Tatiana's Wanderings

The Romanovs: The Real History of the Russian Dynasty, Part 1

The Romanovs: The Real History of the Russian Dynasty, Part 2


I left at 4:30 to meet Paulo and Darryl at the Cascade Room (2616 Main Street, near Main and Broadway-ish, more like Main and 10th) for Paulo's belated birthday hangout at 6. I wanted to be early just in case there were stroller / wheelchair delays or elevator shenanigans - surprisingly for once, there were none of those AND I just managed to get a 3 bus which had ten people total in it, but they couldn't find my reservation when I got there at 5:30! I was seated at a high table pretty quickly, though they said they'd move me to a booth once some people left who had been there at 4. Paulo texted me and Darryl said on Discord that he was getting an Uber. We waited to see if Steve would show up (Estefan is in Whistler at the moment), and I finally messaged him. He replied pretty quickly to say he was having a bad day, so no. I showed them both the phone notification, and they joked about guilting him into it since we HAD to find a place that took reservations JUST FOR HIM! Seriously, dude - we could have stayed with the Brassneck Brewery plan!

We were on our phones a lot, which actually is pretty good for me. Talked about Jimbo's opinion on our Superfriends server and how I know I can't change his mind on it (and wouldn't want to - why bother?), the secret chat, all the drama, Holly's opinion on Jimbo not telling us much about his work, the 12 Kings meetup being last year on March 12 already, Brian being sued by some people, and Holly nuking the original server unexpectedly. I showed them some funny toilet paper-related memes, while we tried various food and drink: gin and tonic, Amber something, mushroom poutine, sausage rolls with barbecue sauce (which I spilled on my DRAGON HOODIE - necessitating MORE LAUNDRY when I got home!), white wine, schnitzel, steak, desserts, and more! The Cascade Room was advertising Jameson ginger and lime Slurpees for St. Patrick's Day 2020. Good luck with that!

Darryl said that his buddies might join us, and wondered if we'd mind. I said no, but deferred to Paulo since it was his belated birthday celebration - HE didn't mind, either. Harmony texted me at 7:15 to say not to worry about coming over next Tuesday as they're limiting everything non-essential including public transit trips. They've even cancelled their Harrison Hot Springs vacation next week for Spring Break, which makes sense! If I were a different kind of person, I'd ask if they don't trust me! This is best for everyone's health and safety, though.

Eric M. also texted me: "FYI, VCEFC has been cancelled because of COVID-19 concerns" - that's what I thought would happen when I heard the daily BC health guidelines the other day. MORE FREE TIME FOR HIM! We left the Cascade Room at 8 and walked a block or so to the Colony Bar across the street from Save-On Foods. I'd have gone in earlier to see if they had hand sanitizer, but they probably don't. I told them that my brother lives around there, but that it was probably bedtime for the kids. They joked about invading their place anyway even if the nephews were there, but I knew it was a drunken joke and didn't take it seriously. Paulo offered Darryl a hit of his vape since he'd tried smoking, but he declined due to the pandemic - smart!

We were at the Colony Bar for about 70 minutes or so, with Darryl unexpectedly buying us a round because it was Paulo's birthday. I got a Parallel 49 Jerk Face 9000 beer - I had to order it because of the name! No, I wasn't surprised that Paulo barely touched his beer - they'd already had a lot at the Cascade Room. We discussed alcohol tolerance, Paulo totally forgetting about work once on HOLIDAY PAY, the coronavirus, and whether Darryl's buddies would actually show up. I gave up on them at 9, about five minutes before they DID come in. The guy put his hand out to shake hands - what?! I instinctively shook hands, and then went to wash my hands immediately afterwards since I had to pee anyway. My hand sanitizer was way down in the bottom of my Doge bag, then I had to look for my phone when I got back to the table, which was also in my Doge bag! Habit to look in my coat pocket... not sure what I'll do once it's summer!

Paulo declared that he would call an Uber since he said it was too cold to wait around for the bus for too long. I decided to just wait for the bus since it was more wallet-friendly. The East Indian 3 driver waited THREE TIMES for no reason, holding everybody up on his bus! What schedule is there to make up at 9:30 PM?! You have your breaks now, so that's not a good reason! Of course that made me late for the Brighouse train - it was pretty chilly outside, so I took the opportunity to send Mike a picture of my current footwear at Marine Drive station after fighting with the wifi.

