Harold's Angels...

Yep, that's what we are, right ladies?

We had a small university reunion with Harold last night. We met up at Yorkdale mall, at Casey's. Harold's gonna be a dad! His wife is 7 months pregnant, and if you knew Harold back in university, this would be a shock to you. Let's just say that he was the LAST one of all of us that we all thought would end up settling down and having a family. And look at him now.... a big family man!

I'd like to think it was the influence of his 3 angels.... hehe. ;)

I'm bringing braces back...

A co-worker sent me an article she found (see below). Braces are actually considered FASHIONABLE in Thailand!! See....THAT'S the reason I'm doing it! :P I need to go to Thailand.....

Thai authorities to ban fake braces

Health authorities are clamping down on the Thai teenage fashion fad of wearing fake orthodontic braces by targeting those who sell and make the pseudo-dental gear with steep fines and prison time.

Girls flashing multicoloured metallic grins are regularly featured in teen magazines as braces have become more common in Thailand, transforming the dental gear detested by Western youths into a fashion statement.

Rather than getting fitted for the real - and expensive - option, teenagers have been buying do-it-yourself kits in stores and select red, pink, yellow, blue or multicoloured rubber bands to match their outfits or moods. Clear or neutral bands are rarely seen in Thai mouths.

But the government's Consumer Protection Board says the trend is unsafe.

"Some people put the fashion (braces) on by themselves, which is dangerous because they could come loose and slip into the throat," said Rasamee Vistaveth, secretary-general of the Consumer Protection Board, which is under the prime minister's office.

The fake braces, which are glued onto the teeth, can also cause sores on the gums and inside the mouth and some of the wires have been found to contain lead, she said.

Rasamee said the board will sign an order later today punishing sellers, importers and producers of fake braces, which will take effect immediately.

Under the new order, selling fake braces will be punishable by six months in prison or a 50,000 baht ($A1,700) fine.

Importers and producers could face up to one year behind bars and a 100,000 baht ($A3,500) fine.

The consumer board has been tracking the trend and authorities have made several seizures of fake braces during raids, Rasamee said.

Photo: A Thai teenager sports colourful orthodontic braces.
- AP

Di's WND...

Di's turn this week for WND. This was my first time meeting the gang with my speech impediment, so I was worried about what they would say. It wasn't too too bad. There were jokes here and there, but nothing I couldn't handle! And they made sure to keep their 'spit-free' distance! ;) hehe

menu:

appetizer: beets with goat cheese and walnuts on endives
main course: chicken with stuffed mushrooms and crab, and roasted veggies
dessert: orange and grape Jello

It was great (even the beets which I thought I hated!). I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to eat the chicken but luckily, they were very tender... which made for an easier bite! Thanks for a yummy dinner Di!

Highschool reunion...

Chris Kallinis.

For those that went to Woburn C.I., do you remember him? Tanaz hung out with him more than I did in highschool, but we all met up tonight for dinner at Alice Fazooli's.

It was nice to reminisce back to the highschool days. There were names brought up who I haven't even heard of (but apparently, went to highschool with).

It's funny what each person remembers though. I wasn't a big fan of highschool, but it was nice to hear moments and memories from another person from the same time you were there!

my own Mini Mii community!

While Ron was taking a nap.... I was playing the Wii. It's my favourite one to play of all his game systems (and you know there's a lot of choices).

After playing all the games, and Ron still wasn't awake... I started creating Mini Mii's of some of my friends! NOW, when I play the Wii, all the characters I made of you all are incorporated into the games, so it's like I'm actually playing against all of you!! hahah.... I know, simple pleasures! :P

Samantha turns 18!

My youngest cousin, Samantha turned 18 today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SAM!

In honour of her special day, we all headed over to Mandarin Restaurant to celebrate! I can't believe it.... 18! She's now considered an adult by law.... but she'll always be my little cousin, who used to sing 'A whole new world' from the Aladdin movie. :)

SAY it, don't SPRAY it!

I got the upper part of my brace brackets. It's got this bridge in the middle of my mouth connecting the 2 upper molars together.

Because my tongue no longer touches the roof of my mouth, I find it very hard to speak, and when I do... you better step back. I now know where that saying comes from: Say it, don't spray it! :P

Nostalgia for the Rye High dayz...

Today I went to Ryerson University (formerly Ryerson Polytechnic University in my day) for a Magazines Canada all-day seminar.

I ended up being the only one in my company to go (from originally 5 of us going) because everyone got too busy with work to make it. I didn't mind. It was nice to get out of the office for a change. And not only that, but when I got there (an hour late... oops), there were a bunch of old coworkers from Rogers! It was so nice to see them.

