So, things have been pretty busy lately with work and all. I guess some people have been coming home cuz of the long weekend in the states, so it was nice to see some friends south of the border. Justin was back the past week, so him, Allan and I went out for all you can eat sushi. It was fun, and a little painful towards the end stuffing my face with sushi. We really ordered way too much that night, but it was fun seeing Justin again. Ryan was also back for the long weekend, and a bunch of his friends and I went over to his place for a Thanksgiving dinner. Dinner was amazing, with turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes with gravy, cranberry sauce and pie. I couldn't ask for anything more, espcially right after a great workout. The big shocker of the week was going over to Allan's for some home cooking. Never thought I'd hear that one, but I guess it's finally time for some payback after all the food he's mooched from my place. But honestly, I was just stoked for some home made spring rolls, and those spring rolls did not disappoint. Niiiice... I like... Anyways, not sure what else to write on this blog, it's just more of the same stuff. I guess since I haven't played warcraft for the past month or two, there just isn't anything interesting for me to write about.

So, what's been going on since my last post? Well, my mom's been back for a week now from her trip, and things are back to normal. I think my mom's little trip was good for me though, cuz I think it showed that I can be independent if I wanted to, and that it isn't too hard to help out a bit more around the house. It's about time I grew up a bit and helped my mom around the house a little more. I'm sure everyone who knows me has already told me that, but it's a start. Speaking of growing up, the past week I've been looking into getting a new car. I've been checking the internet for new cars that are in my price range. I'm thinking of something cheap but reliable, something like a Civic or a Corolla. Went car shopping this weekend with Jon and KennyG, but apparently car dealerships are closed on Sundays.

It was also Jason's birthday this weekend. We went over to Helen's to play some settlers and have some ice cream cake. Jon was the surprise guest who tried settlers for the first time. No worries man, one day when you meet Sofi, you'll have something to talk to her about.

On Saturday, I went to a conference with Eric in the morning. Afterwards, we met up with Neeta and went out for a little Congee Wong. After dinner, we watched Saw 3. Uhhhh... my personal opinion on the movie is that it wasn't very good. The first one was the best, the second was a little worse, and this one really fell. A lot less story, and more unnecessary gore didn't help the movie out.

Aaarrggoooooosss! Yesterday, Jon and I watched the Argos make a stunning comeback in the fourth quarter of the eastern conference semi finals beating the Blue Bombers 31-27. The Argos had the lead for the start of the game, but were slowly crumbling and were down in the fourth. That's when they switched up Allen for Bishop to throw two touch down passes in the fourth quarter to win the game. Really exciting game. After the game, we met up with Britta and Puja down town. We went to dinner at Baton Rouge, where I learned how to stalk someone/everyone on Face Book. Watch out people, there are some pretty crazy stalkers stalkers on the loose. After dinner, we went back to Britta and Puja's apartment where Jon and I taught the girls a thing or two in how to dominate at Cranium. They were high-schooled pretty badly even with their room/closet mate connection.

My mom should be back by now from her little trip. I tried to do some major cleaning this weekend, so hopefully my mom doesn't freak out too much when she gets back home.

Well, my mom's been gone for almost two weeks now, and things are going well. I'm keeping myself fed on ham sandwiches and spaghetti. The house is a little dirty, but I'd say we're doing fine. I've also been working for two weeks now, and things are going well. I'm starting to understand what I'm doing at work and able to fix some problems, so that's good. Got some friends to hang out with at lunch, and just joined a new gym, so everything's going according to plan.

The newest craze to hit the Kwa family has been the board game, Settlers of Catan. Anyone heard of it? I've been going to my cousin's place every week to play this game. We play like 5 games every time, and each game taks about 1.5 hours. Last weekend, I was over at Flora's till three in the morning playig Settlers. It's a pretty fun game, now that I actually win once in a while.

Well, my mom's heading to NYC and San Fransisco today, and she's gonna be gone for three whole weeks. I dunno what's gonna happen to the Kwa household at 46 Devonsleigh while she's gone. Will we be able to find a way to feed ourselves and keep the place clean? I really don't know. If I don't have any new posts on this blog for the next couple of weeks, someone should send the police over to our place, just to make sure we're still all right.

Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving weekend. I had a great weekend, with lots to be thankful for. Good ol' Rach came for a visit this weekend, so her, Neeta, Eric and I got together on Friday to hang out. Went to the Keg for dinner, and just hung out at Neeta's afterwards. Team ESL (Eric and I) lost by a single point in a game of Taboo, which sucked.

Saturday was fun. Got up early and went to Congee Wong for lunch. It was the girls' first time at Congee Wong, and I'm glad they weren't disappointed. Did a little bowling, and went back to Neeta's to make a nice Thanksgiving dinner. After dinner we went out to watch The Departed. I thought the movie was really good, and I'd recommend people watching it. On Sunday we made a stop at Pacific before seeing Rach off to the airport. Yeah, it was a fun weekend, and it was really good seeing Rach again.

In other news, I'm really thankful for my new job. Today's the marks the end of my first week here, and I'm just really excited to be working again and to be doing something productive, like writting to my blog and checking emails.

The second Harry Potter book, done and done!

So, I just got back home from working out at Goodlife with my cousin Helen. I decided I'd workout legs today, so I started off with squats. Well, things started off good, pushing those quads and gluts until I notice a small tear in my pants, right in the crotch. My shorts are kind of old, and it always tears there, and I always have to stitch them back up again. Well, it's just a small hole, so I continue working out hoping nobody notices. I keep doing the squats, and after my last set, when all of a sudden I feel a draft riding up my shorts. I turn around to check my arse in the mirror, and there's a HUGE tear across my shorts. The tear literally goes across the entire backside of my shorts, and my arse is just sticking out. I just got home and measured how long the tear is, and it's 14 inches long. I really don't know how I did that to my shorts. Anyways, I decided to cut my workout short and show Helen what happened to my shorts. She saw the hole in my shorts and just wouldn't stop laughing. Thanks a lot there Hel. Thanks for understanding my incredibly embarassing situation. In conclusion, my arse is just getting way too big.

Phew! Finally finished the first Harry Potter book. What a long read that was. It seems like the books get longer and longer. I think I'm gonna have to just rent the movie for the next one.

On another note, I've just noticed I've been blogging for over a year now. Happy anniversary blogger!

I effin hate mowing the lawn. I finally decide to get off my lazy arse of doing nothing and mow the jungle of weeds outside of my house otherwise known as my lawn. Well, I'm definitely partially to blame for my lawn getting so out of control, but that's not the point. So I'm mowing the lawn, and everything going nicely when the back left wheel stops turning. Not only is it not turning on its own, powered by the motor like it's supposed to, but it's all jammed up and doesn't spin at all and just drags through the grass. I stop the motor and try to push the wheel back into place, and it starts to work for a bit. I continue mowing the lawn when the entire wheel breaks off the mower. What a pisser that was. I had to go to the garage and take the wheel off our old lawn mower to replace the broken wheel so that I could finish mowing the lawn. Anyways, that incident alone isn't that big a deal. But, considering last year, our lawn mower broke down completely and we just bought a brand new lawn mower last year. And this year, the one year old lawn mower stopped working and we had to bring it to the shop to get it repaired. It all just adds up and just gets really frustrating. I effin hate mowin the lawn.

Well yesterday was a fun day with family and friends. Ryan ol' bean is back from Conneticuit for the long weekend, so we decided to just hang out at his place for a bit. We didn't do much, but it was fun watching some stuff at his place and looking at pictures from his recent trip to London. Some of the pics aren't so bad, he doesn't look like a serial killer in all of them.

After spending time with Ryan was karaoke/bbq with the family. I met up with Andrew, Jeanne, Helen, Dave and Flora for some karaoke. Apparently Dave's got a secret talent for singing, that isn't so secret anymore. That guy can really belt out a tune. He's my vote for the next Canadian idol. The bbq was fun. It took forever to cook all of the food, and I was starving by 10 when we finally started eating. (singing really works up an appetite) Well, there was plenty of delicious food and I was stuffed by the end of it, so it was definitely worth the wait. Thanks to everyone who helped make the food, it was great. For people who know me, I try to stay away from kitchen duties and wasn't really involved in the food making process.

