Golf golf and more golf

Wed nite went to driving range, sort of an exercise before we played pitch and putt on Sunday. As usual, had free coffee and donut.

Thurs nite went to John's place to get back my jacket, and took some pics of his neighbour's cat. It's so fat and doesn't mind ppl. The pics weren't good, since the cat's black and it's nite time.

Fri nite went to driving range again. I suck so much, I only had 5 good shots the whole time I was there. Many times I just missed the ball completely. It's just so hard to use the right technique.

Sat, boating as usual in the morning. Saw a seal again. I think it's a miracle that there are living things in the toxic water, pardon me, false creek water. In the changing room, Kerry told me that she heard that I'm an awesome paddler!! Dez asked me to join Taiwanese festival. Just replied to him today that I'll.... there goes my 30bux. It's really hard to say no to ppl, and it's just so much more fun to paddle in a Taiwanese boat, very festive and lots of leg room.

Took a trip to the brickhouse library, it is so completely different. Same place, but looked so much bigger. They have a book donation at the front now.

Went to see Skeleton Key at Richmond Center. It's not very good, the twist in the end is not really a twist, kinda see it coming. Saw sugarless recipe book (basically just use unsweetened apple juice) at the book sale, but forgot to buy it when we got out of the movie.
Then, we went to church together, got the same priest as last time. Main topic was that we should not expect things in return from our worshipping. Boring.... I've known that from the beginning.

Sun, went to Eaglecrest. Surprisingly, I had a few good shots and did not always miss the ball. Only missed it a few times, and it totally looked like I was just practicing my swing. I'm the one w/ the highest score, and btw highest means the worst. Considering that I'm changing my technique, I think I did good. Learned that I'm supposed to start unwinding my back before the club hit the ball and then have my arms follow my waist. Their cafe suck, asked them for ice coffee, no they don't have it. How hard is it to make ice coffee. Their coffee cake is too fatty, and had too much chocolate in it. When I order a coffee cake, I expect a coffee cake, not a chocolate cake.

After golfing, headed back to John's place, rested a few hours, then went back to my place so that I could take a shower before going to the family dinner. We had all white meat chicken breast grilled, very healthy, greek salad (w/ self serve feta cheese), green salad, very sweet salad w/ bean and chick peas. Dessert is a big bowl of blueberry w/ no-sugar vanilla ice cream. It's so nice, except that there were too many blueberries. I could have the whole meal w/ just the blueberries but needed 2 scoops of ice cream instead of 1. Also had a half piece of very heavy chocolate brownie, too chocolate for my taste.

The supper was just right, John felt otherwise, probably because he didn't have the blueberries that tend to expand in one's stomach. However, when I saw my parents having stir fried bitter gaud with beef, I couldn't resist and had a small cup of it. And then, I had 4 fugly looking chocolate with macadamia nuts, presents from neighbour, they r going away for a Hawaii trip. I'm such a glutton.

My Fishies

A year ago, they look like this


See how huge they are now

Spooked my fish

After 3 weeks of neglecting my fish tank, I finally set out to clean my tank today. It was disgusting, it's 100% waste. The filter was all clogged up, the water was all yellowy, all edges of the water had layers of poops . So I decided to do a 100% water change, totally breaking the one golden rule that every website says. I was sorta doing that all along tho, indirectly by doing several rounds of siphoning.... the water was almost all gone when I had only "vacuumed" out one quarter of the waste. So this time, I'd decided, no more several gallons of water bucket carrying trip to the bathroom. Just clean the whole damn thing.

First, I spent half an hour cleaning the filter, and found out that the battery/motor can actually be detached from the rest of the filter.
I filled my medium sized water bucket with water from the tank, and of course, tried not to get any poop in.
Then I used my hands to transfer the fish from the tank into the bucket and set it aside.
The fishes were getting too large for the net that I've bought with the tank, some are now 2 inches.
Then I removed 3/4 of the water from the tank (my tank is 10 gallons) into my large water bucket and carried it to the bathroom and drained it down the toilet. Talk about weight lifting, at least this time I only did it once, not 9.

After I rinsed the bucket, I transferred most of the gravels into it and thoroughly rinsed it several times in the shower. And, of course, mom complained afterwards. When they were clean, I transferred them into a heavy duty plastic bag. Then, carried the whole tank with the remaining gravel and water into the shower, rinsed it, transfered the gravel into the plastic bag, and throughly cleaned the tank.

Finally.... after all the cleaning, I moved back all the gravels into the tank, filled it with water (with conditioner), and carried the fishes back into the tank.

The fishes were totally scared after this ordeal. They hid in the corner and wouldn't come out to eat.

Nothing in particular

Fri nite, went Pitch and Putt. Learned new technique at the price of hurting of left shoulder, still don't get it though.

Sat, went boating, then went bbq at Barnet Marine Park. We got an extremely good place, totally in shade (thus wasted my sun block).
I did not eat TOO much, 1 beef sausage, 1 chicken sausage, 1 fish ball, 1 imitated crab ball, 1 beef rib eye, 2 chicken wings (w/o skin),
The beach there is pathetic, but I still went in and had exfoliation to the bottom of my feet.

Sun, went to church with John!!! We got bored together. Didn't get a funny priest this time.
Then, watched Team America at John's place.... slept thru the second half of it, not that it's boring, I'm just too tired. It's like South Park, puppet style.
Then I went shopping at Richmond Center by myself, for sis bday gift. Shopped for about 3 hrs.
Got 2 sunglasses, and a cute coin bag for myself. Got Dead Sea face gel peel, and seed that will have "Happy Birthday" on its leaf for my sister.

The coin bag is so cute, there are so many colors. Pale blue, black, white, red, green, and orange. I had such a hard time choosing, stood there like an idiot for an hr (in total) i think. They just look so cute all together.

I found a lil scratch on the pink sunglasses that I bought, I wonder if I can get it exchanged....

Went skating in Ricmond Ice Center and saw my coach, Kevin. He told me AGAIN (the 3rd time) that this time Adult will have the whole ice and asked if I'm going to the class. I said yes, altho I wonder if it's really a waste of time and money. I'm pretty sure what he's going to teach in class again, I think I can be an assistant coach.

I just found out that Kevin went with the StarSkate students to Grouse Grind. Most of them finished within an hr. The tallest of them only needed 45mins and 31secs, and the shortest (and cutest) took 1:06:29.
Kinda make me want to do it again and see if I can finish it in 50mins (or was it 55?) again like last yr.

Grouse Grind

Finished it in 58 mins, I think I could have done a lil better. Going slow at the start, but then that gave me more energy at the end. I was dripping from start to finish, good that I brought clothes to change.
Saw bears, wolf, and lots of sculptures up there.




Afterwards, took a shower, then went pitch and putt at the place that we've been to too many times. Got 42, three 6s, and all the rest 4. My best score by so far, but still one stroke behind John.

Oh, and we got lucky, didn't get caught w/o paying parking up in Grouse.

Minter Garden

Went to Minter Garden yesterday. It's off of highway #1 exit 135. The exit is not hard to find but the garden itself is, it's on the other side of the highway and there is no sign indicating that.

We had lunch buffet at the Trillium Restaurant. It's not too expensive about 14 bux per person. I had veggie lasagna, chicken with wine sauce, rice with beef sauce, breaded pork chop with brown sauce, a teaspoon of cream cheese with orange spice in it, cold slaw, a lil potato salad, 2 cups of coffee w/ lots of cream, a lil chocolate cream cake, and a lil cake w/ fruit topping on top. The desserts were a lil too sweet, I like the chocolate cream cake more, especially the cream. They tasted a lil like save-on cake.

After lunch, we got the map and went in.

This is the most beautiful pic I've taken there, from the Stream Garden.

This is taken in rose garden, its name is "Love".


A very small maze.


Yummy shoes.

Golfing and movie

Went to eaglecrest last weekend.
It's an executive 9-hole course, very very nice.
I tried to use the rented driver for 2 holes, disastrous, usually shot off to the side. Lost a ball too, I went into the bushes but couldn't find it.
Then I had the latte and super sweet biscotti. John had the burger and fries, I had a few bites of it.

Went to Surrey to see "The Island" with John's friend, and with John of course.
I like the movie, but there is something not quite rite with it, maybe it's the pace or the way that it's put together or maybe it's too predictable, I couldn't really pinpoint it.

Tofino trip

Went to Tofino on Tue and Wed. It's so beautiful.

1st day

Check into Tofino Motel. Lady there suggested which beaches to go to and which restaurant. We walked around the village, went to SOBO, had a latte, saw a yummy blueberry pie but did not buy it, 5 bux a slice. Then we visited botanical garden. We got off the trail by accident and probably disturbed the ecosystem.
Then we booked a kayaking tour and had an early dinner. We went to Schooner. I ordered the tuna wrapped w/ wanton wrap.

There was this lil pot of sauce besides it so I poured it out onto the tuna. Big mistake! It's just soya sauce basically and it covered up any flavour that the original dish might have. It's so salty that it's close to bitter. In the end, I ended up have to pour some water onto my plate to wash out the saltiness. John ordered the mate dish, has salmon, halibut, oysters (absolutely tasty), mussles, shrimp, carrots, and beet.

Kakaying was a lot of fun, captured a lot of nice scenes and spotted an eagle.

Others said they saw seal but I couldn't see it, I think I only saw a buoy.
The water was very shallow, many times I hit the "seabed" w/ my paddle.
There were many bull kelp, they looked really weird, like monster from a comic book, floating thick branch w/ one big rounded bud at one end and leaves hanging out of it.
John was the steerer and I set the pace. Many times I had to stop paddling and took pictures, and left John there paddling alone.
I was soaked in the end, shrivelling all the way back to the motel.
Afterwards, we just stayed in and watched American Hot Rod.

2nd day
Woke up early at 5:15. Made coffee, both caf and decaf. Decaf tasted like crap, loads of whitening did not help.
We drove out to find breakfast, ended up at Pointe Restaurant. The view there was absolutely breathtaking!

The breakfast was also wonderful.

I ordered the egg benedict with goat cheese and spinach on crispy egglish muffin with slices of potatoes on the side. We also had freshly prepared berry juices and their featured strawberry jam with pistachio toast. John's dish was the Pointe breakfast, maple ham with 2 eggs over easy, and potato slices.

After breakfast, we drove to the rain forest reserve and hiked route A and B. Trees, and cobwebs everywhere. We put on deet so we didn't have to worry about the bugs.
Then we went to the beach, it's not as nice as the one we saw outside the restaurant but still very nice.

