Tatiana's Wanderings

After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 2:40 on a 401 to a sick Jeremy's for Jon's birthday dinner since Eric could give me a ride home after UBC hockey and helping in the kitchen. I bought on-sale Knorr Sidekicks in Chicken and Broccoli rice and pasta / Homestyle Cheddar / Chicken Fried Rice, some high-visibility fluorescent yellow-green stickers and slap bracelet straps from Dollar Land (FINALLY!), some 100 mL Vaseline lotion in the yellow tube for Ontario from Shoppers Drug Mart, and a small bag of NEW on-sale Takis Outlaw snacks from Buy-Low for the Gwei-Lo at Kingsgate Mall since I got there at 3:20. I managed to get to Jeremy's at 4:35 after cutting through Dude Chilling Park, and Ayler wasn't even there yet to lock me out like he did last year! Eric sent me a text while I was there to ask if I was here yet... crazy! I did give him his Windel Advent calendar and Delecto dark chocolate assortment, and gave Jeremy his Windel Advent calendar too.

The kids got there a while later; Harmony said she was glad I was there already because then I could help her watch Beckett and take him from Jesse later on when he needed a break. Yeah, I let him look at the big screen for a minute - that's not going to get him addicted! Jeremy said there were some unsafe things for babies behind the chairs - yes, I could see wires! Beckett toddled around and wanted to turn off the computer, which Ayler thought was a touchscreen again. I let Beckett touch my fuzzy purple Alia winter coat, go up on the couch (but NOT touch the Japanese painting), hold my hands as he walked around, spout gibberish about the glass table (he can see the carpet!) and point at the lights and new things, and give me all the beer coasters a few times over.

Yes, he could throw those around if he wanted to, but NOT the candles or anything else! NOT SUITABLE PROJECTILES! He was also eventually curious about Jeremy's beard, like Ayler and Hiero had been. Ayler was smart and knew that I would have Advent calendars for them. He has a bonus dragon book since HE is a DRAGON too! The Santa stuffed dog was in my bag later when I got home, but I can give it to Beckett before my trip. Hiero wanted to be Batman or Superman in front of everyone.

I was civil and polite to Raymond when he was in the way and admiring Jeremy's bookshelf while I wanted to get my UTHER book from my bag to show Trish later, and also when I handed him some dishes that needed to be washed. Caught up with Caleb (I saw his uncle William recently!), Becky, Alice, Jeremy, Randal, Jesse, Trish, Lanie, and Christon for sure. (Ayler's math prowess / the Japanese soldier who refused to surrender until his commanding officer said so / my upcoming trip / writing / Jacob's Well / SERVANTS / the Spain honeymoon / buying a new place and moving / a rice cooker / the microwave / Jeremy seeing Steph in the newspaper as a random RCMP officer and confirming with Jon)

I met Jon's friend Mallory, noticed that his friend Jay had a "scent" about him, and "met" his friends Chris and Mallory. Since we all had to leave an hour or so earlier because Jeremy was feeling under the weather (bad timing as he got sick from his co-workers yesterday!), Eric and I actually left at 9 or so! We talked about gluten-free ice cream sandwiches being good for his mom and brother, his staying home at Christmas, FIRE EMBLEM, and a raccoon being outside near the dumpster when we got to my place at 9:30. (it was a milk jug...)


Trappiste Rochefort beer!




Santa's Sac beer, haha!




( Food and safety and more! )

I slept so much today! Woke up at 9, but had to rest till 10:45. Then I felt a bit under the weather, and had to sleep from 3:10 to 6:05! At least redrum seems to be subsiding for now...

I took in the BO HORVAT CAPTAINCY / 50TH SEASON CEREMONY without any incessant talking, which was a win! The Canucks played the Kings at 7 tonight as a throwback to 1970, and won 8-2! Kirk McLean, Stan Smyl, both Sedins, and Todd Bertuzzi were there, but it was so understandable that Trevor Linden wasn't.


New (Canucks) hockey icon 2!




New (Canucks) hockey icon 2, enlarged! Canucks icon 2, enlarged!




Sedins eating popcorn during an intermission:





From Julie: Montreanna?! Like Montreal?!