After the bbq I met up with some high school friends. Jon brought a special guest this time, Megan, who I've only met once before last night. Well, I showed up a little late, but it was nice of them to save some delicious cake for me. It was also a real surprise to find the seat beside Puja empty when I got there. Anyways, it was a lot of fun, but I'm not too sure what Megan thinks of me. I don't think she was too impressed when I said she wasn't quite a doctor, or when I said I'd try to swim to the surface of the water from a submarine, or when I said I'd start my own bobsled team to make it to the Olympics. Oh well, what can ya do eh?

Well, I've had a busy past week with lots of family stuff to do. Randy, my cousin from Vancouver came for a visit the past weekend. He came with the purpose of getting out and seeing Toronto and just getting to know his cousins and aunts and uncles in Toronto. Here's a quick summary of my week with Randy in Toronto.

On Sunday we took a "Long Lunch" in some small town called Warksworth, or something like that. It's an anual thing for this town where they set up a long table and cook up a bunch of food. Unfortunately it was raining that day, and we didn't partake in the long lunch and went to a diner instead. Oh well. On our way back, we stopped by at the Big Apple for some delicious apple pie. We had a big family dinner with all my aunts and uncles that night. Monday I had a bonus day at the beach playing beach volleyball with Allan. Got back and took Randy and my other cousins to Dave and Busters for dinner and games. Afterwards we got gelato. Tuesday we spent the day at Wonderland, where I forced Randy to go on all the rides. It was more than just peer pressure, I literally made him go on the rides. But, he didn't actually complain at all, and I think it was good for him. Wednesday all us cousins got together for a little bowling and dessert. A little disappointing because I didn't win at bowling, but I had some pretty stiff competition with my cousins. Thursday we didn't do much except play some tennis/basketball and head over to my cousins to play some games.

Friday I had to say goodbye to my cousin, because Allan and his friends (Jamie, Lotus, Vicky, and Colin) and I were headed to Ottawa for some white water rafting. The plan was to spend some time in Ottawa on Friday, stay over at the rafting place Friday night, raft for two days, and come back on Sunday night. Rafting was so much fun. On Saturday we did the 12 man boat which was a lot of fun, but I already did 12 man rafting before, so it wasn't anything too special. Sunday we got to try the 6 man boat. The 6 man boat was a lot more fun than the 12. It's just a lot bumpier and a bit tougher than the 12, and it's so much fun when the raft flips. It's just a mad scramble to get back into the raft, and it's not too dangerous so it's fine. There was one moment that was kind of scary when Allan fell out of the raft during one of the rapids. He was just going down stream, and he was just getting further and further away from the boat and it seemed like there was nothing we could do to catch him. Well, eventually the rapids slowed down, and another boat managed to pick him up, but the rapids are pretty strong, and at the moment it was actually kind of scary. It was a really fun and exhausting weekend though

Well, I just got back from my Vancouver road trip with Dwight. It was a fun trip, with lots to see driving across the states. The drive from Windsor to Seattle was about 40,000 km, and took us about 3.5 days to make the drive. It started off when I met Dwight in Windsor on Sunday. I met some of Dwight's friends, and we played a little poker, followed by a trip to the Windsor casino where I made a cool $40. Monday Dwight had to do some last minute packing and say some final good byes, but we still had some time to watch The Hills on MTV.

We took off early on Tuesday morning and crossed the border without a hitch. We made some stop offs along the way including the Corn Palace (some tourist trap where the outside of the palace is redecorated every year with corn husks), WallDrug (some tourist trap with a town that's supposed to be similar to the 1880's), Mt. Rushmore. The interesting thing was that there was a massive biker rally in South Dakota with an estimated 500,250 bikers attending. Everywhere along the interstate we saw bikers, and when we stopped in towns they were filled with bikes. Motels also had no vacancies because of the rally, and we had to set up tent at a KOA for one of the nights. We finally got to Seattle on Friday afternoon, where we met up with Rach. She gave us a tour of the Microsoft campus, pretty impressive. We met up with Vish and Justin for dinner and went out to a bar/lounge at night. Saturday we took a small tour of Seattle, and were on our way to Vancouver to meet up with my family for dinner. My uncle Albert and aunt Valerie took us out to dinner, and we went to the Night Market afterwards. the Night Market was pretty jokes. It was basically a whole bunch of Asians setting up little booths in a huge parking lot and just selling all this pirated/couterfeit stuff. Also, driving across the hick towns of the states, I was feeling like the only Asian around, and it was nice that I got to turn the tables on Dwight for a night. Sunday we got a chance to visit Stanley Park, and the UBC campus where we unpacked Dwight's stuff. Vancouver really seems like a nice place, I could really see myself living there. At night, my uncle and aunt took me to the Vancouver casino, where I ended up losing $40, evening me out from Windsor. I guess that's about it, not incredibly exciting, but it was fun and nice driving across the country.