The water was absolutely painfully freezing, it's only 12 degrees, but it felt like zero to me. Somehow I was able to swam in it for a lil. John was being such a good bf, altho he didn't want to go in but he did a lil in the end cuz I was alone out there having fun. He got used to it after a while too. It was a lot of fun with the wave coming at us. I had to do breaststroke instead of freestyle cuz I have to watch out for the wave. The wave actually knocked off my red cap at one time and I had to search for it. Yes, I looked weird, swimsuit w/ a cap, but at least the sun won't be in my eyes.
Then we changed back into our clothing and went down to the beach and took some pictures. We then had lunch there at the restaurant by the beach. The service was very slow, I think we waited 45mins. John had the Wicki burger, and I had the flat bread with roasted chicken pieces w/ a lil cheese and spinach and cranberries. It was quite tasty.

Then we hiked the south beach trail, it's a one-way trail so we had to double back.
We saw blue jay, but it was too fast for my camera. It was right there by the trial, probably picking the berries, and it flew away when we walked by and at the time my camera was still in my bag and turned off, no way I could have captured it on film.
On the way back, I saw a whole bunch of mosquitoes and I tried to run thru it while fixing my hat, ended up tumbling down on the trail. Luckily it's just soft ground not concrete, and I'm so used to falling from skating.

So tired in the end, my left hip flexor hurts a lot, but we decided to go to the other trail anyway, the bog trail. Saw another bird in there, but it's not blue jay, and again I'm too slow to capture it on film.

After that, we just drove to Nainamo to take the ferry to Duke Point. We were exhausted. Altogether, we hiked about 8 km.
We made the 8:15pm ferry and was able to get home around 11pm.

Sikh

Woke up early and went to 8 o'clock church.
Then went to John's place sat around a bit and headed off to New West for his friend's open house "party".

We went to Best Buy but it was not opened yet, so we went to Wal-Mart and got a decoration thing, a small fountain w/ candle holder. Also got water conditioner and Cycle for my fishies, and new whole grain Quaker mini crispy, one cinnamin, and the other parmesan and cheddar cheese. The cinnamin one tasted kinda weird, but it's quite good after you got used to it.

The "party" was running a lil late, so when we got there it had not really started yet. Had to sit thru about an hr of Sikh service, totally boring, had no idea what the "preacher" is mumbling or singing about. But, I got to wear a shawl/hanky and it looked cute on me. mmm... maybe i should buy one someday.
After the service, we got indian food and stood eating (since no seat at first).
Very tasty rice with bean, cauliflower w/ orange sauce, pita w/ 3 kinds of dip (spicy weird orange sauce w/ potatoes, sour cream w/ corn that looks like corn chowder, yummy curry sauce w/ some kind of spice or beans), watermelon, pineapple, strawberry, salad, and an orange deep fried sweet flour thing.
Very full in the end.

Afterwards, we went to Best Buy again, only to find out that the deal on the flyer is gone and the package that we wanted to buy does not have the monitor w/ it anymore.
We went back to Richmond.
I ate some more and John studied some more.
Around 6 we went to driving range. John broke his skin, should buy glove soon.
Got free coffee and donut.
I still suck at golf.
We went back to John's place and watched Simpsons and Family Man together, I also brought along my Harry Potter book and read it in between commercials and when I don't find the show interesting.
I cooked 2 eggs w/ some palentio (the eggs were awesome but not the palentio) and fried some of the fish cubes (already seasoned, quite good) that my parents got at the fish shop in Aberdeen center.

Richmond Race

Had an exciting race.
Came in 2nd, 1st, and then 3rd (or 2nd).
We had our own "chef" and a small portable grill
Food:
- super spicy tandoori chicken drum and wing
- 2 lamb cubes
- 1 phillipino sausage (quite tasty, sweet and salty)
- 1 big slice of watermelon sipped with rum (since not enuf time, so i couldn't taste the rum at all)
- 2 mandarin oranges
- 1 banana
- several handfuls of Dutch 0 trans fat potato chips
- half a jelly shooter (got it before i knew what it was and gave the rest away)
Fun:
- saw a seal popped up its head during 2nd race
- dog sitter while Cricket (one of our team members) is away
- 3 dogs in our team, Ottor's (dominic dog w/ coyote blood) always trying to pick fight with other dogs
- able to watch the race clearly since it's alongside the river

After the race, I immediately went home did not join them for beer garden since i don't drink so what's the point.
Took a shower and then went out w/ John to Chapters, got light caramel frappucino, too sweet, would not get it next time.
Then we rented Hitch, bought roasted honey and garlic chips (altho it tasted like sour cream and french onion to me), and went home for supper, had beef brisket w/ white carrots, fresh steamed fish, taiwanese cabbage w/ pork, and healthy logan soap.
Hitch is SUCH A GOOD movie!!!! Totally better than I had expected, I laughed all the way throughout, and it's not a meaningless comedy.
We had SUCH A GOOD TIME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ^__^

One Long Name

Turns out that we have ppl from 11 teams to be exact.


Shaggin’ an Elephant at the Alpha rate

next to a Smokin’ Horny Goat and Gifted False Creek Man

while Drunk’n Cruisers watch in a Benz JET!!!!

“11 Teams, 1 Stroke”

A Multi-team team

Went to practice again (yes 2 practices in a row...) for the Richmond race.
It's a very diversed team. We have ppl from the Jet-Ai team (just me), Ready Jet Go team, the Alpha team, the Mercedez-benz team, the Horny goat team, the Shagging dragon team, the Elephant and white castle team, and the Drunk'n dragon team.
Our race schedule name will be "Shaggin’ an Elephant", and unofficial aka: Orgy team.
I don't really like the name....
It was a much more intense practice than with our own team, although I can't say that it's more exhausting, probably less exhausting I'd say.
I did not have as much fun as last time. I skinned my left ankle from the leg braces (the legs of the seat in front of me), and about to have a concussion from Toby's stroke. Donno y he could hit me I'm already leaning and shorter than most ppl. I guess at other ppl's height it's the shoulder that he hits, but with my height it's my pony tail that he hits. Basically I felt like he's trying to pull away my elastic band that I used to tie my hair with. It hurts.
I'm gonna be the stroke in the first race, cuz I have the Alpha rate, altho I'm not in the Alpha team. Coach said I'm like a lil wind up doll. However, I'm a lil worried that that we won't be able to establish that rate throughout the whole race.
A guy in the back "died" trying to follow the rate....

Steamingly Hot

Had such a great workout yesterday at boating.
Very nice weather, needed to put on tons of sun block.

In the middle of the practice, had to take off my sunglasses cuz I's fogging it up.
Jang said "Maria is steamingly hot!". Jang was being so funny during the whole practice. We had such a laugh. He was telling Andrea that she wasn't rotating thru her hips enuf. He said something like "Andrea, not that I'm looking at ur butt. U need to rotate w/ ur hips. I'm not saying that I'm looking..." (this is not verbatim, it's even more funnier the way he said it). The whole boat couldn't stop laughing.

I was the stroke this time, since Nicole couldn't make it. Had a blast!!!!! All open water in front me. No need to worry about clashing w/ the paddle in front. No need to worry about splashing the person in front and I get to control the pace. I did not splash at all this time, probably because I get to control the rate. And, Dez is sick (probably from accidentally swallowing false creek water during practice with the Alpha team), so no one is judging my technique at all times. When he comes back, I'd probably prefer to sit in the back.
Oh I love dragon boating!
I was not soaked at all this time, not even half of me was wet.

Wedding gown

Went to church, then to my friend's place.
We went out to see the place that she booked for her wedding.
The first place that she had considered is more beautiful than the one that she had decided to use. However, the second place's front door is easier to find.

Then we went to two gown stores. The first one has cheaper gowns, the second has more pretty but more expensive gowns. I like the first gown that she tried on in the second store the most... but it's like 2k....

Then she treated us brunch at Denny's. I had 2 sunny-side-up, bits of bacon, 2 german sausages, 1 2/3 of pancakes w/ butter and syrup, and 1 bite of blueberry pancakes. It wasn't much at all, but it was very greasy. I felt sick afterwards, had trouble digesting all that fat.

Afterwards, I went to John's place. Napped a lil (still tired from yesterday), watched a lil TV, then we drove to Queensborough Landing, visited Best Buy and MEXX.... and then everything is closed. It's like an oven in the open parking lot, summer is finally here.

9km swim

On Sat, went to be a spotter for John's friend's 9km swim competition in English Bay.
We "woke up" (can't really say woke up cuz I could not sleep at all on the couch) at 4:30am (I actually got up at 4:20am to take a shower), and we drove to Kits to pick up Les. John had his first and ever lesson at boat driving, he tended to over-steer it but got the hang of it after a lil while.
We drove the boat to Sandy Cove, that's where the race started.
Les piggyback me to the shore (since we could not beach the boat) so that I could pee without getting my feet wet. We left poor John all alone in the boat.
Then Les changed into his suit and piggyback me to the boat and threw me into it.
We waited for quite a while before the race actually started, possibly half an hour.
Oh, and I used my dragon boat paddling techinque to steer the boat when the engine's off.

We had a hard time figuring out which one was Les at first cuz most of them wore orange hat and the number on top of it were not visible from where the boats were lining up.
It wasn't until a few minutes into the race that we figured out where he is (his black chin wrap helped, however, there's also another person wearing it).
We were having quite a lot of problem with steering our boat cuz most of the time the boat had to be in neutral (otherwise it'd run too fast and ended up too far away from the swimmer), and there were tide that forced us out of our planned position. There were quite a number of times that we were way too close to Les and in danger of hitting him. To counter that problem, we sometimes had to turn the boat around, a big circle, and I guess that confused Les a lot. Also, given the destination were so far away that it's invisible to our mere mortal sight, Les did a lot of zig zagging around, i.e. no idea where he should be headed. I had to really shout at him to have him stay on course. I guess that really affected his time. Ended up last in the race (4:09 hr), and almost couldn't meet the 4 hr deadline. However, he totally did not seem winded at all during the whole race. He had energy to shout back at us from time to time, very clearly I might add. It's like he's just jogging slowly.

After the race, we drove back to Granville Island and returned the boat.
The person charged Les's card $30/hr (we used up 6hrs) instead of the $25/hr that he claimed he would charge, and then he also charged insurance which he also claimed that he would waive. And then there is also the fuel charge, $25.

Then we drove back to Kits beach, picked up Les and drove him back to his place.
He invited us to have brunch with his folks. We politely declined cuz we were way too tired.

