12-4-2011

My cat Sienna really likes Christmas. As such, it's the time of year to risk bodily harm to get the decorations out of our sketchy storage space and put up our tree. I'm really serious about Sienna liking Christmas. She likes seasonal stuff like egg nog and Christmas music and ornaments that look like her. This is my ornament that's as old as I am. Nicole also likes Christmas music (though streaming a station on my phone is a lot easier than cranking a phonograph for every song). She even sings along. I think this is Sienna telling us that she approves of our decorations, and that she can now pretend to be a present for the rest of the month. She'll be here pretty much from now until we take the tree down. Happy holidays.

12-3-2011

I know I post too many pictures of food, but I didn't bring my camera on my 12.5 mile run this morning, and spending the whole day cleaning our house isn't very photogenic. Slightly more photogenic is this awesome still-in-the-box Transformer I "liberated" from my parent's house (the same way I liberated my grandfather's Leica on 1-30-10). Look at this illustration and tell me it doesn't bring back instant nostalgia (provided you're a boy that grew up in the 80's). It also works on some girls that grew up in the 80's too, because it made Nicole want to dig out her old toys to play with (appropriately, my vintage 80's BMX bike is in the background). Barbie box. This is what she was really looking for. It's a cupcake doll that's supposed to smell like berries, but Nicole thinks smells like one of her coworkers. I'm not sure if that's a good or a bad thing. We ain't never growing up forever.

P.s. these toys are the exact same age as I am. I would like to think that I've accomplished more in my lifetime than they have, but I'm not really sure that I can make that claim.

12-2-2011

Occasionally, I catch myself having done something like this on my desk. Totally unconsciously. And I'm reminded of exactly how obsessive compulsive I really am.

12-1-2011

The spoils of Cyber Monday have been steadily arriving. I believe this sets off a seasonal holiday that only cats celebrate. Sienna thinks it's called "Boxing Day," but I'm pretty sure that's something different.

11-30-2011

It's here.

11-29-2011

Now that Thanksgiving, Black Friday, and Cyber Monday are all officially over (well not exactly totally over), I'm now prepared to begin to think about Christmas. Or in my job's case, whichever seasonal holiday you choose to observe. Speaking of my job, we have a Christmas (used to be a tree) ladder that everyone can decorate with office-made ornaments. I made Post-It-Note-bread-people that are wearing finger tip hats that I cut off my hobo gloves. Needless to say, I'm already pretty excited about Christmas.

11-28-2011

Oh, Cyber Monday. I know I made fun of your relative, Black Friday, but what you've done to my bank account today was cruel and entirely uncalled for.

11-27-2011

Nicole and I have a policy of spontaneously awarding ourselves "prizes." Generally these are for minor accomplishments such as running 600 miles, or in this case buying a miniature, porcelain, teddy bear tea set to assuage for a really really bad sinus headache. Additionally, we're crazy cat people, and just so happen to have things like giant catnip filled tea bags laying around the house. It doesn't take a fortune teller to predict what happens next. Yeah, we're having a high tea party on an antique silver dish with our cats. That's real milk in the creamer because Mushroom takes her tea with milk. Not because she's British though, but because she's a cat. A cat that drinks tea. However, since catnip is pretty much crack for cats, Mushroom may have drank a little too much tea and ended up trashing the party then passing out. I belive that that's the definition of a successful cat party.

P.s. I'm fully aware what this post says about both my relative level of sanity and social life. I still like it and I don't care. I do what I wanna.

11-26-2011

The number of nice days left in the year for hiking in the woods are probably very limited. Pretty soon this cave and these bees will be covered in snow.

11-25-2011

I hope everyone had a good time standing in line for hours in overcrowded stores to buy a stack of VHS tapes and DVD's for 10% off. I was out burning up turkey and pie calories in the woods stomping in the glorious mud, climbing hills, and chasing Great Blue Herons for 11.2 miles this morning. Enjoy watching that Brüno DVD you got for 99¢. I'm sure it will be worth it.

11-24-2011

Thanksgiving is by far one of my favorite holidays. It celebrates eating, and if you've ever read my blog before, you know that eating is pretty much a religious activity for me. Quickly becoming another religious activity to me is running, so in addition to celebrating copious gluttony, we signed up for a Turkey Trot race in the morning. Since this was going to be a relaxed "fun run," I had grand aspirations of running with my little point-and-shoot camera to document the whole race. I started out well with a shot of the pre-race ritual of Nicole eating a bagel (maybe the ritualistic eating is why I like running so much). I even got a shot of the ritualistic, pre-race trip to the Porta-Potty. Now understand, I'm a bit of a germaphobe and have a paralyzing fear of public restrooms. Especially Porta-Pottys. Like night terror, screaming in my sleep level horrified. So before races, it's pretty much like a game show to get there early and pick the right door that no one has been to before me. Finding the closed down lid (pictured above) and still wrapped up roll of paper is pretty much like winning the all expense paid trip to Tahiti for me. Aaannnddd this is where my documentation of the race comes to a close. Right before we lined up, I decided that running with even a small, little camera would be no fun at all, so I stashed it in the car. Sorry, I really did want to get pictures of people huffing and puffing so they could eat at much turkey as they want. Maybe next year...but probably not.

In a move towards full disclosure, even the above photo is fake. That's not really the end of the race, and Nicole didn't really beat her dad. Her dad still has a bit of speed on her. Nicole's parents are cool. If you don't believe me, here's a picture of me doing festive holiday shots with my mother-in-law.

You can pretty much (rightly) assume that there was truckloads of food and that I ate it all, but I was too busy eating to take pictures. I did however take this picture because I'm still obsessed with the electric turkey saw power tool. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

11-23-2011

It's the day before Thanksgiving, and I'm fully prepared to out-gluttony this wee spider in terms of relative body mass to consumption ratio.

11-22-2011

Look! Do I win a prize or anything? I hope I win something good...like maybe a new car.

11-21-2011

These are egg rolls that my grandmother made. We keep a stockpile of them in the freezer for special occasions and when we want to be fat. Tonight is not a special occasion.