Christmas Redux

We finally got the tree up Friday night. Well, I should be honest and say that my husband got the tree up. He decorated it all by himself. This was the first year in forever I didn't touch a tree. I was rrrrrreally tired (can I blame the brewing baby for my laziness? well, I'll try...) I had a hard time keeping my eyes open but - by golly - we had a tree!! Yay!!!

I did take a few photos and videos :




Practically, the very moment Lucky saw the tree - he was IN the tree and eating it:




Later in the evening (while I was asleep on the couch), Mike took this video of Lucky hanging out with the (few) decorations we dared put on the tree.



Ally is not quite the ferocious tree killer that Lucky is and I just thought this video was cute. I guess because I love the "people" in it.



MORE TO COME...

Christmas...

"Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays" and "Happy Hannukah" and "Happy Everything" to everyone who celebrates something. I'm just glad for time with family and good food and fun and festivities. And don't forget gifts! I love gifts!

My only kitty pic to offer is from last year. When the kitties "helped" us wrap gifts.


(So, sister - "No. You didn't get anything from BananaRamaDingDongPostleOutfitters." I walked in there and walked out. The music reminds me of a techno club. And their crap is overpriced and sized for small monkeys. OK, enough of that. I think it must be official - I'm a curmudgeon!)

We haven't wrapped this year's gifts yet. I just finished all my shopping yesterday. And came home to find that my hubband had got the ol' tree ready for decorating. I was soooo happy!! I know it's late to start this, but it just doesn't feel like Christmas without it. And he knew that and he's the one that does all the work of putting the thing up and lugging in the boxes of decorations and he still wanted me to have it.

It's just that this is what usually happens:

**Lucky! Look what you've done to my tree!!!

So the beautiful tree turns into a constant source of irritation while kitties climb up it and try to eat it and bat ornaments off it...

Actually, now that I think of it - it's ONLY ONE kitty of the five that causes so much trouble and he is, of course, pictured above.

BUT, we're gonna have a tree!! And I'm gonna play Christmas music and we'll decorate it and then maybe watch National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation. I love that movie!!!!! I used to watch it with my grandpa...I have almost every line of the movie memorized**.

And, even if we don't do all of the things we would've done every other year - and we don't end up decorating the tree tonight and watching Christmas shows - I'm going to have a great Christmas. My husband tried hard to make sure of it. AND - I'm going to spend time with my family and I'm gonna love every friggin' minute of it!!

Finnish Felines

A few years ago, my husband introduced me to a friend, Markus, that he met through his old work. Mike used to travel the world installing flight simulators and met Markus and some really neat people in Finland. And everytime they'd come to the States to visit for work - we'd go out for dinner and beers and coffee and conversation...

I always had a wonderful time visiting with everyone. And Markus and his wife, Taru, even had Mike out to dinner at their house when he went to Finland to work. Taru helped Mike pick out a beautiful necklace to bring home to me as a gift. The last time he visited, Markus brought us a lovely book filled with Finnish scenery that he and his wife bought for us.

And everytime Markus was in town he'd show us pictures of his wife and his "zoo" at home. Turns out - they love animals just as much (if not more) than we do. He e-mailed us some beautiful pictures of his family and I wanted to share them with you here.

Taru and Ossi

Pompsula

Spii

Ryyni

Leimu

Hermanni


Tuttis

Netta

Of course, I've listed the dog last. But what a beautiful dog it is! And I love the foliage!

BIG news...

Over here -------> on a new blog.

Lucky the remodeler!

He's wearing the mask that I wore while painting. I just wanted to see what he would do...he's actually a pretty smart kitty*.



*Lucky (is lucky he) wasn't harmed at all during the filming of this video.

I'm a friggin' weirdo!

My friend, Gnightgirl tagged me. (She was previously tagged by our friend Wendy).

List 5 things that are weird about yourself.

(Then tag 5 people.)

Hmmmmm....let's see....there are soooo many!

