Tatiana's Wanderings

MORE COFFEE TIME! IT IS LEAP YEAR 2020 TODAY! The Canucks played the Leafs today at 4, and lost 4-2... DAMN EMPTY-NET GOALS AND MY BIRTHDAY BUDDY AUSTON MATTHEWS! Eric Ho confirmed yesterday via text that he was coming over, and also called me at 12:10 to iron out some details, so YAY! I got him to pick up a 24-pack of Nestlé Pure Life bottled water from Price Smart on the way since I was running out. He got here at 2:15, so that was good. We talked about the parking pass / my spare keys, the skyrocketing coronavirus news, Nathan being overseas right now, the 2001 version of THE MUMMY RETURNS with Brendan Fraser, Jeremy, washing hands, my Ontario trip, the bacon quiche / Reser's mashed potatoes / meat lasagna / macaroni and cheese / Peanut Butter Pie Oreos / Mackie's Crispy Bacon chips / Mackie's haggis and cracked black pepper chips, the Lindt / Nutter Butter I gave him in a Ziploc bag, and David Ayres the Zamboni driver. He also called "coronavirus" SARS, and called the Alcan aluminum foil "cling wrap - you know what I mean." Not really or not at first, but he's still a good friend of mine!

Also discussed Jann Arden / a halftime show, 2011 and the Boston Pizza name change, HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA, my slipper socks / high heels bag / Boston Pizza gift card from Ruth and Joan, Carey Price / Patrick Roy (possible) trades / the trade deadline activity on Monday, ICBC driver premiums and car insurance, whether I caught any of Sedin Week, and the 9-3 Boston Bruins blowout the other night. Conversed about his smelling my hot sauce, the playoffs, Jim Hughson, his not preferring to drive during sunset / twilight hours, a cow in a plane for a THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR movie scene with Jet Li, and Don Cherry's podcast / being fired, the Juno Awards, the Simpsons controversy, Apu, and Krusty the Clown before he left at 6:40 after a disappointing Leap Day / Leap Year LOSS! DAMN EMPTY-NETTERS! Sure, I'll collect my empty bottles for him to redeem somewhere if he offered! Of course he did the dishes WITHOUT COMPLAINING!


Happy Leap Year Day 2020! Leap Year Day FROG! February 29! Feb. 29!




( February 29! Leap Year! Food and water! )

After DOUBLE COFFEE TIME, I went out at 3:05 on a 407 bus to help with the kids at 4. I checked to see if Shoppers had any cheaper lip balm - I was unwilling to pay $9.99 for a little tube of Burt's Bees once I finally found it at the back of the store (even London Drugs has it for cheaper!), so I went straight to Mount Pleasant instead. Turns out Jon wanted to meet at Bellagio Gelato - worked for me, even if I had to wait for a bit. Hell, I could just hop on their wi-fi from just outside the doors. They showed up at about 4:45, and Ayler asked how long I'd been waiting, and about my route. I joked and said five hours, then revised it to 15 minutes. Beckett didn't seem to like his sunhat, but the kids got white bubblegum gelato (with no bubble gum pieces!) while I got some raspberry sorbetto. Of course I did the polite thing and thanked the ug! We tried offering some to Beckett, but he turned his head away like his brothers had when they were one year old. Maybe when he's four years old, he'll like it!

Ayler, Hiero, and I talked about the puzzle with the most pieces: 551,232 pieces?! I totally blew their minds with that factoid! They were impressed by the photo which I was able to find online, too. We walked or ran back home - with lectures about stranger danger and people possibly grabbing them - and I was able to hang out with the kids and Harmony. Catching Beckett whenever he crawled to the back window because he threw his red ball around, preventing him from fitting under the couch, his chewing toys and seeming interested in the Christmas baby books at times, almost tripping over crap in the way (hopefully not hurting Beckett), flossing, and ODE TO JOY piano music.

More origami, SIMON SAYS, some calorific pasta for Beckett (who just threw everything on the floor anyway), what had lots of calories, school and therapy, calling Dad for his birthday, reading books about bikes and trains, the double-layer puzzle, salad, Chinese noodles with peanut sauce, allergies, blueberries, calories, corn on the cob, and hugging Beckett to me when his brothers were being too rambunctious with pinches and he wanted support and security since we were all in a tiny circle... that was heartwarming and he wasn't scared of me! Ayler wanted me to come next week - sure, but do I have to smell their poo air?! They laughed at that, of course. I was able to leave at about 8 (Harmony thinks I did a good job with all the kids?!), grabbed the 3 Marine Drive Station bus, and was able to find some more lip balm x4 while I was out... gotta have backups! At least I was able to find the beauty section at T&T - $1.79 for one tube is way better than $9.99 to $11.99, no matter if Burt's Bees is more "quality" than Chapstick! I also grabbed a pack of Paldo Bul Jjamppong noodles on my way out. Got home at 9:30 on a 407, which is good.


Yes, there is a literal Cool Chinese Restaurant near my place. They took over the old space when the old Mad Greek owners retired!




Cherry Chapstick!




Mint Chapstick!

GREAT - I JUST GOT A BLUE SCREEN OF DEATH, ACCOMPANIED BY A HORRIBLE NOISE!


Holly mentioned that she was near me this morning for an interview at WorkSafe BC, so I noted the proximity. She asked if I wanted to do lunch, so after checking in with myself, I said yes. I finally left the house at 12 or so. Turns out she saw me at the 401 bus stop at Alderbridge, so we waited together and chatted about her interview, the questions, and how my morning was. Yup, Jimbo would have something to say about a certain person being invited to our chat when he gets back - we should have put it to a vote!

