So it’s that time again, and how quickly does it creep up. Christmas, oh Christmas! The time of Joy and giving, and love, and happiness… but it doesn’t feel that way anymore. The only good part of the season is seeing the look on my nieces faces when they see the tree full of presents underneath, and the sparkle in their eyes when they open the gifts that they know Santa left just for them.

I remember when I was a child trying to stay up as late as I could on Christmas Eve to see if I could catch a glimpse of Santa, even though I knew he wouldn’t come until I was deep asleep, dreaming of sugar-plums and and the such. In my case, it was He-Man “action figures” and whatever the latest toy was for the year. Waking up on Christmas morn and not being allowed to go down the stairs until my mom had already gone down, gotten the camera ready, and brewed a pot of tea. The water took twice as long to boil on Christmas morning than any other time of the year. Finally given the okay to come downstairs, I’d find the tree that was bare the night before fully decorated and twinkling with what looked like a million little lights. And underneath, the glory that was the magic of Santa. Enough prettily wrapped boxes that I could go swimming in them like Scrooge McDuck in his pool of gold coins. Quickly I would find the largest box and check to see if it had my name on it, and proceed to ravage the beautiful wrapping, tossing it to the side like the socks that I would be bound to find later on.

I see that in my nieces when they open their presents, and I cherish that short moment. But the rest of the season has lost its meaning for me. Not being a Christian may have a part in it, but that is the smallest part. The pure consumerist aspect of this “giving season” absolutely disgusts me. In previous years, the Christmas season would start on “Black Friday” as a way to get people into the stores to boost sales and to give people discounts for the gifts that they were planning on purchasing, plus buy a little extra while out.

This year I saw Christmas decorations and whole aisles of seasonal goods going up in stores before Halloween. Radio stations are playing Christmas music before Thanksgiving (for you non-US peoples, thats the last Thursday in November) and the advertising on radio and tele are ridiculously un-inventive. In a downturned economy, I understand that business needs people to come in and spend money, but to push all of this useless crap that will wind up in a landfill 6months down the road really pisses me off.

I’m always crotchety around Christmas, but more-so this year. It has to be a combination of me getting older and crankier, and the fact that this is the first year that my sister won’t be around for Christmas. It’s weird how a holiday that you don’t care for feels completely different when someone that you’ve spent every other one with isn’t around to annoy you during it.

So, for this Christmas, we’re doing the whole family and friends for the 24th, which I’m expecting to be quite nice. As for the day in question, I am doing absolutely nothing. I’m planning on relaxing at home, catching up on some reading, and possibly building a new piece of furniture for the house.

I hope this doesn’t put a damper on your Christmas mood, but I wanted to share my feelings on the season. Let me know what you’ll be doing for Christmas in the comments below. Although I don’t like the holiday, I do love to hear about other peoples good times, regardless of the time of year.

My best wishes and loads of love for your Christmas celebration!

I’ve not been posting for the past few days. It’s been crazy busy over here, but I will post a couple things tonight when the workday ends to catch up with everything. It’s amazing how much one can get done in a few days when driven.

It’s really nice to have food in the freezer so you don’t have to go shopping for a while, but planning ahead can be daunting. I really hate defrosting something and then forgetting about it until 2 months later when I find that it’s worked it’s way to the back of the fridge. Food must have a tendency to hide from me because it knows it will be eaten if it stays towards the front. Self preservation, until spoilage…

Well, a few days ago I decided that I was going to eat sausage and peppers one night for dinner this week. I made a conscious effort to remember that they were in there, and tonight wound up being that night that they were cooked “alive”. I pressed them down flat first so that they would fit into a sandwich nicely and put them into a pan with about an inch of water and a drizzle of olive oil over high heat. It took a little while for all the water to cook off, but when it did, they began to brown beautifully. I’m impatient so I wound up flipping them a couple of times instead of letting them sit until browned.

All of the peppers from this dinner came from the garden. Not quite fresh, but sliced fresh and then frozen for a later date. Frozen peppers come in very handy when throwing together a quick dinner. The pack that I pulled out was mixed red, yellow, and green peppers. Mmmm, I’m getting hungry again just thinking about them.

