Tatiana's Wanderings

After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 4 on a 407 to hopefully make it on time to Do Chay Vegetarian Vietnamese restaurant at Kingsway and Knight. The Brighouse stops have changed because of some construction for a new bus loop - will we ever get to use it? (old Richmond Centre stop is a block back - the Brighouse stop is the old 410 stop) I got there at 5, so killed time by going to the crowded Dollar Tree. I should have just gone into Save-On Foods because I almost killed myself going out of the store since their outside lighting left a lot to be desired. THE STAIRS AND RAMP SHOULD BE LIT UP! I eventually walked back a block to the Save-On, where I bought Teriyaki Noodles Sidekicks and Allen's Malt Vinegar before taking advantage of their wifi connection to copy-paste a NON-MMS text message to Mike into Hangouts instead, and catch up on Youtube comments. No, idiot, you can't police public comments and say "normal" people can't hijack others OR wish staph on me! BAD SOCIAL CUES!

I STILL got to the restaurant first, but hoped that Jon had reserved a table when he wouldn't answer my text messages. Hiero came in a couple of minutes later with Mom, Dad, and a wheeled small suitcase. Dad showed me how the luggage handle worked (push down / pull up), got me to try it out, and gave me some tiny keys which weren't for me. Geez, they're going to set off alarms at the airport! Apparently, they're NOT driving me to the airport anymore - WHAT THE FUCK?! Ayler asked me how many pounds I weighed, only to be shot down by various people.

We talked about monsoon rolls, their running out of coffee, the pub down the street KNOWING they get busy and send people there to wait, tomorrow's plans (Harmony's parents are coming by - so I MIGHT come on Friday if I let her know by Thursday evening), Harmony working on Friday, Beckett liking to look at all the lights, satay noodles, spicy soup noodles, Ayler asking the server about how busy the restaurant gets on weekends (I said he had a question... A TWO-HOUR WAIT?!), Steph meeting Mark Messier, and Dad's choir tonight. It was definitely cold outside when we left at 7:15 or so! I got home at 8:05 on a 407, thanks to Jon and Harmony driving me to King Edward Station. Ayler and Hiero thanked me for my Christmas gifts - I still have time to give Beckett the stuffed Santa dog, I think. The Canucks played Philadelphia at 4, and lost 2-1.


Random stuff from Mom and Dad: President's Choice jalapeno cheddar popcorn, a yellow-green Roots knapsack or backpack to "replace" my reusable bags from London Drugs, two Paderno steak knives, small Cuisinart scissors, a 100 Yen coin, grey Touch Gloves mittens, a Gildan black T-shirt with a golden dragon, an Asian notebook, an embossed pink rose journal, and two random spiral notepads. Mike would be jealous of the Doge bag!


President's Choice jalapeno cheddar popcorn!




Zippered Doge bag!




( Do I really need a packing list? )

IT'S WORLD TOILET DAY TODAY! After DOUBLE COFFEE TIME, I went out at 3 on a 401 to help with the kids. I had a bit of time to finish Jon's birthday card with a Sprite and Coke, nacho / pizza Goldfish since Beckett can eat those, one limited-edition Kinder Bueno chocolate bar, the Caramilk bar and a half, and NEW $2 Weinrich's Porta chocolate bars x4! (Peppermint / Raspberry / Blueberry / Strawberry) Got to the house at the usual time, no thanks to a couple of delays like a bike and crowds! Harmony was trying to get Beckett to sleep in his carrier, but Ayler and Hiero seemed enthusiastic to show me their "new" magic trick set. They even told me how things worked! Magic wands, haha!