Mike said something about "where's the glim-glam?" so I texted that 1 degree was too cold for bare feet and toeless sandals! (I waited till I was up on the platform since I heard the YVR train announcement from the statue) The train was sparsely populated, too - I got my own little row of accessible seats since an Asian lady moved far away from me instead once I said I needed her seat. I got home at 10:35, thanks to that stupid 3 bus driver - I could have been home half an hour before! Doing laundry seems to have worked for my dragon hoodie, but I can't seem to say the thing for my four towels since I used them to wipe up a flood of water from when I was showering a few days ago. Guess I'll go tomorrow to London Drugs and buy up on-sale zinc citrate, four towels, and maybe a pair of Secret socks!


Knorr Cheesy Spinach Dip for lunch!




( Zinc, bar food, and a special Pi Day 2020 Reddit award! )

Discovered that the front door lock is stuck and recalcitrant again before Eric M. gave me a ride at 6:50 to Los Cuervos Taqueria around Kingsway and Fraser, so I wondered how long it would take me to get in later on. I had Jeremy's 101 THINGS TO DO WITH BEER cookbook and birthday card, one bag of Indomie Goreng Chitato chips for Nathan's dad since Chi-Tat To is very similar, Chinese Eric's birthday card / Indomie Goreng Chitato chips x4 / iChoc Almond Orange, Classic, Super Nut, and White Chocolate Vanilla bars, and white Eric's Western Family Swiss 72% dark chocolate bar / NEW Heidi Chocolate Intense / Ginger / Himalayan Salt chocolate bars and birthday card. Nathan did not show up, but I offloaded everything to everyone else.

Saw Acer and said hi to Quan and Gino, of course. Then I spontaneously invited Randal to my own birthday dinner. Chinese Eric was confusing as usual and said he just got my "birthday message" - uh, which one? Facebook birthday wish, a text message about a birthday, or something else? I think it's best that we were just friends! He didn't really explain it well at all. I got a bison skirt steak taco after seeing multiple people mention steak before I left, and then a ceviche tostada when that wasn't quite enough food. First time trying ceviche, so that was quirky for sure! Jon asked if I could switch days this week - I told him that he should ask Harmony first before making executive decisions like that, and he said that it did come from her. Okay then, I can switch from Tuesday to Monday this week. I made sure my blog drafts were tagged correctly and everything as soon as I got home so I didn't forget.

Jeremy and I talked about dragons and interesting topics like Greyhound not being there anymore for his Kelowna trips, and he said he could use that beer cookbook. After paying for the food, we all left at about the same time. I stopped at the door because I knew there was a step going down, and Chinese Eric wondered about that. Well, you don't want me to find out where the step is by faceplanting... he agreed, but thought I'd had eye surgery for a reason. Yes, but that doesn't mean my declining night vision has improved!

While Jon and Randal were trying to figure out whether they should go to 12 Kings, it started raining. I told them to arrive at a decision even if I'd be going home with white Eric either way since he has to get up at 7 AM tomorrow. (for some reason, Eric found it necessary to hang around while they made said decision...) We walked to Eric's car and said the necessary farewells. Once I got home at 10, I was actually able to get in fairly quickly... phew! Then I discovered that Mom apparently thinks I still know Spanish because she wanted me to translate a long document for her. Nope, I've forgotten virtually all my Spanish 9! I just told her "nope, don't know Spanish." I just wanted to relax when I got home! Jon suggested Google Translate instead.


Sweatshirt or hoodie: Sorry I'm late. I didn't want to come.




Ceviche tostada!




Bison skirt steak taco!

Jack Daniels is from Chile?!




Mrs. Weiner and Mrs. Butt taught at the Jewish Community Centre?!




From Grammarly: How To Write Good, by Frank L. Visco!

Caveat emptor. Carpe diem. O si villi, si ergo, fortibus is in ero. Et tu, brute.

My several years in the word game have learnt me several rules:

1. Avoid alliteration. Always.
2. Prepositions are not words to end sentences with.
3. Avoid clichés like the plague. (They're old hat.)
4. Employ the vernacular.
5. Eschew ampersands & abbreviations, etc.
6. Parenthetical remarks (however relevant) are unnecessary.
7. It is wrong to ever split an infinitive.
8. Contractions aren't necessary.
9. Foreign words and phrases are not apropos.
10. One should never generalize.
11. Eliminate quotations. As Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know."
12. Comparisons are as bad as clichés.
13. Don't be redundant; don't use more words than necessary; it's highly superfluous.
14. Profanity sucks.
15. Be more or less specific.
16. Understatement is always best.
17. Exaggeration is a billion times worse than understatement.
18. One-word sentences? Eliminate.
19. Analogies in writing are like feathers on a snake.
20. The passive voice is to be avoided.
21. Go around the barn at high noon to avoid colloquialisms.
22. Even if a mixed metaphor sings, it should be derailed.
23. Who needs rhetorical questions?

