Clemens, Nessie, DUCK HUNT, 5-4 shootout win!

Decided to do laundry today before the game. Corey told me months ago that I'd regret it if I deleted my NES emulator (Nessie), and I'm doing that RIGHT NOW since I want to play DRAGON WARRIOR 3 and 4 with codes. Guess I know how I'll be spending my time! Thank goodness I listed the codes for posterity in this post! Jon says there's a Filipino Food Night on Easter Sunday; well, I'm not going if a certain someone ELSE is, that's for sure! Since I couldn't write on the Canucks' FB wall during the crazy game (Anaheim and Vancouver exchanged goals ALL THE TIME) with the Ducks (DUCK HUNT), I instead exchanged messages with Clemens; he says it's fine and non-creepy if I said I missed the banter. Phew! 5-4 WIN IN THE SHOOTOUT, TYING US ON POINTS WITH THE RANGERS!!!!!!!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D

Addicted to gasoline / AUSTIN POWERS

After talking to James about stuff, I watched several episodes of HOARDERS: BURIED ALIVE and a MY STRANGE ADDICTION show about a girl who's addicted to drinking gasoline, and a black girl who's addicted to carrying her doll head around wherever she goes AND smelling it. A different episode: a guy has a committed relationship with his car ("our favorite song is REO Speedwagon's CAN'T FIGHT THIS FEELING!"), and a black woman is addicted to snorting baby powder.

EWWW! I just saw the preview for the season finale next week: A girl is addicted to drinking urine, and even uses it to brush her teeth! Watched AUSTIN POWERS: INTERNATIONAL MAN OF MYSTERY, too. That just brought back a ton of memories from when my sibs and I watched it, possibly at Justin's. MEOW MIX AND HORNINESS! The movie ended at the right time, as Mom's recording of THE GOOD WIFE started at 10. Took the garbage and recycling out, too.

Quintuplets Info, as of 2/29/12

Thank goodness for the Internet Wayback Machine! All info taken from Facts About Multiples.


Total Sets
I have recorded 795 sets of quintuplets in the world as of February 2012.

Earliest Quint Births
999 C.E. - Unidentified - A reference was found in the Annales Ottenburani SA 999, in MGH Scriptores V: 4 or 5.

First US Set
1875 - Kanouse (Wisconsin, February 13 1875). The five boys all died shortly after birth. There have been other sets born earlier, but none with solid information on them.

First Set To Survive
1934 - Annette Lillianna Marie, Yvonne Edouilda Marie (d June 23 2001), Cécile Marie Emilda, Marie Rein Alma (d 1970), and Émilie Marie Jeanne (d August 6 1954) Dionne (Ontario, Canada, May 28 1934). They were wards of the province and became a tourist attraction, housed in a hospital with a viewing area.

Identical Quintuplets
7 sets (possibly 8)

1786 - Waddington (likely in England, April 25 1786). Three were stillborn and 2 died shortly after birth. The bodies were preserved, and were tested & found to be identical.
1849 - unidentified (last name begins with W) (England, 1849) 5 boys, none survived. Reportedly one placenta from one egg; reported in London Lancet
1934 - Dionne (Canada, May 28 1934) Annette, Yvonne (d June 23 2001), Cécile, Marie (d 1970), and Émilie (d August 6 1954). The first set of identical quintuplets to survive.
1936 - unidentified (North Carolina, November 1936) 3 stillborn, 2 lived 30 mins. One was acephalic (had no head). There was 1 chorion, 1 placenta. The mother was 20.
1959 - Hannan (Texas, October 20 1959) Deborah (d), Janet (d), Karen (d), Melissa (d at one day), Suzanne Kay (d). They were the first set to be identified in utero by x-rays.
2004 - Quiroga/Aguilar (Mexico, August 24 2004) Lariza, Nessy, Diana, Tania, and Sonia. An article here states they are identical.
2007 - Molino (Philippines, November 7 2007) none survived, Clarisse, Claire, Kimberly, Joy, Mary Joy.

Possibly identical:

2008 - Szymkiewicz (Poland, April 2008) 5 girls, Olivia, Maja, Julia, Natalia, Karolina

The unidentified cases before 1934 were established by geneticist Dr. Norma Ford Walker (1893 - 1968).

Identical Quintuplets (All currently surviving)
1 set (possibly 2)

2004 - Quiroga/Aguilar (Mexico, August 24 2004) Lariza, Nessy, Diana, Tania, and Sonia. An article here states they are identical.

Possible:
2008 - Szymkiewisz (Poland, April 2008) 5 girls, Olivia

First US Quints To Survive
1963 - James Andrew (Jimmy), Mary Magdalene (Maggie), Mary Margaret (Margie), Mary Anne, and Mary Catherine Fischer (South Dakota, September 14 1963). 2 are identical.

Most Premature (All surviving)
24 weeks - Kameron, Izak, Chase, Halee, and Alexa Stone (Georgia, August 5 1999).
24 weeks, 3 days - Katina, Stephanie, Brooklyn, Shawn, and Darin Derks (Wisconsin, May 5 2003).
24 weeks, 3 days - Ilah, Paige, Ellie, Gia, and Enzo Spicocchi (Ohio, August 3, 2010)

Lightest Quint Birth Weight (Total, all surviving)
5 lbs 15.6 ozs - Stone (Georgia, August 5 1999) Kameron 1 lb 3 ozs, Izak 1 lb 3 ozs, Chase 1 lb 6 ozs, Halee 1 lb 4 ozs, Alexa 15.6 ozs.
6 lbs 6.5 ozs - Derks (Wisconsin, May 5 2003) Katina 1 lb 3 ozs, Stephanie 1 lb 3.5 ozs, Brooklyn 1 lb 5 ozs, Shawn 1 lb 3 ozs, Darin 1 lb 8 ozs.
7 lbs 15 ozs - Cassidy (Ireland, August 16 2001) Rory, Conor, Cian, Amy 1 lb 5 ozs, Dearbhail (g) (highest was 1 lb 11 ozs)

Lightest Quint Birth Weight (Single Quint Baby, surviving)
15 ozs - Nicholas Finer (Iowa, January 21 2000).
15 ozs - Giana Renteria (California, January 9 2005)
15.6 ozs - Alexis Stone (Georgia, August 5 1999).

One of the Torres girls weighed 13 ozs; I do not know if she survived.

Longest Gestation
34 weeks, 3 days - Joshua, Zachary, Dillon, Dalton, and Madison Wilson (from Pennsylvania, born in Arizona, July 23 2003).
34 weeks - The Hernandez/Torres (Mexico, December 30 1993) 5 boys.
33.5 weeks - Aguilar/Montiel (Mexico, August 24 2004)

Heaviest Quint Birth Weight (Total, All surviving)
21 lbs 7.2 ozs - Kassidy (5 lbs 1.2 ozs), Kaydence (3 lbs 6 ozs), Kyndall (4 lbs 2 ozs), Rustin (4 lbs 15 ozs), Ryder (3 lbs 15 ozs) Wilkinson (from Texas, born in Arizona, July 31 2007).
21 lbs 1.2 ozs - Joshua (5 lbs 1.6 ozs), Zachary (3 lbs 9.4 ozs), Dillon (4 lbs 7 ozs), Dalton (4 lbs 3.2 ozs), Madison (3 lbs 12 ozs) Wilson (Arizona, Jul 23 2003).
20 lbs 14 ozs - Abigail, Kathryn, Emiline, Samuel, and Nathaniel Bova (California, March 1 2001).

Heaviest Quint Birth Weight (Single Baby)
5 lbs 1.6 ozs - Joshua Wilson (born in Arizona, July 23 2003).
4 lbs 12 ozs - David Phillips (born in Texas, October 2008).
4 lbs 9 ozs - One of the Bova quints, (California, March 1 2001).

Oldest Living Set (All 5 survive)
61 years old - Diligenti (Argentina, July 15 1943) Maria Esther, Maria Fernanda, Maria Christina, Carlos Alberto, Franco (spontaneous)

First Quints From Fertility Drugs
1965 - Samuel Christian Clayton, Deborah Ann, Lisa Gay, Shirlene Jan, and Selina Joy Lawson (New Zealand, July 27 1965).

World's First IVF Quints
World - Alan, Brett, Connor, Douglas, and Edward Jacobssen (England, April 26 1985).
USA - Alexandria, Danielle, Erica, Veronica, and Raymond L'Esperance (Michigan, January 11 1988).
Canada - Maxine, Remington, Willie, Lance, and Wade Collier (Ontario, Canada, February 6 1988).
Mexico - Andrea, Alondra, Adela, Arturo, and Pascual Cuevas/Burciaga Mexico, March 15 1998).
Venezuela - Samuel, Fabricio (d), Jose-Alejandro, Jesus, and Jose-Francisco Cestari (Venezuela, November 21 1998).
China - Unidentified (April 2000).

All Male Quints (History)
45 sets - I have only found 45 recorded sets, only 16 (possibly 20) living.

All Male Quints (All 5 Living)
16 sets (possibly 20)

1914 - Salemi (Italy, May 13 1914) All survived after 1 week
1982 - Glasel (Israel, December 1982) Ziv, Ron, Shay, Dor, and Oz.
1983 - Ribero/Gil (Spain, August 14 1983) Agustin, Luis, Juan, Francisco, and Fermin.
1983 - Dormieu (France, December 19 1983) Benjamin, Pierre, Antoine, Clement, and Sylvain.
1985 - Jacobssen (England, April 26 1985) Alan, Brett, Connor, Douglas, and Edward.
1987 - Ascher (Germany, September 24 1987) Benjamin, Dominick, Daniel, Fabian, Felix
1992 - Guerra/Faciline (Argentina, June 28 1992)
1996 - Guttensohn (Alabama, August 8 1996) Mason Fielder, Eric Tanner, Hunter Christian, Parker Allen, and Taylor James.
1996 - Dourthe/Orrego (Chile, October 1996) Joaquín, Vicente, Francisco, Ignacio, and Sebastián. Two are identical.
1999 - Wells (Texas, December 14 1999) Jantzen, Briley, Zachary, Landen, and Jaden.
2004 - Kupe (Albania, March 19 2004) all survived their birth
2004 - Peltz (Minnesota, April 24 2004) Austin, Blake, Clayton, Daniel, and Ethan. Two of the boys are identical.
2005 - Moreno/Gonzalez (Arizona, April 26 2005) Enrique, Gabriel, Victor, Javier, and Jorge. Some may be identical.
2007 - Smith/Harris (South Carolina, July 27 2007) Matthew, Johnathan, Laten, Nicolas, Cody. Spontaneous.
2009 - Kumari (India, April 12 2009)
2009 - Conklin (Pennsylvania, 2009) Ian, Sawyer, Wesley, Micah, Travis

The other possible living sets are:

1957 - Unidentified (Turkey, July 1 1957)
1980 - Neuhoff (South Africa, February 29 1980)
1993 - Hernandez/Torres (Mexico, December 30 1993)
1999 - Unidentified (Saudi Arabia, 1999) doubt that all survived, as they said a set born in 2001 was the first to survive in Saudi Arabia.

