It's down pouring today...

...and I get to rock my brand new Michael Kors rain boots!


Just trying to look at the brighter side of things :)

Five Years...

...and counting!

This past weekend, Melvin and I celebrated our 5 year anniversary.  It is amazing how many changes we've gone through in half a decade - Melvin changed jobs, we bought our first house, I changed jobs, had a baby, left that job, experienced the death of a parent, had another baby, sold our first house, and moved to another country!  Mind you, 5 of these life altering changes happened this year, but still lots of changes we've experienced together.

To celebrate, we took advantage of Abuela's visit and left her with the kids.  We took a bus/ferry/bus combo to Victoria, B.C.  for two days.  It was as gorgeous as I remembered it 6 years ago (damn, I'm old) when I went there for the first time.  During this visit, we ate plenty of seafood (as usual), saw a Gray Whale, lots of Orca (Killer) Whales and a Humpback Whale - our guide said seeing three types never happens, so we were very lucky!  The highlight of the trip for me was High Tea at the Fairmont Empress (love scones and clotted cream!) and Melvin's highlight was his first seaplane ride back to Vancouver (a quick 35 minutes)!

Here are some pics from our whale tour on Aug. 28th - Melvin's head blocked a few of the pics.
http://5starwhales.blogspot.com/

Funny moments included my pumping breast milk in the hallway of our hotel when our room wasn't ready....then, passing it off to the bellmen (awkward!) to store it in the hotel freezer...it did not get easier each time I did this, but it was quite amusing.  As we were leaving, watching the bellman run down the hall with my breast milk and throwing it in the cooler as fast as he could gave us a good laugh!

We got some great pics, so check out our Picasa Album.

Mommy's Guilt

...never goes away!!

We are leaving for our 5-yr anniversary weekend very early tomorrow morning.  As much as I've been yearning for a break from the kids, I feel horrible about leaving them.  Also, I know I'll miss them terribly and wish they were coming.  It's such a Catch 22.

I know it is something that will never go away!

Thoughts?

...just curious...

What are your thoughts about the Islamic Community Centre and Mosque being proposed to be built by Ground Zero?  Feel free to email me privately or to make things interesting, post in the comments section of the blog.

If you choose not to comment about the above, what do you think of that flight attendant that caused all the commotion on that Jet Blue flight?  I found it funny.

I am in need of some US, specifically New York, drama...I mean, "news".

Aberdeen & Hong Kong Cake

When I think of Aberdeen, I think of Hong Kong and its floating village on Aberdeen Harbour.  Today, we went to Aberdeen Centre, which is Canada's biggest "Asian Mall" in Richmond, B.C. (near the airport).  It's pretty crazy as all the stores are Asian brands.  We read that they are going to start making it more diverse to attract non-Asians, but right now it encompasses a market, as well as store brands from the Philippines, Korea, China, Japan, etc.

Well, if you could only imagine how this food court was....I was in heaven.  The food court had Korean, Vietnamese, Cantonese, Szechuan, Indonesian and many more eateries.  I ate BBQ Duck over rice, my absolute favorite.  For dessert, I indulged in "hard to find" Hong Kong Cake.

You New Yorkers SHOULD know what I am talking about when I say Hong Kong Cake...Do you remember the Hong Kong Cake lady that sat in a makeshift red shack on Mosco & Mott Streets in Chinatown?  Her name was Cecilia Tam (read about her, she's fascinating) and she was located around the corner from Hop-Kee.  She had that secret batter recipe and lines would round the corner for her delectable Hong Kong Cake, which was $1 for 15 balls/1 bag.  Each day, she brought her milk jugs of batter and when they were gone, she would close.  She put her kids through college with that money earned and then she retired, without passing on the recipe (SO WRONG).

I grew up going to Sun Lok Kee (which moved to Flushing due to high rents in Chinatown) almost every weekend and then a trip to the red shack, rain or shine, no matter how long the line.  I've had these Hong Kong Cakes from fake vendors in NYC, vendors in Hong Kong, and now Vancouver and nothing compares to the ones from that red shack on Mosco Street.  Man, do I miss her.

