guzzle n snarf
karey flew in from edmonton thursday night. i picked her up from the airport. she was virulent and miserable with the flu and stuffed ears. she opted to sleep on the camping cot in the living room rather than share her disease with me. she was sick and i had been up since 2:30 am so we slept early. but that doesn't mean i didn't give myself a little duolingo boost before falling asleep. i had to bust my butt to stay in 2nd place. someone was always on my tail. but no matter how many lessons i did in a day, i was always about a thousand points from the mysterious x.owuieoirelal;n who must spend their every waking minute doing the duolingo.
in the morning i made us pineapple ginger lime smoothies with a kiwi thrown in for good measure. this smoothie came to me as a sudden inspiration in the quiet of the deep early morning the day before. i used fresh and frozen pineapple and was liberal with my lime and ginger and dropped in a spoonful of raw tumeric honey just to be cool like the millennials.
karey couldn't really taste it. i sucked it back with relish.
on the way to pick up heather at cap karey said we needed to get a pastry or she'd die. so not far from cap we stopped at stong's and karey got the life giving apple fritter and a muffin and i got a scone and a muffing and some chips for heather whose relationship status with white flour is "it's complicated". we got to cap in time to park and watch the heavy rain deluge before heather climbed in the back and we were on our way.
we were on our way to the island to attend the celebration of life for helena "hells bells" hack. the famously generous banana bread and jam giver, the wearer of funky jewelry. the one of a kind big hearted character. the beloved mom of our friends elicia and elena. we caught the 1pm ferry. but once in nanaimo we had nowhere to go. elicia and elena had family over and the place we were staying at didn't expect us until after 8pm. and it was raining hard. so we showed heather our neyland house which didn't look too different. the old neighbourhood was pretty much the same. i still miss those neyland days. then we went down bay street as i told the story of how i rode my bike up it as a huffle puffle with a new hair cut. at departure bay i told how amy and i swam out to the research island. then down hammond bay--this is my grampa's house...down to piper's where we sat in the car and talked for a couple hours while the rain continued. karey and heather have both suffered the loss of a mom and a lot of the talk was about that.
we talked about going to a movie but we didn't go. we decided to go to a vietnamese pho place. heather discovered the chicken vermacelli bowl with the fried spring roll. she told the lady it was the best chicken she had in her life. that was on our way out after we had lingered until our waitress was seen eating her own dinner and another server was sweeping. meanwhile karey hit a wall. figuratively, not literally. she lay down in the back while we waited for the time to be right to show up at the tougas.
the tougas are moving from north van (heather's ward) to lantzville. they have an amazingly beautiful house on a large lot that goes right down the beach. sister touga apologized that the crashing waves or sea lion barks might keep us awake. we were like uhh....we set up in an office downstairs. i was on the cot in the middle and the other two were on foamies of sorts on either side. it was super hot so we cranked the window and fell asleep to the glorious crashing of waves.
it wasn't my best sleep. i tossed and turned between hip hip and back. in the morning it was too cold for sleeping with just a little brown fleece blanket. i tried to fit under it in vain. finally i got karey to shut the window but not before i heard the mystical sea lions barking. we got ready pretty fast in the morning. we were just leaving around the time the movers showed up. sis touga was so kind to put us up in the midst of all her very busy happenings. her cherry trees were just starting to blossom and i saw a flower in bloom in her garden. saturday was as sunny as friday was pouring rain.
we took some time to check out the beach and take some ig selfies. there was a rainbow out on the sea. i picked up 2 weathered but pretty shells. then we had breakfast at abc country which was only so so. that's where i brushed my teeth and washed my face so thanks abc.
the celebration of life was at the lantzville legion on the 2nd floor. it started at 12 but we got there at 11 because we had a job to do. we were given the job of manning the slide show. the first people we saw were elena, mike and andrew. we all hugged and then i changed and did my make up. meanwhile karey found out from andrew what i had to do for the slide show. it was basically hitting the down arrow 3 different times. after a while elicia arrived, baby calais in arms, and kids in tow. more hugs and greetings and heather took calais for a while before bethany who looked so grown up with her little purse and cat eye glasses, took her. we sat waiting and heather made best friends with an elderly couple. when the program was about to begin i went to sit at the back by the laptop. the room was full and about 5 or 6 people were standing the whole time. emman couldn't make it because there was flooding in parksville but they streamed it live for him so he could watch it from home. the flooding in duncan also made it impossible for some others to come.
