Thursday thursday

the list

Japanese routine :

Duolingo profile at level 20 : done already, first thing, before schoolbus even

Clozemaster (Japanese then Chinese, 10 sentences each)  :  done

BaltoSlav Japanese words and pictures : at least 25 cards up to ? : done 75+

Babadum Japanese at least 50 cards : done to 75

Duolingo profile at level 11 : done, second thing, when I turned my second daily alarm off on the phone

*growl* I should do some more WaniKani review, but I don't wanna -------------

I did fifteen cards the other day and that felt like a lot as I had to make notes on ten out of the fifteen.   The format is much tougher - it's wrong it's just marked wrong AND doesn't come back up anytime soon unless it is related to another it is asking about - and it has konyomi readings which have to be spelled out perfectly as well as translation meanings.

 

I took a picture of the rosehips on the wild roses for someone I had given another type of rose plant to earlier this year.  She keeps wondering why her rose cutting I gave her is dying back and then getting just a few new leaves etc... I told her just keep watering it enough and when it gets to be winter it will be dormant, then in the Spring she'll see the magic. (ie: pink 'confederate' style multilayered roses)  The new leaves are a very good sign that it has grown much more root (it had 2 inches when I repotted it for her). 

Should I go and get chicken feed today?  It is in a different town than the place I went for groceries yesterday.  It is perhaps going to rain tomorrow, and then I work for three days (also raining).  There is still plenty of chicken feed - but I'm twitching whether I should go and do it while I have brain and time, and if the vehicle wasn't being tetchy it wouldn't really be a question of anything more than pushing myself out the door.  I should find some sort of plastic bin to put the backup battery in in the back of the truck, and then I'd feel better about that.  It would fit temporarily in my big toolbox if I took everything else out of it.

One of our older dogs, the one that hardly ever goes outside for more than two minutes, decided to go out the front door when I was getting the elderly cat in this morning.  She ran off up the road nose to the ground.  And she finally came back in with Charlotte now after about an hour.  I would have chased her this morning but she was doing the 'ha ha you can try but you can't catch me' and hasn't actually wanted out there in months... so I shrugged and said 'ok'.

Drink more coffee... think.  I sort of feel like today is in a holding pattern as I'm waiting on our paycheck to pay the bills, but don't have work or anything else that is actually required.  I don't feel fired up to cook anything in particular.  And that chicken feed bin is nearly full.  They will eat the stuff from the other store (that is open more hours than the one I would go to today, and also open on Sunday where this one is not), but I can definitely smell the difference between the two (commercial bigbox store stuff is darker, and smells like soy sauce) and have noticed that they eat this Amish-feed-and-tack-store stuff so much more willingly than the other, chasing handfuls of it across the yard etc.

timmas spred sig bra:

illustrations for the little cat book

my daughter had made me a really excellent cover image, but she was too shy to make any more for the interior of the book

I keep telling myself I should do a bit more on that.  I should really do a lot more on several of the stories that are 'ready but not ready.... '  They say if you keep holding it back because you don't think it's good enough it is really just that you're scared to give it away into the world where others will now see these thoughts.  That is very true with House of Sunlight, because those stories are of a 'wait, what, you broke my brain' twisted nature, as most of them began as dreams.  But the cat book is 'safe', mindless little cat story that is about being cute and even so, the grammar doesn't really matter as much because it is told by a cat.  Like that fox nine book I read.  But still, I never wrote the last story I had intended to (and my undercurrent says so?  make that the sequel, if it ever happens) but the book has well enough to stand on it's own at the same time with the five stories that are written in it. 

**lots of work today**... with still trying to keep it simple

I got somewhere: 

illustration from 'Mikki Mack' book

I submitted my little cat book for final review, without ordering a proof of it - I think it has one spelling error in it, maybe I can fix after they review it, the ebook thing pointed that out to me (it was in a name).