We drove to Brentwood mall and picked up the Harry Potter book. Painless. There were no line up AT ALL!!! I think it's just stupid to line up overnite for a book, even more stupid to block off the road for ppl to line up.
Tried out the Starbuck's green tea frappuccino blended creme, it tastes absoultely weird. Probably because it's green tea, not Matcha. Jugo Juice's Might Matcha tasted much better than that, and probably healthier, it has soy milk, skim milk, and low-fat frozen yogurt.

I "napped" (too bright and hot to fall sleep) for a few hours before venturing out again. We went to SilverCity and saw "War of the Worlds", it's better than I had expected. There were quite a few things that didn't make sense tho. For example, y wouldn't the aliens have thermo sensor? y wouldn't the roads be totally blocked out by dead cars? Y did the aliens wait millions of yrs?
The special effects and the story were pretty good. Quite scary a few times.

Q & E

My first 18 holes at QE park.
As expected, I suck except for a few holes. It's such a hard course, so many slopes. I was so afraid to go all the way, cuz all the way may mean all the way down the hill.
It's much more fun when no one is counting my scores, but I do keep track of my best score for individual hole..... which is a 4.

Leaky apartment on a Sunday

John could not turn off the hot water at his apartment, and no plumber wanted to come help on a sunday w/o charging an arm and a leg. He tried to fix it himself but didn't work. Knobs that could be turned were all turned, covers that could be removed were all removed. Ended up wasting hot water (more than drizzling but not pouring) the whole day, but made an appointment and got it fixed the very next day.

Sea Vancouver

Had 3 races, first race 1000m, second race 250m, third race 500m.
We were in 2nd place in all three races.
In our first race, one of the boats (those that were always parked there) were right in front of us when we were about to start the race. We did not have time to correct our position, had to meander around it. Our steerer lost control while trying to correct our path, and we ended up quite afar from our original route. However, we still ended up in second. That's pretty awesome.

Beta release celebration @ work

Our boss is so nice. Each of us got a funny award, mine was "Most features completed before they were specified".
Had a whole bunch of chips with dips, small bread with dip, chips, cheese with fruit (cherries, blueberries, rasberries, and sth that tastes like kiwi but looks weird...have small hairs on it and its skin is kinda transparent and green), cheese, flat bread with dip...
I also got a lanyard but my security pass has no hole in it.

Testing my new club

Went to Pitch and Putt with John.
I had 3 good shots. For 2 holes, I only needed one stroke to get to the green. For 1 hole, I only needed to putt once.
However, the rest sucked, and I lost a ball.
6,6,5,3,5,6,5,6,6 = 48.
The course wasn't very nice, very soggy.

Fried ox-tongue and boiled up some potato pancakes (more like potato dumplings) for supper. Kinda wasted the ox-tongue, it's supposed to be used in a hot-pot not fried.

Devil Eyes

How come it's almost always raining when we practice boating?
Yesterday, the same. And, as usual, it kinda stopped and just drizzled when we started practicing.
I was very tired and didn't do too well, splashed the person in front of me. She looked back at me and it's quite scary.... looked like she wanted to kill me.
Thanks to Paul's waterproof jacket, it wasn't too cold to paddle in the rain.
But, I had water trapped in between my jackets. When I scratched my back, a whole bucket of water fell out onto the feet of the person behind me, she wasn't too mean about it... I did that twice and Gabby said "Did Maria pee again?". Boating can be quite funny sometimes.

BDAY weekend

Thurs
Was planning for bubble tea in Leisure but couldn't find parking, not so lucky this time. We went to Homayi instead, and had drinks and dessert for supper :). I had the Aloe with mixed fruit drinks, and John had the mango puree drink (very soothing). We had mango pudding with coconut jelly inside, and banana crepe with ice cream. All very nice, except that they were all sweet and cold. Kinda want to eat something hot and salty afterwards, sweet sensory overloaded.
Got extremely nice gift from John. A white gold necklace with a teardrop shaped pendant with 2 diamonds, very good design ^__^.
Went to play Pitch and Putt, I suck with the new club that is too long for me. Except 2 5s, all the rest were 6s.


Fri
Went to Salmon Festival down in Steveston, saw the parade. Not much floats. Many had nothing to do with the festival, like business advertising. Got temporary tattoo, sorta my goal to get there.
Had Greek food. Seafood sampler and Eek Mak. Love the dessert, first time I had it.
Also had Matcha Latte @ Blenz, got the non-sweetened kind, not bad.
Also bought the juice concentrate with Mangoneez (?sp) in it. Said it's antiviro (anti-HIV)<--that i don't really believe, immune system booster, has flavonoids, antioxidants, ...etc.
After lunch, went to the cannery, free admission. Saw the lil movie in there, quite neat.
After that, we went to see the Japanese museum and the shipyard that we never saw them open except this day.
Extremely tired afterwards, all the walking and standing.
Saw "Robson Arms", weird episodes this time.
First one is about a gay couple, one partner is young, in his 20s or 30s, the other is in his 40s or 50s. Altho I don't really have an issue with gay ppl, but still not very comfortable seeing them kissing on TV.
The other one is about an affair, the female is in her 50s while the male is in his 20s or 30s. According to the episode, the female's husband is much older than the female, so she felt unappreciated. But, in my opinion, they look the same age.....


Sat
Boating practice with the other team together in one boat.
For our team, Dez was the only guy that showed up. Had a pretty good practice, only splashed the person in front of me once. Very good workout too, felt the euphoria that I felt after I had a long run. We did 5 pyramids and 3 to 4 sprints with start.
At the end of the practice, I almost couldn't feel my legs.
Showered then had dim sum with family.
2 hours later had supper with John and his family in a Greek restaurant.
I like John's order more, Moussaki, eggplant "lasgana".
I had the beef ball appetizer, to me it's like an entree. Don't like it very much, too spicy.
Went home and then saw TV together while snacking on cherries and cherry peaches (from the backyard).


Sunday
Went to church, talked about the difficult path that's ahead for the catholic now that same sex marriage is legal.
Went to Coquitlam for my boating team's pool party. Pally's place is awesome. Super nice hardwood floor, 3 floors, nice pool (altho too small for laps), cute dog and big cat. Lots of food.
I had 1.5 hamburger steak, 1 garlic curry chicken steak, 1.5 beef rib eye black peppered steak, lots of fruits (blueberries, kiwi, pineapple, mandarin orange slices, orange slices, strawberries with dip made with marshmallow, cream cheese, and ??yogurt, cherries), instant noodle salad, one chicken wing. Did not have any sausage or bun.
John did not have a good time there, since he doesn't know anyone there. My fault, shouldn't have drag him out there.
Later, we went to Riverside golf store and bought a 7 iron, a kiddie one. Tried it out in driving range. Not bad, farthest I hit was about 80 85. Phew.... finally my club is not trying to tear my arm away. What a relief! It's so nice there, free coffee and one free mini-donut. I know I shouldn't have the coffee but it's too tempting when it's free. And actually I've just found out that the other driving range offers free coffee and donut too, except that u won't see any donut if u didn't go there early in the morning.
Maybe in a yr or two, I deserve a whole set of clubs... but I donno it's just seem too complicated for my lil brain to know which club to use in a real golf course. And, not to mention that it's expensive.

HAPPY BDAY

to me.

Jao gum jao a yr older.
Time seems to pass by fast.... or my memory is getting worse and worse.
I still feel like I've just graduated from U.

My cube is on TV

Saw my workplace (both outside and inside) on Robson Arms on last Fri's episode.

Great Weekend!

Fri
Went pitch and putt w/ John after work.
Did badly but had improved in a few tee-off..... only to be worsened by my putting.
5,4,4,4,4,6,6,4,6 = 43.

Sat
Went to dentist.
Worked out.
Got used clubs.
Went to driving range. Twisted my elbow. Found out that my club does not fit me.
My right arm still hurts now.

Sun
Went to church.
Skipped workout.
Went downtown with my sis.
Tried Sen5es. I had a almond and pear tart, it's very nice. Tried a lil of my sis's
halzelnut praline mousse cake. Tried almond biscotti and a hazelnut cookie. Also had decaf latte, 4 bux and too bitter for my taste!!!
Bought 3 tops, one from lululemon, a pink whisper tank. It's so unique, I'm not gonna wear it for sport.
Saw a co-op that I worked with before, did not get a chance to say hi.
Went to blenz and tried the MatchaChillo, very good.
Went to Manzo for supper. Tried different things, all very tasty. John got sick from Mayo tho.
Got a super pretty card, a whole bouquet of flowers, and Swarvosky crystal pendant/necklace from my friend :'( i'm so surprised and happy.
The card is from Japan, have several layers of paper sakura, have never seen a card like that before.

JET JET JET AI AI AI ...

It's been such a wonderful weekend besides the rain.
We finished 7th in Division C, a division ahead than we were expected to compete in.
My new nick name is pinky. It's picked after I changed into my pink sweatpants.

The races were all very difficult, we were right heavy all the time.
My butt kept sliding off to the right. Had such a hard time to do any rotation and to keep both of my hands outside and to the left of the boat.

My friends, family and John all came to see me. John hugged me eventho I was all soaking wet after the race :P. Usually I splash myself, but not the last race. When we were heading towards the start line, a boat came towards us and splashed me all over, front, right, and center, ten times worse than my own splashing.

Science World is free during the whole event.
Got to see a lot of interesting things, but were about to get sick of it after visiting it for so many times.

Still waiting to see the official final results. I think our time was 2:24 min the last race (the route was 500m). We raced in Gemini throughout the whole race event, and we were practicing in 6x16 the whole season. Gemini is such a tippy crammy boat, hard to rotate in, and very sensitive to any movement. Oh... and our caller dropped her water bottle into the water when we were heading towards the starting line.

There were many free stuffs giveaway. I got a free mini personal fan.
There were one tent that gives away a bag of free stuffs. Seriously, no kidding, a whole bag of stuffs, junk food, food, cans... etc etc. The lineup was terribly long so I didn't get into it.

After I gave rides to 2 of my boatmates, I went home took a shower, went to church, and then went to see John, and watched TV together. I was very very tired.

Hilarious blog

teaching in japan
http://www.outpostnine.com/editorials/teacher.html

index
http://www.outpostnine.com/editorials/

Super Busy Weekend

Took morning off for a doctor's appointment.
Skated 1.5hrs before. Saw an old man there, asked me if I compete..... how come ppl always ask me that... i'm only doing single jumps...still. He was skating pretty smooth, and was practicing Ina Bouer, skate in a straight line with heels facing each other.

