small victories and large gluttonies

 i have procrastinated writing all day.  so that now i don't feel like it.  but i'm forcing myself.  because there's nothing i like more than being forced.

saturday was a gluttony day.  ie. a day heather and laura meet up.  this time our hotchocolate place was honolulu cafe in kerrisdale so we decided to eat lunch at zubu a ramen place we went to a couple of years ago when elcia was visiting at christmas.  whenever we meet up in vancouver we are always going by heather's estimated time to arrive via transit from north van.  but lately she's always early.  and i took that as a challenge.  she said she would be there by 12 so i got there at 11:38.  i won.  she didn't arrive until 11:58 this time.  i parked right next to store front advertizing that they would soon be a soufle pancake house.  the picture made me want soufle pancakes more than anything in the world.  why are japanese so good at making things sooo cute?  why. 

anyway i didn't have enough change for the meter.  i only put in what i thought was 40 minutes because the window had condencation and i couldn't read the number.  but it wasn't enough and i got a ticket. but not at that moment.  at zuba i had to scan a qr code to answer covid questions and give my name and number for tracing purposes.  then i was led to a table with plexiglass dividers between it and the other tables and i scanned another qr code to read the menu.  wide spread qr code living--thanks covid. i perused the menu until heather arrived.  i knew what i wanted.  and when she arrived she knew what she wanted and we both wanted the same thing.  brussel sprouts ramen.  it had roasted brussel sprouts and it was so yummy.  we also got curry cheese fries with truffle ketchup.  heather and i are not truffle experts and heather got a cheese at christmas that had truffles and to us it tasted to garlicky.  and the same with this ketchup.  it tasted like garlic ketchup.  has anyone else experienced this?  anyways, there was this cheesecake on the menu we had to get it and share it for a few reasons.  one it was crustless and heather limits her white flour.  two it said lemon and yuzu and those citrus flavours are like yes and hello to us and 3rd, and probably most importantly, it had a creme brule crispy sugar topping molted down the side of it in the picture.  the girl flame throwed it in front of our faces.  it did not disappoint.  

after this we were supposed to have our gourment hot choc festival hot chocolates.  but we were full to the brim.  so we drove around looking for a park or something to hang out in.  i felt like going to the beach so i headed north towards the water.  i didn't take any certain route.  on whim i chose blenheim.  and it took us to point grey and we found this little neighbourhood park.  literally a little square plot of land which locals water with dog pee.  it had 3 benches, and a wooden look out patio thing overlooking the water with gorgeous views of the vancouver city skyline and we were very content to let that be our park of the day.

the bench we sat on said "on this day in 1497 nothing happened".  we talked about what we often talk about, each of us having these types in our families, conspiracy theories and those that believe in them and how we got to this age where people don't trust knowledge etc etc.  i feel like if we look back we can see how a foundation has been laid for what we have today and who would believe it would be like it is today when so many people believe in such idiotic things, and they believe them like it's a religion... which is also not good for religion, i think.

after a whle our bench was in shadow and we headed back to the platform/patio.  when we were thoroughly chilled we went back to kerrisdale for our hot chocolates.  we used to share hot chocolates.  now we each get each.  this time it was a guava one and a spicy chili one.  the guava one came with a guava macaron and the spicy chili one came with a volcano brownie.  the guy who served me asked me all about my thumb, which was conspiculously waving about big, white with gauzy strands flying out and about and curls of tape that had become unstuck.  i told him and he told me how he had shut his thumb in the car door and lost his nail and i was like, oh that happened to me too!  i aske him if his nail grew back properly and he was like yah, and i was like mine grew back split and he asked if it would always be that way and i was like, well it has been since i was 13 so i think so.  and that was the meeting of two people with thumb trauma.

while we were waiting for our drinks i saw a table was free and urged heather who had hers to nab it.  she went for it but a lady coming from the opposite direction got there first.  so we had ours outside on the sidewalk.  these hot chocolates were nice and hot but not scalding.  we both agreed that the spicy chili one was the best.  

sunday night i had enough of my large white gauze thumb. i soaked it in warm salt water to get it off.  it was cemented on and i ended up cutting a gauze toupe for my thumb.  meaning i left the stuck stuff and cut off all the rest.  and i put i big bandaid on it.  it was a lot nicer to have a smaller bandage. today, martha and the muffin's birthday, i soaked it again and unbelievably i got it off!  so, yay small victories.