Crock Pot Time

Tonight I headed into the grocery store, not exactly thrilled to buy my usual groceries (I'm feeling very addicted and irritable today). So I came across this veggie root mixture and it inspired me to bring out the Crock Pot from the back of the pantry. I love different types of root vegetables but I really don't like peeling and cutting them so I was very excited when I found this bag were it's all done for you. You can even buy a bag of beets, stirfry, and even parisian potatoes (which are white potatoes made to look like golf balls).

So I making a beef barley stew dish, with beef stock, condensed tomato soup (which has more of a cream tomato taste), can of canned mushrooms (which I might regret tomorrow) and lots of oregano and bay leaves. I threw in some barley afterwards and I guess by tomorrow night we'll see how it all melds together. I like to look through cook books to get ideas for recipes but in the end I just blend whatever ingredients are in my kitchen and take a chance. I mean it's a stew how bad can it be.



Here's the fruits of my Crock Pot labor, not bad hey, and both my Mom and Quentin said it was really good. It's quite fun to take pictures of food before eating it. Maybe one day I'll put together a big full color picture recipe book but instead of the categories being like beef, chicken, fish, you could call it Emotional Eating, and have categories like Rainy Day Comfort Stews, or I feel like something spicy, or I need Chocolate as fast as possible. I don't think anyone has done that yet, and those are usually the phrases I think when decided what to eat.

p.s you have to eat this with bread and butter, and don't just have the bread you have to have the butter too.

Dinner at the W.A.G.

I love this restaurant we had dinner and stayed much longer than I expected, practically to close. I learned that I love hot tea with some sort of Amaretto and Grand Marnier in it, very yummy yet refreshing.
I didn't get a pic of quite everyone but here are a few that turned out nice. Thanks for coming everyone.


Stephanie, Andrew and I


Quentin and I (obviously)


Calvin and Sharon, I love it when Cal bugs Sharon. :)


Ashley and Craig looking very sweet.

My Family Birthday Dinner - Video Below!

Candice and I (our last picture together for awhile :( )


Candice holding Jack


Mommy Miranda.


Ha Ha Chris and Jack.



Click picture below to see video.
















Last night I had the best family dinner ever, Jim and Gayle actually wrote me a song called, "Ode to Lisa" and they handed out sheets with lyrics and everyone sang along. It was so sweet. Plus they made a big Prime Rib dinner that was so yummy!

I have to blog this because it's one of those things that has to be remembered, and I look forwarded to reading it again a few months and years from now.

ODE TO LISA

We wrote this song because we're broke
We didn't have no mo-ney
So this is what you get from us
You are our special Ho-ney

Q's the guy who had his fun
He lived on beer and pizza
Q's the guy who fell in love
With gorgeous little Li-sa

Now Lisa's got them twink-ley eyes
Hair so long and gol-den
Dimples in her rosey cheeks
Drives the boys all cra-zy

Yeah Q is her computer guy
Her knight in shining ar-mor
He knows how to make her smile
Won't let no body harm her

Now Tom's her dad and he's so glad
That Lisa is his ba-by
He would give the world for her
He's wrapped around her fin-ger

Q's the b'y that dug the pond
Q's the b'y that filled it
Q's the b'y that feed the fish
So they'll look nice for Li-sa

Now Lisa's close to brother John
Treats him like no -o - ther
Misses him when he is gone
She's like a second mo - other

Q's the guy that Lisa loves and
And Q's the guy that holds her
Texas Hold'em is his game
But most of all he loves her

Then there's younger brother Brad
Tennis is his pas-sion
The jokes he plays are all so bad
But Lisa doesn't mind them

Q's the guy who stays afloat
A-fixin'people's hardware
They got a house in South Surrey
You should see the yard there

And Edith is her Wonder-Mom
She is Lisa's men-tor
She is always on the run
But keeps them all together

Q's the guy that built the deck
Q's the guy that nailed it
He built it for his darlin' wife
He built it for his Li-sa

Lisa used to figure-skate
Did the triple ax-el
Now she's into Real Estate
Like carries 'round a sat-chel

Q's the b'y who drive to work
Everyday to Rich-mond
All day long he counts the hours
Til he gets home to Li-sa

The rest of us are here to state
We're glad to have our Li-sa
So now we want to celebrate
Cause it's Lisa's bir-day

So HappyBirthday to you girl
Happy Birth-day Li-sa
Happy Birthday to you girl
Happy Birthday Li-i-issa-ah

My Birthday and a Ferry Sinks.

