I’m sure that you’ve seen on of these cats before. Maybe in your Chinese food take out restaurant, or in a store window. These cats are extremely popular.

On Wellington Street West, there is a pho restaurant that A. and I go to. I think it’s called Noodle House. It’s pretty good. When we went there, we noticed that there was a giant lucky cat, but with it’s left arm moving up and down. We thought it was really weird that it was doing it and started imitating it. 

Since then, we’ve been fascinated with these cats. What are they all about? They’re kind of cute looking, if they bring good fortune, maybe we should get one.

We bought one this weekend. It looks like the one pictured above. I took a look on wikipedia this morning to find the history on these things and this is what I found:

The Maneki Neko (招き猫^?, literally “Beckoning Cat“; also known as Welcoming Cat, Lucky Cat, Money cat, or Fortune Cat) is a common Japanese sculpture, often made of porcelain or ceramic, which is believed to bring good luck to the owner. The sculpture depicts a cat (traditionally a Japanese Bobtail) beckoning with an upright paw, and is usually displayed—many times at the entrance—in shops, restaurants, pachinko parlors, and other businesses. Some of the sculptures are electric or battery-powered and have a slow-moving paw beckoning. In the design of the sculptures, a raised right paw supposedly attracts money, while a raised left paw attracts customers.

Maneki Neko come in different colors, styles, and degrees of ornateness. In addition to sculptures, Maneki Neko can be found as keychains, piggy banks, air fresheners, and miscellaneous ornaments.

To read the entire entry, please click here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maneki_Neko

We bought the cat with the moving left arm. I’m still not 100% sure what kind of lucky it’s supposed to give me. Good fortune and bring in customers I think. Either way, good fortune can never hurt.

Now all I have to do is figure out where to put it in my place. Does anyone know about where I should be putting this cat in my house?

Here are some random things that have been running through my mind lately:

• Every morning, A. and I get our coffee at Tim Hortons. Most of the time, we are served by the same woman. She never smiles. Some days, I wish I could just give her some flowers to brighten her day.
• In my 26th year, I want to Eat, Pray, Love.
• I catch myself yelling VEGAS randomly throughout the day. Can you tell I’m excited?
• I bought a food processor, yea! I’m pretty happy about that. Now I can make wicked awesome banana bread.. and pesto too.
• What do you call a personality trait that needs to be worked on? I found out recently that I have two. Sometimes I tend to exaggerate and sometimes I can be overly organized.  I need to work on these.
• I love knitting. I just haven’t had a chance to do much of it lately. I’m getting a little stressed out that I won’t have some of my handmade Christmas gifts done in time.
• I love Christmas. I can’t wait to put up my tree. Is it weird if I put it up in November?
• Weddings. A wedding.
• I wish I had more time. We are always so busy. I would like to go visit my dad in November, but every weekend is booked up.
• I started taking this stuff called Udo’s Oil. To help me during my workouts… I keep forgetting to take it.
• Lately, I’ve found that food has no taste. I’ve been eating out allot and everything tastes gross. Why is this happening?
• I love having someone to sleep next to every night.
• I happy that I do not have a dog right now. However, I do enjoy babysitting our tenant’s dog once in a while. She’s great.
• I’m trying to think of good Christmas gifts for my friends. It’s hard when they don’t have a blog to write about the things they like. Get a BLOG.
• I love my mom. She’s been so great lately. I’ve never seen anyone give as much love as she does on a daily basis.
• It’s Tuesday.

The past couple of days have been pretty quite here. Monday night, A. and I made an Asian fest at home. I wish I could show you the pictures. I’ll try and upload them soon. We made TONS of sushi and TONS of won tons. The won tons that A. made were so amazing. Thanks D. for the recipe! Yum.

Tuesday night, we had dinner at my mom’s. She’s been busy working on the house and debating to join a photo club or not. Does anyone know of a good photo club for her to join in Ottawa? She’s looking for a group that is well organized and it looking to learn something from one another.

