pira

Yesterday...parged (and pointed )the area 2-6" upward, alongside the house where the driveway meets the foundation....the new driveway is a bit lower than the previous one and I wanted to deal with the exposed areas and construction modified bits...

My father was surprised that I wasn't parging the entire surface area....38' x 3' ....mixing that cement one wee batch at a time!! While I understand his logic....I can't help but wonder ~ Is he NUTS!?

I just want to fix cracks and gouges before I paint it ~ *rolls eyes*

Today I'll tackle the garden. ( you've heard that what...3 or 12 times now?) ...I couldn't face doing it after the wall. I don't want to wreck my hands and back all at once....as it is my grip is going to tenuous at best for a few day after all this ~ my forearms and wrists are not going to like the repeated pounding and clutching involved with these activities.

Late afternoon I sat down to more This American Life & pulling the strings out of another kimono while happily pondering the new 1/4 doll clothing patterns that arrived in the post...*hums to self* and which fabrics to use.

I've been highly disorganized and in no small way distracted by doll sites. (.__(.

I need to unplug the internet or I'll never get at this ridiculous list of *things to do*...*stupid siren-calling dolly sites* ....*stupid obsessive compulsive personality*.

Oh no......

It finally happened...all the random doll stuff just hit me like a freight train and not only have I tripped & fallen down the rabbit hole, but it seems I've discovered a mission;

Customizing Obitsu into Kizuna dolls....

In particular Masa ....(drools at the thought of painting a dragon tattoo on an Obitsu body).....I might toss him a Kai if he gives me a hassle.


This all makes sense in a weird and wonderfully twisted sort of way >D


...In other news ~ finished the drawing for Alyx Shaw's Forbidden Fruit piece and fired it off to the editors.

SO ....went to the post office (with my handy-dandy collapsable cart) and picked-up Kyoto boxes #2 & #3.

I had thought, at the very least, one box would be the first I'd shipped from a separate location, instead of these two ~ which were shipped from the same location but 4 days apart.

*shrugs* ~ Who am I to begin to understand the dark and mysterious backroom ways of international mail sorting? I will though, tell you this ~ package #3 was a total last minute, after thought, which happened when I was packing my bags and decided I really didn't want to hump it all through the airport(s).




























So there I sat in our room, with luggage and box on each side of me sorting things into one or the other (scrutinize briefly, toss, repeat) before I got down the task of properly packing them up. Of course I didn't pay much mind to what went into this last box and was frustrated by the postie who was in charge of taking my parcel, demanding an itemized list as long as my arm.

*0__o!!?? Of all the packages I've EVER sent from Japan...why is it that the ONLY one I do on the fly, at the last minute, when I am short on TIME....and I have NO F**KING clue exactly what it contains... is the one where I get the greenhorn newbie flashing Official Post office regulations in my face and trying to impress her superiors?!

I B.S'd that list and kept my fingers crossed that the Canada customs boys n girls would ignore it entirely and just wave it through.

....althought it was entirely possible that the box would encounter and equally anal post office worker at this end too (o__(o

ANYway...here there are:


( Loot Boxes 2 & 3 )

This is the top of that DVD cabinet that I keep changing the decor on ~ my old towel rack from Japan finally arrived and I think it works really well for displaying obi....my epiphany was correct.

I have spent 2 of the past three days with the relatives from Finland.

Yesterday I drove to a suburb of Toronto, to a section of town where Hong Kong Chinese have settled and the population 80% Asian. I hit the artstore for supplies for the eldestsprog, who is painting/decorating a relatives' baby-nursury ~ then hooked up with my parents and the 3 cousins to shop in the Chinese malls and go for a fantastic *real Chinese* buffet. *burp* Then more shopping (or for my father and I...wandering around and waiting for the ladies to poke at stuff.

I think Karma was paying me back for my torturing Bob last September in Japan >D

I was rewarded though ~ handsomely. Lunch was delish, but also I found a replacement lidded mug for the one I use daily and is nicked all to heck.... and more importantly, on my way home I to to hit-up Teh BIG Chinese grocery store. Aside from picking up sushi for Ali, I found they are stocking more Japanese food stuffs than ever. Found a 20bag of Nishiki rice (WHOOT), jugs of Kikkomen soy sauce (HAH), and mugi chi /barley tea (*BOO-RAH*) among lots of other needful condiments!!!

*Does little happy dance*

I rushed home and immediately set a litre of mugi-chi to brew in the fridge as I sorted through the letters..and noted that I'd missed a postal delivery while away. I would have to pick them up from the post office....*0__o!!! Oh dear. I do believe my kimono have arrived.

So much for my clean and clear art area floor.....

On Friday of last week, the pavers were able to come and finish off the gravel/grading of my driveway. The area immediately in front of the porch had been about 1 1/2' higher and a heap of clay and sand....a quagmire actually, whenever it rained.