Throughout this heat, I've been making sure to water some every night.  And it is finally supposed to rain some tomorrow.  Harvested more basil and arugula tonight, washed and chopped them, and put them in the freezer.  I think I'll have to put that in a tomato sauce if I want Esme to eat any of it at all.  Or I can make another egg frittata with it.  There is another flush of little green tomatoes coming on two of the plants, and the cucumbers want to do something, again.  The peppers aren't sure, they took a beating in this hot weather, shedding some of their leaves, but they're thinking of blooming again.  There are little tendrils of potato leaf coming up above the soil where I had planted the potatoes last week. 

tuesday catch up study

Tuesday, and I do not have big plans.  But I want to catch up on my language lessons because I pretty much fell asleep early last night and slept most of the night - which doesn't happen too often.  But yesterday was a long day, on the end of three other active days.

I went ahead and did Clozemaster Japanese and Chinese in the morning, because I skipped them last night.  I make notes on several things, but I'm getting 7 or 8 out of 10 right on the Japanese, less on the Chinese, but the Chinese characters really inform my kanji learning.

I also did a full 50 xp on Duolingo at Japanese level 20.  I've finally reached that a few days ago and it is getting into new territory for me.  There are still a lot that I already know, but a few of the 'new words' are actually new words for me.

Did Baltoslav tools, words and pictures in Japanese, and paid attention to the kanji as well as the hiragana / katakana - trying to pronounce even words I don't know, and translate from the kanji as a help tool.  The kanji often gives clues to what the word will mean - if it has to do with plants, people, structures etc etc...  The little that I know of kanji is actually helpful with this.

'is that a brain or ground hamburger?'

'don't know, let's pour some coffee on it and see if it responds'

'simpler, do you want to study kanji today?'

'(*sobbing*)   OK, it's a brain'

 

Ate onigiri (rice balls) that were in the fridge from before the weekend.  Laundry, dishes, poking around a bit here and there returning again and again to meme stuff because that is what showed up in my feed and I needed a brain break to absorb what I had just learned. Drank much much coffee, talked with Mark for a good while.  I feel I have missed out on being nose-to-the-ground in studies before, high school, college.... tangled up feelings with what society wants me to study and know and what I actually want to learn and chase down.

Went ahead and listened to a few anime conversations in Japanese, because they came up in my feed.  Then found NHK Lessons on the Japanese broadcasting site through poking around looking for an empty N5 Kanji chart.  I have one somewhere, but I may have to erase all the answers on it and then come back later when I don't have them memorized.

I can do the level 11 Japanese on my phone after a bit.  I keep walking by it, thinking my phone is in my case on my desk - picking it up, finding it empty, and then saying I'll go to the charger and get my phone later.  Later comes, I've drank  more coffee, and walked right by it another three times.

Then I have babadum I can do for a bit, and decide if I want to slide into another language or pick up a few more Japanese lessons on DL or switch to Chinese there (L9 vs L6 on pc and phone). 

Later, when my brain has had enough, I'll let it slide into French by playing a few game-days on Stardew valley or taking a nap until it is time to make supper and feed animals.

//interesting note - I'm finding myself putting my fingers to my lips while looking at the balto-slav hiragana and trying to sound out the word - I'm not speaking, often, except in my head, but even when I take my finger away when I began thinking again about how the word sounds, it snaps right back there  

these little involuntary things are interesting to me... I have not found myself doing that with latvian or even russian(cyrillic writing)... but Japanese, I'm doing that

bit :

went out into the yard to check the chicken's water since it is supposed to be 101 degrees today... luckily, at this time of the season, the big cedar tree shades their water area in the afternoon - so they are all sitting in the shadow of that big tree, by their water dish, enjoying themselves  