Worked only a lil and then went to have family dinner. John's sister's family was there.
Played with Kamran a lil. He's so cranky, but still very cute.
Played a lil "hockey" with John and his niece and cousin. John apparently is very good at it, had all the right moves.
Had roasted chicken and salads. The calorie-wise sun dried tomato oregano salad dressing was so good. I did not have too much since I'm still full from lunch.
Went to Central Park and learned that you need your own clubs to play the twilight session, same with the Renfrew court. The Renfrew court seemed too complicated for me, curvy landscape, and has water hazard. And, it's 18 holes.

Rainy sat practice. We only had 10 paddlers. We mostly focused on technique and timing, it was a very relaxing practice.

Later, went to John's sister-in-law's wedding in a Lutheran church in New West, then banquet in a hall. John's niece was the flower girl, and cousin the ring bearer. They were all dressed up and looked very cute.
After an hour or so, we had the banquet in a hall. It was decorated very beautifully.
There was a lot of food.
Appetizer - bun, 2 very salty slices of ham, lettuce, olives, tomato, cantaloupe, and a ball of very gumy chewy cheese.
Pasta - a 3 inches x 3 inches Lasagna
Main Course and salad - roast beef with super tasty roasted potatoes (never had such wonder potatoes in my whole life), beans, and carrots
Dessert - a slice of wedding cake

All ladies got a gift to take home, a cake serving knife with 5 (for good luck) yogurt/sugar dipped almonds. Since the receiving line was so very long, I could not resist and had 3 almonds before they started to serve the food.
I also took home the centerpiece (flowerly square candle holder) on our table, since my bday is the closest to the wedding date, and John's mom let me took it altho it's hers that's the closest. That's so nice of her.

There were dancing while the cakes were being served.
Since John didn't feel very good, ate cheese against my advice, so we did not dance
:'( so very disappointed...
We left early, even before the kids...and too lazy to say goodbye to the bride....

The kids were cranky and sleepy the whole nite but they took nap and got second wind afterwards. Every time I hold Kamran, he started to wake up and cried....
It's a long day for them.

Free Sun Alcan Practice
- practiced in Gemini, the boat i hate
- my left hand kept slipping upwards
- got soaked thru and very very tired during the whole practice
- i did learn one new thing, how to paddle backwards
- got my new paddle, 46.5 looks like altho i ordered 47
going to put hockey tape on it and see if it helps
- still no team T-shirt... what a rip-off.... i want my T-shirt :'(
apparently they cut the wrong size and had to fix it

Afterwards, went golfing with John.
I had improved, but still bad.
My scores were 5,4,6,6,5,5,6,6,4 = 47, 2 behind John.

Regatta Official Results

Saturday AM

A Final - Gemini
1. 2:04.330 FCRCC Mixed
2. 2:05.600 Pacific Reach
3. 2:13.340 ROLI Canada I
4. 2:15.880 Swordfish
5. 2:59.040 Team SUCCESS
6. 3:09.220 Team Ruckus

B Final - 6-16
1. 2:09.780 Specialty Subaru Legacy
2. 2:17.420 Fresh Off The Dragonboat
3. 2:17.520 False Creek Masters Women
4. 2:18.420 Specialty Subaru Outback
5. 2:19.530 Alpha Dragons Red
6. 2:22.730 Dragon Hearts Team Ultimate

C Final - Gemini
1. 2:23.330 Concord Pacific Flying Dragons
2. 2:23.450 Scotiabank Dragons
3. 2:23.570 Eye of the Dragon
4. 2:23.700 Team STORM
5. 2:24.110 VO2Max
6. 2:24.220 ROLI Canada II

D Final - 6-16
1. 2:24.360 PowerBar CC Dragons
2. 2:25.090 Alpha Dragons Blue
3. 2:29.270 Splash Test Dragons
4. 2:36.680 Elephant and Castle Booze Cruise
5. 2:52.370 Draggin' Butt
6. 3:02.520 C.C. Riders


Saturday PM

A Final - Gemini
1. 2:12.780 Drunk'n Dragons Blue
2. 2:13.520 Just Dragon Long
3. 2:13.620 Team Lifescan
4. 2:13.980 TCC Carrib Dragoneers
5. 2:16.650 Team United
6. 4:00.000 False Creek Grandragons

B Final - 6-16
1. 2:14.350 Nothin' Dragon Seniors
2. 2:14.950 Ready, JET, Go! (our sister team)
3. 2:15.390 Prospera Team X-Calibre
4. 2:18.420 Team Up Roar
5. 2:20.190 Golder Water Warriors
6. 2:22.900 Hydro Power Dragons

C Final - Gemini
1. 2:14.320 Phat Phish Racing (my high school friend's team)
2. 2:17.490 Dragon's Edge
3. 2:17.660 Team Masala
4. 2:18.590 UTStarcom Celestial Dragon (my ex-coworker's team)
5. 2:31.480 Concord Flying Dragons Too
6. 2:32.010 Gift of Life

D Final - 6-16
1. 2:19.120 Drunk'n Dragons - Green
2. 2:28.300 Nothin' Dragon Sr. Challengers
3. 2:28.740 JET-Ai (us)
4. 2:30.440 Grandragons Too


Sunday AM

A Final - Gemini
1. 2:28.290 Eric Hamber Eternal Dragon
2. 2:29.500 Synergy Yellow Submarine
3. 2:35.250 TD Lightning
4. 2:36.910 Synergy Dregoons
5. 2:36.940 Dragon Hearts Team Magnum
6. 2:38.380 Synergy Ship Disturbers

B Final - 6-16
1. 2:19.990 Laoyam Eagles
2. 2:31.540 Synergy Pirates
3. 2:32.010 STM White Knights
4. 2:37.450 Strathcona Youth Dragons
5. 2:37.980 VanCity Thunder
6. 2:38.120 Synergy J-Speed

C Final - Gemini
1. 2:50.130 STM Red Knights
2. 2:54.840 Raging Rebels
3. 2:55.470 Mission VT
4. 3:00.980 Windermere Raging Warriors
5. 3:03.310 Kitsalano Water Demons
6. 3:03.520 Dragon Hearts Team Dragonfly

D Final - 6-16
1. 2:48.730 Synergy Soulja's
2. 2:50.500 VT Conquest
3. 2:53.470 RHS Flying Colts
4. 2:54.300 Super Stokin Dragonflies
5. 3:14.190 Surgin Sturgeons
6. DNS britannia db


Sunday PM

A Final - Gemini
1. 2:32.440 Burnaby Tsunami
2. 2:33.510 Kryptic Storm
3. 2:33.710 Mercedes Benz Silver Arrows
4. 2:33.910 Army Dragon Forces
5. 2:41.390 MacDonald Realty MacDragons
6. 2:41.750 Rogers Team Vortex

B Final - 6-16
1. 2:26.030 CIBC Dragons
2. 2:32.540 Scaly Justice
3. 2:33.780 Richmond Centre Dragoneers
4. 2:34.680 GVRD 44 Cheeks
5. 2:40.390 PH&N Horny Goats
6. 2:42.390 Gung Haggis Fat Choy

C Final - Gemini
1. 2:36.980 CBC Wave Catchers
2. 2:47.130 OarDeal
3. 2:48.060 TEAM MOMENTUM
4. 2:49.130 CAC Banana Boat
5. 2:49.860 Canadian Construction Women
6. 2:51.030 Central Cruizers

D Final - 6-16
1. 2:44.660 Dragons Breath
2. 2:47.890 BLG Smokin Dragons
3. 2:49.230 iCAPSIZE iCAPTURE Crew
4. 2:49.630 Drunkn' Dragons - Yellow
5. 2:50.130 Powerful Wet Chickens
6. 2:56.740 Saints Preserve Us

Regatta results

Race | time (boat)
Race 1: 2:39 (Gemini)
Race 2: 2:21 (6-16)
Race 3: 2:28 (6-16)

Came in second to last in the final.

Anniversar/Bday party

Lazy bum
After the boating on Saturday, I was so so very tired and laid down on the sofa and did nothing for at least 2 hrs. (Did not even have the energy to go out and join my family for dinner. ) Then, dragged myself up and read novel for about an hour... then finally forced myself in front of the computer and update my resume and cover letter.

Sun, went to church.

Went to Lansdowne to buy John's niece gift. We got her an edge board instead of lame ugly kiddy jewellery which she probably won't care about.
Had lunch there, split a Thai meal with John. I had most of the veggies, a lil coconut rice and noodles, and 3 pieces of meat. It's very good.
Then as we passed by the Cafe, I could not resist and bought a green matcha ice cap. It's SO VERY GOOD! It'd be much better if it's half the portion. I had trouble finishing the drink, but John helped me out a lil even tho he can't have milk.

Party at Maple Ridge.
Saw John's lil cousins and niece. They are all very cute, especially the baby.
The baby was teething and liked to bite my finger... SOSOCUTE!!!

Found out that I maybe allergic to cat, been sneezing the whole day since I got there. They have 2 cats there but from everyone's else testimony they might just be lying cuz no one have ever seen the other cat.
We were all trying to catch the cat that's there but with no luck in the end. It just somehow seemed to vanish from the surface of the earth.

I was very surprised that I got gifts, Starbucks cup with espresso chocolate beans, and HBC gift card. That's so nice of them.

Had 3 chicken wings, devil egg (so good), celery with dips (so yummy!), a slice of roast beef, cupcake, and lots of strawberries, pineapple, grapes, grapefruit, water melon, and melon.
If I didn't have lunch earlier I could have eaten so much more....

Found out that John's aunt's bday is the same as mine, and we forgot to get her gift.

Went grocery shopping and then head home.

This morning still sneezing a lil, but it totally stopped after swimming. Did 12 or 13 laps tonite, since I wasn't sure so I swam one more lap after I thought I did 12.

