Tatiana's Wanderings

MORE COFFEE TIME! IT IS LEAP YEAR 2020 TODAY! The Canucks played the Leafs today at 4, and lost 4-2... DAMN EMPTY-NET GOALS AND MY BIRTHDAY BUDDY AUSTON MATTHEWS! Eric Ho confirmed yesterday via text that he was coming over, and also called me at 12:10 to iron out some details, so YAY! I got him to pick up a 24-pack of Nestlé Pure Life bottled water from Price Smart on the way since I was running out. He got here at 2:15, so that was good. We talked about the parking pass / my spare keys, the skyrocketing coronavirus news, Nathan being overseas right now, the 2001 version of THE MUMMY RETURNS with Brendan Fraser, Jeremy, washing hands, my Ontario trip, the bacon quiche / Reser's mashed potatoes / meat lasagna / macaroni and cheese / Peanut Butter Pie Oreos / Mackie's Crispy Bacon chips / Mackie's haggis and cracked black pepper chips, the Lindt / Nutter Butter I gave him in a Ziploc bag, and David Ayres the Zamboni driver. He also called "coronavirus" SARS, and called the Alcan aluminum foil "cling wrap - you know what I mean." Not really or not at first, but he's still a good friend of mine!

Also discussed Jann Arden / a halftime show, 2011 and the Boston Pizza name change, HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA, my slipper socks / high heels bag / Boston Pizza gift card from Ruth and Joan, Carey Price / Patrick Roy (possible) trades / the trade deadline activity on Monday, ICBC driver premiums and car insurance, whether I caught any of Sedin Week, and the 9-3 Boston Bruins blowout the other night. Conversed about his smelling my hot sauce, the playoffs, Jim Hughson, his not preferring to drive during sunset / twilight hours, a cow in a plane for a THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR movie scene with Jet Li, and Don Cherry's podcast / being fired, the Juno Awards, the Simpsons controversy, Apu, and Krusty the Clown before he left at 6:40 after a disappointing Leap Day / Leap Year LOSS! DAMN EMPTY-NETTERS! Sure, I'll collect my empty bottles for him to redeem somewhere if he offered! Of course he did the dishes WITHOUT COMPLAINING!


Happy Leap Year Day 2020! Leap Year Day FROG! February 29! Feb. 29!




( February 29! Leap Year! Food and water! )

I had to spend MORE time out and MORE MONEY today at Richmond Centre because of ANOTHER temporary water shutoff. *rolleyes* Good thing I had plenty of cash! I bought a White Spot breakfast quesadilla with chorizo sausage, a White Spot blueberry milkshake that slightly tasted like cough syrup (what are they doing with those machines overnight?!), NEW on-sale OGX Beauty tea tree / mint shampoo and conditioner, on-sale Dove pomegranate shampoo and conditioner from $8.99 to $2.99, NEW Life iron pill supplements, NEW Jamieson Vitamins garlic softgels, and NEW Irish Spring charcoal body wash. Shoppers and London Drugs both worked! Got home at 5:40 on a 407 (was NOT going to call Hester because of the one-word and hangup I received LAST YEAR), and the water was back on, so I could take a shower for tomorrow!


Speeda E. Bump tombstone?!




( Alcohol and milkshakes at 9 AM, Christmas at Shiny Tea, quirkiness )

Harmony texted me to say that she'd booked the cleaners again at 3 on Thursday - yes, that works for me! After COFFEE TIME, I left at 3:15 on a 407 to help with the kids. I couldn't pay my bus fare by cash, so that worked for me transfer-wise. I swear I put in enough change in my pockets before I left, but the Compass Card / Ticket machine insisted that I put in 30 more cents! On the way back, it insisted I needed 20 more cents... digging out my wallet AGAIN and making sure I put in enough to satisfy the fucking thing (and getting a warning that my transaction was about to expire - FUCK YOU!) PLUS the slow as FUCK elevator made me miss the next train to Brighouse! I finally got to Marine Drive Station at the normal time, then decided to go do some shopping since I was out anyway: Samyang Buldak Topokki Fire Noodles from T and T, plus NEW limited-edition Doritos Sonic Sour Cream chips and on-sale Uncle Ben's Jasmine Rice x4 for my chili from Shoppers!

Then I managed to get the 3 Downtown bus at 4, with only five minutes left on my transfer. I have no idea how it took that long! Got to the house at 4:35, where Beckett was awake and crawled to the bathroom when I'd opened the door, wanted to play with the orange alphabet and letter board, throw the colorful maraca around (and cry when I took it away temporarily), play with the purple shell, and read with me (much to Hiero's consternation!) on my lap. Ayler was talking about growth percentiles and a chart from the hospital, and said that at Christmas, we should check to see if he was up to my chin yet even though he's close enough to 4 foot 1 to say he's that height. Haha, sounds like a plan!

