Tatiana's Wanderings

9/19/19 is also a palindrome date! The Canucks played Edmonton tonight at 6 in Preseason Game #4, and won 6-1 with goals from six different players! During the first intermission, I tried making online reservations for the Cactus Club on Saturday, but was thwarted because 7 PM was not an available time, so I had to call and see what was up. Eventually, I figured that we should just walk in and see if we got a table. Apparently, it had to do with party size, but 40% of the tables should still theoretically be free. The online reservations would have been so easy, too!


Pirate skull, enlarged! I couldn't pass up the Talk Like A Pirate Day QUIRKY COINCIDENCE on September 19!




From Janina: This is my first day as a crime scene investigator. Detective: "How did this man drown?" Me: "He couldn't breathe underwater."




From List25: Nameless, Tennessee?!




In EARTHBOUND's Magicant, Ness meets a random bird!

GIF Resizer


9/17/19 is also a palindrome date AND MY BIRTHDAY! After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 3:30 on a 401 to help with the kids. I JUST missed the Brighouse train because of someone shoving their way onto the elevator when the door was closing, and ALMOST missed the 3 bus at Marine Drive because someone wanted to let others on the already full elevator! JESUS CHRIST! People already on the elevator have connections to make and places to go - they can wait for the next one! And no, I did not leave really late!

When I finally got to the house at about the usual time, Beckett was fussing and trying to sleep. Ayler and Hiero were doing some origami; no, they couldn't test me on my birthday since that isn't very nice! I got to see Ayler construct a tiny gift box, while Hiero put very small things in his. Ayler wanted me to look at the origami book, so I did - lots of stuff in there for sure! Later, he wanted to see if he was taller than me yet - nope, but he was also cheating (which I told him) because he was standing on the mat and I was standing on the floor. I did tell him - as usual - the demarcation between my neck and my chin. Wow, he's 4 foot 6 already?!

We had dinner earlier than Beckett, and Hiero told me something interesting about making friends in kindergarten. It's good to know the proper names of your body parts, I told him. Harmony asked what I did for my actual birthday: Uh, you're currently looking at it! Turns out Jon believed Mom when she said it was the 16th, so I told her that maybe she shouldn't automatically believe Mom, and take what SHE says with a very liberal grain of salt. Homemade tomato soup, artisan bread, sticky rice (JONG), chicken feet, spicy sausage, soft carrots, and shortbread camel cookies - I declined the relaxing tea, though!

Beckett finally got a little bit of sleep - which I agree that he needed - and then crawled to my chair and pulled himself up to say hi and eat my dragon hoodie strings. CUTE! He wanted me to play with him, so I did - without washing my hands, which I'm sure Harmony wasn't impressed with. Oh well. Sometimes you gotta let the kid lead! He laughed at the baby pop-up toy, clapped and laughed, climbed on my back to try pulling my hair (Ayler says he claws people and pulls their hair now), and seemed way more energetic than Harmony thought he should be. Maybe he just wanted to play with me since he recognizes and likes me now!

Later, he crawled into the bathroom while Ayler was in there, but I was interested to see what he gets up to inside. Turns out that he's smart and knows that his blue basin is inside the shower stall, so wants to put it on his head. I took him out of there to play with better toys on the mat, and he climbed on me when I put the soccer ball on my head. Harmony let me go early at 7:10, which was a change. There was a transit officer on the 3 Marine Drive bus already, which again did not stop anywhere randomly for a few minutes. I still was a couple minutes late for a Brighouse train, but eventually got home at 8:45. Not a bad end to my birthday at all, involving no rushing like LAST YEAR!


From Nita: A pencil is on the phone. "I'll call you back later, okay? I'm having dinner with my editor." The RUBBER ERASER is the editor, hahaha!

Might go to Holly's tonight. We'll see!


From Julie: Bron Holland?!




On September 19, 2015, I went to the Pint to meet Aaron / Kathy / Sabrina / Julian for a belated / early birthday celebration. I passed by the Prado Café on my way there, and thought of Janina for obvious reasons. Eventually, she messaged them on Facebook, and they sent her a mug for free!

After COFFEE TIME, I went to the eye clinic by 11:45 (busing at 11 on a 401, which I got to JUST IN TIME) for an eye pressure test, but I was 25 minutes late because of snow and transit delays, NOT helped by SOMEONE thinking we had infinite time to exit the elevator at Brighouse station! It won't be 20/20 vision or anything with the other surgery, but the doctor is okay with how things are going so far. I decided to take a business card for my home use: IN THE COSMETICS BAG BY THE COMPUTER FOR EASIER ACCESS! I'm sure they have a thousand of those things! While I was out anyway, I decided just to kill time at Oakridge. Thank goodness the snow was melting because of the rain since the temperature had warmed up a bit! I found that the best wifi signal was near the food court (where I had some Pho), and definitely not at Safeway or the library!

