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Haven’t been around much as my silly computron as been down with this crap stomach thing that’s been going around, I’m sure. It has been somewhat liberating and I’m getting a lot more real world stuff done like helping friends move, cleaning the kitchen and sleeping, but I do feel like part of my soul has been ripped away. The mister is currently working on getting my baby up and running again so we’ll see.
This week has brought us a small reprieve from the minus holy shit weather we experienced through January but came by way of upsy downiness and lots of snow then freezing, then melting and more snow then freezing again bringing us to this day which is pleasantly mild & drippy yet still wintery with an atmosphere that only comes on days like today. It’s so very different than the catch as catch can impromptu visits and catching up of spring, summer and fall. We’re all a little more insular in our snow globe homes. All the business of our main drag location just seems to happen around us but we can be cosy & well kept in our little worlds which look all samey in their abundant beigy/bluey/whiteness but there are so many wonderful little bits of eye candy and signs of life in our back/front/side yards.
It’s fun that our neighbours have their own take on enjoying this weather too. They built this lovely snow & ice sculpture in their front yard.
And then there are all of the sculptures and vignettes nature leaves our little urban landscape.
And then there’s life imitating nature in its patterning and design.
Even the chiffon is reflective of winter.
And the pièce de resistance at the moment is this handsome snowman some other neighbours-friends built in our backyard. Isn’t he a dandy?
I’m glad to live in a neighbourhood of imagination & play. Life is afoot.
I know, I know. I exploit the son far too much, but he’s such a willing model and this scarf looks so good on him.
This weekend has been lovely so far. Yesterday was our last day at market which is nice but sad to think about. After hounding her for months the farmer’s market co-ordinator has still not given us an answer as to whether or not there’s space there for us through the winter, which is a shame because that’s sort of where we need to be. I think we’ll just show up and be persistent and give her puppy dog eyes until she succumbs. I’ll even bring the puggle if I need to.
Yesterday was also the Arts in the Park event put on by the PAU. It was great to actually meet the lovely, talented and rather foxy Jen of Almost Famous and Lucky Jackson even if she wouldn’t tell me where her blog lives lest I stalk it. I also finally got to shake hands with Victoria of the Victory Art Supplies duo. If you’re an artist and are reading this and need supplies, please visit their shop. It smells like art even before you enter the door and their massive amounts of stock is so well organized for the creative mind it makes me weep. You can’t get that at Michael’s. I was stalked through the day by the delightful and oh-so-pregnant Miz K (yeah, I noticed.) Happily so as I’m rather opportunistically hoping she has fun pics of ‘Zzini & Gracie playing.
It makes me happy that we have such events in our fair city and it was great to so many more than the usual faces represented. Today won’t be quite as exciting – it’s all cleaning the kids’ rooms (which are complete disaster zones) and making spaghetti sauce. For real. Without the assistance of my mum or sister. And it’s going to NOT suck, dammit.
The roadside view isn’t nearly as impressive as it was last year due to new chairs with bigger footprints, but I assure you there are as many (and possibly more) of my lovelies out there basking in the fresh air and filtered sunlight as there were last year. Some people may not know this but I’m secure enough in my title of Queen of the Houseplants to share a little secret; leaving booze out for the plants is most definitely beneficial to their well-being. I’m not sure if it has a chemical effect on them or if it’s simply an exercise in affinity-building with their care takers, but it works!
And yes, I suck at removing bar code stickers and such from my pots.
In other news, I spent almost 6 hours at emerg with sprog the eldest after his foot found a piece of glass (we think) in bottle lake (how appropriate) this weekend past. We didn’t get much other than a strip of bactigrass, a bandaid and reassurance that there was nothing of the glass left in there out of the visit but it was a fun opportunity to bond over an article in the July issue of Wired which posits that pasty video game addict boys (like my son) have a leg up on the procreation front on a darwinian level thanks to sun sensitivity. Go team super-nerdy-sperm!
Also; no feminine hygiene product disposal units in the bathrooms at the new hospital. Wtf is with that? State of the art, my ass.
Highlights of my life since I last updated:
1. I won (through sheer whinge-power) and received a funkadelic necklace from the lovely and talented Jennifer Judd-McGee whose artwork is so stupendously amazing that every time I visit her shop I lose my mind to sensory overload and can never decide what to buy. I think I’ve resigned myself to saving my pennies for an original (or four) or having something commissioned but that doesn’t stop me visiting the site and having the old ticker blown everytime she updates it all over again. It’s a vicious circle, that is.
2. I wrecked my back in ways I never thought possible, really. I’ve never experienced any serious back pain before and, though this was far from ‘serious’, discovered I’m really not equipped with the skills to deal with it. I couldn’t sit, stand, walk or lie down for any length of time without some near final stages of labour levels of pain. I never want to go through that again though I did enjoy the massive amounts of time it left me to read and not do housework.
3. I told off some baseless fuckwit who decided it was a great idea to hang out on a cozy chair on my front porch directly outside my bedroom window at 3:30 in the morning and carry on a conversation with his buddies across the road. Stuff like that normally gets the hackles up and evokes cranky terrier style fits from yours truly. That this happened when I had to be up at 6am to go to market had me spitting like a mad gorgon. Needless to say I made him bolt. His friends laughed. He still had the nerve to respond with a sarcky ‘Sorry, lady. I was just chillin’ on your porch.’ MY porch, asshat! MINE! I’m a wee bit territorial.
4. I went to the annual Ribs & Beer fest and just about broke out in misanthropy-induced hives. It was a serious disappointment this year. Everything from location to setup to gaining sponsorship from a single brewery was wrong, wrong, wrong and created an atmosphere more akin to a fair ground’s beer tent – ignorant, table-monopolizing, drunken, misogynist numpties and all – and less like the lovely, chill festival in the park which I knew and loved. If it’s run the same way next year I’m just going to have all of the cool kids back to my house for better beer and better ribs.
5. For the first time in the 7 years we’ve been separated my babies’ daddy has taken vacation time with them. He took one week back in March and is now at the cottage with them for 2 weeks! Hardly a judgment call; dude works hard in an industry which is not very conducive to taking good family vacations. It’s just exciting. And I’m excited for them even if it leaves me waking up every morning with the feeling that I’ve forgotten something. I swear I’m going to have the worst case of empty-nester’s syndrome on the face of the planet with the sprogs leave home.
I suppose there’s more but I’m lazy and the ADD’s kicking in and I want to move onto something else.
cushti 