Baby World

Tis the season for early babies, apparently.  Just before Christmas, my friend at work had her baby.  He came about a week or so earlier than expected, but he's healthy and very cute.  Congratulations to Linda and Bai on their new son, Tyler.

Festivities

I hope everyone had a good Christmas.  Mine was great.  Celia's sisters and cousin all came to town to stay with us over Christmas and we had a really good time. The kids had a great time too.  Amelia is now a pro at opening gifts and Lucas, well, he still doesn't seem to know what to do with them.  Lucas got these toy cars from my parents and he hasn't let go of them since Christmas.  He just carries one or two of them around everywhere, it's so cute.  Every time Amelia opened a gift of clothing, she would try to take off her clothes so she could wear the new stuff.

December 24:
Pick everyone up at the airport, dinner at home, up till 2am.

December 25:
Waffle breakfast, relaxing, opening presents, dinner at my parent's

December 26:
Karaoke Revolution: American Idol Encore 2, Running errands, snowball fight, kids' Christmas party

December 27:
Snowboarding!

December 28:
Late dimsum, Guitar Hero World Tour

Ahh, good times, good times…

New Additions

Today my new niece, Isla, was born.  She was just a little thing, born 2 weeks earlier than expected.  I guess it just balances out because Ava was 2 weeks late.  Congratulations to my brother and his wife.

Snow Day

The snow is a beautiful thing.  It means I'll be able to go snowboarding next week.  I can't wait.  This year, we bought the twins some snowsuits so we could take them out to play in the snow.  Lucas loved it.  He would just walk around in the snow (not too deep) and laugh at me as I shovelled the driveway.  He had a grand old time watching me work.  I should have given him a little shovel.  Amelia, however, wanted nothing to do with the snow.  We got her all bundled up and then refused to be put down once we go outside.  I put some snow on her mitten and she just cried.  We were walking into an elevator and she saw some snow on the floor and slowly backed out of the elevator until I picked her up.  Maybe next year they'll have more fun in the snow.

Yay!

The mountains opened!  I can go snowboarding now!  Cypress opens for night riding on Dec 17th.  There isn't a tonne of snow yet but enough.  It's probably pretty freaking cold up there and I haven't gone snowboarding in a couple years so I guess I should bundle up.  I can't wait to go but I'm afraid I'm going to come home so stiff and sore that picking up the kids is going to be painful.

The Christmas Light Fiasco

So this year I was determined to put up Christmas lights.  Back when I first moved out, I bought Christmas lights on my first Christmas at my house but never put them up.  For 3 years I always took them out but never hung them so now in our first Christmas at our new home, I decided to put them up no matter what.  The funny thing is that I pulled out the old ones but didn't like them so I bought brand new ones. 

Since I work in the mall, I went to Zellers and picked up a couple strings of lights thinking that 30' would be enough.  As I hung them I realized that I was nowhere near being right about that and needed another string but by the time I went back to Zellers they were all out lights that matched the ones I bought.  I went to 2 different Zellers, the Bay, Rona, Sears, Canadian Tire, and WalMart but no one had lights that would match.  Finally, I just went to Rona and bought 3 new strings of blue lights.  I took down the white ones I had already hung, and put up the new blue ones.  I ended up using the white ones on one of the trees outside the house so it wasn't a waste or anything.  Actually, I need more…  Anyway, after I finished, I went inside, got Celia and we stood outside to see the beautiful new lights on our house.  Mieh.  I don't really like how they look so next year I'm going to buy new lights again.

Are You Ready?

Every year I say I'm going to get my Christmas shopping done early.  Every year I do the exact opposite of this.  Usually, on December 24th I'm at the mall looking for the last minute presents for, like, 12 people, but not this year!  This year Celia took care of all the shopping and we were 95% done before the end of November.  I even bought Celia her present (a new snowboard and bindings - don't tell her, it's a surprise).  All I have to do is hang my Christmas lights and wrap all the presents and clean the house and finish setting up my home theater and paint the hallway and install a handrail and clean the garage and wash the cars and get family pictures done and put away the patio furniture.  I am totally ready for the holidays.

Falling in Love All Over Again

When I bought my iMac I went all out and upgraded all the things I thought I wanted.  Bigger screen, faster CPU, more memory, wireless mouse, wireless keyboard.  I love my iMac.  Not because it is that much better than a regular old PC, but because this thing is frickin beautiful.  Anyway, when I unpacked the wireless keyboard, I noticed it wasn't a full keyboard.  It was more like a laptop keyboard.  "Hmm, I don't like this,"  I thought.  I thought I would give it a try anyway.  After a few months I kinda got used to it but then after a few more months I decided I didn't like it anymore and wanted a normal keyboard.  Since I like the design of the Apple keyboards, I went to the Apple store and bought a regular, wired keyboard.  I'm loving it and my iMac is better than ever.

Stuck

Let's say you're at the mall and you decide that before you go home you're going to pick up some food from the food court and eat it at home.  So now you're on your way out and realize that the drive home in traffic will take 30 minutes and you really have to pee.  You go to the public washroom at the mall and now you have a dilemma.  What do you do with your food?  Are you going to hold it with one hand while you pee?  Put it on the wet countertop around the corner, unsupervised?  Rest it on top of the urinal?

Etiquette

Is it bad form to answer the phone if you're sitting on the toilet?  When you're at home, the caller probably wouldn't know anyway but what if you're using a stall in a public washroom?  Should you be in there doing your thing and talking on the phone?

Addicted

I recently came home with Gears of War 2.  If you don't know what that is, it's like crack except it's a video game on the XBox360.  You can't get enough of it, you can't stop playing it, and nothing else seems to matter while you're playing it.  It's a good thing the kids haven't been injured while we neglect them to play this game.  Social services frowns on that, I hear.  Just kidding.  About the neglect, not the frowning.  They really do frown on that.  Anyway, Celia and I have been playing this whenever the kids are asleep regardless of the number of dishes piling up in the sink.  Seriously, this game is great.  Not for children though as it is very violent with coarse language.  I'm waiting for nudity, but I have a feeling it just won't happen in this game.

The New Age

Every year I say I'm going to start my Christmas shopping early and every year I do the exact opposite.  This year, however, we actually took care of a few gifts thus fulfilling the prophecy that the twins shall make me do things I don't usually do.  

Game Reviews

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare on XBox360

This game was so good I cried.

Fallout 3 on XBox360

I'm still playing it but it's so good I'm crying.