I also saw Jason Lisi there (uh huh... he's married with 2 kids now), and some other familiar faces from the industry... it was like a big reunion. I forgot how small this industry can be.

After the seminar let out at 4:30pm, I decided to take a tour of the new GCM building. I hadn't seen it since it was built 5-6 years ago. It's definitely an improvement to the dark hallways and classrooms WE had to deal with.

I must say, it was like I was back in time as a student.... I ventured out and took a walk around the pond, then the quad, then the RAC!! For those that don't know, that's the Ryerson Athletic Centre. It's the place where I mustered up the courage to go up to Ron and introduce myself (yes, I approached HIM!) almost 12 years ago. I remembered being sooo nervous! It was definitely worth it though. Where would we be now if I had chickened out?


After my little trip down memory lane, I went to the Eaton Centre and met up with Quel. We had dinner at Salad King, and then headed on over to Paramount theatre to watch "Definitely, Maybe" starring Ryan Reynolds. I really like him as an actor!! Oh, we also got married to McDreamy while we were there. Who do you think looks better with him?? ;)

a 'Sally-Friendly' meal!

That was the theme tonight for Wednesday Night Dinner. What's a 'Sally-Friendly' meal you ask? Basically, it's any type of food that is soft, mushy, or easily edible with little chewing effort required.

Thanks Norm! I thought that was very thoughtful of him.

The menu:

appetizer: clam chowder soup

main course: sheppard's pie
dessert: ice cream cookie sandwich

It was very good! And as you can guess... I was able to eat it all, so I was stuffed! :)

are you KIDDING me?!!?

I've gotten a number of tickets in my driving life... but THIS ticket has got to be the lamest, most ridiculous excuse for a ticket I've ever received!!! (yes, I'm venting!)

What kind of cop DOES that?!!? Do they have nothing better to do?? The stupidest part is that I actually DID have the parking receipt on the dash of my car... located right by the windshield wiper where the cop placed the ticket! Arrrrrrrgh!

I've never actually gone to court for a parking ticket, but I think I will have to fight THIS one... just on principle alone!!!

Mini Mii's!

In honour of Family Day, I had arranged for my family and I to go tobogganing! BUT unfortunately, due to all the rain from yesterday... it was a no-go! Instead, I ended up teaching my parents how to use email! (we'll see how that goes) I wrote down step-by-step instructions as well as explaining and showing them the program, but you have to remember that my parents barely know how to use the basics of a computer!

In the afternoon, I picked Ron up and we headed to Bayview Village to meet up with my friend Nicole (an old co-worker from Rogers). We had coffee at Starbucks, and then had a snack at a bakery in the mall before she had to leave. Ron and Nicole had never met before, and I've talked about each to the other, so I'm glad that they finally met.


We then went back to Ron's place and played some Wii, where we figured out how to create Mini Mii's! I thought they were so cute!

A move to Ajax...

I headed over to Ajax today to visit my sister and her family.

They just moved to their new house! I haven't headed this far east since driving to Montreal... I had forgotten what it was like, and it was only to Ajax! hehe

It was a nice house. My 2 nieces grabbed me the minute I got there to show me their new room, and their bathroom, and their playroom...

Looks like I'll be driving a lot more to Ajax now!! :)

Date Night 4!

It was Ron's turn to plan our date this month.

He took me to the Auto Show! I used to go to the car show all the time in my highschool years. It definitely has gotten a lot bigger since I was there last, but I also found that there weren't as many 'freebies' as the last time I was there. I used to come home with bags of free stuff! This year, not so much. It was fun nonetheless. Cars have come a long way with technology, so it was cool to see some of the 'concept' cars!


After the car show, Ron told me he was originally going to take me to a restaurant that I've ALWAYS wanted to go to: Ruth's Chris Steakhouse! However, due to my chewing difficulties, he thought that it was best to go there at another time, when I can fully enjoy the experience! I would have to agree with that (so don't think I won't forget to take you up on that restaurant in the future, Ron! :P).

Instead, we went to an oldie but a goodie: Red Lobster! We decided to order take-out, to get back in time to watch the NBA All-Star games! Did y'all see Dwight Howard in the Slam Dunk competition?!? That was one of THE most creative slam dunkin' I've seen in a long time... I highly enjoyed it!


Great date night Ron! Thank-you! ;)

Lunch with Sebby!

