Second Degree

So… I took my belt test for my nidan (second degree black belt) last weekend. I passed. I have proof. See?

New belt (extremely stiff) with fancy red stripes

Not a bad picture, for being pretty much exhausted. Fortunately by this time my face had managed to fade back to normal from bright, flaming red.

For those who are particularly interested, here’s what I had to do:

Ivy and her Puppy Palace

Remember back in August when I said I’d likely have a lot more pictures of Ivy to post? It turns out that she’s actually so distracting, I forget to take pictures of her. But last week she was actually sitting on her bed, chewing on her bone, and I happened to have the camera within reach.

Mmmm, rawhide

Since we brought her home, she has conquered her fear of stairs, storm drains, and cars. She has gained about 20 pounds and looks to keep going for at least a little while. She quickly got herself on a free-feeding schedule that has her eating less than the vet thought she’d want, but given that she seems to have boundless energy and always has food available if she wants it, it seems like she is just destined to be a svelte pup. She has also now lost her puppy coat (what a fun month of constant vacuuming that was), and does indeed seem to have rather Retriever-ish hair, especially along the spine. It makes an adorable extra curl off the end of her tail nubbin.

Another big event in Ivy’s life happened in November, when we turned the little deck off the kitchen side of the house into a screened-in puppy palace. Eventually, it will have actual furniture out there, but for the winter, the dog has been quite content to take over the whole space for herself, dragging in large interesting sticks from the yard to chew on in comfort during the day.

New back stairs off the newly enclosed deck

Enclosing the deck was actually inspired by the need to get a new roof, which we did with more energy-efficient metal roofing while we were at it. To see all the new projects at once, here’s the house from the front. The deck/porch is the part on the left, behind the white fence and my car. Excuse the leaves, we’d just had a lot of rain.

The new roof and screened-in porch

Ivy is now thrilled to have two ways on and off the porch, rather than just the few front steps the old deck had. Technically, she only has a dog door on the back side, since we assumed she’d like more immediate access to the majority of the yard for better romping. However, it took her just one day after the porch was completed to run through the screen on the bottom of the other door, so we’ll probably end up installing another dog door there before the summer. The things we do for our sweet girl!

The Importance of Cake

A conversation from last night:

Me: Where do you want to go to dinner?
Mark: I think I want to go to [Japanese restaurant].
Me: Oh, okay.
Mark: Do you not want to? We could go somewhere else.
Me: Well… it’s just, it’s your birthday, and I think I should get to eat cake!
Mark: I see. It is my birthday, so you should get cake?
Me: …yes.

We went to the Japanese place. I got a fried banana instead.

Happiest of birthdays, Mark!

Thank you, Antonio

Back when I worked at the autism society, the UPS guy who picked up our outgoing packages every afternoon was also the same guy who did the deliveries route in my neighborhood. He would always wave if we passed each other as I was headed home.

At the time, I was driving my parents’ van, the trusty Toyota Sienna, their third car, the “emergency” car. I had it because I’d sold my car when I thought I’d be living in Taiwan for at least a year, but then ended up back in the US two weeks later, both jobless and carless. (Full story, if you don’t already know it.) My parents loaned me the van indefinitely.

One day, about two years later, my uncle asked if he could trade cars with me for the day, because he needed a larger vehicle than his Subaru Impreza WRX wagon to go pick up a large format photo he’d had on display at a gallery. I drove his car back to my apartment that day and enjoyed it so much that I actually blogged about it.

As it turns out, that was also an afternoon that I passed the UPS guy, Antonio. When he came to pick up our outgoing packages the next day at work, he congratulated me. “For what?” I asked. “For getting a new car!” he replied. And then I had to tell him, nearly tearfully, that no, it was not my car, and I’d had to give it back.

Last month, I finally bought myself a new (to me) car. It is a Subaru Impreza, though an Outback rather than a WRX version. I knew I wanted it as soon as I saw the ad. I called the dealer that day, test drove it that afternoon, put the down payment on it the next day, and got to pick it up and drive it away as mine the day after that, at lunch. Behold:

My precious...

I keep wanting to drive over to my old neighborhood now, to see if I can pass Antonio and wave at him madly. Failing that, though, I’ll just post this. Thank you, Antonio, for your congratulations. I’m so happy I can finally accept them!

The Reading Year in Review – 2009

It’s a new year, so it’s time for a clean new reading list! Which also means it’s time to take a look back at the books of 2009, since they have officially moved to their own archived page. So, sticking more or less with the format I used last year, a review:

Some quick stats:

