Day 2: Day of eating adventure / more bourbon st

What happens jn New Orleans stays in New Orleans! Haha.. Jk

We started our day eating at Eat New Orleans. It was a walking distance from our hotel. (everything in the French Quarter is walking distance from us) There is free wifi in our hotel room. We checked out the menu online before we went there. We waited for about 20 mins to get seated. We shared 4 dishes: crawfish pie, eggs cochon ( kinda like an eggs benedict but with pullled pork), catfish dauphine (kinda like eggs benedict but with catfish) and breakfast trio ( grillades, shrimp and grits, eggs and biscuit).
I like the crawfish pie the best. It was warm and comforting. It reminded me of lasagna: melting cheese on the top and a warm stewy filling. There were three tables that got sat after us and ordered after us. They got their food before us. We waited 45 minutes for our food to arrive. We were hungry and pissed off. Dont go there. Service sucks.

After breakfast, we went to our first tourist attraction: Spring Fiesta House. It is a house from the 1800's. It was really neat to see how people celebrated christmas in the 1800's.

We finally took public transportation. We took the streetcar down to the Riverwalk ( a pier with shops and restaurants). It was really neat to see the shops.

After walking around for a few hours, we went to eat at Mothers. it was a recommendation from a few friends. It was like a take out restaurant. You order at the counter and they bring the food out to you. The best item i ate there was the bread pudding. It was nice and warm.

It was back to the hotel for some rest and relaxation before we went to celebrated the new year. We went to the Riverwalk again. This time to watch the fireworks. It was on 15 mins. We then walked on Bourbon St to get back to our hotel. It was more of a zoo then the other days.

Time to call it a night. Have to start our day early tomorrow.

Day 1: travelling to new orleans / bourbon st

We started the day early. Our first flight was at 825am. We met at the airport at 630am. Our first flight was to DFW ( dallas / forth worth), texas. There was a few hours in the layover. We finally arrived in new orleans at 630ish. By the time we arrived at our hotel, it was 730ish. Our hotel is in the French Quarter. Its a very quint hotel with a lot of character.

We had dinner at the Red Fish Grill. It was recommended by two friends. There is 4 of us. we shared two entrees and a gumbo. One entree was pan seared scallops with asparagus. It was so delicious. The pan seared jumbo scallops with corn macque chouz, roasted asparagus, jalapeno oil and crispy andouille.

The second entree was the hickory grilled redfish with tasso and wild msuhroom pontalba potatoes, sauteed louisiana jumbo lump crabmeat with lemon butter sauce. The fish was the best fish i've ever had. It was crusty on the outside and soft on the inside. It wasnt dry and overcooked like most fish i've had.

The gumbo was alligator sausage and seafood gumbo with rich dark roux, onion, bell peppers, celery and fresh herbs. It was a tad too spicy for me. The alligator was a sausage so it was hard to taste the actual alligator meat.

After dinner, we walked on Bourbon st. This is like walking on the Vegas strip times that by ten. There is more drinking and more drunken antics than vegas. There are buildings with balconies and people on the balconies throw down beads. Sometimes they just throw down the beads for random people. Sometimes they throw the beads to people who show some boobs or butt.

One place we wanted to try was Cafe Du Monde. It is known for its beignets and cafe au lait. Beignets are like a puff donut engulfed with icing sugar. I am not a coffee but the cafe au lait was good with a bit of sugar. It stayed really hot for a really long time. It was walking distance to the French Market. Eventhough the stores were closed, we just did some window shopping. We will make it there again to go in the shops. There are so many shops with artsy and crafty things to see.

We finally walked back to our hotel. It is really nice to relax and rest my legs after 3 hours of walking.

For Sale: Coupons I won't be using

TBC Indoor Kart Racing: 2 races - Sun - Thurs
2100 Viceroy Pl, Richmond
Expires on Oct 1, 2011
$20







Blackberry Books
1666 Johnston st
Expires on Dec 29, 2015
$25 worth of books for $15






Don Guacamole's
1333 Robson St
Expires on Oct 1, 2011
$30 worth of authentic Mexican cuisine for only $20









Accent Cruises
1661 Duranleau St
Expires on Sept 15, 2011
$30 value for a 2.5 hour cruise for $20 (two coupons available)




If you are interested in any of these coupons, please email me at lisahaa@gmail.com.

Another wedding dress?

