Afternoon tea

Took care of a bunch of errands, especially bank stuff. HKB is charging bankbook accounts $5 a month starting early August. Naturally, I switched to a different type of account. Are bank books so expensive that they need to be rid of? OK maybe I'm outside the norm. That account is hardly used because they charge fees on almost everything (even if you keep a balance over $1000). I've had that account for 20 years and closing it makes me feel sad.

Went to Iwase to pick up a magazine I ordered. No more good Pinkys left. Only 2 ugly types. I'm glad, though. Don't think I can resist if there were nicer once. Yup, it's gotten cloudy. I can't think today. Forgot one of the bank errands and had to go back. Started the car while the steering wheel was still locked. My back feels like all the ribs have fused into one big solid rock.

Tried to buy some Planter's peanut-butter cup, only to find out the price has risen for over a buck! WTF!?!? For something that was under $4, a buck is insane! I hope it was a mistake. However, Reeze mini cups were on sale. So I bought that instead.

Thought I'd drop off the chocolate to E @ brother's place on my way back. Did not expect them to be at home. After all, it's been a nice day, and E's family is visiting from out of town. They should be out somewhere. Surprise! Not only were them at home, I arrived at the same time as sis-in-law and E came back from a walk. They were about to have afternoon tea too. Nice! E's husband is good at baking. He made some fresh scone while sis-in-law brew tea bought from London Farm. They said, it's not worth going there anymore. $8.5 per person, and only get you very little treats. Before, the portion was enough for a small meal!

Went home and continue looking at taobao site Miki sent me. Very difficult to read... I think I'll stick to Esty and Ebay.

Pee

So sick and tired of dad leaving pee and snot and booger all over the place. (T_T) So sick and tired of him ignoring anything we say and just do things his way. So sick and tired of hating myself for feeling down all the time. (T_T)

Yup, he doesn't wipe his butt and insists nothing had come out from this rear end. He leaves his dentures in his mouth overnight and not brush them. His breath stinks. OK he stinks from his own pee and crap anyway. I just don't want to be anywhere closer than 5 feet from him. If mom collapses, he will have to go to a nursing home immediately and permanently. Why does God hate us so much?

Finally finished pricing the necklaces and sent the info to Miki. Took 4 to 5 days. Way too long. And this wasn't factored into the cost. Yup, I'm fighting a loosing battle. Wish I could just give up and leave.

Yup, I'm in monster mode. The weather's changing. It's only 3 days after the last chiropractor's appointment. I'm already unable to think. No fair. (T_T)

Dream

I was driving mom and dad... and tried to turn into a tricky area to park. It kind of reminds me of the messiness of Cambie and 6th with the tricky triangle. Did I intentionally try to sneak over a curb? My car was jammed onto something like those fail blog videos with the front hanging in mid-air. We got out. Then the environment turn into an office at night. Lights were on, plenty of clerks were around. I looked back, my car was an old micro van with only 3 seats in a straight line, not unlike those coin-operated kiddie rides. The front half was sitting on a cubicle wall with a desk behind. There were some conversation exchanged with the clerks, but I don't remember what, though. We seemed to be waiting for help with the van. Then I suddenly thought, I maybe able to lift it. And sure I did! We got back into the van and drove off. This time I clearly remembered how tight the inside was. There was only one door on the side. Mom sat behind me, while dad sat behind mom.

There were more after that but evaporated before I wrote it down. (T_T)

Dinner

Pricing of Miki's stuff continues. It's never ending. I'm exhausted already. Whatever I can count, I counted. But still, some stuff are just too much. Things don't add up. Why... (T_T)

Gave the second-handed Pinkys a bath. Got W's chocolate. Tonight's the first time we meet with E since she arrived. And, a chance to hand over the chocolate.

With E and her family in town, it's a big table tonight. 3 families, 10 people altogether. We got to order the fried egg-white puff again. Yay~!

House-sitting (2)

Again, badly, badly, needed chiropractor's appointment. Last week's 1.6 hour stuck in traffic really destroyed my back. I'm finally feeling more normal after the treatment. It's so scary how I turn into a 100% negative monster when my body isn't feeling well. (Yet I don't feel it and go directly into this alternate mode...) (T_T)

Since I was half-an-hour late, there was a bit of a wait. Expected, thought. But 5 people ahead of me was somewhat unusual. Went straight to brother's place after the appointment. The guinea pigs' food was almost gone. They're just like dad. Eat like there's no tomorrow, and poop like hell. Hell for everyone around him. Well, human hygiene is a problem, not guinea pig's.