We keep our air conditioning set at 87 - which keeps the basement of this half-underground house a little cooler than that, because of the concrete flooring and concrete in-ground walls.  I came in from outside and thought boy, the house, even the upstairs, is noticeably cooler than outside!  Check, and the weather site says this - 107 right now.  OK, that could explain that.  The dogs all wanted in from outside, but Loki cat says 'tscha' and is stretched out in the shade under the trees in the yard.  I saw Mama cat Minion and Lyffan earlier today but haven't seen them for a while - probably show up in another few hours from wherever they have been hiding in the shade.  Esme came home off the school bus and the driver had been posting how very hot like an oven the bus was.  Esme says 'really, it's THAT hot?  I really don't even notice the temperature.'  This she says while wearing a long-sleeve sweatshirt hoodie and jeans.  Which, she almost always does, even when it is 0 degrees I have a hard time getting her to put a coat on at the bus stop for that time we are up there.

anyway, recorded for posterity  I brought the backup battery in from the back of my truck, but will probably bring it with again when I get groceries.  It is at 12.5 volts, which it was a few days ago.  When the truck was having an issue and the light first came on, it was registering 11.9 and dropping.  Then the mechanic fixed a few things quickly, replaced a fuse and I'm not sure what the other thing was - but the running voltage went from 11.9 to 13.86, and now it is 14.2 while running.  So, it wasn't charging the battery, he replaced some small quick parts and now it is.  When I got home from that it was then at 13.1, and 13.0 the next day, but the warning light was still on.  The other day I stopped once on the way home and the regular truck battery was 12.9 when I got home.  Then the next day I didn't stop, and it was 12.99.  I stopped on the way to work for gas and tested when I parked it at the office and it was 13.1 after a very short drive (which is why I was worried, no time to charge it between the two).  I didn't test it this last time I parked it but so far I'm at a loss as to why that light is still on.

Thursday bits

Daphne (dog, 12 years old), and Melody (blind dwarf Nigerian goat) out in the yard as I was cooking this morning, talking (I think) about the cat that had been sunning himself in that area just recently and where he was now that he was out of smell range.  They both went back and forth in that same little area for a little while after the cat got up, and the goat seemed to 'ask questions' to the dog, and then finally they both laid back down for a bit before Daphne decided it was time for her to bark at the door and go into the other bigger yard.

It is August, and the yard has been really really dry - but they have a big water trough (not seen from this angle) and we dump it and refill it every few days (lots of salamanders, frogs, and even sometimes little ringneck snakes there!).  There is some pigweed growing in one area but the goat finds anything she can reach that she likes (including tree branches and vines on the fence) and eats it with relish, as well as her alfalfa and oats she gets inside the house when we bring her in every few hours for a snack and a scratch and someone to tell her she isn't alone.  

 

Dogs and cats always going in and out at all hours, they each have their own way of asking.. we laugh sometimes that the goat 'meows' at the door when she is really lonely, having learned it from the cats.  That's even funnier, because the cats are Manxes and they hardly can make a squeak - but the goat really does sound like a cat when she cries loudly.

 

Made fried rice from leftovers and green onions in the freezer.  Crushed up a few dry roasted peanuts to put on top with some red chili paste.  I need to make another pot of rice to put up for the weekend later, but I have the container I like to keep it in the dishwasher right now. (reason for using up the last bit of rice)

 

Esme and Mark worked on the electrical boxes and wiring that she is trying to learn.  He had her taking bits apart in the garage to learn how to do it hands-on.  She has said she wanted to study that more, but hadn't been willing to get her hands on things that might break - so he gave her some old things from building the house and asked her to dismantle them to their base parts and then they'll hook them back up and she can see how to do it all properly in the garage circuits.

Other than that, did two hours of Japanese learning this morning, much more than I usually ever do for only one language.  And that is on top of what I will do later on this evening.  Usually I do about 15 minutes to an hour of multiple languages in the morning, and repeat that (not always with the same languages) later in the evening.  

This week, I've been doing almost exclusively Japanese.  I was told that Japanese is my best bet for any future translation work - and I admit it needs some more focus than I was giving it, especially in vocabulary.  

