Tatiana's Wanderings

It's St. Patrick's Day 2020 today! I went out at 1:50 to get 1.14 litres of regular Bailey's from the liquor store, 3 pounds of Parkay margarine / 300 Mead index cards / Cinnamint, Fresh Mint, and Spearmint Mentos gum x3 / NEW limited-edition Olympic Dairy raspberry-cranberry yogurt from Price Smart, and six more on-sale Angel Oak oversized towels / Arm and Hammer laundry detergent for 50 loads from London Drugs with my handy shopping cart. Got home at 3:30 thanks to a 407 bus driver who waited for me to get on the bus. Went out again at 5 to get an on-sale Strata 65L (65-litre) clear blue plastic tote / storage box from London Drugs - I can't fit it in the shopping cart, man! Since I was there anyway, I got two on-sale bags of Old Dutch corn chips (original / BBQ) and an on-sale jar of Lindt DARK chocolate spread.

Got home at 6 on a 407 to do even more laundry! Somebody stopped my dryer load so they could put theirs in. I put bleach in their load when I discovered this. YOU PISSED OFF THE FIRE DRAGON! How selfish of you! I FINALLY finished my laundry at 9:30! JESUS CHRIST!

I heard that Rangers fan Michelle Osterhoudt Steed died in her sleep yesterday! NOT AGAIN! SO SOON AFTER CANDY! :(


Ravenous toilet paper hoarders at Price Smart today...




( New yogurt and social distancing! )

After COFFEE TIME, I went out at 3:10 on a 407 to help with the kids, bringing along the rest of the Almond Butter Nature Valley granola cups. I had just enough time to stop in at Tim Horton's briefly to buy a Boston Creme doughnut and take a photo for posting purposes, thanks to the lineup inside! Then I quickly left to catch the 3, which is when I finally texted Harmony. When I got to the building, some guy answered when I buzzed to be let in. Luckily, some lady with a stroller was entering the building, so I quickly explained to her what my deal was. Then I took the stairs since the elevator is pretty small, and knocked on the suite's door while explaining to Harmony what was going on. Beckett was awake and standing with the piano bench for support, and was outside the bathroom door when I finished in there. Yes, he was excited to see Auntie! :D

Ayler was playing the piano (telling me about his piano books and music) and putting up with Beckett banging away at the keys he could reach, while Hiero wanted me to read various MR. MEN books to him and see all his paper planes and swords. Beckett wanted to play catch, but then also throw some things around. At least it wasn't as bad as a couple of months ago! He wanted to turn on the printer and play with it, whereupon Ayler showed me where the power button was - SO HELPFUL! Beckett had found his purple and yellow baby pop-up toy, and wanted me to pop the yellow shell right-side up on it: At least he laughed at that after a while, and tried popping it with his finger! Silly Beckett - you're not strong enough for that to work! He turned it upside-down and had fun sticking his finger into the hole. Then he was upset when I was trying to collect the pop-up toy and a couple other toys: he stretched his arms out towards me! So I put the shell on the table temporarily while I picked him up. YAY!

We had squash, purple noodles, soup, kale, salad, and other things for dinner while discussing Kids Night / my NOT being psychic about their Halloween costumes / math quizzes during dinner / the impending bus strike / Rice Krispies not being real food for a meal / hot chocolate sort of being like dessert / what packaging was / less waste. Beckett pointed at the ceiling lights - oh, he'll love Christmastime if he likes babbling at those! Harmony said that Jon was coming home at about 6 so she could go to a school meeting. My nephews were singing "Trick or treat, smell my feet, give me something good to eat. If you don't, I don't care, I'll pull down your underwear" at dinner. Oh boy. Then they were asking me what a ding-dong was because an adult asked them if another kid was one for spilling his milk. Yikes.

