Harmony at the townhouse, holiday plans, anniversaries

Dinner at the townhouse went pretty well, I think. We drank some wine and raspberry dessert ice wine, had some beer, and joked that Mom's tolerance was getting better because Jon makes her drink all these beers that Jeremy makes / he brings home, haha. I wore that purple "WHATEVER" shirt - it wasn't that hard to find since it was on a chair in my living area. We talked about Steph's Stateside trip, Harmony's time in Toronto, her writing, the mutual friends she and Jon know now, it being worth staying up late to talk to Jon at night on the phone (of course it is), and our holiday plans. Eric is inviting everyone to watch the Canucks-Flames pay per view game at his place on the 26th... I'll certainly come! His mom Veronica is Super Hostess with lots of food, so we feel welcome. (even after an SLB night, she had snacks laid out for us!) Jon wants to eat at The Foundation restaurant on Friday since Eric can eat the veggie fare that they serve: always a good thing! He gave me and Steph our cards from Dylan: vintage VCEFC cards, haha. (he told me that he was following my example, hehe) Harmony's parents have their wedding anniversary on Christmas Eve (got married in San Francisco), and Pastor Fulton and Auntie Teresa have theirs on Boxing Day. They wanted us younger folk to come for dessert, so we'll see how things go after the hockey game that night!

Harmony's family knows Uncle Andre too (her mom is his sister!), so we discussed that for a while. We also talked about Erin's parents and certain traits they have when giving gifts. Tip: check to see how expired their stuff may be FIRST before consuming it! (vitamin pills and cookie tins, anyone?) Mom brought out the photo albums so Harmony could see our kiddy / baby pictures: Jon looked way different as a baby than now, but his friend Edwin still looks the same! Speaking of hockey, we watched a bunch of the Flames-Sharks game while making more holiday plans: Rachel and Steph are definitely cooking dinner for our families on New Year's Day, while Mom is inviting Dave's family (plus Tiffany) back to our place the night before. Somewhere in between, we might schedule an SLB outing too... looks to be BUSY! Harmony has stuff to do with her relatives, and actually is out right now with Jon at her place meeting some of them. Catching up is what you do, after all. ;)

Jon mixed some durian ice cream along with eggnog ice cream: that didn't smell great! Mom figured it was Dallas' fault that a durian was in the freezer since he brought it for Tomlin (Jon's Toronto nickname, after the Christian singer-songwriter Chris Tomlin) on Thanksgiving, and wanted Jon to store it at Jeremy's. Not a good idea in an apartment complex! Pretty good times, indeed. :D (Steph's just finished Powerpoint for tomorrow's packed service with baptism / baby dedication / usual stuff / LOTS of Scripture readings and songs, so I'm going now!) Harmony even gave our family some gifts, which was nice of her... I have mine, Steph has hers, and our parents and grandma have one too! Steph's reserving one of HER church cards for us both to sign to give to her when we see her next. (my idea) Grandma was impatient and wanted me to get my mittens and beret thing from my mom NOW when they were for Christmas, so I have them now. I probably won't have time to open them till Christmas Day, anyhow... Steph gave me a 100g Lindt snowman, too! Cute! I also got my sibs to sign the December birthday cards, and emailed that hilarious Richmond list out to most people. :D

Tomorrow: Greek lunch with Uncle Sam's mom, and dinner at Dave's.
Christmas: probably nothing.
Boxing Day: PPV hockey game at Eric's.
Friday: Bible Study outing night at The Foundation (?)
NYE: Dave's family and Tiffany over for dinner at the townhouse.
New Year's: Rachel and Steph cooking dinner for our families.


Today's Ex-Communicated Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Because the papacy often was treated as a political pawn, popes sometimes found themselves at the mercy of ruthless rulers. Consider poor John XVI, who thought he was the rightful pope, according to Roman nobles who pushed him onto the papal throne in 997. Unfortunately, another politically powerful pope, Gregory V, was alive elsewhere in Europe.

Gregory returned to Rome with an army and wasn't amused at finding a rival. He ordered John's eyes put out as well as his nose and ears sliced off. Then, to underline the point, John was excommunicated. Should he wish to object, his lips, teeth and tongue were removed next. And his mutilated body, still alive, was shipped to a monastery.

Culled from: Yahoo News
Generously submitted by: The Mourner

**********************************************************************

Youch!!! And I thought Pope Stephen (yesterday's MFDJ) was bad! There's a Catholic church down the street called St. Gregory. I'll have to think of this story every time I pass by the church. It's actually a pretty cool building - it has a crucified Jesus standing on a skull above the main entrance. Nice, eh?

St. Gregory archives

*******

Morbid Link Du Jour!

TABOO - HUMAN FLESH FOOD AND CULTURE

WHAT IS THE FLAVOR OF HUMAN FLESH?

Gary Allen

Presented at the Symposium Cultural and Historical Aspects of Foods
Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR.

Given the complexity of the tasting experience, how do we deal with describing the flavor of things we have not tasted, or indeed, things we have been forbidden to taste? Do you remember what you, as a child, imagined the flavor of coffee to be? What gustatory bliss was suggested by its delicious aroma? Or the smell of vanilla extract, that begged to be tasted, despite (or because of) the warnings from your mother? Can you recall thinking about the flavor of a food that you have only heard about, one that you have never seen or smelled? The brain immediately tries to provide the missing sensory details, drawing on all kinds of associations. The accuracy of the projected description of the flavor varies widely, depending on the breadth and sophistication of the taster's experience.

For more, go here.

Thanks to Bruce T. for the link.

*******

Morbid Quote Du Jour!

"The quickest way to a man's heart really is through his stomach, because then you don't have to chop through that pesky rib cage." - J. Jacques

Thanks to Paradox for the quote.

Missing the bus... I need Advil and eggnog ice cream!

I gotta get ready to leave for dinner with Harmony and the folks! Damn, I just missed the bus! Got back home to wait out the 20 minutes or so, and found an MSN buzz from my brother asking where I was. He says that he'll pick Harmony and me up after he takes a shower: good idea, and he seems to like the idea of eggnog ice cream! (at least as far as being devious goes...) Phone is on, since apparently he called at 5 and I didn't get the call because I wasn't checking the phone. Oh well... things work out again! Time for Advil, hehe.

Dangerously evil Santa, papal revenge, black handbags, holiday stress

HAHAHA. My Swedish friend Henrik just sent me two pictures of a rather dangerous-looking Santa with this disclaimer: "See pictures below. I strongly advise you to stay away from this character. Do not trust him. If he tries to hand you a package of some kind - run! It may be a bomb (or a shipment of drugs)! If you see him, call the police immediately. Do not try to capture him yourself - he is armed and dangerous! Merry Christmas! :)"






Today's Papal Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

One of the most bizarre events in the history of the papacy was the "cadaver synod" after the election in 896 of the insanely vengeful Pope Stephen VI. He harbored so much anger at a predecessor, Pope Formosus, that he had his corpse exhumed.

Formosus' decomposing body was dressed in papal vestments, propped in a throne, and put on trial for crimes against church law, including perjury. Unable to mount a defense, Formosus' ghastly remains were convicted. As punishment, the three fingers Formosus once used to bless the faithful were hacked from his right hand. His body was dragged away and thrown into the Tiber River.

Piling crime upon crime like a modern suspense novel, Stephen soon was thrown into prison himself. Formosus' friends crept into his cell and strangled him.

Culled from: Yahoo News
Generously submitted by: The Mourner

**********************************************************************

Ah, Stephen was just jealous that he didn't have a cool name like Formosus, and that his parents had cursed him with a 'ph' instead the more masculine 'v'!! Watch out for Stephens - they always have something to prove!

My favorite Stephen (and yours too, I trust?)

(Abundant apologies to Stephens everywhere...)

*******

Ghastly!

Courtesy of Rotten.com, here are some images of a mass cadaver exhumation in a third world country. Positively putrid!

Thanks to Dave for the link.

*******

"My Brush With Morbidity" by Joseph

"Several years ago, while I was still in high school, I had a job delivering newspapers. To do the job requires being up very early in the morning to prepare for the deliveries. While I was waiting for the papers to be delivered, I was told that there had been an accident about a half mile down the road. Being a morbid individual, I went to gawk at the accident.

"A woman on her way home had lost control of her car, crashing into the edge of a bridge railing. The car had caught fire, and she was completely incinerated. I looked into the driver's seat, where the completely charred remains of this lady lay against her steering wheel. She was so badly burned that she was almost unrecognizable as a human, and the top of her skull had broken through the skin.

"The officer conducting the investigation then located her purse in the back seat. It too was charred, but the contents remained relatively intact. There he pulled out her wallet, which contained a photograph of a very attractive woman who was now laying across her steering column, and her two children who were soon to find out that they were motherless.

"The appearance of the body was interesting, but when a face was attached, it became quite another matter. That occurred many years ago, but I still remember how I felt once I saw the photographs."


I checked blogs today too. Steph's found another person to be weird with, and she didn't think she'd be so excited to meet Harmony. Well, she seemed to be taking it in stride yesterday night... Steph also nicknamed her new laptop, and it's Lenny. (from Lenovo) Vivian's posted some hilarious Pearls Before Swine comic up where one of the characters is eating Santa's elf. o_O She also posted some "if I was..." survey which I may borrow later on, as is my wont. Dawn has an amusing story about trying to find a black Lacoste handbag for her mom in Hong Kong. She and her brother found it while using the good ol' distraction technique, so good! Also had pictures of suspended stars on a hotel, and Hong Kong reflections that she wrote while jet-lagged. Spoz has the usual weekender stuff up, too... last week before 2007, indeed. (why do I still read that stuff?! maybe for the hotel pictures...)

