Plain Can Be Lovely

Moving sites

Mei — Tue, 18 May 2010 02:03:47 +0000

I’ve moved! I’ve decided to move this blog to a more ‘professional’ url (i.e. my name). I’ll try to update it more from here on in. I swear this time.

I’m here now: http;//yuehmeiling.wordpress.com

Puppies!

Mei — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:21:49 +0000

Olive and Hugo had their puppies on Sunday! Four of them! Three girls, one boy. Everybody was very excited. They’re 2.5 ounces each and one of them is 3 ounces. They’re about the size of an iPod nano or a nailpolish bottle. They could fit into my pocket.

Olive is a very good mother. She won’t let Hugo near her or the pups (for whatever reason) and she’s very attentive to them. If you pick one of them up she watches you as though she’s thinking “where do you think you’re going with that?”

What exciting times. Here are some pictures that I took on my Blackberry (also new since Saturday! More on that later). These pictures were taken Monday when the puppies were only a day old. They still haven’t opened their eyes. They sound like little whistles when they whine. They squirm around and are absolutely adorable! Olive (who is 3 lbs) looks HUGE next to them!

Olive and her 4 puppies

Olive watches Marla as she holds one of the puppies

This puppy is the first one I saw. I love her!

The Wooden Sky and Elliott Brood

Mei — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 04:14:32 +0000

On Sunday Marla and I went to LopLops where we saw The Wooden Sky and Elliott Brood perform. They were amazing! I love live music and both bands exuded performance, talent and good music, things that are extremely important, especially for someone like me who wasn’t as familiar with their music. I came away from their show loving them both (I will be frequenting itunes pretty soon!).

Marla first told me about The Wooden Sky last month when they last performed at LopLops. She went to Ryerson with 2 of the band members and loves their music. They did not disappoint!

The Wooden Sky performs

Marla went to school with Gavin and Andrew

The Wooden Sky's set list!

What I loved about The Wooden Sky was the genuine feeling that they poured into their performance. You saw it on their faces, in their bodies and you heard it in their music. They had such energy, passion and musicality. I fell in love with them right away. Same with Elliott Brood (also amazing!).

Headliner Elliott Brood hits the stage

Marla and I enjoying the live music

Lots of Elliott Brood fans. Lots of dancing!

They gave us pans and spoons...makeshift rhythm section!

Shining a light on everybody

I have to admit, I have a soft spot for Canadian music. I’ve always known that we had a lot of talented musicians in Canada but I never truly realized it until I went to Australia. I loved it when my friends from other countries would ask me about the artists on my playlist (with most of them being Canadian indie bands!).

And my love for live music…I just can’t explain it. There’s something about being in the audience and experiencing the music together. There’s something about the ringing in your ears after a concert (permanent hearing damage!) and feeling like the bass is in your heart. I love it all! Especially when it’s good!

Last summer I made the most of my time in Toronto and attended as many music festivals and concerts as I could. Rogers Picnic (with headliner Dallas Green and bands that I loved like Tokyo Police Club) and NXNE topped the list.

I’m glad there’s a place like LopLops in Sault Ste. Marie. It’s a great place to go for live music, and judging by their scheduled performances, there’s a lot of good live music coming to the Soo because of them! I’m sure I’ll be frequenting there a little more often based on who’s coming…

Never heard The Wooden Sky or Elliott Brood? Go check them out!

Olive/Hugo Hybrids Coming Soon!

Mei — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:53:24 +0000

Remember Olive?

She’s expecting! Marla’s sister Vanessa adopted Hugo (also a teacup Chihuahua) a while back. She was waiting until he was 9 months old to get him neutered since he had an extra set of teeth that also needed pulling. This way he could get it all taken care of at once. Everyone thought he was too young to know what to do with Olive…but then one day she was in heat and…puppies!

Pregnant Olive! Here she is lying on one of Marla's sweaters

They think she’ll have 2 or 4 puppies (the vet saw 2 heartbeats on one side, then saw 2 on the other so isn’t sure if they were the same 2 heartbeats both times).

Everybody’s so excited! Olive is due in October sometime.

Stay tuned…

Tyler Yuke Memorial Open Mic Night

Mei — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 23:57:40 +0000

This post has been saved as a draft forever! The only thing holding me back was adding the pictures. I finally got around to it today….so here it is!

Back in March we attended the Tyler Yuke Memorial Open Mic Night at The Outback (Sault College). Greg won the Tyler Yuke Memorial Bursary this year, and not only was he performing, but many of his drumming students were performing and he was meeting Tyler Yuke’s family.

Being new to the Soo, I didn’t know much about Tyler Yuke, or the history of Open Mic night at Sault College. Tyler was a student in Sault College’s Outdoor Parks and Recreation program. From what I’ve heard, he was very passionate about his studies and brought a lot of spirit to his program (they all seemed quite close from what I could see!). Tyler also loved music and started a monthly open mic night at The Outback. He tragically passed away in a hiking accident in Gros Cap. Since then, an open mic memorial night has been held in his honour every year and his family continues to make the trip up to the Soo to attend. Tyler’s brother also shared some of his memories with us before treating everybody to an excellent performance on the bagpipe! He was very sweet and when everybody started clapping along he eventually had to politely ask us to stop as it was throwing him off.

Tyler's brother plays the bagpipes

More open mic performances (one of Greg's African Drum students)

This guitarist asked for volunteers for his rhythm section

Me, Marla and Lindsey enjoying the show

Greg's band

Greg's drumming students wrapped up the night

Greg is also not from the Soo and also enrolled in the Outdoor Parks and Rec program. Back in Toronto he used to drum as part of an African drumming circle. With nobody to drum with in the Soo, he decided to buy the drums, sell them to interested people (supply them!) and then teach them how to drum! His students played and they were amazing!

