I am sick

I missed out on office Xmas party.  Le sigh.  I just hope they managed to present my slideshow -- it was so much work!

Actual work I'm not so worried about now that we have 2 new FAs to deal with setups, and (my?) student Annie can upload journals.  The day to day is covered.

I got a hint of what a vacation day could be like... except I needed to be near the bathroom, and I'm feeling weak. I guess this is what James had 3 days ago?

Will I lose some weight?

No appetite at all yesterday, but this afternoon, feeling better, tentative to eat again.  Maybe I'll feel stronger, maybe it'll all run through me.  UGH.

I try to do some basic household chores.  Woah, is this laundry basket always so heavy? Is this what my Mom means? (She complained even that our plates are too heavy.)  Is this what I have to look forward to as I get even older?

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This is what I missed: 

- Pass-the-parcel with fork and knife:

- an awesome ugly sweater contest. 

Look!  My slideshow is playing the background!

Rabbit of (Net) Negative Euphoria

Sure we had lots of Hallowe'en costumes ideas*, but James still fitted into the costume I got (*embarrassed face* before he was born) and so, he was a bunny!

* Maybe next year he'll be: Mario, Minion, Harry Potter, Waldo / Wally all mashed up!  

The full body fuzzy costume was perfect a cold trick o' treating night (we threw on jacket too just in case).  But it might be a little too warm for indoors.  It's probably why he's grumpy.  Oh, and being dragged back home for dinner instead of staying out to ring doorbells and visit houses and exploring... I know, I'm such a killjoy.  But hey, we did visit four neighbours and he got to pet 2 dogs.

After dinner, we put him to bed.  Other kids continued to come to our door until 9 PM.  I say "kids", but some were bigger than me.  For the entire night, we got about 20.

Though I didn't have that much time to get it together, I'd dressed up too!  I wanted it to work with James's costume so I considered famous bunnies and their friends and family.  I liked what I came up with (see below-below-below) though there was only a 1 in 5 recognition factor at work.  Their guesses: Mary Poppins, a time traveller...  Really could have used some time to find a teapot with a mouse... I told Olivia, that once again my choices were simply too "cold door" 冷門.  Oh, well.

(Above: "Let me out!")

(Right: "Mad" at work.)

Autumn Joy

James and the leaves. 

Why didn't I think of that?

For our mystery kitchen sink leak:

"DIY Tip!  When your faucet is leaking you can make it stop by burning the house down."

DIY Fail: Cute and Evil

The brand new gold shoes were considered "too girlie".  True they were pretty flashy, but I can fix that, right? 

One of the top 10 (if not number 1 rule) of DIY: Test on an inconspicuous place. 

Of course, I didn't, and now I must introduce you to: Evil bunny and cute bunny.

To create this look:
1. Practice drawing a bunny face on paper
2. Using a brown marker (which should complement the gold), draw the face on the shoe
3. Discover the brown actually looks pink/red
4. Try washing the shoe, but marker does not come off or change to another colour
5. Scribble over the the whole thing (making a big pink/red patch)
6. Draw a face with a black marker
7. Take a deep breath
8. Name that attempt "Evil Bunny" or "Angry Bunny"
9. On the other shoe, draw the face with black marker
10. Give up before it gets worse.*

At least it was a good laugh in the morning.

* It's so tempting to do just one more thing (such as glue an applique over the pink/red face)... but, no.  STEP AWAY! 

Time Lapsed - Some Old Photos

Mom had ideas for James (a bath, a nap...) -- so while we waited, Jackie and I flipped through some family photos.  Mom's albums were rarely labelled and weren't in any particular order -- neither the albums nor the photos were standard sized, so she stuck photos where ever there was space*. 

*I should take some pictures next time to illustrate that...

This is what we found:

Photos from Angela and Patrick's wedding (that would be 1978?).

Right: The tea ceremony at my parents'

Below: At the reception - Nancy, Gary, Theresa, Angela, Patrick, Donald, Tim, and Kathy

























Dad's early backyard gardening attempts (Jackie: "You were pretty handsome back then."  Tim: "I'm always handsome.")  

A studio photo from China, rare because it was one of the few we found of Linda (Linda, someone, someone else, someone else-else, and my grandfather 爺爺 - Linda and Dad's dad). 












Photos at Linda and Gary's house (based on the fact I wasn't there: 1976-1977?):

Left: Theresa, York, Tim, and Angela

Right: York, Tim, Theresa, and Angela

Below left: Donald, Gary, and Theresa

Below right: Ernie and Gary




















I know Jackie was really interested in the photos of China, but I was interested in the people I knew and, of course, me!  And so we have it:


Below left: Despite being 2 weeks early (and only 5 lbs 6 oz) I quickly "caught up" and became this chubby baby.  NB: They still have those couch cushions! 

Below right: Mom and me (at around 3 months-old, based on the X-mas tree). 






I'm looking forward now to my next visit to my parents'.  Goal: Photograph and label more of those photos!  (And ideally, find some evidence of me being a cute baby.)

I'm back!

... and surprisingly on time at 8:30 AM! 

Between good weather, a quick drop off with James ("Have-fun-I-love-you-kiss-kiss-goodbye!), I was at the bus stop at 7:51 AM.  Can I do it again (and again, and again...)?

The view on the commute.

I was overwhelmed by the warm welcome.  Figured since people didn't email me or respond to my photo updates that maybe they've forgotten about me... nope.  There were hugs and so many questions.  I didn't know what to say.  Most of my co-workers are moms so I figured they knew (the tough early months, the lack of sleep, the sad feeling of leaving him, being scared about coming back and knowing nothing, the peace of the commute [finally no demands]...). For the non-moms, how to compress it all into an interesting, thoughtful, sound bite that's not scary or ridiculous?  I end up going generic: "We're fine."

Olivia kept my plants happy.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and to remove all doubt.— ABRAHAM LINCOLN.

Anyway, just so many things. 

Things I've forgotten:
- I wear glasses (for the computer).
- It's cold in the room (need more sweaters / more layers)
- Snacks!  (Need them to keep going)
- What it's like to have to share a bathroom and kitchen with co-workers

So clean and tidy - because everything is packed in storage.

New things:
- So many new people
- There's now a protocol for using the water coolers
- The Social Committee has completely disbanded and started anew 


Lorena's kind and starts me off easy.  My current tasks:
- Go through emails and read the Finance meeting minutes
- Go through the boxes of my boxed work stuff -- but they're currently in storage TBU (to be unearthed)

Paul picked up James, and both were waiting for me when I make it home (about 5:30 PM).  James whines a bit, but then we're all hugging on the couch and it's a great feeling... and then we're back to rushing.  James: bath, food, put to bed.  Then me: food, make lunches, pack... eventually, bed. 

Happy Chinese New Year!

It's the Year of the Rooster (Chicken).  My boys indulged me with a 10 minute calendar shoot :)

I read the Telegraph article "Chinese New Year 2017, year of the Rooster! What's your zodiac animal?" (sorry for the video auto-play).  The list of Chinese New Year's Day Taboos was particularly interesting.

I already know not to wash things, but didn't know it was partially because (#3) "People do not wash clothes on the first and second day because these two days are celebrated as the birthday of Shuishen (水神, the Water God)."

Number 8 "Crying Children" ("The cry of a child is believed to bring bad luck to the family so parents do their best to keep children as happy as possible.") is a little too late / unavoidable now (more about that later)...

I kept the tradition of a vegetarian lunch (corresponds to #13).  Well, mostly, I finished off James's lunch and that had some fish...

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This photo seems appropriate (Coconut and House Hippo from last-last Christmas (2015)).

 And, so does this: