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!

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!!

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.

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.

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)

Tim Horton's Halloween Donuts 2012

Currently, Tim Horton's having these cute Halloween donuts on sale for 1.19 each.

I like the designs (I have seen two types so far.)
They do look cute and colorful with a picture in the middle!

Even though they are just sprinkled chocolate donuts, I will have it for night snack!

Laity Pumpkin Patch (Thanksgiving Weekend) 2012

It is that kind of the year already: Pumpkins, Halloween, Holidays, autumn....

It gives a feeling that a year is going to be over soon...
However!  We have awesome weather for fall this year!

I decided to take my kids to the pumpkin patch in Maple Ridge, BC this year.
I have never been there so I thought it would be great for everyone!

Laity Pumpkin Patch Maple Ridge

The weather is so good, and with mountain and blue sky, the picture turned out very good.

They have so much pumpkins in the patch, and it looked endless!
They came in all kinds of sizes, I picked a big one with 91 cm diameter. (26 inch)

My kids also had fun with the pumpkin patch.  They had kids area, petty zoos with animals and cartoon boards...etc

They also had a couple of turkeys on display.

Laity farm turkeys

Here are the cartoon characters:

Snoopy, charlie brown and pumpkins

Winnie the Pooh

Well, those are good ideas to attract families....
You do need to pay 4 dollars per person for tickets.

They don't have good corn field rides but they do have a small corn maze.

We had a good time, and I hope my kids would remember these times.

Carleton Cards: A Pet is Love Christmas Ornament

I collect lots of ornament from Carleton Cards and Hallmark every year.

Too much...I think but here I bought the first one of the year.
I thought I can put my dogs pictures in this one.

A Pet is Love Christmas ornament carleton cards

I think I buy too much of these things....

Super Mario Kart Wii: K'Nex

My best friend gave me a gift card for my son's birthday.

I was thinking what to get....because my son is such a mario fan, we decided to get a Mario Kart set from K'Nex. 

Apparently, you need to buy 4 sets to make a giant track.
However, I don't have space, so I am content with a small set anyways.

mario wii beach set

I bought the beach set, and it came with a cute crab and a motorized toad kart.

I am still debating whether to get other sets because it is not entertaining my two sons as much as I thought....

It is very cute though! (some parts are too small for small kids.)

Old El Paso Taco Dinner Kit

They were giving away free Elso Paso Taco Dinner Kit on the coupon site, save.ca in the summer.

We went to get the free taco box, and my wife made the taco dinner:

Old El Paso Hard Taco

It is tasty but of course, you have make the inside.

Taco dinner

It was delicious along with fries and broccoli!

Tim Horton's Smile Cookies 2012

Tim Horton's produces Smile Cookies every year comes September.

I bought more cookies for my kids, and this time, they are smiling...haha

Tim Horton's Smile Cookie 2012

Last year, the cookie I got was not smiling...see below:

http://bentochihuahua.blogspot.ca/2011/09/tim-hortons-smile-cookie-or-no-smile.html

funny..