I had placed bricks and flagstones in a pathway to the *graded* driveway so we wouldn't lose our shoes in the muck or track mud/sand into the house constantly. I have humped those f**king flagstones no less than 7 TIMES now, and still have to place them properly in the garden (not even wanting to contemplate that jungle until this work is done)....

I had told my husband Friday (when I had to dash out for an hour) that IF these guys should show up while I was out, that I want to KEEP the stones/bricks and that the bricks should be piled up and the stones removed to a section of the driveway beyond where they'd be working becasue I don't trust them to place them on a section of my lawn that won't be problematic.

He had NO idea what I was talking about. The lawn was the lawn...anywhwere was fine, right? NO....it's a postage stamp lawn...I didn't want things to get killed because men can't tell the difference between grass/mulch and perennials.... I had to physically show him where this stuff should be put.

Of course the entire exercise was pointless because the pavers didn't get here till later in the day when I was home ~ however, they insisted on helping me move the rocks, even though I kept telling them just to pile the bricks up for me on my existing piles. I humped (quickly I might add) the flags to areas of my garden that they'd not do any damage till I found them their permanent spots. The guys insisted they would remove a few and sure enough they decided the best place to place them was ontop of Lavender bushes. WTF is it with men?????!

GOD DAMN IT they are predictably stupid! ALL OF THEM!!!

...anyway this (points at image below) gets paved next week ...probably.

THEN I have to start to figure out what to do about a retaining wall....and rein in my garden which is now totally out of control since this project has taken so long. I have to start ripping out full grown plants instead of things that are just nosing up out of the ground.

I'm tired just thinking about this let alone the need to purchase more rock/stone/heavy-back-breakingly-dense-objects and try to put all this together like a giant jigsaw puzzle. *groan*






In other news, I think the painters are coming today or perhaps tomorrow to get started at the woodwork around the outside of the house, including my front porch.

Really hope those yahoos get that done before the asphalt gets laid down because seriously....I KNOW they will put ladder tracks in the new driveway...because Murphy says so. :P

Yesterday my mother's cousins came to visit with my parents. They are in Canada (from Finland) for the first time and my mum wanted to show off the daughter, her home, her neighbourhood and whatever else she could think of ~ bringing all those things she writes about in letters to life, so to speak.

Greeting the *aunties* had me hugging women who are pushing 5'3-4", rather like my mother... which sent me off to search out what the average height of women is in North America and such and found that it's actually around 5'4". I thought it was taller?

You know I don't run around hugging strangers so the height of others doesn't often register on me as it does when a family member or friend has their cheek pressed agaisnt my collar bone ~ and because there is nothing remotely short about the members of this household and their hoopster friends are even taller yet ~ my view of the universe becomes skewed. I am used to 6-footers wandering around here...and usually consider myself to be the short adult. *0__0

Anyway ~ for their brief visit I wanted to have the house a bit presentable...which was another reason to organize my junk, which you have had the misfortune of hearing me whinge about. The last task in the art area was going through no less than three sewing boxes & shifting the contents into bins (that's the trouble with being an only child...everything rolls downhill to you through the generations), proceeded by the kimono/yukata scraps had been sorted into bins by colour ~ as was the clothing items on the shelf.

Yes ~ yes....the doujinshi are still here. Eventually I will go through them and select only the ones of artists I seriously collect (K2, Sadahiro Mika, CJ Michalski, Maikata Mira, Mizukami Shin etc.)and a few odd favorites, and store the rest in the attic. As for manga, all my K2 manga will stay put here. I am her slave. She owns me. I will continue to keep an assortment of raw manga of mixed genres that I admire (such as Okanao Reiko's Sumo series, Ryogoku Oshare Rikishi or anything by Suehiro Maruo)...but eventually I will need to reclaim more shelf space ~ one more for a dollie dioramma and another, at least, for the intransit kimono articles.

Kimono by the way...actually means *object to wear*. When I have written here about my boxes of clothing being shipped from Japan, I am usually pausing before I add other explaintory words (haori/obi etc.) ~ because most of you would just assume when I speak of kimono I am talking about the long robes.

I am going to from this point on out, try to use the proper terminology for the items and when I speak of *kimono* it will simply mean Japanese garment(s) in general.


And because I'm so utterly proud of my annual re-organization of this area of my life...here are pictures of the *art area*....

Behold....you can see the floor!!



Since I was forced to move that behemoth of a desk (it's steel and glass ladies ....heavy as f**k* I'm telling you) in order to remove from under it the cat-christened rug...I also changed/updated the things up on my wall behind the desk ~ putting up shitajiki, clearfiles & other items with pretty anime/manga characters that I've collected over the years. They are shiny because I kept them in their plastic wrappings to keep them from getting scratched or sticky-tape-ickied-up.

