Happy Mother’s Day Mom

Today of course is Mother’s Day and though my mother is a few provinces to the east of me I wanted to send her a very special thanks for giving birth to me. For if it wasn’t for her I wouldn’t be here (granted my father has a part in it as well, but we won’t get into that).

My mom is your typical Italian mother. She always made sure you finished everything on your plate during our meals, always cook amazing pasta and sauces (I have yet to be able to reproduce her speghetti sauce), and always made sure the house was cleaned.

My mom did work alot too to provide for us. At one point she held down 2 jobs. She would work in the early morning, come home for lunch and then she would be off again to afternoon work. She is now retired and able to just enjoy life, though sometimes we have to push her to do that.

All in all I wouldn’t trade my mom in for anything. I love you mom and miss you alot!

And let me not forget that my 2 sisters are also mothers and this is their day as well. I miss you both as well and I hope you both have a great Mother’s Day too!

Yaletown Eatery Surprise

I’ve lived in Yaletown for over 5 years now and I have always walked by Doux Crepes on Richards Street on my way to George Wainborne Park and I have never stepped foot in there. Yesterday at the dog park I was told by one of Junior’s play pals owners that I should try their $2 lattes out. This morning I tried them out.

WOW. These are definitely the best tasting lattes I have had in this city. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since they use Lavazza coffee and being 1/2 Italian, I know how good the coffee is as I pretty much grew up with it in our household.

Doux Crepes not only serves $2 lattes, but they also offer breakfast. You can have their all day breakfast for $4.99 which includes a coffee or tea. Of course they also serve crepes as their name states. Tomorrow I think Russ and I will go there and try out their breakfast offerings.

Doux Crepes is located at 1371 Richards Street. Check them out!

UPDATE:

Russ and I had breakfast there this morning and had their $4.99 special. It was very yummy and will go there again! Where else in this city can you have 2 eggs, with bacon all rolled up in a crepe for under $5?

Sticky and Sweet!

This morning I was up at 5:30am so I could take Junior out for a walk and get ready for work (big Bosses are in).

As I was walking Junior and looking at my early morning tweets Buzz Bishop (whom I follow) announced on his blog that Madonna is finally going to make her appearance in Vancouver. I figured she would finally make it this way since her last tours she made it to at least one Canadian City. She will be playing at BC Stadium and tickets go on sale May 24th (May 20th if you are member of her fan club). I had the pleasure of attending her Reinvetion Tour and had an awesome time.

In other news, I also heard there was a shooting just a block away from my home last night. I must have been in a deep sleep as I didn’t hear any gunfire at all. News 1130 has the scoop on what has happened.

Steven – Future Indy Driver

My youngest nephew keeps amazing me. Almost 4 years ago Steven was hit by accident with a golf club straight into his forehead while playing with his cousin and older brother. They ended up having to place a plate on his forehead to seal a hole that was created. He has recovered very well, though he has suffered brain injury and will have some learning issues throughout his life.

Through all of this, he still is a daredevil. He has to try everything. I had always thought this boy will end up growing up to be a stunt man or something similar.

A few weeks ago my sister Maria let me know that he was enrolled in go-karting. I honestly don’t think it’s the best for him considering his previous injury, but boy it looks like he just loves racing. I’m beginning to think he might end up becoming an Indy car driver.

Whatever he decides to become, I’m sure he will be the best he can be!

On My Soap Box

Ok lately I have been seeing more and more homeless people with dogs/puppies.

Being a dog owner this really ticks me off. I don’t know how they got these dogs in the first place. They don’t pick their shit up after they do their business, they are usually not on a lease, the seem to use their dogs for the “give me food” ploy. I find it just sickening to be honest.

Now most of these people can definitely work, after all there is plenty of work out there. Get a job.

Last night when I was walking Junior to our local park, I started up a conversation with another dog owner and she let me know that (and alas I cannot prove this), that if they have a dog, they get $60 more on their welfare cheques. I can’t believe the government would pay out for that. It’s almost like the government paying you money for each kid you have. I can definitely see why more dogs are being stolen downtown if this is the case.

I know that I probably will get alot of slack from this, but hey this is my “soap box” Ok there is my rant. Now I feel alittle better

Weekend in Review

After a rough work week, all I wanted this weekend was just to relax and not be bothered about anything. I do have to say it was accomplished!

Friday night I managed to leave work on time and Russ and I headed out for dinner to and met up a couple of friends at The Majestic Lounge on Davie Street for a Drag Show. Now I have paid to see one before, but since we were also having dinner there, I was alittle disappointed that we had to pay $5 to get in, just to eat and drink there. At any rate the show was fantastic and I laughed historically at Simone and guest. Simone’s Symone’s opening number included running outside the restaurant and into running traffic all the while performing her number. The look of people on the street seeing this 6 foot drag queen running at them. Her closing number included her roller blading around the restaurant…priceless. One of her guest was a burlesque performer and she actually stripped down only to reveal her pasties. I ended up having 3 Killer Koolaides and Russ had 5 Lemon Martinis and was feeling no pain.

