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On a whim, during my 30th birthday party, it was decided that we'd celebrate New Year's Eve at Niagara Falls. After celebrating Christmas in Montreal with family, Rachel, Josee, Wesley and I packed up Rachel's car (air mattress, sleeping bags, luggage, etc.) and headed to TO on Sunday, December 30th. Rachel and I took turns at the wheel and drove straight to Pacific Mall for a Korean BBQ supper.

Alvin and Sheryl decided to leave Montreal in the early hours of Monday, December 31st...in the middle of a snow storm, so they were exhausted when they arrived at my place that morning. Poor them. After snapping a group shot in front of the house, we headed over to Nando's for lunch.

Nando's serves Portuguese-style chicken and all the trimmings. We even had pateis de natas for dessert! Yum!

Right afterwards, we made our way to Niagara Falls. Alex met us at the Comfort Inn where we were eager to unload the cars and relax in our room. We spent the late afternoon / early evening snacking on McNuggets, having drinks and playing Trivia Pursuit (The 90's). We had a great time finding out who each of our Secret Santas were during our Gift Exchange. This was the second year of the exchange. Hopefully we will keep this going as a tradition.

Wesley managed to snap a shot of me getting ready for dinner. I think he's turning around from his anti-camera feelings. He bought Jo a Canon SD1000! (But I'm still wondering how come I still see no pictures from her....hahaha!)

 

 

 

We dolled ourselves up and walked over to Fallsview Casino. It seems that we weren't the only ones with this brilliant idea. The casino was lively and packed with people wearing 2008 hats, streamers and handling noise makers. We weren't allowed to take any pictures, but we managed to get away with a few. (giggle)

Because it was New Year's Eve, the buffet included special items. We devoured at least two plates each...and waited 2008 before having dessert. Rachel brought some Christmas crackers, which we pulled open. We wore our paper crowns and enjoyed the fireworks display that the casino had scheduled for midnight. After hugging and wishing each other well, we spend a good part of the next hour trying to call or text message our family and friends back home. Seeing as how the rest of our time zone was trying to do the same, it took a while. Here are a couple funny pics of the attempts to reach our loved ones by cell phone.

We lingered around the casino a bit. Josee, Rachel and Wesley tried out some slot machines while Alvin and Sheryl headed back to the hotel to rest. They did have a long day. Alex and I tried to find a poker table, but with minimum bets of $50, we decided against it. We walked back to the hotel, since Alex had to drive to Buffalo that night. He was attending the outdoor NHL game on Jan 1st, where he saw his fave player, Sidney Crosby lead the Penguins to victory.

We snapped a group shot in our hotel room before packing up. Before heading back to TO, we stopped by the Falls...because who doesn't visit the Falls while they are in Niagara Falls?! Josee, Rachel and I had been here last during the Summer 2006 when they came to visit me for a few days. Needless to say, Wesley didn't get his chance to ride the "Maid of the Mist" since it was too cold. But, we did manage to get some nice photos. The new year has started off right!

xoxoxo HAPPY NEW YEAR 2008 xoxoxo

Before heading to Toronto for New Year's Eve celebrations, we planned a final brunch with Giselle, Valerie and Mr. Benjamin. To coordinate our arrivals at the restaurant, Josee called Val and was surprised that Benjamin picked up the phone. In his grown-up French voice he asked "Where are you guys?!". It seems that someone was really excited about the morning outing.

Benjamin and Jacques Couteau were very lucky to be brunching with their fave ladies. The guys got along well, while the rest of us checked out some photos and decided what to order.

A nice time was had by all...see you at our next brunch in 2008.

When I used to work at the Canadian Centre for Architecture in Montreal (*cringe*), it was very convienient to hop over to Le Faubourg's food court for lunch. One of my favorite places was the 'Hot & Spicy' counter where I fulfilled my cravings for sushi, General Tao chicken or roasted duck salad.

The company opened 'Le Gourmet Hot & Spicy' in Brossard, conveniently on Taschereau. After some positive reviews from my girlfriend, Katherine, I decided to try the place out myself. I invited my parents and sister for dinner. We had all been to 'ZEN' and 'Cite d'Asie' in downtown Montreal. This place was supposed to be comparable, in that it was also an Asian-Fusion buffet a la carte service.