After the sausage was nicely browned, I pulled them out of the pan and went over to the counter to grab the ziploc baggy full of peppers, opened them up, and had to run back to the pan quickly. I didn’t realize how fast it would heat up without anything in it. Not worrying about it, and thinking the peppers would cool off the pan, I threw them in. It only took about 2 seconds to get the peppers in and about 2 more for the biggest grease fire I’ve ever seen to ignite. Mind you, I’ve only seen them on TV, this was my first.

Amazingly enough, the first thing I thought of was to grab a cookie sheet that was at hand and cover the pan. Not so amazingly though was my second thought of “Oh shit, I just burned the front of my hair off”. After the pan was covered and the fire extinguished and I made sure my head wasn’t on fire, I covered up the pan and let the peppers carmelize. Hell, I’m not going to let a little fire and the loss of some hair ruin a perfectly good meal.

All in all, dinner turned out to be delicious. I had the sausage and peppers on an herbed baguette that I made yesterday, then relaxed with a nice cup of coffee to ponder how I should get my hair cut tomorrow.

Sooo… finally, it’s done!  nothing broke, no hospital visits, and no lasting emotional distress

There is a dog in my life too.  Sophie.  I don’t like dogs, but she loves me, and she loves the cats.  I’m not really gonna spend too much time writing anything about her, but I just wanted to post some pictures that I took this morning.  Forgive the mess in the background, but I just got finished painting everything and have yet to thoroughly clean up.

[View with PicLens]

My step-sister has a soft spot for cats, like I do, which is why I think we get along so well.  She fosters cats that need a home until someone can give them the love that they need.  I don’t know how she deals with caring for them and then giving them up to others, but that’s another story.

One day when I was hanging out at her house, she was telling me about this kitten that her neighbor found outside.  A cute little grey fuzzball, with an awful upper respiratory infection.  Her eyes were all gunked up and completely sealed shut when she got her.  She immediately took her to the vet and got her treated, and was giving her eyedrops and antibiotics every day to help clear up the infection.  Unfortunately, by time the kitten was found, the infection was very bad, and the kitten lost some vision in both of her eyes.  She decided to call the cat Squiggy while she was the the vet, because they couldn’t keep her still for the exam.  She just kept squiggling all over.

When I got over there and she told me about her, I had to see the cute kitten.  I went and found her hiding out in an upstairs closet, and instantly fell in love.  I mean, who wouldn’t love a little half blind kitten?  Later when we were talking about her, she said that the kitten would probably go to my nieces.  Unfortunately, their father would not let them have a kitten at the house, he’s one of those dog people…

After a few weeks of going over there and playing with the rambunctious little thing, I decided that my Simon needed a playmate for when I was at work, so I brought over my cat carrier and whisked her away.  When I got her home, Simon was very curious about the kitten.  He was sniffing her, and pawing at her, and Squiggy did not like it one bit.  She wound up hiding under the couch for the first two or three weeks.  Simon would pounce on her, and bite her, and generally torture her.

One day, I guess Squiggy just had enough of it, and started chasing Simon around the house.  After that moment, they wound up being good friends.  Wherever one went, the other would follow.  They got in the habit of sleeping together, and playing together, so it has all worked out quite well.  It’s nice that they both have each other to play with when I’m not around, and they have me to harass when I am around.

They tend to gang up on me when I’m asleep.  It must be cute from a third party perspective, but not so much at 3am when they are chasing each other around in my room and using me a springboard.  When Simon goes to sleep and Squigs and me are both still up, she follows me from room to room and sits patiently by my feet until I’m ready to go somewhere else in the house.  I just wish she would let me pick her up, because when I do, all she does is squiggle and squirm.  Guess her name really does fit her.

I’ve always loved cats.  Cats are the bestest animal in the world.  After the passing of my last cat, I didn’t get another cat. Like anything else good in life, I feel that you’ll find it when you are not looking for it, so I waited for the perfect cat to “fall into my arms”.  Simon didn’t actually fall into my arms, but it was pretty close to it.

I was working at a local Animal Hospital, when one day after work, I decided to stop by the bar a few blocks away.  I had a few beers then went outside to smoke (we’re not allowed to smoke indoors here anymore).  While outside, I saw this cute, scrawny little orange tabby across the street.  I called him over because he looked like he needed some lovin’.  When I pss’d pss’d him, he ran right over and started rubbin on me and lovin me all over.  I finished my cigarette and went back in the bar for another beer, telling everyone about the cute cat outside.