Later, Beckett ACTUALLY WALKED TEN LITTLE STEPS ALL BY HIMSELF! His motivation was the big bag of toys! I actually saw this, and was surprised as was Harmony. He usually just toddles one or two steps and then falls into her arms. Hiero said, "Text Daddy!" Oh, she did! Later, I told him not to force him to walk - he'll do it at his own speed, and new things can be confusing. WOW, HE CAN ALSO STAND WITHOUT SUPPORT!

Then Beckett was crying and upset and hit his head on the wooden floor when Harmony had to leave (what a delay tactic...), so of course he got comforting (hopefully) cuddles and hugs from me and Harmony! I read to him and tried making him laugh with the orange alphabet and animal sounds board, which at least was a distraction. He liked the shapes and blocks that the older boys used to play with, and showed me how he could put a couple of blocks together and then throw them around. Of course I used his bib to wipe his nose - I'm sure it's had worse on it, so whatever! It's handy! After I left at 7:15 (hearing Beckett babbling to himself in his crib), I wasted time at Save-On because all the exotic pasta was too heavy and somehow didn't photograph well in the brightly-lit store. UGH!

Then the 3 had a few delays, what with the "timing point" for two minutes at 41st and Main, then the bus alarm going off TWICE! (four stops before Marine Drive Station, THEN right before the station at 70th!) Once I finally got to Brighouse, I killed time at Shoppers Drug Mart since the mall was at least warm: NEW President's Choice frozen small sweet green peas / frozen peaches and cream corn, plus NEW on-sale Uncle Ben's Canada wholegrain brown rice! Got home at 9:05 on a 407, and it was definitely time to switch to warm wintry wear like a toque and Grandma's purple lined Alia coat and stash a scarf and mittens in my bag, especially if more walking is on the agenda with this upcoming transit strike...

At home, I had some (After Eight) hot chocolate, which I also need to restock in general. Random stuff from Mom and Dad inside an Indigo, Chapters, and Coles plastic bag: a can of Chef Boyardee Beefaroni, Colgate Cavity Protection toothpaste, and a random pair of thin white socks. I left the socks and plastic bag at the bus stop since I didn't need them. The garbage bags were STILL outside at 10 PM!


From Julie M. and Wish: Spooky grinning skull medieval toilet paper holder for Halloween 2019!




One of my neighbors evidently decided to give up on their garbage bags just outside the front door this afternoon, halfway to the dumpster...




Boston Creme doughnut time at Tim Horton's!




( Shoppers potential purchases! )

Beckett crawled over to me to say hi - CUTE! After COFFEE TIME, I left at 3:15 on a 401 to help with the kids. I got to Marine Drive Station very early, thanks to no stupid delays! Went to T&T to look for hot and sour soup mix (why don't they have any?!), but did get NEW Clear Lime Coca-Cola and NEW Coffee Plus Coca-Cola. Then I went to Shoppers for a box of Peaches and Cream oatmeal for National Oatmeal Day later. Got to Harmony's at 4:45 or so after receiving a call and a text saying they were home now even if I'd tried buzzing in earlier - I was literally walking to her place! When I got in, I heard an awake Beckett, so I mentioned that in a normal volume. Beckett then crawled to me to say hi since he recognized my voice, which is cute!

I played with him for 15 minutes before dinner; he climbed on me (so I took the opportunity for a hug), laughed at the baby pop-up toy, and then was bothering Ayler and Hiero when it was reading time for PLANETS and SUPERMAN. Beckett doesn't know any better - he's a baby, and he's curious about what we're doing! Someone had a tantrum, and Hiero hit me with his fist. What?! Ayler and Hiero also insisted that origami was a bathroom activity - okay, then!

When Beckett was upset later because I took a toy away from an "unsafe" area (not the mat), I took the opportunity for another hug. We had slightly spicy meatball chili, cornbread with butter and honey, beans, and some other stuff for dinner. I said maybe I'd bring crackers next time so Beckett could eat something, and Hiero actually remembered that he'd double-fisted Swiss Cheese crackers recently! Ha, that had been pretty funny! I did get Beckett to "read" word books later, and he was having such a good time with that and his favorite colored ball that he was upset when Harmony took him away from me to sleep.