Random + Glowbal Grill Review

Throughout the day, I always find myself thinking "I need to blog about this"; however, when I get to the computer, I forget what I needed to blog about.  Annoying!

Here is what I remember at the moment...wanted to mention this stuff before I forget:

- There are stores here that are so similar to what we have back home.  The fonts and signs are so similar that I wonder if they are under the same companies. 

Home Goods = Home Sense; Magic Cuts = Super Cuts

- I'm very excited to discover a fellow mom of two that is taking the yoga program with me.  She is from Winnipeg, Manitoba (Canada) and is leaving her 3-year and 3-month old for five weeks!!  I no longer feel so (or as) guilty about leaving the kids full-time again. Maybe I'll have company while I pump during my breaks?

- We booked our 5-year anniversary trip to Victoria, B.C.  Taking the ferry over and will take a seaplane back to Vancouver....Will blog about it after we go!

Glowbal Grill Review:

I want to continue reviewing my dining experiences at the more notable restaurants in the city. Glowbal Grill was pretty damn good.  It's a pretty trendy, loungey place and it was Friday night, but I was determined for some upscale dining and the mushroom risotto.

We took the kids and braved the after-work, happy hour, yuppy crowd that Yaletown (our neighborhood) is known for. I was extremely prepared and brought a coloring book for Julian, carried Amélie in the Bjorn and had the car seat on the other arm "just in case" and looked at the menu online and ordered before Melvin even met us there.  They sat us in the back next to an older couple from Louisiana and the hostess & waiter were extremely accommodating.

We had the following satays: short rib, sablefish, kobe meatball, tiger prawn - all of which were to die for, with the exception of the short ribs, which were mediocre. We also got a calamari appetizer, which melted in our mouths (similar to Sanafir's calamari) and got creamed spinach and mushroom risotto as sides.  Delectable.  I look forward to returning.

T&T

Tonight, my friend took me on a field trip to T&T Supermarket.  It was awesome!  I was looking for a reasonably priced, non-ghetto Asian Mart, where I could get the essentials for satisfying my Filipino/Chinese food cravings.  When my friend told me about it, I thought of International Food Mart in Spring Valley (you Rocklanders know what I'm talking about) and the thought made me shudder a bit.  It was very far from that!!  This place was a clean Chinatown on steroids with a variety of foods that is indescribable.  There were tanks of fresh seafood and the bakery was really cool with fresh baked goods from many different Asian countries.  There were not 10 or even 20 brands of frozen dumplings, but more...best of all, I found frozen Shanghai soup dumplings (aka Xiaolongbao)!!!  How exciting!


I also came home with some Tocino, Bangus (yum) and Beef Tapa - all very important to the traditional, unhealthy Filipino breakfast that I can't go too long without.  In addition, I had a unique find - frozen scallion pancakes.  Can't wait to try them! 

ICBC Strikes Again!

I had previously blogged about ICBC (Insurance Corporation of British Columbia) and their monopoly on every type of insurance in this province.  Well, we just finalized our car insurance and it is so ridiculous - there is no Geico, no State Farm, no MetLife to provide competitive rates and "I can do it better than you" attitudes.  Instead, we're stuck with the girl at Yaletown Insurance, that clearly hates her job, to provide us with the one and only insurance this province has to offer.

From reading my above rant, you can probably guess that we did not get a good deal.  Believe it or not, we went to the insurance office FOUR times just to get the proper documentation and get the premium as low as possible.  We provided our clean records from the States, letters from past insurance companies and information about our car usage (i.e. not used to go to work, parked in a garage, etc). We got a 30% discount, which sounds great, but isn't good enough!  AND we had to "surrender" our car title and won't be getting it back!!  Can you believe that?  They've taken away our licenses and now title!

Now, we have a B.C. title, registration and brand new plates, which Melvin installed today.  He held our New York plates up proudly and stated that it was a sad day.  We'll be fed-exing those bad boys off to the DMV tomorrow - tsk, tsk.

