Pirates getting seasick / ROM restarts are ANNOYING!

Had to do laundry today; bloody hell! Mom said that they could pick Eric up at about 5:10 tomorrow for the baby banquet, and then pick me up soon after - I guess that works! Now, to see if Eric is going to get on MSN tonight, haha. Had to restart FFVA yet AGAIN - this time on a different rom file altogether - because of the stupid random encounter tiles on the Big Bridge being the same as last time and NOT WORKING! If this doesn't work, I'm glad I have a complete bestiary code for my photo albums! (also got INTERESTING news from James just now, har har)


A pirate who still gets seasick!

Snoring baby nephews / YVR bear / Sausage and watermelon

Woke up at 7 AM for some stupid reason: lots of time for gaming and such, then! Called Eric at about 9:15, and Ron answered the phone. Yes, please make sure your son is awake enough for a phone call after his "late-night" hijinks at Alistair's, haha! When Eric did get on the phone, I told him that I'd probably be at Jon and Harmony's taking care of the baby, and to just pick me up from there for the BBQ whenever he decided to leave. Of course, I had to have coffee at the Copa Café later on, heh... I mailed Siobhan's Canucks lip balm / Vegas postcard / greeting card first, though. Met Auntie Catherine and Marcus when they arrived half an hour late; Mattias was with his other grandma. Talked about Vegas (but not the real reason why I was there), steak, rice, veggies, water, Bible Study, feeding kids, dropping napkin pieces on the floor, fussiness, plans, whether my sister has a boyfriend yet (HAHAHAHAHA), Facebook, and other things. No, she didn't have to drive me anywhere; I had time to kill, so decided to walk to Jon and Harmony's. I had to rest a couple times at bus stops and things of that nature (like a playground swing), but browsed FRONT ON MAIN and their interesting books for at least half an hour once I found out from the BAREFOOT CONTESSA people that the Riley Park library was closed down! Thank goodness it didn't really start pouring rain till I was in the house... it was indeed fortuitous that I grabbed a jacket before I left!

Mom and Dad were already there helping with the baby and laundry, and I got to find out where the laundry machines were. Talked about Grandma not going to bed till 2-3 AM (poor care aides!) / profound loss / care home activities like the aquarium / different levels of dementia (I feigned interest for Chinese Eric's sake), Safeway $5 sales, socks, kissing the baby, various aspects of baby care, the baby being happy with blowdrying after a diaper change, the one-month dinner on Sunday, a new ESC pastor / family meeting, poop, pee, Russia, cards, Teunis, Uncle Michael / Yvonne / Aaron / Lillian, Auntie Kwai, and more. I got to hold the baby for quite a while after he fell asleep (opened his eyes occasionally), and he started snoring! To me, that was amusing - but Dad thought he shouldn't. Hey, all I do is move blankets if they're too near his nose or mouth... Mom thought that I was making the little noises; NO!

When Uncle Joe got there with fish congee and more, my parents left since they had stuff to do. I took the opportunity to check stuff on the laptop a bit later. Auntie Wing Yee got there even later, and I told Harmony (who was up at the time) that I'd put her Vegas gifts on the table. There was a reason why I'd waited till my parents left, haha. She thanked me for the postcard / green necklace / shirts / teddy bear when she opened the bag! Harmony's mom certainly had stuff to say regarding "air-drying" the baby to prevent diaper rash; I tended to agree with Harmony that the process probably doesn't involve practically wrapping the baby in blankets and leaving a little air pocket at the bottom, but I didn't say anything. At least she said she'd do it her way! Discussed food, landlords, feeding baby, syringe feedings, strollers, mocha balls, Jon being at worship practice, vinegar and eggs, Chinese Eric saying hi and wanting to see the baby, my recent rough patch, and more.

