Last day of March

Haven't seen S for a while. 30 bucks for that tea leaf is way too expansive...
Dinner at Ajisai. Thanks A. No, no occasion. Just kind of close (?) and haven't been there for a long time. Junk food shopping at LD afterwards.

Move (2)

Mom was gonna pick up dad's remaining laundry in the morning despite my objection. However, grand aunt Y called and they ended up talking for an hour. (God was trying to stop her too. Thanks.) If it was just a visit, it would be fine. But picking up who-knows-how-many-bags of stuff? A car is much better. (And why is she so reluctant to ask for my help?)

Got up late at lunch time again. Mom kept rushing me as aunt L wanted to go with us. So my plan of picking up the laundry completely fell apart. There were unfinished paper work too. Just as I was ready to leave, I realized I forgot to make a copy of the forms. Had to do a bunch of last minute scanning. It's times like this that the scanner feels super slow. And it is 10 years old after all.

We got there around 2. Dad seemed happy with the new place. Good. Mom and aunt L went to see him as I took care of the rest of the paper work. Played with their residence cat for a bit. Stayed for an hour, but again forgot to take any pictures! Aaaaargh!!!!!

Drove aunt L home, and went to pick up the laundry from the old nursing home. Mom came along. I'm glad she did. Because their parking lot was full, and I had to wait in the car. Luckily someone left and I got a spot soon. There were 2 big shopping bags of laundry. I'm also glad to have a chance to greet and thank the staff one last time.

It's been raining so we didn't feel like going anywhere else. (Otherwise grocery shopping etc.) Got home and cleaned up the document scans until dinner. Of course dosing off every-now-and-then...

Move (1)

The move. Again I failed to go to bed early and ended up with 3 hours sleep. Brother was early. I forgot to factor the vampire shower time in. Everyone was waiting for me. (T_T) Luckily the time was not as straight and we managed to get there more or less fine.

The staff prepared dad well. He just had a shower and was about to be dressed. We went upstairs to the office to finish the discharge procedure. The staff members were all very helpful. Thanks~ Dad tried to step onto the van directly skipping the step-stool... Even now he thinks he's fully capable... despite he's been using a walker... (T_T)

As expected, dad said he wants to go home. Mom kept telling him he can't because his spitting and incontinent are not cured. Dad then insists he's cured. Sigh... I have no idea how to deal with such situations and that's why I involved brother. And he's good at it. He distracted dad with "taking a look at that place first". Thanks... Wouldn't know what to do myself.

The new nursing home looks newer (it is actually newer), bigger, and nicer than the old one. Doesn't stink like urine (or old folks stink), and (supposed to) have a higher care level.

Unlike last time, no office staff gave us any meetings. We were greeted by the nursing staff at dad's room. Didn't seem like the other home sent them any info in advance. It was in the envelope when we checked out. Nevertheless they got some info. And we fill them with some more pointers, like, dad's clothes cannot be kept in his room as he'd dismantle them. His spitting, flushing things down the toilet, refusing diapers... etc.

I was in a cloud as blood sugar level fell. The nursing station was not always staffed. We had to get our admission package from the reception, which was missing all the forms. Somehow someone at the nurse station thought we've already handed the documents in, and removed them from the folder. OTL The receptionist didn't explain things too well... or was it my lack of sleep plus vampire? I had a very hard time understanding and filling the forms.

As usual, mom focus 200% of her attention and energy on dad while I struggled with documents. There were lots of stuff that I needed to ask her, but she disappeared with dad to the other dinning room. Finally I gave up fighting alone because brother was starting to get fidgety. Dad was eating lunch, but I had to interrupt. Then it finally clicked on me that not all forms need to be handed in today. So, we were about to hand in 2 or 3 and on out way out... only to see the reception's gate closed. The receptionist was out for lunch. Grrr.... should have filled all the forms at home.

Late lunch at 1. I was in such bad condition that I totally forgot to take a Pinky picture. (T_T) I didn't even eat breakfast. (T_T) (But didn't feel hungry either... but in a cloud.) Got home around 2. Mom immediately starting calling up a bunch of relatives to report dad's move. I started cleaning up e-mail, and sending out photos at the new nursing home.

Will need to pick up remaining laundry from the old nursing home tomorrow, and continue with paper work at the new one.

