Schuckwerder marzipan

From 2011 Feburary. Also from Christmas 2010. Also from LD. These are pretty nice. I used to be bias against mazipan, but somehow my taste changed, and learned to like them. Perhaps it was the texture. I hate coconut shavings, and these kind of remind me of it. After a few widely spaced attempts, I realized how deep the layers of flavours are, and got to like the almonds in it. Yes I can say surely that I like mazipan now. The down side is, they're pretty heavy and loaded with calories.

Halloween

Happy Halloween! No time for a photo shoot... sorry.

Brother stopped by for a few minutes to show us his girl's new costumes. The candy vending machine was upgraded a little, then went to niece G. She actually sold about $20 worth of candies to her classmates. At 25 cent each, that was around 80 sold! Then niece N dressed up as a (new) pop-corn vending machine. Her classmates don't have money so she only sold very few. I got to try it on for a photo too, yay~!

I was lucky because I could ask brother airbrush questions. After they left, I finally used A's airbrush for the first time. It was way more difficult than I thought. First, the craft paint had to be thin enough, which, backfired on me. It lost coverage power and so runny, it left pools. Cleanup was a big hassle too. I need a lot more practice.

Of course dad torn up another shirt again...

Pinky

Pinky continues...
I think I screwed up trying to repose the legs...

Pinky

Pinky continues... The only masking tape I have on hand is the Diaso one, which I know as a fact that it will leave glue stain behind... but I have no choice... (T_T) (Doesn't worth a trip to Richmond.)

Pinky

Y's Pinky (and my own) continues...
Endless cycle of putty and primer...

Desiree assorted wafers

From 2011 Feburary. Actually bought during Christmas 2010. On sale at LD so I thought they would be good to send to Japan because they're not in a box. So I bought 2. One for a friend and one for me. It wasn't until after new year that I open mine. These are... way too sweet! Too much cream, too little wafers. The cream is sugary. Well... at least these are made in Germany. The north American ones would be 30 times worse. However, these don't feel cheap, like you know, from dollar stores. These are just sweet, but quality is solid.

Amazon mystery

T's book arrived. It's a big mystery for me. I ordered it from Amazon with another book so the total would give me free shipping. That other one arrived quickly but this one took forever. It also became unavailable directly from Amazon shortly after. What's going on? (As of today, it's still unavailable!) Did they screw up on the whole batch? It's not like them. They've been pretty reliable. So I switched to a different seller. In order to avoid being charged shipping, I swapped with another book of the same price. Didn't think it would go smoothly, but it did. Thank God!

Who knows, I ended up paying slightly less even though the other seller charges shipping. I should rethink buying from Amazon from now on.

15 years

Wow... it's been 15 years. I almost died that day. Since then things have changed and so do I. I've become a lot more negative, but I must remind myself to be thankful. Thankful that I'm still alive. (^_^)

Vamp and putty

The vampire showed up. It seems to be early again... but I'm too lazy to check. It's more like I don't care anymore... (Not good... not good...)

Switched to work on something that doesn't need any brain: Pinky. Hopefully I'll be able to send Y's Pinkys by November 1st so she can take them with her on the next trip.

Chiropractor

Today started with a fight with mom. Last night, I've explained to her about the leftover from Saturday lunch. (It was questionable... I'll explain later.) She agreed not to eat it. But today when I got up, she's already eaten a bowl, saying she has "processed" it, washing and re-cooking and re-seasoning it. So it's fine. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK you can call me paranoid. The story actually started a few days ago. I happened to stumble across a Japanese blog post about the author's friend catching a mysterious disease after a trip to China. The symptoms are AIDS, but patients test HIV negative, it's even more infectious than SARS. Chinese government is denying its existence, and suppressing all information. Patients revenge by traveling far to donate blood, and spread body fluid like spit onto other people's tableware and food. After searching online, a few posts did come up. I can't say I'd trust this info completely, but I'd play it save.

