If you guys come to Vancouver, you have to go to Phnom Penh which serves authentic Cambodian and Vietnamese food because they have the BEST chicken wings (you have no idea how many people I got hooked onto them), butter beef (kind of like beef carpaccio) and Bo Luc Lac (filet beef on rice) EVER. It’s one of my favorite Asian restaurants in Vancouver!

Some people complain that the place is a little overpriced but for me; when it comes to food, you can’t put a price on it!!

Chicken wings and Butter Beef (pictures credited to original owners).

OMG Boyfriend actually got me books (for someone who never reads)!! I'm currently reading Hammer of God... been waiting to read that book forever!

Check out: Amazon books.

Got my nails did at TJ Nails... totally inspired by {link:http://missxxmai.blogspot.com}Miss Mai{/link}! Excuse my retarded fingers... Boyfriend asked me why they weren't straight.

Mochi hiding in my closet. ♥ She loves my jeans as much as I do!

King Crab! Yum!

My Greek Taverna in Coquitlam has the best calamari!

Goodbye stupid QX4!! Boyfriend traded this car in so *T can buy his FX35 and I'm sooo glad he finally got rid of it! It was so useful for trips but a total gas guzzler and he rarely drove it anyway.

He's only 5 and every time we take J* to the movies, he always falls asleep but he didn't when we went to watch The Pink Panther 2. So we got him a cake to celebrate and him and his sister sang the 'Celebrate good times, come on' song with a little booty-shaking. It's a heart because we told him to choose the smallest one since there weren't too many people eating it.

Got my lolita hat from {link:http://batyoureyelashes.blogspot.com/}Miss Tia{/link}. ♥

Finally got my Strap Perfect from {link:http://stephanie-nguyen.blogspot.com/}Steph{/link}... love these!

I just had to post this picture of Boyfriend getting tea-bagged by his dodgeball team (The Tea-Baggers).

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A glimpse into a part of my bookshelf. ♥

If you ever need to buy me a gift, don’t get me clothes or make up… buy me books (or a gift certificate to Amazon.ca or Chapters)!

Jump to: The Definition of Narcissism Pt. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

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1. If there is one thing that’s “impossible,” it’s overcoming the fear of getting-off-chairlifts. Not like the day will ever come but even if I become a pro-boarder, I will ALWAYS be afraid of it. AAALLLWAYSSS.
2. Football. I will never understand it no matter how hard I try (even though I never tried). Sorry, boyfriend.
3. Why do people always breath out so loudly right when they walk by you? Couldn’t they do it before they turned the corner or something? That’s hella annoying (and stinky). It sounds like a retarded sigh.
4. Boyfriend is so good at everything he sets his mind to that I don’t even have motivation to kick his ass in anything anymore (eg. he started snowboarding 3 years after me and now he seems to be 50 years ahead of me). Why can’t I be as good as him?! Damn you Boyfriend!! At least I’m better at… Photoshop.
5. Anything between $7-$24 seems so expensive but I won’t hesitate to buy anything over that price range (eg. $7 drugstore lipgloss vs. $30 department store lipgloss). This is how you DON’T think to save money. Does this ever happen to you or am I just a freak? I guess deep inside, I’m telling myself I’m getting a better value for my money even though I won’t admit to it because I know that just because it’s a department store product, it doesn’t mean it’s better than a drugstore product.
6. How people drink alcohol like water? It tastes disgusting so I don’t sip on drinks if I don’t have to. Here’s some advice: if you want to make-out with the floor faster, go straight for the hard shots and skip the pussy fruity mixed drinks.
7. Why can’t I just drag and drop songs onto my iPod?! iTunes need to die.
8. Boyfriend and I sometimes have conversations where the two of us are talking about two entirely different topics (eg. his latest soccer game vs. the book I’m currently reading); how we understand each other? I have no idea. Sometimes there just isn’t enough time in a day to talk about everything so you need to do it at the same time.
9. Someone PLEASE explain to me what’s so good about Twilight?! What did YOU like about it?

   I love books but I don’t understand. I read the first book and my goal is to force myself to finish the series because I always have to finish what I start reading (which is why I own every single book written by all my favorite authors) but I can’t get myself to pick up another Twilight book.