XBox360 review

I've had my XBox360 for a little over a year now and I am now on my third machine.  I've had to send it in for "repairs" twice.  I'm actually kinda glad that instead of just fixing mine, they sent me a new one.  I'm really not too happy that I've had to send it in twice.  That's just stupid.  Other than that, I like my console.

Fresh Blood

So I hear there's something going on with the US government today.  Just kidding, I know that there's a new president.  How do you avoid hearing about this?  Anyway, I hope this new president does something positive for his country.

Shiny and New

There's a new Wal-Mart down in South Surrey I think it's on 24th and King George-ish. This is a nice Wal-Mart - big, clean, not too busy on weekdays. But whatever you do, don't go there on a weeknight because that's when I'll be going and I don't want it to get busy.

It's Like Cheating

Usually being home alone with the kids isn't a problem anymore. I don't get all stressed out thinking about it. It's kinda fun now because I can take them out and do stuff with them now that they're a bit older. Sometimes, however, when they're really tired but can't sleep and they're all grumpy and they cry over every little thing, I take them out for a drive. Throw them in the van, drive around and blam-o! in a few kilometers they're sound asleep. I know it's not great for the environment and gas is expensive but screw all that, I need to not go crazy. Driving them around works better than anything. Then I bring them in, plop them in bed, and we're all happy.

Say What?

Today my parents officially moved out of my house. They moved into a condo not too far from here. It's kinda nice but I wouldn't buy there cuz I'm not really a fan of the layout. I'm sure they'll be happier there. It was getting a bit crowded here. Don't get me wrong, I don't mind them being here, but I think it was too crowded for them.

I can park my van in the garage for the first time. It took forever to clean the damn thing out but there's enough space to park my van comfortably. Maybe before Christmas I'll be able to park two cars in there.

I hung my TV. I bought a wall mount kit online. It doesn't do anything fancy like twist and turn but it does allow for a slight downward tilt for those people who like to hang their TV's too high. It was damn near impossible to screw the 12 foot screws into the wall stud but I'm a pretty strong guy so I persevered and found better tools. Celia didn't want to help me hang the TV so I picked it up myself. If you're thinking it's a little 28" TV, screw you. It's 47" muthafucka! Still, it was pretty light. The first TV I bought was a 32" CRT that weighed 175lbs.

Movie Reviews

Wow, I haven't done a movie review in a long time. Today, I have 3 for you.

Semi-Pro with Will Ferrell and Woody Harrelson

Meh.


Forgetting Sarah Marshall with Kristen Bell and Jason Segel and Mila Kunis

Kristen Bell is on my Top Ten list. She is hot in a bikini. Oh, I kinda liked the movie too. Mila Kunis was looking good too.


Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story with John C. Reilly and Jenna Fischer

This was funny shit.

Now We Have to Start All Over

Last month we bought a new sofa and some dining room chairs. We really liked the ones we ordered and we've been patiently waiting for them. They were supposed to come some time at the end of this month because they were being custom made. We found out last night that Yaletown Sofa went bankrupt and the owner has disappeared. Great. So now we have to call the credit card company and get our damn money back and then find a new sofa and dining room chairs. Sonuva...

Moving In

So it looks like my parents will be with us for a while. I don't really mind because they're hardly ever home. I feel bad for them though because every time they have to go to their house to get something, the restoration crew has ripped out another wall or moved out more furniture. I can tell that they are both pretty exhausted emotionally as well as physically. They haven't even fully recovered from the jet lag. One little positive thing is that today I cleaned up the garage so they could store some of their stuff in it. There's so much space I could've parked a car in there. The restoration guy said he thought it would about 4-5 months before they'll be able to move back in to their house. The insurance people said they would pay for a place to live but for now we have houseguests.

Indoor Pool

I picked up my parents from the airport today. They like to go on vacation about twice/year now that they don't have to support their kids anymore. Anyway, they were gone for about 2 weeks and when I drove them home we opened the front door to some very strange sensations. First thing I noticed was the sound, "hmm, sounds like the shower is on upstairs. i wonder what the hell is going on." Then I noticed the temperature, "it's really warm in here and pretty humid too." Then I noticed the floor, "strange that the floor is covered in water." A water pipe broke in the upstairs bathroom and flooded the whole fucking house. The kitchen, which is directly below the bathroom was totally destroyed and the ceiling panels were drooping from the water. They have laminate floors, *ahem* they had laminate floors but they got all warped, and the carpet was soaked. The walls were obviously soaked and pretty much everything was ruined. The whole fucking house is practically ruined and will have to be gutted before anyone can live there again. They're staying with us tonight and for however long they need to I guess. I can't imagine coming home to that. I think I would cry or go crazy.

Woe is Me

One time my aunt said to me, "my kids are only a year apart so it's like having twins.  Not exactly, but its like having twins."  I have 3 words for that.  No. It's. Not.

Good for Me

Even though I can't carry on a normal conversation anymore, I'm quite proud that I've been able to blog so much this past month. It is, of course, complete garbage and not really all that interesting but it's not supposed to be an exercise in quality, but rather quantity. And seriously, when has this ever been interesting? I write in my blog for the sake of writing. It's not like I do it to pick up chicks or to prove that I'm cool.

I Dream of Going Back to Normal

Ever since the twins were born I haven't been able to carry on a decent conversation with another adult. I don't know if it's the lack of sleep over the past 18 months or if it's from watching too much Treehouse but whenever I find myself talking to another grown up I can't seem to concentrate on what we're talking about, my eyes can't focus, and I totally don't hear everything that the other person says. It's like I suddenly don't know how to talk to people anymore. I'm really really hoping that when I start getting regular sleep this will all correct itself.

I Want HD

A friend of mine from work said she was watching some movies on BluRay and she said the high definition really made the CGI stuff look really fake. Is this true? I imagine that new movies will correct this but if I watch Spiderman in 1080p will it look stupid? Anyway, I'm thinking about buying a BluRay player. I know, I know - get a PS3 because it's cheaper and you get a cool game console too. Even though I would love to have a PS3, I actually want to stay away from it because I don't need 2 consoles. I don't play that much. I haven't done any research on BluRay yet but what's the difference between a $500 machine and a $299 machine?

