You’re now an official member of our family. May you always be as content as you are in the following photo, taken while you were falling asleep and purring in the kitty yurt.

Saul Goodman

Coffee and I went out to pick up some groceries today and stopped at a local pharmacy to get shampoo and face wash. The cashier – who recognizes us and is quite friendly – asked how the kids were doing. We joked around a little and then she mentioned that one of her kids (the eldest) is biological and the other two were adopted.

We noted that our three were adopted and she smiled and proceeded to tell us all about the horrors of her experience with childbirth and how she immediately had her tubes tied after that kid was born – hence, the adoption.

I was thinking to myself how refreshing this conversation was – despite wanting to get out of the store with our purchases – because she didn’t attempt to bring “the magic of birth” into the story or tell us that it was “all worth it!” or anything else along those lines. In fact, she specifically noted that “seeing [her] new little baby” did not do anything for her in terms of making it all worthwhile – it remained the worst experience of her life.

I mean, she flat-out said that she got her tubes tied right afterward because IT WAS THAT BAD.

And that’s when another random customer got involved and started talking about how incredibly awful her labour was – more than 50 hours – and how it was totally unnatural it is to try to shove something THAT BIG through the vagina.

She half-yelled the part about her vagina.

I was giddy. Vagina-talk in public AND openly going against the common blissful childbirth stories? Awesome.

Yes, the conversation went on far longer than we’d have preferred, but man.. it was nice. It was seriously nice to hear two people admit that the entire thing sucked and not try to claim otherwise. Refreshing, even.

Hunting.. from the window ledge.

Yesterday we added a new cat to our family brought home a foster cat. He’s a tiny, but gangly, little guy who does not seem particularly concerned about much of anything. He’s been wandering around the house like he’s always lived here. His name is Ernie, in theory, but I’ve been calling him Saul Goodman – or ‘s all good, man – because he’s the sort of cat who can help you with your legal woes.

The reactions of the other resident creatures has been interesting to say the least. Daisy, after the first swipe Saul Goodman took at her nose, has been completely uninterested. She looks at him, and then basically wanders away to chew on something.

Zooey has pretty much been non-stop barking because OHMYGODTHERE’SANOTHERCATINTHEHOUSEDOYOUPEOPLEKNOWTHIS?! I’ll be crating her for the morning, while I’m at work, and praying that I can get through an afternoon conference call without her getting hysterical in the background. (“What’s that? No, I don’t hear that howling noise.. Maybe we have a bad connection?”)

Isadore VonFluffypants-Maru, however, is mad. She’s been yowling and growling and snarling and hissing at poor Saul Goodman. (He doesn’t seem to be concerned and, this morning, even hissed back at her – which she found a bit shocking, I think. He just keeps running past her, crawling into her crack-pipe box..and otherwise making her mad.) Maru has been alternating between pouting and anger, parking her butt on the kitchen counter for a bit and refusing to eat treats. Then grudgingly taking the treats. Then being mad again.

We told the kids that we were fostering Saul Goodman for a while – an unknown amount of time – so that, if everyone didn’t get along, we wouldn’t be breaking anyone’s heart by returning him. A good plan, except that one of the kids has already basically suggested that we’d be idiots not to take this ‘kick ass cat!’ and offered to chip in $100 of his savings to pay for the adoption fee. Right. I think he’s on to us.

At any rate, other than the theatrical yowlings of Maru explaining to us all the ways in which we have ruined her life, things seem to be going well. So far we’ve only got a few camera-phone photos of our new family member our temporary guest, but you can see a bunch of really, really good pictures here. Let’s be honest: those are probably the best you’ll ever see of him, given his new owners’ temporary captors’ skill with a camera.

Some tips for anyone thinking of joining a gym:

1. Choose the elliptical machine next to me. No matter how out of shape, awkward or uncoordinated you may be, I will make you look really, really good.

2. You should absolutely read this. (Thanks to Melle for that one.)

3. It is far less awkward to get fully naked for a minute or two, while changing, than it is to contort yourself into ridiculous poses trying to hide your various naked bits, one at a time, for 20 minutes of inefficient changing.

4. It is apparently really tempting to spread all your belongings out on the bench and then wander off to blow dry your hair. Don’t do it. Only assholes do it. Don’t be an asshole.

5. If you’re not sweating, at least a little, I really have no idea why you’re there. Especially when the gym is empty and there’s no one ‘hot’ with whom to flirt. Do you not have a TV at home or a library card you could be using?

6. Standing outside the gym smoking is.. well, I don’t get it. But then again, no one’s here to judge me when I come home and eat chocolate covered almonds after working out, so I guess we can call this one ‘even’.

I went to the gym today – confirming that I am, ohmygod, in awful shape (again). Stupid tooth extractions + surgery + cold/plague that wouldn’t die.. argh. At any rate, I went – which means I can share this GREAT story with you!

