Simply Me

I'd like to blog about, more like brag about my new gadget - iPhone.

Personally, I'm not a high tech girl. Cell phone to me is simply a communication tool. To others, cell phone can be a symbol of status not just an article of necessity. Especially in the far east countries, cell phone technologies are far more advance. Most of the time, it has become something that people show off with, often trying to impress their friends and more importantly strangers. People are deliberately select a phone that reflects on them. It's more like a fashion accessory.

None of the cell phones I owned were cool. But I would say, this one is an exception, the reason being that I will never spend hundreds or thousand of dollar on a cell phone. And I never understand why people without much money willing to spend hundreds or even thousand to buy a coolest phone. I guess a cool phone means prominence, money and a high regard of style

Not many of my friends have iPhone, most of them have Blackberry. For some reason, I don't like Blackberry. I hate the name, don't understand why it called Blackberry.

Recently, I learned that one can have iPhone without data plan. What a discovery! I never knew one can have 3G phone without data plan. WOW, I was thrilled! I can keep my voice plan which is only 18 bucks a month, no one can beat this price. I told Tony about it and ask him to get me one for Christmas. After a few failed attempts with Rogers, I thought I never get it unless I pay the full retail price which I'm very reluctant to do so.

One Sunday afternoon, we were shopping at Markville Mall, Tony says he's going to try the phone booth guy. I'm not very positive. To my delight, they can do it! Hooray!!!

A-ha, got it.

Ryan, that's me.

Look at him, he should stay on Santa naughty list, instead.

We don't really have any Christmas traditions, other than seat around Christmas tree open presents and check out the stockings, we like to take it easy after Christmas Eve party. We don't have any plan in the morning as usual. And I like to do light house chores. Unlike previous years, we get invited to Andrew's house for dinner. This year, they have to put on mourning apparel for Catherine's mom. For this reason, we are not going to have New Year Eve celebration in our house and obviously we also not going to Andrew's house for Chinese New Year celebration unless someone voluntarily open up their house.

This year we didn't get white Christmas, which is not a big deal to me. White Christmas, green Christmas, I'm fine with anything the weather call for. But the weather forecast called for freezing rains today. I hope it's not that bad, cos we plan to go to Rama Resort and then to Blue Mountain tomorrow. If the weather really bad, I guess we have to cancel our trip to Blue Mountain...keep my figure crossed!

Outside of JM Pharmacy, Ryan spotted a doggy with Santa hat.

Oh wait, not quite finish yet, I need alum foil for baking. So I decided to stop by Dollarama on our way back. It's lunch time, I have a hungry and tired baby sitting on the back seat. Hungry baby is always a cranky one, but he is very quiet, the only time he is quiet is when he is tired, otherwise he is very chatty. I can see from my mirror, he starts to drift off on his car seat, so I make him talk to me to keep him awake. We are just a couple minutes away from our last stop, yes, last stop. He told me, "Mommy, I'm tired, I want to stay in the car." He insist to stay in the car to sleep.
"You sure you don't want to go shopping with mommy?" He usually will not say no to shopping. This kid loves shopping. If there is someone in the car, I will let him stay.
"Honey, I can't let you stay in the car alone, the police will come..."
"Police comes and get me? Then, mommy cannot see bao-bao..."
Cute + Naive =Ryan

Got home around 1pm, feed him, bath him, put him to sleep and I felt asleep too, it has been a long day, running here and there like chicken without head. When I woke up, it's already 3pm.

Tony came home after lunching with his buddies. He carried a gift basket, it reminds me about our neighbours presents. Every Christmas Eve, I will bake something for our neighbours on our street. This year I decided to do chocolate chips cookies. Though it's not any fancy recipes, I'm sure no one will say no to chocolate chips cookies. I put the cookies in the christmas tins and a bow for final touch, very festive!

Wishing ya all a happy Merry Christmas!!

