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.)