I got NEW Pringles Groovz in Applewood Smoked Cheddar flavor, small bottles of Vaseline x2 in Cocoa Radiant Cocoa Butter / Aloe Vera, Flaming Hot Cheetos, and Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos at Safeway. Also read a bit and talked to people on Discord, as you do. I also went to Wireless Wave to find out why my Internet data was frozen - apparently, I wasn't allowed to have any, which explains some things, but at least I can still seemingly take advantage of Wifi and Shaw Open!

We talked about her mom, Sophie, not saying hi to David yet after a year (sit in their pew!), her brother helping out, the new caregiver from church, the new worship team and their new style of songs, Belinda's new snowblower for Toronto weather, my eye surgeries, and going to No Frills later only to find that the Becel avocado oil margarine was sold out. Ugh, I'll just get it some other time since I was not in the mood to walk anymore once I got into Richmond. Got home at 7:55 on a 401, and the sidewalks were just as clear as they'd been this morning as I tried "safely running" for the bus. Yes, of course I'm a good listener as Anita told me all those years ago, and Frances affirmed tonight. I told her to look up Edward Rutherfurd if she wanted to read more historical fiction, ha!


NEW Chipotle Barbacoa Bowl - yum!




Vaseline Advanced Repair lotion in the white bottle!




Vaseline Aloe Vera lotion in the green bottle!




Vaseline Cocoa Radiant Cocoa Butter lotion in the brown bottle!




Pringles Groovz: Classic Salted, Delicious BBQ, and Applewood Smoked Cheddar!




Flaming Hot Cheetos!




Jalapeno Cheddar Cheetos!

DOUBLE COFFEE TIME! I was ready with Eric's Christmas 2018 Almond Roca when he called this morning at 8:55, which I dumped into the backseat when he mentioned Christmas as a reminder. I took an extra 30 seconds to talk to the security guard, who says that he doesn't know how long they'll be posted in the apartment lobby - then I apologized to Eric about it, who didn't say anything much beyond stuff about how he knows the building doesn't have sprinklers. (it would automatically detect fire and BURNING to call 911!) We got to church on time, and I settled into a pew with Myles, Brittney, and Naomi... I definitely hugged Pastor Dan hello and said hi to Joe! Mom and Dad stayed for ONLY the baby dedication, OF COURSE! I said hi to Uncle Joe and Auntie Wing Yee, and waved to Peter, Holly, Evander, Everett, Jon, Harmony, Ayler, Hiero, and Beckett.

After service, I said hi to Lesley / Frances C. (her mom and a possible get-together) / Eva (Harrison's mom - he's now FIFTEEN?!) / Margaret K. / Ivan W. (eye surgery and Sunday Dinner) / Auntie Esther / Harmony (eye surgery support) / Pastor Dan (eye surgery and Sharon being out of town) / Auntie Catherine (hug) / Auntie Cathy (hug) / Emily Y. (Joey in town often and non-profit work for Big Brothers) / Deb (eye surgery support) / Pastor Fulton / Lawrence / Derek C. / Adam L. / Billy (I have the same eyes?!) and Stella (Steph's family) / Rosenda / Sophia / Natalie / Jeff / Anita / Uncle Wayne and Auntie Susan. It was good to see people and say hi... Eric didn't even HAVE hockey because of some international thing going on in that arena, so I got a ride home from him, avoiding lunch with my parents! Of course Mom had my stuff before she and Dad go on a cruise to Cuba and visit Steph's family.

I made sure that I talked to Jon and his crew, of course, patting Beckett's head as I said hi to him. Hiero was playing with a "paper plane," and I helped Ayler with a Nanaimo Bar at the snack table. Eric and I listened to a comedy podcast, then got stuck in traffic to the Arthur Laing Bridge, so we should just have braved the backed-up Knight Street Bridge instead! I finally got home at 12:35 when we'd left the church about an hour earlier... the Canucks played the St. Louis Blues at 12 today, and WON 6-1! I'm just glad that I have unfettered time to blog at my own pace now!


Random (Christmas!) stuff from Mom and Dad, inside a Lush Cosmetics bag: A Spirit "Size 14" thin blue and white pair of pants which Mom thought would "fit" me (ha ha ha... she forgets about the NG butt size!), two random pairs of grey knee socks, Project 7 Coconut-Lime gourmet gum, a pound of Carnaby (Shoppers Drug Mart store brand) Halloween candy and gumdrops in a tub with NO expiry date, a pack of three pairs of women's athletic socks, two pairs of T-Max Heat Holders casual socks (FINALLY, SOMETHING POTENTIALLY USEFUL!), a random pair of white "socks" which don't even fit over my feet, and a Disney Princess Lip Smackers tub in "Birthday Princess" flavor.


Edit: Harmony and Jon emailed me an invitation to an early Christmas Day dinner. Sounds good to me right now!


Happy Hockey Hanukkah!




Project 7 sugar-free Gourmet Gum varieties: Coconut-Lime, Wedding Cake, Rainbow Ice, First Kiss, Peppermint Vanilla, Grapefruit Melon, Front Porch Lemonade, and Birthday Cake! Eight of them, with 12 pieces per package!