“I have declared Sunday ‘Family Day’,” my sister proclaimed when she flew into Toronto for the weekend.
It wasn’t so bad. Mom even complimented me _twice_ on my driving skills, we had a surprisingly decent authentic Shanghainese lunch at the bizarre landmark known as Chinese Hut (fish in wine sauce), I got to upgrade my mom’s PC to AOL 9.0 (Totally different from AOL 8.0! Now with a slightly lighter blue colour scheme!), and rescue my stamp collection from my parent’s home. We also went to grandfather’s grave to pay our respects.
My mom is growing spaghetti squash and kapoca in the backyard, turning most of the ground to a canopy of snaking vines.
My sister also picked up a gift from Thailand for me. She always fusses that I am impossible to get a gift for, but to my credit, her last gift was a plastic replica of the Statue of Liberty. Much like the real Statue these days, the replica is locked up somewhere and no one gets to see it.
This time, she a wooden toad with a wooden stick in its mouth. You’re supposed to use the stick to stroke the frog’s ridged back, creating a relaxing croaking-like ambience. It certainly proved its worth when I was installing AOL.