My 2 cousins just came back from a 4-week Chinese trip. Who knows what they've c0me into contact with? Cousin H didn't use public cutlery, plus, when she packed the leftovers, she used her own fork. Sorry, after reading those articles online, I'd rather play it save. I should have discarded it before reaching home, but didn't have a chance.

I'm mad and disappointed not because of mom's pack-rat approach to food, throwing nothing away including expired stuff, but the fact that I don't feel like I can trust her anymore. She even said, if cousin H's got the disease, she'd died first. I said, does that mean you should die with her? Geeze... what was she thinking????? Every time I run into something like this, she makes me feel so hopeless and helpless. It kills my spirits... if there's any left.

Anyway, chiropractor day. Badly needed appointment. Thought I'd be on time today, but still ended up 20 minutes late. But the time I walk out the clinic, it was almost 5. Took slightly under an hour-and-a-half!!!!!!!!!!

Nonetheless, picked up some replacement cookies from Shopper's. Then stopped by DeSerres' Broadway branch for those sketch books that are on sale. There weren't too many left. I'm glad I got some. Just because they're almost sold out, I bought more than I need. Always fall for that trap. They're for my niece's Christmas presents, and now I have some for myself too.

Then went to see A because he's got cheese cake from "the best shop in town" for me... and it was heavenly! (Well I was quite hungry too.) Thanks!!! (^_^)

More and more, I notice when my moods are down, my luck goes down too. Very scary. On my way to A's, I noticed I haven't encountered a red light for a long time! That was amazing! My back was better from the chiropractor visit, and I got the sketch books. So I was pretty happy and relaxed. However, as soon as I noticed the "luck", it was gone. I hit a red light a the next major intersection. Sigh... How should I draw any conclusion?

Cadbury Finger

From 2011 February. Boxing day 2010? Thanks A for this. I guess this is so common, I don't really need to write anything, right? And just because of that, I never actually was gonna write. I just happened to take a Pinky picture, so why not?

Well... this box... somehow wasn't as good as I remember. In my memory, it was lighter, cleaner, and less sweet. Still not bad, though.They've got the correct ratio of cookie and chocolate. Eat one or two for something to munch on, eat 5 or 6 if you're hungry. A perfect snack.

Dinner

It was a nice sunny day yet my back has reached it's limited... again. Yup, 10-day interval landed on Saturday so I tried to stretch it out to Monday. Today is the bottom of the pit. Numb. Very numb...

Thought it would be perfect to start using the airbrush. After fiddling around, there was only an hour left before brother came pick us up. So... failed today...

Eat-out day with brother's gang. Mom wanted him to come for a hair cut because she "thinks he needs one". He's busy so he declined. Then mom said we had leftovers so we didn't need to eat out. What was that??? Was it the "my way or no way"??? How much more passive aggressive she's gonna be???

Brother seems to be really busy, and didn't insist. But within 5 minutes after mom hung up, sis-in-law called, saying J will be there too. We will probably be sharing a table at a December craft fair again, so I wouldn't mind seeing her. So I talked to mom again, and she agreed to go.

15 minutes before pickup time, cousin K called. I knew she would be tired from her trip, so even though she said she'd call last night and didn't, I'm not worried. But that was just too perfect timing. She couldn't picked a worst time to call. And, as usual, cousin H had bad-mouthed us again. I didn't have time to hear the details, though. Again, I'm not surprised.

Brother took us to a Taiwanese restaurant east of Metrotown. Both the price and food were good. Except for the waitress screwed up 2 of our orders, switching lamb with beef. Brother was sketching even during dinner. Yup busy, no kidding. It was niece G's Halloween costume design. OK... I do think he's shooting himself in his foot in such a busy time... although the end product is good enough to sell as a professionally done costume. He seems to be combining gatherings too. A bunch of his church friends joined us and our table ended up sitting 16. Turn out J didn't have any info about the craft fair yet. Oh well.

I get the feeling that he's trying to condition me to his church friends, in order to push me to church.

