Photo Recap

I won't say much...we've been passing along various sicknesses through the family since Christmas Eve eve. My poor husband has had the worst of it; we're finally getting him in to the doctor today (note: getting appointments during flu season is not easy). Then yesterday I started feeling it come on. I'm going to the prime care unit later this afternoon...

Anyway, I did in fact get a new digital camera for Christmas, so I thought I'd share some photos with you. We got a white Christmas here in Georgia--first one in the metro-Atlanta area since 1883.

Oh, and the kittens? Yeah, none of that "punishment" I was hoping for happened. They took over the house immediately, cowing both the adult cats with one spare glance.

First off--this is the painting I did, which I mentioned in my post last week. Everyone was very amused and pleased, which is exactly what I intended. (For the record, I'm the one hugging the cat in the bottom left)

Mack is mourning the loss of the great mountain of presents. 

This is Herbie the Munchkin cat. I rescued him from the shelter where I used to work about a year and a half ago. He's the sweetest boy ever, but our kittens were terrified of him. 

This is Roo, the other adult cat. This is pretty much her typical expression. 

Starting to snow!

Nathan (bro-in-law) and Kozue getting some video of the snow.

Morning after Christmas. We got about an inch and a half? 

 Being the awesome kitty-mom that I am, I harnessed up Mack for a winter wonderland adventure. He loved it and didn't want to come inside, even when he was shivering from the cold. 

And finally I'll leave you with this utterly goofy recording of me narrating the snowfall...

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday time. I heard that only 4 states in the continental US didn't have snow, which is pretty amazing. 

Also hoping that this sickness doesn't come your way... 

Have a wonderful New Year's Eve, and I'll be seeing you on Saturday, my one-year-blogiversary. 

Smiles Here. No, Really.

Okay, I lied. No smiles here, but I'm trying.

I didn't want to end my year of blogging on a dour note, so instead I'll give you the lead-in into my holiday weekend:

Yesterday I spent all day painting the afore-mentioned pictures (and yes, I did end up including the girlfriend), then spent three hours last night making the Martha Washington candy I included in my Be Jolly, By Golly! blogfest post. Dude, that shit's worse to make then I remember. But tasty. However, I lick so much off my hands while I bake that I feel sick when it's done.

I've been estranged from my family for six months, but we made up this past Monday, so this afternoon hubby and I are going over to have Christmas with them and eat dinner. I'm nervous and anxious and trying to be positive about it, but it ain't happenin'. I also made brownies to take over there. And since I wasn't counting on things being reconciled, I did frantic shopping, so the gifts are on the lame side.

And after we leave my parents, we're swinging by the house to pick up the kittens and heading down to my in-law family. My bro-in-law lives in Maryland, so we only get to see him twice a year; therefore, it's a big deal.

I'm secretly looking forward to keeping the kittens at their house for 5 days. They've been incredibly rotten the last few days, and my in-laws' cats scare the stuffing out of them. So there, kittens. Take that.

When I got out of bed this morning, I kicked the wall and broke my toenail. Then I cut myself shaving in the shower, dropped my contacts on the floor, and saw that the kittens have put the last nail in the Christmas tree's coffin.

I'm hoping all of this is getting the bad stuff out of the way so the holiday festivities are enjoyable.

I never got my mild case of flu, so I'll be reminding myself to smile.



Happy Holidays! 

Truthfully?

I have enough things to admit to make a full-fledged tell-the-truth Tuesday post. Here we go:

1. Even though I restored peace with my family, I am seriously considering moving to Alaska to get away from them.

2. In the past 2.5 weeks, I have crocheted 6 gloves, 2 hats, and a scarf, all because I really just wanted an excuse to watch 3 seasons of The Tudors and start Mad Men.

3. I kinda hope to get a mild case of flu before Christmas, as my cheer-o-meter is somewhere around -5.

4. I'm drawing/painting a goofy little family portrait for my in-law family with us all as "Santa's Elves" (inside joke), but I'm torn on including my bro-in-law's girlfriend. They've been together for three years and we think they're serious, but she's Japanese and he's super sensitive about it, and I'm terrified that my cartoony drawing skills might make me seem racist if I try to draw her. But then I'm afraid if I leave her out, bro-in-law will be deeply offended. *deep breath*

5. I told my husband he was getting an Xbox. *cringe* It's not from me.

Being Jolly (by Golly!)

This is my entry for the holiday blogfest. You can see the master list of participants (and it's a big one) here.

First, some pictures of my decorations. I went fairly minimalist this year, since I didn't know how the kittens would react. Turns out it was a good thing. 

Also, I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. Hopefully Santa is bringing me a new digital camera (that isn't 7 years old): 

The Wreaths

This wreath hangs on the storage closet in our hallway. It's my little homage to the naturalist in me.  

This wreath was originally intended to go outside, but I decided I liked looking at it too much, so it's inside the front door. I made both these wreaths with stuff from Hobby Lobby. 

The Living Room

This was the first decor I hung, just a simple garland & ribbon across that weird short wall thing between the kitchen and living room areas. 

This is the faux mantle piece, sitting on top of our entertainment center. Currently the cats' favorite thing to chew on...(please note my SHE-RA dvds!)

This is a totally precious decoration I found at Pier One and filled with scented potpourri. Love it! 

And finally, my three amigos. They're on top of the TV. 

The tree is pretty minimalist this year. Pinecones, bronzed snowflakes, and gold shatterproof balls, all to keep the kittens from making it any worse than it already is. Same reason that the gifts are wrapped, but not ribboned. They won't be ribboned until they're safely at my in-laws' house Christmas Eve and I find myself with 30 gifts to ribbon...

The Food!

My favorite holiday drink is a tie between egg nog and mulled wine. 