In addition, there is also a set of 5 surviving male sextuplets, the Alexandros set, who live in California.

All Female Quints (History)
33 sets - There have only been 33 proven sets of all female quintuplets.

All Female Quints (All 5 Living)
5 sets (possibly 7)

1969 - Hanson (England, November 13 1969) Julie, Jacqueline, Joanne, Sarah, and Nicola.
2004 - Reyes/Quistian (Mexico, March 25 2004) Alba, Ananke, Regina, Dominique, Monserrat
2004 - Quiroga/Aguilar (Mexico, August 24 2004) Lariza, Nessy, Diana, Tania, Sonia (spontaneous, all identical)
2007 - Artamkin (from Russia, born in UK) Elizaveta, Alexandra, Nadezhda, Tatiana, Varvara
2008 - Szymkiewicz (Poland, April 5) Olivia, Maja, Julia, Natalia, Karolina (spontaneous, may be all identical)

The other sets that may have all 5 living are:

1979 - Torres (Colombia, October 1979)
1999 - Unidentified (Italy, July 1999) Sara, Beatrice, Benedetta, Arianna, and Martine.

First Set of African-American Quints To Survive
1983 - Joshua, Rhealyn, Brandon, Ashlee, and Renee Gaither born in Indiana August 3 1983.

Quints Without Fertility Methods (Spontaneous/natural conception)
111 sets - Almost all occurred before the 1960s. Since 1965, when the first set was born from fertility methods, only 23 sets have been conceived spontaneously in the world.

Youngest Mother of Quints
19 years old - Mother of Andre-Luiz, Manuel-Antonio, Daniel, Isaac, Levi De Oliviera Pereira (Brazil, October 30 2003) 4 surviving.
20 years old - Mother of Charla, Chanda, Christa, Chelsa, Casey Davis (Texas, July 18 1975).
20 years old - Unidentified (North Carolina, 1936) 5 boys.

Youngest Father of Quints
18 years old - Father of Tiques/Torres (Colombia, October 3 1979) 5 girls, 4 survive

Most Sets
2 - Unidentified (Malawi, Africa) She had 1 set of twins, 1 set of triplets, 2 sets of quints, and 1 set of sextuplets by 1961. 7 out of 10 children from seven pregnancies were alive in 1961.
2 - Kelly (Pennsylvania) triplets, quintuplets (1826), quintuplets (1826), twins (1827).

Sets With Identicals
27 sets total - Ranging from just 2 babies identical (17 sets), all identical (6 or 7 sets), 3 identical and 2 identical (1 set), 3 identical and 2 fraternal (1 set), 2 sets of identical twins (2 sets).

Delayed Quint Birth (All surviving)
17 days - Bailey, Shelby, Avery, William, Lucas Wainscott (Kentucky, November 16 and December 2 2001). All survive.

Surrogate Quints
2 sets - The Dysarz/Meehan set was conceived as quints, with 4 surviving. The Moreno/Gonzalez set were born April 26 2005.

Hospital Delivering the Most Quints
11 sets - Banner Good Samaritan Hospital in Arizona (as of 2009).

Sets Born Per Year (USA)
Since 1989, there have been an average of 12 sets of quintuplets and higher born in the US each year.
4.68% of all quints will have some identical children.

Clemens, Troy, BAD Translink, Pete, Eric, and losses

Note to self: Despite what the Translink website may say, the C94 does NOT show up much on the weekend / Saturdays in general. Fuck waiting for ages (almost an HOUR in the cold?!) at the bus stop with a billion library books! After a few exchanged messages about Canucks hockey and such, Clemens W. (from Germany) added me to Facebook; I hope this doesn't turn out like the time I had some foreign Canucks fan on my friends list for two minutes, OR like the time I unknowingly added a creepy Canucks fan named Mark Moreau! Troy A. also added me, heh.

Suggested the idea of another siblings dinner while the lards are away to Jon / Harmony / Lisa / Steph; Steph seemed amenable to that, and added that we could take Big G out as well. Hey, that works - I forgot about her, actually. I know, I know... that sounds BAD, so I will do any expiation right now! Bryan also started a YM conversation, which was fair enough. Eric bugged me on MSN when I wasn't feeling my best. Of course I told him what was up. He apparently is concerned that I lack a safe place to explore the darkest reaches of my soul - thanks for reminding me of what I lost!

Told Pete and others what had happened, too. Talked with Eric about the Duggars, drugs, Day Nine, STARCRAFT, emotions, kittens, ninja stars, and "good" sources of support. I know that "I'm going to give it to him REAL GOOD!" [referring to the anger stage] sounds WRONG, but I didn't realize it till Eric pointed it out, haha. Eliza told me that there were a bunch of teen trolls in the hockey group - don't I know it! Luckily, they got banned in short order!

臘腸 (Chinese sausage) / OUR FINANCES ARE NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS!

Teunis got home and we discussed OUR anger, grudges, our nerves, Spanish dishes, hearty stews (ANSWER THE HEARTINESS QUESTION WHEN I ASK IT!), onions, carrots, celery, eggs, frying the polenta which needs to be used within a week, dill, his (not) caring, assumptions, Chinese sausage or 臘腸 [lap cheong], diabetes, sugar, and starch. We also talked about his having almost three litres of chickpeas (which is a ridiculous amount) in a dented can, gum and "risk," having a toothbrush at work (?!), fennel seeds, protein, City Fresh Market, the box of assorted houseware in my room, plates, teacups, cookpots, glasses, overpowering stuff, tomato sauce, chili, spices, oregano, bay leaves, WD-40 / chemicals, dragons, his being very tired, and more.

Called Mom, who knows that Clement and Jocelyn got married since she was invited to the wedding; she also talked about Dad's birthday, Grandma getting confused, dementia, Facebook, how we knew that an email was forwarded, Youtube videos, Yazmine (why would I want to rekindle a friendship with HER?!), and Alzheimer's. She brought up Emily and Mike T.'s wedding, financial arrangements which are none of her business, Juliana and Mike K.'s wedding, matchmaking (Teunis and I do NOT work on that level!), working on Sundays, jalapeno cheese, and more. At least I managed to keep my cool during that conversation, since I do remember her looking at Jon and Harmony's financial ledger at their place! That stuff was definitely none of my business, and at least Teunis and I agree that we work out financial things well.

Clement and Jocelyn got married yesterday?!

When Eric picked me up, we talked about 134.3 as a "normal" gas price / no Sunday School today / brunch / Ivan, Sam, Deb, and Dylan as ride options from Richmond (but I want to be LAZY on Fridays if he can't make it!) / BC Lions tickets and games / Fellowship / blogging / Chris Tomlin songs and emotion / my being "drunk" / the DARKWING DUCK theme / NO physical contact with Mr. Creep / Christon driving to Seattle / STARCRAFT / hand sanitizer. Yes, I could have washed my hands again before I left, but that would have taken extra time when I was already running late! When I got to church, I read for a bit before Kevin handed me a bulletin; I also said hi to Jeremy, who had spent yesterday at Granville Island, and would spend today there too with his close friends Christon and Jon before going to Seattle with them and Eric for the whole week as a vacation! Said hi to Victor, and noticed that Vicky was now an usher - what the?!

The sermon made me cringe, mainly because Pastor Tom mispronounced "Zaccheus" - it must have been contagious because Christon did the same thing later in a prayer! There will be a grad banquet on Aug. 5, which should be interesting. We also heard that Wai-Mui was released from certain pressure-filled Mandarin ministry duties, too. I asked Jon and Harmony how their trip was: I bet they miss the Belgian beer and chocolates already, haha! Harmony is definitely going to appreciate the downtime this week with Jon not here, that's for sure! Told Jon that Ed and Joan got married the other day, too. Quan, Cordia, Jeremy, and I wondered what the heck was with the traffic jam at the back of the sanctuary - Jeremy said we should just get someone to text a person on the other side to get them to move, hahaha. At least Quan, Cordia, and I gave high-fives and fist bumps to baby Joanna! (and I also saw Wes)

After a while of getting impatient, I just interrupted Auntie Ying to ask how her trip was - it was stressful, but then her mom will be moving in with her in a couple of weeks from Toronto, for good this time. Why the lady didn't just stay here in January, I don't know! Maybe we can get together after Emily and Mike's wedding, haha. (her brother's getting a condo here, and Jessie will apparently be away next week) After saying hi to Gavin (who wanted to play outside in the sun), I asked Eric when he was going to leave - right then, which was perfect since I didn't want to wait around and waste my time or energy! We discussed FINAL FANTASY (4 / 7 / 9 / 10), CHRONO TRIGGER, DAY 9 and STARCRAFT, Stanley, poop containing alcohol, video game music, Christmas carols in JULY, bananas, the McRib being back at McDonalds, XS Cargo next to the Big Crazy and Dollar Giant near Memory Express, Rona, the big giant head (in a fence?!), and more. I discussed poor Fabian paying $70 for half a gas tank, mold in the air, vacuuming, sourdough, and more with Teunis at home before I found out that CLEMENT AND JOCELYN GOT MARRIED YESTERDAY!

Nando's Chicken, Marble Slab Creamery, pomegranate, and BS!

Steph and Lisa picked me up to go to Nando's Chicken at 6, and of course I chose the extra peri-peri sauce! We talked about personal stuff, Haiti, Harmony, Purdy's in Richmond Centre (I didn't go to Kingsway!) selling peanut butter eggs, English grammar / words, the giant Lenin head, SLB, cards, Harmony, being classy, being morbid, Teunis, sharing, competition, Auntie Kwai, Grandma thinking Eric's my boyfriend, sushi, Shanghai Wonderful, Nathan, and more, After that, we went to Chapters to look around: true crime, Bathroom Readers, Diana Gabaldon, magazines, library impatience, random bargain books, and more! We decided to go for Marble Slab Creamery: Anna, throat cancer, Auntie Kwai, Brigitte being "wild" (at 12?), something bad happening to the family, "orange is the new black," coupons, butter fudge for Veronica, two apples (which we are unlikely to eat LOTS of) / redlicorice Nibs / Chinese Dainty Rice / Acai Berry Pomegranate Fuze drink / lollipops / Werther's Original / more candy, Clement and Jocelyn being engaged, Bryant and (I assume) Shirley being engaged, Sean C. having a lot of girlfriends, and more.

