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Christmas 2013
Such a nice holiday. I made dinner. Tod brought champagne. Gifts appeared from all over the planet. We feasted and festivated all evening. The Zous did the decorating. They gilded peanuts, made felt elephant banners and ornaments, and had a lot of fun with thumbtacks. Noteworthy gifts: sheepskin slippers from Tod and elephant pyjamas from…
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Christmas Afternoon
It is mid-afternoon on Christmas Day and I am counting down the hours until Tod arrives home from work and we celebrate the holiday with dinner and gifts. Dinner is in the oven. I suspect that roasted pork was a poor choice; sauerkraut isn’t the most festive of scents. Rather than sugarplums, I envision post-war…
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Holiday crafting
Inspired by an upscale designer set of blocks, I made my own for the festive season. They are a lot of fun to arrange and rearrange whenever I like. Three side are pictures: the Christmas elephant, pine trees, and candles. Three side are letters that spell out joy peace love; fun holidays!; and happy new…
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Trashing Memories
Long-time readers know that I am a fiend for getting rid of things. This week I took a very big step and did something truly scary. I tossed out a ton of my old creative projects. It was one of the hardest things to do and I’ve been avoiding it forever. I junked all my…
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Autumn Fairy Garden
I planted some bright colors that might winter over in the fairy garden.
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Precipitation
Geology in action at home. My pyrite is precipitating iron sulfate. If I add water, I can make sulfuric acid: 2FeS2 + 7O2 + 2H2O -> 2FeSO4 + 2H2SO4 Hang on, the weather has been is ridiculously humid. Could the acid have formed formed without direct water? Gosh, my house may be polluted with acid humidity.
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Right in Front of Me
I am closing out July by organising the rest of my summer. I’ve got a lot of projects going on from now until the end of the year and they have gotten scattered. So I wrote them all down on little cards and put them up on the wall above my desk. Now I can…
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The Ten Year Old Tea
I found this in the fridge today. Actually, I knew it was there. I’ve known it was in the fridge for quite a while because it is our last bottle of the tea Tod loved one summer. Its expiration date is 2003-11-02. It is a decade old! Tod’s been saving the tea, so I never…
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Nengajo time
Pretty colors, inappropriate tool, and lots of imperfection. My kind of art! This afternoon I am indulging in one of my favorite holiday preparations, creating our holiday cards. This year’s nengajo project is especially delightful because I am returning to what I consider my artistic roots – printmaking. I love creating multiples. The multistep process of creating a…
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Rate Hike & Possible Reductions
Electricity in Tokyo got more expensive starting this month. TEPCO requested, and the government approved, an increase in rates of 8.46% for residential consumers effective September 1. “We deeply apologize to our customers for the heavy burden,” they wrote in their communique. Rates are charged in blocks – the first 120kWh is now 18.89 yen/kW;…
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