Gratuitous baby photos

I haven't posted any photos of my granddaughter in awhile. It's not that I'm a bad Nana, I am just not the one with a decent camera. However I can now rectify that slight, as my daughter Ashley has a nice new digital.



My favorite Christmas photo of Helene


















Mommy caught a perfect moment of baby and Daddy while on a visit to Cleveland Park












It's cold outside, but this little one can still pull off cute


















Someone has discovered pencils and pens and is not afraid to use them

meow meow meow meow meow

THAT is what our youngest cat is most fond of doing for no apparent reason. She always meows in a room no one is in and for at constant two or three minute stretch at a time.

Then there is the chirping she does when you are petting her. Last night she had snuggled up to me once I'd gone to bed and she was wanting some serious petting. "Chirp chirp, mew chirp". So much for falling asleep with a sweet cuddly kitten by your side. Between her conversational comments on my petting quality and her being a wiggly miss, there was no way I was going to be dozing off.

I always thought cats were the more quiet type of house pets, but my three have proven that theory wrong. Andromeda is quite vocal, and although she only weighs about three pounds you can hear her running through the house playing tag with Chernobyll, who runs like she has jackhammers for feet.

Luna-tic is the only really quiet kitty in the house. But then she spends part of her time outdoors, and when inside, does her albino slug imitation by sleeping. Of course her purring can be loud when she is demanding head rubs, and she hisses at the little one when Drama wants to play with her.

There Drama goes again. Meow meow meow meow. What does that cat want?

All I want is a counter

I have always thought myself as somewhat computer savvy, but believe me there are some serious limits to what I can do. Like understand HTML or any other computer based language.

Here's my simple yet impossible (at least for me) delimna. I want to add a visitor counter to this blog site. I have found a site that offers a free counter in several different styles. All you have to do is copy the code and insert it into the code written for my blog page. Simple yeah?

Err, no it isn't. First of all where in all those lines of letters and symbols and dotted lines do you insert this jumble of more letters symbols and dotted lines? I've tried several likely looking places. The result is one of the following. I see absolutely nothing new on my web page, no counter, no blank space where a counter may be lurking, no odd line of odd lettering in a strange place...nothing.

The other is that the edit function refuses the placement of my code imbedding, deciding that I obviously don't know what the heck I am doing, therefore it will refuse to accept my attempt as valid.

Of course I can find nothing that offers a word of help in how to make such a simple addition to my blog page possible. My lack of geek-dom is showing, and it's embarrassing. It was a good fake while it lasted.

It's the day after Christmas

And I'm still sick! I need to go to work today, even if its just for a few hours, and I am still congested, and really lethargic. Even with antibiotics, Mucinex and loads of tea and vitamins, I am having a really hard time shaking whatever it is that has gotten a hold of me.

I haven't been out of the house since Saturday night, have spent most of the week on the couch, surrounded by blankets, pillows and used kleenex. I did learn something interesting. If I want to guarantee that I stay awake all night long, take Mucinex right before bed. Works like a charm.

It really sucks to be prone to these respiratory ailments, and boy am I ever. I tried so hard to avoid getting near people who were fighting this version of the annual crud, despite the fact that half my co-workers were dealing with one or more stage of the current bug. At least I managed to hold it off until a week where there wouldn't be a whole lot going on at work, and at least one extra scheduled off time was in the making. Also my boss, having dealt with this herself, totally understood how I felt and gave me the two extra days off I needed.

Thankfully my lungs are showing every sign of staying put, despite my best efforts to cough them up, and my nostrils don't scream in protest anymore when I use my prescription nasal allergy spray. So I must be getting better, just not nearly as quickly as I'd like.

I forgot to add sleep to my schedule

It's the week before Christmas my schedule's a wreck
There's rehearsals, shopping, work, and errands oh heck!

Ok, my mind is too befuddled to finish this poem, but you get the gist. I've got loads to do this week.

My church is putting on it's Christmas Concert series this weekend.(shameless plug time here) I am singing in the choir, and am really looking forward to that. I have rehearsals Monday and Wednesday evenings. In case any of you are interested in attending, the event is Saturday 20 at 5:00 and 7:30 pm, and Sunday the 21st at 5:00 pm at Spartanburg Community Church. Email me if you want more details or visit http://www.spartanburgcommunitychurch.com/

On top of that, I am not done with my Christmas shopping yet. I am going to try to knock some of that out tomorrow, maybe, if I'm lucky.

On top of that I have drama rehearsals for our church's children's service. We do a drama every week. It's loads of fun, and the kids seem to enjoy the shows.

On top of that, there's work. Thankfully we haven't been too busy this season, but this week is likely going to be different. It looks like I have a busy schedule of pre-holiday hair to do.

On top of that, I have a list of friends and family needing their hair done before the holidays. I've done three this weekend, two to go.

On top of that, there is laundry, the need to go get a new vacuum bag so the house can go through it's weekly de-mucking...You get the point.

On top of that, there is my column to write, some scripts to read over and edit.

I just wonder where in all of this I'm going to find time to sleep!!

Tinsel me this.

I noticed last night that the tree that Megan and I worked so hard on to decorate is looking a little careworn, at least on the bottom 2/3 of the tree.

We didn't decorate the very bottom because its wedged in between our couch and our love seat to help keep a toddler out of it. BUT it made the perfect launchpad for two of the cats who have made it their mission to strip the tree of all ornaments from the middle section. I will be trying to make things neater today after church.

Now don't go suggestion the water bottle method of keeping cats out of holiday decorations. I tried that with the little cat. I kid you not, she sat there until fully drenched, just so she could get just one more swipe at the garland. Chernobyll gets herself far enough into the tree that I would risk electrocution if I tried spraying her. Luna-tic is our only cat that goes outside. She sees real trees every day, so considers the indoor one as unimportant.


There is just one thing that I didn't consider when deciding on safety for the reason for our Christmas tree location this year. Where to put the presents. There is no space!!! Looks like someone's closet, mainly mine will get rather full before December 25.

Check out the Heavenly Bods

No not mine, although I am beginning to suspect that my hips could house a small solar system. What I am talking about is a beautiful sight in the evening sky.

For the next couple of nights. The Crescent moon, Jupiter and Venus will be clearly visible and close apparent proximity to each other. The three together will look like there is an upside down frowny face in the night sky.

Even with all the light pollution near my neighborhood, I was able to get a good clear view. The sight is supposed to only get better over night. I just wish I had a telescope.

I did a quick google and discovered that although these three celestial objects do appear at the same time in the sky, we often cannot see it due to the timing, or the angle of the earth. More often we will get either Jupiter, or Venus alone. To see both together is a treat. It has been speculated that such a configuration is fairly rare, and may have been the view the wise men saw signaling the birth of Jesus.

It has been estimated that the next time such a display of our moon and our two brightest neighbors showing up so close to each other will be in 2052. I may still be alive then.

Such a unique sight makes me wish that every so often, everyone would just turn off all the lights, so we could get a real good look at our night sky. I think we'd be amazed at just how gorgeous our solar system is, even from such a limited vantage point.