Tatiana's Wanderings

After COFFEE TIME, I left at 12:35 on a 407 for my dentist appointment with Sean on FRASER instead of Oakridge - sigh. I had to leave myself plenty of time for getting lost (seeing Krista at Gilbert and Westminster - "Ontario is a magical place because I've never been there"?!), and had to take a 99 at Broadway / Cambie, and then an 8 Fraser bus around the corner at Fraser till I got to 19th, right across from Glad Tidings church. I would have been there earlier than half an hour early if SOME PEOPLE hadn't hesitated for 45 microseconds at the Brighouse station elevator - BE EFFICIENT AND NOT SLOW WHEN OTHERS ARE PLAINLY WAITING FOR YOU AT THE DOOR! The new location has more space and okay enough wifi, plus actual hooks for your coats and things! I had to have an X-ray, but it's not my fault that my mouth is SMALL! Learned that Sean is getting married in July, too! I have to wait till July to try The Pie Hole across the street because I got fluoride as part of my treatment today. Also got a receipt where the insurance paid 100%, but for some reason, I'm keeping it for now.

Went to the Broadway London Drugs to buy an on-sale Creature Chumper with 1500 Zorbees for Hiero's birthday, on-sale Stemnex 4D Transforming Robots for Ayler's birthday, on-sale Nescafé Taster's Choice instant coffee in a 250g canister, and on-sale Andes candy cane Peppermint Crunch before going to Pho Extreme Xe Lua to have a large #17 and figure out the wi-fi from the nearby A&W. Some guy ahead of me was in a fucking hurry at the exit of London Drugs, saying "excuse me" - nope, we are both directly headed to the doors, so you will have to wait. I should have dawdled even more because he was an impatient ass! It's not like I dropped anything, after all. I also had to deal with THE most recalcitrant self-checkout machine! It wouldn't give me the correct start-up screen (thinking I had items to re-scan), wouldn't give me enough time to find a barcode, wouldn't let me scan something without a barcode (the coffee), and wouldn't let me pay without calling an attendant! UGH! SO TIME-CONSUMING!

Finally got home at 5:20, and saw Hester and Ni, so told them about the mouse / steel wool problem, which luckily I had a photo of on my phone! I did notice an odd metallic clanking sound coming from my bag, which turned out to be two of Beckett's red / white molecule balls from yesterday's throwing activities. No wonder I noticed him standing at my bag looking into it, but he does have plenty of balls, so he should be fine till next week. He did seem interested in the safety fluorescent slap bracelet, too. I'm also going to wash the socks that Harmony loaned me.


Large #17 at Pho Extreme Xe Lua! Steak, flank, tendon, tripe, and fatty flank!




Creature Chumper with 1500 Zorbees!




Stemnex 4D Transforming Robots!




Nescafé Taster's Choice instant coffee!




From Julie: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader BRIEFS and FUNNIEST EVER!




From Julie: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader blurb for BRIEFS and FUNNIEST EVER!




From Julie: Uncle John's Bathroom Reader STRANGE HISTORY! I actually have this one! STRANGE SCIENCE, too!

After COFFEE TIME and calling the Lost Property Office too early for them to receive lost Translink items at 1 (UGH!), I went out at 11:10 on a 401 to go to the Gloucester Café to meet Auntie Catherine for my last belated birthday meal, taking the 15 Olympic Village bus down at Bay 2 across the street rather than walk the seven blocks in the iffy weather. So I was ten minutes late - it still was reasonably on time for me! I scanned the restaurant and finally saw her sitting at a table - she hugged me hello, and we eventually ordered two dishes to share with our individual hot milk tea. Seafood spaghetti in a creamy dill sauce AND chicken pineapple satay fried rice with plenty of shrimp and egg! No, I didn't want to take the leftovers with me!

She talked about church and noticed that I didn't need my glasses, so she was surprised - she didn't know about my eye surgeries! We talked about Mattias and Marcus - they're 11 and 9 now?! Chung Yan still watches Canucks hockey, so YAY for that! Auntie Catherine gave me a surprise 100% red silk scarf (probably an Indian scarf), so that was totally good! It was pretty rainy when we left at 1:20 (Harmony texted to say I could come at 3:30 or so), but I assured her that I'd be fine without an umbrella, and definitely didn't want to go to the North Shore or some other Vancouver Public Library! I just killed time at Oakridge with the free wifi, found out that I'd been BANNED from TwoX Chromosomes because of the too-inclusive special snowflakes ("not all women have vaginas" is very weird), and left at 3 on a 41st Avenue bus (then a 3) to get to the house at 3:35.

Beckett was surprisingly awake and definitely wanted to play with me, the baby pop-up toy (he's now strong enough to make it pop up himself once or twice), and the various balloons scattered around the room. He also threw the plastic blocks at me, but I didn't hold it against him. Hiero laughed when he saw that, so I said with a very serious face that it was NOT FUNNY, and let Harmony take care of the rest. Ayler had to read the Monkeys book with me, and Hiero wanted me to read a book that was at least different than the ones I'd read on Sunday. Beckett wanted to see what we were doing / be close to me, but his brothers didn't like that. I had to give him a few hugs because he was upset! I let Ayler use my cell phone calculator after he said that I was still better at math than he is (debatable) and Beckett said, "Na na na NAAAAAAAAA!", which is what he says when he REALLY wants something! (like the Rice Krispies, a couple of which I put in his mouth at snacktime, which he didn't seem to mind)

Speaking of being serious, Beckett had an extremely serious expression on his face when he was signing "MORE" at dinner. He did get more food, but started throwing it around, even decorating my red bling sweater with macaroni and cheese. (we also had squash, turkey, stuffing, and other Thanksgiving leftovers) Ayler asked me why drinking prune juice meant that you had to be on the toilet all afternoon (because I told him that), so I told him that there was a lot of fiber in prunes. He seemed to accept that. After Beckett cried and was let go from the table to crawl around, he knocked over Ayler's silver water cup, causing Ayler to get all wet and then cry and melt down himself.

Beckett threw the balloons around and said what sounded like "cup" - at least, he had the hard C sound down! Ayler wanted to regale me with piano technique, so I let him tell me about it while listening very seriously. I enjoy it when he tells me about his interests! Hiero wanted me to read to him, but I said that I had to watch Beckett to make sure he didn't kill himself. We also discussed global warming in a kid-appropriate way. I left at 7:20 and finally got home at 8:40. The Canucks played Detroit tonight at 7, and won 5-1.


Pepto-Bismol is NOT Annabelle eyeshadow, London Drugs website...




Paper bus transfer in 2019! I sure wish the buses would give out actual Compass Card transfers, though!




Lamp chop for lunch, anyone? Yay for Engrish!




Seafood and spaghetti in a creamy dill sauce as part of a belated birthday 2019 lunch!




Chicken and pineapple satay fried rice with plenty of egg and shrimp!




A red 100% Silk Scarf from Auntie Catherine for my belated birthday in 2019!

It's NATIONAL GRAMMAR DAY today!


From Julie C. and Whisper: I'd rather cuddle, then have sex. If you're good with grammar, you'll get it.




I really want to like your post, but your spelling and grammar is so bad, I can't.




Man: "Lay down!" Dog, thinking: "It's LIE DOWN, not LAY DOWN, stupid." Grammar nerds unite! :)