   I was also extremely mortified when I first saw the movie preview because I was so embarassed for everyone involved. Not like I should talk since they made millions off it but still, it was horribly lame and cliché.

10. Edward Cullen. How do you fall in love with a fictional character BEFORE seeing him on film (admit it, you were in love with him before the movie came out)? I mean I was crazy over Legolas from LOTR but only after I watched the movie and saw Orlando Bloom with pointy ears, long white hair and in tights (otherwise he’s not that hot in real life). Do I have to read the rest of the books to have a revelation about his supposed hotness?

P.S. Don’t hate me because I didn’t like Twilight… I still love you guys.

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I know I said that I couldn’t wait to get home but I wish I was still in Cali; it was so hectic at times but fun. When we crossed the Canadian border, it started snowing like mad and I was so depressed because my feet got all wet in the snow carrying my 50lbs suitcase and 20lbs carry-on (I stuffed all my jeans in it) into the house. Hopefully we get to go again sometime this spring or summer!!

• The weather in L.A. was pretty good but it rained on Christmas day when we went to Disneyland! It poured when we got there but that’s about it; the rest of the day was dry… but kinda miserable because my socks were wet and Disneyland was sold out of socks (and umbrellas). Nevertheless it was worth it and our plastic sheets kept us dry… this is when you totally have to sacrifice fashion.

  

• I almost lost my camera at Disneyland!!!! It flew out of my pocket on Splash Mountain but luckily when I went back, they found it in the car and just took it to lost and found. Then I almost left my bag on the Indiana Jones ride with all our passports in it… we could’ve been stuck in Cali if L didn’t get it for me. Oh noez!
• L and I tricked Boyfriend to go on a ride at Universal Studios… and he never goes on rides!
• Finally ate at Tony Romas (we always wanted to try it but always put it off). It was alright, nothing great.
• The 8 hour drive from Cabazon to Sacramento wasn’t bad at all with red bulls, coffee and random Q&A with the boyfriend (he drove the entire way but I just stayed up with him). I found out his favorite flower is the sunflower… like WTH, how boring is that?! I’m sorry Boyfriend, but your girlfriend is a designer so you gotta come up with something more unique than that.
• NEVER leave your GPS at home. We had to follow these people when driving through San Jose and San Francisco because we forgot to bring it and didn’t know where we were going… ALL DAY.
• There’s were 40+ people staying in the house we stayed in Sacramento so the first night we all slept in the living room and I dreamt of this huge cargo ship with it’s horn blasting every couple seconds and I was so annoyed that I was about to bitchslap something in my dream. I woke up and it turned out to be someone snoring hella loud!! I seriously couldn’t stop laughing about it in the morning but that night, I barely got any sleep. Luckily the rest of the nights, I scored my own bed.
• Watching a Vietnamese wedding is a unique experience… now I gotta watch a Chinese wedding because I haven’t been to one since I was 6 and I don’t remember anything.

  

• Never drink an entire bottle of Grey Goose on vacation or else the next day would be a total waste since you’ll be stuck hung-over in bed all day.
• Being hung-over and squished in the back of a tiny Honda Civic with 4 people is the worse feeling in the world… especially when you’re in Sacramento and everything is so far apart.
• …there are a lot of ants in Cali.
• I ate more fast food in the 10 days we were there than I usually do in an entire year. It’s a grossly satisfying feeling.
• CARNE ASADA FRIES AND IN N OUT BURGERS ARE THE SHIT!! I tried both for the first time and YUM. What are Carne Asada fries my fellow non-Californians? They are fries layered with meat, cheese, guacamole, sour cream and hot sauce = FKING HEAVEN!!
• I actually finished the two books I brought on the trip so I went out to buy Eragon and Eldest. IT’S SO GOOD. Damn, now I gotta wait for book three to come out in paper back.
• I started saying “hella” too in the past year and I realized that I picked it up when we went to Cali last year. It’s so true how they say you start picking up the “Cali accent” after being here for a long time.
• Americans don’t say eh … they say huh. “You want some carne asada fries huh?” That’s a little weird for me, I think I’ll stick with the Canadian way.
• Somebody asked us if we celebrate the same New Year. Now THAT was hilarious!
• When the clock hit 12, we were still on the I5 going home but we got to see 4 different sets of fireworks from the freeway (don’t ask why we were flying back on that day… it’s a long story). The last 10 days in Cali was totally worth the countdown to 2009 in the car so I’d do it again anytime!

