I finally finished painting my living room and den. And when I say I, I mean Aaron finally came home after two weeks in PEI to finish painting all the doors in a night. It took me two weeks to get 3/4 of a door painted.

Three boxes left to clear.

I have to get rid of these curtains. I need to make curtains. I need to stop building my list of To Do's.
I wish my reason for living out of boxes for over a month could be because I've been frolicking in the sun every day. It's not. When Vancouver decided to welcome the sun, someone gave me a job. It's hard to complain about having a job, but when I'm trapped in a hot room all day and I'm not sweating from hiking and running outdoors, but sweating from sitting in a chair and clicking a mouse... whining about being employed is semi allowed. No, it's not, but no one reads this, so I'll whine if I want to.

It's sad when the only time I've been able to enjoy the sun this summer is when I was waiting for dailies.

My east coast love and I went out for eats at Coast. As we attacked our chilled seafood platter, we couldn't help notice that a couple behind us was still working on their platter, which was already set in front of them when we arrived. Aaron noticed the woman's plate of carnage was more than double of the man's. He barely touched any of the seafood. If this was a first date, I think those two were able to learn a lot about one another. Food compatibility should be the top criteria on dating sites. By the way, guy, if you don't enjoy seafood, next time don't choose a place named Coast.


And note to others out there, chilled seafood platter at Coast > Joe Forte's.

One dessert drink each at Guu. Freshly squeezed grapefruit with lychee liquor.

Less than a week to go until moving day. I am extremely unprepared.
I have class in the morning, then work right after all this week. Well, maybe work just for two days. I am not half packed. I think I'll start panicking tomorrow.

I'm still very excited for the move. I can't wait to have people over. I live my life according to movies, so I know dinner parties and weekend-long sleepovers are the best. I look forward to entertaining my guests, lounging around and reminiscing about the good ol' days on the couch, and then making breakfast for everyone! (yes, I live in a one bedroom, but I'll manage to fit in all my friends).


Although, realistically, I know that my weeknights and weekends will be more like me doing this alone:

That's my place. Not my furniture. Gathering furniture has been very stressful. I'm imagining how they all look together, but I don't trust my imagination, so I worry that my place will look like a big messy blob. I'm also constantly checking my e-mail to see if sellers have replied to my Craigslist and Kijiji inquiries. Anytime I have access to the internet, straight to those sites! It's taking a while, but I'm slowly learning to not love something I see on the postings because, chances are, someone else loves it too and it always seems like every one else has faster fingers than me. "Sorry, already sold" replies are the blurstest. Also, not getting replies and then trying to search for it again on Craigslist and coming up with nothing bums me out too. I'll give Vancouver Flea Market a go this weekend.

Shopping at Superstore and IKEA for kitchenware and bathroom supplies (not willing to do second hand for some items) has shown more success, but the bill always hurts. Other shoppers and parking make me go crazy angry too. Especially you, drivers who drive so slowly trying to scout the closest spots to the entrance when there are fifty open stalls in the back! OooOo you can't be bothered to walk a whole minute longer to get in to the mall. Bothered!

What brings me away from becoming crazy Shannon are my favourite purchases: rice bowls, chopsticks and Chinese soup spoons. I loved the feeling of finally buying my own chopsticks. I don't know why. Maybe because chopsticks remind me of rice, and I love rice.

It's almost official. I'm moving out of my parents' home and in to my own place.
I'm extremely excited to by furniture and start painting. Craigslist will be my bestest friend. If you have stuff you want to get rid of, I'm your gal. Decorating on a budget. This doesn't mean I'm going to accept crap. I'd rather have one nice, comfy chair than five worn bean bags. The best part about growing up is that I'll finally be able to upgrade to a grown up bed. Goodbye single mattress with my 1/2 of a bunkbed frame!

I may not have a lot of money, but I still care enough not to do this.

banh mi from T & T
instant ramen noodle bowl
udon with dumplings and an egg
instant ramen noodle bowl
instant ramen noodle bowl
banh mi from T & T
sticky rice from T & T

Those have been my meals for the last few days.

I may be on a budget, but I don't think a proper meal requires me taking out a loan.
The least I could do is put some greens in. And by greens, I don't mean the kind that semi inflates with the addition of water.

Two weeks ago. Salmon, salad and mashed potatoes.
This cost me less than $7 to make. No excuses, Shannon. Come on!

Another goal achieved! I biked from my house to downtown Vancouver. Google maps estimated that I would complete the journey in 1 hour 22 minutes. I proved it wrong and did it in 1 hour 30 minutes... The ride didn't feel as long, but the climb up to around 37th wasn't pleasant. I wasn't able to enjoy the downhill ride to the Cambie Street bridge because the ease of the ride only led me to imagine the challenge of riding up it on my way home to Richmond. It's much steeper than the hill heading North, so even though I'm on a high to hit my goals, I don't think I'm going to try biking to Richmond any time soon. I still need to beat Google's expectation of 1:22.

