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Tag: halloween

Those liminal days of limbo inbetween holidays.

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55 days until Christmas, but we still have Remembrance Day, A P.A Day, few birthdays to get through first. Halloween is officially done, and I’m not entirely ready to shift directly into Christmas, and the Holiday Season. I need a breather. I had hoped to dry off, and take down the Halloween inflatables, and possibly put up some exterior lights. But, much like always around here, plans have changed.

I have my youngest home bound again, thanks to her unyielding post nasal drip cough which she can’t seem to shake off. It was a rough nights sleep, and a wet phlegmy cough filled morning, so she is once again riding the couch/bed combo trying to recuperate. Had a chest x-ray last week, but no news there, as of yet. So no news is good news, but it means we’re stuck trying to use the humidifier in her room, an inclined plane of pillows, and a cool breeze go try and clear it all up. No puffers or steroids (which is for the best). Lots of parents talking about running a course to the end with multiple puffers just for the cough to return in less than a week. So we’re all trying something. The kicker is, we aren’t even into flu season yet, so it’ll only get worse. I’m glad we’ve stuck with masking, but we are few and far between with any others who bother to mask their children still too. There are some, but not many.

On the plus side it’s about 16°C today, which is unseasonably warm, and I’m ok with that right this second. If plans had of stayed the same, I’d be outdoors soaking up that warmth. But I’m inside keeping my kid occupied, and waiting on changes/edits to current projects. The big one I’m waiting on has to pass through some UK officials office for sign off on the data first, so there isn’t much I can do about that. Not my party, not my dance floor.

A warm grey Tuesday for November 1st, 2022. Take care out there. Ciao Bella!

What a Monday it is.

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The big day is here, gather round, as we get dressed up to parade around town for freebies & goodies in the rain and/or snow! It’s a tad drizzly outside, but that’s more of the rule than an exception at this time of year. And what luck, it was lovely and warm both before, and after the big day. Perfect for setting up decorations, and then tearing them down. I the midst of getting the house ready I also did about 3 hrs of leaves yesterday. Still have one full Maple left to drop its rusty brown treasures. I’m sure we’ll have snow immediately after it does so, just to mess with me.

But, tonight! The big kahuna! A night to watch a scary movie at home with no kids, while they hand out treats at the grandparents. Or so I thought. Change in plans. *record scratch*. Grandpa has surgery this week, so no kids until he’s out. Gotta stay healthy for the procedure. So looks like an actual night of walking and trick or treating with the kiddos. Bundle up, and walk around with a flash light, and reflective gear on, as the wee ones terrorize the neighbourhood. Should be fun. I will miss my viewing of Alien, or Bladerunner, or some other non-child friendly film, but I can make up for that later this week.

My assumption is, is that things will quiet down a fair chunk as we angle into the Holiday Season, and people run about tying off loose ends before they go on Christmas break/vacation.

It’s a Monday, so I’ve got laundry going, dishes are out of the dishwasher, beds are made, floors vacuumed. Trying to decide if I want to mop today, or wait until tomorrow as the kids with their wet boots and costumes will make a horrendous mess later tonight, and I’ll need to start from scratch on the floors again anyway. So I’ll take the executive decision to hold off for today. I need to fix the main bathroom sink again. Three long blonde haired family members continue to clog it up! Blargh! Nasty. Seems like every other month it starts to drain poorly, and I have to undo everything and pull out globs of hair, goo and muck. Not my favourite task, but it is indoors with music, so could be far worse.

Tomorrow I’ll take down the inflatables, and dry them out. Store them away for another year. I’d love to not get all the stakes, and tie down lines tangled, but inbetween putting them away neatly, and pulling them out of the box a year later, the knot faery comes by and works her magic. Bitch. Ain’t nobody got time for that. If the weather is as nice as they report it will be, perhaps I’ll put up the exterior house lights tomorrow too. Depends. If I feel motivated to get it done, then Bammo! Lights on the house. Otherwise it can wait a week.

As always, stay safe out there. Ciao Bella!

Cleaning house, and finding a cache of…

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Clothes, never bags of money, but girls clothing, hundreds of pounds of fabric, sequents, lace and frills of every colour you can imagine. We have enough clothes in this house that our two kids could wear something new every day for two to three months. Excepting of course, underwear and socks, both of which tend to get eaten or lost in between being worn, washed and put back in the drawer to be worn again. That mystery is ever lasting, and shall never reveal its secrets to me. But yes, clothes. Tote box after tote box found with great big piles of mix ‘n match clothing. Pants, t-shirts, long sleeve shirts, shorts and by god, even more sweaters. Are we all really that cold so often? I could run a business just selling the sweaters we have accumulated over the years. Once the youngest outgrows it, we pass it along to other younger family members. If we opened every single closet, drawer, cold storage room, and tote we’d find enough random articles of clothing to stock a JC Penny of considerable size. It boggles the mind, just how much we’ve managed to gather. I am amazed.

It is Friday once again. Bit of a weird week, with us having been off on vacation Friday through Wednesday. Two destinations, warmer than usual weather, and lots of water fun. More of a local destination in both instances, but really nice regardless. We all had fun. It has been a challenge to transition the youngest back into school life after five plus days of being out & about trying new things. Oh well. It is what it is at that age.

