Tatiana's Wanderings

It's Friday the 13th today! I showered and did laundry this morning, then made reservations at the Cascade Room for tomorrow.


Julie M. was on vacation and saw this map at a Pennsylvania visitor centre: Hop Bottom?! HAHAHA!




The whole world can hear you trying to open this plastic cake box late at night. I can hear this picture!

After COFFEE TIME / SHOWER TIME / CLEANING FRIDGE TIME (yucky sticky prune juice!), I went out at 1:30 on a 401 to finally redeem that Pure Nail Bar gift card from Christmas 2019 for a pedicure before going to help with the kids. I thought I'd be on time, but NO... the 3 bus had to be late, a stroller had no idea what to do on the bus, and then there were traffic delays, causing me to be 10 minutes late! At least they didn't have to call me or anything, and it was just after East 13th! It was pretty relaxing, and I got to choose a nail polish color - Shooting Star silver glitter! They had a fancy nail dryer and a fancy pink toe separator!

After I was done at 3:45, I texted Jon and asked whether he was at the park, then went to Save-On to kill time. I should have gone to the park instead since it took him 20 minutes to get back to me saying they were home now. Fine, sure, I'll walk there - not a big deal, of course. Beckett wanted "Didibug!" which Jon asked about - it made sense, but what was it? Hiero drew me a Bat Signal and a lightning bolt, saying I could keep them in my pocket. I pointed out that it would probably fall out of my pocket, so I'll keep them in my wallet's zippered pouch instead! When I got home, I put the Bat Signal / lightning bolt / Cao Starvingbase Noodle HOO! guy in a Ziploc bag for extra protection.

Ayler was blocking Beckett's access to the piano because Beckett would try to play it, and wanted to know if the real Dean could stay later to play "quiet soccer" while Jon taught his sister Lily. I told Dean that he must be special to Beckett - every time someone comes over, Beckett thinks it's Dean! HAHAHA! "Dean! Dean! Dean!" When Harmony got home, she mentioned she was late because the pipeline protesters had been blocking UBC today - UGH! Then she saw silverfish in the bathroom, in her clothes! YUCK! I told her about the time that I had seen one CRAWLING ON MY COMPUTER DESK in summer 2017 - EW! Beckett wanted to say hi to Kayla, and of course was interested in her guitar and the rest of the students.

Jon gave me a tea rag to wipe Beckett's nose with. He's learned "NO!" and uses it frequently! I watched him knock over Jon's violin while he was teaching Willie, and Jon said "NO, BECKETT." A kid named Ethan came for a piano lesson, and his mom stayed in the room. Beckett was very interested in her phone! Ethan asked what I was doing there, so I said that was a good question - what did HE think? Jon answered when he didn't have a response. I read the rest of the DOG MAN book to Hiero, who then wanted to draw Dog Man while Dean and Ayler transitioned to quieter origami.

We had pozole with hominy / chips / Greek yogurt / choy for dinner, plus an almond croissant. Beckett wanted to climb up on the couch and needed my help to sit / stand on the white chair. He picked up the word "funny" and the corresponding grin expression. "FUNNY! OPEN! Block! Magnet! Frog!" Of course he got upset when Ayler stole his stuff... I told Hiero that he had just touched the nose-wiping cloth with Beckett's germs ALL OVER it, so Hiero went by himself to wash his hands quickly! Beckett also showed me where my own eyes / nose / mouth / ears were, with the correct words. He wanted to show me his orange half-shell, so he said "shell" - pretty good!

I left at 7:45, amazingly in enough time to catch the 7:55 3 bus that went to the station. However, I wouldn't get home in time for the second period, because there was an electric scooter that took a minute or so to adjust herself in the bus. She didn't deserve a guilt trip or anything, so I was outwardly patient. Then on the Canada Line at Aberdeen, there was an obstreperous guy who wouldn't get off the train until threatened with the cops by the female attendants! Everyone was craning their necks to look - some old man asked if I was going to save him. Fuck, no! I'll watch from safety! I FINALLY got home at 9:10 during the second intermission. The Canucks played the Coyotes tonight at 7:30, and lost 4-2 thanks to an empty-net goal from behind the Arizona net ALL the way to the other end of the ice.


Fancy nail dryer at Pure Nail Bar.




Fancy pink toe separators at Pure Nail Bar. Nail polish color from their array is Shooting Star Silver.




Pretty Shooting Star Silver toenails!




Better view of the Shooting Star Silver toenails!




I got this weird time glitch on Shiwa's Discord server last night. March 3 is "today" while March 4 is both "tomorrow" and 'today." Okay, Discord...




From Jon and Harmony for Christmas 2019: Pure Nail Bar pink envelope and pink gift card for a pedicure, which I finally used this afternoon!




Biggerstaff tombstone?!




This is from Red's Discord server. Coronavirus as a metal band T-shirt: CORONAVIRUS 2020 World Tour! China and Asia, Europe, Australia, North America, Middle East, South America. SCYTHES! HAHAHAHA!




