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John,
My mom thought that Thursday might be the better day to go out for supper because you’ll
already be here. I then called Mac and he said that Thursday’s okay for him though I made a
wrong number the first time I tried to call him yesterday. Some lady answered who’s voice I
didn’t recognize, I kept asking “is Mac there” and she would say “who do you want” until she
realized that I had a wrong number. And then when I did get Mac after I tried the second time he
asked me how I could’ve made a wrong number because he knows that I’ve had his number memorized
for many years. I said to my mom that I’m sure I remember dialing the number correctly the first
time and then my mom said that there were probably times when Mac made a few wrong numbers
too.
Now, my dad usually gets home at around 5PM. We can leave just after that time to pick Mac up
and I told him that I would call him just before we leave to come get him. I guess I don’t need
to write the part in bold red this time about my mom being the one to tie my shoes before we
leave because you now know that I prefer her to do them for me whenever she’s around. You could
pull your vehicle behind the Subaru once my dad parks it in the garage if you want it parked in
the driveway while we’re gone and then when we first leave in my mom’s Honda I’ll probably be
behind you to start with and then I’ll slide over behind my dad when we get to Mac’s place.
You’ll get to see where Mac lives for the first time, when we pull into his driveway from their
back alley notice all the work his uncle did in their backyard. He built ponds, three flowerbeds
with stonework around the outside, and a small deck on ground level underneath their main deck.
You know that I’ll want to face the darker direction once we’re seated at Moxie's and I’d
probably be better beside either you or my dad if I want to sit on the aisle side. Mac is
left-handed while I am right-handed so if he’s sitting beside the aisle his left hand should be
by the isle.
I can’t resist the urge for a full order of natchos, and whichever of the two orders I end up
getting I will get a Sprite to drink with it. Whenever I have natchos at Moxie's, I ask for no
jalapenos and I don’t order extra cheese. The guacamole is extra and the natchos come with one
sour cream and one salsa, so I order two guacamole instead of the other stuff. The reason why I
like the Langley Moxie's better instead of the Guildford one is because when we took Mac and
Carol with us and tried out the Guildford one for my birthday a year and half ago back in
October 2006, they put jalapenos on my natchos after we asked them not to and the guacamole was
frozen solid. Most times when I have natchos at Moxie's, we’ll ask for a separate small plate
when they bring my natchos for my dad to put the ones that I want (mostly the ones with
more cheese) so that they’ll cool off faster. And when I get low on guacamole and it’s time to
ask for more next time a waitress comes around, my dad will break up the chip that the guacamole
was served in into pieces on my small plate and then I’ll eat the guacamole covered chips. Dad
will show you what to do incase there’s an occasion anytime in the future when just you and I
end up at Moxie's. And my mom told me to say that we’ll treat you, my dad will pay for all four
of our meals.
Other stuff Mac said when we talked on the phone last night:
-His friend, Ben, who I told you about gave Mac a bunch of business cards and Mac asked me if I
wanted one. I then said to Mac that maybe you’d want a business card, he probably won’t give you
a deal though like the one that he gave Mac because he doesn’t know you. Because Ben knows Mac,
Mac only had to pay Ben $120 when Ben upgraded Mac’s
computer for him. Mac asked Ben how much it would’ve cost if Ben didn’t know him, Ben said it
would’ve been $350. Ben only charged Mac for the parts and not for the labour. Ben works for the
computer store called “Extreme Computers.” They have two locations, one in Surrey and one in
Langley.
-He wants a new stereo for his birthday, not a compact one like what I have right now in my
bedroom...but the kind that he can plug into his TV like what my dad has in our family room. I
then said to Mac, “you have to pay for your own birthday presents” and then he says he does so
every year because everybody who buys for him doesn’t know what to buy him. Mac also said that
he wouldn’t take guitar lessons again unless someone buys him a new guitar. Mac might’ve told
you when he saw you the one time before that he stopped taking guitar lessons because he didn’t
like his teacher...Mac wanted to do more than the guy said he was ready for.
-He got a chocolate bunny for Easter and he said that he quote “can’t wait to bite its head off .”
My dad phoned a half hour ago (just before 2:30PM). It’s a good thing we decided to
make the dinner Thursday instead of tomorrow because the work is going a bit slower than
expected and my dad might end up having to stay there overnight. He also said that it’s nice and
sunny up in Kamloops today. I remember my mom said to me before he called and after I got up
this morning that she wondered if it would be snowing there today.
