The end, almost..

Signs of spring are here - if only minuscule. Seagulls - what they are doing in Connecticut I don't know, but I welcome their song after a most ridiculous winter. The sight of small patches of grass, emerging from under the piles of snow, black by now from the dirt of the traffic. The email from the CSA I have joined, letting me know they are starting up for the spring crops.

Having exhausted this space with life over the past few years, I have decided to take a different direction and this calls for a new blog. I will be retiring this one shortly and starting a new one, chronicling my experience with community based agriculture. With a new batch of vegetables each week, follow along as I attempt to feed my family, using the weeks take from the garden as my guide.

Stay posted......

Snow

It fell....and fell.........and fell. Almost 24 hours continuously, covering everything, including the 15 or so inches already on the ground. Ariana and I were safely in the house. Arny was safely in the city, as he decided (and I agreed) that avoiding any kind of travel during and after would be a good thing.

We woke up to more snow than I had seen in a very long time. Things that just 24 hours earlier were visible were now lost in the mountains of pillowy white snow that covered everything. Our front walk was completely gone, as was the little bench in the backyard. I shoveled out a little path for Tess, but she just shook her head as if you say "are you nuts, I'm not going out there!"


After making muffins, coloring, playing games and a SKYPE phone call with Ryder, and with the driveway finally cleared, Ariana and I made our way down to the lake to take a walk. She climbed up the snow to clear our mailbox,


..which was completely buried. It was a smart move because a short while later the mailwoman came slowly down the street. A surprise awaited Ariana, the French postmarked let us know a letter had arrived from Violette and Ulysses..

Whenever I get frustrating not living in the city, I take a walk and remember why I am here. The quiet of a snow covered road, the bright red birds that fly out of nowhere , the pristine expanse that hides a lake - each day brings new sights and sounds. We walked to the beach, but of course couldn't get near the gate because of all the snow. We opted instead for a visit to a friends house, where a sophisticated sledding run awaiting us. Click on the arrow:



What joy!!!!

Here I am

People had mentioned an absence of any new posts, but I hadn't realized it has been this long....so sorry. Honestly, I just wasn't in the writing mood. No special reason, just a self imposed break I guess.

As I sit here in the family room, it is snowing. School has been cancelled in anticipation of more than 6 inches. Ariana is happily taping up her artwork in the playroom downstairs. I'm sure she will either run out of wall space or tape before she runs out of art. She keeps everything and thinks it is all worthy of display. Some of it is quite nice, some are simply worksheets completed at school and some...well.....as she calls it, is simply scribble-scrabble.

Baba-san, who had already planned to work from home today is very pleased with his decision. He is on his computer now, after a quick trip outside to bring the garbage can up from the end of the driveway. The shovel is ready at the door for a quick clearing as it becomes necessary.

As I look out the window, I see Matt and John putting the finishing touches on the roof beams of our soon-to-be extension of the very room I am sitting in. We were lucky to find them, they are dedicated (you have to be to come out to work in the snow) and generally nice guys. They have done work in our house before and it is always good to find people you actually don't mind having in your house. We decided to take down the skanky screened in porch that we never used due to its skankiness. In it's place will be a window lined extension of our family room, which right now is one of those long narrow rooms that always seem slightly claustrophobic. Soon it will be wide and sun filled and lovely.

For those curious, I promise to post pictures......

The Party's Over....

Actually, there were two of them. The first was for mostly long time family friends. We would include family, but neither of us has any family close by. So, people that I have known for years, in one case since I was 6, and others that I hope to, show up and eat and drink while the kids play. And play they did. The boys were mesmerized by the Star Wars Wii, complete with light sabers, that we bought Ariana (she is in a Star Wars phase). Jack, the oldest at 11, was an expert and Ariana looked on with admiration. I explained, like I do almost everything these days, that he is good because he practices (hint, hint, hint). The other big draw was the Bay Blades, a gift from her friend Ryder. They started playing the night before, as part of the birthday celebration was having a sleep over. Little tops that spin furiously, she got the hang of it right away.

The girls mostly occupied themselves outside with paddle balls and other hand held games.

They tried Whiffle Ball and had some success (we may have a softball player on our hands) and then ended up downstairs in the playroom. At the end, everyone enjoyed the cake, made by a former coworker who decided on a career change - a great move if you ask me.

On Wednesday, we had a school party for all the kids in her class down at the beach. Luckily, the weather cooperated, so while the kids were running around and making their little backpacks, the parents got to sit and chat. Since it is the beginning of school, it was nice to be able to meet the parents of the kids Ariana would be in class with.

So now we are home playing with all the gifts - other than the Potty Training Barbie complete with 3 little puppies that wee on a pad (I mean really, is this a life skill one has to learn from a doll), they are all fairly useful. Her love of crafts and games has made her forget about the "boy boys" for a little bit, as she sits creating a masterpiece with her new watercolor pens.

