sweetisu

This morning on the way to work, I was behind a car driven by a young woman in her 20’s or early 30’s. She had trails of smoke coming out of the small crack of her window. And, as we were stopping at an intersection to let the crossing-guard help some kids crossing the street, she TOSSES a cigarette butt out the window!

If you’re going to smoke in the car, please DO NOT throw the cigarette butt out the window. And, DO NOT smoke when children are riding in the car with you, or other grownups who are nonsmokers.

I dislike the act of smoking, I dislike many of the habits of smokers, and I dislike some smokers. There. I’ve said it. Don’t like it? Go smoke somewhere else in a cave.

I thought it would be cool to talk about how we got rid of all the leaves in our previous old house. That, and it’s nearly midnight so my brain isn’t at its peak performance right now.

Many moons ago, we moved into our old house in the middle of November. Being first time home owners, we didn’t know what to do with all the leaves that were in the yard before closing, and we requested the seller take care of all of it! It was a bit over the top I suppose, but really, we didn’t know what we had to do with all.those.leaves.

Second autumn comes along, we raked until our fingers grew callouses and the palms of our hands hardened. We even invited a non-home-owner friend to come and have fun. There were 140 some bags total! I have a picture of that somewhere - only 1/3 of it because we couldn’t possibly have gotten it all done in one setting.

Third autumn - repeat, rinse, lather.

Fourth autumn, we smarten up and started building a compost bin. In the height of season. Very smart indeed. Towards the end of the building project, over a weekend, our fingers and noses were nearly frozen. By the time we started gathering all the leaves, it was unbearably cold (I should mention, this house was in Minnesota). The reason we started with the yard work kind of late was because, we were new parents to a chubby new baby boy and sleep were not to be had by anyone.

Fifth and sixth autumn went much smoother. Rake, gather, and dump all the leaves into the compost bins we had built. All 3 big compartments of it! Our garden benefited as well as our budget. We didn’t have to buy mulch for a long while, and it didn’t look or smell bad at all. Our then-toddler even helped with the raking, gathering and dumping!

Lesson learned: if your residence produces a lot yard waste, build a compost bin that’s big enough to hold all the yard waste (or buy a ready-made one, but those are usually hardly enough for yard waste). Your budget will thank you (no yard waste bags to buy), your garden will thank you, and most of all, Mother Earth will thank you.

Honestly though, thank goodness we don’t have to do much of that for quite a few more years yet.

I’m a glutton for punishment, and went ahead and signed up for my 3rd yr in a row for NaBloPoMo. I may drop out early, I may skip a day here and there, and I might not cross the finish line for the first time, but it’s the effort that counts isn’t it.

What’s NaBloPoMo? It’s a promise to blog every.single.day. in the month of November, started by a great woman named Eden 3 yrs ago. All you have to do is post something at least once a day. Substance is not required, so here goes!

The other day as I was driving home from work, I saw a man raking leaves and bagging them into giant paper yard waste bags (there were at least 20 of them already full). I was feeling quite happy that we didn’t live in an older house anymore. The only real tree we have now is a little tiny red cherry tree (not bing cherry, darn!) that’s about 6 feet tall and produces very little leaves on the ground. At our old house we had a gazillion trees and even had one with locust beans that would fall every single autumn. It’s a job that we would have absolutely no time for right now. We might end up being one of those annoying neighbors who leave their leaves on the ground until the first snow, and just let the snow buries it hoping it would decompose over the course of winter. Naturally most of the would blow and spread throughout the whole neighborhood.

Truthfully? I don’t think we could actually do that.

Are you an incessantly busy garden keeper who mow every other day, or one who would finally gets going with the mowing because you’re afraid your lawn is feeling left out since all the other lawns are all groomed? I would say we’re kinda in the middle, but leans toward the latter slightly.

Never mind mowing. Snow is coming soon!

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My post yesterday is password protected. If you’re a regular reader and would like to read my ‘enlightened post’ about Election 2008, please send me a note / comment / email. I just didn’t want it to be out there since this blog is directly linked from our business’ website.

Sudden realization: Business and Busyness only differs in ONE LETTER.

Current time: 12:40a.m.

Current mood: hungry and sleepy.

I just thought you might want to know these crucial facts.

OK back to work. Oh the busyness in business..

In 5th grade, my brother and I moved to the city to live with our grandmother, so we could attend a better school (I was still living in China). This was where I met M, who was also in my class among 60 some other kids. I do understand that smaller class size would allow the teachers to give more attention students - but that’s unheard of in the city we lived. Class sizes were generally 50-70. Can you imagine 60+ some kids in one class, with one teacher???

M lived about 5 sky rises away from my grandmother’s and she was everything I wanted to be. Her parents were artists, quite sophisticated people who lived sophisticated and luxurious lives. Both her and her brother were also rather artistic and had entered in drawing competitions etc. Their house was at the top floor, knocking down the wall in-between and joining 2 flats into one extremely large one.

Coming from the countryside having lived peasant-style lives, M’s house was a castle to me. There were leather sofa and chairs, big screen TV (in color!), nice decorations, gorgeous rugs!, big refrigerator with loads of goodies, and very comfortable cushion-y mattresses. I’ve never slept on a mattress before - my bed was a giant piece of hard wood plank topped with bamboo liner in the summer and an old thick blanket in the winter. She even had her own desk, with nice posters hanging all around her room.

