Update: June 2009

Hey everybody. Sorry I didn't get a chance to see everyone during my visit to Toronto. It was a "me" week since it was our anniversary and my birthday all in one week. I did manage to sneak in a lunch with the lunch group though - Thanks Vicky for inviting me to lunch. It was really nice seeing everyone.

~ Our Anniversary ~

Jeff and I are pretty laid back when it comes to anniversaries and special days. This year for our anniversary, we went to the local McDonald's after dinner and shared a soft serve ice cream cone. I know my blog followers might be thinking .. "how cheap can Jeff be!" but for me, it was 30+ degrees outside so it was a nice treat. And it wasn't cheap .. at $1.29 a cone .. prices have gone up since I last had one! :)

~ My Birthday ~

I usually don't like to talk about birthdays but ladies, you're only as old as you feel .. and I feel like I'm 22 all the time. :) I can still compete with the 22 year olds at our badminton club. Although, the sore shoulder and tennis elbow are taking longer to heal nowadays. For my birthday cake this year, I requested for an ice cream cake from Dairy Queen. I felt guilty asking for one after I saw the price. I don't like asking for pricey gifts but thanks Jeff for the cake. I've never had an ice cream cake before and it was really good.

~ Family ~

Seeing my family was great. It is very rare that I get to spend a week with them. Usually when we visit, I get less than a day with my family because there just isn't enough time to see everyone. This time, I had plenty of time to meet up with everyone. I had a great time spoiling my nephew. He's 18 months now which means the terrible two years is coming up. I don't know why but they begin to act up around that age.

~ Our Robin's Nest ~

Starting around mid-May, I remember coming home from work and finding a huge mess of grass and twigs on our front porch. I'd sweep it off the porch and the next day, another huge mess of twigs. It was getting ridiculous. I looked up above our front door and on the window ledge, there was a nest. It was a robin's nest. Jeff wanted to get rid of the nest because it dirtied our window but I insisted that we keep it. We checked the nest on a daily basis and one day, we saw that there were 4 blue eggs. Mama and Papa robin took turns keeping the eggs warm. During that time, the robins were pretty friendly. We could walk in and out of our front door without any problems. But as soon as the eggs hatched, the parents were so defensive. You could not go in and out of the front door without getting hassled by the parents. I had a flower pot on the front porch and when I got near to water it, the robins chased me away. At a certain point, Jeff and I had to double-team. Jeff distracts the birds while I water or vice versa. The nest is now empty .. the baby robins have left the nest and so have the parents. We can use the front door again. Hahaha ...

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Happy Mother's Day!

This weekend, we surprised my mother with a visit. The last time I was in Toronto was for Chinese New Year. It was a short visit and I did not get to spend enough time with everyone as I had liked. :( I really missed my family so Jeff and I planned ahead to do something special for my mother on Mother's day.

My mom has told me on a few occasions that one of the best apple pies she's ever had was one that Jeff made. I don't remember ever trying Jeff's apple pie but my mom and Jeff both remember it. I must be getting old .. :) Anyway, we decided to make her an apple pie for Mother's day and deliver it personally. I told my sisters not to tell my mother so it was hush hush for weeks. When we finally delivered the pie, she said she knew something was up. :) Can't fool my ma. She said she knew something was fishy when she didn't receive a Mother's Day card from us in the mail. I didn't think of mailing the card ahead of time. I guess I'm really bad at setting up surprises. Still, my ma was happy to see us.

I was able to see my sisters, nieces, and nephew. Anson is so cute. He has learned many words now and is running around like an active 18 month old. With all the active running, he's lost some of his baby fat that it makes him look so tiny. He calls me "yee ma" and Jeff as "yee jeung". I got to look after him for a bit while his parents went out for a short grocery run. Normally, I get a nervous feeling when I'm left alone with kids. I'm a complete neophyte when it comes to dealing with children. But with Anson? It was easy - he was so well mannered and innocent.

We celebrated Mother's Day with a family dinner on Saturday night at the Ginger & Onion restaurant at Market Village. The eight course dinner was quite good but I'm still waiting to try out Honey & Garlic for dinner. We weren't able to get reservations for dinner there so we had to settle for Ginger & Onion. Jeff and I joined my parents for dim sum on Sunday morning before we left and wow, what a line up. Luckily, my dad got there early and didn't have to wait long for a table. Jeff and I don't go out for dim sum much in Ottawa because the quality just isn't there. I went out for dim sum with some co-workers and the food was mediocre but quite expensive. $180 for 10 people - Ouch!

I tell ya, I can't wait to move back to Toronto. Ottawa is really nice but Toronto has more to offer than Ottawa. Yeah, T&T is opening a store here soon but it's not enough to keep me here. :)

I hope all mothers had a wonderful Mother's day!