You heard my mom say just before you left last Thursday (the 20th) that she saw Sarah
Daniels a few times when she shopped at the Ocean Park Safeway and we also saw her a few times
with her dogs at the dog park on 20th Avenue when we had our dog and use to take her there. It
was at those places where my mom saw her being mouthy. I guess you wouldn’t know she was like
that because she never was mouthy on the air. I told you a few times that my mom reads my
E-mails after I type them up and before I send them to you, I don’t know why she didn’t correct
me and give me the right information before I sent you that one last week where I said that
Sarah Daniels was sometimes mouthy on the air. This is just like when I originally said this in
the message I sent you on Tuesday Feb.5,2008:
> ...There was a team from Boston that had won every game in the Super Bowl until last
Sunday, it was the New York
> team that won in the end.
My mom didn’t tell me and I didn’t find out until after I sent that message that the Super
Bowl is only the final game in the series whereas you can see above I had thought when I wrote
that that the whole series was called the “Super Bowl” and not just the final game (or
match) where New York had won in the end:
> ...There was a team from Boston that had won every game until the
Super Bowl last Sunday, it was the New York team
> that won in the end.
Also last Thursday before my mom left and after you first got here, you heard me tell my mom
to take me seriously if she ended up having to reserve the Safeway cake that I wanted and then
you said about how my mom takes good care of me. At least she took me seriously that
time and at least she did ask even though the answer she then got was about their cake
decorator being off sick. I gave a few examples in the message that I sent you on Wednesday
Feb.27,2008 of times when she didn't take me
seriously. And speaking about the cake, the reason why you heard
me tell her to take me seriously before she left was because earlier that same day before you
came she saw a round double-layer chocolate Easter cake advertised in the Choices Market flyer.
That cake was only six inches across while the Safeway ones are eight inches across.
I asked my mom a few hours before supper two days ago (on Sunday the 23rd) what I could
do if they take my watch with them the next day. I asked her again a few hours later and this
time she suggested that they could take my watch in another time because she thought that my dad
glued it really good earlier that day. She said that she was only making a suggestion. I then
asked her why she even made that suggestion when she
already knew that it was one I would say no to and then she said that she didn’t hear me when I
had said after dad gave it to me after he glued it that I still wanted them to take it in
anyway. How could she have missed that? First, I
remember she said “okay” when I told them earlier to take it in anyway. And second, I later
asked her if she decided which store she was going to take it into the next day and she answered
me this time and said that she didn’t know yet. I don’t like it when she says that she’s “just
making suggestions,” especially again if they’re ones that she knows for a long time now that
I’ll say no to. This is just like before we went to the first meeting with FVMH last month and
you and I were going to have Wendy's for lunch...I told my mom that I might have to spend some
time in the washroom “going poop” after I eat and then she suggested that I could wait and have
a “nice relaxing” one when I get home. When I asked her why she suggested
that she then said that it was just chit-chat and
that’s what she would’ve done if instead she was the one eating out. Just because that’s what
she’d do, does it have to be the same for me. Why’s it necessary for her to say that she’d wait
until after she gets home when it’s me who has to go. Now you know that I don’t like when my mom
makes these suggestions like the one about my watch for example and I don’t like it when
she just chit-chats.
Speaking about my watch, you thought that there wouldn’t be any places open on Easter Monday.
My parents knew that nothing would’ve been open on Easter Sunday, they took my watch into
the Bay at Willowbrook Mall when they were out yesterday afternoon and that was where the lady
who didn’t have any of the part that I needed replaced in the right colour thought that my dad
did a good job when he glued it back together. We tried looking for a new strap for the broken
watch that I carried around yesterday when it broke a few years ago, but we couldn’t find
one that would fit that watch so I had to get a new watch and that was when I got the one that
my parents took with them yesterday. Mom will take the broken watch with her anytime when she
goes out shopping in the next while and she’ll watch around when she’s in the stores to see if
she can find a strap that might fit it. It wasn’t until after we had are little argument two
nights ago when my mom suggested carrying around the broken watch by the way.
I told my dad before he glued my watch two afternoons ago that after he looks in his shop to
see if he had any spare watch parts out there and before he glues it I would see if I have any
old watches lying around my bedroom that he could take the part off of and put where the part
broke on the watch that I currently wear. I didn’t find out until after he came out of his shop
that he glued it anyway, until he came out then I thought that he was still looking to see if he
had any spare parts. Also when my dad was looking at my VCR a few afternoons ago, he had to put
a tape in the VCR to see if it would play even after my mom told him that she already knew it
would still play but just wouldn’t record.
After we got back from Fish World last Friday afternoon (the 21st), my dad went across
the street to have a word with our neighbour, Gary, and see how he was doing because my dad
knows that he (Gary) isn’t doing well. The message that I sent you on Tuesday Feb.26,2008
was when I first told you that he isn’t well. He said that cutting the lawn now wears him out
and going for a walk around our small block is pretty much all he can do. My dad also brought
Gary and his wife, Darlene, back over to our yard and he showed them our pond in the backyard.
