Sunday, January 13, 2013

New Year's Sunrise 2013

This New Year's weather has been very nice to us.

My wife took couple of spectacular pictures of the morning sunrise.

sunrise 2013
Beautiful sunny sky.
sunrise  burnaby 2013

Christmas House Light in Burnaby, BC, Canada

There is a famous house in Burnaby that has been in the newspaper and has visitors visiting.

Fortunately, I live very close by and could bring my family and visitors to take a look!

All you need to do is to drop by and take pictures and donate a couple of dollars for Children's hospital.

The person spent about a week of his own vacation time and hand crafted some of the light designs.

He put up about 20,000 lights in and around his yard.

When I counted, there were about 11 snowmans all around the house and yard.

Even the garage, roof and drive way are heavily decorated with thousands of lights.
Amazing!

They had Santa, Angel, Penguins, everything you can think of for the Christmas season.

I hope they do this every year because it is neat sight to see!
I am not sure how they can pay the hydro bills or sleep in these lights. haha

Christmas Gifts: Innotab and Mario Kart 7

I bought my two kids Christmas gifts that they have to learn how to share.

They are loving these gifts.  It is still a little early for my 2-year-old to play the kids tablet.

Inno Tab and Mario Kart 7

They are loving the tablet, Innotab 2, right now because they can buy different learning games such as Mickey Mouse or Cars or all kinds of other children animations.

My older kid loves to play Mario.  I try not to let him play during the weekdays though because I know it is not good for kids to play that much.

I hope this has been a good Christmas for my kids, and I think they had a lot of fun!

Tim Horton's Mug Cup

I bought my wife a Tim Horton's mug cup for Christmas because she likes to collect mug cup.

Tim Horton's Mug Cup
Tim Horton's Mug Cup 2
It actually comes with Tim Horton's Coffee!
Now, that is a bonus....haha.

Trader Joe's Peppermint Macarons

I found this new Macaron dessert from Trader Joe's during Christmas season.

Trader Joe's Peppermint Macarons
It does taste very good with fresh peppermint flavor!

However, I do like the original macaron better because they have more flavors within the boxes.

Trader Joe's Peppermint Macarons 2
It is good for a Christmas snack with family!

Friday, January 4, 2013

Boxing Day Canada 2012: Coach Tablet Case

We got a great deal from the Bay during Boxing Day!

The Coach tablet case retailed for more than 88 dollars regularly.

However, we got it for less than half that price! (Tax included)

Coach Tablet Case
It is perfect for the new tablet for my wife!
Coach Tablet Case 2
Here is the inside look.  It has many compartments for pen and notebooks and lots of padding.
I was surprised that even the Coach brand was on sale.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Christmas Sale: Portmeirion Crazy Daisy Fork Set

I found a fork set in Sears for a good deal.

It is a cute Crazy Daisy fork set made by Portmeirion Pottery.

Portmeirion Crazy Daisy Fork Set
The design is good and quality is not bad.  The price was a decent 12 dollars.

(Regular price was around 22 dollars Cdn.)

Portmeirion Crazy Daisy Fork Set 2
The pattern for each fork is actually designed differently, which is unique.

X'mas Gift for Chihuahua: Pet Ottoman House

I bought an Ottoman house for my little chihuahua babies.

They need something like that to protect them from my monkey kids...haha

Pet House Ottoman from London Drugs Canada

This is bought from London Drugs in Burnaby, BC.
It can be a space saver and can fit two small dogs or a medium dog.

My kids often step on my dogs when they run around my house, so this is good safety feature for doggies.
(Perfect Christmas Gift).

Merry Christmas!! 2012

Merry Christmas to everyone!! Happy Holidays!

I can't believe a year is almost over and Christmas is here today.

I hope everyone is enjoying the gift exchanges and holiday meals!

I have to say sometimes I don't enjoy the exchanges but I do enjoy the holiday atmosphere.

It is scary that time passes by so fast!

Sunday, December 16, 2012

H&M Kids Star Shirt

My son's class has a Christmas concert this month, and we needed to get him a shirt for that.

We found a nice kids' shirt in H&M.

H&M Kids dots shirt
It has nice cute little stars on the shirt which can be used in formal or semi-formal occasions.

H&M Kids star dots shirt 2


Starbucks: Lemon Cranberry Scone

Starbucks came out with this Lemon Cranberry Scone that my wife loves:

Starbucks Lemon Cranberry Scone

It tastes very good that she looks for them when we go to the malls.


Our New Bionaire Flat Panel Heater

We have been without a heater for 2 years because our last one broke down.

We decided to get a flat panel one this year.
It also acts as a decorating fireplace and it is a good looking piece in the living room.

Bionaire heater and chihuahua
My chihuahuas will love the heater since they are afraid of cold.

The fireplace light is powered by halogen bulb, not exactly power efficient, but I am looking at options to change it to LED.

