Eating goat and other domesticated animals / the smell of death

This morning, Steph told me that she'd be picking strawberries with Terrence tomorrow since he obviously can't do that in Singapore! I decided to opt out of that, but I'm up for stuff if they're doing something tonight or later tomorrow! Jen asked me where Jon was, so I told her that he was in Kelowna with Jeremy. I saw Angus at church sitting next to some girl: my first thought was that he was cheating on Melia. Don't ask, I don't want to know! Turned out that the girl was his sister Merle... oops. Pastor Edward brought up what had happened a year ago today (Daniel and Nathan's mom dying suddenly), and told us that he still remembered what he felt like when he got the phone call to tell him the news... yes, that was sad!

I talked briefly to Nathan after service: Jen and I learned that he was skipping Sunday School because he had a family lunch to attend right then. When I was outside, I told Randal that I'd received his email... he didn't realize that we'd given him so many flowers because it took three vases to hold them all! We also discussed dead raccoons: Joe said that when he was on an archaeological dig, he and his lab partner had accidentally set up their tent over the exit of a field mouse colony, with the result that they squashed two of them to death... that smell was BAD, apparently! I also told Randal about my family's reaction to surprises: WE GET PISSED OFF!!! :P

Jackie was blowing bubbles from this toy she bought at Toys R Us: it was so cute, and cost only four dollars or so! I need one like that, but I'm not sure where my dollar store bubble solution (bought years ago) went... maybe it's time to buy some more, haha. Helen K. (and Nicholas) said hi to me briefly: we should get together again in the future! Melia was giving out Milk Duds that were in the process of melting in the summer heat, too. I gave Erin a birthday card for her brother Derek, and gave Dianne her birthday card: her 24th birthday is today!

Sunday School with the toddlers was okay: afterwards, little Sean's big brother Ian actually talked to me in English! When he was in the class, he'd just babble like his brother now does, and I couldn't really understand what he was saying! Now he's about five years old (his birthday is in two days, I think) and developing English skills... cute kid! Speaking of birthdays, I should email my Swedish friend Henrik some birthday wishes since his is tomorrow: I'll keep the nine-hour time difference in mind, heh.

After Sunday School, I was talking to one of the twins (Adam or Andrew) about Timothy camp, which Emily Lam told me was next week. Then Auntie Kwai told me that my family's invited to her son's wedding on Sept. 3: Wilson is already married, so she must be talking about his brother. I went outside and talked to Mike, Christon, Eric, Karen, and Vivian about life and family fights: you don't want to be in the middle of it when you just got home from camp... but then you don't want parents to be even more mad at you for being out all the time!

Jon and Jeremy came up to greet us, and talked to some people (including Cindy / Emily Choi / Chrystal) for a while... Jon was slaving away with Phyllis yesterday while Jeremy just went swimming. Ah, the amenities of Hotel Janzen! (heh) Jeremy said that the All India Sweets outing on Friday was good: he had goat, which wasn't that bad considering the DOG jokes they make! I told him about the seafood salad at Milestones, and about Steph's long-ago survey answer to a question about whether we liked pets: "Pets?! Animals shouldn't be domesticated, they should be EATEN!" Hahahaha! He had a laugh over that excellent answer, believe me! We also talked about Thursday's pitch-n-putt / potluck picnic / prayer meeting thing: I don't think I'll be going! It's much easier to stay cooler at home! :P

Since Jon and Jeremy were going to the jazz festival to catch the last day, Steph gave them Jackie's cell number. They invited us for Pho / the jazz festival, but it was TOO HOT and we were going to lunch with the parents anyhow. We told Jeremy, Eric, and Christon about Mom's reaction to Jon's quirkiness ("That boy!"), and also about Mom half-complaining about how much all these weddings of her friends' kids cost! In Chinese culture, you give money to the people to help with the costs and such (and if you're invited for dinner, it's even more!)... she has a bunch of weddings to go to, so that's like $1500 right there!

During the lunch, the table discussed the Mexico missions trip / Summer Conference stuff and who would help with the kids aged 3-6... apparently, nobody wants to do that! Karen, Vivian, Steph, and I all agreed that if our fathers helped look after the kids, we'd need video camera footage of the result! (or take off from the talks to sit in and watch, haha) Auntie Susan thought I could help since I supposedly have "patience and [am] good with kids"... my mom latched onto that, so I have to give her an answer later. I might do that, who knows? Cindy wants to go to conference for the TALKS since she was so busy last year, and other names were brought up: Karen Chan, Rich (no!), Linda (Uncle Andrew's former assistant who flosses your teeth like a maniac... we saw her at Dragon Ball once, and she recently married!), Joe (he was scared when my mom asked him today!), Genevieve (Auntie Rebecca's daughter), the pastoral staff, Jackie or Fidela (they have work / summer school), Brian's sister Julie, etc. Very interesting lunch, anyhow... we smelled garbage on our way out, and that reminded us of this morning when the Pho smell wafted in through the open side door. Ew! (Dawn's coming back soon, too!)