Jon's surprise party, almost KILLING myself leaving SERVANTS, and fruit hybrids

When Eric picked me up this afternoon, it was good timing as I'd just finished some tagging when I went out to meet him. He said that we'd be watching a movie at Dylan and Deb's place later... WHY THE HECK WAS I NOT INFORMED OF THIS?! Apparently, Randal had sent the email out this week - it figures that I wasn't on the list! Later, Dylan said not to kill Randal, but him instead - nah, I expect it from you! (haha) Eric made much of my brand-new Santa hat... yeah, I bought it myself just today! He figured out what the real problem was with my other one, but I don't mind... it WAS getting old, for sure! You can't wash those things (only SPOT CLEAN them), so maybe it's a good thing I bought a new one even if it has no stars! That way, nobody can make a big deal out of it! Updated him on Sunday and Monday nights, while he said that it might look like I need a new laptop battery, which cost anywhere from $80 to $200! I'll see what Chinese Eric has to say about that, although I wouldn't expect him to get one! We discussed red velvet cheesecake, then picked up Harmony after I vented about spending even MORE time with people, and she said she'd actually taken a vacation day from work in order to bake a cake and such. Of course, Jon thought she was at work and THEN going to one of the SERVANTS locations! (I told her that I'd shopped at Superstore, while Eric said that he'd slept in a long time [till 12:30], and that his brother is in town till Sunday) She's been coordinating this surprise party for a couple of weeks, and even got Aaron to DJ - she requested he play DOUBLE RAINBOW since Jon really likes that song, hahaha!

We got to the SERVANTS location where we were cooking, and Jason let us in. Took off our shoes and then went upstairs to see what needed to be done. Did stuff with chili, olive oil, tomatoes, old peppers, mushrooms, eggplants, and other things. The tomatoes fit neatly down the garbage disposal in the sink, haha! I was quite taken with a gold porcelain cup they had; yes, I know it's not real gold, but IT WAS SO SHINY! Mingled with some of the community while people at the other location tried getting Jon out of ours. They failed at least twice that I know of... "You want me to walk a bag of rice over?! Come on... I know you have more rice than that over there!" "Hey Eric, why is someone from there calling YOUR PHONE and asking to speak to someone HERE?!" (that had to be weird for Jon, haha) Helped myself to two sugar cookies (I had no real time to eat ALL DAY!) while we waited for "dinner" - finally, Randal convinced him to go over there with the excuse that Dylan was being difficult. Jon's response was: "I know his personality is like that, and he thinks it's the end of the world... but you have other chefs there! Get Christon to help! You seriously need ME to go over there?! Fine...." When he finally left, we put the pots of chili and other stuff in a few milk crates: they had PSYCHEDELIC BREAD, man! (pink, purple, green, and other crazy colors on edible bread from IGA; the kids thought they looked cool!)

By the time we got to the other location in the pouring rain, Jon had already been surprised: he says he knew that it was really a party once he got in the front door and saw the balloons. I mingled with some more people, one of whom asked why I'd moved away from him. TO BE CLOSER TO THE LITTLE KID! (who didn't like my Santa hat, haha) Eric said that I was a closet Christmas lover - NO, man! I just thought the SERVANTS community could use a little cheer, haha. It was VERY CROWDED in the kitchen and the house - two rambunctious kids didn't help, haha. I had some turkey / pork chili a la king while catching up with Aaron, saying that I'd seen Jon's FB wall post to him last night about how they should hang out sometime! (We both thought that the timing was really funny, knowing about the surprise party as we did: "Little do you know... haha!") He had thought it would be funny if he said that he never wanted to hang out with him, haha! (but he didn't say THAT) Also said hi to Dianne, Wesley, Cindy, Jen, Dylan, and others - Dianne thinks my siblings and I look alike! Jen and Randal were no help to me in that department, because they also thought we looked alike, even if I told them to pretend they didn't know us!

When we had to leave SERVANTS, I almost KILLED MYSELF GOING DOWN THE STAIRS since I thought there was only one more step, but there were two instead! I almost never say this (and thought I never would), but thank GOD that Randal had already descended the somewhat steep steps, as I had to catch him in order to prevent a truly embarrassing faceplant! (I *told* Eric that my night vision was bad... "YOU have night vision?!" "Yes, everyone does!") Of course, this merits a card or something... Eric teased me and thought that Randal would think I'm in love with him again just by that action! Um, I hope not! As we were on our way over to Dylan and Deb's, I told Eric that I would rather spend time online since I hadn't properly caught up with stuff ALL DAY! He said he wanted to hang out with people, and nothing would happen if I didn't catch up online... well, I like to stay connected that way!

While we were at Dylan and Deb's, I kept quiet, but did say hi to Deb. (saw Albert and some new guy in the back) We had popcorn and candied popcorn, plus some chips. Eric wondered if I were going to share the regular popcorn, but Deb had just passed out some candied popcorn - he didn't want my regular popcorn, haha! Originally, we were going to watch the original OCEAN'S ELEVEN (with the Brat Pack - Frank Sinatra and Peter Lawford), but the pacing was way too slow, so we opted for the more recent version with Julia Roberts / Brad Pitt / George Clooney. At least I now know the rest of the story (successful casino robbery due to switching, and getting the ex-wife back!), as opposed to just watching a bit of it like I did a few years ago! Thankfully, Eric decided to leave at 10:52 due to a 9 AM worship practice tomorrow - I have almost no doubt he's in bed by now, maybe. He deliberately pretended to slip and slide on the remaining ice / snow outside, then tried convincing me to turn my computer off when I got home; NOT GONNA HAPPEN! Also bugged me about Dave Wong / Mr. Creep, sang "the Cheat is not dead or in the obituaries!" in French, and did some Elvis from the movie: a little less conversation and a little more action, indeed! Finally got home and found out that the Canucks beat the Sharks 6-1! I did a LOT of skimming to catch up at a reasonable time, too... I didn't really want to stay up till 5 AM doing so!


Trivia fact for Saturday, Nov. 27: In the world of food, what's an aprium? How about a pluot? They're fruit hybrids. The aprium is about 75% apricot and 25% plum; the pluot, 75% plum and 25% apricot.