cliché, but i can't help it

tomorrow is thanksgiving, and although it seems a bit cliché, i will now compose a thanksgiving list. off the top of my head, thinking over the past year, and in no particular order, i am thankful for the following:

• the softness of samson's ears
• the hippie, a beautiful man who loves me
• flakey pie crust
• non-flakey and super-supportive friends
• cuddly time
• the smell of cinnamon
• all those babies everyone keeps having
• our apartment, which we are almost finished painting
• a neighborhood where i can walk everywhere
• the porch cat
• having a light at the end of the tunnel of financial despair
• feeling like my moldy-body factor is low
• the new comfy couch in the office
• flea killer
• fergus's static-y meow
• running out of bookshelf space
• good steaming hot cups of tea
• getting back in touch with the artistic half of my brain
• hugs--the hippie gives the best hugs in the universe
• scout leaning on me like a big dog
• learning a new craft
• baby lions and meercats and patas monkeys
• my dreams of the future

i am sure there is more, but that is the quick, brainstorm-y list. hope you all have a fabulous holiday. hope i do too if i can ever get out of the office and onto the road!

pies

it's the time of year again where i make pies. today i was scheduled to make two of them for my family for thanksgiving. perhaps it was a bit ambitious of me to think i could make it to the grocery store to get the pie stuff and make two pies in one night after work while doing laundry and trying to get ready to be gone for 3 days. hmmm...

it took three grocery stores before i found any butter or heavy whipping cream.

so now it is midnight and i am one pie down, one to go. i admit that the first one (the pumpkin) would have gone much faster if i could have restrained myself from martha-stewart-ing* it up. but--um--no. i tried not to do it, but i couldn't help myself. i had a compulsion to cut out the little fancy shapes with the tiny cookie cutters to make a little pattern in the crust around the edges. i am not sure what is wrong with me. luckily the apple pie is SUPPOSED to be rustic, so it will go much faster when i make it. tomorrow night. at my mother's house.

let's hear it for doing things at the last minute!
* yes, i did just use martha-stewart as a verb.

porch cat

this morning i got up early to make stuffing for the thanksgiving potluck lunch at work, and so my routine was all off. i petted the cats, washed some dishes, fed the birds and squirrels, talked to emily, ate breakfast, had a leisurely cup of tea, and even did a little laundry--it was GREAT. i need to get up early more often.

anyway.

i walked into the living room with my tea just in time to see the bulk of the birds and squirrels scatter as the porch cat leisurely sauntered his way into the yard. one squirrel remained, peacefully eating dried corn and peanuts from the dish on the porch. the porch cat spotted him almost immediately, and hunched down into full-on tiger stalk position. he stalked the squirrel all the way across the yard, wiggling his butt in that way that young cats do. and he ALMOST got him, too! he pounced and the squirrel bolted up a tree and the porch cat raced up the tree as fast as he could go and JUST MISSED! it was all very national geographic on the porch this morning.

so of course, i went out to see the porch cat, to feed and pet him. we played with a stick and he fell all over my feet, and he scarfed down some kitten chow (yes, he has his own food now), and he pounced on some leaves in then yard, and he is so cute. he purrs so loud.

*sigh*

his name is "twig" in my head.

strange week alone

the house feels weird and empty without the hippie in it. he is in california all week, working hard and not sleeping. it's just strange without him. i am not really cooking at all--very out of character for me. and god, i have slept like a dead thing this week. it's not helping--i am still tired. i thought i would have a week filled with down time. i thought i would get a lot done. hasn't really happened, but that's alright. i am not really in the mood to put a lot of pressure on myself.

i have been surprisingly busy for a woman on her own--it seems that people come out of the woodwork to entertain you when your man is out of town.

i had dinner with the grossmanns last night, a good but strange indian meal in a restaurant that is both ice cream parlor and indian fast food joint. it was the first time since i was about 25 that i had an entire meal where i recognized nothing i was eating. it was all good--that much i know. and it was great to see the family--i have not seen them since going back to work, which is just a travesty.