I've been at this company for almost a year now. And in that year, Mark (aka Sebby) and I have NEVER met up once to have lunch together (he works in the building right beside me!). Don't get me wrong... it's not like we've never tried to meet up. Each time we've tried, one person was out of town, or was sick, or was in a car accident, or was just too busy to go.

But not today! Sebby emailed me to see if I wanted to meet up for lunch, and I actually could! So, we DID! He met me in front of my building and we headed over to a Vietnamese restaurant at the corner for some pho!


It was nice to get out and see a familiar face. Sebby filled me in on what's been going on with his life. He sold his townhouse, and bought a new house, and is starting a new position at work. Oh, and he got the new iPhone, so I got a chance to play with one, even if just for a little while. I really enjoyed meeting up with him. It's nice to know that friendship can remain the same, even when we're all off doing our own thing.

Later in the evening, I went to Tanaz's house for dinner. I finally dropped off Zarius' birthday present which was, I admit... REALLY late! But I don't think he noticed. I got him the Fridge Phonics toy, and I think he really liked it since he played with it for most of the evening. You put a letter into the slot, and it pronounces the letter, as well as some words that start with that letter. Educational, yet it's fun... my kinda toy! :)

Macbook buddy!

One thing I've always wanted to do once I got my Macbook, was to go to a Chapter's Starbucks with it. There's just something about the books and magazines environment, and having a cup of coffee in hand as I type away at my Macbook... call me crazy, but it's just an experience I wanted to try.

Maybe because I've never had a laptop before, and the concept of being able to work on your computer at a coffee shop just goes to show how much technology has become a part of our lives (this is the girl that just got a new cell phone after having the same one for 8 years).

So, during the snowstorm... and rather than waiting hours in traffic to get home, I ended up meeting with Quel at a Chapter's Starbucks! We both busted out the Macbooks and got to work.... if you can call it that! :)

Climbing with the Cousins!

Rock climbing, that is.

We all met up at the Toronto Climbing Academy to celebrate Leonard's 26th Birthday! I have to say, he did a good job of organizing this outing. It's so hard to get us all together, so it's nice when it actually works out!

I didn't climb. Mainly because I'm scared of heights, but also because I've tried it a few times before, and well... I'm still scared of heights! hehe. It was fun nonetheless.

Hockey day in Canada...

In the 7 years Graham has been playing hockey, Ron has never watched a game. Graham is 16-years old, and is Ron's only nephew and godson. So today, we went to watch his hockey game. It might be his last year playing, so Ron thought it was time to see him in action.

We only caught the last period of the game, but it was exciting! If you look at the photos I posted, you can see Graham playing on the ice (he's #3), and then you can see him getting into a fight, and then you can see the referee taking him out of the ice. Needless to say, he was penalized for fighting. You should have seen it. Ron was so proud... I couldn't believe it! Boys and their fights. (sigh)

Later in the day, Ron's cousin Dexter came over with his wife Kathy, and their daughter Sydney. Sydney is so cute. She's 21 months old, and she copies basically everything you say or do. At the end of the evening, she looked at me and said "I wuv you"... which I thought was the cutest thing everrrr! We all played the Wii, Guitar Hero, Dance Revolution, Poker.... and had Chinese food in honour of Chinese New Year! Gung Hei Fat Choy!

Growing up...

Ron had always thought that MY group of friends were always so much more mature, and 'grown up' than his group of friends. All his friends are single and don't have as many responsibilities in comparison to MY friends, apparently.

But, just this week alone ... Ron was given some news!


His good friend Donna called and informed him that she's ENGAGED! It happened over the weekend, when they were vacationing in Miami. She's planning for a destination wedding sometime either at the end of 2008, or the beginning of 2009.


Next, his best friends Shareen & Eswin are expecting their first baby! We met up with them at Richtree (formerly Marché) at Bayview and Yorkmills, and that's when they shared their news with us. How exciting! She's due at the end of July, and I think Ron was in a bit of shock, because he didn't really know what to say to the news!

So it seems that Ron's friends are growing up too! :)

Party of Five!

GCMers. That's what we are!

Graphic Communications Management graduates of 1998. We all get together every now and then to catch up on each other's lives, and to look back at the memories of the good ol' dayz (ah, those were good times!).

