The Lazy Blogger

Passover cleaning sucks. Passover sucks. For those wondering I've been busy with both now along with the baby. You would not think these things could occupy whole days and leave you exhausted and you would be wrong. On the bright side, this is probably the cleanest and nicest our townhome has looked since we rented it. I have our bedroom clean (and in need of vacuuming if Adina ever lets me in) and the kitchen, living room and dinning room done. I hope to try to keep them all mangeable in the future, as we get closer to the big day when Adina can move on her own. She can't do it yet really, so it's wonderful leaving her on her back to go and pee since I know exactly where she will be when I get out. I know this luxury will end soon. I also need to childproof. The guest room is still a disaster since it is piled high with boxes of crap we do not want. Speaking of which expect to see the start of sales in the near future. It's going to either be UFO Catchers or BPAL and then doujinshi and anime items. I really just have too much. I have too much and most of it sits in boxes since I do not have time for it.

I'm starting to scope out some new furniture. For adults in their late 30's we own surprisingly little. We never even had all that much in the old house and we got rid of some of the Ikea things. We have: our lovely Ethan Allen Dinning Room table, a barrister bookcase we got from my parents which is lovely, but as an antique has knobs that fall off to be a choking hazard, yeah! our Pottery Barn couch, an Ethan Allen TV stand/media cabinet, Ethan Allen coffee table, antique chest of drawers which none of the drawers work, An "eco" changing table, 2 cheap collapsible Barnes and Nobles bookcases on loan from my Mom, Some ugly wicker storage thing on loan from my Mom which she got when someone tossed it out, the piano, an antique end table which is pretty but huge, our Ethan Allen bed, the antique nightstand I like but needs to be refinished, my glider rocking chair for feeding the baby, the hideously ugly plastic drawers I am using as a nightstand from Target, Adina's super fancy crib, an old Ikea chest of drawers circa 1995, an old Ikea full size bed circa 1995 and its matching nightstand, Adina's beautiful double chest of drawers, and our bookcase-file cabinet combo thing.

Other than things for Adina, we've not bought any furniture in close to 10 years... maybe more. And the problem is our kitchen is not well designed (the space would be great if it was well designed and if we owned I would spend the money but this is a rental) so we have no room for anything and the dinning room can't hold more furniture cause we have a beautiful formal dinning room table. So I am thinking of getting either a Jelly Cabinet, a Pie Safe or a small hutch from Crate and Barrel. I'm also lusting for a new nightstand for me, a bench for the entry way for help putting on shoes and hiding out shoes, and some more bookcases. Wall space is a premium though so trying to find ones that fit is awful. We had lovely built-ins in the last place and now most of our books have sat in boxes for the better part of a year. Eventually I'd love a place to sew and craft but I think that is waiting until we get a house and I can take over a room.

In other annoying news, I wanted to take my two Pocket Fairies (Emeline and Anne) to my parent's but I am not seeing them. Does this mean I left them at home or did I drop them when locking the door last night? ARGH! I want to know where my dollies are.

Sometimes I just feel like I can not win.

My mother is being extremely cranky about my choice in stroller because the people in her office do not approve of it. ~.~ Yes, you read that right, the mothers in her office do not approve of it, so she is being difficult about it. She thinks it is a waste of money and that I do not need a stroller/should stick to a snap-n-go. I personally *HATE* snap-n-gos. I know they are super popular and lot of people swear by them, but I just do not like them at all. I want a real stroller, particularly since after 6 weeks I can join an actual stroller group in my area with other mothers and get exercise and meet people! I've looked at a few other brands, but a 6 week old really does need a bassinet. Hubby says I should just buy the stroller I want and since it's our money that does make the most sense. I mean I've been good and sold a bunch of dolls so I have the money for my stroller.

In other news, my aunt is being difficult. My aunt is super observant Jewish, so for the naming I want to be sure to use a caterer she approves of. I found 2 on the internet that do kosher menus. I was recommended 1 from someone in my synagogue, and got 2 names from my Aunt. She also recommended using Golden Glow for dessert and having tried them before, I *HATE* their desserts. I'd rather eat paper. They are dirt cheap, but so completely gross. (The 2 from my aunt are the only definites she approves of. So over the last few days I've been calling people. The ones from the synagogue, Plaza Dining are on vacation until Sunday. I spoke to ACI and they seemed OK. They won't let me test their food first though, and their menu is only so creative. I appreciate traditional things, but their menu is a little too fishy and heavy and the woman seemed taken aback at the idea of making pasta salad w/o mayo. (My money, my food neuroses) The Whisk, the other internet place, called me back, but I've not had a chance to call them yet. My aunt recommended Gemstone of gotcholent.com and Cafe Cino, though she wanted Gemstone could be pricey since they tried to use organic. Well, Cafe Cino won't do CT, but when I spoke to Ari at Gemstone we really clicked and I think he totally understands my thoughts on food. He might be expensive, but I feel like he can be creative and will relish rules like no mayo and no fish rather than see things as restricting. I had a certain trepidation though when I remembered the food at my Cousins Miriam's baby naming. It was edible... but very... mediocre. And I suddenly worried that Gemstone might be one of those places that bites off more than it can chew.

