A Learning Experience

This weekend the Kid and I were mowing our front yard when the neighbour asked if we could mow hers. She said she'd pay $10, I asked the Kid if he would do it and he agreed. But by the time he had mowed both parts of it she handing him a $20 and didn't want change.

Then she asked if he could take apart an old garden area- remove old landscape ties and loosen and level the dirt so she could replace it with grass. He agreed. She said, "I'll pay you $10, no $15 an hour". Saturday night she told me she'd pay him "$200, $50 every other week until the end of September". I told her I doubted it would be that much.

Sunday morning the Kid was out there sweating in the sun until it got to be 29 degrees C and he had sweated enough so we had him come in  - he worked 4 hours. Multiple we would check on him and give him advice on how to do this or that and to keep an eye on how he was working. We supplied all our own tools and even some paper lawn and garden bags. On Sunday she mentioned something about $60 but I told her to wait as the job wasn't done yet.

By  Monday he finished the job putting in another 3 hours to a total of 7 hours. She paid him $60. The Kid was disappointed (good thing I never got his hopes up thinking he was going to get $200) - because he had done the math and he did expect to get at least $100.

I felt bad since I felt I had a part in his price negotiations and he did a great job. He was polite and responsible and didn't want to quit until he was done. I was proud of him, so we had a family discussion about working for others and quoting prices etc and I gave him $40. Lesson learned all around, I believe. And do you want to know what he plans to do with the money? He wants to be a pilot, this money goes towards a training flight.

The Great Marshmallow Caper

It's sort of becoming a 'tradition' that every other Sunday I bake cupcakes, partly so I can share some with my fellow dance sisters who seem to really enjoy my baking and the sugar rush - this weekend was baking weekend.

Also, we recently took a trip across the border to Mt Vernon Washington for some shopping  - I'm sorry Canada, we had to do it  - there is a much better variety of food in the US and some prices are 1/2 of what ours are.

So this morning I get up to make cupcakes planning on using some Blue Raspberry Marshmallows (which are not available in Canada) for  the frosting when I find a hole in the bag. Darn it! Did we buy a bag that someone opened in the store? I'm mad at myself because Jp and I are usually pretty good at checking bags and expiry dates and the like, but okay I guess we missed this bag. So I take the bag of Toasted Coconut Marshmallows out of the cupboard - and yup - there's a hole in the bag. Then I check my last cherished bag of American marshmallows - Pink Lemonade and - yup - the same sized hole. I am livid. I now know the answer to the marshmallow mystery!

My (now) sleeping step-son has a habit of night eating. So I take the bags to Jp and vent about this - I need the kid to fess up and admit he ate them, otherwise they are contaminated by someone else and have to go in the garbage. At least he is old enough to know that he needed to tell the truth, and admits he opened them and out of of them last night.

I'm still kinda buzzing with unkind thoughts that I go out and join a meditation session where all is reset to zero.

I them proceeded to make Blue Raspberry Marshmallow frosting - and here's my cupcakes:

I know. My mom always told me that blue food was unappetizing. I'm hoping the dim light of the dance studio, they'll look more green, and the marshmallows on the top look more like shamrocks. Otherwise, at least they'll taste good, even if they're not so St Patrick's Day-ish. 

And that's my fun caper for the weekend!

Nose full of sh*t

The kid came with me Sunday for Eco's walk and at the end of it I sometimes travel through a little walkway and park so I can let her off leash. The little park is next to a townhouse complex and I've noticed that lately it's littered with dog poop. It's disgusting. Owners like that end us ruining it for all the good owners.

I knew of the dog poop in the park, I told the kid to watch where he stepped but when he threw a stick for Eco, I didn't want to be a nag and so I didn't say anything and hoped for the best. First throw went well, second throw did not. Eco raced for the stick, picked it up and immediately dropped it. She started doing this weird tongue flicking thing which creates a foamy saliva and came back to me very unhappy, I could see right away there was poop on her face and most likely in her mouth.

Ok, she may think cat poop is gourmet but dog poop disgusts her. I took every paper towel in my bag and tried to wipe her face and mouth out. But I don't think it helped. I wished I had water with me on this walk - but it's winter so I don't bother with the annoyance of water bottles.

We race walked home and finished cleaning her face. I hope that she won't get sick from this old poop that's been sitting in the park for a while. Based on the colour that dog wasn't fed very good quality food. Sure I could've stopped the kid from throwing a stick, so I take the blame, but he's a teenager and I feel like all I say is "don't do that.." "put that away" "close the door" etc..

Crochet Mudkip -finished project

I was in the middle of crocheting a reindeer for a Christmas decoration when the kid asked me if I could make him a Mudkip. First I told him after the reindeer but since he's only here for the weekend I put down my project and started on his.

