Tatiana's Wanderings

I got roped into going to a Chinese New Year dinner tonight by Jon's text... so I had to shower, have COFFEE TIME, and give up a few hours of alone time! Left at 4:30 on a 407, and then got to Kwong Chow at 5:35 or so. We talked about the new coronavirus, my reading about Lego Ninjago to Hiero, Ayler asking me weird questions (and soaking up his 90 seconds of screen time with the All-Star Game), Beckett imitating his brother doing an angry face and waving his finger around (so funny!), Beckett saying "yeah" to some stuff (but probably not knowing what it means), Beckett saying MINE! about the plastic bowl from the restaurant, Beckett noticing my bling on my red shirt ("Boh-boh! Auntie!"), and my getting some leftovers AND $10 in lucky money.

I JUST MISSED THE 3 BUS GOING ACROSS THE STREET FROM THE RESTAURANT AT 7:30! Then I had to wait 25 minutes for the next one, then was waiting for at least 45 minutes for info about a 407 not coming at Brighouse. Turns out there was plenty of police activity across the street at Moore's clothing store, which was cordoned off with crime scene tape - the street was blocked off, too. Nobody else knew what was going on since my text alerts only said "detour on X streets" (and NOT WHY) and someone else's app was wildly inaccurate as to where the next bus was. Someone else smelled gas, so figured it was a gas leak - a bus driver FINALLY confirmed it. A poor girl had been waiting for an hour by the time we got confirmed info! I texted Paulo, Eric M., and Harma about it, finally got home at 9:40 on the THIRD 401 I saw, and had to change the CFL light bulb in my living room because it fizzled out!


From Cuya and Twitter: Happy Chinese New Year 2020 with rats, mandarin oranges, and flowers!




From Julie: Happy Chinese New Year 2020 with a rat, lanterns, and flower!




( Food! Happy Chinese New Year 2020 with rats and lanterns! )

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!

From Julie and DANCE MOMS: Joanne is fine, but Gianina?! Choose between Gianna, Gina, or Nina!




From Julie and DANCE MOMS: Ashley is fine, but Pressley?! BAD SPELLING OF PRESLEY! Especially if it'll be pronounced the exact same way...




From Julie: Mod Sun?!




From Michelle S. and her friend Cindy Cameron: A. Purdy Outhouse?! Yum, expensive Purdy's chocolates!

It's National Punctuation Day today... MY FAVORITE! After COFFEE TIME, I had to leave at 2 on a 401 and then a 410 (which I just got to on time, no thanks to idiots blocking my path on the sidewalk) for my appointment with Dr. Ruby before I helped with the kids. That was uncomfortable - I also saw a professional Audrey. Also, I had to buy more NEW Beehive Burst Peppermint lip balm at the Dollar Tree since there was no photo online that I could find, so I had to take my own photo. (I had ripped mine open last week before I figured this out...) I was there on time, but STILL had to wait 20 minutes to be seen! UGH! I should have gone to Dollar Tree before rather than after! Then I tried to speedwalk over to Lansdowne station a block and a half away, and just missed a Waterfront train thanks to these two slow ladies on the elevator going down.

When I got to Marine Drive station, I definitely needed a snack, so I went to Tim Horton's. Luckily, there was no lineup, so I got a non-sticky cheese tea biscuit and then got out of there to find that a wheelchair wanted to get on the 3 as well. Then a stroller wanted to get on - at least this one contained a fairly curious kid who growled and made various noises, unlike the other stroller who got on after that one left! After another delay caused by the driver stopping in the middle of the road for five minutes to check an alarm that was going off, I finally got to Mount Pleasant at about 4:20 when I could have been there at 4:05! Too many delays! Yeah, I used Term to complain to via text, haha.

Inside, Penny was just finishing up speech therapy while Beckett was failing at napping again. Almost right after Penny left, it was off to the park across the street because Harmony wanted to walk Beckett around the playground to see if he'd nap then. Spoiler alert: He did not. Ayler asked if I wanted to play tag or Manhunt - no, because I had run out of energy and was like a car which had run out of gas. Hiero asked why I walked how I did, so maybe Jon and Harmony should talk to him about it at some point. Once we got home again after more promises of consequences, I got to play with Beckett for a bit. He liked the baby pop-up toy because it made him laugh more than usual, wanted me to shake my head a lot because it was funny, liked PEEK-A-BOO as per Hiero, tried eating my DRAGON HOODIE strings again, and climbed on me a few times. (he did pull Hiero's hair, though!)

At the same time, Hiero was trying to show me his origami. Blowing up squares to make huge boxes, oh my! Later, I stayed close as Beckett crawled on the couch despite Ayler telling me not to let him do it. Well, you're doing and completing a HUGE connect-the-dots puzzle, so I'll do what I want while keeping Beckett safe in my own way, including trying to put on one of his missing socks. We had salmon, congee, Chinese chicken soup, meatballs with ketchup and barbecue sauce, some veggies, and ridiculous amounts of shredded pork. Then we talked about whether Jon had been shot today at the Downtown Eastside (he was fine and didn't have to lie on the floor as per Hiero's question), why people shoot at each other ("because some people think that the best way to resolve their problems is with guns" and "that's why we don't joke about guns"), my Cactus Club birthday dinner, Ayler seeing Brooke early this morning ("how do you know?"), Hiero doing flips and gymnastics in the elevator earlier and being injured, and how much everyone in the family could eat compared to each other.

After I washed dishes for a bit, I read to Hiero about Optimus Prime and the Decepticons, then listened to Ayler play a boogie on the piano before listening to him read a Level 2 story about polar bears. Sure I had to help him with some words, but that's normal. I left at 7:20, but couldn't get a 3 bus till 7:40 thanks to a couple of buses being out of service! I missed a Brighouse train by five minutes, and JUST managed to get a 407 at Brighouse, no thanks to people blocking my path where I was going to run to the front door of the bus. Do I really have to shove my way past other people all the time to get where I'm going in a timely fashion?! I got home at 8:35, checked my mail, and found Julie's birthday card plus random stuff - yay!


Random stuff: Nathan returning the OUTLANDER novel to me, six packs of Compliments Safeway brand spicy chicken instant noodles, and yet another pair of reading glasses. Good thing I didn't buy the Jergens lotion today because of all the walking I had to do, AND the utter weight of the 650-page paperback book!


From WINGS Restaurants and Pubs: Pumpkin spice chicken wings for fall 2019?! BLEH!




( Peppermint lip balm, birthday swag, Compliments instant noodles, a bunny, construction workers looking out for the baby rabbits, doughnut drawing at the hospital bus stop, Polestar planner )