All my Inuyasha figures are now out of Teh Sprogs reach , as are my small Final Fantasy/Clamp other assorted Candytoys...Legolas and Haldir are still keeping me company too. There is only so much room around my pc for boys, and that's where ninjas and catboys play. I was amused when the aunties snuck over there to take photos of it all....Oh I can't begin to imagine how they are going to describe this to my family in Finland >D

The once cousin who is my age and speaks very good English did confess that they ALL KNOW that I really like Japan and comics a LOT. *0__o...oh dear.

Well today was a busy one and I must have been a good girl as it seems all the stars were aligned in my favor. Two days ago it rained making the ground less Cement-like. Yesterday I pulled up a lot of the bricks from my walkway and either stacked them, or positioned them around my garden (where the railway ties came out)

Today I had sunshine but cool (8C) weather and the BIG car. Off I went to the landscape place (twice) and picked up flag stones to use as a wall in my garden. Brought them home....and did just that...plus added a second layer of bricks from the pile.

Now I set my chiropractic appointments a YEAR in advance (they are monthly) and it just happened by SHEER DUMB LUCK...or Karma...that I have one TOMORROW!

*^____^*

I couldn't have planned that better if I'd TRIED!

AND part of the carpet goes into the basement tomorrow. Because THEY didn't order enough of something I won't get charged for them coming back next week (because I wanted the install broken up into two days)....to do the playroom after we've moved the contents from there to the newly carpeted area...AND...I have more than a day to do that...which is great because my back is SORE ....

YESssssssssss.

( Yard pix )

'been busy.

Today I chose my paver and gave him the green light to grade and pack my driveway & front walk to prep it for the paving which will happen later in the year. This should commence around the 7th of May which means the front will be livable before I leave for Japan AND....

...it gives me time to remove the pathway bricks for my garden wall use.

I have almost got the basement painting finished. With hubber's car in the shop for 4 days (not commenting) my car became his emergancy work vehicle...which meant; domestic shopping, taking Teh Sprog to and from school and swimming was accomplished on foot...and THAT meant time spent not painting.

That's okay though...it allowed the paint to cure a bit and I could see better where touch-ups would be required.

Speaking of groceries, I have discovered more and more products that we commonly use, in the organics sections that I can access on foot ~ including bagged milk from a local organic dairy co-operative.

*pauses for a moment to pump fist in the air triumphantly*

I am now on their order list for 8 litres every Friday.

I have also converted Teh Sprog to organic whole multi-grain bread from a local independant baker aswell.

*repeat fist pump*

As I was washing dishes this morning I was doing a bit of mental math regarding his breakfast ~ half cup organic skim milk, 2 slices of said bread toasted with organic artisianal butter, half an organic pear and small bowl hot (1/4 cup cooked) Nishiki rice (no...not organic and I'm not budging on my rice because I LIKE it A LOT).

Breakfast = $2.35

His usual breakfast used to be 2 bowls of some sort of dry cereal with milk (never the sugared varieties but if you have ever read the packages of the preprocessed stuff it's really a mute point)...and the cost of that is about the same.

The point being ~ he's eating better for the same amount of money.

Do you realized that buying organics means I am in and out of my conventional grocery store in less than 10 minutes because I am only picking up what I can't get down the street, and I avoid 4/5ths of the entire sq-footage of the place? It sort of slapped me upside the head hard when I realized that almost the entire store is made up of over-processed convenience goods.

....when did I get so hypnotized by the food industry?

That aside ~ I cleaned out my pantry...again. I did this about 2 years ago...thought I'd done it last year but no, there was too much stuff going weird in the back for it to be only a single turn around the sun since the back of the cupboard saw daylight.

I threw out TWO blueboxes worth of stuff. Meaning I dumped the contents of and rinsed out every can and jar of things that I had not used in upwards of 8 years! Clothing we keep in hopes that one day we will wear it again ....but food?!! What is with this hording? HONESTLY there was stuff there from 1998 & 2000 (I remember when it came into the house or it was dated). That is just wrong.

ANYway...I feel good about the purge. NOW there is only stuff in there that is actually USED!

As for the trip ~ I've made plans to meet up with our tour-translator and another member of the group the day after I arrive. I've also plotted out on my map, the location of two bookstores which are walking distance from the first two hotels. A few artbooks, crafting mooks, traditional fabric pattern books, translated Japanese literature (I already know these stores sell such items) and maybe a few volumes of any yaoi that come out that month :)

The tour leader has informed me that there is a post office close to one of the temple markets we will be attending. Did I NEED to know that?? How much more dangerous can that be than having a postal outlet walking distance from Otome Road? A LOT I TELL YA!

The inner Japanophile is starting to bounce around like a ping-pong ball while the rest of me is already plotting the attack on the front garden....and my RL friends are laughing themselves silly as I launch into hyperactivity before I leave on vacation....which is probably WHY I am so organized for my trip so far in advance. At this point all I have to do is pack and go....it allows me to throw myself into the domestic whirlwind of my own making (which is ontop of whatever my family comes up with).

