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Le condo en images

Of course it couldn't go smoothly. The movers were an hour late. Arghh. We're here now so it's all that matters.

So here's our new place!

Kitchen

Living Room
Don't mind the headboard behind the couch. It has yet to be installed.

Bedroom
This window is quite amazing. I see the stars at night and a beautiful sunrise in the morning.
Where's the headboard?!?



Just in case you're interested in closets...

Office
R's work station (includes a cat)


Smarties's work station


"Cheater" bathroom


The ceramic was one of the most expensive upgrades but I love how it turned out.
It doesn't show too well on this picture, unforturnately.

Close-up. It's charcoal, not black.

Voilà!

Closing 2.0 launched (painfully)

This closing/move has not gone smoothly.

As planned, I met the lawyer at 9:30 am this morning. After I signed the papers, they were couriered to the builder’s lawyer. Since both firms are located downtown, it was supposed to take about 30 minutes to get the keys back. With our luck, I waited for 1.5 hours, but I got them!

Our appliances were supposed to be delivered between 8am and 5pm. With our luck again, we got a call at 8am! We couldn’t even enter the condo at that time. We called the builder who graciously offered to open the door for them even though it’s not something they are responsible for. All was fine and dandy until the elevator broke down!!! The appliances were left in the lobby until 3 pm. To our surprise, the builder graciously offered to bring them up for us. Our builder rocks.

The place looks fantastic. I brought my camera, but didn’t realize there was no memory card in it. Duh. I’ll post pictures tomorrow.

Closing 1.0 failed to launch

Our closing was scheduled today. The money from our investment account was supposed to be deposited into our chequing account by 1 pm. I was then supposed to get a certified cheque from our bank, run to the law firm, and close the deal before 5 pm.

Here’s how things went. We got an email at noon from our financial advisor telling us that the money had been wired “from their end”. Yippee, I was off to the bank. To my despair, the certified cheque could not be issued as the money had not been transferred yet. I guess our financial advisor did not realize that transfers from one RBC organization to another are not instantaneous. I waited until 3 pm. At that point, our lawyer was no longer available so I came home.

Thirty minutes later, I noticed that the money had, hallelujah, arrived. I immediately returned to the bank. I now have a certified cheque, but no lawyer. We have to wait until tomorrow morning to meet with her.

Wish me luck for Closing 2.0 tomorrow!

Our Elephant Ride (Thailand)

We just received this picture from a fellow travel mate.

Census Gaffe

As you know, the 2006 census was conducted last May. Population and dwelling counts were scheduled for release tomorrow, but that won't happen. Data collection in Western Canada was slower than expected. Due to the oil boom, finding people willing to accept $12/hr to collect forms was apparently challenging. Stats Can ended up way over budget and way late.

This compromised the integrity of the data collected. If you filled out the census like you should have, you will remember that you were required to provide your name...Unless you live in Western Canada that is. To save time and money, this question was skipped.

"At the end, they just said, 'We really don't care. As long as you can find out if there [are] three people that live in that house, put down Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck on it. We don't care about a name.' " (CBC Article)

Buah ah ah! That is the funniest thing I've heard in a long time (in a geeky way). It's especially funny to me as I know how much useless information is collected in surveys everyday at the expense of the respondent. Instead of asking useful information, researchers ask "interesting-to-know” information. "Interesting-to-know" is just that, interesting to know. It is usually not actionable which simply makes it useless. It's a sign of a mediocre researcher who really has no clear idea of what it is that he/she wants to find out.

If you filled out the census like you should have, you will also remember that you were asked a question for the very first time: Do you agree to have your census information made available to the public in 92 years, in other words in the year 2098? Your consent will be extremely valuable to historians and genealogists, except if you live in Western Canada. Without names, their job will be incredibly painful. Mickey Mouse, Minnie Mouse and Donald Duck's census files will drive historians nuts.

You're Hired!

Every year, new researchers are hired at work. Last year, I was involved with checking references. I learned two very important lessons through the process.

#1 Pick someone who knows you. There are two streams in sociology: Theory vs Research. We’re hiring for a r-e-s-e-a-r-c-h-e-r position. Don’t pick a theory prof to describe your research skills. They can’t answer half of my questions.

#2 Pick someone who likes you. People were brutally honest. I had someone tell me “she is good, but not a star, know what I mean?” Ouch.

This year, I am on the hiring board. Not sure how I feel about that. First, I am not overly interested in HR matters. Second, I am extremely busy with my other projects. Of course, I had to accept otherwise it would have looked really bad. It shall be interesting.

Happy 3rd Wedding Anniversary

I can't believe it's been three years already. Time flies! We're part of this very small group of people who got married in the winter. Good thing it was in Jamaica!

And you know what the best part is? It gets better everyday ;-).

My HoneyBunny Is Stuck!

Rock slides are regular occurrences on the Sea-to-Sky highway connecting Whistler to Vancouver. R is stuck in Squamish right now, so close to Vancouver, argh. He had to reschedule is flight to 11pm tonight, but he may not be able to catch it depending on how long it will take to clean up the road. The police estimated 6 to 8 hrs.