Spent the night calculating cost for the doll necklaces. I really question my way of doing things. Sigh... I do try to keep good records, but when it's time to use them, I can't find what I need! OK, to be fair, there ARE missing records too. Sigh... I'll just have to rely on Miki's judgment on price, then.

Newspaper

(Picture was taken on the 24th and is unrelated to subject.)
It's 1:30 AM, dad is sitting on the toilet for an hour to pee again. This time I caught him kicking the newspaper out and then squash it into a small ball by hand. The newspaper is there to soak up his leaked pee. (Plus projectile snot while sits there.)

He hates it, no doubt. It shows him he's leaking pee.

Does he think that he doesn't need it?

Did he wet it so badly that he had to get rid of the evidence?

Or, does he think that by getting rid of the newspaper, it gets rid of his leakage problem?

Sigh...

And he doesn't think of the trouble he's giving us. Without the newspaper, his pee soaks into the floor tiles and stinks forever! (T_T)

Housesitting (1)

There it goes again. This time, no sleeping over.

LW has a 90% off sale, so I went to take a look. Not surprisingly, almost everything's gone. Even those lame and old DVDs that I thought would be there till the very end, are gone. Whatever few item left is pretty much junk. Old games, questionable vegetable cleaner, pet flea spray, small memo pads, ancient-looking phone wipes, beaten-up baskets, ugly shoes, ugly clothes... Tomorrow, anything you can fit into their shopping bag will be $1. But I don't think there's a single item worth buying. Well, maybe the memo pad is useful, but I don't need any.

Stopped by Iwase again to pick up another round of cheap Pinkys. Just couldn't resist!

Then Save-on to see if they've restocked the toilet paper. Nope. There's not even a space for it. I wonder if it's a scam to get you through the doors.

Last stop, brother's place. Sis-in-law has left huge amount of food with the guinea pigs. Judging from how little the food's been trampled, I think it hasn't sat there for too long. Which means, brother's gang left the house late. Hmm...

Picked up the second-handed Pinkys from E too. Thanks E and W for the help!! PK001B is my holy grail! Yay~!!

Vascular doctor

Dad's followup appointment after the CT scan. It was my first time seeing the lump near his left crotch. It's almost as big as a fist and hard as a rock. Yikes...

The doctor said, since it's just water inside, doesn't hurt and causes no problem, nothing needs to be done. Still, I wouldn't want anything like that to grow on me. The next appointment is in one year.

It's so rare that mom did not want to go home right away, and even mentioned eating out for dinner. (OMG! It's gonna snow tomorrow!!) So I tried to contact brother's gang. No one was at home. Neither he nor sis-in-law would answer their cell phone. They simply disappeared. But they'll be going camping tomorrow. Where have they gone?

I kept calling them at home twice after dark. Finally at 11:30 they returned my call. Turns out they've gone cross-border shopping for camping supply. Their visiting guests took an hour at the border to get stamped, and no cell phone allowed in there. I see...

With the foreign students gone, I don't need to sleep over anymore. Just have to check on their guinea pigs once a day. Plus, sis-in-law's sister's family is staying in the guest bedroom. I don't feel like sleeping in the students' rooms in the basement. Packing takes too long, so I'd just stop by without sleeping over.

Richmond sign fail

Took A to Richmond to exchange a defective keyboard. Noticed some unusual signs...

(The A&W "do not enter" sign actually refers to the exit of the drive-through. The lane use sign behind the traffic light defies common sense.)

Zakushi on Main

Took A to pick up some computer stuff, then my stuff at Save-on. Namely toilet paper rain cheque. Thanks for the sunscreen, A! (^_^) Kingsway's being paved. Single lane traffic each way. There seemed to be a police incident (accident???) in front of Metrotown so traffic was sealed off there. Luckily, it could be bypassed by going into the parkade.

My car was like an oven. My left arm was burnt despite using sunscreen. It's not the hottest day, but I got soaking wet.

Thanks A for dinner at Zakushi. Their quality dropped drastically today. All meat was slightly under-cooked. The waiter did not write down the first item I ordered. Tea refill came too early while you didn't need it, and none when you do need it. We were forgotten for the longest time. They limited the stay to 2 hours, yet they don't give you your food. Hmm...

