Dragon boats, cheap / free books and other stuff, cooking with beer

I got a lot of free stuff today after I ran my personal errands... if my mom was going to pay for it, I wasn't complaining! But I do hate it when my personal foibles are told to people who should NOT know about them even if it's posted publicly on a blog, like parental types.. you HEAR that, siblings? I'll do something to you when I see you next! (maybe I'll get BP for dinner next week... my mom likes Felicos because it's good and not too expensive overall, but it's MY birthday celebration on Pasta Tuesday even, dammit! :P)

Apparently, Uncle Danny set Mom up with an MSN account. I don't know why, since she doesn't know how to use it. She had like the hardest time EVER trying to figure out how to use email, but maybe the learning curve for MSN will be easier. As Corey said once a few years ago when I told him that Mom wanted to get MSN: "All you do is type a message into a box and press the Send button! How hard can THAT be?!" Probably not that hard for us, but it'll be interesting to see how long it takes for her to master that art, heh. (if she even wants to, of course... I know some of my friends' parents have MSN and can use it quite handily)


Rundown of free stuff, by place:

* Vietnamese noodles with fish skin / pearl milk bubble tea from Juice King, both from the Yaohan food court (this is where Mom told me that she got me a "30th birthday" mug for me, will get a "60th birthday" mug for herself in a couple of years, and Steph will get me a crazy birthday card this year... knowing them, I can pretty much guarantee that those will be wacky things!)

* Dragon boat figurine of the Seven Gods of Fortune (I wanted something with a dragon on it!), "Happy Boro" (Japanese cookie balls :P), and some Malaysian candy at Daiso (AKA "the $2 store of random crap which Nathan loves" :P) in Aberdeen Mall (she wanted me to get a birthday card about beer for Jon, but I'd already bought two of those :P)

* Selected Works of Nathaniel Hawthorne (The Scarlet Letter / The House of the Seven Gables / Twice-Told Tales) from Turnpage, the "3 books for $10" place at Aberdeen Mall (That was under the $3 for 10 price, which was surprising since some other comparable books were marked at $14.99! My mom was looking at the two wedding planner books that they had.. uh, no need to buy those even if Grandma asked whether Jon had a girlfriend yet! She also didn't know who Nathaniel Hawthorne was, nor had she heard of The Scarlet Letter... fair enough!)

* Bananas and white peaches (which she has now by mistake... I have her tea filters), plus some starfruit (NOT dragon fruit or durian.. she thinks that it'll be rude if Jon and Jeremy use everyone else's money for durian stuff that only they'll drink, but everyone else will have different shakes and such!) at the produce store in Aberdeen Mall (she told me that Jon's friend Matt Mark is staying over somewhere this weekend: I don't know about her idea of letting him stay at my place because I'm busy and such again with Awana!)

* A backscratcher (had one before that I lost somewhere in here), a 1L purple spray bottle (which I was looking for), a cushion with a cat on it / a Hello Kitty heart-shaped candy box (she bought them for me since they were cute), and a Selectum 200-page orange notebook that's not holographic or little (so I don't have to transfer my journal from one bag to the other... I don't know why I didn't think of this before) at Dollar Smart, AKA "the 99¢ store" even if most things in there aren't 99 cents!

* Urban Legends: 666 Absolutely True Stories That Happened to a Friend... of a Friend... of a Friend (by Thomas Craughwell... the last copy on the shelf, which was my trump card for not coming back next week) at Chapters [she also bought Cooking With Beer for Jon's birthday in November... Jon, don't let on that you know about it if you're reading... and DON'T TELL HER I POSTED IT, STEPH!]

Yes, of course I thanked her at least twice for all the stuff. If she tells you any differently, Steph, she's out of it! :P

I realized I forgot to ask for free bookmarks at Chapters, but I figured something out since I am resourceful. Last week, I used the back of these Stouffer's cardbox box coupons to record some stuff. (I definitely won't be using all the ones I've collected over the past few months!) So then I cut those coupons in half and then cut a bit off the ends: voilà! Instant bookmarks! :D


Funny stuff of the day:

* I saw a Brew-O-Poly game at Chapters (plus the newest Guinness / Ripley's books), which reminded me of Kiss-O-Poly. Of course, I decided that my mom HAD to see it... she had her expected reaction of "Oh my God... why would people make a Monopoly game about beer?! Euh..." *laugh*

* Mom was looking at these colorful hand-painted art tiles / coasters at the 99-cent store. There were two designs she liked: one with a teapot on it, and another one with a pot that said "Full of Beans." She turned to me and asked if "full of beans" was some sort of swearing! HAHAHAHAHAHA! Of course, she then asked me whether I was sure about that... there might be some things that I don't want her to know about, but I'm perfectly sure that "full of beans" doesn't have a hidden meaning... especially not one having to do with swearage! *laugh*