Gary then said to my dad that one of their sons has a pond that’s bigger than my dad’s and that
they might bring that son over to see my dad’s pond sometime when he comes out. Gary also told
my dad that he has a little boat just like my dad’s and he and Darlene quite often take their
boat up to Watch Lake in the Cariboo northeast of 70 Mile House and fish there. My dad then told
Gary that my grandparents (his parents) used to have a cabin there and that their cabin
was at the end of the lake where there are only four cabins, and then Gary said “that end’s the
best spot for fishing.”
My grandpa phoned my dad again last Saturday night (the 22nd). This time he said that
when my uncle Robert was leaving for work in the morning that same day he took his wife’s
(my auntie Karen’s) car for some reason instead of his own car and he didn’t notice until he
looked in the rearview mirror once he got down the street after he left their house that his
pickup truck wasn’t in their driveway. Even though it had anti-theft, someone managed to steal
it overnight the night before so they phoned it into the police. Karen’s car is a new 2007 or
2008 manual transmission Honda Civic BTW. My grandpa told my dad one day when he talked to him
on the phone last week that someone drove into the back of my cousin, Leslie’s, car then drove
off. And Leslie’s the older son of my dad’s other sister, my auntie Ann who lives in
Ontario.
My dad phoned Robert last night to see if they heard anything
about his truck. They haven’t heard anything yet,
but something funny my dad found out when he talked to Robert last night was that he and Karen
were at the same casino my parents were at yesterday afternoon, the Cascades casino in Langley.
They just didn’t see each other, my parents were there from 2:30 to 4PM and Robert said that
they were there from 3 to 5PM. Karen and Robert also went to Costco when they were out yesterday
afternoon. We don’t know if they ran into their son, my cousin Jeff, and the girl he’s engaged
to and will marry this summer or if they came there with them. Anyway, Jeff bought a lawnmower
when he was there and it wouldn’t fit in his vehicle. It also wouldn’t fit in Robert’s vehicle,
but it was a good thing that just then they ran into Karen and Robert’s daughter, my cousin
Shelley, and her husband, Bill, who were also shopping there and the lawnmower fit in Bill’s
vehicle.
My dad took his Subaru over to the Esso station at 140th Street and 16th Avenue after lunch
last Saturday afternoon (the 22nd) and gassed it up. He brought me back a "Set for Life"
scratch ticket. I didn’t do yet the two scratches that we got the day before with my winnings so
I did all three of them last night and in the end I got nothing even though I got two “CASH
25YEARS” on the first of three games on the "Set for Life" and two $50 thousand on the third
game. And my dad won $6 on his scratch yesterday and he only paid $3 for that ticket so he
therefore won twice as much the scratch was worth. He brought me home another BLACKJACK and
another TAXI! when he picked up my Chinese food after you left yesterday, this time all three of
us got our money back; I won $2 on the TAXI! and each of my scratches were a dollar, my mom’s
scratch was worth $3 and she won that same amount, and my mom didn’t remember which amount my
dad was but she thinks that maybe his was worth $5 and he won $5.
My dad told me that he saw a story on yesterday’s Noon News Monday about a cornflake of a box of cornflakes cereal and shaped like the state of Illinois sold on eBay for $1,300.
Some funny cat stories for you now:
• There were a few times this last week when I don’t know whether Izzy meant to attack me or
if her and my foot just bumped into each other when she ran passed me.
• Chloe was mad at my dad last Sunday morning (the 23rd), she had been waiting a long
time outside the deck door to be let in before my dad finally saw her there. As soon as she came
in, she made a big meow and then she went running off.
• My mom found a red spring in my shoe last Sunday evening (the 23rd again), you already
know that she likes to put springs in peoples’ shoes and that she likes to attack everybody by
swatting at their feet whenever someone walks by her. And I think that was
the first time she had ever put a spring in any o
f my shoes.
• When my mom opened the front door to get a newspaper off our porch just after lunch two
days ago (on Sunday the 23rd), Chloe went running out and was sniffing a plant next door in
Marvin and Marjoree’s front yard. Chloe came in the backdoor a few minutes later after she had
come over the fence into our yard. You’re now learning the names of all my relatives and all our
doctors after you read (and sang)
their names out loud when you saw our list of phone numbers in our downstairs
computer room...and now you’re learning the names of some of our neighbours, you now know about
Marvin and Marjoree and you know about Gary across the street.
