macapinlac.com

Goodbye little yellow house

On Friday Feb 12, 2010, our little yellow house got demolished. Just around the time the olympic torch was running through the neighborhood a large crane came and took our house apart piece by piece. Why? Well, we’re rebuilding our home larger spaces with a better layout (and hopefully better material).

I didn’t think that I’d be that emotionally affected by it but when I saw the video tearing into the house piece by piece it became a little hard to watch. I did get a bit teary eyed. There were a lot of memories in that place: drinking and Guitar Hero with Ced and Lindsay, workouts with Jaime, Vancouver poker tour, living with Cheryl and a whole lot more.

I had always known that the little yellow house was a temporary fixture in my life. I bought the house because I loved the view (it overlooked Vancouver because it was on top of a hill), it was close to my workplace (and downtown Vancouver) and I was itching to get out on my own (again). So when I got married looking at larger accommodations seemed like the next logical thing to do. We looked at buying a new place but larger scale homes are expensive in this day and age. Building a house was slightly cheaper but required more effort on our parts so the choice was obvious. We’re familiar with hard work.

So as a result we’ve recently moved back to mom and dad’s in Richmond causing my driving rage to increase exponentially (so I’ve started utilizing public transit to get myself to and from work). We try to stop by to take as many pictures and video as we can but here are a few that you might find fun.

10:00 am 0 Comments

Sicky sympathy

I’m sick. I caught the flu and have spent the last few days at home. Everyone in the house has been sick. Cheryl caught the bug from a recent plane ride and Java has ear infections.

The amount of movies consumed during a sick stint increases 10 fold. At the time of this writing, I’m lying on the couch watching Forgetting Sarah Marshall and …. *eww*. Ok, moving on from this movie. I wonder why the penis is getting this much face time at movies? Weird and bizarre trend, I tell ya.

I also have to get through a bunch of drafts in my blog that I can’t seem to get through because being sick leaves me a bit hazy and unfocused. Ok, that is all. Now I want cereal… stupid Sarah Marshall.

10:27 am 0 Comments

3 Things I Must Need to Buy

Lately, I’ve been trying to focus my buying into very specific goal oriented things. This means that I haven’t been buying anything that doesn’t directly equate into accomplishing what’s on my 2009 list. I’ve been controlling my impulse purchasing to the point that I’ve avoided the mall and different shops that I used to visit often. In an effort to make the shopaholic urges controllable I’ve compiled, sorted, prioritized and trimmed the list to 3 absolutely must-have-must-buy items *:

1. Yoyashop Chalkboard Magentic Paint. Since getting married, I’ve been getting my lessons in domestication. With cool chalkboard paint, you can do things like identify your keys and draw cool pictures on the wall. Releasing your inner child.
2. Anything from Voltage Land. How can you go wrong with cute vinyl toys and plush animals of dogs in a cactus body suit? Although, just the thought of a body suit in this heat wave is already making me sweat profusely.
3. Everyone, absolutely everyone needs a custom shirt at some point in time in their lives. Although, I’ve never ordered from this site because my weight has been all over the place; I will.

* I’m hoping that writing about it helps me control the urge to buy these 3 things.

So if you’d like,  you can torture help me and share your impulse shopping list with me in the comments.

10:25 am 0 Comments

A Post of Insults

So in order to blow off some steam, I started to write in my notebook, lately it’s been evolving into tiny notes that have been making my day. It took a whole week to collect my mental thoughts in my notebook, extract them, and present them here. Why? Well because I can. It’s my blog and it’s all about me (all the time).

• Hey you! Awkward middle management walking around, interacting with people while your iPod headphones are on. It’s rude. We get it! You own an iPod! So does everyone else in the world. When you’re talking to people, take those suckers off your ears and respect the person that you’re talking to. It’s the least you can do.
• Dear neighbor, your house is in dire need of a renovation. It looks like a house that got raped by termites in an orgy. Please, paint it. Better yet, demolish it and rebuild a cardboard box on top. It will look better. Thanks, Ritchie
• I don’t care about your opinion or your incessant need to justify your salary by spewing out the latest buzz words you read in the latest Gartner White paper or the latest Microsoft sales pitch. No really, I don’t.
• You! The one talking too loud in the sea-bus, you are annoying. I don’t want to hear your conversation. Actually, I don’t understand Spanish so you’re being a tease talking in a volume that deaf astronauts can hear.
• Mr No-concept-of-personal-space! Standing in line at Starbucks and invading my personal space won’t make the barista move any quicker. It won’t! My personal space doesn’t defy the laws of time. So you won’t get your wimpy dark coffee any earlier. Plus, you have shit in your teeth.

Sometimes you just gotta let things off your chest. I somehow feel lighter. Feel free to share your notes in the comments! It’ll be fun!

10:00 am 0 Comments

Shopping for Ed Hardy… Nothing

I can’t go insulting a French trailer park douchebag until I actually tried to go in and attempt to buy his clothing. I was hoping to find a piece of clothing that would appeal to me and I would have to write a retract on my blog post (I did it for blog fodder – I’m not ashamed). Since I recently had an opportunity to visit an Ed Hardy store, I thought I’d give a quick browse through and see if I can find something that I like. I took Cheryl with me, since this requires my always reliable fashion consultant (and wife).

Ritchie and Cheryl: [Browsing through the store]
Trying to hard hipster store clerk: Hi there, can I help you guys find something?
Cheryl: Nope, not really we’re just looking around.
THHSC: Well, we have a few pieces here. The popular ones seem to be the patterns with the Dragons, Skulls, Skeltons, Lizards and Tigers.
Cheryl: Oh, ok! How about something less….. flashy and shiny?
THHSC: Ummm….

I never thought I would ever experience a 5 minute “Ummm” until I had this conversation.

9:43 am 0 Comments