Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Electrolux Vacuum from Target

We bought a new mobile, detachable vacuum from Target this past summer.

It is made by electrolux and it is small and compact.  It can be used upright and handheld.


Electrolux Vacuum Mobile
The only downsides I am experiencing is that this kind of chargeable vacuum can never be as strong as the conventional plug in.  Also, the battery will not last for more than 20 minutes and always has be charged.

However, I think the quality is there, and it is more sturdy than the American made ones so far.

Also, we do not have space in our small room, so it takes up less space than the big canister vacuums.

Taiwanese Pillow Cover: Flowers

I went back to Taiwan with my family this year, first time in 20 years.

We bought new pillow covers (Taiwanese flower style) for our sofa.

Here is a picture of them with my chihuahua:


Taiwanese Flower Pillow Cover Chihuahua
slowly catching up with my blog entries this year....

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Started Fishing in Metro Vancouver

My wife and I started fishing this September.
Honestly, she is the one fishing the most, while my kids have no interests yet.

We are too late for Salmon but she did get couple of perches from our usual crabbing spots.

Small BC Canada Perch
She also caught a small lingcod like this one.

Small baby lingcod
We kind of wish that we can get larger fish species at the burnaby area but there are only small fishes.

We need to get to the big river upstream if we wanted salmon....or get a boat and get to the ocean.
We cannot wait till it gets warmer next year for next season already.

Scotiabank Half Marathon Vancouver 2013

This is a late post because I did not have time. (or don't feel like it...haha)  I ran the Scotiabank Half Marathon in June.

We were lucky because it was sunny in the morning, then it rained afterwards.
I went with my brother who refuse to train....He ran the 5K.  I ran the Half Marathon.

canucks Mason Raymond and fans half marathon
Afterwards, I saw a hockey player, Mason Raymond shaking people's hand...so I took this picture.
I am not really his fan, so I wasn't interested.

These fans really dressed up...haha...I don't think they ran the event.
scotiabank half marathon hockey fans
Anyway, my time was not fast but I am hoping that I will improve when I get older .....haha


Lots of Crab Fishing This Fall 2013: Dungeness Crab and Red Rock Crab

I have never been interested in Fishing or Crabbing before.  I know crabs are not cheap in Canada but eating crabs is a chore for me, so we do not buy it often.  Hearing stories from a friend, I started trying out crabbing and fishing.

I found couple of spots in Belcarra and Burnaby, BC.

There are two kinds of crabs you can catch in Canada:  Dungeness Crab and Red Rock Crab.

BC Dungeness Crab with baby Sea Star
Dungeness Crabs (see above) are brownish crabs range up to 25cm.  They live in the shores from BC to California.  The name dungeness is from a small town in Washington State, USA.  In BC, they have to be bigger than 16.5cm to be caught (male only).

Red Rock Crab
Red Rock Crabs are smaller with thick shells.  They don't have as much meat but the taste of meat is sweet and delicate.  They have huge arms relatively to their body.  They are quite strong fighters armed with thick claws.  (That is why they can survive within crowds of Dungeness Crabs.)

(see above) I have caught big Red Rock Crabs before....they are strong!  If you get caught in the claws, it feels like your finger is jammed by the door.  It stings for 10 minutes....

Sometimes, you will see barnacles and sea stars on the shells of crabs:

Small sea star on crab
Seals will dive into the water while we are crabbing.  They can break our crab net and eat the chicken meat in the traps.  They got us so many times:

Naughty Seals
They will just pop out of the water for a minute, and they will dive for 5 minutes to search for food.

Lots of crabs on a sunny day
On a good nice sunny warm day, we can get quite a lot of catch in the trap!

Of course, we have to release the undersize crabs.

So far, my kids love eating them, so we are trying to go catch them whenever we have couple of hours.