Heatwave

It is blazin' hot here (probably nothing compared to the East, but still) and none of the buildings have air conditioning (including most hotels)!!  It does not help that I've also been slavin' in the kitchen in preparation for Abuela's arrival next Wednesday.  Melvin's mom will be visiting for over a month from Aug. 25 and flying back to NY with us on Oct. 5.  I asked her to take care of the kids while Melvin & I go on our 5-yr anniversary trip and while I'm in classes the month of September.


I'm starting an intensive 200-hour yoga certification program at Prana Yoga College on September 1st, so it'll be full time with only Thursdays/Sundays off.  If I successfully complete the program, I'll be "graduating" Oct. 3rd and will be certified to teach yoga.  My intention was never to be a teacher, but I thought this program would be great for me not only physically, but mentally and spiritually, as well.  My goal is to just get through it.  So, we'll just see how things go and see whether I like it.  More about that later...


Back to my preparations...I've been cooking and freezing food, so Melvin's mom can just heat up meals during the day for her and Julian.  I'm sure she'll think I'm totally weird and anal, but I don't think she realizes how hard it'll be to cook homemade food and snacks with the two kids in tow.  Also, it's my way of making sure Julian is getting well-balanced and healthy meals, instead of eating platanos on a daily basis.


So far, I've made or bought/prepared the following.  Thanks to Janey and Kristen for the great website and personal recipes.


- Two dozen blueberry muffins
- Two dozen vegan banana chocolate chip muffins 
- Turkey & Vegetable Chili
- One dozen Potato Codfish Cakes
- Salmon Marinade
- Chicken with Thai Curry 
- Garlic & Cheese Bread
- Approx. 75 oz of breast milk


After all that work, I realize that the above will barely last us 3 days (not counting all the muffins, of course).  AND, I'll need to start pureeing foods for Amélie next month. Ugh. I question how people can afford (time and money) to feed big families these days.  No wonder people head to McDonald's.


I would love more recipe suggestions if any of you have some "freeze well" meals.
...gotta get ready for the beach now.  Until next time!

Busy, Busy Sunday

...Checked out Kitsilano Farmer's Market for the first time - amazing organic produce selection and cuts of grass fed beef

...Played family soccer at Roundhouse Community Centre's "Picnic in the Park"event

...Scoped out Vancouver's Latin Summer Fest in East Vancouver and discovered Dominicanissima Dance Group , which was a nice surprise for Melvin

...Took the Aquabus to Granville Island's Water Park, also known as North America's largest free spray park (it was a blazin' hot day)

...Cooked some dinner, ate, and put the kids to bed!

WE ARE BEAT!

Howe Sound

This morning, we packed up a small cooler, and the kids, and took off for Horseshoe Bay, which is located in West Vancouver approximately 25 minutes from downtown (on the way to Whistler off the Sea to Sky Highway).  Our plan was to rent a 15' foot boat for a couple hours, explore Howe Sound, have lunch and then head back for naps.  It's very rare that plans work out perfectly, especially with kids, but it was one of those days when it did!

We had an amazing ride with a very nervous Captain Mel.  As I told him, it's perfectly fine to be nervous because the lives of his family were in his hands.  The water was a bit choppy this morning, so they upgraded us to a 17' boat, which was perfectly fine with me.  We stayed south to avoid the choppy waters and missed out on the island up north with the sea lions, but hopefully we'll have another chance to explore the islands a bit north of West Vancouver.  Instead, we headed in the direction of downtown and saw some multi-million dollar homes along the coast, some beautiful islands, fishing boats with fishermen hoping for some salmon, Snug Cove at Bowen Island, a float plane coming in for landing, and some huge ferries taking Vancouverites to the many island destinations surrounding the city.

At the end of our ride, Melvin received a compliment on his wonderful parking job at the dock.  Then, we headed to Troll's Restaurant for their famous fish n chips.  We ordered the catch of the season, Basa Fish (type of catfish, super tasty), and it was definitely the best fish n chips I ever had.  This is coming from one that lived in London for 6 months, so kudos to Troll's!