Airport

Cousin K's call came at 11:30. Only got 3 hours sleep. I totally forgot it was today. Apparently she called our land-line and no one answered. Of course, mom's gone to church. But I should have heard that! Strange.

Anyway, I rushed to the airport, but it still took half an hour to arrive. This time, they didn't check into their next flight, so they had their luggage with them! Crap! I didn't clear out the trunk! How careless of me! Although both cousin K and H had carry-on size luggage, they were still heavy and needed the whole trunk. So cousin K's suitcase had to be put in the back seat. Then off to lunch we went.

We arrived at the mall, and very luckily found a parking spot soon. It was quite busy. I said we should take the back-seat suit case with us because my driver's side window has a gap after the last break-in, and can easily be broken-in again. Cousin H went very unhappy and said let's forget lunch and drop them back at the airport. Sigh... (No, grrrr...) I ended up switching the winter supply box onto the back seat with the suite case. Should have done that in the first place.

The Hong Kong style cafe restaurant we planned to eat lunch at had changed their name. Without any experience, we took a chance. The price was set high, and unfortunately, the quality doesn't fallow. Cousin H didn't like the food. Geeze, she was grumpy. Yet she kept talking about her trip and what a great deal it was. OK I see. She's like C who likes to be the boss.

I was groggy so I can't remember much of the conversation. The food came and we ate. Cousin K said she's gotten so tired of Chinese food. We could have eaten downstairs at the Japanese style cafe! Why didn't they say so in the first place???

Cousin K insisted to pay because she wanted to get rid of her Canadian money. Thanks for lunch! We had very little time as their next flight departed at 3:50 and they need to check in. So we quickly finish eating and I dropped them off at the airport. Cousin H dragged her suitcase and left a scratch on my bumper. (T_T) I hate to think that she did it on purpose, but I couldn't help it. After all she's just that kind of person.

My back has been very bad since yesterday. But I thought I should still pay A a visit. So I did. He was going to get a hair-cut, but gave up the idea. (His hair wasn't that long anyway.) Instead I suggested to see the new DeSerres branch. It happened to be next to Central Hobbies, which we passed by last time and didn't get to go in because it was closed. This time we could. A was happy to see lots of model trains. Very expensive stuff, though...

Then next door, DeSerres. But they no longer have that house brand sketch book anymore! The staff I asked didn't even know if it was discounted. She was sure that everything from the move was unpacked. Ooooo... well... I should have bought some more last time.

Then I kidnapped A to Costco for some more trial mix. He got some stuff for himself too. Afterwards, he wanted steak, so we went to the Keg nearby. Parking was busy but luckily it was fine inside. No lineup. Thanks for dinner. The steak was awesome, and dessert perfect! (However, there was something I couldn't chew in the salad... the texture felt like plastic. It was so dark, I couldn't make out what it was. This photo was retouched. I'm kind of relieved to see green.)

Hung out at his place for a bit. He found a bug in his game. Got home, tried to reply Y's mail, but fell asleep at the desk. Kept having dream of suffocating sitting on my chair with my head falling backwards. I think that actually happened and not just a dream. Again, after writing this, I failed painfully to go to bed early even in perfect condition to sleep. (T_T)

Fall colour

Picture was taken on the 10th, only 10 days ago. There's no green left anymore.

Psychiatrist

Dad's got an appointment with the psychiatrist today. He acted smarter than normal. He always knows when and how to "act normal". He was lying in bed throughout the meeting and did not spit once. I was impressed. The reason for today's meeting was because of his spitting (and I think also last Saturday's fight.) The doctor decided to increase his antidepressant dosage as it should help with inhibition. If that doesn't work, he will have to go onto a more expensive psychiatric drugs which costs about a hundred bucks a month.

The doctor and nurse went to the 5th floor while mom and I stayed behind for a bit longer. Then, only then, did I notice the wall was covered with dad's spit!!!!! Aaaargh!!!! I hope the doctor saw that too...

