Tatiana's Wanderings

I discovered redrum AGAIN this morning - I THOUGHT I TOOK CARE OF THIS TWO WEEKS AGO! Good thing I didn't bleed onto the bed! Called Shoppers to see if they had a toilet paper shipment, and left right after I got a YES answer at 9:10 on a 401. I remembered the brand new rear-door boarding for buses to protect against the coronavirus, but I was able to get on at the front because I had my Asian shopping cart with me, and "needed" this! While I was waiting, I definitely wanted to "social distance" myself from the smoker on the bench who was horking as well - you're SO GROSS and are MORE likely to get this virus!

I bought on-sale Heinz Zoodles, on-sale Softsoap lavender and chamomile soap refill, on-sale $2 Campbell's Hearty Vegetable Rice soup x2, on-sale $2 Knorr Sidekicks x4 (Fettuccine Alfredo / Creamy Bacon Carbonara / White Cheddar Broccoli / Creamy Parmesan), and the real reasons I went to Shoppers anyway: one small bottle of No Name bleach, President's Choice MAX SOFTNESS toilet paper, and NEW President's Choice Moroccan-Style Mint / Mint Refresher tea. Got home at 11 on a 407, which is fine by me.


Full aisle of paper products, sensibly limited to one per person!




( Zoodles and tea! )


Julie M. was on vacation and saw this map at a Pennsylvania visitor centre: Moscow and DRINKER?!




From Julie: Jacoba?!




From Julie M. and DR. PHIL: Rendy is a girl's name?!




From Julie M. and JUDGE JUDY: Karah Albers?! BAD SPELLING OF KARA! What a screenshot, hahaha!

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!

I had to call the eye clinic today at 10:30 to get an eye surgery time so I can actually make some fucking plans! After the SECOND "busy office hours" automated message at 11:25, I left them a polite message. Megan finally called me back at 11:55 - I'm supposed to get to Mount St. Joseph's at 10:15 AM! So I called Barry to apprise him of the news. I guess it's fine if he picks me up at 9:15 AM that day...

Also made plans with Deb - the downstairs sofa bed sounds fine if Dylan's parents are staying for Mother's Day weekend from Langley, and need the actual guestroom instead of the kids' bed in the alcove!


From Vanessa and FanDuco on April 4, 2018: A dragon totem mold for epic baked goods!




From Julie M. and Wish: A DRAGON BALL Z action figure with dragonballs! GREEN DRAGON!




From Julie: Blue dragon with yellow and pink clouds!

I left at 1:55 on a 407 to make it to Jon and Harmony's and the store prior to playing with Ayler and Hiero before Thanksgiving Dinner. Since I left so early, I went to Shoppers Drug Mart to see if they had sriracha sauce. They did, as well as on-sale Scaeros / Coffin Crisp / Ghostly Kit-Kats / Scaries, plus NEW Korean BBQ Kettle chips! After that, I walked over to IndigoSpirit to see if they had the newest Bathroom Reader: Uncle John's OLD FAITHFUL 30th Anniversary Bathroom Reader (Bathroom Readers' Institute). They didn't since they were only limited distribution in BC, but I did manage to have someone help me at a kiosk so I could just have the book shipped to me at home this week. It saves me another trip out to the mall even if it is nearby! That took a while, but I still managed to be at Jon's place by maybe about 3:15 or so! Ayler asked me what I'd do if they moved downtown - well, I would probably take the train and the bus out to wherever they would be living!

The boys fought with each other as usual (and Hiero fell off the couch's armrest!), but I might have distracted them with the promise of reading to them. Ayler asked if he could sit on my lap, which was fine until my legs started falling asleep. There was a kiddy book with Legos to describe Bible stories, Chinese characters books, a Taan Moon book, a body book, and other things. Randal came over for a piano lesson and stayed for dinner afterwards. Dinner was beef stew with tendons, carrots, and typical Pho garnishes like bean sprouts (and Vietnamese subs!), plus an apricot / grain salad with feta and ricotta cheeses... so non-traditional, but still good! Probably a good thing that I have a turkey backup here at home! Jeremy came over later, which livened the evening up and made it more silly. We talked about Jeremy's cold, baby Henry's banquet (Jon can't attend because of Stanley's wedding on November 19 - but he doesn't even know what he's doing for it?!), Fred becoming a cop in Toronto (and seeing "shades of grey" in morality), the Whip, 12 Kings, Jen being way more conservative / less liberal than she was when we met her, documentaries, Tom Petty, Youtube jams, C+C Music Factory, LL Cool J, Ace of Base, pissing off Auntie Wylene with Salt-N-Pepa and Green Day back in 1994, Bob Dylan / Keith Richards, Silverchair, Bush, and seeing how much the kids knew about fall. We told them that Canadian Thanksgiving was in October and the United States had theirs in November, wanted to know if the leaves would turn blue, and generally had fun with them.

Ayler wanted to tie knots with his Vietnamese noodles, while Hiero wanted to bite the very hard pomelo rind to see if he could eat it that way. That's not how those things work! I saw a kindergarten worksheet with a colorful turkey on it - Ayler had managed to write his own name on it in a reasonably legible fashion! Jeremy brought up the possibility of becoming pregnant when you're already pregnant, so I said that of course there was a name for that: SUPERFETATION! Then he said that it sounded like I got that from a Bathroom Reader: he's SO RIGHT! Of course I had to tell them that I ordered the newest one to ship to my place! At about 7, I left after watching Hiero play train tracks by himself, bidding Jeremy a good night and thanking Jon and Harmony for the dinner. Jon actually thanked me for hanging out early with the kids, surprisingly. Harmony said that it was still pretty stressful since they haven't found a new location to move to yet, and they only have three weeks left in this place!

Ayler and Hiero also surprised me by wanting hugs before I left, so of course I obliged. I would NOT do "falling hugs" as Ayler wanted, though. Why? BECAUSE THEY WOULD HURT! On my way home, I decided to stop by the Oakridge Safeway to see if they had a "fabled" chicken-bacon-ranch sandwich as Milan Penner (Jen now has the same last name as she does!) had told me about YEARS ago in CANUCKS NATION or whatever the group chat was called then. I'd forgotten about that till Jimmy said something about it in Facebook messenger recently since she wants to meet him at some point. The Safeway did have made-to-order sandwiches at the deli, which was good enough for me. The sandwich even had guacamole, and I was also able to pay for a second bottle of sriracha sauce right there at the deli counter instead of having to go to the cash register just for that. I got home at 8:20 on a 407, and talked to the Canucks fan chat and Discord for a bit. Now, bedtime!


Korean BBQ Kettle chips!




From Julie: Ron Swanson! Swan Ronson!