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! )

I got roped into going to a Chinese New Year dinner tonight by Jon's text... so I had to shower, have COFFEE TIME, and give up a few hours of alone time! Left at 4:30 on a 407, and then got to Kwong Chow at 5:35 or so. We talked about the new coronavirus, my reading about Lego Ninjago to Hiero, Ayler asking me weird questions (and soaking up his 90 seconds of screen time with the All-Star Game), Beckett imitating his brother doing an angry face and waving his finger around (so funny!), Beckett saying "yeah" to some stuff (but probably not knowing what it means), Beckett saying MINE! about the plastic bowl from the restaurant, Beckett noticing my bling on my red shirt ("Boh-boh! Auntie!"), and my getting some leftovers AND $10 in lucky money.

I JUST MISSED THE 3 BUS GOING ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE RESTAURANT AT 7:30! Then I had to wait 25 minutes for the next one, then was waiting for at least 45 minutes for info about a 407 not coming at Brighouse. Turns out there was plenty of police activity across the street at Moore's clothing store, which was cordoned off with crime scene tape - the street was blocked off, too. Nobody else knew what was going on since my text alerts only said "detour on X streets" (and NOT WHY) and someone else's app was wildly inaccurate as to where the next bus was. Someone else smelled gas, so figured it was a gas leak - a bus driver FINALLY confirmed it. A poor girl had been waiting for an hour by the time we got confirmed info! I texted Paulo, Eric M., and Harma about it, finally got home at 9:40 on the THIRD 401 I saw, and had to change the CFL light bulb in my living room because it fizzled out!


From Cuya and Twitter: Happy Chinese New Year 2020 with rats, mandarin oranges, and flowers!




From Julie: Happy Chinese New Year 2020 with a rat, lanterns, and flower!




( Food! Happy Chinese New Year 2020 with rats and lanterns! )

After COFFEE TIME, Corey got back to me on Discord and confirmed that yes, he did use Line to talk to people in Taiwan. I eventually managed to install the app successfully on both my phone and computer - PHEW! I also talked to Nate and Darryl, which went well. Later, I left at 4:30 to get to Dublin Crossing at Marine Drive Station. Turns out I was there early, but fought with the wi-fi connection when it seemed to be fine on Monday. Oh well... I went in the pub after texting back and forth with Ian, and got our table all nice and ready. There, the connection seemed more steady about 90% of the time. Phew.

I FINALLY GOT TO MEET NATE! IT WAS AWESOME! We talked about Paulo and what he's doing, Steve, Darryl and how he's fine with us and LOVES the big server drama now that he's out of there, his thanking me for not being like Holly (I let them talk about whatever), Stefan and his girlfriend, how things like money and a relationship do not magically fix your problems, his girlfriend, Paris, the Asian red-face gene, Havarti, Ontario, hydro, therapy, and what certain people needed to hear. I also talked to Laura, Matt, Ian, Sarah, Megan, and some others. I JUST MISSED THE BRIGHOUSE TRAIN because the elevator took too long to come down from the train platform! JESUS CHRIST! At least it was a nice evening and I FINALLY got home at 9:55, just in time for the daily holidays!


From Cuya's Discord server: Pumpkin Spice Spam, just in time for fall 2019!




Guinness time at Dublin Crossing!




Irish Stew with soda bread! Braised New Zealand lamb shoulder, root vegetables, russets, barley, green peas, and house-made potato dumplings in a rich beef broth. Served with our house-made warm cheddar caraway soda bread.

From Julie M. and Krazy Bitch: Farted in my wallet. Now I have gas money.




From Aaron94 on Discord, Julie M., and Vanessa on November 29, 2018: Abcde Redford?! Also, the reporter has a great last name: MIRACLE!




From Pete: The guy says, "Let's go get some sushi!" The girl says, "I don't like eating raw fish." The guy responds, "Well... FUKU DEN." RESTAURANT STYLE!

COFFEE TIME! I called the medical clinic across the street (although I could still book an appointment online) to see if I could get removal for hearing tomorrow as a walk-in, after first confirming the hours. 1:45 definitely works for me... phew! Wilf's friend John Davis added me to Facebook; okay, then. The Canucks played Boston at 4 today, and won 8-5 over the nasty Bruins!


Flint is talking to this cow in MOTHER 3 at Alec's mountain cabin on Mount Oriander. "Moo. (Wherever and whenever, cows go MOO.)"