And the highway cam is temporarily unavailable. No sh*t. It must be buried under a meter of mud or something!

They really need to do something about that highway before the Olympics.

THINKERs

DINKs -Double Income No Kids- is so passé. My new favorite expression is THINKERs -Two Healthy Incomes No Kids Early Retirement!

I came across this website: dinksfinance. I haven't had time to check it out, but I thought the idea was a super cool one.

Home Alone

R is in Whistler, B.C. skiing with his friends this weekend. I have enough work to keep myself busy all weekend, but it still sucks. I especially hate sleeping and eating alone. Ugh.

We’re moving in three weeks. My cubicle is full of empty cardboard boxes. My living room is full of empty cardboard boxes. My colleagues call me the “box lady” and my husband calls me “box bunny”!

We got our mortgage approved last week. We went with the CIBC AeroMortgage. I am a point whore, what can I say? RBC was not happy, but they deserve it. When we bought our first house in 2002, we were a tad clueless. Because the rates were so good, we opted for a seven year closed mortgage. We never even thought that perhaps we would sell before the end of the seven year period. Duh, seven years is a life time. What were we thinking?!? When the house was sold after less than two years, RBC charged us a $5,000 penalty. Oh, we tried to fight that one. Despite the fact that we invested the profit with them and a potential guarantee that we would get another RBC mortgage in the future, they wouldn’t budge. Last week, when we asked our RBC financial advisor to transfer money from our investment account to our saving account, he said: “that’s going to be for your RBC mortgage?” Let me think…noooo. Loyalty goes both ways, dude.

Five Facts About Moi

Lexy has tagged me. Once you have been tagged, you have to write a blog with 5 facts about yourself. Then choose 5 people you want to tag and list their names. Then leave a comment on their blog letting them know they’ve been tagged.

1. I love raw food (steak tartar, sushi, Pillsbury cookie dough).

2. I have been to 21 countries.

3. I have swam with dolphins, petted cheetahs, and rode an elephant.

4. I have been TVless for almost three years.

5. Something BIG is about to happen in my life. No, it's not a bébé. Stay tuned.

I'm going to tag:

Doctor T
Foxy
Daisie
Science Geek
Tabitha

Crossing the streets of Hanoi

Traffic in Hanoi



Us crossing the street in Hanoi

Shopping for appliances suck

I hate shopping for appliances. We're moving into our condo next month. As a result, we really needed to buy our appliances. We beat a record. We bought: fridge, stove, dishwasher, over-the-range microwave, washer, and dryer in fifteen minutes. It still wasn't fast enough for my taste.

Siem Reap & Ankgor, Cambodia

Siem Reap's boat ride

Siem Reap's main attraction is Ankgor. Angkor is often compared Machu Picchu or the Pyramids. It's definitely something to see. It is a 155 square kilometres ruined city built between the 9th and the 13th centuries deep in the Cambodian jungle. It was discovered in the 1800s.

Us in a tuk tuk

The End.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia. It turned out to be my favourite country. It's unbelievable that people can still smile after the events they went through. Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge killed 3 million Cambodians. It was one of the worse genocide in history. We visited one of the killing field. You could see bones and teeth in the ground. We also visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. Our local guide, whose father was killed during the genocide, made the event even more real. It was a very emotional day.

Children near the killing field

Grand Palace (Cambodia has a king)

Recommendations:
Dining: Luna D'Autunno (Italian), #6c Street 29, Tel. (023)220 895

Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Vietnam

I loved, loved, loved Saigon. Cosmopolitan with an asian touch. Moccacino, suishi, hot water, that's how I like it! We visited the War Crime Museum (very disturbing) and the famous Cu Chi Tunnels.

We drove to Cao Dai Temple at Tay Ninh to join the noon day prayer. This was just bizarre. Cao Dai is a religion created in 1926. It combines all big religions into one, has Victor Hugo as a Saint, and a governing body similar to the US. Très bizarre. If anyone is interested: Information.

Cao Dai Temple
(Looks like a cross between Walt Disney World and Las Vegas)

Recommendations:
Dining: The Sushi Bar , 2 Le Thanh Ton, District 1, Ho Chi Minh City, Tel: (84-8) 823 8042
Activity: For great views, drinks at the Sheraton, 88 Dong Khoi Street, District 1 Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam - Tel: (84)(8) 827 2828

Hoi An, Vietnam

Hoi An is a 5 hours scenic drive across the spectacular Col des Nuages (the Pass of Ocean Clouds) from Hué. We stopped by the South China sea. Too bad the weather was aweful! I am willing to bet that Vietnam will be the next big beach destination in Asia. They have beautiful beaches and are starting to build resorts.

Marble Mountain

We participated in a Vietnamese cooking class. We first went to the market to buy our ingredients (squid below).

Making spring rolls.

Lanterns

We celebrated the new year in Hoi An, Vietnam. It was a quiet evening as we had to get up at 5am the next day to catch our flight to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon).

Recommendations:
Accommodation: Vinh Hung Riverside Resort
Activity: Cooking class! Many different options, easy to find.