I am in love with Cali but I seriously need to get over my non-existent level of patience before ever considering moving down there. Before, I never wanted to move to L.A. because I thought it was always hot/warm there and I wouldn’t be able to wear my winter stuff but it’s actually kind of chilly especially at night. Also, the houses in Sacramento are so big, new, cheap and some are in cute little communities surrounding a man-made lake. I wouldn’t mind living there either.

Reasons why I shouldn’t move to Cali:

• I absolutely cannot stand the traffic. We got stuck on the freeway for three hours before we were smart enough to find an alternate route with our GPS because we thought it would end soon… but it was STILL crawling along when we were driving back to L.A. four hours later. It’s sad because nothing happened — no accidents or anything… there were just too many damn cars!! Our highways in Canada have like 2-3 lanes and we NEVER get traffic like that. LOL. That was 3 hours of wasted shopping time by the way. The second time we went to Cabazon to shop, we went on like 6 different freeways via GPS to escape the traffic but the detour only added 10 minutes to our total trip time so it was all good.
• Sacramento is plagued with four-way stops. I got soooo annoyed driving through all of them and we were on a big street too. That so doesn’t make sense!! Like P said, “no cop, no stop.”
• Everything is soo far away from each other —well in the Sacramento area at least.

SHOPPING. I actually didn’t buy much because I spent most of my cash on jeans. I was pretty depressed though when I found out I forgot to buy the Kassandra Varnish Fumes Blue (the purple version of the pair with the green R’s) because we went to there twice and I thought I bought it the first time but I didn’t! I was mainly looking for TRs but I didn’t find many styles that I actually liked so I only bought a pair of skinnies to go along with my boots. I don’t feel guilty about this splurge at all because I haven’t bought any new pairs of jeans since August… now all I gotta do is order more crystals so I can start customizing them. I also bought a Bare Escentuals starter kit in Medium; I love my Lumiere mineral foundation but I lost my last jar and my Clinique foundation is too light for my skin tone so I decided to hop on the bandwagon to see what this huge fuss was all about. I also stocked up on UDPP, bought a new Dior pressed powder and puppy pee pads for Mochi like I always do every time we go to the states. Other purchases included a lot of tops, leggings, accessories from Bebe, F21 and Wet Seal (we didn’t have time to go into many stores since we were stuck in traffic every time we tried to go shopping and line ups were insanely long), random make up from Sephora, books, Aldo flats and black Jessica Simpson pumps from Nordstrom… and a LOT of food and Starbucks.

My favorite were L’s HELLO KITTY RAIN BOOTS because they’re freaking adorable! I’m SO jealous and would’ve totally purchased a pair if I was still in school or taking public transit to work but since I drive and park underground, I’m rarely outside so I would have no reason to wear them. Hey at least I saved myself $80.

Oh, how can I forget the fashion faux-pas that I purposely committed?! I WORE JEANS TO THE WEDDING! Well not to the formal Vietnamese ceremony but only to the reception. T wore her new Rocks so I was like WTF, no fair I want to wear mine too, so I pulled off the tags, threw them on last minute and tucked them into my boots; I didn’t really feel guilty because it was the reception and everyone was going to be drunk anyway. I bought a dress that I didn’t even wear because I never found shoes for them and I realized how short and slutty it was. If it was a friend’s wedding, I’d totally wear it (just because we all swing that way) but not to one where Boyfriend’s parents are present. I still wore all black to the morning ceremony… but I didn’t care because I just wanted my red hair to stand out. But anyway, not to say I’m proud of my fashion faux-pas but honestly I wouldn’t care what anyone wears to my reception as long as it’s not WHITE, too bummed out and as long as they don’t upstage me (or go home biatch).

Boyfriend and I were like the rebels because I wore jeans and he refused to wear a suit jacket and even left his tie in the car for the reception.