So, without the tofu salad, I only had 3 chicken skews and ice-cream for dinner. Ate some more ice-cream at A's place later. Not a healthy dinner at all. (T_T) A said the main staff must have been on vacation, or at the fireworks tonight. These temps don't know how things should work.

North Van fail

Was gonna to get up earlier to meet Pa for my car insurance, but of course I got up too late. Don't like giving my card number over the phone, but I was in no position not to. (T_T) Still needed to go there to sign for it.

Was going to North Van to see P and J after the insurance's done. P called saying the BBQ's not over yet. I thought they'd have it right outside the school, but no, they went to a park somewhere. Oh well, today's plan went down the drain. I was hoping to go to Park Royal's Michael's too. The only lucky thing was, P stopped me before I went to North Van.

So I went to the Burnaby branch instead. Thought that one is kind of out of the way and should have good selection, but no, the good stuff are gone. Well, I guess other people also think this way.

There was a LD nearby, so I checked if they still sell the Reeze mini cups. Yes they do, plus a similar one from Planters. W will be happy.

Antique bronze

Couldn't stop... until I got stuck. Why is it so hard to find antique bronze colour findings? I need either larger size crimp beads, or larger size jump rings in thin wire.

E's flight arrived tonight. Not sure when we'll meet. But I'm sure everyone's gonna come out for dinner at least once.

Dinner

Strangely, can't stop making necklaces.

Eat-out-day with brother's gang. There was an accident on the highway. Luckily we left early, so the delay didn't make us too late.

Dinner was at Kamdo again. I must remember not to order any beef dish again. Their beef sucks. But everyone else's food was good.

St. Joseph

Ended up going to bed at 5. But I finished Miki's stuff at last. Well, there are still a lot more that I can do, but the parcel has to go out today, or it won't make it before the show.

Dad's got geriatric doctor's appointment today. After some quick tests, the doctor said he has dementia for sure. He could have had a mini stroke before too. He'd be scheduled for a brain scan, then she can diagnose if he actually has Alzheimer's.

3 hours of sleep totally fried my brain. I couldn't make sense of the map and had trouble finding my way back to the car. (T_T)

Naturally, we ate out for lunch. Then to HKB to take care of some account changing stuff. I totally don't understand why and what the benefits would be, getting rid of the bank book type accounts. It took over an hour to open an new account and transfer the money. OK, I also set up some internet stuff too. The lady helping me wasn't too knowledgeable and that's why.

It was around 3, so I went to the air care center. There were more cars than expected. Oh well. It feels very awkward whether to turn off the engine while waiting. As far as I remember, last time there were signs saying "do not turn off engine". They're gone now.

Got home, tried to finish off some WIP necklaces, but I was pretty much useless for the rest of the day. Yet I was still reluctant to sleep earlier. Sigh...

Underestimated

Grossly underestimated the time needed to complete these face beads.

touch up
varnish (satin... too shiny!)
varnish again (matte)
eye pins (need reshaping)
antenna (screwed up big time trying to save time using wire.)
antenna (back to the good old foam.)
packaging (cut paper, cut wire, poke holes, fasten clasp with wire.)
scan / photograph for record
find mailing box
weight and pack
fill in forms.

Beads... continues

Thanks, A, I think productivity increased. (^_^)

Last minute push

Tried to scan and number all the necklaces last night, but fell asleep at the desk. Yet I was still reluctant to go to bed. Why?

It's rare that I made it to Michael's for their 15% off entire purchase coupon. However, the good stuff are already gone! (T_T) Otherwise on clearance, which is excluded from the deal. They always do that to bypass that coupon. So what's the point? I'm sure if I go to the one in Park Royal, I'd find more stuff. But gas and time is not worth it.

Liquidation World further discounted their stuff, so I picked up some more paper punches sis-in-law asked for 2 weeks ago. At $2.5 each, I couldn't resist getting 2 for myself even though the design wasn't the nicest.

Last minute push for the stuff I'd be sending to Miki.

1.6 hour

Worked overnight packaging the necklaces. Went to bed at 7. Set my alarm clock for 12:30. Lots of things today. However, got woken up at 11:30 by a call from the camera repair shop. My camera is ready.

So, the plan was, bank → chiropractor → camera repair shop → school → Michael's West Van → coffee shop → Michael's North Van → A's place (drop off coffee beans) → home.

Since I would not skip washing my hair, I ended up leaving at 3, which made me late. Lineup wasn't bad at the clinic. With the car-wash and all those beading, I've been in the worst shape where I can't even think straight.

