Lord Miles

So as I hinted, we have a new addition to the family. After the Mortimer disaster, we were feeling somewhat bereft and ready for a third cat, and it just so happened that Karina's brother's roommate had a cat in need of adoption.

So everyone, meet Lord Miles Teacup, Marquis of Carabas (Originally of Teacup Manor)(we call him Miles).









As you may have noticed, Miles only has three legs. Either by accident or because of a mauling, he lost his hind leg, and the vet who took him in needed to find him a foster home. They found us.

He's actually incredibly mobile for a three-legged cat. He stumps around kind of like a rabbit when he's going slow, and whacks his butt on the ground a lot, but when he's motoring, he kind of uses his back leg like a skate and propels himself with his front feet.

He's really shy at the moment, and we're told he's timid with people he doesn't know until he warms up to you, but he was lovely last night and on the ride home, and we're undergoing the long process of acclimatizing the cats properly, because we're hoping he'll be a long-term addition to the household.

Though Erin has pointed out the irony of the fact that, of our three cats, Pyewacket has the most dignified name.
posted by Sarah E. at 6:30 PM

Fa-la-la-la-laaargh

Fa-la-la-la-largh

Let's see -- where has the time gone?

Working seven days a week again, in addition to special projects which include but are not limited to: the Bakka Christmas window (almost done, but I REALLY want the frost-pattern appliques I keep seeing around my neighbourhood), my teacher's college applications (can I just say -- with the amount of headaches these things cause, I'm amazed they get as many as they do), seeing WICKED (more on that later -- perhaps after I read the book again so I can compare), and prepping the house for a new arrival (photos later tonight).

In the queue for this week and next: Choir practice, the one-of-a-kind show, getting my applications done and Xpresspost-ed by Thursday, work on jewellery for Christmas orders (and the Mermaid and Pirate stuff), finishing up the Bakka window, shopping for curtain material, bonding with the new arrival, and possibly trying to see WICKED again, Christmas cards, Christmas shortbread, assembling and stocking the new pantry cupboard, organizing the garage.

Who needs sleep?

But with the arrival of December at the end of the week, I'll be able to start playing the Eclectic Christmas Mix again, which brings me no end of joy. Christmas songs are forbidden in our household (well, my parents household, and by extension, my half of our household) until December. But after that, anything goes. If anyone is interested, I'll post the tracklist of the Eclectic Christmas Mix, which is a collection of my favourite (often non-traditional) Christmas songs that never fails to put me in a good mood.

What's on your Christmas playlist?
posted by Sarah E. at 4:45 PM

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Wish List

It's that time of year again -- here you go, Mum. :o)

Sarah's Christmas List

1. Doctor Who Season One.
   
2. A new Palm. Or Palm-type gadget. Anything portable that tells me where I'm supposed to be.
   
3. Lindstrom Rx-series Tools (in order of preference, available at Lacy Tools in Toronto, on Queen just east of Yonge, though you may have to call to see if they're in stock):
   • Rx8152 Flush Cutters
     
   • Rx7890 Chain nose
     
   • Rx7490 Flat nose
     
   • Rx7893 Short Chain nose
     
   • Any of the other cutters: Rx8150 Micro Bevel cutters, Rx8147 tapered flush cutters, Rx8141 Small flush cutters, Rx8140 small micro bevel cutters, Rx8160 large micro bevel cutters.
4. Something to transport all my tools in (lots of pliers, a bead reamer, etc.)
   
5. Jewellery supplies (particularly swarovski crystals, pearls, and really cool beads).
   
6. Jamie's Dinners
   
7. Farscape Starburst-edition DVD's (vol 2.2 and later).
   
8. Throne of Jade, UK hardcover edition (also Black Powder War)
   
9. Curly Hair Solutions products, especially Curl Keeper and the Treatment Shampoo.
   
10. Ocean Girl
    
11. Gift certificates for Reitmans. Or Smart Set.
    
12. Billy Bookcase in white.
    
13. An Inigo Montoya icon that says "I do not think that means what you think it means."
    
14. Anything Chocolate and Raspberry from Godiva. Especially the truffle.
    
15. Vanilla Spice shimmer lotion, or cranberry. Mmmm, yummy smells.
    
16. Inuyasha manga. Don't have any yet.

posted by Sarah E. at 11:00 AM

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How's the Bike?

