Hey all… it’s Tuesday, the day we snoop through Noah’s diary. Why? Because we can. And because cartoon characters can’t sue for invasion of privacy.
Tuesday, January 20, 2026, 9am: Well, the days are slowly getting longer but it’s still been kinda dreary.
And most people have put the pretty Christmas lights away, so we don’t have that color. The odd cherry tree is already blooming here in Victoria, but not very many and mostly they’re the really pale pink ones that don’t really add much in the way of colour to fight off the grey. And it’ll still be a few weeks before we get the spring bulbs going.
So… grey and sad all around. And the yard is mushy.
The chickens don’t seem to mind too much, out in their run, but I sure do.
I need some colour.
I asked Ruth if we can have a new tablecloth… well, more specifically, I asked if she can make us a new tablecloth since she’s the one who sews and I can’t find anything I like in the store.
Ruth insists we don’t need a new tablecloth, but I pointed out that our current tablecloths are either Christmas-specific or drab beige. Which Ruth prefers, but I think we need some colour, especially at this time of year.
Y’know what… I think we had this exact same argument last January.
Anyway, yesterday I decided to fight dirty and I dragged Ursula to the fabric store with me after I picked her up from school. She hates shopping at the best of times and particularly hates the fabric store, but I promised her I’d make pizza for dinner tonight if she helped me pick out some fabric for a tablecloth.
Sure enough, 2 minutes later she came up to me with this wild and crazy fabric that had octopusses on it. So, I bought a few yards of it, which pissed Ruth off, but fortunately Ursula was all excited about the octupusses so Ruth couldn’t complain too much.
Hopefully this means we will soon have a more colorful tablecloth, though I wouldn’t put it past Ruth to bribe Ursula with a bag of Twizzlurz to let Ruth turn it into a dress for Ursula instead of a tablecloth.
So, basically it comes down to whether Ruth is willing to have us be seen by her friends in church with Ursula wearing a dress with octopusses instead of a more traditional and boring Sunday dress. The tablecloth option at least means only we see it, which Ruth might prefer and her mother might insist on.
I give it 50/50 odds.
I think it would be kinda fun to have an under the sea kinda deco theme for the dining room, actually. The only downside as I see it is then Ursula will pester us to get a fish tank, which means I will have to be the one cleaning the fish tank and that wouldn’t be so much fun.
Also, there’s kinda nowhere to put a fishtank where it wouldn’t squish us when trying to get around the table. But maybe I can sell Ursula on the idea that an undersea theme for the dining room is all the fun of a fishtank with none of the work.
And if I can sell Ursula on the idea, then Ursula can guilt Ruth into agreeing. And that’s how things get done around here, although it’s been years since we were supposed to make the living room all jungle-themed so that Mr. T-Rex would feel more at home and all we did was paint the walls a dark green.
I mean, I did buy a bunch of houseplants but I cheaped out and just got them in 4” pots so it’ll be a while before they get really big enough for a jungle vibe no matter how much Miracle Grow I give them. And our living room faces north so that doesn’t help matters much.
And Ruth vetoed the tiger print area rug and hot pink and lime green leopard print cushions I suggested… unfortunately Ursula didn’t care about them so didn’t help me win that argument with Ruth. (On the flip side, Ruth also vetoed Ursula’s suggestion of getting dinosaur-print cushions.)
So… the house is still a work in progress, I guess.