Your Holiday Stress Level is Moderate

The holidays sometimes stress you out, but mostly because they wear you down. Take it easy! You can have a fun holiday without running yourself ragged.

What's Your Holiday Stress Level?

Candle flame dream

I had a dream that my sister and I were going around a tourist town in the snowy winter. We passed a restaurant / pub with a sign which had been changed recently, and my sister said that she KNEW she should have taken a picture of it for me earlier! The sign used to commemorate the reward / prize that a set of kiddy triplets had received for going into the place seven times in a row without falling victim to the loose people of the day. From there, it was off to a huge multi-floor house with candelabras and floating lit candles everywhere. We could fly to get to wherever we wanted in the house.. very awesome! When we flew by candles, we could feel the flame / fire heat on ourselves too!

Nathan and Jeremy were over: they were wearing black / blue leather ensembles, and looked very nice! I remember being very pissed off that I couldn't go out somewhere with them, Jon, and Steph because I had my period. There was the bloody evidence when I went to investigate it in my grandma's washroom with the purple and gold-flecked toilet. My mom and grandma were really superstitious and ordered that I stay in, so I yelled at them for that a lot after everyone else had gone. The kiddies felt sorry for me and would have spirited me away if they could, but all they could do was try playing some relaxing piano music to cheer me up before leaving. They promised me goodies, but the dream unfortunately ended before I saw what those were!

No idea what brought that on, except my period HAS just started. Maybe my subconscious is also finally processing the candle heat from the Whip on Sunday? Who knows.

Finally meeting Harmony: Dragon Ball, family in-jokes, nicknames

When Sam picked me up, I thanked him for the ride and explained the circumstances to him... eight missed calls is a bit much, heh. We talked about our Christmas plans: spending time with friends and family is what it boils down to, for sure. He thought we were going to be late, but there wasn't as much traffic as he thought there'd be. I figured that everyone was at the mall, haha. In fact, we were so "not late" that we got to the church BEFORE a bunch of people he'd been with earlier! (Joey, Mike, Darren, etc.) Sam wondered how that worked since he actually had to pick me up and THEN go to the church instead of going straight there from Steveston like his friends did... I had NO idea!

Went downstairs to see everyone cleaning up from dinner, and encountered my brother doing a spinning chest chop. I told him that he had to be CAREFUL when doing that since he couldn't tell if anyone was coming into the basement. The reaction I got? "Oh, THERE you are. Go say hi to Harmony. She's in the green jacket, so you'll recognize her." Uh, sure... I told him that Sam had driven me, and went to say hi to my sister first and tell her the same thing. She informed me that the guys thought I was with her: of course not, since she'd come from work! Then she asked if I'd eaten yet (not really), and got me some food from the kitchen: I could eat together with Tony, who'd also come late. I went to introduce myself to Harmony briefly since I had to go eat. That was fine enough. :)

Uncle Patrick and Auntie Esther (Chris' parents) said hi to me, and Auntie Esther even gave me a Christmas gift... how nice! (Christmas card, two small handmade Christmas wreath ornaments, Christmas Digest, a plaque with Romans 8:39 on it, a little Head Bean stuffed animal, and a painted white tin) Dave came up to me and said hi... I'm so glad he's back from Toronto for now! Talked briefly to Tony, who's crashing his co-worker's Christmas party... apparently, a lot of people are doing the same thing! I asked what his last name was: when he said it, I thought it was the same as Billy's brother Tony, but he clarified the spelling when I asked. (it's Li, not Lee) Christon tried getting us to hurry up since the service was starting, but I joked to him that he shouldn't EVER bother me when I'm eating! I finished in good time, and went upstairs as everyone was settling down. I might have sat by Randal, Martin, Chung, and Frances... but really didn't want to bother them. (or that's what I tell myself, haha) Instead, I sat by my sister / Vivian / Harmony / Dave after I gave Mike his Christmas card. (he thanked me for it!) The service was pretty good, and Pastor Edward told us that Tim and Maxine had had another baby recently. (Vivian asked me when Maxine had been due: around New Year's) As it turned out, my original plan DID come to fruition, haha.

After service, I talked to Harmony a little more and learned that her birthday's in March. We discussed holiday plans, what happened to me earlier, whether I was going to the States tomorrow with Christon / Karen / Steph / Jason (no!), the dinner at her house yesterday (intimidating!), and various other things. She knows that Jon can get pretty hardcore with his chestchops and such, so that's good. Joe was back for the service, and talked to Vania for a while about school: of course we said hi to him! The "different woman" Teresa came over after a while and asked me if Harmony was my girlfriend! (uh, no...) I told her that she was my brother's girlfriend, so Teresa asked Harmony all the "interesting" questions we've gotten used to. Eric and I shared an odd look when she got to the "are you married?" question... no, she isn't, and neither was anyone else in the vicinity! (Pastor Edward had gone to eat by this time since he never really eats before sermons) Harmony thought she knew Cindy from somewhere, so they talked for a bit. (Becky? No!)

Christon told Karen that he'd pick her up at 6 AM tomorrow, and you should have seen her reaction! Man, that was priceless! Steph tried to check holiday hours for the outlets on someone's laptop, but couldn't. (later, they found out that it was 9 to 9... perfect if they get started at 7!) He's just kinda cautiously paranoid, which is understandable. Vania tried to get Vivian and Sheena to leave a few times, but they acted just like our parents and kept chatting. I gave Tony a Christmas card before he left with them - he thanked me for it, and said that was nice of me. Dylan hailed me as his queen... well, no. :P But he did tell me that he'd given my brother our three Christmas cards, so I should ask Jon for mine and Steph's. ("Just remind him, okay?") Sure thing... it was good that I'd written out his Christmas card earlier in the week, as I had it handy to give to him right then.

We finally left after we locked up the church and set the alarm after 10, while wondering if the cleaners would come tonight. Maybe they're on vacation, because they usually get to the church at 10 and we KNOW we're in their way because they start vacuuming and stuff while we loiter! (we didn't get any emergency phone calls, though!) Our destination was Dragon Ball, where Harmony had never been to before. We quickly introduced her to a LOT of family affection (jumps / verbal weirdness), in-jokes and nicknames: she'd met my dad earlier while he was doing stuff around his office, so she just has to meet my mom! Told her about Grandma's descriptions of Eric and Jeremy, discussed combinations of bubble tea (Steph paid for my blueberry-pudding... fine by me!), and looked at Steph's shiny new blue 4GB iPod. That came courtesy of Vivian S.'s family as a Christmas / Hanukkah gift, and cost $210. She's definitely not showing that to the parents anytime soon, since they'll lecture her about how she shouldn't have accepted it in the first place and Asian stuff like that. :P Her Hanukkah gift pales in comparison: a Homer Simpson Chia Pet?! She should have given them their gift first, haha... she asked Eric whether he knew that there was a Strong Bad Podcast, and he did. Only one thing is really not online already... the rest is all the emails and such. She won't subscribe to that one, then!

The Dragon Ball lady laughed at me when I ordered the blueberry-pudding combination, but it actually tasted pretty good! Jon says that I haven't gotten his level of "eh, whatever" yet... suppose so! There were bells playing cheesy tunes, and the cool fiberoptic Santa from last week! Steph said that Daniel and Nathan could be her wedding DJs since they like old 80s love songs: Michelle definitely doesn't, haha. Eric told Jon that some lady behind me was using a "forbidden substance," and he meant Purell. Hey, he's lucky I didn't use it tonight! For some reason, the conversation turned to toilet-related issues and the toilet book that my sister wants to get for me. Then Eric brought up the email I'd sent with the Top 10 dirtiest toilets, so Steph told us a story about squat toilets in China when she was there in 1997. Let's just say I wouldn't want to eat around flies, poop, and disgusting stuff like a worker did!

Eric brought out a pink coupon deal from Kingspark Seafood House, and asked if we could translate the Chinese on it.. no! (we wondered why he had stuff with Chinese on it in his wallet, haha) Just show it to our parents, and they'll be able to do it for him! (the deal ends on January 31, so he better do it soon!) Then Steph brought up someone in her company not liking dim sum because it's too "slithery"... shrimp dumplings aren't, but maybe some other things are. She and her other co-workers are trying to get him to try bubble tea, and get this reaction: "Is that the drink you bring into the office sometimes? What goes up the straw?!" From that conversation, we also learned that Harmony doesn't like chicken feet... I do, however! She also got to see our family's attitude toward gift-giving in person when Jon asked Steph if she was getting him Christmas stuff: nope!

Enrico hasn't really responded to my hints that he should come over and just open my computer case for me, but maybe soon. He says I should do it the Zoolander way, and just smash it on the ground... I don't THINK so! Says I shouldn't be using my computer if it's overheated / needing a fan, but what can I do? On the way home, I was told that I should wear my purple WHATEVER shirt to the dinner tomorrow... haha, if I can find it! Eric thinks I should search for it the minute I get home, but I've been on here, so hahaha. :P Steph and Jon squished each other on the way home, and then Jon decided to squish Harmony... she doesn't quite have the frame that our family does, and Eric thought she was crying at one point! Jon said that we should call Eunice one of these days and go to Shanghai Wind with her. Steph asked Harmony if she'd experienced that restaurant, and she said no. We told her about the experience and said that we had to take her there before she leaves on the 3rd! Too bad the Guru won't be there, as Nathan leaves Hong Kong on either the 3rd or 6th depending on flight availability! It won't be the same...