The question is ~ do I organize myself to absurd levels BECAUSE I'm going to get caught up in projects just before I leave ..OR.. is it because I am already organized I find things to do because I am so excited I need a distraction?

Yesterday I fell into bed with my book, The Omnivore's Dilemma and chewed throught 50 pages before turning over and passing out.

Physically manouvering the roller, and paintbrush (at times with an extension device) overhead on a stairwell, and in the confined almost airless conditions of a basement are not proving to be a problem. I'm okay ~ and it's rather like going to the gym on a daily basis ... but the smell of paint is not doing me any good whatsoevah.

Tylenol Extra strength is my best friend right now.

The development department of the City of Waterloo is not.....which could be another reason that I am hugging my acetaminophen.

I have put harrassing pavers for quotes on grading and paving my driveway on hold until I hear the final word from up the street. See I had thought that I would widen my driveway (not the curb just the driveway) to 2 cars wide, in front of the house ~ not for parking purposes but for my hoopster family. This would give them a nice area to scrimage and shoot instead of having to walk 5 long city blocks to the closest school yard.

SO ~ being the good citizen that I am, I called City Hall to make sure I wouldn't cause any bureaucratic-meltdowns and was told that I couldn't pave ANYthing....INCLUDING MY DRIVEWAY...within 7 metres of the road because it's city property.

*0___o!!!

Okay so everyone in TOWN has ILLEGAL DRIVEWAYS!??? I am supposed to have a gaping hole 4-5 metres long (that means almost to my front door) from the sidewalk on UP? YOU HAVE GOT TO BE SHITTING ME!

I was told to call public works about it.

I did. Left a polite wtf message.

I waited a few hours for the gentleman there to return my call and he had about the SAME REACTION that I did. He figures that it's probably a misunderstanding (ya think?) but he'd call whomever it was that told me I wasn't allowed to pave my driveway to the sidewalk and get back to me...and he figured that paving a hoop court on my side of the sidewalk would be fine...but to wait till he got back to me before I made a move.

While I agreed that there has got to be some misunderstanding....I am at a loss to understand what it could be. It's pretty damn simple. She had the map of the city in front of her...my property on it. She was telling me I couldn't pave the bottom 4-5 metres of my driveway because it was city propter. The End.

...*oi*

Today I put the last layer of paint (I hope) on the walls/ceiling on this basment project and wait for that call.

So far this morning:

~ I've got the final quote(s) on the basement carpet and made the call to order it.

~ Checked my weight allowance for luggage (2 pieces x 50 lb.s)...I am taking one suitcase & one backpack-dufflebag and a collapsable cart (this latter thing for carting items at the markets and to the post office and luggage to through the airport if need be.)

I weighed the Gymbag and cart IN the suitcase = 22lb.s

That leaves me 28lb.s for clothes to go PLUS room for 50lbs. of crap for gifts to bring back.I will be mailing other things from there via SAL or SEA.

...and YES you read that correctly. I intend to travel with all of the above in one bag on the outbound journey.

This does not include my carry-on.

~ Have gone to the Scottish bakery and picked up steak pies for dinner. No cooking for me today...except prepping cabbage rolls

~ Have raked leaves from garden into the street for pick-up.

~ Have trimmed grapevine, climbing hydrangea and peonies, raked zebra grass and leaves from backyard patio and stuffed all yardwaste into bags for pick-up this week.

~ Have packed up a box for Teh Sprogs's teacher with items for their Japan Unit ~ sen, candy, origami paper, geta, haori, child's kimono and juban, craft books, folk tales, songs and history books (childrens books)...

*nods to self*

Now to finish drinking coffee and go deal with more carpet removal before T.S.P.ing the walls.

Yesterday I was a bit preturbed and wondering if I was totally out of shape because I was wheezing when I walked around town. How can my conditioning plummet in a week?

The temperatures hit 24C (75.2F) and while I was uncomfortably warm I was mostly worried about the fact that my lungs were churning.

This morning in the newspaper I read that we'd had our first official SMOG day and today was going to be worse.

....I f**king HATE summer weather in this region. All the crap from the US rust belt and T.O. gets blow up this way and then the effect of the winds from the surrounding great lakes makes sure that it just SITS above us like pee on a plate.

I need to go trim those grapevines now, before things get thick out there and I won't be able to function without sounding like a washing machine when I inhale. >(

I was going to post this on Sunday ~ but IJ was having it's little breakdownage....something that didn't effect me much as I was running in a Spring frenzy, the model of domestic efficiency and impressing the heck out of Teh Bob with my ability to get things done when I choose to do so:

Sagittarius (Nov. 22-Dec. 21)

It's been fun; so long, and thanks for all the fish. That pretty much sums it up for right now because you're swinging into work mode. Oh yeah. Suddenly, you have so much to do! You're making plans (Sagittarians only make big plans.) You're gung ho to attack something very efficiently and very effectively. You also want to clean up things by reorganizing, reducing clutter, painting, renovating, filing, storing, departmentalizing and perhaps even alphabetizing your CDs. We're talking keen! All this enthusiasm will spill over into your personal world and you'll also want to improve your health. (Older Sagittarians take ginkgo biloba to remember where they put the Viagra.) Clean up! Sweep the room with a glance.

