The Holidays are Really and Truly Over

Damnit. I can find no legitimate excuse not to work today, so it’s back to work. Yeah. Hmmm.

After watching the Christmas episode of Roswell I was doing a “whatever happened to” and searching on the various actors and I saw that Majandra Delfino, who played Maria, has recorded a couple of albums.  I really loved the second one, but I’m trying to save money so I only downloaded three songs instead of the whole album.  If money is not an object, I recommend getting the whole thing.  Her singing and the songs are just hauntingly beautiful.  The three I chose: Ever Present, Who We’re Meant to Be and Daddy died.

I had this terrible experience the other day in front of a jewelry store.  I wrestled with my conscience about telling the story AND telling the name of the store, and I finally had to admit that saying the name was a vindictive act. So here is the story without saying the name of the store.

I was on the street taking pictures of some jewelry I liked in a store window and the owner came out and asked me to stop.  I asked why, I was just got off guard.  And he said something about people stealing his original designs, and I explained that I was taking pictures to put on my blog to show how beautiful his jewelry was and how much I loved his work.  For a second I thought he was going to get nice, and as it happens, I wasn’t happy with how the pictures were coming out and I didn’t want to show the jewelry in a less than flattering light and I said so and he didn’t let me finish my sentence.  He just said, “Okay.  Fantastic.”  And he turned around and went back inside quickly and without another word, with an air of distaste, like I was something so unpleasant he couldn’t get away from me fast enough.  He was just so nasty and dismissive. I love his choice of gems though.  However I am not a saint and when I walked by yesterday and saw him in there all alone, with no customers, I felt it served him right.  (If by any chance this guy was just having a horrible day and is not normally this unpleasant, I apologize to the universe.)

The Kittening

I don’t know who is who, of the kittens.  I can only identify the people. If you don’t like kittens you definitely want to skip over this post.  It’s an orgy of kittens.  Thank you Lisa and Mary Ann for bringing these little furballs of perfection all the way up from DC.  

There’s a movie at the end.  All the kittens are dark and the apartment was dark, so it’s not great.  I did the best I could.  Plus, I wasn’t allowed to show anyone’s face so I was working under a lot of constraints! 

Is this the same cat?  A different cat?  I don’t know.

This is Justine and her new girls.

This one likes me.  (They all liked me.  Best, I think.)  

In reality they were all rather squirmy with me while they rested peacefully with everyone else.

Oh God.  What did he see that I didn’t??

This is Margaret and Mark, and their new kittens (a boy and a girl).

Justine again, looking blissful.  As I would look if I was about to take two of these kittens home.

See, I did a self-portrait of me with one of the kittens.  Doesn’t he have that “get me out of here” look on his face??

And finally, a short movie.

De-Christmasing

I put away all the Christmas decorations except for the string of lights along the armoire.  I just can’t part with them yet.  Colored lights are so … comforting.  It makes me happy to have them there.

Today is the big Kittening.  Someone on Echo is driving up from DC with four kittens to give to two other people on Echo and I’m going to be there to take pictures.  A pack of kittens, who can resist??  Except the poor things.  After a long drive maybe they won’t want to be held and played with by a bunch of strangers.  But maybe they will.

Here is a bit of Christmas down at the Trade Center.

Very Fun Thing! Newspaper Generator


Ha! Someone on Echo posted a link to this site where you can generate a mock newspaper story.

I just did this quickly, off the top of my head, but fun! I named my mock newspaper The Wishful Thinking Monitor.

You can tell that I had just read that article in the Times about service animals.

Sigh.  

I know many think I’m insane, but imagine if all animals were cared for and loved, and not slaughtered and abused?

Does anyone watch Dogtown? God, the stories.  I wanted to adopt that little terrier they called Animal (then Noble) from the most recent one.

There are so many great organizations for animals.

Thank you all of you who started them and who work and volunteer for them.

Before I forget, did you know you could donate eye glasses you’re no longer using to Lenscrafters and they will give them to people who cannot afford glasses?  I just learned this and took a trillion pairs to the nearest Lenscrafter yesterday.  It made me feel good to know that all the money I had spent would not go to waste. (I’ve spent so much money trying to find flattering eye glasses.)