When I was done at the camera repair shop, it was 4:25. Taking Burrard bridge would be the logical choice, right? Wrong! No left turn all along Burrard Street. This tells you how ofter I go downtown. I turn right onto Robson thinking a big street like Robson should be easy to do the "3 right turn = 1 left turn" thing. Wrong again! The gallery was under renovation and they closed off that exact section! Grrrr...

I ended up turning left onto Georgia. Bad idea! It started with slow, and eventually became a grid lock. The car in front of me was an SUV so I couldn't see anything. Nothing was moving. Unbelievable. The radio stopped working thanks to all the skyscrapers. Luckily, I managed to catch a few openings and heard segments of traffic news. Apparently there was an accident on Georgia at Denman. The rest... need I say more? The only other time I got stuck in traffic for 1.6 hours, was at the border. One less unfortunate thing was, it wasn't the hottest day, and the skyscrapers created some shades. Still hot, though. If it was last Thursday, I would have had a heat stroke for sure.

It was 6:10 when I crossed the bridge. Needed to make a pit stop so I stopped at Park Royal first. Might as well take care of Michael's and the coffee beans. Was also hungry so I picked up some granola bars at Extra Foods. My blood sugar was so low, it took me forever to pick out which one to buy. Sigh... By the time I arrived at the school, it was 7:45.

Yeah, I gave them more than one hour. So, couldn't go to the other Michael's. There wasted a half-price coupon. Sob sob sob... Was still able to drop off the coffee beans. So the only thing which didn't get done was the second Michael's. If it wasn't for the accident, today could have been really good. Sigh...

It's happened a few time already. Something's bound to happen when I try to met with C. The universe is against us meeting or something. Why...?

Tuneup

Insurance due = air care = time for a car tuneup. My usual garage seems to get messier and messier every time. Oh well, at least they're cheaper than my brother's. Can't complain.

Snow Love Japanese Style Mochi

(2010 April to June) Thanks cousin M and T! It's subdivided into 4 different boxes inside. Actually made in Taiwan. Actually pretty good.

Red Bean Mochi
The mochi part is seasoned and slightly sweet. I thought it would stick to your teeth more, but not. Maybe it's additives?? I'm sure it's got plenty. The red bean filling is fragrant and feels high class. A very typical Japanese taste. (As to not Chinese.) The sweetness is light and mild. However, I don't think I'll go buy more myself. On the other hand, the lack of addictiveness may be a good sign, because those addictive ones use lots of fat and sugar and additives.

Black Sugar Mochi
It's not too sweet, which is good. However, this must be too much of a default, and doesn't have it's own personality. Can't really tell what it is. (Of course, it's just plain old sugar.)

Peanut Mochi
Yup, peanut is there. Light and mild. Actually feels healthy and has all the good things from the other 2 favours.

Green Tea Mochi
The final one, green tea. The mochi part is more sticky. The other ones from before didn't stick to my teeth, but this one does a little. I wonder if it's expiring. (The outer box has been discarded and I don't remember the expiry date.) Nevertheless, still excellent. Mildly sweet and with delicate fragrance. However, it's not distinctive enough as "green tea". What I'd like to see in this series, is sesame.

Beads continue

Started painting base coat for the small ones. Today's also eat-out day with brother's gang and we want to the Shanghai restaurant near his place, because mom wants to use his phone for a long distance call. I also took the chance to ask Miki for the doll show date.

I asked brother about where to buy a 0.8 mm drill bit, he went ahead and drilled all 14 beads for me with his real Dremel! Wow, thanks! Totally didn't expect that. Now I see why Dremel are awesome.

Sis-in-law's baby sister and her family will be visiting in a week or so. They'll all go camping again. So, naturally I was asked to house-sit again. Sure, I'll have a chance to bead some more.

0.8mm

The fake Dremel helps a lot. The horns are somewhat done, but the price is scratching the bead itself. More sanding... (T_T)

In need of a 0.8mm drill bit. There is no way I can drill all 14 beads by hand. Lee Valley doesn't have it. Nor does Home Depot. Not sure where else I can go. And those at Home Depot are $15 and above. Not sure if I can afford it.

What's with Michael's? They're printing out half price coupon with receipts again. Plus, free to pick up at the cashier, is another 4-hour-only 15% off entire purchase including sale items coupon. However, they put the good stuff on sale so the half price coupon from last week can't be used. Very cunning.

