We missed quorum by ONE PERSON!

At Awana yesterday, a few of the kids were wearing these really nice Chinese New Year outfits and were excited about dinner / lucky money. I shared the rest of my Maui onion and garlic almonds with some of my friends: I thought I'd like that flavor since I liked the similarly-flavored macadamia nuts that Elaine got me from Hawaii, but maybe it's because the almonds are COVERED in the flavored salt and do a NUMBER on your breath... but at least they're gone now! My sister told me that Lays makes spicy curry chips and wasabi chips since she saw them at Shoppers yesterday: I need to get me some of those, haha. :D (I also heard that my dad accepted the job posting for a new administrator type at church to replace Auntie Angela, who's retiring: he starts in a few days, and wants to whip things into shape! What a second job, haha... do we REALLY need church / Sunday School records from the late 80s lying around somewhere?! :P)

After that, it was off to Dave's for a Chinese New Year Eve dinner: Steph and I knew that Auntie Grace would cook a LOT of food, and she did! Duck, veggies, sausage, mushrooms, and other things which I can't really describe in English... oh my! (we also demolished the snack platter of chocolate pieces, chocolate coins, Werther's Originals, and peanuts!) Our friends Erin, Derek, and Darren were also at the dinner: we discussed certain gross pharmacy stories (let's just say that I'll never think of hernias or breast pumps or returns the same way again :P), hockey, our plans, and other things. We watched the Colorado-Vancouver hockey game on TV: Vancouver finally beat Colorado 4-3 in a shootout! (they've had our number this season...) Although we should have won it in regulation itself, seeing as we were leading 3-1 with 6.5 minutes left in the game. Oh well, Ruutu saved the day and scored on Aebischer in the shootout and no one scored on Auld (as well as taking a penalty in OT on a Colorado shot), so it's all good except for the Canucks' defensive breakdowns. However, there was the play where we almost scored on ourselves in the second period on an empty net on a delayed penalty call. (the goalie goes to the net on those calls) The puck was shot all the way down the ice and JUST MISSED the wide-open net. That was an interesting game... o_O

I went to my parents' afterwards, and was on the computer long enough to check my mail and some of my friends pages: I know what the Parental Controls will deny me access to. (but considering that one journal update page is the same as the other, I don't know why it only allows me access to one...) My sister actually gave me a photo that I look reasonably good in: it's of me, Eric, and Nathan at the ordination banquet last September. I'll have to remind her to give me the link to it later on so I can also Photobucket it, heh. She also thought that I'd sleep earlier if I didn't have a lot around (read: the Internet) to distract me... I wish it worked like that since I didn't really fall asleep till at least 4 AM and most probably later! Not good if I had to get up at 8-ish... =/

Since I had a little unexpected time, I emailed Corey about the hockey game just before we left for church. He lives relatively near Denver and is apparently under the impression that Colorado always kicks Vancouver's butt in hockey. He's not far wrong about that, either... no, he's not a hockey fan. However, he DOES have to hear about hockey games from me whenever they're on! :P

When I got back home later, he'd replied to say that he'd actually seen a bit of the game at dinner and had seen just a couple of the fights in the game.. and wondered if hockey players immediately beat each other to death if they saw each other off the ice at a bar or something, haha! As I said in my reply: some of them actually have great friendships off the ice, but of course it's strictly professional during a game. But in Denver especially with Todd Bertuzzi playing... expect a fight-filled game. If you thought the rivalry between Colorado and Vancouver was bad before the Steve Moore incident, this is much worse... the fans were booing Todd every time he was on the ice for a shift! (and he was even penalized for something that normally wouldn't even have been a penalty, but since it's BERTUZZI in DENVER...) My sister says the Denver fans are nice, though... :P I'd say that most of the hockey players wouldn't beat each other to death if they saw each in a bar or elsewhere... however, I'd have made no guarantees for Todd Bertuzzi's safety after that Steve Moore incident in Denver from ANYONE if they saw him somewhere in town! (and now Corey wants me to talk to him online instead of in email... well, I had to tell him about the hockey game SOMEHOW before I was out, even if he figured at Boston's last night that he'd hear at least something about it from me after noticing who was playing the hockey game that was on TV there! :P)

At church, Eric wished me a happy Chinese New Year, and then tried convincing me that he couldn't give me a ride home after the meeting since his car was currently full of people: yeah right, buddy! Everyone wished others a Happy New Year, and talked about the meeting later on. I talked to Clement and Justin for a bit: Justin seems to find it hilarious that his brother's fighting with his girlfriend, and that's why Jocelyn hasn't been at church! (he's weird!) I got some lucky money, as well as an expensive suede jacket which I shouldn't wear in the rain. Vanessa and Steph asked me whether Ivan was a gynecologist: nope, just a general doctor! (they don't know where Steph heard that he WAS one, heh)

After lunch, we waited around to meet quorum: as per the church bylaws, we're supposed to have half the members at a meeting by 2:30 to make quorum for an AGM... otherwise, the meeting will be rescheduled for the same time the week afterwards and the members there will constitute a quorum. We were REALLY stretching it as we sang a lot of hymns, but we ended up missing the magic number by ONE PERSON! (which has definitely happened before!) This means that we'll have to come back on Super Bowl Sunday: my sister wishes we could have a really quick meeting from 2 to 3! Joey and Sam figured that the culprits were Erin and Darren: "the next person will either be the most popular or the most hated person," indeed! The ironic thing was that we were going to discuss and vote on bylaw changes affecting out-of-town students / workers who are still on the member rolls! On the way home, Eric bugged me about blogs / forums / suudsu / STARCRAFT / Homestar Runner / flying horsemen / invading Czechoslovakia / slamming doors / MissionsFest / hockey / Bathroom Readers / other stuff. I still can't believe we have to go back next week... oh well. *sigh*