Well the caterer for the baby naming was Cafe Cino, so I felt relieved, but now my Aunt is really pushing that we use Cafe Cino and is even offering to bring everything up herself since they won't do CT.

I am just like: .......

For the shower, which turned out to be much smaller than anticipated and where I bought some food outside of the Whole Paycheck catering, my Mom was still 15 minutes late with the catered stuff. My aunt has 4 or 5 kids still at home as well as my grandmother... the whole family is always at least 30 minutes + late to everything... no way do I want them to be in charge of bringing up all the food to my event which could have as many as 50+ people in attendance. Even if everyone is on Jewish time and it starts late, I don't want to be waiting on food.

While I appreciate my aunt wanting to save me money, I also feel like.. it's my money, my baby, let me splurge if I want to! Heck, I don't even have a price quote yet from anyone! It's not as if I am expecting to have lots more kids. At this point, Ryuchan is going to be an only child and going a little overboard on an only child is a tradition, right?

I'm thinking of going Friends Only. I woke up this morning to see that someone named brittreviews had friended me and I'm just not in the mood for them to see all my entries.

If someone I know has different political and religious viewpoints than I, but shares a common interest in something else, I can understand why they friended me and they can ignore my posts on subjects they don't agree on and I can do likewise. But it makes me extremely uncomfortable to have someone whose religious views differ so from my own and who as far as I can tell shares no interests in common with me reading my LJ posts.


EDITED have banned the above user from commenting on this LJ and will do so in the future if similar situations occur.

I'm not sure about going flist only, but I am definitely going to lock anything more personal from now on.

So I think I am going to skip out on the Tenshi no Sato event. I've been thinking about it and thinking about it and when it comes right down to it, dreading it. Yeah I could maybe get something there, but it will involve waking up at some awful hour and standing in line for hours, which is just really not overly appealing.

I'm not arguing Volks needs to change its practices. These methods work in Japan, in fact the Japanese almost seem to enjoy waiting in line to try to get something. Since arriving here on Thurs night I've seen people: waiting in line for a restaurant to open, waiting in line to buy some sort of sweet potato product in Tokyo Station, waiting in line for I think movie tickets and this does not even include line waiting for HaruComi or any of the circles there or any of the Pachinko Parlors I am sure people are waiting for.

But see with Haru, or SCC or even a Comiket, I know if I get up early enough in the morning chances are really high I *WILL* actually get what I want. I might wait in line for hours for something to start and then wait in line for a big circle once the event has started, but my chances of actually getting something are pretty high. I will be rewarded. This is not true at a Volks event. I never draw a good lottery # and instead I will spend hours waiting in line for naught except aggravation. Do I like the bamboo wings, yes, yes I do. Do I like them enough to wait 2-3 hours in line for maybe a chance to buy? My answer is a little less strong.

It also doesn't help that I will be getting up early to stand in a long line on Sunday.

Volks can keep their lottery practices and not revealing how large a release will be, and I have the option to not play.

I think I am going to take it.

Blah, it's more than 90 today with high humidity and my house has no air con and I just want to melt. The HP fan-fic I love which introduced me to the joys of Snupin has mysteriously vanished and I never saved it to my hard drive because it was 80 or so chapters and didn't seem worth it. I also managed to forget the Tipping Point at home when I went to the gym, so I didn't get to read it. So much sadness.

I've also decided that it is hard to be maven. I so want to share advice and try to help people, but then people keep doing dumb things. I seriously can not fathom why you would pay $100 to do a SunRise Tour of Kyoto. You can do the same tour by cab and skip the Kyoto Handicrafts Center which is when push comes to shove a tourist trap. Yes, the items they sell are nice and traditional but you can get the same items for the same price in the Narita Airport and not have to lug them around Japan with you.

I've also been frustrated with the person on DoA was in Japan for GW and insists it is "kin-Yobi" in Japanese. She also doesn't seem to grasp that there are no trains that are reservation only. She ignored my posts on DoA about how expensive train travel is and didn't get a pass only to later post, "oh yeah, everyone get a pass cause it was $300 to Kyoto." ~.~

Did I mention it is incredibly hot and humid.

About the only good thing I can think of is many of my seedlings now have a second set of leaves, that and I am so getting pizza tonight.