Regatta

Fri nite, we went to Crush for my boating team fundraiser party. Got there early (8:40-ish) and got a free drink, Shirley Temple. Danced a lil while and left just before 11. My pinkies were hurting at the end of the nite. Didn't sleep till 12:30 I think.
The next day I was able to wake up around 7:15, and somehow thought the practice was at 12:00 and missed it by a whole hour!!! Stupid me.
We had 3 races and we came in last, last, and probably second to last (or last again).
I was so very tired for some reason.
In the first race, I had trouble doing rotation since we're in a boat with seats much much shorter than the one we practiced in. My friend's team was second to last I think.
In the second and third race, we got to paddle in boat that's like our practice boat.
But still, I felt tired in the middle of the race, altho we did much better than the first race. It was 2"21 or so the second race, and 2"30 sth the first race. Big improvement.
Somehow I had trouble with back paddling while we're positioning and lining up the boat to the starter line. Felt like my left arm was gonna give out on the last few back paddle strokes. And, on all the second half of the races, I felt that I had lost my stamina. Also, I found that I had trouble keeping up with the boat. It's like I's gonna fall backwards and so I couldn't rotate forward as much as I could have. Next time, I'm gonna sit at the very edge of the seat so that the edge of the seat will push me as the boat propels forward. Then, I can conserve my energy and use them on my paddles instead of struggling to keep up with the boat. Or, I should have crouch more forward all the time.
Ate so much in between races, my teammates brought snacks and wholesome food as well:
- 2 Yaki Onigiri with tuna and mayo (wrapped with seaweed), and another one with purpleish Japanese herbs.
- one brownie (home made)
- few Nachos
- half apple struddle (from safeway i think)
- half a chocolate caramel protein bar
Oh, and I had trouble finding my water after the first race, some girl took care of all of our bottles then disappeared. It wasn't until after the second race that we found them by our tent.

busy busy

fri nite
- had my first pitch and putt. i sucked. there were many flocks of mosquitoes.

sat
- boating then dim sum
- saw Starwars

sun
- went swimming, then pitch and putt again. many bugs again.
improved a lil, still many times i max out (8...). There were 2 that I needed only 4 tho.

mon
cleaned fish tank

tue
- filmed ourselves at boating. i think i look cute. techique wise, I was pulling too far back. don't know how to fix that and keep in sync at the same time. when the person in front of me is pulling out the paddle my paddle is already too far back.
if i pull out at mid thigh, then i'd need to wait a lil (wait for the person in front of me to begin her next cycle) and then i'm sure desmund will say "don't pause in the air"......
coach said altho i'm a lil person, i have good rotation :).

today
- swam 12 laps + skating = extremely sore legs (esp right knee)
- able to complete a 1.25 to 1.50 loop and then fall on the ice...wahhhaaahaaa

Swimming

Did 9 to 10 laps today. This time they opened up the pool so it's 50Metres instead of 25. I had to take break once I reached the deep end of the pool, but at least I's using freestyle all the way. The water was extremely warm today, almost too warm.

Uneventful Long Weekend

Fri nite, rented "Mr Show" and "Exorcist". "Exorcist" was ok, not too scary.

Sat, went to Stanley Park with friends after boating. It was very nice. Then "all u can unt" in Richmond Sushi. John's friend is like an eating machine. Won pool 2 in a row.

Sun, went to church in the morning. Did car insurance. Played badminton with friends. I sucked this time. Saw John's other friend who was very tired from swimming mile long lap(s). Had supper at WhiteSpot burger joint.

Mon, swam about 25 short laps (short, since they only opened half the pool for real swimming). My upper thighs were in pain when I stopped.
After swimming, went for an hr walk with John near the airport. Saw 2 families of geese.

Shoulder hurts terribly this morning probably sprained a muscle while hanging on to the side of the pool during breaks.

My left shoulder hurts

Slept funny last nite.

Swimming was ok this morning, my breathing was a lil better. But, somehow I felt heavier and not moving as fast this time.

Yesterday at 8 rinks the lady that sat beside me asked if that lil girl was my daughter...Do I look like a mom now?

Got to be the stroke at boating

last nite since our stroke person couldn't make it.
We were practicing aggressive lean this time. I got soaked all over again. I wonder if we were supposed to rotate at the start since the first 16 strokes were so fast....I almost couldn't keep up.
I gave my friend a ride to the boating and we had supper at a Thai restaurant. It tasted just like Chinese. My friend brought another new person in. I wonder if they would give those newcomers a discount seeing that it's nearing the end of the season.

This morning went swimming with my friend at Watermania. I'm surprised that I still remember how to swim after more than 10 yrs of not swimming.

I wonder if I'm washing my hair too often.... I washed my hair last nite after boating and again this morning after swimming.

My back is so sore now....

First wedding banquet

Went to John's sister-in-law bridal shower. It's SO LONG!!! 4 whole hours... *O*
2 hours eating and 2 hours of watching her opening presents.
They bought so much nice stuffs for her....Corningware, towels upon towels, blankets, lamps, candle sets, grill, lamps, cutlery sets, big crystal jug, big coffee jug, kitchen towel sets...
She seems to like the face cream and flower shower that I bought her :).
Food included pasta, salad, chicken with carrots, beans, and roasted potatoes (very oily but very tasty), cookies (almond, licorice, lemon/orange, raspberry, meringe), roasted almond dipped in sugary yogurt, and cake (the usual very sweet Safeway cake). Did not get any gift. Only the oldest ppl at the table, ppl wearing pink (..or was it red..) underwear, and ppl that have tattoo got gift.

Brought 2 new friends to boating. One of them is not going to join cuz she's too busy, the other might join if there is a discount. The guy who likes to punch ppl from behind did not sit behind me this time. Phew..
We later went to have lunch together at Shabusen, a Korean BBQ restaurant.
I got there too early and shopped in Bedo, ended up buying 2 new tops. I'm going to share them with my sister. She likes them too.

Later, went shopping with John. Bought stuffs to clean the filter, and new water conditioners. We had early supper at John's fav bubble tea place. I ordered the Durian milk tea and spicy wonton. The tea tasted like milk powder milk tea, I did not taste a hint of Durian. But, I still like it. John ordered the Ricco Special Rice combo. It's extremely tasty, but poor quality, more fat than meat in the pork.

On Fri nite, we went skating at 8-rinks. The ice is nice but still not as nice as the one in Richmond. John did not have too much fun, kept having to adjust his skates. They finally have punch card, now I don't have to keep track of how many times I went....

Boating practice sux

Boating practice sux last nite.
The guy sitting behind kept hitting on my jacket.... said he's supposed to do that to encourage me to rotate more.... but I was already rotating as much as I could.
As a result, I was crouching too far forward than my back would like all the time.
My back got sore just a few mins into the practice....
And, I got a whole face of False Creek water during the race against other boats several times.

Good paddings
Using my padded pants and knee pads, I'm more willing to attempt new things and try out new technique. As a result, I fell a lot more but then it did not hurt at all.
I'm now trying double loop. However, I was always half a revolution short of my loop.
I wanted to start single axel too, but for some reason my body refuses to close in when I'm up in the air and as a result I always ended up doing a waltz jump.

Disoriented

This morning. I woke up at 7:00am and was confused whether or not I needed to go to work. Took me a few mins to realized that it's Mon.
Had too much fun during the weekend... time just flies by when it's too much fun.

Fri nite
Went running with John on the track. Only did 10 laps with a break at 8th. Must be because I'd gained some weight lately.... my run is getting worse.
Had dinner at home and went grocery shopping. John got me Crippers :)... but then I'm never having them again if I can help it... it has 2g of trans fat every 15 pieces.
We drove around the park near the airport... it's all dark and creepy.

Sat
Went boating in the morning. Did a really good job this time.
Coach said "[My Name], You are doing a fantastic job. Keep it there." twice!!! :D
Half the team was missing this time. I got to sit at the first row leading the left hand side. It took some time getting used to... to sync with the person sitting next to me instead of syncing with the person sitting one seat up on the opposite side.
The gloves were ok this time. I think I've broken into them. I just found out that they were actually a bit large for me. I can fit in 2 thumbs in the thumb hole. But, at least now they don't make me sway when I'm paddling.

After boating, went shopping with John. We went to get tea for mother's day presents for both of our moms. Also got new running shoes. We walked around in Ironwood's Canadian tire. Didn't buy anything.
Went to Fisherman's Terrace for mother's day dinner. It was expensive. We had abalone , shark fin with crab meat soup, scallop with green peas, salted dried shrimp with green pea leaves, and a cold plate with bbq pork, chicken, pork feet slices, and jelly fish strings. None of us enjoyed the abalone... too chewy and filling. Should have ordered plates separately instead of a set dinner. We were just too lazy... we made the same mistake last last dinner too.

After dinner, went back to John's place and watched TV while he smoked cigar with his female friend outside. I just stayed in and hoped that I didn't get too much second hand smoking. The cigar did smell nicer than cigarettes...but just as dangerous.

Sun
Went to church, then dim sum with family at Gingeri. They have new dim sums. We had the salad with shrimp. It's very presentable, it has nice crispy pastry wrapping on the outside, a shrimp on top and a smal piece of edible gold.
After dim sum, went to Aberdeen center to pick up the cake, and then went home and ran on the treadmill. Only had time to do 12 laps.

Drove to New West for second mother's day dinner. We had KFC, second time I'm having it. I didn't enjoy the chicken too much. I think I prefer the chicken wings with bbq sauce more. They gave us a whole box of Hershey's kisses with the meal. It's not the normal kind. Half of it is caramel, and the other half is white chocolate with milk chocolate strips and milk chocolate inside. They are so nice.

After dinner, went home and watched "Charmed", "Desparate Housewives", and "Grey's Anatomy".

Missed out the half-day event, regatta, our team's first race :(.
Looked like they had a lot of fun. They did 3 races, came in 3rd, 3rd, and 1st.
Also missed out our coach's surprise bday gathering....

Our team sux

We either....
1. did not start when other boats start, or
2. started a boat ahead and ended up last.

The new gloves did not help at all. Too much padding, my left hand kept slipping. The padding also created a pivot point right under my thumb, I could feel that the paddle's swaying back and forth.
In the end, I had to take off the glove on my left hand.
But, the whole reason I bought it is for my calluses on my left hand!!

Funny pic

I came across this funny pic accidentally...

.

McStuffed

Thighs and knees were in pain after Sunday run.
Skipped workout yesterday and today (just lazy today).
Ate a huge supper yesterday (fish, 3 cups of cauliflower with beef, left over tasty carrots from the roast chicken dish) and a huge breakfast today (bbq pork bun and 2 chinese pastry buns and a cup of milk with soy and Matcha).

Brought my skates home and was going to try out the Febreeze, but I couldn't get the damn thing to open after I struggled with it for over half an hr....I just managed to scrape off some of my skin.

I hope to finish digesting by the end of the day and go for a run outside.
The running shoes that I use on the treadmill are all flattened and hard on the knees and ankles.

