Ridiculous swap requests, poteens and Alaska, Chuck and Andrea, Scotland

High-scoring words of the night:

NOVAE (105 points) - against Teresa T. [5W, 2W, hook off QUA to make AQUA] {a good deficit-erasing word!}
POTEENS (207 points) - against Demetra K. [two 3W]
DEBASE (240 points) - against Demetra K. [3W, two 2W, 3L on B] {different game}
ALASKA (396 points) - against Dori E. [4W, two 3W]
ACID (100 points) - against Marta C. [5W, 4L on C]
HOTBOX (104 points) - against Bev O. [two 2W]

Now I've heard everything - Marta C. wanted me to ask her if it was okay to swap my tiles out first before doing so. I don't think so - sometimes, you just have to... and then I'd be giving you a turn to gain even more points on me!


I'm going to try and make this quick, but we'll see. Last year, I didn't quite make my goal. Eric called me when I'd fallen asleep since I simply HAD to take a nap. I was still half-asleep when I got into his car, and I even had to continue the nap on the Canada Line! Talked about nothing in particular, but I bet one of the discussion topics was yesterday! Hey, it was pretty awesome! He later asked me which night had been more special... no comment, man.

We saw Citrus in his uniform at the convention centre for Chuck and Andrea's banquet, so I told him that I'd seen the Citruso truck at Coal Harbor yesterday. He's seen it around town, too. Said hi to Jose as I went upstairs, trailing Eric. Got to the banquet room just in time for things to start - Steph suggested that I get some wine, haha. I told her that she'd be proud of me since I'd walked more than a kilometre yesterday. When she asked what I was doing at Ambleside, I told her that I was hanging out. Soon, Eric told Jon and Harmony (plus Raymond / Jeremy / Danielle / Brent / Steph / Vanessa) that I'd hung out with Dave Wong. Crazy! I told Harmony that it had been fun, we'd come up with ideas for future hangouts, and we'd talked for a long time about a lot of stuff. She said she was happy for me, which at least I can believe.

The table discussed Jon being a housewife (he cooks - but she cleans!), DESPERATE HOUSEWIVES and certain of their activities, 4chan and /b/ (Jeremy's advice to Raymond: "It's rather obscene, so check out the Wiki page FIRST before going there!" - he also asked whether I contributed... NO!), meat for the Albertans, wild salmon being VALUE, mushroom risotto, balsamic vinegar, how drunk Jeremy had been at this exact time last year plus four hours (SO MUCH WINE!), Uncle Daniel being a grandpa soon, poop jokes, TMI (Raymond and Brent now know way too much), "southern regions," "lump sums / donations," Cake references ("Going the distance!"), and more. I asked Steph when Vivian's wedding was - it's on Thursday (in or near UBC) since Gabriel's family is rather strict with the Orthodox Jew faith. You can't have the wedding on Friday or Saturday because of Shabbat! Steph was telling Vanessa that the bridesmaid dresses were purple, but kinda tight for her - oh dear! Turns out Steph is also losing a friend to marriage (sorta) since they move to Waterloo soon afterwards. Uncle Sam came to the table to wish Jon and Harmony a happy anniversary - he remembers because of a golf game, haha.

The speeches were kinda LONG, and it was no surprise that the toasting began before they were completed. We heard practically NO NOISE from any of the other tables - Steph said that Alan and Daniel represented our main competition as far as noise went. Table 28 should represent, yo! (and we did) The table had a good sightline as to my mom's facial expressions - she was NOT impressed when the three of us started singing kinda loudly to Tom Petty's FREE FALLING, and later remarked that she'd been on her way over to shut us up! Hahaha, like THAT would work anyway! The NGS are LOUD! I think she was even more horrified when we started yelling random things - Johnny and Jen thought Jon was drunk already, but that wasn't the case. Steph said that she should borrow a breathalyzer from work to take to either the next wedding OR Sunday Dinner (with advance notice), haha. (Alan was GONE, Christon said)

The girls all got the guys to take pictures of them - later, Steph got the BRIGHT IDEA for a few family pictures. UGH! I had to survive it, though. Chrystal said that she HAD gone this afternoon for the first part, so I told her about things working out this afternoon. Steph, Vanessa, and I skipped the bouquet toss (Vivian got it) in favor of going to the washroom. I confronted Karen Choo on my way there - she thinks I can call her again, but I think I know when someone's doing a FADE on me or ignoring me without their saying so. When the dancing started, Eric and I left - good timing, since we got the right train as it was pulling into the station! He said I might not have survived if I'd stepped onto the escalator as I was going to do - yeah, you know when I'm past it because I spill water everywhere on the table! (or rum and Coke on the computer keyboard, as happened in summer 2008) It's a 9:15 outing tomorrow, so I should be ready for sure! We also talked about taking showers... I do SO take showers regularly!


Trivia fact for Sunday, June 6: What is Scotland's Firth of Forth? It's an estuary, or firth - a narrow arm of the sea - at the lower end of the River Forth, which flows into the North Sea.