Information Age

I really like technology. It's not so much the whole geeky, computer nerd, staring-in-front-of-a-monitor kinda thing, its more about learning new ways to do something. Sure, carrying a little calendar around works just as well as a PDA and do you really need cell phone? Twenty years ago they were only for the elite. And come on, does your computer really save you any time? Anyway, I was reading this letter to the editor in my nursing magazine and someone made a comment about using computers in patient care scenarios and how they may not be improving patient care and all that jazz. Although it may not directly improve how well a nurse gives you an injection or inserts that foley, it does become an incredible source of information that was never available before. Let's say you're driving out to Kelowna and as you pass by Hope you need to stop off at the hospital because you suddenly feel dizzy and weak. Would you want the doctors and nurses to be treating based on what they know of you from that particular visit (ie, no info other than what you tell them or what they ask), or would you want them to have information on your medical record so that decisions on your treatment/care is based on your history? Maybe for you it doesn't make a huge difference but for anyone that arrives unable to speak or has a complicated medical history, this could be difference between life or death. Make your own decision but I know what I'd want.

Congrats

Congratulations to VJ and Michelle on the birth of their 3rd daughter!

Finally

Heroes is back.  *big sigh of relief*

One for the Married People

Three women: one engaged, one married and one a mistress, are chatting about their relationships and decided to amaze their men. That night all three will wear black leather bras, stiletto heels and a mask over their eyes. After a few days they meet up for lunch.
The engaged woman: The other night when my boyfriend came over he found me with a black leather bodice, tall stilettos and a mask. He saw me and said, 'You are the woman of my life. I love you.' Then we made love all night long.
The mistress: Me too! The other night I met my lover at his office and I was wearing the leather bodice, heels, mask over my eyes and a raincoat. When I opened the raincoat he didn`t say a word, but we had wild sex all night.
The married woman: I sent the kids to stay at my mother`s house for the night. When my husband came home I was wearing the leather bodice, black stockings, stilettos and a mask over my eyes. As soon as he came in the door and saw me he said, 'What`s for dinner, Batman?'

Weather Update

Don't get me wrong, I love the summer weather but I'm actually quite happy to have a bit of rain. It's just... refreshing.

4 Year Itch

I worked at the hospital for a little more than 4 years when I started to think about doing something different. Before I hit my 5 year mark, I had started a new job. Now that I've been in this job for a little more that 4 years, I'm starting to think about something different again. I don't want to change industries and I don't even want to change companies. I just to do something a little different. Making more money wouldn't hurt, but I'm not really that concerned about that. Well I am, but not enough to make me do a job that I didn't believe in. Anyway, there was this senior consultant position that has come up and I seriously considered applying for it. I'm in no way qualified for this position in education or experience but how hard can it be? I'm pretty sure I could fake it better than Jenna Jameson. After a lot of deep soul searching I decided that I wasn't going to apply because it wasn't something I wanted to do. My idea of a perfect position doesn't exist (even though it should. of course i would say that) but someday... someday.

Procrastination

I'm a huge procrastinator. I've gotten better since the twins were born. I had no choice on this, I was forced to change. It was either do it now or you're screwed. There are a few things I'll still put off until later though: work, research (personal stuff, nothing serious), paying bills, my laundry, cleaning the garage, etc etc. The big thing that I've put off for a very long time is my thank you notes for my wedding. Man, I just can't be bothered. Are we total a-holes for not sending them out?

Old Wives Tales - True or False?

Is it okay to put knives in the dishwasher? Does the dishwasher dull the blade?

Knife manufacturers generally recommend babying your expensive knives because the concern is that the dishwasher bumps the knives around, either in a basket or against the racks, dulling the blade. Are you serious? Is the knife that delicate? So if my dishwasher lays the knife flat or if it has a knife rack it should be okay, right?

Is it true that cold water boils faster?

No, that's just silly. Water boils at 100 degrees celsius so if it has a higher starting temperature, it will take less time to reach 100 degrees. Anything you may have heard or believed about using cold water is just a myth. That's just plain common sense. If you still don't believe me, do an experiment: same pot, same stove element, same volume of water - boil warm water from the tap and time it. Let the pot and element cool to room temp and boil cold water from the tap and time it. Then let me know what happens.

Top 5...

I always think of my first 2 months with the twins. Or maybe I should say my first 2 months without them. Fortunately for all the other parents I know, no one has had to deal with what we had to with the twins. Maybe I'm dwelling on it too much but here are my Top 5 Worst Memories of the kids' first 2 months of life:

1. getting a phone call at 2am telling me Lucas is having trouble breathing because he has an infection and they needed to put him on a ventilator
2. a call from Celia telling you your daughter might have a serious abdominal infection and has to be transported to the big children's hospital in case she needs surgery
3. watching them struggle to live after being born almost 3 months early
4. being forced to spend the majority of my time looking at them through a clear plastic incubator
5. worrying constantly that some statistics show that preterm babies could be at higher risk for having a learning disability

Seriously, I have to get over this. They're fine now and have been nothing but amazing. Maybe I should go to therapy.

And the Winner is...

iPhone:
Fun to use
Nice touchscreen
Built in iPod
Looks cool
Full web browser
Wi-Fi
Nice screen

Blackberry:
Keyboard
Email
Wireless sync
Indestructible
Long battery life

I realize that the iPhone can sync wirelessly but you have to subscribe to that. Also, I know that everyone's experience with either device may not be they same as mine but the verdict is... You should get both. I would hate to have to write email on my iPhone with its touch screen and my blackberry doesn't has wi-fi to surf the web. Granted, my bb is an older, clunkier model than the sleek Pearl or Bold but functionally, there is little difference.

Since most people aren't willing to pay for both (myself included) I say go with the iPhone and buy a Mac. Get a Blackberry for business and give one to your employees because they don't need an iPod for work.

Concert Review

Janet Jackson's Rock Witchu Tour

Good shit. This isn't a concert for some kid that only knows her last 2 CD's. She did everything from 1982 to the present. It was a concert for all those long-time Janet fans.

Y'know, I don't really like going to concerts. I've only been to a few but the funny thing is I've been to 3 Janet Jackson concerts. The Rhythm Nation one was still the best. The fight afterwards was the shit too.

Mac vs. PC

I have a new respect for Windows. I imagine that it has so many problems partly because it is trying to cater to too many people. There are so many different possible configurations for a PC (parts, manufacturers, brands, etc) and Windows is trying to accomodate them all. The Mac OS only has to worry about the configurations that Apple makes so it's just know to be a bajillion times more stable than Windows. Of course, I know nothing about programming and my understanding of the inner workings of any kind of computer is pretty basic so I could be totally wrong on this (very likely but who cares). Anyway, my only beef with Macs is that it treats me like a n00b. On my PC, I took great care in naming files in a very specific way, organizing these files the way I like, and maintaining this OCD structure regularly. The Mac does this stuff for you so you don't have to worry about it. Brilliant, huh? Except I like to do this stuff. I guess I could still do it on my mac but the point is that I don't have to and I'm trying very very hard to just let the damn mac do it's thing. Every once in a while I go to our Windows PC and rename and move files just to ease my jitters.

