My new love Marshall

My dear coworker Diana and I was super excited to hear Marshall's coming to Canada and we decided to visit the Heartland location on its Grand Opening day.  We left work on the dot and zipped through afternoon traffic on the 401 to get there before 5 and we just beat the rush - it was madness from the long line-up entering the parking lot to fighting for parking spots - had we arrived 10 minutes later we would have had to line up outside the store due to crowd-control measures.

The store was packed - especially at the shoes section, where we had trouble navigating through the aisles.  I saw a pair of leather converse hi-tops that were only 30 bucks, but there were none in my size.  We had better luck at the fashion sections though and even though the line-up in the fitting room was long, we had tons of fun trying on everything and getting fashion advice from each other.  Unfortunately for my coworker who had even cleaned out her closet ahead of time, she only came away with a pair of cargo pants, a nice frilly top and a totally adorable cotton sundress.  I, on the other hand, was able to score quite a bit.

Surprise find at Marshall's -


Used to buy these in a little pack of 5's all the time from the little candy store on Bloor when I was in school but was told that they don't make these anymore - so when I saw them I just had to pick one up!!

Eva's scarf

I had picked up this gorgeous chenille yarn in royal blue because it reminded me of Eva, her birthstone being the sapphire. Almost six years later, after trying to turn it into a decent scarf a few times by knitting and not liking how they turned out, I decided to give it one last try - but with crochet. The yarn had long since been discontinued and i had lost the label, so there was no way i could have found another skein. I thought this interesting pattern would be perfect because unlike other ruffly neckwarmers that is done lengthwise, I could adjust this pattern by changing the number of the motifs so that I don't have to worry about running out of yarn. Turns out I only had enough for a dozen pieces of coral linked together, but it's still long enough to wrap around the neck.

Happy Easter Weekend!

Happy Easter!!

I had another great day of shopping especially since it's such a rare occasion that B would take me to a warehouse sale! Although I had other kinds of garment in mind I ended up falling in love with these adorable booties with a bow on the side and these fun heels in feminine purple and pink.








I can hardly wait to wear them!!

a fun night of scrabble

We still met up for our usual game night yesterday despite Michelle's absence, and still managed to have fun playing an epic round of Scrabble followed by Boggle.  Alan's an expert in a "tight" Scrabble game - he knows all the two-letter words allowed by the Scrabble dictionary and often played overlapping words where he would score points for 3 or 4 words.  James, on the other hand, plays carefully and strategically - just like how he treats everything else in life. I always find it amazing how much you can learn about a person through playing games.

The Scrabble game opened with me laying down the first word followed by Alan's bingo then James' bingo - and by mid-game Alan and I had half given up hope because James was leading by far and had almost double the points compared to what I got.  On top of that, while he was trying to block them, Alan gave away two triple-word-score bonus to James!  It didn't help that Alan kept missing the vowels when he drew from the bag.

When the game was nearing the end and there were no more letters in the bag, I thought, hey, it was still a fun game even though I didn't get the luck to play a bingo.  Then I saw it - my last 7 letters made a word - and one that could fit on the board too.  With the bingo bonus and the penalties they suffered for having unused letters, I ended up coming in first, beating James by 20 points and Alan by over 50!!  Coincidentally, my bingo word that effectively ended the game was "CRUSHER".

Epic.

Finally finished!!

I seem to be on a roll lately with finishing yarn projects, reworking the fun pom-pom yarn into the fluffy loopy scarf. And today I have put the final touch on my newly finished crochet case!! I had considered making a simple loop and button closure but when I found the length of pink ribbon, I knew it would be perfect for the case.















The only problem is, now that the case is finished, where had all my crochet hooks gone?

Lost

Two hours after leaving work I finally got home - and I can't really blame the traffic, because I kept making the wrong turns and missing the right ones. I ended up going around and around and around in circles - I must have passed Islington Ave. 3 times - and took triple the normal time to reach home. And of course I did that on the day that gas price reached an all time high.


I was doing the same thing this morning when I missed the exit to the highway and the next thing I knew I had missed the exit to the alternate route too. And on top of that, my sunglasses had gone missing and the spare pair I had left at B's place. Must be all the things that's been occupying my mind - the death of a good friend's parent, the proposal, the ring, and let-downs by several friends with whom I thought were closer.  I wonder if it's a sign - it's parallel to what's going on in my life - going in circles and taking so long to get where I wanna go... I guess the only comforting thought is that I do eventually get there.

I want WantWant!!

What a pleasant surprise to find this can't-stop-at-one snack in the small Chinese grocery store in Cooksville. I had only seen it at specialized snack shops and very rarely at grocery stores. It brings back fond memories of when we'd splurge on these crunchy rice cakes during recess in elementary school - except the packaging is different and the size of the rice cake is different. Tasted just as awesome as I had remembered it to be though. I'm happy!

Best roti ever!!!

Yummy curry chicken with roti at Kim Dinh at Bur Oak and McCowan - best roti I've had at a Viet/Thai restaurant - it's crispy on the outside and tender on the inside, and was the perfect canvas for the richly flavored curry that is just spicy enough to keep us wanting more. We are already planning our next visit because there were so many other dishes on the menu we wanted to try, plus the portion size is big even though the prices are a little higher than the other Vietnamese restaurants.