Aloha! Remember me?!

Holy shit balls! I suck at this blogging thing eh?

Let's get right into it shall we?

Since we last spoke I've gone to Hawaii and returned and I've decided to give up my beautiful, spacious apartment and move into my parents' basement suite. I can hear the "WTF!!" being screamed at me right now.. hahaha More on the move decision, plans, stress, and reasons in a later post - but to the important stuff: Hawaii pictures!!!

Me with my cousin's kids

The hotel that we stayed at

Me at Pearl Harbour

Me at the Battleship Missouri memorial

 I had an amazing time in Hawaii. While a lot of time was spent laying around the pool, getting a tan, I also got to tour Pearl Harbour and the USS Missouri, I did a driving tour of Historic Honolulu and we rented a car and drove up the North Shore - that included a stop at the Dole Plantation.

It was a great trip and I definitely hope to return to Waikiki soon.

I'm playing Decorator at my friend/co-worker's wedding on Saturday morning and going to the Taylor Swift concert in the evening, blog posts to follow.... promise.

Britney Spears concert review

Wow... I know, I know: I'm really late posting this.. but I've been lazy busy.

Alrighty, openers:

Nervo

Now, I'm not a huge fan of watching DJs do their thing. I think it's a great talent.. but I think they're boring to watch. However, the Nervo twins: SO CUTE!! Sure their music was fun and entertaining, but they were just so cute that I give them two thumbs up for their cute   hahahaha

Jessie and the Toyboys
No... just no. Jessie has the most annoying voice I've ever heard. It's not so bad when she's singing... although, her singing isn't great.. but her talking voice.. no. More accurately, I should describe it as her "shouting voice"; she's a shouter and she's really high-pitched - put that together with a microphone and you have: me trying to shove random objects into my ears to stop my brain from hemorrhaging.
Her "Toyboys" I assume where the two shirtless men who stood behind her "dancing" and wrapping her in fabric... no.
Jessie and her toyboys don't deserve a picture.

Nicki Minaj
Fun! She put on a really elaborate show for an opening act. There were prop and set changes as well as costume changes. There was a story line and accompanying dancers.
I don't know many of her songs (okay, I recognized one song from the radio) but, I think she's amazingly talented. She can rap at an incredible speed and I just think that's fascinating.
Really enjoyed her show.


Not the best quality photo.. but I was zooming in so don't judge

And then it was:
Brit Brit
I thought that she put on a great show!! I was entertained (although she did play these weird videos every now and then that had something to do with the theme of the concert.. but they were a little bit long and I didn't think that they were really necessary). 
Let's be honest here: you don't go to a Britney concert to hear her sing. Yes, she sang some of the songs; but, yes, she lip-synced some. You go to a Britney concert to see a good show.. and I think that she delivered. I have a ridiculous amount of pictures.. some are a little blurred because of the zoom.. but here are my favourites.

Concert Review - Rihanna

Went to the Rihanna concert on Saturday night with the sister.

Let's see... opening act: JCole
He was good. He performed to a very small crowd since most people hadn't arrived yet; but, he was good.
I don't know any of his songs and I'd never heard of him before... but I remember his name now so, I'd say that he left a good impression!

Next up: B.O.B.
Now, I'd heard of B.O.B. but I didn't think I'd know any of his songs. Turns out, he's featured in lots of songs and I knew a good chunk of them. In fact, he's featured in one of my favourite songs right now
- Jessie J's Price Tag (2:19)

PS: I should also add that while B.O.B. is an incredible rapper, he whipped out a guitar and sang a song and... boy can sing!! A rapper that can sing and play the guitar? A crush is born!

And finally: Rihanna
Now RiRi puts on one hell of a show!! She is just as good live as she is on her album, she's entertaining, and her show fun to watch. She has a potty mouth and she's dirty as hell (there was a lot of v'jay-jay touching and at one point she brought a fan on stage, straddled her, and pretty much sat on her face); but, she is fricken awesome!
There were elaborate props and stage changes happening: from half a car that was vandalized during a show by 2 lucky fans (an unfortunate coincidence in light of the riots that just occurred here in Vancouver), to a pink tank that had RiRi straddling it's guns and shooting smoke at the crowd.
Overall, great concert RiRi and really good opening acts!