She has questioned why no one got her the StarWars Legos. I told her to ask Santa.

“Mommy, what if they bring me girl presents?”

My daughter, while petite and delicate looking, prefers Stars Wars to Barbie. When given a choice, she will pick the blue, the black, the red over pink every time. About to turn 6, she has begun to face the disapproval. “Why do you play with boy toys?” she is asked at school. “Those shoes are for boys,” they say when she arrives wearing her Star Wars sneakers at camp.

Our policy for a long time has been that as long as she dresses herself, she can wear whatever she wants. That has led to some truly bazaar fashion choices, but so be it. I have learned from experience to take her shopping if I want to buy her clothes. Many times, after returning from a store where I thought I made a most appropriate choice, she would look at my purchase and exclaim "I don't like it". Thereafter, the offending item would hang limply in the closet, begging to be taken off the hanger. Now, she comes with me, and after the briefest visit to the girl section to search for things with cats (her latest thing), she heads to the boy’s section for t-shirts with pictures of trucks, dinosaurs and superheroes. Dresses are worn only when circumstance demands and are put on with not an ounce of enthusiasm. Last year, there was only one day, late in the school year, that she put on a dress on a weekday morning. I think it had something to do with her best friend, who was in a dress phase. We got an email from her teacher, exclaiming her shock at seeing Ariana in a dress for the first time, but complimenting her on her adorableness.

This year, in a concession to the comments, she wanted a pair of “girl shoes” too. So, in addition to the sneakers, she picked out a pair of sparkly pink ones. It is those she has been wearing to school, slightly disappointed they don’t light up and flash as she steps. I notice now that she chooses her footwear depending on where we are going. It saddens me to see her caving into her peer’s ideas of what is appropriate, though I smile as she pairs the pink sparkly sneakers with the Spiderman shirt.

As her birthday approaches, she is concerned that because she is a girl, she will get lots of “girl” stuff and not the building sets, light sabers and other Star Wars paraphernalia she craves. “What if I get a lot of girl presents?” she asked the other day. Rather than explain the concept of the “re-gift,” I talked about being grateful for any gift at all. I told her she should just say thank you.

A Lotta Chompin' Goin On

Scratch Scratch Scratch. Itch. Itch. Itch. Ariana and I were both eaten alive last night - our feet and ankles grew swollen and red with each passing minute. Antihistamine, ibuprofen, even little Ampanman mosquito stickers didn't help the itch. Try to imagine the effort involved in trying to get a 5 year old, who had already slept 3 hours in the car, to go to sleep at a regular time. Now imagine that child whining and writhing in pain as the scratching she was doing was not helping one bit and every time she fell asleep, she would then wake, having been bitten one more time. What is most annoying is that we couldn't see the little culprit. Finally, after midnight, she was sleeping peacefully.

This summer has been mostly mild as far as bites go. Other than a couple of feeding frenzies on my feet - one at the beach and the other at a friend's house, I have not been uncomfortable. Ariana has not suffered at all.

Until last night. Comfortably on the couch watching TV, we were time after time, gnawed on by something - spider perhaps? mossie? who knows? At first I thought it was poison ivy, as my toes started to itch furiously and I couldn't see any bite marks. but then, I found first one, than another. Ariana's were easier to spot. Searching the air for anything flying, I couldn't see a thing. Staring at the couch, perhaps to spot something crawling, I found nothing.

All I do know is that here I sit, 6am after getting up around 5am because my feet were on fire. Already ingested the Benedryl and Ibuprofen and patiently waiting for either of them to kick in. Thankfully, Ariana is still asleep.

Somehow, I don't think it is going to be a good day......

Fish and Chips and Croissants and Pies and lots and lots of walking to make it all go away...

Soaking up culture, getting ideas for the house and generally luxuriating in the multi-cultural paradise that is London and Paris, our vacation has been an infusion of soul-feeding sights and sounds.

It has also been a reunion of sorts, meeting up with old friends from Tokyo as they visited with family and celebrated birthdays. We were glad to be able to share in some of these celebrations, which ranged from a large family and friend gathering outside of the city of London to a posh dinner party at the trendiest of restaurants and finally to a small gathering at a Vietnamese restaurant in Paris.

Some of my favorite sights....

I think they made these road signs just for me......

Arny wondered why they didn't just say "Exit", but we are in the UK and mostly we saw these "Way Out" signs. The subway and Underground are not the same thing, as we discovered as we were looking for one to take us back to the hotel and saw a "Subway" sign, only to discover that after making our way down the stairs, down the path and up the stairs on the other side, we were not at the train, but merely across the street.

I loved this - even Londoners with no back yard find space for a garden - this one happens to be in the river on a plot of floating land.


And yes, we have been doing the tourist thing - my own Holmes and Watson.

I tried to get Ariana to go to Hogwarts, telling her she could meet up with Harry and the gang, but she was having none of it.

We are off today to the Victoria and Albert Museum of Childhood and the Spitalfields market, after a brief stop at MI6 headquarters - can you tell who wants to go where??

Floor. Done.

After 9 hours on my hands and knees, one sliced finger and two people banished from the house, we have a kitchen floor. I really have to stop saying "that doesn't look hard".

It was.

Hard.

I started Friday; a very hot and humid Friday, after dropping Ariana off at camp. With the air-conditioning blasting, I had about 5 1/2 hours to finish before I had to pick her up. Assuming that would be enough time (ha!!), I got the supplies all ready and applied the glue to the sub floor, using a brush on the sides and a roller for the rest of the floor. After an hour, it was dry and ready for the tiles. "Wait, how do I do this again?", I thought as I stared nervously at the floor. I quickly realized my first mistake; gluing the entire floor when I need to put the border around first. After a few sticky moments when I thought I might be attached to the sub floor forever, I finally got enough new tile down to make the rest of the installation glue free. The cutting though, seemed to go on forever. Given I was using cork, it was pretty easy, but still, it was a relief when I hit an area when I could lay down more than two tiles without having to cut.

Sticky and sweaty, a quick glance at the clock made it obvious I was not going to be able to pick Ariana up - luckily, baba-san was working from home, so he went and got her and her friend and took them out for ice-cream. The last thing I needed was two 5-year-olds wanting to "help". I was getting tired and the brisk pace now was slowed down by bad cuts on the tile and one slip that resulted in a Sponge Bob Squarepants band-aid on my thumb. I had just changed the blade on the knife, so at least the cut was clean. And really, I was putting in the sweat and tears (almost, a few times when I thought "I can't do this"), why not a little blood?

It was after 5 when baba-san returned and I was not nearly finished. We had a birthday party to go to and I sent them on without me; needing to finish before the glue lost it's stick. I have to admit some of the tiles are a bit messy, but by the time it got past 8pm, I just wanted to be done. Finally, at 8:15pm, the last bit of tile was placed. I grabbed a quick shower and went off to relax with friends, physically exhausted.

Sunday morning came with a soreness I hadn't felt since I had a really good workout (which hasn't happened in eons). It took me awhile to get moving. Wishing I could just lounge for the morning, I knew I had to varnish the floor, sealing the cracks (some a bit larger than intended) so water wouldn't ruin the floor. That was easy and only took about 20 minutes.

We left for another birthday party, spending the day away, leaving the floor to dry in peace. When we returned late last night, the floor was shiny and dry.

Today we will put the house back together; tomorrow after everyone has left for the day, I will put another coat of varnish down and then take myself out; a massage perhaps?

Back to the Kitchen

After a few diversions, some pleasant, some really sad, I am back to the kitchen. In particular, putting down the cork floor.
Myself.
You see, I have this habit of thinking I can do something. Something I have never done before. "It can't be that hard", I usually think before ordering all of the supplies and preparing my family for the fact that I am going to be handy.
So far, the gathering of the supplies needed has been more work than I imagined. The difficulty started after I found the flooring I wanted. The initial contact with the company was great - the pleasant guy answered all my questions and sent me the samples I requested. The problem started when I actually wanted to order the tile. I sent the hand drawn, fairly accurate floor plan thinking I would get back an estimate on the tiles I wanted. Instead, I got an estimate that was about 50% more than I needed; based on the total dimension of the room, not just the area I needed covered (no I don't want to tile under the already installed cabinets, thank you very much!). A few more emails went back and forth with the final "you can order what you want" coming from the less than helpful salesperson. I ended up making a phone call to try and get the guy I spoke to on the phone. Yes, I know I need to order an additional 20% for mistakes, etc., I just don't want to order 2 rooms worth of tile for 1 room worth of work.
My order, finally made, is sitting in neat little piles in my living room waiting to be installed.
Tomorrow.
Yesterday I spent the day prepping the plywood base with the cement based filler that took 6 trips to 3 different supply stores to find. I pray it is the right one. I just now know that any cement based anything dries faster than you want it to and the harder it gets, the harder it is to move around the floor. My entire body is achy, so today, instead of putting the tiles down, I took the day off to recover. Other than carefully marking up the floor and quickly covering it with anything I could find to prevent things little and big from making a mess, I did nothing. Floor related that is.
Tomorrow I will be on hands and knees again - attempting to lay tiles down in a straight line.
Wish me luck.

Channeling Taylor Swift