My Short Review of Skyfall

Q uses a scrabble mug, just like the ones that Keith and I own. It's done subtly and I don't think you ever see the front face of the mug but I assume the letter is a Q. Also the actor is cute. who is he?

Javier Bardem was also cool. I liked him flirting with Bond.

And we obviously enjoyed all the London bits. Keith made a point of nudging me to say that the Tube train they were on was NOT a District line train even though they were meant to be on the District line. What a geek.

I even enjoyed the little movie intro montage/music video thing and usually I think those are so cheesy???

And I guess I can get on board with Ralph Fiennes. He's pretty cool.

Get let off work early...

End up sobbing on the couch watching the Ellen Degeneres show.

Because she had the family of a woman who previously came to a taping of her show as the last thing she wanted to do on her cancer bucket list come back on after the woman died and an Ellen viewer saw them and anonymously bought the two kids new MacBooks and a trip to Hawaii.

When Keith gets home he's gonna tell me again that I get too upset watching TV.

I guess it's a good thing I am normally never home in time to watch Ellen!!!!

Sunny day in Vancouver

Means everyone is out in full force soaking sun up while they have a chance. As are we, after a long riverside walk, chilling out with a nice buckos on the sidewalk patio.

With the crowd, it sounds more like a Sunday afternoon dimsum session

And here's Keith reading the hobbit while my grandma peruses my us magazine

The Continued Bastardization of My Very Simple Name

I don't understand! Why is it that difficult!!! Over the years, I have been called (in person and in emails):

- Maylee (this one bugs me the most. I feel like saying to offenders - You also have a first name and last name. I never try to smush them together to make one combined supername. Is just May too inadequate and unsubstantial to you? Huh Johnsmith? Huh? Would you not think it awkward and weird when I say to you in a meeting, can you pass me that pen Johnsmith? HUH?? HUH????)
- Lee
- Mary
- Amy

And today this at Starbucks:

The girl who handed it to me (not the girl who wrote it) couldn't even read that so she just mumbled "tall skinny chai latte?" when she put it on the counter.

Touristy pics

Went down to the convention center at the waterfront for a Xmas craft fair (which allowed me to do a big tick next to "mother in law" on the old Xmas list) and had a look at the 2010 Olympic torch for the first time, as well as an orca which is of course very northwest!

Who feels like an ass now?

That would be me.

Oops

Narcissism

Two things that made me feel good this week, entirely based on vanity and being totally superficial!

1) going to drinks with a bunch of coworkers and one of them asking how my husband is settling in, which prompts the other to say "You are MARRIED?" confused by the shocked reaction (maybe she thinks who would want to marry that?) I respond "Yes I am! Why?" amusedly, and she says "You look too young!! How old are you?" "Oh I am almost [age censored]!" "I thought you were in your early 20's!"

Oh YES. Ok maybe she didn't say "early", and just 20's but I am going to assume it and attribute the omission to the language barrier given she is from Argentina. She couldn't be that shocked if I was 29 and married RIGHT?

2) zipping on a dress with ease this morning that I haven't fit into for a good 4-5 years. #4morepounds (I may have spent too much time reading tweets on the election last night)

W00t!

Election madness

I wasn't as intrigued by the US election this time around as I was in 2008. But I did watch 2 hours of election coverage tonight, which on Canadian TV featured talk of a bridge between Windsor, Ontario and Detroit, Michigan NOT being vetoed by the State. Gripping stuff.

So once again I am an emotional sap, because, despite my lack of interest in the event besides never wanting a republican to win, I was almost moved to tears by the picture Obama tweeted of him hugging Michelle against a backdrop of a cloudy gray sky. That's a good photographer they have working on their campaign team.

Mmmmm Sunday brunch goodness

My niece and nephew stayed overnight last night so I suggested when my sis and bro in law came to pick them up that we go for brunch and make a little outing of it.

Despite not being a lover of breakfast foods (I never get up early enough to eat a proper one, so maybe it feels like a treat, like when u go to a fancy hotel and it's included in your night's stay!) , I do love brunch. I think it might be the fact that it allows u to eat the breakfast foods that I never eat AND sleep in all the same.

So I excitedly googled best brunch places downtown Vancouver and on the first list I found the first restaurant, The Twisted Fork Bistro, was a block away from our flat. Excellent and done.

As we approached the restaurant this morning at 9:50 in time for the doors to open at 10am I was shocked by the line of probably 30 people already lined up outside the door. Oh no, I thought, if we have to wait there's no way the kids would have the patience! Thankfully my sis and bro in law were well prepared and early and were about 10th in the queue. They even mentioned that the guy in front of them in the line had been there yesterday as well and reassured them that he had gotten seated despite beings further back in the line. Phew. (and what? Two days in a row?)

Well we figured out why he'd need to come back - we will too if we want to try more than one item on the menu. The portions were so huge that we couldn't even take a bite of each others dishes just to sample the fare because our own portions had made us so full!!!

To those in Vancouver, I highly recommend the banana stuffed brioche French toast, and the eggs benny!! To those of u not in Vancouver, this is a must if (come on, when!!!!) u visit!

My sis made us pose outside the restaurant afterwards and told us to make "full" faces, I was the only fool to comply and it turns out a full face is hard to pull off without turning into a "got-the-runs" face

Trick or Treat!

Despite the soggy weather (in which I trotted out my new pink floral rainboots), we bravely went trick or treating with Cinderella and Superman on Wednesday. This was a first-time experience for Keith so it was nice to see some of the houses in my sister's neighbourhood going all out with their pumpkins and their decorations. One homeowner was so committed, he'd built a maze of cardboard walls in his garage so that you had to venture into an entrance at the front of his house and then at the end of the maze (scattered along which were scary skulls and cobwebs etc) you reached him standing at the end, inexplicably dressed as Darth Maul, handing out candy. My niece and nephew required hand-holding and gentle prodding to move along the maze to get to the end. Hilarious!

We also got treated to the sight of some amazing pumpkins:

That's a Darth Vader in the poor picture at the bottom.

But the funniest story was when my nephew Ethan went up to one of the houses and after he got his candy he remarked to his Dad that the houseowner looked like Uncle Keith. My brother in law came giggling down the driveway to tell me this and said that the houseowner wasn't even caucasian, just not Chinese.

The next evening when we went to dinner with them again Ethan was still saying how Keith looked like the man that gave him candy, and then added "but not as handsome". We found this hilarious but pretended that Uncle Keith had very hurt feelings from this comment, so Ethan felt the need to clarify "But you're still goooood!" (i.e. still handsome, just not as handsome as their neighbour). "And you're stronger!", he reassured Keith.

No wonder Uncle Keith gave them double piggyrides after dinner!