Tatiana's Wanderings

Shiwa says he got my Christmas card today - that's pretty good for my mailing it last week on the 12th! The Canucks played Montreal tonight at 7, and lost 3-1...


Julie M. let me know about this: When you want to sleep and your brain goes SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS...




From I Waste So Much Time: WE ARE THE INTROVERTS comic strip by Grant Snider!

The Canucks played Edmonton tonight at 7 in their first game of the 2019-2020 NHL season, and lost 3-2. Chinese Eric texted me yesterday afternoon wanting to come over today at 4 after lunch and errands, so I resigned myself to a lot of talking and said yes, getting the parking pass ready. I did have to give him the strawberry / original / mango / banana / peach / melon / apple Milkis cans, after all, and could also use him to pick up a carton of almond milk that I forgot last week at the store. He came by at 4 after COFFEE TIME and SHOWER TIME, wanting to watch the Leafs game, but also picked up a carton of almond-coconut milk from the store instead of the almond milk I wanted, saying that I'd failed to specify. IF I WANTED NASTY COCONUT MILK (WHICH I DON'T), I'D HAVE SAID SO! We did try the Dr. Oetker salted caramel cheesecake, which was okay. Then he said that printing out the Canucks schedule was a waste of paper - he should have seen how much paper I wasted on things which weren't perfect to me! Besides, it works for me when I want to plan stuff during the hockey season - SO THERE!

He left at 5 to exchange the milk at Price Smart... GOOD! By that time, I'd composed the email to him / white Eric / Jeremy (who'd thanked me for my "Happy Birthday" email earlier) / Jon / Christon / Randal about his proposed 12 Kings hangout on October 22 to watch the Raptors championship banner unveiling after we figured out WHY their first preseason game was at 3 AM. (it's in Tokyo...) We had Western Family 8-vegetable lasagna with multigrain pasta for dinner: Carrots / green and red Bell peppers / spinach / zucchini / cauliflower / broccoli / black olives! Also talked about his seeing Corey Hirsch at the art gallery, the Leafs-Senators game (Toronto won 5-3), bottled water, his doing the dishes, live-action remakes of things like ALVIN AND THE CHIPMUNKS and ALADDIN, "you know" all the time (FILLER ANNOYANCE!), McDonalds / Tim Horton's hockey cards, that Grow-A-Husband, my guestbook, the SIMPSONS, Channel 22 highlights, and more. Then he finally left soon after the game ended, at 9:40. Now it's time for video game music to relax!


Mars, Pennsylvania?!




From John: Keep Calm - Hockey Is Back!




Canucks jersey!




Front of Reebok Canucks hat... GO CANUCKS GO!




Back of the Reebok Canucks hat with a Bathroom Reader!

After COFFEE TIME / SHOWER TIME / LAUNDRY TIME, Eric picked me up at 6:10 so we could go to Lion's Den plus Bells and Whistles for Randal's birthday thing. Thank goodness for texting! I wore my Spirit of Nature "Canada D'Eh!" moose T-shirt in honor of Canada Day long weekend, of course. Kevin, Eric Ho, Eric M., Jeremy, Randal, and I discussed chimerism in humans, jerk chicken, curry goat, ginger beer, Jamaican patties, working security at the NHL Draft in Vancouver recently, Kaapo Kakko, Jim Benning and the number 6 (NOT 666), my NOT wanting Eric to put his styrofoam (teriyaki chicken) leftovers box in my tote bag without a plastic bag because it would spill all over, Christon and Alice coming really late to Bells and Whistles, my "famous" handwritten birthday card for Randal, Grace hot sauce, the Scoville scale, and the world's youngest mother.

It took 15 minutes for us to get the bill and pay because Kevin wanted our bills to have an additional amount for Randal's stuff. I didn't mind paying part of Randal's bill, but can't we do that among ourselves without wasting time? I don't mind the owner talking to someone in a wheelchair, but that was before she took our request for the bill. We did meet the owner and heard her story, just like that time we were there years ago. I knew the immediate area looked vaguely familiar!