This is  Mudkip from the Pokemon game:

This is what I made (yes only the head, I ran out of wool) :

Since it was short notice, I pulled wool from my stash - the kid has no idea that he has butter soft Italian wool - it's actually too nice of a yarn for something that'll dangle from his backpack but the colours were right. The head is about 4" across. I did not create it from scratch - I did use a pattern, why reinvent the wheel right?

I have had the buttons for years, always wondered what I could do with them - they seem to be perfect for this project. Again, a detail lost on a kid but that wasn't the point, was it? I'm pretty pleased with this one.

And by the way  - I still have't finished that reindeer....

The loss of a friend

Today is a tough 'dog' day because my stepson's  dog was hit by a car and killed this morning before school. She was a little Havanese and just over a year old. He was so proud of all the tricks he taught her and was very fond of her. Jp just left here with Eco to pick up him and bring him here for the day. I feel so bad for him.  I just keep thinking of things I wanted to hear when I lost a dog. But it's different for kids isn't it?

Turkey Soup and Rustic Bread

We had a belated Christmas dinner with Jp's family on Wednesday as everyone was somewhere else at Christmas this year. When it was announced that we'd be having a turkey dinner, Jp asked for the carcass (that doesn't sound very appetizing does it?) again for soup - in the past his sister has given us up to 15 pounds of bones and meat! She told us repeatedly that we couldn't have it because she was going to make soup with it.

We had an very enjoyable meal and at the end of the meal, his sister handed us a big container of meat and told us that we could have it for our soup as she had too many dinner plans for the upcoming days and wouldn't be able to make it for herself 

So here it is  - 

Yummy looking isn't it? It has gabazo beans, black beans,
yellow peas and lentils,  peas, carrots,
green beens,  lima beans and rice. 

Along with the soup I made of loaf of No Knead Bread which creates a very rustic loaf of bread. 

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And, I just had to capture this beautiful Christmas cactus that's been in bloom since just before Christmas. This is an off-shoot of a plant that my parents had going back the the 70's. They just keep going and going (just like our jade trees) 

Day 4

It's a good thing I don't make New Year's resolutions because I would have already broken them - we're only on day 4 and already I feel like time's whizzing by again. Same old, same old:

January 1 - hey, it's New Year's day, relax, don't do anything... so I didn't
January 2 - work day, walk dog, then family dinner *
January 3 - work day, walk dog, knit, dinner, knit, time for bed
January 4 - work day - probably repeat some of yesterday.

We had had a couple of dry days, including a couple of glorious sunny days with the most beautiful West Coast sunrises and sunsets for which I am very grateful for -  I think god/the universe/etc knows that we'd all go stark raving mad if we had rain and cloud for too long so at least every 5 weeks we get a reprieve long enough to restore our sanity and then back to rain again.

I was hoping to take advantage of the drier weather to get out there and take down the outside Christmas decorations but as I was knitting before dinner last night my attention was drawn to different sounds outside and I realized that it had started raining again. Drat! And now it's supposed to rain for a while which means I'll have to take down all those decorations but put them in my carport for a couple of days so they can dry before I put them away for 11 months. I was really hoping to get to my inflatable snowman before he got all wet. Now you know what I'll be doing tomorrow -up and down the ladder in the rain... I normally don't complain about our weather too much, but sometimes it has really bad timing!

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*(a belated Christmas dinner - with all the trimmings - including an aunt who tried a new recipe for candied yams with pecans forgetting completely about my stepson's allergy to nuts - it was touch and go there for a bit but he recovered pretty quickly. Being a teenager he didn't make a big deal about it, but the aunt couldn't let it go and about every 15 minutes kept brining up about how she almost killed him. Good times. Good times. )

Merry Christmas to you

Hope you're having a wonderful day and hope you spend it exactly the way you want it. So many people torture themselves (unless they secretly like it, but just want to complain) by filling their days with family commitments. I've heard many say they wished they could spend the day by themselves  - although to me that's pretty much what most of us do everyday and shouldn't Christmas be different?

For the past couple of years I've struggled with the Christmas season because it has changed so much from what I knew growing up. While contemplating this during a dog walk, I realized similar to the first rule of Fight Club,  my Christmas Tradition is no tradition (or non-traditional). You see my family doesn't live near me and Christmas traveling isn't always possible, and Jp's family always goes to their in-laws,  The Kid is always at his mom's for Christmas and Jp's not much of a Christmas guy.  This means that without those traditions, I have to find a way to make it meaningful and memorable on my own. I guess you wouldn't really be surprised to know that right now besides typing on my computer,  I'm doing the laundry because 1) it needs to be finished and 2) I don't know what else I'm supposed to be doing on Christmas morning. And later today I'll roast a chicken since a whole turkey is too big for us and I wanted more than just turkey breast this year.

I know not everyone celebrates (if they even celebrate at all) the way TV or the movies show it happening, at least I'm pretty sure it doesn't happen that way. How do you spend your Christmas day?

