It feels like we're in the Brentwood area more frequently now, after moving away. We went back to the Amazing Brentwood to explore the food court with a few other friends, and we all ended up ordering from Chef Hung: 

Fish cakes: 

Fried chicken:

Braised pork on rice: 

Not bad for food court! Obviously not the same as actually braised pork on rice in Taiwan, but this really hit the spot.

I have been feeling so drained ever since the day of four coffees, but even so, I was determined to get things done the other day. We had her one year shots that day, and by the time we got home, I was ready to collapse on the ground. There was no time for that though. I had to put baby S down for a nap, catch up on work, get ingredients for dinner, and start actually prepping dinner (thank goodness H can cook and I don't have to do it all). 

I was determined to make this lemon chicken orzo soup, but was also missing a few ingredients, including orzo. Who knew orzo was such a rare ingredient around this part of town?

 

I tried to support local and walked with baby S to a few different local grocery stores, spent about an hour and a half trying to find the stupid orzo, and eventually drove over to Whole Foods. I guess it was meant to be though, because I had been on the hunt for eucalyptus clippings for a while, and they finally had it in stock.  I'll go where the universe takes me.

This weekend, I had to remind myself that having a child means moving at a slower pace. It's not just that it takes time to get baby S ready to do simple things, but it also uses up a lot of energy to convince her to go along with our plans (diaper changes have become a bit of a wrestling match lately),

Some people might also say that I could use my time more efficiently. 

Maybe we still have piles of boxes left to unpack, and we can't close our closet doors because bags of clothing from our move are spilling out. Maybe the weeds on our front lawn are growing prolifically, because we'd rather push a button to remove a patch of weeds on Animal Crossing instead of doing the actual manual labor. Maybe I'd rather spend an hour and a half walking to different local grocery stores with my baby in her baby carrier instead of driving, because it's hilarious to watch her reactions to the things we see on the street. 

I woke up feeling off balance today. Heart palpitations, difficult breathing, but at the same time, groggy - caffeine induced anxiety, after yesterday's four coffees, including one very strong iced Vietnamese coffee? 

So, to cut down on my caffeine intake, we decided to choose tea instead. We went to Paragon Tea Room, while in the area to sell our old road bikes. H had the hojicha oat misto, and I had the matcha oat mista with pearls, both on ice: 

At 50% sweet, the matcha oat misto was still very sugary. I wish the matcha flavor was stronger, rather than being masked by the sweetness. Not sure if that was the effect of adding the pearls, which by the way, were perfect. They were the best chewy texture of a fresh batch of pearls, not the ones that had been sitting around for hours. 

I actually preferred H's hojicha, which he ordered with 30% sweetness and no pearls. The tea flavor was stronger.  

I probably wouldn't return, for the following reasons: 

1. Expensive - $15 for 2 drinks?! I guess it could be worse. The two drinks from Machimachi came to $18... 

2. Slow service - we had paid for 30 minutes of parking at a spot that was about a 5 minute walk away, which gave us a window of 20 minutes to order and pick up the drinks. H ended up having to run over to the parking spot and driving the car over because our parking was about to run out.

I get that tea cannot be rushed, and that sometimes, we need to take a minute to slow down and relax. However, watching the baristas hustling and hurrying behind the counter, I did not feel relaxed. They were definitely in a hurry to clear the line forming in the cafe.  

3. I simply prefer caffeine in my beverages. 

Back to our regular programming of coffee... 

Things seem to be looking up! My COVID-19 restrictions are loosening up (I say "my" because other people have different comfort levels with the constantly evolving rules and regulations), because we now have our first vaccine and the case numbers have taken a deep dive, so we had a few friends over for lunch.  P brought over some fried chicken from Chirpyhut Fried Chicken , which just opened up a location in Burnaby, relatively closer than the other locations around the Lower Mainland. You can see a sliver of the Salted Egg Yolk whole chicken in the top corner, and a full box of the black meteorite fried chicken wings:   

The salted egg yolk is not actually infused into the chicken. The flavor comes from a separate container of salted egg yolk dipping sauce, which was brutally underwhelming. Not much flavor in the chicken itself. 

The meteorite chicken looks impressive, but it didn't taste very special, just like regular fried chicken. It didn't taste bad, and it did create a wow moment when we opened up the lid, because it looked like we would be eating lumps of coal. I would probably repurchase this for a future dinner party or potluck, but it's not a staple everyday fried chicken option for me. There are plenty of juicier, crispier, and tastier fried chicken shops around town.  

