It all makes sense… this article on traditional Japanese homes describes exactly how I’d like our space to be, with a touch of western flair of course (I don’t think the computers and surround sound speaker system really fit in to traditional….). It also explains why I keep thinking we need to just get rid of our bed for another futon… OK, I’m the only one that didn’t figure out that Futons are traditional Japanese beds….

Anyways, have a read. I didn’t know I would get so much clarification on my ideal loft vision from a discussion of traditional Japan….

I want to make a wall panel like this table. I don’t know about the screens ’cause they will get knocked over by the cat, but I Really like this look… the dark wood with the paper… I’m not sure where we can get lattice

… Like this! I’m thinking if we don’t get a new futon for our bed, we may close off the bedroom with a shoji screen like this. I think this looks absolutely amazing…

Jasper was relaxing. Oh soooo relaxing. We stayed at the Pyramid Lake Resort in a gorgeous room with 20 foot ceilings and a comfy gas fireplace. It was great to get up and not have to *do* anything. Here’s a pic from our balcony just before sunrise…

And here’s me not wanting to get out of bed…

Extremely belated pics of the kids when Auntie Kris and I took them out to the indoor play place. Goddess babies allow aunties to crawl around in giant tubes and go down slides without anyone questioning their intentions. Good times

This week has been crazy. CRAZY I tell you!

I’ve got until next Tuesday booked off for holidays, but that means I’ve been working my ass off to get as much done before I left. I finally decided I didn’t want to come back to a tonne of work, so I’m having one of the guys who did well in our interviews (we’re hiring 2 more ppl for my peer team…) act for me while I’m gone. It will be nice to have someone else dealing with my email, voice mail, and the constant stream of traffic to my desk. He’ll be able to handle all basic stuff anyway, so when I get back I won’t be swamped.

So… lets see. Saturday we celebrated my Mom’s birthday. YAY! Happy birthday, Mom (Which is actually today) – My Mom is the coolest Mom anyone could ever have. I love her to pieces. She’s fun, energetic, smart, down to earth, and supportive. She’s also hot and I hope I look half as good as her when I’m her age

Sunday Kris and I chased after the twins (24 mos. old) at an indoor play place all afternoon. A few pictures to come, although I spent more time chasing them than worrying about pics so they’re not as good as they could have been. The kids had tonnes of fun, and so did we.

Monday and Tuesday was my 2 day management forum at work. We flew in all our peers from Calgary and Burnaby, which was great as I hadn’t met everyone before even though we talk all the time. Monday we all went out to Reds after for supper and games, and a company sponsored bar tab – and had a great time. Unfortunatly I missed the highlight of the night – although I heard all about it – when my manager and his boss, our director, went head to head on one of those dance move games. Apparently it was a riot.

Tuesday a handfull of awards were handed out to our crowd of about 50, and I got one of them. I got a great bottle of wine (apparently after seeing the bar tab from the night before, they knew just what to get us!) for all the work I’ve done with our performance management processes both within and external to our department. Yay me!

This morning, we’re doing laundry, packing, and downloading GPS coordinates (why? Geocaching!) for 3 days in Jasper. Ahh…. relaxation.

So – I’ll update again in a couple of days, and hopefully my life won’t be quite as crazy in the next while!

I’m eating nibs ’cause I’m craving sugar, I really want to sleep ’cause I’m tired, and I need to go to art class in an hour. Reilly says I have to go to art class because otherwise he won’t go to coffee to study. Hrm.

Did I mention his photography is phenomenal? More about that another time.

Speaking of photography, he’s run around and taken pictures of some of my recent crafty or artisit endeavors. I’m taking over this entire domain, so the root of FragileWorks will be my gallery site then I’ll have this journal. Sometime in the next while when I grow time I’ll get everything up. yay!

Good things about today:

- Sun still up when I left work
- Reilly’s latest photographs (B&W) turned out amazing
- Art class tonight. We’re working on oil paintings
- My bulletin board is up at work. Now I get to be a kid tomorrow and cut out lillypads and stuff to put my team’s names up and such. I figure I mine as well have the nicest board around Not that I don’t have enough else to do, but at least my board will look good!
- Really paying attention to and noticing how yoga has changed things… I can do poses I couldn’t before, or can do them better, and this is translating into general health stuff too. More about that later.

I think I’m going to watch the news and nap before art class. *yawn*

Mothering Magazine — Good Housecleaning: Five Non-Toxic, Get-the-Dirt Out Basics

Natural Life Topic – Home – Voluntary Simplicity

I’ve been in Yoga now for the past 5 weeks, and I love it! I’ll be going twice a week starting Jan 7. I’m also doing some about once a week or so at home, so I’m getting avg. 2 hrs/week currently, will be 3 1/2 + come January. This is good.

I need to start using my treadmill again as well, although this is not so easy. Sigh. Even 15 min every few days would help, I just need to setup and clean my bedroom and such and start.