Got home and called Mom, to talk to her way too long about stuff like Grandma's health / Anna / Brigitte (which I'd already heard about) / Aunt Janis and Chemainus / a lunch on Sunday / bus tours / Easter / Tapenade / naked men in LAW AND ORDER (she FINALLY explained "an autopsy") / teaching her how to use Facebook and Twitter (no), Banff trips, and more. I had to feed her a bunch of BS about not talking to Teunis yet about Easter dinner, hahaha. She also apparently thinks that "Veronica lives SO FAR AWAY!" from her when it's only two minutes! When I finally got off the phone with her, I discussed stuff with Teunis: new dressy brown shoes from Freedman, a poly household with five parents (and kids?!), yogurt drinks, milk, eggs, running more errands tomorrow, Kaili and the Granville / Broadway Chapters, pyromaniacs, Berlin, headbanging, St. Patrick's Day on Thursday at the Foggy Dew (perhaps?), Surrey, Rammstein, Windows 7, his sound system, flamethrower stage set, shrimp crackers, lollipops, and more.

2010 Year-End Survey: Shame, Embarrassment, Lies

This entry is allowed to have non-aligned tags.


2010 Year-End Survey: Shame, Embarrassment, Lies

1. Was 2010 a good year for you? Why? Yes, because I had Teunis to visit me for perhaps six weeks cumulatively, and because Chinese Eric was back in town permanently with a new laptop for me!

2. What was your favorite moment of the year? Chinese Eric telling me that he would be back in town for good. :D

3. What was your least favorite moment of the year? No comment, but it happened in February.

4. Where were you when 2010 began? Nathan's.

5. Who were you with? Christon, his brother, Jon, Harmony, Isabel, Jeremy, white Eric, Jen, and Randal.

6. Where will you be when 2010 ends? No idea right now, but rumors abound of hot pot at Jeremy's.

7. Who will you be with when 2010 ends? Friends, probably! (hopefully not BAD PEOPLE!)

8. Did you keep your New Year's Resolutions of 2010? I didn't make any... easier not to break 'em that way. ;)

9. Do you have (a) New Year's Resolution(s) for 2011? See above.

10. Did you fall in love in 2010? Not really.

11. If yes, with who? The jury's still out on that one.

12. If yes, do they know? How would they? I don't tell people these things!

13. Are you still in love with them? Not really.

14. You regret it? In this case, no.

15. Did you break up with anyone in 2010? HAHAHAHAHA, no.

16. Did you make any new friends in 2010? If you define "friend" as "(online) acquaintance" for some of these, sure! Patrick, Scott W., Patricia, Alana, Sean O., Victor L., Daniel L., Enoch (maybe), and perhaps a couple more.

17. Who are your favorite new friends? It's obvious if I play favorites, and I try not to play that game much. ;)

18. What was your favorite month of 2010? Second half or July and the first half of August. Hey, that's a month TOTAL... it's not WEIRD!

19. Did you travel outside of your country of residence in 2010? I don't think so.

20. How many different states / provinces did you travel to in 2010? None.

21. Did you lose anybody close to you in 2010? Well, not LOSE lose, but kinda? =/

22. Did you miss anybody in the past year? Chinese Eric in Hong Kong, Teunis up north, Andrea and Chuck in Toronto, Nathan in the UK...

23. What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2010? Inception... thanks, Teresa and Henry!

24. What was your favorite song from 2010? Not sure if I have one!

25. What was your favorite record from 2010? Do not have one.

26. How many concerts did you see in 2010? Kathleen Edwards, Bedouin Soundclash, OUR LADY PEACE, and Hawksley Workman - FREE STUFF RULES! (and I'm not just saying that because I'm Asian, haha)

27. Did you have a favorite concert in 2010? Our Lady Peace... I definitely made plans to see that FREE CONCERT at the O Zone when I heard that they were in town during the Olympics!

28. Did you drink a lot of alcohol in 2010? I wouldn't say that.

29. Did you do a lot of drugs in 2010? I don't do drugs.

30. How many people did you sleep with in 2010? None.

31. Did you do anything you are ashamed of this year? Hmm... I can't think of something.

33. What was the worst lie someone told you in 2010? I have no idea.

34. Did you treat somebody badly in 2010? I hope not!

35. Did somebody treat you badly in 2010? Yes. Other than that, I have no comment.

36. How much money did you spend in 2010? Some.

37. What was your proudest moment of 2010? No comment.

38. What was your most embarrassing moment of 2010? Almost killing myself on that set of steps!

39. If you could go back in time to any moment of 2010 and change something, what would it be? NOT going over after shopping. Yes, this is deliberately vague. ;)

40. What are your plans for 2011? Ready for this? Trying to be more "me" while being less "me," if that makes any sense. Don't know if I'm ready for it.

Dream about tubs of fries in the forest / Teunis calling / Family Drama

I had a weird dream about being on a school bus and going to a Krispy Kreme / fast-food outlet in the middle of the forest. A bunch of us had been there about ten years before, so we were trying to remember all the funny jokes we'd told for everyone else's benefit. My dad was just trying to get Auntie Catherine and a bunch of other aunties to help me with money issues, but then I'd have to get up early in the morning to go to their houses! Sam and Jeremy didn't mind if I sat between them or fell asleep on their shoulders; Justin and Clement were trying to figure out how to get to the States / Burnaby from the snowy road (green road signs!); and Nathan remembered the green swamp in the middle of the road, which was now iced over. We saw a HUGE group of kids and adults who apparently wanted to buy an unhealthy amount of fries and such from the local fast-food outlet (dark blue and red background with BOLD WHITE TEXT) - we saw dozens of huge tubs with fries in them, and reflexively said "EWWWWWWW!" No idea why I had that dream, haha! About half an hour after I got up, Teunis called to wish me a Merry Christmas, which was very nice! (I knew it was him because of my subtle Caller ID, haha) Poor guy had to try keeping it brief a few times since Skype / the network wasn't working very well - I could mainly hear static, heh. As long as he keeps me posted about the other thing,life should be fine in that area!

You Will Probably Avoid All Holiday Drama

It's not that your family is any less drama-prone than the average family - you just know how to deflect drama. You remain upbeat and optimistic, even when you're surrounded by stressed-out, bickering people. You avoid being stressed out by taking a break from the holidays whenever you need to. You remain cool, calm, and collected - even when you're thrown into very challenging situations.

Are You Headed for Holiday Drama?

Blogthings: Free Quizzes for Everyone

2010 Year In Review

2010 Year In Review

Meme fun: Take the first line from the first post of every month of the year. Repost it here as your year in review. (I'm discounting greetings and things like that :P) Yeah, it's been an interesting year!

Go to your Calendar and find the first entry for each month of 2010. Post the first line of it in your journal as a paragraph, and that's your "Year In Review."


Watched Manos: The Hands of Fate (bad), Howard the Duck (bad), and Once Upon a Time in the West (good and subtle) at Nathan's with Christon, his brother Clement, Jon, Harmony, Isabel, Jeremy, Eric, Jen, and Randal for BAD MOVIE NIGHT 2 / New Year's. HAHAHAHA.... I love this great image from the comments on that "bad grammar and spelling" article! Talked to Corey when I got home from seeing the Olympics, of course. Jasmine passed along these two weird names to me: Vanilla Sun and Swiss Tiara. You entertain me, I've done my entertaining for the day. How old are you now?

I should go out and meet Sam now... and of COURSE this temperamental beast restarted overnight! Teunis and I discussed dance styles, Tetris music, the Cossacks, church, clothing, towels, rotting, my cracking up, mold, floors, damage, showering, writing software, (broad)swords / Jordan / axes / hatchets / knives / guns / cocaine / marijuana / juggling dangerous weapons / perspective, and more. I've finished my shampoo, conditioner, and body wash on the same day once again; good thing I go for a big shop tomorrow... I installed Trillian Astra earlier, since I was tired of never being signed into MSN these days. Left a message on Henry's voicemail to advise him that I don't need a ride this Saturday, as I'm going to Jason and Karen's wedding. Steph and I went to a nearby pub after our Korean lunch to see if they did beer off-sales; they did, so she got 12 cans of Sleeman's Honey Lager for the ARRESTED DEVELOPMENT marathon later. I was almost killed three times just now while walking to the corner hotel and back!

Yes, "Sleeping Beauty" finally DID get up... no Alibi Room coupons for YOU!

When I got to our meeting place, I saw that there was filming going on; luckily, Eric let me in when he was in the middle of the road, haha. He asked whether "Sleeping Beauty" was up yet - yes, and he'd gone already! Not as in "gone" gone, just for the evening to play DUNGEONS AND DRAGONS in Surrey! Then I immediately went into a mock "YOU PEOPLE ARE DISGUSTING BECAUSE YOU DIDN'T INVITE ME TO SEE INCEPTION!" type of thing. Eric said I could have ASKED, but I was under the impression that it was a GUY thing since he / Nathan / Christon were up for it. Turns out Steph and her co-worker joined them, too - I KNEW IT! I AM CHOPPED LIVER! After letting me go on like that for a bit, Eric then sang the DARKWING DUCK theme song... after two seconds of THAT, I told him that I didn't want to hear it. He continued, so I then asked him whether he'd heard what I said fifteen seconds ago: "Yes, but what if *I* want to hear it?!" "Then you can hear it INSIDE YOUR HEAD!" "But then I'll only be imagining it!" "You're incorrigible, so stop being like me!" We also discussed the violence in THE WATCHMEN, haha.

At Subway, I asked whether he had cash - he did, and after I expressed a hope that the workers wouldn't be incompetent this time, we went in to order our usual. Luckily, getting our subs took a reasonable amount of time - Eric still thought that I was mildly annoyed when they didn't magically know the correct answer to the question of whether I wanted mine toasted or not, but that wasn't true. In the parkade, he handed me a printout from Google Maps, and told me to guess whose house it was - given that it was a Richmond address, I guessed Geoffrey. He thought I never liked him at first - I don't know if I'd say THAT! At church, the first thing I did was fill up my water bottle. When I'd finished, I saw Eric waving at me from the elevator - apparently, he'd forgotten his guitar in the trunk of the car. Fair enough! (I also saw Ivan)

I said hi to Phil as I was setting up my dinner by Eric's on the table, and then was concerned because Eric got out of the elevator with Mr. Creep in tow! Seeing Billy, Danny, Colin, Cynthia, Katherine, Benedict, and others from the Chinese Fellowship did nothing to ease my feelings, haha! Of course, I wished Emily T. a happy birthday in person when I saw her - "thank you x 2" was a good response, haha! As we were eating, I told him about the hot spicy sandwiches which could squirt liquid if you bit them - of course, that sounded like a double entendre of some sort! (then he said something about pregnancy) Mr. Creep passed by, and then Eric wondered to me why I didn't greet him! I was in mid-sentence about the sausages and such, and I wouldn't have done so ANYWAY! Eric thought I'd finished my thought (maybe), but I still wouldn't have said hi! Same with Raymond, who passed us a while later! (we did say hi to Pastor John, though) I beat Raymond to the chapel, in fact! But of course I did say hi to Darren as he passed by!

