Snow Day

Happy Friday!

While these photos look like we were inside a giant snow globe, the snow has mostly melted away. Lady loves to eat snow so she enjoyed this lovely snow buffet and helped herself to as many snow cones as her little heart desired. I was afraid it would give her a tummy ache and so I tried to discourage her but she kinda snuck more gulps behind my back (or so she thought.. I see you, Lady... I totally see you because I have eyes on the back of my head - my third grade teacher used to say this in class and I used to think it was so lame).

Yesterday was our first full day off from Piri's Place and we spent it how we normally spend our first free days, which is cleaning. I've finished all of the downstairs area and today I have our two bedrooms and bathroom upstairs. It normally takes almost the entire day because I vacuum, then go over the floors once more with our Bona floor cleaner (this is God send along with our handheld Dyson), the laundry is going the entire day as we have dog blankets, our bed sheets, sofa covers, dog bed covers, dog toys, bath mats, floor mats to wash. I scrub our rugs, but the best part is that I get to rearrange. This never gets old for me.

This process is a little tiring but it's also incredibly soothing. 

During our snow day, after playing in the snow, Yangkyu and I flipped through Netflix and came across Forgotten, a Korean thriller. It started off great for me, the kind of films I enjoy watching, but I'm not quite sure how much I liked the ending. Has anyone seen this?

If you're like me and enjoy these types of movies, I highly recommend Memories of Murder (2003) and Moss (2010).

Yangkyu and I also began to discuss our spring and summer garden. While I don't think I will ever grow a garden as awesome as my dad's, it always feels great to pick something straight from your backyard to eat and include in our cooking.

And while I love having my own vegetable garden, I didn't want to start from seedlings this year only because I'm lazy, but we are also picky about where seeds come from and don't want to buy any random vegetables that are grown ready to plant. So... well... I guess it's starting from seedling for us, eh? We will most likely go back to the place we always get our seeds from - All Good Things Organic Seeds. 

Our early brainstorming include planting cucumbers, green peppers, crown daisies, Ida Gold tomatoes, and of course some lettuce and herbs, too. I also want to grow some strawberries and get a small lemon tree as well. 

We'll also be arming our backyard with flowers and herbs that deter mosquitos - mainly marigolds, rosemary and lemongrass. I don't get bit by them as much as Yangkyu. They love him to bits. Poor Yangkyu.

It looks like the last frost date in our area is going to mid-April. I think some people start their gardens after Mother's Day just to make sure they are free of any frost, but we like to get an early start.

So exciting! Hurry hurry warm weather!

Some other things I've been dabbling at - Sachiko stitching. I have been meaning to make some pot holders and maybe a couple of place mats. A tote bag would be nice too. I'm also still reading IQ84 and started on One Piece but decided not to read it further. My uncle wanted to be a manga artist but was discouraged from pursing that career path because back then it wasn't deemed a respectable job with stable income. I only wish I had the talents to draw and come up with amazing storylines because it would've been a career path I would've taken in a heartbeat, with my mother's blessing too (she was an artist as well).

There isn't enough hours in the day to do everything I enjoy. Sometimes I miss the chance altogether because I oftentimes try to find blocks of time to do something because I hate having to put something down mid-way. I, of course, never find this block of time, and so I end up not having spent any time on making or reading or baking. *shrug* 

Tomorrow we had big plans to head out to DC with Lady but we will need to make other plans. Not only are there no cherry blossoms but there is the big march for gun control happening which will pretty much cripple roads within DC. We support issue wholeheartedly so we aren't bummed about it at all.

OBG Cocker Rescue, where Lady was adopted from, recently won a contest hosted by We The Dogs DC. They're partnering with Mascot Publishing to print a photobook that will feature dogs in iconic DC locations. Proceeds will go to the top three participating organizations in the contest, and OBG got the most votes. Woot woot.

We have tons of photos of Piri at different monuments, landmarks and neighborhoods but none really of Mr. Bartles or Lady. The deadline to submit photos was yesterday so we missed our chance, but we still wanted to take Lady to the places we used to enjoy and get her some doggy ice cream at Pleasant Pops (we used to go here often with Piri) and head to our favorite little Japanese grocery store called Hana Market. There is always a next time. It would be nice to take her to places where there is a a lot of pedestrian culture and see her ears perk up and her eyes light up with curiosity. 

Have a wonderful weekend, friends. Hope it'll be a good one for you.