I guess Dwight's starting a new career/life in Vancouver now. With the 3 hour time difference between Vancouver and Richmond Hill, I wonder what's going to happen to our Warcraft playing schedule? I guess we'll see.

So, I had a pretty fun weekend. On Friday I went to Nat's fellowship. It was a praise and worship night at his fellowship, and he was a major part of it. It seemed like he spent a lot of time practicing and preparing for the night, and I really think it paid off. I was particularly impressed with Nat's ability to play the drums. He's really got a gift for music. We also had a round of musical chairs at the start as kind of an icebreaker for the night, the winner of the game was gonna win a wallet. Me being the competitive person I am, was determined to win the game and the wallet, and I wasn't going to let the little kids at this fellowship get in my way. I'd say the average age of the people attending the fellowship that night was about 14, and me being a full decade older than them definately had a size advantage over them and I definately used it to my advantage. Anyways, I made it all the way to the final two, and it was me versus a little girl who I'd say was probably around 10. When it came down to the final two, I was definately not a crowd favourite that night, as everyone was booing me as I was using my weight to block the little kids from getting to the chairs, but it was all jokes. Anyways, the little girl ended up winning, so I guess that made everyone happy.

Jon came back for the weekend, so we hung out for a bit this weekend. Jon, Allan and I went to Pacific where Jon was window shopping for a new cell phone, and Allan was looking for a car air freshener. After shopping, I went over to Mark and Justin's place for a family birthday party. Boy can those Filipinos make some good shish kebobs and spring rolls, delicious! After spending some time with family, I met up with Jon, Nat, and Allan to watch Miami Vice. It was ok, not my kind of movie though.

Sunday we went to the beach for a little volleyball. Man, it's been a while since I've played volleyball at the beach. After some bad weather, and losing the net, it's about time we got things rolling again. Volleyball was a lot of fun, and the weather was really nice. Funny thing is, there was this scavanger hunt thing going on at the beach, and one of the clues/items to find was on the court beside ours. Jon and Allan saw this and took the opportunity to have some fun with it. Whenever we saw people coming to the court looking for the item, Jon and Allan would approach them and tell them that they reached the activity portion of the scavanger hunt. They'd say that in order to get the next item, they'd have to do retarded things like pushups, or hop on one leg and stuff like that. It was pretty hilarious. Anyways, it was a great day at the beach, and afterwards we all had a nice bbq at Dave's house. It was a fun weekend.

What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas, but here are some points I thought I'd mention. This trip included Jon, Allan, Justin, KennyG and I, and we stayed at the Mirage hotel.

Outcome: First off, did we take down the house M.I.T. style, or did Sin City claim the money of five more over confident visitors? Well, none of us made any money this trip. My original goal was to pay for the entire trip, and come up $200. Instead, I lost about $170. But, thanks to KennyG, the four of us got bumped up to first class and got a free round trip ticket with North West Airlines valued at about $200. So, in my opinion, I'm actually up about $30.

Flying First Class: We're number one!! On our flight to vegas, they overbooked the flight, and so were looking for volunteers to take a later flight. In order to compensate for the delayed flight, the four of us got bumped up to first class, as well as recieving a free round trip ticket with North West. We got delayed about three hours, but I think it was worth it. Classic moment on the plane. We sit down in our first class seats. The stewardess asks us right when we board the plane if we'd like anything to drink. KennyG replies with "Could I get a glass of champagne?" Right away KennyG is taking advantage of the first class. KennyG gets shot down and the stewardess replies back "I'm sorry, we don't carry champagne on the plane" and offers white wine instead. Classic KennyG!

Food: Despite what people may say, the food isn't very cheap in Vegas. We paid $20 for our buffet, which isn't really cheap. True, the food was really good for a buffet, but food everywhere was pretty pricey and I didn't have much food to eat. I complain a lot when I'm hungry, and you can ask Jon that I was complaining about being hungry just about the entire trip, even right after our meals cuz the portions were too small and I didn't want to pay for extra food.