Talked to Pastor John about his family vacation, Summerland, Josiah not being an outdoors person (so Timothy camp was only okay), my parents' break-in, summer plans, and more. Cindy gave me two boxes of religious birthday cards, saying that she and Chrystal used to buy those. At least SHE appreciates my gift for birthdays, and I did thank her for it! Her sister Dianne knew I am a Committee member, and asked me a question about shuffling Bible Study groups, which I referred to Pastor John. I asked Christon which email list HE was using - obviously, one without ME on it! Then I clarified that I'd pressed "redial" (and thus called him) by accident earlier in the week! He'd seen my number, and thought maybe it was important - that's a natural reaction!

Uncle Stephen did a good job outlining various things for us, and I had to tune out Mr. Creep's voice in the sharing period afterwards. Thank goodness I chose to sit in the OTHER section of chairs! Cindy told us about the grad banquet, and said that there'd be a handful of Daniel (people from that Fellowship) graduating - Mr. Creep heard that, and wondered if we'd like a handful of him. NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!! THAT IS NOT WHAT SHE MEANT! Distracted myself by bugging Dianne about her fruitless quest for Alibi Room coupons in the GEORGIA STRAIGHT - her expression when she saw the racy ads in the back of the paper was PRICELESS! Christon did say that Jon warned her about that, haha!

I noticed that Mr. Creep moved his feet when I had to pass near him to tell Eric something without talking over everyone on our side of the room - I'm not sure how to feel about that, frankly! Cindy and Dianne told us about this epic two-month trip that their parents are taking to Taiwan / Hong Kong / China / Australia - apparently, their dad found some of his family since they've been looking for him. Neat stuff! The girls are lucky - I wish MY parents would go away for that long! Discussed Wesley being out of town in Toronto for two weekends (wedding?), SERVANTS, Harmony being tired / unpacking, various Chinese villages, dialects in Chinatown, the Alibi Room, busing there, the Spain fireworks tomorrow, Sheena watering the church flowers, the USA fireworks on Wednesday, and more.

Poor Christon COULD have been home at 11:15 from those fireworks since he got to the Skytrain early, but his mom called to tell him to pick up his brother! Clement and his friends got to the station later, and had to wait 15 minutes for a train - so Christon had to wait till midnight! I asked whether he'd talked to his brother after that: "Yeah... I said not to phone home or me if you want to be picked up!" Hahaha, good strategy! Talked to Dianne about working with Winnie, being out of it because we don't read the news TOO often, free McDonalds vanilla milkshakes gained by doubling or tripling coupons, and more.

I asked Eric if he were ready to go, after about half an hour of discussion. (I even went off to use the handicapped washroom for the first time ever!) As we left, Jon requested a ride home - well, we were leaving RIGHT THEN! While we were waiting for Jon, Eric wondered if Dave had said anything to me lately - not that I know of! After we dropped Jon off, I wondered whether he was going to the fireworks tomorrow - he's definitelY NOT going to the Alibi Room (has brunch with an out-of-town cousin), and said that I didn't have to schedule my plans around his. I know, but it makes things a bit easier! Eventually, he figured that he'd be home after 1, so I think I'll call him at 4 or something in case I myself do decide to go to the Alibi Room.

Eric assumed that Teunis was still "dungeoning and dragoning it" at 10:30 or so - that would be correct, and at least he has the spare keys! Then he expressed mock astonishment that I'd given him the spare keys - hey, better him than someone else in particular! He did a Joker impression, brought up the scenes where you throw a toilet at people in HALF-LIFE 2, said I was crazy (THAT earned a death threat!), asked if Teunis was going to be around tomorrow (he DID mention something about the Night Market...), wondered why the polar bears at the Canada Line station were orange (I'm not bothered enough to research THAT out for you!), brought up ETERNAL DARKNESS, and wondered when he'd be able to convince a woman that he was fine the way he is. Believe me, I would like to convince a man of that myself, applied to MYSELF! I bugged him about egg liqueur, and he said that I was already drunk enough when SOBER! Hahaha, WHATEVER! When I got home, I actually had the rest of the Pepsi!

Frisky death, disturbing wifebeaters, and Megan's baby shower photos!

High-scoring words of the evening:

DEATH (176 points) - against Mary W. [two 4W]
LOCATION (120 points) - against Regina T. [5W, 2W] {a good deficit-erasing word!}
DRIP (264 points) - against Damon R. [3W used twice, 5W, 2W]
AMIAS (140 points) - against Becky O. [5W, 2W, hook off LID for a plural]
FRISKY (116 points) - against Megan M. [two 2W, 3L on Y]
INKJET (195 points) - against Pat R. [5W, 4L on K] {a good deficit-erasing word!}
ABA (150 points) - against Dawn W. [two 5W]


I'm still on FROST, and the girl next to me is chewing gum (or something similar) rather loudly. Gee, thanks! *sarcasm* When she finished her session (moving along to songs on her computer), a guy took the computer. However, I am very disturbed. The scruffy-looking, skinny guy next to me in the library (who's now started COUGHING!) is wearing just a wifebeater and shorts! o_O [Patrick Q. says he wears that all the time - yes, but at the LIBRARY?!] Alex Lee also deactivated his account, once again. I am not surprised. Now the guy's finished... just in time for ME to be done with MY marathon four-hour session! Great!


Cindy emailed us photos from Megan's baby shower, so here they are!

Megan and Shirley, her cousin Bryant's girlfriend:




Megan and Jocelyn, her cousin Clement's girlfriend:




Megan and the one girl I didn't know at the shower:




Megan and Dawn:




Megan and Steph:




"Group shot," but I was long gone by then to get to the Awana BBQ:



From left to right: Jocelyn, Shirley (in purple), Cindy, Steph, Megan C., Dawn, little Megan T., Jenny, the girl I didn't know, Winnie (in black), Andrea (in purple), Vanessa, Connie (in blue), and Emily.

Edit at 9: I managed to get the 407 right after I got off the C94!

What kind of name is SASHAKAY SHAKER?! (75 minutes is NOT almost an hour!) / Flat

Almost went on the Canada Line to get to my sister's, but remembered that I should take the 430 just as I got settled in my seat! Thank goodness I actually caught that bus, as the stop isn't very far away and even I could make it with my walking speed! Got to my sister's on time, meaning that I was the first one there. Cindy and Chrystal got lost, but it was fine. Fidela, Steph, Vanessa, Cindy, Chrystal, and I had a good time discussing (crazy) email addresses, China, curry, pasta salad, unique names, "Fidela" on Facebook, "same name" syndrome, "FANG!", pork, blueberry pie, ice cream, frogs, cows' eyes, lame teenage stuff, quiche, Steph's furniture which arrived in the last two days, ghetto people, weird names, and other stuff.

Steph was at the airport at 6 AM in Atlanta, when she heard some girl with a pronounced accent in the next washroom stall, sounding way too perky. "HEY GIRL! DID YOU GET MAH EMAIL?!" Then there was the person she came into contact with: her first and middle names were Sashakay Shaker. "You ain't gonna give me no ticket! I'm gonna remember yo' face!" HAHAHA, OH MY! My sister's response to the first? "You're right - I'm not going to give you no ticket. I'm giving you A ticket." (double negative!)

Fidela's tapioca pudding was a little strong, but there was alcohol in the extract! I also had a Dark Ale from Winnipeg along with tea and other stuff. Talked about stress, teaching, mispronunciation of "umbilicus" / "penis," "75 minutes?! That's almost an hour!" (dumb American girls that Fidela and her brothers overheard while waiting for a park ride), THOROUGHLY MODERN MILLIE the play, Steph's guestbook, her KING-SIZE BED, TV / Internet lacking now, and more. Cindy somehow mispronounced "Toblerone" as "Trombonerone," hahaha!


Trivia fact for Thursday, Jan. 7: Which continent is the flattest? Australia. According to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the reason is "its position near the centre of a tectonic plate, where there are no volcanic or other geologic forces of the type that raise the topography of other continents."

MANOS, HOWARD THE DUCK, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST - yay for 2010?

HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE! ALL THE BEST IN 2010!!!


Watched Manos: The Hands of Fate (bad), Howard the Duck (bad), and Once Upon a Time in the West (good and subtle) at Nathan's with Christon, his brother Clement, Jon, Harmony, Isabel, Jeremy, Eric, Jen, and Randal for BAD MOVIE NIGHT 2 / New Year's. Eric picked me up, and we discussed a certain email and assorted other things - he thought I was hyper, OR had eaten a lot of brandy beans prior to leaving the apartment. May have been hyper, but no brandy beans! I'm glad Mr. Creep didn't come - it would have been VERY awkward! When we got to Nate's, nobody was there yet - Eric thought that maybe the family friend would let us in, and he did. Went upstairs to see what could be done; when everyone else got there, the unwrapping of the 26-inch LCD TV started. Christon gave us a stack of movies to look through for our "good" choice - LOTR trilogy, BIG FISH, FROST NIXON, UP, ALIEN WORLDS (20 BAD ones!), and more. Jeremy mentioned that he'd only seen the first two of certain trilogies - MATRIX, STAR WARS, LOTR... hahaha! I noticed the Trinity "emotions" magnet on the fridge, and started playing around with it to change emotions - it was too funny, and reminded me of the "Have a GOOD night!" poster on Nathan's bedroom door, with all these happy faces displaying various emotions!

While we spent time making the whole-wheat spaghetti and sauce (and Jen had a power nap), Harmony said that Mom had mentioned having a lunch tomorrow. Not sure if I really want to do that, but probably - although now it looks like I'll sleep through the meal, as my computer clock says 4:33 AM. Jeremy said that he'd had a good time in Kelowna with his family, and Jon called Dave to invite him over even if he was having a quiet night with the parents and Tiffany. Discussed how Nathan's dad had canceled the cable, so we wouldn't be able to watch the countdowns - Christon discovered that the TV in Daniel's room worked for NBC. Then we reminisced about Y2K - "hey, the world didn't end in London!" Eventually, we got to the beer and aged cheddar / blue cheese while watching MANOS - it was SO bad and random, plus it seemed to skip the beginning of the movie! It had these scenes with two students making out which had NOTHING to do with the plot, and we found the sinister stuff really funny! (plus, it didn't really seem to have any editing done at all... let's cut out all the redundant dialogue!)

Then we watched HOWARD THE DUCK - 1986 was better than 1966, and we could tell it was made in the 80s for sure because of the music. This duck gets catapulted from his home planet to Earth, and then gets embroiled in all these adventures - at least this one's plot was a little better, what with dark overlords and such. After that, we decided to eat since the sauce had finally simmered enough ("CORNSTARCH!") - Clement kept to himself, and I noted that his voice was really high compared to Christon's. We decided to keep an eye on the time once we started the third movie - it was subtle, and well done with sparse dialog. A psychopathic character annihilates an entire family, and it's about the widow and vengeance - bloodshed is fairly high in this movie. "Is he worth the bullet? Remember, bullets cost $10,000 in those days, which was a LOT of money!"