Forgot to call the post office again. Awwww...

Popchips pamesan & garlic

From 2011 September. Thanks A for sharing. Can't say for sure because it wasn't newly opened. First impression: salty. The cheese takes a backstage position and shows up later slowly. Somehow that's a little bit of tartness. Probably from the cheese? Actually I didn't look at the back before eating and thought it was salt and pepper. Wrong. However, the garlic comes out long after you've done eating.

New nursing home

The call came around noon. I must have missed a few. Dad will be moved to a new nursing home tomorrow. And it's normal practice to give only one day notice. (T_T) Well... we don't need as much preparations (like chest x-ray) like last time anyway.

So came the wave of phone calls. With dad's spitting, I'd like to use handydart if possible. But it's pretty much impossible to book the day before. Standing-by is too risky, so we have no choice but to drive him ourselves.

This can't come at a worse time. The vampire just showed up today and I'm feeling sick. Tomorrow will probably get worse. (T_T) Don't think mom and I can handle the move ourselves, so I asked brother for help. He's such a good fellow. He even offered to drive us all. Thanks~ He's also way smarter and more experienced. With his advice, I called up the new place to confirm the admission, and a bunch of questions so we'd be more prepared. Thanks!!

Yup, vampire is making me sick. (T_T) And I haven't has such a bad knock either. But nonetheless it came. Any delay would probably cost huge problems. (Yup, I'm pretty scared.)

Dinner

... valley continued... (Part of the "missing diary".)

Chiropractor

Again... I didn't record the day... (Looking back, this must have been the valley.)

Richmond

Met up with A... sorry I didn't drop it down on the same day and can't remember the details... (T_T) This is written way after this day.

Celebration Mini

From 2011 September? "Mini butter cookies with real milk chocolate". Thanks A for sharing. He thought it's more chocolate than cookie, but it's the other way round. It's cookies' bottom side dipped in chocolate. The chocolate layer is very thin. I was comparing it with this Celebration butter cookies which is softer and fluffier. This mini is harder and more crunchy. The chocolate-cookie ratio is also lower. A bit addictive, but not too much.

House (2)

Oops... forgot to use this older photo from March 1st. (Part of the "missing diary".)

House (1)

The garage house on my block is progressing fast. (Part of the "missing diary".)

Arrived

The packaged I thought lost finally arrived. The address was partially worn off and a note was attached guessing what was there. Thank God it's not lost. I'm not at all good at dealing with such situations.

Airport (2)

Aiming at leaving the house at 9, I set my alarm clock at 8. However, cousin B showers in the morning... at 7! Loud too. Despite my best effort, I only managed to go to bed at 3. (And of course couldn't fall asleep whenever I need to get up early.) I tried to fall back asleep and almost had it, but mom barged into my room and engaged me in an conversation. (I can't even remember what it was about.) But I got mad. Easily mad especially without sufficient sleep. Time seemed to pass so slow. I got up a little after 8, more or less as planned.

(I think mom was trying to pry me up to go to morning dim sum...)

Anyway, dropped off cousin B smoothly and went to buy some yen to send to T. A little grocery shopping right after. It was not even 11 when we started to head home. Then when I passed Dollarama, I remembered A said there's some sort of putty on red flag deals. So I went in with mom. Didn't find the putty even after asking a staff member, but found the last paper punch to complete the set. Mom got garbage bags. She was pushing to eat out so we went to the opposite corner of the mall to Timmy's. It was 11:15 and breakfast menu was still on. So we got breakfast sandwich. Slightly heavy. Mom was struggling to finish it.

Got home, tried to take some junk food pictures. (Cousin B just came back from Taiwan and brought us some exotic black peanuts.) As soon as I sat down I started falling asleep. It was like that all day until after dinner. Couldn't do much... couldn't even continue with T's mail. Not to mention S and L. And of course L's picture...

Cousin B also brought me the Pinkys from W. (Thanks!!!!) His packaging skill is art!