Posted my first item on Etsy. My shop is officially opened, yay~! But too much time was spent on the write-ups. And it looks like making money on there is not easy. I'm hesitant to post another item.

Celebration butter cookies

From 2011 January. Bought during Christmas 2010 at LD again. Actually "butter cookies topped with real milk chocolate". (Is the fake chocolate those waxy stuff?) This is pretty good. But I'm not sure whether I should file it under cookie or under chocolate. The chocolate portion is substantial which makes it on the sweet side, but it's good chocolate so I don't mind. Quite addictive.

Images

(Picture was taken on July 28 and unrelated to subject.)
Can't believe I spent so much time on preparing Etsy images! I keep making stupid mistakes and had to redo them 4 times!!!!!!!!

Shop

Finally set up my Etsy shop. Still haven't listed anything yet although I've spend days preparing images. Need to read the fine print first, and I'm not in good condition right now. More importantly, need to set the price, which should not be done without a fresh and alert mind.

Carp...

(Picture is unrelated to subject.)
Got a phone call from the nursing home. This past Saturday, Dad hit a staff member with his cane because he couldn't wait for his food. OMG... (T_T) The staff member blocked it with her arm and was not injured. But why didn't they call me on Saturday? Would it be the office staff have weekends off??? Anyway, the in-house doctor referred him to a psychiatrist. We will be having a meeting on Thursday.

No wonder why when we visited on Sunday, there was no smile on any staff member's faces. (T_T) Why God why? Why do you have to make dad sick like this??? Is this to punish me and mom??? What have we done to deserve this???

Rice Cooker and Coffee

Perfect sunny day like yesterday. But somehow my back is not good. Took an hour to get out of bed.

Dropped off cousin D's extra rice cooker to A, and took him to get his coffee bean plus grocery.

Eat-out day with brother's gang, and as usual, visited dad before. Since niece N did not finish her homework, brother only took mom and I to see dad. He also tried to fix dad's walker. The switch could not be completely return to normal, but at least it works now. Mom wanted to take advantage of brother's land-line long distant call deal, but forgot to bring the number. She still hasn't informed Mrs. L about aunt Y's death. Have to wait another week now. (Until the next eat-out day.) Oh well!

L's logo idea doesn't work. That's a picture, not a logo! How should I persuade him?

Hershey's Kisses Santa Hat

From 2011 January. A Christmas gift from L, thanks! Hmm... sorry I don't want to lie, but I don't really like Hershey's. They are generally too sweet and has a strange beasty flavour. (I suspect it's the milk.) Unfortunately, this huge "kisses" cannot escape. I was gonna give it to niece G who likes chocolate, but late one night, I got hungry and ended up eating it. Yup, typical Hershey's. It's chocolate alright, but somehow they manage to screw it up. The flavour is too condensed. Too sweet. I don't think I'd avoid Hershey's in the future. (And, hope I can remember. I tend to forget.)

Rice and phone

There's a new 10-grain rice on sale at T&T so I went to buy some. The brand is different from the one we usually buy, but it's also from Taiwan, and $2 cheaper for the same weight! Not sure if the value of the content is the same, though. They have different formula.

A's got the new iphone 4s! Very cool! I guess you do get what you pay for. Since we both speak with an accent, Siri doesn't always work. Hmm... language discrimination? I have yet to try out the voice thing on my Android phone.

Dream

(Picture was taken yesterday and unrelated to subject.)
I woke up in dad's bed, not the current one, but the one in our old home. (I used to share a bed with dad when I was young.) I looked to my left at the window. It was bright, so I got up. Opened the door and exited into the dinning room. Dad was standing there. I looked to my right towards the balcony, and the sky was dark. The clock said 5:30 (AM). I thought, crap, why did I wake up? Then I tried to go to the washroom. The door was closed. Someone was in there. I gave up on trying to get up, and went back to dad's bed to continue sleeping.

