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John,
I remember you got
my last message kind
of late last Sunday night because you were watching your hockey game, I’ll just let you know
that I might’ve had it to you a few hours sooner if my mom wasn’t busy cooking supper at the
time when I was ready for her to read my message before sending to you. And I didn’t see Serena
after I saw you on last Thursday (May the 1st), I just didn’t remember to mention in
the message I sent you before last
Thursday (message I sent you on Wednesday Apr.30,2008) that I
tried to greet her the way you suggested. I already knew that it was a joke when you originally
said about Serena might enroll me in a behavioral program if I greeted her that way, and it’s a
good thing to know that she’s one who has a sense of humor. I said in the previous
message (one that I sent you on Sunday May 4,2008) that I probably
wasn’t the first person to greet her that way.
You asked me why my parents went to your Safeway at 138th and 72nd. They stopped there on
their way to the Starlight Casino because this is the only Safeway that has the gas pumps and
you get 7˘ off every liter if you use your Safeway Club Card and buy a certain amount.
I finally got out for a walk with my mom yesterday afternoon for the first time since before
Christmas. We walked down 140th to that paved trail that you and I been on a few times and then
we took the trail to the new gravel trail that they put over the grass where people cut across.
After that we walked by the Macs convenience store and got two chocolate bars; a box of
“Reese's Pieces” and a box of “Glosette RAISINS.” I had the Reese's Pieces with my cranberry
juice for my afternoon snack yesterday once we were home and I plan to save the Glosette Raisins
for another day. Remember when we walk down 140th Street on our way to that trail we walk by
those houses that they’re building. And remember the last couple times I walked by there with
you they were building the three houses on the side street (140A Street), yesterday they
were working on the three houses behind those that are gunna be on 140th. And then where we turn
off of 140th Street onto the trail, we saw a hubcap on the ground, It must’ve fallen off
somebody’s car while they were driving by on 140th. I don’t think the city comes by these trails
often enough because there were a lot of branches hanging down from above as well as ones that
were sticking out into the trail. After the trails when we were walking down 138A Street on our
way to the store, we saw a nice looking rancher up for sale on the corner of 138A and 17th
Avenue. I thought it looked nice myself and my mom liked it too; it looked like a nice dark
property and it had a hedge around it, and also the front yard had nice landscaping in some
spots. Another rancher is up for sale about a block South of there on the same side of the
street (138A), but I prefer the first rancher we walked by because this one is closer to
16th Avenue which is a busy street. This rancher would get more noise from the traffic on 16th
and I think it’s only the second house in from 16th. After this when we were walking on 16th
from there on our way to the store, we passed a transit bus stopping on the other side of the
street to load some people onto a route 351 which I think you’d know now is the same route that
goes by where I live. I think maybe the 351 route got new highway buses because this bus we saw
looked and sounded a bit different from the other ones. When we went to pay at the store, I
noticed a rack of gift cards next to the cash register. We now know that you can buy gift cards
at the Macs convenience store, these gift cards were for places such as Earls and we didn’t look
to see whether they have gift cards that you can buy for use at their own store (Macs).
If they do have such gift cards, these might be a good thing for me because you know that I’m
hard to buy for when it comes to times such as my birthday and Christmas and also because I walk
over there lots.
And now my thoughts after our walk two days ago:
• I already told you the first time when we walked by that rancher just down the
street from me and just after we left my place that I saw the name the people who live there
wrote on their garbage can has a different spelling, mine is “McRae” and there’s was “Macrae.”
• Further down my street, we saw four garbage cans. Remember how you said that the only one
of those four that has wheels and is bigger than the other three is the mother and the other
ones are her three babies. That’s just something you thought of. Well, I thought of something
too. One of them is not like the others. Ever heard the song from Sesame Street,
“One of These
Things?”
• That house we saw for sale on the corner of 145th Street and 18A Avenue looked to me like
it’s close to the same size as my house though I wonder if this one has a basement, I remember
you said one time a month ago that you can walk over to my place on the nicer days if you buy a
house in my neighbourhood.
• And then at that same intersection we saw a trail hidden behind a big rock. You thought
that maybe the trail goes off into the woods, and I think that it might just go through to the
running track. You then thought that maybe one day we could “go on an adventure” and see where
that trail goes, I’m disappointed that I never got around to going on such an adventure
with Carol .
• And I drew a map of the walk you and I did two days ago as well as a map of the big walk
you and I did before that one, you can find these maps at the bottom of this message.
I didn’t fall asleep until 4AM the night before you came (Sunday night/Monday morning)
and then I was awake since just after 8 and couldn’t fall asleep again, so therefore I only got
just a bit more than four hours of sleep in total for that night. I was awake until just after 2AM the next night and I think it was between 1 and 2 when I fell asleep last night, I managed to get my average amount of sleep both last night and the night before once I did fall asleep.
My meals and snacks for the last few days:
• You asked me when you were here two days ago if I knew what I was going to have
for supper that night. You heard my mom say that she brought back a barbeque chicken from
Safeway, she also brought back a coleslaw and a potato salad for me from the Safeway deli
section as well as some kind of a mixed veggies salad for she and my dad.