This was my reward.

I am easing in to the lifestyle of a person carrying a mortgage. I don't have to do it yet, but I've started to figure out what my food situation will be like on my own. One thing I'm assured of is that I won't have to live off of instant ramen, although it will be part of my diet because I can't resist my instant ramen with egg combo. My first place for delicious savings is T & T... more like T & T after 7:30pm, because all the "deli" food is marked down! Throw the Miss Cheap Ass sash on me, I don't care! It's marked down food, but it's not like they're selling sushi that was packed at 8am in the morning.

I was very happy with the $2.50 dinner from T & T, so much so that I wasted $4 on a bubble tea. I'm still learning.


P.S. One downfall of T & T is that since their deli area is huge, I usually end up spending over 15 minutes picking up and putting back items as I have a hard time figuring out exactly what my stomach wants that day. For example yesterday, I picked up a pack of california rolls four times and walked around the store with it once before picking up the banh mi. And that was after I almost convinced myself that I needed half a pound of soy sauce chicken to myself.

Insanity. Think P90X. Another one of those video exercises with ripped men and women smiling and yelling at you to "DIG DEEPER". I prefer Insanity because the only equipment you need is a water bottle. No money spent! (yes, I downloaded the videos)
It's supposed to be a seven day workout, but out of four days this week, I've completed two work outs. I blame it on my sore muscles from a day of Ultimate and my laziness.

This is Tanya. Sean T calls her "The Machine". I look just as cool as her when I go full Insanity. Minus the abs.
I prefer activities such as this- napping in the sun.

So, work happened. I still had free time after work, but I spent most of it sleeping or sitting on my ass, catching up on hours of television.

That and I went to Vegas.

My first Cheese Cake Factory visit. I love my tuna tartare.
We had a 9pm flight, but we still got to catch 2.5 periods of Game 1 (R3).
Not like I have to say it, but I went to the big buffet at Planet Hollywood. I was so excited for the food that I almost paid the extra $12 to jump the line. Snow crab, now!

I'm not ashamed. I've been to two Canucks games this year (as the second ticket), watched about three whole games on the TV, and caught periods throughout the season. When it comes to the post season, I always give the extra effort and make time for the games. So yes, I CHASE THE BANDWAGON. I like the Canucks and I don't think there's anything wrong with the city gathering more support during the playoffs. I do this with any sport. I use to watch every Dallas Mavericks game, but now I check the scores or I watch a few playoff games. Yankees, I like baseball but I'll admit it's slow, so you'll only see me there in the best of 7s. In tennis, I'll watch a couple early rounds, but the most exciting games are in the finals. You have to admit, things get a bit more interesting near the end. It's no wonder more people show up at the pubs than usual during playoffs. So calm down. Most of us are not pretending to be die hard Canucks fans, and we're not going to take "The Most Loyal Fan" title away from you (we're not even going to challenge it). We want to be part of the excitement in Vancouver, and most of all, we just want to cheer for the Canucks. So stop yelling at me, I'm trying to watch the game!

So, I haven't been posting a lot of my homemade eats. This is because I've been unemployed with zero income for almost two months now, so I've been finding scraps in the fridge to make my meals. It's been a lot of soup noodles, rice with soy sauce, congee, and just a meal of siu choy or gai lan.

As for eating out, this site has been my guide. I need to get more creative with my money saving meals so that I don't sacrifice health. Instant ramen, cheap wings, chef boyardee, canned soup and KD... doesn't sound like a livable diet.

This was from when my uncle and aunt treated us to eat at Tora Renbo in Richmond.

I wish to eat food like this every week, but I can't. Sigh.

One of my favourite movies.

I have about twelve days to finish reading these books. Mindy Kaling said she flipped through Bossypants in a day, so I think I have plenty of time to prepare for April 19th.

Batman is awesome. I used to love watching Batman: The Animated Series on the WB. I never read Batman comics or graphic novels, so I'm not a Batman buff who knows his entire history, but if anyone asks me who my favourite superhero is, I'll instantly drop my sandwich and yell, while spitting out lettuce, "BATMAN!"

I never liked the suit, but Batman Beyond filled the Batman: TAS void just fine.
Popped in Batman Begins this weekend. It was shortly followed by The Dark Knight. The Joker was a great part of The Dark Knight, but I still prefer Batman Begins. They're both on my list of top favourites, but I always prefer watching Bruce Wayne become the big B. The last of the trilogy won't come out until next year, so maybe I'll turn it into a Christopher Nolan theme and watch the Prestige again.

