Adventures in Dysfunctional Appliances...

Last Thursday, my fridge made some really odd noises, then quit working. By noon on Monday, the repair person still hadn't come to fix it. Except for some of the meat and dairy items I was able to send to chill out with the neighbours (HA! Sorry about the dreadful pun.), everything else had to be chucked. About 2 hours after everything wound up in a trash bag, the repair guy came and fixed it. It seems that there's something on the underside of the fridge that sucks up things like dust and cat hair. Lots and lots of cat hair. Eventually, the fan thingy choked on cat hair and expired. The upside of the whole thing is that now the inside of my fridge and freezer are really clean. Tomorrow I'm going to go grocery shopping, and shave my cat.

Adventures in Daylight Saving Time...

Korea doesn't have Daylight Saving Time. My only way to get an extra hour of sleep tonight is to go to bed an hour early. Since I've spent about 8 or 9 hours on trains, busses and subways and me poor achin' feet over the past 2 days (I went to Seoul), I'm going to do just that. Goodnight.

Adventures in Arms Trade...

Hey folks, I'm swamped with a pile of midterm exams and papers to grade, but the following tidbit of information caught my eye. Since I'm a chronic procrastinator, I decided I should take a few minutes and share it with you.

Does anyone else find it odd that even though the current US government is so all-fired-up & gung-ho about fighting the war on terrorism, they were the ONLY country, out of 164 countries, to vote AGAINST a proposed UN international arms trade treaty that would help stop the export of arms to conflict zones and countries who are spending more money on arms than on development? I don't get it. One one hand, they're doing all they can to fight the war on terrorism. On the other hand, they're the only ones opposed to restricting the willy-nilly distribution of arms across the globe.

If you want to read the whole article, you can find it here. I confess I've got a bias, so feel free to read the article and tell me I'm off base. Go ahead.

Adventures in Autumn Descending like a bucket full of cold, wet leaves...

Wednesday, October 18th* - Wow, it's really warm and sunny. I can't believe how warm and sunny it is. Hey, what's that awful haze in the air? I'm starting to get a headache.

Thursday, October 19th - Why did I unpack Fall clothes? Why did I put away all my Summer clothes? I must have a T-shirt here somewhere, it's so warm. Hey, what's that awful haze in the air? Why do I have a nasty headache again? Ugh, I feel awful.

Friday, October 20th - It's so warm, oh yeah, it's so warm. Sandals again to day. It's too warm for socks. Really, what is that haze? I bet I'm going to get another headache this afternoon........yup, here's the headache. I'm going to bed. Drat, it's only 6pm. I don't care. I'm going to bed anyway.

Saturday, October 21st - It's midterm exam day, and I'm locked in a stale classroom for 6 hours with groups of stressed out and/or sick students. Oh well, at least it's warm and I'm wearin' sandals. Oooooh yeah, love the sandals. Hate the haze, love the sandals.

Sunday, October 22nd - Off to Daejeon for church. The sun is shinin', the haze is hazin', and the sandals are on. Hey, where did this rain come from? I wonder if it's raining in Daegu? I think I need to buy a new umbrella, since I left all 5 of my other ones at home. Hmmmm, I wonder if anyone needs a slightly-used umbrella for Christmas?

Monday, October 23rd - Wow it rained a lot last night. Oooooh - look!! The haze is gone!! The sun is shinin', the air is clear, and the sandals are.....drat. The sandals are going back in the cupboard, and the wooly socks are going on. Autumn has arrived in all her wet and chilly splendour. Huzzah.

*Some dates and events may have been changed to protect the forgetfulness of the author.

Sorry about a post concerning the weather. Since I spent most of last week with a nasty headache, and slept as much as possible, my only other options for my online ramble to amuse myself were:

(a) I bought Catticus a new brush, and she loves it.
(b) I bought Catticus a new collar, and she hates it.
(c) I bought myself a new toothbrush, and I'm ambivilent towards it.

Adventures in the Blogosphere ...

Long long ago, in a decade far, far away (1990's), a department store known as E-Mart opened in Korea to challenge the arrival of Wal-mart. Last spring, E-Mart declared department store victory as Wal-mart started preparing to retreat from Korea. Personally, I shop at E-Mart all the time. How often? Let's see...I went in the other day to pick up some lotus root, and realized my pants, shirt, jacket and undies were all from E-Mart. E-mart plays this sickly-sweet E-Mart jingle every hour on the hour, and there have been times, due to a lengthy shopping list, or a deeply rooted browsing-lust, that I've heard the "Happy, Happy, Happy E-Mart" song 3 times in an afternoon. If you open my kitchen drawer, you will see a plethora of yellow E-mart shopping bags. Infact, it is those bright yellow bags with a big, black, stylized "E" on them that prompted this posting.

"Why on earth would you write a blog about a plastic bag?" I can hear some of you asking. I can also hear some of you saying "Hooray!!! I can never get enough blogs about plastic bags!!" I worry about some of you.

To get to the point, I was checking out Rick Mercer's blog (www.rickmercer.blogspot.com) and he has recently posted another photo challenge. I was scrolling through the pictures of Joe Volpe like you've never seen him before, when I noticed that in one of the pictures he was holding an E-mart bag!! (With a baby in it, oddly enough, but an E-mart bag nonetheless.)

Okay, so it's not earth-shattering news, and it didn't make me think any lofty or profound thoughts. It made me think "Hey, that's an E-mart bag." It also make me think "Who the heck is Joe Volpe?" So before writing this post, I did some homework and found out he's the guy in the Liberal leadership race who will accept $5,400 from any infants, toddlers, pre-schoolers or other young'uns that feel compelled to donate to his campaign. Infact, my cat was on her way to the post office with a donation before I stopped her and reminded her that $5,400 could buy a whole lot of catnip.

Adventures in Knitting...

Every Wednesday night, a few of us ol' ladies gather for our weekly "Stich'n'B$%#ch". I'm currently working on an afghan...same one I was working on last year...and judging by the lack of progress, I must be doing more bitchin' than stitchin'. We all know I can't do 2 things at once.

A few weeks back, Glenys gave each of us a skein of beautiful wool that she had spun herself. Not having any needles of an appropriate size, I've put off starting a project with that wool. Today, I was in a stationary store on an un-related errand, and my eye caught a bag of knitting needles collecting dust on a shelf. I picked the two straightest ones, and added them to my other items. After paying for everything, I did some quick calculations, and discovered I had just paid a whopping $0.30 for a pair of knitting needles. I don't know what they usually go for, but I think that this pair was a bargain. Here's hoping they'll last the 8 years it will take me to finish the scarf.

In other news, nobody around here seems too concerned about North Korea's latest brouhaha. From what I can see from this persepective, CNN seems more concerned than anybody else.