Let me regale you with a story (which may be somewhat skewed from the original, given that I last heard it in its entirety when I was nine).

Some time ago, my uncle James agreed to repair a bike for a friend. But after letting the bike sit in his garage for a while, he ended up disassembling it and using it for spare parts. It is, and has been for the last fifteen years (minimum), an ex-bike.

Every so often, the friend would call up my uncle for a chat, and at some point ask "so how's the bike coming along?"

James's response was always "Good!", in a very high-pitched and squeaky voice, at which point he would change the subject.

This story amused my father immensely, and even now, a common salutation in our family is:

"How's the bike?"
[squeak] "Good!" [/squeak]

So every so often these days, someone will ask me "How's the writing?"

Guess what I end up answering.

It's not that I don't want to be writing, or that I'm all talk and no progress. I do get writing done, in fits and starts, and I haven't bought that many dinners for Alice. The novel is, very slowly, gathering speed.

The problem is, there are three things I do with my extremely limited (as I'm still working 7 days a week) spare time -- write, make jewellery, and work on my OISE/York applications.

It's getting to the point, though, at which I'm so tired and overwhelmed that when I have an hour, I look at the pile of stuff to do and end up just wandering off and reading.

So at least I'm getting through my TBR pile.

But I'm prioritizing now. Applications are priority one. They're due December first. Jewellery is priority two -- I have several Christmas orders due, and some mermaid stuff to experiment with.

Writing is priority three. I may be buying Alice a lot of food during the holiday season.

But I will be done by May.
posted by Sarah E. at 12:42 PM

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...I Have No Words

Mostafa Tabatabainejad, an American-born student at UCLA, is asked for ID after hours at the library. Student refuses due to suspicions of racial profiling, and from accounts, is kind of a jerk about it. Campus police are called in to remove him. As he's leaving, he objects (I'm assuming in a loud and disruptive manner) to being touched by the police.

Student is repeatedly tasered for passive resistance after being handcuffed, and concerned students asking for officers' badge numbers are threatened with the same.

Incident is caught on cameraphone by another student and posted to YouTube.



Student planning excessive brutality lawsuit (bugmenot username: nothankyouidont@mailinator.com -- password: nothanks)

...I'm still trying to get my head around this.

(via cleolinda)
posted by Sarah E. at 11:27 AM

More YouTube Roundup

Okay, I need a change of pace. So without further ado:

Rusty started it:



And with Skeeter, Inside Edition chose to profile the sadness inherent in his condition. I, being a terrible person, feel sympathy while unable to stop myself from snickering.



This dacshund has absolutely no sense of self preservation (mind the volume on this one):



And apparently Germany was suffering from a displeasing lack of Piracy:



Sharilynn from the ROM, currently on maternity leave, has one of the most expressive babies I have ever seen. She has posted a video of Jordan giggling madly at his father that makes me smile every time I watch it.
posted by Sarah E. at 11:04 AM

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Childhood Memories

It was a very odd, very thoughtful Remembrance Day. The evening news ran a list of Canada's war dead from this year in Afghanistan, to which my mother remarked "we shouldn't have war dead -- we're not at war". Which made my brain do strange and contemplative things that I'm not really in a state to get into on this journal at this time.

Seeing Dad was a great relief. I hadn't really been able to sleep since I found out about him, because every time I tried, my brain would go places I didn't particularly want to be, and I would have to get up and read or watch movies or something. But seeing that Dad is okay and well, and you'd never know he'd had the procedure if not for the massive bruising on his wrist (from where they shoved the catheter up into his heart) and his tendency to hit a wall and have to stop what he was doing, ensured that last night I actually slept. He told me on more than one occasion "stop looking at me like that!" (Mum: "Like what?" Dad: "She's giving me that 'what did you DO?' look!"), so he's either not worried, or trying to make damn sure that I don't.

Simon and I are advocating that he get a dog now -- they're good for blood pressure and they force you to get regular exercise. He says no, but we're working on him.

So our big job this weekend was to clear out our rooms of all the old junk, packing the keepsakes (like my first jewellery box and my high school yearbooks) into storage boxes, and getting Simon's room ready to paint and mine to take it's place as a very girly guest room (much of my stuff is still in there, but it's much less cluttered).