Pool Side: Most mornings we woke up bright and early and hit the pool. Mirage had one of the nicest pools on the strip, so we took advantage most morning with a dip in the pool and spending some time tanning. What a relaxing way to start the day. We got some awsome pics with Justin's underwater camera, which I'll post up whenever everyone sends me their pics.

Cirque Du Soleil: The only show we saw in vegas was Cirque Du Soleil, Mystere. Like pretty much everyone who's seen the show, I thought it was a really amazing show. There's just so much going on sometimes, it's hard to focus on any one thing. The acrobatics is unbelievable, and the costumes/music/lighting and everything else is just amazing. It's the kind of show where you just sit back, relax, and just let the show wash over you like warm water.

Gun Shop: It's so much easier purchasing/using guns in the States than it is in Canada, so we took the chance in Vegas to try out some firearms. Jon, Allan, and Justin tried using a semi-automatic, while KennyG and I tried a 40 caliber pistol. Maybe I'm a bit of a gun wuss here, but I was kind of nervous when I first picked up that gun. Just the thought that if I made a mistake I might accidentally shoot/kill someone kind of scared me. Once I fired my first shot, and kind of got the feel, it was a lot of fun and really exciting. Also got some pics from the gun shop, which I'll post up later, but after the visit, I can see why Americans love their guns. It was really quite the experience.

Vegas, here we come!!!

Well, I haven't posted in a while, but here goes. The past Friday I went to Wonderland with my bro and cousins. Jason's working at Wonderland this summer, so he scored us a couple of free tickets. It was fun. There aren't any new rides at Wonderland this year, but there's a new stunt show which we watched. It was all right. We hit a bunch of the roller coasters and spent some time at Splash Works, it was a nice day. Jon also came back from London this weekend, so we hung out a bit that night. Allan and KennyG also came over and we watched a movie.

Saturday was Canada's day. To celebrate, Jon, Allan, KennyG and I played a little doubles tennis. It was a nice day for tennis, but none of us played too well. The plan was to watch fireworks at night, but it turned out to be a really cloudy night, and I thought it was going to rain. So instead, we set out to the casino in preparation for our trip to Las Vegas. Jon came home up $70, I broke even. To celebrate Jon's winnings and Canada's birthday, we went to Golden Griddle and chowed down on some bacon and eggs.

Sunday I had a family get together. Flora, who's been travelling all across Europe for the past year has finally come home. We had a BBQ at Dave's house. Boy did I eat a lot for dinner. We had salad, hamburgers, pork chops, corn on the cob, baked potatoes, sishkabobs, sausages, and watermelon. I really packed it in. It was a fun night, we watched the Russell Peter's stand up, played some games, looked at pictures and watched a movie. Good times.

So, this week begins Allan and my workout schedule. It's pretty hardcore, but hopefully we'll be able to keep it up. It's a combination of working out and swimming.

A lot of sun this weekend. I'm getting darker and darker and looking more and more like a Mexican with each passing day. Seems like people have caught the tennis bug. I've been playing lots of tennis lately. Nat just got back from his trip to Europe Thursday night, so we played a bit of tennis on Friday. It was a pretty good game, Nat's better than I had hoped. It should be a pretty heated match between Nat and Jer vs Allan and I. After tennis, we hung out at his place and looked at pictures and talked about his past three weeks in Europe.

Saturday was an insanely hot day out. You had to be out of your mind to do anything physical outside in that kind of weather. That didn't stop Nat, Allan, KennyG and I from playing a round of doubles. It was an all right game. I don't think anyone played extrmely well, but it was a fun game. After the game we went to over to DQ for some hot eats and cool treats, minus the hot eats. I always get a Reese's pieces blizzard, which was so good. Allan and KennyG also got blizzards, but were complaining the entire time they didn't get an Arctic Rush like Nat. Geez, these guys just don't know a good thing when they've got it. They all came over that night to watch the Oilers game/workout. What a great game! I predict the Oilers take the cup tonight with a 3-2 victory!

