Merry, Merry!

Happy Christmas from Fermi and her cats. PDM, too.

Merry Christmas from Dixie

Yes, I know it is a country song, but this became my favorite Christmas song when I moved away from Georgia and was homesick. I still like it. So here it is for you.

Merry Christmas from Dixie. It is raining in the pines, not snowing. At least not here. But it is a peaceful Christmas night.

And to all, a good night.

The Winter Solstice came and went yesterday with me too busy to notice. But once the pre-holiday crazy rush has passed, this is the season to slow down, take a few days off from your normal routine, laugh and enjoy family, rest and recharge. We defy the long dark with festive lights, a warm hearth, and a hearty feast. It isn't just the sun that seems to stand still this time of year. I love that week between Christmas and New Year. It stems from childhood, I think, when we were out of school and got to stay home and play. Even if you have to work (which I do), that week is a special time when ordinary rules and routines don't apply. We eat lavishly, indulge ourselves, play with new toys, see family and friends, watch movies and bowl games, reminisce about the year that's nearly gone, and nap.

Whatever you and yours do to celebrate the season and push back against the dark nights, I wish you happiness and joy.

Merry and Bright

Happy Christmas and Merry Holidays from Fermicat and the kittenses.

So what would happen?

...if we just said "screw it" to getting any Christmas cards mailed out this year?

I'm pretty sure the world won't end, but if it does, please accept my apologies in advance. My bad.

Psssttt. Hey you.

Yes, you.

You know who you are.

I've seen dozens of you around my neighborhood. You're one of those people who haven't removed a single item of your garish outdoor Christmas display, in spite of the fact that it is now six days into January and Christmas is oh-so-very-over. And not only that, you are still plugging it all in every night, and every morning your inflatable plastic Santa, snowglobe, nativity scene and whatnot is all crumpled down like some horrific massacre has occurred during the night.

Guess what? Christmas is over, and won't come around again for another 353 days. As proud as you are of your excessive display of holiday spirit, 'tis not the season any more. Do your neighbors a favor and take all that stuff back to your attic. Bonus points for class if you don't leave that last string of lights up on the eaves all year. The temperature is back up in the 60s today, so there is really no excuse. Get crackin'!

Merry, Merry!

Merry Christmas, Sweet Solstice, Happy Hanukkah, or whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year. I wish you all the best.

Photo: long exposure of entryway tree with motion toward tree and some good luck.

Frenetic

We are hours away from the Winter Solstice, which should be a quiet and peaceful time of year, and Christmas - a time to relax and enjoy family and friends. But the week before Christmas is not much fun at all. Disrupted routines, crowds, traffic, and a bunch of last minute "must do" chores can make you tired and cranky.

This year has been worse than normal. Our plans have been up in the air due to the health of a family member, and I have been disorganized and late doing things. It is the 21st, and I still have stuff to buy for people. Including PDM. Oh sure, I bought his "big" present already, but I'd like to have a few fun items for stocking stuffers, and gifts from the cats.

Worse yet, my creativity has deserted me. I am uninspired. I can't think of what to get people. This usually results in getting them something lame at the last minute.

Here's to hoping it's a good Christmas anyway, and that we get everything done and have time to enjoy family and friends. Hopefully they will still be talking to me after receiving their incredibly banal gifts.


The photo is one I took using a slow shutter speed and creative camera angle at the "Fantasy in Lights" winter wonderland display at Callaway Gardens.

Retread Christmas Catblogging

A rerun from 2006, but still funny. This is the reason why we didn't put up a tree this year. Moxy might be "over it", but Silvio would be even worse... Zima, ever a lady, is above the fray.

Ho, Ho, HOT!

While the rest of the country is shivering through snow and ice storms, we in the southeast have been enjoying record high temperatures. It is hard to get into the Christmas spirit when it is hot enough to wear shorts and sandals! Christmas shopping is usually a cold and windy affair no matter where you live, but not for us this year. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. No, y'all can keep your icy roads and power outages. I'll take balmy 77 degree days and hazy sunshine any time. Ho, ho, hot! At least through Wednesday... after that, the party's over.

The Return of CatBlogging

This post is dedicated to Jasmine.


Santa Claus left this toy mouse for Moxy in her stocking. She has had it for less than two weeks and has already given it a fuzzy mohawk.

This type of picture would not have been possible with my dinosaur of an old digital camera, but PDM got me a shiny new 8MP one with lots of bells and whistles for Christmas. Hopefully enough features to overcome the limitations of the photographer. I'm having a blast experimenting with the settings.

Good times.

I'm off work for the next four days, I got my Camry back, almost all of the holiday prep work is done so now I can enjoy the fun stuff, and I'll be spending time with the people I love. I'm looking forward to eating too much, multiple desserts with each meal, the new bottle of single malt scotch we will purchase later today, watching everyone open their gifts, long winters naps, snuggling with PDM and the cats, watching holiday movies (The Ref is one of my favorites), reading, or doing nothing at all.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Party On, Or Not.

PDM and I are going to a holiday party tonight. We'll be dining at one of Atlanta's best restaurants and we like the people who will be there, so there was no need to weasel out of it. But if you've been invited to one too many parties this season, you might find this site handy: Holiday Party Excuse Generator.

UPDATE: Good times! Marty had beef filet, and I had the lobster & green chili soft taco. The appetizers and sides were top notch, as was the wine and scotch. Other than the horrible tangle of traffic we faced before arriving, the evening was nothing but fun.

Panties on the Sidewalk.