Later, we ordered various beers (Kevin had a Pilsner while I had a Vancouver Special West Coast IPA) and Jon showed up to order garlic fries at Bells and Whistles. I was on my phone (Jon asked how I liked it after I gave him some used printer paper for Hiero's origami creations), but paid attention to CANADIAN BACON while texting Pothead Mike about stuff on Google Hangouts. Eric and I left after Kevin and Jeremy did - discussed chicken and waffles, anime, DARK SOULS, SHINING FORCE, the Nintendo Switch, and cleaning up after Christon's wedding at Kirin. Hopefully, it won't be like the time Mike wanted to help out at Tony and Trish's wedding after an already long day! Got home at 10:30 and discussed the questionable smell outside - at least it didn't smell like shit like on Thursday evening!


Canada D'Eh! moose T-shirt for Canada Day!




Jerk chicken from the Lion's Den!




Grace ginger beer!




Grace hot pepper sauce!




Vancouver Special West Coast IPA from Bells and Whistles!




From Julie: Buff Bernie coloring book?! BUFF BERNIE: A COLORING BOOK FOR BERNIACS!

My parents are on a cruise and didn't let me know, so I wasted my time calling them to get their voicemail multiple times yesterday! Then Dad emailed me to say that they could call me from the shore at 8:30, but then emailed me again at 8 to say that they were still on the ship. Since I don't want to deal with stressful and inconvenient phone calls in the morning when I'm trying to shower and get out the door, I just PMed Brian about it instead since Paulo said he could be good for this sort of thing. To be fair, we had discussed it yesterday just in case. Thank goodness for friends since he agreed to do this for me! He doesn't even have to stay for the entire four hours! I also got to text Pothead Mike for the first time, so YAY! (and talked to Jon via FB Messenger for a bit about the surgery and other things)


From Grammar.net: 10 commonly misunderstood words in English! Enormity, nonplussed, bemused, redundant, plethora, unique, fulsome, noisome, ironic, and literally.




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

After COFFEE TIME, Barry called me at 11:50 to see if I could change our food shopping appointment next week from Wednesday to Thursday, which I had no problem with. I left at 12:25 to get to the Burrard eye clinic for my appointment with Dr. Wise for a one-week followup, even if the construction zone around here is annoying. Still got off at Yaletown-Roundhouse and was in time to catch the 6 Davie in the land of the pink bus stops, which is what I know now. I got there at 1:05, but that was fine. The doctor says my eyes still look healthy and are improving, that I can't dislodge the cataract lens even if I tried, and that I could throw out the antibiotic with zero refills, which was fine by me. She says there is no need to rush to get newer glasses because my prescription is not fully formed yet - apparently, a bunch of people DO waste their money and do just that. My next appointment is the six-week followup on Feb. 27 (a Wednesday) at 2:15, which works for me.

Later, I took the opportunity to play with the Shaw wi-fi while I was still at the clinic office, then decided to do my shopping in Vancouver. I should have done it in Richmond or on Broadway to save some time, since some asshole decided to hit me up for some Canadian coins outside Vancouver City Centre under the guise of "a dumb American question" while I was looking at a map. I went to the London Drugs right there to get Scotch Expressions orange masking tape x2 and red $2 MARTEX washcloths x2. They didn't have any duct tape, so I asked an employee where the nearest Staples was - near Burrard Station, which wasn't too far away.

Thanks to the aforementioned asshole, I got three blocks to Burrard Station which was very near the Staples at 1055 West Georgia. I eventually managed to find the entrance, and had to walk a bit to get into the actual store. I bought Z-Grip Pens x60 (June 24, 2018) and black duct tape, temporarily walked in the wrong direction, and eventually got home at 4 on a 407. No more two-hour service gap at Brighouse!

Deb emailed me again at 6:15 to ask how the appointment had gone, and to wonder if I'd seen Declan's orange Beyblade Pokemon stadium and toys. Nope, but it could be anywhere in that alcove or townhouse by now! Someone named Emily Harris added me to Facebook - possibly Kurt's girlfriend, but she never responded to my message asking who she was. What the heck?! Then I noticed that Emilie Mak unfriended me, but that's fine - I only knew her as an Awana kid from 2007!


From Sara, Reddit, and r/funny: The Grammar Police are here to serve and correct... just look at their uniforms!




From Julie M. and DR. PHIL: Zona?! Reminds me of Zoma in DRAGON WARRIOR 3! She also claims that she's been pregnant for three years and seven months...




1500 HEARTS AND LOVE on my Facebook posts!