Today I'm on course at Hilton Garden Inn in City of Vaughan. I just take it easy, who cares if I'm late. I know nobody there, nobody knows me, cos I'm nobody.

Thought I knew how to get there since I'd googled the map yesterday. After dropping off Ryan to school, I start to picture the direction in my head, I wasn't sure what direction after exit Hwy 407, should I turn right or turn left into Jane St.? Damn it, everytime when I needed my GPS badly, it sure left at home. Blame the stupid GPS holder, it won't keep the GPS in place, that's why I don't keep it in the car.

My little guy loves reading books, I hope with this talking pen, he will be able to read on his own when we're busy or when we are on the road. Nice idea, isn't it? One thing not so good about this Leapfrog reading system is, it only works on their book and one book cost almost 20 bucks (that sucks). When I was at the checkout, the cashier ask if I want to get the warranty plan. Normally I would just ignore it. When one girl says I can simply return it for any reason. Wait a minute, this sound pretty good to me.

I was only 10 minute late for the afternoon session. I was sitting in the room, making my shopping list. After first period break, I take off. I have too many things need to get done today. First stop is Ikea, I need to get Ryan a train table for his Thomas. I just try my luck at Ikea, cos I don't really like Ikea stuff, bad quality.

I didn't realize I got so many stuff from Ikea. And look at my small car...


I got a coffee table (and I'm going to turn it into train table), an easel, 2 extra large storage box, 3 medium size box, and 2 small one, etc. My Aerio looks small but it has pretty big space inside. All the stuff I got fitted in plus a stroller.

Tony said it's typical engineer car - full of junks. There is shoes, mittens, reports, crackers, water, and last but not least, dirt.

This one taken last week after I finished site check, look at the dirt from my boots. Tony is going to sighs. He sent my car for a complete make over before I go back to work last month.

After Ikea, I head to Ryan's school. Today is parent-teacher interview day. It's funny, a 3-year-old is given a report card. It's pretty encouraging, his overall result is pretty good, I'm impressed, especially his French. He is learning French and Mandarin in school as other languages. He knows how to sing Happy Birthday in French, count 1 to 10, say good morning and good night mama, say I'm sorry... I'm so proud of him. Way to go, Ryan! Ms. Rachel was telling me that he is very good at Math and he loves Math more than anything. Oh well, typical Chinese kid. He can do adding. 5+4, 3+5, 3+4, 5+5... peanut! Next year she is going to introduce him multiplication. Did I hear wrong? Multiplication for a 3-year-old? wow.

After picking up Ryan, we went to pick up a X'mas present for my dad. I got him this Besta talking dictionary. I'm sure he is going to love it. I thought of stop by Markville Mall to pick up mom's present, but time isn't permit. I gotta bath and feed Ryan before we going to airport. Yes, Tony is coming home today!

It's Monday, unlike any Monday, today is beautiful Monday, I mean my mood and I feel beautiful inside and out **muah**
Agree? **blush**

Here's me taking picture of myself. And Valeriya heard the click, came by and offer to take picture for me...

Look at my clutter office (cube) **sighs** I need to clean my office before holiday, it's on my to-do list #1.

Can't believe it's December already, it didn't feel like it at all. It feels like Spring today - cool breeze, double digits temp which is above seasonal. This time last year, we already got tons of snow piled up. Well, honestly I have no complaint, I like it this way. For me, if winter temperature stay around 0, that will be wonderful (helo?). I know, not a chance. Winter in Canada is really brutal, you will literally freeze to death in no time if you don't bundle up. No matter how much I love the snow, I just hate the cold. The snow itself is beautiful, but the cold is nasty.

Treat #2: Jeremy (left) and Jeff (right) from our section, performing Beattle song (can't remember the name).

Joe is using his handy cam to capture the J-Dawg performance, his hands were busy, otherwise, he would just cover his face...

Look how much we drink... as the result...

I was laughing so hard that my hand was shaking, damn it, if not this shot worth a million dollar when the residence see this. There goes the tax payer money **LMAO** it's hillarious.