Old Nikon

The camera repair shop finally called. I was gonna call them but they beat me to it. (Thanks, vampire.) The lens need to be repaired and some pins replaced. It takes $130. Forgot to ask if it's before or after tax. Nevertheless, I went for it. Takes about a week. But they didn't call last Wednesday when they said they would. Hmm...

My old Nikon Coolpix 2500 has been back in use since last week, and will be until the Cannon comes back. I thought it's still as good (expect for being obsolete), until just now I realized the date and time stamp is gone. Probably because I took the battery out while it's in storage. However, all the pictures are stamped 2002 January 1st, 12:00 AM. Yikes... (>_<;)

Preparing the wooden beads continued. The large ones cannot be done manually and calls for the fake Dremel. Lacking a drill attachment, hole-drilling still has to be done by hand. That's tomorrow. Not looking forward to it. Before that, more sanding is necessary. I'm getting impatient.

Oh no, tomorrow is car tune up day, if I feel well enough. Air care is next.

Chat drawing board

Continued making face beads for Miki's doll show. Drilling holes manually is just too slow. (And it hurts my hands.)

Today's the day for my first ever chat drawing board. The character encoding at Takamin was screwed up and all words turn into little squares. I thought I'd just go crash the party, but it's also like that at Y's board! Yikes! Looks like it's a Java applet problem. Oh well, can't fix it but can still draw. So I went ahead. All the buttons have no names. It's kinda like driving without headlights. Difficult to use, struggling quite a bit.

Then Y showed up! Didn't expect that! So we did some chatting while drawing. That was fun! She even taught me a few tricks. Thanks!

Then the vampire came. I was wondering what this lack of energy has been... (T_T)

Table

Caught dad "organizing" stuff again 3 in the morning. I had to wash them all and then put them away into the drawer. (1) You can no longer trust if dad's hands are clean. (2) Even if the stuff are in the drawers, he puts them sideways in there.

... sigh ... (T_T)

I'm sure there are way more that I didn't catch.

$6 an hour

Needed to go to North Van. It was a mere 15 minutes and I missed the window to borrow A's bus pass. This is extremely discouraging, since I've done my best and still failed (Thanks to dad hording the washroom for an hour, grrrrr!!!!). Was going to drive but if I get stuck on Lion's Gate Bridge in this weather, I'd be dead. (My car has no A/C.) So I took A's advice, left my car at Oakridge and took transit.

Things went well, I was a bit early. Finished with P, but J didn't show up. His cell phone was off too. Technically specking, I could wait until 4, but with no way to reach J, I didn't want to just sit there. (C went to Seattle.) I did spent an hour with P, so I only waited for 10 minutes or so.

Stopped by Dressew. Picked up some stuff. Every time I go there, I manage to find something to buy. Is it a good thing or a bad thing? Donno. But they don't have the one thing I've been looking for: 3mm or 3.5mm solid black plastic beads, preferably matte. Oh well.

Grossly underestimated the time needed to look for stuff. (That place is messy.) I think I stayed there for no more than 20 minute, though. My 4-hour parking at the mall expired. By the time I got back, I was half-an-hour late. Luckily it was fine. Thank God.

I can't stop wondering if this $25 worth today's trip? Traveling time between the mall and north shore alone is 45 minutes. Add another 15 from home to mall, and 5 between the seabus and the school. So that's 65 minutes for a single trip, 130 minutes for round trip. I spent an hour at the school. (Note: I excluded wait time and Dressew from this calculation.) Then bus fare was $6 round trip. Altogether, after 3 hours and 10 minutes, $19 is what I can pocket. And that, of course, does not include car and gas.

This makes my hourly wage around $6. Am I a looser or what?
(T_T)

Dim sum / hot!

Manage to finish the 2 bead charms for Y, but I went to bed at 4:30. The night was actually cold. I had trouble falling asleep. Last time I looked at the clock, it was around 7:30. Which gave me 2 hours of sleep. (T_T) Perhaps I was in an altered state like traveling. I was able to ignore my back. Yup, yesterday's car-washing did a number on my back. Now that I look back, I haven't been thinking properly all day.

Even though I got the restaurant recommendation from trusted friends, I was still worried. Most of the online reviews are bad.

