Moved!

Please visit my blog here: http://home.qpaulson.net/~julie/blog/

Domain Expired :(

The domain name juliehsu.com that Q registered for me was expired without any notice. Instead of paying the regular $11.99 per year to renew it, the domain registrar charges $97.99 if I want to get the same domain name back. Another way is to wait for 70 days until the domain name goes back to the market first and then buy it back. This really sucks! So, I'm back on blogger now.

This weekend, we went to Kerrisdale- a neighborhood where I grew up and lived there for 15 years. The MacDonald's was where I got my first part time job in Gr.11. Hills was my favourite shopping spot and Starbucks was a convenient spot for meeting up and hanging out with friends. Further down the street was a Vancity branch where I worked there for a year. It brings back great memories.

We had a cup of Cappuchino at Caffè Artigiano:


The wall of coffee bean bags gave a good reflection of light and created a nice bokeh background:


Played with a new idea of cloning image:

民視娘家

昨天看奇摩新聞時注意到一個最近爆紅的女星叫廖家儀，說她是娘家四朵花之一，好奇從Youtube從找出來看，看了第一集就讓我哭得唏哩嘩啦的。也許是自己也剛結婚沒多久的關係，感觸特別深。其中新娘爸爸對她的叮嚀，令人超感動的。他說：「做媳婦沒什麼要領,如公婆在忙要學聰明點,別關在房間裡,如果妯娌在做事,妳要勤快點幫忙」，「夫家是做武市生意,有時說話大聲了點,妳嫁過去,耳根子要重一點」，印象最深刻的就是：「婚前的幸福是父母給的，婚後的幸福是要靠自己」。做父母的對女兒總是有那麼多的不捨和牽掛，我大概從爸爸煮絲瓜粥開始哭一直到新娘嫁過去和夫家的父母奉茶，才停下來。

Q先生在一旁傻眼完全不知道我怎麼能看個Youtube個可以哭成這樣。沒看過的人真的可以去看看。

A Dog's Life

Since Mom is now in Taiwan, Yuan is staying with us now. He has been a very good boy, or a good old man. I feel bad for leaving him at home all day when we are at work. He snoozes all day until we get home. And, we are also not very active at night, he usually just wanders around while we are watching TV or playing wow. So, I bought him a new bed, new toy and new treats. At the cashier lineup, the lady in front of me asked if I was spoiling a new puppy. I said no, an old dog, but spoiled. :)

Hopefully, the weather will be dry this weekend so we can take him out for a walk and shoot some more photos.

My MAC is broken!!

I was planning to enjoy some wow time tonight, but didn’t get very far at all. I logged in the game and decided to fly to a different town to do more questing. And, in the middle of the flight path, the whole game shut down!!! I first thought it was a game bug, possibly introduced by the patch released recently. But, when I tried to restart the game, my mac started making some funky noise. I then shut down the mac by pressing the power button for 10 seconds until it made a beeping sound. It took forever to load the OS and still made crazy noise. Q thinks the hard drive is pooched. :(

愛上 Canon 5D Mark II

Aunt Lisa and Uncle David took us out for dim sum today. Austin brought the new 5D Mark II he got for Xmas and let us play with it a bit. Q and I absolutely love it. The quality of the photo is amazing, especially with the super duper 85mm f/1.2 lense. I really want one now, but it is out of our budget. =(

Here are some photos Q took with the 5D Mark II:

Happy 60th Birthday, Mom!

Mom is turning 60 this year. Time really flies. She had a 60th birthday lunch party with a lot of friends last Wednesday. Photos can be viewed here. Since we had to work and couldn't join her lunch party, we took her out for a nice dinner today. We went to a new restaurant just opened in mid-December called "Chop". The decor was amazing, food was delicious and atmosphere was great. Mom really enjoyed the food and she even had a little bit of wine! Also, she got so excited after she came back from the washroom. She said it was the most beautiful luxurious public washroom she's ever been!!

Due to the low light in the restaurant, it was very hard to take good clear photos. But here are a few to share:

Outside:




Inside:

Central - eat ✸ drink ✸ play

We went to a small cozy place called "Central" by English bay for Saturday brunch. We didn't have to wait for long and the service was pretty good. But, the food is not as good as "Crave". It's a bit cheaper though.

Outside:


I had their turkey sausage benny made with organic omega 3 eggs.


We also went for a mini photo shoot session. Mostly, it was Q shooting me. =)

Bean Around the World @ Kits Beach:


Shaw Tower in downtown:




English Bay:

Saturday Breakfast @ Crave

We got there at around 1:30pm and didn't have to wait for long. The dishes were straight forward but free range eggs, homemade potatoes and organic coffee made everything special. The prices were quite reasonable too. This small cozy bistro on Main Street is definitely worth a try.


Q ordered "Make Your Own Omelette"- bacon, tomato, mushroom


I ordered a traditional Benny

Dine Out Vancouver 2009

We didn't get to enjoy Dine Out Vancouver last year as we were so busy with our wedding planning, but we definitely will go try a few new restaurants this year and take advantage of this annual event. Here are the ones we are interested in trying:

1. Highlander Restaurant- This one is in Richmond, so it should be convenient to go.

2. Shady Island Seafood Bar and Grill- This one is also in Richmond, and it would be nice to go on a nice sunny day and take some photos at Steveston.

3. Yokohama Teppanyaki Japanese Restaurant- I'm not sure about this one yet, but Q never tried tepanyaki, so maybe it's worth a try.

4. Cloud 9 Revolving Restaurant & Lounge (The)- This one would be nice for Valentines Day, but DOV is only valid from Jan.14 to Feb.1. We may or may not get to try this one after all.

5. Joe Fortes- We plan to take Mom there for her birthday. It's her BIG 60 this year!

Keep my fingers crosses and hope to win the VISA Dine Out for a Year Contest! VISA is giving out 1 Grand Prize: 52 dinner for two gift certificates provided by various participating restaurants. Approximate retail value is $3,900 CDN; and 5 Second Prizes: Five $100 CDN Tickets Tonight gift certificates for your choice of entertainment or sporting events.