• I read exactly 100 books again this year. Last year was a fluke, this year was entirely on purpose. I actually finished the 100th book on 12/30, and I was tempted to push through one more on 12/31, just so I could say I’d read 101 this time, but I decided to actually talk to people at the New Year’s party instead. Somewhat sad for my book total, much better for my familial relationships.
• Only 10 books this year were rereads. Sadly, as I mentioned last year, my local library branch is currently closed, so this probably means this was a rather expensive reading year.
• I did supplement my rereads with finding some free electronic versions of books to download, either from author websites, publisher websites, or Goodreads. It appears I read 11 books in this format.
• Only 4 graphic novels this year, because I’m down the only reading Fables (and associated series) at the moment. I did also just read an actual prose novel set in the Fables universe (Peter & Max), though, so that was a fun crossing of reading categories.
• Only 1 nonfiction book this year. And I thought my serious-reading attention span was bad last year. Hah! Really, it’s 1.5, but I can’t count the half-a-book, because I haven’t finished it yet. So many distracting novels out there…
• 68 were fantasy, sci-fi, or some other form of speculative fiction. (Up from last year’s 52.) An interesting note from this year’s reading was that I read 3 anthologies (in addition to the one I read at the end of 2008) and I’ve got another one lined up. I’m really thinking I need to pay more attention to short fiction again.
• 22 were mysteries or suspense, most of them from series. (Down from last year’s 36.)
• 5 were “other” fiction.

Reading for Jennie’s Party

This weekend my friend Jennie at Biblio File is inviting everyone to celebrate her blog’s birthday by reading a book for fun for at least 5 hours. This is the kind of celebrating that I can get behind, so yesterday I dedicated myself to it wholeheartedly.

To start off the day, I decided I needed to be prepared for extended reading by first eating waffles and bacon. Sadly, our boxed waffle mix was depleted down to the point where I needed less than 1 egg, and I wasn’t up to figuring out how to use egg fractions that early in the day. Double sadly, we were also out of milk, so I couldn’t even make them from scratch. So, darn, we had to go to IHOP. I ended up getting french toast instead of waffles in the end, but I consider this a fair trade.

Then we went to Costco, since it was right there, and got milk (so I can have waffles now any time I get in the mood again!) and somebody’s Christmas present, because it happened to be on sale. Is it for you? I’m not telling.

Then we came home, full and productive enough for one day, so I dedicated myself to reading for the rest of the afternoon. Since part of the rules are that you must read a book for fun, I picked one of the books I’d most been looking forward to from my last Amazon order, Soulless by Gail Carriger. How could I not want to read it? It’s book one of The Parasol Protectorate! It just sounds awesome, right?

Er, or maybe it sounds more awesome if you have some context. The main character, Miss Alexia Tarabotti, is a young lady in Victorian England whose mother has already put her on the shelf as a spinster due to her deplorably dark complexion, inherited from her late Italian father. Except this is an England where the supernatural peoples have been integrated into society since the Elizabethan era, (this is actually why the Puritans left for America, they objected to the integration policies.) Miss Tarabotti is not supernatural, though. She is the opposite, preternatural, a person born without a soul, who can therefore cancel out supernatural abilities. And she just accidentally (more or less) killed a vampire with her hair stick and parasol. But what was she expected to do? He was trying to take liberties! Without even a proper introduction!

The rest of the story centers around the mystery of where such an uncouth and uneducated vampire might have come from, especially when it turns out there have been others. This part has rather Sherlock Holmes-ian overtones. But the other half of the story, the more fun and gossipy part, channels a bit of Pride & Prejudice (ish) romance. Because, of course, Miss Tarabotti keeps interfering in Lord Conall Maccon’s investigation of the whole vampire incident. They haven’t gotten along ever since that incident with the hedgehog. But they do keep running into each other…

I read this whole book in one afternoon/evening. You don’t get a lot of steampunk-y comedy, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. The next book, Changeless, comes out in March. I know what I want for my birthday!

Thanks, Jennie, for having such a great party!

Introducing Ivy!

Mark and I are now proud dog owners! After many weeks of fencing the backyard and finding “one more thing” that needed to be done, we finally went out to the Animal Protection Society of Durham last Saturday and met our dog. They had us fill out the adoption paperwork then, but had to keep her for 3-5 days after that so their vet could spay her and give her a final check-up. On Wednesday, I got the call that we could come pick her up! Mark and I both ended up taking the rest of the afternoon off to introduce her to her new people and house.

Ivy looking attentive

While at the shelter, her name was Abigail, but as you can see, we have decided to change it to Ivy. She is 7 months old, 35.5 lbs, and a Rottweiler/Retriever mix. Her coloring is very standard Rottie, but her fur is much more Retriever-like in texture, making her very soft and fluffy. The current theory now is that she won’t end up as big as a Rottie, and indeed she doesn’t have much of that characteristic bear-like broadchestedness, so I think she’ll have more of the build of a Retriever in addition to the hair. Judging by her paws, though, she still has quite a ways to grow.

Ivy is a very sweet girl, and so far is much more interested in people than she is in any of her toys. On the day we brought her home, she was very wide-eyed and a little bit nervous about taking in everything. She roamed around the living room, dining room, and kitchen for hours, always returning to us if we weren’t walking with her. She was not keen on stairs of any kind at first, but she was quick to conquer the ones to the deck off the kitchen, since they are the ones that lead to her fenced-in yard. On her very first trip into said fenced-in yard, she pointed out to Mark the main weakness of his and my father’s fencing efforts: she can fit through the gap under the back gate. Fortunately, she was on the leash at the time, so she couldn’t get far.

