Valentine's Day conceptions explain a busy November birthday season!

Oh man. Tonight's birthday bash for Vanessa was SO MUCH FUN! Here are some highlights before I attempt to fall asleep:

* Picked up Ivan, Cindy at Tim Horton's, and Sam in that order. Sam played us interesting music from his iPod while we debated the best way to get to Metrotown from Richmond. Steph has a pet peeve against Oak, so we took Knight instead. Also listened to country music, and discussed parental reaction to our music as "weird, loud, and annoying" - good times! (Jon's music can be very weird and eclectic!) On the way to the restaurant, we encountered an impatient driver who honked Steph at least five times - SHE WAS WAITING FOR TWO PEDESTRIANS TO CROSS THE ROAD! (they were about to cross, in fact!)

* Got to the sushi place all right, but didn't want to run afoul of "parking lot plaza" rules which ticket you if you go to another plaza other than the one you park in. Found our friends, and immediately started talking to them. Danielle admired my new shirt from afar, and laughed when I told her about Jeremy's guess at its cost / origin! I let Cindy borrow my calculator for digicam cost-splitting: Steph thought I was SO WELL-PREPARED! Haha, I need the darned thing for Awana points and such! Almost as handy as Eric's tip calculator on his phone! ;)

* Once everyone got there, Steph grossed EVERYONE out with the story of my dad's "lobster / candlelight / wine / sex" comment this afternoon. We both were thinking the same thing at the time as we exchanged a few horrified looks: "GET ME OUT OF THIS CAR NOW! I DON'T CARE IF I DIE!" I'm sure Joey and Angus (along with the others) wanted to bleach / scrub their ears out! Daniel later joked that he should call my dad at 10 or so: "Hey, Uncle Alan... what are you doing? Quick - I need you to check something downstairs for me!" Yeah, we DO NOT NEED TO KNOW! (you also don't need to see your friends' fathers in anything less than full clothing, even if it's the middle of the day at lunch!) After that story, Mike T. commented that the "peanuts" story wasn't so bad! I agree! SO GROSS, and potentially appetite-ruining!

* Cindy said that her parents can only pronounce Becky and Vanessa's names, and has to resort to cha yun (cop) for Steph. She once wrote them a note to say that she was out with Steph and Dawn, and she got home late. Seems she forgot that her dad would read it really quickly; when she got home, she thought she was in trouble. Her mom was smiling really hugely, and her dad asked her how her date was or something. They'd read it as "Stephen and Don," hahaha. "Out with two men?! SWEET!" Steph and I both yelled various things down to the other half of the table: it's a family trait, this loudness! Hahaha!

* While Jon, Nate, and Lucas were discussing intellectual topics such as China's history / psychological experiments, everyone else was discussing light fare. Apparently, Noah spoke his first words to Cindy today, about looking up at the lights in the sanctuary - SO SHY and CUTE! Cindy told Ivan that his brother Nathan was ADORABLE! Ivan says that Nathan knows how to act really cute, while his sister Natalie is more out there. Cindy said that Andrea had seen him playing by himself in the nursery, and expressed concern that he'd get bored. He was improving a game, and taught Andrea how to play; when she told him that he should write it down in case he forgot, he told her that he'd remember it in his head! That kid's going to be an inventor someday! Aided by Calla and Vanessa, I told the table about Nathan's age guesses at Pho that time - 12 or 13 for Vanessa?! (Jeremy was 21, haha!) Then we recalled his crushes on the speaker's twin daughters at the last Summer Conference - one twin on each arm, and they looked ADORABLE! I told them that Eric and I asked him how he was, and joked about his having crushes. We were surprised when he named eight of them! (Citrus told the "Dylan scratching his chin while standing in the hall asking to borrow personal items" story, also from that conference!)

* Danielle said that her private looked very handsome this morning in the Reserves march, which was of course accompanied by an eyeroll and dubious look from him! Steph LOVED the picture! Everyone was sharing sushi and such by the time it got to our table: the udon was great value! Had some of Cindy's yam tempura, plus her shellfish sashimi - she's allergic to shrimp, and can't / doesn't eat raw fish. Nathan thought we were doing all-you-can-eat, so saved his stomach accordingly - no wonder he was hungry! Sam said that Mike K. had asked him for advice this afternoon, so of course he thought it was juicy stuff. He was disappointed when it turned out to be about Mike's grandma's birthday celebration tonight - that conflicted with Vanessa's dinner. Of course, Sam told Mike to do the right thing and show up at Melia's later for dessert! (I asked Mike about the dinner later, and he said it was really quick since they were shoving food at them in an attempt to make them leave faster, haha) Cindy called me "Sarne," but she can do that even if it was an accident!

