pira

Well I took down the barrier this morning that blocked the driveway from anyone parking on it and yeaaaaaaay we have a flat surface!!

Of course my garden is a mad jungle and I still have a lot of rock/brick/soil to cart around and rearrange ~ but that's an August job. I am off today to the farm to do some animal-sitting for a few weeks as my parents go on their driving vacation.





One last kick at the dollie can before I bolt for dial-up country ~ here's Dude trying to explain fundoshi to Monk....

At some point their names just sort of gelled. I'd always sort of thought of them in those terms but never voiced the names...then I started actually talking about them and that was that.





Off to pack the car with assorted projects for myself during the week that I'll be alone ~ the 2nd week will probably see friends and/or family members drifting up there. SO I'd best snag those few books I'm about 3/4s through and just grind through them so I can check them off my list.

I've the old BBC series on dvd, The Camomile Lawn to watch too :)

...saw it on t.v. years ago (1992). My cousins in Australia scrounged up a copy of the book for me at a garage sale of all places, when I couldn't find it here to read in the library nor could I buy it (in those pre-internet days) as it was out of print ...really looking forward to some scotch and reminicing with Mary Wellsley's characters *^__^* T.T.F.N.

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.

So the *gas people* FINALLY get back to me, a week later.... regarding the scheduling of my gasline lowering and they need MORE locates because you know the last two weren't ENOUGH and then they will schedule the work to be done in the next 2-3 WEEKS!

Thank the GODS I decided to call the people who were to paint my front porch next week to hold off until July.

AND in other news...my new carpet in the livingroom is so badly damaged from cat urine I can't even approach the room for the reek that has fermented in this humidity.... and it will have to be replaced for a 2nd time in 2 months. SO that makes TWO area rugs and the livingroom that she has destroyed since we got the latter re-carpted.

The cat will not be returning from the farm.

I have so many negative emotions to choose from right now I don't know where to begin.....it's just a party in my head right now!

ARGH!

A friend wondered how I was managing to maintain a Zenlike state considering the fact that the universe is trying really hard to shake me free of it.

This piece of Kyoto wall art (points at clay figure) is basically what Teh Inner-Pira looks like right now.

I can handle the idiocy of the dishwasher dumping on the floor three times because a hose came loose inside and no one in my home would think A) to check WHY the thing was spewing water or B) choose not to use it again until I came home to do so.

I can deal with the fact that my new cook-top went *pop* on Monday night and stopped working 'till an appliance technician swung by yesterday to fix something that shouldn't be going pop...ever.

I can ...mostly...accept the fact that the cat has peed on the new carpet and nobody mentioned it to me until a month later when the urine was nicely soaked in.

I can ignore the fact that someone has scratched up the paintjob on the walls in the basement that I finished just before leaving for my trip.

I can not lose it when a woman comes up to me and tells me someone driving my car hit her car last week, in front of the school...a someone who it turns out isn't licensed to drive yet, and hence isn't insured to do so alone and took the car multiple times without permission...or knowledge of their father and allowed her boyfriend to drive it too even though he isn't insured on it.

But the last straw has broken... I AM fed up with the harassing emails from a mother of my eldests's friend who is insistent that her daughter (a 19 1/2 year old who is too perfect to be wrong) has left her cell phone in my middlings bedroom, even though my daughter insists the girl lost it before she retired for the night and won't believe that it has been searched for numerous times and wants to maybe come and do it herself.

My only way to cope was to purchase an electric takoyaki pan.

It makes about as much sense as all of the above combined and that way when they hit me with more stupidty I will just say *So sorry....don't have time to listen, I'm cooking octopus balls..buh-bye*

**AS an aside: I didn't get the work of this Kyoto artist until I looked at it from the point of view of a mother, in particular one with teenagers. Now they ALL makes sense. >D

Less than 24 hours now before I embark on Pira's Great Kyoto Adventure...a.k.a; Kyoto Kimono Madness Tour 2008!!

I slept well last night. Solid. This is a good thing...for tonight I expect to be true to form and be a tad restless.

Teh Bob is leaving for Phillie this morning. As I told the parental units ~ who must have glanced at their phone and noted ...*MY GOD THE KID HAS CALLED EVERY DAY SINCE SATURDAY!* & actually picked up telephone and dialed ME for a change ~ 'It's just as well that Teh Man is going to be out from under foot, because I don't have time for his futzing.'