I'm doing the level 19-->20 on one Duolingo account, and reviewing level 10 Japanese on the other one instead of using the second one for multiple languages as I had been doing.  I've done babadum several times a day to 50 or 100 cards, baltoslav tools a few times each (you get three-strikes-out on there, but you can start over as many times as you want)  and tried translating anything I see on FB and Pinterest, and doing Clozemaster (that is Japanese and then Chinese, which does help with understanding the kanji characters), although that is only a few minutes every night.  My brain is doing the 'Hey, do you know this?' for words and symbols even when I'm doing other things, so that is working.  I know it is working best when the language keeps infringing later and things I didn't get quite right or wasn't 100% certain about (what is the symbol for ima (now, in Japanese), you know it when you see it but what IS it.. could you draw it?)

*baltoslav vs. babadum:  baltoslav there is no sound - you have to know what it says (hiragana or katakana shown, my katakana is still a bit shaky in the f and r sections, actually.. but this is helping), BUT, the kanji are there to help / intrigue you... and make connection.  You can keep google translate up in the next window and check the pronunciation to make sure you are reading it right, and that is cheating - but what is better than immediate reinforcement of the right sound / meaning when you don't know it?  babadum is the pronunciation and the hiragana/katakana mix, but no kanji, and you don't get to check what the right answer was because it is swoop onto the next thing, you got it right or wrong - and that is pretty good for learning like a child, as well - you start remembering what the right thing is because you want to get it right, but I am finding using both I'm learning differently on both, and that both help tamp down the pegs into the right places for vocabulary.  I think I kind of need a little of both.

I get along pretty good in it when I'm focusing on it, although I would still say it is well below my reading ability in French.  Japanese uses its own scale (N5 being the lowest level, up to N1 the fluent level) than the European languages (A1 being the lowest, and then A2, B1, B2 and C1 and C2 reaching fluent level).  I would have to say I know a lot of N5, but probably would still have to take a test in it several times because I am sure there are gaps between what they test and teach, just like everything has.  

 

I have a short work shift tomorrow, hoping the vehicle does all it should.  And then I have regular shifts on Saturday and Sunday.  I don't know when there might be traction on the little car we were told about - but he says he will let us know as soon as he knows something.  I stopped by there with the truck yesterday and got some of the issues it is having right now worked out, but not all - that brake spring is still not easy to fix, the fix we made broke again on the way back to the house *sigh*

Still : 

Yesterday the washing machine was acting up and the dryer looked like it had not dried the clothes or I had forgotten to turn it on.  Reset everything, and the washer finished out okay - whatever it was, it worked out.  The washing machine spun down to empty.  The dryer dried the clothes, and then I put the washed clothes in for the next load and they dried, as well.  I made dinner, Mark changed up what he was doing halfway through, and suggested instead we make two separate meals where I was working on one .. but I segued and still made what we were looking for, and what he wanted, and then we sat down and ate it while watching a cute film 'Earwig', a 2020 Studio Ghibli collaboration I had not even heard of.  I had a small nosebleed for about an hour through all of that - whatever luck that was it decided that was the right time for it and I just kept moving and tried to get done what we were doing, and it stopped finally.  I haven't had that for a long time, but then I haven't had a sinus infection for months, either - so I guess it follows trying to clear out all of that.   Today, I'm doing okay, working on the language work.  Next stress will be getting the vehicle to work on Friday and back home - and the battery is charging itself now, it was at 13.03 volts after I returned home which is well enough to crank it for Friday.   I just have to remember to not let the brake lights stay on when I'm not in the vehicle.

Funny bit : 

Night before last we made some egg / rice dog bread stuff with the rest of the pork grease and broth in the pork roast pan.  That is sort of a rich treat, so they didn't get all of it after it cooled, and we put some up in a bag in the fridge to give out here and there.  This morning, when I let the dogs out after the school bus ran, they lounged around the porch for a while.  Then, Minerva started barking she wanted to come in.  I went to let her in and the other two, Daphne and Charlotte, were laying in the leaves.  They both simultaneously put heads up, ears rotated, and everything about their body language said 'Will there be Snacks?'  It was a very clear communication to me.. so I said 'There could be, yes.'  To which, they popped up immediately and came running in to the house and all the way downstairs in front of me.  