With hundreds of items on the menu, the four of us carefully selected original dishes that we are more fond of: crispy spinach, peanut butter dumplings, sesame beef, toast shrimp, pekin duck crepes, oysters (for mom), general tao chicken, etc, etc, etc.

The service was horribly slow, but at least they brought the dishes all at once. When we asked for more steamed rice and another plate of dumplings, we had to wait over 20 minutes. The food was decent, but not at all comparable to 'ZEN' or 'Cite d'Asie'. For $30, I'd rather make the trip downtown and pay for parking. We ended the meal with some nice ice cream and sorbet...and then had to wait 30 minutes to get the bill *sigh*. I don't know if I'd go back there.

For the third year in a row, Melissa and Patrick hosted their Craft Secret Santa Exchange at Mel's place. Over the years it has become a well-anticipated event where all participants await the name of their recipient from an online Secret Santa program: http://guesslist.com/homepage.html.

The first year this gift exchange was held, each participant was asked to create something crafty for their recipient. Last year, Mel and Pat (well, it was probably more of Mel's idea) asked each Secret Santa to make a personalized ornament, in addition to a purchased gift. Because it was so successful last year, the same requirement was set for this year.

While we waited for everyone to arrive, we snacked on Hazel's wonderful paté and cheese platter, Pauly's sticky cinnamon buns, a variety of cookies and other goodies.

 

 

 

 

 

Shortly after Chit arrived, Santa Claus made an appearance!

 

 

 

 

 

 

We got the evening under way with the annual quiz. (Why do I always forget about this part of the evening?) Pat compiled a quiz of 11 questions derived from answers that each of us supplied through a survey and the website. Boy, were they tough this year! (We hope Melissa makes the quiz next year! *hint hint*)

Jane scored the highest, while Chit and Caroline tied for second place. They were each awarded a door prize.

Lalaine came in last and was therefore the first person to guess who her Secret Santa was. And so the exchanging began...

Lalaine's Secret Santa was Caroline

Caroline's Secret Santa was Pauly

Pauly's Secret Santa was Gerry

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gerry's Secret Santa was Patrick

Patrick's Secret Santa was Lucinda (absent)

Lucinda's Secret Santa was Chit

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chit's Secret Santa was Hazel

Hazel's Secret Santa was Lalaine

 

Kevin's Secret Santa was me

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My Secret Santa was Melissa

Melissa's Secret Santa was Jane

Jane's Secret Santa was Kevin

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We ended the night with more snacking and a round of Guitar Hero 3.

Even Jacques Cousteau managed to join in the festivities!

What a busy week-end! It all started off on Friday evening with the monthly dinner gathering with former co-workers from Siemens/EMC. It took me a little over a week to poll my friends and find a place that could cater to over a dozen people, especially a week before Christmas. Most restaurants were booked in the North York area, so I decided on "Spring Rolls" at the "Atrium on Bay" because of the free parking and because "Spring Rolls" has great food.

We were quite a good crowd, more people than normal: Shoko, her husband David, their son Cian, Andy, Roger, Johann, Peter, Syng, Syng's girlfriend, Julio, Dago, Sinisa, Alex and me. Did I forget anyone? (I can always come back and edit this later, once I review the phtoos! Ha!)

After supper, Alex, Syng, Flora, Johann and I decided to get some dessert at 'Il Gelatiere' on Mount Pleasant. I had only been to 'Hollywood Gelato' before, but Johann and Shoko have always raved about 'Il Gelatiere'. What a better time than Winter time to try it out for the first time!

 

On Saturday morning, Alex and I set out all the ingredients for our baking session. Aside from the pre-made-just-bake Pillsbury chocolate chip Christmas cookies, we were making Fererro Rocher cookies (ingredients included Nutella, hazelnuts and lots of CHOCOLATE) and cheesecake brownies. We worked fast and in an organized fashion. The oven stayed at 350C the entire time...and in under 2 hours, we had all our treats made!

