No Fromage?! / Fort Mac / Christmas lights are NOT strobe lights!

Wonder if Matt Torres' CD ever got delivered to him... but it's been too long to just ask. Oh well, it didn't cost me very much. Yay for profit! :P

Yesterday, Jon wondered whether FROMAGE 2006 would be on. I didn't know, which surprised him: "Didn't you use to be all over that show?!" Haha, it WAS cool and hilarious stuff! So I Googled, and it turns out that MuchMusic isn't airing it this year due to problems between them and Ed the Sock. That was definitely a disappointment! :(

Steph and Rachel's dinner was pretty good: Greek salad, coriander carrot soup (Emeril and BAM! with cilantro!), rosemary chicken, mashed potatoes, and some more stuff. They scolded Jon, Harmony, and our parents for eating at 4:30 when they knew we had a dinner! Before Rachel's parents and sister got to the townhouse, I watched TV on the third floor with Jon and Harmony while discussing posture and other stuff: nothing was really on TV except a bunch of football games and cooking shows, and some Kevin Bacon / Tom Cruise movie. We watched some JEOPARDY: the second round dollar values have increased since the last time I watched the show: $400, 800, 1200, 1600, and 2000?! Maybe it's just me, but Alex Trebek looks older now and his face is rounder and not so sharply defined these days. Yes, I know he's gotten older... no need to tell me that! :P (Grandma even came up there to see what we were doing, so there goes Mom's belief that she'll never do that because the stairs are too much for her or whatever!)

We spent some time in Jon's room looking at his extensive CD / book collections. Everything is crammed into any available space, including my mom's big storage box of yarn and Dad's books. (the room used to be his study) I spied a big trivia questions book on the 20th century that Jon got for $3.99 from a London Drugs book sale: he said I could take it, but I flipped through it while awaiting dinner, so I settled for Umberto Eco's FOUCAULT'S PENDULUM instead, haha. He brought all these free books home from a Yonge Street mission, yet hasn't started reading them... I think I'm safe in selecting that one, heh. We also tried convincing Jon to take an actual nap: we weren't impressed with his "two-minute power nap!" M.O. Harmony told him that a nap should be anywhere from half an hour to upwards of four hours long. He thought that since these qualifications didn't appear in Webster's Dictionary, it wasn't official. Gee, if both your sister AND your girlfriend are insisting that you close your eyes and actually nap, you think you'd do it! Men... *rolleyes*

Later, Harmony tried silencing Jon's falsetto singing (which she hates) by putting her hand over his mouth. That didn't really work since I helped him get her hand off there, and then smacked him for her when he made various weird remarks. She thought she could learn techniques from me for putting up with him, heh. Her brother Myles just beats her up, but then she apparently gives it right back! We talked with the parents for a bit: even Uncle Gabriel and Auntie Esther got an introduction to Harmony when I didn't, which Steph thought was bad! Rachel just wanted a forkful of the excellent mango pudding from its Corningware dish, which prompted Steph to remind her about who was observing her behavior. She didn't care if Grandma was looking at her, haha. Harmony asked how we decided when Jon was "Flime" or "Ug / Ugfart," so I told her that it was more random than anything else! (although "ug / ugfart" DOES tend to get used more often when we're mad at him!)

Then Jon asked Harmony what she wanted to do later: he always does this so as not to wear the pants in the relationship. But it always turns into "I don't know... what do YOU want to do?" So I said, "Okay, guys... make a decision!" Then we joked about communal pajama pants: Grandma's are cute! Rachel noticed that Steph was wearing one of her black shirts, but said she could keep it... THAT led to joking about the same happening with underwear! "Hey, those are MY panties! Same color, same material... look, it's even the same stain!" The parents weren't impressed, haha. After that, Steph joked that Dad's booty would set fire to the townhouse if he moved too close to the candles near the oranges with cloves in them (Victorian air fresheners). We could imagine the headline in that case: "BOOTY FIRE: MALE BOOTY SETS FIRE TO TOWNHOUSE" or something! ("booty" is only nine points in Scrabble!)