Justification

I haven't had a lot of time to play on my iMac much but today I had a few extra minutes and I learned how to create ringtones for my iPhone. I didn't even know it, but I had Garageband. The only reason I found out was because I was checking out my sister-in-law's macbook and saw that she had it. Anyway, you can use Garageband to create ringtones and its so fucking easy. Since all I ever do is surf the web and use iTunes on my Mac I was never really impressed with the OS or the applications. I mean, they're okay and all but nothing spectacular like they make it seem in the commercials. Then I learned how to create a ringtone in about 3 minutes and made my first one in about 10. I didn't even read a tutorial or anything, the application was just that easy to use. Now, after learning how to do just one thing on my extra expensive beautiful computer, I LOVE it. I love it because it's just so damn beautiful in it's simplicity.

Yearbook Pictures

You have to check out this site, it's so freakin hilarious.

Wish List

Top 5 Things I Want in the Next 6 Months:

1. finish painting the house
2. baseboards
3. kids that sleep through the night
4. a few days of snowboarding
5. a hobby

Productivity

So about 2 weeks ago we opened a brand new hospital out in the valley. Very fancy schmancy kind of place. The first brand new hospital (not just a new building) in 30 years in the province. I'm not even sure this is true but that's what I heard. Anyway, I was supposed to be out there on Thursday and Friday for support but since the project team felt everything was going so well, we all decided that we could stand down and end support a little early. w00t! For me, that meant that I didn't have to leave home at 6:30 in the fucking morning to get to work and I could instead just drag my ass out of bed at 7:45am and go to the office at 8:30. The problem though, was that I had planned on being out at the hospital for two days so I didn't have anything to work on and with this part of the project being done, there was really nothing for me to start. Don't tell anyone, but I was very unproductive the past couple of days. Don't you just love how I tell you to keep something a secret in my open-to-the-public blog? Anyway, let's just say I did a lot of nothing for 2 days.

Closure

Every once in a while I go back and read what I've previously posted. Maybe I'll read what was going on in 2005 or maybe what I was thinking 6 months ago. I mostly do this because I'm a pretty self-absorbed bastard but I also like to try and tie up any loose ends. The problem, however, is that I never actually tie up the loose ends I just leave them hanging like the tassles on those jackets from the 1960's, 70's, and 80's. Well this time will be different. This time I'm going to admit that I'm never going to tie up those loose ends and just remain a self-absorbed bastard. I bet you thought I was going to say I was going to clean it all up, huh? Sucker...

Pet Peeves

I really hate when I buy a coffee from Tim Horton's and the opening in the lid is right where the seam of the cup is.
I also hate when someone gives you money and they just lay it down on the counter instead of putting it in my hand.  Conversely, I hate seeing customers throw money on the counter.

Who Said That Level 8

"The human torch was denied a bank loan."

Long Weekend

Happy Labour Day. Up here in Canada it's Labour Day, not to be mistaken with the U.S. version known as "Labor Day".

My nanny called in sick today so I'm alone with the kids again. They're pretty easy nowadays but I would like a break. I don't need a whole day off or anything, but a day at the spa would be nice. Wait, no that's lame. I want to go golfing. No wait, I don't golf. Just a day to finish painting my kitchen is all I ask for.

Job Security

I painted the kitchen yesterday. It was a pain in the ass. I had to remove all the cabinet doors so I could properly paint the bit just above them. Then I broke one of the hinges so I can't put one of the damn doors back on until I go back to Ikea and buy another one. The good news is that the kitchen looks great, the bad news is that I won't be able to paint the nook until Monday (maybe) and the rest of the house until never. I have one extra day off every 5 weeks and I can only do 1 room/day (I'm not a f@#$ing professional painter or anything). So this paint job will take me at least 35 weeks to complete. Nice.

Aside from painting, my goal is to actually write something here at least 10x/month. I'm no math wizard or anything but that's averaging about one post every 3 days. We'll see how it goes...

This Week

I was supposed to paint the house this week. So far, all we've done is kinda pick out some colours and I prepped some of the mouldings that I'll be painting. Painting this place is gonna be a huge pain in the ass. I have nothing else to say about that. Pain. In. The. Ass. PITA.

We bought a new sofa (aka couch, aka chesterfield) and dining room chairs. The chairs are really nice and the lady at the store gave us a half-decent price because we bought the sofa too. The sofa is pretty fucking big. It'll fit in the room but I think it's a bit too big. It'll definitely be the focus of the room. My TV room seems to be getting smaller and smaller with my big TV and now this giant sofa. Anyway, the sofa is custom made with nice fabric, nice stuffing, nice legs, nice size. It's super deep so when you sit on it you disappear and it's super long so when you lie down you don't touch the armrests. Of all the people I know I don't know a single person that is too tall for this sofa. You could probably fit two filipinos lengthwise and maybe even 3 vietnamese girls.

Still Don't Think I Need it

A few posts ago, I was saying that I didn't think I needed a GPS. Well I got one anyway cuz I could and I've been using it non-stop the past couple weeks. It's been great for giving me directions to anywhere I'm going. The problem is that I haven't gone anywhere I haven't already been. Let's see, it gave me directions to my mom's house, to the hospital, downtown, Richmond, etc... The thing is, if I'm going somewhere I've never been, I just look it up on a map before I go. Then I figure out the best way to get there and where to turn and all that. Why would I ever leave the house to go somewhere I've never been without any kind of planning? Even though my TomTom has been fun to use, I'm still not convinced that I need it yet. I'm sure something will come up and I will be forever in debt to this TomTom dude and his CompanyCompany but it hasn't happened yet.

Brush With Fame

I know this guy who's an actor. His wife is a really good friend of Celia's (one of my favourite of her friends). Anyway, last night we went out for his birthday. Of course, there were some of his friends there who are also actors/actresses a.k.a. "celebrities" as well as producers. No one super super famous famous but some that you might recognize (I had to look them up on IMDB.com). Anyway, we were having a drink with a couple of them and I was, like, asking for their autographs and taking pictures while they were rolling their eyes. Just kidding, it was all very normal and nothing special. The funny part was when they started talking about being at an awards show and meeting other stars as if they ran into these people at Safeway or something.