With our baked goodies all packed nicely in holiday napkin lined platters, we heated up the car and headed out for the one-hour drive to Hamilton. After a quick stop at Fortino's for cranerry-raspberry cocktail and pineapple juice, we headed to the LCBO to pick up a bottle of Malibu Rum. This cocktail has become my favorite in recent months. Mmmmmm...Malibum Rum and pineapple juice! :-) We were one of the first ones to arrive, but within the next hour Maggie and Kevin's place was packed! It being a potluck, new food kept appearing as late guests arrived. There were samosas, a variety of dips, Alex's mom's salad and 'pig', and lots of desserts. We had a good time hanging out, but decided to head out at midnight since they were announcing the "Storm of the Century".

On Sunday morning, we slept in and felt quite relaxed while having breakfast. I thought to myself, it's only 12:15pm...we have lots of time to get ready before "The Nutcracker" ballet starts at 2pm downtown. I decided then to look at our actual tickets and jumped out of my seat when I saw that the show actually started at 1pm, not 2pm! Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Alex said he heard the rapid Home Alone / Nutcracker music go off in his head as we ran around trying to finish breakfast, brush our teeth, get dressed and head out. With only 30 minutes to get downtown, we know if we rushed, we could possibly make it...until...*cue the dramatic music* we opened the front door and found that the snow was almost knee-high.

Alex did an excellent job removing the snow from the car and pushing it after I managed to get it stuck in the middle of the uncleared road because I didn't reverse fast or far enough. We were getting flustered and frustrated at the same time because we were already late for the ballet. Stupid municipal snow removal people...why don't they clear the snow, like they're supposed to?! It doesn't matter that the last similar snow storm happened back in 1999...Toronto should be prepared for Mother Nature's tests!

We made our way slowly down the Don Valley Parkway and through the snowy streets of downtown Toronto. The performance was taking place at the Four Seasons Centre. Because we were so late, we decided to just park at the Centre and hope that we weren't missing too much of the show. We spent about 5 minutes walking around the building to finally figure out that we had to enter through the Canadian Opera Company entrance. Grrrrrrrrrrrr! In the end, we were in our seats (not our actual seats, since we didn't want to disrupt the other audience members) by 1:20pm. Next time I'll remember to double-check the start time. After all the rushing, we were able to leave with happy, whimsical feelings of youthfulness and magic.

With the rush of the morning, our bellies were rumbling. It was 4pm and all we had eaten that day was a bowl of Frosted Flakes with milk and one piece of Toblerone each. We headed to the local chinese restaurant "Congee Star" where we ordered too much food. The leftovers made for good lunches today! Yum!

If this week-end was busy, I am bracing myself for next week-end...CHRISTMAS week-end! I'll be in Montreal with family and friends, but away from Alex and my TO friends...so I'm a bit sad. It's only for a week, but still...(hugs).

 

 

 

On Wednesday, the managers of the call centre team at the office hosted a Holiday Lunch. I was supposed to work that day, but swapped shifts with my coworker, who has an exam today. (Have you noticed I tend to post only on work days?! Hahaha!) I came to the office for the lunch since: 1) free food is always good, 2) I cannot resist turkey and cranberry sauce, 3) my physiotherapist's clinic is close to the office and I had an afternoon appointment.

Dennis, Dinesh and I lined up in the Laird Theatre with the others to get our plates filled with yummy goodness. There was shrimp cocktail, turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, roasted potatoes, rice and cranerries (not so good) and vegetables (green, red and yellow peppers - ughh!!! I didn't take any - they make me gassy). We went back to our HOC (host operating centre) room (aka - the aquarium) with our plates and then headed back to get some dessert. Options for dessert were rice/rhum/walmut pudding (yuck!) or apple cake (not so bad!).

Yay for free food at the office!!!

After a mid-October workplace injury which has affected my right hand/arm/shoulder, I've come to realize that working with a mouse and keyboard for extended periods of time is no longer comfortable. Coincidentally, someone from TELUS Health Services was walking around the office yesterday to investigate any health or security issues, as a means of ensuring that TELUS is accomodating a healthy work environment and minimizing the risk of accidents (tripping over wires, etc.).

After explaining riefly the soreness of my right arm she quickly assessed that my workspace was not ergonomically-friendly. She put me in touch with another woman who helped me go through a workstation assessment, which involved taking pictures of my desk, using a measuring tape and identifying important height values (elbow height, desk height, ideal sitting work height, ideal standing work height).

