Nexus 5 Cell Phone

Finally, 6 years after smartphone has been invented, I bought my first smartphone.

It is the Google Nexus 5 phone by LG.

It is super fast with good graphics.  Everything was going well.

Then, after a week, all the sudden, I can't turn the cell phone on.

The night before, it still had 30% of battery.

(That means it shut off during the night and was gone forever...)

Maybe just by chance, I received a defective phone???

Anyways, I called Google, and they are sending me a new phone.

We will see what happens next...

Google Nexus 5 Box and Phone 2014

McDonald's Poutine (Canada) Review

If you are a Canadian, you will know that Canadians love poutine, a dish that originated from Eastern Canada.  It is fries covered with cheese and gravy sauce.  Recently, New York Fries has released different kinds of sauces, making the dish even more popular.

By the way, 'New York Fries' is purely a Canadian company.
It has no store in the USA.  It does have stores in Korea and Hong Kong.

McDonald's decided to cover this market niche, so they release their version recently:

McDonald's Canada's New Poutine Menu

Here is a picture for the poutine.  To be honest, for almost 4 dollars, the amount of poutine is so little.
It is not enough for a snack.  Also, it tastes awful compared to the other stores' poutine.

You can get something double the size with way better sauces from chain stores like New York Fries.
It is not worth it, so I will give it a 4 out of 10 over all.

I will not be surprised that this menu disappears in 3 months.

Lego Store Again: Lego Architecture, Lego Sushi, Fast Food and Parisian Restaurant

In February, we went to the Lego Store in Surrey again because I wanted to get the Eiffel Tower from the Lego Architecture series.

I love unique historical buildings that represent cultures and style.
The series started to release famous buildings around the world for the users to build and decorate their rooms.

Lego Architecture Series Eiffel Tower, Tower of Pisa
UN Building, Japan Emperial Hotel

They also had lots of interesting things on display, which might give kids idea if they have lots of pieces and special parts.

For example, check out the sushi set:

Lego Sushi Set Japanese Restaurant

Using some unique parts, they recreated sashimi dishes, sushi rolls and chopsticks.

How about the lego McDonald's set:

Lego Fast Food set McDonald's Hamburger

Well, they did not have a 'M' for McDonald's.  They just use a 'Y' on the fries. haha.

I do think it is a good idea or sample if the users have lots of flat parts with different colors.

I think a collector will have to be relative wealthy to spend thousands of dollars for all the parts.

Lego Movie display

They also have the Lego movie sets on display.

Lego Store Parisian Restaurant

I really like the Parisian streets.  They are just beautiful and nicely preserved.  

This restaurant set sort of recreates some of those feelings...

Sometimes, Lego feels like an high end toy collection just like Apple products.  If you can afford it, you will buy it.  Their big sets goes for hundreds of dollars...just like iPad or iPhones....

The Lego Architecture sets are smaller and more affordable: around 50 dollars.

They are even cheaper in Asia...probably around 40 dollars.

I will see if I have space in my small place to buy more sets...probably not.

Lego: Valentine Heart House with Mushrooms in the Garden

We brought the kids out to Lego Store in Surrey's Guildford Centre.

It is actually our first time in Guildford Centre and could not believe how spacious it is.
I was not familiar with the mall and had a hard time navigating through the crowd.

Anyway, we got some pieces through the "all you can stuff" can.  (about 20 dollars plus taxes)

My wife built this small beach house with heart on top....just in time for Valentine's Day. haha

Lego Heart Valentine Beach House Garden

We also bought a monthly mini build set that includes a gardening family, trees and 3 mushrooms.
The mushrooms looked cute,and that is why we got it.

It is hard to spot the mushroom in this picture.

I think I want to go back soon because we don't have enough basic pieces.

Olympics Oreo Cookies

My wife found a new product on the shelves in Walmart:  Olympics Oreo Cookies!

Olympics Oreo Cookies

I guess they started the marketing campaigns for the Olympics to sell products.
I think the energy in Vancouver for the Sochi Olympics is not even close to 4 years ago.
Of course, because it is not in Vancouver.  4 years has gone by so fast.
I don't know how 4 years gone by so fast.....what did I do?
Actually, the decade after I started working gone by super quickly.

Is that the way my grandparents felt??

2014 Already?

I still do not believe time passes by that fast.  It is 2014 already?!

Where did my life go?

Kids do make our lives very busy, and I just hope that when they grow up, we will feel our lives are meaningful.  

Anyway, I feel that this year should be the year for some nice breakthrough!