Scary things horoscopes...in particular when they are spot on.

ANYway ~ I managed to remove the carpeting from the basement stairs last night...with a lot of effort and in a cloud of sand. Aside from how comical I must have appeared as I braced myself and pulled...and fell...and yanked some more...and cursed...and crashed into walls etc.....I really did NOT need to know how much grit collects under carpeting over time...but I was impressed by the number of staples used to keep those carpets flat and snug over the years. The flip side of that is I don't appreciate the blister(s) I managed to get on the underside of the first and 2nd joint of my right hand ring finger as I gripped the pliers for the removal of said carpet.

I suppose I will have matching blisters on my middle and index fingers when I've finished painting the walls next week ...*grumble*....but still, I don't think I've EVER had a blister on the pad of a fingertip....just weird.

I am grateful for the weighttraining at the gym though ~ I'm not remotely strong, but if I had tried to do this a few years ago I think I would have damaged myself a lot more than a blister!

I've also been dreaming at night.

*holds up hand*

I know ~ everyone dreams. Thing is, I only actually *remember them* when I wake-up IF I'm ramping up to something big or am unconsciously wound-up too tight ~ ie; I'm about to have a baby or moving my household or am getting married. Seriously...if I kept a *dream journal*...and I have in the past ~ the entries would be dated months if not YEARS apart.

Anyway...yeah...dreaming again....*taps fingers on tabletop*...I suspect this is Travel-to-Japan-on-my-own-stress leaking out.

...which would also explain why I am WIDE AWAKE at 4:49 a.m. these days. NO I don't NEED to get up with the birds dammit!

BWAHAHAHAHAH.....I was sitting here eating my quinoa (on my vegetarian neighbours recommendation) and I was randomly poking at the nets. My brain is in freefall since I didn't so much sleep last night as doze, and badly at that.

The reason for the lack of sleep isn't of much consequence and should be fixed tonight because the resulting *brain-deadedness* is going assure me of solid zzzzzzzzzzzs.

Anyway, so I find myself in Facebook...staring at the heaps of *request to join* whatever game/thing.... and decide to lurch out of there because of lack of interest and deep mistrust of the above. So I go to POPURLS and find a TIME article regarding exactly that ~ those endless applications and what they are refering to as FACEBOOK FATIGUE.

I'm not SO tired that I don't feel a little smug about the fact that people are getting tired of something that I instinctively knew to stay the hell away from.

ANYway ~ all the long put off handwashing of delicates has been done. Haven't worn some of this stuff since my last trip to Japan. Good thing I'm going again soon or they'd never get washed.

Main bathroom cleaned....then headed down to the laundryroom to do a load of whites/towels.

While the machine churned I re-clipped and strung my basement clotheslines (4). Yep...something that would take my father about 3 minutes took me a good half hour because I don't have the hand strength to manipulate metal bits with pliers (old ones off, new ones on). In the end I resorted to brut force and ignorance to re-loop them ~ running the clothesline through the clip and then placing it on the cement floor and bashing it with my biggest hammer to bend the metal into place.

Why did I reclip them? Because as of 3 days ago the last of the ones I'd installed when we moved here 10 years ago had come unstrung. Don't want to rush into fixing these things you know....

I removed the babygate at the top of the stairs to the basement and the handrail going down...I'd rather unscrew it than paint around it....and well...I suspect the 8 year old can manage just fine on the steps now. I am going to miss having a handy place to hang wet tea towels before I take them to the basement though.

I realized at some point in the removal of the hand-railing that I would have to pull up the carpet on the stairs myself before I paint (picked up those supplies yesterday).

...bugger. I'd hoped to leave that to the guys doing the install...

5 loads of laundry done by end of day....that ontop of the 5 I'd done yesterday. My beds' blanket-cover made it downstairs this a.m. to be washed and I've now wrestled the queen-sized quilt back into the striped covering...*0__o...now there's a job for 2 pairs of hands. >_<* It's one of the reasons I don't want ANYthing to do with a Kingsized bed.

...the other is changing the sheets.

*sighs*....okay...need to wash the dishes and then go rip out carpet. My parents are coming tomorrow so I'll be losing a day ~ HOWEVER....my father IS going to help me tighten up the wooden railings on the front porch stairs and we are pow-wowing on what to do with the gardens, now what the railway ties and bushes have been removed by a handyman yesterday.

On that note...dishes-ho! Hope all of you are enjoying bonny spring weather!

