Happy New Year!

spark2.jpg I lit a sparkler in the kitchen. Surprisingly, the cats didn’t run but watched.

In a couple of hours I’m heading out to Long Island, WAY WAY WAY out on Long Island to be there when my oldest and dearest friend Chris gets MARRIED. Charlie proposed a few days before Christmas and they decided to just do it. I have nothing decent to wear because, I just realized, for years all my dressy occasions have been during warm weather. Thank God it doesn’t really matter what I wear. The pressure is on Chris, not me! She bought an off white suit, which I should have pictures of by tomorrow.

Which reminds me. Chris asked me to take pictures. Here’s the thing — when I started out in life I was a photographer. And I didn’t completely suck, but I worked with a view camera and took forever on each shot. Quick, candid shots, not so much. PLUS, most of the shots I’ve been taking lately have been coming out out of focus, and I don’t know why. (You’ll see when I post this funny picture I took of a bunch of firemen the other day. Totally out of focus, but I’m going to post it anyway, because it’s just too good even with the out of focus.)

So I’m terrified that any pictures I take will suck AND be out of focus. And there’s no do-overs on occasions like this.

Anyway, HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!

Who can Resist??

How can you not be a cat lady with cats like this in the world, I ask you?? They look like little gremlins. I’ll take the whole pack. I got a great day of writing and the gym in on Thursday and then didn’t do a thing yesterday. So today it’s write, write, write again.

[Video removed because the link no longer works.]

Sitting on my Work

workcats.jpg Anyone who has cats knows that they love to sit on your work. And two cats, of course, are better able to cover all the possible work piles. Here are Finney and Buddy, limiting my access the best they can, but as you can see I’ve got one free area left. I have foiled their evil plans.

Today is back to work day, I think. No gym, no reading, no TV. Writing. I also want to tinker with my bio on my web page. I don’t think it really says much about me. Howard wrote a bio for his new web pages and it really communicates who he is.

My Last Christmas Shot of the Year

garg2.jpg There are a couple of griffins flanking a door on Perry Street, and someone put very undignified Christmas bows on them. For shame, Christmas decorator! The ribbon was pretty, though, I’ll give you that.

I got a bunch of great gifts this year, so yay! Thank you, everyone!

What shall I do today? It almost feels like it’s too soon to work. Like we need a day to recover from all the holiday build-up. I’ve got a bunch of phone calls to make, but the very thought of making them feels intrusive and rude. There must be some kind of quiet work I could do. Ha. I suppose I could always … WRITE.

Or, I could go to the movies.

I’m tv’ed out.

I’ve been working my way through everything Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child have written together. Right now I’m reading Reliquary. Not as great as some of their others, but still good. I wish these guys were my friends so I could ask them questions.

Bottomline: The holidays are over and we can all go back to our mostly normal selves, whatever that was (I just fixed a typo — I spelled “mostly” closer to “monsterly”).

Blogging Christmas

finnhow.jpg 8:50 a.m. I’m going to update this entry throughout the day. I’m feeling restless, and a vague sense of disappointment. I think I will need to check in. This is Finney showing an interest in Howard. Howard and I had Veselka for Christmas Eve dinner, and started to watch the movie Bundle of Joy, but it was disappointing. So far everything has been a little.

My only other plan for the day is to go out to Long Island to visit my brothers and their families. My father and stepmother are coming down from Vermont to be there.

Maybe I just need to rethink Christmas, and come up with a new approach.

11:40 a.m. Back from brunch with Howard, about to head out to Long Island. It’s Night of the Living Dead quiet out there. But it was a fun brunch and my mood is much improved. I got home and the water is shut off in my building because someone left for the holidays with their bathtub running. Thank God I already took a shower, which I might not have in time if it weren’t for meeting Howard.

I forgot. Last night we watched the Buffy episode where it snows at the end. That was nice.