Bottom up!!!

Well, I wish my cup is a chance to get out of the office...

During our discussion.

Well, Vivian didn't call me back until 12.30pm. I ended up going with Valeriya. We decided to do some shopping before lunch, as usual.

We went to Square One, the shopping mall that we frequent almost every lunch break. Every stores are packed with shopper including our favourite restaurant, Lemon Grass. I just don't understand why, it's not like we (Canadian) are having Black Friday*. We ended up picking up lunch at Rich Tree, I ordered a Meatball Rosti to go.

Today I don't have the mood to say, TGIF! I feel gloomy and dispirited, totally opposite from my yesterday high-spirited mood. The unexplained mood swings hit me again. I don't blame myself, I still let my body does whatever it needs to bring me back my normal self. Almost 3 months now, but it seems like long past. Ever since, my emotion has been roller coaster ride. It scared me sometime.

I seek help: I talk to the social worker, I talk to my family doctor. My doctor told me not to worry, because it takes sometime for my body to be back to its normal state. When a woman get pregnant, her hormone upsurge. When she lost the baby, the hormone just dropped significantly. With the peaks and valleys hormone waves, her body needs a great deal of time to make the adjustment.

The most noisier corner of the office seems pretty dead this morning. Some taking day off, some at the meeting... Whenever I having a bad day, I'll just walk to Joe's cubicle and say, "Joe Hamilton..." he looks up without saying anything, his facial expression will put smile on my face, and light up my mood. Too bad, he is taking off when I desperately need him.

Hopefully after lunching with Vivian, I'll feel better. But she didn't pick up her phone and didn't answer my email...don't know where she is.

I know I need a good lunch, I know for sure a good lunch will brighten me up.

Perhaps, my Blue Day Book will help...

Ha, finally, finished up my EA report **yippee** Though, there is still some loose end to take care but that was a big step toward my 'goal'.

I usually finish work at 3.30pm. Today is exception, at 5pm I'm still in the office, slurping the chicken noodle soup for dinner **pathetic** It's so quiet, I never know our office can be dead silence. There are only the three of us here - my manager, supervisor and myself. We are having a Public Information Center tonight. Guess what, I volunteer to stay back. The reason being that my 'goal' needs me to acquired experience in PIC. Thus, it actually benefit myself **snob**

After finishing our convenient dinner, we walked to the City Hall where the PIC took place. It's so dark outside, only 6pm but it feels like 9pm.

The PIC is in Community Room C, Dave and Greg, the consultant already there and there is this young Chinese girl sitting in the room. Apparently she is student of U of Toronto. She asks a lot of questions, pretty annoying. Some of her questions are pretty stupid.

Most of the attendees are U T students, taking pictures of the display boards and taking notes... whole bunch of suckers for extra credit in school...keke

I left at 8pm, the PIC was supposed to end at 9pm. I can't stand any longer, I was sitting there doing nothing other than yawning from boredom. The stuffy air in the room makes me sick.

While driving home, my tummy was grumbling... I had curry chicken and rice for late night supper, jeez, hopefully I won't get upset stomach.

Good night, everyone!

Everyone has blue days. These are miserable days when you feel lousy, grumpy, lonely, and utterly exhausted. Days when you feel small and insignificant, when everything seems just out of reach... On blue days you feel like you're floating in an ocean of sadness. You're about to burst into tears at any moment and you don't even know why... You're not sure how much longer you can hang on, and you feel like shouting, "Will someone please shoot me!" (with you arms open wide)... ...

We are surrounded with nothing but sad, bad, depressed news everyday. The entire world is under the evil sovereignty, only God brings us hope, happiness, and the strength to move forward.
I pass by airport everyday. This morning on Hwy 401, as I approaching airport, I start to develop goosebumps (雞皮疙瘩) all over me. I had this aweful feeling since yesterday. A 15-month-old toddler fell out of her mother arm and landed on the arrival floor (approx. 4 storey high). He died. I was shocked learning about the news. At the same time, my crazy mind trying to picture the horrible scene. **sob**
I cannot see any bad things happen to any young child. They are the most innocent creature, they are God gift... God, please keeps our children safe and sound!

