Could Eric's cat serve as extra meat? Hmm...

After doing stuff with barbecued chicken legs, Steph and I walked to Eric's - we talked about Kate, the 300GB hard drive, the Emmanuel Church "cage," and books. Settled in to watch sports with Jon, Stanley (who'd gotten his parents to navigate Richmond), and Jeremy. The Colorado-Arizona game was interesting because of ROCKTOBER ("we have the better part of the Rockies!") - the camera shots in the rain were MASTERFUL! "It looks sunny on the field, but rainy in the dugout!" Stanley didn't understand baseball, so we told him that some players used chewing tobacco - Jeremy helpfully contributed that they used fiberglass to make cuts in their lips so the nicotine would get in the bloodstream faster. Steph had seen pictures of people with no mandibles, and I had heard that throat cancer was VERY PAINFUL. We also made references to the fact that my mom thinks dirty old men should be catchers, but then the players in the dugout adjust their crotches too - must be the cups! There are female equivalents called "jills," as Steph told Jeremy - we discussed death by beanball (Ray Chapman, the line drive coach, etc.), Jeremy almost getting killed via baseball (broken nose, hole in skull?), and the FINAL EXITS book - haha, it IS addictive! Laughing disease and such, oh my! It's true that sliding down a pole wouldn't hurt a female as much as a male, for sure. For some reason, we were discussing my mom's confusion over Korey's last name: she thought it was WEBSTER! So then my sister and I told her to remember AUSTIN POWERS, but we can so totally see her mixing that up and calling him "Korey Powers," haha. Then I told them about little Zoe having a nephew already - oh my! Phil's family tree is complicated because his grandfather married two sisters at the same time - even Rich and Karen's family tree could be a bit complex because of the stepfather deal!

We loved the burgers from Alistair's mom's recipe, and tried lemon mayo / garlic mayo. Stanley brought up the "SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!" joke, and we discussed the fundraiser where people would smash Jeremy's old guitar. It would be good times if that happened, haha. The window reflected the TV quite well, although it looked like players were running backwards - Jeremy told us about a FUTURAMA episode where they watched a crazy baseball game with bizarre happenings like two dozen balls being thrown on the field at the same time! We tried 9.1% alcoholic beer, which was sweet so it went well with the mixed fruit pie that was our dessert. (Stanley had a sip, too) There was a running joke about the cat being extra meat - she didn't seem too impressed with certain actions, haha. No, we didn't actually try to eat it... we discussed strange cat behavior, cats following laser pointers, and territorial cats CHASING guests / Irish setters away! My sibs explained the origins of "Sarne" to Stanley, and I added that I'd put the kibosh on Korey's calling me that. Jeremy said that there'd been an experiment done where people had ionized wine to make it age faster, and apparently this new version tasted pretty good! Jon was joking with Harmony via phone that we were having durian pie - that would be VERY BAD for Eric's oven, let alone the HOUSE! She says she doesn't use her Facebook account, which is fair enough. We reminisced about the time that the Pho people said that they DID have durian, yet changed their minds when Stanley tried to order his beloved durian shake! "Are you SURE you have it? Or do you just now want to stink up the entire place?" Haha. We also discussed compassion for homosexuals, and Auntie Ruby's matter-of-fact way of bringing things up during Sunday School: "I don't understand why you'd want to do THAT!" (referring to lesbian sex) Then there was the time she asked my sister about her female problems at church the day after Steph had come in for an appointment: thanks, lady... you may be my family doctor, but there are better times and places for such questions! o_O

Somehow, we got on a Tee-related tangent. Melissa's family are ALL collectors, so it's not as bad as Christon's family where it's only his parents - but the number of trinkets and such COMBINED would pretty much weigh down a house! Melissa's family also doesn't eat a whole lot of vegetables, so the natural consequences resulted for my sister when she stayed there - she'd try sneaking in romaine and portable fruit when they went grocery shopping, of course. Jeremy mentioned MSG, which made me think of what he'd told me this morning: "The Mandarin-speaking congregation should change from the MSC to the MSG: the Mandarin-speaking GROUP!" Haha, that was certainly amusing! We saw sports bloopers and highlights, including the annual wife-carrying competition in Finland (?) - interesting concept for a race! Eric tried to give me the Windows XP box, but we thought he might as well keep it since he'd have to install it: good thing I had that huge hard drive handy, even though I can understand people's wanting me to not buy things I don't need. Everyone saw some weird commercials - the YAHOO Answers ones are neat: instant garden, alive pets, and fixing crooked things like pictures / angles / someone's spine! We didn't understand other commercials, such as the GREAT MILEAGE one with the facial hair OR the HALO 3 preview. Steph tried convincing Stanley that he didn't need another guitar or gaming system, since he couldn't even give us plausible reasons as to why he'd need those items. Jeremy commented that it was hard to chest-slap yourself, Steph and I sat on our brother (popping a button off his shirt), and we discussed combining Scotch (Johnny Walker Black Label) with beer. Ron and Veronica took me home so Stanley's parents wouldn't have to navigate Richmond more than they absolutely had to (they're BAD at it), and we discussed trombones / blood / coincidences / work / family / clarinets.

Perhaps Eric is right about certain things. I want to express ANY feeling I have to people so long as it isn't hurtful within normal levels, and so long as they're not minimized or thrown back in my face. To me, THAT is true safety and security. This is the time to work out my own best path... aiya! Gotta get my own advice on this, for sure!