Tonight is the Hintonburg Annual General meeting; I’m looking forward to it. They always have good information on the events that happen over the past year, new developments in the area, (hopefully) a construction update and a few more things. It’s really nice to know what’s happening in your neighbourhood. It gives you that sense of community when you attend these things.

I’m also hoping tonight to go to the gym after work. It’s been over a week since I’ve last been. That’s bad, that’s really really bad. I’ve got to get back into it. Going to Las Vegas is just around the corner and I need to step up my gym going in order to fit into a cute costume for Halloween.

The rest of the week is pretty tame. Thursday night is my sock knitting course and Friday, no plans as of yet. A. is working on a friend’s roof this weekend, but on Saturday we’re going to Oktoberfest at Beau’s Brewery in Vanleek Hill. There are probably about 20 of us going. It’s going to be a blast. I can’t wait. Are you going?

How far in advance can you do your Christmas baking? 2 months? 4 weeks? 2 weeks?

I think I’m going to attempt to make some this year.

It’s a small world when …..

Anyone know the history on these things?

Taken from jmavedillo’sflickr pictures.

Have I ever mentioned how life is never dull at our place?

After watching the movie One Week, we decided to take a trip across Canada to Perth for the Garlic Festival.

While we were at the festival, we tried tons of different types of sauces, I even picked one up.. I can’t remember what it’s called, but is has something to do with it being super duper hot garlic pesto. If I remember the name, I’ll post it here.

Not only did we pick up some garlic, we also bought a didgeridoo. Don’t know what it is? Click here.

“The didgeridoo (also known as a didjeridu or didge) is a wind instrument developed by Indigenous Australians of northern Australia at least 1,500 years ago, likely far prior and is still in widespread usage today both in Australia and around the world. It is sometimes described as a natural wooden trumpet or “drone pipe”. Musicologists classify it as an aerophone. The instrument is traditionally made from Eucalyptus trees which have had their interiors hollowed out by termites or died of other causes.”

So now we have one of these big didgeridoo’s in our house that A. plays on and off outside. Does anyone know of any good YouTube instruction videos for the doo?

Okay okay, so we’ve finally got on the no plastic bag band wagon.. we are trying* our best to use only reusable bags at the grocery store, although I would still consider us in training mode.

Now that we have slim to no plastic bags left in the house, I am having a hard time finding something to carry my lunch in to work.

This morning, I used a big Ziploc bag for A.’s lunch (yikes!) and a Glad mini-garbage bag for mine (double yikes!). Does anyone have any suggestions for where to buy a good reusable lunch bag?

* Trying means that I am doing my best not to forget the bags in the car and if I do forget them I get f*&($(% mad at myself for forgetting them.

I’m feeling better this morning. Last night, we had a good ol’ BBQ*, with some of our friends at our place and it didn’t rain. Much.I’m always happy to hang out with everyone.We don’t see each other as much anymore.  We’ve all got stuff to do, parents to see, houses to build, dogs to walk. Oh well, c’est la vie.

This week, I started going t the gym again. Monday was Body Step and Tuesday was Body Pump. Today, I’m very sore in my triceps. Ouch. Tonight, I’m not sure what I’m doing, it’s Body Flow at one location and I think it might be Pump somewhere else. I really should start doing more Flow and Yoga. I need to learn how to breath better and how to stretch my body.

Over the next couple of days, A. and I are baby sitting… our tenant’s dog. We don’t mind. We love dogs…. but I can already feel the pressure of having a dog and it hasn’t even started yet. On Friday, I’m getting my hair cut and had to ask permission to go, because I had to make sure that A. was ok with letting the dog out at home. Saturday, the boys are going to Brockville and we have to make sure that I’m around to take care of the pup.

I think I’m really going to like taking care of this pup, but I don’t think you’ll see me with a dog anytime soon. Once in a while for the weekend is nice, I can do that.

* I made some homemade pesto form my Basil plant and it was fantastic. I got good reviews from the bunch last night. Yeah!

Does anyone know how to remove a stain from a cotton red dress? I bought the one above and must have washed with a pair of jeans. Some of the colour ran on my dress and I don’t know how to get it out.

Any suggestions?