I had a patient once that told me he did voice acting in various animated series. I had to admit I had no idea who he was but I knew the shows he was on. He was the nicest patient ever. Except for that one cop I had as a patient. There was this other cop that had the hottest visitors. All these women would come in to visit and it took everything I had to not stop and drool. Wow, this paragraph was totally unfocused. When I was in Grade 9 I had this teacher that made us write just for the sake of writing. It didn't even need to make sense - she just wanted us to fill notebooks with writing. Kinda like this paragraph.

I'm Taking More Coffee Breaks

There's always people you like working with and people you don't. I don't want to talk shit about anyone but let's just say that there are some people that I would just call stupid. Maybe not book-stupid, but commonsense-stupid. I realize that my grammar and punctuation and all that crap isn't perfect but at least most of the time I can write in full sentences and I have enough brains to re-read what I've written before sending it out. As you can tell, I've had a few rough days at the office...

I Am In Love

This is the 3rd time I've fallen in love like this. The first time was not too long after graduating from college, again about 6 years ago, and now today. I opened my eyes and looked and I knew this was something special. Bright, sharp, clear, 47" diagonal, 16:9 aspect ration, 1080p resolution... my new TV brings tears to my eyes. I brought it home today and set it up. Regular TV is just regular TV but then I turned on my XBox360 and played Call of Duty 4. It took me a while just to get used to the size of the screen and how nice and bright everything was. I have to admit that it isn't the best TV for games but it's still better than my old TV. I haven't even hooked up my DVD player yet. I'm excited for when I finally get around to doing that. Then when I hook up my surround sound, I think I'll need some time alone.

Why do women seem to not care about TVs? They spend just as much time watching it as guys do. Seriously ladies, when you see my TV you'll be so excited you'll slide off your chair. When I told my beautiful wife that I was buying a new TV her only response was "which one?" Guys, I know you're jealous now.

Weather Update: Still Hotter than Hell

This weather is killing me.  Don't get me wrong, I love the sun and the hot weather.  It reminds me of being in the Philippines except with better air, less people, better english, less traffic, less poverty, and cleaner water.  Other than that, it reminds me of being in the Philippines.  The problem is my house.  It's much cooler than my old house but it's still pretty hot.  Our air conditioner is on 20 hours a day but it's only good for one room (our bedroom).  I'm just getting tired of hanging out in there.  The other day I brought it down to the TV room, which is smaller than our bedroom, and cranked the a/c.  That room was a freakin' refrigerator!  It was so nice until I started to shiver a bit.  Then I brought it back up to the bedroom but carrying it up the stairs made me sweat again.  

My parents bought a little wading pool for the twins and yesterday we put about 5 inches of water in it and let them splash around a bit.  It was already 7pm so it was starting to cool off but even though the water was cold, they had a blast!  Amelia was shivering but didn't want to come out and Lucas just kept crawling back and forth and splashing everything.  It's so fun to see them play like this.  

Anyway, just felt like babbling a bit.  I'm trying to post more often but I'm obviously not doing too well.  I'll try harder...

How Do I Know You?

I don't spend as much time on Facebook as I used to. I've pretty much maxed out on friends (I seriously don't know any more people) and I don't like all those stupid applications that you can add to your profile. All I ever do now is check for mail, see if anyone has posted new pictures, and... well actually that's about it. I like to look through people's pictures. I'm not a weirdo stalker or anything (or am I?) but by looking at all the pictures I feel like I'm actually part of my friends' lives, sharing their experiences and adventures with them - even those friends that live in Saskatchewan or California or Taiwan. Okay, I'm a bit weird like that, but isn't that the whole point of posting pics anyway? Another I do when I have a bit of time is browse through people's friend lists. Maybe they've added someone new that I know or maybe I met some of their friends at a party recently. One time, I was looking through someone's friend list and I saw a name that looked familiar but I couldn't remember if it was from elementary school in Regina, junior high in Winnipeg or high school here in BC. Does that mean I'm old now?

Just Because It's Free, Doesn't Mean You Need it

Do I really need a GPS unit? I usually just drive around the lower mainland and if I know I'm going somewhere I'm unfamiliar with, I'll check out google maps beforehand. I always thought a GPS was for one of those drivers that gets lost all the time or can't read a map. But then again, I have some friends that are generally pretty competent drivers and they say their GPS is great and they love it. Is it something that will just distract me? Maybe Celia needs it. Maybe neither of us need it. Here's the thing: I don't often get lost, I usually just drive in the lower mainland/fraser valley, I don't travel much, and I have google maps on my blackberry. If the GPS is free, should I get it anyway?

Finally!

The other day we were cleaning up the closet. The twins were playing around all the stuff we had, basically making more of a mess than what was already there. All of a sudden, Lucas stands up and takes a few steps. What the...? No prompting, no encouragment, no nothing. He just got up on his own and walked a bit. Woohoo! Since then, he's been doing this regularly. He still prefers to crawl - I guess because he's pretty fast at it - but he'll try to stand up on his own and walk a bit. It's pretty cute to see him standing there unaided. I think Amelia noticed too because when he's standing she runs up to him as if she's thinking "finally, we can play!"

Time to Kill

I have some vacation time at the end of August but I'm not going anywhere. I plan on painting my house. Anyone want to help?

I Have a Headache

About a month ago a friend of mine started complaining of headaches. She said she was convinced it was a tumour but all joked around about it. Seriously, how many people do you know have had brain tumours? Anyway, things got a bit worse and she went to the hospital and as it turned out, she had a brain tumour. She had surgery and is still in the hospital recovering. We talked to her today and she's doing okay but she is obviously very scared and nervous about the long-term outcomes. Without getting into any kind of detail, she's been having some problems that would prevent her from working and her daily activities would have to be restricted. We told her that it was brain surgery and the recovery would last longer than a couple of weeks and would definitely involve a lot of rehab and patience. I mean, surgery on your leg can take months to recover from so you can't expect to fully recover in the first few days after someone has been digging into your brain. Anyway, we tried to be positive but we were all pretty scared too. What if our girl never came back to "normal"? Anyway, pray for her please. She's a very sweet girl and my friend.

I Guess it's True

There are 2 other guys named Oliver in my office - more than any other place I've been.  I guess nerds are named Oliver.