The hardest part was undoubtedly thinning out my unicorn collection. I was absolutely head-over-heels obsessed with unicorns when I was little, and collected anything that even remotely resembled one. The collection got pretty large after a while. I suppose I could have kept most of them, but they were mostly pretty tacky. I did keep the few really nice ones, but all the big ceramic or cartoony things are going to goodwill.

Even worse was going through all my old pictures, most of which I hadn't seen since we moved when I was 11. Here's a sampling:



The metallic lithograph pictures were especially thrilling to me. So thrilling in fact that I never noticed that the unicorn rearing in the clouds and the unicorn rearing on the hilltop are the same unicorn. I also had a duplicate of the mother-and-bady picture on the bottom on a laminated block, not in frame. By far the nicest was the one in the top left corner, and even that one is much better off going to a nine year old girl than languishing in my closet.



Also difficult was getting rid of this embroidered picture. It's dusty, old, and frankly kind of tacky. But I made it. I have a drawer in the closet full of completed cross-stitch I could never figure out what to do with, which is largely why I don't do cross-stitch anymore. I still love doing it, but it seems pretty pointless when it inevitably ends up in a drawer, because the finished product isn't anything I particularly want on my walls. Nor, I think, would anybody else.

But by far the crowning glory of the collection is The Clock.

I found the clock at an antique market in Aberfoyle when I was nine. I had never seen anything so beautiful in my life. I loved it so dearly, and though my parents tried their damndest to dissuade and distract me, I made them return at the end of the day and spent my meagre allowance on The Clock (my dad talked the seller down to $10). I was so happy I thought I would burst, and for years it hung on my wall. Every day I would come into my room and marvel that I owned something so breathtakingly wonderful.

The Clock, in all its glory:



Observe, the inch-deep setting for the clock, so they could fit real silk flowers inside the coach. Observe the butterfly on the second hand, that flew around and around the clock. And I think the pastel shoelaces I wove around the spokes added a certain je-ne-sais-quoi, don't you?

In the end, after unearthing The Clock and reminiscing about how happy it made me, my parents couldn't throw it away. It has been promised a place of honour in the bathroom located in our half-finished basement. And I couldn't be happier.

The rest of the things I couldn't bear to part with (like my pink personalized umbrella my aunt got me when I was four) got packed up in a rubbermaid box. On it I placed three stickers:

"Sarah's Childhood"

"Somewhat Fragile"

"Handle With Care"
posted by Sarah E. at 12:11 AM

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Not A Creature Was Stirring...

It's almost 2:30 a.m., and I'm wound up too tight to sleep, so I thought I'd dabble a bit online before cracking open (not literally) my shiny new TEMERAIRE and comfort reading for a bit.

So the update on Dad:

There is some quarrel between doctors as to whether or not he actually had a heart attack. What they do know is that the same vein and/or artery (Mum was sketchy on the details) that was blocked the last time he had a heart attack was 90% blocked in the same place the stent was. They went in through, I believe, the big vein in his wrist, forced out the blockage through the stent (which Mum said really hurt him), and put a new stent in.

Dad's out of commission for the next four weeks. No driving, no working, zip. So, needless to say, they're not coming to my choir concert tomorrow. In December, Mum and Dad are moving to my Aunt's house for a bit so Dad can be closer to work. He should be home again for December 15.

In third year university, I spent the Christmas Holidays rejoicing that one of my parents hadn't died and had come home for Christmas. This year looks to be a repeat.

I'm performing in the concert tomorrow night. Dad comes home either tomorrow or Saturday, so I'm going to find out if I've got a couple of personal days remaining at the ROM, and if I do, I'm taking them so I can hop on a bus and go be with my parents. They were planning on painting this weekend, and rather than putting it off, I'd like to do it for them so they don't have to worry about it. Maybe I can even wrangle the sibling into coming with me and helping.

So on the note of getting something really fab for the Holidays, I'm beginning Festive Winter Seasonal Holiday gift-card-recipient-list assemblage noises. If you think you should be getting a card from me (or want one anyway, or your address has changed, or whatever), drop me a line and let me know.

And for those of you waiting on my Christmas list (I know, Mum, I know), I'm almost done. I promise.

Also, WFC con report also coming. Soon.

[ETA: I should probably add that if you're sending cards to me, I did move in June and my mail is no longer forwarding]
posted by Sarah E. at 2:40 AM

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