K I just came from a wonderful day of lunch with Stephanie, Lulu lemon shopping and having a pedicure with Sharon. I love nail art on my toes, it's so cute.
But I'm so suprised that a Ferry sank yesterday, that's so increidble. Supposively the ferry hit a rock in the hull and sank in about an hour. Oh I'll be so interested in hearing how the heck a major commerical boat hits on a rock on a route that should be routine. Having grown up driving around on boats, I know how careful you have to be watching for all that kind of stuff, so I'm very suprised.
K here are some quotes from mytelus.com

He saw the ship go down, watching the massive vessel bend as it headed deep.
"The lights were still on until about halfway down. It sort of popped back up and then went straight down."
Another rescuer said he heard the 16 vehicles inside the ferry crash together like roughly handled toys.

Insomnia

Okay it's almost 5am and I can't sleep. I somehow wake up quite often during the week at 4:30 or 5am and just start thinking. So this morning I had a tummy ach so I decided to get out of bed and drink some milk, we'll see if that helps. Someone needs to develop a technique for those of us who can't make it through an entire night, besides taking sleeping pills, which I refuse to get into. Oh and it never helps that my wonderful husband sleeps like a stone everynight, argg he's so lucky.
Okay back to bed, now I'll fall back asleep and then when Quentin gets up at his usually 7:30am I'll be all tired and groggy wanting to stay in bed.

Big Hair @ Candice's Going Away Party!

Candice and I wanted big hair for tonight, and after velcro rollers and then the curling iron I think we got it.





p.s If you want to look like the pics of Jessica Alba below you have to have hair extensions.



Here we are at the end of the night, our hair mostly still in tack :( bye Candice we won't be taking a picture like this for a long time, I'm going to miss you.

At the Standard

The fun picture from tonight, up on the stage dancing. For the first part of the night they played a bunch of R&B that wasn't too much fun. Then later they started to play the oldies like "Baby got back" and I was excited because I could actually knew and could sing the songs.



Here's Quentin and I taking a break.



Chris and Candice.

Our Baby Brothers

Melanie and I found we had lots in common last night. First being that we both have BABY brothers who were at the bar with us. We rallied out little brothers together the way only big sisters would, to have them pose for the picture above. Ahhh baby brothers are so cute!

Happy Birthday Cal!

Hey hey we went to a mexican restaurant in Vancouver and we had a really fun time. Restaurants with live music are the best.

Here's the classic everyone at the table picture.



Candice and I with a big Mango Daquiri!

Jessica Alba

I took these from CandiStar Jessica has the ultimate big hair look and she looks amazing. Candice and I will be trying our own hands at big huge hair this Saturday night and this will be the inspiration.

Brokeback Mountain

Well tonight Quentin and I saw the movie their has been so much fuss about. I just got home and I feel really somber about it. It's a sad story, you have two people who have such a connection but life just won't allow them to be together. I honestly didn't think I'd really enjoy the movie, I went for the novelty of it, but in the end I did.

The scenery was beautiful and peaceful and I liked how they were so into each other. It was funny how they would go about their everyday life just doing what they had to do but then they reserved these trips for each other. I was wondering if it made their lives better or worse to just to see each other sometime? I guess if they didn't crave what they needed they won't be their in the first place and it would have fadded. Sometimes I think that people who are gay are faking their emotion but now after watching the movie I can't see anyone going through that torture if their emotions weren't very real.

Okay it's really weird that they are gay and it's two guys but after awhile I just didn't care anymore because I knew who they were. Honestly I've been raised with the tradition that being gay isn't natural and wrong and I yes maybe the movie has made me, "just get used to it" but we're all "just human" I guess and who is to say that ones persons passion should be considered wrong while another's is right. Anyways I'm sure both of those guy wished they had never met each other because their lives would have been so much easier.

So I'm glad I saw the movie even if it was really really weird but very interesting at the same time and everyone has to at least endure through it. You only have to watch it once.

Sharon took this picture of a seagull down on White Rock beach. Its an overexposed picture but I think it looks really cool, good job Sharon I love this pic!

My Cousin has a blog!

Slowly but surely I'm convincing everyone I know to start a blog. I had 5 whole days with my cousins in New York and so far one of them has started a blog, that's a 50% return on my efforts, which isn't bad. So here is Christine's blog and her first post talks about her in Italy as she's a performer for the special Olympics.