In all, the night was touching, entertaining and really showcased some of the local young talent and spirit in the city.

Poor neglected blog

Mei — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 12:48:13 +0000

Poor neglected blog. When people hear that I have a blog I always say “I have many unpublished drafts.”

It’s been a busy few weeks. I went to 3 weddings (2 in the same weekend in different cities), got stranded at the airport in TO (flight was cancelled), went camping for my birthday and I’ve been packing up a storm. Tomorrow we are moving about a block away. I’m excited but packing is so much work. This is the 3rd time this year. After I get settled I’ll write a proper post. So much to say (so many pictures) so little time!

In celebration of wedding season!

Mei — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:48:15 +0000

It’s wedding season! What a beautiful time of year!

This summer we’re lucky to be attending 3 weddings (6 total for 2009). I love weddings, and have been sharing in the joy of wedding planning with some of my friends (either hearing about it, talking about or helping out when possible). It’s very exciting to me to see two people come together like that in front of family and friends.

The other day, Lindsay showed me this story on The Toronto Star’s website. A couple in Minnesota along with their wedding party and ushers danced a choreographed dance to Chris Brown’s Forever down the aisle (to the surprise of their guests). I’ve never seen anything like it and I think it was very well done. They put the video on YouTube to share with their family and friends and before they knew it, they had over 2 million hits!

Also, while searching for something totally unrelated I stumbled upon this Best Man Fail. It’s an old one, but still pretty hilarious. Good thing none of the weddings we’re going to involve ponds!

I have 2 weddings next weekend. I can’t wait!

The Time Traveler’s Wife

Mei — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 22:24:21 +0000

One of my favourite books, The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger, is being turned into a movie! Actually, I remember reading a long time ago that Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston had bought the rights to the film before the book was even released. Anyway, I first read The Time Traveler’s Wife a few years ago when it was first released in 2004. It quickly became one of my favourite books and I fell in love with Clare and Henry and their beautiful narrative. I cried for the entire last part of the book (books make me cry). The movie shows a lot of promise! I’m not uptight about how movies are translated onto the screen. I understand that a movie is a different medium than a book and sometimes the story needs to be told in a different way to be as effective. Rachel McAdams and Eric Bana look stunning as Clare and Henry in the movie.

Here’s the trailer for the Time Traveler’s Wife. I can’t wait!

Billy Bob Thornton takes offense to being called an actor on Q

Mei — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 03:36:22 +0000

I am an avid CBC Radio listener (everyday at work it is playing on my little radio on my desk). Q is one of my favourite radio shows and I absolutely adore host Jian Ghomeshi (I know, I’m a huge nerd)! This morning I didn’t get to catch Q because we had our bi-weekly office meeting. If I had the chance to listen to it I would have heard Billy Bob Thornton’s unprofessional fit on the show. He was there promoting his band The Boxmasters and apparently took huge offense to Jian Ghomeshi’s introduction of the band when he mentioned Billy Bob Thornton’s acting and screenwriting career.

All I have to say is wow. Now Perez Hilton has picked it up. Some people in the comments seem to think that Jian Ghomeshi baited him, but I disagree. Having listened to his show for a long time now there was nothing different or unusual about the style of the introduction, the line of questioning or his tone of voice. If anything, I think he demonstrated true grace under fire when he asked Billy Bob Thornton point blank about his hostility, explained why he mentioned his acting and screen writing career in the introduction and asked to call a truce. He also gave Thornton a way out if he didn’t want to stay in the interview. Even after their truce Billy Bob continued to act like that.

Good job Jian Ghomeshi!

See the video below reposted from Q tv on YouTube

Visitors from home

Mei — Fri, 03 Apr 2009 02:35:44 +0000

During the first weekend in March we had visitors from the GTA. Our close friends Serena and Neil drove up to the Soo for a whirlwind visit. It wasn’t a long weekend, they couldn’t take time off for the visit so it was a very short time for such a long drive and we really appreciated their company!

To celebrate their visit I made Dan run out and get Superior Bakery Doughnuts. They are a recently discovery of mine (in other words Marla told me). Marla brought Superior Bakery Doughnuts into the office one morning and the moment she sent out the email letting us all know I heard running. I have never heard running for doughnuts before so I had to run and see why. It turns out they are the best doughnuts in the world. They are like bread, absolutely delicious and much better than Krispy Kreme. This picture doesn’t even do it justice (we didn’t pick our’s up until later in the morning, so they weren’t fresh out of the oven, but they were still delicious!).

Delicious Superior Bakery Doughnuts. This picture does no justice.

Unfortunately we soon discovered that Neil had given up doughnuts for lent. That was okay though because Dan and I just ate them all (we’ll make sure Neil can have doughnuts next time!). They arrived at around lunch on Saturday so we went to Panna.

Serene and I in Panna. Together again!

This is a typical picture of Serene.

Us in Panna. I made Dan take this picture from outside.

Neil and Dan have a lot in common - they like sports, finance (stocks, business etc) and guy stuff. We could feel the bromance blossoming.

Serene and I have been good friends since high school so we go way back. It was so good to have her here! We didn’t do too much since they were here briefly (short but sweet). We went back to our house and hung out for a bit after taking a walk in the city. We shopped a little at Station Mall and then had dinner at Giovannis (we had to go someplace Italian to show off the high quality Italian food in the Soo!). After that we went to Jay and Lindsay’s house where we watched hockey and talked about where we would all love to travel. The next day they left in the morning. I hope they can visit again!

My close friend Serene.