Six days and counting... oh, and it's Friday!

I leave for Vancouver in six days. Oy.

My niece Sarah worked for me yesterday and did lots of packaging and assembling. I think she may have nightmares about those purple split ring pliers you see below.

Above are some earrings, onigiri charms and that other box is filled with the little taiko charms you see below.
So much more to do. Every hour counts at this point. Productivity. Efficiency. Multi-tasking. Coffee. Lots of coffee. I think my teeth are turning yellow.

Friday cat blog bit... July 1st was Ebi's 10th birthday. We had a little party for him, which was just an excuse to get together and eat. I love this picture - Ebi looks like a cartoon character; click on it and you'll see what I mean. Just so you know, this is THE ugliest cake I've ever made.

Hmmm, it WAS kind of an excuse to get together and eat, but I do think it was a reason to celebrate - JF and I have had him for almost two years now and cannot imagine not having him in our family. Besides, 10 is a bit of a milestone for a cat, isn't it? When we got him in 1999 as a birthday gift for my mom (the consummate cat and animal lover), she wrote in her journal, "... they gave me a lovely but at times a real pest of a cat. He is adorable and we named him Ebi."

That about sums it up.