Did you ever wonder how to properly eat your very long soba noodles? My niece showed me how while they were visiting this past week. In fact, we went to Mitsuwa twice while they were here, because she liked the noodles so much (it had nothing to do with the fact that we loved the sushi and the bookstore and all the other fun little things you can get there). There’s no sound in the movie, but you get the idea.

This is mostly for my parents, who are not able to see their grandchildren for a year:
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This post is mostly going to be about other people besides myself. I mean, how fun is it to have a blog and just get to talk about me me me all the time? It’s fun, but there are a lot of other very cool people and things out there, so it won’t kill me to talk about someone else for once, no? But first, a tiny bit about me me me, or actually, my lunch.

I haven’t shared a bento box picture for a long time, but I still use my bento boxes pretty often. Today’s lunch isn’t super pretty, but there is lots of green and it’s full of healthy stuff:

I made an arugula salad with sun-dried tomatoes, mushrooms and Parmesan cheese, zucchini & tofu stir-fry and there were a couple prosciutto-wrapped asparagus left from dinner last night, so I threw them in on top of the zucchini. Tasty!

This website cracks me up, especially the pirate chickens and the chickens in their weekly meetings.

My brother is playing in San Diego on December 2 at USD, I’m so excited. This is one of my favorite songs from his latest CD.

Speaking of my brother, how cute is my niece?

Super cute is how cute! She’s a long boarder. When she saw the condors at the zoo she thought they were the most beautiful birds ever. Awww. While they are here I hope we’ll have time to go to the San Diego zoo, I think she will love it.

The next day we are having a big party at my friend Naz‘s house. Naz makes stunning art jewelry. Visit her site and her etsy shop and tell her hello. It would make her day!

I’ve mentioned before that my parents are in China for a year. I think it’s really fascinating to read about their experiences there. Blogs are so great for this kind of thing, aren’t they? Now if they would just post some pictures.

Speaking of blogs, I’ve been reading way too many lately. There are so many good ones out there! I need to make the time to re-do my links lists, which I just got all fed up with one day and deleted. I’ll just mention a few right now. Moonstitches has some really beautiful fabric and embroidery projects to share. Look at these bags! I love them.

When I joined a pet swap a few months ago Tracy was the my recipient. She even has a dog named Lucy. And now she has a blog of her own. She always has lovely photos, like these from her walk today. And among all the cool things she makes, are these terrific dog collars. Bear is getting his very own, lucky dog!

An now I’m back to me again, or, more accurately, my dog:

He was yawning. I guess I woke him up too early.

This is going to be another one of those posts about 20 different things. First of all, thank you so much to very kind reader Vicki who got me my magazine! I feel much better now. I’ve got a little package of goodies to send, but I’m not sure if I’ll be able to make it to our post office during their two business hours tomorrow (10:30-12:30), so it may not get sent until Tuesday. And thank you to other commentors who also offered to share their issues with me. I love the internet :o)

Another reason I love the internet is that it is helping my brothers, sister and me keep up with my parents, who left for China last Sunday. They’ll be gone a year, and I made blogs for both of them to write about their experiences, hopefully every day. My mom’s is here and my dad’s is here. My dad loves anything John Deere, hence the title, I think my sister might have mentioned something about that before. He’s also a small-town in Idaho boy at heart, so I’m sure spending time in a big Chinese city is going to be very interesting for him. I know I can’t wait to read all about it.

Somebody bought Lou today! I’m going to miss her, but I’m sure she’ll be happy in her new home. I hope to make a few monsters this weekend and maybe another surprise or two for the shop. I’m really hoping that I’ll be able to earn enough money with my etsy shop to buy a plane ticket to visit my parents, ideally around Chinese New Year, which I believe will be around the end of February. Doesn’t that sound fun? Also part of my plan is that I use up all the Stuff that I have to make things for the shop to sell to buy a plane ticket. It’s the ultimate recyling project, don’t you think? What would be even more wonderful is if I could earn enough to have a day or two layover in Tokyo, which would just be heaven. Actually, a week there would be heaven, but I don’t want to aim too high.

Speaking of selling and using up stuff, I decided to sell some yarn on eBay. I love this RY Classic Cashcotton yarn that I bought earlier this summer, but the color didn’t turn out to be what I needed. I love the color, it just wasn’t what I wanted for the project I got it for, so if you need some pretty pink yarn, go for it! I’ll probably list a few more balls later.

This weekend we are going to pick up a little shed we bought to use as a chicken coop. That’s right, we’re turning chez Lucy into a little farm. Mr. Lucy found this shed on Craig’s list, and I went and looked at it the other night. It’s pretty ugly right now, basically two by fours and plywood and a corrugated tin roof, but I think It has potential, and I was able to talk the guy down $25 from his asking price. I’ll be sure to show some before and after pictures. Hopefully we’ll be able to order some chickens next week. Can you believe it!? You order day old chicks in the mail and they are sent to your local post office. You just go pick them up and bring them home and start feeding them and keep them in a big box with a heat lamp until they get their grown up chicken feathers. The minimum order is 25, so I’ll just raise them all and try to sell about half of them once they’re big enough to go outside. My chicken mentor is my aunt Phyllis. Here are some of her chickens:

These are some of her little bantam hens. They’re so cute and they lay little eggs. Hmm, they would be just perfect for my bento box! Actually, I think I’ll have to wait until next summer for the banties, they don’t have a lot left right now, mostly just assortments that you have to buy 25 or 50 of at a time. I want to be able to choose a few of this and a few of that when I get them. So for now I think I’m going to stick with regular sized chickens and get a bunch of Araucanas (they lay pretty colored eggs-shades of blue, green and beige) and some other, assorted varieties. Oh, and just for the record, we’ll be eating and sharing the eggs, but I have no plans to start butchering my own chickens.

One last picture before I stop:

This is also at my aunt’s house. She has the most beautiful garden you have ever seen. Go look at all my pictures from my visit there in June at Flickr (I can’t link right now because Flickr is down).