Kellogg's Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats / Drag Queen Name

Kellogg's Peanut Butter Chocolate Rice Krispies Treats

When Kellogg's reacted to spectacular sales of its Rice Krispies Treats with two new varieties of the popular and addictive snack, TSR got on the case. It seems we've all tasted the original Rice Krispies Treats. The homemade version is the next homework assignment in Cooking 101, after learning how to boil water. And the Kellogg's store-bought packaged version has been available to the lazier of us for several years now. This variety, however, puts that whole Reese's "You got your peanut butter in my chocolate" thing to work. The crunchy bar has just a touch of nutty essence that builds nicely on the other familiar flavors.

But don't be fooled by that dark "chocolatey" coating on top. It's not actually chocolate, but rather a melt-resistant custom blend of cocoa and uh, stuff, that tastes a lot like chocolate; and that happens to work better for the product from a manufacturing, shipping, and shelf-life aspect. But here in kitchen cloning land, we don't have to worry about those things. So get ready to walk on the wild side, people, as we step up to the microwave and melt some real chocolate chips for topping our cinch of a crunchy clone.

1 tablespoon margarine
3 tablespoons peanut butter
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
6 cups Rice Krispies cereal
1 12-ounce bag milk chocolate chips
non-stick cooking spray

1. Combine margarine, peanut butter, and salt in a large saucepan over low heat.
2. When peanut butter and margarine have melted, add marshmallows and vanilla and stir until marshmallows have melted. Remove from heat.
3. Add Rice Krispies and stir until cereal is well coated with the melted marshmallow mixture.
4. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with a light coating of non-stick cooking spray. Pour the Rice Krispies mixture into the dish and, using wax paper or lightly greased hands, press down until it's flat in the dish. Cool.
5. Prepare the topping by pouring the chocolate chips into a glass dish. Microwave for 2 minutes on 50 percent power. Stir gently. Microwave for an additional minute on 50 percent power. Stir gently once more until smooth. If the mixture hasn't completely melted, zap it again for another 30 seconds.
6. Use a spatula to spread a thin layer of chocolate over the top of the Rice Krispies mixture. Cool at room temperature (at least 72 degrees), or chill until firm. Slice into 16 bars. Makes 16 bars.

Your Drag Queen Name Is:

Kristy Kreme

Drag Queen Name Generator

IQ Test / Red cabbage / Buying up last-minute stuff / Sam saves the night!

IQ Test... how smart are YOU? I got a 24 on this one, making me 34.3% smarter than average... whee!

Ah, no WONDER Jeremy knows how to make red cabbage and has it at big family dinners! I should have known that it's a German tradition, haha. When he gets back, maybe I'll ask him if he has sausage and schnitzel there, too. (or not... yay for stereotyping! :P)

Saw Chris Noble at the bus stop: I used to live with him, so we chatted for a bit. Went to Shoppers to mail stuff, and found that the post office didn't have any Christmas postcards. Bought 100 Christmas cards at a good price since I was there anyhow. Wasted time at the liquor store since they didn't have any more chocolate beer, and I didn't have my ID anyhow so I couldn't purchase stuff from there. I went to Carlton's Cards at the mall, and I should have known that they didn't have any more 30-packs of foil Christmas cards... should have bought them when I saw 'em! (30 foil ones for eight dollars?!) Then I went to Save-On Foods to buy butter tart and eggnog ice creams (both of which seem to be tasty), as well as some greeting cards... was gonna get postcards, but they didn't seem to have 'em. (should have got them at Shoppers!)

After that, I went home to find eight missed calls. Phoned Eric's cell to see what was up: Jon answered, and essentially it was a case of miscommunication since things got messed up. (he's supposed to be there by 6, but he didn't say that to ME... although I think the dinner started at 6:30) He said I was welcome to show up and hang out at the celebration (I HOPE so!), and then made various insinuations about how I'd just stay home and chat with LJ / online friends who were likely having turkey dinners at that moment. Uh, shut up! I thought about it afterwards, and figured that I'd bus out if I had to... then I got the idea to call Sam and see what HE was up to. He's in Steveston, but can pick me up between 6:45 and 7. Saved by my head, once again! :P

Oh no, here's an email from Randal... do I wanna know what it says? Ah, it's his turn to apologize to me and Danielle... he was joking, except for the last part of the message. That's why they invented emoticons, kiddies! ;) Dunno why he doesn't use them, but whatever. Things are fine now, haha. "No more spam" is right! Time to take a much-needed shower and then leave!

You Are Eggnog

Rich, sweet, and probably a little drunk. Everyone who knows you tends to get a little fatter.

What Holiday Food Are You?

Drafts, seasonal ice cream, Sarah Rowlett, irreverent card I got today

Note to self: Drafts are an excellent way to keep the flow of entries coming. ;)

Sometime in the next few hours, I should go out and get some butter tart / eggnog ice cream. Dunno why I didn't do so on Wednesday when I was actually at the store... oh yeah, some worker was blocking the section where those were, and couldn't move. While I'm out, I should mail some last-minute stuff and my application. It's probably not going to get there till after Christmas, but whatever. I'm going to mail Sarah Rowlett a Christmas card and a Vancouver postcard now that I have her address from her graduation, and pick up a birthday card (March 22) / wedding card (April 14) for her to be mailed sometime in February. (I should remember, if I stash them in my cards in the right place...) I also need to pick up an April birthday card, too... and get certain people to sign it! (and they should sign the December birthday cards I currently have now, too!) Hopefully I'll get home in time to be picked up for dinner tonight, hahaha.

Speaking of mail and such, I got the good kind today! Kadri (bad_habit) sent me a postcard from Talinn, her hometown. The Holy Ghost church, expensive cafés, garlic restaurants (which I suspect my mom would like), and more! Savina (bodha) sent me a postcard of the Palace Schönbrunn near her home in Vienna, Austria... great for Christmas spirit if you avoid the drunks, haha. Janina (mrshannibal) sent me a Christmas card, an Oakland postcard, and some winter stickers which all got used up on card corners already. Her son Billy (fdolarhyde13) sent me a card where he managed to insert himself (I think? better go look at the picture posts) into the Nativity scene and make it totally irreverent. Ah, the miracles of Photoshop! He made reference to "the great white north" in his message. *looks out window* Nope, not today... maybe a month ago! Hahaha. Thanks, guys!

Being emo / Keyboard troubles / Kellogg's Cocoa Rice Krispies Treats

Earlier tonight, I was in an emo mood because I was under the impression that I was the last person from the family to meet Harmony. I felt rather unimportant and such, and was sad. Then my keyboard decided not to work for a while after I fixed the "no sound" problem by plugging in something that had come unplugged from the back of the computer. (possibly while I'd been messing around with trying to open the computer case recently, which didn't work) There were beeping noises while I moved the keyboard around to free wires from being too squished, but I didn't know what had caused them. Very frustrating! Even after a few restarts, the keyboard didn't work. I was about to just give up for the night and ask Eric to do something about it tomorrow, but then I pushed some black things in the back of the computer... to my surprise / relief, the keyboard actually worked after that! :D

Then I found out that I wasn't the last person from my family to meet Harmony, as my parents haven't met her either. Upon checking my email, my sister said that Harmony was coming tomorrow to the dinner or Christmas service, so I guess it's okay. I don't get to meet her in a non-huge group setting, but I do get to meet her before my parents do! Apparently, I'm invited for dinner on Saturday, which will be fine enough. The black Accord is at Uncle William's again... yay for car troubles not permitting us to see James Bond. :P (we're doing the same thing on Christmas week Sunday that we did last year: lunch with Uncle Sam's mom at the same place, and dinner at Auntie Grace's with Dave!)

So now I'm much relieved, which is a good thing. Corey wasn't much help since he was busy blowing up robots in Front Mission 3, and neither was TQC. At least I got some tagging work done: 46 entries in one day (1.28.06) on RQ?! (I deleted a couple since they had no answers) That's two or three days' worth, so I think I'm covered for today!


Kellogg's Cocoa Rice Krispies Treats

It's the Rice Krispies Treat for all you chocolate lovers. By simply replacing regular Rice Krispies with Kellogg's Cocoa Krispies, then adding a bit of cocoa to the recipe, we can clone the exact flavor of the product you otherwise have to buy in boxes in the grocery store. This recipe makes 16 of the crunchy brown bars, or the equivalent of two boxes of the real thing.

3 tablespoons margarine
1/4 teaspoon salt
5 cups miniature marshmallows
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
4 teaspoons cocoa
6 cups Cocoa Krispies cereal
non-stick cooking spray

1. Combine margarine and salt in a large saucepan over low heat.
2. When margarine has melted, add marshmallows and vanilla and stir until marshmallows have melted. Add cocoa and stir well. Remove from heat.
3. Add Cocoa Krispies and stir until the cereal is well coated with the melted marshmallow mixture.
4. Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking dish with a light coating of non-stick cooking spray. Pour the mixture into the dish and, using wax paper or lightly greased hands, press down until it's flat in the dish. Cool. Slice into 16 bars. Makes 16 bars.

Being happy about your own execution / embalming textbook / conjoined twins joke

Today's Happy Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Sylvester Adams was convicted of kidnapping and strangling a 16-year-old boy and was executed by lethal injection on August 18, 1995 in Columbia, South Carolina. His last words were positively giddy: "All you people out there - ha ha ha ha! I'm the happiest man in the world! I'm not afraid to die! I'm not crazy! I'm going to be reaching that white house tonight!"

Culled from: Last Suppers: Famous Final Meals From Death Row

**********************************************************************

I might also mention that Sylvester Adams was mildly mentally retarded, one of 35 developmentally disabled inmates executed in the U.S. since 1976.

*******

Wretched Recommendations!