1. I'm very superstitious. Every morning my husband and I say the same thing: "I love. Be careful. I love."

2. I let my cats sleep in the kitchen cabinet. That's more gross than weird isn't it? We wash the pots and pans before we use them. If this keeps you from coming to my house for dinner - good. ;0)



3. Uh, I have five cats. Could I BE any weirder? (Or more loving?)

4. I have my own language. New addition(s): rebarrassed = embarrassed; grunchy =grouchy/cranky/crunchy?

5. I bought this the other day:

It's called a chamberstick. I had no idea what it was called - just knew that I wanted it. And now I walk around with it saying "Ebenezer Scroooooooooge....Eeeeeeeebeneeeeeeeezer Scrooooooge." (I first thought I wanted this after seeing Micky's Christmas Carol. Ebenezer carries this with him to bed. I think.)

I tag: Ilaiy, Woof, Jamie, Mary P. and Kristin!

Lounging with cats

Sometimes while I'm on the couch with my kitties - they do such cute things they need to be photographed!

Here are some recent photos of the gang.

All five cats
(please ignore the ugly human)

Lucky takes a nap

A rare shot of Aggie

Ally

Big Tuffy

More to come!

Mystery Machine!

Last night I stopped by Schnucks and saw this!! I just had to photograph and blog it.

Has anyone else seen this in C-U???? I love it!!

I voted!

Things around my house

My friend, Gnightgirl, issued a challenge for us to look around at items in our home that bring us joy/memories.

Here are a few of the (inanimate, non-furry) things around my house that bring me joy:

My "Tuffy statue" I bought at the Apple/Pork festival a few years ago

The box that my Christmas gift from Ilaiy came in.
I love this box so much! I think it's so beautiful!
It had a lovely green bowl in it - but I just really admired this box!

A box that Mike brought back for me from Japan. It's a puzzle box.
It takes like 14 steps to get this thing open.
Frustrating and fun!!!
(Even though there was nothing inside it. Much to my disdain.)

Mike's chair as kid:

My wittle rocking chair (with a kitty behind it).
I loaned it to my sister as a kid and now it's waiting...

Yay! I did it! That was fun!! I'm ready for more challenges!

Working...working....working

Last weekend we spent...well - working.

Painting and staining and painting and fuming. We wore masks and I think I got deoxyginated (my OWN word - hope you like it) and I was really tired by the second day. I felt a lot like this:


Seriously. I felt that tired. Like my cheeks were going to slide off my face. Why was I working so hard? I wanna have a li'l baby. And I don't want to have paint fumes in the house during that time. Anyway, this led to the comment that I told my husband: "I don't wanna have a baby anymore. If it's this hard to get ready - I don't think I'm up for it. In fact, I wish I had never been born." Thankfully, he finds me really cute and funny...reassured me that we were just "paying the piper" for living in this house for 3 years without finishing what we've started. OK, OK!!!

Here's the progress so far:

Before

(It was a lovely, mustard color before.)

After

(Light tan - so fresh - so clean.)

The linoleum will be removed - but that's a project for another day and another person...

Here's the hubband working on the ceiling. He worked on it for two days. Yes, two whole days. There was a large crack going the length (well, actually the width) of the ceiling. And our ceiling is plaster. He patched and sanded and handpainted the ceiling for fear that the paint/paper would peel. (The brainiacs before us wallpapered the ceiling and it doesn't take to paint very well. This happened to us in another room we did earlier this year.) The end result from all his work is that the ceiling looks perfect. And he started painting the room. (It's his computer/guitar/whatever room.) Exciting! Another room for us to live in. I will be buying something for it...maybe a couch or something...do I hear a trip to Ikea coming up??? Gnightgirl?

I will take more pics of the hubband's beautiful new room soon. Oh, the best thing about that room is that the previous owner's son lived in there and the ceiling fan-pully-thingy says "Mac Daddy." I might just have to keep that...

Here's my new hallway upstairs. Let me just say that I think I'm purty good at getting this wood thing done w/o sanding anything. Have I ever mentioned that I'm lazy??? Well, I almost destroyed this floor for good. Used the wrong product on it - got done staining it at 11:30 Sat. night. We slept in the living room to let it dry. Woke up and it was sticky-icky. I knew - just knew when I was applying it that something wasn't right. But, it was late. I wanted to knock that sucker out! And Mike told me to be careful - not to make a silly mistake because I was tired. Well, obviously I did. And I was very disappointed with the results. Long story a wee bit shorter - I ended up slathering something else on top of it and VOILA!! It's all good! I'm still wondering if I have the energy to do the rest of the upstairs floors...time will tell.

