Tatiana's Wanderings

I went to London Drugs at 3:25 on a 407, intending to return that Rescue Petz golden retriever and get a more suitable birthday gift for Beckett. Bought an on-sale Gary the Giraffe Squishmallows toy, on-sale NEW Wild Blueberry Jamieson Vitamins, NEW on-sale Wolfgang Puck chicken noodle / tomato soups x2, NEW on-sale Cheez-It CRUNCH Crackers x2 (Sharp Cheddar / Hot and Spicy), and a much-needed on-sale Rubbermaid dish drainer. Got home at 4:25 on a 407, which is fine - I definitely wiped down a bunch of stuff, including the stuffed toy.


( What's Your True Name? SKELETONS! Lots of purchases! )


From Matt: Homestar Runner Wiki has these funny coronavirus-themed logos! From the Strong Bad email SICK DAY: Scan Complete! 423,827 viruses found! A New Record!




From Julie and MAURY: Cece is Michelle's cousin?!

Hester came by at 12:20, greeting me with "You're home!" when I answered the door. No shit, lady! She inspected the toilet tank personally like she said she would, while I spent five more minutes trying to explain the problem to her in very simple English. Eventually, she agreed that she would replace the flapper, and said that a different handyman would come by after his lunch break ended at 1. Sure, whatever.

He did indeed drop by at 1:15, flushed the toilet multiple times, and of course the toilet tank worked like it should INSTEAD of refusing to fill up after it drained! At least he seemed to know about this phenomenon and tried joking about it. He took a photo for Hester, and told me to call them if it happened again. Trust me, I did at a reasonable time which was not 11:30 PM! Rishu sent me an unexpected email at 3:30 saying that she had cancellations this afternoon, so I could come in earlier than 5:15 if I wanted to. WHAT?! I rushed out of the house at 4:05 to make it by 4:30, went to the Public Market for dinner (and take a photo of cubed pork blood for Mike, mwahahaha), and was home at 7:05 on a 401.


Dinner at the Richmond Public Market: Bitter melon, beef, blackened cod, tofu, and chow mein!




Zion Williamson?!




TAMRON Hall had a baby named MOSES at age 48?!




Nicolas Cage as a cat!

It's International Bacon Day today!


After COFFEE TIME, Eric picked me up at 12:05 for the wedding. Chinese Eric had texted him "hey" and nothing else, so Eric asked me to see what was up with that. Apparently, he'd asked him whether he'd picked me up yet. The wedding was very religious and traditional on Religion Road at Fujian Evangelical Free Church. I was glad to see Jeremy and Nate at least! Yes, things were relatively quick, but COME ON!

Later, I learned that Jon insisted that we all have lunch at Four Winds Pub in Delta - REALLY? (me, him, both Erics, Nathan, Jeremy, and Wesley) Why didn't you let someone know BEFORE I LEFT THE FUCKING HOUSE?! THAT'S the problem with spontaneity! I did NOT eat anything (the burritos were huge though!), and was very fucking annoyed with everyone - so just read and did not say much of anything. At least I got to talk to Nathan alone for a few minutes about his present feelings on weddings after all that had happened. He had had to do Citrus's wedding afterwards, but said that now it was okay, and thanked me for asking.

After that, SOMEONE also wanted to go for good coffee at Rocanini's in Steveston - can't you think of what I want for once?! We talked about everyone staring at their phone - I was trying to bang out a relatively quick message to Mike with the reliable wi-fi while we were there. THEN we decamped to white Eric's, where Veronica had kindly set up a table and chairs for us in the backyard before going to Van Dusen Gardens with Ron. At least I had water and ginger ale throughout the afternoon.

When we finally got to the restaurant, the parkade proved to be pretty confusing! I was at a table with everyone I knew, but we were stuck at the very back behind two pillars! We saw Deb, Dylan, Martin J. (who apparently also has an autistic kid), Martin T., Randal, Kevin, Isabel, Sheena, Lincoln, Karen, Vivian, and Geoffrey. We discussed the seating, "MORE TONGUE!" (we're known for shenanigans), Quiznos, Singapore, durian mochi NOT being durian MOCHA, hair follicle transplants done by ROBOTS, Samaritan's Purse, that lady who died because a metal straw pierced her brain, and the waiter taking the food platter away after he showed it to us BEFORE scooping it on our plates individually at the back. Some people had too much red / white wine, apparently including Alice's mom, which is how the MORE TONGUE thing came about.

After everything was done, I STILL had to wait around for the cleanup crew (who'd been given thank-you cards beforehand so they couldn't just "forget" about it), and then the loiterers! UGH! We did amuse ourselves at the photo booth, but STILL! Talked to Deb a bit about the summer, to Eric about PowerPoint (that's a VERY VALID excuse to leave...), and to Jon about Tom Lee Music / Hiero not getting any bullet train toys / my being there on Tuesday / speech therapy. Just as Eric and I were about to FINALLY drive away at 10:30, Chinese Eric delayed us by asking where Nathan was. HOW SHOULD WE KNOW?! I said GOODNIGHT rather firmly, and FINALLY got home at 10:40. Yes, I live THAT close to Kirin!