See ~ whenever I am going *away* for a day or more ~ he gets ansty, worrisome and just plain demanding of the weirdest things from me becasue he's already missing me. That would explain the NEED to hang that big-ass corkboard in his office yesterday after thinking about it for 10 months. *rolls eyes*

So as I am on the phone yesterday ~ with my mother cluck-clucking disapprovingly that my husband is electing to go to a hockey game instead of seeing me off at the airport ~ I got Bobbed. Seems he'd left his sunroof open on his car. We'd just had rain. He was in a panic. The interior of his car was...wet. He needed me RIGHT THE BLEEP NOW!

*0__o....

I excused myself, told my mother I'd call back, grabbed a roll of paper towels and told the paniced and pissed-off man to put the TOWELS BACK WHERE HE FOUND THEM ...4 times...then took the papertowels out to the car. When I called my parents back, my father answered and wanted to know WHY the husband needed me 'out in the car with him to do this?'

"Because I'm going to Japan, will be away from home for 13 days and he's losing his mind"....and then explained that this is WHY I was THRILLED that he would NOT be HERE for the next 24 hours. I might actually get whatever I need to get done...done!

Love the dear boy...appreicate that I will be missed...but seriously I will NEED a vacation from preparing for a vacation!

**EDIT: So he gets up and asks me to clean the mud off his running shoes NOW, before he leaves in 30 minutes. I tell him to whack them hard outside to get the worst of the dried mud to break off and then I can wipe them down.

...so what does he do? He WEARS them out to the car, STEPS OFF THE F**KING GRAVEL to the muds along side the house and cakes the bottoms with MORE WET MUD ~ then gives them to me in annoyance when I tell him what he just did!!!

*ARGH* I got BoBBed again!

OOooookeeedokay.

Today I need to buy a camera....and learn how to use it by next weekend, for the Ontario basketball playoffs. No pressure.

When I cornered my husband about what exactly it was that he'd been shown, in a store, that he wanted me to buy, he got all flustered and told me it needed to be able to video.

*0__o....inevitably I had to narrow down the specifics of the NON-camcorder he was speaking of which led to "just research it and buy it". =__=

In the end I managed to drag out of him the fact that he wanted to be able to take "some video like half an hour or something.."

~ what was the brand? *I showed him pictures*....

"I don't know...just get something that takes video!!!!!!"

Uh-huh.

I guess I'm getting something features I want (good lense, image stabalization, optical zoom, good macro for a compact, blah blah) plus half-decent vid-capabilities (in the 30 minute range) *rolls eyes*

Today is also the semi-formal for my daughter's high school (for which she has been scrambling to make decorations and paint backgrounds) and I will be broodhen to about 8 giggly teenage girls, preening for hours this afternoon before going to the dance.

And for anyone who hasn't met a teenage female athlete...let me tell you, they don't do the *eat like a bird* routine.

Must stock up on appropriate squee-fuel/food for the locusts will be descending after 2 p.m. EST.

Hubber at least is on duty for the pick-up tonight...and I'm sure they'll find a place to crash around the house and I'll be picking my way over bodies when I get up early in the morning to go for coffee >D

From the local paper yesterday ~ the girls on either end are the first pair of sisters to make the First-Team Senior High School Basketball All-Stars in our region.

Oh yeah....and they're my girls ~__^

...and of the 6 girls pictured...my husband has coached 5 of them for years, and 8 of the 11 that made-up the entire combined team.

*hoop is what this house revolves around, in case anyone missed the memo*

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.

Today is Friday, and the kids are home from school yet again due to a 4-day week (professional activity day for the teachers). When exactly is it that the teachers actually TEACH??!!

I am really sick to death of these shortened school weeks at this point ~ but I bow to Karmatic wisdom because it works in my favour....kinda sorta.

See the cable and phone guys had screwed up marking (or NOT marking) the locates for my neighbours on the driveway side of the house. During the excavation the lines were severed ....and my poor neighbour, who is home with a broken leg had ~ no phone, no tv, no internet.

*cue Pira's mortification*

As soon as I found out we got on it and it was re-hooked up sooner than expected (probably due to the fact that the companies doing the locates KNEW they were at fault)...but still I am embarrassed and feeling really guilty about this...there is my poor neighbour ~ on crutches...in pain...housebound and cut off from the world because of me for more than a day....(trust me her teens were not happy with me a bit either)

SO I contracted a friend/neighbour down the street who is a professional massage therapist to make a housecall for her and work out the kinks in her neck/shoulders/back due to said crutches.

