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's husband Ni interrupted me at 1:20 today to investigate my lamp fixture / light bulb cover note. "No safety concern" and "that's the one that came with the building?" and "I have to think"! AIYA! I also had to be an adult (again) since Auntie Vonnie texted me a couple days ago to say the building insurance had expired, so I let Dad know instead. After a bunch of texts, I finally had to go to TXL in person (at least I know where it is?) today and sign a form, telling Sheryl to just bill my dad's credit card instead since they have the number for that. I left at 2:10 on a 414.

Went to Kwong Chow for some Chinese mushroom / bok choy noodle soup afterwards since I'd only had a strawberry chiffon doughnut at Tim Horton's beforehand, figuring I had just enough time between 3 buses to do so. Then some literal children and their knapsacks blocked my view of the intersection so I couldn't see which bus was coming - I only JUST managed to get the Marine Drive station bus! FINALLY made plans with Frances via text for next Monday, the 17th, at the Oakridge White Spot. "I can pick exactly 6!" she said... dude, you're actively making plans with another person?!

At the station, I went to T&T and got Samyang noodles x3 (regular fire noodles / 2X Spicy noodles / black bean noodles), then went to London Drugs on a 401 since I'd just missed the 407. I got a NEW white Evercare delicates laundry bag WITH A ZIPPER (I opened another package in the store to see if it had a zipper) from Aisle 4, then almost lost it because some lady stepped on it in the lineup for the cash register. The Asian lady in front of me thought the cashier was also Asian (so did I), so spoke Cantonese to her as she bought 15 bottles of on-sale Sunkist Vitamin C and three Arm and Hammer toothpaste tubes.

Turns out the cashier is actually Indonesian and doesn't even know any Cantonese, although she attempted Mandarin. The lady gave me a thumbs-up after I told her that the clerk didn't know any Chinese! The lady BEHIND ME wanted to go ahead of me, but NO - I was AHEAD of her! Then she thought I was stealing from the store because I had a huge reusable bag - I told her off! I finally got home at 6:15 on a 407! ENOUGH OF BEING AN ADULT! I also used Paulo as a reminder service, and complained about things to Mike.


This poop emoji is useful if you're in love with the shit.




Strawberry Chiffon doughnut at Tim Horton's!




Chinese mushroom and vegetable noodle soup at Kwong Chow!




They have pork BLOOD congee here at Kwong Chow...




Evercare delicates laundry bag with a zipper for things that shouldn't go in the dryer, found in Aisle 4 of my nearest London Drugs! Much better for my slipper socks!

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! )

It's Friday the 13th today!

Mom and Dad wanted to come by today to pick up the "remnants" of the broken Heys suitcase - good thing I found the broken handle INSIDE said luggage before they came by this morning at 10:50 AM, since I thought I'd lost it when it wasn't anywhere on the floor nearby! Dad thought I needed to wash my hair since I wore the old Alaska sweatshirt with dandruff on it - uh, I was chilling at home and didn't need to shower till LATER! Apparently, Mom had to use the bathroom even after going at Dr. Ruby's (and apparently didn't wash her hands at my place - GROSS!) - REALLY?! She also gave me a couple of medium candy canes for the boys in a produce bag (plus chocolate almonds for me in another produce bag), but I was happy to keep them for myself since Harmony didn't want the boys to have too much sugar. Yeah, good luck with that one...

After DOUBLE COFFEE TIME and SHOWER TIME, I went out at 3 on an 401 to help with the kids. Harmony gave me some Children's Hospital Christmas cards with white envelopes, so YAY FOR THAT! I also got a card and stickers from Julie in today's mail, plus a surprising card and stickers from Janina, who deactivated her Facebook profile AGAIN a while ago. That was nice of her, though! Rishu wanted to call me anyway since I "couldn't" make it in to the boonies of Richmond, but was so late about it that I should have just taken a shower at 1 instead of 11:45! Hurry up and wait - UGH!

Got to kill a bit of time at Marine Drive Station, but just spent it online near the statue where I could get a wifi signal from Dublin Crossing pub, and got to Harmony's at about 4:30. She'd warned me about being quiet since Beckett was actually napping, and I said I'd be there soonish. The bus HAD to stop for two minutes at 41st, and then ran into rainy-day traffic crap at 20th or so... I'd rather be safe than in an accident, though! When I got in, the boys were reading a Mercy the Pig book, which I had to finish because Harmony had to tend to Beckett and the lasagna at the same time.

I read a few pages of CHINOOK CHRISTMAS - way too advanced for Ayler! - before I decided just to play with Beckett, who had just come out and was loopy. He gave me a bunch of toy balls and emotion eggs, wouldn't respond "yeah" to my questions for a bit, and just stared at me for a while. Later, he did warm up (I got a hug!) and "read" the 100 Words book, saying something that vaguely sounded like "what's that?" and pointing at a picture. Of course he knew where the balls were, but also called a kid's head a "boh-boh," which Hiero found hilarious! "HAHAHA, he called it a BALL!"