Saturday we both pretty much had to recover from our night out and just vegged for most of the day. Of course I got to take Junior out for his walks and he had his fun as well. Not to mention having some more cupcakes from Cupcakes. YUM. We later watched the movie “There Will Be Blood“. I am still trying to understand the full meaning of that movie. Was Elijah actually Paul with a split personality or was he a twin? Oh well I guess I will never know.

Sunday with the day being so nice we headed to Steveston to enjoy the weather. This is a nice bedroom community with lots of fish and chip shops everywhere. Though I have to admit the fish and chips are more expensive than downtown. We walked around enjoying the First Annual Steveston Farmers and Artisian Market and boardwalk.

Over fifty vendors will come together in the charming waterfront community of Steveston, B.C. for the first annual outdoor Steveston Farmers and Artisans Market. Offering fresh local produce, healthy foods, flowers, plants, and unique works by local artisans, the Market opens weekly on Sundays from 11am- 4pm from May 4 – September 28, 2008. Located in the parking lot of the Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site*, the Market promises to be a lively and memorable home grown event.

I of course didn’t wear any sunscreen so my face is nice and red and I look like a raccoon. Ahhh the joys. I hope I won’t look too bad come Monday morning.

You can view more of my photos from Steveston on my Flickr Page.

My weekend of just relaxing was accomplished! Now bring on next weekend!

Crazy Work Week

Being in the Newswire business, every quarter we encounter a very busy time here. This is usually due to companies who are issuing earning releases or, as in our case in Vancouver, mining companies issuing drill result releases. Being the nice guy that I am, I usually stay and help our editorial team proof read these releases and make sure I’m here to answer questions that they might have.

This week has been one very long week for me.

Yesterday was one of those days where I had planned to attend Vancouver’s WordPress Camp, but due to the work load in our office I stayed behind and worked. Of course the day was also complicated with Junior being ill at 5am that morning, getting a call from work at 7am, and listening to a webcast at 8am for a client. I’m just glad I was able to at least watch the live streaming of the event and it made me feel like I was almost there.

Today I was looking forward to attending IABC BC’s Spring Fling event, but since I’m pretty much exhausted and since I wasn’t registered I decided not to attend. I do plan on attending their next event on Social Media on Tuesday May 13th at the Yaletown Pub.

I’m just looking forward to the weekend where I can have some well deserved R&R.

iPhone in Canada – Offical

It’s official. Today Rogers announced that the Apple iPhone is coming to Canada this year. Though not much more was said, I’m definitely excited about it finally arriving officially in Canada.

Of course the questions on how much it will be and how much the data plan will be still remains to be seen. As well the launch date wasn’t mentioned. I hope the phone won’t cost over $600, but with our luck it probably will be. It will most likely be the 3G version of the phone which is suppose to be launched sometime this summer.

I was hoping to have gotten the scoop ahead of time from my niece (who works at Rogers), but alas she was tight lipped about the whole thing. Maybe she can make it up to me by sending me an iPhone when it arrives.

Twitter Milestone

Last night I reached a Twitter milestone; I posted my 1,000 tweet.

For all of those who don’t know Twitter is site where you post “what are you doing now”. Sorta like a micro blogging site, where you only have 140 characters to use. You can “follow” people and have users “follow” you. That means when you post a tweet, everyone who follows you, receives it. You can also be apart of a conversation and discussion as well.

I have been using Twitter for just over a year and have developed some great friends using the social media tool. Thanks for all the support I’ve received from others last night to make it to the milestone.

What might you ask was my 1,000th tweet; well it was announcing my 1,000th tweet

If you would like to follow me on Twitter, please search for GusF

Yummy Cupcakes

Today after taking Junior to the Vet to have his shots updated and have it’s yearly checkup, Laura gave me a call to let me know she was heading to Cupcakes to get herself a cupcake. Now she knew I have been craving cupcakes for about 2 weeks now and was so “kind” to give me the details of her excursion.

Since today was a nice afternoon, Russ got our car and we drove down to English Bay where Cupcakes is located (yes we were lazy and didn’t walk). The amount of cupcakes they produce on a daily basis is astonishing. They have mini cupcakes, standard cupcakes, big ones and even Cakes. MMMM they looked so tempting and I almost got a dozen, but I settled on 1/2 a dozen cupcakes of different flavours; lemon drop, red velvet, blue hawaii, cosmopolitan, mocha, peach.

These will be definitely well consumed by Russ, Cyd, Junior and myself this evening!

I definitely need get a recipe for making these myself!