Ghost Month has begun

Ghost Month is the seventh month of the Chinese calendar, which is a lunar calendar. This is the month that ghosts come back to the living world. There are rituals involved but as a non-observant Chinese, I don't know what they are. I had to go look up Ghost Month in Wikipedia.

Sister e-mailed me that Ma left her two similar mesages.

Apparently Ghost Month is even worse for her (born in the year of the pig) and Brother Two (snake) than it is for me and Brother One, because they are at risk of actually dying this month. Therefore, to ensure that they continue living and have long lives, they have to eat clear bean thread noodle in the mornings of 8/19, 8/29 and 9/8. At least Brother Two lives somewhere that has a decent Chinatown (he just moved to New York City) and he can find clear bean thread noodle.

I don't know shy she's complaining. Sister lives in Washington, DC, which has a Chinatown too, and her particular neighborhood is actually very ethnically diverse. Plus, there are Chinese restaurants everywhere.

When Ma called the third time, Sister was at home and had a long conversation about the importance of this month. Ma seemed really agitated until Sister promised to do this stuff (even though we never did it before). And Ma told Sister's Boyfriend (born in the year of the horse) that he had to wear a jade necklace from now until midnight of 9/10 or else the ghosts will not leave him alone. So, he thanked her for her concern and promised to wear it.

The day after the call, Ma called again to check that Sister's Boyfriend was wearing the jade necklace, which he is.

All this is kind of weird, because Ma has never been superstitious before. However, Sister made the point that Ma is getting older and becoming more worried. When Ma was younger, she used to laugh at Grandma for her superstitions and now Ma is believing them.

On the other hand, given the toilet problem yesterday, perhaps she has a point.

Speak of the problem, the office has not been cleaned and it smells mildewy, awful, and gross. So I declared an office holiday and told everyone to just go home.

I went over to the leasing office and told the manager that the wet carpet has to be cleaned today, and that we should get a discount on the rent, for all that we've had to put up with. He called the carpet cleaner while I was there and then said he'd think about what kind of concession he could give us. I reminded him that we were very good tenants and have been long time tenants.

Then I went and got my hair done (dyed it blacker than my natural color and now feeling Goth-y) and did some yarn shopping at Knitch. Love that shop. It made me think of Purl in NYC the first time I went.

Three skeins of Cascade 220 yarn in Kentucky blue for Husband's afghan and one skein of this cotton yarn, Twisted, by Suss yarns, that I've been coveting for about a year.

COLOR: Navy/Cloud
CONTENT: 100% Slub Cotton
WEIGHT: 50 grams
LENGTH: 108 yard
GAUGE: Chunky: 3.5 stitches per inch
NEEDLE SIZE: US size 7 - 9

It was the last skein, so I grabbed it.

And Brother One wanted to know when would be a good time for him to come get some red yarn to tie around his waist. I guess it can't hurt....