P.S. Thanks ladies for the lovely Christmas cards.

Quote of the trip:
“What the hell is beer pong? Do you hit the ball with a beer bottle or something?”
- by the same drunk dude who thought “ixi” was a word in a game of Scrabble last year.

Ending this entry with a Mochi pic of the day… because I missed her terribly.

Also sorry for not responding to Christmas/New Years text messages while I was away… I was too cheap to text you guys back but MERRY BELATED CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! I had good intentions.

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It’s been a lovely 5 years. ♥

• White Spot’s Monty Mushroom burger. Not the new one though where they have the bigger beef patty… that one is gross but the old one is heaven (and one I can actually finish). *drools



• False eye lashes. Yes I know, I sport fake everything from fake hair, fake nails, fake eyes (just not fake clothing brands) … but it’s not like I care what anyone thinks since we all live in a superficial world. But anyway, I can’t seem to buy enough false eyelashes even though I only wear them about 5-6 times a month!! It’s a bad addiction… and I always think I’ll run out but I probably have enough pairs to last me a good 10 years.



• Watching friends play videogames. I don’t play games myself because I tend to get heart attacks everytime my character is about to die (which is often) so I’d rather watch people play. I’m super weird though, I don’t like videogames for the game-play experience but I like to explore worlds in adventure/RPG-style games so that’s why I don’t mind just watching people and if I do play, I’ll use cheats so I can get into every nook and cranny there is. My favorite are horror games like Silent Hill.
• Black bean chicken feet. Cannot find the words to describe how good this is… and all your haterzzz out there don’t believe me!! 8)
• Chinese herbal teas. I’M A TEA ADDICT!!!! Although I have to admit I’m picky; I only drink green tea and Chinese herbal teas— mostly super strong and bitter black teas. I think English/Western teas taste weird— especially fruity teas… nas-tay! This contributes to the gradual yellow-ing of my teeth which leads me to my next point…
• Crest White Stripes. L* got me addicted to these and now I can’t stop using them since they work wonders even though it makes you feel like you have a gazillion holes in your teeth. *shudder. I have sooo many boxes at home it’s not even funny (free, thanks to ******)… but don’t worry, I don’t use them daily anymore because my life is starting to become a boring routine and I don’t need 30 minutes of these everyday to contribute to it.
• McDonalds’ Filet burger. I haven’t had McD’s in like a year but I can still dream (and wet-sloberry-drool may accompany it)!
• Country music. Most of my friends think I’m weird because I listen to country music (they’re your regular hip hop/ R&B crew) but I don’t care, slow country music is soooo good! I blast it from my iPod in Boyfriend’s car when his friends are in it to embarrass him. LOL. It’s okay though, I think he’s learned to tune it out (or he secretly likes it too).



• Disney shows. This is a little more recent but I”ve been catching a lot of kids’ Disney programs because I’m always up late and there is nothing else to watch. My favorite is Cory in the House; I’m embarassed to admit how many times that show made me laugh until I practically rolled off the bed and banged my head on something. Plus Madison Pettis is the CUTEST LITTLE GIRL EVER!! ♥
• Cheese and crackers. I go out and buy my own havarti/cheddar cheese and whole-wheat crackers but I wish adults eating Lunchables were widely accepted in today’s judgemental society. They’re so convenient.
• Experimenting with hair colors. I have something semi-crazy planned for the end of November if I can get myself to shell out the money do it since I should really be saving for Cali and Asia coming up but once I get my mind set on it like this, I think I’ll have to do it! It’s not too crazy (like dying my hair pink and green) because I’m usually too lazy to maintain it but it will be different than people I usually chill with. Also, I definitely want to go blond again maybe sometime next year but I’m going to wait until my beautiful [Asian] blond friends dye their hair a darker color so we don’t look like a group of clones…. I just tend to get bored faster if I look like everyone else! I’ve also had an urge to dye my hair bright blue for quite some time now but many people have argued with me from doing so (probably because they won’t want to be seen in public with this anime-like character/thing).
• Naps. I don’t power nap. I NAP. For hours. And hours.



