix.

mooks hiking

thanks to the jacksons

ok so there wasn't an action shot to prove that i got up the first time but at least i was documented in the bumblebee dry suit (post face plant). i was invited onto a friend's boat last week to go wakeboarding on lake washington and was a bit apprehensive to step foot into the water because a) it was cold at night and b) i wasn't sure if i'd be able to get up. with some inspiration after seeing a few of the guys rip it up on the wake and seeing duncan do a back flip i realized that i had to step up to the plate.

this is where i have to thank annie & jeff for being so patient with me last summer at their lake cabin in maine. it took two days for them to coach me on the art of getting your ass out of the water and by some freak of nature last wednesday it all just came back to me.

i'm telling you - nature is my new religion.

take a hike

thanks anya for being ms joe hikestress and taking us for a lovely trail walk up rattlesnake park. think i'm gonna take my mom up there for mother's day and surprise her with a nice little picnic on the rock.

hawaii 5-0

miles thinks i'm an absolute dork for wanting to post this.

kitcat: so what did u think?
kitcat: dorky if i upload to blog?
miles: with that music? at that volume? for that long? miles: YES
kitcat: oh gawd...
kitcat: seriously
miles: i dont joke about dorkness
kitcat: i think i'm still gonna do it
miles: doesnt surprise me

whatever miles!

boardin' pix

here are some shots from this weekend. enjoy!

going up hortsman tbar

good times up @ blackcomb. can you believe it? they're going to be opened until june 3rd!!! opey, cheri and i managed a quick trip up and were blessed with knee high powder at the top. oh, heavenly!

take a bite outta bart

i took part in a quick weekend getaway to oakland, california to partake in an annual musseling weekend that's been held for over twenty years. imee, pete & josh were nice enough to invite me and the anderson's were gracious enough to host the festivities and house over twenty some-odd seattlelites in their lovely home in danville. i had no idea what to expect but i must say that the company i was with made it very memorable. it's so great to be surrounded by such solid, fun-loving and zany people who know how to have a good time. we all slept in the living room and were packed in like sardines - poor josh was curled up against the wall and when i woke up in the morning i had about three feet of space beside me - doh!

on the morning of the event, there were some clouds in the sky but that didn't stop us from driving down to santa cruz to make way for the big day. we all hiked down to the beach with our pails in hand and began digging and yanking away for the perfect mussel. with some fresh baquettes, red wine and herb/lemon melted butter ... our shellfish cookout turned out to be a delightful affair. and to top it all off, the sun came out and we managed to set up the net for some beach volleyball action.

oh, what good times!

mom & mooks visit

so my mom and mr. mooks came down for a short visit to hit dr. sullivan's office for a post op-follow up. turns out his eyes are healing well but it seems that he's got some seasonal allergies and possibly atopic dermatitis (takes after his mother). and to boot' he had some strange growth coming out of his side rib cage. worried that it was a tumour, it turns out that it's nothing serious. perhaps the little bonehead took an aerial fall and knocked himself silly somewhere. nonetheless, i love him to bits and took my mom and mooks out for a stroll around greenlake.

go canucks go!

make us proud, canucks!

courtesy of my talented friend maurice ...

aqua baby

just heavenly...

living in the 90's

it was absolutely gorgeous on friday! i took a nice little trek out to the westside and picked up some sushi to go and bladed along the burke gilman trail. you always seem to fall in love with a city when the sun is out and the warmth of the rays tickles your skin. i realized as i was blading that i'm so living in the 90's. there were so many people walking, running and biking along the trail and i only passed by one fellow blader who actually signaled and gave me a quick 'hello'.

pat, her sis and her mom came down after a treachourous three hour delay at the bcus border - insane in the membrane! we hit the university district and did some shopping and then made our way to ballard to dine @ volterra. we attempted to get into La Carta de Oaxaca but the line up was far too big so we ended up going there for lunch the following day. delish - if you want to try a bunch of yummy mexicano dishes.

late friday night we met up with some friends @ the ibiza lounge. pat and i were so damn tired and just wanted to go to bed but i had to show up and check out my buddy's new lady. let me tell you, the nightlife in seattle sucks! though i confess to being a closet hermit, of the few times that i've gone out to meet up with friends i've been sadly disappointed. what's up with this city?

so i delightfully started off my easter sunday with a killer hot power yoga class and thought it would be nice to check out an easter service. i made my way over to mars hill in ballard and carefully scoped out the crowd to spot out any overzealous, hands in the air, potential tongue speaking attendees. much to my satisfaction the service was pretty good and the place was large enough that i could just go in, do my thing and mosey on out of there. i'm still trying to figure out whether or not the church is my thing but i can definitely tell you that i'm constantly searching for new ways to feeding that little ol' spirit inside of myself.

i know your going to get peeved pat but i thought i'd post this picture. i miss being steam rolled

that's my boy...

so once again the little one has turned into a conehead. he came down with my mom last week to get some work done on his entropion eyes. poor little guy, eh?

enjoy the show!

wspp

white powder, baby!

i was up in banff last weekend for a work conference and took a day out to hit lake louise. it was great meeting up with a bunch of folks and brokers and seeing some good 'ol friends. good times! against my wishes, i downed a few shots just so i could amuse a few fellas'. i'm telling you after this trip and watching spence buy a case of some fabulous wine from portalis, i'm really thinking that some pharmaceutical company could rake in some big $moolah$ by inventing the asian drinking pill. sign me up!

oh and a few congrats to pass along....pat and matt got engaged - yippeee! and so did my cousin nelly and tyler. and then i finally i got the story straight....i was told that bryan got engaged and i sent him a congrats email but it turns out his big bro will be getting hitched this summer. sweet-oh-lah!

enjoy the pix of banff!

happy six-oh, mom!

paying homage to my mom on her 60th birthday!

wishing you nothing but the best and hope that one day i can aspire to be as amazing as you.

love you to bits!

out with the old, in with the new

can you believe it? it's my last night working on the real time desk and i'll be moving into my new digs next week. i figure now's the time to figure out my master plan for the new year...

ok...so that's what i had written back in january and it stayed in my draft box for how long? it's been a while since i've blogged. heck...it took me a while to finally get a new digi cam battery so i guess that will be my only excuse for now.

nothing new to report other then i've been bogged down with the new job and having to get up early in the morning with very minimal sleep. went to the india arie concert last night. it was quite funny because it felt like my summer last year was the main theme for her show - from 'private party', 'back to the middle' to 'heart of the matter' - made me think that i've definitely moved into the right direction.

let it snow...

california dreamin'...

so as a token of congrats for getting accepted to UBC's masters program in education and for the big 'i'm so sorry' that i lost your motorcycle jacket in the belfast carjacking ... it was time for pat to partake in a sweet little getaway to cali. we decided to take a short little detour to las vegas (against dave's will) and to my surprise, pat was begging and asking everyone to stay for another night in sin city (or what dave and i call - hell on earth).

enjoy the LA pix and the hilarious video below.

Kidnapping Chu to LV

lost in translation

more like loss of hearing.

here's a cute little video of me and my wonderful grandmother. basically she gets confused and thinks i'm her only daughter "jong ho" when really she knows it's me but sometimes can't connect the dots. it's sad sometimes because you almost don't want her to forget who you are.

i love her to bits....

gma and me

here's to the little ones...

i took some proud footage over the holiday season of some very special kiddos. also, here are some xmas pix - enjoy!

mimi singing a christmas song

vic's boy walking

proud of my boy

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!!!