"We're going to dine on balls!"

No, not THOSE kinds of balls... you're all perverts. :P


Various highlights from the night:

7:10 PM -- My brother picks me up and jokes that he'll freak Cindy out with some System of a Down music. I spot a new Liquor Depot store at Lansdowne, and tell him that I've already had my liquor for the day. He's amazed I have so much bling to spend on myself, haha.

7:30 PM -- We get to Cindy's and Jon changes the music to Modest Mouse. I give Cindy her birthday present: she's never had a Bathroom Reader before, but always uses Our Daily Bread! Jon jokes that her trips to the bathroom will become more meaningful now.

7:45 PM -- Sheena shows me her Mexico pictures: the people there are so happy all the time even when they don't have as much as we do, and yet we here aren't happy with the amount of stuff we have! (their drivers and fellow team workers were the coolest people ever!)

8 PM -- I meet my brother's friend Tim Chan, who's doing a presentation on Reach Vancouver, where my brother says I should go. Perhaps... we'll see if I want a chill Saturday or not! I also get my brother to pass Connie and Jenny's birthday presents to Connie... there's nothing like relaxing with a book! Jon also says that he's seen Derek three times at Dragon Ball very recently... whoa!

8:15 PM -- I hear that Tim and Maxine had a baby boy this morning; Lily's nicknamed the baby "Timbit," in part because he doesn't have a name yet. Maxine only had a three-hour labor and not much relative pain! Dawn says the nickname's cute, and Jon jokes that they should actually give that name to the baby... Timbit Fok?!

8:30 PM -- I meet a new guy in our Bible Study group. He's way too quiet for my taste.. I can understand being shy, but you can't even HEAR him as he's reading from the Bible! There's mumbling, and then there's speaking SO softly that nobody can hear you. I also found his inappropriate bursts of amusement to be quite disconcerting. (goodness knows I can have those too, but at least I know when not to indulge!)

9:50 PM -- Randal's wearing a dark red Alaska T-shirt, so he and I compare notes on our respective Alaska cruises and the cruise ship ambience. His room was right near the engine... he could fall asleep, but not very quickly! The casino and the pool were cool, but the food was excellent!

10 PM -- We wonder where Dylan and Derek went, and then discover that there's food outside since the Chinese Fellowship is having a BBQ. It's kinda dark, but we manage. I go back in so I can catch Helen when she leaves.

10:10 PM -- I get a ride tomorrow from Frances and Helen K. We're going to see Tim and Maxine's baby at the hospital, have a light lunch, walk around somewhere, and then go to Sophia's shower.

10:20 PM -- Jon's group descends upon the BBQ. We proceed to dine on barbecued pork, marshmallows, chicken wings, beef balls, fish balls, hamburgers, and weiners... Jon had a barbecued carrot. People drive Vivian crazy with the head game of "I know something about you, but I won't tell you what it is until tomorrow. In fact, a bunch of other people also know what I know, or they SHOULD... and no, they won't tell you what it is either! You'll just have to wait." It's so dark that we have to use a flashlight or the light from cell phones to see if our meat is really done or not. Vivian threatens Dylan (who's taken over most of the BBQ duties at this point) with various consequences if she has worms coming out of her stomach tomorrow!

10:35 PM -- The mother of one of the Sunday School kids is there, and she tells me that her daughter Gwyneth really likes me. "I tell her it's okay to pray in English, even if her daddy doesn't like her praying... she says Auntie Frances told her to do it!" I'm not Auntie Frances, but it's good to know we're getting through to the kid... who can honestly be a MAJOR attention whore some mornings!

10:50 PM -- Learn that Tuesday's farewell for Dawn will be at the Rasputin restaurant at 7:15.. expensive Russian food (beef stroganoff?), here we come! (Jon would personally prefer the vibe of a nearby Jamaican restaurant, but it's not his choice to make!) During a discussion of Macs and PCs, Dawn tells me that she regularly curses out her computer when it won't work.. we both know we shouldn't say that kind of stuff as Christians and all, but there's just something about a stalled / crashing / non-working computer that brings out the absolute worst in us! (slamming the mouse generally won't work either!)

11:15 PM: We finally start heading for Dragon Ball... yes, we had bubble tea after all the food we just ate! (when they told us that they had lots of food left over, they MEANT it!) I have a pudding bubble tea, Danielle has a powdered coconut, Dylan has a taro / coffee, Citrus has a tea / coffee (yin-yang!), and Phil has a mango-strawberry. Jon orders one for his friend Rob, since it's his birthday. Our posse of 15 gives them quite a bit of business!

11:30 PM -- Eric and I see THE LOWEST GAS PRICE EVER at the gas station across the street from Dragon Ball. 01.9¢ a litre?! Score!!!

11:45 PM -- Danielle tells us that she hates it whenever people think she's from Calgary, since she's from Edmonton. Citrus tells us about the time that NOBODY remembered his birthday... not even his parents! Two weeks later, they were like: "Uh, did we forget your birthday?" (this was before Danielle, before Calgary, possibly before I started giving out birthday cards to everyone...)

12:15 AM -- We finally leave Dragon Ball. Jon tells Eric that our family may need a ride from him on Sunday if Erin doesn't sleep over tomorrow.

12:30 AM -- I discover anew that I hate my apartment front door lock.. there are times when it will budge, but this isn't one of them. Luckily, the management hasn't done anything to the front side door... phew!