Circus of the Sun

Last weekend we went to see Cirque du Soleil. Holy crap. That's all I really have to say. Those people are frickin amazing. I like jugglers. Don't ask why, I just like to see people juggle. The jugglers at Cirque were awesome. Anyway, the show was like an orgasm for the eyes. I don't think my eyes have had that much fun ever.

Movie Review

I haven't done a movie review in a long time. Probably because I haven't seen a movie in a long time. I actually have 2 reviews.

Sex and the City with Sarah Jessica Parker, Kim Cattral, Kirstin Davis, and Cynthia Nixon

How come the only one that shows nudity is the lesbian?


Iron Man with Robert Downey Jr., and Gwyneth Paltrow

I was never a big fan of the comic but the movie fuckin' rocked. All this movie needed was some naked chicks (not lesbians).

Brings Back Old Times

This past week I've gotten almost no sleep because the twins are sick. First they were throwing up, now they have stuffed up noses and coughs and they're probably both feeling pretty lousy. It's like when they were newborns, we're getting up every 2-3 hours during the night. I'm so tired at work I can't even concentrate on anything and I'm falling asleep at my desk by 2pm. Yeah yeah, you're probably wondering why the hell am I on my computer blogging when I could be getting some sleep. Because I feel like it, smartass.

Now for the Other One.

It has begun. This evening, Lucas looked up at us and threw up. I knew it would happen. I was warned that when one twin gets sick, the other will get it too. Amelia just got better and now Lucas is puking all over the place. Poor guy. I hope it only lasts 24hrs like Amelia. He didn't even complain, he just puked and sat there while we cleaned him up. Then he went back to sleep like nothing happened.

Poor Baby

My poor little girl is sick. Yesterday evening she suddenly threw up her entire dinner. I haven't seen her throw up that much ever. Then, the whole night she couldn't hold anything down. She threw up anything she tried to eat or drink. This morning I stopped trying to feed her and she was down to just breast milk and a bit of water. She's so lethargic and grumpy now. So far, she's been able to take some pedialyte and breast milk and keep it down but hopefully she makes it through the night without puking. She must be starving. Lucas has been so helpful too. He hasn't been very needy while Amelia has been sick so he's been playing on his own while I've been looking after Amelia. What a good boy. All this happening with my girl and I've got a crappy crappy cold too. I've been coughing like crazy, my nose is all plugged up (and yet runny at the same time), and I just feel crappy all over. This weekend isn't going to be a good one.

Lucas Walking Update:
still not walking.

My eLife is Now my iLife

I don't know if I mentioned it already (I guess I could just read my own blog), but I us a Mac. iMac 24" 3.06GHz 4GB RAM nVidia 8800GTS. Ya, you heard me. I switched to Apple. Okay, not 100%, I'm actually typing on our Windows PC right now, but that's because we fight over the mac all the time. I have one word for it: itsfuckingawesome. iTunes was always kinda cool but once you use iPhoto with it, it gets better. I haven't even had a chance to play with the other stuff because yet because I'm still playing with iPhoto. For all you people that are now saying, "well I still need to use MS Word and Excel for work," - get with the program, you can do that with a mac and no one would know. Anyway, just so you know, a 24" monitor is fucking huge. My first computer used to have a 15" CRT monitor that took up half the desk and... sorry, I'm not really going anywhere with this, I just wanted to reminisce about how far we've come. 24 fucking inches!! Jeebus, that's big. (that's what she said. hehe).

Okay anyway, just to get even more entrenched into the Window-less world, we both got iPhones. Don't ask where we got them, just know that we now own the coolest phone in the world. Don't try to tell me your phone is just as good because it won't work, I'm in love with my phone. It's like having the newest phone and the newest iPod all in one. Wait, that's exactly what it is.

About 2 more hours and then it's happy bday to me. Last Thursday I told my boss I would be calling in sick. I think it's just so damn considerate of me to give 5 days notice on my sick days, don't you think?

Happy Birthday

I just want to say Happy Birthday to my wife. It's her first birthday as a married woman and hopefully it is a good one. Unfortunately, we can't go out and really celebrate like we used to but that's what we knew when we had our kids. Personally, I'm don't think I'm missing anything. I like staying home with the kids.

There once was a woman named Celia.
She was mom to Lucas and Amelia.
She bought a new house,
and said to the mouse,
"don't touch my kids or i'll killya."

I Miss

I miss:

• Sleeping at 1am and staying in bed until 11am.
• Playing video games all afternoon.
• Sleeping all night long.
• Going out for dinner and sitting in the restaurant for 3 hours.
• Saying, "let's go to the pub after work!"
• Going to movies.
• Having a day off and doing all the things that I needed to get done.

A couple of days ago a friend of mine told me she was pregnant. Congratulations to her! I'll tell you who it is later. I don't know who still reads this, but you probably don't know her.

Baby Story

Now that my major project at work is done, now that we've moved into our new home, now that the renovations are almost done, now that the kids' birthday is past, now that the wedding has come and gone, and now that Celia is back to work I wonder what I'm going to do with all my time. Actually, now that Amelia is walking and Lucas is right behind her, all my "free" time is spent watching the kids. It's okay though because they're more fun now than they have ever been. They play, they talk in their baby language, and they get into all kinds of trouble. Just one story:

Usually in the mornings, they play while Celia and I take about 20 minutes trying to wake up. We can usually hear them banging away in the hallway but one morning they were awfully quiet. I got up and hunted them down and found them standing beside the toilet having a grand old time splashing away. I had to fish out one of their little stuffed animals and we had to wash both of them up right then and there. Gross.

It Had to be You

One of the things that Celia convinced me to do for our wedding is to take dance lessons. I wasn't sure I wanted to but she really really wanted to so I said "fine, we'll do it." Anyway, it turned out to be a tonne of fun. We found this dance school called Dancing for Dessert and our instructor, Magda, was awesome. She choreographed a whole routine for us (not too difficult seeing as we had to learn it without knowing how to foxtrot) and taught us the whole thing in 7 lessons. When it came to performing at the wedding, it wasn't perfect and some may say it wasn't even well done, but who cares. We had a blast doing it and for me, it was one of the most memorable parts of the night.

