Tatiana's Wanderings

I called Ayler briefly at 6:30 after Jon said at 6 that they were still eating dinner. Jon said that it was Phone Call Overdose at their place - from what Ayler describes about his phone list, that's probably very true about overload! Ayler asked what I did for the 7 PM cheer for the doctors and nurses; did I poke my head out of the balcony window and yell? I said I did. I asked what HE did for the cheer, which led to a bunch of drumming on a metal object on the other end and Hiero explaining it. That definitely would create some noise and be appropriate! I said that fire engines, police cars, and ambulances showed up right outside my window for the 7 PM cheer. He asked about the world's oldest woman right now - 117 years old - and wondered where I got my Guinness World Records books from. The bookstore, but I was looking these things up online as he asked about them.

I told him that I'd gone for a walk at Minoru Park, then heard nothing, so I hung up. He called back to say that he'd pushed the MUTE button by accident instead of the VOLUME button. "You're lucky I called you back... before you got busy!" Gee, thanks! Totally understandable, and I said I understood it was an accident - not a big deal at ALL! (he needs that) He said he and Hiero were working on a 500-piece puzzle, which he might have told me before, but sometimes he forgets things. Of course I also said THAT was okay because I do the same thing! I told him that I'm glad he's my nephew, too.

Hiero was busy preparing his drumming and Beckett was busy just carrying his blanket around. Sounds normal to me! "Any other ideas about our day before anything? I can't talk to your family because you live by yourself." He wants to talk again in "a few" days, meaning Sunday or Monday. Fine by me! People who complain about loud noises should know that it'll start around 7 EVERY EVENING, and prepare themselves or their pets accordingly BEFOREHAND! It only lasts for about two to five minutes TOPS! Unless you have a baby who JUST got to sleep, then you don't get to complain!


Virgin tombstone?!

Ayler and Hiero surprisingly called me at 10:20 AM, which is how I discovered that my phone was still on from last night, but that was a good thing in this case! This time, I was prepared with the light on AND my reading glasses very nearby! They wanted to call since we only talked for a very short time yesterday - I said that was nice and thanked them! We discussed a 300-piece Thomas Ravensburger puzzle, Hiero building something, Ayler playing a long piano piece for me, Ayler thinking that Beckett misses me (he probably doesn't understand why I can't come and play), Beckett saying "Goo Mah / Auntie / Yeah" into the phone, and Ayler wanting to play piano a lot. He doesn't want to disturb the downstairs neighbors, so I reminded him about the soft pedal. When they asked me what I ate for breakfast, I lied and said "oatmeal and a granola bar" as I hadn't eaten yet. Turns out they "also" had oatmeal, haha! Good choice!

I reminded Ayler to protect Beckett when he goes on the couch by either blocking him or holding his hands. He said that they play with the red and yellow stuffed dragon, asked me if I knew what "Didibug" and "Didibop" were (interesting - LADYBUG!), and said that they go outside instead of going to church. Hiero wanted Beckett to repeat "John Horgan / Kennedy Stewart / Justin Trudeau" for me, but no dice! Beckett just said my name into the phone, which is good. Harmony asked how I was doing, so I told her about Pathways closing because of the coronavirus pandemic. I also asked about her parents, who are both being cautious. Told her that Dad had texted me asking about my food situation - I was like "NO, DON'T COME HERE!" Harmony said that Mom was more upset about missing the sales than the special senior hour for grocery shopping, of course! That was interesting and good to talk to them.


Mathias Jakshitz and Theressa Jakshitz have a tombstone?!

COFFEE TIME! The Canucks played Carolina today at 11 AM, but lost 4-3 in overtime and the shootout. I found four packs of Vedan Bah Kut tea noodles that expired on Jan. 25, one pack of Mamee chicken noodles that expired on Jan. 29, and three packs of Mamee vegetarian noodles that expired on Jan. 26 - I'll be eating them all in the next week! INSTANT RAMEN NOODLES FOR DAYS!

I showered today once Jon switched my childcare dates from Tuesday to Wednesday, and Mom said "can you tell me whether there will be autism on Tuesday or Wednesday this week?" What the heck?! HAHAHA! I also accidentally overdosed on those Vitamin D gummies, but called the nurses hotline at 811. They were professional and very helpful (and I got through in 30 seconds despite the Reddit fear-mongering about the coronavirus), directed me to Poison Control, and all I have to do is chill on the gummies till the weekend. Nice!


From Jim and CANUCK NATION: If they say size doesn't matter, they're probably NFL fans. Stanley Cup vs. the Super Bowl trophy!




From CRIME WATCH DAILY and Youtube: Harley Burns and Autumn Burns?!

The Canucks played the Sharks tonight at 7:30, and won 5-2 thanks to an empty-netter from Pearson and other team play!


Squid selfie! No, the squid is not actually up my nose.




A parody of Uncle Kracker's "Drift Away" from Jim: Give me the weed, boys, and free my soul. I wanna get lost in a sticky bowl and drift away. Of course I sent this one to Mike!




From Nate, Extra Fabulous Comics, and Discord: "How about a C?" "Nope." "An R?" "Nope." "Fellas, I gotta say this is some of the most fucked-up shit." REAL LIVE HANGMAN AND EXECUTIONERS!




From The Onett Times: Special dark roast Starman Coffee! Happy? Ness In Every Cup! Latte art of Giygas, hahaha!