I thought I loved the dress I bought. I realized that I needed too much alterations. I realized I didn't want an ivory wedding dress. It didn't look 'clean'. It is an original design. I have never seen anything like it. I felt I wanted a less expensive dress. I went to another sale. Of course I would expect at sales to have just the left overs and nothing special.



The sale I went to was at Lauren's Bridal. It was a lady's house in Surrey. It was a small room in her townhouse which she sells the wedding dresses. There is a small selection in each size. I tried on the first dress. I liked it. I didn't really want to try on any other dresses but I was curious on what else she had. I tried on a bunch of different styles. I tried on a two piece dress. I didn't like it too much. There was one style which I liked. It is a halter top. It is a chiffon material. It has a small train. But I did like the first dress the best. It is a strapless mermaid style. I can't post a picture cause 'someone' doesn't want to see it until the wedding day. This sale was a bit different. I actually found something nice and affordable.

My Wedding Dress

Besides the venue, my wedding dress is one of my next biggest decisions. We are in the middle of choosing our wedding favours and centerpieces. Today I made a decision on my dress.

The other week my maid of honour and I went dress shopping. We went to New West where there is tonnes of bridal shops. I thought there was only 3 or 4 stores. But really there is about 10 of them. One of the shops we went into was the Bridal Gallery. I think it is supposed to be one of the higher end shops. You are supposed to make an appointment and you get a personal consultant to help you. I didn't make an appointment. It was a Monday afternoon and we just walked in. If they turned us away because we didn't make an appointment, we would've just checked out the other stores. We were lucky because they slotted us in. It reminded me of the store at the TLC show 'Say Yes to the Dress'. It is very bright, you get a personal consultant and you get to stand on the little platform with a three way mirror. The consultant, I forgot her name already, asked me many questions so she can the dresses for me to try one. She had to find out my budget and style to find the right dress for me. I was there for about an hour and tried on many types of dresses. I wanted to try on the many styles to see how I feel and look in them. I don't want a strapless gown. It was almost impossible to find a non strapless gown at the Bridal Gallery. I tried on a 'princess' gown which was strapless and form fitting at the bodice and puffy. It was heavy and it wasn't flattering on me. I tried on many dresses and it was so heavy. I am looking for a light dress that is easy to put on and off. Many of the dresses had the corset back. Man, what a pain in the ass to put on and off. I knew I wanted a zipper back. I tried on a short dress. I would never know if that was for me or not unless I tried on one. After I tried it on, I felt that a longer dress would be more appropriate. I didn't want alot of rhinestones or flowers. I didn't want a long train. Because it will be a spring wedding, it would be easier for me to get around in a dress with a short train. I originally wanted a white dress but the consultant at the Bridal Gallery suggested an ivory dress because it would complement my skin. I finally tried on a dress that I really liked. It was a strapless dress. It was a pretty typical bridal dress, kinda mermaid and flares out that bottom. It was way over my budget. The saleslady was really pushing for me to make another appointment to come back and try the dress again to purchase the dress. I told her I would call her to make an appointment. I never did. I thought the dress was too expensive and wasn't totally what I wanted.

I found and bought my dress today. It was totally by accident. Last night my fiance told me about a sale at Sandra Sung which was on today. Today at work I did a quick search to find out more about the sale. The sale was only on till 5 pm today. I get off work at 4pm. I couldn't ask my cousin because it was super last minute and she had her son's birthday party to prepare for. I asked my co worker to come shopping with me. Sandra Sung has been in the business for 25 years and is wanting to retire from running her bridal shop. The sale was actually on from yesterday to today. All proceeds go to support the Breast Care Program at Mount Saint Joseph Hospital (TAPESTRY FOUNDATION FOR HEALTH CARE, http://www.tapestryfoundation.com). There are no price tags. I had a sales lady help me out. She suggested that I pick and try on the dresses that I like. Then if I want to purchase one, then suggest a price for Sandra to approve. My co worker and I chose a few dresses. Some were pretty standard wedding magazine styles. There was a ground floor level and an upstairs level. We started off downstairs and I didn't see anything that really caught my eye. There was a dress on a mannequin that I thought was ok. We then went upstairs to see the other styles available. I saw a dress on another mannequin that caught my eye. I tried on a few dresses and didn't really felt anything was right. The dress on the mannequin was the one for me. I ended up purchasing it. I realized that it fits most of my criteria in a dress. It isn't a strapless dress. It doesn't have a lot of sequins or flowers on it. It has a mini train. It is super easy to get in and out of because it has a zipper back. It is ivory. It is a bit different than all the other typical wedding magazine dresses. It doesn't fit me perfectly but the alterations that has to be done are very minimal. It was a bit over what I budgeted to spend on a wedding dress. It is ok because it is an unique dress and proceeds go to a good cause.