Eric called later to say he was leaving his house; sounds fine to me! When he got here, I told him to come meet the baby for a bit, who was sleeping in his bassinet by then. Discussed my mom's Sunday ride offer, my not being able to be trusted around babies ("the baby's safe now"), today's hockey draft, the ESC pastor / family meeting news being true (and Eric intends to be at said meeting on Sunday!), and more on the way to church. At church, I updated Alan / Sam / Tracy / Jon / Phil / Vivian / Connie / Randal / Raymond about Vegas and the baby news while having sausages / potato salad / watermelon / hot dogs / salad / eggplant / garlic bread. Julie just got back from Uganda, too. I cleared the air with Randal as far as the FB notes on the past were concerned, and I'm sure he thought it was more disturbing than he suspected! Lesley gave me $2 back for the farewell dinner ticket, which I did hear about. Discussed Jon's "breastfeeding attempt," the grad banquet, the FAMILY FEUD game, how Micah might adjust to L.A., it being best NOT to post pictures of the blowdrying process to Facebook (Jon thought that would be the best!), Ivan's stolen stuff, cheese-filled smokies / SLB squirting out their contents, Tracy's pregnancy, eating a lot, and more. On the way home, we heard about Jerry Sandusky's conviction on 45 of 48 counts of sexual crimes against children - GOOD!


Baby Ayler: I'm a boy, I'm three days old in hospital, and I love it when my aunt holds me!




This is where I make like a bear in the YVR airport on the way to Vegas:




Hi! I'm 3.5 weeks old, and I snore already!

Helping with cues / BABY TIME! / No stalkers here!

I called Chinese Eric before my Southern (?) dinner of Chicken Fried Rice, but his mom said he was getting ready for dinner... it's all good! Then I noticed that Auntie Catherine had called me, so I returned the call: three-year-old Mattias answered, and didn't say she was in the bathroom this time, hahaha. To help him along with cues after he said she was home, I asked if I could please speak to her. That worked! She'd been holding Marcus, and wanted to see if I could meet half an hour earlier tomorrow. Since I kinda need the extra time just in case anything goes wrong, I split the difference and said 10:45 would be fine by me. Apparently, there was no problem with that!

Later, I called Jon to confirm for tomorrow: he said that Mom was at least halfway accurate when she'd told me that Harmony sleeps till the early afternoon after feeding the baby at night, and added that the lards would be coming over at around 2. Lots of stuff to do on Main till then, I'm sure... he also gave me their address, so I wrote that down for posterity / bus-taking purposes. Should be interesting! I don't mind if I'm given chores to do which could utilize my gifts: ORGANIZING THINGS! Then I tried calling white Eric, but Veronica said he was at Alistair's - DAMMIT, THE ONE TIME I NEED TO MAKE FRIDAY PLANS ON A THURSDAY?! AIYA!

At about 10, Chinese Eric called to ask if I'd called him; you bet I did, good friend of mine! We discussed his new "Facebook phase" so he won't be a dinosaur (but he would like to keep his privacy - VERY understandable!), my not trusting sudden stuff, Korey and the insincere stuff he says, Randal, James and "sudden changes," lupus and the kidney / systemic attacks, Chrystal, the mango / cream cheese sushi at Tokyo Joe's, new food choices, diets and restrictions, white Eric, dating / relationship / marriage advice (he can ask Jon later when he's ready!), red meat / fish / chicken / fruits / veggies, words changing meaning (like "gay" / "dinner" sometimes meaning "lunch" / "sad" meaning "angry" as per Pete's Texas slang), and how people use Facebook for different things. (he doesn't have to use it all the time like SOME do) Also conversed about psychotic people, his going to hang out with his grandma in the next week, reading up on Internet stuff, my grandma and her new situation (Chinese staff?), that "the grass is greener on the other side" phenomenon when it came to singlehood / relationships (unless it's going REALLY WELL), stages of life, baby stuff, how I should say hi to Jon and Harmony for him (of course!), how it was good to have some time of dating / then time for marriage BEFORE kids unless REALLY necessary (I know what he means!), and how his mom knows that I'm a good person / non-stalker material!