• I had my last pack of graham wafer Thinsations “Thin Crisps” for my afternoon snack last
Sunday (the 4th) so my mom got me another box of graham wafer ones the next day when she was
at Safeway as well as a box of peanut butter ones for me to try. The peanut butter ones are
shaped like peanuts.
• Monday May 5,2008 - evening snack: We opened the box of Dare crackers that my dad got when
he was at Art Knapps. We had some sausage, pickles, and cheese on some of the Dare crackers and
we also had those things on some BACON DIPPERS. My mom took the same garlic sausage out of
freezing and she bought a small jar of sliced dill pickles earlier that day when she was at
Safeway. The kinds of cheese we had were orange cheddar and Monterey Jack.
• Wednesday May 7,2008 - afternoon snack: For my afternoon snack today I had the pack of
JOLLY RANCHER gummies that I told you my mom got me. Today was the first time I had these,
remember that neither my mom nor myself could remember whether or not I had these before. There
was just a bit more than enough for one snack, but not enough for two snacks. My mom took a few
out of the bag for herself and then she said that I could have the rest.
My mom also picked up a cake mix to make a confetti Angel food cake when she was at the
Peninsula Village Safeway while I was with you two days ago even though I told her that I wanted
to go with her sometime to get one. And she got some red grapes when she was there too because
they didn’t have much for green grapes and the few green ones that they had didn’t look very
good. I will have some of the red grapes for my snack when you’re here tomorrow afternoon. She
got five “SAFEWAY Life On the Go” when she paid after she did her shopping that day, it’s a
different game now whereas the one that they gave us when you and I were there last month was a
pull tab while all five of the ones that my mom brought home were ones that you scratch like
scratch-and-win tickets. Of course this new game would be my kind of thing if you know that I
like scratch-and-wins, so I scratched all five of them and we won 20 Air Miles points on one of
the five. When you’re scratching these, you don’t want to reveal the word “STOP.”
That big long box of After Eight mints that my friend, Mac, got me for Christmas and will
expire next month (in June) has three boxes in it. My dad took one of the three boxes to
work yesterday and had planned to set it out for everyone, he ended up giving it to Dave who’s
been doing a lot of work for my dad lately. And then later on in the day (yesterday) on
the ride home, Janice in my dad’s carpool told him (my dad) that she knows those mints
will keep forever if you put them in freezing.
The strap on my watch broke off earlier this afternoon. My mom managed to snap it back
together a few times but it just kept coming back out so she put a piece of masking tape on it
for now until my dad comes home and them he might be able to glue it. And even if my dad can
glue it for now, I suggested to my mom that maybe it’s now time to start looking for two new
watch straps, one for this watch and one for the only spare watch that I currently have which is
that one with an already broken strap you saw me carrying around one day. The reason why I’m
starting to think as of today about seeing if we could find a whole new strap for the watch that
I currently wear on a regular basis is because the spot where it broke today will be the second
spot on that same watch to have a glue job, you already know which spot the first glue job was
done last month.
My dad put a third beta barracks on our five gallon fish tank yesterday and moved four babies
into it that were in the above ten gallon. And remember I previously wrote in the
message that I sent you on Sunday Apr.20,2008
that after the big move we did that weekend we thought that there were only about six or seven
babies left in the five gallon, my dad counted them again after yesterday’s move and he counted
nine this time in the five gallon not including the ones that are in the barracks on that tank.
Cat stories for the last few days:
• You already know that Izzy came running inside two days ago (on Monday)
just before you came as soon as she heard the landscaping guys next door start up the lawnmower.
• Izzy was in what my mom calls her “zoom zoom mood” yesterday at around lunchtime.
• And then yesterday just after her “zoom zoom mood,” Izzy was sitting on the newspaper stand
in our downstairs hallway watching mom daring her to walk by.
• As soon as we opened the front door when we came home from our walk yesterday afternoon, my
mom saw Izzy run behind the big coffee table in our living room. If she was trying to hide from
us, I guess Izzy wasn’t quick enough because mom saw her first.
• And we have to watch that Izzy stays off our back fence. Yesterday just after my dad came
home from work, he was talking to our neighbour, Marvin, for a few minutes who told my dad that
there’s a bird’s nest on the back fence between his and our yard. Speaking about those people my
dad just came home now a few minutes ago at around 5PM while I sit here writing this message and
he told us that as he was pulling in just now he saw Marjoree in their front yard with a camera
taking pictures of their house. Remember I told you a while back that they talked about
relandscaping their front yard, my dad thought that maybe she was taking pictures so that they
could try and draw on the computer a plan for how they want to do it.You might remember that you
saw I did the same kind of thing for some of the plans I did on the computer when I showed you
that binder a few months ago that’s full of future plans that I do on the computer for our
house.
And news stories that I know about, the first two were on the five o’clock news two days
ago (on Monday) after you left:
• Did you already hear about the latest swarming at a Vancouver skytrain station?