CandiStar has Natalie Portman

Natalie Portman did a photo shoot in Vanity Spread and she looks incredible. Her hair is so dark and the set and her skin is so creamy, really pretty! Check out Candice's CandiStar for bigger better pictures.

I predict the winner of this years idol will be.

Chris Daughtry

I feel like I would actually pay to money to see him at a concert, and he's kinda cool.

American Idol

Here are the 2 southern talking contestants for the current show. Kellie is incredibly innocent and says the funniest things and Bucky is just very Bucky. So if nothing else I think the two of them should hook up in some capacity whether it's singing a duet on the show or maybe getting married and having adorable southern sounding babies together. But you'll have to watch the show to see for yourself.

Photography lessons on the beach

I love this picture of Calvin and Sharon on the beach, here Calvin is hard at work preparing the lesson and Sharon is enjoying Calvin's part of the ice cream cone cause he's so busy.



I think Calvin was supposed to get the red part and Sharon the white part. LOL I know I'm going to get in trouble for this post but I couldn't resist. :)

Karim Rashid

I read about this guy in my Psychology Today mag in the personality section. Go to his website you can play music on the little shape things. Very fun and memorizing for a few minutes.
This guy is very cool because...
1. In 2000, he got rid of all his black clothes and did something called "Addition by Subtraction." For the past six years he's accumulated nothing. If he buys a pair of socks he gets rid of a pair of socks.
(This guy is my hero, I try to be very anti collect things so this sounds like the ultimate anti packrat, but it shouldn't count for stuff like pictures and personal movies.)
2.He lives a very banal life, he has to have 8hrs of sleep at night, works out six days a week, mediates each day, doesn't smoke drink or use drugs and eats perfectly.
3.He would prefer to live in a home that is free of sharp edges.
4. Own just one TV. (I also read in another article that couples who have a TV in their bedroom have sex half as often.)
5.Display objects only if they hold special meaning.
6.When he dies he plans to pressurize his ashes into diamonds, okay that's creepy but cool.
7. In his perfect world he wants to have sex everyday and edit his friends to people he would stay in contact with if he moved. (I don't like the term to edit friends but the sex part is funny.)
8.He thinks tradition holds people back, and feels that people think the past is always better even if it isn't.
9. His response to the question, But technology can be soulless and starting at a computer all day is draining..... "I think that's something you've been taught. What would be the difference between that and being in an office 30 years ago, or going to the library and spending a whole day looking through books? Roughly 25 years ago, 1 out of 20 people actually sat down and wrote letters. Today we write e-mail, nonstop. I think technology is humankind us. (I don't fully agree with this but it's interesting. )
10. He would like to throw an extravagant dance party each year. (This guy is hilarious, I love it!)

Personality personality we are so lucky we have different people in this world to change it up!

Psychology Today!

I think this article is very amusing!

WE CAN WORK IT OUT

Want to predice the outcome of a spousal spat? Tally up pronous. The person who says, "we" the most during and argument puts forward the best solutions, according to a study in Psychology Science. "We" - users may have a sense of shared interest that sparks compromises and other ideas pleasing to both partners. "You" - sayers, to the contrary, tend to criticize, disagree, justify and otherwise teem with negativity.
But sometimes criticism comes in handy. When one partner complains that he or she feels under attack, the other can ease the tension by rephrasing scentences to use the winning "we."

Robin Williams on Broadway

Tonight we visited Steve and Jessica after long time no see in Port Coquitlam. We saw 2 movies tonight the first was, "Date Movie" which was so terrible I started text messaging half way through, and the second was "Robin Williams on Broadway". K Mr. Williams is hilarious!!! At first I didn't understand all his jokes but as the DVD kept on by the end I was laughing so much my sides started to hurt. I mean I wasn't always laughing really hard but just this constant stream of enough so that my ribcages couldn't get a break and I almost went into pain. It's totally worth watching and on this DVD the bit that I thought was the funniest is right at the very end, he's terrible but hilarious.

Stick It!!

Tonight Candice, Quentin and I saw the movie Failure to Launch which Candice wrote a post about. It was quite cute but kind of reminded us of the movie how to lose a guy in 10 dates. My favorite parts were watching what Sarah Jessica Parker was wearing. I especially liked her boating outfits, lots of white linen dresses.

