Cranberry mead, morbid kiddy stuff, dumplings, and more!

Wesley, Vivian, Karen, Lincoln, Jon, Harmony, her friend Karen from Toronto, and Lesley joined me / Jen / Jeremy / Christon / Isabel for dinner. Talked about Toronto vs. Vancouver, "Africa time," the INTERESTING stories Steph had told them at lunch, Dylan's wedding and the Walkathon, Jeremy's Kelowna trip before Mark goes to Queens, Dallas, the guest room, Ray out of there now, Mike T., earworms, cranberry mead, Arrogant Bastard Ale, Rejewvenate Hebrew Ale, sake, Laughing Buddha Ginger Ale, bean salad, homemade noodles, "pints" of beer not being what they seem, the PNE, dumplings, the film DUMPLINGS, Jeremy's homemade wrappers, and more. There was a cat that hopped onto the balcony where the soup for the noodles was simmering, so Jeremy said that the cat (from across the street) had got into his room once.

He'd opened the balcony window because it was too hot to sleep with it closed. He heard this banging and rustling at 3 AM, and was worried it was a raccoon or burglar... now he's trying to train it NOT to come in. This made Jon think of the song THE CAT CAME BACK, or of MAXWELL'S SILVER HAMMER by the Beatles as popular elementary school songs - I like the morbidity of the second! Then we figured that fairy tales and nursery rhymes were also very morbid - like HANSEL AND GRETEL!

Jon has finished teaching at his in-laws' church on Amos, and a bit about homelessness. We talked about people's reactions, and how some were NOT playing devil's advocate! Christon refused to tell us one interesting MOM story, but I'd almost forgotten about the "if you're playing Spoons, does that mean you're spooning?!" one... HAHAHAHA! Had Oreos for dessert, and Jeremy wanted me to take the leftovers home - I'd eat them just as fast as Harmony and Nathan would, AND am not actually home for two more days! Oh well, I decided to divide them up into two Ziploc bags - his hypothesis of "you can just give them to random children on the streets!" isn't quite the truth, haha. Nathan joined us later, and was very random in taking the conversation into certain directions. Ziplining, Jonas' stag / wedding, and Beaver Buzz energy drinks, oh my!

Nate advised me to transfer Canada Line trains on a Richmond-Brighouse one, but I didn't have to. They seem quite spacious compared to Skytrain, and cleaner! (but they've only been in operation for a week...) Steph picked me up, and we discussed Safeway pizza / milk, leftovers, cream, dishes, garbage, recycling, and more. Quite a nice dinner!