Lost of a Schoolmate / Vancouver Riots

Lost of a schoolmate

On Monday, June 13 I found out that a high school mate passed away. I found out thru another friend via facebook. My friend wrote that he passed away because he had cancer. There was a blog written about his last seventy something days. It was a blog written by his girlfriend, who wrote in it as what it seems like every other day. She wrote about how he found out he had the cancer and his struggle with it. It seemed like everyday was a struggle for him.

After I found out, I was sad all day. It really made me think about me and my life. It was only about three months from the time he found out to the time he passed away. If I found out I have cancer and only three months to live, what would I do? Would I have completed my bucket list? Would I die happy?

Vancouver Riots

A few days later, the Vancouver riots happened. That made me sad too. It is so unbelievable that something like this would happen. I think it would've happened if the Canucks won or lost. What was the point of burning the cars or looting? It was an opportunity for all the crazies to come out and play. It was a monkey see monkey do attitude. If they saw someone doing something illegal, it seemed ok to do it too. It was so crazy for them to do all the stupid things that they did. Didn't they see or know that there were surveillance cameras and everyone there had a camera too? All these smart phones these days. All of them comes with a camera and some with video capabilities. In an instant, their images are plastered all over the internet. It is a different society and lifestyle than 1994, when the last riots happened. In two days, some rioters have been identified already.

The day after the riot happened, the people fought back and cleaned up the streets. It was pretty amazing. Everyone banned together and took back the streets. They swept glass off the streets. They cleaned what they can. The Bay was looted and was boarded up. The board has now been used as a canvas to share the thoughts of Vancouverites who condemned the violence.

Storage Wars

This show is on A&E. I don't know when the show is on. I usually channel surf and it happens to be on. I was channel surfing one day and it was on. I watched the whole episode. It is quite interesting. It follows five main people. Each of them has a different style and technique on how they bid on the lockers. The show takes place in Southern California. They go to storage auctions and bid on abandoned storage lockers. The locker is opened and they get a few minutes to see if it is a locker they are interested in. They are not allowed to touch anything in the locker.

It is interesting because you never know what is in the lockers. The items are usually covered in something or in a box. They don't know exactly what they get until after they pay for the locker and go through all the items. They usually buy the lockers to resell the items. The items they find in the lockers range on depending on the previous owners. Sometimes they find items that are worth a lot of money. Sometimes they just find junk in the lockers. If there is something they think is of value, they bring it to get assessed by a professional. At the end of the episode it shows who made the most money and who made the least.

Venue Search

I got engaged a few weeks ago. It has been an exciting few weeks. But it's also a bit stressful. So many things to think about. I usually recommend brides who aren't familiar with the industry to hire a wedding planner. I have decided to not hire a wedding planner. I work for a party rental company and would be able to get rentals easily. I am in contact with people in the industry. I can ask them questions easily. I need an on-day coordinator. I have someone in mind for that position.

My biggest hurdle now is finding a venue. We will be deciding on a date in the next few days. I am looking for a venue that can hold 400 people for a sit down dinner. Because the guest list is large, we are limited to a small selection of venues. My last choice is to go to a Chinese restaurant. It limits me to a few venues and some hotel ballrooms.

Here are my requirements:
- hopefully in Vancouver, farthest will be Surrey or Coquitlam
- guests will be sitting in round tables of 10 (or something close to that)
- has a stage
- has a screen and projector
- has an in house music system and/ or something that a laptop can be plugged in
- has a working microphone
- has a dance floor

It's been difficult but I'm sure I will be able to find something soon. I will have to check out the venues and see how it goes from there.

Day 7 in Cali (March 6, 2011) - Canucks at Anaheim

It was a fun day for us. We had to drive to Anaheim to watch the game. The game started at 5pm. Because I didn't get a chance to see my relatives, it was the day to spend a few hours with them. We had lunch at my cousins house. There was so much food. Most of my relatives showed up for lunch. I have been seeing them once a year for the last three years. After lunch, we headed over to another cousin's house to see her new place.

Time to head to the Duck Pond. On the way there, this is what we saw:

Im sure you noticed the 'Nevada' license plate first. Look closely you will see the two Canucks flags.