When it was almost midnight and time to pause the movie, we decided to crowd in Daniel's room to count down the last seconds of the old year, then we toasted the new one outside the room with champagne! Jeremy hoped that this decade would be better than the last for music AND politics - oh, I agree! The rest of the movie got interesting with more violence, some sex, a mini-massacre, and THE MOTIVATION! After that, we had to pack up and leave - Christon had to leave fairly quickly as he had to drive his dad downtown at 5:30 AM, yikes! Got home (Eric brought up Raymond on the way there!) to find that Billie had left me a New Year's wish - since she was still up, I talked to her in between catching up on a lot of stuff. Her birthday party is on the 8th - Friday - at 5 at her place. COOL STUFF, and I should be able to go if this weather continues!

You Should Celebrate Friendship

It may have been a good year or a bad year, but no matter what, your friends helped get you through it. And you can't imagine celebrating New Year's Eve without your closest friends around. You are always happy to catch up with old friends on this night, and you're hoping to make some new ones too. So this year, raise a toast to old and new friends. They make every day of the year a little brighter.

What Should You Celebrate?

Blogthings: Learn Something Surprising About Yourself

AMEN TO THAT!

Birthday card post: the yearly edition!

These are the birthday cards I want to buy for my friends. I must include at least 3 stickers in the card, and two little ones on opposite left-right corners of the envelope! (and get my sibs to sign, too... unless they don't know the people, haha)

January (5)

* 7: Vania So
* 11: Denise Man
* 11: Sabrina Chow
* 13: Rich Ng
* 21: Billy Lee

February (7)

* 5: Dylan Lum
* 10: Benjamin Lee (2006)
* 10: Sheena Soon
* 16: Lesley Chung
* 16: Steph Ng
* 22: Ivan Choo
* 26: Quan Ho

March (8)

* 1: Martin Jang
* 11: Maxine Fok
* 16: Julie Man
* 19: Corey Tapparo (mail)
* 21: Sophia Lam
* 23: Johnny Au
* 28: Harmony Ho
* 31: Hannah Luong (2006)

April (12)

* 2: Phil Yung
* 5: Helen Chen
* 7: Daniel To
* 7: Lily Luong
* 8: Clement Chiang
* 11: Dave He (mail, or c/o parents)
* 15: Chrystal Choi
* 17: Calla Suen
* 20: Michelle To
* 22: Karen Lew
* 26: Chuck Wen
* 29: Andrea Tang

May (7)

* 2: Jen Chan
* 3: Brian Man
* 4: Joey Lam
* 5: Danielle Law
* 18: Sam Yung
* 19: Angus Kinkade
* 21: Lee Luong

June (4)

* 2: Alan Quan
* 12: Sherman Tang
* 24: Eric Tsang
* 29: Dallas Wu

July (8)

* 2: Dianne Fang
* 4: Ian Lam
* 15: Nathan To
* 16: Cordia Wong
* 23: Connie Su
* 23: Jenny Su
* 31: Erin Chew
* 31: Frances Madrazo

August (11)

* 1: Justin Chiang
* 4: Sean Lam
* 6: Rosenda Marr
* 12: Joshua Fok (2005)
* 14: Michael Kwan
* 15: Eric Ho
* 18: Cindy Fang
* 18: Darren Chew
* 25: Kevin Li
* 18: Fidela Chiang
* 31: Stella Lee

September (7)

* 5: Eric Morrill
* 15: David Ho
* 16: Karen Choo
* 24: Citrus Wong
* 26: Mike Tse
* 27: Anita Wong
* 29: Anita Tung

October (8)

* 1: Ian Marr (2005)
* 1: Jeremy Janzen
* 2: Christon Siu
* 6: Dawn Wong
* 11: Chalaine Soon
* 11: Grace Yung
* 23: Jeff Wong
* 30: Vivian Lew

November (14)

* 6: Margaret Lee
* 8: Vanessa Chiu
* 9: David Marr
* 12: Emily Lam
* 12: Tim Fok
* 12: Vivian Salomon
* 13: Helen Kwan
* 13: John Lam
* 14: Melia Yung
* 14: Winnie Tsoi
* 16: Nicholas Kwan (2005)
* 24: Joanna Kwan
* 25: Jon Ng
* 29: Emily Choi

December (4)

* 13: Keenan Fok (2006)
* 25: Chung Yan Ip
* 25: Joe Tham
* 30: Hien Ho

TOTAL: 89

"Mushrooms taste like garbage!" "The apple juice turned to poison!"

This thing just restarted! As soon as my parents pulled into the parking space this morning, Mom gave me some jalapeno cheese slices that you can only get in the States, apparently. I ran in to put them in the fridge (and down half a thing of coffee) - the car ride to church only confirmed my mom's obsession with Chinese Eric. If only she knew what we discussed the time we hung out with Nathan, haha! (I also need to email him something, too...) I kept myself restricted to monosyllabic answers when she asked me stuff - don't give her anything to work with! Upon learning that I'd gone to a BBQ with friends last night, Dad wanted to know whether I'd chipped in. After I said I guessed I had (even though I hadn't), he said that I shouldn't take advantage of a free BBQ, and I should pay some money next time. I decided to ignore that because he didn't know the circumstances. Aside from that, the car ride was all right. (got disposable gloves and things) Learned that Grandma thinks her time is pretty soon, so she wants to see more of us, though.

Got to church, and had to sidestep little Clement when I refilled my water bottle before going into service. Chatted to Jonathan briefly, called my sister a weirdo, and sat with Harmony when I found her - Jon was miked when he prayed with the worship team before things began, which I found amusing. Danielle squeezed into our row a little later when she couldn't get into Vanessa's pew. When Tim came up for an announcement about the Walkathon, we all laughed when his son Keenan refused to say hi to everyone using the mic! Later, I introduced Harmony to Matt (for something to say) as my sister-in-law... I'm getting used to it, heh. We also said hi to Grandma, and discussed plans and JAPADOGS! Talked to baby Mattias for a bit, and admired baby Gavin who was quite good when Danielle was holding him. (probably because he could look at his mom Lily for most of the time) Gavin decided that he was interested in Jon and Harmony's shiny red coffee tumbler, but of course Harmony held onto it while he touched it. Babies are so cute!

Eventually, we all went out to the courtyard where a whole bunch of people were already. I looked for Mike T., who said that Vanessa had the ticket reserved - but she hadn't actually brought them, so next week it is! Got Steph to chip in for it, while Jon made a joking excuse. Said hi to Jeremy when he dropped by our table, and Jon mentioned the Sunday Dinner at Eric's next week. I asked if his parents were okay with it - they're actually out of town, so that works. After I got my Japadog, chips, and root beer, I sat down where my sister / Karen / Christon / Lincoln were. Turned out I just happened to be sitting next to Randal, but it was the only free chair at the table - it was fine. Steph entertained us all by doing various impersonations of Uncle Stephen as he taught "Science and Christianity" during last week's Sunday School class. I later got her to sign Dad's birthday card - she explained that she was quite proud of Dad turning 60 this week, haha. (the big "60!" had to be there!) We discussed various places in Steveston, and Steph thought there'd be only six of us - I was too sleepy to correct her to "seven." (me, Jon, Harmony, Steph, the parents, and Grandma)

It was a very amusing time, particularly when Nathan (at the table behind us) referred to Stanford as "his lover" after a pause for effect. Then he got random about Christon and yearning - Jon and Harmony had joined us by this time, so were very amused! (I got them to sign the card too) Found out from Calla that Andrea had gone, asked Chrystal where she'd been yesterday (resting for the wedding banquet), said hi to Auntie Kwai, and interacted with little Benjamin. Steph asked me about the names of various little kids (Noah [Benjamin's younger brother], Olivia, Anne, Micah [Olivia and Anne's cousin]) - there are SO MANY! Harmony herself asked me who Auntie Catherine was after that lady said hi to us, and about Lily's (Gavin's mom) name. I talked to Sophia about cruises and such (she prompted her older daughter Olivia to say hi, and prompted her younger daughter Anne to wave - Anne can WALK now!), and said hi to Stella and her younger son Noah. Yep, I am another Auntie Leslie / Lesley!

I knew I was losing track of time, but had to hear Randal's story of how he once literally broke / shattered a toilet bowl with a rock (and NOT an organic one!) when he was a kid, and Harmony's interesting cooking story where the firefighters were called in because of massive amounts of smoke! Stanford (a professional cook) told her that she couldn't just improvise a stovetop grill using a cookie sheet and a pot lid, even if the resulting meal turned out to be the best ever! He was open-mouthed at her story, and Jon said that he would have told her to pan-fry the chicken instead! (The firefighters to Harmony and her roommate: "Next time, you should just order takeout!" Hahahaha!)

Finally went upstairs to help with the toddlers far later than I should have - I explained to Auntie Fonda that I didn't know what time it was. Cori was back, and I refused to call her by her real name: CORONA makes me think of BEER, man! Asher's mom wants him to speak English during the Sunday School hour, so Auntie Fonda thinks I can help him with that. I also discussed medicine, Facebook, Canadian privacy laws and the news, pain, side-effects, cookies, and the Japanese hot dogs with her. Promptly went back to the courtyard (saying hi to Pat en route) after Sunday School, and talked a lot to Ian and Sean. Ian was saying that the seaweed on the hot dogs was interesting, and Sean was blurting out things like "NO NAME! NO MUSHROOMS!" (he's autistic) He was reading the drink box for apple juice and orange juice, heh. I saw Steph, who I thought had gone to her squash game - she was leaving right then, however.

Prompted by the "no mushrooms!" blurt, I asked Ian if he liked mushrooms - he said no, and neither did his brother. Apparently, mushrooms taste gross. Trying to figure out just what Ian didn't like about mushrooms, I asked whether they tasted slimy. "No... mushrooms taste like GARBAGE!" Then I asked him what he put on his pizza: he likes Hawaiian, he said. I told him about the pizzas at the Yaletown Brewery; he wasn't impressed with the BBQ pork, duck, or spinach pizzas, haha. Then I became aware that Sean was apparently saying something alarming about the apple juice: "The apple juice turned into POISON!" Turns out that he was reading the French side of the drink box, where the French word for "drink" (boisson) was prominently displayed. Since I refuse to talk to kids like they're mentally deficient, I told him that it was another language and meant "drink." Cindy came by to say hi, and I asked her how Megan and Andy's wedding was: BEAUTIFUL AT ECBC AND SOME HOTEL!

The kids were getting cheese and orange tongues / teeth from the nacho chips, heh. Told Pastor John's son Noah (yes, another one) that he had something in his hair - I got it out. Asked Pastor John himself about the meeting on Monday, which was indeed long. Waved to the kids' grandma, and fielded a question from Ada about whether I'd eaten a hot dog - definitely! Her shirt was interesting: "HIS PAIN - YOUR GAIN!" (Jesus dying on the cross) Told Dylan why my sister and I couldn't attend his wedding, but we did thank him for the invitation! Helped Grandma with a glass of water, and told her friend Eunice that Grandma didn't like hot dogs in general. Also got little Nathan to explain his wheeled shoes to Grandma after she wondered how he could coast so fast! Talked to his older sister Natalie for a bit - she's going to Burnett for Grade 8, and told me that Palmer and McNair were still there in Richmond. I knew that, haha!

