Day 1 (Sunday)

No change in the butterfly baby eggs...

*yells* But we're gonna have MOOOOORE!

Yesterday: +11
Today: +6
Current egg count: 17!

The Ninja saw this slightly smaller Momma butterfly depositing more little bundles of nom-nom-nom on the calmansi tree...

 ...and we learned *whispers* that sometimes they EAT each other!!! *gasp* (Its like a canniballistic protein shake *shudders*) Sooooo they've been separated at least until after they hatch into bird droppings - which is what they're gonna look like if they're the kind we think they are... 

Yep, all kinds of beautiful caterpillars and we're hatching the ones that look like bird poo... *mock sigh* 

Luckily they're not endangered though,  so we can practice on these ones before we try helping with the monarch migration ;)

Zomg we're gonna have butterfly babies!!!

I was absolutely mesmerized by this butterfly today, he was flitting around and around the calmansi tree... I was enthralled, witnessing the gentle gracefullness with which he moved that until relatively recently science and engineering had deemed impossible.

I was so excited, wondering if he was thirsty and looking for water... or maybe a bite to eat until I showed The Ninja and she said "Is it laying eggs on my calmansi?!?"

Sure enough upon closer inspection we found little egg nodules... Ruh roh...

A moderate amount of Googling later and we discovered that they hatch within 3 to 5 days... 3 to 5 days?!?!?! We hatched a plan to save the calmansi from voracious caterpillars, and headed to the nursery to pick up something more appropriate for them to munch on.

We went in thinking we needed milkweed but the lady at the nursery was so awesome, and knew from the picture we showed her of the eggs that it was a citrus tree, and then guessed before I even showed her my pictures that it was a giant brown swallowtail not a monarch and that we needed Rue!

We stopped only long enough to grab a soda before hurrying home, and here are the butterfly eggs in their new home!

At least I hope they're butterfly babies... 

Oh well even if they aren't... they're in a mesh cage, outside ;) In any case, I'll keep you posted! 

No need to be rude, just use your words

It continues to boggle my mind that some people think that they are somehow in a bigger rush than everyone else...

We were buying shoes last night, and standing in line when a new teller opened up and the lady behind me dashed over...

Seriously?!

I actually said something. I usually don't, but come on!

Thankfully the teller handled it really well and basically said these people were here first, I'm just going to ring them up and put her stuff aside in a matter of fact kind of way.

The thing that kills me, is that I've been in line before and had people behind me say "Excuse me I'm in a bit of a hurry <for whatever reason like needing to pick up kids>, could I possibly go ahead of you?"... and usually the answer is pretty much always yes. 

I can appreciate being in a hurry, but there's no need to be rude about it.

Stargazing from the roof... like they do in the movies!

It's probably been more than a year since we upgraded out ladder to this nifty folding/rearranging one (the one he demos at the end in the background), with the intention of watching fireworks from the roof of the garage. Being able to climb up to the garage roof in relative safety to watch the Perseids was totally worth the extra cost... No short ladders on small, stable objects... like *ahem* tables for us anymore! #safetyfirst

We saw a combined total of 8 meteors before my inner kid's excitement wore off enough that my inner grown up started to glaze over and beg sleep, already dreading this morning's alarm...

I still feel like a little kid lying on the ground looking all around the sky hoping that I wont be blinking when the next one streaks by... crossing my fingers that I'll be looking in the right spot so I'll see the entire burst of energy however brief it may be.

This morning I'm still pretty stoked that we saw any meteors this close to all the city lights, and I'm in awe at how pretty and magical falling rocks can be. 

Like a boss!

So I left her unsupervised for *five* minutes while I went to get the key to unlock the rack from the hitch, and this is what happened...

She didn't actually hit anything, didn't even kiss anything or give it a love tap... but it is so perfectly nestled in there that mere millimeters in either direction would have munched something :p

You may not be casino lucky, but you've got good "carma" ;)

It's the little things

Having been a programmer in a past life, I fully and truly appreciate the sentiment of this error message.

See what is there... not what you expect to be there

Look at things as though you've never seen them before... and you may find you never truly have.

Granny gave this to me forever ago, but this is the first time I've noticed the shadow it casts on the curtain despite being sunny every day since...

Anything can happen if you let it...