All confused

Fri nite
Went shopping with John.... (really?... or did that happen on Sat... oh nevermind.. yes this was on Fri).
Went to Canadian Tire. Bought Febreeze for my skates, I hope it works out.
Went to Daiso. Walked around. Did not buy anything.
Rented "Meet the Fockers". It's ridiculously funny. I hope the TV was better so that the ppl won't have ghostly white glowing eyes.

Sat
Did good in dragon boating. Got demoted from the 3rd row to the 2nd row. But, in the end, the coach said I did a good job :).
Did not go out lunch with team... not too many ppl wanted to join and my hair was all wet.
Went to Surrey to drop off John's friend's tax filing.
Went to see "The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy". Very Sci-fi. I don't totally enjoy it, but at least it's funny at times.

Sun
Had dim sum with family. John missed out. We had very tasty lobster congee.
Bought pastries, mostly cream cake (Tiramisu mousse cake, and Green tea with red bean mosaka...a layer of it is green tea sorbet.... very expensive 3.99 per piece).
Saw nice mother's day cakes. Going to order one sometime after work.
Ran hard. 20 laps with 3 breaks.... over an hr. Left knee is hurting right now.
Saw "Deperate Housewives" with John.
Went home and saw "Grey's Anatomy".

Green tea

Found out that matcha (green tea leaf powder used in Japanese tea ceremony) with Silk soy milk is very very good.
Yum Yum! Found my starbucks substitute!
And, green tea is very good for ur health apparently, because of the antioxidants.

"Delicate Matcha powder has a rich sweet taste and is naturally pure and healthy. It contains rich in vitamin C, E and many minerals. It also contains an important element of Polyphenols, which are best known for being effective antioxidants. Use Matcha as a "secret health ingredient" addition to your diet and skin care. Eating and drinking wisely will help to detoxify your body, protect against disease and boost the immune function."
(Mitscher & Dolby 1998:1-4)

It is very useful in many ways:
Green Tea With Egg White Facial Mask
Place 2/3 teaspoon Matcha with 1 teaspoon water in a small bowl,
Add 1 teaspoon egg white,
Mix into green paste,
Use 2 cotton buds to apply green paste on face, avoid eye area,
Wait 10 minutes,
Clean face with warm water.

Green Tea With Lemon Juice / Milk Facial Mask
Place 2/3 teaspoon Matcha in a small bowl,
Add 2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice or milk, ½ teaspoon clear honey,
Mix into green paste,
Use 2 cotton buds to apply green paste on face, avoid eye area,
Wait 10 minutes,
Clean face with warm water.

Some recipes that I found:
Green Tea Cake - Taka Tea Garden Specialty
Use home tea cake recipe.
Place 1 tablespoon Matcha in a large mixing bowl,
Add Tea Cake ingredients, (??? donno where to get this tho)
Add 3 eggs and 150ml milk,
Add 4 tablespoons (80g) vegetable oil or margarine or butter,
Stir all ingredients until it is even consistency,
Follow below instructions:
"Preheat oven, Grease cake tin, Place mixture in tin, Place in oven to remove cake, Invert tin to remove cake etc…"

Green Tea Ice Cream
Soften any 1 litre container of vanilla ice cream at room temperature,
Place 2 teaspoons Matcha with 3 tablespoons of softened vanilla ice cream in a small bowl,
Mix into green paste,
Place green paste into 1 litre of softened vanilla ice cream,
Stir ice cream until it is an even consistency,
Store in Freezer,
Serve once hard.
(Use a home made ice cream machine for a better result.)

Green Tea Banana Milk/Soy Shake
Place 1 ripe banana,
Add 1/2 teaspoon Matcha,
Add 200ml cold milk or soy in a mixer,
Optional - add 1 teaspoon honey or 1 raw egg,
Mix 30 seconds.

Ocha Tuke Served With A Bowl of Green Tea Soup
Place ½ bowl well cooked rice in a Japanese bowl (or any kind of bowl),
Add a bag Ocha Tuke,
Add 1 teaspoon slices spring onion,
Add 1 teaspoon cooked slices salmon or any kind of cooked slices fish,
Pour boiling water or hot green tea over top,
Stir soup until it is an even consistency,
Serve hot.

It is possible to sprinkle Matcha on any kind of meal such as salad, vegetable noodle soup, sandwich, biscuit, cookie etc…(sweet or savoury) before serving.

In pain...

Exhausting day
Running in the morning, did 33mins.
Skating at lunch.
Dragon boat practice in the evening. It's so exhausting this time, might have to do with the fact that the thing that ppl used to step on with their left leg is broken for the seat that I'm in. For the whole time, I used my thighs to balance while rotating forward and back. At the end of the practice, I felt like I had just finished the Grouse Grind.....blehhh.
And, my left waist/just below the waist is all red and swollen afterwards. Ok.... another pad needed?

Lesson learned... the painful way

... Do not trust TV commercial....

Skating
.... ok practice. Able to complete 5 loops in a row sometimes.
Learned that I can put my butt out behind a lil more.
And that crouching before the jump gives you more control and power.

Play Hard...Dragon boating/Food show/Badminton/Run/Movies

Fri nite
Went to McDonald with John. He tried the double hamburger. I had nothing.
Rented movies. Had John's cereal.
Watched "What the bleep do we know about". A very philosophical movie, quite interesting and different.

Sat
Dragon boating in the morning. Didn't do very well this time... got promoted and then demoted. My left butt hurts. I'm bringing in a pad next time.
The girl in front of me was too fast. I had trouble keeping up with her and as a result I splashed A LOT... and she was soaked in the end... :(.
After boating, went to see John. We went to the Vancouver Eat Festival. It was fun. Saw Rob Feenie and Bob in person. Bob looked much bigger in person. Didn't stay around and watched their shows tho... I'm more interested in all the food around me.. hehee. I did regret that I missed Bob's show since it's free red wine with duck and steak.....

Sampled quite a lot of food, some were free, some u need to pay:
free Salmon bit (not very good)
5 tix crepe with strawberry cream (love this)
5 tix burger with beef brisket (not very good)
free ginger ice cream (very good)
free vanilla yogurt (very good)
free plum yogurt (quite good)
1 tix caramel cream coffee (quite good)
1 tix sausage (? buffalo?... quite good)
free sausage bit with hickery sauce (x2)(ok)
free tofu chicken bit
free decaf coffee
free flat bread pieces
free mango smoothie
free meat with Knorr sauce
free swedish hazelnut cookie
free sweet bakery bit
5 tix steak and ale pie (it's a 1/4 of a pie, quite good)
free green tea and flowery candy (very very good, the tea)
...
Wine that we tasted:
2 tix Lichee Li (Very good, not a hint of bitterness)
1 tix Lime soda (quite good)
1 tix Green tea (Very good and Unique)
2 tix Score (Very good)
2 tix Yellow Tail (bitter)
5 tix some kind of white wine
2 tix rasberry wine (very rasberry)
2 tix another kind of white wine
Free Hazelnut Coffee Mudshake (ok)
Free Orange Mudshake (very orange)
...
It wasn't too bad. I paid 12 bux for 20 tix, John paid 5 bux (+ 1 buck from me) for 10 tix. We tried a lot of different alcohol. I like the "Score" and "Lichee Li" (or was it Lichee Light). I am going to buy the pink Lichee wine next time I go into a wine store. Bought the green tea... need to find a tea whisket to make it.

Watched "Closer". I love it. Very good choice. I thought it would be boring at first.
Went to Steveston for a walk. Nice and cool. Tried Pistachio ice cream, not as good as the one in Aberdeen Center.
Bought groceries.

Sun
Went to Church. Father Dennis is leaving us to take care of his parents. So sad.
Went to Community Center in Granville Island. I now know how to get there. Yay! I'm still not too sure how I got out tho. Did a few mins on the rowing machine. I still don't think I got it.
Ran running with John. Did 11 laps.
Played badminton for over 2 hrs. My feet were about to form blister...
Cooked pan fried pork with seasoning (got from the food show) + salt and garlic + canned mushroom. It was good!

Today
ALL SORE !!!!!!

>.< My hand hurts...

Ran 40 mins on treadmill this morning, with a 4min break...to catch my breath and there was breakfast in my stomach.

At 8-rinks, did a lot of loop exercises. There were a few times I could get 5 loops in a row, but none of them have a lot of distance in between. I'm getting to know how to delay the loop jumps (that come after the first one), so that there is more curve on the ice before the jump happens. And, the scooping move of my right arm is starting to make sense to me... not just aimlessly frailing around.
Flopped around and fell on my wrist while practicing the loops. It hurts.
Practiced a bit of single lutz (no innuendos here...) as well, they still don't feel good to me.

Didn't see my coach this time.

Two new things that I learned...

Waltz jump preparation tips
- the head looks where u are going first
- close in your arms when u're doing the Mohawk to minimize any frailing arms that make u pre-rotate the jump
- when you open your arms do it sideways (left arm goes down and behind, right arm goes up and front)
- the free leg is behind and a lil to the left but not too much
My mistake is that it is too much to the right and thus creating too much curve when I'm gliding backward on my right skating leg. So, when I'm ready to step onto my left leg my body goes forward and pre-rotate. Bad bad bad.

Loop
- Put you right side against the board, and put the left leg in front and touching the board as with the rest of your body. The loop should feel that way before you jump.
- The rotation should be initiated by the right back outside edge not your body or your free left side.
- When you jump, the left arm stays in front and the right arm scoops down and up.

:(
I've lost the nice feeling that I had last week with my super nice waltz jump.
And, for the loop, I'm getting the bad habit of jumping too soon and rotating too much with my upper body.

Ouch...

Either my jeans too tight or too much running... my left butt/joint muscles hurt a lot yesterday when I just got to 8-rinks. Since meeting drag on to 12:15, I only got 25mins skating in. Better than nothing. I feel like I wasted it tho cuz this time it's free for me. U get one free skate for every 5 skates.

This morning my butt still hurts so no workout. I went to bed early and got 9 hrs of sleep, but I feel like I didn't get enuf w/o the jolt of energy from running.

I've recently noticed that there is a blog on friendster, and then I learned about RRS feed that let u link other blog. Lets see if this would correctly appear on my friendster profile...

Fun Weekend (part 2) and...

Sun
Went to have brunch with John's folk. Again, table topic is all about politics. I did get to talk a lil bit about boating... Turns out that his aunt is also in dragon boat as well, and much more serious than me.
I ordered the bavarian bennie. The sausages are way too big and I couldn't finish it.
Felt awfully full afterwards.
Took an hr nap right after.
Went to do a lil shopping at Richmond Center. Got some nice sweat pants at a rather cheap price. 2 for 30bux :).
Got 2 cheap tops too, 2 for 15 or 20 bux... can't remember.