I read a book and a half to Ayler as he sat in my lap - Mr. Watson and his pig Mercy. OH MY! He seemed to like some of the funny drawings, anyway. Later, Beckett did wake up, so we played for a bit before eating dinner. He did like the green balloons from Kids Physio, batting them around the room. I didn't care if he played the piano, but had to watch that he didn't close the piano or rip Ayler's music books! Ayler said that Jon was tired of buying new books, so he had to keep those ones in good condition. Sounds reasonable to me! I managed to open the Blue Diamond wasabi and soy sauce almonds while I was at the house (thinking I'd get Ayler to help me instead), so since he asked what they were, I fed him one. He seemed okay with it.

We had soup, jap chae (Korean glass noodles), chicken legs, dumplings, and yogurt for dinner. When Harmony gave him Goldfish, Beckett wanted the "newer" ones inside the Ziploc bag, although the ones on the table were the same thing! ("NA NA NA NAAAAAAA!") We also wouldn't let him overdose on Dewdrops, which made him upset. I think he's entering the stage where he just wants to be with Harmony a lot because every time she left to do something or take care of the older boys, he also was upset and crying. Of course I hugged and safely kissed him anyway, though! He wanted to look out the window and spout gibberish at me about whatever he saw out across the street, and pointed at the lights.

I told Harmony that yes, I was excited for my Ontario trip. Then I asked whether Jon's birthday restaurant on Sunday was in Burnaby again like last year. Apparently, Do Chay Vegetarian Vietnamese Restaurant is on Kingsway and Knight, and we'll be going there on Monday since it's Jon's actual birthday. Yes, I did see the part of the email exchange where Mom said that we could just save Jon some food if he couldn't make it, and Jon's response that he would actually like to be there at his own birthday dinner! HAHAHA!

Beckett can say "yeah" and "goh-goh" (comes out as "gah-gah" these days), and did say YEH-YEH for the first time the other day. So then I pointed to myself and asked him if I had a name! Reasonable question, even if he may not understand it! When I was leaving at 8, he pointed to me, so Harmony told him what was going on. I guess I'll see her either on Sunday at Jeremy's or Monday at the restaurant in the afternoon. She has to go there after work, so she definitely hopes the buses are still running for both of us! (Mom only mentioned HER in the email...) The Canucks played the Stars today at 5:30, and lost 6-1?! Luckily, I got home at 9 on a 407.


Random stuff from Mom and Dad inside a produce bag: Two extremely old and very used orthopedic shoe inserts (wouldn't be surprised if they were from my childhood...), a 175g bag of Nosh & Co soft chewy mints, a Colgate Extra Clean toothbrush, a regular 100mL tube of Cavity Protection Crest toothpaste, 400g of Campside strawberry Twisties marshmallows, and a Knorr Fettuccine Alfredo Sidekicks package that expires in July 2020.


From AskReddit: Mike Litterst?!

From Discord on August 15, 2019: OMW is a pretty stupid and lazy abbreviation - just spell out ON MY WAY! You could do that for EXCITED and ANNIVERSARY! Also, nobody cares about your anniversary gift to your husband: cotton socks with pets on them.




In the big Corelle bowl, we have hot and sour soup noodles!




All-Chinese package of Knorr hot and sour soup mix!




From Not Always Right: FACEPALM! Crap... wrong hand... SHUNK!

From Sara H. and Tumblr: Things that English speakers know about English word order, but don't know we know! I definitely sent this to Corey on Discord as soon as I saw it posted on my wall on Facebook!

BurntCopper posts a photo. "Adjectives in English absolutely have to be in this order: Opinion-size-age-shape-color-origin-material-purpose Noun. So you can have a lovely little old rectangular green French silver whittling knife. But if you mess with that word order in the slightest, you'll sound like a maniac. It's an odd thing that every English speaker uses that list, but almost none of us could write it out. And as size comes before color, green great dragons can't exist."

WindyCityTeacher: "Whoa! What?!"

Ice-Light-Red: "That is profound. I noticed this by accident when asked about adjectives by a Japanese student. She translated something from Japanese like BROWN BIG CAT, and I corrected her. When she asked me why, I bluescreened."