There were six of us heading to the game: me, R, my sister, her husband, and my sister's two friends. We were all wearing Canucks jerseys. Four of us met my sister's two friends at the Duck Pond.

Here is a picture of inside the stadium: - pick out the Anaheim fans....see you can't, can you??



It was amazing there. It was like being at a Canucks home game. Everywhere I went, I saw a Canucks fan. We started saying 'Go Canucks Go!' and we started the wave. Of course only the Canucks did the wave. When the game ended and I went to the bathroom, the lineup was comprised of Canucks fans. Like the LA game, when they were giving away prizes they tried not to give it to Canucks fans. They even went into the stands to give away the prizes. They had to maneuver around the Canucks fans to give the prizes to the home team fans.

Another reason that it felt like a home game, there were green men and woman. They weren't the 'real' ones..but it was close enough. You can even see one on the bottom right corner of the above picture.


The Ducks were so jealous that we had green men now they have orange people. So our nice green people came down to say HI to the orange people. It was cool to see them all get along.

I guess the Canucks felt our winning energy because they did their best and won the game. We got to see the Canucks win two games on the road. Most of the Ducks fans left when there was 5 minutes left in the 3rd period. The Canucks had 3 goals and Ducks 0. The Canucks fans were cheering and hollering all the way outside. What a way to end a great weekend!

Day 6 in Cali (March 5, 2011) - Canucks at LA

It was a start of an exciting weekend. We were about to head to our first out of two hockey games. It was Canucks vs LA at the Staples Center in LA. It was an hour ride to LA from my sister's place. After we parked, we saw some Canucks fans walking towards the stadium. We knew where they were heading so we just followed them to the stadium. We thought that's cool to see some Canucks fans. When we got to the entrance, there were so many Canucks fans. There must have been about 50 - 100 of them. They were standing at the entrance. I'm not sure if they were waiting for something or just felt like standing there. Then being as patriotic as they are, they started to sing O Canada. There were bus loads of Canucks fans coming to the game. Inside the stadium, there were so many more Canucks fans. I would say there were at least 60% of the fans were Canuck fans.

The highlight of the game wasn't when the Canucks won the game, it was when we realized Cory Monteith was at the game. It was Alex Burrows fault. A LA guy hit Alex Burrows against the board and there was only a glimpse of Cory was on the jumbo tron. Because of that split second, the many Glee fans went wild and tried to get their autographs and pictures during the intermission. It ended up being a few cast members from Glee had front row seats to watch the game. There were six of them. You won't probably guess who this is a picture of. This is the closest picture I can get of them. It is Cory Monteith and 'Brittany' from Glee.


After the excitement of winning the game and seeing cast members of Glee, we did the touristy thing. We went to Mann's Chinese Theatre. It was neat to see the walk of fame and the imprints of their hands and feet.


There was a new mall across the street from the theatre. There were lots of shops and restaurants. And we can also see the Hollywood sign!!

Day 5 in Cali (March 4, 2011) - Disneyland

My yearly trip to Disneyland!! That's what has happened for the last few years. It was Rob's first time to Disneyland. The night before we had a strategy on where to go and what to see. My sister has been to Disneyland a gazillion times and she knows what the kids wants to see and what she wants to see. We were there from about 11 am to about 9 pm. It's a long day there. We had to bring lots of snacks and lots of layers of clothes.


There was so many things to see and do in Disneyland. We went on the Jungle Cruise. It was a slow boat ride thru the jungle. There were elephants, zebras and many other animals. As we were waiting, we saw Alladin! There are some characters who walk around. You have to chase them down to get a picture with them.

We went on It's A Small World. I remember going on this ride was I was younger. They renovated it, modernized it and included more characters which made it more interesting. Then we walked over to ToonTown. I like ToonTown. They have the character's houses. The houses are made as if they were in a cartoon. Everything is large and colourful. Mickey is the most popular so his house is the biggest and the longest lineup. We finally got in and saw Mickey!


My favourite ride was Buzz Lightyear's Astro Blasters. You are seated in a spaceship and there there guns that shoot lazer. As you go along the ride, there are targets and you have to shoot them. The more targets you hit, the more points you get.

We parked ourselves at the edge of New Orleans facing the Rivers of America (see map). My sister strategized this so we will have the best seats to watch fireworks and Fantasia. Fantasia is a water lazer show with many scenes from the movie Fantasia. We just had to turn a bit and we can see the fireworks.