Despite our vast different material backgrounds, M and I got along rather nicely. My personality and M’s were very similar. We both liked to wear shorts more than skirts and didn’t take to the girly frilly things that some of our peers did. Since her house was on the way to school, I usually stopped by and wait for her, and we’d walk to school together. She would show me all the places along the way - this store’s ice cream was really good, or that bookstore had some great books but they’ll scold you if you go in to read and not buy, etc. Some days we would take the long route, skipping along the rice paddies to admire the birds and bugs. Other days there were other girls joining us to walk to school. M and I were very good friends, she knew my secrets and which boys I liked. I knew who she dreamed about and would go give them lots of “hints.” We had loads of fun together, doing homework at her house, watching TV and or bouncing on the bed.

She never once looked down on me because of my poor background.

After I moved to the US 1.5 years later, we kept in touch via letters. (This was pre-internet days). It was lovely and I missed her and my other friends dearly. We kept in touch for a very very very long time, until we both graduated college. We visited each other both times I went back to China (in a total of 19 years..) We just seemed to pick up where we left off and continue right on. She’s forever a giving soul and my heart always has a place for her. She’s now married as well, with a one-year old son. We don’t talk very much - but I know she’s doing fine and are busy with her adult life and parenthood. I haven’t seen her in nearly 9 years. I miss her and think of her from time to time.

She’s the sister I never had but wish I did. I am so fortunate to have her in my life, albeit how infrequent we get to talk with or see each other.

Our daughter Fiona is 2.5 yrs old and still sleeps in a crib. She has been able to get into the crib if the ledge is down; she’ll climb and go head first and slide down slowly. However she has never climbed out of the crib by herself, whether the ledge is up or down. Ever.

A few days ago Hubby thought what a great idea it would be for our daughter to learn how to get in and out of the crib by herself, when the ledge is down. After all, it’s not like she doesn’t climb everything else with full confidence. Except the crib, until now.

As Hubby watched and cheered on, Fiona cautiously climbs out of the crib, taking every step and move ever so carefully, and making sure she’s gripping onto something before she lets go of another part of the railing. She was SO proud of herself when she finally landed on the outside of the crib! She’s been watching her big brother climb in and out of the crib all the time and this is the first time she’s ever been able to climb out of the crib!!! Hooray Fiona!

Ah yes, you can see where this is going.

For the last 3 mornings, instead of being woken up by a shrilling call of “MaMAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA”, I found our lovely girl standing by our bedside when I opened my eyes each morning. Yes the railing was all the way UP for the entire night - and it was still up when I took her to her room to change her diaper.

Tonight, after putting her to bed, she climbed out of her crib not once, but twice, to visit us in the office downstairs.

I seriously hope this is not going to develop into a habit. One bad sleeper for 4+ years is really really bad already. I don’t need another one to start now.

This is one of my lists for March’s theme of “Lists” for nablopomo, which I am miserably failing at keeping up and or writing lists at least once a day. April’s theme is “Letters.” Go here if you want the details.

Chemo sessions I had: 12

Duration of each chemo session: 3-5 hours via IV

Frequency of chemo: Once every 14 days

Days I was bedridden from chemo: ~72 days

Times I puked from having chemo: 432 - 864 (that figures about 6-12 times each of the 72 days)

Hair lost: every strand on head & body except eyebrows

Neupogen shots I received to boost my system so chemo wouldn’t be delayed: 48

Radiation therapy sessions: 10

Duration of radiation: 45 seconds front & 45 seconds back (kind of like roasting or grilling) I think it was 45 seconds.. can’t remember now.

Preparation time before radiation: 15 minutes

Lives we’ve been gifted as a result of all the above: 3 (my very own, and our 2 children)

I came upon this Disease Risk Index page at Harvard.edu

I was intrigued and wanted to see what it would say about my risk of cancer, and see if the test is accurate or remotely accurate. However, I was dismayed when I had to answer “yes” to the 2nd question, which in essence screws up the entire survey and prove the survey useless. Also, the list of cancer was limited. (I did not look at the other diseases)

The whole bit about cancer is that, you (you as in, anyone and everyone) just don’t effin know if you will get it or not. There are too many exceptions, preventing any real cause/effect scenarios, hypotheses or theories to be drawn. You could be as healthy for your entire life (like me), and bam! the next thing you know, they’re tell you about your new cancer diagnose. Or you could be a chimney, chain, nonstop smoker / second hand smoking / whatever else, and you never ever get sick from anything. Ever.

It’s like playing Russian Roulette.

Oh sure the assessments might work for some people. But for the majorities, I think it’s a crap shoot.

This came from Marla, and Average Jane and Neena, and.. I think that’s about it. Better late than never! So here goes,

Basically I write 7 things about myself. And tag you guys to do it too. Feel free to be tagged and make your own list.

1. I must be the one driving, otherwise I get carsick easily.

2. I usually prefer silence to music (unless I’m in the car - see above - I’m the driver, especially long distance). Hubby is the exact opposite and wants music anywhere and everywhere.

3. When my hair is long, I’ll want to chop it off. When it’s short, I’ll want it long. Right now. I drive myself silly.

4. On my left hand, my head line (or brain line) and heart line intersects and makes a straight fold. In another words, if I put my hand faced up and pull all 4 fingers towards me, there’s a nice straight trench across the entirety of my palm. I’m not into palm reading, but find this interesting and I have a few family members who have the same thing.

5. I am the same weight as I was before any pregnancies and babies (+/- 2 lbs), but my shirt and pant sizes both have gone up at least 2 sizes. What’s up with that???!!!

6. Food is my good friend. Good food is my BFF.

7. I’m not as articulate in person as I would like to be. Oh I can talk, (boy can I talk, my friend Laura is about the only one who can out-talk me) just not as articulate as I would like.