Lissa has a book recommendation for us:

Embalming: History, Theory, and Practice by Robert G. Mayer

"This is an actual TEXTBOOK! I can tell you, I worked at a funeral home and enjoyed the privilege of hanging out in the 'morgue' with the embalmer as he worked. This book is chock full of wonderfully disgusting and interesting things I never saw, knew, or heard of! The only downside is that the pictures are all black and white, and there are some shots of body cavities and viscera that would be far less obscure had they been in color. Otherwise, this book is amazing! Plus, as in any textbook, at the end of each chapter, there are a list of 'Topics for Discussion.' I think these would be really great if you were lolling around, having some drinks, and talking about things with friends. Packing the anus and vagina with cotton soaked in arterial fluid to prevent purge after aspiration of the body? Who would have guessed? This one is worth hunting down. In fact, I'd like to own a copy though I imagine its cost would be a fairly painful nip in the wallet."

*******

Morbid Mirth Du Jour!

Q: Why did the conjoined twins move to England?

.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.

A: So the other one could drive.

Thanks to Rob for this one.

Photo post: SLB Outing, 05.24.06 (Wednesday)

Yeah, this whole post is seven months late... blame my sister for that one! :P

These pictures are from when a whole bunch of us went out to Shanghai Wind for siu long bao and SMASHED the old record for steamers consumed with 21 of them that night! Steph had to introduce Angela and Ceci to this great Richmond landmark! :D (note to the literal-minded: we did NOT eat the steamers, just the SLB goodness inside :P)

Looking at these pictures and videos, I'm impressed all over again, haha.

Video: My partaking in SLB
Video: Steph eating SLB... yummy!
Video: Nathan and a tower of nine steamers

Danielle, Brian, and Nathan:




Shanghai Wind's kitchen:




Steph, Vivian S., Ceci, and Angela:




Jeremy, Eric, and me:




White Man Eric checking on SLB Guru Nathan:




Guru Nathan training rookie Brian:




Steph and me being crazy sisters:




Sisters Ceci and Angela:




Ceci and Angela sharing a "D'oh!" moment:




Mmm, yummy pork...




Jeremy got so hot, he had to go outside and fan himself!




Life as it should be:




Eat your heart out!




Happy and full:




We're still thin after 21 steamers... really!




Happy happy, joy joy!




Danielle and Steph looking disgusted:

You Know You're From Richmond When...

I'm not going over to spend time with my grandma, at least not right now. She doesn't like the rain since it messes with her hair, so whatever. I finally got my bus pass application in the mail, so filled it out. I'll mail it either today or tomorrow: haven't figured out when yet!

There have been some more emails about the dating joke. Danielle found Randal's email amusing and said it was well played, so she apologized to her good friends Jon and Dallas. I jumped in to playfully scold her for ruining it after I told him it was a joke. (we shouldn't have to apologize for them, eh?) Then Jesse said that every joke had a kernel of truth in it. Not necessarily, so I told him that none of us wanted either Jon or Dallas that way if THAT was what he was talking about. I swear, I should just quit associating with people who take obvious jokes too damn seriously! (but that would kill Enrico's buzz, haha... oh well :P)

Here's a hilarious list I found about Richmond... enjoy! Heh, I might email this out to the Richmondites I know later on... :D

You Know You're From Richmond When...

- There are more places to buy bubble tea than a cup of coffee.

- People ask if you speak Chinese.

- There are more sushi places than McDonalds restaurants.

- You know No. 3 Road as the "Ho Chi Minh Trail."

- You know that Steveston Highway has only half the speed limit of a real highway.

- You see one white person for every 20 non-white people.

- There is absolutely nothing to do unless you want to shop at a mall where no signs are in English.

- You can be entertained for hours sitting in a parking lot and counting the accidents.

- You avoid No. 4 Road because it's too bumpy and it will ruin your car.

- You know someone that knows someone you know, that knows someone else you know, that knows you.

- You're surprised when your car starts to roll faster when going down a hill because you never really go down one.

- Tim Horton's on No. 3 Rd. and Cambie has Chinese translations on the menu board.

- When you tell people you are from Richmond and they look at you with a confused look and say, "... But you are white?"

- There's no point checking Translink's website: Richmond buses come whenever the heck they want.

- You call your hometown "Ditchmond," yet jump to defend it whenever Vancouver or Burnaby kids start talking sh*t.

- You know that Michael J. Fox and Ryan Reynolds are both from Richmond, and that Ryan Reynolds attended Kwantlen for a bit. Actually, maybe you didn't - but hey, now you know.

- You actually get offended by the truly terrible quality of sushi found in any other city in BC, Canada, and North America.

- You've lived in Richmond most of your life, but you can count the number of times you've gone to Lansdowne Mall with your fingers.

- You've seriously considered ticking the "member of a visible minority" box on numerous application forms, even though you're a Caucasian male.

- Even though there are three local ski mountains, you only ever go to one, because last time you went to the second, it sucked... and you never even considered going to the third, ever.

- Even though you live in Canada, the so-called "Land of ice and snow," you helplessly acknowledge that 10 centimetres of snow will effectively shut down Vancouver for a week.

- We have no basements and understand the concept of "play rooms or games rooms."

- You had a picture taken with an Asian Santa at Richmond Centre.

- You know what a screamer is.

- French is no longer considered a second language, more like a 4th or 5th.

- You have an earthquake buddy in Vancouver because you need a place to stay when the Big One hits and sinks Richmond like the Titanic.

- Your biggest tourist attraction, Entertainment Boulevard, is in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by farms.

- You know you can find every single religion represented on No. 5 Road.

- You know what the dyke is - and it's not a derogatory term.

- You know that Queensborough is not part of Richmond - neither is Delta / Tsawwassen.

- You know a drug dealer or two.

- When your parents ask you what you want for dinner, you say you feel like eating "white" food.

- You've eaten at Danny's - even though it's a convenience store.

- When you've been stuck in traffic for a couple of hours because there was ANOTHER accident in the tunnel.

- You have full-serve gas stations.

- During Christmas, you drive along Blundell Rd. just to see the house with the lights. (You all know which house I'm talking about!)

- You have gone to the Nature Park thinking it would be a fun time, and left really disappointed because you didn't see anything larger than a duck.

- You've been stuck behind a tractor on a one-way street.

- It takes you half an hour to drive the No. 3 Road stretch no matter what direction or time of day.

- You know what was there before the giant River Rock Casino was built.

- You know where the only drive-thru Starbucks is.

- The posted speed limit is 50 but the Mercedes beside you is doing 80 and you speed up because you know the cops will ticket him before he tickets your "piece of sh*t mobile."

- You know the things you see in the Fast and The Furious really happen, and you know someone who supes up their car to street race. Then you laugh at them.

- You have a pitiful excuse for a beach.

- You or someone you know works / has worked at Silvercity Riverport.

- You've had an elementary school sub called Mr. Richmond.

- You're confused when first hearing the concept of filling up your own gas at a self-serve gas station.

You Are a Practical Gift Giver

Your gifts are useful, appropriate, and custom-tailored to each person. In your opinion, the best gifts are gifts that someone will actually use. Your gifts may not be the most glamourous, but they are always appreciated.

What Kind of Gift Giver Are You?

James Bond / nudity / KC Masterpiece's Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie

Steph emailed me to see if I'd like to watch the new James Bond movie. I don't know at this point, actually. Corey says that there is a nude torture scene in the movie, so he thinks I'd like to see it because of that... I don't THINK so! "Apparently he has a nude torture scene, so sure, you'll love it. The new James Bond is apparently gay though, so you can't go out with him. I just watched a Bond movie last night :P I've been watching them all in order, starting quite a while ago. I've never seen a full Bond movie other than one of the newer ones before starting this. :P Next up is Moonraker, which is apparently one of the worst."

My mom thought of taking Grandma to see it ("she'll understand the action!")... so with this new information, I don't think it would be appropriate for her to see! I can just imagine... NO, JUST NO! Speaking of nude, I've just encountered naked people on the latest posts page again. o_O Time to stop looking at it for now... not that I'm a major prude, but some things should really not be posted on the Internet! (I realize I have artsy friends, and that's fine if it's their own personal "body art." but not in public entries for all the world to see!)


KC Masterpiece's Chocolate Peanut Butter Ice Cream Pie

Serves 12

Ingredients
15 chocolate sandwich cookies
1/2 cup dry roasted peanuts
vegetable cooking spray
4 tablespoons butter or margarine
3 quarts chocolate ice cream
(7) 1.8 ounce packages milk chocolate covered peanut butter cups
(1) 8 ounce jar milk chocolate fudge topping
1/4 cup strong brewed coffee
2 tablespoons coffee flavored liqueur

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. In a food processor or blender, blend chocolate sandwich cookies and peanuts until finely chopped. Spray 9-inch pie plate with vegetable cooking spray. Reserve 1 tablespoon cookie mixture for garnish. In pie plate, mix butter or margarine and remaining cookie mixture by hand. Press mixture onto bottom and up side of pie plate. Bake 8 minutes. Cool crust completely on wire rack.

Meanwhile, place chocolate ice cream in refrigerator about 40 minutes to soften slightly. Coarsely chop milk chocolate covered peanut butter cups. In a large bowl, mix softened ice cream with chopped peanut butter cups. Spoon ice cream mixture into cooled cookie crust. Sprinkle reserved crumb mixture on top. Freeze until firm, at least 6 hours or overnight. To serve, let pie stand at room temperature 15 minutes for easier slicing. Meanwhile, in a 1-quart saucepan over low heat, heat milk chocolate fudge topping until hot; stir in coffee and liqueur until blended. Cut pie into wedges and serve with warm fudge sauce.

Weird Flash animation, taking jokes too seriously, cyber-weapons, being dragged under a car, typhoid

This Flash animation is weird, but interesting!