After seeing so many things, everyone was tired. It was time to go home.

Day 4 in Cali (March 3, 2011)

Joshua Tree.

This picture is of me and a Joshua Tree. There are lots of Joshua trees at Joshua Tree park. When I went there, I was looking for this huge beautiful tree named 'Joshua Tree'. We drove all over the park so I can find this tree. It was on our way out that I realized that there wasn't this one tree, it was all over the park. It was a few hour drive from my sister's place. For this long drive, I was expecting something out of the ordinary or spectacular. I was disappointed.

Joshua Tree Park is a very large park. You have to pay an admission fee to go into park. There are many entrances to this park. Each path there are different natural sights to see. One of my highlights was seeing the San Andreas Fault line (http://www.sanandreasfault.org/Information.html). It is the probably the closest I will ever get to is. I knew about it because I watched a show on Earthquakes and it mentioned it. The fault line is the foggy line that looks like it is coming out of my head.

Day 3 in Cali (March 2, 2011)

We headed into Palm Springs. I kinda wanted to do something I haven't done before. We went hiking at Indian Canyons. There were many hiking trails in the Indian Canyons. We went to Palm Canyon and Andreas Canyon. The two hiking trails we went on wasn't really hiking trails. It was very leisure and flat. It was nature walking. We only intended to spend about 2 hours hiking. Palm Canyon had, of course, many palm trees. It had various trails within the canyon. We walked a little bit and decided to go back to the car. The trail was very flat and wasn't very interesting to me.
I was wanting to try the Andreas Canyon. I liked the Andreas Canyon more than the Palm Canyon. There was more vegetation and more scenery. There was a large rock which was the highlight of the trail. When we were close to the rock, we saw another couple walk by us. The man recognized my Canucks t-shirt. It was because they were from Vancouver too. I was so excited because there was nobody on the trail for what seems like miles away. All of the sudden we see another couple and they are from Vancouver. We didn't take a picture with them. I really regret that we didn't. I like to take pictures to capture the moment.

Because we were close to downtown Palm Springs, we decided to walk around downtown. There was the Palm Springs Walk of Stars. It's kinda like the Hollywood walk of stars. There was a star with their name and what they were famous for. I was a bit tired after our nature trail walking. But the Palm Springs Walk of Stars is only a few blocks long. We had lunch at Ruby's Diner. We sat on the patio and did some people watching. I had a turkey pie which was a bit too salty for me. We got back to my sisters place about 8pm. We try our best to get back around that time so we can play with the kids before they head to bed.

Day 2 in Cali (Tues, March 1)

We went outlet shopping at Ontario Mills. It is about 30 - 45 mins away from my sister's place (depending on how fast you drive). I have been to states a few times. I know I always find good deals shopping. My strategy was to bring 'old' clothes to the states and buy new clothes. That way I have more room in my luggage. The 'old' clothes are clothes that don't fit anymore or I don't like anymore. I wore them once and left them at my sister's place. I bought myself a whole new wardrobe including new runners. After spending a few hours at the mall, it was time to head back to my sister's place.

Because we were staying at my sister's place for a few nights, we decided to do something for my sister and her family. We decided to cook dinner for them. We did some grocery shopping. We had an idea of the menu. We didn't look in her fridge to see what food they had or didn't have. We just went out and bought the ingredients we needed. The menu was steak, Thai chicken with pasta and salad. After dinner we just hung out with my sister's family.

Day 1 in Cali (Mon, Feb 28, 2011)

We realized that the trade show started on Monday. We wanted to check out the trade show for a bit. My co workers were there for about an hour before they headed back to Vancouver. I was there for another hour before I left the trade show. I wanted to see as much of it as I can before I left. There were so many things to see. The party rental exhibit is only a third of the trade show floor. It took me about 2 hours to see all the booths in the party rental area. My co workers were interested in the new tents that were available. I was interested in the chairs, plates and linens. There were chairs for kids. They were so cute. I had some chocolate dipped ice cream from a booth that sold trays and punch bowls. I have no idea what ice cream had to do with trays. It was more of a gimmick to get people into the booth.

We then headed to California. After a few hours, we arrived at Primm. We did some outlet shopping. I bought a few things. We finally made it to my sisters house at about 7pm. We had some dinner and relaxed.

