Korean food at Phil's, Pho, books, waking up, and such

Eric picked me up late since he forgot some chicken innards for Dallas at his house after he bought the limes from Safeway ("Holy crud! I forgot that!")... his mom (who got home last night from Cranbrook even though it seemed longer) thought he'd left already when Jon called, but that wasn't the case. He then started in on calling me "Pinky" (as in Pinky and the Brain) because I was wearing bright pink pants... not my favorite color, but I had no choice. (and no, it wasn't because I'm afraid of shaving my legs! :P) I noted that Fidela used to have a friend called Pinky: hey, I saw her yearbook! Then he educated me on some recycled jokes from that show, and made conversation by talking about CANADIAN IDOL and Ben Mulroney: yes, of course I know who he / his father are! We passed by Brentwood Mall, and I remarked that it had been some time since I was there, so Eric joked that I could get out of the car now and go there... I don't THINK so! (I remember a time when Eric was there with my family, and he pointed out some video game at EB about underwear raids or something like that... I don't think that one had very strong sales, haha!) When we got to Phil's neighborhood, I educated him on the "Phillip-bun" story (Emily / Melia / Steph got bored one day and noticed that an avenue leading to the house was named Phillips Ave., and then made up a song), then we passed by Jon and Jen walking to the house. Eric said that they could get some more exercise, haha. We got to the house and checked his brake lights, since the light was on in the dashboard. Jon wondered why the car was still running a minute later, so we told him.

Once inside the house, we talked to Phil / Dallas / Jeremy about the food. Jeremy got a sweet deal on a BIG package of noodles plus the veggies to go with it: $1 for the noodles and maybe $3 for the veggies and such! (Phil's huge wok was filled up pretty much to the brim... we saw this thing on the stove!) Apparently, the other Lesley was coming too... at first, I was like "Who invited HER?" haha. When she DID get here, I asked how she'd heard about it: Dylan had made an announcement at Fellowship. Then she offered her place anytime: maybe Pho? We had a great discussion about Pho Bich Nga (now renamed... we joked that too much mainstream popularity equals not so much cover for gangster activities!), what to do on my birthday ("we'll think of something," says Jon), Jeremy's organic Pho which cost $140, NoodlePie, online recipes, family recipes which involved taking a bit of an old soup batch to start a new soup batch (apparently how they do it in Pho restaurants), etc.

Jon had brought a book (INSIDE OUT) by Evelyn Lau (which I finished tonight), so we talked about her runaway life / how Jeremy should read that book / certain code for certain acts which Jeremy didn't understand at first / my reading a LOT and how Lesley admired that, etc. Good times, especially when Jon told us about the PNE collection job paying him to read and the job specifics! We also discussed ideas for time-lapse photography (which Darryl wants to do), aging, molding, Jon eating a clove of raw garlic to ward off an incipient cold (then having Jeremy take video of that AND the reaction of various people when he breathed in their faces about 40 minutes later), Phil's ant farm, formic acid, tunnels, the family wedding that Jon and I are going to tomorrow even though we've probably never met our cousin that's the groom OR know his English name (we know him as Bong :P), etc.

The double IPA Amnesiac beer (which came in a huge bottle) proved to be too bitter for Jen, so Jon made fun of her for that. Phil contributed some cranberry wine, which was pretty good. There was also some homebrew, malt beer from Alberta, V8, cooled barley tea, and water. There were big radish pieces, baby fish, bulgogi beef, rice, pork bone soup, and other things. We also discussed gays being REALLY good-looking, and ex-gays being really depressed: in the culture, you kinda have to be young and good-looking and such. Once you're not, we can see how you'd get depressed and need to see a psychiatrist! Then we talked about heretic Christianity in China and what Lesley's friends in China think about it. (that led to a spinoff discussion on Pentecostal churches and speaking in tongues)

After feeding his grandma some green mix of fish / meat / veggies, Phil showed us a lot of slideshow pictures of Texas / Grace / an Oregon road trip he took with Joe / food / San Antonio and Austin / the kids he worked with. The blender has to do the work of Grandma's teeth since she doesn't have any now, but she's still all right for 98 years old! Jeremy said that his grandma didn't even know she was dying: she lived on her own till the very end. She was in hospital for a few weeks, and was all excited to go home for her 90th birthday. One night, she asked a nurse for a glass of water. When the nurse returned, Jeremy's grandma had died! So yeah, not even in her sleep as Jon originally thought.

We talked about blogging: my blog contains a lot of text, but there ARE pictures! Lesley's almost ready for teaching school again, but needs to prepare a speech for all the incoming Grade 9s.. ah, good times. She left early with Jen, who needed a ride somewhere. Phil's parents got home shortly before that, and said hi to us before eating some of the stuff that was made. They complimented Dallas and Jeremy, and talked to us for a while. Good to hear that they're doing all right: Auntie Ying saw a testimony by some former high school classmate of hers by coincidence while working at a care home last week! She wants us to come over anytime: heh, I'm sure we'll hit Burnaby again when everyone else's place has been exhausted! (in Jeremy's words: "we'll go to North Van and to people who weren't invited to the dinner... hi, we're crashing your house!")

The guys played FIFA 2005 for a while, and Phil's grandma seemed to be having a good time watching them. She can't really say much, but at least she seemed reasonably alert. Of course she needs help sitting up in her wheelchair, but that's how it goes! Jeremy was falling asleep beside me on the couch, and figured that he'd need a hand up when it came time to leave... he didn't. When we paid Dallas $7 for the food (I also paid Jon for last week, and still owe Nathan $2... tomorrow!) and it was time to start leaving since it was after midnight and Eric had to drive everyone home, I tapped Jeremy on the shoulder. "Okay, wake up!" was all it took, heh.

On the way home, we discussed having a Bon's night: you'd need a litre of oil for all the grease! Maybe a "deep-fried food" night... cheesecake, fries, special lard at McDonalds (according to Dallas), and more! If we ever have a stinky food night (natto, durian cake, stinky tofu, etc.), it better not be in two weeks! Other than that, I'm cool with whatever they decide, heh. Dallas seemed impressed with the design / shape of the Brentwood Skytrain Station, too. (I passed by it in 2001 when it was being constructed!) Once we mentioned that it was past midnight, Dallas said "Holy crap!" (his host family's kinda strict that way) A few minutes after we dropped him off, he called Jon to say that they weren't mad. ("Who can stay mad at YOU for very long, Dallas? Just use those eyes that you used to seduce Citrus, haha! Oh yeah, you forgot your chicken innards, but don't worry: we'll sort it out with Phil later!") Then we discussed transportation plans for tomorrow, bottling beer, sneezing, sterile environments, a slapfest that Jon and I were having for a bit, our plans for Monday (Alistair and hockey for Eric, working for Jon, catching up on journal comments for me!), my dreams of the Matrix and Fidela, etc. Good times, and random laughter is always an excellent accompaniment, although the guys may disagree!