We had the aforementioned lasagna with kale and ricotta, cherry tomatoes, and grapes for dinner. Beckett was only slightly interested in this dinner, but at least did not upend his tray on the table this time. He cried and was upset, only smiling when he saw the Vitamin D bottle. No, of course we wouldn't let him overdose on them. "NA NA NA!" he said about the Rice Krispies - he also seemed to like the Advent Calendar chocolate halves that he was allowed. Beckett said ATTIE to me, so YAY! He liked giving me emotion eggs, rolling some balls, playing with the shells, trying to fit the stacking blocks together ("Na na na!" he'd say when he wanted me to take it out), and finding the balloons on the stacking blocks AND the "Christmas tree ornaments" in the boys' room. Then he was also more receptive to saying "yeah" to my questions and even grabbing some rolled balls himself. At least the baby pop-up toy still made him laugh, so YAY!

When Harmony was out of the room (having told me about location settings on my phone photos for everyone's privacy reasons - which I figured out later at the bus stop), I asked Ayler what he really thought of screen time at school. He smiled and said he liked it because "it's the opposite of what my mom wants." HAHAHA, nice! Hiero said that he knows what the "other" meaning of PEE-PEE is, and was busy giving "presents" to his mom of random toys in egg cartons and boxes. Beckett repeated some words like "wow" and "after" when he heard us say them, with "MOMMY! BECKETT SAID WOW!" as a reaction from Hiero.

Myles dropped by at 8 (when the kids were still up), only to have Ayler accuse him: "Cou-fu is stealing our lasagna!" HAHAHAHA! No, Jon just made a couple of mega-batches! Myles also managed to fix the printer, which Beckett had somehow managed to knock offline. We talked briefly and side-hugged; while Harmony was preoccupied, Ayler said he had a question for me, but I had to come over and look at the computer keyboard. Sure, why not? He just wanted to know about the very top row of Function keys - at least he knows to ask me, because his parents probably won't answer! Beckett said "Cou-fu" and "Attie" for Myles' video, which was cute. Later on at 8:30, Harmony finally let me go - I was surprised when I was home at 9:30! I did say bye to Beckett, giving him a high-five and showing him that big gold "boh-boh" at Richmond Centre. They don't need me on Tuesday because of the kids' Christmas concert, so that's just more time to do some stuff before my trip!


From Julie: When you find some weave on the road, so you make a Snowquesha! HAHAHAHAHA!




From Julie M. and her local news: Noema Alavez Perez is the mother of the missing Dulce Maria Alavez?! Her name is pronounced No-Emma, she's 19, and has a five-year-old and a three-year-old and was going to have another kid soon as of September 2019?! SHE WAS 14 AS A FIRST-TIME MOM?!




Children's Hospital Christmas cards: Let It Snow snowman and a Holiday Greetings reindeer!




( More Christmas cards and stickers! )

After I had COFFEE TIME, Barry picked me up at 10:50 and we went banking and to Price Smart. I got NEW on-sale Samyang curry terrorist noodles, Cottonelle toilet paper x2, on-sale Sidekicks x6 (Creamy Bacon Carbonara / Garlic Butter with Lemon / Creamy Chicken Fusilli / Three-Cheese / Homestyle Cheddar / Tomato Alfredo), Ferrero Rocher hazelnut Easter eggs and NEW Easter Egg Oreos for Eric Ho and me, NEW Dark Chocolate Oreo cookies, Crayola Original washable markers x2 (yay for felts!), on-sale Good Taste dumplings x5 (Cabbage and Pork / Pork and Celery / Cabbage and Chicken / Beef and Vegetable / Pork and Chive), and NEW Dawn Lavender Wisp dish detergent.

Also got bananas, Finesse Daily Renewal shampoo and conditioner, on-sale Western Family garbage bags (60 to a box!), Western Family Skyr yogurt x2 (plain and vanilla!), Nongshim Kamja Tang Myun rich potato noodles, NEW Palmolive Soft Touch dish detergent x2 (Almond Milk and Blueberry / Coconut Butter and Orchid), on-sale Uncle Ben's rice x3 (Tomato and Herb / Cilantro and Lime / Southwest Style) and NEW St. Ives Oatmeal and Shea Butter soothing body wash. Later, I paid my Shaw bill online at home. The Canucks played the Senators at 7 tonight, and won 7-4 after practically blowing a 5-0 lead in the third.


Mr. Saturn is a blobfish in real life!




( Yogurt, Oreo cookies, Nair, Always, and dish soap! )