I left at 7:10 or so since Beckett had had a three-hour nap earlier and Harmony just put him down early for the night shift. Amazingly, there were no delays on the return trip to Marine Drive Station, but I still wanted to get home before 10 PM if possible. I used the 20-minute time between 407 buses to use the wifi at Richmond Centre and text Chinese Eric about tomorrow... then I got home at 8:35! Pretty early! I also tried emailing Jeremy from my phone to wish him a happy birthday on the day, but no go; I did that when I got home instead! Then I found out that all my Facebook accounts can't tag people in photos - WHAT THE FUCK?! Tried clearing my cookies and browsing data, but that didn't work! I was way overdue for that if it had 80,000 items, anyhow. NO MORE JIMMY! Now I gotta sleep because my body is screaming EYESTRAIN at me in a way I haven't had since a week and a half after my eye surgery!


My skeleton and candy corn Ugly Halloween Sweater: GET FREAKY!




( More Halloween and amusements! )

THERE WAS ANOTHER WATER SHUTOFF TODAY - NOT IMPRESSED! After I had COFFEE TIME and fielded an early-morning phone call from Megan at the Burrard eye clinic (Dr. Wise wants to see me this week to check her lens choice?! Friday it is...), Barry picked me up at 11 and we went banking and to Price Smart. I got bananas, on-sale Silk vanilla almond milk, on-sale Nissin noodles x4 (XO Sauce / seafood / black garlic oil / sesame oil), Koka Noodles x2 (Spicy Black Pepper / Tomato), on-sale Uncle Ben's rice x3 (Smokey Flavor / Tomato and Herb / Mushroom Wild rice), MAGGI LETUP / Maggi Kari Letup noodles, and one litre of NEW on-sale Yamasa soy sauce which expires in late October 2020 (I was able to pull off the annoying tab in the store!) / NEW Allen's Vinegar 500 mL of malt vinegar (crammed with the white vinegar and red vinegar on the Western side of Price Smart) / 700 grams of on-sale Laoganma spicy chili crisp oil for DUMPLING SAUCE! (my jar opener thankfully worked on that when I got home!)

Also bought on-sale Brookside Chocolate x2 (Blackberry and Honey / Pomegranate), NEW on-sale Peace Tea cans x2 (Sno-Berry / Mango Green Tea), Lucky Me! Mami Beef Noodles, one Stouffer's Sauté Sensations microwaveable meal (Grilled Chicken Teriyaki), Western Family frozen veggies in the BIG bag, NEW Olympic Dairy small yogurt tubs x3 (Fig Honey / Citrus Cardamom / Smoked Applewood Vanilla - each 325 grams), Puritan canned Irish stew, on-sale JOY dumplings x5 for the Big Crazy price of $4.99 per bag (the last five available - Pork and Vegetable x2 / Lamb and Onion x2 / Pork and Chive), NEW on-sale Tropical Salsa Kettle Chips, and on-sale mint Oreo cookies. I think I'm looking forward to all the snack food! Haha!

Additional purchases: On-sale Old Dutch Humpty Dumpty cheese sticks (Habanero and Blue Cheese!), on-sale Excel spearmint Soft Chew gum x3, on-sale Western Family bottled water x12 (gotta keep ahead of all these sudden and unexpected water shutoffs around here lately...), Ben and Jerry's Moophoria ice cream x2 (Peanut Butter Cookie Dough to replace the one that Paulo ate last week on Thursday even though he says he owes me / NEW Caramel Cookie Fix), NEW on-sale Hardbite chips x3 (Sweet Ghost Pepper / Avocado and Lime / Black Sea Salt), NEW on-sale Ruffles Flaming Hot BBQ chips, and NEW Campbell's Everyday Gourmet Asparagus and Sweet Basil soup. I got Ray as my cashier, and Barry made a comment about how it took me two hours at the store. I wasn't expecting to take 20 minutes to find the malt vinegar, no thanks to some employees there! After I got home at 12:55, I paid my Shaw and hydro bills online. Then I waited out the water shutoff - it was back on by 5:30, THANK GOODNESS!