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April Gone By

Wow .. I completely missed the month of April! I didn't realize that I had neglected my blog for over a month. Sigh. Things have been pretty busy during the month of April. Other than the usual tax reporting for both personal and business, we also made a surprise trip out to Edmonton for my mother-in-law's 65th birthday. We spent about a week out there and took the in-laws out to one of our favorite vacation spots - Jasper National Park.

Whenever we are in Jasper, we stay at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge. It's a little pricey but we don't splurge that often so it was a nice treat. On our first night there, my mother-in-law picked the Moose's Nook for her birthday dinner. Jeff and father-in-law chose the prime rib dinner, mother-in-law chose salmon, while I had the vegetarian risotto with white truffle. Usually Jeff picks the wine to go with the meal but this time he turned to me and asked me for my suggestion. What?! Me? The non-drinking wine sniffer? I looked at the wine list and my first choice was a J.Lohr merlot but being the frugal person that I am .. I looked at the price and wanted to change my mind. :) We ended up going with the merlot with dinner and even though I didn't have any to drink, Jeff said I made a great wine selection. I guess after being together for so many years, I have learned a thing or two about wine pairing. BTW, I tried the prime rib and it was probably the best prime rib I've ever tasted. My risotto was outstanding but for you meat-arians out there, Alberta beef is way better than Ontario beef.

I'll post a few pics of our trip once I get them off the camera.

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So you had a bad day ..

It has been one heck of a week so far. Very much a low week. The topic of discussion as of late has not been a good one for me. In fact, it's a sore spot. I don't think I have been this upset in a very long time. Like all your shortcomings have been brought to the forefront and you feel like you want to crawl into a hole and never come out. The hole is very tempting.

Pudgy

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Sooooo cold!

The temperature reading in my car was -23 C this morning .. with windchill, it was a balmy -39. It was so cold that the tire pressure sensors on my car turned on. Just wanted to remind all of my faithful readers out there to check your tire pressure. When it gets really cold like this, it drops the tire pressure. Not good.

I'll be in Toronto for Chinese New Year but this year, we may end up staying for a few days only. Usually we spend a week in Toronto but this year, due to work issues we are unable to stay longer and meet up with friends. :( I'm disappointed about that but we'll try to make up for it at a later time.

Toodles,
Pudgy

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Windchill of -36 C in Edmonton

It was quite the adventure getting to Edmonton this year. It started last Thursday night. We got to the Ottawa airport early and managed to get on our flight to Calgary without rushing like we have in the past. Hehe .. anybody who knows us .. we can be so laid back sometimes that we are late for everything. Anyway, for once .. we were early. We arrived in Calgary around midnight (EST). We were supposed to get on a connecting flight to Edmonton but our flight ended up being delayed a few hours due to weather. Holy cows .. it was cold in Calgary. I think it was -25 C with a windchill of -36 C. By the time we boarded the plane, it was 2:15 am. A few hoodlums got on the plane and sat in the row behind Jeff and myself. You could smell the alcohol from them. Ugh .. they reeked so badly, they had to be intoxicated. Suddenly one of the WestJet reps came over and asked the two fellows behind us to leave the plane. After they were escorted off the plane, WestJet had to get their bags off the plane before we left. It took an hour to dig the bags out and reload the bags back on to the plane. After that, we had to de-ice the plane. To me, it didn't seem to help much because the windows completely froze up from the de-icer liquid. At 3:30 am, we finally took off for Edmonton. The flight was 40 mins long and another 30 mins to get our bags. We decided to take a taxi to the Hamilton house because the roads were so bad. You know how difficult it is to hail a cab at that time? It was 3 am Edmonton time .. not a soul on the roads. It was bone chilling cold and the roads were literally an ice rink. By the time we got to bed, it was 4:30 am in Edmonton.. or 6:30 am Ottawa time. So literally, a simple 4.5 hour flight took all night. Sigh .. the bright side to this? We got out a day early and missed the storm. Had we left on Friday, we probably would have been delayed or cancelled.

So far, the stay has been great. It may be -29 C outside, but it's warm indoors. The shopping has been good too. :D

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Pics around the house

I've been meaning to post a few pics of the changes around our home. A while back, we had replace our temporary shades with real curtains. Here are some changes that have taken place in our house over the last few months.

This is our dining room. You can't really tell but the curtains are dark brown silk-like. I know you're laughing at our naked orchid. Trust me, it's still growing!

Our Christmas tree. It hasn't changed since we got it last year. I think we did a better job decorating it last year. Can you see our curtains behind it? :)

This is our front living room window. I chose to put sheers there. I think it looks really nice in the morning when the sun shines through.

This is our hallway table. We made it our picture table. Right now, there are more Hamilton photos than Ng photos. We need to balance it out more.

This is our latest purchase. Our new wine cabinet. It is in our dining room. We even put some of Jeff's Egyptian pics up on the wall. It makes the room more like a home now.

My apologies the photos aren't as bright as they could be. It took them at night .. :(

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