The Ninja is conducting for the Youth theatre group's rendition of Mary Poppins, and she'd been hinting at how cool it would be to have the Mary Poppins bird from the end of her umbrella as the handle for her baton...

We looked at decorative birds at Home Depot, but none of them were a good size or shape... and there was still the problem of getting the baton stick into the head and making the two fit together nicely... and not *look* decapitated...

Well what feels like four days ago "it would be really super cool" turned into my next "emergency arts and crafts" project, and I dove head first into a previously unexplored medium!

There were so many open questions when I started like "Will it melt... Or explode?!? Is it even possible?!?", that I felt like Han Solo responding "I never ask that question 'till after I've done it!"

I went through a few beak iterations that were too big, but good practice. Then settled in to getting the rest of it fleshed out.

I started to get a little nervous the closer I got baking it, and did some emergency Googling and a test bake to make sure the white wouldn't scorch (thanks for decreasing my perceived optimistic liklihood of success Google). Despite my new found fears though it went well! I got some good tips, although there was one in particular I should have followed and didn't... Supporting said project in a bowl of baking soda... I thought it would be okay, but it cracked a little where I'm guessing that the handle inside melted and bent a bit. Remembering other notes that said it didn't harden up until it had cooled though, I busted out a rubber band and strangled his little neck back together as far as it would go whilst cooling it.

The end result? *Practically* perfect ;) But I must say that I am nonetheless satisfied with my efforts, and more than happy with the astounded reaction I received upon presenting it -mere hours before the first upbeat- to its proud new owner, working wonders of her own in the orchestra pit below the stage.

If I was five again, I would camp in the livingroom!

Ha! My Mom said when I grew up that I could do whatever I wanted... I later discovered the "catch" was that a whole new set of rules apply, like not being able to burn off cake every night for dinner *le sigh*

But I don't *have* to be five to camp in the living room... although granted at some point my roommate's tolerance for a tent in the living room will diminish to zero... (see, this is one of those new rules) but until then... 

*yells* Whooohoo!!!! Camping in the living room!!!!! *grins*

I'm seriously questioning the intelligence of owning a tent larger than a space indoors to put it up in... nevermind, it fits in the livingroom is now the livingroom! While it is nice to be able to stand up in it, it's gonna be a bear to dry it out or do any kind of maintenance.

...and whilst undergoing the tedium and sticky fingers of seam sealing it, I know in the depth of my wet innards that the hours spent here will be well worth even the briefest of time keeping my outer bits dry and warm during a rainstorm... *ahem* however unlikely that may be in California

Check out my new rack!!!

My new bike rack arrived Wednesday catalyzing the expenditure of a weeks worth of pent up excited energy and anticipation!

I spent a good chunk of the evening installing it, and overall am impressed!

My only disappointment is in the cable locks, I know they're only supposed to be a deterrent... but it just seems like they did such a good job of making them integrated and easy to use, that the implementation of the actual lock bit falls short of my expectations.  It just doesn't feel that secure to me, like maybe if I reefed on it the right way it would just pop open :/

That aside, I love the rack so far! It feels super secure in the hitch, and my bike feels super secure in the rack and when I try to wiggle either the whole car moves rather than jiggling... which makes me happy :)

Adventures in healthcare

So I finally got set up so I can set an appointment to get my healthcare checkups and had to go through the standard questions.  Some of these I routinely struggle with on paper, but of course it was more comical trying to answer them out loud with an audience.

Assistant: Marital Status?

Me: Uh... What are the options?

Her: Married, Single, Divorced... *I glazed over* for some other options that definitely didn't apply...

Me: Siiiingle?

The other assistant laughed and said "You don't sound too sure about that!". I retorted that it was process of elimination and that answer was the closest ;)

Her: Race?

Me: White.

Surprised she looked up quickly, and I conceded... Well I'm not Black, I'm not Hispanic, I'm not Latino or any of the other minority groups, and it's probably under Caucasian... *restraining an eyeroll*

Unfortunately I forgot my friend's awesomest answer to this question: "Race? I am part of the HUMAN Race"

Her: Ethnicity?

Me: *looking truly confused* Canadian?

*laughter erupted and ensued*

Come on, how is that even a valid question anymore?!?! Seriously, I'm part British, Czech, and who knows what else coming out of the middle European countries that are all super close together and invaded each other frequently... and most of the people I know are of unknown mixed ethnicity for similar reasons. 