* Took a bunch of zany pictures, and sang the Chinese birthday song when it came time - even a table behind us helped us chant, hahaha. We were all impatient when Vanessa opened her gift too slowly for our taste... yes, everyone knew what it was! Nathan spent some time drawing a holy kite on her card (made by Michelle) - shades of the Evite! Jon said it looked like the Crusaders' shields, and I could see the resemblance! They also talked about Cheap Trick's Surrender, KISS, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, and other music. Cindy said that green tea actually had the MOST caffeine... Steph's reaction: "Oh no! That explains A LOT! You'll be up ALL NIGHT and be WIRED!" Sounds like me, especially since I had too much caffeine earlier in the day. (watch me not fall asleep till 4 AM again...) I learned the origin of the "IS THAT REALLY NECESSARY?!" line: last week, a bunch of them were crossing the 7-11's parking lot on their way to Sunday School in the next building. Some impatient jabronie backed out of his parking space really quickly, and almost ran Kevin over! (Danielle's cousin, not the food inspector dude) Vanessa's just making fun of Steph's incensed reaction - we definitely don't want our friends to be run over!

* Went to Melia's later (Central Park = Walkathon!) and split into groups naturally: mahjong, sports games on Gamecube, girl talk, talking about miscellaneous stuff, etc. Michelle, Danielle, and Steph were taking crazy chin pictures, and told Joe and Jon not to ask when they came up to them with puzzled looks on their faces! ("NOSTRILS! GLOW-WORMS!" "That's your new Facebook picture!") Calla asked Jon's advice on alcoholic drinks - maybe a future Sunday Dinner could involve cocktails since she isn't a big beer fan. Girls and fruity drinks might be good, but she doesn't want to make a bad impression at company get-togethers! She had a martini yesterday at Earls as part of dinner since booze was entirely IN the question even if she was TIRED! People gave Melia a hair straightener for her birthday, heh.

* Later, Calla and I were amused / intrigued by Nathan's wacky random talking while trying to take a power nap. Morning breath ice cream, missing your lover's morning breath (...), pink Smarties having a girly flavor (I had to feed him one to see if he could be rational - nope!), fruits, mangoes, strawberries, marshmallows, durian, gelato, etc. Daniel finished a 37-page paper in 12 hours (not consecutively) in order to make it to the dinner! (Steph and Melia expressed fear for their grandkids: they'll be chased around by Grandma with a butter knife, as happened years ago! Or they might accidentally turn the light off on Grandma in the bathroom... oops!) Leaned my head on Nathan's shoulder briefly for a candid picture - then someone got Justin Morneau mixed up with Geoff Courtnall. Uh, Calla (or was it Michelle?) isn't THAT old to have gone to school with the hockey player!

* When Melia's parents got home with Grandma (yay for being officially 97!), she hung out with us for a while - we all said hi to her, of course. Talked to Auntie Ying about new generations, health, plans, taking two months off work, having Phil out of the house, LOTS of birthdays for Danielle's friends, Valentine's Day conceptions explaining a LOT of November birthdays, the dinner, laundry, how we were doing, swimming, shopping, Grace, shoes, and more - so good to talk to her! Took guy and girl pictures - the timer option didn't work too well, heh. Joked that Grandpa was in the guys' picture, although Sam and Joey's heads were blocking the portrait! Vanessa almost slipped on the floor after the guys held her up - whoops! Danielle and I talked about idiots we've encountered - SO TERRIBLE! (understanding is good!) Calla's homemade cake was pretty good, and the cookies were soft!

* Watched the guys play NHL HITS - the disco strobe lights rink was definitely distracting! When they were playing soccer, Daniel commented that it was just as boring as real soccer, haha. Mike T. and Emily were being silly, and I smiled at them - SO CRAZY! Angus really got into the game, oh my! Said hi to Chrystal, who was cheerful as usual. Talked about Andrew, bluntness, manners, serving together, math, money, CSI, the California fires, the writers' strike, dinner, and more - very fun! Daniel and Nathan competed against each other in basketball, and Steph told the guys to quit tossing the four-pound purple ball around - it's all fun and games until someone gets hurt! Looked for the November birthday cards, and found them in MY knapsack - I gave them to Steph, heh. Told Danielle about Randal's funny announcement, and said that there wasn't a moment of silence at 11 this morning: at least the day was acknowledged as a quasi-theme!

* On the way home, Sam spent the ride on the phone with Joey's sister Emily - we all wished her a happy birthday since it was past midnight. Jon accidentally told her that he was the senior member of the Richmond Crew: that would be ME, you ugfart! Emily apparently put a bunch of people on hold, haha. Jon assures her that she'll enjoy the Pitt Pub at UBC in a year's time when she turns 19... dingy and dark atmosphere, indeed. Discussed TRANSFORMERS, costumes, DVDs, Youtube videos, Bon Jovi being country for one album, country artists being Christian in the Bible Belt culture, LIVIN' ON A PRAYER, J-Mak, Isabel, Chris being the new Alan in regards to falling asleep anytime and anywhere (Awana singing / Summer Conference worship / 3 AM McDonalds shifts), hockey pool trades and such, white rubber boots, shopping, the pizza party / lettuce wraps / tacos / burgers / stuffing things where a little is really a lot / Peking Duck, Christine Magee winning awards / her new CD, papers / lab reports, sources of error, cleaning floors, laundry, family deafness trait, etc. Good times, especially since it only took us 26 minutes to reach Sam's house from Coquitlam! (not as bad as PoCo, and not as bad as Abbotsford - poor Angus, even if he gets to come home on weekends for the next month!)