Sunday, May 31, 2009

Weekend Part 2 - White Rock and Giraffe Restaurant

After Deacon's Corner, we drove to White Rock for some lazy time on the beach. The weather was gorgeous and of course the view at Ocean Park was amazing. Dinner was at Giraffe Restaurant, both of our dishes were delicious. We spent a total of five hours there and wished we could have spent more. It was a nice relaxing weekend; I hope I can do this every week for the rest of my life.

Weekend Part 1 - Deacon's Corner

Lunch today was spent at a nice little diner near Gastown called Deacon's Corner, recommended by our good friend Maureen. My corned beef hash was delicious and Amy had a yummy English Muffin and Sausage. I never would have known about this nice place had it not been for Maureen, so thanks! She has a habit of picking just the right restaurant.

Monday, May 25, 2009

Eat Vancouver

The weekend's festivities included attending the Eat Vancouver show at B.C. Place Stadium. We got to sample a large variety of foods and even a bit of wine and sake. There were a lot of interesting products, but unfortunately there wasn't a lot of beef tasting!

Afterwards Amy and I went to Osaka Teppanyaki for a nice dinner.

Friday, May 22, 2009

Star Trek

"Space, the final frontier...."; and so the story begins of how one James Tiberius Kirk became the captain of NCC-1701. While I was never a big fan of the old Star Trek series, I did watch some of the episodes and remember the chemistry and comraderie of the cast. This movie was a great salute to the old series, with a lot of the old jokes. The actor who played the young Spock was scarily similar to Leonard Nimoy (who has a great role in the movie as well) and Simon Pegg was hilarious as Scotty. It would have been nice to see that William Shatner fellow have at least a cameo. But it wasn't meant to be.

Terminator Salvation

Part 1 of action movie night started with the fourth installment of the Terminator franchise. Usually by now a sequel would become a prequel and tell the story of how the movie started in the first place (see Batman, Superman, X-Men, etc.). Arguably this was similar as it told the story of how John Connor met his son who is actually older than he is, etc. But how can you have a Terminator movie without The Governator? Well technically he did show up but perhaps only for a laugh. All in all, as expected, the movie was full of amazing action sequences and CGI, but it lacked a sensible story line.

Thursday, May 21, 2009

Back to Reality

I didn't win the Lotto 6/49 jackpot of $50 million. At least somebody in Western Canada did so I didn't have to make plans to fly to Eastern Canada. I hope it's one of my relatives or REALLY good friends.

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

Dancing With the Stars

Sometimes I don't understand what all the hype is with all these celebrity reality shows. For me, last night was a good example of how silly they really are. For the last four weeks of the show, it had nothing to do with who was the better dancer, but rather who was the most popular. Ask any dancing judge who was the better dancer last night and almost all of them would have said Gilles Marini. But we all know the show has nothing to do with skill. The same goes for American Idol. The better person doesn't always win.

Sunday, May 17, 2009

$49 Mllion

The 6/49 jackpot for this Wednesday is a paltry $49 million. Well what am I going to do with so little money? Hopefully it will go to somebody who doesn't live east of Manitoba as it almost always does. It's about time the jackpot goes to a River Rock floor manager who wants to go back to Vegas as soon as possible.

Friday, May 15, 2009

Dinner and Dessert

Tonight Amy and I had dinner on the patio of Monk McQueen's. The weather was gorgeous and the view was beautiful. Across the water I could see the old Concorde Pacific side which brought back a lot of memories. After dinner we took a little walk then went downtown to the Marble Slab Creamery for some yummy ice cream. This is a cool concept, although it was a bit on the pricey side.

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Boo Hoo Canucks

After a gallant season, the Canucks bowed out of the playoffs to the Chicago Blackhawks last night. Unfortunately, as usual, the city of Vancouver was quick to jump off the bandwagon as they always due. Blogs were already giving Luongo a hard time. This is Roberto Luongo, the hardest working hockey player by far, the one who came back from injury to lead the Canucks into the playoffs. This is Roberto Luongo, the goalie who can literally steal a game for Vancouver with death-defying saves. But of course as usual, the Vancouver press will have only bad things to say. Will anybody thank the Canucks for a memorable season (that includes the so-called fans)? No, because as usual they jump off the bandwagon. These are the same fans who had already given up on the Canucks in January. These are the same fans who had already given up after Game 4 because supposedly the Canucks didn't have the heart anymore. Well, enjoy the time off the bandwagon. Now at least the real fans in Detroit and Chicago will have something to cheer for.

Monday, May 11, 2009

X-Men Origins: Wolverine

Next to that space movie, this movie was on my list of "must-see" movies. Even Amy wanted to go see it, but for a different reason. The film was a nice insight for the non-X-Men fanatics into how Wolverine became, well, Wolverine. Hugh Jackman was his usual excellent self playing this character. There were some cool cameos in the movie as well, including a famous poker player.

Thursday, May 07, 2009

RIP Danny Gans

It is with sad news that I report the death of one of Las Vegas' most famous performers. Mr. Gans passed away the morning of May 1 and I only found out about this sad news today. I was fortunate to have finally got to see his show at the Wynn on my last trip to Vegas the end of March. His impersonations of performers was amazing. Another life lost way before his time.

Wednesday, May 06, 2009

Spring Waltz

I've become addicted to this 2006 Korean 20-episode soap. I'm up to Episode 13 and although it's somewhat of a standard Korean drama (boy meets girl, girl likes another boy, etc.) it is very addicting. Evidently Spring Waltz is part of a series of dramas each with seasons in their names. I remember way back when I was addicted to those Chinese tearjerkers on TV. Maybe I won't have time for Facebook.

Saturday, May 02, 2009

Ghosts of Girlfriends Past

I never was a Matthew McCoughney fan (I don't even know how to spell his last name correctly) but I heard good things about this movie. And Michael Douglas was in it so what the heck. I took my good luck charm Amy and once again the movie was a thumbs up. Parts of it really hit home but overall I had a good time. Call me silly but Michael Douglas' performance was so cool that he might even have an outside chance for one of those Oscar nominations.