However, none of the bad things happened. Utensils are clean. We didn't have to wait for water. (There was a lady going around with water.) We didn't get overcharged. We went early to beat the lunch crowd so we didn't have to wait for a table, and no one was asked to wait at any table either. We brought our own Tupperware so I don't know if it takes forever to get one. Most of all, the food was good and reasonably priced. Oh, the yelling is pretty normal for old-style dim sum cart.

We were hungry and concentrated on eating. Neither of us remembered to take pictures. No Pinky pictures for lunch. (T_T) I expect to split the bill, but Y wouldn't let me pay. (Thanks, then!) Perhaps she feels bad that I paid for both lunch and dinner last time.

Y hasn't been to Sakura in Metrotown, so we went there afterward. Came across Mariposa's sale and couldn't resist picking up a $10 dress and a $5 shirt. Y got a pair of $5 pants too. To our shock, Sakura doesn't have anything FMA. Anything!

We got thirsty, of course the dim sum must be loaded with MSG. We went on a little quest for drinks. Superstore didn't make it. It was either bulk, or too expensive singles. The fridges at Everything for a Dollar went missing. The drink and price signs were still on the wall, though. The winner was Dollar Giant. Even larger bottles are only $1. I got water in the car, so I picked up craft supply instead.

Before you know it, it was 3:30. Y's bus departs at 4:25. We barely had enough time to stop by the new Taiwanese junk food store. Unfortunately I got lost going to the Bridgeport skytrain station. It was my first time going there after all. This cost her the 4:25 bus and had to take the next one. (T_T) I wish her a safe trip home. Hopefully we'll meet again.

One more stop for me before going home. Michael's of course. It's right on my way. And oh yes, they've put some new stuff on clearance.

The car's been an oven. I was completely wet and stick from head to toe. Naturally, shower was the first thing when I got home.

Didn't get hungry from all those dim sum, so I only had soup and a few bites. (OK a banana too.) Looks like I've been on a washing spree since yesterday (the car). Or it just felt nice after the shower. I washed today's shirt by hand, then the 2 new pieces, then a set of inners, a gift from another Japanese friend. Or I just don't want today's shirt to stay stinky because I missed today's laundry. Either way, if I don't wear those new summer clothes soon, summer's gonna be over! (Usually only last for 2 weeks.)

Dinner / hot!

Summer suddenly arrived overnight. It's hot!! H O T ! ! !

Well, comparing to most other places, we're still on the cool side, though. But 26 degrees feels like 32. Especially in my car. It's literally a sauna. (There're neighbouring towns going over 30 and breaking records too.)

Y has no Tupperware so I promised to give her a disposable one. And guess how many I dug up from the kitchen? I dunno. I was so shocked, I didn't even border counting.

Dinner with brother's gang at Angle's Cafe. Haven't been there for a while, and we all ordered our "usual" dishes. How boring. Sis-in-law was exhausted from the day's work and went home right after with my older niece. Brother came for a hair cut. The younger niece wanted to "bug me" so she came along. (Yeah, she just wants me to show her Pinky web sites and stuff. I've already sent her links. She can do it on her own. This way she can bypass computer access limit at home. Sneaky!!) I needed to wash my car, so she didn't get to bug me. Yup, haven't washed it for a year. So filthy. I know this is gonna cost me dearly tomorrow. Awww... but tomorrow is my last time seeing Y. She's going back to Japan in a few days. (T_T) Will I be able to last that long?

Need to rush a set of bead charms for her.

CT scan

It's been 6 months and dad is due for a CT scan. This time, 2:15 pm. Quite rare that it's not super early in the morning. However, this presents another problem: parking. The cheap parking lot at UBC fills up very early. So we decided to take Handydart, all 3 of us. Dad is allowed one assistant for free, so it only costs us $5 altogether for a single trip. But then when you look at the $10 for round trip, it no longer looks cheap. Oh well. Should work out to be about the same as parking.

The pickup came early, so we got the scan early. The return trip pickup came late, so we waited in the lobby for 50 minutes. The bus needed to pick up and drop off one lady before taking us home. Dad refused to go to washroom so stubbornly for the last 30 minutes while waiting in the lobby. Of course he was pushing the limit. God knows if he actually wet himself in the bus. He's been stinking like urine since after the scan. That's why we had him wearing a diaper. But he still manage to wet his pants when he went to washroom. As soon as he got home, he got rid of the diaper. Sigh...

There were interesting educational panels on the walls. That mystery of that "radiation" icon is finally solved. It seems to mean "x-ray" specifically.

