New building = seafood banquet!

Dropped Jon off early (he said I looked like an ESKIMO!), then went to McDonalds with my family. When we got back to the new church, I said hi to Cindy / Dianne, and found a place to sit with people I knew. Mark was surprised that the church booked the entire restaurant for dinner at Floata, and wondered if our church even HAD a thousand people to begin with! I told him that there were a bunch of people not here who would come to the dinner, then waved to Justin L. while admiring Darren L.'s top hat. Isabel says her brother's always had it - we haven't seen it, though! Sarah said her mom was playing the viola... later, we got asked to move to the overflow room / fellowship hall. I saw Michelle L.'s sister Jessie with a baby named Shira - Ryan L. told me that it was his auntie's baby. (he and his brother Ethan had spoons which lit up - SO COOL!)

Talked to Rosenda for a bit, and tried entertaining her sons Ian and Gabriel. Saw Silvester for the first time in years; YAY! Chatted to Melia, Angus, Sam, Emily, J-Mak, Lucas, Jeff, Anita (Jessica WAS up at the front with my brother!), Auntie Fonda, and others. The new building had a guestbook, which I'd heard about on Friday. At one point during the PRE-TRANSLATED service, Pastor Edward said: "You know, we didn't get a permit to be here... *LONG pause while we all think the worst* until FRIDAY!" We were all discussing this later: yeah, THE POLICE ARE RIGHT OUTSIDE TO ARREST US FOR UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY! (that, or we're just all here illegally anyhow, with the security guard's complicity!) It was interesting to see Eric and others in "marshal / warden" gear, haha.

The audio had some problems, but it went pretty well for what they had to work with! (temp setup?) I saw a woman talking on her cellphone at least TWICE, and Nathan later said that he'd stood throughout service... these two people decided to TALK all through the proceedings since it was a live feed. UGH! It's still a service, even if you aren't in the actual sanctuary! People congratulated Auntie Catherine and Uncle Y.C. - yay, first grandchild! Jeremy jokingly wondered where the dumpsters were, so instead we congregated in the front area. (talked to Dylan, Tony, Jon, Jeremy, Nathan, Christon, Eric, and others about Oscar's vs. the old Pho, and said hi to Belinda) Chatted to Jen, Lincoln, Vivian, Karen, Raymond (another default win?!), and Terry - it was good to see them all! I asked Mike what he thought about my "cool bomber jacket" paired with my camouflage hoodie... his first reaction was to ask whether I was sick, haha. No, thank goodness!

Eventually, a few of us went to the old Pho under new management, but still in the family. Turns out the waitress was wondering where all the people were, so Nathan told her that we'd moved. We talked about Congee Noodle House's health violations (Kevin would know!), mold, stuff you can get away with at home but NOT in a commercial kitchen, selling Pho on the street, flasks, RPGs and text-based games, smuggling vodka (looks like water!) or Scotch (looks like tea!) to church events, dressing up, and many other things. Eric thought we were practicing segregation later on when we split into two cars - hey, it just so happened that Jeremy went with HIM! When our car passed his after dropping Tony off at the Skytrain station, Nate honked and I waved. He saw us and waved back. We went to Brewery Creek (Dogfish Ale?), where we saw two GREAT beers to "bring" to the banquet: BLASTED CHURCH and SATAN RED. Then we stopped by J.J. Bean coffee shop, heh.

Went to Nathan's, and watched BARTON FINK - artsy, with a weird ending! Ah, interesting films about writer's block! (talked about analysis, bittorrent sites, PRIMER, delayed deliveries, the WAR ROOM and not fighting in DR. STRANGELOVE, etc.) Jeremy was all dressed up complete with tie, and Eric asked whom he was trying to impress: he jokingly said he was trying to impress ME, haha. (he'd better not try to impress a GUY!) Jon sent Dallas to the wrong address accidentally, but he arrived right when we were going to leave for the banquet! Entertained Joshua and Keenan (hitting each other with pop bottles), laughed when Eric dropped a chicken piece in my tea, had a disgusted reaction when Rich told us about a dried mummified mouse in a vase, bemoaned the acoustics / sound system, groaned at the recycling of songs and slideshows from this morning (although the second slideshow was a HIT!), and saw pictures of the new baby on Rich's phone.

Said hi to Sonny, but couldn't really talk to him due to someone being in the way. Bantered with Ray, while saying hi to Stella / Lily / Hannah / Grace / Benjamin / Maxine / Denise / Brian / Cindy / Chrystal and her mom / Mike T. and others. (Andrew took a picture of me too!) Sheena complimented me on my purple toque - yup, she got it for me! (I was surprised when the manager Hester did that the other day) We entertained ideas for the next Sunday dinner / Jon's birthday: durian sauce, beef penis, cricket cake, and other things don't sound GREAT! It was a good time, and now I must sleep! Ted H., Itamar R., Steve H., Jerome B., Kenny S., Kathryn T., Serhan R., Kasun W., Boey C., and Ken W. have added me to Facebook for the Blood Games, too!