He is available because it's a P.A. day and his kids are home (he runs his business from his house) ~ so I take his boys (8/10) while he works on soothing my neighbour relations.

Okay ...thank-you universe. I owe you one.

....

Which the universe collects on immediately ~ I also am taking another neighbours' son (8 and a little demon) for the day, because she has to work her mother's job in their dress shop ~ because her mother had to fly home suddenly to Scotland for a family emergancy.

It's pouring rain here so the kids will be trapped inside my home.

Let the payback BEGIN!

In an exchange of emails from a neighbourhood friend I recieved this story about my son:

Funny thing... last Friday, Wil was recapping an episode of Family Guy to N (her 7 year old), and luckily, I managed to catch the tail -end of the conversation and the word "sex". I stopped Wil at this point, but of course, N had know idea what Wil was talking about and thought "sex" was a dirty word for pooing. I gently said to N that "sex" was a word for the "baby-making-thing" we had discussed.

And Wil piped up, "Oh, but people don't only have "sex" when they are trying to make babies... I know this because I hear my parents having sex all the time!"

**Me quietly laughing**

"Well Wil...when N and I discussed "sex", it was about making babies. Hint. Hint. End of subject."

Wil, "Really because I know my parents do it all the time... I can hear them from my room..."

"William!! Enough already!!"

N...completely blank look on his face...nothing...

M(her 4 year old son) in the corner...smiling ear-to-ear.

*0__0!!!!....excuse me while I go crawl under a rock.

As annoyed & wound up as I can get....I don't hate the man. While I also don't actively pity him I am not entirely heartless ~ I had an epiphany while talking to the FIL.

At home I emailed Teh Man and apparently it would seem that NO ONE has thought to bring their father a newspaper to read when they visit.

If I was asked to form an image in my mind of my FIL ~ it would be him in his office, pouring over the local paper every day for 20+ years when he had the chance to sit with a cuppa joe....then offering up his opinion on the reported events at some point.

Trapped and isolated in an out of town hospital ward, watching cable T.V. is not the same thing...especially when the family drones on about sports or work or getting him healed when they visit. They are cutting off bits of his feet not giving him a lobotomy!

Hubber has just had this particular epiphany smacked up the side of his head and had promised to take him the local rag when he visits next.... and I am left wondering if my roll in life is to point out the forest for all the trees to these folks...

*face palm*

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.

You fit in with: Spiritualism 60% spiritual. 80% reason-oriented.
	Your ideals are mostly spiritual, but in an individualistic way. While spirituality is very important in your life, organized religion itself may not be for you. It is best for you to seek these things on your own terms.
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Did that ....many days ago. It was in the *auto save mode*, so I clicked to see what I was GOING to say but didn't because I just had to push away internet social places... due to my brain being like fried squirrel on toast.

It's actually quite appropriate....considering the way the month is unrolling.

I am having a LOT of moments where I am just *letting things go* and allowing logic to guide me... before hitting the *spaz* button and have been rewarded for it with little blessings.

Example: Have 10 minutes to kill before picking up my son and decide to fill-up on some petrol, because we are getting lots of snow again this weekend and a voice in the back of my head was urging me to make the most of the moment as I drove by the gas station.

I pull in. I pull out my CC. I open my gas tank. I put in my CC. I get computer errors. I am told the computers are rebooting.

*0__o....

I am told it will be just a few minutes.

It's -11C

I go to the car, calmly put on my hat, mitts......will myself to just be... neutral. A headspace that is currently my general modus operendi. Nice and fluffy. Complete mindlessness. Yes...I can and DO turn it off (the brain that is)....and do things in a totally blank state. Emotion or throught are not allowed to register.

Then I look at the gas price sign. The computers were rebooting because the price was being rolled back to a lower amount from the time I pulled in. The pumps needed to be recalibrated. Nice.

I pause and thank the powers that be and swipe my card again.

It's things like that ...all...week...long...that keep me grounded, when other things are hitting the fan like a herd of cattle with the trots...in particular the situation with the F.I.L. circus of B.S.

I am here. I have manga. I have chai lattes. I am fine as long as I don't ...dwell. Family at large though....is reaching critical mass. I need to save up my energy to mop up the mess for when they blow.

We are drowing in kiddy crappola and I convinced Teh Sprog (it didn't really take much convincing) that he doesn't need more stuff from friends...and perhaps it might be better if he gives instead of recieves.

