Reunion with YM crowd turned out to be amazing fun! =) I'll admit that I was afraid things might not turn out as well as they did. Afterall, I haven't seen these people in ages!! Who knows how different we've all become...but thankfully it turned out great. =) 15 of us showed up for a yummy meal at Jack Astor's followed by some loitering at Mickey D's. =P The world should know that Jack Astor's apple raspberry crumble is da bomb! =P


The girls of YM =) SORRY!! The guys of YM just aren't photogenic enough... =P hehehe kidding!! I just didn't get a picture of them. =(


Me and Esther: buddies for life. It's good to have you back! =) 


Chilling at Mickey D's....ewwww KAREN!!!! =P 

Shopping at Eaton Center with Yoyo today was great as usual. =) But really...I should try harder to control my spending. I saw a bag that I really liked at Aldo and omg...whenever I see things I really like I usually end up getting them. =\ BAD BAD ME!!! And so now I have it and of course I'm loving it. =P My mom...not so much...she's never really happy when I bring new things home. =( But this is the last purchase I make in TO I promise!! Unless you count the hooded sweater that I bought before the Aldo bag... =P ahhh...I love shopping (man...I sound so girly)!

I think my last day at work merits a blog entry especially because it seems to be the most exciting thing that's happened in a long time. I'm actually going to miss working I think. A month ago this would have sound totally contradictory, if you happen to have been a person I've been bitching about work to. It's the people that I've met that make work bearable. They were so sweet today in hosting me a little going-away celebration. One of them brought a mini rice cooker from home to cook fresh rice and another brought in homemade curry chicken. It was dee-licious!! =) Man...I really hope I'll be lucky enough to find such wonderful people as coworkers in the new job I hope to find in Kingston.

Mmm...Little Saigon spring rolls....oh and pho of course! That wonderful little restaurant is almost enough reason to make me eager to get back to Kingston, oh that sometimes undeniably boring excuse of a city. So, to help me tame this craving, Phong's mom taught us how to make our own authentic Vietnamese spring rolls. MMM.... Well ok...granted they didn't taste quite as good as Kingston spring rolls but they weren't bad considering it was our first try. A little more salt for flavour and a nice dipping sauce should bring about perfection. =)

*****

Tonight, almost the entire Lai clan got together for a farewell BBQ for my little brother who'll be leaving us all in a few weeks to start his studies at UBC. I guess a lot of people would consider us lucky to have family so close by but I don't think any of us really appreciate that, at least I haven't. It was a shock to me to find out that my oldest cousin will be starting Grade 7 in the fall and if it wasn't for his voice starting to crack, I probably would have taken me even longer (a few more years!) to realize that he's no longer the 10-year old kid that I keep thinking he is. Even my youngest cousin isn't really that young anymore. The kid that I keep thinking is 3 is actually 6 now!! Whoa...where have I been these last few years?!

Our softball game against Trinity (a team stacked with big, tough heavy hitters) today, although ended in defeat was believe it or not the best game we played all season. Trinity was a team that the former Knights team had met in the playoffs last year and I have been told that they burned us bad. Although they made lots of powerful hits that went way deep and almost over the fence, almost everytime, one of our superstar outfielders would be right there to catch it. Our batting seemed to improve immensely too with quite an impressive number of home runs and even I made a play at home! =) We put up a great fight and even in losing, I think everyone is still proud of the way we played out there. There was definitely some good chemistry going on out on the field today. =)

******

Have you ever heard of a movie/documentary called "Super Size Me"?? If not then you're not alone... A man who starts off in prim health condition embarks on a 30-day McDonald's binge where he cannot eat anything during that time that isn't purchased from the restaurant. There are other rules too. In the 30-days he must have tried at least once every single item on the McDonald's menu and MUST super-size when requested to do so. Omg...after just 10 days that guy gained 10 pounds and vomited his super-sized quarter pounder with cheese meal during one occasion. That's just sick. Oh...and did you know that McNuggets are made from old sterile hens that are ground up and pressed into the familiar McNugget shapes. Curiously enough...I still having a craving for some McNuggets right about now =\

Grrr...that little menace of a student is driving me insane!! Good thing I'm not studying education or else I'd definitely want to drop out right about now. The kid I'm tutoring in math right now is everything but a good student. He's rude. Every lesson starts with him asking to be fed as if his parents don't feed him at home and ends with the same question "Is there anything you want to give me?" meaning that he wants surprise, MORE food. WHAT THE HECK?!!? What kind of person asks for stuff in that way? If I had a kid like that, he'd be in big trouble! He's also constantly distracted. For example, I'll be telling him about angles or something and all of a sudden he'll ask me about the attic in my house or he'll talk about his pet hamster. But the most annoying would definitely be how forgetful he is. I'll teach him something and even after spending the past two weeks going over it from all different angles, he'll be completely clueless as to how to do the problem and try fishing for answers from me. =( I can't do this...after the next two lessons, I'm calling it quits from teaching forever!

*****

On a completely different note, I've decided that I should keep my mouth shut. My opinions/advice seem to hurt more than they help. =( I'm deeply sorry to those I've hurt.

Yay!! It feels really good to finally be back home sitting in front of my computer free of all the dirt and sweat that has covered me for the last three days. Camping was great this year especially with all the new faces but it's nice to feel clean for a change. The destination was at a place close to Kingston, just about an hour north called Murphy's Point. *sigh* To be so close to good pho yet still so far (just a 5 minute drive away) sucks!


Girls chilling in the circus tent. From left: Jackie, Pearl, Yoyo and Karen 


Treking through the Silver Queen's Mine trail with Yoyo and Catherine 

On the way there, the weather was pretty crappy but it picked up and the next two days were perfect, hot but perfect. Adventures included discovering that Jackie sleeps like a log, treking through abandoned mines (I got to keep a piece of mica!! =) ), playing a long game of monkey in the middle at the beach and the highlight of it all: the very long trek home (5 km!) from the comfort station with Phong, Yoyo, Winson and Daniel Lee as a result of being left behind and forgotten. =P


Time Log:
around 5:30 Last person comes out of the shower
6:04 Still sitting outside the comfort station waiting to be picked up, our van was observed to have passed by
6:50 Decided to start walking back to camp site
7:00 Reached registration office, attempted to call someone back at the campsite, but all cell phones were off
7:05 Tried running after van that looked like ours but failed in attempt
7:08 Smiling jogger passed by running in the opposite direction
7:15 Stopped by an SUV full of beach-goers asking for directions
7:24 Yay! Rescued at last by Francine and Alex! =)
7:30 Arrived by at campsite just in time for dinner


The long journey home