However their was a preview before for a movie called Stick It! I'm telling you right now this is going to be a really dumb movie but I want to see it anyways. You know the type of movie that's really corny but mindlessly entertaining and fun at the same time.

So the plot is bad mountain biking girl gets sent back to gymnastic camp and trains her butt off, pun intended. My favorite parts in the trailer are when a girl throws a drink at another (shows you how catty it is) when she does a big tumble and falls directly onto her hands and knees (see she's pushing the limits) and when she sits in a tub of ice (I tried to do that but could only sit on the edge of the tub and trickle cold water on my legs cause I'm a wimp)

Anyways here's the trailer link, enjoy!

Pride and Prejudice

Tonight I have the whole evening to myself so I got watch a movie that no one in the house but but me wanted to watch. Pride and Prejudice was a really touching movie filled with lots of drama, melancholy and arguments. I found myself on two occasions ready to hop out of my seat as the main characters told each other what they really thought.... it was great fun!
The whole ambiance of the movie was beautiful too. They played beautiful classical piano peaces every five minutes, the filmography was gorgeous with it's misty mornings and the costumes and sets were really neat. I think it's so interesting to see how people lived before modern day convinces, like before laptops for instance. :)
The main character Elizabeth is such a rug rat, she doesn't really care how she looks and she's so argumentative, if their's an authority figure or assumed way of something being done, she's challenging it! My type of girl.
So here are two pictures from the movie one with the couple when they actually stop fighting in the mist at dawn and another pretty one of Keira Knightley contemplating her melancholy on a spinning swing. This is a great movie so worth watching on a cozy rainy night.

I'm tired of Cleaning my Kitchen

So tonight just before we headed to bed, I looked over at my messy kitchen and started complaining that I'm tired of cleaning the kitchen and I wish I didn't have to do it so much.

Quentin said, "It's because you eat too much"

What a terrible thing to say, but I'm laughing and it's funny, cause maybe it's true!!!!!!! Some one needs to give me night time retainer so I can't eat anymore after 8pm. :)

Nighty night I get to fall asleep on a nice full stomach.

Watching the Apprentice

I'm watching the Apprentice tonight and Donald just fired 2 people, Donald is so tough and he kind of reminds me of Dr. Phil, and why is that everyone loves them so much. I guess we'd prefer a harsh but good leader rather than a nice but bad one.
Anyways I felt like writing this post because I think it's so weird that in every Apprentice there's always a bad apple and you always see people sitting around talking about the bad seed. I just find it amazing that out of all these hand picked super people in every session someone seems to have these annoying tendencies.
Maybe it's the other way around, maybe groups of people find someone who is a bit of an oddball and instead of the group accommodating this oddball they sort of sacrifice him for group unity. Don't you think you see it in so many TV shows, were the group sits around and bonds at the sacrifice of one. Okay I realize this sounds kind of weird talking about sacrifices and all but I just can't help but notice it.

Pictures from the Oscars

We posted great pictures of the oscars on candistar, take a look.

The Oscars tonight

Reese won best actress!!!!



Ever since you made Legally Blond I have just loved watching you. I still to this day play that movie when ever I'm home sick and need to be cheered up. I also want to have Walk the Line on hand so whenever I feeling like singing at home you and the movie will be my entourage. I still want a chance to buy a red square dancing country dress, I would be so happy if they came back in fashion.
As I was watching Resse tonight as soon as her acceptance speech was over my phone rings and it's my Mom, "don't you just love Reese Witherspoon, isn't she just so sweet, you just think she really wants the best for everyone." I also loved her acceptance speech, how she talked about her kids needing to be in bed and her parents for even being proud of her for making her bed as a child. Reese your an inspiration to us all I'm glad you won.


After saying such positive things about Reese I almost feel bad saying this but.......



Jessica Alba this is a beautiful dress and you look very nicely put together, however I don't like the shopping cart collar bones. I quote my dear friend Chris who once said, "you know a girl is too skinny when her collar bones seemed to be sticking out and it looks as though you could put your hands in the holes made by the collar bones and then push her around." Jessica you're known for your curves so don't try to get rid of them. My own husband starts hoping in his seat whenever he hears or sees you so even I would feel a bit sorry for him if he no longer had that pleasure.