Up next.. Britney Spears on July 1st!! Don't judge me! I heart Brit.. I even loved her when she went a little coo-coo for cocoa puffs.
My mom is the unfortunate soul who is accompanying me to the show.. I should probably warn her that I'm going to lose my shit with Brit comes out and that I'm going to squeal like a 12 year old at a Bieber concert. (mom got stuck with the ticket because the sister is aware of the aforementioned crazy that will be displayed)
Stay tuned for the review. I'll try to be as objective as possible

xoxo

Concert Review - Bruno Mars

June is the month of birthdays in my family: I'm on the 4th, my mom is on the 8th, and my dad is on the 15th. So, to celebrate this year, my mom bought us all (including my sister who was born in November) tickets to the Bruno Mars concert.

The opening act, Mayer Hawthorne, was really good. He was entertaining and fun and I don't know any of his music, but I intend of buying some on iTunes. He was good.
Then Janelle Monae came out... FAIL!! I want to give Janelle the benefit of the doubt and say that she might be a very good singer; however, the sound during her set was awful. Her band was too loud, her mic was too loud.. I had no idea what she was singing (my mom asked if she was even singing in English).
I thought that perhaps I just thought it sounded bad because I didn't know the words to her songs; but, then she sang a Michael Jackson song. At least, I think she sang a Michael Jackson song. The music sounded like MJ, the lyrics sounded like cats being swung around a room and running their nails down a chalkboard at the same time - descriptive enough?
I think I was also annoyed by the fact that she didn't engage with the crowd at all. She just sang at us. No "Hello Vancouver", no "How are you all doing?", no acknowledgement of the fact that there were people sitting in front of her AT ALL. Sorry, Janelle: that one I can't blame on the acoustics.
And then. Bruno. Mars. Fricken awesome!! He was charming and funny and entertaining and good looking and has a great voice and great stage presence.. I'm loving Bruno right now! Just loving him!

In all, I'd say that the concert was a success. I was there to see Bruno: I saw him, I loved him, I aspire to make him love me too (what? too far? okay, I'll dial it back a little).

Hawaii, hockey, Om, and ducks.. or omlettes

Wow... I haven't been here for a while.
Let's see, excuses: I've been really busy at work, there hasn't really been anything blog-worthy going on, I've been really lazy. Yup, that just about covers it.

And the April/May update in bullet points:
- booked a trip to Hawaii for August - WOOHOO!!! I'm meeting my cousin and his family there for a week and I'm really looking forward to it. It's my first trip to Hawaii so, double yay!
- Canucks are going to the Stanley Cup finals! Another "woohoo". This really has nothing to do with me directly, but I'm excited none-the-less.
- I'm about half way through my meditation classes and I'm learning a lot. I'm trying to put the lessons from the classes into practice everyday and I'm enjoying the guaranteed 2 hours of ME time every week.

See.. nothing blog-worthy.

It's my birthday on Saturday and while it's not a traditional Milestone birthday, it's a personal Milestone and it's making me rather depressed.
I always said that by 26, I'd have my ducks in a row. You know: career, marriage, heading toward kids.. those ducks: however, I feel like my eggs haven't even hatched yet! So, I don't have any ducks and I sure as hell don't have them in a row.
And I know, I know.. "26 is young, you have plenty of time..blah, blah, blah" and that makes perfect logical sense. I tell myself that in my head all the time. But somewhere.. not in my head.. I just feel like I've failed to achieve any of the things that I had intended on achieving by this age.
I might have the eggs that will one day hatch that I can place in a row.. but right now, I feel like my eggs may just be eggs.. like.. chicken eggs, for breakfast, that I can scramble up with some spinach and feta and make a good meal from... but that won't hatch in to ducks and that I can't put in a row. And it's that thought that makes me want to not tell anyone that it's my birthday and just curl up in bed and not think about birds of any kind.

Hello baby!

My cousin's wife gave birth to their third little girl yesterday. I was lucky enough to invite myself to see to meet little Matteya today.

Here she is at just 1 day old:

I pulled out the camera and she immediately started posing

It's hard to tell, but she's sucking on her finger. So cute!



How could I NOT take a picture of this tiny diaper?!

Sometimes you just need a little bit of pretty

Go Canucks Go!

I was lucky enough to go to the Canucks vs. Stars game last weekend and I got to put the new camera to good use.



