I thought I'd take this post to catch up on some of the things that have happened in the last 6 months November was my last post! Can you believe it!?). I felt like it was just last month that I wrote something lengthy. Well actually - I've been blogging up a tornado on my work blog (blog.menu.ca) that I hadn't even caught up with my work blog at jacksonlo.com. Maintaining one too many blogs was a bad idea I guess - but I'm surviving.
Guess what!? Officially today at 8:30AM, I am a uncle! Congratulations to my cousin Jennifer and Wai Yan for having their first baby boy, Brennan. Asides from her side immediate family, I was the first relative to go visit her at the hospital :) The baby was 6lbs 12 ounces. Very cute!
OK... First off, just want to wish my mom a Happy Mother's Day (and her birthday is this month also). My brother and I took her out to St. Huberts last night (her favourite place to go for fast/westerny-type food). 26 years of dealing my stubbornness, my mom's always been there for me every step of the way. I love you mom!
Earlier that day, my dad was around to celebrate my belated birthday. I really feel life weighing down on me now with a career, mortgage and hundreds of other bills and events that spring up as each day goes by. Days feel shorter, that's why I must spend as much time with my folks as I can and not waste any of it.
Every year, we have KFC for lunch to celebrate my birthday, followed by cake (I know - really unhealthy). Usually, my parents order the cake from St Honor located in chinatown. Unfortunately, that bakery shop closed down last year. This year, I asked for a cake designed with a character, but they "forgot" to put it on the cake. How sad. Oh well. Thanks mommy and daddy for buying me lunch and the delicious cake :)
Each birthday that goes by, it brings my mind back to the earlier years when responsibilities was less of a concern. Boy do I miss those days!
My Birthday
Last weekend, my girlfriend organized a birthday get together for me (thanks baby!). It was very sweet of her to do this - and in doing so she helped me cross off one of my bucket list items; firing off a real gun.
I had the opportunity to fire 4 handguns and a shotgun. The handguns were definitely a lot more fun. The kickback on those babies were just... so cool! I don't remember all the guns that I shot with, but I believe these were it (to the best of my memory):
- Don't remember was this gun was, but it was weak!
- Some type of revolver
- cz 75 b cal 9 luger
- A4 Magnum .44
and yes - we shot at bores lol. If anyone is interested in going - we went to the Stittsville Gun Range.
The shotgun was a beast! After a quick 2 minute lesson, we were firing shotguns at moving discs... one at a time of course. Each time we had two rounds loaded in the shotgun. We would shout 'pull' to get a disc flying across us to fire at. If my memory serves me right, I shot 6 out of 15 rounds. Not too shabby... but wish I did better. Allan was declared the winner with 8 / 15.
The one thing that sucked was the fact that Chris, Ruixi, Kristy and I had to separate from the group for the handgun while others went to do the shotgun. Initially, we thought we would be shooting together. Given the amount of time we had, we finished off right at 5PM, just when they close. So if you decide to plan a gun range event, be sure to book for an earlier time.
Kristy's Surprise Birthday
After a week's planning for baby's birthday, she lurked onto my iPad and found messages being sent to Kristen, a friend she's known since elementary. I had originally planned everything on Whatsapp... while most people were on there, some I had to reach out to over Facebook or Text Message. My fear was if I communicated with anyone over Facebook, Kristy would find out. Either she would be on my computer at home while I'm chatting with someone on my phone / at work, or it shows up on the iPad. Bad idea!! She found out the day before the surprise dinner.
The dinner was held at Union613 (corner of O'connor and Somerset). This would be the second time for me there. Originally I had asked Kristy to go out with me for dinner, just the two of us. After she found out about the dinner, she told me she didn't believe in that plan... because I would never take her out alone to Union613. I just lol'd.
At dinner was the birthday girl, Kristen, Hao, Mike, Alyssa, Kelvin and myself. I was happy to have gathered all of her close friends together, some of which she hasn't seen in a long time :)
At the end of dinner, I organized Chocolate and Orange Shorbet as her 'cake'. I told Kristy what I got her for her cake and she didn't sound pleased :( My plan was to get orange shorbet because she's been asking for it every time we go to a mall. Laura Secord's Orange Shorbet is her favourite of all times (with the chocolate on top). Unfortunately, they discontinued that flavour. I tried looking at other places who may have it and finally nailed it down to Gelatini Gelato on Preston Street. Both Kristy and I thought the chocolate was really rich, I enjoyed it. The organic shorbet was a bit of a disappointment and that was the one I wanted for her. It's too bad that an ice cream shop fails to meet the expectations of exceptional ice cream (or shorbet) when that's the only thing they make.
After dinner, we invited everyone over for some board games and to chill. We ended up playing Cranium - a close battle between guys and gals. In the end, the gals took us down by just one point. It was close.
I've got more stories to share about this past weekend, but I think I will save it for another post as this one is getting quite lengthy. Until then, see ya!
The one thing that sucked was the fact that Chris, Ruixi, Kristy and I had to separate from the group for the handgun while others went to do the shotgun. Initially, we thought we would be shooting together. Given the amount of time we had, we finished off right at 5PM, just when they close. So if you decide to plan a gun range event, be sure to book for an earlier time.
After the gun range, we all met back up at Navarra Restaurant for dinner. The food was good, but it wasn't 'great' for their prices. Kristy bought me a delicious mango cake from TnT... mmmm!!! Seeing 26 on the cake kinda freaks me out...
Thank you friends for coming out and celebrating my birthday one more time :)
Kristy's Surprise Birthday
After a week's planning for baby's birthday, she lurked onto my iPad and found messages being sent to Kristen, a friend she's known since elementary. I had originally planned everything on Whatsapp... while most people were on there, some I had to reach out to over Facebook or Text Message. My fear was if I communicated with anyone over Facebook, Kristy would find out. Either she would be on my computer at home while I'm chatting with someone on my phone / at work, or it shows up on the iPad. Bad idea!! She found out the day before the surprise dinner.
The dinner was held at Union613 (corner of O'connor and Somerset). This would be the second time for me there. Originally I had asked Kristy to go out with me for dinner, just the two of us. After she found out about the dinner, she told me she didn't believe in that plan... because I would never take her out alone to Union613. I just lol'd.
At dinner was the birthday girl, Kristen, Hao, Mike, Alyssa, Kelvin and myself. I was happy to have gathered all of her close friends together, some of which she hasn't seen in a long time :)
At the end of dinner, I organized Chocolate and Orange Shorbet as her 'cake'. I told Kristy what I got her for her cake and she didn't sound pleased :( My plan was to get orange shorbet because she's been asking for it every time we go to a mall. Laura Secord's Orange Shorbet is her favourite of all times (with the chocolate on top). Unfortunately, they discontinued that flavour. I tried looking at other places who may have it and finally nailed it down to Gelatini Gelato on Preston Street. Both Kristy and I thought the chocolate was really rich, I enjoyed it. The organic shorbet was a bit of a disappointment and that was the one I wanted for her. It's too bad that an ice cream shop fails to meet the expectations of exceptional ice cream (or shorbet) when that's the only thing they make.
After dinner, we invited everyone over for some board games and to chill. We ended up playing Cranium - a close battle between guys and gals. In the end, the gals took us down by just one point. It was close.
I've got more stories to share about this past weekend, but I think I will save it for another post as this one is getting quite lengthy. Until then, see ya!