Mon
Had 2 meetings in the morning, couldn't go skating. So I brought my coworkers to the 8-rinks cafe for lunch.. and they didn't open. We did get to see Mira practicing tho. We ended up driving up to Crystal Mall and had lunch at Pittsburgh. I had the smoked salmon with fruit, not too bad. But, my colleague's spaghetti with meat and cheese is way better. Next time, I'm going to order something hot.

Fun Weekend (part 1)

Fri nite
Stayed at work till about 8pm. Finished all my integration work and putback all my changes :). Silly me....made a wrong assumption of the old code (i.e. it's bug free) ...took me 2 whole days to fix it
Got home @ 8:30, had supper, and watched a few mins of TV and went to bed. So tired. I only got 3 hrs of sleep on the previous day... too excited from skating, couldn't sleep.

Sat
Eventhough it's raining, I woke up at 6:15 and went boating anyway. Although this time my leg couldn't quite reach the back of the seat in front of me (somehow the space between the seats were wider this time), I had such a great time, such a good workout. I'm starting to know how to use the rotation to paddle. Kevin (.. how come all my coaches are named Kevin...) even said that I'm doing a good job. He also said that I'm splashing a lil at the end, but I didn't quite know how to fix that. I figured out how to pull out sort of mid-thigh... by rotating the paddle a lil in the end... but then he said that I was splashing... so maybe that's not right. I signed up for the earth training on Sunday. I'm not looking forward to it too much... cuz I don't quite know how to get to and out of that community center. And, I've heard that parking is miserable there.
My back did not hurt too much this time, my left thigh is a lil sore from trying to stablize my body while I'm doing the paddling cuz my legs are too short for the seat that I'm in.
I would have joined them for lunch if my runners were not soaking wet (and if I didn't have "phobia" of driving to a new place). There were several inches of water in all the boats. I was trying to follow the rule to not step on the seat, so to walk across to the farthest boat I had to plunge my feet into the freezing water.
There is more coaching this time. More focused on technique instead of power and more talking to the other team. We introduced ourselves. As always, I forgot about everyone's names right after. I'm surprised to find that quite a few ppl have just recently moved back from Japan.
We now have 2 team names to vote on. "Jeti" (i - kanji in Japanese, love) or "Jeti knights". It started from Andrea's (our warmup girl) suggestion of "Return of the Jedi"

After boating, I went home took a shower and had lunch with family. Shanghai food this time. Very nice. Then took out $$ from the bank so that I can pay the boating team next week.

Went to see John after lunch. On our way to Granville Island, we drove pass the figure skating shop and I went in and bought the 50bux pants with pads... so expensive. John went to Subway and had the 6-foot long angus beef sub all by himself (since I'm already full from lunch with family.. should have invitied John... :P).

Granville Island is such an interesting place. There are many interesting knick knack stores and art studios there. I wanted to buy the pina colada soap, but it's 7 bux, too expensive for a bar of soap I think. There were quite a few bakery shop there. I saw the "pita" that was served in "Herons". I wanted to buy the crisp bread but there's sort of a line up there and I know how John hates lineup and that I should spend less.

Went back to my place and did some video editing for John's assignment. Took us a while to figure out how the VCR/TV/cam should be connected. Then we watched "Maid in Manhattan". I was too tired, didn't finish watching the last 30mins of it.

Good and bad.

Bad
Had such a bad day at work.
The whole day I was looking at unaligned messy html/jsp code and trying to make it work. Not fun at all.
Somehow the submit() stopped working when I do it inside the iframe. I keep getting IllegalStateException (response is already committed...). It's as if I didn't put a "return" after my forward() call, but I did. It used to work and I did not change any of the servlet code. I didn't even check it out of the repository!!!!
I think all these works are unnecessary. Bad management if you ask me, that's what that is. It's not like we've lots of time. Everything was nice and dandy... and now we have to do all these works just to make it looks nicer??? (and in my opinion, it's not a whole lot nicer). Maybe I should just forget about the iframe and use jsp:include. It's pissing me off that I'm behind my coworkers now. I like to be ahead of others always....

Great
Had a really good skating today during my skating session!!! I fixed my waltz jump!!! It's about time!!! Been at least a year since I last mastered it. I'm so happy ^_^!! I hope I don't forget about it the next day. All those lunch hours staring at ppl practice did pay off :P. Lahlahlahlahlahlah. I think when I get more comfortable with it like in a month or so I might be ready to try single axel!!!!!! So exciting!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Oh and I tried single loop and immediately followed a backspin. It worked the first time I tried it, but not the second, third, and forth time. I crashed into the board the 2nd and 3rd time and hit my knee on the ice. I think I should get those protective pads and stick them in my stalking or get those pants w/ pads sewed on. Last time I checked those pants were like almost 40 bux :(.

The trick
to the waltz jump is to have the left shoulder leads and right shoulder back. That way, the left outside edge would be more stable and I'm able to create a "tension" on the blade and ride on it. Even the coach said it was really nice :). So it's not just me.

Mon

Went skating during lunch. Pretty good skating today. I was finally able to do a real single lutz (more height and distance than before).... altho not everytime. I still need to have more control when i glide back on my left skate.

Oh, and forget about the new high that I mentioned before.
New high is now 105.9.
I filled up on Sat nite when it's 99.9.

Weekend

Fri nite
Went to Also Restaurant. It's SO GOOD!!! The sea bass (in miso soup with strips of fried spring onion on top) that I ordered was fantastic. I never knew that miso soup could taste that good! However, the live band was way too loud. It was very hard to have a converation.

Sat
Woke up early and went dragon boating. It was fun altho I was all wet in the end. It's not too bad since I brought clothes to change. I did not feel any pain afterwards.
Most of the ppl went to have dim sum after boating. I went to McDonald to change and had breakfast with Ruby. I had Nescafe French Vanilla coffee, half a Egg McMuffin, and a pancake (from Ruby). I'm sure they put sugar in the coffee, it was never that sweet when I got it from the coffee machine in the ice rinks.
I had a good chat with Ruby, we talked lots. It was fun.
Then went home and took a shower, and washed my hair for the second of the day.
Then cleaned and changed water in the fish tank. Took me over 2 hrs to do it. It's just as dirty as my car. I'm now pretty sure that the hole of the dead fish was just from some fast acting virus/fungus/bacteria.
Napped a few mins and went to the dyke to see John. It was fun :). I ran with him for a min or 2.
We went to his friend's place to borrow a video camera.
We then went to watch Sin City. It was so unique, worth watching it in theatre.
But, it's definitely 18+.... so much violence.

Sun
Woke up early to go to 8:00am church. Afterwards rushed to John's place but forgot to bring my bag of rice for the filming of his comedy script. John had a fight with the printer/computer. I rushed back home to print his script for him and got my bag of rice.
Went to Kisilano to pick up his friend and came back to shoot the film. We used tape for the chalk outline of the "body". I was the designated shooter. To conserve energy, I closed the LCD screen and mostly just used the "eye hole". It was so small... after 3 hrs of it.. I had a headache... and I guessed all the crying at the beginning didn't help... got my brain dehydrated.
After relocating his friend back to Kisilano I felt terrible. I had to take a stop at John's place to throw up and take a nap.
Oh... and my car now smells like coffee. John spilled his coffee. Luckily I like the smell of his coffee.
At nite, stayed home and watched TV. "Charmed", then "Desparte Houswives", then "Grey's Anatomy". Surprisingly, "Grey's Anatomy" is very good. I'll keep watching it.

:(

Thurs
One of my fishes died :'(.
There was a hole at its stomach. It was bleeding out from there. Not sure if it's a murder or it happened postmordem.

Skating class was ok last nite. The ice was wonderous compared to 8-rink, altho it's almost as cold as 8-rink. I twisted my finger when I put down my hand on the ice during a fall. It still hurts.

Saw Mira and lots of other skaters (including ppl that I'd seen practicing in Richmond) practice during lunch. They make everything look easy.

Scratch that post about new high. It is 104.9 today!!!

New high

Gas has now reached 102.9!!!! (for Regular) Absolutely crazy.
I'm glad that I got some yesterday when it was 92.9.

Nice weekend(part 2)

Sun
Went to church.
Went to autoshow. I like BMW Z4 the best, and then mini-cooper, smart car, and beetle. .... as if I'm really buying a car :P.
My feet hurt just after an hr, we stayed there for a lil more than 2 hrs.
Had subway angus beef steak. It's nothing like steak, but didn't taste too bad. It's more like subway hamburger.

Went running on Minoru track. Did 12 laps only. My stomach hurt. Food was pounding against it while I was running.
Then showered, and went back to John's place and hang out.

Made fillet sole with onion, black pepper, and salt. Chopped too much onion and waited not long enuf.... many of them too spicy cuz they're not fully cooked yet. I'll be more patient next time. I'd already cooked the onion first before putting the fish in... still... should have tasted the onion first... stupid me.
Watched some simpsons and went home and then had to go back to John's place cuz I forgot my jacket... again....

Should have cleaned the tank... but no time...hope to do it Mon nite.

Nice Weekend (part 1)

Fri
Went to dress rehearsal. The ice wasn't as bad as the rehearsal on Tue.
We got there at 7:00 altho it actually started at 4:30 but none of us could make it that early. I was still able to catch some of the numbers.
Then went grocery shopping and watched "NumbersFri
Went to dress rehearsal. The ice wasn't as bad as the rehearsal on Tue.
We got there at 7:00 altho it actually started at 4:30 but none of us could make it that early. I was still able to catch some of the numbers.
Then went grocery shopping and watched "Numbers" (the TV show) with John.

Sat, the big day
Went to RIC and practice during lunch. Mostly skated around only. They wouldn't let me jump :'(. What happened? I was always able to jump during public session. All of a sudden none of them allows me to do that (except the ones that don't have a staff looking over your shoulder). Heehee is it because my jump is a lot bigger now :)? Or is it because I haven't been to RIC for a long time and they have forgotten how good a customer I was?