We the took her for a walk around the block. She is extremely wary of storm drains and prefers to give them very wide berth, but other than that, she did very well. We met a bunch of kids out playing, and they all came over to sit in the middle of the street and pet her. They asked us all about what kind of dog she was, how old she was, her name, and she loved the attention. She was very well-behaved.

Then we went home, fed her some dinner, and carried her down the stairs (which were still too intimidating) to see how she would react to the TV in The Cave. We introduced her to her big cushy dog bed in that room, and she acclimated to it and the noises of the TV so well that she was soon asleep, stretched out as far across the dog bed as she could get. Five hours of non-stop excitement and sniffing had taken their toll.

Ivy, looking cute

The next day, though, we had to go to work as normal again, so she had to spend the day in her crate. (We’re not to let her stay outside for 5 days after her spaying operation.) I came home at lunch to let her out, only to discover when I walked in the door that she had done so herself. Our dog is a genius Houdini! I still don’t know for sure how she defeated a crate door with two latches, but she did. Surprisingly, the damage wasn’t too bad: one potted plant knocked over, a yoga mat unrolled but surprisingly unchewed, an empty paper bag torn up, and two accidents. Given my second-grade memories of the first day we left our family’s Australian Terrier alone penned in the kitchen, this was a pleasant breeze to clean up! Sadly for Ivy, I had to put her back in the crate after lunch so I could return to the office. She didn’t manage to escape a second time.

Stay tuned for more pictures and adventures, which I’m sure will be coming soon!

Planting Progress – July 2009

When last I updated about making some planting progress in our front yard, I had just put in all the annuals in the large pots next to our front steps. I thought they looked pretty good. Please do go look back at that old picture for comparison, because in the intervening two months the plants have all morphed into MONSTER PLANTS. As in, you can no longer see the pots, there is so much plant growth going on. And these are big pots! Behold.

All three pots together, from the same angle as the May shot

From a fancier angle

There has been other major progress made as well. Down in the open swath of what used to be grass along the street, my mom and I planted a ton of stuff. Still not all the stuff called for in the planting plan, but at least 3/4 of the space has stuff in it now. We planted:

• red salvia
• two butterfly bushes, one reddish purple, one bluish purple
• two types of bee balm
• two types of daylilies
• balloon flowers
• several short pink coneflowers
• several tall orangey coneflowers
• the Flying Dragon bush

So far, even though I didn’t get around to doing all this stuff until exactly when it decided it wasn’t going to rain every day anymore, I think only one plant (maybe two) has died, although I am kind of hoping it was just tired and will decide to come back next year after all. And I suspect I may have lost one of my coneflowers to a wandering dog, because it was pulled out of the ground right next to its hole, but I put it back in, so maybe it, too, will come back.

Right now, it doesn’t look that impressive because all the plants are spaced out to allow them to spread, the daylilies have all finished blooming now, and the coneflowers are a bit tattered from all the transplanting and such. I’m told that it should look very nice next year, and awesome the year after that. But as a teaser, here’s a close-up of one of the balloon flowers opened up.

Balloon Flower

Training Braid Tutorial

I was putting together this braiding picture tutorial for another site, but I decided to post it here, too, since Molly asked me a question about ideas for doing her hair recently.

I decided to call the first one of these the “Training Braid” for two reasons. 1) It’s how I taught myself to braid my hair behind my back. 2) It how I frequently wear my hair when at karate. It holds up well to lots of movement, and even if you can’t take the time to redo your hair after exercising, it still looks good.

My competing choice for the name was the “Cheater French Braid” because it mimics the look of a French braid without taking nearly that long.

For the record, here is my hair to start with, combed and detangled.

Then I draw back the hair from approximately ear to ear and pull it up to the top center. I end up with about 1/3 of my hair in this small ponytail.

Having 1/3 of the hair up instead of closer to 1/2 is important, because the next step is to divide the rest of the hair in half, one to each side. The hardest part of learning how to braid my hair behind my back was figuring out how to divide it into thirds and hold it all. Having the center third held in a ponytail already was a bit like giving myself an extra hand.

Then, braid! I always end up starting with the right side over the center first, then left, and so on, but it doesn’t matter. Once I braid so far down behind my head that I can’t reach any further, I draw it all over my left shoulder and continue to the end.

I recently came up with a variation of this, which mimics the look of dual French braids in the front. This is a good thing, because while I have finally figured out how to do double French braids now, the last time I did it, I almost lost all the feeling in my arms before I was done. It took me about half an hour. I generally don’t repeat hair styles that take more than 5 minutes, 10 at the most.

Volunteer Rose

The volunteer rose

One more post about plants around our house.  Although one of the first things we did upon moving in was kill all the grass and weeds in the little swath along the street, we were very careful to leave the volunteer rose bush/vine growing right on the verge between the tree area and the useless grass. Here it is completely bloomed out. I am extremely pleased with it, in large part because I’ve never had to do anything to it at all. Hooray for plants that take care of themselves!

(And yes, the plan is to put in lots of other plants in that front swath, which is why we killed all the grass, but we haven’t gotten around to it yet. Feel free to follow the rose’s example and volunteer to help us with that.)