We headed back for naps, then went to Stanley Park to take some professional family pictures in the afternoon.  I am hoping they turned out well and will be sending them out to friends and family in the upcoming weeks.  Stay tuned...

Afghan Horsemen

Tonight, I went to my first Afghan restaurant ever and the food was AMAZING. My ride to the restaurant was on a very peaceful boat across False Creek to Granville Island. I looked around at the towering buildings, people riding bikes along the seawall with their kids in their bike trailers, and the sun hitting the water in such a way that is indescribable.  I realized that it will be very hard to leave this place, if we choose to do so in the future.


I went to dinner with a few girls I met here and it was just really nice to have a meal with others and not be discussing children the entire time. I love my kids, but I can't remember the last time I went a whole night without talking about them.  I realized how important it is to surround myself with friends of all different life situations.


Anyway, that is not the point of my post...The restaurant was called Afghan Horsemen and we sat on the floor at these low tables and had pillows all around.  A belly dancer came out for a performance around 8:45pm and showed us some skills by balancing a sword on her boobs and head (while I laughed in her face).  I learned this is the first and only Afghan restaurant in all of Canada.  I found the cuisine to be very similar to Greek, Turkish and even Lebanese food.  Excelente!

I am so going to bring all our visitors to this place for a night out.

Here are some more...

My last entry was so well received that I decided to include some conversations we've had with some of the locals.  Mind you, I hope they never see this blog.

Conversation #1

This conversation transpired in our garage between our neighbor (very nice people) who is a cop (very important detail) and Melvin.  The names of these people have been purposely altered to protect their identities.  =P

Melvin: Hey Man

Man: Hey Melvin, how's it going?  Did you manage to get your car insurance and all that set up yet?

Melvin: Nah, I need to get an inspection first.

Man: Oh well, you really should remove the tint off you car's front windows.

Melvin: Really?  Why?

Man: Well, you know, it's illegal because only gangsters really have tint on their cars.

Melvin: Ok,..

Later on...Melvin says to me: "Gangsters? I haven't heard that word since the '80s"

LOL - much to Melvin's dismay, we were forced to have our tint removed as it is actually illegal here.  BOO!

A WEEK LATER

Man's Wife: Hey Coleen, how're things going?

Coleen:  Oh, things are going well.  Tell Man we had our tint removed finally.

Man's Wife: Yeah, that's a good thing because the gangsters here really took the tint to the next level.

Seriously, it sounds so much funnier in person.

Conversation #2

There is a certain someone Melvin encounters on a regular basis and apparently he's extremely anti-American.  Melvin doesn't really care for him.  Here are some comments he has made.

Annoying Man: Gosh, Americans are so fat, the food portions there are ridiculous.  I worked there for 10 days once and gained 15 lbs.  (this man is like 300 lbs)

Melvin: Oh ok, whose fault is that!  (he didn't really say this but was thinking it)

I was actually about to write more comments Melvin had shared with me, but decided I don't want to piss people off or leave a bad taste in your mouth regarding Canadians.  This guy is actually the first one we've met that has this attitude about Americans.  It's actually quite interesting to hear people's stereotypical thoughts.  Often times, Americans are the ones stereotyping others.  It is almost fascinating to hear the other end of it.  Here is one example that I encountered.

Conversation #3

Coleen: I'm having a hard time finding organic meat here and I'm noticing that there is no organic yogurt for babies.

Fellow Mom: Yeah, you have to go to certain specialty shops to get more variety and I don't think I've ever seen organic yogurt for babies.  Are you sure the labels are legit in America though?  I mean, when they say organic, does it truly have proper guidelines to be classified as such.

Coleen: Um, yeah!  (in my mind, I was thinking the same thing about Canadian products.  Go figure.)

Conversation #4 - this transpired when we were opening our mailbox in Washington State in Blaine, WA.

Coleen:  Are you familiar with this town?

Woman: Yeah, kind of, are you looking for something in particular?

Coleen:  Just a place to grab lunch.  It doesn't look like there's much around here (we were right over the border and it was a VERY small town).