Day 3 in Vegas (Sun, Feb 27,2011)

Our day started with work. We went to different seminars. My co workers went to a tenting seminar. I went to a customer service seminar. It was quite interesting. I think because I have been at my job for so long, sometimes I slack at my job. It kicked my butt in gear. The first seminar we went to was on LED lighting. Man, it was boring. I almost fell asleep. I had to fight to keep my eyes open. It felt like the longest 45 minutes of my life. The customer service seminar was fun and interactive. I sat in front of some ladies who work in a party rental place in Kamloops. I introduced myself and chit chatted with them for a few minutes.

Some of us headed of to the Gun Shop. It was quite a distance from where we were staying. It was quite the experience. They gave you a gun menu. You get to pick which guns you want to shoot. It was quite the extensive menu. Since I didn't know much about guns, it was like it was a foreign language to me. There were some packages which had a few guns. They had a Girls Package. I picked that one, it was easiest. The Girls Package had a pink rifle with Hello Kitty on it and a handgun. My friends had a package with machine guns. Those were kinda scary. You get to pick your target. Then you get to pick your range. We picked the more expensive one because it took less time, but it cost $50 more. We then took turns shooting our guns. It was kinda scary for me. But I stuck it out.

We came back to the strip and went to see the Titanic exhibit. It was very neat. There were actual artifacts which survived the Titanic. It was pretty amazing to see how well the artifacts were preserved. There was also a large piece from the Titanic. It was very interesting to learn about how they pulled out such a large piece.

It was Cory's birthday tonight. We went to Dick's Last Resort. There was a live band playing. They took requests and our table requested lots of songs by Canadian artists. There was lots of drinking to be had. I had a little bit too much to drink and it wasn't even my birthday. A couple of guys in our group got kicked out. So since they got kicked out, the rest of us left. We took the party outside. Some of them started singing O Canada. It was pretty random.
There is a guy in this picture standing in the back row with the white cap. I have no idea who that is. It is a random Canadian guy who we asked to be in our picture. I think his group was standing close to us or walking by us. I have no idea. I don't think most of my friends would remember either. There was a bit of an issue by the end of the night and our group split up..but I'm not going to write about it. It's too long and complicated. So by the end of the night, crashed on my bed and passed out.

Day 2 in Vegas (Sat, Feb 26, 2011)

We woke up and wanted some breakfast. We were heading down to the buffet at the Luxor. While walking towards there, we bumped into two of my friends and they said the buffet at the Luxor had a really long line up. We weren't into lining up for breakfast. We decided on Cafe Nikki at the Tropicana. On the way there, my two co workers joined us. There were six of us for breakfast. At Cafe Nikki, there was a buffet breakfast. We were up for that. We took a look at the food and it looked great!

We went to do some work related stuff. That didn't take too long.

My friends wanted to go see the Shark Reef Aquarium. It was really interesting. There were so many fishes, jellyfish and underwater animals.













After the Shark Reef, we headed to CSI. It was new to both of us. I didn't know what to expect. Was it a exhibit? Was it show? Was it interactive? It was neat. Once you get there, you get to choose from three scenarios. Once you picked which scenario you would like to work on, you move on and try to solve the mystery. The picture of the lady lying down is our scenario with a lady who was murdered. We have to document everything we see at the murder scene. We then walked further and there were different stations where you can find hints on who the murder victim is.

Four of us went to the buffet at Planet Hollywood. We did the 24 hour buffet for $45. At buffets there is so much food!! We stocked up on king crab legs. I didn't like them so much because they were too salty for me. It was from the salt water which they boil them in.

There was a Canucks game that night. Surprise surprise my friends are Canucks fans! We managed to get a private room at The Sporting Zone in New York New York. It was great. All 10 of us fit in that room! There was a big screen and there was sound for the game. Some of my friends got there first and at snacks / appies. We had to leave before the game ended because we went to see the Jabbawockeez.



The Jabbawockeez are a dance troupe which won the first year of America's Best Dance Crew. It was a fantastic show. It was a mixture of hip hop and storytelling. The crowd got excited very often and there were screams of excitement.

Day 1 in Vegas (Fri, Feb 25, 2011)

I met my co-workers at YVR. On our way to Vegas on a 10am flight. I was running a bit late to meet my co-workers. Lucky me, I was one of the chosen one that got randomly selected to be screened more thoroughly. I was so nervous. If you were to take my heart rate, it would've have been off the charts. They didn't ask me anything out of the ordinary. It was kind of a complicated trip because half was for business and half for pleasure. It's ok it made it in time to board my plane.