I’m waiting on a new project, so pretty calm at the moment. Could turn to mayhem at any moment, but I think it’ll come on Monday. I just have a hunch. Not a problem either way. It sort of sucks that Halloween falls on a Monday, but nothing we can do about that. The town has some outdoor programming tomorrow which looks like a fun time. The kids are looking forward to testing out multiple costumes before the big day. Once it passes all eyes turn to more birthdays and then Christmas. Oh lord Christmas! Here, again? So soon? Such lunacy.

If I followed the stats…

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Then yesterday was a dog shit day for viewership/readership numbers. Interesting. I still have no clear idea what “brings all the boys to the yard” as it were, but I certainly didn’t have whatever “It” is in yesterday’s post. Though I will say this, on the whole a post with at least one photo usually does ok, for me, that is. But that photo is usually placed within the post, and not a cover image (unless it’s a short story). Yeah – so I have no idea what turns people’s heads or makes them sit up and take notice. I don’t intend to try and formulate a metric of things to tick off in order to garner more readers though. That sounds like it would suck all of the fun out of the process. Chasing stats has never, ever been fun. Talk about turning something fun into an Excel Spreadsheet time vampire of dreariness. Shoot from the hip, keep it loose, and aim at the broad side of whatever barn you like.

We took a brief family car ride to the Richmond Hill Go station last evening for their Halloween light show. It was pretty good. Tuned in to a radio station for spooky music. Had a photo op station with candy for the kids. And one ticket let’s you drive through twice. Which we did. It was about 30 minutes of lights, music & fun. A great time. Also if you search Facebook you can find codes for 50% off the ticket price. So a bargain! Here’s a few images from the event.

I have the kids at an indoor play park (masked obvs) and we’ll be here for at least an hour, possibly two if I can help it. Tire the kids out, and get our money’s worth from the entrance fee. Laugh out loud to the rescue on a cool, rain soaked Saturday morning. I even have some time to myself to both read and do some writing. Also answer the kids questions when they run on by to check in. Life is good, even if the quality of my writing isn’t.

I also broke down and ordered myself some air brush paints for my baked bust sculpts. I am currently working through a bust of Hellboy. Trying to take my time with this one. I have two very svelte looking Walnut bases I am looking to display with a quality hand made item on top. Once the clear coat went on the other day the Walnut absolutely just POPPED! Bam! So, I want to display them front & centre. Also I shaped them on the lathe, so I’d like to highlight that feature as well, once they are completely finished. I was going to do a copy of this Don Lemon bronze Viking bust I love, but then the red sculpey was shouting for Hellboy instead. I can’t fault it, red is red. Do someone red with the red stuff, not rocket science.

If you are wondering what I am reading, it is “Shards of Earth” by Adrian Tchaikovsky. I’m little more than 100 pages in, and it seems pretty good. Aliens, war, destruction, abject fear. It’s all there. I bought the second book too. That’ll be four of his books I’ve read this year. Next year the last book of the Portiid series comes out, so I’ll nab that one too once released.

I think that keeps us all up to date. The rains have started up again, so I’m going to go back to reading & watching my kids get dizzy on a mini tea cup ride inside the park. Ciao Bella!

Engineered Hardwood: or plywood as I like to call it.

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Plywood tongue and groove boards with a one ply hardwood face that is slightly thicker and can have that “hand scraped” texture. Not really hardwood, more of a fancy veneer on your laminate board flooring. People look down on laminate floors in favour of the exact same thing, but with a slightly nicer (and a whole lot more expensive) veneered top face. Ludicrous. Pure malarkey. The best con perpetrated by the flooring industry upon us all. Here have the same thing, but more expensive, just use a nicer more posh sounding moniker for it. Insanity. You want to know how I know that engineered hardwood isn’t real, nobody reclaims it to build furniture with it. We’ll scavenge pallet wood, boxes, other old furniture, rotten trees and old building materials like barn boards. But there’s no craze for building furniture with engineered hardwood, and that should tell you something. As us cheap wood workers will build out of just about anything we can get our hands on. Even 2×4’s. So, yeah. Think on that for a second or two.

So Friday, yeah? Yes it is. Week eight closing out with some loud cracks of thunder in the early a.m. Summer is most definitely drawing to a close. Sad to see it go, but bring on autumn and Halloween ! Decorations, costume building, lights, smoke machines, music and scary movies! It really is a whole thing if you lean into it hard enough, and have the funds to do so. I see how privileged it is to be able to go all out during any season or holiday that you really love. I hope to one day help my kids make elaborate costumes, like ring wraiths, or Master Chief, or Ironman or something like a Transformer or Gundam Robot. A chance to build all summer long, paint and fabricate parts in foam, cloth and cardboard. It could be awesome! I choose to believe it would be awesome.

Still a few weeks away from pumpkin carving. Can’t start too early or else they rot before the big night! Gotta time it just right, so you’re not rushed, but it doesn’t turn to mush with rounded soggy edges! Carving shows will be on tv very soon! I for one am very excited. Ciao Bella!