Woman:  No, not much in Blaine.  You'd have to drive 15-20 minutes south to find more things, but there is a Subway that they just opened and there's a Little Caesar's pizza shop here.

LOL - remember Little Caesar's?  Pizza! Pizza!  love it.

Funny

Conversation #1
Julian: Look what I got from school mommy! (holds up toy dinosaur)
Coleen: Julian, you know that belongs in school. We'll have to return it on Tuesday.
Julian: Ok


Next Day: Coleen enters Julian's room and finds 10 toy dinosaurs


Coleen:  Julian, where did these toy dinosaurs come from?
Julian:  From school!
Coleen:  Sigh (he's been putting one in each pocket and bringing them home for weeks)


Conversation #2
Melvin: How was your day?
Coleen: Pretty good, you know, usual tantrums...
Melvin: Cool, what should we have for dinner?
Coleen: I don't care, what are you in the mood for?
Melvin: OMG! This guy just took all his clothes off on the 2nd floor of that building! (hands over eyes)
...gotta love floor to ceiling windows!


Conversation #3
Julian:  I have to go pee pee mommy!
Coleen:  Okay, let's go.  Do you want to try peeing standing up?
Julian: No, I don't want to pee pee standing up.  I'm a girl.  Big girls pee pee sitting down.
Coleen: Sigh
Update: Julian started peeing standing up this past Sunday!  PHEW!

Shiatsu

I had an amazing discovery on the next block from our apartment - a clinical training center for the Canadian College of Shiatsu Therapy.  What does this mean exactly?  It means that they offer 90 minute massage treatments with student masseuses for $40!  There's also an option for a professional therapist at a higher price, but you can't really beat that deal.

Off I went for a much needed break from the kids and a relaxing treatment yesterday.  I also signed a petition to add Shiatsu Therapy to the national healthcare plan, as there's been a movement to add it, so fingers crossed.  Our national coverage starts on September 1st, so looking forward to the world of "no co-pays" pretty soon.

WTF!!

We just ordered Chinese food and it didn't come with rice!! ARRGGHH!  I know there is a rice shortage, but who does that?  


That's like going to an Italian restaurant and not getting bread at the table or going to a Thai restaurant that doesn't have Pad Thai or going to a biergarten and ordering wine or ordering a Filipino Vegetable Spring Roll that has pork in it...oh wait, that does happen. 

Which Address Do We Use?

The clouds have moved in a little bit and there is a 20% chance of rain tomorrow, so we're rescheduling our boat rental from Horseshoe Bay and trip to Bowen Island to next weekend.  Instead, we're going to do a road trip to Washington State to (very exciting) open a mailbox, so we have a U.S. address.

We're doing this for a number of reasons:

1) Packages - if we want to shop online, shipment to Canada is SOOOO expensive compared to the U.S.  This way, we can continue to shop on gilt.com, ruelala.com, and wherever else, guilt free :)

2) If you have over a certain amount of money in your U.S. bank account and have a Canadian address, the U.S. will send your interest earnings to Canada and double tax you.  Since we're taxed enough, we will be giving the Washington State address to our U.S. bank.

3) Washington has no state taxes, so this will further decrease our shipping charges when we shop online!

4) People won't have to pay for Canadian postage, if they are feeling really cheap, and want to send us a letter.

5) Some online U.S. systems/accounts don't recognize Canadian addresses (i.e. Verizon)

Some of you are probably wondering how far our mailbox will be from our home.  It's only a 45 minute drive, so no big deal...It's just like going to Garden State Mall in NJ on a Saturday afternoon....and we can visit Tar-jay (Target) while we're over the border :)  

Anyone going to be in Seattle this Saturday?

Restaurants in Vancouver

I can't believe we've been here for over a month and I have not rated any of the restaurants we've been to!  All I have to say is that it's a good thing we have kids that follow a bedtime; otherwise, we'd be broke eating out at all the wonderful places to dine here.

It still feels like we're on vacation and don't actually live here, so sometimes I get this frantic feeling of "I have to try this place, we have to go here, why haven't we seen this place yet, etc."  I need to take a step back and realize we have plenty of time and this is not NYC, so I "might" be able to keep up and try a majority of the really good restaurants here.