After being reassured that his parental units and grandparents were going to give him something (we are talking about an almost 8 year old here)...he was cool about not getting gifts from friends. In fact he had a list of clean water, and toys and books that he wanted to give.

*blink*

Okay so I did some research ~ keeping in mind how well the various charities use the funds and found one that I like...that isn't politically charged and would be possible to explain to a child (Doctors without Borders is my usual charity but genocide, war and the usual manmade misery they wade throught are a bit over the top to talk to 8 years olds about)

While we will be making a contribution to The Himalayan Cataract Project on his behalf, it too is a bit beyond the scope of trying to explain to kids what that is about, and then putting their parents on the spot about some esoteric charity on the other side of the world. So instead I have decided that we'd ask his friends to contribute to something local and immediate that they can understand.

Please no birthday gifts.

Instead, we hope you can bring a small contribution of a non-perishable food item.

It will be added to a Box of items william has contributed and he will then be taking to the Food Bank.

Thank-you,

Pira & Bob

It's interesting though ~ his spoiled-rotten-has-every-toy-in-the-world, friend across the street was utterly perplexed that Wil would have a party but ask people to bring no gifts. He told me outright that there is no way he'd EVER do that.

*0__o....

While there are days when my bratling is the poster child for Little Snothead...it moments like this, that make me thankful that he's my spawn.

So all that snow melted.

And it rained...a lot last night.

My laundry room now has an inch of water on the floor, and all the clean clothes that had been in baskets down there are soaked and this means about 12 loads of laundry needs to be re-done...after I pick through them to find the dry ones on top...and wet vac the floor....

...and NO small amount of this mountain of laundry is the teens clean clothes that THEY couldn't be arsed to take upstairs but instead weed through leaving the rest on the floor.

Telling them to do it will = mold, so that is not an option since they are not home till well into the evening.

Colour me completely NOT impressed.

*stomps off*

The middling child was telling me about her *resolutions* for the New Year.

One of them is to read a non-school related book a month.

That might not seem like much to a lot of folks....but considering the amount of school work, extra curricular activies and sports she has going on ...getting enough time to sleep is a challenge of creative scheduling.

I asked her what she was going to read and she told me of a conversation she had with her grandfather yesterday ~ about how he'd asked what her interests were for studying and she passionately launched into talking about inner-city problems, gangs, students and her interest in the entire sociological and economic make-up of the issues involved.

I am pretty sure his eyes rolled back in his head in horror as he had flashbacks to me babbling about the sociological and economic impact of WWII on North America....in particular the home front, women and childcare.

(.__(.

You know...while Bob definately dumped the Gym-rat gene into her DNA, she got something from me besides the ability to draw a straight line. *snicker*

ANYway... she asked me if I could find some reading for her on the subject and oh boy did she come to the right person for that. Knuckles cracked and fingers flying I tracked down from various sources (love you ABEBOOKS) some things that will either stoke her interest or put out the fire entirely:

- The Dragon Syndicates: The Global Phenomenon of the Triads
- Opposing Viewpoints Series - Gangs
- East Side Stories: Gang Life in East LA
- Gangs and Society
- The Projects: Gang and Non-Gang Families in East Los Angeles

All through this was trying to pretend there is no such thing as *field work* for sociology students....*hands clamped hard over ears*...lalalalalalalaaaa. Truly I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

Then the eldest came home and asked if she could sleep over at the boyfriends tonight and got all pouty when I said *no*.

I mean COME ON...Teh Bob would have a shite-fit in the morning.

I was told I could just tell him she went Boxing Day shopping early in the a.m.

*0__o....no. As she whined *why NOT?*, I explained it was as simple as me not wanting to lie...and put myself into a position that has me not only dealing with Mr. Enraged for the rest of his Xmas break, but have him distrusting me. Can't she wait till the weekend when he'll be out of town??!! So off she stomped to bed (until she decides to sneak out) and......I open up an email from my parents...

...who were floating the idea today....that maybe I can go babysit the farm for a few weeks in April before I go to Japan... should they decide to drive down to Mexico.

As in...abandon my family for 2 weeks before I leave them for another 2 weeks?

Oh yeah...that will fly....like a brick.

Friends have told me that after my mother watched the kids during my last trip to Japan...that surely she understood now what my life is like...and that three kids and man (or four kids) is busy. Of course they don't have to listen to her kindly ask me when I'm going to find time on say...a WEDNESDAY to come out there (2 1/2 hours from here) for an evening country auction....or say just pop up for a few days whenever.