However, it seems that only FIVE of us could make it out tonight (there were originally 8 to begin with). Ken, Huddy, Diana, Ryan and I all met up at Five Doors North for their Winterlicious menu (Harold, Ev and Anthony missed out):

Soup of the day
or
Baked Polenta with Goats Cheese, sundried tomato paste and pesto
or
Alaskan King Crab Cakes with a grapefruit and frisee salad
or
Romaine Leaves with a Caesar dipping sauce
or
Warm Portobello Mushroom Salad


Pasta of the day
or
BBQ Baby Back Ribs with potato salad
or
Grilled Flat Iron Steak with an onion and gorgonzola sauce
or
Seared Tilapia al a putanesca
or
Eggplant Parmagiana


Flourless Chocolate Cake
or
Lemon Cheesecake
or
Crème Brûlée

The great thing was that I was actually able to eat my entire meal! It's the most food I've had all week! And what a great meal it was...

Ev's Eatery!

Ev wanted to practice making the traditional Sunday roast for this week's WND. Apparently, Stu and his family get together every Sunday for this kinda meal! Through the snow storm, wind, and lightning... we all made it!

Ev's eats included:

appetizer: scones
main course: pot roast, veggies, yorkshire pudding,
and homemade gravy
dessert: 'kramba-klat'
(a term Ev's used to describe her infamous Apple Crumble,
but this time, on top of cheesecake... mmmmm!)

My favourite was the Yorkshire pudding with gravy. And not because it was the only thing I COULD eat! :P hehehe

It was a great meal. I can't wait until Stu arrives, and Ev makes this every Sunday! Guess where WE'LL be having dinner on Sundays?!?! ;)

Flavoured Crème Brûlée?

Have you even heard of such a thing?

Crème Brûlée is one of my all-time favourite desserts ... mmmmm. Every time I go to a restaurant and it's on the menu... I gotta try it. I'm looking for THE best one in town!!

Quel and I had dinner at Spring Rolls, and on their dessert menu were 2 flavours of Crème Brûlée: Mango and White Chocolate Raspberry.
We had to try it!
Quel had the white chocolate raspberry, and I tried the mango.
We both agreed with the verdict: don't change a good thing!
So my quest for THE best Crème Brûlée dessert continues...

Photoshop Fun!

Ok, so I was just foolin' around with Photoshop... trying to figure out what some of the effects are in the program... and this is what I ended up with:

1. Original photo
(pardon my choice in photo... it's Valentine's next week!) :P
2. Charcoal
3. Coloured Pencil
4. Diffuse Glow
5. Posterize

Happy Birthday Tanaz!

For Tanaz's 33rd birthday (yikes, I can't believe that's how old she turned), we went to Bar Italia for dinner for their wonderful Winterlicious menu. Again with my chewing disability, I had to go for all the softest things on the menu: Beef barley soup, Grilled Atlantic Salmon with risotto, and Tiramisu for dessert.

After dinner, we all jumped into the 7-passenger MDX (it was like a big family outing), and headed to El Mucambo for the Superskillz event happening that evening. For those that don't know, Superskillz is a talent showcase of university students in the Filipino community (organized by York and Ryerson students), and last night was its 12th consecutive year. I remember Tanaz and I going to this event 10 years ago... it was amazing! So she decided she wanted to check it out again this year for her birthday.

We discovered that times have changed. The venue was smaller, and there weren't as many performances as we had seen years ago. We bumped into Roel, Rowena, Mark and Len there! Roel and Rowena's little brother, Anthony (not so little anymore at 6' 1) was performing in a hip hop dance in the show.

The last performance was hands-down my favourite of all! It consisted of 3 people- 2 guys, 1 girl. No instruments, just a mic and their voices. They were beat-boxing and singing to various songs from Alicia Keys-'No One' song to Fugees-'Killing me Softly' to Justin Timberlake's-'My Love' to HOUSE music. It was unbelievable! I was so impressed.

After the show, the DJ played his music which funny enough was the same music that we listened to in our day. Tanaz was going crazy on the dance floor, it was hilarious! Happy Birthday Tanaz! It's nice to know that at 33, I can still feel like we're in highschool! :)

Rock on dude!

Di and I headed over to Miss Saads' & Raju's new home in the crazy winter weather today after work. It was lovely! Very cozy, as they looked like they were pretty much done unpacking! It's 4 floors, including the basement, with a huge balcony on the top floor. Summers are gonna be fun here!!

Saads made us dinner: korean bbq, noodles, veggies, and baked croissants, as we all sat around her new dining table. Unfortunately, the only thing I could really chew on were the soft croissants.

After dinner, Raju and a friend of his came home, and then we all got our rock on! They had set up the Rock Band system, and we all got a chance to play! I started on the drums (which was so much fun!). Di and Saads both took a guitar.... and then eventually, we had a 4-member band going, with Di taking the mic in hand and singing! Quel, she sang Black Hole Sun (by Soundgarden)...dedicated to you! It really does bring the rocker out in you.