I've got a few quotes on the driveway/frontwalk/garden retaining wall thing....and need to think on it a bit.....about just how much money I want to spend ...do I think I can really do some of this work myself or is that just stupid me and should I just hire someone to do it period.

Meanwhile, I've been watching episodes of Bleach (52) and digging through the basement ~ sorting through toybins ~ animals here, dinosaurs there, bionicles, lego, duplo, etc. blah blah blah.

As I'm heaving things into boxes ~ this stays, that goes, these go to the neice and nephew, that is garbage, this is for charity ...and a little voice in my head is screaming at me *wait wait you can sell that on ebay* and I'd to pause for a moment when it got really loud, then tell it to shut-the-bleep-up.

I found a *box* full of stuff from the good old days when I used to ebay ~ and while I don't doubt I will do that in the future again ~ I am just not prepared to store this crap any longer for something I MIGHT do SOME day.

I am great horder of things ~ I was raised to always find alternative uses for items, and that means my home ends up stuffed to the gills with objects that I eventually forget I even have....and trust me I don't live in a squirrel cage so ... that is a LOT of shite.

My mother told me once ~ that to truly *clean* out a closet or a room or whatever ~ you have to be in a fugly mood and embrace the frustration of the ginormity of the mess and HEAVE IT OUT without allowing yourself to question or pause to reflect. JUST DO IT!

I didn't really throw out anything that I KNOW I can sell for profit on ebay (like old Fisher Price and Playskool toys made of wood)...I have a shelf for those. BUT I still fee the twing here and there of nostalgia, as I think about stuffing stockings with the animals and other things that are now on their way to another life. While I refuse to be one of those parents that clings to every thing their children every made or played with ....and save it for the grandkids...I can't help but feel a bit sad to see them go as my youngest grows out of this stage of play. In a way ~ by finally giving things away (like duplo) I am facing the changing role in my life...from parenting of small children to one that is moving toward an empty nest...and whatever lies beyond that. Sort of turning a corner in life and looking down the backstretch if you will.

That aside...I also am left wondering about the sheer amount of stuff we have brought into this house over the years...and it strikes me that this consumer society we live it in utterly absurd, and I'm well aware of my role in this. So now I find myself feeling old and foolish at the same time.

*0__o....who'd have thunk cleaning the basement would result in anything feeling other than accomplishment?

I'm on my way back down there to reorganize the containers of toys that are left as I have the carpet guy coming by to measure for one small room, hall and the stairs on Monday. Those carpets require replacing a.s.a.p. ~ while the toy/kids artroom is where I will store things till this job is done. I might paint the walls quickly before they come to do the carpeting *nods to self*....yeah I think that would be a really good idea...rather like a clean slate.

Regardless of our thoughts on it ~ life only ever moves in one direction...but it does afford us the choice of looking over our shoulder at the past or forward to the future......

The paint down there is over 25 years old...time to change, shake up the colours a bit and embrace the urges of Spring.

Ahhhh Saturday morning and I sit in a quiet house as the family sleeps....including the cat which is currently curled up on my lap and refusing to budge. SURELY the cold rainy weather has nothing to do with her pushing her knubbly little toes between my legs to warm them? (.__(.

I survived the boys yesterday ~ by keeping myself busy at the pc and phone.

I made calls for paving quotes, and while I haven't yet found any handyman types to remove the horribly heavy railway-ties around my garden, I did get the carpet guy booked to come measure the basement, the city booked to come clean out their end of the sewer-pipes, the eavestrough people booked to deal with the autumn detris and soon to arrive spring-crap up on the roof(tree blossoms and maple keys).....

I also called city hall and our provicincal rep to arrange for *free pins* for my daughter's team to give out when they are in North Carolina next week, for a hoop tournie ~ plus found some nice MapleLeaf bandanas for them to wear on their trip....and researched sites to order shwag for NEXT YEAR, because obviously no one in this club team organization has the forethought to do that in order to promote themselves.

Admittedly Teh Bob is THE most productive coach in the organization ~ and makes sure his team gets the most exposure to good competition (a.k.a. minimum of 4 tournies in the U.S.)...hence is the one that actually needs shwag....so next year I'm going to make sure they have some GOOD stuff to give to members of other teams when they travel. I'm just really annoyed at myself for not having thought of it earlier.

I also spent about 2 hours on the phone with my father ~ the first time he was still sounding *peeved* about something and I finally figured out what it was. HIS email system/computer decided to sent all his emails to me ...but not to my regular e-addy. It all got directed to one I never gave him or have ever used. He uses G-mail. I have one but don't...we still don't understand why his imac desided to redirect everything.

The second phone call of the day had him in a VERY mellow mood since he'd checked his *sent* email files and discovered that I WASN'T ignoring him...I just wasn't GETTING anything he's sent in the last few weeks. HAH!