after dinner i went over to emily's house for an elf viewing. for those of you who have not seen elf--it is surprisingly slow. i think it sucked the souls out of both me and emily. when i saw her at lunch today, however, she seemed to have recovered.

tonight my knitting class was cancelled, so i went to the movies with sonya and roger instead. we saw the polar express. let me tell you--i have now had my quota of pre-thanksgiving christmas cheer. ENOUGH! no more till after thanksgiving. i mean it! but i digress... the movie was pretty good--i think chris van allsburg can be proud that his illustrations have inspired such an epic. and roger was hilarious--unable to contain his 4 year old excitement, whispering loudly to me everything that was about to happen seconds before it did. luckily i have read the book, so there were no huge surprises ruined for me. roger was also about TO DIE from having to pee at the end of the movie, but there was NO WAY he was going to admit it and miss the very end--i have never seen such squirming or heard such denial! kids are hilarious. (no worries--he made it!)

tomorrow i will be babysitting for emily (NOTE: happy anniversary emily and todd!) and attending a late night conference call while making stuffing for the thanksgiving potluck lunch at work on friday. i am tired just thinking about that stuffing. thanksgiving is next week? are you serious??!

even the porch cat has been extra supportive this week--he has come running to meet me at the car door when i got home, just to be petted, on two separate occasions. tonight i think i was too late for him--he was already gone out on his rounds.

friday will wrap up my week alone by hanging out with jennifer. we will eat and knit and talk. gabriella will be cute and talk a lot and chew up jennifer's knitting nedles and make me laugh, not necessarily in that order.

and all this is good, but i still miss my hippie. living for saturday morning when he comes home.

bittersweet babies

this weekend, two sets of friends had babies, and i simply CAN'T WAIT to meet these new little people:

1. andrew howard gainey, born to howard and christine saturday night. hard labor, resulting in a cesarian section. mother and baby are fine and coming home tomorrow. this makes brooke a big sister, which i am sure will be no small adjustment.
   
   
2. ella catherine freeman, born to dearest friends jeff and carrie sunday at around noon. another hard labor, with some manageable complications. again, mother and baby are fine and coming home tomorrow. jeff sounded relieved, exhilarated, terrified and utterly in love on the phone. and tired. i could hear the little newborn cry in the background, and it made me cry.

so happy for my friends. and a little jealous. a little sad for me.

the weather's beautiful--wish i was there

ew--it's all drizzly and grey out again.
i want to be here instead.
SO glad it's friday.

rant: doctor's offices

is anything more stressful than dealing with doctors? maybe dealing with travel agents? i don't know--that's a close call. i have been dealing today with a doctor's office, where the woman at the front desk ALWAYS pulls the wrong chart for me, and where the doctor seems to think i am lying about the state of my own health. my blood pressure shoots through the roof every time i walk in their door, because i get PISSED OFF, not because my BP meds aren't working. and i have called them 5 times in the last two days, because no one i need is ever available when i call, and no one returns my calls. this should not be so difficult. further, i am sick of monitoring my stupid BP, which is FINE. yesterday i waited 45 minutes at a completely different doctor's office just to have them take a BP reading. 45 minutes. and it took less than one minute to take it. the fool at the front desk had just forgotten to put me on the nurse's list. maybe it's not the fault of the doctors as much as it is the fault of the front desk people who ALL seems to be as dumb as so many boxes of rocks. UGH!!!

Cannibal Women in the Avacado Jungle of Death

and you are thinking, "what did she say?"

yes, you read that right. while looking for an action movie to inspire the hippie to happiness at the potential of spending a night of beer and explosions on the couch, i came across a movie called Cannibal Women in the Avacado Jungle of Death. WAY too amusing not to share. be sure to note that it's cheaper to buy it in conjunction with Assault of the Killer Bimbos, and while you are at it, be sure to check out the, "Customers who bought this DVD also bought:" list. dead funny, that is.

i chuckle sometimes at my fellow humans.