I'm so glad that John came to see me, altho I wasn't able to sit with him during the whole thing. My parents and my other friend, Sabrina, also came. :).
We skaters still have to buy ticket if we wanted to stay and watch. It's 50% discount for us. Some of the skaters were pretty good. I was still able to watch most of it but then have to leave during intermission. We went to the changing room and waited (and it smelled so bad there esp the washroom I'm pretty sure I got some piss on my skateguard), then someone found our coach and told us that we don't have to be on the ice for another 45mins! Then a few mins later, he came in and told us that we could go on the ice now. Turns out that they have the other rink as the backstage/practice rink. We were able to practice our number twice. I practiced a lil jumping as well. Don't know why... my waltz jump sux more and more now. Should I have stuck w/ my old Jackson pair? But they were too narrow for my toes and I was developing bunions on more than one of my toes I remember....

At almost 9:00pm, we sat at on the benches "behind" the curtain. We watched ppl before us skate.... I missed one of the girls that I wanted to watch. My mom said she fell on one of her jumps. She is the only one among the kids that can do triple jump. There was another older girl that could do triple jump, and I missed her program as well. They are having the same show today too... but since I've already watched most of it (altho missed a few that I'd like) it's kinda pointless to watch it again.

I was a lil nervous when our group was up. I screwed up a few places... didn't let my hands down quick enuf at the beginning... and my waltz jump sux. However, none of them too obvious. Aaron even said our jumps were synchronized this time, and we never did that before. And, we were too fast for the music. Guess many of us were nervous and wanted to get it over with. At the end, before the "line walking" we have to wait for the music and do nothing :P. Many thought we have already finished and clapped. Oh.. and before that I did a backspin. It's not what we originally planned, it's just something to do while I wait for the others to get onto the center and form the line. But still.... even after the spin... there were too much time left. And my posting in the end was not gracious at all, I should have done what Aaron did, did the lunge and kneel instead of getting on my hands and looked like a dog.

After everything was finished, we all went out and waved to the crowd. That's when I found out where Sabrina was, but only because she was jumping up and down otherwise I wouldn't have noticed her. John was so nice, he stayed to the very end :).

After that, I went out with the group and had our celebration at Boston pizza. Most of them didn't have supper before the show. I guess I'm the only one who had it... and not just supper.... snack before supper, lunch, snack before lunch, snack after breakfast, breakfast... I guess I was nervous... just kept eating the whole day. And, did not have work out to spend my energy... I was counting on to be able to jump during lunch... but guess not. I could have run after practice skate but I was sleepy and tired.
We had pizza, chicken quesadila, taco salad, chicken wings and drumpstick.
We talked and took pictures. We had a good time and learned more from each other. We didn't have time to chat during lesson usually. It's so nice to make more friends. Most of us will be joining the short April class too. It starts next Thurs. I wouldn't expect too much from it, it's only a 2mth class and the class will only last 45mins.

:(

8-rinks
The worst ice in the whole world!! Might as well just skate on the pavement.
Both of my knees hurt a lot after skating. And, my 40min run in the morning didn't help.
I saw Mira again. She did a triple toe loop double toe combination. She stared back at me :P...

At work
After I resynced with the repository, I got the stupid log4j warning.
I've check the classpath, pretty sure the jar files are there... y...y...
Now I have to start doing the simulator, not looking forward to it.
My computer is so morbidly painfully slow, I wonder if I could request more RAM.

Lunch
Went out to Starbucks during lunch... I'm so bad.
The top half of the caramel soy decaf mocha is very very good, but not the bottom half (too much bitter chocolate).
The flax bar is very unique, first I found it too sweet then I start to like it. It has orange peels and has a citric taste to it.
The organic blueberry, however, is way way way too sweet.
I also found several different kinds of Lindt chocolate at London Drugs. Price is the same as in hallmark, but it has more different kinds; rasberry filling, cherry filling, walnut, double milk, raisin/hazelnut/almond.
I restrained myself and didn't buy any.

Tmr
I'll be officially a full-time employee. Yay!...sorta... still have to do the simulator thing.

This weekend
gonna be busy with the ice show. I thought it'd only be one show... but no it's 3 (Sat 1:00pm, 7:00pm Sun 1:00pm) !!! I do have a choice to not do all of them... but that seems anti-social.
Bye bye weekend :(...

Last last weekend

John is very nice, watched "Ice Princess" with me :).
I liked it.
Altho I still find it unbelievable... just several mths and she can do triple jump??

I also vaguely remember that we went to a bubble tea place.
I had the hot pine nut drink and John had the Taiwanese sausage with rice combo (with Coconut drink). Yum yum.

.. what else... I'm pretty sure I did a lil shopping too.

Oh and we went to Metrotown to do some shopping.
John bought a new pair of basket ball pants. I didn't buy anything.
We visited the new food court, but didn't have lunch there. It was too crowded.
We had lunch at McDonDon instead. I had apple pie. Yum yum. Haven't had that for quite a while.

Long weekend

Fri
Went to "Over the moon", and bought chocolate for myself, and John's auntie.
Long long sermon. 1-3pm. Then at nite, had a very very tasty vegetarian meal with parents and John. Me and John both loved it but not my family.

Sat nite
Ran 40mins on treadmill.
Went to Griffins. Ordered the white fish and had the dessert buffet. The white fish was just as good as the sea bass. Yum yum! The dessert was a lil disappointing. Tried the rice pudding (the one i like the most), 2 different kinds of applie pie (i like the one with more cake and strawberries), a lil banana cake (too sweet i find), caramel cream (love it, not too sweet), chocolate with cream mousse (too sweet and too bitter). They were not fresh enuf, altho we were the first to dive in. John's non-sweetened ice tea was very interesting. It's freshly brewed. Altho it's non-sweetened u have a choice to add cane sugar in it.
Went to see the "Shanghai Acrobatic Troupe". It was good. Artistic wise might not be as good as "Cirque du solei". But, the way that all of them can bend their bodies and making different kinds of shapes were awesome. I especially love the "Trio", "Duo", and the "Single Handstand Balancing Act". The "Plate Spinning" and "Trapez" are a lil lame... For plate spinning I was expecting to see they spin the plates on top of a stick.
Borrowed "Da Vinci Code" from John. He got it for rapid read.
Started reading it right away after I got home. Got to about 50pages.

Sun nite
Very lazy, did not work out at all.
Continue reading the book....what else did I do??

Mon nite
Woke up at 6:30, continue with the book. Went back to nap a lil and finished the book around 12:30.
Went running with John.
Went to do a lil shopping in Richmond Center. Got John a T-shirt. It's on sale and it fits.
Went to John's parents to have Easter dinner. Had a good time.
Very tasty homemade ham, and Angel cake as dessert.

Relaxing weekend

Did not go to work this weekend.
Stayed home and watched and taped Canadian and Junior World Figure Skating Championship. Canada seems to be doing much better than several yrs ago.
They have World exhibition tmr nite... not so sure if I can get home early enuf to tape it. But then it's just exhibition... I want to see the short and the long program, not the exhibition.

Made lamb stew/soup tonite. I don't think it's very good. John didn't complain too much, but I think the meat is way too hard.
Went shopping on both Sat and Sun. Bought new bras, all different colors :).
Bought cheap pants (only like 20 bux per pair!!!).
Found a very nice dress and it's on sale :).
Bought a new pair of shoes, which I'm going to return after walking in it in half an hr or less. Any longer in it I'm sure I'll get blisters on my toes.
Also bought 2 cheap tops, averaging about 15 bux each only.

Sat, went to the library with John. Borrowed 2 figure skating books. One of them is very very nice. I think I now know what's wrong with my salchow. Maybe I can do a double now......or not. I still don't get the toe loop tho. I know u r supposed to swing ur right leg across.. but how do u do it when u're skating backwards and ur weight is on it while ur left leg is stretched back. I totally don't get it.

Rented "The little black book" (Britney Murphy) on Sat. It was very very good... to me at least. It's funny and lite and quite meaningful. I wanted to rent "Uptown Girl" someday (with Britney in it as well).

Workout is pretty good. Did 15 laps on treadmill on Sat and 15 laps (about... i lost count) on the track.

Played pool on Sat. I lost 2 in a roll :(.... back to normal.

Washed my car today. It looks much younger now.

Going to skip workout tomorrow and only do skating. Need to work more.

Fishes are doing ok. The white fish somehow is starting to get some very faint orange color on it. It's as if the other red/orange fishes are losing some color to it. And, the other fishes are starting to get more and more black pigment on their bodies.
Did not have time to vacuum the gravel, will have to do it next weekend.

The ice show is coming up soon, but I still haven't gotten back my nice waltz jump.... And, I hope I won't forget my place and just stop in the middle of the number.

almost forgot to mention...

Last friday
Took a drive with the corvette around Stanley Park.
It's pretty but bumpy.

Mon
Went to John's place and watched 24 together.

Last last last week
A murder happened at John's place.
Somehow my parents did not prevent me going to his place... which is very weird.

busy busy

Sat
Went to automall to pick up the spare tire lock. Skipped workout.
Went to work, did 7 hrs!! Somehow my screen looks weird whenever I did a change on my "public String [][] table". I still didn't know y, but at least the screen looks all right now. But, that bug might just come back and haunt me later.
Went to hockey game after work with John. It was exciting when I saw the ice. I so wanted to skate on it somehow... as if I didn't already skate enuf. It was quite crowded. 90 sth thousand ppl showed up. We didn't win any draw since we didn't buy any of those tickets. I had a big pretzel and 2 mouthfuls of hot dog. The pretzel was so salty but still very good .... should have ordered the unsalted kind.

Sun
Went running in Minoru. Did 15 laps. First 8 laps only took me 16 mins, averaging 2 mins per lap.
Went to church.
Cleaned the fish tank. Used the siphon to vacuum but it dragged up all the dirt and the water never looked so murky. I also cut my finger while doing the siphoning. Bought P-clear and just after an hour or so the water is crystal cleaner.
I think I need a better siphon, the one that is automatic and doesn't require u to manually shake it up and down to work. I like the one that they were using at the store, but it requires to be attached to the sink. I'm not so sure it that will work for me since my tank is far away from the sink, but then maybe I just needed some air tube extension.
Cooked and had dinner with John. Pasta/pepper/onion/imitation crab spinach pasta. It was quite good.

Mon
Spent the whole day doing JavaScript form validation.
There is still a bug there that I don't know how to fix.
When there is something wrong on a field, the alert pops up alright.
But if I didn't click on the box and go click on another invalid field, I'll end up having an infinite amount of alert pop up. So annoying.......

Skating
Very bad lately. In class, the coach again did not have time to teach us anything after he taught the beginner and immediate group...not fair :'(... what a waste of money.

Missed out
The stock tip that the hummer guy gave me is now 3.20.... and I still haven't gotten my investment account set up... or actually I did but didn't know where the password is...