Then I woke up for real. And it was afternoon already! Aaaargh!!!!!! (T_T)

Mural

Went to the post office to mail Y and T's parcel. Errands at the bank and stuff. Then I saw (it was impossible not to see) shocking neon pink on the walls and ground right next to the bank! A bunch of guys were painting some sort of neon pink zebra pattern mural. I wonder what the finished picture is like. But why are they doing that? That's the ally leading to the bank's parking lot!

Houses and geese

Haven't taken any pictures of the neighourhood WIP houses for a while. They have progressed so much!

For the past two day, I've been hearing what I thought was sea gulls. Noooo! Actually they're geese! I happened to look up, and there they were, flying in the classic v-shape formation. That, was the biggest flock of geese I've ever seen! Never knew they are that noisy.

Got some progress on L's logo too.

Chio Maxi Mix

From 2011 January. Don't think I've written anything about these yet although I've tried them 2 years ago. Some dollar stores carry them, but I got mine from LD. (Haha... LD again.) The list of ingredients look good. The lid tears off and cannot be re-closed. If you don't finish it within 3 days, put them in something air-tight. This round tray is divided into 4 compartments and contains a different treat in each. If you need a few bite to munch, this is perfect. It's also one of the rarer salty snack. However, sometimes I do feel it being too salty. And... don't know why, but I seem to get canker sore from eating this. So, although it's cheap (but doesn't taste cheap), I can only eat this every-now-and-then.

Chiropractor

Usually by the time I have an appointment, it's past my worst days. Oh well. Needed it anyway.

The parcels didn't make it today. Went to Oakridge trying to exchange the toner as instructed. To my shock, they still don't have the seaweed one!!! The sales person I dealt with was not there. The other lady assured me that there's no time limit.

Dad torn up another overall again. Mom can't keep up with mending and has given up. He's left with no diapers because he keeps tearing them up, and hence wet himself and the furniture and the floor. His purpose of existence is to create as much trouble for others as he can. I'm sure by now all the staff hates him. Why do things have to be like this?

Sleep

Y said, dying has to be painful. I thought, if you die in your sleep, it shouldn't be. Like my late uncle. He didn't last long after he was diagnosed with lung cancer, and he died in his sleep.

Then, I realized, no one was with him at the very last moment. He could have suffered, but there's no witness. Hmm... so I can't say "dying in your sleep is not painful" anymore...

There were some completely dried up lavender flowers on the stuff sis-in-law gave me, which yielded a bunch of seeds. I suspect these were the "bugs" her sister said were in her lavender. But nooo, those actually had legs and moved. These don't.

Lavender

Eat-out day with brother's gang. But not before visiting dad. As usual, the floor was covered with his spit. It looked like he's been sitting in his room for a while because the spit was confined to near his chair. Mom asked if he finished dinner, and he said yes. So Mom gave him the banana she brought. When he was done eating, a staff brought him dinner! Did he not know if he's eaten or not? Or did he lie so that he could eat the banana first?

When mom was watching dad eat his dinner, she notice he wasn't wearing any dentures! OMG... he was already half done eating! Why didn't he notice he need dentures to eat?!?!?! It was sitting in the washroom cabinet. Mom gave it to dad, and he continued eating. Afterwards, he was fiddling with the dentures probably because he's got food trapped between it and his gums.

It's just so hopeless...

We went to the other branch of the Taiwanese fish soup noodle place. Very crowded. Long lineup. This time we were smart about portion size and ordered the right amount. (No leftovers.) Then we made a stop at brother's. Mom got to play with the Guinea pigs and I helped with harvesting lavender flowers from the stems. Then I got to have the stems. Thanks, sis-in-law! Although dad has moved out, we didn't get to do anything with the carpet and it still stinks. Less than before, but still stinks. Lavender helps.

Babysit, duo monitor

Did a bunch of cleanup. Brother and sis-in-law have some church gatherings to attend so they dropped off their girls to us. (40th anniversary banquet $25 per head! Definitely not worthwhile to take the kids!) I managed to fix the double monitor problem before the girls started to bug me. Actually only niece N did. Niece G didn't join in until very late. She was into her i-touch games... or was it drawings?