We finally made it to Edo Japan at the Richmond Centre food court, where I had a chicken chop chop bowl and she had some boring cucumber sushi. Talked about Brian, Jeremy, Darryl, Paulo taking a mental health break and needing to talk to someone, rage-quitting, Bath and Body Works, our birthdays, Chinese Eric's lupus, the chat, going to H and M later so I could convince her to get the cute and fun HOLY MOLY GUACAMOLE! thin sweater she'd seen earlier while killing time, encouragement of certain thoughts, a Froshberg Gelato ice cream (her treat - I got Nutella and White Chocolate and she got Pistachio), plus maybe going to the Steveston Canada Day festivities / Cherry Blossom Festival in the summer. When she found out that the next 401 would be in 16 minutes at Brighouse, she said that she was glad to wait for my bus with me, otherwise I'd be bored. No, I had my book and my thoughts! Turns out she did know Bryce Courtenay as a famous Australian writer from back home, but didn't know he'd been born in South Africa. I got home at 2, and was exhausted and drained. NO MORE GOING OUT FOR ME ANYTIME SOON!


Edo Japan chicken chop chop bowl, while having lunch with Holly!




Holly's HOLY MOLY GUACAMOLE! thin sweater!




From Julie: Some people - "Live, laugh, love." Me - "Pizza, tacos, bacon!"

I went out to London Drugs at 12:15 on a 414 (just missing the 401) to get Gillett bar mop towels x4 (I haven't bought them since January 2017?!), on-sale $2 Arm and Hammer All-in-One Complete Care Whitening Gel Toothpaste baking soda toothpaste with gel, on-sale Seventh Generation dish detergent (Free and Clear / Lemon), and on-sale Palmolive dish detergent (Green Apple and White Lily!) - I got home at 1:05 on a 401. The Canucks played the Hurricanes at 7:30 tonight, and lost 5-2.... UGH! I also showered tonight.


Final score for "That was definitely not a joke" Reddit comment: 2036 points!




Arm and Hammer All-in-One Complete Care Whitening Gel Toothpaste in Fresh Mint flavor!




( More toothpaste and dish detergent here! )


Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney make it to the Highway rest area in Chapter 7 of MOTHER 3. They stop by the restrooms. This guy tells them, "Well, it turned out this wasn't a ramen shop."




Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney make it to the Highway rest area in Chapter 7 of MOTHER 3. They stop by the restrooms. This guy tells them, "I even stood in line all that time without going to the bathroom..."




Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney make it to the Highway rest area in Chapter 7 of MOTHER 3. They stop by the restrooms. This guy tells them, "That's what I mutter to myself as I now stare blankly at this door."




From Julie: UNDERCOVER BOSS did an episode at the company Oriental Trading, and Sunday School starts on SETP. 11?! What?! CHECK YOUR SPELLING! BAD SPELLING!

GOOD TASTE dumplings / DIM SUM! GOOD TASTE dumplings: Beef and Vegetable, Cabbage and Chicken, Cabbage and Pork, Pork and Chive, Pork and Celery!


( GOOD TASTE dumplings! JOY dumplings! )


After I had COFFEE TIME, Barry picked me up at 11:50 and we went banking and to Price Smart, where I bought Palmolive Ultra Strength dish detergent for that computer chair which now has grease on it, as per Andrew's and my phone call on Friday about Teunis moving to Saskatchewan because they can buy a house there with saved money / swapping out the computer case for a smaller one in September since it's still part of our deal. I got NEW Nissin prawn noodles x2 / NEW Nissin soya sauce and pork noodles x2 / on-sale Western Family beef noodles x2 / on-sale Western Family vegetable noodles x2, JOY dumplings x4 (Pork and Tri-Treasure, Lamb and Onion, Pork and Vegetable, Pork and Chive), Winter Creek raw oysters x2 for Raw Oyster Day (expires on Aug. 6), NEW on-sale Peace Tea iced tea x4 (Razzleberry raspberry / Lemon Love lemon tea / Caddy Shack tea and lemonade / Greenest of all Teas green tea) and on-sale Earth's Own unsweetened almond milk.

Also purchased on-sale Clorox wipes x2, on-sale Kraft Parmesan cheese, a Hungry Man turkey dinner, Arm and Hammer baking soda, Arm and Hammer toothpaste, on-sale Prego Fresh Mushrooms pasta sauce, World Authentica Cuisine pasta sauce, on-sale Western Family blueberry-pomegranate yogurt, on-sale Western Family frozen vegetables, Vedan mushroom and artificial cuttlefish instant noodles, Wei Lih spicy beef noodles, and Six Fortune broad noodles. Then my debit card got declined a couple of times because I couldn't swipe my chip card, and the magnetic stripe couldn't be read! I think I'll take Barry's advice and go to Coast Capital sometime so I can figure out this shit. After that, I paid my Shaw bill online at home. That also gave me some stress because the bill was twice as high as it should have been, and I had to make a new Shaw ID and secure password at their website! Damn technology!


Updated point total for PEE BEFORE YOU LEAVE: 1814 Reddit karma points!




My newest top-voted Reddit comment: If someone defends themselves by saying "it was just a JOKE!", odds are it wasn't, especially if you found it to be creepy or invasive behavior! This girl's guy friends defended her against a creep!




( FOOD! )