Diamond.com - Mother's Day Pick 2007

Diamond.com has a huge collection of jewelery. For those who don't know about Diamond.com, you may want to check out this post for 9 reasons to buy from Diamond.com and a 20% discount coupon.

The 9/10 Carat Amethyst and Diamond 14K White Gold Heart Ring is my current pick for Mother's day. With the 20% discount, it is just 5 monthly payment of $55. Search for Style# RCC202407.

Shangri-la - Banquet Hall and Convention Centre

Shangri-La 香格里拉 banquet hall & convention centre is the best party facility I've ever seen in the Toronto area. If you are planning for a wedding ceremony and banquet in Toronto, you got to check out Shangri-La. Address: 50 Esna Park Drive, Markham, Ontario.

• A dream wedding venue. Shangri-La has an amazing tropical patio for a wedding ceremony. Have you ever dreamed of a military style wedding? Ask the honour guards to form an archway with swords or sabers at the tropical patio for the wedding couple to walk through on their way out. This symbolizes a safe passage into married life.

• Elegant decorations & festive air. An unforgettable memory for you and your loved ones.

• A fairytale wedding. Shangri-la arranges everything for you, from fancy ice sculpture to a tiny little candle.

• Convenient lodging. This is Toronto. Lodging is going to be easy. You can stay at the 5-stars Four Season Hotel in downtown Toronto if you like. I recommend Marriott Courtyard Markham for the best value. You can make a reservation at Look No Further Best Rate Guarantee at Marriott.com
• Driving directions. Here is the map and driving directions from Marriott Courtyard to Shangri-La. Click to enlarge and print.

Grand Chinese Cuisine in Doubletree Toronto

國金軒- 高級中菜 Grand Chinese Cuisine in Doubletree Toronto, 655 Dixon Rd, Toronto M9W1J3 Grand Chinese Cuisine is one of the best Chinese restaurant in Toronto area. It is a hotel restaurant. As you can expect, the food portion is small but finest. The service and environment are all top of the line!

• House red wine, $8/glass. It is Italian. It is much better than the house red in many steakhouses.
• Crab meat spring roll, $4/each. My partner is a doctor. She has confirmed that there is no crab meat in anatomy perspective^_^" It is absolutely crispy though.
• Chinese style filet mignon, $22/reg. Delicious! You don't want New York steak anymore. We ordered half regular but they gave us full regular and charged the full price >.<
• Chinese green tea, $2/person. Nobody pays $2 for a green tea. Here's an exception.
• Mango ice-cream. It's so good. I wonder where did they get it.
• Cookies. Surprisingly, those are not fortune cookies. Much better than fortune cookies, I would say.

9% rebate promotion on any travel booking through TD Travel

With the TD Gold Travel Visa Card you can earn twice as much as many TD base points (which is equivalent to 9% rebate for traveling) from now until July 31, 2007. You'll also receive 7,500 Bonus TD Points upon approval as usual. The offer ends May 25, 2007.

1. The card has a $120 annual fee, but it can be waived. Follow the post Free Travel from TD Canada Trust for the steps to waive the fee.
2. The promotion is only intended for new applicants, but existing customer can transfer to new accounts too. Follow the post Free Travel from TD for existing TD Gold Travel card holder for a way to get around this.
3. If you are traveling with your significant other, it is possible to get better mileage. Follow this link to learn how to get Double TD welcome bonus points for couples.
4. Once you get the card, book your travel before July 31 through the TD reward center without using any points. Suppose you book a business class flight ticket from Toronto to Germany which is about $4,002 everything included. With the DOUBLE point promotion, you will get 2 base points for every dollar spent plus the regular 4 bonus point. That is 24,012 TD points which equates to $360 credit!

UPDATED Apr 23, 2007: The TD CSR was wrong. Madwand pointed out that the double point promotion applies to the base point but not the bonus point. This equates to 9% instead of 15%.

Hilton Suites Markham Conference Centre & Spa

Hilton Suites Markham Conference Centre & Spa is one of the best Toronto hotel in uptown area. It is located in the heart of Markham, close to shopping, restaurants, area attractions, and the high-tech business community. It is within walking distance of the Carlton park which is a hot spot for dating as well as taking wedding photos. (Hey babe, how about starting with a romantic evening at the park?) The Club Markham is one of the largest state-of-the-art hotel health clubs in North America. The membership is relatively expensive comparing to YMCA. IBM Toronto Lab is just next doors. My friend who are IBM engineer told me that it worths the dollar. However, the pool is totally occupied by kids during the long weekends.

The hotel charged me $130.5 for a weekend stay.

