Mailing Corey seaweed and Chinese candy, oh my!

Went to Big Crazy, a Chinese discount variety store across the street from Lansdowne Mall. I wanted to see if they had any red-hot HAPPY SEASONED seaweed (with HOT on the red package); that's the brand name, apparently. Since they had some, I bought two packages and some Men's Pocky with bitter chocolate. That pushed me over the debit minimum of $10, yay!

Then I went to Richmond Centre, where I cashed a cheque and ran various errands. The Death by Chocolate stand is now a Mini-Melts franchise: I didn't try any today, but maybe later. I decided to mail the Pocky to Corey as well as one package of the seaweed... I hope that 100 packs of spicy red-hot seaweed should last him for some time! I bought one big envelope at the dollar store since the seaweed wouldn't fit into the biggest envelope that Shoppers had. While I was there, I also got a "Happy Graduation Day!" little bear for Corey... I couldn't resist (much like the LAST time I got a bear for someone [Stephen], which I ended up giving to Eric H. instead :P), and thought it would be more personal than just seaweed and a card, haha.

On my way to get some pudding bubble tea from Tazza since I was thirsty and hadn't had any in some time, I noticed that Grand and Toy was no longer there. Now the bubble tea has better quality tea... but there aren't as many pearls as before, and they have the lids where you have to punch a hole with the straw! I decided to go to Staples (across the street from the mall) after leaving the mall, and got two three-inch binders along with 1200 sheets of paper. That should be enough for my offline journaling needs for at least the next 4 years or so! (hey, I still have plenty of supplies from the time in August 2003 that I bought $100 worth of dividers / pens / whiteout / tape / highlighters / staples there!)

I went to HMV to see if I could get a new music CD, since my collection was an odd number.. I prefer even numbers, so I'm weird. :P Tried to remember the good stuff that Corey told me about a while ago... it figures that I could only remember that Trivium is whiny emo death metal, and that In Flames isn't as good anymore after going on tour with Slipknot and other similar bands. I considered the Arcade Fire, Sufjan Stevens, Cradle of Filth, Children of Bodom, and others before I chose the $7.99 Yngwie Malmsteen CD The Collection. (considerably cheaper than the rest AND Amazon, and I like what I've heard so far of him!)

Then I went into Coles to see if I could get a history-based Bathroom Reader for Randal. Uncle John's Bathroom Reader Plunges into History filled the bill quite nicely, and I also got him a cute music-themed bookmark. I didn't get any other books for myself, although books on quotes / seek and find / true crime appealed to me. I saw more Japanese puzzles like Sudoku and Kakuro: they were called Hitori, Masyu, and Nurikabe. Not my thing, but I'm sure they'd be up my mom and sister's alley. :P

I decided to get another Men's Pocky for myself since I was giving one to Corey, so went to Kin's Farm Market since I'd seen a store called Yuen Shing right next door to it. They sold Pocky and a lot of Asian candy, all right! (along with tea, snacks, Chinese medicine, ginseng, tablets, ointment, etc.) I ended up getting the Pocky, three flavors of gummies (peach / strawberry / one kilo of mango... they're not to be confused with gummi bears), half-price black currant pastilles, and some lemon sour candies. I'm terrible when I go shopping: I always spend more than I should... o_O

Outside Shoppers, I found a table and decided to give Corey a bunch of the gummies and sour candy along with what was already in the envelope. I didn't mind spending the extra few dollars for air mail vs. surface mail because it would get there faster (5-7 days as opposed to 2-3 weeks?!). Maybe it'll get there when his Taiwanese friend Jane's still in town. Not that I'm looking to make her jealous (of course not!), but that might satisfy her past curiosity as to exactly what sort of seaweed I sent him a while back. It's not the same brand, but it's the same concept! After going to Staples as described above, I finally got home at 7:45. There, I found that my computer had restarted on me... yay for automatic updates! (twice in two days?!) Now AVG is bugging me to restart again because of an update... three times in as many days. *sigh*

Yay for free Fridays! I was thankful for not having to get home at a certain time (as I surely would have if I'd accepted Karen's offer this week), and I had a few free hours to update and clean up. Then I edited all the relevant names / music / books / friending posts that this entry referenced. Now to catch up on my friends list... yay! :D