Apr
28
Over the weekend we went and watched Harold and Kumar – Escape From Guantanamo Bay. Having seen the first movie (Harold and Kumar Go To Whitecastle), I went in with fairly low expectations based on the fact that the movie (although was funny) was based on a couple of stoners.
I thought that this sequel was much more hilarious than the first one because it focussed the jokes more around the minority groups of North America and how ignorant some people really are. One scene that stuck out for me what the airport security scene. I pissed myself laughing because I’ve been through exactly the same "racial profiling" that Kumar experienced… On almost every flight I’ve taken since 9/11 I have had to make sure I am clean shaven, don’t wear any shoes that have steel toe caps or a belt just to make sure I don’t set off the metal detectors. Even after taking these precautions, without fail I’m always pulled aside for "additional screening" or "explosive/radiation testing"
regardless to whether the metal detector beeped or not.
For those of you who haven’t seen the movie I’ve got the video clip of the scene for you to check out… enjoy…!
Apr
26
 
Over the past couple of weeks we’ve had Steve and Bonnie came to visit Vancouver. Steve’s been flying between here and Elko for work and in between site visits he’s been living in Vancouver. Instead of going back home for R&R (rest and recreation), he got his company to fly Bonnie out. Lucky girl…!
 
It’s been great to catch up with these guys as we’re always starved for news from home and always its a nice reason to get out and about to actually do some sight seeing. No matter where we live “permanently”, the sight seeing always gets put on hold because we have the mentality of “oh we can go there anytime…”
 
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So prior to Steve and Bonnie flying off to Las Vegas we did a drive out to the Seattle Premium Outlets to do some shopping and then the plan was to have dinner with Poe, Frances and Janlyk but I was so burnt out from the work travel debacle (don’t get me started on that) so we ended up driving home.
 
 
As part of the “to do list” of sights around Vancouver I took them up to Cypress Mountain because Bonnie hasn’t been in snow before. The ski season has been over for a month so the entire mountain was deserted! We were the only people up there so it was great. We threw snowballs… at Bonnie… climbed snowy hills and made steve do a stuntman roll down them… and finally… let the pooches run free… while Princess Jasmin does what she does best… look cute and get carried around…Â
 
 
 
I can’t believe how much Candy loves snow. She ran around the car park like a mad dog and kept on trudging through the run off drains to get onto the snow embankments. I’ve never seen a dog get dirty so quickly…
 
Bonnie couldn’t quite grasp the concept of “Bear Proof” rubbish bins… and since she couldn’t open it, they were also dubbed “Bonnie Proof”… No Pic-a-nic basket for you!
 
Last night we went out for dinner to a Japanese/Korean BBQ restaurant called Shabusen. In preparation of getting “maximum value” out of the buffet we all starved ourselves during the day. While ordering Bonnie didn’t quite get the concept of if the menu had “pcs” after it that it meant “per piece”. So after ordering “1 pcs” of Chicken Karage the waiter came out with a huge tray with a small side plate that had 1 chicken wing on it. The waiter had this smirk on his face that basically said “I know you didn’t want just one chicken wing… but that’s how you ordered it…so here you go…” Next we were contemplating if it was possible to order 53 grains of steamed rice… After much Sashimi Salmon, Oysters, Mussels, BBQ meats and sushi we threw in the towel once we reached a point where we couldn’t move. It was a great night and I like restaurants like that where you can take your time to finish your meal and can have long conversations…
 
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Alas all good things must come to an end and I can’t believe how quickly the time has passed! Bonnie of flying out tomorrow and once again she’s going to have to deal with the jet lag and be stripped off a day of her life with the time zone changes… It was great catching up with you guys and we’ll see you soon! Â
Apr
04
Introducing the latest member of the Tavakoli Clan… “Keana Tavakoli”. This cute little bub was born at 10:30pm on the 1st of April. When Aaron sent me at SMS saying that she was born I had to think twice before reacting because I wasn’t sure if it was an April Fool’s Day prank. Maria was at that stage of late pregnancy where she was itching for the baby to be born…
 
Even if it was, this is one prank I don’t mind happening to me. She’s so cute, her skin is so soft and has the cutest dramatic cry. Keanna loves being bundled up into a ball and carried all the time…
 
I was so amazed at how the night nurse was so confident and full of advise and wisdom. It sure would be comforting to a new parent being faced with the daunting task of caring for a newborn.Â
This is the second addition to the family and I’m sure Tash can’t wait until she’s old enough so she can play dress up with her!
Apr
01
Being April Fool’s Day, my boss and I decided to play a practical joke on the Investor Relations guys. The companies that I work for are all publicly floated and are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX). While they were in their daily meeting I took a screen shot of the software that they use to monitor the stock prices of the companies. I edited the image to make our stock crash to 10 cents to simulate that a large volume of investors had dumped their shares in a panic hence driving the value down.
When they came out of their meeting they went about their work and didn’t notice the change. So to provoke it I just went up to one of the guys and asked them some questions about a task they had asked me to complete and during the conversation I could see his eyes darting back and forth between me and the stock quotes screen. The look on his face was priceless… his eyes bulged out of his head and after about a minute of watching him squirm and panic we told him it was a fake screenshot. He said he felt like he wanted to throw up…
I would consider that reaction alone as mission accomplished… 
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