• Earlier this afternoon when my mom opened the door to come in after she came back from getting
the mail, Izzy was the one who went running out this time and mom couldn’t catch her before Izzy
went over the fence into our backyard. My mom then said to me that “just for that we’ll leave
Izzy out there in the cold.”
• One evening a few days ago, there was a big spider on the floor in the kitchen. We brought
Izzy into the room to see if she would be interested, but I was disappointed that she wasn’t
interested. My dad ended up flushing it only because “our cat is not a
bug catcher .”
For my evening snack last Saturday (the 22nd), I had half of the HERSHEY’S EGGIES that
I told you I planned to have for my snack that night. There’s now enough left for just one more
snack. I didn’t have to take a bite of one and then show my mom the inside, there were already a
few broken ones in the bag and when my mom saw one of those she said that she thought they
looked like milk chocolate. I had my first piece of the cake after turkey
dinner the next day, my mom gave me a slice that had
a green jelly bean that time and I plan to have my second piece for my dessert tonight after my
leftover Chinese food. For my evening snack a few hours after turkey dinner, I had some Cheese
Nips even though my mom got the wrong kind of Cheese Nips, we didn’t know until after she had
put some into a bowl for me that the bag of Cheese Nips she got didn’t say “Party Mix” on it. I
had the last two Walkers shortbread cookies for my dessert after lunch today, before that I had
some leftover turkey with deviled eggs leftover from supper a few nights ago. Now for my evening
snack last night I had the other half of the Easter jelly candies that we got in bulk. I took a
picture of them which I already told you I would do after my mom poured them into bowl and
before I ate them, I’ll send it to you as soon as I download it. I also took a picture after you
left yesterday of the spring on the phone cord. That was one thing we noticed, I wonder if we’ll
find any other little surprises.
My dad gave me a bunch of his spare change that he had been collecting in his drawer
upstairs. Here is something I said in the message that I sent you on Tuesday Feb.26,2008:
> That’s a lot of change I got rid of yesterday at DQ. I had bunch more change in the pouch
on my wallet before that
> which I dumped into a pile on the kitchen table last weekend. My mom then dumped out a bunch
of change she
> had in her wallet into the same pile and then we put it all in my piggy bank. When doing so, I
noticed that my piggy
> bank is getting near full and will soon be time to roll up some
change for my bank account. Now because
> you know I don’t want to ride with my parents, when my piggy bank does get full do you think
that taking
> my change into the bank would be something that you and I could do...
I bet you assume that I changed my mind about what I said in the above excerpt after you
learned that I did a trip with my dad to Fish World and another trip with my mom the week before
to pick out my Easter candy at Save-On. I suggested to my mom that maybe she could take me to do
that on an afternoon one week when we don’t have so much going on and then we could go out for
or pick up a snack afterwards. And I closed the garage door for my dad once again when he got
home after picking up my Chinese food yesterday. He told us that there was hardly anyone in
Safeway, it was almost empty.
I remember you told me yesterday that you laughed when you read this excerpt out of the last
message that I sent you:
> My mom just said a few minutes ago that she wonders if you’re now doing your final countdown to the day when
> Scott goes home.
Now this is what she said after you left yesterday, quote “John will probably sleep for a
week after Scott goes.” I also remember you said yesterday that Scott can be an interesting guy
too though you “kind of can’t wait there” for him to go home and then I don’t remember whether
you said next “you gotta take the time to examine people” or “take the time to find the good
stuff in people.” It doesn’t matter, I just want Carol to do the same for me. I’ll go into more
detail about this when I type up the long message with what I have to say about Dr. McKibbin’s
question that I didn’t answer “why I would feel punished to have to become independent.”
The Easter greeting card that I sent you and Scott liked is from
http://ecards.downloadsnet.com/ which is also the same site that the greeting I sent you back at
Christmas was from. I would’ve sent you the message that I sent you last weekend (on
Sunday the 16th) a little earlier that weekend than the time I did send it if my mom had not
suggested looking up Saint Patrick's Day jokes for me on-line. She had spent a whole half an
afternoon trying to find those jokes on-line when I hadn’t originally planned on sending you any
St. Paddy's Day jokes before she suggested that she find some for me to send you. All I had
originally planned to send you before my mom suggested St. Paddy's Day jokes was the Easter
greeting.
In the attached ZIP file you can get the scanned image of the corgi that was a bit harder and
took us a few sessions.
See you on Thursday at 1PM.
-Neil
P.S. Just now while I was finishing typing this
message, Izzy was on top of our stove in the kitchen a few times and I could hear my mom yelling
at her to get down. I then asked my mom if this was the first time Izzy went up on the stove for
a while or if she’s even gone up there before. My mom then said that she couldn’t remember Izzy
going on the stove anytime before today.
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