Reception for the NICU (preemie ward) at BC Children’s Hospital.

I had planned to do this for my birthday, but Eliza advised against it as she said traffic was horrendous, so I left it until today. It was most appropriate to do on Father’s Day, so it was like a birthday thing for me and a Father’s Day thing for Allan. I brought a pot of yellow begonias, a ‘Thank You’ balloon, and some cinnamon buns to the NICU (Neonatal Intensive Care Unit) of the BC Children’s Hospital, where the twins were born on February 3.

Twins, almost 4 weeks
Twins, week 3
I Meet the EdTwins

Photo of the twins for the hospitals.

Megan and Maribeth were born about six weeks premature and Maribeth was less than 3lbs at birth. The babies spent about a month at BC Children’s Hospital in incubators before they were moved to Royal Columbian, which is a lot closer to where Allan and Cheryl live, then were discharged around the middle of March or so… I thought it would be nice to take something to BC Children’s Hospital for the nurses, so I included the babies’ birth photos in their incubators with their delivery stats, and this photo of them at four months old, so the nurses could see how well they’re doing. If you compare this with the photos of the twins in their first month, it’s quite amazing how much they’ve grown. Maribeth was so tiny and fragile she didn’t even look like a baby.

Michael attacking his plate of spaghetti and meatballs.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, two of the older Edwin kidlets were driving their father crazy. It being Father’s Day, I decided to take them all out for a meal, so as to leave the kitchen in a temporary state of preservation for the busy day ahead. We drove to New Westminster to try to find our own father, who was attending a BIBAK (Filipino cultural group) picnic, but we couldn’t find him, so carried on to The Old Spaghetti Factory to feed the youngin’s. While The Old Spaghetti Factory isn’t really my flavour, restaurant-wise, it’s great to bring kids there as an alternative to fast food chains. Michael took advantage of this, flinging spaghetti everywhere and making a real nuisance of himself. I always tip a little more at these restaurants as extra cleanup is guaranteed after we’re through.

Madeleine showing her best table manners.

Miss Madeleine herself was pretty raucous, and, as you can see here, has no sense of decorum when it comes to eating. Out of the three older siblings, Madeleine fairly consistently makes the biggest mess of all, except for today, when Michael’s rambunctiousness took over and spattered everything with spaghetti sauce, including me.

Iris’ Funcky photo!

One of the birthday pictorial greetings I got yesterday that was better than any Hallmark card. This one’s from my friend Iris Funck in Hamburg (a.k.a. in previous posts “Funcky Chicken” or “German Chicken”), who stayed with me twice — for three months in 2002 and three weeks last September. Good times, good times…

My attitude as a consumer is caveat emptor. I read this article about GMail that outlines 4 major problems:

http://gmail-is-too-creepy.com

Problem 1: Gmail is nearly immortal
Problem 2: Google’s policies do not apply
Problem 3: A massive potential for abuse
Problem 4: Inappropriate ad matching

In the section about inappropriate ad matching, the article mentioned a lawyer experimenting with Gmail: He sent himself a message, and discovered that the law practice footer he uses at the bottom of all of his email triggered an ad for a competing law firm.

This goes without saying. What did he expect? That’s what Google Adsense does. To me, any professional using a web-based e-mail account is going to look unprofessional. Even eBay and other online retailers discourage webmail accounts. I see webmail more for personal use, and even then if there is anything truly confidential I would rather phone the person. Of course, the most cynical would start spewing about phone tapping, but I doubt there’s anything in my life that would warrant interest in phone tapping… er, except for that one time…

On that note, I still have a bunch of GMail invites left, if anyone is interested. I keep giving ‘em away, and Google keeps giving me more!

The loud-shirt-wearing club, and those who love them.

After an extended birthday tapas and sangria with friends at La Bodega, I sobered up with some coffee and lots of water, and headed to the North Shore over the Lion’s Gate to Tosca and Mike’s new digs.

A nice, warm June evening meant the party was half inside, half outside, and I could hear the revellers from around the corner. Being a late arrival meant I wasn’t able to catch everyone on film, but I did get most everyone, and the Ofotos can be found here:

Hopkins Housewarming Photos

I’m like the garden gnome that pops up here and there.

I brought my photo printer with me and took photos of everyone, then printed them off and got people to sign their pictures and stick them on the fridge. Tosca’s got tons of fridge magnets, so the fridge was nicely covered by the time I was done.

Technorati tags: housewarming, friends

[ insert lamentation for misspent youth here ]

ha!ha! I’m 32 today.

Gravity works. 

Lights in motion on the dance floor.

I got home a little while ago from Club Voda, where Tosca, Mike, and I went to see DJ JojoFlores, a fellow Flip (Filipino) Tosca has known since her Montreal days. We got there before they opened their doors, hence the opportunity for me to take pics without a crush of people.

A rather dark pic of DJ JojoFlores, but at least I got one of him doing his thang.

Another one of the DJs (don’t know his name).

More swirly bits, this time with people hovering.

The pool as of 6:20pm.

Hey Krisanne, we’ll do the photoshoot by the pool!

I took a pic a few minutes ago (click to enlarge). Behind the trees is the beach and English Bay… come on up, Seattle FCFGG people!

So I’ve been spreading the GMail love far and wide, so I feel it’s only fair to ask of you, dear readers, one thing:

Sign my Guest Map! You can find it on the sidebar. Or, if you don’t want to plot your co-ordinates, sign the guestbook!

Man, where does the time go? Yesterday was busy, busy, busy. Went to the office, but due to *#@% traffic on the Lion’s Gate Bridge, I was held up and missed the 09:25 ferry. Didn’t feel like hanging around Horseshoe Bay, so instead I decided to explore West Vancouver. Lovely neighbourhood, on the other side of the narrows from me, but definitely not my demographic… retirees!

It’s great having my car back for a couple of weeks. It’s been so long since I’ve driven it, I forget I even own a car. It’s got some tuning up to do, but for 376,000+kms and being over 20 years old, the old beast is doing pretty well. (Like its owner, ha!) Although, the driveway is so steep at the office, I’d need a winch to tow the heavy Volvo back up to the road, so I leave it at the top of the driveway.

Yesterday’s new discovery: There are no corner stores in Kerrisdale.

Believe it or not. I went to drop off something for my aunt, Tosca’s mum, and told her I’d pick up some milk for her on my way. I thought I’d just get something at the corner store in Kerrisdale, only to discover there aren’t any. Nada. Not a single one. It was incredible — I scoured the neighbourhood at 10:00pm, it was barely dark, but everything was shut except for a couple of cafes and a few restaurants. I had to get back in my car and drive further west… found an IGA and called my aunt to see if she needed anything other than milk. They locked the door as I was on the phone! So I had to cross the street to the Shell station and get the milk there, anyways. I told my aunt I am going to drive her to the grocery store, this is ridiculous!

Gorgeous!

Awww, thanks!

I went to the office today, and look what I got! Lovely early birthday flowers that came out of Melanie’s garden! They are so fragrant, but unfortunately even tucked into their little oasis pot, they were no match for the dryness of the office and the warmth of the day.

Melanie even baked me a chocolate birthday cake and decorated it with more flowers from her garden! I don’t have a photo of the cake as I forgot my camera at home, and took the pic with Kevin’s Konica. They serenaded me with the birthday song and gave me a card with not one but THREE nubile young men with bulging muscles on the front… yummy cake and yummy men! Pleasures in life — what more could I ask for??