Even when you think you know, there's that person in the family that traces the tree back and goes "Hey did you guys know, we're part Scandinavian? Apparently four generations ago this guy got stranded when he was hired to invade and they couldn't pay the raiding party, so a bunch of them settled down and took local wives"

Hopefully with the advances that are being made in healthcare they'll figure out a better way to group people together rather than relying what we think we are.

Seesig shortcut number one

Last night we had a traditional? fried pork Filipino dish called Seesig... which we'd picked up most of the ingredients from a local Mexican supermarket when Trav asked:

Auntie, how do you cook the meat for this?

She lowered her voice and confided "First, I let the Mexican man cook it for me..."

Women and cardinal directions...

Don't ask me North, South, left, right!!!!

...

So you're okay with East, West, up, down?!?

I had a dream the other night...

I was hiking up an old logging road, it was dirty, and dusty and extremely rutted... and it was steeper than it should have been.

Semi-regularly there were plastic silver pins in the road with the NHL stamp on the top, almost like survey markers... I recognized them but couldn't quite place them...

For some reason I had a large backpack, despite which I was making good time and marveled at how effortlessly I threw my bag up a particularly steep section and jumped up after it passing a "runner" who was red, panting and practically crawling up.

Just beyond that there was another steep section, and as I climbed up I saw a lady pushing a cart on her way down and realized that it was the Stanley's cup. I respectfully stepped out of her way, watching in awe as she descended to my level.

She was *the* Cup bearer. She was the one in charge of the Cup while each player took it wherever they wanted for a day.

I asked if I could take a selfie with it, realizing in a panic that I didn't have my phone on me.  She smiled gracefully and assured me that she could take a picture of me with it on her phone, and that she could send it to me.

Somehow I ended up hiking down the mountain with the small group, some hockey player Gonzales that I'd never heard of who for whatever reason was still in a navy blue and burgundy uniform *skeptical look* and was the player of the day. I got to hang out with him and some of his closest friends as they told me about all the other places they'd taken the cup in their 24 hours with it.

It was amazing, it sounded like they'd had a blast and it was incredible to be able to share the evening with them. I woke up feeling as excited as if I'd seen the cup in person ;)

Flux always makes me think of flux capacitor

I've been working on a project whereby a light will come on when someone has left the garage door open (even just a little bit), and that light will be visible from both down and upstairs... of course as we discovered last night, that only works if someone is home to see it *sheepish grin*

Of course there is a pipe for the hot water tank pretty much in the exact spot I wanted to drill through the garage wall, so I ended up having to feed the wires through a vent... which meant I was soldering things in awkward places, like at the top of the ladder.  (which isn't nearly as bad as trying to start a chainsaw at the top of a ladder *coughs* Daaaad!)

Anyways, while I was up at the top of the ladder applying flux from the lid to the wires I was going to solder, the bottom of the container containing the majority of the flux fell *gasp* bounced a couple times and then wedged itself ever so neatly between the leg of the ladder and the hot water tank. Sideways.  Sideways as in it was mostly the edge I was looking at, with a little bit of the bottom.

Now flux is a little gooey, kind of like the consistency of crystallized honey... so when it wedged itself suspended above the floor I'm pretty sure I literally held my breath for a few seconds... I realized that there wasn't any on the floor yet, so it was either slowly dripping, or starting to drip and that time was of the essence! Sloooooowly as not to upset it's precarious balance I crept down the ladder... and managed to extricated it, flip it, and tap-tap-tap it all back in! *exhales*

Afterwards I did find some errant flux strands that must've flown out during it's decent, but I managed to save most of it!

Did you know that...

Apparently in America they've never heard of pencil crayons, they're called "coloured pencils"... sorry *ahem* "colored" (we don't use the Queen's English down here)... sometimes I'm not sure who's English we use...

I guess it makes about as much sense though... *shrugs*

Easter fun :)

Our rendition of "Kiss me" by Sixpence none the richer...

One more drop in the Ocean

Yesterday the ocean kicked my ass... and I cried a little, both in it, aaaaaaand again when I got out...

I just got so frustrated... hell I'm still frustrated!