the service was really nice. i had some nice laughs and shed some tears. it was so nice to see how many people came to show how helena touched their lives. elicia gave the eulogy and did a great job. after it was over, an older man who stood next to me the whole time, leaned down to me and said "there were several times that i wanted to clap." i knew what he meant.
we stayed and had refreshments. karey was crazy for the store bought nanaimo bars but i've had martha's homemade so i know what a nanaimo bar can be. elicia had the chance to come and sit with us and we had a nice visit. the good news is that they are not going to sell their mom's house. elicia and family are going to move into it! they are coming back to canada! this is such good news. and their cousin lives super close in their oma's house and emman is in parksville and elena in vancouver. no one too far away.
eventually we had to go. we hugged and were hugged and walked into the sun. the ferry wait wasn't too bad and the ferry ride was uneventful. but i just want to say that on the ferry ride to the island heather walked into the men's washroom. we can't forget that.
we drove to heather's and karey and heather changed clothes and we were hungry so we went to eat at burgoo. we all had sandwiches and soup. we all had butternut soup and i had dos diablos sandwich which was a grilled chorizo number. karey and heather were into their chicken, brie, bacon, avacado baguette. i regretted my soup choice. for one it didn't match and for another it gave me heart burn.
karey had an early flight so again we didn't stay up late. but a bad thing happened to me. just as i was climbing into bed, cpap already a blowin', and getting settled....suddenly the cpap started making this LOUD eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! noise. there was no way i could sleep with that sound. i think it's the motor. i tried many things to see if it would help but it didn't. in the end i found my mouth gard and slept fitfully on and off until five thirty when i had to drive karey to the airport. my throat was sore and raw from snoring. i dropped of karey, hugged her, drove back and tried to do some more fitfull sleeps. i slept through church.
this morning i flicked toothpaste in my eye.
it was a busy day full of stuffs. this afternoon we worked out an order of the articles and that helped me feel better. at lunch time i helped run food because helpers were sparse. we got our new rolling white board that i asked tanya for. davidlin put it together for us. after he was done i kept putting it in places to bug barb. she is often annoyed by things that are in the way. first i put it right by her desk blocking her chair. then i put it in the middle of the hallway. then blocking a walk through into the open area. when she left today i told her tomorrow morning it would be in her parking spot. haha. i kill me. she laughed but also shot a finger gun at me.
after work i met heather at the city hall sky train station. she had inadvertently taken my laptop cord home with her. we met to exchange in that i was given something and i gave nothing. we decided to get a festival hot chocolate. we were limited to places in the area we were and that were open. we settled on 49th paralell on main street. heather was buzzing as she always is when arriving on main. "this used to be this... was this always here?" all things i don't know, so i smile and shrug. heather used to live right off of main and it has a special place in her heart. the first thing we noticed inside the coffee/ doughnut shop was an old fashioned doughnut glazed with orange icing and sprinkled with pistachio. heather bought it for us to share and we each got a hot chocolate which we halved. she had the honey lavendar dark chocolate and i had the malted milk chocolate with caramel. mine tasted like merely hot chocolate but the little cookie was very good. heather's was more to flavour. we were not keen on the luke warm temperature of our drinks. beside us two friends sat and had the exact same hot choclates and treats as us (they each had a doughnut to themselves). i felt like we were more critical than they but we can't help it. we are hot chocolate festival connoisseurs. we were done quickly. that was guzzle.
then we walked a couple of doors down and got some vera burgers for dinner. i had the lamb burger and heather got the day's special--cheddar bacon. i added feta, chipotle mayo and pico guacamole on mine so it cost 20.00. adds up at vera's. we each had fries with malted vinegar and ketchup. we gobbled them up as fast as you can say bob's yer uncle. that was snarf.