All Done

The day was a big success for us. The ceremony started a bit late but other than that, it went off without a hitch. The kids were so cute. Amelia walked down the aisle (with help) and Lucas was super cute in his little tuxedo. Celia looked incredible. We took some pictures after downtown and hopefully they turned out good too. It was freezing cold but we're all stars so we toughed it out and finished the shoot. The reception went well too. It's funny, I was nervous about the ceremony but I held it together and after that I was feeling a lot better but still a little stressed about our first dance. Our DJ started the song in the wrong spot but that's kinda our fault for not telling him about it in advance. We messed up a few parts of the dance but we were able to improvise a bit and finish it with a little style. Very fun stuff - we plan on taking more dance lessons. Anyone want to join us? I had a few drinks so I was a bit tipsy but not drunk. Well, I had enough to drink that I was giving away drink tickets like they were free but now that I'm sober and looking at our bar bill, I'm regretting it a bit. Just a bit though because I had a really good time and I hope everyone else did too.

The Big Day

We've waited a long time for this. It was supposed to happen last year but the twins were born a bit early and changed our plans. In 2 days I'm finally getting married. It went from a very very small ceremony with next to no reception to a very big reception and back to a decent sized one. The past couple days have been stressful for me because I'm a real last minute kind of guy and there's a lot of work to do. It's pretty much finished now (it better be if I'm blogging) and tomorrow I just have to print and fold but I think we'll have some help with that... We'll see though. Anyway, the next time I post I'll be a married man. All you ladies that are now thinking you've missed out on a good thing, well don't you worry. It's not that good and you're not missing anything. Ask around, I'm not lying.

Anyway, thanks to anyone and everyone that helped out and special thanks to anyone that has helped look after my children while I've had to work on wedding plans.

What Did You Expect?

"Medical marijuana users are on the hook for more than $500,000 in unpaid bills for government-certified weed... Newly disclosed statistics show that Health Canada has sent final notices - and sometimes dispatched a collection agency as well - to 462 registered users since government marijuana first became available in 2003." - Dan Beeby, THE CANADIAN PRESS

I'm all for alternative drug therapies and this is no exception. If it works, it works, right? But seriously, what did you expect from a bunch of pot-smokers? I remember commercials a few years back about a couple of dead-end guys that lived at their parents' house and didn't have jobs because they just sat around and smoked dope all day. And now you "sell" legalized marijuana and expect them to pay for it? This is the funniest thing I've seen in a while.

Bow Your Head

Last Tuesday, April 8, 2008 my tita Nene passed away. She's not my real aunt by blood or anything but she might as well have been. She struggled with cancer for a long time and now she is finally free. Some people ask me if I was close to her and although I didn't see her a lot, I still think I saw her a lot. She was a one of those cool aunts that you liked to run into at the mall or enjoyed talking to at family parties. She was important enough to me that she would have been one of the principal sponsors for my wedding. I grew up with her around (I have a picture of her at my 3rd or 4th bday party - I'm sure she was at the earlier ones too) and last fall she was still able to come over to my house and help Celia with the twins when I had to go back to work, and I'm so glad that she was able to make to my twins' first birthday. It was hard to see her at the end because she was always so strong and independent and at the hospital she was so weak and thin. I'm sure she was suffering towards the end so I'm happy that she doesn't have to suffer any more. People always ask what her daughter is going to do now. I don't really know, but I'm pretty sure that tita Nene taught her to be strong and smart so I'm sure she'll be okay.

In honour of my tita Rose/Nene, let us all bow our heads and say a prayer. She'll be missed by many. I'll make sure my kids know who she was.

So... Tired...

I always knew I wouldn't post as much once the kids were born, but now I'm just being negligent. Sometimes, I won't post for almost a month! Anyway,

Complete:
I just finished a major major project at work that I've been working on for the past year and a bit,
Celia's mom arrived (yay!),
started my marriage leave/vacation (double yay!),
kitchen renovation has begun,
new bed is bought and being delivered this afternoon,
3rd bedroom set up and ready for guests,
watched the 2nd half of Knocked Up (Review: funny shit, man. funny shit.),
got my new blackberry at work so now I don't look like a grandpa trying to look hip with a 1992 model blackberry, and
we finally got carpet on the stairs and closet so at least all the carpeting is finished.


Pending:
finalize the guest list,
finish the giveaways,
make the placecards,
learn our first dance,
pick up tuxes,
arrange rehearsal dinner,
figure out seating arrangements, and
come up with $2,341,532,786,456.56.

I think the worst part of all this is that my XBox360 got the Ring of Death hardware failure so I had to ship it back to Micro$oft for them to repair. Okay, they paid for the shipping, but now I don't have an xbox for, like, 4 weeks.

Home Is Where The Heart Is

Let's see what's happened in the past 2 weeks:

After the kids' birthday, packed up the house like madmen (and madwomen - mostly madwomen), met with the lawyers, realtors, etc etc

Took possession of the new home on Saturday, March 15. On Monday and Tuesday we tore up the old carpets, ripped out some tile, removed all the baseboards, and basically stripped it down to the walls and floorboards.

New floor was being installed Thursday and Friday, carpet guys came on Friday, movers came Friday afternoon. We had to wait until at least part of the floor was done before we could move anything in. The flooring guy worked until 10pm, the movers worked until 11pm, we were up until 2am. Slept at my parents' house because new house was a wreck.

Saturday, March 22 I gave away the keys to my first home. It was a little sad to see it empty again. Kinda like when I first moved in except I felt like I broke up with it and was walking away.

Easter Monday (today): we've been living upstairs for the past 2 days because it is the only part of the house that is clean and livable. Downstairs still needs some of the floor finished, it needs to be cleaned and organized, and we still have to unpack all our kitchen stuff. I can't find anything right now.

How the hell did we accumulate so much stuff in such a short period of time? When I first moved out of my parents' house, I had maybe 3 carloads (small car too) of stuff. Now I have 2 large moving trucks worth of stuff. Oh well. So far, I'm liking the new home.

Happy Birthday!

Today is the twins' birthday. I can't believe it's been a year already. Last year at this time I was standing over their isolettes staring down at the smallest babies I've ever seen, amazed that I was a dad. The days leading up to that were crazy and scary but after it all I ended up with two beautiful babies. I remembering worrying about if they were going to survive. I remember seeing Lucas cry when he was first born and I remember the nurses whisking Amelia away to the NICU before we could even see her. I remember Celia telling me, "go check on Amelia" because she still had to go to the recovery room after surgery. I remember driving back and forth to the hospital every day for 2 months, I remember getting a phone call at 2am telling us that Lucas had an infection and was getting intubated, I remember Celia calling me at work crying that Amelia had to be transferred to the children's hospital because she might need surgery, and I especially remember getting the phone call telling us that the twins would be coming home the next day. The past year has been a blur but it was the most exciting blur of my life. Today I came home from work and Amelia had just woken up from a nap and I got to say Happy Birthday to my daughter and see her flash me that great big 2-tooth smile. Happy Birthday to Lucas and Amelia.