She knows that Nathan's friends are usually good people, heh. I just call him every few days to see how he is (and let's not lie here - to have REAL FRIEND time with a familiar voice), not every hour on the hour to harass them, haha! Admittedly, I call him more frequently than I may have used to even years ago, but he says it's all cool. (YAY!) His priority right now is stabilizing his health, which did change his perspective on life for obvious reasons. We got into how some people date for a long time before taking the next step: he's like me in that he'd prefer to know someone for a while first! That was an AWESOME hour-long conversation, which only ended since he had another call coming in - I believe him! Of course I'll talk to him one way or the other (with baby [banquet] updates!) when the crazy weekend is over; he knows this! I told him that he'd better take care of his health and manage it well because I want him around for a LONG TIME to come!

Blood on the dance floor / "Arr! Pirates do as we please!"

Dancers leaving blood on the dance floor - MICHAEL JACKSON reference, ahoy! :D




Pirate Captain Faris' pirates in the Pirate Cove hideout: "Arr! We be pirates, an' do as we please!"

Finished purging! / Random encounter tiles! / Inner strength allows me NOT to struggle!

I finally finished the Facebook photos and notes "purging / re-tagging project" at 2:25 AM, which would have been about an hour sooner were it not for an Internet outage! The photo albums weren't so bad since I was done with them in a couple of hours on the first day, but I had written about 610 notes since October 2007, and had to edit a majority of them for paragraph issues as well! That took about four days or so, with no gaming breaks!

The notes about Korey made Randal think I was struggling with that, so he left some religious-based comfort on my FB wall; I know he means well, though. Trust me, I've found enough inner strength to deal with it in the last four years! If I were truly struggling, I wouldn't have the strength to even OPEN those! However, he IS right in that I'm struggling with some totally unrelated issues - James, for one!

Now I can get back into gaming! But I had to restart the game AGAIN (seven and a half hours in) because of the stupid random encounter tiles with totally missable enemies (Merrow / Flying Killer / Little Chariot / Neo Garula) on the Big Bridge in Galuf's world after Exdeath's castle - no amount of swearing is enough to convey my frustration!

Tokyo Joe's, TRIPLE TOILET PAPER ROLLS, allergies, Ayler, and limiting contact

Discovered the start of redrum an hour before I was due to meet up with Chrystal, so at least that was good timing - it was much less stressful than LAST time in Vegas, that's for sure! Chrystal and I finally did get together for dinner / life catchup tonight, meeting at the London Drugs as usual. I gave her the Las Vegas postcard and Vegas rose pen, plus two Wunderbars since she'd mentioned she hadn't tried them before. We went to Tokyo Joe's for dinner: mango cream cheese sushi, spicy scallop roll, spicy tuna roll, spicy sauce, California roll, cucumber roll, miso soup, and tea! Told her what had happened with James / shattered trust / FEELINGS, and she was understanding. Yes, the moves I've taken are pretty smart: LIMIT CONTACT BECAUSE I CAN'T HANDLE IT EMOTIONALLY, YO! I made sure to say that my online friends and Chinese Eric helped me, as well. (and so is she!)

Then I updated her on everything that happened with the baby and Grandma and the Vegas wedding (escalators / privacy); I realized that Ayler's one-month baby banquet will be THIS SUNDAY. Time goes by fast! She updated me on her company moving: it'll be closer for her! Discussed my parents going to Russia, her parents going to Hong Kong in October, her Seattle aunt and uncle being in town for the summer, and more. After we'd walked for a short distance (and gone into Chapters to discuss 50 SHADES OF GREY), we went our separate ways. I went into London Drugs to get things which I desperately needed before next week: TRIPLE ROLLS of toilet paper x2, and big on-sale containers of apple juice. Discussed pollen allergies briefly with a teen at the bus stop: "there are too many trees," he said. Guess I'm lucky I don't suffer from them, but I didn't say that since it just sounds bad. :P

Ditziness with Chrystal / WANTED DEAD OR ALIVE

I thought Chrystal and I were getting together tonight, so I called her at work to "confirm" this. She said it was actually tomorrow... whoops! At least I knew it was either today or tomorrow! Turns out I missed time with either Grandma or baby Ayler today then, but I needed the day to purge tags and such from old Facebook notes. That's been my all-consuming project for the last few days; not even taking a break for gaming! Good thing that it's mainly been quiet on the IM front, too. With this, maybe I can finish the project by tomorrow afternoon, and go out guilt-free.