no frills night. i came home and lay on the couch in a state of cozy and wrote this long post. and here we are. the state of frizz in my hair is magnificent. frizz and bird's nestiness--a combo my hair excels particularly well at, not to brag. braggity brag brag.
in the morning i made us pineapple ginger lime smoothies with a kiwi thrown in for good measure. this smoothie came to me as a sudden inspiration in the quiet of the deep early morning the day before. i used fresh and frozen pineapple and was liberal with my lime and ginger and dropped in a spoonful of raw tumeric honey just to be cool like the millennials.
karey couldn't really taste it. i sucked it back with relish.
on the way to pick up heather at cap karey said we needed to get a pastry or she'd die. so not far from cap we stopped at stong's and karey got the life giving apple fritter and a muffin and i got a scone and a muffing and some chips for heather whose relationship status with white flour is "it's complicated". we got to cap in time to park and watch the heavy rain deluge before heather climbed in the back and we were on our way.
we were on our way to the island to attend the celebration of life for helena "hells bells" hack. the famously generous banana bread and jam giver, the wearer of funky jewelry. the one of a kind big hearted character. the beloved mom of our friends elicia and elena. we caught the 1pm ferry. but once in nanaimo we had nowhere to go. elicia and elena had family over and the place we were staying at didn't expect us until after 8pm. and it was raining hard. so we showed heather our neyland house which didn't look too different. the old neighbourhood was pretty much the same. i still miss those neyland days. then we went down bay street as i told the story of how i rode my bike up it as a huffle puffle with a new hair cut. at departure bay i told how amy and i swam out to the research island. then down hammond bay--this is my grampa's house...down to piper's where we sat in the car and talked for a couple hours while the rain continued. karey and heather have both suffered the loss of a mom and a lot of the talk was about that.
we talked about going to a movie but we didn't go. we decided to go to a vietnamese pho place. heather discovered the chicken vermacelli bowl with the fried spring roll. she told the lady it was the best chicken she had in her life. that was on our way out after we had lingered until our waitress was seen eating her own dinner and another server was sweeping. meanwhile karey hit a wall. figuratively, not literally. she lay down in the back while we waited for the time to be right to show up at the tougas.
the tougas are moving from north van (heather's ward) to lantzville. they have an amazingly beautiful house on a large lot that goes right down the beach. sister touga apologized that the crashing waves or sea lion barks might keep us awake. we were like uhh....we set up in an office downstairs. i was on the cot in the middle and the other two were on foamies of sorts on either side. it was super hot so we cranked the window and fell asleep to the glorious crashing of waves.
it wasn't my best sleep. i tossed and turned between hip hip and back. in the morning it was too cold for sleeping with just a little brown fleece blanket. i tried to fit under it in vain. finally i got karey to shut the window but not before i heard the mystical sea lions barking. we got ready pretty fast in the morning. we were just leaving around the time the movers showed up. sis touga was so kind to put us up in the midst of all her very busy happenings. her cherry trees were just starting to blossom and i saw a flower in bloom in her garden. saturday was as sunny as friday was pouring rain.
we took some time to check out the beach and take some ig selfies. there was a rainbow out on the sea. i picked up 2 weathered but pretty shells. then we had breakfast at abc country which was only so so. that's where i brushed my teeth and washed my face so thanks abc.
the celebration of life was at the lantzville legion on the 2nd floor. it started at 12 but we got there at 11 because we had a job to do. we were given the job of manning the slide show. the first people we saw were elena, mike and andrew. we all hugged and then i changed and did my make up. meanwhile karey found out from andrew what i had to do for the slide show. it was basically hitting the down arrow 3 different times. after a while elicia arrived, baby calais in arms, and kids in tow. more hugs and greetings and heather took calais for a while before bethany who looked so grown up with her little purse and cat eye glasses, took her. we sat waiting and heather made best friends with an elderly couple. when the program was about to begin i went to sit at the back by the laptop. the room was full and about 5 or 6 people were standing the whole time. emman couldn't make it because there was flooding in parksville but they streamed it live for him so he could watch it from home. the flooding in duncan also made it impossible for some others to come.
the service was really nice. i had some nice laughs and shed some tears. it was so nice to see how many people came to show how helena touched their lives. elicia gave the eulogy and did a great job. after it was over, an older man who stood next to me the whole time, leaned down to me and said "there were several times that i wanted to clap." i knew what he meant.
we stayed and had refreshments. karey was crazy for the store bought nanaimo bars but i've had martha's homemade so i know what a nanaimo bar can be. elicia had the chance to come and sit with us and we had a nice visit. the good news is that they are not going to sell their mom's house. elicia and family are going to move into it! they are coming back to canada! this is such good news. and their cousin lives super close in their oma's house and emman is in parksville and elena in vancouver. no one too far away.
eventually we had to go. we hugged and were hugged and walked into the sun. the ferry wait wasn't too bad and the ferry ride was uneventful. but i just want to say that on the ferry ride to the island heather walked into the men's washroom. we can't forget that.
we drove to heather's and karey and heather changed clothes and we were hungry so we went to eat at burgoo. we all had sandwiches and soup. we all had butternut soup and i had dos diablos sandwich which was a grilled chorizo number. karey and heather were into their chicken, brie, bacon, avacado baguette. i regretted my soup choice. for one it didn't match and for another it gave me heart burn.
karey had an early flight so again we didn't stay up late. but a bad thing happened to me. just as i was climbing into bed, cpap already a blowin', and getting settled....suddenly the cpap started making this LOUD eeeeeeeeeeeeeee! noise. there was no way i could sleep with that sound. i think it's the motor. i tried many things to see if it would help but it didn't. in the end i found my mouth gard and slept fitfully on and off until five thirty when i had to drive karey to the airport. my throat was sore and raw from snoring. i dropped of karey, hugged her, drove back and tried to do some more fitfull sleeps. i slept through church.
this morning i flicked toothpaste in my eye.
it was a busy day full of stuffs. this afternoon we worked out an order of the articles and that helped me feel better. at lunch time i helped run food because helpers were sparse. we got our new rolling white board that i asked tanya for. davidlin put it together for us. after he was done i kept putting it in places to bug barb. she is often annoyed by things that are in the way. first i put it right by her desk blocking her chair. then i put it in the middle of the hallway. then blocking a walk through into the open area. when she left today i told her tomorrow morning it would be in her parking spot. haha. i kill me. she laughed but also shot a finger gun at me.
after work i met heather at the city hall sky train station. she had inadvertently taken my laptop cord home with her. we met to exchange in that i was given something and i gave nothing. we decided to get a festival hot chocolate. we were limited to places in the area we were and that were open. we settled on 49th paralell on main street. heather was buzzing as she always is when arriving on main. "this used to be this... was this always here?" all things i don't know, so i smile and shrug. heather used to live right off of main and it has a special place in her heart. the first thing we noticed inside the coffee/ doughnut shop was an old fashioned doughnut glazed with orange icing and sprinkled with pistachio. heather bought it for us to share and we each got a hot chocolate which we halved. she had the honey lavendar dark chocolate and i had the malted milk chocolate with caramel. mine tasted like merely hot chocolate but the little cookie was very good. heather's was more to flavour. we were not keen on the luke warm temperature of our drinks. beside us two friends sat and had the exact same hot choclates and treats as us (they each had a doughnut to themselves). i felt like we were more critical than they but we can't help it. we are hot chocolate festival connoisseurs. we were done quickly. that was guzzle.
then we walked a couple of doors down and got some vera burgers for dinner. i had the lamb burger and heather got the day's special--cheddar bacon. i added feta, chipotle mayo and pico guacamole on mine so it cost 20.00. adds up at vera's. we each had fries with malted vinegar and ketchup. we gobbled them up as fast as you can say bob's yer uncle. that was snarf.
no frills night. i came home and lay on the couch in a state of cozy and wrote this long post. and here we are. the state of frizz in my hair is magnificent. frizz and bird's nestiness--a combo my hair excels particularly well at, not to brag. braggity brag brag.
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