No Accident Tonight

I just came home and I can't sleep at all, the adrenaline is still shooting through me. So I went to the airport to pick up my little brother and on the way home we were traveling on Hwy 99 the local Hwy to come home. I was traveling in the left lane which is considered the fast one and all of a sudden another car was in my lane traveling toward me. He was traveling pretty fast and I was over a hundred for sure. Anyways I of coarse started to slow down but as he came closer to me I just thought aren't you going to get out of my lane. Well Bradley was like, "okay you need to get in the right hand lane" and just like that I was like, "okay your right" and I just changed lanes barely shoulder checking. I mean what could be worse right!
The guy just drove past me and as I looked in my mirror other cars swerving to get out of the way, their didn't seem to be an accident, oh I hope their wasn't an accident and no one was hit behind me. We called 911 right away and other people were reporting the same driver. I wish I could check some websites for Hwy patrol to see what happens in situations like this but I can't find anything yet.

CandiStar

Hello everyone, it's time to start a blog were pageloads mean business so introducing CandiStar. Candice has set up CandiStar and now her and I will be posting interesting posts mostly about current celebrity activity. This blog will be all about daily hits so we'd appreciate people linking us to help support. Wish us luck we hope we hope you'll find it interesting and worth clicking on daily.

At Home Friday Night Entertainment

Here we are just hanging out at home watching the hockey game. Here is Candice and I the laptop junkies of the group sitting in the corner figuring out more stuff with our blogs. Candice I'm going to miss you so much, no one else could be bothered to sit on the computer for hours at a time exploring different options.
The hockey game was good except I wasn't paying attention at all and I have no idea who won. Ainsley thanks for dropping by and really extending that network lunch!
Note: to everyone I'm officially the non drinker in the group. I will always pretend that I can drink and like too but after the first martini or glass of wine, I'm stopping there. I'm a big light weight and really can't handle it.

Proof

Last night I watched the movie Proof and I really loved it, it was so good, well for myself anyways. In the movie Gwenth Paltrow has a father who's a math genius and has made major contributions to the math field. Unfortunately he becomes crazy and Gwenth has the job of taking care of him. The twist in the movie is that Gwenth herself is also a math genius.
My favorite part of the movie is with Gwenth and her father sitting together on a Friday night doing math problems together drinking tea. I spent so many years exactly the same way through highschool at the kitchen table on week nights doing math problems with my Dad. Although I didn't receive as much math gene as my Dad (ie. physics major) it was very touching to see another father and daughter spending quality time doing math problems together. Ahhh this made me want to go home and give my Dad a hug and thank him for all the time he spent with me getting me through terrible MATH!!!

Edvard Munch and his "The Kiss"

At the MoMA Museum exhibit in New York they are currently featuring Edvard Munch a European artist from this century. We went there the first night in NY because it's was free. The truth is I was exhausted, as wonderful as NY is, I feel like I walked a marathon, we were always walking and it was freezing like -10 most of the time. But it was totally worth it to be tired and freezing and to see this exhibition, I loved it. Thank you Susi for taking us there.

So the painting that I liked the most is called, "the kiss" after checking out his exhibit Edvard was a romantic, according to me! In the exhibition their were many paintings of a few particular women, one who was his fiance who he had a brutal break up with. Another was his first love who was an older married woman. Despite all his glory being a talented artist I think he had a really dark impression of himself. Susi pointed out that he loved self portrait and you could see as the years went on he would paint himself looking older and sadder. When he was young he looked very cynical and as he aged the corners of his mouth clearly looked more and more turned downward. You have to wonder about someone who has so much romance in their life but yet ends up looking so sad.

The Kiss is the painting that I remember most. Susi again pointed out that this couple look like they are almost becoming one person here. I think these two paintings are very intimate but I'm wondering if they are a bit dark, is their something happening here we don't know about.
Obviously after viewing his whole exhibit fear and fright are common themes it just makes me wonder why he viewed to world that way. I guess that's the psychologist in me, why do some people see bright colors and others not. Hmmmmmm
Anyways I love these paintings, very touching!





This one was from the Met but obviously it's not, "The Kiss"

Home From New York

Oh in some ways it's so nice to be home, so nice to have my own couch, own food and be able to sleep. I bought groceries today brought them in the door only put away what needs to go in the fridge and I'll deal with the rest tomorrow.
New York is such a fascinating city and the highlight was our first poetry reading. I'm going to search online to try audio clips so I can post them.

Wow can't believe yesterday I was taking pictures at the Metropolitan Museum of Art here is what I looked liked most of the day with my face in the camera. This was at the pyramid exhibit.