And now for some Trivia:

The first recorded celebration of this now biggest Christian holiday took place in Rome, Italy, in 336 A.D. The first Christ Mass was officiated by Pope Sixtus III in 435. The first three states to declare December 25 a legal holiday were Southern states: Louisiana (1831), Arkansas (1831) and Alabama (1836). Six other states would follow and by 1870, Christmas was declared a U.S. Federal holiday.

Sewing

My parents did a stellar job providing for us and my mom provide healthy home cooked meals, baked goods, awesome Halloween costumes, clean house, clean clothes etc. But there was one thing she let pile up a bit and that was mending clothes (and in the early years - darning socks too). And I fully understand why she didn't like this task, especially with kids clothes because the pant legs are so small - and she didn't have a free-arm** sewing machine.

So when 'the kid' hands me a pair of his skinny jeans with duct tape on a knee tear and asks me to attach a patch I wasn't so sure I could do it. Especially when kids sometimes have unreal expectations of how things look. Jp and I asked him a couple of times to get an idea of what he envisioned  - a rectangular patch on the top made out of plaid.

Because it was the knee and so much material was missing, I first had to apply some iron-on interfacing on the inside so I had something to patch to, and then I finished the patch.

He was ecstatic and said it was awesome - and then handed me a pair of black jeans that he also wanted fixed.

Ack!!!

Well since machine sewing isn't something I enjoy too much (mainly because I'm trying to work off the kitchen table and my foot pedal slides all over the floor - I miss my sewing table which has been put away due to space limitations) and I would have liked to do them both at the same time,  I told him I'd do it when he's here next weekend.

I did the same kind of stuff to my parents  - I just had no idea how much work went into fixing things and how difficult it might have been  for my parents to fix something (I never even considered that they couldn't) or thought about  how much time it took. When I was a kid, I just never thought about my parents having time for themselves, that's what Friday night and Saturday nights were for - the rest of the time I think I assumed that their 'chores' filled their days and there wasn't anything wrong with asking dad to fix my bike or mom to fix my clothes or sew me something.

It's kinda like when kids see a teacher in a store for the first time and they realize that teachers have a life outside of school, don't-cha think?


** Most sewing today machines have this attachment. It can be removed from the machine to convert from a flat bed to free arm. The free arm can be used for any difficult to sew areas, in particular, sleeves and trouser hems.

My crazy week

Yes last week was pretty crazy. On Tuesday, The Kid went into the hospital for unknown stomach pains and after about 24 hours of all sorts of theories it was confirmed that his appendix had burst and he had an appendectomy on Wednesday night. Thursday was Eco's surgery.

On Sunday, The Kid was discharged from the hospital and is doing better.

Eco will get her bandage changed tomorrow but things are going pretty well. Every time she goes outside I have to wrap her foot in a bandage so I'm going through our supply of shopping bags but the little thing is so sweet and allows me to put on her big Buster collar when I can't keep a good eye on her. She's doing very well, especially since she is a young dog who is used to being active and she hasn't been able to walk or play for about a week. She's starting to get a little too energetic for her foot, so I'm trying to find activities that burn off some energy without putting extra stress on that foot.

Yesterday I went to a dance bootcamp and really got a workout. I know you're thinking "well what do you think a bootcamp is lady?" But I've been to other bootcamps and this one was by far the hardest! Today my hip flexors are really hurting and my stomach is sore - which is think is from muscles and not anything else. I'm glad that this is a short week, since we get Friday, November 11th off for Remembrance Day.

I did complete a knitting project but I'm not happy with it at the moment so I won't post pictures until I either fix it or frog it and remake it. For those who aren't knitters, frogging means to unravel the piece and was named because in order to unravel it, you rip it, rip it, rip it.

How was your weekend? 

All Quiet on the Western Front

Today it's pouring rain in Vancouver and it's pretty quiet out here, normalcy is returning.  I am still unpacking from my trip to Whistler earlier in the week. Jp, who travels regularly, was unpacked within an hour of getting home, suitcase put away. Me? Nope, I am still sorting everything out and managed to get the lawn mowed last night before today's rains. Today is laundry day. And thanks to the rain, there will also be 1 full load of towels used to dry off my very absorbant dog.

Eco stayed with the neighbours while we were away, which I'm sure is great fun for her since they have a dog about the same size as her and they enjoy rough-housing on a daily basis. As well, my neighbours allow dogs on their furniture and on their beds, and so Eco quickly adapts by taking over a couch and sprawling out. She is smart enough to not even attempt this behaviour upon her return to our house.

Tomorrow is Father's Day and so The Kid is cooking his dinner - I told him he had to pick the food and I'd buy the ingredients. He chose Fettuccine  Alfredo and cookies, so I'll be 'supervising' him on the cooking and baking.