It turns out that the height of my desk is too high, even when the chair is in its highest position (with my feet dangling!). For me to be ergonomically-sound, I will be ordering a tall foot rest and a brand new 7" adjustable chair! YAY! Shopping for office supplies...oh what fun!!!

I arrived home the other evening to find a brown box on my doorstep. I love receiving things in the mail, and even more so when it's a big package! The return address indicated that it was from my friend Shoko. Excitedly, I opened it knowing that it would be something cool, just because Shoko's like that! Shoko and I both have a sweet tooth and enjoy baking, so I just had to smile when I pulled out a cake platter (and a birthday card) from the package.

With Gerry and Dean's house-warming party this week-end, I decided to bake some chocolate cupcakes. There's something therapeutic in baking...or maybe it's the delicious chocolatey aroma that fills the air when there are goodies baking in the oven...hmmm?!?!

I bake often because of my sweet tooth, but also because I like sharing goodies with friends. Two weeks ago, Alex and I prepared a spaghetti dinner at his sister's place in Hamilton. On top of the spaghetti and Ceasar salad, we brought chocolate cupcakes, which I decorated with vanilla icing and sprinkles! (There's no such thing as too much sugar!)

With Christmas just around the corner, I think I'll start planning my Christmas cookie baking extravaganza! I may wait and bake back home with mom in Brossard, like I usually do, but since I have a couple of days in Toronto before getting to Montreal, I may 'enhance' my home with the fragrance of sweet goodness! Mmm-mmm-mmm!!!

 

With my laptop waiting for a CPU cooling fan replacement to arrive by mail from an eBay supplier, I've been limited in my photo-uploading to Facebook because I do not have Administrative Privileges on my work laptop, sooooooooooo, I'm stuck with uploading photos one-by-one instead of in batches - SO SLOW!

Since I do have the day off, I've decided to test my patience and see how many of the 1500+ photos from Las Vegas/Grand Canyon I can upload. Wish me luck! (In the meantime, I will try to jog my memory and write a brief summary of what we did on our trip.)

Alex, Tricia and I enjoyed a 4-day vacation in sunny Vegas. We arrived on Thursday, November 8th and left Sin City around midnight, after an eventful Sunday.

Alex and I departed from Toronto with a stop-over in Chicago. Chit was flying from Montreal, with her stop in Denver. We took a taxi to Yonge/Eglinton where we hopped on a public TTC bus to the airport. Because I had printed out my Expedia.ca itinerary, we were able to use to automated kiosk to get printouts of our boarding passes, thus avoiding the LOOOOOOOOONG check-in line-up.

We touched down at McCarran airport and were surprised to see slot machines as soon as we exited the plane! HAHAHA! We took a shuttle bus to the Car Rental Center. I had reserved a Hertz rental online the previous week. We had a couple of hours before Chit would arrive, so we decided to check-in to the hotel.

Even from the runway, we could see the famous Strip with the well-known hotels. As we drove north on Las Vegas Boulevard, we were in awe of how HUGE they really were: Mandalay Bay, LUXOR, Excalibur, New York-New York, Bellagio, Caesar's Palace, The Mirage, Treasure Island, Tropicana, MGM, Planet Hollywood, Paris-Las Vegas, Bally's, Flamingo, The Venetian, Wynn Las Vegas, and the list goes on.

We stayed at the Alexis Park Resort, which is located 2 blocks east of The Strip, on Harmon Avenue. We had ample parking, 3 swimming pools (which we didn't get a chance to use) and a spacious 2-room suite.

After picking Chit up from the airport, we headed back to Alexis Park Resort to freshen up. Because parking is FREE everywhere, we drove to The Forum Shops, which connects to Caesar's Palace. The interior was designed with a Rome-theme. We enjoyed drinks, delicious food and AMAZING CHEESECAKE at The Cheesecake Factory! We were so full, we headed back to the hotel for the night.