However, my favorite holiday foodstuff was easy. This is something my mom has been making for as long as I can remember, and I've made it a few times myself. It's a bit of a pain to make, but totally worth it when you're shoving these things down your gullet hand-over-fist:

Martha Washington Candies

Here's the recipe:

2 (1-pound) boxes powdered sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 (14-ounce) can sweetened condensed milk
2 cups flaked coconut
2 cups finely chopped pecans
**optional: 1 12-oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips for dipping**

Combine powdered sugar, butter, sweetened condensed milk, coconut and pecans together, mixing well. Roll into 1-inch balls and place on a waxed paper lined baking sheet. Chill (I usually freeze.)

If you want to dip these in chocolate, prepare the chocolate with a double-boiler and coat each ball, then chill (freeze) again. Personally, I find the chocolate a bit overwhelming, but it's good to just drizzle or maybe dip half.


Anyway, thanks for stopping by! Can't wait to read all the other entries.

Happy holidays!

These Are My Things.

Yesterday we got a baby ice storm. It was pretty frickin' sweet. Dangerous, but beautiful. Georgia loves its ice. Forget snow. Ice, ice, baby.

Yesterday, I finished making my writing gloves. I've been on a major crocheting kick lately; in the past two weeks I've made four pairs of gloves and a scarf. I'm planning on starting my first hat, but it looks pretty hard.

Here are my gloves. They're different from my outside gloves because they are more delicate and of thinner yarn.
Again, the camera blows and wanted to focus on the keyboard instead of my hand, but whatev. You get the picture (get it?)

Yay warm hands. My thermostat claims it's 70, but I'm pretty sure it's lying. I've been wearing jeans, a long-sleeved shirt, hoodie, hiking socks, my boot slippers, these gloves, and a frickin hat ALL day. And I'm still a bit chilly.

Next, because this is my blog and I do what I want, I'm going to show you pictures of things that I like.

Just a sampling of the bird action that's been going on outside my office window the past week. Click to enlarge, so you can actually distinguish the doves from the ground. I've had to refill that feeder three times in the past week and a half. Birds are eating me out of house and home!

This is Mack. He's been whining about being an outside cat for so long now that I bought him a harness and tie-out line. If the weather's good enough, I'll tie him to the front patio for a little while. He mostly just sits in the garden and stares at birds--as if he'd know what to do with them.


Last weekend, Evan and I painted our kitchen table and chairs. They were a gift from his aunt and uncle and rather beat-up, so we decided to give it some personality. Mack approved.

And now for a few more pictures of my cats, because they're my fur-babies.

Magoo, the female, decided the drop cloth from the table project was a prime napping spot. I'm showing this because it's cute and also so you won't think I don't love my Goodle-Boodle as much as Mack. I do--he's just the showboat. As evidenced by these next two pictures...

Lately Mack's been acting really restless. He walks around meowing and is trying his damndest to climb to the ceiling, I'm pretty sure. These are the two places we caught him this week:

Top towel rack in the bathroom. He got up there by jumping from the sink to the top of the shower curtain, and then walked over onto the rack.

Having a little stroll across Evan's dress shirts. We still don't know what that was all about.


So there's my things.

How's your things?

Why I Believe In Reading Multiple Genres

Imagine that you love pastries. Flaky crusts, decadent chocolate, tart fruit fillings--these are what you see when you go to your happy place.

All you want is to be a pastry chef.

When you see your name in print, it's going to be on the front of a place like this:

But what if, in your earnest desire to be the best pastry chef ever, all you ate was pastry?


Maybe sweets aren't your thing?

How about this?

What smells better than fresh-baked bread? Soft, warm--the crust with just the perfect amount of give. How butter melts across the perfectly aerated surface...

But what if bread was all that you ate?

Don't like bread? Who can resist this?

Cheese. Smoked, baked, hard, sharp, soft, white, gold, rolled, crusted--you name it, I want it.
But my god, could you imagine living only on cheese? You'd probably be lactose intolerant within the week.

So besides the opportunity to share mouth-watering pictures with you, what's my point?

I'm sure you get it by now.

Genre is literary food.

In order to live a healthy life, we need a well-balanced diet.
Wait--but what about the pastry chef--the one who wants nothing more than to be the best pastry chef in the world? Shouldn't s/he see what the competition is cooking? Taste every kind of chocolate that comes across the plate? 

Sure. Absolutely, in fact. 

But what's one of the most important things a truly brilliant chef posses? 

A mature, broad palette. 

After all, if bacon was always put with eggs, how would this have been born?

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.  

~W. Somerset Maugham

You Show Me Yours, I'll Show You Mine!

Got your attention now? Good.


A lot of you participated in National Novel Writing Month this year. Didn't you? Didn't you? That's right, nerds. Raise your hands. (I raised mine too, don't worry.)

Okay, good.
This is for you whether you won or not.

Two of my favorite bloggers approached me about co-hosting this little shendig, so please give all accolades to Sarah (Falen) Ahiers and Hannah Kincade.


With our powers combined, we are pleased to bring you the "Show Me Yours" Blogfest!

The point of this blogfest is to share an excerpt of your NaNoWriMo novel. All we ask is that you keep it around 500 words in order for us to read as many as possible.

Since the date is January 3rd, 2011, this will give you time to choose a scene and edit it, revise it, change it...whatever.

Feel free to give us a little background about your story or at the very least a title and a genre. That always helps, right?

So if you were a 2010 Wrimo, now's the chance to show us your skillz...or, yanno, your suck. Either one. 

We will be attempting to share the same link widget, but if it doesn't work, the master will be on Hannah's blog.

Feel free to take the badge and spread the word, but make sure you link it back to either this, Sarah, or Hannah's post so everyone can get in on the diaper-peeking fun.