It was really NICE to talk to him without feeling like a little kid that had done something wrong but didn't know what it was. >)

Okay...off to start a weekend of intense basement cleaning and I do believe a dump-run. It's also market day and I'm hopeful that there are warm apple fritters for lunch *^___^*...I'm also hopeful that my car isn't stuck in the mud-sludge that is my driveway.

I finally did it.

I popped my kimono-deconstruction cherry.

Armed with that seam-ripper, I finally sat myself down and took apart an entire garment ~ and it didn't kill me.

It helps that I'd purchased this particular piece of clothing for the express purpose of making curtains for the front door. The fabric is synthetic (mid-century) and has a funky pattern that struck my fancy, but that aside ~ it is an obscenely good match for the two tones of green paint that I have in that room.

It's amazing just how much material you get out of a kimono, in particular if it's lined. Having said that ~ the fabric will not be at any point wider than 14", because that is how wide kimono/haori material is woven.

I was left in awe of two things as I pulled stitches ~ 1) an entire nation had a single standard width for fabric bolts and the construction of all items of clothing reflected this. Which came first...the width of the the bolts or the design of the items which they would eventually become? It's up for historians to debate ~ but amazingly that a whole country, of millions of people, for centuries, could at a glance tell you what item a length of cloth would create AND looking at the fabric I have just taken apart....not a single inche of textile is wasted. If I wanted to I could sew all the lengths of fabric together and would have the original dimensions of the bolt it was cut from. *0__0!!!

2) The way to clean a kimono or other traditional garment was to take it apart ~ wash each individual piece and sew it together again after it was dried. If a fabric wasn't going to be used it would be sewn together in bolt form and stored away in that fashion. Tedious yes...but utterly efficient.

An interesting FYI from my readings ~ the reason so many of us gaijin are able to purchase these kimono on the relative cheap...is because for the most part ~ the designs of kimono are regarded as such a personal statement and reflect so strongly the original wearers' personality and taste....it's unheard of to wear USED kimono.

Anyway the seam-ripper worked like a charm and below is result....

( Before and after  )

Heh. I had a nice chat with tameiki before braving the freezing rain and taking my son to a friends house to play. It didn't take much to drive that cold damp into the bones so I decided to pick up a chai latte on the way home.

Sitting down with my hot cuppa mmmmm warm goodness, I read the latest issue of National Georgraphic Traveller and the following is what I wrote the editor when I'd finished wallowing in my chai:


I was reading the Strange Planet page of the March 2008 issue of Traveller, and noted the comment regarding the Canadian one-dollar coin featuring the image of the common loon on one side and being nicknamed a loonie.

When the coin was first proposed, Canadians resisted the idea of more heavy change in their pockets and were quite amused when our postal system somehow lost the original dies for the coin. Alas the Canadian mint had a Plan B and soon we there would be heavy gold-toned coins weighing down our pockets instead of paper bills. When the new design was revealed we couldn't have agreed more ~ $1 coins were a loonie idea.

Much to the chagrin of the money carrying public, not long afterward our government announced a two dollar coin to drag our pockets closer to the ground. This one would feature a polar bear and it wasn't long before people were joking that indeed what other country could boast a coin featuring not only the Queens' face, but a bear backside as well?

The piece was to be two-toned and the public was thrilled to discover upon the first release of the coins into circulation that some of them could be split apart into two pieces. Much coin-whacking ensued across the nation; two dollar coins in two pieces ~ this wasn't just loonie, it was TOONIE!

Naturally, the name stuck.

The government appears to be hesitating introducing a 5 dollar coin.

Thursday found me an unhappy Squirrel ~ tail fluffed up in aggitation as my mind chattered angrily inside my head.

My only defense was to wander around the house emoting aloud to the walls until finally I was able to shake the worst of it off by data dumping on friends via IJ or email. *Thank-you*

The FIL survived the removal of 2 more toes, so Teh Man was in a better frame of mind.

I suspect I've been channelling his frustration and feelings of helplessness at this time of familial upheaval....so when he and the middling spawn left on a road trip to watch US college hoops this weekend a sense of calm settled in my brain.

....and I inexplicably found myself surrounded by *happy* things!

It was Friday so the next subbed episode of Naruto Shippuuden was available :) *happiness scale creeps upward*

I read a totally cracked yaoi scanilation gifted me by Tam that had me laughing aloud. *happiness scale jumps higher*

I recieved a chatty email from my Kyoto tour co-ordinatior that confirmed the numbers for our group would be low (downright intimate at 4-5) which made me utterly giddy with delight ~ because my biggest fear for this upcoming trip was having to deal with a herd of strangers .... even if it was going to be a small herd of about 11.

In truth the news rocketed me over the moon with happiness and I was literally bouncing in my chair. Due to the small numbers there has been some tweaking of our scheduled textile classes and accommidations ....for the better. *^___^* *happiness scale shoots upward*

AND then I also found this figure *gestures to the rude little school girl* available from a trusted online seller, for a reasonable price (it's sold out most other places).