• Boyfriend’s mom’s udon. Udon? UDON? Yes, udon. It’s just your typical udon cooked in chicken broth, MSG and some random beef balls, shrimp and whatever is around the house but it’s SOOOOO good and for some reason mine never taste as amazing as this, probably because I don’t have any MSG to sprinkle in mine. I don’t even eat the meat and stuff in it; I ONLY eat the udon. Mmmmm. But seriously, what’s so special about udon? I don’t know… BUT IT’S SO GOOD.



• Dreaming about smashing my boyfriend’s computer. This virus-filled, ancient piece of **** I’m writing this draft out on is sooo slow it’s not even funny!! I can’t even publish this until later on when I get on a computer with Photoshop so I can beautify this entry with pictures because it will die a long agonizing death along with me trying to fix it so I can finish my useless ramblings. He bought it a billion years ago when we first met (well… only about 5 years ago) although it’s my fault I put myself through this since he wants to buy a new one but I tell him not to yet because he’s never home anyway and doesn’t need it … besides he can use my super computer (*wishful thinking) at my place.

I tried to spread out all the food-related pleasures so it looks like there are less but after re-reading this, I think I failed. If I were one of the 7 Deadly Sins, I’d definitely be Gluttony!

Blog about YOUR guilty pleasures!

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This weekend I…

• Took the kids to EA’s Halloween party (for kids) at Stanley Park. I was thinking it was going to be lame (shh I’m just kidding) but t’was fun, the kids had a blast, the magician even made me laugh and the snacks were yummy… plus the best cupcakes in the world were present. *slurp
• Sat outside in the freezing cold with the niece and nephew to watch Boyfriend’s soccer game. Well the longest I concentrated on the game was about 20 seconds so I don’t know if you consider that “watching.” We went to the playground instead.
• Bummed around Boyfriend’s house and finished The Sword of Shannara trilogy (hrm, I need to get a life). It was very reminiscent of Lord of the Rings but I give it a 10/10: LOVED IT!! Niece: Guess what Auntie Katy, my book has 84 pages and I’m on chapter 2! How many pages does yours have? Me: 1200…
• The good thing was that Boyfriend willingly slaved away and cooked for me all weekend while I stayed in and enjoyed my book. I lover him. HEHEHE.
• Ordered some books online because you can’t go wrong with $2 books at Chapters! I hate it when I don’t have time to read, but I love it because I do (at the moment).

Hmmm… this is my kinda weekend.

*Figuring out what Boyfriend can be this Halloween…

Nephew: I know Chu-Loa, you can be a booger and then I can pick you out!”

*Later on after we told him he was funny so he tried another one but failed…

Nephew: You can be my butt and I can poop you out!
Boyfriend: How can you poop me out?

*After someone suggested he should be the Burger King king or a chicken or a tree…

Niece: Chu-Loa… if you’re a tree, dogs will pee on you…

*Out of nowhere…

Niece: Chu-Loa… boo!
Boyfriend: What?
Niece: *gets mad* You’re suppose to be scared!!!!
Boyfriend: Oh. Ahhhhhhhhh!

It’s so cute because they say it so matter-of-factly. Hehehe.

Anyway, Crystal suggested I do a post on bags since I’ve never written a post about them… but then I’m not a huge bag-person (yet) *gasp* so there wouldn’t be much to write about; maybe in a couple gazillion years when I can justify spending $1000+ on a purse. But here goes: I don’t care much for brands as long as it looks good but my bags have to be huge since I carry around a shizzload of stuff with me and usually has to fit a very thick and heavy book because of my geeky nature (which Boyfriend doesn’t seem to like much because I don’t listen to his babbling when I’m reading). When I DO get a new bag I usually end up carrying it around for like 2 months before switching because I’m too lazy to move my stuff. I don’t like Juicy Couture bags because the designs, colors and the fabric are too teenybopper-ish for my taste. I don’t like LV monogram bags because I prefer [their] leather bags that DON’T have their logo plastered all over although I’m guilty because I have Coach purses with their logo all over it, BUT all those purses were gifts; I wouldn’t waste my hard-earned dollaz on them myself although if you’d like to buy one for me, I’ll still use it… ahaha. So here’s my little post excerpt on bags, Crystal.

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