My WHATEVER T-shirt... YAY!




( Hand sanitizer, lots of chips, noodles, canned stew, iced tea, and more! )

After COFFEE TIME, I discovered a TOILET TANK EMERGENCY! It wouldn't flush, which was NOT ideal because Chinese Eric is coming over tomorrow! Besides, I really didn't want to go across the street every time I needed to pee! So I bit the bullet and called Hester a few minutes later since I needed to leave at 2, who scolded me for not being perfectly polite and composed on the phone AND for not writing a note. Fuck off - I have to deal with YOUR limited English, and I don't have TIME to write a note to have you deal with the problem after the weekend! Eventually, I managed to communicate that the toilet flush wasn't working, and Ni came by within ten minutes and actually fixed the issues. In that time, Brian had already offered to come over - THIS is what my new friends do for me?! WOW! :D

I left at 2 on a 414 to see Rachel at the Caring Place. Then I went to Shoppers to buy a Stouffer's Saute Sensations Country Beef Pot Roast microwaveable meal, a President's Choice meat lasagna for a future hangout which is not tomorrow afternoon (expires on December 12), Ben and Jerry's Peanut Butter Cookie Dough / Chocolate Milk and Cookies ice cream, Breyers Delights ice cream in Vanilla Cupcake plus Creamy Chocolate, and President's Choice mango ice cream! Should be yummy!

After I FINALLY got a 401 after FOUR 408 Ironwood buses in a row and a 407 at Brighouse after waiting since 4:10, I went to the pharmacy next door to see if I could get my eyedrops prescription filled before they closed. Adam could do it right then, but I didn't have time to chat or to wait for the previous chatty customer to finish because I had frozen things in my bag, so I was in a rush by default! The instructions are the same, anyway. I got home at 4:45 and FINALLY shoved everything into the freezer, almost before the items started really melting! Good thing I can probably get Chinese Eric to help with opening the eyedrops tomorrow if I remember... so I put them on the table with the low-tech blue guestbook and everything else!


President's Choice meat lasagna!




( Ice cream and bad names! )

I had my cataract eye surgery at Mount St. Joseph's Hospital today. Before Barry picked me up at 9:45, I showered as recommended. We STILL had to wait and he left at 11:35, and I was finally called in at 12:15 or so. It's a strange sensation being wheeled on a hospital bed! The needle went fine, the surgery went well, and I talked to Dr. Wise a bit before and after. Tomorrow at noon sounds very doable especially since Barry will drive me instead of my parents!

Mom and Dad did come to pick me up, but they had to wait. HA HA HA! I got some Olympic plain Greek yogurt x4 which expires on January 21, some Kwong Chow leftovers, some Fit-Overs to borrow, soy sauce octopus, curry chicken, noodles, homemade lemonade, Fuku Superior Soup Noodles x2 which expire on October 5, and a thin green Koret vest. However, I don't NEED to give Barry a thank-you card, or ask about the surgery for the other eye at tomorrow's appointment right away! The Canucks played the Coyotes at 7 tonight, and lost 4-3 in overtime. UGH! Also updated everyone, including Deb. Temporarily wearing glasses over the eye shield so I can post this entry. No pain or nausea!


From Julie: Karson?! BAD SPELLING! Just spell it CARSON!




From Julie: Sherria?!




From Julie: Dynver pronounced as Denver?!




Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney have made it to Tanetane Island in Chapter 7 of MOTHER 3, and are high on funky mushrooms. Here is fake Alec, fake Mayor Pusher, and a fake truck. "A shiny car. It would be dangerous if it suddenly took off."




Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney have made it to Tanetane Island in Chapter 7 of MOTHER 3, and are high on funky mushrooms. Here is fake Alec, fake Mayor Pusher, and a fake truck. "A shiny car. It's scary even when it's stopped."