Airport (1)

Cousin B's flight was early but luggage took forever. Picked them up successfully at 8:05. Arrived at dad's around 8:35. He was locked in his room, all naked with pee on his bed and floor. So mom stepped in and I went to get his clothes from the public bathtub room. It took some time before cousin B could actually talk to him. At the same time, I contacted brother and made restaurant arrangements. Cousin B brought dad munchies from Taiwan and Hong Kong. We stayed until 9:15. Met brother's gang at 9:30 at the restaurant. By the time we finished, it was 11. Got home, and soon received a call from cousin H as she promised (about cousin B's new flight confirmation code), They talked for an hour and bed time for them was about 12:30. Their flight is 11:45 next morning and we need to leave the house at 9. Not much sleep... (Yup, this post has fake time. It's actually 2:10 AM right now. I do that to keep the post within the correct day.)

Karamela lesnik

From 2011 September? Part of a gift from R&B's trip home. Thanks! This caramel candy is awesome! Well, I was hungry too. But you can tell it's real. Buttery with hazelnut. The amount of sweetness is perfect. (Not too sweet.) However, are those mint in the picture? That, I didn't detect. Candies in Europe seem to be superior than the American ones.

Parcels

Got a suspicious phone call claiming to be from my bank. Mom answered and I subsequently took over. The other party speaks with heavy East Indian accent which I had trouble understand. Most importantly, that voice sounds like some of those scam calls we've got. (That computer error scam seems to be active again recently.) So I didn't give much info, took his (her?) name, and said I'd go directly to the bank. After speaking to mom, she decided to go with me to do some transfers herself. Turns out the situation was real. That person actually exists. However, mom's manager ended up helping me with my stuff, so I never get to meet that person. I owe him (or her) an apology...

Mailed 4 parcels which cost me 50+ bucks. My v card online signup seems to have failed. Need to call their head office to find out what's going on... (T_T)

Popcorn Chicken

Sorry A for not being able to get up earlier... Glad that you like the food.

Didn't expect to buy iron pills and laxative at Costco. It just happened. (No I don't mind.) But I don't think I'd be able to use up the 100-pill bottle of laxative before it expires...

Stuff

Worked on the mini stuff... (Part of the "missing diary".)

Beads

Checked the shipment from the other day and I'm disappointed. (1) One of the items was 2 pieces short. (2) Plenty of broken wooden beads. (3) The worst one is the expensive cone bead caps. First I misjudge the size. They're too big. Second, there are actually 2 different styles. Third, a few are broken. Sigh... This is why I hate shopping online. You can't see the actual items before buying.

Chiropractor

Oops... sorry, forgot to drop it down and it's too late now. Chiropractor visit was actually yesterday. I've forgotten what else happened...

Giant Lady Fingers

From 2011 September? On sale at LD for 89 cents, thanks A for sharing. They look good, but unfortunately don't taste that good. The texture was OK, thought. Not dry at all. So they should be relatively fresh. There's nothing but sweetness... and heavily processed milk powder. Felt very fake. Sorry, there's no second chance.

Luck

The problematic batch of findings arrived. The bead caps are way larger than I thought. Failed... Just when I was starting to work on something, it happened. It was all my own fault. I placed a big plastic box with my recent WIP bead stuff on uneven footing while trying to quickly retrieve a box from the shelf. The plastic box fell. Instantly the floor was covered with beads. I went completely numb. I know something like this is gonna happen one day. And the day was today. I spent a lot of time on those beads. It was like all hope was lost. Then my phone rang. It was Dr. H. OMG the timing could not be more creepy. We updated each other. And that was the very last time I'd talk to him. I'll be transferred to somewhere else. Luckily it's close to my dad. Which solves my parking worries. Thank you God.

It took an hour to pick up the fallen beads. I forced myself to think positive... like perhaps I'd find stuff I dropped before that disappeared. At the end, I didn't find any previous beads, and I may still be missing some more from this time. Sigh...

Then brother called. Eat-out day today. They're taking care of 2 extra guinea pigs from a church friend who has left town for 2 weeks. So mom and I went to play with them after dinner. All 4 pigs had not worked out their packing order and was still fighting a little when put into the bigger exercise pan. But at the end of the night, they seemed to have settled the business. So, no pictures this time.

Membership

Really big wind storm over night. Brother's place was out of power this morning for a while. Luckily we were fine. Can't say the same for my body, though. Still aching.

Still not used to daylight saving hour and got up late. Totally missed dad's lunch so we went to see him for afternoon snack. Unfortunately there was a bad accident at 12th and Oak. Couldn't get pass 14th. Couldn't access the nursing home's parking lot. Took a while and much further away, but we managed to find parking on the street. By the time we were done, traffic seemed better from the 3rd floor window, but actually still sealed off. Shouldn't have taken that route.