I had originally hoped PVVJ would come over after the completion of our kitchen reno, but it was right in the middle, when we didn't have a backsplash or working sink. They completely missed the original chartreuse tile backsplash, which was falling apart at the edges:   

They had this view for the afternoon: 

And then they missed the (almost) final product, which came together about 2 weeks after: 

FINALLY! 

From start to finish, it took about 2 months. The backsplash was first removed in mid March, and we had to wait for our contractors to take a special class before they could start working with the original type of stone we had picked out for the backsplash and countertop (Dekton...). We ended up changing our minds, because the print on that man made stone wouldn't look as nice, and by April, we had picked out the quartz style that we currently have installed. Then, we found out that the sink we originally wanted to order from Costco actually has awful reviews, and it was eventually removed from the Costco website before we got around to ordering it. This was the beginning of the hunt for a white sink and faucet set. 

The first sink we picked out was a Blanco white granite material. Because the plumbing for our sink has special slow drainage in order for it to fit into its current configuration, the dimensions of the sink are very specific, and it took a while before we found one that could arrive quickly. Sadly, it cracked in transit, and we were devastated with the delay. We ended up going to Home Depot, picked up a regular sturdy, reliable stainless steel sink, for half the price. 

Then, the old faucet started leaking! We had planned on using the old faucet until the new white one arrived, but now, we would have to replace the whole thing. The previous faucet was made with copper, and it must've been at least a decade old, so it rusted through.  Hopefully, our Brita filter has helped us keep these any old minerals and chemicals out of our body... 

We're going to change out the cabinet handles, maybe swap out the wine bottle holder screwed into the back set of cabinets, and then, I'll be satisfied.  This space no longer looks like this though - we've already cluttered up the countertops with our rice cooker, hot water boiler, and our trusty Brita filter. 

Follow along for more updates of our almost 100 year old house! 

We went to Brentwood Mall today, and it felt like such an adventure. It's been a while since we went out with baby S on a relatively longer trip away from home, and we were not prepared. She became quite hangry towards the end, and we really pushed her to her edge by running one more errand...  

Meanwhile, mom and dad were extremely satisfied with their coffees from the new cafe that just opened this week! The main purpose of this mall adventure was to visit Soon Coffee. They had advertised strongly via foodie influencers, and I was definitely influenced by their raving reviews. I can't wait to come back, and sit at the beautiful new food court, and just people watch... 

 

They also serve Lee's Donuts! Another reason to visit again and again. 

I try not to let other people affect my mood, because I can't control what other people do or say. It really was a perfect morning, and then, BAM, somebody says something out of the blue, and I can feel my insides curling into a dark ball. Sometimes, I also feel that same sinking feeling when I say the wrong thing, and I can see the other person is having an adverse reaction to my words and tone. 

Generally, I would just avoid meeting with those people, but I don't want to do this to family members.  It's awkward, but you put up with their sharp comments ("Why did you put this plant here?", "Make sure you exercise", "Don't make this food, do it like this."), because they're relatives, and usually, I do want to keep them in my life. Boundaries are necessary though.

Other than some annoying moments, it was a super good and productive day, so don't let the last few paragraphs trick you into thinking I'm in rough shape! Lots to look forward to this week.   

Even though I'm a mom now, I still do things like forget to eat and drink coffee and snack all day. I'll stay in my sweats and hoodie, browse YouTube and sleep late. I always thought responsible moms had to be more mature, but maybe I confused mature with responsible. I make sure she's full, has a clean diaper, and gets enough rest.

 

On the other hand, because I'm too busy feeding her and working and doing other house stuff, I sometimes forget to eat. Then, I end up eating a bag of chips and a whole carton of guacamole, because it's convenient. 

My newest excuse to be too busy for eating is that our kitchen sink is still out of order, and it's a hassle to cook at home, while stuck at home, working from home. Our contractor just called to inform us he won't be able to make it to work on it tomorrow because he had the Moderna vaccine, and now he's running a high fever. Mercury retrograde is real.   

The kitchen is also my favourite excuse to get take out. We decided to pick up big balls of rice and raw fish from Samurai Sushi near Oakridge Mall a few days ago. I regretted buying sushi from here, because the quality of the fish is extremely low. The main attraction is the volume of the sushi rolls. Each piece is about the size of my fist. If you're going to get sushi take out in that neighborhood, don't save the extra 5-10 minutes to stop by Sushi Mura instead. 