In the meantime, let me write about the noteworthy ones we've already checked out.  If any of you are planning a visit, take note of the places you may want to try, so we can take you there!

Coast Restaurant - The epitome of seafood heaven (for those that know me, know I could live off seafood if it were affordable, especially peel n eat shrimp!) - located in the financial area of downtown.  The ambiance was nice and felt new/trendy; however, you could feel that most were paying for their meals with their corporate cards. The New England Clam Chowder tasted SO fresh, it was more on the broth side rather than creamy and deserves 5 stars.  We shared the Signature Seafood Platter, which included B.C. cod, wild sea tiger prawns, sockeye salmon, Qualicum scallops, fried Brussels sprouts & potato gnocchi.  AWESOME and the Brussels sprouts were surprisingly amazing.  Of course I had the bread pudding for dessert, which couldn't touch Blue Ribbon Bakery's, but was good enough.

Sanafir - Part of the same restaurant group as Coast, Judy & I had an interesting meal here.  It was all "tapas" sized plates, but was a mish mosh of flavors - North Africa, Asia and Middle East.  Judy felt the menu was "confused", but we definitely enjoyed our dinner.  The decor was Moroccan themed and since it was a Monday night, we were the only ones there, but were not rushed at all.  In fact, our server was great (I think he was drunk/tipsy by the end of the night) and gave us our calamari and tea for free.  I would return.

Sandbar Granville Island - We actually went with the kids and had an amazing view of the water.  Melvin ordered several appetizers for he and Julian and I got 1/2 a Dungeness Crab (wanted a whole one but it was expensive).  What I REALLY wanted was this: Mussel Mania! Every Day 4-7 p.m. in the Lounge $10.00

Fresh mussels & frites with a pint of Granville Island Brew Tomato Provençal, Thai Curry or Vindaloo style

BUT, we were with the kids and not in the lounge, so I'll have to return for that.  Who wants to join me?

Milestones - one of the more popular chain restaurants...they did a good job.  We got their  "famous" hot artichoke & spinach dip, which was fine but nothing to rave about.  I got a seafood salad, which was really good, as well.  We would return for a casual dinner, possibly with the kids.

Provence Marinaside - We went here the first time we used our babysitter and had a date night as it is only a block from our apartment.  With that being the reason, we didn't expect much, but this was one of our better meals.  Very, very good, but for some reason, neither Melvin or I can remember what we had.  We just remember liking it a lot, so we'll have to go back.

Boathouse at Kitsilano Beach - We couldn't have asked for a better table - on the patio, over the beach and during the pink sunset glistening off the water.  The food, on the other hand, barely subpar.  I had another seafood salad and I think it is what made me feel sick after and the bread pudding was a disappointment.  I would go back for another view of the sunset, but would probably stick to wine and a few appetizers, not a full meal.

The above doesn't include the pizza place we frequent, or take out/delivery places we've tried, but I just wanted to document the above as they reflect my first impressions of eating in Vancouver.

Olympics Fact:  Vancouver opened over 40 restaurants in preparation for the Olympics, so we came at the right time!

British Columbia Day...

...was yesterday, August 2nd.  We spent the long weekend in Whistler, B.C.


Unlike New Jersey's claim to being the "Garden State", it is quite clear why the plates here say  "Beautiful British Columbia".  It was a blast and we hope to explore more of the province!

What's in a name?

This past Friday, we had a family BBQ at Julian's pre-school.  It is far more multicultural than we ever thought it could be.  There are kids from not only of Canadian descent, but of Japan, China, Turkey, India, England and I don't even know where else.  It is definitely a different dynamic than Julian's class from New York; I'm not really sure how to describe it nor do I have the energy to analyze it right now.  Anyway, in case you are expecting a child any time soon and need some name ideas, here are a bunch from Julian's school that I found rather different.

Cairo, Caelum, Kai, Kenzo, Piper, Pepper, Teah, Talullah, Heston