Postponed Canada Day BBQ - scorpions, cats, slaughter, and the rain defeating us

Sam and Jeremy picked me up later in the afternoon, and we were off - discussed singing, warming up one's vocal cords, a certain song that Christon led for the first time a while back, poor drivers, sports, and more. When we got to the park, there were already a few people helping to set up and such, with more coming later. I interacted with Billy, Stella, their sons Benjamin and Noah (toys and the maple leaf!), Alan and Tracy, Alan's nephews Noah and Everett, Tim, Maxine (soon off to do wedding dress fitting with Karen Chan), Joshua, Keenan, Christon, Jeremy, Jen, Citrus in his uniform, Darren (hot dogs!), Jessica Leung, Auntie Rebecca, Auntie Catherine, Auntie Susan, Vivian (Montreal AND Cuba!), Randal, Margaret, Mark, William, Mary, Sarah, Reigan, Jinny, Cindy, Ivan, Lesley, Connie, Phil, Grace, Emily / Nina / Gerard, Joey (on crutches AGAIN!), Emily Lam, Eric / Matthew, Katie, Quan, Amy, some other friends of Darren's, Jeremy J., new people (Awana / Fellowships / VBS info), and others. Apparently, Benjamin told Jessica that his name was George! Hahaha, so cute! When Noah left, he waved bye to us! Thank goodness a certain person (or should that be certain people?) did NOT show up!

Jeremy said that one of their goals during the Portland trip was to go where the black people were, but they only had sporadic sightings of those! They were going to go to a fried chicken place, but then got steered to another one - there was nobody in the second one because the people who suggested it to them had just left! (so funny!) Christon said that when they crossed the border back into Canada, the crossing was ALMOST textbook... that is, until they told the border guards that they had purchased $200 worth of alcohol (72 bottles' worth) and $150 worth of books. Randal had to wonder whether beer usually came in bottles down there - maybe if you do what the guys did, and stick to microbrews! At any rate, Jeremy's beer cellar is now stocked for at least another few months or so!

Talked about the Maritimes, Nathan stopping by to convince them to go to Dragon Ball last night, strange stuff tasting like chicken, lobster, scorpions, bugs on pizza, Jen and Viv's upcoming Cuba trip (plenty of water for hydration / the intense heat / sunscreen / Telus training as a conflict), animals KNOWING when you're going to slaughter them, going to SERVANTS for the movie screening / the Richmond or Chinatown Night Markets afterward, not being in the mood to just sit or stand around, my mom eating cat once (of course Jeremy knew the story), and more. Jen asked me whether I'd received the email about Randal's surprise - yes, but we're not CLOSE at all, and it would have been kind of awkward. I told her that we weren't really FRIENDS, but she reminded me to be respectful - I can't speak for him, but I think we've reached the stage where we can at least be civil and polite. No insults here!

Later, the girls were discussing SO YOU THINK YOU CAN DANCE All-Stars... even I recognized a few of the names (Comfort / Twit / Katie), thanks to summer 2008 and The Evil One. Then they were discussing cleavage (almost) falling out of tops - the guys were playing football / volleyball, but Mike chose this inopportune time to come over to see what we were talking about. Quan, Amy, and Katie (wrapped in blankets) all told him that he did NOT want to know! Isabel said that she feels like she has to repeat / go along with the bakery customers' mispronunciation of such things as "pecan" and "scone" - NO!!!! Jonathan then said (jokingly?) that cleaning up was a woman's job, so he earned himself two smacks on the head from me and Margaret for THAT! It was a pretty good time, although of course there would have been more turnout if we didn't have to postpone the event! Sam said that the rain defeated us (in terms of doing stuff later) even though we live in Vancouver... it's so true that the weather can make you depressed!