P/S: I'm sorry for those of you who hates sad news...

My radio alarm clock went off at 5.45am, my foggy brain kept negotiating me back to sleep, it’s warm and cozy under the duvet, so I decided to snuggle a little longer. Ohhhh, it’s Monday, if not because I have to get up to work, I will be extremely reluctant to get up. Whether I like it or not, I still need to get up. Monday seems the tougher day of the week. I drag my unwilling body and mind toward the closet, pick up a black skirt and white shirt. I decided to wear skirt today to match the new flat shoes I got on weekend.

After put together the outfit **weird** something wrong with the tops, so I change another white shirt, still doesn’t look so right. I gave up. May be today just isn’t a skirt day. As soon as I removed them, I spotted a cardigan. The cardigan and the skirt are perfect match. Look at the clock **shoot** 6.45am, I still in my room. Darn, I gonna be late to work!

In the office, I have 3 missed calls and 2 voicemail. I don’t usually change my voicemail when I was only away for a couple of days. After checking voicemail, I know I dressed inappropriate for today’s event. I need to meet the biologist and whole bunch of contractors on site for fish rescue.

At 10.30am, I’m out to Sawmill Creek. Park my car on the street, put on the safety boot.

Hauling myself down the path in this heavy safety boot.**retard** I feel like a dumb engineer for making two mistakes. Mistake #1: wardrobe malfunction - wearing skirt and black panty hose with safety boot. Mistake #2: didn't wear hard hat in constriction site.

Speaking of dumb, this is the second time in less than a week I called myself dumb. Last Wednesday, I called a company to clarified a mistake that our secretary made. After placing the call, I told Joe I felt like the brainless secretary who did the real dumb mistake. I had a good laugh afterward **LMAO** Dumb and dumber.

Why must I care so much about this site meeting? Because this project is my 'baby', my very first design masterpiece. I did this Sawmill Creek Restoration design in 2007, my first project after I joined the Capital Work Programming.




Downstream of the site, photo taken in winter time.

Looking upstream from the site, photo taken this morning. The contractor is working on the left bank, you can see the jersey barrier and coffer dams. And here the biologist doing the fish rescue.

She used this ring rod to electric shock the fish. They got 3 fishes. Two come thru very quickly and being release back to the creek



This guy didn't get thru as quickly as the other two, he must had hit hard by the ring. The biologist trying to revives the fish a little bit in this bucket, then release it back to the creek. Hopefully he survives. She told me, they will survive though. The bigger the fish, the longer they need to recover from the shock.


Dumb engineer heading back to the office. **Ciao, baby**

I promised Ryan to take him to zoo this weekend.

When I put him to sleep last night, he kept reminds me, "mommy, when sun comes out, mommy and bao-bao going to zoo."

Before we head to the zoo, we stop by McDonald to fill up our belly (totally against my healthy eating rule #1: stay away from fast food).

Today weather forecast is cloudy with sunny breaks, high 11. When we arrive at the zoo, people dress in winter gears: hat, mitts, scarves, boots, puffy jackets, look at ourself, we only wear sweaters and vest. I was fooled by the sunny and warm feel when I stepped outside this morning. It is indeed very chilly. Not very long, my body generate enough heat to warm myself up after pushing this 33 lbs kiddo up sloppy path. It is exhausting, however it helps burn the calories I swallowed at McDonald.

Our main purpose of this trip is to see arctic animals: polar bear, snowy owl, arctic wolf and reindeer. Last time when we were here, it was summer, we don't get to see the arctic animals due to the construction.

Teepees

The reindeers - they help pull Santa sleidge. "Where is Rudolpd the red nose reindeer, mommy?" asked Ryan.