Jon sent me a Facebook message at 8:50 AM to wonder if I could come over at 2:15 today instead because Harmony had to pick up Hiero from school and actually wanted to be on time, and Ayler wasn't feeling well. I assumed I had to hold down the fort there, especially when he called a few minutes later after I'd already sent my reply to ask if they were puking or loopy, so I agreed. Then Barry left me a voicemail, but I delete those, so I called him back to find out that he wanted to move grocery shopping to Thursday instead of tomorrow. What did they do - leave the messages and then run away within two seconds?! Sheesh!

Later, I had some New England Clam Chowder today for National New England Clam Chowder Day, right when Harmony sent me a text wondering if I could come slightly earlier. That's on the buses, not on me! After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 1 on an 401 to help with the kids, just missing the early C94 and the early 407. The 3 was seven minutes LATE at Marine Drive Station! GEEZ! I finally got to Jon's at 2:15 - so much for shortly BEFORE that time! At least there were no random two-minute stops along the route, wheelchair / stroller delays, or elevator shenanigans today!

When I got there, Harmony and Beckett left within five minutes, but Beckett did show me his Gorilla Munch cereal, which were indeed balls! He also showed me a huge yellow Blockbuster chip bowl and the blue tub, which he had fun with later. It was good to have some time alone with Ayler, who thinks that I won't get what he has because his dad said so. Haha, I wish germs and viruses worked that way! We talked about Fraser, Henry, racetracks, the school secretary, no nurses at the school, Harmony just driving to the school today (walking 30 blocks in the rain with a toddler in a carrier?!), my phone photos and calculating how many seconds were in a year by using the Calculator app, hand sanitizer, texting, oranges, what it meant when you vomited, water, and reading some children's Bible stories like the Good Samaritan / the Feeding of the 5000 with fish and loaves / Daniel in the lion's den. He wanted to teach Beckett about word patterns and especially the word "gun" since Beckett will repeat anything. Uncle Joe has taught him "hit your butt!" in Cantonese since it's funny.

Everyone else came home at 3:40 (thus ending our freedom to talk), and Beckett had fun with his toys and plopping into my lap to "read" the summertime book and the Christmas piano book cover because he saw "balls" (ornaments) on there. No wonder the piano had wings - there was Santa in his sleigh, too! I gave Hiero his birthday card, which he seemed to like - he also was enamored with the Creature toy I'd given him on Sunday. Hiero opened all the rest of his birthday presents - turned out that Mom had forgotten to write in the birthday card she gave him, but had also given them a pack of Ontrue seaweed in the regular flavor! He also got at least four Lego sets, a PAW PATROL puzzle set, a science toy, and Rain or Shine ice cream gift cards! His friend Leanne gave him three gifts - WOW! Beckett stood on top of a puzzle box (and wanted some grey robot toys - saying "MINE!" when they were Hiero's), and I accidentally squished the Lego STAR WARS box.

We had peas and macaroni in soup with some grapes, cherry tomatoes, and sticky rice while discussing last week's snow and other things. Ayler said the soup was salty, but it really wasn't - it was really bland and just what you might want if you were sick with tummy upset. Beckett threw cheese and some other things on the floor, but liked his cereal as usual - and smiled BIG for the Vitamin D tablets! I had some leftover cheesecake while the kids had some orange Jello which was rather liquidy in consistency! Hiero did some "home reading" with me - but I had to sound out words and make sure he knew what was going on. Beckett and I played with balls, the stacking blocks ("doggy!"), and the toy train which can zoom on the wooden floor. When I showed him my doggy slipper socks from Grandma Joan, he sniffed them and played around with the "ears" - silly kid!

Just as I was about to leave at 7:25 (with Beckett saying "BYE BYE!" in a serious manner a few times), Ayler vomited on the bathroom floor and surrounding floor area! Yes, I could stay even later because that had happened and Harmony had to do clean-up. She barricaded the area with a garbage can and laundry basket, while I made sure Beckett stayed on the mat. That meant he could read even more, relax with the blanket, look out the window at the lights, and call the new 3-D Glowing Planets "boh-boh"! When Hiero took things like the action figures away from Beckett, he cried - so of course I gave him some hugs and told him that his brother was terrible! Lately, Beckett has learned the word "help" and is using it in the proper context instead of just pointing at things and vocalizing - good job! He usually needs it to get balls out from under the couch, or to get balls out from small boxes and blocks!

Turns out Ayler requested that I stay to watch him eat his banana and drink some water while Harmony bathed everyone else. Sure, why not? We talked about applesauce, tuna NOT being part of the BRAT diet, the school having a janitor / custodian at least, my opinion that he should probably stay home, math, "my baby" being Beckett, Beckett's talking in his sleep (to say "please" and other simple words), and more things. I finally left at 8:10 (encountering an Evo driver who liked driving on the sidewalk...) and got home at 9:35 on a 407. PHEW! Extended Nephew Time on BOTH ends of the time spectrum!


Campbell's clam chowder and a Nature Valley granola bar for National New England Clam Chowder Day and National Granola Bar Day!




From Julie M. and Etsy: A dragon agate necklace!




VIGOROUS DRAGON AND LIVELY TIGER artwork at the hospital across the street - YAY FOR DRAGONS!




VIGOROUS DRAGON AND LIVELY TIGER, by Shirley Chiang, donated in 2015!




From Dragons: A red dragon with piles of books in a castle! INFORMATION AND KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!