
We’ve been sick with a really rough cold for close to two weeks, and Ash just caught what Clive and I had on xmas day. There is SO much mucus. I’ve never seen this much snot come out of such a small nose. And then there’s the coughing and then the whining that comes directly after. I bought $20 homeopathic nasal congestion water at Shopper’s the other day, simply out of desperation. I call it “magic water” to Ash, but it doesn’t do a damn thing. I just hope he gets over it faster than I have.
Xmas was nice. We had our own little family gift opening and breakfast eating thing in the morning. Ash got a couple of Plan Toys vehicles from me, and an atrocious plastic jeep from his dad. Clive seemed excited about it, so I kept most of my displeasure about it to myself. All the money I spend on plastic-alternatives goes down the toilet when he comes home with that. Sigh.
Clive bought me a new camera. This is five cameras we own now- but this one is great because it’s small and can fit into my purse, which is the point of it. I hate carrying around the Rebel. We were going to upgrade our Rebel to the next in the series (it was on sale at Future Shop for $449 for Boxing Day), but decided against it because I realize that I’m not as thrilled with the Rebel as I want to be. I’m not sure if we’d be able to sell our old Rebel for $500, which is what I’d want to do if we were going to upgrade.
I bought Clive two lift tickets and rentals to the local ski slope (a very small mountain) so that we can have a day away from Ash. We had a lot of fun when we went on a river rafting trip this autumn, so I know it’s going to be fun. As long as I don’t break anything. I haven’t been skiing in more than ten years.
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Last night I built a light box using a tutorial I found online. It works well- I don’t have enough small lamps to light it really well, so it takes some manuvering with a lamp in one hand and the camera in the other, but the outcome looks better than any other pictures I’ve taken.
Here’s the lightbox itself: it literally cost me $2 to make- tissue paper and a piece of bristol/poster board.

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Anyone have any guesses to what this brown sludge could be that’s coming out of our walls in the bedroom? It’s fucking disgusting and smells awful and has ruined a mattress of ours that was up against the wall (I hadn’t noticed the sludge until it stained the mattress). Could it be tar leaking out of the walls from years and years of the previous tenants smoking?