On the Friday we woke up really early and walked over to The Hard Rock Hotel to wait for our bus to arrive. We had booked an all-day bus tour with Showtime Tours to Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon. As we crossed the Hoover Dam bridge, the bus driver pointed out the two clock towers on either side of state lines.; one located on the Nevada side, and the other on the Arizona side. As we crossed the bridge, we also crossed a one-hour time zone!

The Grand Canyon was breath-taking! We stopped at two different locations and were able to walk around and take pictures on our own. The land was vast and the air was thin, but despite the chilliness and lack of sunlight, we were able to get some great photos.

On Saturday we woke up early for the breakfast buffet at Paris-Las Vegas. A friend of mine declared it to be THE BEST breakfast buffet on The Strip. The line-up was over an hour long, so Alex kindly volunteered to wait in line for us, while Chit and I shopped around the boutiques. We got to the front of the line, at the cash register at 10:45am, so we paid the breakfast price, $14.95! Knowing that the lunch trays would be brought out at 11am, we ran to the various counters to pick up plates of cheese, crepes, eggs benedict, waffles, bacon and other scrumptuous foods. The lunch items included crab legs, pastas and meat. We were too full to attempt all the desserts.

I wanted to attend the Bobby Flay book-signing at his restaurant 'MESA Grill' at Caesar's Palace, but it turns out that a hundred other people had the same idea. I enjoy watching this chef on The Food Network and Iron Chef America, but decided that there were better things to do than wait in line for hours.

Instead, we headed to The Venetian to book an outdoor gondola ride. The sun had already set, but the evening light was still lovely. Our gondola guide, Dino, was funny. He sang for us and told me and Alex to kiss under the bridge, as it would bring us good luck. Chit took some pics. :-)

At night, we drove north on Las Vegas Blvd to the Stratophere Tower and took the elevator up to the observation deck. Some crazy tourists were screaming their heads off on the three 'fun' rides: "Insanity", "X-Scream" and "Big Shot". I suffered slightly from vertigo, experiencing weak knees and dizziness. Luckily there was a Starbucks counter at the observation deck, so I bought myself a green tea latte. Yum!

Sunday, our final day, was probably the quietest of the four. We packed our stuff, said good-bye to our hotel and drove off to The Venetian for brunch at Wolfgang Puck's. The food was worth the price (at least I think it was!). We managed to visit The Lion Habitat, where two lions were on display.

Ethel M's Chocolate Factory was the next planned event of the day. When there's a chocolate factory to visit...why not go? It was a 30-minute drive away, so we were able to enjoy the less busy streets of Las Vegas. I got so excited seeing the M&M signs and finally...to walk through the factory and into the chocolate lounge. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm! The free chocolate sample of the day was dark chocolate macadamian nut. Soooo good! Chit and Alex got peppermint hot cocoa. I got a scoop of peppermint and another scoop of chocolate ice cream. I picked up three chocolate bars for friends. Alex and Chit picked up some boxed chocolates, which I later received as birthday presents! THANKS!!!

On our way back to The Strip, we parked in a vacant lot and crossed the busy Las Vegas Boulevard to take pictures with the famous "Welcome to Fabulous Las Vegas" sign. Once we had out fill, we headed to The Mirage for a final turn at the slot machines and for an asian-fusion dinner buffet.

We drove to McCarran airport around 10pm, as we all had flights departing around midnight. I shopped for souvernirs while Chit and Alex tried the airport slot machines. They got lucky! Yay! We said bye to Chit, who was heading to San Francisco to spend another week with her family, and we got on our flight to Chicago for our connecting flight back home.

All in all, the 4-day trip was the best fun I've had in a long time. I'm glad that Alex decided to join in on the trip. It was nice to experience issues such as traveling, discovering new places, gambling (hahaha!), dining in fine restaurants and trekking home from the airport with major lack of sleep! :-)

So much for BRIEF eh?!

 

 

 

The musical was incredible. The actors were on stage constantly, as they were also the musicians (some playing up to 3 different instruments). We were up front, in the second row, real up close! I loved the music and how harmoniously they played and sang together. Instruments: piano, accordian, flute, oboe, trumpet, tuba, triange, xylophone, fiddle, bass, violin, cello...what else?

This was the first of 6 musicals of the 2007-2008 Mirvish Productions series. I can't wait for the next one!