Too late to go to the bank. Tomorrow then. Dad turn into Gluttony. He's been munching on crackers when waiting for our return ride, yet he ate 3 buns plus a bunch of small stuff after we got home. He kept saying he's hungry, but the amount of food he consumes is too much! Mom ended up giving him early dinner rice at around 5. In return, he was not allow rice at regular dinner time. But... of course, he went hunting for buns again soon after dinner. Sigh... (T_T)

Finally finished unpacking from the house-sitting. Returning the beads to their proper compartments. Took way longer than I thought... Am I slow...?

Chiropractor

Thank God, it's chiropractor day. Badly badly badly needed. The 3 night at my brother's place not only deprived me of 7-hour sleep, the mattress was too soft for me. (Well, the mattress itself is not too soft, it's just softer than my own.)

Delivered C's display case and wooden stuff. Picked up the Pinkys she brought for me in return. Got yogurt from IGA across the street, then went home.

A got the good FMA fan sub, so I went to his place to watch the very last 3 episode. What a beautiful ending for a marvelous series. I was hoping to see the movie announcement, which was probably at the very end. But there was none. Which means it has to be during the commercial break and got cut. Oh well!

House-sitting (4)

Woken up by a phone call at 11:30. This house just wouldn't let me have enough sleep. Sigh... Of course couldn't get up in time to take the call. It rang only 4 times.

Necklaces-making continued. Maybe it's the lack of sleep, maybe it's getting tired of this stuff, production slowed down tremendously. Didn't finish a single one today. Did a bunch of preparations, though.

Brother came back way earlier than I expected. Last time it was like... 10? Today was before 7. Jumping right back to normal life tomorrow means he needs extra time to unpack and clean up. Again, I was surprised they didn't have dinner before crossing the border. They ate bread and cup noodle. I, ate the same stuff I brought from home. Left at 9:30. It was still bright outside.

Costco closed for Independence day, so their shopping plan was trashed. No eggs. Oh well I'm sure they go down there often.

House-sitting (3)

Someone called before noon, again. Of course I wasn't up. Didn't even border to try answering the call. Tried to sleep for a little bit more, but of course didn't work. I don't want to admit it, but the mattress is too soft for me.

Then mom called to relay a message from HK Bank. They're imposing bank fee on bank books. Sigh... Isn't statements more expensive? You gatta mail them too! Anyway, food ran out. Both for me and the guinea pigs. So I went home to get some. Plus, washed my hair. Didn't want to mess up their bathroom setup.

Before that, I went to Richmond to continue with what I didn't finish on July 1st. Didn't know XS Cargo moved into the pet shop location. There's a $28.99 camcorder, but too bad it's all plastic and pretty crappy. Went to the new Dollar Giant to pick up some supply, which was also running out. And I finally found that Taiwanese junk food supermarket sis-in-law told me about. Picked up two buy-1-get-1-free sticky-rice cakes. (Which makes the total four.)

Didn't make any long distance call. I think my friends all had enough. And I need to work on necklaces.

House-sitting (2)

Someone called at 11:30, and then 12:30. Considering my bed time was 6 and couldn't fall asleep right away, I didn't get enough sleep.

Yup, the guinea pigs were hungry. I probably fed them too much yesterday. Will the food last till my brother comes back? When worst comes to worst, I'll need to get some from home.

Stayed in the house all day. Worked on Miki's doll necklaces. Talked to Mikii again, WS, and Mu long distance. Since I forgot my allergy pills, my runny nose was irritating my throat. Went to bed at 6 again. Yikes... (>_<;)

House-sitting (1)

Happy Canada Day! (Well, nothing special for me this year.)

Spending 4 days 3 nights away from home is no difference from traveling. Needed to pack. And it took way too long. I ended up going to my brother's place around 4 pm.

Went to Richmond to check out Liquidation World as requested by sis-in-law. They're having a close-out sale. Too bad the discount is only 30% on the stuff she wants. While trying to find that new Taiwanese junk food supermarket she told me about, I discovered a new Dollar Giant near by. Most stuff are in stock, nice! However, they were closing early on Canada day. I didn't get to look around too much. Must go back another day. Michael's was closing early too. Hmm... too bad, 50% off receipt coupon next week.

Talked to Miki long distance for... 4 hours??? Brother's phone plan allows unlimited call to HK. I view it as my payment for house-sitting. Heehee...

Worked on some doll necklaces too.