Tatiana's Wanderings

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?!

The Canucks played Edmonton tonight at 7 in their first game of the 2019-2020 NHL season, and lost 3-2. Chinese Eric texted me yesterday afternoon wanting to come over today at 4 after lunch and errands, so I resigned myself to a lot of talking and said yes, getting the parking pass ready. I did have to give him the strawberry / original / mango / banana / peach / melon / apple Milkis cans, after all, and could also use him to pick up a carton of almond milk that I forgot last week at the store. He came by at 4 after COFFEE TIME and SHOWER TIME, wanting to watch the Leafs game, but also picked up a carton of almond-coconut milk from the store instead of the almond milk I wanted, saying that I'd failed to specify. IF I WANTED NASTY COCONUT MILK (WHICH I DON'T), I'D HAVE SAID SO! We did try the Dr. Oetker salted caramel cheesecake, which was okay. Then he said that printing out the Canucks schedule was a waste of paper - he should have seen how much paper I wasted on things which weren't perfect to me! Besides, it works for me when I want to plan stuff during the hockey season - SO THERE!

He left at 5 to exchange the milk at Price Smart... GOOD! By that time, I'd composed the email to him / white Eric / Jeremy (who'd thanked me for my "Happy Birthday" email earlier) / Jon / Christon / Randal about his proposed 12 Kings hangout on October 22 to watch the Raptors championship banner unveiling after we figured out WHY their first preseason game was at 3 AM. (it's in Tokyo...) We had Western Family 8-vegetable lasagna with multigrain pasta for dinner: Carrots / green and red Bell peppers / spinach / zucchini / cauliflower / broccoli / black olives! Also talked about his seeing Corey Hirsch at the art gallery, the Leafs-Senators game (Toronto won 5-3), bottled water, his doing the dishes, live-action remakes of things like ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS and ALADDIN, "you know" all the time (FILLER ANNOYANCE!), McDonalds / Tim Horton's hockey cards, that Grow-A-Husband, my guestbook, the SIMPSONS, Channel 22 highlights, and more. Then he finally left soon after the game ended, at 9:40. Now it's time for video game music to relax!


Mars, Pennsylvania?!




From John: Keep Calm - Hockey Is Back!




Canucks jersey!




Front of Reebok Canucks hat... GO CANUCKS GO!




Back of the Reebok Canucks hat with a Bathroom Reader!

It's National Punctuation Day today... MY FAVORITE! After COFFEE TIME, I had to leave at 2 on a 401 and then a 410 (which I just got to on time, no thanks to idiots blocking my path on the sidewalk) for my appointment with Dr. Ruby before I helped with the kids. That was uncomfortable - I also saw a professional Audrey. Also, I had to buy more NEW Beehive Burst Peppermint lip balm at the Dollar Tree since there was no photo online that I could find, so I had to take my own photo. (I had ripped mine open last week before I figured this out...) I was there on time, but STILL had to wait 20 minutes to be seen! UGH! I should have gone to Dollar Tree before rather than after! Then I tried to speedwalk over to Lansdowne station a block and a half away, and just missed a Waterfront train thanks to these two slow ladies on the elevator going down.

When I got to Marine Drive station, I definitely needed a snack, so I went to Tim Horton's. Luckily, there was no lineup, so I got a non-sticky cheese tea biscuit and then got out of there to find that a wheelchair wanted to get on the 3 as well. Then a stroller wanted to get on - at least this one contained a fairly curious kid who growled and made various noises, unlike the other stroller who got on after that one left! After another delay caused by the driver stopping in the middle of the road for five minutes to check an alarm that was going off, I finally got to Mount Pleasant at about 4:20 when I could have been there at 4:05! Too many delays! Yeah, I used Term to complain to via text, haha.

Inside, Penny was just finishing up speech therapy while Beckett was failing at napping again. Almost right after Penny left, it was off to the park across the street because Harmony wanted to walk Beckett around the playground to see if he'd nap then. Spoiler alert: He did not. Ayler asked if I wanted to play tag or Manhunt - no, because I had run out of energy and was like a car which had run out of gas. Hiero asked why I walked how I did, so maybe Jon and Harmony should talk to him about it at some point. Once we got home again after more promises of consequences, I got to play with Beckett for a bit. He liked the baby pop-up toy because it made him laugh more than usual, wanted me to shake my head a lot because it was funny, liked PEEK-A-BOO as per Hiero, tried eating my DRAGON HOODIE strings again, and climbed on me a few times. (he did pull Hiero's hair, though!)

At the same time, Hiero was trying to show me his origami. Blowing up squares to make huge boxes, oh my! Later, I stayed close as Beckett crawled on the couch despite Ayler telling me not to let him do it. Well, you're doing and completing a HUGE connect-the-dots puzzle, so I'll do what I want while keeping Beckett safe in my own way, including trying to put on one of his missing socks. We had salmon, congee, Chinese chicken soup, meatballs with ketchup and barbecue sauce, some veggies, and ridiculous amounts of shredded pork. Then we talked about whether Jon had been shot today at the Downtown Eastside (he was fine and didn't have to lie on the floor as per Hiero's question), why people shoot at each other ("because some people think that the best way to resolve their problems is with guns" and "that's why we don't joke about guns"), my Cactus Club birthday dinner, Ayler seeing Brooke early this morning ("how do you know?"), Hiero doing flips and gymnastics in the elevator earlier and being injured, and how much everyone in the family could eat compared to each other.

After I washed dishes for a bit, I read to Hiero about Optimus Prime and the Decepticons, then listened to Ayler play a boogie on the piano before listening to him read a Level 2 story about polar bears. Sure I had to help him with some words, but that's normal. I left at 7:20, but couldn't get a 3 bus till 7:40 thanks to a couple of buses being out of service! I missed a Brighouse train by five minutes, and JUST managed to get a 407 at Brighouse, no thanks to people blocking my path where I was going to run to the front door of the bus. Do I really have to shove my way past other people all the time to get where I'm going in a timely fashion?! I got home at 8:35, checked my mail, and found Julie's birthday card plus random stuff - yay!


Random stuff: Nathan returning the OUTLANDER novel to me, six packs of Compliments Safeway brand spicy chicken instant noodles, and yet another pair of reading glasses. Good thing I didn't buy the Jergens lotion today because of all the walking I had to do, AND the utter weight of the 650-page paperback book!


From WINGS Restaurants and Pubs: Pumpkin spice chicken wings for fall 2019?! BLEH!




( Peppermint lip balm, birthday swag, Compliments instant noodles, a bunny, construction workers looking out for the baby rabbits, doughnut drawing at the hospital bus stop, Polestar planner )