Minerva had gotten up on the couch while I was talking to them, and looked at me like 'What did I miss?'  I said 'Snacks, come on' and she popped up and went downstairs, too.  I started giving them out and called for Sweetie, who was sleeping in the office on a dog bed, and she didn't come.  I went into the office with a piece in my hand and she curled up tightly and said 'I don't want another bath! (she got one last night, and it was cold apparently all night for her)'  But then I bounced the egg bread in my hand and she popped her head up and said 'OH' and followed me back into the kitchen.  Everybody got two more bits of egg bread and I put the last back up for later tonight.

I just love dog language - it is funny, and their emotions are very deep, from the I don't want a bath to surprise to pleading with their eyes for something they know is there (in the fridge, downstairs) and I still understand exactly what they are 'talking' about.

work weekend done

 

Went out and delivered packages today, came home and started a new orchard on the Stardew Valley game.  Have been doing Japanese for the past few days trying to catch myself up a little.  We also watched several Studio Ghibli movies, and I could recognize more of the writing and some of the words in subtitles on the Ponyo movie.  We watched The Cat Returns tonight, and  I had not ever seen that one before.  Mark made a sloppy-joe type sauce and mixed it with day old white rice he had in the fridge - and it was very good.  I haven't done quite that combination and the starch tasted much different than with 'new' rice.  

We all worked together and transplanted the coleus we made cuttings from two weeks ago into a new bed outside.  Those were the prettiest cuttings we selected, and the resulting small plants are very pretty, indeed.  We have to start thinking about harvesting seed from the entire field soon - which is how we got so many coleus this year, from harvesting seed from just a few big plants last year.  I saw a whole family of little cedar waxwing type birds enjoying the seeds on that and several other vines on the fence today - I called Esme out of her room so she could see them twittering about with each other and walking upside-down on the vines.

I have used some of this yellow mustard seed before - and added it and some fennel (and celery seed and black pepper) to a pea soup I made yesterday, and finished eating today.  I'm trying to keep this sinus infection in check, and it is much less than it was yesterday and the day before.  It's almost clear today but now I have to worry about the congestion still.  I haven't had one of these type of sinus infections in months, and then I get it in the summer... figures.  I used to get these infections every few months when I worked at the dusty hardware store and was in the public daily constantly exposed to everyone else's germs - so I know what to do for them, but still.. I'd like this one to move on (and it only will through drinking as much liquids as possible : soup and teas (spearmint/licorice in coffee, ginger licorice in coffee and the eucalyptus 'throat tamer' stuff that used to be sold as Mama Bear's Cold Care) and steam, avoiding sugar and milk (not easy) a decongestant once in a while, and trying not to get into any more dust and sneezing myself into a worse situation.  I have some brown mustard seed and some caraway seed I have never used much of - from the same time I bought the mustard and fennel above - may try some of both of those if I make some more soda bread this week.

I don't have work again until Friday, unless someone calls.  Mark wants me to run and get a few groceries tomorrow that we didn't know we were out of until today.  If I had known when I was in town, today, I would have gotten them then.

Daphne's legs seem to be a little better, but she is still stiff at times - probably after running through the woods and then stretching out on the gravel to sleep - I told her she needs to stop running around after deer and rabbits with the other dogs and just let her pulled muscles heal up.

On the Japanese I'm doing the low level on the phone, and the higher level on the computer, and then Clozemaster as well.  I didn't do babadum today but I might go do at least twenty cards there now before I go back to extending Alma's orchard (the character above, in Stardew Valley)  'Alma' means apple in Hungarian :)  and a few other languages, as well.  Right now I just have acorns or maple seeds planted where the fruit trees will go (as the fruit trees are expensive and she is still in her first Spring, saving up to get one of each I want to know where I'm going to put them).

