FISH BLADDER SOUP! / DESPICABLE ME at Peter and Holly's

Jon, Harmony, and Brittney picked me up as advertised, and spent the ride over to the HOHOHOs discussing church drama and pastorates. When we got into the house, Holly offered me some soup as I said hi to various relatives of theirs - sure, even if it's FISH BLADDER soup! (Harmony and Brittney didn't care for it - actually, Brittney doesn't really care for seafood AT ALL) Had beer, plenty of curry chicken, BBQ pork, Christmas cookies, Brie and crackers, a homemade strawberry cheesecake (for Harmony's grandpa's 91st / 92nd birthday), salad, and plenty of other stuff. Of course, I said hi to Grandma and tried to help her with things like her medications (CAN'T HELP!) - Mom said that I had something in her car [red licorice - not my thing - and sardines - and Life Saver gummi worms], which I pretty much barely acknowledged before going back to talk to the others. We talked about what we'd done last night, the dim sum lunch where I'd called Jon (more notable for some senior citizens pulling the fire alarm for the heck of it!), Chinese TV shows, the Pittsburgh-Washington hockey game ("PETER AND MYLES! COME BACK AND BE SOCIABLE / SIT WITH US!"), the days going by in a blur lately, trying to train yourself to get up early (which never works), looking up substitutes for whipping cream and such on someone's phone, Myles leaving early for karaoke at a friend's birthday party, and other things. I wanted a banana, but felt I should ask Harmony's mom first - she didn't care, and told me that they were casual over there. Yes, I did get that vibe from the previous times I've been over, but CHILDHOOD CONDITIONING ALWAYS WINS OUT, especially when my mom is around!

After a while of cooking and such, it was time for Harmony's grandpa to open his presents from Sears - a bed set will be useful, I'm sure! Jon and I asked Grandma when her birthday was since it changes all the time in our calendar - she said February 1. When Jon asked how old she'd be, I said she'd be 91 - that's why Steph wants to get the Federov jersey, haha! Peter recognized Edison Chan on the Chinese TV show that the old people were hanging out and watching - yep, he got BUSTED for several sex-related crimes because he left his laptop lying around or something! I'm not sure, but I think he may have gone to my junior high school! At about 10:30 (after a conversation about monkey brains / eating skinned dog / cats / dogs), my parents thought they should get going because Grandma was getting tired. Jon, Harmony, and I reminded her that tomorrow was Sunday and we'd see her at church! Harmony wanted to go to Holly and Peter's to play with Varley the dog, so Brittney and I went with them.

We talked about Jon's friend proposing with a FLASH MOB (it made the front page of the paper!), Brittney not having a great birthday on Dec. 11 (her cat died on the day OF - and she got some criticism / feedback the day before which didn't make her want to be a grownup), Groupons, DESPICABLE ME ("it's so fuzzy, I want to die!"), cute characters, apple cider, and more. I didn't really want to play with Varley only because I didn't want the slobber on his dog chew toy! He was distracted by my pants - apparently, he likes loose pants. No, I wasn't wearing sweatpants or anything... just the Sears casual ones I usually get. We watched a bunch of the movie, then decided we really should go since it was getting late, and we had to be up for church tomorrow. Man, it was pretty frosty outside for sure! (last night, Eric and I sat in the car for about five minutes waiting for the windows to defrost before we went home from Jeremy's!)