Went to Tsui Woo with Alan and Polly for a relatively light dim sum lunch - I laughed when Alan took the lunch bill (over my mom's protests) and went up to the cashier to pay for it. Dad said I should have reached over Polly and grabbed for it - hahaha, Steph can do that next time with her training! On the way home, Grandma showed me her tongue bubble caused by yeet hai - "hot air" caused by eating spicy foods when it's hot outside, in this case... it's a CHINESE thing! Thanks, but I didn't need to see what looked like a purple growth! She wondered why a McDonalds billboard ad featured chopsticks, so I got Mom to tell her that it was for a teriyaki chicken burger! Good times today, with more to come. I have yet to figure out how I'll get to White Man's house next week, but there's PLENTY of time for that! Got home and promptly plugged the London Drugs fan IN, and also figured out who the chick was who added me to Facebook overnight. I had enough time this morning to glance at the email notification, but couldn't actually check it out till now. Yup, I did indeed meet her last night at Krista's!

A 9216-point word! / Crayons and bouncing rides, oh my!

Bingos of the day so far:

FRISKET (169 points), BEAMIEST (170 points) - against Shannon M.
DENATURE (94 points) - against Shelley R.-B.


High-scoring words of the day so far:

DUPLE (512 points) - against Michael M. [three 4W]
KNITS (144 points) - against Pat K. [two 4W]
DUMBO (160 points; two 4W), FIBERED (272 points; two 4W) - against Pat K. [different game]
TANKER (160 points) - against Donisa P. [two 4W]
CRAVEN (176 points) - against Shelley R.-B. [two 4W]
CYBER (192 points; two 4W), WOMYN (269 points; two 4W, plus a hook off BEEF), HEAR (128 points; two 4W), ZERO (224 points; two 4W) - against Shelley R.-B. [different game]
GENIE (96 points) - against Carole L. [two 4W]
FELTED (160 points; two 4W), MENTAL (128 points; two 4W) - against Jill E.
FRISKET (169 points; two 2W, plus a hook off BREN), BEAMIEST (170 points; 2W and 4W, plus BINGO points) - against Shannon M.
HUGS (135 points; two 4W, plus a hook off MEN), AIRTH (160 points; two 4W) - against Deborah T.
DOST (188 points) - against George M. [2W, two 4W, plus a hook off MAIL]
DROWND (176 points) - against Karla M. [two 4W]
GAVOT (9216 points) - against Billie E. [five 4W!]
GARDAI (128 points) - against Billie E. [4W and two 2W; different game]
POTEEN (128 points) - against Kris W. [two 4W]
FOGEY (192 points) - against Steve L. [two 4W]

New record: 27 high-scoring words!


Someone called twice at midnight and 1 AM - I'll return those eventually. Angela V., Shelley R.-B., and Karla M. added me on Facebook - sweet! Also had a weird dream just now, but I'm glad to have my subconscious back and working!

* my friends and I were at church, and split off into a few groups with aunties to oversee things
* Eric decided to go to Granville Island with his group (which included Auntie Sarah), but he didn't know that Steph planned to go shopping there with the girls (he only found out when she mentioned something about it... "I was like OOPS! when she said something - DANG!")
* Granville Island would be plenty big enough for two groups, but Eric wanted to keep things from Steph
* meanwhile, I went to oversee some kids with crayons and markers - they were so messy, scattering those and paper everywhere! (referring to non-working markers as "color mistakes" - same with crayons which were all over the table and floor)
* eventually, my group got on the bus - we saw Eric's group there, so we all huddled around the first couple of seat rows and the door (exactly like you're NOT supposed to do in real life!)
* Auntie Bessy offered me a seat, but I declined - I found that I could stand for some time without getting wobbly!
* Lilianna and another Polish person were astonished that I knew the members of Eric's group for some reason... then they discussed old-time Poland and black-and-white iconic pictures of important historical events
* someone I trusted implicitly convinced me to sit down on his lap; I found that my hands were inexplicably cold, so I murmured an apology for slipping them into his [he didn't mind, and slipped his arms around my waist]
* there was a video camera on the bus, so we all took turns manning it (we saw Christon and HIS group - including his brother Clement / Sheena / Jeremy - all on bikes)
* Christon and his group were biking on a bouncy route to work - a LOT of speed bumps and general bumps in the road! (the way Christon told us the story, his parents used to drive them all... then made them take the B-Line to the boonies!)
* we followed them for a while - I was still in my comfortable position when I woke up in real life


Triggers for this one:

* talking about Granville Island with Sonny, Tony, Jon, Raymond, Sheena, and Jeremy
* Auntie Bessy complimenting me for being so flexible when I opted to help with the preschool kids rather than the non-existent toddlers on Sunday!
* meeting Lilianna on Saturday, and talking a bit about Poland
* discussing Christon, Sheena, Jeremy, and others with Eric yesterday (plus how people kept things from others)
* seeing Clement that time we had the BC Day dinner
* busing to a bunch of places recently

How disappointing... to leave a week earlier!

Bingos of the night so far:

EMULATED (74 points) - against Ceri J.
GLUEPOT (88 points) - against Korey
TRICKERY (78 points) - against Dave H.
SERRANOOS (66 points) - against Jono M.


Learned that David S. is going to the Sunday Dinner - sweet! Henry picked me up late for Awana, but it gave me a few more minutes to relax after running to the store to grab some stuff. Said work was busy, and then we just settled in to listen to his random music. When we got to the church, Stanley saw me from his parents' car - he growled at me, in a passable bear imitation! The kids were singing I'M IN THE LORD'S ARMY by the time we got there, which is an indication of how late we were! Golden, Jessica, and I tried convincing Jordan that he shouldn't look at stuff in the Awana store if he didn't have any Awana dollars. That didn't go well, particularly when we told him that he could NOT have things for free since stores normally didn't operate that way! Tried corralling little Sean, said hi to his brother Ian who had a great dinosaur shirt on, and told their mom Ada that I didn't need a ride home. Sabrina sat with me at the secretary table since she was really tired from an 8 AM work shift and she was lazy: Henry termed that an EPIC FAIL later on, haha. Joey said hi, we listened to the kids do their songs for the awards ceremony next week, and I kept myself generally busy. Melia didn't know it was just ME doing all the scoring work - oh well.

Chrystal drove Lanie and Hilary home: talked about Richmond Centre, rain, weather variations, graduation, teaching piano, no summer Awana, etc. I made myself at home when we got to Chrystal and Emily's: Danielle, Fidela (who was late), Vanessa (who had to rescue her parents), Melia (who stayed for a bit only), Becky, Steph, Grace, Michelle (who came later with Daniel), and Calla joined us for a fun night. Had salads, prawns (which Cindy's allergic to), perogies, stuff with cheese (which Calla's allergic to), Fidela's homemade cake, roasted chicken, and more. The two sisters-in-law were telling each other some TMI (which started with Grace being mad at Phil), so Steph just screamed and left their conversation! We decided that Danielle was obsessed with Winnie's baby (Connor is a blob of cuteness!), and that Megan was very cool.

Steph had a disappointing announcement: she leaves on the 22nd instead of the 29th, and can't do anything about the wedding! Melia knew, but not anyone else until she told us. She had to take the call at lunch, and then was visibly emotional walking back into a meeting: of course the aunties and uncles were concerned! No wonder there was a brief silence later when Fidela said that her cousin Megan would see her at Melia's wedding in a particular dress she got in Arizona for cheap! Discussed Cindy and Dianne's brother Tony getting married in Richmond on Sunday (Minoru Chapel - yay!), pierced ears, Acer, Clement, brothers who just walk in your room, the thing where you aren't spreading disease and wiping the floor with your panties, and how you shouldn't have to observe a dress code for YOUR OWN ROOM! We heard the story of Steph's friend Rachel's lactose intolerance, and how my dad reacted to that one day back when the girls were in high school...

*girls are in kitchen with my dad, and Steph pours herself a big glass of milk*
Dad: Hey, Steph. You should pour Rachel some milk too!
Rachel, who's JUST found out she's lactose-intolerant: Remember about my intolerance, Steph!
Steph, knowing she shouldn't: Are you SURE you don't want some?
Rachel: You know I can't!
Dad: Rachel! Have some! You're just being too picky!
*Steph perforce pours her friend a glass of milk*
Rachel: .... thanks.... *drinks it, and suffers the inevitable consequences ten minutes later*


We all crowded into Emily's room later to try on necklaces and earrings, and then marveled at Chrystal's large room, (Grace was stealing paper quietly in the corner, haha) Daniel took pictures of us, including a FAUX clubbing one - then he used everyone's cameras to take pictures of himself! Discussed a 24 Countdown Game, Jack Bauer, the stereotypical Chinese couple not QUITE holding hands, Becky's trip to Indiana, Calla's frustration as a field planner when trips keep getting postponed, Vicky, parties, Powerpoint, Googling "RCMP outfit," sticks, leftover food, and more. Quite a good night, for sure! :D

2007 Recap: Steamworks, sudden mojo, and amusing times!

This is the 2007 Recap. Fitting for the last day of the year, no?


JANUARY

* Crashed Kendrick's party, and had a good time for the New Year. Talked to Harmony, Holly, Jon, and a bunch of others about various things. Cool vibe there, haha.

* Steph and Rachel made dinner for our families before Rachel relocated to Fort McMurray. Interesting stuff, to say the least.

* Went to Eric's to watch a pay-per-view hockey game: we ended up winning against the Panthers 4-3 in a shootout! :D

* Watched Casino Royale with my family, minus Steph and Grandma. It was pretty good!

* Auntie Fonda gave me two red yarn toques that she knit herself. They're pretty cool... although she DID give me permission to regift them if I didn't like them, I won't. Better than certain scratchy wool toques, heh. Later that day (and the next night), I went to Nathan's to watch 24 with him / Isabel / Cordia / Quan / Joyce / Steph / Eric M. / Jon / Christon. Damn addicting and SO GOOD - JACK BAUER!

* Auntie Fonda gave me a purple knitted hat: I don't know why she seems to like me so much, but it's cool. :)

* Went to MissionsFest and Steamworks afterwards. Things worked out because of the good laughs I had with Jeremy / both Erics / other people. Saw Jon's Regent friends Ray and Matt again, too!

* Saw PARADISE NOW at Nathan's after the January AGM with him, Jon, Jeremy, Christon, Phil, and Danielle. Suicide bombers and their culture are pretty interesting from a "why would they do THAT?!" point of view!