Nexus 7 Google Android Tablet

My laptop has been slow and I have always wanted a top quality portable tablet.
It is hard to carry around my heavy laptop.

Since iPad is expensive because of the 40 percent mark up apple charges, the next choice is no doubt, Nexus 7 made by Asus.

It is arguably the best 7 inch tablet:  Powered Android 4.2, CPU is a quadcore 1GB ram.

The option of 32 GB harddrive is only for 270 Canadian plus tax.
(You get superb performance for this price.)

Nexus 7 Boxes Asus 2012
An iPad mini would have cost me 429 dollars each for a 32gb model.
Well, you know are you paying more than 150 dollars per tablet for Apple's profits.

I don't want to "donate" to apple right now, so I chose the Nexus 7.

Nexus 7 Google 32GB
The performance is indeed superb with lots of apps to download.
For someone who wants mobility and bigger screen size than a cell phone, this is perfect!

With Wifi available everywhere (except for on the bus), this is sure going to be very useful!

FatBurger: Coquitlam, BC, Canada

Fatburger is a popular burger chain restaurant that sells high end burgers.

They have several restaurants in Vancouver area and recently opened one near my place.
We haven't been there for a while and we went to try this location out.

As usual, the burgers are so fresh and the service is superb!!

You line up to make your orders, but they take the food to your seats.
Also, there is no obligation to give tips compared to other restaurants.
(because your serve your own drinks.)
awesome!

The food was impressive as usual.  Many would argue burger is a burger, but theirs is better than others.
(Even better than other restaurants like White Spot or Red Robbins.)

I give them a two thumbs up!

Vancouver: Imported Japanese Mandarin Oranges

We all know Japan produces the highest quality of fruits for the types they can produce.

In Vancouver area, we found a box of these imported Japanese oranges from Japan in Kin's Farm.


Imported Original Japanese Mandarin Oranges
Amazingly, these were nicely individually wrapped and are delicious.
Mandarin Oranges individually wrapped from Japan
Good quality indeed!!

Sunday, November 11, 2012

New India Buffet & Restaurant in Vancouver, BC

We went to New India Buffet Restaurant to try Indian Buffet for the first time in the middle of October.

Naturally, that means various kinds of Indian curry are available and we were looking forward to it.

New India Buffet and Restaurant, Vancouver, BC
The restaurant is located in the broadway corridor and normally is filled with hospital workers and office workers.  However, in the weekend, it is quiet, as oppose to the other restaurants in other areas.
They have raised their prices.  Their weekend buffet is more expensive (does not make sense).

Their take out lunch was super cheap: 5 dollars..now they raised it to 5.95.
Again, does not make sense because next year, the taxes will go down. They would have potentially more customers.

The seatings are nice and they do have around 10 kinds of curry and other meats and milk ball to choose from.
New India buffet Vancouver 2
They have butter chicken, beef curry, yogurt curry, chick pea curry, vegetable curry, etc.

If you try many kinds of curry, it would certainly make you full.

I also tried the saffron rice, but it did not suit my taste.  My wife liked it though.
Both of us liked the dessert, "milk ball". (gulab jamun in India)

3 kinds of curry and milk ball
Above is a picture of milk ball.  It is the small brown ball at the top.

Tandoori chicken, saffron rice, naam and curry
I am a picky eater, but I do like most of the curry in the restaurant.
I did not try vegetable and chick pea curry because I am picky.

I would recommend to go to this place not during weekends because they over charge when there is no customers.



Thursday, November 1, 2012

Starbucks: Salted Caramel Mocha

Usually, Starbucks releases its seasonal drinks around Thanksgiving in Canada.

This year, they had a few flavors as well, including Pumpkin Spice Latte and Salted Caramel Mocha.

We tried quite a few Salted Caramel Mocha and love it.  It was available in Starbucks in Safeway for only 2 dollars!

Starbucks Salted Caramel Mocha

Super Pretzel

We bought this box of Super Pretzel from Target.
I think it was 2.5 dollars when I bought it in October.
However, it is worth it because you can spend up to 5 dollars for one of this in food court.

Super Pretzel from Target
My wife baked it for dinner the other day:
home baked pretzel
It is not as huge as Pretzels from outside but it is a good size!
It tastes very good as well.


Monday, October 8, 2012

Thanksgiving Dinner 2012 with Turkey

My wife cooks turkeys every year for Thanksgiving even though we only have 4 people in our family.

This year, too, we had turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.
Thanksgiving dinner 2012
Here is our dinner that we had:  Turkey, Spam Sushi, fries, macaroni, salads, Swedish meatball and sauces.

They were delicious as always!!  We need to get a turkey dish soon...

Smiling Chihuahuas 2012

My younger chihuahua is very very naughty just like kids.

She is very sneaky and even has sneaky attitudes and smiles.  (smirk)

Smiling chihuahua 1
If you look at her, you always think she is up to something naughty...

smiling chihuahua 2
(photos taken October 2012)