Hmm. I just got some more email about Jon and Dallas' skating "date" (hehe) even though it was yesterday! Jon says that's the last time he invites Danielle out to something (haha) and provides dinner directions, Joey had something to do, and Randal tried to provide a lesson out of Steph / Danielle's joking that Jon and Dallas are dating! He thinks they have a sense of subconscious jealousy, and perhaps they're secretly intimidated by Jon's charisma and personal magnetism. ("When a man is the subject of a woman's sexually-charged allusions, it means that she has noticed him - and cannot take her eyes away." Hahahaha, oh dear...)

Dude, it was a JOKE of long-standing duration! Sure, we know that it's possible for two men to have a close and brotherly friendship (but not a romantic one necessarily)... but it was a joke, especially as Jon has a girlfriend AND Danielle has a boyfriend! I don't know about Dallas' romantic life, nor would I care to speculate about it. (not that I don't care about Dallas in a friendly way, but yeah...) Time for some private email, methinks... Steph's seen it and thought it was a bit weird but amusing. (she likes him even more now!) So do I... we've always joked about such things! I remember when Sean and Citrus would always pretend they were gay, just to freak Adela and Danielle out... that kind of joke has always been well-established around here, and it's high time SOMEONE should learn about that, haha.

Apparently, Jon's going to Harmony's house for dinner tomorrow... big step there! My Christmas Eve will be full of food... Uncle Sam's mom is taking us out for lunch, and then there's dinner at Dave's place. His mom always makes a lot of food, and I'm not kidding! For lunch one time, we had like eight dishes AND desserts! As for dinner, think twice the amount of food... and no, it doesn't have to be a special occasion!


Today's Virtual Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

A Shanghai online game player stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber-sword, creating a dilemma in China where no law exists for the ownership of virtual weapons. Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his "dragon saber," used in the popular online game Legend of Mir 3. Legend of Mir 3 features heroes and villains, sorcerers and warriors, many of whom wield enormous swords. Qiu and a friend jointly won their weapon last February, and lent it to Zhu who then sold it for 7,200 yuan (US$870). Qui went to the police to report the "theft," but was told the weapon was not real property protected by law. "Zhu promised to hand over the cash, but an angry Qiu lost patience and attacked Zhu at his home, stabbing him in the left chest with great force and killing him," the court was told.

Culled from: Reuters
Generously submitted by: Bruce Townley

**********************************************************************

At first, I thought that it was a virtual stabbing!

*******

Ghastly!

A man from Plattekloof, Cape Town, was assaulted in front of a restaurant in Brackendowns in Alberton, shortly after the Cheetahs beat the Blue Bulls in the Currie Cup final. Then, the unconscious man was reversed over by a car which raced away from the restaurant. Rozier van Blerk, 29, became entangled in the underbody of the car, which dragged him behind it for about 600m before the driver hit a speed bump and stopped the car near a petrol station.

The man was horribly injured, and eventually succumbed to his injuries:

"He had undergone eight operations since being admitted to hospital about six weeks ago. Most of them were to clean his wounds and do reconstructive surgery," said Bean.

Van Blerk's back was stripped of all skin and muscle. One of his lungs was ripped open and pieces of one of his kidneys and his liver had been scraped away.

His backbone was visible and his ribs were scraped almost clean. His right elbow was also injured.

Van Blerk's parents, Pieter and Louwrita van Blerk, remained at his bedside during his final hours and were too emotional to talk to the media.

Ludi Brik, spokesperson for the family, said Van Blerk had reacted when his mother talked to him the day before he died.

Birk said on Wednesday: "When she asked him to stick out his tongue or move his head, he did so."

A tragic story, indeed. But the truly ghastly part?

Pictures of the doomed dragged man!! They are truly wince-inducing!!

Dragged 1
Dragged 2
Dragged 3
Dragged 4
Dragged 5
Dragged 6

Thanks to Rene for the images and link.

*******

Wretched Recommendations!

Lissa has a book recommendation for us:

Typhoid Mary: Captive to the Public's Health by Judith Walzer Leavitt

"The cover art will grab you immediately as it is a drawing of a woman cook throwing tiny skulls into a frying pan as though they were eggs. Obviously, this is the true story of poor Mary Mallon who was found to be the carrier of typhoid who infected 22 persons while working as a cook in various upper-class homes in New York, Long Island and the Jersey shore. At 37, she was taken into custody and forced to live out her remaining 26 years in isolation on a small island of New York. The book is written in several perspectives so that a full, socially relevant picture is given of Mary and also everything surrounding her life and the disease she spread. Hopefully, being printed in 1996, it is still in print so that others may get it. How often does one get such an account of someone who did so much damage, intentional or not?"

Firsts and lasts / Color surveys

Just called my grandma, to alert her that I may be spending time with her tomorrow. Heh. :D

Firsts and lasts survey from Candy, via Myspace bulletin:

FIRST REAL BEST FRIEND: Brandy Whibbs.
FIRST SCHOOL: Little Friends Preschool.
FIRST CELL PHONE: Non-existent.
FIRST FUNERAL: Maybe Megan and Wayland's grandpa.
FIRST PET: Miscellaneous fish that we flushed down the toilet when they died.
FIRST BIG TRIP: Went on some bus tour with my parents when I was a baby... don't remember where to, though!
FIRST FIGHT: LONG time ago... maybe with some stupid Gr. 1 kid who called me handicapped.
FIRST CELEBRITY CRUSH: Not sure... not much for those!
FIRST TIME OUT OF THE COUNTRY?: Those times as a kid when my parents would take us to Bellingham.
FIRST JOB: Newspaper route.
FIRST MYSPACE FRIEND: Amy. (reminds me, I should comment-spam her journal again one of these days...)

EVERYONE HAS THEIR LASTS

LAST PERSON YOU HUGGED: Uncle Peter.
LAST CAR RIDE: Alan, Liz, and Jon dropped me off on Sunday night.
LAST TIME YOU CRIED?: Couple weeks ago.
LAST MOVIE YOU WATCHED: Happy Feet.
LAST FOOD YOU ATE: Crackers.
LAST ITEM BOUGHT: All the Christmas-related stuff from the store today.
LAST SHIRT WORN: A blue Winnie the Pooh shirt with Piglet and Eeyore too!
LAST PHONE CALL: Grandma.
LAST TEXT MESSAGE: N/A.
LAST THING YOU TOUCHED: The computer keyboard / mouse.
LAST FUNERAL: Daniel and Nathan's mom, in July 2005.
LAST TIME AT THE MALL: A couple weeks ago.
LAST TIME YOU WERE EXCITED FOR SOMETHING: The SLB night on Sunday!
LAST PERSON YOU SAW: The clerk at Save-On.
LAST THING YOU DRANK: Milk.
LAST PERSON THAT BROKE YOUR HEART: Not saying. :P
LAST TIME YOU WERE REALLY HONESTLY HAPPY?: Maybe Sunday?


Colors survey, from Amy via Myspace bulletin:

What color are you???

Orange: Taken and happy.
Blue: Taken and dedicated.
Green: Taken and breaking up.
Red: Single & really like someone.
Purple: Heartbroken.
Black: Taken and cheating on someone.
White: Single and not loving it, and not really hating it.
Yellow: Single and loving it.
Off-White: I think this is retarded.
Pink: Single and hating it.
Tan: I rape people.
Baby Blue: Single, okay with it, and confused about someone.
Gray: I am in intense training to be a ghostbuster.
Teal: I am a PIRATE.

Hmm... maybe baby blue...

Mandarin orange cheesecake and peppermint ice cream / Almond Roca!

I buy too much Christmas-related stuff for myself and some other people. Today, I bought some mandarin orange cheesecake... I hope Saxby is better than Western Family, otherwise I'm going to be VERY disappointed! *tries some of the cake* Ah, much better! Also got some limited-edition Candy Cane Roca (Almond Roca with peppermint candy inside), shortbread, gingerbread men, jalapeno Pringles, Island Farms peppermint ice cream, and some mini chocolate Santas for the kids. Doesn't even count the chocolate-covered peanut brittle tubes of M&Ms, and the extra four or five gingerbread men that I was going to buy, either!

When I got home, I paid my bills like a responsible adult. This way, I know exactly how much money I'll have to work with for the month. Someone remind me NEVER to buy the Chinese brand (Sunrise) of soya milk AGAIN! It just kinda clumped together, well before the Dec. 30 expiry date! I know this because I was thirsty when I got home, and tried to drink some. Bleh!

Corey says he's having a white Christmas in Colorado, since he can almost see his car out there under all the snow. Speaking of snow, I saw a bit of grey melted snow in the parking lot of the strip mall today.. it's STILL there after a month! Then Corey wanted to know if I ate it since it wasn't yellow, and whether I eat dark brown snow... *rolleyes*

I called the bus pass program, and apparently didn't explain myself very well on the phone. Hate when that happens, especially if I have it planned out in my head! At least the application's been printed out and is now on its way, since they received my payment earlier. Files are a good thing, haha. Then I cancelled my newspaper subscription.. there used to be a time when I loved reading it (and I still do), but it's gotten too expensive for a year for me. Yay for more money in my account!

Who do I know with a boyfriend named Dave?! Beats me at this foggy hour...

Note: LJ Hanukkah blogquiz, by Sabrina.

This is an example of how my brain works when I just get up: I'm looking at my real MSN list, and see "Aerobicide." So I think, "Who's that?" and hover my mouse over it... ah, Kody! Good guy, who used to be my adopted son or something similar. Then I see Dave's MSN name... hey, his girlfriend Tiffany's coming to Vancouver! "It'll be good to meet her if I do!" After that, I switch to Trillian and see "I love my Dave." Try as I might, I can't think of anyone I know with a boyfriend named Dave, and I know for certain that Tiff is NOT on my MSN list. Oh well, maybe that mystery will be solved later! I think Jeremy must be right when he says that when you first get up, you might as well be drunk for the first 20 minutes or so because your brain's not working right! :P (foggy brain, for sure!)