FEBRUARY

* Got ANOTHER eviction notice from Hester and her Amacon cronies over rent. Dodgy apartment management style is NOT for me! I wanna move, but not have only ten days to do so!

* Fabian, Tony, Nathan, Eric, Jeremy, Jon, Steph, Christon, and I shattered the 21-steamer record at Shanghai Wind by eating 35 steamers of SLB! We are CRAZY!

* Had a "Spinster's Bonding Night" with Steph, Cindy, Isabel, Vivian S., Vivian L., Karen Lew, and Chrystal on Valentine's Day. We watched Intolerable Cruelty and had pizza / junk food at the church. Since we couldn't figure out the church sound system, we had to enlist Mike's help via phone... thanks, dude!

* The onset of stress illness reared its ugly head: MY PERSONAL LIFE IS NOT YOUR WEEKLY SERIAL SOAP OPERA, THANK YOU VERY MUCH! Then it turned into a cold, with redrum being one week late thanks to all this stramash: WHAT THE HECK?!


MARCH

* Hung out with Eric, Kieran, and various friends of theirs to watch what turned out to be a Vancouver Canucks 4-2 loss at the hands of the Anaheim Ducks on pay per view. STUPID DEFENSE AND PENALTY CALLS!

* Attended Chung Yan and Karen So's wedding... good times! :D

* Was supposed to attend Project 416 at ECBC, but instead had a night out of a Seinfeld episode - Chinese Eric's car was towed, the impound lot's debit system was down, the bank machine ate his card... what else could go wrong?! It was hilarious when Eric told his parents that his friends (white Eric, Jon, Jeremy) had to come over and use the washroom, though!


APRIL

* Saw BLADES OF GLORY with Vivian, white Eric, and Steph. It was pretty good in that it exceeded low expectations! Later that day, we had our Good Friday service - pretty good stuff!

* Had 40 people come out for Sunrise Service 2007 - not so freezing as last year, although of course we all had sleep deprivation issues to varying degrees! Also gave Jason and Amos Wong some Dad's variety pack of cookies: I can't believe they've never had 'em! (Jonathan Chan can get his grandparents to buy him some if he really wants, haha!)

* Got into Round 1 of the playoffs against the Dallas Stars - the first game featured quadruple overtime which almost went into quintuple overtime!

* Went to Nathan's to watch Game 3 of the Canucks-Stars playoff series with Jon, Eric H., Jen, and Jeremy. We won 2-1 in overtime! Then we watched JESUS CAMP and the end of ZEBRAMAN... those Christian extremists are very disturbing and make kids grow up too damn fast!

* Discovered the LJ Space Adventures... very cool stuff!


MAY

* Went on a cruise from San Diego to Vancouver with Vivian and Karen Lew. UGH, getting up to be at the airport at 6:35 AM! They completed a 1000-piece puzzle! (watched Children of Men on the plane - SUCH A GOOD MOVIE!)

* Finally got together with Teunis - had two bubble teas in one day at Richmond Public Market / Estea. It was good talking to him in person about a bunch of stuff. Says he has stuff to give me, so maybe he can do that later!

* Saw Harmony in town again, so that was cool. Also discovered Cordia is morbid like me, so sent her a bunch of Morbid Facts links. :D (and gave her the FINAL EXITS book too!)

* Had the 24 finale party at the townhouse with Jon, Steph, Harmony, white Eric, and Christon. Much fun was had! (and people liked the postcards I wrote 'em!)

* Got another message about the Seattle Phone Pranks CD, this one from Tobias (tobiasmoran) on GJ - a blank journal with no content? Oh my. Hopefully, this one will get delivered unlike Matt Torres' CD last year, haha. Later that day, I finished the LJ Space Adventures on my friends list. :D

* Went to the Richmond Night Market with Eric M., Frances, Martin, Raymond, Connie, and Dianne. Gotta do this again for Jeremy's sake!

* Tobias (tobiasmoran) decided he only wanted Records for Sale, which is fine by me - attachment to email, it is! In return, I got three of his favorite Bob and Tom clips (Indianapolis): Trucker Clock, Donnie Baker - Team Names, and Dickens Cider. Seems fair enough exchange to me! Later that day, my family saw Joshua N., who is now married to a Mexican girl named Jessica. Wow! (Jon and I talked to Caleb, too...) Then the Giants won the Memorial Cup over the Medicine Hat Tigers, 3-1... an empty-net goal sure helped!

* Got together with Chinese Eric, finally. Went to the Keg and gave him his cruise postcard and Christmas 2006 card. He also borrowed one of my true-crime books. Very good hangout with New York peppercorn steaks! :D

* Got together with Teunis on the last day of the month. Two times in a month is a pretty good record, haha. Went to Aji Taro and Richmond Centre - yay for the new Sakura anime / manga shop!


JUNE

* Finally met Eric's Victoria buddy Korey - it was certainly interesting!

* Watched SONGS FROM THE SECOND FLOOR at Nathan's with Jon, Jeremy, and Nathan!

* Got 22.8 million points in Bookworm - YAY! :D

* Attended Phil and Grace's wedding and banquet - so nice!


JULY

* Certain regular phone calls made my life happy... K and I also officially decided to date.

* Went to the Richmond Night Market with the guys (Jon, Christon, Jeremy, Nathan, Eric) for Nathan's birthday. Good times - PANTIES ON HOOPS, anyone?

* Got together with Teunis - this time, we went to the Foggy Dew Irish Pub (just two blocks from my place and I'd never been there in seven years!) and Estea. He wants to have dinner at Estea one of these days - that would be cool. Since I treated him to dinner, he'll do the same sometime. Lovely friendship. :D

* Grandma got back from Hong Kong - YAY!


AUGUST

* A group of us went to try Shanghai Wonderful, which is the new location of Shanghai Wind. Good times, haha.

* Had one last dinner at the townhouse with Erin's family before Erin went back to Ottawa / Darren to Ireland. It was definitely good times. :D

* Had a great small group outing with Jon, Jen, Jeremy, Eric, Chuck, and Andrea: homebrewed Scottish Ale on the beach, and Bean Bros. Café afterwards!

* My glasses leg broke off. Yay. Not.


SEPTEMBER

* Had an interesting Sunday dinner to celebrate Eric's pseudo-birthday a few days late. Most memorable highlight: "Let's put kimchi in our bulgogi beef tacos! HAHAHA! Oh, and we've come up with a title for our Christian band's album: CHRISTIAN MUSIC TO MAKE OUT TO by the band PANTIES ON HOOPS! HAHAHAHA!"

* My computer finally conked out - it's not good if it makes grinding noises and then automatically shuts down into BOOT FAILURE mode! Eric installed Linux / Ubuntu on it, which made it work even if I lost all my Windows stuff.

* Dylan had a lunch idea, which definitely worked out well. "Roti canal" is NOT "root canal." Haha. Started the 40 Days of Community that day, too - very good!

* Celebrated my birthday with a bunch of my friends. Citrus said my "speech" was short and sweet just like me - aww, thanks!

* Took the Greyhound for the first time into Chilliwack - the mall there isn't too bad!

* Had a surprise party for Citrus and Mike T. at Montana's in Coquitlam - SO GOOD! Told Darren that I'd HAVE to get Facebook just for him now that he was moving to Ireland - which promise I made good on as soon as the computer worked again. Thanks, BooBoo...

* Had a very interesting Sunday dinner at Christon's - watching Julie do the dishes can be very entertaining! (later found out that Nathan had tagged me / Eric / Christon as various pictures in a room) His house has THOUSANDS of trinkets, oh my! (the church also approved Pastor John to be our new English pastor - YAY!)


OCTOBER

* Called Jeremy to wish him a happy birthday - that was the highlight of THAT night! Yay for good people! :D

* Candy called me to vent - so good to talk to her!

* The Thanksgiving Carnival was pretty interesting - "since Eric's not around, let's talk in Cantonese!" Hahaha, Auntie Ronne - too hilarious!

* Had a Sunday Dinner at Eric's house - the running joke was about the cat serving as extra meat, haha. It was good times, for sure. :D

* Natalie provided a bunch of us with hilarious entertainment: "You're the last people I'd EVER tell if I had a secret boyfriend!" Her brother Nathan was amusing, too - "you're 16 or 19... and he must be 21 because of his beard!" Vanessa was 12 or 13, which would make for some weird peer-to-peer teaching if she taught Gr. 7 kids! (but no... she teaches five-year-olds!)

* My glasses decided to be less than perfect again - this time, on Halloween! Good thing Iris was able to fix it, haha. No trips to Factory Direct for me! Spent time with Grandma, too.


NOVEMBER

* Went bowling, which translated into chilling time with Jeremy (who finished the "addictive" FINAL EXITS book) / Grace / Joe / Andrea / Karen. Was amused when Jeremy thought my new stylish shirt cost $100 at the Night Market - he thought that was what I wanted to hear! Sure, but it really cost $10 at London Drugs! I'd needed something to cheer me up, and that did the trick! YAY, SPARKLES AND SEQUINS! :D

* Had a Sunday Dinner at Jeremy's - the guys had to strip in the kitchen since it was so hot while they were cooking. We bought much yam / squashy goodness! Tony said that we'd have to bring our own dishes and stuff if he ever hosted a Sunday Dinner, heh.

* Had the Fellowship AGM, where I was recognized as a new Committee member. Was amused by Jeremy's idea of gravy-infused burgers. Jon said that Dragon Ball was closed from the 6th to the 29th - what the heck? Maybe it's their holiday, haha.

* Sanitized the nursery's toys with my small group, then went for lunch. It was pretty interesting! Oxy-San is cool, haha.

* Dad started to show his mojo, which greatly disturbed my sister and me. ("After your mom and I have lobster for dinner, we're going to have wine, and then have sex afterwards!" followed ten days later by "Why are you home from the States so early at 9? You're interrupting my romantic time with my wife!") We wanted OUT of the car even though it was moving and we'd probably die! Later that night, we went to celebrate Vanessa's birthday at Fish on Rice and Melia's. We didn't know that it was the last time we'd ever see Melia's grandma alive... :(

* Had a Monday Dinner at Jeremy's with some of the guys - it was quite efficient since Jeremy did all the cooking beforehand. Jon and I met up with Fred at the Whip afterward - yay for Black Plague and joking about cougars! It was a very good night out, for sure!

* Sat in on a Committee meeting, which wasn't too bad. Thank goodness for friends and support!

* Started to get Christmas cards and things from the awesome people at holiday_wishes! So good! :D

* Had a Sunday Dinner at Jeremy's to celebrate Jon's 26th birthday. The closet door and some liquor boxes served as a makeshift table, balanced by some books. It was very fun and amusing - Isabel was jokingly cut off from beer once, even though she'd only had a very little bit. Dallas wins at cooking roast, for sure! Everyone was amused when Tony mistook a directive for a command - hahaha, poor Vivian must have been confused!

