The good, the bad, and the gifts

It was a good weekend. I had a sleepover at Michelle's on Friday and that is always fun and relaxing. It reminded me that I neglected to post about the fabulous birthday party that Michelle organized for me and her friend Rikki at the beginning of December last year. (Time moved on quickly and I neglected to post about it). It was a lovely gesture and a very fun party. Michelle found out during a conversation last summer that neither Rikki nor I had ever had a birthday party. It was her mission to rectify this terrible wrong. So she organized a party and invited her mum and dad (my Canadian adopted parents) and her sister and brother in law, their two kids and, of course, Rikki and her husband and son (Caleb). It was such a fun party. She even had some games organized. When she first told me about it I said I didn't want a birthday party (because that's the kind of "fun-killer" I can be). She reassured me that it would be okay and said that if I wanted she would just call it a "get together that just so happened to coincide with our birthdays....and there would be a cake". And what a stunning cake it was....home-made no less! Probably the one and only pink Barbie cake that I will ever get in my life.



Oh yes....a pink Barbie cake!!!

There are other pictures. The guys stood around talking about cameras and comparing the size of zooms, like men do. Lots of pictures were taken...but where are they now? Sitting on a hard-drive no doubt. The only down side of the party was that it was the time that poor Bronwyn had her terrible tooth-ache so, although she had a good time, and loves Michelle's niece and nephew and Rikki's little boy, she was in a a lot of pain. But it was a fun party with wonderful food and company. And now I can't say I never had a birthday party! Thanks to Michelle!

On Saturday we had Kyle, Michelle (different Michelle) and baby Miles over for dinner. We cooked up a big sushi feast (well, Mark did most of the work while I...ahem...supervised...yeah, that's it). It was delicious and yet we took no pictures. What the? I can hardly do this blog thing if I don't take pictures. It looked similar to the picture of last week's sushi. Except we got a new, bigger, table from Ikea. It was a perfect evening. And I got to coo over their beautiful baby. The only hiccup took place just before they left for the night. We heard Bronwyn get out of bed and found that she had puked, really puked. She stood there like some puked-on version of "Carrie" and said, "I've puked, but I feel fine". And indeed she had power-puked. All over herself and her bed. Mark tried to clean her up while exclaiming, "Oh my God...what the hell...ewwww...it won't come off...Jesus Christ!". I had to point out that these remarks (although somewhat involuntary on his part), were not helpful to Bronwyn who was covered in sushi-puke. What IS it with kids and night-puking???

Kyle and Michelle made a hasty dash for the taxi and probably spent the night worrying that we had poisoned them (as did I).  Judging from the amount she regurgitated, Bronwyn ate a lot of sushi. The cheesies, apple pie, ice-cream and chips followed by lots of running around and a late night may not have helped, it has to be noted. Puked up sushi is nasty. Puke in general is not good...but when it's seaweed, rice and fish...well...it's bad. We had to put her in the bath to get it out of her hair etc. Okay, I'll stop with the details. But thank goodness she was okay today and we could call Michelle and Kyle and say they were safe and we hadn't poisoned them after all...phew!

Next it was time to open 2 boxes of goodies sent over by my mum. Trini and Lorne came over and we opened up all kinds of presents and had a great time. Of course, what was missing was my mum. But we opened PJ's, slippers, perfume, books, toys for the kids and all kinds of wonderful things. The gifts were so lovely and thoughtful and it really was a treat to top off the weekend. Thanks so much, mum. We love you and miss you. Aside from the cleaning-up of puke, a good time was had by all!

Weekend that was

Not a bad weekend, all in all. I meant to phone various people...but sadly did  not get around to it. Mum, I will phone you soon! Procrastination again. And I don't like the phone. My family and people who know me are aware of this. I get a bit of anxiety when the phone starts ringing and have no qualms about leaving a phone unanswered, though I usually screen. I don't like being the phoner either. I have no idea why I am this way. For me, the phone is invasive; almost as bad as the person who just "drops by". For goodness sake! Call first. Oh yeah, I don't answer the phone. Okay, well email. We all have email now and or FB. I'd even email 911:

Emergency@911.com.

Re: FIRE!!!!
OMG! OMG! my house is on fire! Please send a fire engine asap! Thanks, Victoria

Emergency@911.com

Re: Intruder.
An intruder broke into my house. Please send the police. I don't think he is dangerous, at present...because I hit him with a baseball bat and he's not moving...LMAO!!! But you should still send the police asap. Oh...and an ambulance might be helpful. Thx, Victoria

We finally got around to making some sushi this weekend. In fact we did even more than sushi! Of course I am using the royal "we". Mark made the sushi rolls and the sauces. I made miso soup, which is actually the easiest thing to make...about as much time as it takes to boil water. We also did teryaki chicken, tofu rolls and gyoza. Delicious! It was a very fine meal. Now we need to invite someone over so that we can make it all over again. We made too much food for just the two of us.

On Saturday we got together with other parents from an autism online group we participate in. It was good to be able to put faces to names and to talk about various issues we all share. All the kids were great. Bronwyn and River had a good time. Bronwyn especially enjoyed it when the autism dog showed up. You can actually put your name down to receive a specially trained autism dog. It seems like a good idea, but then I don't know how Bronwyn would take it if we got a dog that was for River's needs. We are better off, if/when we do decide to get another dog, to simply get a family dog and train it. I think.