The best solution turns out to be the most simple one. Even A exhausted his tricks on my disappeared font viewer. (Or was he fed up with me???) Reverting back to the old duo monitor setup, and then move the font viewer window back to monitor 1. That simple. I have been reluctant to do it because my back and neck have not been well. Didn't want to climb under and behind the desk. Oh well, I will not be seeing A so I guess I can risk being grumpy. (Instead of feeling pain, I feel "wrong" and become grumpy when my back goes bad.)

Then I didn't want to take a chance, so I did not install the switcher and UPS. (Sorry...) I feel more comfortable working on L's logo first. (In case something goes wrong and I'll loose the use of my machines.) It's been so late, I'm not sure if he'd even accept it. (Well, it's not done yet, of course.)

Loacker Creme Noisette

From 2011 January. "Fine milk chocolate biscuits with hazelnut cream". The "biscuit" is actually wafers. Overall heavy on chocolate. It's like... 80% chocolate, 10% wafer, 10% bits of nuts. And within the chocolate portion, the filling between the wafers is very creamy and rich. The taste of nut is quite strong. Just a touch too rich and sweet. Made in Italy, it doesn't leave a sour after taste. A box only contains 12 biscuits and on the expensive side.

Cell phone

Thanks A for the computer help! Thanks S and A for the cell phone help! Wow... I have no idea my phone can do that much!

No hope

Dad torn up yet another piece of clothes. It's of course one of the overalls.

I know mom's been unhappy. But I don't want to be the recipient of her negative energy. I've got way too much myself. I can't handle her passive aggressiveness any more.

I pointed out the rice cooker may have expired. The non-stick coating obviously is bubbling and chipped. I think she's been pretending not noticing? (OK the bubbles are very fine so it looks like a rim of stain... but how can she not know it's non-stick and shouldn't have anything "stain"?) So I said we should switch to the stainless steel pot. Mom argued that the rice cooker is excellent in cooking congee, and you don't need to watch over it. I argued that if we keep eating whatever micro particles that may seep out, we'll become like dad. She didn't want to agreed, but gave in and proceed to soak the grains... while saying she doesn't care and wants to die. Geeze... where did that come from?

I said, this stuff you keep saying is making me want to die. She said happily that, than lets die together. Geeze... is that what she wants of me? I'm sorry, even if I'm gonna kill myself, I will not do it together with her. She's like a drowning person holding onto and dragging down whoever is closest. I'm unfortunate enough to be right next to her. I'm sick and tired of being drag down by her. Does she know what she's showing me as an example of mother? No wonder I'm single. She shows me that being a mother is so ugly. I despise her for killing hope.

To be honest, I always know she has no hopes or plans for me as a child. She gave me ugly haircuts and dressed me up in her sense of fashion, which drove my friends away. She never wish for my happiness. Never wish that I would someday find someone special. All she wants now, is for me to not run away and stay at her side until she dies. In other words, she does not want me to have a future. Period.

How can I not despise her??? How can I live without numbing my heart???

Dropoff

Dropped off 3 large cans of cookies to the nursing home staff for Thanksgiving. One for each shift.

When we got there, dad was napping in bed, half-naked. Somehow most of dad's clothes were in the drawers instead of the closet. I don't think that's a problem, but mom started to put them into the closet, and discovered there weren't enough hangers. Nothing can be done, so the clothes went back into the drawers. I still think that's not a problem. Why did mom think it was such a big deal??? Sigh...

I noticed dad's room now has a hanging lamp instead of a table lamp. Probably to keep him from dismantling it. I thought he's not allowed to have any lamp. So this is good. But he must have been messing around with the walker grand-aunt Y lend him. One of the release button is damaged... bended upward and no longer work. Sigh... (T_T)

Dad was coughing up phlegm and spitting it out into his hand. There is no toilet paper because he keeps flushing them down the toilet. (When he was at home, he consumed a roll in each washroom each day, which added up to 2 rolls a day.) Can't blame the staff, but it wouldn't work out because dad would just spit onto the floor or furniture or wipe with his clothes. I asked for a roll and got one. Not sure how long that roll would last. Sigh...