The Batpod in action is one my favourite scenes.
Makes me wonder how I ever thought the pre-Nolan Batman batmobiles were cool.
Also, if you ever feel down and want to feel awesome for a day, turn on the Batman Begins or The Dark Knight soundtrack as you work at home, go for a run, or run errands. Trust me, it will really boost your moral.

Suggestions for feeling like you could kick ass:
"Corynorhinus" (the last two minutes) - Batman Begins
"Molossus" - Batman Begins
"A Dark Knight" - The Dark Knight

It's that time of year again when I realize Sun Run is about two weeks away and I am far from prepared. As usual, it's time to cram. This strategy never really gets me much improvement from the shape that I am in right now. All it does is it stops me from getting into worse shape.

I hopped back on to the bike again and took a ride to Steveston on Wednesday. The wind really does make a difference. It took me five minutes less to ride home than it did to ride there because I had the wind at my back. It was that or the bagel from Starbucks gave me a super boost.



Today, I ran. Eeeh, okay, jogged. It was rough. I'm not discouraged. The first run is always rough. Let's just hope I don't giver for two weeks and fall back in to my lazy ways. I really want to aim for the half marathon next year... and I would really like to stop having to say that every year.

I don't eat on Denman enough and I don't know why. After eating at Wild Garlic Bistro on Denman, we walked back to my car and as we passed the windows of every restaurant, I started creating a list of places we had to visit. We'll slowly cross them off my list. I wish I could eat out every other day of the week, but my wallet has more say than my stomach.

At Wild Garlic, I ordered the mussels with the white wine garlic and herbs broth. And so my craze with mussels start. Aaron had a seafood medley, a bouillabaisse. Salmon, cod, prawns, scallops & mussels in saffron, tomato, fennel, broth. Our one critique was that the photos on the wall resembled the art placed around a tacky office in the '80s. But we were here for the food, and the food was good.

Point and shoot camera low on batteries, Blackberry low on batteries... I was forced to use his iPhone.
I guess it does take OK photos.

March 25, 2011. My dad's Christmas present from me and Char. He rock and rolled all night.

I made a comfy case for my Kobo today. Flawed. I used this design (can't remember the site) for my notebook and it worked out well. I did lazy measurements this time, so it didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. It still holds my Kobo, which means it's good enough for now. By the way, Fabricland on Marine drive is having an Everything Must Go sale. At least 50% off of everything.

I should always have a camera on me. There are too many great things happening every day to not capture some of it. I know, at the least, I'll have my phone camera. It doesn't have the capabilities of my DSLR, but I guess that gives me more practice at taking better pictures without relying on my Canon to do its magic.

Mike directed me to the site [No Recipes] and I went straight for the Bahn Mi. Mushroom onion pot roast, you're next. While the carrots and daikon were pickling in the fridge, I went for a walk with my camera to pick up pate and bread. 20 years in the same neighborhood and it wasn't until this year that I noticed I have a great view of the Lions. Yep. I really need to stop driving and staring at the roads so often. It's boring and I'm missing out on a lot of Vancouver.

I wanted to eat this so badly that I didn't even bother to focus.
Walking by Dolphin Park.

I tried out the bike route from Marine Drive to River Rock along the Canada Line today. A less than eight minute ride. There really isn't any excuse for me to not take my bike if the weather keeps up. I'm not sure I can ride from my house to downtown any time soon, but I can at least bike from my house to Marine Drive station. And if I'm not a lame ass, maybe each time I do this I'll travel a little further from the last and go to the next stop. Okay, slow down. Become a confident biker first.

I'm cold often, so I turn to soups and drinks to warm me up. Stock-like soups are the best. They're easy for me to make and they get the job done nicely.

Oyster mushrooms, fish cake, ginger, salty egg and siu choy.
Char laughs and says, "You're so Asian" when she sees me make stuff like this.

My Kobo's new friend, London Fogs. Magic bullet can foam!

I think laziness has stopped me from seeing that I can make pub food at home. When I try to do it, I always think, well that was frickin' easy. Why do I pay $8 for it, again? I didn't start making chicken wings at home until a couple of years ago. The closest I got to making it at home was baking frozen wings from Costco. I saw Char pull some sweet potato and yam fries out of the oven last week. Peel, cut, oil, and salt. I can't believe it took me so many years to finally make my first batch of yam fries. Come on, Shannon.
I tipped myself. Next step: Aioli dip.

Gas. 133. My bike and my feet have to be my main means of transportation from now on. It's sad that it took money to decide this since the environment should have been my first motivator. Time to get batteries for my flashers. Watch out, cars! Get ready for another wobbly cyclist!

I'm setting up a couple of goals here since I'm pretty proud of myself for accomplishing the "spontaneous trip somewhere" goal so quickly.

