Two pints of Black Plague / Hard Rock Café Orange Freeze

Let's see how quick I can make this since I got home at 1:45 and need sleep. Maybe the 2 pints of Black Plague I had at the Whip will help in that regard...

I ended up calling Henry after all, who was fine with the alternative arrangement. When he got to my place, he wondered where Regent was relative to Knight Street... I had no idea. So we went on this lovely detour across the Oak Street Bridge, 41st Ave., and into Burnaby past Metrotown. We were past Sussex when Henry decided to just go to church since neither of us knew really where it was, and we were running really late. Fine by me, since it was about 4:15 when we got to church. (the time we're ideally supposed to be there is about 3:30-ish, but he was late picking me up) In retrospect, we should have called HDD (Hard Drive Dude), but I took care of that when we got to church: "Yeah, we're running REALLY late, so maybe we'll pick the thing up later!"

When we got there, it had just started to snow... William made a snowball a while later and said that there was a lot of snow on the ground. I kinda supervised Amos and Andrew throwing away a LOT of junk that had somehow made its way into one of the Awana boxes: spoons, balloons, paper, an adorable Mother's Day card done by a kid, coin rolls which were totally squished, plastic tarps, old Awana receipts from 2001 or 2002, garbage bags, etc. We encountered a problem with tangled-up toys from a stock box, so I got my dad on the case: he couldn't do it, so it was Auntie Monica's job. As I told Auntie Vivian later when it DID get all untangled, we're too lazy to have a lot of patience! Now I'm the keeper of the toy rat which made its debut at Timothy Camp this past summer: I amused myself by trying to convince Auntie Vivian that it was very cute, haha. I also have some stickers that we found in the wrapping: no idea whose they are, but those were the only good things not worth throwing out! Made a few phone calls, especially after I found out that Floodlight was cancelled: Steph wasn't staying around while Zion went on, and Jeremy was still game to meet me at the mall!

After Awana, I talked to some of the kids about keeping warm while playing in the snow. Then I had Henry drop me off at Kingsgate Mall after he received some coaching on how to get there from Melia and various people. Thank goodness I knew where THAT was, having bused past it a thousand times over the years. (I've been there a lot, too... mostly on Fridays) I saw Uncle Wayne in the mall, who works in the liquor store: we said hi to each other while I went to find the Shoppers Drug Mart so I could wait for Jeremy. He tapped me on the shoulder a while later: his purple coat really wasn't as warm as it looked, he told me. I showed him the rat, which he had seen somewhere before. I'm not sure whose it is: Quan's? Joey's? Meh, I'll figure it out later.

Waited for a reasonably empty Main bus while brushing snow off our coats: Jeremy thought he saw Dallas walking by, and thought it would be funny if it WAS Dallas. Later, we found out that it WAS since the buses were ridiculously full... whoa! We talked about some stuff, and then I saw Dennis at the bus stop. He was headed to the restaurant too, and then Jon called Jeremy to say that he was trying to get OUT of Richmond after teaching. (accidents everywhere, like on the Oak Street Bridge!) Eventually, we got there... taking the bus is NOT for non-skinny people, especially if you're blocking an intersection and people are wedged between newspaper boxes while trying to get on the bus! Sat by Jeremy on the bus while Dennis kept us from falling like that time I went for coffee / dinner with him in January. Good times for nostalgia and discussing thesis-writing from Fredericton. (he's going to New Zealand too!)

Was introduced to one of Jon's Regent friends (Matt from Michigan) when we got to the restaurant. The Ethiopian food was kinda like Peking Duck in that you ate a doughy flatbread and meats with your hands. Steph loved the garlicky hummus! Eric didn't show up since his mom was worried about the snowy weather... oh well. Talked to Ty and Dilys, whom I haven't seen in a LONG time. There are differences between Chinese-Chinese culture, and the one we grew up with and which our parents had to adapt with coming here. Lots of tradition, lots of "if you're not getting straight A's in school... we'll cut out church, so just go on Sundays!", and all that stuff. Dawn dropped by with her boyfriend Eni to give Jon a bottle of chocolate beer. I told Matt that our mom would be horrified, haha. Jon says that Mom always wants to take a sip of his beer, and always gives him this really horrible look afterwards as if it were really awful. (Jeremy backed that up, haha.. now I wanna see it for myself)

We had goat, lamb, and various other things before Steph had to leave early since she didn't REALLY want to leave our parents at church! (she left the house at 5:20 and didn't get to church till 6:40!) She asked if I wanted to go, but I decided to brave the snowy conditions: yay for snowplows and salt trucks! Jon was busy explaining everyone's connection to him: siblings, church, UBC, etc. We explained the dynamics of Vancouver snow to Matt, who said that Michigan just had heavy rain and such. Yeah, it's crazy when the city goes into meltdown because of a few inches of snow... but what can you do?

After figuring out the bill since it wasn't an individual bill, it was off to the Whip with some of us. We had pints and pitchers of the Black Plague: it's sorta like Guinness, but not as heavy. Jen had a smoke outside, then joined us later. We met Jon's friend Aaron, then his other friend H.Ross (who has a great Southern accent since he's from Missouri... he called me "ma'am," haha) showed up later after busing from Sasamat! (the other side of town) Good thing the Whip is only three blocks from Jeremy's place, so he could walk home from there after being kinda sober for a bit. We talked about the cheese platter that the chef whipped up after coming back in from being sent home early: Guinness cheese and such?! I split an orange slice with Jeremy while we talked about beer, brewing, malt, hops, Pho, gangsters (Vietnamese and Indo-Canadian family tradition!), dating, certain questions about Harmony which Jon didn't answer to our satisfaction (but he knows that he likes her artsy side!), and travel. Good times, indeed. Jon and I dropped Dennis off at the Skytrain station, and Dallas off at home before heading to Richmond. Sweet time out, even if I was gonna cancel coz of the snow. I handled it just fine... thank God for friends!


Hard Rock Café Orange Freeze

Here's a quick recipe for the dessert drink served at Hard Rock Cafés all over the world. With only a few ingredients, you can make this one super-quick in the blender. Great on a hot day. And it's easy to double or quadruple to serve more.

2 cups orange sherbet or sorbet
1 cup fresh squeezed orange juice
1/4 cup milk
1 sprig fresh spearmint

1. Put the sherbet, juice, and milk in a blender and blend for 15 seconds or just until the sherbet is smooth. You may have to stop the blender and stir the sherbet up a bit to help it combine.
2. Pour the orange freeze into a tall, chilled glass. Place a sprig of fresh spearmint in the top and serve immediately. Serves 1 as a dessert or beverage.