One day last week, a girl was threatened with a knife, beaten, and robbed by six other girls
inside the Nanaimo skytrain station under intense video surveillance. And they say that the
skytrain station’s video surveillance was malfunctioning at that time so they therefore had to
let the six suspects go. The girl is now afraid to ride the skytrain again after what happened.
Skytrain suggested the girl use one of those pink safety whistles that they provide for free,
but I don’t know if that would’ve helped in her situation because I don’t think there was any
security at that station at the time in addition to the fact that they say the surveillance was
malfunctioning.
• An eleven year old boy was attacked by a Pit Bull in Surrey a few days ago. He now has more
than 100 stitches on his body.
• And from the “Surrey Now” paper, a Surrey city worker clipped the edge of the Pattullo
Bridge with his truck two days ago (on Monday) sending 30 to 40 gallons of paint spewing
onto the bridge deck. The mishap backed up traffic heading for bridge all the way up the hill to
Whalley.
You said that you don’t have “Paint Shop Pro” and therefore can’t follow the instructions
that I wrote out, and you thought that you might buy a copy sometime. Would you like one for
free? We have “Jasc Paint Shop Pro 6" on CD and I could burn you a copy if you want me to. And
if you haven’t had time yet to look at those scanned images I talked about in the last message
including the one where I followed those instructions to make my sweatshirt look green again
after it looked blue once I had first scanned it, the URL again is
http://www.stuntsillusion.com/download/tempfile1.zip
Did you make it onto that site yet and take those Hollywood Squares surveys? If you haven’t
done so yet, maybe I could print out the questions and then when you’re
here tomorrow afternoon you could tell me which answer you’d give to the questions and I’ll
circle your answers with a pencil. You can still take the online
survey on your own sometime after tomorrow if you haven’t taken it already, I just thought that
printing this out and me circling your answers might be something we could do tomorrow. It would
be fun to see how you would answer. My mom cut out the picture you showed me that was at the top
of PET TALK for us to scan tomorrow afternoon, the brown dog looks somewhat like the dog I had
put down a little more than two years ago. And my mom watched Adopt-A-Pet at the end of
yesterday’s Noon News, she told me that they had a brown and white St. Bernard on.
When you and I were cropping two days ago, you were looking at the Barry Manilow CD that’s on
our computer desk “The Greatest Songs of the Sixties.” This CD belongs to my grandparents, they
loaned it to us almost a year ago when we were looking for ideas for songs to use in their home
movies. And I know that song you were singing, “There's a Kind of Hush,” is a Herman`s Hermits
song.
My dad forwarded me an E-mail that he got last week from
eHobbyTools.com,
the site where we ordered our Lemax Christmas village accessories from the last few years.
Remember you saw our village set up just before Christmas and a few weeks before that I showed
you all the accessories that we ordered last year (for Christmas 2007) and for the year before.
The E-mail that my dad forwarded to me advertises their Halloween village accessories though my
mom doesn’t want to start a Halloween village because Halloween isn’t as big a holiday to her as
Christmas. I agree with her about this BTW.
And my mom found your latest surprise yesterday evening, she saw the cat laying on its tummy
on top of the cat post in our living room and with a green ball on its back.
See you tomorrow at 1PM.
-Neil
P.S. Here are the links from the above message:
Arikah page: List of Hollywood Squares center squares (entry in Arikah online encyclopedia) *
Disney Animation film: The Lion King *
Disney fictional character: the three hyenas (Banzai, Shenzi, and Ed from The Lion King) *
Fictional dogs / Insult comedians: Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog *
Global BC Anchor/Reporter: Robin Stickley *
Global BC weather forecaster: Rena Daya [She works at CTV now.] *
Movie: Eddie (1996) *
Movie: RAT RACE (2001) *
Movie: Saving Silverman (2001) *
Muppet Wiki: 13 Kermits *
My ISP’s website: myTELUS.com *
TV series: Happy Family aired on NBC in the Tuesday evening time slot after the next link. *
TV series: Whoopi (2003-2004, starring Whoopi Goldberg) *
Sesame Street song: One of These Things
Website: eHobbyTools.com - an officially liscenced retailer of Lemax's.
Website: The Hollywood Squares Tribute Page - a comprehensive information site about the 1998-2004 incarnation of the series. *
Wikipedia page: Neapolitan ice cream *
• Ones marked with a black star (*) denote a link that
was in the last message I sent you
(Sunday May 4,2008).
• Ones marked with a red star (*)
denote a link that was in the message I sent you last Wednesday
(Apr.30,2008).
• Ones marked with a green star (*)
denote a link that was in the message I sent you on Sunday Apr.27,2008.
• And ones marked with a blue star (*)
denote a link that was in the message I sent you on Wednesday Apr.23,2008.
PS2. And here are those maps that I drew from our two big walks:
• The map on the left is the route you and I took two days ago, we walked counter-clockwise around the red area.
• The map on the right is the route you and I took when we did the other big walk, we walked clockwise around the red area.
• Red indicates where we walked.
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