On Sunday I met up with Trini and we decided to do a bit of a photo safari. I took my trusty Pentax Spotmatic SLR (and my Sony Coolpix, a much appreciated Christmas gift from Mark) and we trundled off to Commercial drive. I'm not sure if any of my pictures will turn out. And it is amazing how fast I have become accustomed to the digital format. Using film again, it felt odd that I couldn't check my picture immediately after I'd taken it. I was trying Street Photography, but people kept moving out of my shots because they thought they were in the way. I need to be a bit bolder. A friend sent me a link to a news story about Vivian Maier, an amazing street photographer of the 50s - 90s who remained undiscovered until a journalist picked up a box of negatives/prints etc. for cheap at an auction. Her photographs are fantastic...and inspiring.

Long weekend.

We had quite a good August long weekend. Mark did some work on the van. We've had a couple of issues...besides ridiculous parking fines and getting towed. Oh yes, I may have neglected to mention that a week or so ago our van was towed from the beach parking lot. Admittedly, we were parked in a No Parking spot...but so were 1000s of other cars! Last Wednesday the car had a dead battery and I had to call out BCAA. River missed his last speech therapy session for a while (he takes a 3 month break every so often) which I was quite peeved about. The locks had also been acting up. One minute they were trying to lock themselves up and down and the next we couldn't open or unlock the passenger side door...etc., etc., no need to bore with the details of the van-locking problems. I'm starting to wonder about that van...it better not be possessed like our Subaru was. I may have to run around splashing it with holy water yelling, "I CAST YOU OUT! UNCLEAN SPIRIT!" Anyway, Mark managed to fix it so that was good.

We walked up to Broadway and got Sushi for Saturday's dinner. There is a local sushi place called Jun Sushi where we go for cheap (I've heard it called "lunch-grade" sushi). Nothing fancy, just good, fresh, and cheap sushi. Super friendly owners and food that is ready when they say it will be. There are almost as many sushi places in Vancouver as there are coffee shops, but it is key to find a good one in your own neighbourhood. It reminds me that it has been a while since we made our own sushi. We really got into that for a while (I think it was back when Mark made a decision to cook more...back in 2008..eh eh...sorry Mark - but it's true :) Anyway, Mark can make sushi, gyoza and chicken teriyaki, complete with all sauces and dips, to rival any restaurant. We even tried tempura....but it set all our smoke alarms off so we gave that one up. This was at our old place where we had a red light outside our apartment that began flashing every time our smoke alarm went off so that all our neighbours were alerted to that fact we were the idiots stood on chairs with cushions pressed against the ceiling while smoke billowed out the open door and windows. But I think a sushi night is in order. Best not to let new-found skills get rusty.

The rest of the weekend we went down to the beach. Bronwyn was desperate to show Mark how she could swim. Here she is. I love the concentration on her face.

River seemed much more relaxed and was able to stay at the beach with us. He even took another dip in the water. We're all getting pretty tanned this year. It's so great to be able to get out to the beach and the temperatures have been perfect.

Mark and I had a bbq on the deck on Sunday and Monday....delicious. It's fun to have a meal by ourselves now and again instead of the chaos that often accompanies eating dinner with the kids.

Girl's day out....

Last Sunday Bronwyn and I had a day out downtown. We took the bus (Bronwyn loves the bus) and went to watch a kid's symphony concert at the Orpheum in Vancouver. The Orpheum is a great concert venue (for Vancouver standards). It was Bronwyn's first trip to the symphony and she really enjoyed it. It was called "The Maestro" and was a rendition of the Pied Piper of Hamlet story with the orchestra playing various well-known classical pieces. I think I would just take Bronwyn to a pure musical concert next time because I think the acting was distracting her from the music in that she was continually trying to work out what was going on on stage. But we really enjoyed it. We hung around afterwards and Bronwyn got chance to talk to a couple of actors. I wanted to take a couple of pictures of the theatre, but that is not allowed. What the f%$#k!!! It's the Orpheum theatre not the Whitehouse. I can go on line and download 1000 pictures and yet I can't take my own picture of an empty theatre. Grrrrrr. Anyway, we walked around downtown for a while and Bronwyn wanted to climb a tree outside the Vancouver Art Museum (we'll save that trip for another day).

I love the lions that hang out outside the gallery...

We took a walk through the lobby of Hotel Vancouver (not my picture...sorry). I thought about having afternoon tea, but it's $32/person! How many tiny sandwiches and scones can a person eat?

Then we went for sushi at our favourite sushi place on Robson Street, "Tsunami". The sushi chefs stand in the middle and prepare the sushi and then place it on little wooden boots that circle the bar. We sat at the bar and Bronwyn was really excited to watch the boats go around and to pick up a plate of sushi from a boat. It was a lot of fun.

The waitress took a picture of us. However, I think I have slightly crazed look in my eye...and Bronwyn looks nervous.

Bronwyn got a new "Eeyore" stuffy - who joined us for sushi. Here she is wondering how the hell do you eat with two sticks.