Like confidence crushing frustrated like "maybe I just can't do this..." and "maybe I should just give up and go in" and "maybe I really didn't use to pick things up naturally, maybe that was just everyone being nice" *sigh* Pairing all that with my natural stubbornness I probably stayed out longer than absolutely necessary before I decided that I really was tired nay exhausted, and that the possibility of getting up  (remote as it had been when I started) was quickly diminishing to a big fat ZERO.

For something that I've done before, and enjoyed up in Tofino... It sure sucks not being able to get up when I can see other people getting up down here, and then on top of that getting stuck in the wave crush zone on the way out so that by the time a nice wave comes in again you're too tired to get up...

Or it flips you over, and rips your board out of your hands... and tugs on your board leash...

Or sucks you under and tumbles you a little bit just for fun... and tugs on your board leash again...

Or it chucks you off face first and forcibly rinses your brain out through your nostrils...

Or gets you all excited like you might actually do it this time, and then just rolls on by...

I'm pretty sure the Ocean was toying with me yesterday, and I'm pretty sure I have salt water in my brain... because I definitely have sand in my ears.


On a lighter note, the sunset was gorgeous... as was the bronzed lifeguard that ran up the pier and jumped off to assist a kite boarder that had managed to get himself tangled up...

A time for every matter under heaven

We all have families we are born into, and some of us are lucky enough to have families that have embraced us and welcomed us into their hearts and their lives.

Tonight the second half of my family is one less. 

Aunt Heather, the one who warned me "Whatever you do, don't tell Don you're a treeplanter"

And welcomed me to the family with "Would you like something to drink? The glasses are over there and you know where the fridge is.  You made your first mistake when you called me Aunt Heather, family serve themselves around here."

And I couldn't have been happier with that, I would much rather blend in and help out where I can than be waited on and be part of the stress of having company over.

I will forever hold her in the highest regard for her ability and aptitude in organizing a kitchen and quickly whipping up meals for any size party. I once witnessed her out-laws show up unannounced 10 minutes to noon in full force. By the time they had pulled around the corner, she was upstairs running through a shower and had me boiling eggs and chopping celery... within 15 minutes we had egg salad sandwiches, some kind of chicken and other odds and ends of just-in-case food laid out in what looked like a well planned lunch. I am still in awe of that to this day, even more so after having planned parties with less people, made shopping lists specifically for the event and still wound up with items missing.

She always had room for one or two more at the table, and we would plan our road trips to coincide with meals at her house. Even on her "bad days" her cooking was something to aspire to, one of my favorites on a particularly bad day was "Mount Vesuvius cake".

My favorite meal never to be duplicated involved putting dinner on, asking Uncle Daddy Herb to stir, driving a friend home, getting the car stuck after singing the praises of just how easy it was to get my chains on, then backing out of a really long driveway in about a foot of snow with said chains on, only to return home and find that the hockey game had gone into overtime and the chicken having not been stirred at all had perfectly caramelized.

She was a force to be reckoned with, a fountain of candid advice, and brutally honest. But she had a heart big enough to match the best breasts to cry on, and an enveloping hug that could close out the world and make everything okay.

I sure could use a hug from her today.

I'm sure going to miss her.

Wicked awesome!

My best friend just took me to see Wicked (the musical) and it was ah.Mazing!

I love love love LOVED IT!

I had heard from a few people that it was good, and if I ever got the chance to go see it, and that I would probably really like it... but none of that prepared me for experiencing it in person, from the edge of the balcony! *grins*

I was in awe of the entire backstory, and how they fit all the pieces together and picked up and wove in all the threads. It is basically the pre-story to Wizard of Oz, and fills in the experiences and circumstances that made the wicked witch wicked, but also brings to light the beginnings of the cowardly lion, the scarecrow and the tin man.

One casualty of the night, was that I lost a whole lot of respect and sympathy for the tin man... but my heart went out to the scare crow, the good witch and the wicked witch.  And it struck a chord with me that despite everything else going on, the friendship between best friends is stronger than love.  The idea that once that bond of true friendship has been forged, there's nothing tearing it apart.

The entire evening was magical *happy sigh* and while I loved the whole new best friends popular scene, my favorite songs were "Defying Gravity" and "For Good".

Couldn't resist, my new favorite hoodie... *squeeeee*