1. Leave my car at home. Bike and walk more.
2. Read more books.

I recently watched Waiting for Superman. A second grader in the movie said he read 150 books the previous year and was set on doing the same the current year. Last year I read 1/4 of a book. Sure, maybe he wasn't reading 150 books the size of The Odyssey, but 150 is impressive even if he read a load of Cam Jansen. I finished my first book of the year with my new Kobo. The Hunger Games. I admit, I only choose it because I heard Jennifer Lawrence was cast as the lead character. She was great in Winter Bone so I was curious. When I reached the end of the book, I was disappointed to see that it's a trilogy. My first reaction: Oh eff. I just picked up the next Twilight series. I enjoyed The Hunger Games and my John Grisham level of reading tells me that it was written well, but the thought that this book would have the same type of following as Twilight scares me. I watched the first two movies (required seven sittings in total to complete the two) because I felt left out of the hooplah, and to be honest... I wanted to know what I was talking about if I was going to diss the movie. To me, the entire series feels like studios trying to make fast and easy money, so not much thought put into production. Sure, the book wasn't well written to begin with (it's worse when you hear it read out loud, check it out here), but that's why writers are hired. I guess it is a challenge for even the best writers to not make "sparkling" sound and look hilarious. I should stop now before I go on a wasteful rant on Twilight. Back on track. I'm going to read ten books this year. HEY! It's better than a quarter.

I still don't know how to control the exposure (possible?) on Photobooth. Photoshopped!

A cooking class with Vikram Vij is an experience I'd recommend to everyone. Nevermind that you know you'll be tasting some of the best Indian food in Vancouver, but you also get to hear his stories of Vij the restaurant and how and why he became a chef. I really do recommend this if you can sit through a room with a few people competing to be Canada's Next Pretentious Food Critic. My stomach and I have never been so angry to hear this comment: "Vikram, the portions are way too big. There's too much food. I can't finish this if there's going to be two other main courses. I wish these were smaller." Go home, and take your mouse-sized stomach with you.

Even if classes aren't your thing, South China Seas (where the class was held) is a great place to get spices and fresh chilis not often found in most grocery stores. I like my food hots, but I'm learning that there's no point in having your food so hot that you won't be able to taste any flavours. Bragging rights are filling, but is it worth it when you're patting down sweat from your face and wiping dripping snot from your nose? Okay, yes, sometimes it's worth it. HOT WINGS!

This isn't new news to most, but here are some derishous and cheap eats on Davie.
First: Pho Central. $6.95 for this bowl of pho. Rare beef and brisket. I've been to two other places downtown that serve pho and they serve it with cooked beef. Yeah, why don't they start serving sushi with brown rice? Oh wait, they do? And it's not bad? Fine. So same goes with cooked beef. It's not bad, but that's not how it's originally served.

Always have a napkin ready. Not for your mouth, but because your nose will run from the steam coming off of the super hot broth.
Two: Stephos. This is a familiar one. $9.95 for a kalamari dinner. I always recommend doing take out. There is a line-up daily and they don't take reservations for parties of 4 or less. The line isn't worth it in my opinion, so phone in the order, and laugh as you walk past the line to pick up your garlic and onion smelling paper bag. On a nice day, take it down to English Bay to eat, but stop by the corner store for a pack of gum. The garlic hovers around your entire body for the day. The least you can do is eliminate it from your mouth.
This same day, Aaron got a Vera's (on Davie too) burger with onion rings. $11.98. I won in value.

April 19th at Nokia Theater.


Ticket purchased. I'm a flight booking away from achieving that one goal.

Never Let Me Go. Grab a cup of tea and watch it. I recommend youtube-ing "cute puppies" after the credits roll.

Last week I went to Canucks game and was really impressed with all the flashy changes to the arena. I haven't been to a game this year, but my last game wasn't too long ago and I don't remember seeing Rogers Arena glow with so much Canucks pride. Green and blue lights were swinging all around the outside of the building. There was even effort to lower banners that held projected graphics when the players were introduced. I guess we deserve some extra show on top of the game since the prices are pretty ridiculous now. K, we didn't have to pay for these tickets and I've never bought a single Canucks ticket in my life... but the person in front of me who bought his tickets, doughnuts, beers, hot dog and pretzel deserved some pizazz.


I took a day trip this Saturday to Victoria to visit my cousin at her new home at UVic. I haven't been to Victoria since high school when I'd take the ferry to Vancouver Island twice a year for those five years. Ah, good times playing Big Two, half asleep on the carpet at seven in the morning. We had lunch at Pagliacci's (McConkey recommendation), wandered through their Chinatown (pff) and then Tour Guide Melissa gave me a walking tour of the UVic campus. We spotted one bunny, which is a good turn out considering they recently shipped a load to Texas and had to... discard the rest.