The starting line up singing the anthem



Roberto Luongo





My attempt at an action shot





Daniel Sedin (well, the back of him at least)



The Canucks won and a great time was had by all!

Let's Get Back to Whelmed

It's officially "busy season" at work and to say that I'm completely overwhelmed and stressed... is an UNDERSTATEMENT.
I pretty much have to take busy season one day at a time because if I think too far ahead, I feel like I'm drowning in a pool of mud.

Dramatic enough?  hahahahaha!

This is my excuse explanation for not having updated my blog since the beginning of January.
I've been stressed and tired and grumpy and the last thing I want to do when I get home, is blog. Especially because nothing truly "blog-worthy" has been going on.

Actually, one exciting blog-related thing has happened recently: I got a new camera!

One of my goals for the year (inspired by the lovely Joanne) is to take - and blog- more pictures.
This camera is a great size to stick in my purse and have handy for those picture perfect moments.
So far, no pictures have been taken - HAHAHAHAHA fail!! BUT I have a good excuse! I haven't bought a memory card for the camera yet, so I can't take pictures.
So, expect to see more pictures on my blog (maybe not good pictures, maybe not artistic pictures.. but pictures)

Well, wish me luck for busy season and pictures and getting my ass backed to whelmed because OVERwhelmed, sucks!!

Snow!

There's not enough to make a snowman.. but it's enough to get me giggle like a little kid.

Happy Birthday Laura!

This is my best friend Laura. She's managed to put up with me for 13 years... so she's pretty fricken awesome!

Happy Birthday Lola! xoxo 

Redemption!

So, on Christmas Eve, this happened:

That's right.. I'm THAT girl! The one that forgets to put the carrots in the carrot cake!

The full story is:

After discovering the carrots in my fridge.. the carrots that were supposed to be in the cake.. I threw the half baked cake out and decided to start again.

I still had all of the ingredients, except the walnuts. Now please note that I live across the road from a grocery store (literally, across the road) and I could have walked across and bought more walnuts; however, I figured, "walnuts? No one NEEDS walnuts in a carrot cake". So I proceeded to bake the cake without the walnuts.

What I failed to realize is that the walnuts are one of the key ingredients in the recipe that I used. I mean key (as in: the recipe calls for 2/3 cup of flour but 1&2/3 cup of walnuts, key). So after an hour when I took the "cake" out of the oven. I realized the "cake" hadn't risen in the slightest and that the "cake" was in fact a Carrot Cookie.

So I threw that shit away.

That's right! In less than 2 hours, I threw out 2 cakes and had nothing to show for all of my prep. and for my delicious smelling apartment.

You may need a moment to compose yourself. I'll understand if you're laughing at me.

Tonight, we're having our regular Family Funday, but it's also a celebration of Auntie M's birthday. Because of this, I decided to bake the carrot cake that I failed to bake for Christmas.

Redemption!!!

Now, it doesn't look like the one in the cookbook but let's hope that it all tastes as good as it smells because, damn, it smells good!

**Update: the carrot cake was rather dense but it was really tasty. I'm glad that I gave it another shot.



Resolutions

It's that time again: New Year's Resolution Time!!

My resolution this year is: It's all about me
Now, before you get all judge-y and "wow, what a selfish beotch", hear me out:

2011 will be about my taking care of myself. From the regular: get in shape, eat healthy, blah blah blah to meditation classes (I've signed up for a Level I class and it starts in a couple of weeks.. I'm excited!). I'm ready to really start taking care of me.

Oh, and apparently this is the year I'm supposed to find myself a husband. No pressure or anything.
Any advice on how one goes about doing that? Because I'm lost.

What are your New Year's resolutions for 2011? Let's share. Because when you put it in writing.. you have to do it.. right?  hahaha

Farewell to so much more than 2010

While I wish I could write to tell you about my Christmas spent with family and our 5 day trip to Vegas, I only have sad news to share.

My lovely friend, sadly, lost her precious baby girl a few days ago. I don't know all of the details, although they're really not mine to share with you anyway; but, I do know that I'm so sad for my friend, her husband and their little angel.
Please think of them, send them your positive thoughts, and add them to your prayers.

LC: your time with us was short but you've left an impact on the lives of your family and their friends.