Two workdays language geek

 

As a part-time postal carrier my work week revolves around the weekends, when the full-timers are usually off.  I work during the week sometimes, sometimes I work the entire week with no days off... but it's all sort of up in the air and week to week I'm not sure of anything except - I'm usually working the weekend unless I arrange for something else to happen.  Also - I passed two years on DuoLingo streak the other day... but since the hearts upgrade I'm still quite unhappy with how sensitive the spelling and such is and how much that stagnates my progress.

 

So, this is Saturday and Sunday.  My daughter's birthday was on Saturday but we did things for her on Friday because I knew Saturday was going to be a full day with getting dark early etc etc..

 So I got home, we made dinner and watched a movie and did the dishes and I did a minimum amount of a few languages and crashed.  That is a typical Saturday.. yes. 

 

Sunday I run Amazon packages, and it starts a little later.  It was also Daylight Savings Time so my animals had me up 'early'.. and I got a little language work in because hey, I was up anyway.  Made dinner after work, watched some tv episodes on DVD, did a few language things and played a game, then crashed.. took a Welsh grammar lesson in the middle of the night when the dog had me up, but I failed it by two questions and have to retake it when my credits on that site pop back up. *sigh*  One 'cat's tail' apostrophe in the wrong place or a ddim () nawr instead of a erbyn hyn and it goes down.

I haven't been called in yet on Monday, and my chart is up in the other screen.  I only do the charts for a little bit, and it gives me an idea what my 'average' is... and how much I switch off for variety.  It's also been a stressful few weeks and I realize I fall back to doing more in French at times when I have stress - the grammar level is much much higher than the Spanish or the Japanese, but still, my brain likes it better and starts sub-translating more again as below:

On the route - aucun côté ou autre côté?  Ah!  Na ça va... ça va a ci.

I have no idea why I think aucun côté instead of something like 'ce côté' or 'mon côté' or even 'pas du côté' but it's in my brain that way when I don't have to go the other side of the vehicle and I think it's a mnemonic thing that the two terms 'aucun' and 'autre' feel right and left handed pair to me...

bits

Esme and I have 'affectionately' termed this slub yarn 'Octopus Vomit'... it was a dollar a ball at the flea market last year and I found it during some organizing the other day.  It makes up for it by being warm.. but it's really kind of atrociously ugly.  I'm crocheting a lap blanket out of it along with stripes of some red and white I have lying about.


Language Mess
I've tried to take on the Japanese lessons again.. and I understand more the second time through than I did before.  However, while Welsh (Cymraeg) came easily to me (and Spanish seems hopeless.. which makes me want to try it again again again....) Japanese is there but in an entirely different 'place'.  Welsh rings like French right through my ears.. mostly straight through as words that I recognize.  Japanese has an extra 'bounce' quality where it feels like it accesses areas above my ears on the right side (I'm looking at Hiragana.. so that is probably it) as I'm listening and then making a 1-1 repeat imprint about the symbols to the sounds that is different than English or Welsh or French using the roman alphabet.  I remembered almost all of the Hiragana easily from the last time I went through these lessons... just some of the (consonant)-0 and (consanant)-a variations being hard to tell apart.  The biggest change is I am hearing the spaces between the spoken words better now than before - and can tell where there are modifiers and which word they are 'stuck' onto...modifiers like -wa and -ka being stuck to specific words instead of being words in their own right.   I'm continuing with the Welsh/Cymraeg in SSIW and Duolingo and getting very quick with it.  I like that I can listen to the Duolingo without looking at it and know exactly what words I'm going to see, that comes from SSIW and listening to Pigion podcasts and watching Teledu yn Cymraeg (television in Welsh).

Genmaicha tea or Why are you heating dry rice in a pan at 10 o clock at night?

I remember years and years ago at the little health food store in Grand Rapids (the one on the street across from Janicke Bakery) buying something called Genmaicha tea.  It was green tea with toasted brown rice in it.  Here is the Wikipedia link to Genmaicha tea.    I bought it at the Asian grocery in Fargo, too.. but have not found it or any good source for it here in Tennessee where I live now. 