clickit

haven't been much in the mood for writing this past week. had the nasty headache, had a little cold, was a little bummed out. yadda yadda yadda. but i am feeling physically better (just in time for more PMS), and that always makes for mentally better, too. plus the sun has been shining for a few days, and that helps, too. i figure it's time to get my shit back together and update some blog.

what have i been doing, you ask, to occupy myself through this most recent funk?

i have been knitting.

i am surprised at how into this knitting thing i have gotten. even when i was sick on the couch this weekend, knitting was something i could do. i can fit a scarf into my purse to take with me anywhere. last week, jenn and i went to give blood, then out to dinner, then for coffee. we knitted at the red cross, waiting to be seated at outback, and over tea at starbucks--it was a totally pleasant evening. i took my knitting with me when we went out with the puryears and grant last weekend, and ended up knitting on maggie's couch while we chatted.

i knit in the evenings when i am done with work and the hippie is running, i knit before bed, i knit while the hippie is working at home, so i can still hang out with him. i was talking to a woman who has been knitting for about three years, and she told me that she is never without her knitting, and man, i can believe it. it is just so portable and easy. you can talk while you do it. and there is something to show for it at the end of the day. it doesn't require a lot of equipment, and it can be done almost anywhere. you can even take bamboo knitting needles onto a plane with you. this is a good hobby.

tonight the knitting group is coming over to our house for the first time--i admit i am a little intimidated. the houses of the other women in this group have so far been well done masterpieces of decor and money and style, and i fear i will not measure up. but then again, people always seem to be comfortable in our space as a general rule, and i honestly love our little house. so hey--they can deal with the fact that the entryway is still pink and kelly green and that i haven't quite gotten all the plants properly positioned inside for the winter. oh well. maybe i will get that hippie to build us a little fire, because who doesn't love a fire when it's cold outside? and hey--i am Southern--if i can't make people feel at home in my home, then my mother did something terribly wrong.

not that guy again!!

ok, i am not a political person. i am not even registered to vote, which i know makes me irresponsible and negates anything i have to say about politics. and usually i just keep my mouth shut... but this time, i just have to say something. bush again??? you have GOT to be kidding me people! WHAT has he done that warrants entrusting him with the next four years? not that i am all pro-kerry or something, but i AM pro-not-bush. i just find it hard to see how anyone can look at the past four years and not want some kind of change. the saddest part is that there is no one clear candidate to rally the country, and there has not been in many years of presidential elections. who do you support when your choice comes down to deciding who is the lesser of the two evils? that is not much of a choice at all--it's just a sad state of affairs. the grey drizzly rain suits my mood about this whole thing.

does this mean we have to make strategery a real word now?

this pain in my head...

it just won't go away!

i have had a headache off and on for 2 days--woke up with it at about 2 am monday morning, and it persists. stess? a change in the weather? god only knows. i am pretty tired of it though--it is making me whiney and overwhelmed and sleep deprived. i think i have slept maybe 7 hours combined in the last two days. *whine*

in other, non headache related news, it WAS a good weekend. the boyz all seemed to have a good time, and the hippie was filled with funk and sadness to see them go. there was four-wheeling, gaming, eating, drinking, hooters, and ceegar smoking to be had. the weather was nice, so most of the gaming happened outside on the porch. very good. emily and i had a fabulous girl day in the meantime. i also managed to have dinner with jenn, spend some time with my friend maggie, and finish my scarf. on sunday i went alone and got myself a pedicure. very good. good weekends have one big disadvantage though--they make the work week harder. the headache is not helping.

did i mention that i had a headache?

i apparently also have a new cat. Porch Cat. a sweet, extremely friendly little grey and white kitty who is about 4 months old and sorely in need of a good home. he has taken up residence on the porch, much to the dismay of some very chubby squirrels, who have had free reign of the critter food for perhaps too long. with three cats already in the house, i can't exactly bring him in, but man--i want to. hate to see an animal in need. so we are feeding him of course. and i am shopping him around to see if i can find him a good, permanent arrangement. at the very least i know i am going to end up taking him to the vet and have him seen to for vaccines and the removal of his ability to make more kitties in need. cross your fingers for me that i can find him a family.