From Julie: I'm giving up these little glasses of alcohol for Lent. I will be drinking big glasses of alcohol instead.

My computer gave me a heart attack this morning when both the keyboard and mouse weren't responsive. I had to restart the thing! THEN it happened again this evening, of course right when I had stuff going in Notepad! I figure that Eric has to come over here and update the computer drivers, so texted him about it. It is difficult to diagnose a problem over text messages, for sure!

Edit at 10:30 PM - Now I have to do laundry because there was a flood of water all over my bathroom floor after I took a shower! Did I piss off Poisedon, too?! I probably need to get a new shower curtain anyway...


From Julie: Every time I hear a mean joke about being Canadian, I go to the hospital and get my feelings checked for free.




From Julie M. and her local news: Tacy Gash was a burn victim?! That's an unfortunate last name...




Auston Matthews plays for the Toronto Maple Leafs?! BAD SPELLING OF AUSTIN! He is my birthday buddy like Alexander Ovechkin, though!

Frances rescheduled on me very early this morning at 7:30 AM for tonight because her car got hit, which is actually fine. I need time for redrum to make its way OUT! I did go out way later at 3:30 to get some on-sale Webber Naturals 5 mg melatonin gummies at London Drugs. $5 off a bottle! Ended up buying NEW Kracks Chips x4 tubes (sour cream and onion / barbecue / original / wasabi), on-sale Webber Naturals 5 mg melatonin gummies, on-sale Dove lavender and rosemary Nourishing Secrets shampoo and conditioner, on-sale Webber Naturals Wild Alaskan and fish oil capsules, Lindt chocolate hazelnut spread in a small 200g jar, and El Sabroso Salsitas chips! Got home at 4:25 on a 407, which meant I used Shaw Open for 20 minutes at the bus stop.


Webber Naturals 5 mg melatonin gummies!




Kracks chips - Canadian! Original, Wasabi, Barbecue, plus Sour Cream and Onion!




( More chips, dragons, and shampoo! )

After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 11:40 on a 414 to help with the kids, but first went to Dublin Crossing Pub. Noticed the Canada Line was slightly slower on the tracks, but that's fine since it snowed yesterday and had pretty much melted today. I had to go in early to help by staying with a sick Hiero at home while Jon and Beckett did school pickup. I had an ahi tuna bowl at Dublin Crossing and bought a mocha Starbucks / on-sale pomegranate Canada Dry ginger ale at Shoppers, which had a sign saying that the store was sold out of Asian face masks and hand sanitizer! Luckily, I built in extra time to wait for the 3 bus - thank goodness it wasn't late, but it did have an alarm delay and other things going on with the passengers... I FINALLY got to the house at 2:10! After some Jello and other food, Jon and Beckett left the house to go pick Ayler up from school. Hiero and I read some CHARLIE BROWN storybook, and I let him have a little bit of my ginger ale.

When everyone else got home, I switched from reading on the couch (and exposure to germs) to playing on the mat with Beckett. He had learned HELP, POO, AYA (for Ayler), MAGNET, OPEN, MONKEY, DRAGON, HELLO (to make the coin purses inside-out), and JOW for JELLO... and also picked up OKAY from me tonight. At 4, Ayler asked when I was leaving - gee, thanks! Jon let him know what people would think when he asked him that, and clarified to me that he was just curious about time. (of course!) Turns out Jon had a few music students; Beckett was interested in the silver things on Kayla's guitar (so tried re-tuning it) AND her green guitar pick on the black piano bench, thought everyone calling to come over was Jon's student Dean, and was generally curious. Later, we had bean soup and French onion soup with bread for dinner. Ayler asked about apostrophes, a gratitude list (the "big Jello" item was pretty funny!), what "philosophy" meant, and wondered who would win his eating competition.

Hiero seemed pretty out of it for sure, lying down on the couch when he wasn't fighting with Ayler. He wanted ANOTHER day off school tomorrow despite his snow day yesterday from his mom. I just talked to Beckett about the toy balls, tested whether he knew what things were, and didn't mind if he wanted to play with the "boh-boh" on my shirt OR socks. He showed me a stack of dry noodles and said "Noo-noo!" (his word for "noodles") For my own amusement, I asked him if he would eat them all. He said "okay" - not that he ever would or could right now! He still likes to look out the window to see some lights across the street, which is cute. Jon left and came back later to teach yet another student, and I finally left at 8, having probably just missed a 3 bus, and got home at 9:35 on a 407. Lots of people wearing Asian face masks today!


From Julie: A female lion-human hybrid!




Even the Mona Lisa is protecting herself from the coronavirus by using an Asian face mask!




Ahi Tuna Poke Bowl at Dublin Crossing pub: Sushi grade marinated ahi tuna, dynamite slaw, avocado, edamame, mango salsa, pickled onion, cilantro, and sesame seeds served on a bed of coconut jasmine rice and topped with crispy wontons!




Canada Dry pomegranate ginger ale!




French onion soup!




Bean soup with Play-Doh!