A sick Jon asked me this morning if I still wanted to make it to his place since his student had cancelled yet another Monday lesson (which I did), and then wanted to know if I could make it on Thursday from 3:30-4:30 since Harmony is working then instead of next Monday because she wants to spend time with Hiero on his actual birthday. Sure, I guess so! BYE WEEK, AHOY! After (MORE) COFFEE TIME, I left at 3:30 to make it to Jon's at 4-ish. The kids were eating and playing with puzzles, but seemed excited about school and new stickers. Ayler had drawn a purple house with lots and lots of floors, Hiero wanted to read a book with lots of flaps with me, Ayler asked a lot of questions about math and why Keith was sick ("he can't be sick in the summer!"), Ayler asked if he could have my fruity beer (NO!), and Ayler practiced his writing and told me that I should know better how to write because I'm an adult. I also passed that message on to Steph, haha.

Ayler asked whether people had gone to heaven if they were born in 1961 or 1948 (or 1914 or 1918) / whether people were still alive if they were born in 462 A.D. or 1018, Hiero loved his bulldozer, and we had gummy cars / curry stew / dumplings / sausage / (coconut) water for dinner. Randal had apparently cancelled too, maybe because of his dad. More playtime for me! Ayler wanted to take my hat off - I said no, which doesn't mean that he gets to say yes! We also talked about seeing his special Gr. 3 buddy Ethan on Thursdays depending on the class schedule, eating old marshmallows from a school craft (NO!), San Francisco in March, falling asleep on the bus, being tired, "Baby Baloo," Hillcrest, the pizza dinner on Sunday, seeing them again on Thursday, and my not staying later than 7 because I had to do some shopping before I got home.

Then I went to London Drugs for a Hilroy notebook since some paper towel got on the whiteout on the cover, a bubble mailer envelope, some hand sanitizer x2 (one of which will have to be returned because I can't figure out how to open it...), desperately-needed Softsoap hand soap refills x2 (juicy cucumber and crisp melon / vanilla brown sugar), and desperately-needed Silk almond milk. No thanks to the cashier commenting on EVERYTHING ("this is so heavy! why did you buy this?!"), I barely made it out the door in plenty of time to catch the 407 and get home at 8:30. Ugh!

Random stuff from Mom and Dad: a brown Tika sweater vest and a Ziploc bag full of Werther's Originals and other hard candies.


From Julie M. and Pinterest: Visual Anatomy Limited chocolates! They're anatomically correct!




From Krista and Pundora: Don't use a big word when a singularly unloquacious and diminutive linguistic expression will satisfactorily accomplish the contemporary necessity.




A chicken horror show! They have to watch a chicken cooking in the rotisserie!

I had to go out in the torrential rain (just managing to get a 401 AND a Waterfront train) for my THIRD family function (Mother's Day / Mom's birthday) in a calendar week: WAY TOO MUCH FRIGGIN' FAMILY TIME! So of course I had to have coffee at 3:15 before going out at 4:30 to London Drugs to buy bulk pads, on-sale iron pills (which are BEHIND the pharmacy counter - of course I told the pharmacist that my doctor told me to take them...), on-sale Salsitas chips x2 (I left a bag for Jon and the family to try), zinc / Vitamin C / echinacea tablets, and 200 index cards. We had good meatloaf from Park Royal (no filler ingredients!), potato salad with smoked salmon, strawberries, orange peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, actual mango pudding, homemade pizza, and corn soup for yet another family dinner. At least I got home at 7:50 on a 401!

Ayler wanted to boss me around: "You have to stay longer!" Hiero wanted me to read to him, of course. Ayler kept asking if he could have the chips, Hiero cried because he fell down (it's FINE for him to cry, Dad...), Ayler said that I took my hat off to go to bed (yup), and Hiero wanted me to play with the toy trains. It was okay, but I'm glad that the lards are going to Japan and Hong Kong on the 22nd to stay with Great-Aunt! No, I'm not going to church this Sunday AT ALL! Apparently, Ayler had called me at 4:30 to make sure I was going to his place - I was out already! Jon says that the Jacob's Well fundraiser event is the 26th, but I already have plans with Chrystal. Hopefully, they aren't without a place to do their thing!


Floppy disks are like Jesus. They died to become the icon of saving.