Circling back to being responsible versus mature, I do think I tend to forget I'm supposed to be an adult, and I'll end up playing with the kids. Since COVID19 restrictions lifted a bit in BC, I went to visit my cousin and her kids, let my kid socialize with other humans that are closer to her size. I ended up having a blast, throwing plastic balls (immature!) and playing with yoyo's with my 3 year old nephew. Of course, I was keeping an eye on baby S the entire time, or at least I made sure that one of the great aunts were around to watch her... Responsible! 

Regardless of my maturity level, I feel like I am trying to teach baby S to spread joy and love and lalala, all the sparkly rainbow unicorns. Today, I asked her to go give her grandmother a kiss, and she speed crawled over to grandma, and gave her a big sloppy bite on the face! Her idea of a kiss is with her mouth wide open, so that she can leave as much drool as possible on the other person's face. Grandma's comment at first was, "Aww, that's so sweet!"

A few more slobbery kisses later, grandma's next remark was, "I hope my face doesn't smell like your saliva!"

As if babies have smelly saliva... 

Sink is out of order. There must be a leak in one of the hoses connected to the faucet or something came loose, because water was dripping down pretty quickly underneath the faucet into the sink cabinet. The good thing is, we place a bucket underneath the faucet and the pipes, and we caught it in time, before water overflowed out of the bucket and did not soak through our sink cabinet and floors. Another good thing is that our countertop and sink renovation was already scheduled for this week, so we won't have too long to wait. Guess I'll be eating out for a while.

We picked these cute sandwiches up from Kanadell the other day: 

The left side is the katsu sandwich, and the one further back is the tuna salad. We also had a yuzu dessert, to the far right. Overall, they were quite tasty and an easy snack to pack. The sandwiches are only available on Saturdays because of all the work required to make each of them, and they do look pretty laborious to make. They're not just deli meat stuffed in between sliced bread!  I would not go back for the yuzu dessert though, just not my type of flavour. 

This year is almost half over, and so far, I think I've done more house maintenance and yardwork than ever in my life combined. I've also been thinking back to cleaning my dad's carport from earlier this year. The manual labour is just so fulfilling at the end, when everything is cleared out, and you can go home to take a long hot shower to scrub off all the dust and wash away any potential rat poo germs. It was the best shower of my life.  

Comparing that to a full day of office work, with back to back meetings, emails, and phone calls, I don't need to take a shower to relax. I need something to cleanse my mind. 

Needed a long break, and ended up all the way in Richmond, at Machimachi:

I ordered the Mochi Redbean Brulee Matcha Latte/Smoothie, which comes with these mochi balls:  

The bottle is the Black Milk Tea with Panna Cotta, which I left in the fridge and did not try until a few days later. It still tasted fantastic. Together, these beverages cost just about $18... Overpriced? Yes, but I would still go back because it was tasty and the service was super friendly, despite a tad slow. When I asked for "less sweet", the server actually warned me that the matcha might be a bit bitter. It wasn't actually that bitter, and it just tasted like real tea, which I would expect from a drink that costs almost $10! It's still their first month since opening, so I'm sure they'll pick up the pace as they figure out how to do things.

At least I hope they will look into fixing the wait times, otherwise why would I want to come back to wait 30 minutes for a $10 drink? 

Waiting is horrible.

Currently waiting for: 

1 - Next week so that our contractor can start work on the kitchen. We can start fixing our rotting butcher block counter tops, loose back splash tiles, and, as of today, our leaking faucet hose. Good thing we placed a bucket underneath, inside the sink cabinet, because it was full to the brim and just starting to leak out. Also super grateful to be working from home, because otherwise, I would not have been around to hear the drip drip. Lastly, I'm glad we started this kitchen project way ahead of time, because we wanted to fix it before it breaks. 

2 - 1.5 more weeks

3 - 16 weeks for my 2nd COVID-19 shot, and then, reopening the world. Travel (Paris, Korea, Japan, Iceland). Friends, in person, in a small cozy space, sharing food and air.   

  

4 - At least 18 months, for more work changes. Instead of getting slammed by changes, like last time, I want to be the one making the changes. Maybe I am anticipating too much change... The job is pretty great with lots of flexibility, can work from home and catch leaks early. There are annoying things happening that I'd rather not put up with, but for the most part, I still enjoy solving the problems that come up. So... 

5 - Retirement.