* Went to ping-pong and a White Spot dinner (FAJITA SALAD, YAY!); it was good to be with friends! Then Jon and I went to #9 with Cindy, Melia, Angus, Dylan, and Anthony for a second dinner - it was great to just hang out!


DECEMBER

* Experienced problems with my Firefox / Swiftfox browsers disappearing suddenly ALL THE TIME. Twenty-six times in eighteen hours?! That is just NOT RIGHT!

* Finally (?) got my fridge / freezer fixed. I hope this sticks! Yogurt turning black, juice turning fizzy, and milk just fermenting are NOT good signs at all!

* Found out that Justin, Clement, and Fidela's grandma died. It was expected, but still sad news. :(

* Half-decided to give up on GJ because of way too many problems. Thinking of backing up stuff on IJ, but I have no friends there. Boo-hoo. :(

* Got 42 points on QUIZ in Facebook Scrabble - THAT ROCKED!

* Found out that Melia's grandma died, via Eunice's Facebook wall post. *sad* Later, I sat in on another Committee meeting - it wasn't too bad, even with making Eric wait at the door till I got dressed AND the unexpected Pho.

* Had a nice long lunch with Karen at the Oakridge White Spot. Talked about life transitions, relationships, old friends, death, Fellowship, injury, healing, and more. Was home in 45 minutes thanks to the 496... yay!

* Went to a congee house with Ray and the guys: we all found it amusing when he called his Toronto friends up with NO SHAME to ask what a particular dish would be! (this is at 2 AM Toronto time, haha)

* Had the Fellowship Christmas Dinner at Earls - it was good to catch up with Dawn in particular! Eric and I didn't think our seeing K in Chilliwack the next day qualified as a trip since our reaction to "Looking forward to the trip?" was "... WHAT trip?!" Haha... I had to tell him not to worry about it since I'd done the same thing!

* Went to the Wack to see K for his birthday - he was very excited to see me and the presents I got. I dunno... I thought they kinda would disappoint, but at least I was there!

* Went to Melia's grandma's funeral on the 17th.

* R decided to end a friendship with me based on something I'd said SIX MONTHS PREVIOUSLY - of course I wasn't serious! Ah well, I guess he wasn't a TRUE friend anyhow, like I was thinking! If he was, he'd have said something when the incident happened!

* Had the ESC Christmas celebration on the 21st - very good to catch up with people, for sure!

* Went to Dave's place for dinner on Christmas Eve - yay for the tradition! Guinness World Record for the largest rotisserie grills, anyone? ;)

* Had the Awana kids sing at the CSC Christmas Celebration. That was interesting! Good ol' Jordan in a "begging" pose with his hat, haha.

* Saw K in town from the 30th to New Year's Day. That was certainly very good!

* Went to Justin's grandma's funeral on the 29th. So sad!

* Hung out with Eric, his family, and Korey to watch a hockey game (we won 2-1 against Anaheim) and eat dinner - later, Jon said we could go to Fred's, so we went to watch / play ROCK BAND. Good times! (had lots of time with K, which I think we both needed)

* Hung with Eric and Korey again for NYE - the Keg is pretty good for sure!

Let's drink oil from the fridge and have a greasy digestive system!

Eric picked me up at the usual time, calling me a logarithm - thanks, but I am not a calculus application, and you know it! He made some Homestar Runner references, and noticed that the "WIDE LOYAL" sign did not in fact say "WIDE LOAD" - no, I don't think it's in competition with Booty Burgers! (or A-1 steak sauce ventures, hahaha) Discussed our Christmas plans / a "regular sleep schedule" / next weekend - should be fairly interesting! For some reason, he thinks I'm responsible for the big hole near where I live - I don't THINK so, buddy! Warned me about certain things he'd heard... thanks, I'll certainly heed them! I need a ride for the 21st, so maybe it'll be Sam like last year's Christmas Celebration, haha.

When we got to the church, we spent some time putting our things on the table while scanning the room for possible seats. I sat by Raymond, and Eric sat by Randal - later, I took Eric's seat when Kevin took mine as I got money for the Proverbs study guide. Noticed a shaven Ray, and waved. We sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY to Chung, and partook of cake. When I went to greet Jeremy and Ray, Ray asked: "Where's the other one?" I was confused at first, but clued in that he meant my sister - Eric had no idea where she was, either. (later found out that she was at a work party) Jeremy said that if Ray asked Jon where his crazy sister was, he'd have no idea who he (Ray) was talking about - too true! I don't deny I'm crazy and random, just as Calla doesn't! Talked to Jen and Dawn briefly - yay!

Gave Christmas cards to Calla, Cindy, and Dylan - I'll give some more out later, of course. We talked about depression, stickers, (dis)trust, stigma, Christians, prayer, money amount for offering (by name?! how embarrassing...), worship, Andrea and Chuck sorting out stolen stuff, Anita's baby being two weeks late, Calla being four days early, my being three months early, Stella's baby being a December baby, privacy law, workers not wanting to take housing away from clients, membership transfers, Advil sensitivity, pain, the bass from Resonate thumping, and other things. I told Eric that I'd brought my Bible, but hadn't brought the guide - he said he might be in the same situation. Calla was definitely in the same boat, since she brought one of her other journals - whoops. Ray said that he was really cold, and I thought that I should have brought a hoodie from home since I should have remembered that the basement heat is never turned on during this time! At least Cindy seemed to be okay heat-wise with a thick jacket, scarf, and other accessories!

Later, Ray and Calla discussed some of the worst study habits ever. Getting to the library at 1, checking email, doing devotions, reading non-study related stuff, sleeping, and other things BEFORE studying for five minutes and then falling back asleep again while people poke you / throw things at you? That is CRAZY! Ray apparently doesn't help his friends when they're trying to study - "Okay, I'm here to bring the party to you. I hope you got some work done!" Sounds like Jon, whom I went upstairs to search for. He was talking to Sam, Mike (he waved to me!), Margaret, and Esther - I said hi to Esther, of course. Went downstairs with the news that Jon denied he made everyone slower - Calla knows Jon by now, and figures that's exactly what he'd say!

We talked about the time Jeremy's uncle drank oil from the fridge since he was just SO thirsty / dehydrated from a hot day that he didn't pay attention to what he was consuming. Jeremy and his family got home a while later, and the uncle was wondering why oil would be kept in the fridge! Let's just say that it's a good thing you can't absorb that much oil at once since the caloric value alone would make your heart / arteries just STOP! It's very good for oiling up your digestive system, for sure! I've found that out a lot, haha. (like yesterday afternoon, heh) Calla shared that she's allergic to oats AND cheese - no snack packs or wine / cheese tastings for YOU! Processed cheese is fine, but that's not real cheese... she was pretty tired last week after work, so didn't go to ping-pong. She zonked out at 8:30 or 9 - Ray doesn't know how Jeremy gets up at 4 AM to go to work, since sometimes he's still up doing essays and such!

Eventually, Jon came downstairs to scare Dawn - they later figured out their ages in relation to each other, and that they owed each other belated birthday greetings and such! Stanley came downstairs to try kicking us out, and told Jeremy to stop changing his facial hair style - my grandma's nickname of "Bearded Man" is now appropriate once again, heh. Jeremy had a red headlight thing, which Stanley was very interested in. I talked to Maisie and Martin briefly, too. Good times, for sure - we also discussed how microwaving strawberries or something similar for five seconds would get rid of any allergens in the food if you were allergic to it. Calla asked if Jeremy had seen this, and he had. They discussed engineering stuff, and then Jeremy said that a friend of his could have strawberries if he sliced them first and then let them stand for five minutes or so. That was also strange, but then microwaves DO alter the food - why should slicing it be any different? :P

The Congee House idea reminded me of when we used to eat dinner twice on Fridays because Sean was like "I'm SO HUNGRY, guys!" - he didn't eat lunch OR dinner, amazingly enough. (Sam looked cold, and told Jon that Nate hadn't left yet) Eric helped Raymond scrape ice off his car before we left... Jeremy wasn't going since he has to work tomorrow! Poor guy. Jon mentioned that Fidela's grandma had indeed passed away on Sunday - it was bound to happen sometime, sadly. :( (No idea when the funeral is - maybe Mom will know since the original date was the 29th, but she passed earlier than they thought she would. I was a bit reserved when talking about it, and chalked my hesitation up to the usual reserve about talking of death and funerals. Not asking Grandma since she's superstitious about it!) Eric mentioned that Fidela was at the Chicago PPV game - very nice! (Ray got confused between his friend Clement and Fidela's brother Clement, haha - he also got confused between Phil, Daniel, and Nathan looking alike! "Yes, they have a very bizarre family relationship where Clement doesn't know his own sister! Maybe he's been long-lost, or has amnesia! Haha.")

Talked about Stateside trips, beer, Ray calling his friends up with NO SHAME at 2 AM Toronto time to ask what a turnip cake with peppers / eggs / other stuff might be called over here (my sibs and I do NOT read Chinese!), his "Chinese gangster" look, pork blood, Bible tripe, pig intestine hot pot (yummy - NOT), hot and sour soup, the Bob Newhart "STOP IT!" approach to solving problems / changing your destiny ("you're in an abusive relationship? Just STOP IT!"), Jeremy / Ray's cooking arrangements, and getting to the airport by 8:30 AM tomorrow. - good luck! Nathan made a bad joke, so he got to pray for our food... Ray was reminded of a time where his girlfriend Peggy was hassling him, so he prayed: "You're a just Lord, so please smite Peggy!" Haha, she smacked him for that one - and rightly so!

Campus Crusade for Christ has changed their name: it's now called POWER TO CHANGE, which made Nathan / me / Jon think of those Christianity commercials from 2001 or so. "YOU HAVE THE POWER TO CHANGE!" No, it's not affiliated with those at all. Discussed athletes, speed skater Catrina Le May Doan, weekend hangouts, her brother the NHL player Shane Doan, trainer Bart Doan, Silken Laumann, Cindy Klassen, and more. We had our usual interesting time trying to figure out the bill - I spotted most of Jon's stuff since he did the same last week, but then we ended up sharing a hot and sour soup and noodles / chicken / mushrooms! Ray offered me a wonton, and wondered if I minded that it was in hot sauce - nope, as Jon told him! On the way home, we discussed books / the usual jokes / Jeremy / others. Then I finished up a Facebook Scrabble game, and went to bed. So much for my regular sleep schedule...

Ooh, Uncle Daniel just emailed us. JEFF AND ANITA HAVE HAD THEIR BABY EARLY THIS MORNING! (like at midnight-ish?) It's a girl, and I bet their family is very happy. :D

Edit: The funeral is still on Dec. 29 (a Saturday - Awana break!) at 1:30. She was a considerate and nice lady, giving lots of money to the church building fund, and wanting her grandkids to be there. Thought of her will, cemetery plot, and everything else too! Mom says she cried on Sunday when Fidela's grandma died, but Jon and I figure it was bound to happen. Doesn't mean it's still sad news... but it was expected.