Maximus Arbitrarius (Because you can't translate "random")

So this week I found out that I can't wallpaper worth a damn. This is weird because in an old Victorian house of mine I wallpapered the dining room. So anyway, I had this great idea, for a spring-like feel in the house, to wallpaper a large sheet of plywood as a backdrop to some art on the mantle. (Can't wallpapers the wall because I wouldn't be able to live with a static something for long.) I have been hording a hand full of rolls of this vintage wallpaper for a while now and absolutely love the Art Deco pattern. So I went to the local DIY shop and bought some white glue and mixed it with a bit of wood glue and thinned it with water. Would have used wallpaper paste but the stuff only came in a huge vat! Anyway, not an epic fail, but definitely needs a bit of work to get the bubbles out. I'll persevere. Sent the photo to R who said he didn't like it at all because it looked too much like day of the triffids. Poor Robbie, good thing my mad ideas tend to be temporary.Why is it that there is always this uncontrollable urge to stick fingers into the ocean to test for temperature? Do you do that? And then do the mad crab shuffle to get out of the way of the waves, and then that one bigger one...which is it, the seventh wave?...comes along and washes over your runners anyway. But even when you know it's going to be pretty damn cold, it's fun, isn't it? :DI went to a lecture Tuesday evening at one of the beach galleries (and took these two secret photos just to have the memory). I went to hear this woman speak. Her name is Bobbie Burgers and she is one of my favourite artists in the world. You know, I go to hear her speak about her art, or go to her gallery openings to see her paintings and sometimes, I have to admit, get terribly depressed standing there looking at her art because it's just so brilliant and I can't/will never achieve anything like it...ever...at all, and Tuesday evening she showed a slide of herself standing under a painting by Joan Mitchell, and guess what? She said she cannot stand there looking at Joan Mitchell's art because she gets depressed that Mitchell was so brilliant that she, (Bobbie), can't/will never achieve anything like it...ever...at all.Who knew?I'm in love with this piece of wood at the beach. Not only is it about two feet across and about a foot tall, but it has this totally awesome hole thru it. All I have to do is figure out how to get it home (it's waterlogged and terribly heavy) and then figure out how to do something fantastic with it.The plant-that-will-not-die has a name. It usually lives outside for most of the year and is ignored, and then stuck into the dark family room and ignored some more over winter, but it's such a grateful plant that I decided to treat it better and brought it into the corner of the shower for winter. (besides it's good for our house oxygen) Anyway, it's such a grateful little rather big plant, look how happily it's growing. So the other day I asked Chloe if we were to, what should we name it. She said "George" which is our standard name for random things...as in, "love him and pet him and call him George". But then I got it: it's a Hawaiian Schifflera and so the only possible name is Claudia......do you get it?...Please yourselves... I'll be here all week. :DSharing with Nancy and looking forward to everyone's randomness.