A certain thing STILL isn't here yet! What the heck?! No, I'm not talking about my period, so no smart remarks that way. :P I swear, I'll actually have to CALL these people and find out what the cause of their incompetency is! Grr! On another note, I got a Christmas card from Nyssa (giggles_19)... thanks! Now, it's time to get ready to leave for food shopping on the next bus since one JUST went by! Then maybe I'll see about the incompetent people when I get home...

Your Girl Parts Are Named:

Furby

Girl Parts Name Generator

Your Pickup Line Is

If loving me is wrong, you don't want to be right!

The Magical Pick-Up Line Generator

Wanting an early bedtime / K.CUPS. Masterpiece Original Barbecue Sauce

I want to go to bed early tonight, in part because I've been waking up disgustingly late these days. You don't want to know what time I've been going to bed, haha! At least I've finished RQ tagging into October 2004, thanks in part to an insane burst of productivity yesterday that saw me tag Sept. 9-22! Besides, I have to be at Save-On Foods and done shopping by 2 PM tomorrow. So that's why this entry is postdated, sorta. ;)

K.CUPS. Masterpiece Original Barbecue Sauce

Even though it's now owned and produced by the Clorox Company, the taste of Original K. CUPS. Masterpiece barbecue sauce is the same as when it was first created in good ol' Kansas City, USA. This is the sauce that steals awards from all the other popular slathers on the market. It now even is sold in a variety of flavors. But this is the clone for the original, and you'll find it very easy to make. Just throw all of the ingredients in a saucepan, crank it up to a boil, then simmer for about an hour. Done deal. And just like the original Masterpiece, this stuff will make a work of art out of any of your grilled meats or burgers and sandwiches; and as a dipping sauce or marinade.

2 cups water
3/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup tomato paste
1/2 cup vinegar
3 tablespoons molasses
3 tablespoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon liquid smoke
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon onion powder
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/8 teaspoon garlic powder

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan over high heat and whisk until smooth.
2. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 45 to 60 minutes or until mixture is thick.
3. Cool, then store in a covered container in the refrigerator overnight so that flavors can develop. Makes 1 1/2 cups.

Tidbits
Liquid smoke is a flavoring found near the barbecue sauces and marinades. Use hickory-flavored liquid smoke if you have a choice.

Losses, Catherine Howard, running water in an autopsy room, scar stories, quiz

We lost 5-2 to Minnesota tonight. DAMN. I also want the execution book below, haha. :D


Today's Determined Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

Twenty-two-year-old Catherine Howard, charged with infidelity by her husband Henry VIII, was held in the Tower of London. The night preceding her execution, the queen, determined not to exhibit any feminine weakness on the scaffold, 'asked that the block might be brought to her room and, this having been done and the executioner fetched, to the amazement of her attendants she knelt and laid her head in the horrible hollow, declaring as she rose to her feet that she could now go through the ordeal with grace and propriety.' And indeed she did, together with her lady-in-waiting, Lady Rochford, the latter paying the penalty for concealing her mistress's adultery from the king, and also for the false evidence she had supplied whereby her husband, Lord Rochford, had been executed for alleged incest with his own sister, Anne Boleyn.

Culled from: The Book Of Execution

**********************************************************************

My Brush With Morbidity by Nina

"I once worked in a private lab near a small town hospital. At 6:00 each morning, I made my way to the hospital's basement pathology lab to pick up specimens. Having trained in the squalid county hospital of a nearby city, I was accustomed to unusual sights. Nothing rattled me -- not even the medical examiner sawing open the head of a suicide while detectives ate cheese doodles and cracked jokes. Not the sputums and body fluids I collected on my morning rounds. Nor the various 'spare parts' in jars and basins. Nor the individuals on the table, who had been alive moments earlier.

"But one dark morning, alone in the basement, I followed the sound of running water coming from the autopsy room. The autopsy room light switch was beside the other door, across the room from where I stood. I could barely make out the form of a woman on the steel table, covered in a sheet up to her chin. In the sink behind her head, water trickled into a basin.

"But I froze. There was no way in hell that I was going to cross that room and turn off the water. There was no way I could stay in that basement a second longer. I felt an overwhelming urge to flee, so I turned, and raced to the nearest stairwell."

*******

Ghastly!

The world definitely needs more websites like Scarmageddon - a site that collects images of scars and their associated stories and allows you to rate and comment on them. Positively wince-inducing!

Thanks to Tara for the link.

	I, Leslie, being of sound mind, hereby bequeath my entire estate to my pet rock. I do this because they threatened to take my thumbs. My only regret in this life was that I didn't cry in the corner enough.
'What will your Last Will and Testament say?' at QuizGalaxy.com

More surprising cards / Jon and Dallas need alone time to date / Coin tracking / Corey bending nails

Another day, another surprise in the mail... this time, I got this really cute card with a gingerbread man / candy house / lollipops in the front from my Our Place friend Reebee! (which is also where I know Steve / Carol / Candy from) Very nice! Then I got a card with a skating penguin on it from Jenna (jennaxrose)... very cool. I'll mail some cards out when / if I ever get my bus pass application in the mail... saves me a trip that way, haha.

I should keep better track of my coin collection. It's been almost a full year since I last totalled things up, which is pretty bad! Off to do that now, and add Jeremy's phone number to my BootyBase FINALLY. (that's when you know you've made it into my good books, haha)

Danielle says that dinner and skating sounds like the perfect date to her, so she'll stay out of this and give Jon and Dallas some alone time! :P (exactly my thoughts!) Speaking of email, Corey emailed me a picture of these three 3.5-inch nails that he'd bent in half. We were talking about squeezing five people in the rental Yaris, and this is what he came up with to share with me. Interesting dude..

Sad SLB Towers / Skating / Jacquin's Peppermint Schnapps Liqueur

Steph sent us the link to her new Picasa album... I guess it works better than Sony ImageStation for her! There were some pictures from yesterday, so I'll share a few of them now.

Alan (driver), Jeremy (waving to Steph), me (Santa hat), Jon, and Liz all stuffed into the rental Toyota Yaris after dinner at Shanghai Wind:




Man, that Yaris is one compact car! (Shanghai Wind has the yellow sign in the background)




Dylan, Jon, and Liz are the resident triplets since they're all wearing blue!




Jeremy and the saddest SLB tower ever:




Alan being totally useless and creating catastrophe:



Jon sent a bunch of us an email announcing that he and Dallas are going skating tomorrow at Britannica. Sorry, but freezing my butt off in a skating rink is not my thing! Steph thinks that nobody should reply because Jon and Dallas should have a romantic time together alone (hehe), while Christon added a note about Jon and Dallas having dinner together beforehand. If any of us are interested, we should give him a call. I'm not so sure about that, heh.

What will be in your box this Christmas? Male or Female? MaleFemale Nice or Naughty? NiceNaughty Open presents on Christmas Eve or Morning? Christmas EveChristmas Morning Are you in love? YesNo Married or Single MarriedSingle Pick one of these Christmas Songs Jingle BellsSilent NightFrosty the SnowmanLittle Drummer BoyHark! The Herald Angels SingRudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer What will be in your box for Christmas? Pajamas and a Romance Novel This Fun Quiz created by Psychological Studies Institute at BlogQuiz.Net

Science News at NewsDump

Jacquin's Peppermint Schnapps Liqueur

Here's a liqueur that's simple to make at home. All you need is inexpensive vodka and an empty bottle to store the Schnapps in. This is another recipe that was created for More Top Secret Recipes, but just didn't make it into the final version. Try storing it in the freezer for a cold shot on a hot summer day. Woof!

1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 16-oz. bottle light corn syrup
2 cups 80-proof vodka
2 teaspoons peppermint extract

1. Combine sugar and corn syrup in a 2 quart pan over medium heat. Heat until sugar dissolves, stirring regularly (about 5 minutes).
2. When sugar has dissolved, add vodka and stir well. Remove mixture from heat and cover tightly with lid. Let cool.
3. Add peppermint extract to mixture and pour into a sealable bottle. Makes 4 cups.

Washington phone calls, amputated legs, irrational phobias, Australian surreal art

Jon and I are definitely not up for skiing at Whistler! We want to spend time with Eric and meet Fay (with Harmony in tow), but maybe we'll confirm something later in the week when Jon's talked to Harmony about this!

I got another weird call, this time from Washington. Whose phone number is 425-648-9435, anyhow? Told Corey about it, who looked it up on a reverse phone directory, and said it came from Halls Lake, WA and they use Pac-West Telecomm: he'd have to spend money to find out more. Then I told him about the Winnipeg / Manitoba number 204-927-2271 and the Saskatchewan number 306-425-3101. Most reverse lookup places don't have cell phones or unlisted numbers, he tells me. (or Canadian numbers) Reverse Phone Directory has ones that claim to have results on all three, but want $15 a pop to tell you. No way are we spending money to find THAT out! :P


Today's Recently Deceased Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

A man expecting to find his recently deceased father's belongings opened a plastic bag sent to him by a funeral home and discovered an amputated human leg. Christopher Runyan received the bag in January, 2005 from Sinnickson's Moriches Funeral Home, which handled the funeral of his father, Paul, 77, who died the previous week. Runyan said a foul odor was coming from the bag, and he opened it and discovered the leg. "The stench that came out almost knocked me over," Runyan told the Daily News. "I turned totally white." The funeral home had received the bag from the hospital, and Lee W. Sinnickson said in a statement that it is the policy of his funeral home "not to open the contents of a decedent's personal effects." Suffolk County police Sgt. George Kelly said Tuesday that investigators determined that the leg belonged to a patient who died Jan. 13. "We believe it was just a case of human error," Kelly said.

