Tatiana's Wanderings

Ayler called me at 5:25 today, telling me that he's the scooter master, and Hiero is the bike master. He says that they're in an elementary school reading program with badges for quizzes / reading books. Since he has more words than Hiero, so he can do more phone calls for the duration of the pandemic - I agreed that his vocabulary is better. They're having jook / congee for dinner tonight, and I said I would be having dumplings at some point. Hiero got on the phone and seemed enthusiastic about dumplings, saying they'd had them once. I said they could ask their dad to cook some one night if they wanted more. They were outside, but did do their distancing! It doesn't matter to me if they call me at 7 PM once so I can hear their neighbor's O CANADA, haha.

We discussed face masks, goat meat, chicken, pork, beef, lamb, and their nachos with ground beef / jalapeno peppers and optional salsa / guacamole / sour cream. (or vegetarian) Cheese makes it better, he says! For their burritos, Ayler loves salsa. I got to hear Beckett say "Auntie" and "Leslie" (which isn't a guarantee) - so cute! Beckett still knows what I look like because of his baby book. Hiero told me about their train track setup, and Ayler took over to tell me that he might not be able to keep track of the minutes and seconds of our phone call, and that I was lucky that there was no 30-minute time limit. He can call people before dinner, depending on when it is. "I have two people to call today - I had three, but already called one." Interesting kids, for sure! "Keep in touch and don't lose friends in Covid-19 / coronavirus," he says. I AGREE!


From the V4F Discord server and Twitter: In Chapter 1 of JRPGs, you find a lost kitty. In the final chapter, you kill God.




Hungry-Man XL Bowl: Chicken Croquettes!




Old Dutch baked pretzels mini-twists for National Pretzel Day today on April 25!




Miniso disposable face mask test against the coronavirus.

I discovered that Andre had unfriended / blocked me on Facebook - WHAT THE HECK?! Eric picked me up at 8:50 AM so I could use church as a vehicle to get to the Osborne Gym at UBC for Hiero's 6th birthday party. It helps that his hockey is all the way out at UBC, too... and it turned out that his hockey building is practically right next to the Robert Osborne building! He said that the LUFIA music sounded like something crazy was going on at my place - HAHAHA! I packed the Creature Chumpers toy (but forgot the birthday card), a bottled water, my Doge bag, and the other Starbucks Cold Brew before putting my boots on just in case of slush. Made my bag heavier, but it was okay. Eric and I listened to the radio for a bit until some guy came on who just monologues at you all the time - not his thing, and not mine either!

When we got to church, there was still plenty of parking across the street. As I thought, the car door went CLONK into a slush accumulation. Luckily, Eric could pull forward a bit so I could go into the nearby parking lot and then cross the street after getting on the clear sidewalk. I waited around outside the sanctuary, saying hey to Joe. When we were allowed to go inside, I said hi to Geoffrey and Sheena, and was respectful of the service. Hiero was there with Jon (who was preaching today), so I asked him if he wanted his birthday gift now or later... of course he chose now, before the Children's Sunday School.

I realized I'd forgotten the birthday card, but I can always give it to him later. He seemed out of it for some reason, but I wouldn't find out why till much later. Then he was trying to get Jon's attention, but he was busy talking to Pastor Dan. When I got back from the handicapped restroom (seeing empty water jugs inside and hoping a grandma didn't have to use it), Hiero had gotten Jon's attention, who told him to say thank you. I said that he already had (when I prompted him), so of course he didn't have to say it again! I did see Uncle Eric and Auntie Brenda at different times, and an uncle said hi to me as well.

Jon had an engaging sermon on Mark and seeds, at least. Even Julie S. agreed with me later on! I said hi to Sam, Auntie Cathy, Auntie Catherine (hug), Auntie Esther (hug), Cordia's mom, Helen C., Joe T., Ivan, Lesley, Dylan / Deb / Declan / Elysse (who thinks it's crazy that Hiero will be her age by next week AND who was eating sugar cubes), Cordia / Amasiah / Julie S. / Denise (who sent a photo of me to Steph) / Julie M., Auntie Susan x2 (Karen Grace's mom and Vivian's mom), Darren L., Martin T., Acer, and others. I could hear Acer swearing in the fellowship hall while talking about DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS, but whatever.

Soon enough, it was just a little group of me, Eric, Cordia, Amasiah, their friend Jeremy, and Acer since everyone else was staying for the Larry and Bella Mori missionary lunch before Missions Fest later in the month. Once we were shushed by Auntie Ada (Benedict's mom) since the Cantonese service was going on, we moved to the stairs, where I noticed a few minutes later that we were blocking the way, so we stood around a little outside the sanctuary in the "hall" until the bench cleared up. We still had to watch our volume, though!

Jeremy insisted he wasn't a weeb just because he went to Japan with some guys - including Acer's cousin - and had to translate for the group, Cordia said she's accepted who she is, and said that Amasiah was morbid like me - SWEET! We talked about the Japan trip, Japanese people KNOWING when you're "foreign" to them even if you're Asian and fluent in the language, Sharon's health woes in the Osoyoos (being literally stuck at home), 80 cents for a medium bottle of milk tea in Japan, the Mori kids Timothy and Tiffany, Molly, people following others on Instagram, pressuring Amasiah to buy some Pokemon figurine on Amazon since she didn't in Hong Kong, my trip, the snow and slush, anime / manga, otaku people, Discord, and lunch plans. Eric and I went upstairs to see if we could get some extra $2 sandwiches (Benedict had five pink tickets from his mom!), but he decided not to bother or distract anyone in the rooms, which I noticed are now labelled. They even upgraded the water cooler from a huge jug to a black self-cleaning one!

A few minutes later at 1:25, Eric asked if I was cool with going to Broadway / Cambie instead. Sure, why not? We could get fast food burgers, so we went to A and W where he kindly paid for my Mama Burger and we shared his fries before going to Pacific Spirit Park and a parking garage on UBC campus. He pressed the crosswalk button for me in the rainy weather, and showed me which building to go into. I went into the Robert Osborne building, connected to the Wi-Fi, and looked for a specific gym on the Evite to no avail, so I had to text Harmony about it. "No, gym" is not really a great answer to "should I meet you on the second floor?" when there are at least three gyms and lots of lockers in the entire place... as I told Steph, I wonder how many "where is this place specifically?" calls and texts they got before the birthday party.

Jon and Harmony were actually early with the kids, probably because they had to sign a waiver and were nominally hosting 15 kids and their parents. I showed Beckett the balls that he had dropped in my bag, but he seemed too out of it even for just waking up. He did look at them with widened eyes, but said nothing. After I met Hiero's friends Emmett and Huxley (what a name!), I heard that Hiero had puked on the gymnastics equipment when Harmony was explaining what had happened in Chinese to her parents! IRRESPONSIBLE AND GROSS! WHY WOULD YOU SUBJECT KIDS TO THAT?! Even Ayler was complaining of feeling sick at the end of everything later! While I was there, Chinese Eric replied to my text about the All-Star Game, saying he'd get back to me later. Why don't you figure it out first, man? I'm not like my ex Mike who wants an almost-instant response! Uncle Joe and Auntie Wing ended up driving me home after the refreshments since Costco closes early on Sundays, so I got home at 6:25. AWESOME!


Random stuff from Mom and Dad, who definitely wanted the tiny tote bag back if Mom dug through my bag for it: Cao Is Starvingbase Chongqing instant noodles, Paldo Jjajangmen Chajang instant noodles, Country Life pure soap, a random floral soap circle, Princess Cruises Lotus Spa shower gel x2, a shoe brush, a Bath Aquatics h2O+ bath bar, and Ontrue roasted seaweed x2 in green tea flavor! It's MINE after I put it in my bag - come on now, WAIT FOR ME TO GET BACK FROM THE WASHROOM AND THEN ASK PERMISSION! Even Beckett has more respect than that! When he dropped his balls in my bag, he just stood by the bag and didn't go through it... I'm sure he doesn't have the words to ask about the balls, but that doesn't matter!


The Tiger Tiger Sukiyaki noodles did come with a lot of packets in the bowl with the handy lid, all crammed inside!




( Gummies, water jugs, hot water advisories, and party food! )

Paulo let me know yesterday that he could come over tonight for noodles and ginger ale, which totally worked for me! Definitely no alcohol after last Friday for him, especially not with the stated effects on his body and liver! Today, he said he could come over around 8 unless that was too late - nope! He ended up taking a long nap and came over around 8:30 instead, but that was fine. Before I forgot, I asked him to take care of the wonky stove element wire. Thank goodness that he was able and willing to help! (and also to do his own dishes) I had cued up some relaxing FINAL FANTASY video game music, and we talked about that franchise / EARTHBOUND / MOTHER 3, MEGA MAN, DRAGON QUEST / DRAGON WARRIOR / instrumental music while cooking and eating noodles.