I drug myself out of bed relatively early this fine Saturday morning in order to finish Christmas shopping, because it had to be done. The stuff's gotta be mailed on Monday. A few exhausting hours and hundreds of dollars later, PDM and I were done and treated ourselves to lunch at Thai Spice. All of this occurred in an outdoor mall. It was a great day to be outside - clear, sunny and unseasonably warm, even for Atlanta. On the way back to the car, we noticed a pair of black silk panties lying on the sidewalk. This was the weirdest thing I can recall seeing on a sidewalk, well, ever. How did they get there, and why? Did someone buy a new pair and decide to wear them out of the store (something that Jeff Foxworthy claims is very common among rednecks - buying something and wearing it out of the store)? Perhaps the lady was simply too hot in our balmy 70 degree weather and decided to shed some unnecessary clothing. Or lost a bet. I suspect there was some naughtiness involved. Someone is going to get a lump of coal in their fishnet stockings this Christmas. Santa is still watching, you know.

At first it was cute...

...but now not so much. Moxy continues to climb into the Christmas tree and we have not figured out an effective method of stopping her from doing it. We stuffed some other greenery in and around the lower branches, but this only made it more challenging and fun for her. The middle branches of the formerly very pretty tree now have a decidedly downward slant, causing a gap between those branches and the next highest set that is getting larger by the day. Not a good look for said tree. If she was doing it when we were home, we could use a squirt gun or something to scare her off. Unfortunately all we see is the evidence that it is happening during the day. Anyone have any suggestions that don't involve felinicide?

Don't Panic!

I need a Hitchhiker's Guide to Christmas shopping. Every time I think about it my blood pressure rises another notch or two. Having to mail some of the stuff out just adds to the pressure. We're rapidly approaching the time when it gets more and more expensive to ship stuff every day, until finally it becomes impossible to get it there on time. I hate crowds and traffic, which is what malls are surrounded by on weekends and weeknights, so I keep not going shopping. I've been ultra wishy-washy about online purchases, and can't even come up with a hint for PDM about what I want for myself. Every year I tell myself that I will start earlier the next year and not go through this, and every year I end up doing half of it at the last minute.

All this holiday procrastination amplifies the guilt I feel for my ordinary, run-of-the-mill procrastination. Here is a partial list of stuff I keep putting off, in no particular order.

1. Get my notebook computer fixed. It's had a hardware problem for almost two years now that makes it a real pain in the ass to use.

2. Get a new cell phone, get a local number, and tell them my last name is different now. I moved and changed my name in July 2004. I'm just a bit behind on tying up the loose ends.

3. Order window treatments for the new house. Been there nearly a year, but the neighbors can still look straight into our kitchen and living room any time day or night.

4. Update my address books (on- and off-line). Again, more than a year behind with moves, births and deaths. I have the info scattered on little bits of paper all over the house. I can never find them when I need one.

5. Close those two Massachusetts bank accounts that have about $50 each in them. I haven't used them in over two years. Oh yeah, and they're still under my old last name.

6. Go to the dentist for teeth cleaning. Two years behind. Nothing hurts, so why bother? Ditto for the eye doctor. Except I know I need new glasses and have for at least a year.

7. Mail birthday cards and presents. I'm usually at least three or four weeks behind at all times.

8. Housecleaning. Usually done in a panic just before guests arrive.

9. Wash and wax car. Too cold, wait for spring...

10. Order and plant spring-blooming bulbs. Too late, wait for next year.

11. Christmas cards. Should have been working on them by now, but haven't even bought any yet. Gulp.

And so it goes. Ordinarily my long list of stuff to do that is late doesn't bother me at all, but now I have gift panic and feel completely behind in everything.

More Holiday CatBlogging

Bad Cat edition.


This is Moxy, halfway up the tree, just hanging out. Unbelievably, she didn't break anything. (Yet.) Hmmm, does the ten-year warranty on the tree cover cat damage?

Moxy isn't the only cat who is interested in Christmas trees. It's a rather common affliction. At least she didn't do as much damage as these cats.

Holiday CatBlogging

We bought our Christmas tree this week. I'm excited. I haven't, for one reason or another, put up a tree in 5-6 years. It used to be because I lived in Massachusetts and came home to Georgia for Christmas, so I wouldn't bother doing the tree up there. Then I moved back to Georgia and lived in an apartment, and there just wasn't enough room to do it. Last Christmas, we were in the process of buying a house. Now we finally have space and time, and will be home to enjoy it. I scouted the ads and we finally found a very pretty and sort of realistic looking pre-lit tree that was for sale at a massive discount and we bought it. Now there is only one potential problem: Moxy.

As you know, Moxy has a thing for boxes. She didn't waste any time nibbling on a corner of the big tree box and then laying claim to it. Here she is napping on it. No doubt she is dreaming of the countless hours of fun she'll have destroying this box little by little. Except we are planning on reusing the box to store the tree, so we had to put the kibosh on that idea.


The next potential problem is not knowing what a six month old kitten will do to the tree. Zima, who is an old lady cat, just ignores it. Moxy showed a lot of interest in it before we even took it out of the box. She was a pest while we were putting it together, and it didn't take her five minutes to extract a bulb from one of the lower lights. We're going to wait a few more days before making the tree a more attractive target. Step one is to make sure she won't knock it over. Step two is to make sure she isn't chewing on any of it. Step three will be to see what she'll do when there are ornaments to go after. I have some cat-friendly ones to put near the bottom, and I'll probably save some of the more delicate or antique ones for later (or maybe even next year).


She passed the first test. We came home from work and the tree was still standing. It didn't look like she'd messed with it while we were at work. She really likes hanging out underneath the tree when it is lit. But since the ten year warranty is not likely to include repair of cat damage, I'll pick up some Bitter Apple to spray on the lower branches to make it taste bad, just in case.