Lisa, Rachel, Steph, Harmony, Jon, and I talked about environmental consultation in Alberta / Rachel bringing culture to Fort MacMurray. Jon amused himself by offering red wine to Grandma, who wouldn't even take much sparkling juice. Then he mentioned a Toronto story he'd heard about: these grandparents were convicted of extreme neglect of their five-year-old grandson, who wasn't even allowed to use the toilet! (he drank toilet water and didn't eat very much...) Apparently, they both had very low IQ *and* EQ! (emotional quotient... most people would want to protect someone smaller than them and not neglect them, especially if they're related to the person!) Steph brought up a long-ago story: when the girls at church used to slap each others' butts, they heard something about how the body was a sacred temple. So the next time someone went to slap Eunice's butt, she invoked the "TEMPLE! SACRED!" card. That didn't last too long, haha. Rachel and Steph reflected on how long they'd known each other now (11 years?!), and told us that Kate hadn't heard anything from Elvis EVER! Then I told them that Mom had seemed surprised that I recognized him on TV recently... aiyoh!

Later, Harmony said that her co-workers often jokingly refer to each other by their last names. That would definitely not work in her case... I can just imagine! "Hey, McKenzie! Got that letter sorted out?" "Yes, Ho... I most certainly did!" Not good... although there was someone she emailed that insisted on calling her by her last name in email, even if every email was signed "Harmony." That led Jon to call her "Har-Har Binks" after Jar-Jar Binks in the STAR WARS movies ("You can be the Spanish version, haha!"): she wasn't impressed. Rachel told us that Steph's "youngest sibling" baby voice was annoying, and Harmony thought that Myles probably didn't use his since he was a guy! A while later, I had to forcibly remove Harmony from the kitchen where she was helpfully washing dishes... she DOES jump when you touch her waist, heh. I got Jon to give her a towel to wipe her hands after Steph took the sponge from her, then we guided her OUT of there! (it gets to be a party in there when three or more people are around since it's SMALL!)

Rachel showed us her black feet from standing in the kitchen all afternoon: yeah, the floor's dirty! Uncle Gabriel and Lisa left early since he wasn't feeling well, which meant we had to make small talk with Auntie Esther about the Richmond Library and people they knew. (various friends of Harmony's, Steve McCreedy and his wedding a year ago to an Asian girl, some Steveston bookshelver who's a Christian) Then our parents got to gossiping over coffee about various people, and speculating on their personal lives... then they denied they were doing that. *rolleyes* Auntie Esther discussed her marriage and such with Mom, while I pretended not to pay attention since I was drinking some Welcome Winter ale with 6.5% alcohol. My sister thought that they wouldn't finish a bottle of wine in one night because I didn't live with them anymore... oh, shush. :P

We didn't even touch the ice wine that Harmony brought over last night, since we were all too full from eating! Jon and Harmony left later to walk to Rogers Video and rent movies to watch at her place: Mom questioned why they walked when they could use the car, and Auntie Esther remarked that it would be romantic! Jon affirmed that, and also said that they needed to move around after the meal. (yesterday, he was drumming on the table and fidgeting at Kendrick's... just like Matt Mark would, apparently!) Steph bugged our parents about walking more for their health: I should do that too, haha. (too lazy!)

Steph drove me home after Rachel left with her mom: Rachel's last day at work is Friday since she didn't want to take the time off because it's money, which she'll definitely need in Alberta. Vivian's doing pretty well, and got her some Manzana Lift from Mexico: apparently, that apple soda stuff is awesome! Steph's saving the 2L bottle for a Mexico reunion, heh. Since Vivian can actually eat out and such now because she's off her crazy food exclusion diet (and onto allergy shots), maybe we'll hang out one day! Steph thinks that my place would be good for a Bible Study outing since I've not had a get-together in some time, especially since some of us are from Richmond. Eh, we'll see..


Recent parental hilarity:

1. Dad to Jon: "Turn on the strobe lights outside so Dave's family can see our place!" (he meant the Christmas lights!)

2. Mom to me: "You are my darling wet..." (I don't think I wanna know... yes, she used "wet" as a noun! o_O)

3. Mom to me, again: "Open that can of pickles for me." (then I corrected her) "It's the same thing!" [a CAN and JAR are NOT the same thing... cans are made of metal, and jars are made of glass!]

4. Mom: "Who is James Brown?!" Steph tried to explain to her by singing some I FEEL GOOD... that did NOT work! You'd think she would know who he is...

5. Rachel and Steph tried to convince our moms that puberty caused Steph's hair to grow into a frizzy fro instead of chlorine in swimming pools. Then Rachel agreed with Steph that "it" probably caused her own hair to go crazy ten years ago. Her mom said, "It? You mean swimming?!" NO! PUBERTY!