Yup, I flipped again. Mom saw it all. She knows it all. Yet she turn away pretending it's nothing, with only one faint and grumpy "not like that" comment. She did not even give the slightest attempt to turn me towards the more positive side. I get the feeling that she actually wants me to soak in this hell. Sigh... why does she hate me so much?

Finally reached CAA to renewed my membership. Slight lineup of 2 people but still took a while. Mom insisted to stay in the car without listening to my "it's warmer in the building" preach. To her, anything I say is wrong. None of my ideas worth anything.

She's been nagging me about tonight's dinner. The more she rush me, the more I have to slow down to counteract her negative energy. She also blames it on aunt L, not realizing it is her who is doing all the rushing and nagging.

We ended up having to wait in the car in front of the restaurant for 15 minutes before they opened. Aunt L said she like the food. Good. Seniors can be super picky. However, I failed yet again to get the bill... Next time, next time.

Mattress (3)

Woke up feeling bad with a headache again. Should I blame the weather again? It's not raining and the sun's peeking through. (Rained overnight, though.) Feeling worst than yesterday....

Got a b-day gift from Y, thanks!!!

Mattress (2)

Really went overboard last night and screwed up my bed time again. Am I in give-up mode again??? Woke up with a headache. Thought the new mattress would help, but I actually woke up feeling much worse. It could also be the weather, too. It's been wet for 2 days, and no sunshine for the whole week. On an unreasonably positive POV, it could be that I slept too well and didn't change position all night, which caused the stiffness. Either way, it's still way too early to tell.

So A actually had his game release dinner on Tuesday... So his previous invitation was fake... Moral of the story: if I don't expect anything, I won't feel left out. I should keep my distance...

Mattress (1)

Rain all day. Achy... Went to see dad with mom. The old lady who chocked the other day ate lunch with everyone else in the dining area, but needs to be fed now. Mr. H's speech also seems a bit harder to understand since his discharge from the hospital. Everyone is gong downhill...

Picked up my new mattress from the foam store. Screwed up the size but it's not a big deal. (I measured the bed as 3'x6' and thought I should subtract 1/4 inch off so it would definitely fit into the pit, and to aid sheet changing. But it turns out my measurement was not exactly 3'x6' and slightly bigger. Moral of the story: when the mattress is said to be a certain size, trust them.) The new one is definitely more comfortable than my dead one. It lets me relax more. Let's see how tonight's sleep goes.

Dr. H finally replied my mail! He's gonna be off for the next 9 months, though. Hope he'd refer me to a good doctor...

Pop chips original

From 2011 September? On sale at Whole Food, there were 4 or 5 flavours. I'd like to start with the basics. (Nope, I only bought one bag. No other flavours.) I happened to have drunk the soup of some Vietnamese beef noodles. My salt quota was filled. So, when I put the first chip in my mouth, it tasted super salty! How interesting your body adjust cravings according to needs. Low salt? Things taste bland. Which is what I usually has. This was so salty, I couldn't taste anything else. I was taken away by the saltiness and didn't take any picture until very late.

Mail

Screwed up big time last night on sleep. I've slide back to my old bed time. Not good, not good... (T_T) Dr. H still hasn't replied my mail. He must be giving up on me. Looking back, the way he "disappeared" was very unprofessional. I got called the morning 2 hours before my appointment that it was cancelled "because the doctor is not in this week". Then my e-mail return with a vacation notice that he'd be away for 3 weeks. Do doctors normally do this? If he was going on vacation, why did he book me on that day? Shouldn't he inform me ahead about this? I just can't believe this is happening... The only explanation is, he's trying to dump me...

Report

Brother came and took us to see dad late morning. The students seem to make a difference. Dad was properly dressed and the floor was relatively clean. Then we ate lunch at Noodle and Congee House where brother handed over tax documents to his tax guy. Because of time restrictions, we couldn't go home or eat elsewhere. He also took me to my doctor to see the recent test result. Nothing bad, thank God, except for anemia. Nothing new. Last year I tested 90 (while normal reading should be 120). This year I'm 95. Improvement? Iron pills again, which I'm not looking forward to its side effect of constipation. The doctor said I should take laxative. Sigh... taking one drug to cover another... This feels so wrong...