( So many bad names! )

After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 3:30 on a 401 to help with the kids. It wasn't raining in Richmond, then was very little rain at Marine Drive, but it was like Noah's Ark Flood when I got off at Mount Pleasant! Turns out Beckett was sleeping when I was almost soaked as I got to Jon's place, but that was fine - I finished a book and started another one before he woke up. Jon plopped him on the mat and Beckett just stared at me for a while. Eventually, I gave him a toy and he played with it, doing "catch" for a while until Harmony came home with Hiero and Ayler from swimming. Beckett wanted to climb on me because he liked my San Francisco tie-dye shirt's colors, Ayler told me about his origami and connect-the-dots books (and said he'd test me on the taped crane next week), and Hiero had tantrums and wanted to encourage Beckett to eat random stringy stuff he found on the mat OR to crawl out the balcony window. NO! Hiero also wanted me to read about trains to him, which is fine.

We had stew soup, nectarines, green beans, pasta, and minestrone for dinner. The kids were worried about Hurricane Dorian and wondered whether Los Angeles had hurricanes, then Hiero asked what a sleeping bag was. Harmony said that Mom had sent them five or six emails about "swatch the watch" - I have no idea what that means, but maybe it has something to do with the watch repair place at the Public Market, so I eventually gave her both watches in my wallet just to be safe. We called Dad because Ayler wanted to ask what time he'd be there tomorrow to take him to Brooke's building. Then we also talked about exactly WHY Mom would think I know Spanish... not like I've retained it!

Later, Beckett chewed on my pants and was going to go for my socks, but I stopped that. He made himself laugh by pressing a lot of buttons on a light-up toy which had stars on it, and another one which had noisy letter and animal buttons on it. After trying the baby pop-up toy and laughing, he looked at me and clapped for himself, so of course I smiled and clapped along - cute! Ayler wanted to see if he was taller than I am, and I asked whether he would help me with stuff once he was taller - he said yes, so that's good. Beckett babbled and wanted to grab a Classic Munsch book, so he had fun flipping pages. He also liked when I put him in my lap to "read" a 100 Words book, but was upset when I took him away from the window. Then he invaded the bathroom again when Ayler was taking a shower - I said that I didn't see anything, and closed the door with Beckett in my other arm. Ayler told me that he wasn't strong enough to hold him, but I did appreciate that he kept the baby from crawling out the window.

Some people are such dipshits to the bus driver! Tonight, some people told the driver to shut the fuck up and that he needed more training because he didn't magically stop at 43rd and Main. Then there was the idiot with a huge bag full of pop cans who played the bus equivalent of Ding Dong Ditch. He made like he was going to get off at a few stops (thereby wasting everyone's time), actually got off at one and THEN somehow beat the bus to the next stop, then was going to get off at the stop two stops from Marine Drive... then argued with the bus driver who wondered if he was going to get off the bus, saying "Did I get off the bus or just touch the door?" I swear, this guy made me miss the Brighouse train by two minutes, and it didn't help that the next train stopped for another two minutes for no reason in the middle of the track near Aberdeen, so that made me miss the 9:26 407. I finally got home at 10. SIGH.


From Youtube: Jeanine Mullen, Waltfredo Davis-Mullen, Jaseri Mullen, and Jaion Mullen?! BAD SPELLING OF JANINE!

The Canucks played the Sabres at 7 tonight, and won 4-3 in a seesaw game! Thatcher Demko is the first Canucks goalie in history to start off 2-0!


From Julie: Stephanie and Josh are fine, but Keaira?!




From Julie: Samyah is pronounced like Sah-My-Ah?! Nope, we both think of "Sam-Yeah"!

I discovered redrum this morning - UGH!


From Julie: Kadegah?!




From Julie: Joc?!




( Jacarre, Nyla, Natheeah, Lakita, Rapheal, and Saadiq?! )

It's Earth Day today!


Education: Why think for yourself, when you'd be better off just accepting our teachings without resistance? Now, just drink the Kool-Aid like Adam Hilliker wants you to...




From Dateline NBC: Zuzu Verk was a murder victim?!




From CFOX: This was 6 foot, 10 inch Zdeno Chara's bed for the Sochi Olympics in 2014!