And that's it for now, a pretty normal rainy weekend. I'll post more about Whistler soon.

Reading 2011

The Kid is sitting at the kitchen table working on his homework and I look over and see him tracing a picture from the computer screen. I have never seen anyone trace from a computer screen, nor have I even thought of the idea.* Homework sure has changed over the years! When I was a kid, we would have to prepare in advance by making sure we looked up things in the library during the week and to bring home the necessary resources for the weekend project. If you forgot to do so, you'd have to cobble together something from the set of encyclopedias that you might be lucky enough to have in your house.

It appears that today, homework is done by gathering data from the internet;  and I assume that now teachers grade the work based on how well the kids  cut and paste it all together - basically they are junior editors -  not by how succinctly they can put together sentences. And this may also be the reason why at work I see so many poorly constructed emails and poor spelling (which shouldn't occur at all since just about every computer and phone with text messaging has a spell checker). In many cases, I find that emails from people that have university degrees are often the worst for spelling errors and poor diction. And it seems to me formal education has less to do with good writing and grammar, but usually the people who write and compose the best are those that read a lot  - thank goodness for books! If you don't mind getting a soft cover, books are often not that expensive - often around $10 - $15, or less if you buy an electronic version. I am not a big reader like some people I know who read fast and can devour books in mere days, but I read a fair amount - I often have a magazine tucked in my purse, a book on my night-table and several books on my computer or iPod. There was a time when I would proudly show off my two little bookcases to people in my early apartment and tell them that I had read every book on the shelves. I can't say that today - today I am one of these people who owns more books than I have read, but I'm okay with that. They all get looked at from time to time.

It also seems to run in the family -not just me but  my mom has a large collection of books and so does my brother - who has a couple bookcases of just cookbooks alone! About a decade ago it looked like the book world was doomed, but along came Amazon and Chapters and then e-readers and the industry seemed to be looking up. Every time I have stepped into a Chapters store there have always been lots of people in the store, and they are not just there because of the Starbucks either.

So perhaps there is stil hope for reading and writing after all. What do you think? Are you a reader? And tell me how your kids do their homework, I am really curious about that as well.

*Not to mention that I was taught to avoid touching your computer screen so that it wouldn't be damaged!

FO - Knit Beard

The kid saw a toque with attached knit beard and was interested in getting one, however, I did not have any of the yarn that it required and so just for funsies quickly knit up this seed stitch version that you tie onto your face. He really liked it.

School Christmas Concert

Oh yes, my friends, today was the day for the School Christmas concert. At the kid's previous school, due to extremely diverse student backgrounds, there could be no Christmas concert, only a performance in the spring, but at his new school we have a Christmas concert once again - with traditional carols and Santa hats all jingle bells.

It was an enjoyable time as always. Especially since three of the kid's cousins (Jp's sisters children) as also at the same school, so we knew kids in 3 grades

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas (especially since I took the day off work).

I just wish I had brought my good camera, instead of the little point and shoot I keep in my purse-you know what I mean?

Sunday Crafternoon*

Last Sunday, Jp told The Kid to take a break from video games and spend some time being creative. He came to me for help.

The day before he had spied the newly released book  Zombie Cross Stitch at the bookstore. We hadn't bought the book but he was interested in making something similar, so I searched online for a little freebie pattern and found a little ninja character that he wanted to make. I gathered the materials and set about teaching the boy how to cross stitch.

Here are the results:

I worked one with him, his is the one on the left with a red headband.
(Mine has my initials and the year on the bottom right)

*Title borrowed from this book/website.

Spring Break (for who?)

Last week, Jp had to be out of town, so the kid and I drove him to the airport. It was the kid's spring break so it was going to be just me and him for a couple of days. He promised "you won't even know I am here." But I did. How can I not? He was happy, he was silly, he played with Eco - a lot - the poor dog must really be missing him now that he's back at school. It was all good.

On Friday, I supervised while he made butterscotch chip cookies. This is the first time, he's baked  by himself - everything  by himself, except I took the cookie sheets from the oven. He measured and mixed everything. He even cracked the egg. I just stood by and gave verbal instructions and passed him the ingredients to be measured.

After the baking was done, we headed to Aberdeen Centre in Richmond for a trip to Daiso, Candyland,  Voodoo Palace (where he scored 4 dolls for the price of 2- including this voodoo dog because it reminded him of Eco) and Gacha Gacha which sells toys in vending machines that you needed tokens for. He said that was the first time he enjoyed shopping. And then raced to the airport to pick up his dad who was just getting his luggage when we walked in. He was so awestruck by the mall and the people, it was such a new experience for him.

So the kid got a bit of an adventure and had lots of fun new candies to try out - mochi, and cola Chupa Chups and little Hello Kitty marshmallows, plus a whole bunch more. I should have taken a photo and a bunch of it's already gone!