Yesterday was another incredibly hot day out. I decided to go blading with Eric. It's about my second time blading, so I'm pretty impressed I didn't fall. Eric is pretty ambitious with his roller blading and wanted to blade from Missisauga to Toronto along or something like that. Well, we got to Humber, which I think is pretty far, it took us about 4 hours to get there and back. There's a trail that goes along the Lakeshore from Missisauga all the way to Ashbridges, so it was actually a really nice trail with a lot of nice scenery. It was a lot of fun, except that my blades really suck and the last hour I was just complaining cuz my feet were killing me and I thought I was going to die. We also happen to come across an outdoor community pool, which happen to be free, so we decided to jump in. Nothing better than jumping into a nice pool on a hot summer day when you've been roller blading. Man, my legs are really sore today.

Well, I've been having a really busy week with work and stuff, so I'm gonna take a break from work and update my blog. On Friday night, Allan and Ken came over to watch a movie. We watched some Korean war movie (I forget the name), which actually turned out to be pretty good. Allan and Ken slept through most of the movie, but I thought the movie pretty interesting, so I stayed up and watched the entire movie. It was a lot better than the last Korean movie I watched. The last Korean movie I watched was with a friend of mine, and it was some kind of Korean romantic comedy. The movie was so retarded, and all I remember is at the end of the movie, the guy dies and turns into the wind or something like that. And then the last scene is of the girl standing in her apartment and all of a sudden the wind/her dead ex-boyfriend starts blowing in through her window and everything starts blowing around. It was so retarded/cheesy, but it didn't stop my friend (who I'll keep nameless) from balling her eyes out. I really don't know what was wrong with her, but it was kinda funny watching her cry uncontrolably while I was laughing my arse off at how retarded the movie was. I remember thinking to myself "Is my friend crying?", "She can't be crying because of this movie, it's so retarded", "Maybe there's something wrong with her, maybe I should find out what's wrong", "Maybe I should try to cheer her up?", "Wait a minute, she is crying cuz of this movie!", and that's when I continue laughing my arse off. Anyways, this Korean movie was much better, two thumbs up!

Well, yesterday was a beautiful day out, as well as a Sunday, which means volleyball at the beach. Unfortunately, and I don't understand how this happened, but my brother lost the volleyball net. Yeah, no one seems to know what happened to it. So yeah, there was no volleyball on sunday, which was really disappointing. Anyways, instead, Jon, Allan, Ken and I decided to play a little tennis instead. We played a couple games of doubles. I thought KennyG and I could win it, unfortunately the amazing duo of Jon and Allan was simply too much for us to handle. Oh well, next time. After tennis, we played some basketball with my bro and my cousins. It was a fun game, we all really suck though. I'm just glad there were no African-Canadians around the courts, it woulda been a pretty embarassing display of our skills in basketball.

Still not sure what's gonna happen with volleyball this summer with no net. All that work at Goodlife, gone to waste.

So, I'm using Puja's 2nd Goodlife week pass right now. Getting into shape is a lot of hard work. Honestly, my entire body is aching right now and it pains me to move. Well, I hope all this hard work is worth it, hopefully it'll all eventually pay off. Maybe with me finding a hot girl at the beach (or anywhere else for that matter) this summer?

Well, I just got back from playing tennis with Allan. Some of the worse tennis I've ever played in my life, but that's not the point. The point is that the combination of Allan and I playing tennis mixed with little kids don't go well together. Today while Allan and I were warming up, some little brown kid comes onto the court and starts bugging Allan to let him play tennis. Now this kid just wouldn't shut up and was being really annoying. He was just on the court and following Allan around begging him to let him play. At one point the kid was litterally just screaming on the court and throwing a tantrum because Allan wouldn't let him use his raquet. Now, Allan just finished a week of studying for exams and had about 4 hours of sleep each night and was definately not in the mood to deal with this punk kid, and neither was I. Finally the little kid just grabs one of our balls and runs out of the court. I was a little stunned at first, and was wondering if the kid was really going to just run away with my ball. Then the bratty little kid yelled at me "What are you gonna do about it?" and I just lost it. With my raquet still in my hand I bolted out of the tennis court and started chasing after this kid. I started running at full sprint and chased the kid all the way to the basketball courts before the kid started screaming and dropped the tennis ball. I grabbed the ball and started heading back to the tennis courts, Allan on the other hand kept walking to the kid with his raquet like he was gonna beat the sh*t out of him. The kid kept running to the playground. Kids, I just love 'em!