Which Bon Jovi Song Suits You Best?

You are: Wanted Dead or Alive

You are a cowboy, and you are wanted dead or alive. You can relate to this song because you feel like your life isn't really going anywhere. You like westerns, and love your cowboy hat.

Take the Which Bon Jovi Song Suits You Best? quiz at Quizopolis.com

Nocturnal grandparents?! / True friends, reconnection, appreciation, diets, and nutrition

Last night, I reconnected with Ryan on FB - that was pretty good, especially since he can relate to me about recent events. I told him to take his time getting back to me if he needed to, and we agreed that we'd missed each other. Vanessa buzzed me on MSN this afternoon while I was making Spanish Rice for lunch, so we talked about expensive dieting / healthy eating and nutrition advice / losing weight / my not getting sick often / her being unable to eat out while she's in town this weekend / her getting a new computer from Memory Express when she was here last. At least that diet isn't a scam, as she knows a female sailor who's done it more than once! I know it sucks, though - but if she wants to lose 80 pounds, she hopes the expense isn't wasted! Hopefully, it works for her!

Tonight, I really wanted some "true friend" time, so called Chinese Eric. He said he'd been going to take a shower, but I didn't mind delaying that unless it was urgent! (his mom had been doing the "dreaded Asian mom yell," haha) We discussed his going on Facebook just to look at pictures of baby Ayler ("he's cute"), SERVANTS, Awana and the time commitment needed (of course he doesn't want to disappoint people by showing up only occasionally - with his situation!), piano talent / rap, gardening / tomatoes, Father's Day, Grandma's dementia / lots of family changes recently, parenting, maybe hanging out with baby on Friday (if I don't hear from him by then, I'll know he can't), grandparents, long-term care homes, difficult decisions, my appreciation of his laptop gift / his appreciation of my mailing Vancouver postcards and Christmas cards (for the "HOME" feeling!) when he was in Hong Kong, Nathan's relative "student freedom" in London compared to the Macau casino job in HK, and more. I got away with calling him "darling" only because he thought the word for PATERNAL grandparents was "NOCTURNAL," but at least he knew that didn't sound right. Hey, he always has me as backup since I won't make fun of him for not knowing things! "Maternal" is at least easier since it also starts with an M, I agreed.

Cuddling babies in incubators?! (dream) / UPKEEP AND BUSYWORK

I didn't make it to church, but that's okay! Of course, Eric tried calling me! Had a weird dream: Harmony was about to give birth in a hospital, but baby Ayler was just over a year old. He was playing with toy cars when Jon and Harmony weren't cuddling with him in a huge incubator machine. Calla was a nurse there, and decided that Harmony was due for labor because her breasts were really distended, so took her and Jon away. Steph and I tended to the baby, and got him to line up all his cars in a neat row. Auntie Betty showed up with a little Dawn, and held her hand as she opened the big heavy door all by herself. Last thing I remember of the dream: we were all playing with the kids! I don't even want to know why I had it! (am also busy with my "FB tagging / photos / pictures / notes" upkeep idea this afternoon... maybe I'll call my rock later tonight)

STELLA!!!!! ("Streetcar Named Desire" - Marlon Brando) / YOU OUGHTA KNOW

Jon emailed me back about baby Ayler - Friday should be fine pending confirmation later on, and getting to their place is fairly easy from King Edward Station. (25 Main or walking) For some reason, he's surprised to hear that I was sick - it happens to the best of us, haha. STUPID STRESS!


Alanis Morissette and YOU OUGHTA KNOW describes my situation perfectly:




The main character Bartz in FF V ADVANCE visits his hometown Lix, and is plunged into memories when playing a pink music box in his old house. Could this be a reference to A STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and Marlon Brando? (context: his dad Dorgann is about to leave on an adventure, but the mother Stella suffers from spasms and dies!)