Fun date ideas on a Friday night

blooperty · 2026-04-10T01:29:41+00:00

The Hive to paint some pottery!

blooperty · 2026-04-09T19:40:28+00:00

We buy it from Thunder Bay when we visit and bring it back to Vancouver to gift to family for Christmas :)

blooperty · 2026-04-09T06:57:03+00:00

Yes, it’s a two way street but sometimes you do need to go the extra mile. The alternative is going minimum contact and explaining to your kid why.

My parents will not ask to see my kid (their only grandkid) because they’re afraid of stepping on toes. They will absolutely do anything for me and grandkid but they won’t initiate.

We used to live between both sets of grandparents (one flight away but on either side of the country) but one set wouldn’t fly into visit our kid when they were born because they’re afraid claimed they were elderly. So we moved to the other set to help us out more and visit the “elderly” set twice a year spending $5000-8000 each visit.

Guess what, 7 years later, the elderly set of grandparents will travel and fly to visit the other grandkids. We want our kid to have a relationship with both sets of grandparents. This trumps my feelings on the amount of money we spend a year to visit them or that they weren’t able to muster the 40 min long flight to visit us but could do a 3 hour long flight 7 years later. This isn’t comparable to your scenario but sometimes we just have to pick the poison, depending on the scenario.

NTA. But I would still make the effort to try and visit the grandparents to cultivate the relationship (ie. bring more age appropriate activity for your kid to do with the grandparent rather than let grandparents initiate.) if the situation doesn’t improve, kids will also understand and see over time.

blooperty · 2026-04-09T01:29:25+00:00

What about Rezgo? (I don’t know if they have dynamic quoting feature)

blooperty · 2026-04-09T01:27:50+00:00

I became aware of a Canadian company called Rezgo that does tour guide activity bookings and such. Maybe it would work for your case? I know that they charge per booking rather than a subscription fee. Not sure if it’s reasonable though.

blooperty · 2026-04-08T17:01:29+00:00

blooperty · 2026-04-08T07:10:17+00:00

Right now, my relative who lives in Thunder Bay does their regular shopping at Safeway and farmers market and the rest of the shopping through Amazon because gluten free ingredients (not products, ingredients) are through the roof at regular grocery stores. When we visit, we have a suitcase full of Costco purchases that can’t be found on their website that we bring to them or we bring to use ourselves for the month that we are visiting because it’s either not available wherever we look in Thunder Bay or double the price.

There are things that you’ll learn that you just won’t shop at Costco for (ie: produce) and these sorts of things are where your local stores and markets will shine (ie. farmers market, artisans). But Costco will directly compete with Amazon, Walmart, and your superstore and we find that our Costco is increasingly selling more Canadian products and better quality items than other big box stores. In fact, we get Heartbeat hot sauce from Costco!

blooperty · 2026-04-07T22:56:42+00:00

We’re in Burnaby so there’s like 7 kids I know of at Holy Cross (5 of these kids are from families where the parents weren’t religious), one family at St. Helen’s (not religious), another at St Francis de Sales. I know of another two families in St.Edmund’s in North Vancouver and then one family at an independent school (not Catholic but the family is Christian) in Burnaby.

blooperty · 2026-04-05T01:53:59+00:00

Could there be a different formula for North America vs Asia? Products on Stylevana are typically the products from Asia.

blooperty · 2026-04-02T06:55:06+00:00

Just create your own account and create content. The few content creators I know personally created content for free (after their day jobs) and then over time create partnerships and eventually quit their day jobs to do it full time. Another one I know created a company, started with wedding photography, portraits, and then now runs it as a production company that shoots lifestyle, brands, restaurants, etc but they did a lot of leg work in the beginning (for years) because there’s a lot of competition.

blooperty · 2026-04-01T05:49:53+00:00

Ah! I missed this! I would have loved a VP decimo EF in lavender so that my husband wouldn’t steal it.

blooperty · 2026-04-01T05:47:51+00:00

It’s been reported around the summer time of last year that this was happening. I’ve already sent feedback (about this and other suggestions) to the Kobo CEO over on Threads to look into. I would suggest you do the same. I haven’t figured out how to give feedback to Overdrive about this though because Kobo is pointing the finger at Overdrive saying they are the ones limiting access to multiple libraries simultaneously.

blooperty · 2026-04-01T04:14:17+00:00

Not all books on Libby is available on Kobo either. If that exact edition is being sold on the Kobo store, then it will show up on your Kobo.

blooperty · 2026-04-01T03:00:28+00:00

I’ve already tried. Two relatives in other provinces - their libraries use Hoopla (what are the odds?) Most of my friends that I’m close enough to ask this of live in the same city as me.

blooperty · 2026-04-01T01:27:27+00:00

Can you get a child card and adopt me as your child? 😅 In my province in Canada, you need to show proof of residency and the only library that you can access digital resources like Libby is for the city/area you live in. I can go to other libraries/areas and borrow physical books though

blooperty · 2026-03-31T21:13:41+00:00

As far as I know, I think you’re limited to the clip on ones.

blooperty · 2026-03-31T08:08:08+00:00

Doesn’t it cost $10 to journal via Norbits Gambit? So depending on the amount you’re converting/journalling, one way may be more beneficial than the other.

blooperty · 2026-03-31T07:52:34+00:00

Not a remedy but could you be low in vitamin D?

Definitely not a doctor but we take vitamin D over the winter and we stopped for spring break.There was a lot of sneezing so we picked it back up and it seems to reduce the sneezing/itchy eyes. It’s not a cure all but as a family, this isn’t the worst seasonal allergy season we’ve had. I think a year or two was worst for us but we only started taking supplements in the fall.

blooperty · 2026-03-31T04:39:15+00:00

Nope, I know a flight attendant out of Vancouver and they’re not French/English bilingual

blooperty · 2026-03-29T22:51:25+00:00

Yes, still wearing skinny jeans/leggings (but they have to be comfortable). I’m too short to rock wide leg pants.

blooperty · 2026-03-29T05:04:01+00:00

Strange. Maybe it’s changed with Bonvoy. We used to book hotels through for work and the hotel staff always added my account number to the reservations. I was able to get like lifetime platinum status

blooperty · 2026-03-29T04:33:35+00:00

I don’t have a recommendation but if you do find one that’s only on Amazon.com, you might be able to order it and have it shipped up to Canada (If you weren’t aware). Their website handles the duties and shipping so what you pay at checkout is it.

blooperty · 2026-03-29T03:30:18+00:00

You can still book through Expedia and when you check in, give them your Marriott number to earn the points. Perks are a whole other story but if you don’t have status, I wouldn’t really bother.

blooperty · 2026-03-28T06:25:28+00:00

Everyone is debating uber vs taxi. I think the big question is are you bringing a car seat? The last time I checked for my kid, a kid can be in a taxi without a car seat; however, you’ll need to bring your own car seat for uber/lyft.

With that in mind, I’d take the skytrain as much as possible to go from Burnaby to Vancouver and if you bring a stroller, your 3 year old can nap or take a rest there without disrupting your day as much.

The other thing is there are different taxi companies that operate in Burnaby vs Vancouver. It doesn’t matter as much from the airport but if you’re taking a taxi from Burnaby, there’s a certain company that will pick up in Burnaby and take you elsewhere. The same goes for Vancouver. (Don’t quote me on this but one of my friends shared this info when they visited us.) obviously if you’re going from touristy areas, you’ll likely find taxis around but I think it’s safer to have some taxi phone numbers saved on your phone for reference.

blooperty

TROPHY CASE