UGG Classic Boots

UGG boots has gained so much popularity in the Northern Hemisphere especially in cold places.
If a girl likes fashion, she has to have one pair of this besides all the brand name bags.

I decided to get my wife a pair of this for her birthday present this year.
She decided to pick the basic classic version of the boots.

UGG Classic Boots Brown

They have all kinds of patterns and styles of boots with different lengths: long, short, standard...etc.

UGG Classic Boots Brown Inside

Inside, they have real sheep skin to keep the legs and feet warm, and it really works!!

It is thick. (Maybe I should get one of this. hahahaha)

Taiwanese Tea Cup Set 2

Here is my second entry with pictures of the tea sets I bought from Taiwan.

Here is a picture of a different flower tea cup set (shallow type of cup set).

Taiwanese Cup Gift Set Flower pattern

This one is a different pattern of style set of tea cups:

Taiwanese Tea Cup Set Traditional Drawing flower pattern

These ones the prices are reasonable.  Sometimes, the real good hand made cups and pots can go up to hundreds or thousands of US dollars.

Taiwanese Tea Cup Set

I went back to Taiwan for the first time in 20 years.  (July 2013)
My wife likes tea and tea cups, so we went out searching for the tea cups sets we like.
There are lots of patterns: traditional drawings, simple colors and flower patterns.

I think one of our favorites are the beautiful, colorful flower patterns.
(They usually come in sets but some can be bought individually.)
The craftsmanship, quality and price really varies from store to store.

Flower Tea Cup Set Taiwan

We bought a few sets this time.  Here are pictures of some of them.
The above is a 4 cup set with a pot.  The one below is a larger cup with filter.
The pattern is famous generally in Taiwan, especially among tourists.

Flower Tea Cup Set Taiwan with Filter

Simple cups are cute, too.  There are a few colors to choose from.
The set below are such sets.

simple tea set yellow Taiwan

I will upload more pictures of our tea sets.

Wedding Anniversary: Restaurant: The French Table in Vancouver

We decided to have our anniversary meal this year when the kids are in school.
Therefore, I took a Monday off in September in order to enjoy our meal together quietly.

The restaurant I picked this year is The French Table on Main Street in Vancouver.
The owner was a chef for the King of Belgium before he moved to Vancouver and opened his own restaurant.  He moved his restaurant from downtown to Main Street a couple of years ago.

The French Table Restaurant in Vancouver

The location is at an odd place beside a bunch of small shops and a famous Chinese restaurant.
Nearby, there is no beautiful parks or attractions or businesses.
However, inside, it has the subtle atmosphere of a French restaurant, with little things decorated like retro maps, wine on the wall, etc.  The restaurant is small but very quiet on a week day.

Croque Monsieur

We ordered Croque Monsieur, Mushroom soup, Moules Frites, Lemon Tart and Chocolate Profiterole.
The Croque Monsieur was so good that it blew us away.  The cheese was just perfectly merged on the toast.  Absolutely delicious.

Murshroom soup french table

The mushroom soup was thick and not like other generic mushroom soup.
It taste like they really had a lot of grind-up mushroom in the soup with olive oil.

moules frites french table

Moules Frites was nice as expected with lots of fries.  We could not finish all the fries and had to pack it home.

Lemon Tart and Chocolate Profiterole

The Lemon Tart was absolutely amazing, too.  I was so surprised that it was not sour as I expected.  Lemon tarts that I had usually are so sour that I don't find them tasty at all.
This one, it had the lemon smell and faint flavor, but with the cranberry cream sauce, it was delicious and balanced.

The Chocolate Profiterole was very interesting, too.  It had many layers.
Fresh cream, almond, Puff, ice cream, etc for 3 or four layers, and it was tasty.
Since you can't buy the taste like this in Safeway or other super market, this is worth the money.
Plus, it was not sweet like supermarket ones...

The location is a little odd but for the food, I would return to this restaurant if I had the chance.

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....

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.

Restaurant: Yan's Garden in Burnaby, BC

A day before New Year's Eve, I went to Yan's Garden and ordered some Chinese food take out.

I have never tried this restaurant and thought year end is a good time to do it.

Yan's garden burnaby fried rice beef soup

They food looked very good and there were no tax for take out (and no tip either)!

All the food were really good.
The Yanjou Chaufan was amazing.  The beef gelatin soup was really good, too.
It is way better than all the food court food or T&T take out.
Of course, it has to be.

The price was not all unaffordable either.
I only paid 27 dollars for all items above and I would go back anytime....

Vancouver Marathon 2013

Life is full of challenges.  It should be anyways.
I have always wanted new challenges in my life, and it is time now to do it.