• 1KNG SUPERIOR STE
• Essence of Unionville HHonor Continental deluxe breakfast. Note: The executive lounge was under renovation. They offered a continental breakfast which doesn't include hot items.
• Self-Parking, $8 value
• Wireless high speed internet, $15 value
• Access to Markham club. It is the most up-scale gym in Toronto hotels. There were too many kids.

Be sure to check out my Travelocity Good Buy Hotels post and select the Top Hotel Deals in Toronto link to browse for the off-season rate.

See also How did I get 1 night stay in Hilton fallsview and commute for $5.

Ontario school board plumbers earn more than $100,000 per year

The government has been disclosing the salary report every year since 1996. Overall, nearly 34,000 Ontario public sector workers earned more than $100,000 last year. Among about 1,000 of them work for the Ontario School Boards and School Authorities.

• Principals and superintendents take up most of the spots in the list. Those are educators with management role. This is well-taken and should be respected.
• Dozens elementary and high schools teachers also made the list. Have you ever seat in to your little girlfriends and/or sisters class? The chance is that the slides and lecture is exactly the same as a few years ago. Can you believe that a class can be as simple as getting the students to take turns to read out King Lear and handing back essays? Shakespeare doesn't change.
• Four plumbers at the Toronto District School Board earned more than $100,000. Good for them!

See Public Sector Salary Disclosure 2007 (Disclosure for 2006) : School Boards for the complete list.

UPDATE: For those who are outside Ontario, $100K/year Canadian is what many MD and engineers in Ontario are earning.


See this link for the details.

Americans prefer HOT sexual encounter to real relationship. Alexa said so!

According to Alexa.com, below are the top 50 most visited websites by Americans as of April 8th, 2007.

• Myspace

  is at the top of the list except for Yahoo and Google. Myspace is an online social networking site. Networking is the top American online activity.

• eBay!

  ranked 5th. Whatever it is... you can get it on eBay. Is there anything more important than shopping? I got an eBay quick pick bar on my site.

• Blogger.com

  ranked 12th. Yeah! I know blogging is an important part of Americans life. My blog is hosted by Blogger.com!

• Digg

  ranked 22nd. Digg is a news site where the stories are chosen by community members rather than editors. If you like this story, digg it!

• Adult Friendfinder

  ranked 33th. Adult FriendFinder is the world's largest adult and swingers sex personals site! Tons of hot women posing nude and men showing off their abs. Sign up for a free browsing account. Why not?

• Match.com

  ranked 49th. Match.com is the worlds No. 1 online dating service credited with creating more loving couples, and marriages than any other dating service online. Apparently, looking for a serious relationship is less important than hot sex to Americans. Ok, that is sad but true.... Anyways, here is a link for a 7 Day Free Trial

To conclude, online social networking is American's most popular online activity followed by shopping. I am sorry to be the one to tell, but Americans are much more active on looking for sex partners than life partners. See this link for the details.

Yahoo!

Google

Myspace

Microsoft Network (MSN)

EBay

YouTube

Thefacebook

WikiPedia

Craigslist.org

Windows Live

Amazon.com

Blogger.com

Go

AOL

Microsoft Corporation

CNN - Cable News Network

Comcast.net

The Internet Movie Database

Flickr

Photobucket image hosting and photo sharing

Megaupload

Digg

Weather.com

MapQuest

About

The New York Times

Apple Computer, Inc.

StatCounter.com

LiveJournal.com

TypePad

BBC Newsline Ticker

Digital Point Solutions

Adult Friendfinder

CNET.com

Reference.com

Orkut.com

Passport.net

Linkedin.com

Wordpress.com

CBS SportsLine

CareerBuilder.com

Rapidshare.com

Adobe

Netflix

Monster.com

EarthLink, Inc.

United States Postal Service (USPS)

Target

Match.com

Dell Inc.

Sheraton's Starpicks 20% off last-minute deal

Sheraton's Starpicks last-minute rates are at least 20% off regular prices at Starwood properties around the world. For 2007 Easter Day weekend Apr 6-9th, they got:

• Four Points by Sheraton San Diego, $95
• Sheraton Gateway San Francisco Airport Hotel, $79
• Sheraton Sunnyvale Hotel, $79
• W Silicon Valley, $95
• Four Points by Sheraton Plainview Long Island, $100
• Four Points by Sheraton Mississauga Meadowvale, $68
• Four Points by Sheraton Toronto Airport, $80

Follow this link to Enjoy 20% off worldwide with last-minute Starpick rates at Sheraton! and some other deals. The picks update frequent. Please come back to check on the latest hot deals. Please see also related posts:

• How did I get 25% off Marriott's Look No Further Best Rate,
• How did I get 1 night stay in Hilton fallsview and commute for $5,
• Free Travel from TD Canada Trust

Happy Easter day!