Culled from: Associated Press
Generously submitted by: Amos Quito

**********************************************************************

You know, you try to do a thorough job and look at the thanks you get!

*******

Morbid Mirth Du Jour!

What if Worth 1000 held a Photoshop contest and the topic was Irrational Phobias?

Here's what you'd get. Thanks to Shifter for the link.

*******

Morbid Art Du Jour!

Jim and Mary send me a link to a collection of Underground Australian Surreal Art. The toy art is particularly excellent. Enjoy!

Kinda reminds me of the changed artwork at the Whip, which Jeremy noticed first... o_O

Half-open mail, last-minute stuff to buy / send out, Eric Ho and Fay, 2006 survey

What the heck is it with me receiving mail, and having it be practically half-open when it gets here?! Man, I hate that! I got cards from Steve and Carol (very surprising), Candy, Kristin (wyldkyss), Jenessa (cuteapple), and Marilynn (_angel_of_nite_) today. Candy included some shiny stickers of hearts and happy faces: I can tell you right now that those things are getting USED UP on the cards and such I've already received this year! Thanks! Marilynn included a cool photo and a poem... so cool. :D

I need to go out to the mall sometime today or tomorrow and mail a few items. Maybe after Wednesday, heh. Speaking of stickers, I need to get those... plus those foil cards if those are still there at Carlton's. Those shiny teddy bear stickers that I got from Awana the night of my brother's birthday celebration (snow! Jeremy! Dennis! the Whip and Ethiopian food!) are almost all used up now... I still don't know whose toy rat that is, but I'm keeping it! (temporarily?)

Eric Ho is alive! He's been busy helping Fay settle in (she got here in early December), and is shopping for good cellphone deals. So now I'm updating him on what I know of Jon's situation with Harmony, haha. He can bug him while giving him advice, for sure! :P


2006 Survey: Moments of the year, assessing behavior, etc.

1. Was 2006 a good year for you? Why? It started out badly (losing three people whom I thought were friends in the space of a month?), but I think it will end on a cautiously positive note. It was okay, since I made some new friends and got to see certain things I wouldn't have otherwise.

2. What was your favorite moment of the year? The time we went to eat siu long bao at Shanghai Wind and ate 21 steamers for 9 people! (really 7 since Ceci and Angela didn't eat that much... Vivian S. is automatically excluded since she's Jewish and doesn't eat pork)

3. What was your least favorite moment of the year? When certain things happened to my bank account and my bus pass (application). :(

4. Where were you when 2006 began? At the Morrill residence.

5. Who were you with? Eric, Kieran, my brother Jon, and probably Alistair.

6. Where will you be when 2006 ends? I have no idea... maybe out with friends?

7. Who will you be with when 2006 ends? Friends or family, most probably.

8. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions of 2006? I didn't make any... easier not to break 'em that way. ;)

9. Do you have (a) New Year's Resolution(s) for 2007? Saving money.

10. Did you fall in love in 2006? Not really.

11. If yes, with who? N/A.

12. If yes, do they know? N/A.

13. Are you still in love with them? N/A.

14. You regret it? N/A.

15. Did you break up with anyone in 2006? No.

16. Did you make any new friends in 2006? Yes, and they're mostly cool.

17. Who are your favorite new friends? Dallas, Jamie W., Teunis, Benny, Ryan (museirain), and Jesse.

18. What was your favorite month of 2006? August.

19. Did you travel outside of your country of residence in 2006? Yes, I went to the States with my family just before Grandma came back from Hong Kong in October.

20. How many different states / provinces did you travel to in 2006? BC (where I live) and Seattle. Boy, I don't travel much...

21. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2006? Upon reflection... nope. :P

22. Did you miss anybody in the past year? GJ Jeremy, Tracy (in Ohio), and Irene.

23. What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2006? Pirates of the Caribbean 2, thanks to Eric H.

24. What was your favorite song from 2006? Bob Dylan's Someday Baby.

25. What was your favorite record from 2006? I don't know that I got any music from this year...

26. How many concerts did you see in 2006? I don't think the live music at the Night Market counted as one since we just passed by it, so none.

27. Did you have a favorite concert in 2006? No.

28. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2006? No, just the occasional beer and such when out with friends.

29. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2006? I don't do drugs.

30. How many people did you sleep with in 2006? None.

31. Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year? I probably should have called my grandma more often than I did / do, but I can't really think of anything TERRIBLE! So, no.

33. What was the worst lie someone told you in 2006? "She's NOT coming! .... oh wait. Yes, she is!" DAMN YOU!

34. Did you treat somebody badly in 2006? I don't THINK so, but people may beg to differ on that one. :P

35. Did somebody treat you badly in 2006? "Our e-friendship is over because you posted our IM conversations to the internet! OMG NO!" "I'm gonna continue saying how good polyamory is, even if you disagree with it!"

36. How much money did you spend in 2006? Probably still a bit too much for my own good.

37. What was your proudest moment of 2006? Maintaining certain friendships.

38. What was your most embarrassing moment of 2006? Not having enough money on my own to pay for certain things.

39. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2006 and change something, what would it be? Can't think of anything I'd want to change... but that doesn't mean I'd like the year to be unchanged. Just that I can't think of stuff right now!

40. What are your plans for 2007? Ready for this? Thanks to Jeremy's encouragement, I *might* start contributing more in Bible Study. Then again, we've only had two meetings so far with the new groups, so who knows. At least I'm comfortable with them... but who puts siblings together in the same small group?! *shakes head*

Water torture, serial killers, Jack In The Box Oreo Cookie Shake / Personalizing Christmas carols

Today's Swolne Yet Truly Morbid Fact!

A sadistic form of water torture was used by the Dutch at Amboyna, in the West Indies, during the interrogation of a number of English merchants who were suspected of plotting to capture the Dutch headquarters in 1622:

"Then they bound a cloth about his necke and face so close that little or no water could go by. That done, they poured the water softly upon his head until the cloth was full, up to the mouth and nostrills, and somewhat higher; so that he could not draw breath, but he must withall suck-in the water ... which being still continued to be poured in softly, forced all his inward parts, came out of his nose, eares, and eyes, and often as it were stifling and choaking him, at length took away his breath, and brought him to a swounce or fainting.

"Then they tooke him quickly downe and made him vomit up the water. Being a little recovered, they triced him up againe, poured in the water as before, eftsoones taking him downe as he seemed to be stifled. In this manner they handled him three or four severall times with water, till his body was swolne twice or thrice as bigge as before, his cheekes like great bladders, and his eyes staring and strutting out beyond his forehead..."

Culled from: The History of Torture

**********************************************************************

By the way, all those spelling discrepancies above are in the original text. I'm not THAT bad with my typing! Almost, but not quite!

*******

Morbid Mirth Du Jour!

The Perry Bible Fellowship is an excellent comic strip that isn't always morbid, but is always delightfully twisted and offbeat. Highly recommended!

Thanks to Desmodus for the link.

*******

Wretched Recommendations!

Mary P. has a book recommendation for us:

"The scariest book I have ever read about serial killers is called Die for Me, about Leonard Lake and Charles Ng in Wilseyville, CA. Even the name of the town is creepy. It's probably the first time ever that I was too spooked to finish - only got halfway in my first effort. There is absolutely no morbid humor to be found in that dreadful saga. I did pick it up later and finished it, but I almost wish I hadn't."

Die For Me by Don Lasseter


Note from Leslie: I have read the book mentioned. It was chilling, but still pretty good. But definitely dreadful. Despite what people thought in elementary school (that's when the story broke and all), I am NOT related to Charles Ng!


Jack In The Box Oreo Cookie Shake

If you live in one of the 15 Western states served by Jack in the Box, you have no doubt cracked a gut from the hilarious TV ads produced by this popular hamburger chain. In the spots, a suit-wearing "Jack" runs the company, even though he's got a bulbous antenna ball for a head with a giant smiley-face painted on it. He has a private jet, plays golf, even has kids with mini antenna-ball heads. Jack also has a featured shake flavor that is very easy to make at home with a blender, ice cream, milk, and a handful of Oreo cookies. Sure, the drive-thru is convenient and easy. But if you don't feel like getting out, now you can enjoy this clone at home from the first fast food chain in the country to use a drive-thru window way beck when.

3 cups vanilla ice cream
1 1/2 cups milk
8 Oreo cookies

1. Combine the ice cream and milk in a blender and mix on low speed until smooth. Stir the shake with a spoon to mix, if necessary.
2. Break Oreo cookies while adding them to the blender. Mix on low speed for 5 to 10 seconds or until cookies are mostly pureed into the shake, but a few larger pieces remain. Stir with a spoon if necessary to help combine cookies.
3. Pour shake into two 12-ounce glasses. Serves 2.

Brightly shone the moon that night,
Though the frost was cruel,
When a Leslie came in sight
Gathering winter fuel.

Good King Wenceslas
from the Christmas Song Generator.

Get your own song :

Shanghai Wind and the Whip: flames, Bible Study, church issues, and more!

Note to self: STOP DOING THINGS TO YOUR HAIR! IT IS NOT GOOD!

Steph picked me up, and we discussed our grandma's big mouth when it came to Christmas presents and books on toilets. We don't think she really understands that gifts are supposed to be a SURPRISE here... then again, we discussed a certain person's cluelessness when it came to someone's special diet. You'd think he would KNOW given that they've known each other for years at church! I told her what Dad had said about her being bad on Saturday when Harmony's coming over: Steph and I both figure that there ARE other times to see her during the two weeks she'll be here for the holidays! (I might skip out on that too, haha) Stateside trips with people are not quite so plentiful, heh. Then we discussed being in the same small group as a sibling: there ARE things you might not want to share with a brother or sister around, for sure! (it could be about them, or just simply not something they need to know!)