We talked about that smoke-filled ride from Chilliwack to Richmond in 2008 (starting off the summer of hell), Tinder bios, NO revenge porn, private things, Nissin black garlic oil noodles, the Samyang curry chicken terrorist noodles which ALMOST defeated him ("I'M DYING!" - I didn't care if he posted a photo of the bowl to Discord!), cigar / cigarette smoking, vaping, not judging Brian for his addiction or choice, Discord, Holly, Darryl being at a Metric concert, a Portland trip for Darryl and some others tomorrow, not interrupting stuff, Guu, Jeremy, and weird posts on my Facebook newsfeed. He definitely thanked me for having me over, the noodles, Ben and Jerry's peanut butter cookie dough ice cream as a chaser, Canada Dry ginger ale, two Pepto Bismol pills just in case he had an upset stomach later, and Gatorade bottle to take home at 11:30. We should do this again = all he has to do is let me know! At least he's more appreciative than SOME people...


G'Mario Charleston?!

Today is Bad Poetry Day! Eric M. called me at 12:40 to see if I wanted a ride to Boston Pizza for Chinese Eric's birthday hangout: a 1 PM BC Lions game against the Toronto Argonauts! Sure, sounded good to me, especially since I'd been going to leave in five minutes anyway! Of course I brought Chinese Eric's birthday card and on-sale Ritter Sport Dark Chocolate with Peppermint and on-sale Ritter Sport Fine Extra Dark Chocolate, which I gave to him right away! I also figured out that my own birthday dinner would probably be at Kisamos Greek Taverna in Steveston on Sunday, September 23rd. When white Eric and I got there, he checked his texts to see that Chinese Eric was already there. The difference between us and my parents: We don't say anything about Chinese Eric waiting for us at a table already, with his back turned to the door!

We discussed CASTLEVANIA, BATMAN, MARIO movies, Wally Buono / Alzheimers vs. Parkinson's, Travis Lulay, some player named Jonathan, my new glasses, catching up on Facebook, the Canucks, pre-season news, new third jerseys for the Canes / Islanders / Flyers, my new computer, Chinese Eric's helping Jon to move a bit of stuff the other day since he actually took work off for his birthday for the first time in four years. Also discussed "interesting" stories of white Eric's work (that wouldn't be a good thing when it comes to fire alarms and stuff!), the Art Gallery, eating calamari / salt and pepper chicken wings / a large Meateor pizza for the price of a Medium (Chinese Eric took the leftover pizza slices home by default), white Eric paying for everything with his credit card (but I gave him $20 for my portion, which he was fine with), replays, touchdowns, and field goals. When Eric drove me home at 4:15 after the Lions lost, I asked if he could figure out the printer while he was here. Yes, the parking pass / parking permit system is annoying! He got things working, tested things out, and left at 4:50 after I thanked him. No chocolate needed this time! Maybe I'll see him again before my birthday dinner, but who knows? The hot water still isn't back on - THE COLD WATER IS SO FREEZING!

After DOUBLE COFFEE TIME, I left at 2:55 for my dentist appointment with Sean at 3:30. Turns out the extra half hour was to update my X-rays and digital paperless records! I overheard an older guy actually argue with Sean in the waiting room about how he didn't have time to floss or brush his teeth: he wanted to weasel his way out of more frequent appointments, and didn't want to listen to BC dental rules and guidelines. I got on the Canada Line after checking my Royal Bank card balance at Oakridge Mall, but the guy in a wheelchair posed a problem for me when he wouldn't get out at Lansdowne Station, so I walked from there to London Drugs. (the guy with the bike was bad enough at Brighouse AND Oakridge Station on my way to the appointment...)

I checked out London Drugs again since both Sean and the hygienist mentioned Vaseline for my dry lips. Luckily, it was on sale, as were the replacement thin Secret bamboo socks which I was going to buy after payday. (I noticed a hole in a pair yesterday) The sales would not extend until payday, so I bought a 50g tube of Vaseline original petroleum jelly / 600mL of Vaseline intensive care lotion in a yellow bottle (which contains micro-droplets of Vaseline Jelly) / a pair of replacement thin Secret bamboo socks. When I got home at 5:45 on a 407, I prepared blog entries and novel reading for COMPUTERLESS DOOM this weekend. INTO THE WILDERNESS (Sara Donati), FALL OF GIANTS (Ken Follett), HAWAII (James Michener), and LONDON (Edward Rutherfurd) are my choices!


Vaseline original petroleum jelly!




Vaseline intensive care lotion - Yellow!




Gandalf Hernandez?!

From Reddit on March 7, 2017: No, you should not encourage your BOYFRIEND in HIS using "they / them" pronouns! It's HE and HIM and HIS! I agree with Undoomed on this one. You are NOT that much of a special snowflake! Also, WTF is "eye gaze"? Just say "he looks at me for a long time"! This is definitely an example of semantic satiation!




From Reddit on April 3, 2017: No, you cannot be technically 12 when it's a month until your birthday! That would still make you your then-current age of ELEVEN.