Wrapping up...

Work is still a bit hectic, the new enhancement that is released to me last Thursday night (Dec 17), has bounced back numerous times. i.e. I have found critical problem almost everyday which requires immediate fix. Am I just doing too good at my job? I really want to release it before the end of the year so that I can take a day off as my bank time without any burden. Yet, I gave up, when one small error message leads to the discovery of missing files in the package. Another re-release means another cycle of offline database restore, install 2 patches, create data and repeat same test cases over and over. Yes this is my job. I like it, most of the time, but isn't it a bit too much to repeat the same test cases seven times in seven days? I finally decided to take a day off on the 31st, give me break.

Christmas Eve
I have no plan for boxing day shopping; yet, I DID buy something online at the boxing day pre-sale. Both Future Shop and Best Buy are having Boxing Day pre-sale at 5pm Dec 24. End up spending $200 on two external harddrives. Only later I found out that there is no in-store pick up option and there is shipping charged involved. To me it's fine because the shipping charge is waived when purchase is over $39. I guess not for others....(Shipping is $5 which is not too bad but still...)
Note: my package arrived on the 30th...

Went to my friend's place for dinner. Had turkey and other dishes. Great food! Drank 2 glasses (half filled) of red wine (as usual). Then another 1/4 glass to try out the 3rd bottle. During chit-chatting, I don't even realized I already drank two full glasses (smaller glasses this time) of Port wine (22% alcohol content). I started to feel a bit of the heat within my body and I knew it's time to stop. I tried to replenish with more water and I had a slight feeling of wanting to throw up. Luckily I did not. And NO, I am NOT drunk.

Christmas Day
No plan actually. Sleep till almost 2pm and decided to head out to Chinese mall. Can't think of any other shops opened on Christmas Day. Went to the new Beef Noodle place in Aberdeen Center. Pretty good despite the price. Almost $10 for a bowl of noodle is definitely not cheap. Yet there's still a line up at 3pm! Lined up for half an hour before we can get in. The noodle is good and I am quite sure there is no MSG in the soup base. I don't feel thirsty at all. Usually I feel thirsty after having Taiwanese beef noodle. The noodle is not that huge portion actually, so I decided to try out the new Japanese crepe from the food court. My tummy is really satisfied...After that, I just had dinner at home. Haven't actually had dinner at home for so long that I almost forgot "how to cook".

Boxing Day
Yes I did say no plan for boxing day shopping. Still, end up spending some $ as long as I am in some shopping mall. Went for a walk in Oakridge Center. I was trying to use my gift card and I did fulfill that mission. First bought a Wii game (rabbid gomes home) in EB. More than 30 minutes line up. The game is almost half price. I guess it's good deal. This game is the 3rd series of the Rayman Raving Rabbid game. It's just a silly yet funny game. I am not into video game at all. Yet I felt crazy for it. Line up at 6am just to get the Wii console in order to play that game two years ago. Finish the game in less than a week and played till "early morning" almost everyday. The 2nd series is not as good and this final one, I don't even buy it right after the release. Also, because of my busy work schedule lately, I simply can't find time to play. Anyway, getting this game for $29.99 is a good deal. Then I get another sweater for $42. Not bad. But I think I'm going to refund the lingerie from Jacob. Don't really like it when I try it on again at home. This doesn't happen a lot but it does this time. Bought a box of Godiva chocolate (which is also on sale) for my friend, since I'm heading to his place for x'mas party. First time visitor to his place in Burnaby. Had fun playing 飛行棋 after dinner. I won the first game and we all had a great time. My friend did bring Champagne wine and I drank about 3 glasses (mix with orange juice). I think I should be done with drinking this year!

Dec 27
Went to friend's house, mainly to "celebrate" the opening of her new Play Station 3. In the meanwhile, I was busy playing my Cafe World game on Facebook. I think I'm getting a bit too obsessed with it. Anyway, since my friends are having dinner with family, we all left around 5pm. Still too lazy to cook dinner, went to 鐵板燒 type dinner in Richmond. First time to try out this place. Not bad but I still prefer 牛燒 in downtown. Some how I think the chef put too much salt on everything. Maybe just this chef.

I was thinking about went snowboarding the next day so that I grab my equipment back from my in-law's place after dinner. But I already say yes to my friends to go watching Avatar 3D (3pm show). It would be really rush to actually go snowboarding in the morning. So at the end, I gave up that idea, with a bit of dismay...

Dec 28
Instead of snowboarding in the morning, I went to have lunch in the Market restaurant in Vancouver Shangri-La hotel. This is on my to-go list for so long. I was dying to try out the three-Michelin-starred Jean Georges restaurant. Most important of all, in a decent price tag. The 3-course set lunch is just $29. How can I resist this price tag to dine in the Shangri La hotel? And yes, I took skytrain this time...Pictures to follow.

After lunch, we hurry back to the cinema to line up for the 3pm show. Well, all tickets of the 3D Imax show is already gone at 1pm. So we went for the regular 3D version instead. Still, what a great movie! This is one of the few movies that I really want to watch the 2nd time! After movie, I went to VanDusen Garden to watch some X'mas light. It's called the Festival of Light. I have been there few years ago and want to do it again this year. The weather is just great: not too cold at night, and no rain. Perfect for enjoying the X'mas light in the garden. If it's too cold or rainy (which is usually the case in winter), there would be no fun to walk around. When we got there around 6pm, we still need to line up for about 20 minutes in order to get in. This time we also brought tripod and the D60 with us, so the pictures did turn out better than before. My point and shoot camera won't do a good job in the dark.

Dec 29
After 4 days of X'mas holiday, time to get back to work...Today things seems to go smoothly. No new issue found and I was hoping to wrap up the release by tomorrow. Dinner in 麥之根 wonton noodle place. Last time when I went with my coworkers and ordered 和菜, end up paying $10 for each of us and with a full stomach. Not to say, food is good. So I decided to head back this time. However, the 和菜 is 3 dishes minimum I guess it's too much for the two of us. Order regular dishes but portion is small. After dinner, my craving for Chinese dessert came in this winter night. I head to the dessert house @ Saba road, but realized that it's closed until mid January. Too bad my craving is not detoured by this dessert house. So I head to the Sweet Obsession on 16th and MacDonald. I was happy to see the only two empty seats but then, the server says that there is no more table service because they are actually closing at 10pm and we got there at 10pm... OK...nothing can stop my craving!!! I bought a piece of cake to go!!! >_<

Dec 30
My wishes are in vein. Another rebuild of the package is required, definitely no release before the end of the year. I need a break from this crap. Will take a day off on the New Year's Eve. After dinner, my friend asks me out for dessert. Who can resist dessert...We went to Sweet Revenge @ Main & 25th. We shared the tiramisu and cream brulee. Both are GREAT! Love it!

Dec 31
Will make use of this extra day off to do some house cleaning. Hope to have enough time to make a small gift for my friends, since I'm going to count down in her place.

Let's see...
House cleaned (the two bathroom...yuck!): Check!
Laundry folded: Check!
Floors mopped: Check!
Newspaper pile recycled: Check!
Clothes ironed: Check!

Guess I'm ready for the new year....