My goal was to do a marathon this year.  It will be my first time.
For months, since the freezing winter, I have been running 6 to 12k a time.
I know this is clearly not enough for marathon but I decided to go ahead.

Near Goal Line Vancouver marathon

I feel my ankles and hip joints were tight and hurt a little 15km into the race.  However, I thought I have no problem and can keep going.  However, eventually, the little pinching pain turn into sharp pain.  I might have injured my joints.

I had to stop running and stretch and walk and repeat for another 20km.
My time was okay for the first 20km but for the rest, it takes forever to walk the rest.
I would go to medical tent for medicine, stretching and for painkiller lotions to put on my legs.

I thought, I had time, I am going to finish this no matter what.

At the end, a Taiwanese women and I started chatting and kept each other going.

To my surprised, my wife and kids showed up later at the last stretch!
They really brought support for me, and the last 10 minutes was very enjoyable.

My time was terrible, and now, 5 weeks afterwards, my feet still hurts.
I might have to see a doctor.

However, I did it!  I am glad and proud that I did it.
My time was terrible but this won't be my last time to do a marathon!

Restaurant: Shiro Sushi Vancouver

Shiro Sushi is one of the real Japanese restaurant on Cambie.
We went there this spring before we had to Oakridge Mall  in Vancouver.

Shiro Sushi Vancouver

The sushi and Nigiri both taste very nice and authentic, not the North American taste.
Lunch set also offers good value and came with a huge "Pocky" chocolate stick.

The staff were friendly on the phone and in person, and I will go there again.

Target Canada's Signs "Target Loves Canada"

Target already opened a few Canadian stores.
Here are its marks during constructions in Coquitlam.

"Target Loves Canada".

Target Loves Canada signs

Lego Sorting Trays for Special Parts

People say kids would like what parents like.  My kids started to get a taste of Lego's basic sets.

We found these sorting trays in Fred Meyer's in Washington State, and they are very useful in sorting all the basic and special Lego parts.

Lego Sorting Trays for special parts

Taiwanese Tea and Tea Pot

To make tea is an art in East Asia.
Tea pots are also art objects, which cost from 1 dollar to millions.
In ancient times, it is said that one rare teapot is worth a castle.

Nice Taiwanese Teapots, tea storage, cup

Taiwanese people, like Japanese people, really appreciate good fine tea.
When my aunt came over this January, she gave us really nice tea pot set.
She is very knowledgeable in tea art and culture.  I am totally an amateur.
However, the bottom tray is made of bamboo and worth more than 100 dollars.

Taiwanese Tea pot set

This set is at last worth 500 dollars, which is amazing that anyone would gave it to us.
We really appreciate this.

She also sent us a package of extra fine tea:

High Quality Organic Oolong Tea Taiwan

The maker of this fine Oolong tea owns his own organic tea farm, and is very famous among tourists.
Depending on grades and weight, one package can easily cost over 100 dollars.

Trader Joe's Garlic Hummus Dip and Corn Chips

We got Trader Joe's Organic Yellow Corn Tortilla Chip Rounds and Garlic Hummus Dip to try.

Trader Joe's Garlic Hummus Dip

We have never try Garlic Hummus Dip before, and it did taste delicious!
The taste of the dip actually merges very well with the corn chips.

I was pleasantly surprised!

Product Review: Trader Joe's 4 Croissants

In January, we got this from Trader Joe's.  4 Chocolate Croissants.

Trader Joe's Croissants

It was interesting because you need to take them out of the box, leave them out overnight, and they will "grow" bigger after you wake up.  Sounds funny....but it is interesting.

Here is the pictures of them.

Then, you baked them...
Then, we get the breakfast with croissants...they are absolutely delicious!!!!
They taste better than a lot of croissant outside and do not cost you 2 dollars per croissant.

Twinkle Toof for Kids Losing Teeth

One thing happened during the first 3 months is that my older kid is losing his teeth.

To celebrate this event, I have order the Twinkle Toof box for him from the US.

It looks very cute, glows in the night, and I have always wanted it.

I remembered that it was about 10 to 12 dollars including shipping.
However, it beats drive down to the US just to buy this....even though it would save me 5 dollars...

It is already April Fools, 2013

I have not been able to blog too much this year.  It is already April!!
I can't believe it.

This year, the first 2 months is hectic because my kids kept getting sick.

Also, my aunt came for a visit from Taiwan this January, and it just feel busy this year.
I felt like life just passed by so quickly.

10 years feels like 10 days...and yet, each working day feels so long...