Before

After

Notice Mike's wittle dusty footprints. They brush right off. It was dry before we walked on it.
Oh, BTW, never - never - never use a stain with a poly all-in-one product. Take it one at a time. It will save you lots of time later. ;0)

STL (parents)

When went down for the Keneally concert, we stayed with my parents. It was sooooo nice of them to let us stay with them for a few days. We didn't get to see them very much, but it was nice to be home for a bit.

Da Parents "acting" like they love each other.
(Something they would say...I learned it from them.
But, I'm pretty sure they might like each other.)

Alex (our very wonderful neighbors' son.
He happens to share my birthday.
He's exactly 20 years younger than me.)
Alex with Archie and Mother.

Dad dropped his dinner. It landed flat on the kitchen table.
(With a LOUD bang.)
He really lamented that he lost his baked potato.
He'd loaded it up and there weren't any potatoes left!!!

He was in luck though. His food was molded to the table.

His potato, on the other hand, stayed glued to his plate. Woohoo!!!

Archie and me.

When I'm at my parents,
I love to walk around screeching "Arrrrrrchie. Arrrrrrchie. "
Like whatsherface from All in the Family.

OK. The best part of the trip. What you've all be waiting for. (I'm sure!)

CAT VIDEOS!!

Dad shows how Archie likes his teeth brushed:



I give it a shot:

STL (Keneally concert)

So....last week I took off work early on Thursday (can I get a hell ya?) and headed down to the St. Louis area where my family is from. Looooong weekend! I love it! I only dread going back to work all that more...but - it's always nice to get away.

We went to see our favorite musicians: Mike Keneally and Bryan Beller with Eric Slick on drums. I really can't write too much for fear that I'm already a gushing lunatic - let me just say that it was fab-a-lous. If only they toured more often...

First stop, Edwardsville, IL - for a Taylor Guitar Clinic:



And our own mini-concert. I like to think of it as a serenade...



While we waited for the concert to start - we ducked into this little Irish pub:


Where I found this little guy! I thought it was so cute that they let him (her?) walk around. I got to pet her (him?), but I didn't ask any questions. (What's that???? Marcy-Darcy-the-story-telling-bimbo-a-go-go didn't blather her head off? Not this time.)

(Hubband waits for me.)

On to the concert - the MAIN EVENT. The concert rocked my friggin' socks off. I don't know what else to say. I had many fine beers and rocked out to the beautiful music. Oh, there was THIS dancing guy in the audience that I really wanted to emulate (and thought that I might) but I never got up the nerve.




Sound quality is not the best on my li'l camera. But the band playing is Fattback and they opened for Keneally. They seemed talented to me and their songs were so upbeat and happy! We're going to buy their album when it comes out. I even bought one of their t-shirts. (For $10. Cheap! Cheap! Fun! Fun! Plus, I'm a consumer - I need things!!) Anyway, they have some of their songs on their Myspace page - you should listen! "Shopping for Pink" is a good one. When I heard that in concert I was singing along. Only I was singing "Shoopy Poopy." What do I know?

OK, while I'm talking about Fattback - here's a pic of them:

OK, while I'm talking about opening bands - let me mention Spyder Monkey from Chicago. They are amazingly talented and their lead singer is a beautiful woman named Susie. They were really nice people and we hope to see them in Champaign sometime soon. (At Cowboy Monkey, maybe?)

(Spyder Monkey)

I didn't get any really great pics of the concert. But, a good time was had by all. And by all I mean ME. And my Mike. And anyone who was there!

(Sound check. Bryan Beller in foreground - Mike Keneally in back.)

(dancing guy dances to Mike Keneally too. Who wouldn't?)


(uh, he's really fast - I couldn't get a good picture of him.)

As I said, I can't wait for the next show that's within 300 miles of us (or any amount of reasonable driving distance). We'll be there!!

I had a lot to write about here...the family part of the STL trip is still to come. With more hilarious cat videos than you can shake a stick at!

Fetch

Our kitty, Lucky, loves - absolutely loves my hairbands. He's obsessed. And he fetches - just like a dog.

Tagged!

By my friend, gnightgirl!

An unobstructed view of my face:


Ha!! Just kidding! That's Bette Davis...

Here I am: