night or day person?

What's your favourite time of day or night?

My favourite time of day is very early morning (I confess; I'm a morning person). I seem to be getting up earlier and earlier these days. In the process, I've come to realize that I usually sleep through my favourite time of day, if that makes any sense.

Take now, for instance. I'm in my home office on my computer (most of my "office" things have been moved to 67 Mowat, but I still haven't had time to convert the room into a library/music studio) still in my pajamas, blanket thrown over my shoulders, my hands wrapped around a mug of peppermint tea. It's still dark outside. Very little traffic except for the occasional streetcar rumbling by. A thin layer of snow covers Metro Park...patches of grass faintly visible here and there.

I love this hour, so carefully balanced between night and day. I love watching the darkness give way to a faint hint of morning; I like imagining that I'm one of the only people in the city awake.

(pause)

I bet all you night people are gagging into your keyboards right now...

r.i.p. elmer chia

Doug's Elmer chia head is dead, sadly.

He claims he can save Elmer, but right now Elmer looks like he has a very bad buzz cut. There were small sprouts of green for a day, but they have shrivelled up. The small poinsetta plant that Doug's mom gave us is also dead. Only two living plants left in our office...

Been busy working on my book, sorry for the lack of Blatherings.

Events since my last Blathering...

Jeff, Reid and I visited Scott Murray. While Reid, Jeff and Scott played Quake, I watched EdTV on Scott's DVD player. We got a DVD player as a Christmas present from Jeff's mom, so stole some of Scott's movies after. I liked EdTV a lot more than I expected; even more than The Truman Show in some ways. Scott got me chocolate! Yummm...raspberry chocolate (I love fruit-chocolate combinations) and plain milk chocolate.

Jeff and I babysat Annie and Sara, putting them to bed for the first time in our aunt/unclehood. Sara was extremely helpful in the process since Jeff and I were pretty clueless in some areas of parenthood...she patiently showed us where Annie's pull-ups were, gave tips on Annie's and her bedtime rituals when we blanked out. I put Sara to bed (three books, drink of water, washroom check, lights out) and Jeff put Annie to bed.

Jeff and the girls made Rice Krispie squares for dessert. Sort of. :-) Annie helped Jeff stir while Sara sat at the kitchen table, scooping chocolate chips and red sprinkles (extra toppings we had brought for the squares) into her mouth. She was very happy (somehow I don't think her parents would have been as ecstatic).

Allison hosted a local filk at her place...sadly, I had to miss it. :( I heard it was a lot of fun; she hopes to host another in a few months.

Getting together with Allison and Jodi tonight for practice!

chia growth

Doug's Chia Elmer Head is growing!! Checked this morning, and there were actually tiny green sprouts under the Sara wrap. I took off the plastic, but then noticed that most of the sprouts are covered in a white fuzz. WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? I've seen this kind of white fuzz before, when I used to grow plants from seeds out in the country. The white fuzz usually meant that I was watering the seedlings too much. It also meant that the seedlings were going to die. But the Chia seed packet said that it was impossible to water the Chia Head too much!!! It did!!!

Doug isn't coming into the office today, so I'm hoping the seedlings rebound to normal by tomorrow. Fingers crossed...

Good practice last night with Allison and Jodi, though Jodi's cough is still lingering. Allison and I are paranoid because neither of us have caught the flu even though everyone around us has been catching it. More crossed fingers...

Announcement from Annie Walker:

"*Cough* Ladies and gentlefilkers - as many of you know, Didgeridouze (the 12th British FilkCon) will be honoured by the presence of Urban Tapestry. In the traditional manner, we would like to have some biographical details of the said ladies. Anyone out there feel like writing an outrageous biography or two? Truth is less important than conveying the essential *spirit* of Urban Tapestry. We are hoping to collect several of these mini-biographies for use throughout the Didgeridouze Programme Book and for subsequent blackmail purposes... If you know and love UT, please write us a biography and email it to Didgeri-12@oreos.demon.co.uk. Thankyou!"

I must be mad for posting the above, but then again I'm curious to see what comes out of it. :-)

Only three weeks until Didgeridouze, woohoo!

sushi candle

Got a package in the mail yesterday from Andrea which made me laugh as soon
as I opened it up...a candle that looks uncannily like a piece of sushi! (shrimp
on rice) Thanks, Andrea. :-D

We planted the Elmer Chia Head last night. I don't give the project much hope, to
tell you the truth. The seeds already looked dried up when I came in this morning.
I trickled water over Elmer (knocking some seeds off, but what can I do? I don't
have a mister) and wrapped his head in saran wrap. In theory, however, in a couple of weeks his head
should start sprouting a lovely crop of...um...chia. What IS chia, exactly?
And can you eat it? We have extra seeds left over, so I'm looking around to see
what else I can chia-ize. Maybe Jeff's keyboard, he'd love that.

Annie called me this morning. Actually, when I picked up the phone, I heard Ruth's voice, "Hello, this is Annie's secretary. Are you free to talk to Annie right now?" When Annie got on the line, we had a very short conversation (something about a birthday part she was going to). She's gotten into the habit of ending the call with a very polite, "You can go now". Which is actually quite efficient, when you think about it. How do YOU initiate the ending of a phone conversation? :-)

chia elmer

Doug brought a Chia Elmer head to the office (he got it as a Christmas present and is generously sharing it with us). We're soaking the head and will plant it with seeds tomorrow. I'm wild with excitement.

Had dinner at my sister's last night. My dad made a Japanese soup with vegetables and seafood. Sara loves squid and octopus, go figure. After dinner, we had mochi and manju. I think I blathered about mochi a year or two ago; one of my favourite Japanese foods. Apparently you can get prepackaged mochi at Japanese stores now...not as good as homemade, of course, but better than nothing! Dad microwaved the mochi pieces until they were hot and puffy, and then we wrapped them in small squares of nori (dried seaweed) and dipped them into a paste of sugar and shoyu (soy sauce). Yummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Kaarel and Jeff didn't want any. I must go find myself some of this packaged mochi!

Jeff and I both worked all weekend; we are so bad.

Finished Angela's Ashes...LOVED it. I've started Sherlock Holmes now (a Christmas gift from Allison).