Immediately after my shower, I returned to the changing area to start the process of re-dressing myself. The area with my locker was occupied by one other person who was almost fully re-dressed and was sort of packing up her bag.. while staring at me.

And by staring at me, I mean staring. Up and down. STARING.

There are many possible reasons for this – my fuzzy legs, my tattoos, my chubby naked butt.. whatever. I just continued to get dried and dressed. I wasn’t rushing, but I wasn’t slow; I was just going at a reasonable speed. She finished dressing and packing and..she continued to stare.

And stare.

And stare.

Finally, I stopped and stared back at her.

She smiled and said, “Um, so, is there a place where you can get pita sandwiches near here?”

I said that I wasn’t aware of one.

She thanked me, picked up her bag, and left.

It’s worth noting that she was less than 3 feet away from me for all of this and didn’t say anything else before or after that.

I LOVE the gym.

I stumbled across this today and it made me laugh – these are the rules I’m following when I’m cleaning, organizing and de-cluttering the house.

The only exception is that, when we bring something new in, we sometimes hold onto the old for a while – to make sure the new one functions appropriately. Ditto for the packaging from the new thing; if we need to return something, it’s better to have the original box/papers. We have a space in the basement for this specific purpose.

The biggest focus for me, right now, is #3: The fewer things you own, the fewer things you have to store, maintain, put away, clean, etc.

Yesterday I used the carpet cleaner and ‘washed’ the living room carpeting. To say that rug was icky would be an understatement – we have 2 dogs, 3 kids, 2 adults and 1 cat living here. We’ve always spot-cleaned any spills (or pee, ahem, I’m looking at you, beagle) that ended up on the floor, but that just made for very clean spots amidst the less-clean. The carpet isn’t in bad enough shape to replace (nor do we have the budget for that) but it didn’t look great, either. It wasn’t filthy, it was just dingy.

Once the room was 99% decluttered, it was seriously easy (well, as easy as carpet cleaning can be) to get the carpet scrubbed up. It dried overnight and today it looks far, far better.

I would like to have the same ease-of-cleaning in all the other rooms of our house. I don’t want everything to be a massive chore – so massive that we never get around to doing it. The more stuff I clear, the easier it is to clean things. The cleaner things are, the happier I feel. The happier I feel, the more motivated I am.. You can see how this flows, yes?

Right now, the living room is my focus because, outside of the bedroom/office, it’s where I spend most of my time at home. I want it to feel comfortable and clean – but also useful and organized. I want it to suit our purposes and have some flexibility for when we have guests over (ours or the kids’). I feel like we’re getting closer and closer to getting it to that point and it’s seriously exciting. SERIOUSLY.

I’ve mentioned (a thousand times) before that our living room is a pain in my butt and that I’d really like to make it nicer and more useful. I’ve also mentioned that we have zero money to put toward doing so – that purchasing all-new furnishings or hiring someone to build a fancy something-or-other is totally not going to happen.

We spent a good chunk of time decluttering the living room over the holidays – or, to be honest, Coffee did. It was his ‘stuff’ that needed to be tidied/sorted – cables and DVDs and peripherals and doo-dads that I use, incidentally, but not directly. The space where the Solstice tree was is now empty (though I’ve moved the dog beds there, temporarily) and I’m keeping it that way until we figure out the plan for this room.

I think Dave was the one who suggested I post some photos and get some advice from y’all, so today I decided to do so. It’s hard to take decent photos in this room, though, because of the large bay window and the relatively small space. But I’ve done my best and, with any luck, you’ll be able to follow my explanations (in text) that accompany each photo – we have specific needs for the space.

We have plans for one half of the room – to build shelves behind the sofa in the little alcove there – so I don’t need any advice about that, but I’m including a photo of the enormous whore-red sofa and related clutter. It’ll help you get a better idea of what the room looks like, I think. I should also note that we’re planning to paint the living room, eventually, so the chocolate-brown walls will not be staying forever.

Coffee and I would both love to hear your advice. Please. PLEASE.

The enormous red sofa

This is our sectional sofa. Red. Microfiber-faux-suede thing. To the right are double french doors that lead to the dining room – to the left of the sofa is the entryway for our house (it also leads to the kitchen). Behind the sofa, we’re going to build shelves to give us some storage (currently there’s a table back there with a lamp, some decorative things, and a stack of blankets and pillows.

The brown coffee table was once my childhood toy box – it contains some assorted stuff, inside, but mostly long-term storage because the top of it is generally covered in laptops, tablets, papers, and my feet. Ahem.

The framed print on the left is going to be removed and replaced with two framed (in dark wood) photos, eventually.

We basically know what we’re doing with this half of the room, but go ahead and make some suggestions if you want!

Welcome to our home!

When you walk into our house, through the front door, this is what you see – our living room in all it’s awkward glory. To the left you can see the coffee table, the arm of the sofa, and the french doors that lead into the dining room.