In honour of this special occassion, I have a limerick:

There once were two babies born early,
One was boyish, the other girly.
The grew up and laughed,
And learned by their own craft.
And taught me to never worry prematurely.

Moving

So we finally sold our home and found another one. It's a bigger townhouse just down the street from where we are now. There's some work we need to do to it like change the carpet, paint the walls, etc but it's quite nice. We got it cheap too. Well, not cheap cheap, but cheap. I'll do some before and after pictures someday.

You Can't Handle The Truth Part 7

I purposely leave things out so I can fix it in front of people and be the hero. 

Immortality

I read an article in a magazine about how being a mother changes a woman forever. Let me tell you about what happens to you when you're a father. You can't go snowboarding anymore, you can't play on your Xbox whenever you want, you can't go out drinking with your buddies, you can't buy new electronics for yourself, and you can't go out and watch movies whenever you want. However, you can look at your son and imagine all the fun things you'll be able to do as he grows up, you can smile as your beautiful daughter looks up at you and flashes that one-tooth smile, you can watch your kids crawl around and show you how curious they are and how fascinating the world is, and you hold your kids knowing that a little bit of you just became immortal. So, although I really, really want to play Halo3 online, my son's smile is enough to pull me away and play peek-a-boo instead.

Use the Right Tool for The Job

I decided that i wouldn't post videos here and i'm not going to post on my facebook profile anymore. I'm going to use my youtube account instead. See the twins in action there.

YouTube

Sit Back and Relax

So anyway, back to my vacation. After being in the city for a few days, we headed to Plantation Bay in Cebu. It's resort that is just incredible. If you're ever in the Phils and you need a nice, relaxing place to go, check it out. It was so nice but unfortunately, the kids liked to go to bed at 7-ish so our evenings were spent in the room. Not so bad because the room was really nice and room service wasn't too shabby. One of the things I really liked about this place was the phone had a button on it labelled "Butler". When you pressed this, someone would answer and you could get them to do anything for you. Sterilize the baby bottles, pick up our laundry, shoot the neighbours, ... anything.

The wedding was in Cebu as well and it was really nice. Because it was officiated by the archbishop and it was on a sunday, everyone from the mass just before stayed to see if the wedding was a celebrity. So my soon-to-be-sister-in-law was a Celebrity for the day.

Busy

We're busy. I don't mean the-house-is-a-mess-and-the-kids-are-fussy-and-won't-sleep-and-we-don't-have-time-to-cook kind of busy, I mean in the next 4 months we're putting our house back on the market and we have to find a new home, we're planning our kids' first birthday in March, and our wedding is in April. Just to give you a little perspective of the stress I'm currently experiencing: we just got back from the most expensive vacation of my life, Celia is still not back to work, we bought a new van last summer, I took 2 months of parental leave at half my usual income, and we all know how much baby supplies cost. And damnit, have you seen Celia's ring? I seem to think I'm rich. My secret is that I sell my body fluids to various banks around the Lower Mainland. I use different names so I can donate twice without anyone knowing.

Back in the PI

When we finally arrived in the Philippines, I was quickly reminded of the extreme poverty there. As we drove from the airport to the house where we were staying, I pointed out to Celia all the homes that looked like they were made with scrap pieces of wood and metal sheets, the garbage on the the streets and the pollution in the air. I guess I've been there a few times now so I've gotten used to seeing it and I know what to expect when we drive through the city but pointing it out to Celia made me notice how bad it is. It almost made me feel guilty for living in a clean city with clean water and for having money to go on vacation and staying at 5-star resorts. Almost. I'm glad my parents decided to take the chance and move to Canada 30+ years ago.

Anyway, the city was... the city. We visited with some family and went shopping for fabric for the bridesmaids dresses. The fabric was ridiculously cheap - like less than half of what we would pay here. Then we bought fresh popped chicharon and now Celia is addicted to it and wants someone to import it so she can get it fresh again. I can feel my arteries hardening already.

Depart Vancouver, Arrive Taipei

I'm not entirely sure how we even managed to organize this trip. We were packing right up until the last minute and we somehow did it while trying to watch out for the twins. Amelia was crawling around and climbing into the suitcases and Lucas was just crying because he was bored. We left the house at around 9pm and when we got to the airport to check in, Celia realized that we had forgotten the kids' passports in the filing cabinet. My dad and I drove home to pick up the passports and then back to the airport. Finally, at about 0030hrs, our plane took off and we were headed for Taipei.

If you've never been there, Taipei is a lot like Vancouver except with more chinese people. Seriously, even more. It's very nice and very clean. When I saw the tower, Taipei 101, the first thing I thought was "I thought it would be taller." It's kind of a cool looking building though - like a bunch of take out boxes all stacked together. While we were in Taipei, we met up with a few of Celia's old friends. The funny thing is that when I met some of her old friends in Vancouver, they didn't speak english, but the friends that I met in Taipei all spoke english. Anyway, we just hung out and shopped a bit (didn't buy anything), visited relatives, etc etc.

Home At Last!

There's so much I could say about our trip. So many stories, so many people, so much fun. I have to say though, that this trip was the most tiring and the busiest trip I've ever had. We had 3 times the usual amount of luggage and the twins have gotten quite heavy to carry around.

I don't know where to start. This will definitely come up as several different posts but here was our itinerary so you get an idea of my "vacation".

Dec 24 - depart Vancouver
Dec 25 - arrive Taipei
Dec 26 - high-speed train to Pingtung (about an hour on this train. Did I tell you this is the fastest fucking train I've ever seen?)
Dec 29 - 2 hour car ride to Taichung
Dec 30 - 2 hour car ride to Taipei
Jan 1 - depart Taipei, arrive Manila/Marikina
Jan 4 - Cebu
Jan 6 - Eva's Wedding @ Shangri-La Mactan
Jan 7 - Boracay (we took a little turboprop plane to Caticlan - the smallest plane I've ever been in. scary if you don't like to fly. I don't like to fly)
Jan 10 - back to Marikina
Jan 11 - 2 hours Manila-Taipei, 4hr layover, 10 hours Taipei-Vancouver

Whew! For almost the entire trip, we carried the twins (no carseats, no strollers) and we had a lot of luggage for their stuff.

Details to come...