Met Jon, Dylan, Alan, and Liz at Shanghai Wind: Jeremy came in after we'd settled down. We had a good discussion over four steamers of SLB, hot and sour soup, veggies, and Shanghai noodles. Alan and Liz were shocked when we told them that we had 21 steamers last time divided among a few people! Discussed our reactions to alcohol (Liz and I are similar in that we're either happy / hyper or tired!), tolerance, my New Year's story (SHUT UP!), vomit stories, keg parties, clean-up, half an Earl's margarita, the cold, affirmation of men pouring tea and stuff (Steph's male co-workers aren't good Asians OR good men!), calling people useless, etc. Jeremy was amused when Steph told him that our grandma knows him as "bearded man" since Eric was the first white kid. Alan figured that "Wu So Lo" made Jeremy distantly related to Han Solo, haha. Quote of the dinner: Russell Peters' "Someone's gonna get a hurting REAL bad!" (complete with fist shaking)

I found a nickel on the floor of the apartment lobby before heading out, and Grandma gave me $20 earlier... that was enough to cover both my and Steph's portions of the bill. That meant I didn't have any money left when we went to the Whip afterwards, but Jeremy kindly offered to buy me a beer: I'll pay him back when I see him, of course. He knows I'm good for it since the $2 was cool. If I could carry $100 and change in my jacket pocket for two weeks, I can carry $5 and change around for that time! (actually, I had more than $10 in coins in my jacket pocket recently too...)

Before we went our separate directions since Dylan and Steph had to buy things for the root beer floats at dessert night, Steph had to take a picture of the five of us all crammed into the rental Toyota Yaris. Definitely a small car, that one! We discussed marriage banns and gay unions, Ivan proposing to Karen during worship service and having to apologize the week afterwards, and various other people practically doing the same thing. ("I have a question about the sermon... will you marry me?") Jon requested Velvet Underground (Heroin could be misconstrued if he ever preached about that!), and asked how Alan and Liz liked Bob Dylan and R.E.M.: some of it was too mellow, heh.

At the Whip, we ordered Black Plague / Blanche de Chambly / Red Devil Ale / some other thing that the server described as "a pale ale which is actually more like a dark ale or a stout, but I don't know who brews it." Jeremy thought they needed to educate the servers better, while Jon wondered about their cask nights. Just don't go on Wednesday nights for that: Tuesdays should still be fine, haha. We had a good discussion about how a certain person was with Bible Study. Facilitating discussion there should be a goal, not taking over like 90% of the time. Someone figures he'll ask what other people think, and if they don't have anything to say at that point, they should ask someone else in the group... be aggressive before a certain someone has a chance to jump in and take over stuff again! Good idea, and one I should remember in January! Jeremy confirmed that he really did want to hear more from me... well, it's not like I have anything great to say, but you never know! But he's right: I did spend time preparing for the study as he had, and I could have brought up some things. Voicing unvoiced opinions and being a shit-disturber is something Liz does best, heh. (perspective from non-Christians' views)

From there, we talked about church things in general. Sharing is good, heh. Certain fundamentalist people are divergent from us, of course. Vancouver is pretty liberal, and while we ourselves don't support same-sex marriage, Alan at least would welcome a gay couple if they came into his service and wanted to listen! I think I might too, but our parents and their generation would definitely NOT! Jeremy brought up blue hair and Halloween in a Christian school: one teacher said it was fine for that day only, while another one said the opposite. No unity in theology there... junior high is where it's black-and-white, and university has everyone from wildly different backgrounds! In a secular school, you'd know where the boundaries were with right and wrong, but not necessarily in a Christian school with certain grey areas! (the divorce rate for Christian couples is only a couple percentage points higher than the national average, too...)

We discussed God being a pyromaniac since we were all warming our hands with the candle at our table: Moses and the burning bush, anyone? Jeremy looked up Elijah at Mount Carmel and Jesus being taken up in his Bible: the tongues of fire were at Pentecost, not Jesus being taken up WITH fire! (which never happened) Somehow, we managed to burn out one candle, which quickly got replaced. Jeremy wondered how the flame worked with the wick since it was blue at the base, and wouldn't go everywhere. We told him to look it up on Google and Wikipedia: there IS a changelog at Wiki, and it's more error-free than the Encyclopedia Brittanica! (errors corrected once a year vs. instantly or something like that, even with obscure topics)

Then we talked about blogging: apparently, Alan and Liz heard that they were mentioned on my Blogspot blog. Steph has a Xanga, and so we explained to Alan what the difference was between Blogspot and Xanga / LiveJournal / similar blogging sites (it's the community / blogring aspect!), plus how Geocities was IN ten years ago or so! Jeremy remembered that he'd found mine through Googling his name. ("somehow Jeremy ended up on the Richmond Crew") He didn't seem to mind, but I thought he did when we first talked with Nathan about Googling your name. Phew! (Nathan thought it was very cool, and said so!)

Definitely a good time of sharing and fellowship over beer, which I guess helps loosen inhibitions! Just don't bring it to church events, but to other people's houses! Jon started talking to Harmony on the way home (Jeremy walked home), and Alan had to wonder who he was talking to! Who do you THINK?! Alan also thinks Jon should move out, but living rent-free DOES have its perks: the only chore he's set to do is the dishes whenever he's home. Mom always threatens to set up a schedule for housework (which he has no excuse NOT to do now), but she always forgets what she says. Jon's just looking forward to not having six hours of sleep a day, and not having to worry about school stuff till the second week of January. Nathan was joking earlier today about skipping Sunday School: his excuse COULD be that he has to pack for his trip to Hong Kong, haha!

Fred's "sharing underwear" joke was brought up again while Harmony apparently was wondering what to pack: Jon said that she should pack like a guy and wonder about it an hour before she had to be at the airport! Then he shared an embarrassing story about surplus underwear differences between living here and living in Toronto... Liz was zoning out from the food / beer / warmth, heh. She mentioned that she'd seen my old acquaintance Deanna Baker (now living in Toronto), who used to do physio at the hospital right across the street from where I live. Cool stuff!

Gwyneth wants me to come over for dinner... awwww!

Ah, things are much better now that I've left a certain community. I said what I needed to say, and ALMOST added "get a sense of humor," but didn't. Or maybe I did and I forgot... oh well. I'm done with that phase now. I trust my own judgment in choosing other communities to join, and I'm sure Eric H. does too! I'll have to email that dude sometime, heh. Maybe when I finish this entry... there were replies in my inbox along the lines of "Hurricane Durian shouldn't be joked about," but I'm not going to read them! At least it was the NAME and not the actual circumstances... I'd never laugh about the latter! :P

On the way to church, I gave the Boredoms' Pop Tatari back to Jon. It had been a long time since he had heard it, so he put it in for a bit. Steph thought that he should play it for Grandma, since we already know that Mom would think it's terrible! We don't think Grandma would be too impressed either, but that's part of the amusement! That reminds me: I should also return the Apologetix CD Ticked to him before he realizes that I've had it for a couple years now too! (after I do the Audiograbber thing to it first, of course!) Alan and Liz were coming from Abbotsford since it's easier to do that with their rented car.

I was going to ask Citrus about my computer issues, but forgot. Also saw Randal in the back, but I didn't say hi to him. Worship was pretty good, but it better be excellent next week with Christmas Eve and all, heh. Went around to the back afterwards to see what was up for later. Steph excitedly told Karen Lew and Christon that she had the car for Saturday, and then texted Jason Lau about it too. Parents don't understand even if Steph's just been to the States... it's fun bonding time! My dad told me later that she was being bad since she was skipping out on (helping with) "Get To Know Harmony and Welcome Her Day"... whatever! I wanted to sign up for Friday's dinner, but I wasn't sure if Eric was going or not... maybe I'll sort it out tonight!

Alan and Liz told us that they almost died in Whistler since it was dark and they couldn't see an incline in the ski hill. Then there was the windstorm that knocked down a lot of trees, so they couldn't really go to Stanley Park. They'll soon think that we can't handle anything in this city: things shut down when we have rain, snow, OR wind! Steph confirmed that there was SLB at Shanghai Wind tonight sometime, probably when Jon buses back from Tsawwasen and helping his friend with songs there! Talked to Jen for a bit, and learned that Jeremy was totally in for SLB: yay for friendly seatmates! (referring to the church dynamic, heh)

After Sunday School (Vania gave me a Christmas card!), I talked to the guys for a bit before they went to play Christon's Wii at Nathan's. Nate was impatient for Eric to show up with bongos because Christon only had a limited time. Tony said he was going to eat alone, but not sushi. (I agree: it's not good to eat it alone for the price unless you absolutely have to) After talking about reverse evangelism (dating a Christian and such), Eric finally showed up. I managed to ask him whether he was going to the ESC Christmas celebration dinner and whether he could pick me up. He is, and assumes he can especially since he's not working on Friday. Cool with me! Maybe he'll be there at SLB tonight, too... heh.

Later, I talked to little Gwyneth for a while. She likes my Santa hat, and wondered why I wasn't at her house for dinner yesterday. I told her that Henry had driven me home after Awana, and asked if she wanted me over for dinner: she does. Cute kid, even if she does want me to make Christmas presents for her / her sister / her mom! I talked to little Rosanna for a bit, too. They wondered why I was waiting for my dad and grandma: free lunch, haha. We went to Pho (twice in a weekend for me) before getting takeout at Kent's Kitchen and going home. I don't think I'll be at the "Harmony Day" thing, since I am going to enjoy my Awana break at home! But I guess we'll see... speaking of SLB, Corey is now maligning the literal translation of "little dragon balls / buns." Aiya...