We talked about the world's largest baby, voices, boundaries, rules, minestrone, lentils, whole grapes (which Beckett CAN'T EAT!), protein, beans, iron, expensive sourdough bread, Beckett throwing food around (but he eats more for Jon!), Halloween costume ideas, a heavy bag of stuff from Mom, the Buzzer / the West Coast Express, Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge, bus timetables, the cleaners, school friends, and the Pig / Elephant library books. I didn't mind if Beckett wanted to read, but I carried him away from certain things: the mat is safe, but not the kitchen! Maybe I'll get Ayler a kiddy version of the Guinness Book of World Records or something.

Harmony let me leave at 7:10, and I only managed to get the 3 Main because a random girl told the bus driver to hold on at the bus stop, so I thanked her and the bus driver in turn. My trip to the station also happened to be free since I was only carrying cash! When I got to Marine Drive Station, I took advantage of the statue and saw what Mom and Dad had randomly given me. UGH, CAST IRON?! I offloaded the skillet and pan right there; I didn't care what others thought! After taking advantage of the wi-fi for a bit, I was finally able to take a Brighouse train, no thanks to the aforementioned stupid machine and slow elevator! I was only just able to get the 407 at Brighouse because of a lineup, despite the slow people using the elevator and fare gates... I finally got home at 8:35. The Canucks played the Red Wings today at 4:30, and won 5-2!


Random stuff from Mom and Dad: A small iron skillet, a tiny cast iron pan, 900g of No Name spaghettini, and 425mL of Bullseye bold original barbecue sauce. No wonder it was so heavy and I could barely walk at my normal speed!


Uncle Ben's Jasmine Rice!




900g of No Name spaghettini - YAY!




Bullseye bold original barbecue sauce!




From Cuya's Discord server: Pepperidge Farm pumpkin spice cheesecake cookies in a limited edition for Halloween 2019?!




From Julie: Skull with Dragon by Ashland! BLACK DRAGON!




From Dragons: Halloween orange dragon with bats, a tree, and jack o'lanterns!

Julie got my random letter and number stickers, Old Dutch ketchup chips, Lays wasabi chips, Lays Numb and Spicy Hot Pot chips, Lays kimchi chips, Canadian penny / nickel / dime / quarters / loonie / toonie (taped to bubble wrap and put in a Ziploc bag to avoid Canada Post detection!), and Kwangchun Healthful roasted seaweed snack in the mail today!


BUNNY! Just chilling and munching grass at my apartment complex. I didn't get any closer because it would run away.




( Canadian food! )

After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 2:10 to get to Boston Pizza for their $5 individual pizza deal TODAY. While I was there, I got a text from Jon wanting to know if I could come at 4:30 instead. Sure, I'll just kill more time than usual since it was two hours out at that point. At least I thought I was saving time by knowing what I wanted to order... I also dumped all my loose change on the restaurant, save for $1.25 for future laundry purposes. I got to Marine Drive Station at 3:35, so I killed time by going to T and T until 4 - Swanson's ready to serve mushroom soup x5 cans, Numb and Spicy Hot Pot / Kimchi / Wasabi / Deep-Ridged Lays chips for Rachel sometime, and a new store card for me! Got to the closest intersection to Jon's at 4:25 thanks to spotting the 3 bus behind the 10, so it was cool.

Ayler and Hiero were out, and Beckett was napping. Chatted to Jon a bit before his girl piano student arrived. At that time, I encouraged Beckett to eat halved cherries and grapes, and only one fell to the floor - that's pretty good! Beckett definitely wanted to say hi to the student, but I managed to confine him to the mat by tossing his toy balls, especially the softer ones. When the boys got home, they told me about being late to VBS on the bus this morning before Hiero tried to hug Beckett against his will. Beckett just wanted to find Harmony all the time, which is normal and healthy. Harmony said she got Ayler's bug (but he seems all better, showing me his piano music and origami tricks PLUS wanting to do a cartwheel on the mat) and has a fever which can't make up its mind - oh no!

I didn't mind reading a monkey book to Hiero and looking at Ayler's Summer Reading log - wow, it seems like he wrote everything himself! Hiero wants to go to Japan to see the bullet trains - who knows, maybe my parents saw them in Japan on their trip! We had rutabaga, zucchini, nectarines, peaches, and penne for dinner. Beckett had yogurt and Cheerios, but again didn't seem to eat too much. I think he had fun playing his version of catch with me, and also flipping the pages of his books! (eggs and balls and reading books, oh my!) Managed to get home at 9 on a 407, thanks to just managing to catch a 3 Marine Drive when I got to that bus stop near Save-On! If Harmony needs me tomorrow, I can do that as well no problem.


Individual Meateor pizza for $5 today as opposed to $14.29! Beefy Bolognese sauce, smoked ham, pepperoni, seasoned ground beef, spicy Italian sausage and pizza mozzarella!




Swanson's Cream of Mushroom soup, ready to serve!




From Corbin: Quinn Hughes, Brock Boeser, and Elias Petterson with a rainbow filter!