We want to remove that (gas) fireplace because – my god, it’s ugly. It’s ridiculously small and tiny. The brass is awful. We also never, ever use it. The ‘hearth’ consists of salmon-coloured tiles (!). On the mantle, to the left, sits our cordless phone, a galileo thermometer and an essential oil warmer. In the middle is a framed print with a stack of beach rocks in front. The gold thing you can see is my Maneki (kitten) for good luck. You can’t see it, but there are two remote controls next to that. I want to remove the entire thing – fireplace, hearth, mantle.

And then, the enormous tv and the we-need-to-do-something-about-this TV stand/shelf/storage thing. I’ll show you a better picture of this in a second.

On the right side of the picture is our bay window. I couldn’t get a good picture because it’s ridiculously bright outside – I have the blinds mostly closed in this photo! The window ledge has a cat bed on it, two plants (one at either end) and, in front of it, we have our lopsided cat tree (blue base, blue ledge) that gets a LOT of use.

Other notes – the carpet in the room is a beige wool carpet that’s in so-so condition. Weird stains from candy and ink and things, but not bad enough that we want to replace it at this point in time. Maybe when the kids are older? The baseboards are all white-ish and about 6″ high.

The TV Corner

So. This.

The television is 55″ and the stand it’s on makes it so the top of the TV is about 7′ high (I’m estimating and Coffee will show up here, later, to correct me). The entire front of the stand is about 5′.

On top of the television is the Kinect sensor for the xbox.

Directly underneath the TV, on the first shelf, are things that we do not want to enclose – the speakers, the sensor for MythTV, the xbox and the PS2. For convenience, we also have xbox games (we don’t own a lot of them), some DVDs, etc. Those could be moved.

The shelf below, and the floor, have things that could be enclosed – including Coffee computer (which is also our media computer). There are other assorted hardware things here – related to networking, VoIP, our UPS, etc. These things, as mentioned, do NOT need to be viewable but they DO need to be accessible when we need them!

Our thoughts on finishing this thing are to stain the wood a dark colour (to match the coffee table, the mirror frame, the picture frames, etc) to help it blend in OR to paint it all white (to match the trim, window edges and the french doors).

To conceal stuff, we contemplated putting two large doors on the lower half (leaving one open shelf). We considered some sort of fabric – almost like roll-up blinds – fitted into each of the rectangles (the lower 2 shelves, so 6 rectangles). We considered fabric covered wood to fit into each of those rectangles, too.

We’re stuck on it.

So! Keeping in mind that our budget is small – and will be for the foreseeable future, here are the big questions:

- should we rip the fireplace out, and the mantel? And, if so, what should we do with that wall?
- what the hell do we do to finish the TV corner? What would look best?
- what other ideas do you have for the room?

Bonus – I’d like to paint the room a dark denimy-blue-grey. Any objections? Any other thoughts on colours that’d go well with a red sofa, dark-wood furnishings and beige carpeting?

I am SERIOUSLY looking forward to your answers!

Happy New Year, friends!

(And, to Sylvain, a Very Happy New Years! :)

I don’t make resolutions, so I can’t post anything here about how I’m going to be a much better person in 2012. The things that need changing will be changed, or not.

I don’t have any lofty goals of which to speak, because I’ve got some pretty big tasks on my proverbial plate for the coming year and they don’t require me to ‘dream big’, they just require me to ‘work hard’ and maintain my excitement and enthusiasm for them.

I love a fresh start as much as anyone but, for some reason, this year doesn’t feel like one yet. I don’t have that tingly “New!” feeling inspiring me to do anything differently. I woke up, got out of bed, and have been sitting around in my jammas ever since. I’m good with that.

Perhaps this would be a good time to sit and think about all the things I accomplished last year – personally and professionally – but I’m not feeling much like that either. The past year was chock full of blessings that I (mostly) recognized as they were happening, which makes the idea of writing a list feel awkward. For new readers of the blog, it’ll suffice for me to say that my life changed in a lot of ways, and almost all of them were for the better.

I’m always wishing my friends well – in whatever they’re doing, wherever they’re doing it; I don’t feel compelled to write up a big thing about that. My hope is always that my loved ones will thrive, be happy, and have peace in their lives. That includes you!

I guess what I have is a bit of a plan.

My plan for 2012 is a continuation of what I’ve already been doing. It’s a little bit of floating – letting things happen as they do without struggling against it. It’s a little bit of navigating – deciding on a path and working to follow it. It’s a little bit of detachment and a little bit of holding tight.

Most of all, my plan is to focus on things that have meaning to me. To continue purging the things that weigh me down and hold me back. To remove the clutter (both literal and metaphorical) that belonged to a former version of myself. To find the things that resonate deeply, that centre and balance me, and nurture them. To continue to figure out what’s just a habit, and what’s important, and adjust things accordingly.

No resolution, just continued growth.

I have no expectations for 2012. I have no major milestones for which to plan. I am curious, and optimistic, about what’s to come.. and I’m pretty sure that’s the perfect way to start a new year.