THE WEDDING BANQUET MENU:

* Kirin special platter with roasted suckling pig, sauteed prawns, and scallops with pureed truffle

* deep-fried crab claw wrapped with minced prawn

* bird nest soup with fish maw and Chinese ham

* live lobster in consomme with light ginger and green onion

* sliced wild catch California Mexico brand abalone braised with fish maw, Chinese mushroom, and peatips

* crispy skin free range chicken

* steamed live fish

* special fried rice with dried shrimp wrapped in lotus leaf

* E-Fu noodles stewed with two kinds of mushrooms in abalone sauce

* two kinds of Dim Sum dessert

* Kirin special sweetened soup


What do you mean, Four Winds Pub has no tacos?!




( Most of the food... )


Five years from now (our wedding day), I'll be stabbing you with this same knife. Enjoy the cake, honey!

After COFFEE TIME, a German Shaw technician came by at 11:35 AM with a replacement cable box / new PVR box / new remote control / new modem / advice. (calling my HOME number 15 minutes beforehand to see whether I was home... WHAT DO YOU THINK?!) When he left at 12:15 after also setting up my wi-fi network on my cellphone, I took a much-needed shower and did some much-needed laundry!

In the evening, Dylan came by at 6:55 PM to help me buy a new microwave at London Drugs. He did call me first at 6:25 to advise me that he was at Walmart doing some stuff, then would come by here. We talked about his Great Value red curry chips, Declan and Elysse's swimming lessons, NOT defrosting meat in the microwave because it won't cook evenly and will be all frozen in the middle ("SEE?! NO ONE BELIEVES ME!"), his stressful day at work, parking, and the heavy bulky stuff. Came back home at 7:30 after I selected a new black RCA 1.1 cubic foot microwave oven for $99.99 plus tax (so about $117.60) - yes, that was definitely going on my savings account! Good thing I checked my bank balances BEFORE going out - that Panasonic inverter microwave from Robert was at least twice the price from Robert. I know why Mike insisted on it - because of his own image problems!

Then I heard that the St. Louis Blues had won the 2019 Stanley Cup against the nasty Bruins! Makes me feel better about 2011, for sure! I told Paulo to bookmark these microwave oven cooking conversion charts as well. He was at the gym, but came by at 9:35 to pick up the Danby Designers 700-watt microwave. Yes, having a free backup is nice, but I like to pay favors forward when I can. It just rarely happens in two and a half hours! Like I had thanked Dylan, Paulo thanked me - it's a cycle! :D


NEW microwave oven: RCA 1.1 cubic feet and 1000 watts!




Great Value red curry chips!




From Julie: Eulis?!




( PIECE OF SHIT?! )

After COFFEE TIME, I discovered a TOILET TANK EMERGENCY! It wouldn't flush, which was NOT ideal because Chinese Eric is coming over tomorrow! Besides, I really didn't want to go across the street every time I needed to pee! So I bit the bullet and called Hester a few minutes later since I needed to leave at 2, who scolded me for not being perfectly polite and composed on the phone AND for not writing a note. Fuck off - I have to deal with YOUR limited English, and I don't have TIME to write a note to have you deal with the problem after the weekend! Eventually, I managed to communicate that the toilet flush wasn't working, and Ni came by within ten minutes and actually fixed the issues. In that time, Brian had already offered to come over - THIS is what my new friends do for me?! WOW! :D

I left at 2 on a 414 to see Rachel at the Caring Place. Then I went to Shoppers to buy a Stouffer's Saute Sensations Country Beef Pot Roast microwaveable meal, a President's Choice meat lasagna for a future hangout which is not tomorrow afternoon (expires on December 12), Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cookie Dough / Chocolate Milk and Cookies ice cream, Breyers Delights ice cream in Vanilla Cupcake plus Creamy Chocolate, and President's Choice mango ice cream! Should be yummy!

After I FINALLY got a 401 after FOUR 408 Ironwood buses in a row and a 407 at Brighouse after waiting since 4:10, I went to the pharmacy next door to see if I could get my eyedrops prescription filled before they closed. Adam could do it right then, but I didn't have time to chat or to wait for the previous chatty customer to finish because I had frozen things in my bag, so I was in a rush by default! The instructions are the same, anyway. I got home at 4:45 and FINALLY shoved everything into the freezer, almost before the items started really melting! Good thing I can probably get Chinese Eric to help with opening the eyedrops tomorrow if I remember... so I put them on the table with the low-tech blue guestbook and everything else!


President's Choice meat lasagna!




( Ice cream and bad names! )