Thank God for the sun. I needed it for the replacement shots. (Which still didn't work out for the 2 stubborn pairs of problematic earrings.) Gorgeous sunset. Spent the night processing images but far from getting done. Very far...

Have been feeling unwell in the stomach for the past 2 days. Was it that leftover soup heavy with cooking rice wine from the Taiwanese place? But I only mixed a few spoonful into my congee! Actually it was more than stomach. It was higher. I fear my heart might not be doing well. After all, it was bruised back then. Not sure how much longer it can last.

Cans of...

Thanks A for helping me get those huge cans of cookies (for nursing home staff)!

And sorry for the spill...

Lindt Orange

Christmas gift 2010 from L. Thanks! It's the gold paper wrap variety (as to the black-and-white cardboard one), and one of the most delicious chocolate I've ever had.

The chocolate itself is Lindt quality. Cocoa and milk are well balanced and of course without the north American aftertaste. Inside the chocolate shell is a soft orangie filling, slightly tart, with bits of orange peel. It's a killer combination and extremely addictive. I ate half the bar in the first sitting. OK, I was hungry too.

Kitchen drawer

Finally got fed up with the cutlery drawer and did a total cleanup. It's unbelievable what's been sitting there, and how dirty it is! Straws from fast food joints, take-out plastic cutlery and disposable wooden chopsticks (may have been used), and a large amount of mystery tiny plastic spoons! (I suspect those were from fertilizer or something like that.) Also lots of plastic chopsticks. On top of all that, a bunch of metal sticks wrapped up in paper napkins... dad's homemade crab-eating tools! I'm 200% sure those metal sticks were once part of something else. There were a few bottle caps and a couple of metal wires... sigh... (T_T) That drawer, I'm sure hasn't been touched since the day we moved in 21 years ago.

Finally cleaned up some e-mail too.

Glasses

Cousin K and H brought dad a bunch of glasses. Cousin-in-law K might have bought them since she was trying to force her own pair on him last time. (Sorry it sounds nasty, but he will for sure loose or destroy those nice ones.) So, these are from dollar stores in the States. Pretty amazing what a buck can get. (A buck each, not all.)

Picture taken on July 25th. Someone forgot to turn off the "open" sign.

Airport

Cousin K and H pulled it off. They had slightly below 4 hours between flights, and met up with me (and mom) for a quick lunch. But the main objective was for cousin K to hand me the clothes. Their arrival flight was 15 minutes early at 10, but cousin H had some trouble with her luggage. The staff reported it missing but was soon found on the carrousel. No harm done, just a lot of running around for about 20 minutes.

By the time I picked them up, it was 11:30. Their next flight was 1:50 with 1:10 boarding. Cousin H recommended a dim sum place she went to last time. We quickly ordered and ate up fast. An hour passed by so fast, we didn't do anything else besides eating lunch. They were dropped off at 12:50, should be OK, but you never know how long the security lineup is. It was China airline to Beijing. Large plane with lots of passengers. Hope they made it.

Did some grocery shopping and then went home. Of course I kept dosing off at the desk. Didn't accomplish much besides cleaning up blog entries...

Sleep...

... or the lack there of. Finally got to make use of the morning sun. The price is big, very big...

Eat-out day with brother's gang. Went to see dad first. This was the first time I saw him in his new room. Once we opened the door, we saw the floor full of his spit. Dad himself was sitting on the toilet with no shirt. Pants only. Mom keeps cleaning up after him even though it's the job of the staff.

J and her daughter joined us for dinner as niece N went to her daughter's birthday party. We went to a new Taiwanese restaurant for dinner. The food was good. A bit strong in flavour, though.

Thought I'd be super sleepy, but nooo. I'm not. Not good, not good...