No. No I don't think it sunk in. Not really.

They must be drinking from the same well of logic my eldest is dipping into.

WHO ARE these people and how exactly am I related to them?!

My parents were supposed to come visit yesterday but I called them saying they really didn't want whatever it was that was in the air around this place.

Ali got up around noon with a sore throat, after 12 hours in bed and complaining of coughing up *grossness*. I got on the horn immediately with the family doctor ~ even though she protested.

Only minutes before I'd come home with *prescriptions* for Bob ~ who has been totally knocked off his pins by Strep throat. Nuh-uh. Not letting this shite in her throat dig in. I have enough to deal with on Teh Baby-man front. >(

Meanwhile ~ the entire day I was going downhill. As soon as Bob started getting ill I started mainlining Cold-FX alongside my Salmon oil tablets that I have started taking for various reasons this winter (my skin/hair and brain function) and the regular daily dose of B-12.

Yesterday found a *cough* trying to lodge itself in my chest. The weather sat around 0C, alternating between we snow flurries and rain. I was cold and my lower back hurt. I spent every free minute on the couch, under a blanket, with a heating pad on my back cranked to the max...shivering and dozing. Now if this thing had actually taken solid root I'd be a complete basketcase today ...but the immune system (miraculously enough) is fighting this bug (which is different from Bob's but similar to what a lot of my friends and their kids have been suffering for weeks). The Washing-machine-lungs are still at a very mild stage of rumble which means I might be able to get it gone before it takes up residence. I'm still under a blanket, but with no heating pad ...although I am wearing socks and that only ever happens when I am at the gym or I'm sick.

Anyway...that's where things stand (or lie). I'll know better when I dash out the door to do my rounds .... the the thought of doing that doesn't make me cringe and groan.

Whatever the case ~

MWAHAHAHAHHAHAHA.

The parent in me is working months ahead to February for an 8th birthday party. I like all my little ducks neatly lined-up in a row on some things...in particular when it comes to the family because they lean heavily toward chaos if I don't.

The sprog thinks he's going to be center of attention at that loud, insane on the brain, kiddie madhouse....where little boys and the odd girl run about like espresso soaked monkeys.... but instead I've just booked a REPTILE PARTY for at home.

When he finds out in the New Year...my cool-mom level is going to go through the ceiling I tell ya!!

Dad might get points for those Webkinz and Pokemon cards....but I'm bring home the baby alligator.... >D

Went to bed early last night.

I could blame it on the wretched November rain...or the listening to 3 hours of kiddy-shrieks at a birthday party while trying to get beat-off the cluster headaches that had been dodging me since Saturday... but really it had nothing to do with them and everything to do with just being pooped.

Got up before 6 a.m. and sorted the mess (circus act of dishes) left in my kitchen sink by the family after I'd gone to bed, and started the rice cooker ~ before heading out for coffee...in the cold rain. *love big London Fog bumpershoot.*

Anyway...I read some manga tameiki slid my way over coffee and ordered my mother her Christmas gift...I still have to do a piece of art for her, but I thought she would like the sentiment from this pair of Kalevala Koru (in silver) earrings. We both collect pieces by this company as did my grandmother. If I wear jewellry...it's bronze pieces from their prehistoric reproduction collection.

Anyway it felt good to finally to take the plunge. For some reason my mother has become more difficult to purchase for over the years. It's not that my parents need anything and if they do they can easily enough buy it themselves. So gifts become emotionally loaded and I can't just be half-assed in the process of choosing an item. Whether it's pure whimsy, a toy, something to make them laugh or a piece of artwork...they can tell if any thought went into the item and to tell the truth...I take pleasure in surprising them with keen stuff.

My mother had always been the easiest to buy but for some reason over the years I find myself always leaving it to the last minute...totally frozen with indecision of some kind. Gah. Of course....I still haven't painted that picture, so all this self-congratulatory back-patting is a mute point.

....I also ordered Olympia (about the 1936 Berlin olympics) for Bob. Say what people will about Leni Riefenstahl....the woman was a brilliant documentarian (and manipulator of emotions)...and while I know the politicial science student in him would love a copy of Triumph Of The Will, I just can't put that piece of genius/horror under the Xmas tree.

Okay....left over roast beef is now bubbling away into stew, capresi salad in the fridge, fishwater is changed, dishes washed...and I am off to the gym. When I get back...I need to sit my butt down to start sketching foxes...