We stayed at the Luxor hotel. It is a beautiful hotel. There are two parts to the hotel: the tower and the pyramid. We were lucky enough to have rooms booked in the pyramid.
I have walked thru it in previous years. I loved the whole atmosphere of Egypt. Its all the sphinx and hieroglyphics that made the atmosphere. I have never stayed there. Our conference was at Mandalay Bay, which is the neighboring hotel. We had dinner at Tacos and Tequila in the Luxor. We were hungry and didn't want to go too far. We had some tacos and we enjoyed it.



Some of my friends from Vancouver also went to Vegas the same time we were there. A few arrived the night before us and some arrived the same night as us. We met up with my friends on Freemont St. It was all about the flashy lights, the loud music and the street entertainment on Freemont St. We were in Vegas, of course I saw Elvis..as a matter of fact, I saw two of them!



Every 15 minutes there is a light show. A few years back, the one I saw had bold graphics on gambling and it was a bit light show on showcasing Vegas. This time it was all about Kiss. Im not sure why. It was a bit entertaining.

Im not sure how KISS is related to the circus but whatever. They had carnival scenes and this was one of them.

Lastly, my Freemont experience wasn't complete without seeing Michael Jackson!

Cooking: Valentine's Dinner

http://lisahealthwellness.blogspot.com/2011/02/cooking-valentines-dinner.html

Cooking: Pork Chops and Veggies

http://lisahealthwellness.blogspot.com/2011/02/cooking-pork-chops-and-veggies.html

Cooking: Chicken and veggies

http://lisahealthwellness.blogspot.com/2011/02/cooking-chicken-and-veggies.html

Review of The Diamond

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2011/02/diamond.html

Review of 131 Water Social House

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2011/02/131-water-social-house.html

19 hours till....

I pick up my new car!! I'm counting down. I'm really excited. They originally told me it would take till the end of February for my car to arrive but it arrived earlier than expected.

I ordered my car on January 24. I know the date because it's on my visa slip when I paid the deposit. I bought my Mazda 3 at North Shore Auto Mall. I bought the base model with no Comfort Package, which has the air conditioning in the package. I didn't want the Comfort Package because I don't see the reason why I would need air conditioning. I am already cold all the time and I don't need to be colder in my car. In Vancouver it is only HOT a few months of the year. Why would I want to pay $1900 for something that I would be only using a few months of the year? All the salespeople tell me that it would be harder to resale my car without air conditioning. That still didn't deter me. I drove my Suzuki for 9 years without air conditioning. I never complained about not having it.

They did tell me ahead of time that I would have to wait for my car because there aren't many Mazda 3's without air conditioning. I was ok with waiting. After my parents and I decided on the car I wanted, we were ushered into Heather's office. Heather is the finance department. I guess she is the one that collects the money or how you will be paying the payments. She told me the total with all the taxes. One tax she said I had pay was the Air Levy. She said it was for air conditioners in the cars. I told her I didn't have air conditioner in my car. Then she proceeded to say that it is for all new cars. I told her I don't think it's fair for me to pay the air conditioning tax when I don't have air conditioning in my car. She basically ended it with saying that I have to pay the tax. After I left Mazda, I looked into the Air Levy. All the sites told me that it is a tax for cars with air conditioning. It is basically taxing car owners with air conditioning because it is bad for the environment. My bottom line is that if I don't have air conditioning in my car I do not want to pay that tax. Heather called me on Sunday (yesterday) to tell me that my car has arrived and asked when I want to come pick up my car. I reminded her that I didn't want to pay the Air Levy. She told me she understands my point of view but she couldn't do anything about it. I got a bit mad and reminded her that it's not fair that I pay a tax for something that I don't have. She told me to calm down and she would talk to the sales manager about it. She came back on the line and told me some good news: I wasn't going to pay for the air levy for my car. She gave me the new total for my car.

Maybe next posting will have a picture of my new car!!!!

Review of Axum Restaurant

http://lisa-restaurants.blogspot.com/2011/01/axum-restaurant.html

First posting of my new blog

Good bye 365 Day Challenge. Hello 'Explore. Love. Laugh' blog.

Wow! It's getting late and I finally got this blog started. It's been long overdue. I guess a few days is quite long. No more pressure to write everyday. Just write whenever I want.

I will write about my adventures in exploring new places and restaurants. I will be writing about things I love. I will be writing about things that make me laugh.