I've been craving some for a few years now, but it is always expensive to try to find it and ship it in.

So last night, by some half-awake 'Eureka' of the mind, I thought 'Hey, I could toast some rice of my OWN... and get at least halfway to the idea.'  Well.  Let's just say Mark saw me come home with a bag of rice from the store at 10 o clock that night after work and I was stirring dry rice in the pan when he wandered downstairs to wonder what that smell was.   I had to convince him that no, I wasn't sleepwalking yet and yes, I did know there was no water in my fried rice. *heh*   When he heard my story about the tea as usual he just chalked it up to 'weird things Rhe does sometimes with food.'   I think it worked though.  Several of the little pieces of rice popped during the toasting, which is supposed to happen.

I have a small container of cooled toasted brown rice (that I might toast darker in the oven this morning) and it does make the green tea taste different when soaked with it.  It's been more than twenty years since I drank this on a regular basis...I'm not sure if I've got it right.  But, it was worth 80 cents and a few minutes to give it a try.  I threw some Oolong tea in my Amazon cart, as I really like having a large array of teas to choose from and was reading the benefits of oolong vs. 'regular' green tea.

I also had brown rice on the mind because I had been looking up some work lunch ideas.  One of the ideas was brown 'sticky rice', which was an intriguing idea.  I'm not sure if I can get that to happen.  I'm not sure if I want to buy a rice cooker next month (half the recipes seem to think it helps a lot).  I found this recipe How to Cook Brown Rice from Japan Centre.  It mentions sushi vinegar, which is vinegar with salt and sugar in it.  I may have my cooking ideas occupied for a week or more.  I'll note that I found this cooking lesson from Kitchn.com a much more feasible recipe alternative to the one where you let it sit for 2 to 3 hours in the water before you cook it.

Today I just want to make some plain brown rice and add a bit of avocado to it on the side, with my red curry paste.  I had the last of my Greek Yogurt this morning with almond butter and honey roasted sunflower seeds in it.  Only one dog thought that bowl was fit to lick - and that was the bluetick.  It's odd, as she hardly likes anything.  When I made the red cabbage the other day all of the dogs were huddled around me anytime they smelled it.  So my cooking has fans, but not the two most people would suspect in the household.

Octy octopus

Octy the octopus
available to order at the shop

This was the first try from a pattern I sketched earlier this year and never did anything with... some hangups trying to get the tentacle undersides to match up in the middle.. but, pretty good for a 'shoot for the moon' sort of try.  I almost gave up twice - but I'm glad I didn't.l. because he is cute.

Esme wants to bring him with to the Japanese restaurant today.  We're going to do some math on Khan Academy - and then head out after that.  She bought a little toy bird with some of her Christmas money and she is eating some fruit salad.  We talked about how kiwis and strawberries are different but same.. and she had this odd question this morning if chopped onion and rice were the same thing - and why is one raw and one is cooked...sometimes what she springs on me sounds like an alien traversing our culture... it would never have occurred to me to think chopped onion and rice were similar, they look similar - but they are entirely different.. and she wants to see how.

On to math.. update later.

9.15a    - drawing animals

 I liked her rhino - thought we might make a toy like it later.  She said she scribbled and it 

looked like a rhino, so she drew the rest of it in.

9.30a    - break

10a    - store and bank, handling money
10.30a    - break

11.50a    - kahn academey math - did the bar graphs and finished the word problems, did some review
12.50p    - break

1.30    - sushi place
2.30    - library - building Atlantis and towers with two other children, reading some of her book, playing a music program with different instruments and patterns.
4    - break

5p    - Reading aloud ("Some Pig", EB White)
5.15p    - spelling - writing - homonyms etc...
5.35p    - break

6p    - Monopoly (we introduced the idea of being shortchanged, and traded properties so she could build houses)
7.30p    - done

Now she's making a villainry flag - because she will only help a little, so they don't know she is a superhero.  It is a pirate flag with a razor saw and a shark on it.