She IS my inner-otaku. >D *ding ding ding ~ happiness scale maxed out*

Yep....okay. Batteries are re-charged. Today I have to go visit the FIL with my son, since his kids are all out of town for the weekend. The sun is shining. I have directions to this mystery hospital in another city I've never driven in. I will slap a Grin-f**k expression on my face and roll with whatever comes along. All will be fine and if not....there is always a pile of manga and a chai latte to end the day with.

And usually in the middle of the night.

Talked to Xan yesterday and was telling herthat come Monday, when the kids were cleared out of here I could reclaim the kitchen table & I'd be making those *reptile themed* book/pajama-bags* for the kids coming over for Wil's birthday on Wednessay.

There would be enough time...yep yep. And Tuesday I could bake the alligator cookies ...all clock-workish.

My family dragged me awake just 30 minutes after I fell asleep last night and they'd finished watching the Superbowl ~ they dreaded doing it. They anticipated nothing less than a full-out nervous breakdown.

The toilet in the furnaceroom (don't ask) had overflowed and the floor and anything on it... in two rooms was covered with grey water and feces. Our pipes outside were probably the cuplrit, causing a back-up. Old house. Old pipes. Old headache.

=__=

I stood in the middle of the room I'd been meaning to clean but hadn't yet, wearing nothing but a pair of rubber boots and a housecoat....Teh Bob and kids peeking around the corner and girding their loins for the meltdown. I had two options: 1) cry. 2) skip option 1 and just move onto dealing with the situation, because Hubber was leaving for two days for work out of town and wouldn't be back till Tuesday night so no one else was going to step up to the plate.

I poked the plunger a few times into the toilet...the toilet seal oozed......it had backed up into my laundry tub too....had that meant nowhere to mop and dump this stuff to.

Turning on my heel I left the mess, had Teh Man and middling child go to the 24 hr grocery store for bleach and paper towels (that I would use when the tide went out) and called the plummer....set up my sewing machine & ironing board.... and started working on the damn bags while I waited for the pipes to be cleared out.

I went to bed around 4 a.m. After having run errands I am probably going to catch a few more hours of sleep, sew another bag, tack yet another and then start dealing with the clean-up.

Balance, just taking it one step at a time....and being grateful I have feet to stand on. The silver lining is that garbage day is tomorrow. (.__(.

This spring...I'm getting the driveway ripped up and those ancient pipes replaced...I just can't take this shite anymore. Literally.

Every morning I go through a mindless internet routine with my coffee ~ checking emails, journal(s) and various online sites ~ one being DramaQueen....just to see if there is any life over there (in particular if any new volumes are being made available in the near future...or this decade).

The only thing that changes is weekly *het porn spam* that is dropped into the forum.

I know there is life at the other end of DQ because...it gets removed.

The thing that is rather amusing about all this...is the fact that it's a yaoi forum. You'd think some enterprising spammer would clue into the fact that yaoi readers don't want to see naked girls....and they'd get more hits if they put in ads for gay porn.

Just saying.....

It's winter therefore it's intensely-coloured-close-ups-of-flowers-in-a-vase time!

For all the HE-MAN-uber-Jockisms that generally definition Teh Bob, he is a closet romantic ~ as such, when he goes to the market on Saturday I tend to get spoiled with flowers (along with apple fritters and a chai latte) ~ and the fun thing about the Farmers' market flowers is that they are actually the culls that florists leave behind ...meaning they are cheap, plentiful and gloriously mishapen.

Bob knows I have a weakness for twisted Gerberas....hence the gerberamaspamdam below.

In other news I'm halfway through book 3 for the year. I've decided that every day I will simply seat myself in the livingroom for an hour and just have at it ~ period. This book is ON the list (February), so having gotten pleasantly ahead of myself, I can proceed to concentrate on the non-list, non-fiction book about the history of Kimono in February. I've decided this thing really needs to read that before the Kyoto trip, as it will supply me with a knowledge-base to draw upon with other members of the small tour group...in that ~ I will have some clue what they are talking about.

Giving myself a month to casually read the Kimono N/F will then allow me to turn my attention to those book-bags I'm making for the party in 2 weeks time....*nods to self*...the thinking is that it's good to be a bit a head of the game for when life gets bogged down domestically....and it does indeed tend to do that out of the blue ~ hence having to always be a few steps ahead of whatever has my ass in it's sights.

Teh Bob informed me that Teh Sprog is going to be signed up for soccer this spring/summer. Seeing the hair rise on my neck he quickly told me not to worry and that he'd take him to the games and practices (twice a week). I pointed out that he was usually busy and that the soccer ball tended to fall into my lap and had done so for YEARS! He defended himself by saying he'd take him some of the time and besides, I have books so what's the problem? (.__(. Couldn't really argue with that....especially considering the backlog of manga/GNs on the shelf.

Anyway ...onto the flora

( Gerber pic spam )