M sent me a b-day gift. Thanks!

Big box

The item I thought lost finally arrived. I'm glad that it's safe. But not too happy about how it was dealt with. First, I didn't request "ship available items asap". I actually prefer everything in one batch! Second, their policy is "ship available items after 2 months if the back-order item is still unavailable". It wasn't even 2 weeks when they shipped my stuff! What's going on??? And the result is one small item mailed in a huge box! They could have used a padded envelope instead! What a waste on packing material and my money!!! Grrrr!!!

Close call

Took mom and aunt L to visit dad around lunch. This is probably one of less than 5 times I've ever seen the floor clean. Dad was dressed properly too. (He usually takes off some of his clothes, if not unbuttoned or rolled up.) There seemed to be more staff around too. Turns out they were students. A fellow resident old lady chocked in the dining room, and all the staff including the students tried to help. They had to call the emergency medical staff through the intercom. People were rushing in, bringing equipments while one senior-looking staff perform the Heimlich. (Actually less experienced staff members tried to help but only got in the way.) The old lady's jaw locked and they had a hard time clearing her airway. She didn't look good. Luckily at the end, she seemed fine, and was sent back to her room to rest, with all the equipments and medical staff.

Didn't see Mr. H in the lunch room. A staff told me he felt sick after breakfast and was sent to the hospital. With the recent passing of Mrs. L, mom over-reacted a little.

Thin Addictives Chocolate Almond

From last September? Finally! A different flavour than cranberry! A few years ago I searched online and found a variety of flavours on their website. Then about half a year later, the website went into maintenance and basically non-functional. The list was gone but they left a mail form. So, I'm extremely happy and excited to see another flavour available besides the one at Costco.

Tastes very good. The chocolate matches the almond well. It's completely different from the cranberry type. I think I do like the cranberry a little bit better, though. $4 for a box of 6 is more then double the price at Costco. Theirs is $8 for a box of 20. One more reason to stick with cranberry.

Scan

Finally swapped to the XP machine to take care of a bunch of stuff. Only managed to scan all day. (Well, took some photos too, but didn't even get to download them.) Didn't get to write any mail with the IME pad either... Documenting the craft supply purchase since last November took a long time. And that seems to be how long I haven't touched the old machine. The scanner and printer don't work on the new one. (Neither does Gimp nor the IME pad.)

B-day party

Took mom to see dad and was late to pick A up. Went to L's b-day party. Yup, my bad. Didn't RSVP, but we didn't plan on staying anyway. However, big screw-up. We went to L's house only to find them away. Turn out the party was held elsewhere. They rented an afternoon at 4-cats and did some painting. Very interesting concept. (But I'm not too fond of coloring pages.) Stayed for a little bit, and left. Took A grocery shopping. Thanks for cooking the pork. (But not cleaning the grill from last time... was a bit... hmm...)

Dinner

Rain rain rain. Ache ache ache. Grumpy cranky irritated.

Dinner at R&B. I took the chance to stop by Dollarama near A's office. Needed to pay my Visa bill on the way, and there were 2 other dollar stores which I could not resist. Sorry. Temper flared a bit thanks to our low blood sugar.

Gave R my share of photos at the party. Forgot to bring them the tea leaf again! B's cooking was awesome as always. A and I felt completely different when we left. Yup, it was the low blood sugar.

Dental

Annual cleaning today. Glad to know that my teeth are doing well and no cavities. I was 10 minutes late and by the time I sat down, it was probably 15. Done at 55. So, technically speaking, I only got 40 minutes out of the hour. The front desk screwed up and charged me standard cleaning. I skip the florid so her screw-up was easy to spot. But I don't know enough about the rest. Apparently it costs me $2 more to fix the mistake because the hygienist charged me 2.5 unit of scaling. (Which means scaling is more expensive than florid.) But at the end, did she charge me for work that she didn't do? How long is a "unit"???

Went to Richmond and hung out until 5:30. Sesame snaps and Kitkat were lunch. Oh I just had a cleaning and I immediately ruin it with candy.

Picked up some stuff again. Stuff that I think I might need. But not sure if I actually need them or not... Got a more compact and lighter folding stool for mom. She saw it and gave me the crap-eating face again. Sigh... (T_T) Either way, need to go return that other one.