Let me take your picture, add it to the mixture, there it is I got you now!

Yep, its me again, totally failing on the 'keep writing blog posts' thing. Sadly, part of that is that there isn't much to write about until it accumulates over a week and a half. But, at least I'm still here!

I'M AN AVATAR!!!!

Actually what I am is covered with yellow paint from the Hobbit Hole project. I haven't had any luck getting Michael and Cam out of the habit of calling it the Murder Room (you know they do it just to piss me off) but at least Sarah tries not to call it that. No pictures yet, pictures when I'm done painting it I promise. Then I just have to find some carpet remnant for cheap and voila, I can start organizing my crafting/sewing/escaping room. 

So lets see, what has happened in the last week. Sarah got a co-op bike, I lost and found (hopefully) a job, 

I've almost completed my repeat round of the week 3 run, and the ceiling of the hobbit room (and consequently my hair) is now yellow. I did start painting the red trim in the room, but sadly the color turned out too dark laid over the teal, so now I have to go back and paint all the trim yellow THEN paint it red to get it to turn out bright enough.

I'm not inclined to get into it, but the job that I originally found did not work out, as it was not a good environment. Right now I've got my fingers crossed tightly after a Starbucks interview which went REALLY well. So, hope hope hope!

Meanwhile, no job luck for the others, but I'm sure things will pick up soon.

Sarah and I stopped in town for an afternoon, and found a really awesome community outreach bike co-op.The way it works is that they have a bike shop, where they teach kids how to repair and maintain bikes, and then they sell them for $20, or 4 hours of community service. So Sarah ended up with a cool beater bike that she sanded down and re-painted blue, which she is rightly proud of. She paid the $20, "I don't feel comfortable taking something for nothing" she said, but she intends to go back at some point and do the community service anyway. Its such a cool idea!

Memo to me- put the wheel back on my bike...

There are now SO FEW BOXES in the dining room! You can walk around in it! Big circley walks! And the 5 boxes that remain are full of books, but thats no trouble because I snagged us 3 bookcases for $65 on UsedCowichan, which is like an epic craigslist with pictures. We pick them up on Sunday, so hopefully that will do us and we can start really setting up the dining room. With, y'know, a table. And chairs. And such.

In unhappy news, the house back in London was broken into twice and the washer and dryer stolen, along with all of the rosewood bedroom furniture. We are understandably upset, but thank goodness for home insurance. The police are on it, so hopefully we will hear something positive soon.

Yesterday we tried (rather abortively) to drive up to the top of Mt. Prevost. According to the website, the logging trails are in good condition and any vehicle should have no trouble driving up there. WRONG! We scraped the bottom of the car more times than I want to remember before we finally found somewhere safe to turn around and go back down the mountain. It was in absolutely abysmal condition. So, thwarted by rocks and potholes, we decided to spend the afternoon at the BC Forestry Museum instead, observing its interesting displays and riding its picturesque train.

What did I learn? Basically that the people who climb and cut the trees are crazy. Granted, the clip that they showed us in the museum was shot in the mid to late seventies judging by the grainy film quality, the chain smoking and the music choice, but still, this guy just hooked a running chainsaw up to his belt, wrapped a rope around himself, climbed a 150 foot tall tree, cut the top 50 feet off it, and then clung for dear life as the tree swayed back and forth in arcs of about 15 ft. Don't bother with horror movies, watch a forester sometime. 

Also, they had an adorable family of swans. 

Today we sit in a cafe in town and work on our various writing projects. I'm working on a novel about what would happen if Angels showed back up on earth one day, not unlike the Grigori. Tomorrow is friday and I get to go back to the Dice Bag and play Magic with my new friends while Michael and Cam game with the boys back in London. In the interim, life goes on. Laundry, lawn, running, dishes, organizing, painting, and generally trying to keep a sunny attitude as much as possible. I love it here, but would it kill the sun to shine for like, five minutes in a week? I thought this was supposed to be the start of the dry season? Oh well, rain is good for strawberries. 

And now, your weekly dose of Emma!