Flint is talking to this mouse in MOTHER 3 at Alec's mountain cabin on Mount Oriander. "Squeeeak-squeak squeeeak squeeeeak. (Not wasting food is a commendable thing.)"




Flint is talking to this mouse in MOTHER 3 at Alec's mountain cabin on Mount Oriander. "(But that does make things a little harder for me.)"

After COFFEE TIME, Eric M. picked me up at 5 so we could go to Golden Spring Restaurant (near the old VCEFC church site) for Beckett's baby banquet. Unfortunately, I forgot his birthday Lindt Excellence dark chocolate bars (Madagascar / Pink Peppercorn) and birthday card on the way out the door, despite leaving a note for myself. I guess I'll have to give it to him at the Felico's dinner like he wanted. UGH! At least he can give me a ride to that one! We talked about his first hockey practice today, his first game on Wednesday, there being a good reason why Steph / Lisa / Fraser / Henry weren't here this weekend, Highway 99, Steveston, and more.

We had seafood soup, sweet and sour pork, chicken, fish, yee mein, red bean soup, jellyfish, Chinese cold cuts, seafood soup, tea, and more for dinner - I got to take leftovers home, too! Dad thought he had to remind me to say hi to Mom, Uncle Richard, Auntie Gloria, Pastor Fulton, Auntie Teresa, Auntie May, Uncle Anthony, Uncle Andre and his wife Anna, Uncle Joe, Auntie Wing Yee, Auntie Vivian (who said that she missed me and wondered where I'd been "hiding"), Uncle Eric, Auntie Brenda, and their other friends. No, I just wanted to get settled first! I did say hi to Holly, Peter, Evander, and Everett when they got there, of course.

When Auntie Catherine got there, we caught up a little later - she remembered my birthday in September as "a special time," and wanted us to get together. She said that Frances is getting baptized next week - ha ha ha, good luck with that! (from what Ellen tells me...) I'm probably not going to go for THAT service, but did personally tell Jon that I would be willing to go to Beckett's baby baptism service if VCEFC ever got around to organizing one. Auntie Catherine also would be willing to meet me in RICHMOND (!) on Saturday the 15th, and maybe invite a friend my age. Okay, then! As long as it's not about religion AGAIN...

I taught Ayler about Talk Like A Pirate Day since he was wearing a pirate T-shirt. He asked what people did for that, and how he could celebrate; he eventually figured that he could wear his shirt and say "Arr, matey!" like I suggested. Good ideas! He did ask about my skin scars, but I told him that it was my choice to make boundaries about my body, just like him. Later, he refused to ask my reasonable question about how Grade 1 was so far; then he didn't want me to see the time on Eric's watch, so he covered it up. Okay, then. I did say hi to Hiero, but Harmony was wearing Beckett all evening, probably to prevent people from taking photos.

Nathan, Jeremy, Randal, Caleb, Rebecca, Jon, Harmony, Eric, and I talked about Batman / Quentin Tarantino / Twitch streams / my new glasses and upcoming eye surgery / my Felico's celebration (Jeremy and Nathan say they'll confirm later) / Danielle travelling these days / FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL / learning to ride bikes from Ron and Veronica / CRAZY RICH ASIANS / JOY LUCK CLUB / Kendrick Lamar / some guy named Danny Miller / addiction issues / rappers / the weird Asian shows on the TV, which Harmony did NOT feel the need to ask the staff to turn off / counting the courses. We saw Alan and Tracy with their kid Noah, so waved at them on their way out of the restaurant. I wished Myles a happy early birthday while saying hi to him, Brittney, and Naomi. Then Eric had to wait a few more minutes while I said bye to everyone that I knew... oh well.

Eric dropped me off at 8:40, which is still pretty good. Time to relax now! Oh wait, Mom wants Jon to choose the location of my birthday dinner AGAIN - yeah, I'm not putting up with that this year. Let ME pick the damn restaurant, although at least the Oakridge area on a Monday afternoon is better than Commercial Drive with Sunday bus schedules! Not saying I'll never go to Commercial Drive, but NOT at the behest of another person ON MY ACTUAL BIRTHDAY! No, I'm not feeling guilty about that. She tried calling me twice, but I was NOT in the mood for yet more social interaction. That's the true introvert nature!


Random stuff from Mom and Dad: $20 cash (making up for yesterday's pizza plus a little more), an old one-litre Proctor-Silex water boiler (half the size of my current one), a pair of white socks, a pair of pink-and-white candy toe socks, and 200 sheets of Hilroy lined paper.


Chinese jellyfish with chili!