When I left the bar, I was a little upset that the cute kitten wasn’t there anymore, but what can ya do?  So I decided to walk home.  It was a nice warm evening, so the walk wasn’t bad.  From the bar to my house is about a mile to a mile and a half.  When I got close to my house, I decided to stop in the local diner and get a slice of pie and a cup of coffee, which was probably not a good idea after just drinking beer, which made me somewhat ill.  After the pie was done, I walked the few blocks back to my home and promptly went to sleep.

Upon waking the next morning, I went out on the front porch to drink a cup of coffee and catch up on some reading, and guess who I found waiting for me there?  The little orange cat was sitting on the top step waiting for me to come out.  He followed me home for over a mile, waited for me to get out of the diner, and didn’t let me know he was there.  I must have really made an impression on him, and fortunately, he made a big impression on me.  Since it was nice out, I kept him outside for a week or so to make sure he was going to stick around before I brought him in.  He was the most well-behaved cat I had ever met, and always greeted me with unbounded affection.  Needless to say, he now lives with me and is the love of my life.

I’m so glad he decided to follow me home that night

I’ve been putting up second coats, fixing furniture, and other assorted things all around the house today and didn’t realize it was so late in the evening.
I’m going to wait for daylight and coffee tomorrow to show you what I did today. I honestly think that today has been the most productive day for me in a loooong time.
I rewarded myself with massive amounts of spinach and a nice T-bone steak. Gods, how I love spinach. If I could survive off of eating only that, I would.
Well, until tomorrow and some natural brightness, good night

I didn’t get much painting done today because I wound up having a slight case of ADD and did things all over the house.  But for not getting much done, what is done looks pretty damned good.  I finished up the diningroom bay windows and put the things back that belong there.  I’m quite surprised that I like the color.

It actually works!

Before I put the stuff back, I was a little scared that I would hate it and have to repaint it all.  But the plants and everything there really go well with the “baked scone” a.k.a.-cigarette smoke stain colour.  Now I’m not worried about painting the rest of the living/diningroom the same color, except the one wall that’s getting a sage-y colour. This should all be banged out pretty quickly and ready to finish decorating soon.  I’m excited about being able to sit in my chair with a glass of wine and comfortably relax after this is all done.

If I can get my butt in gear tomorrow and finish the whole thing, I’ll post pictures and relax for a few hours before I start on something somewhere else in the house.

I’ve also decided to post more than just my home improvements on the blog.  The original plan was to post the interesting bits of my life on here, but lately that has only been me painting and switching off furniture and the such.  So when I’m less covered in paint and can focus on things elsewhere, that’s what’ll be on here.  For now, this is goodnight all.  Time to crawl into bed with the many animals of my life and get rested for tomorrow.

I haven’t posted anything since Friday because I had a very long weekend, full of parties and not being home. So, you can figure, I didn’t get anything done at home. Time to start on it again today.

I finally got the ceiling done today, and surprisingly, it looks pretty damned good. It really brightens up the room and after being a major pain in the ass to do, it was thoroughly worth it. Since the ceiling is done, I decided it is about time to start painting the walls. I don’t mind painting the walls and actually find it somewhat cathartic. Last time I painted a room, i decided to forgo using a roller and did it with a paintbrush. Gave me plenty of time to clear my mind.

These walls definitely need a new coat of paint. They are covered in years of cigarette smoke and what used to be a bright white is now a grimy yellow. The paint for the livingroom walls was picked out about a month ago and I really liked the idea of having a bright color in here instead of plain white. The colour is called “baked scone” and in the store seemed very warm, which I thought would go perfectly with all of the plants in here. Well, things don’t always go the way you expect them to. I started painting the area by the bay windows and after a few strokes it didn’t look like I was putting any paint on the walls. So I glopped some paint on the brush and slapped it on the wall. The “baked scone” should be called “chain-smoking white”. It’s the same exact colour as the years of tar on the once white walls. It does cover up the streaks where there was no airflow, but it doesn’t really brighten the room up much.

I’m going to still paint the entire room, save one wall, in this colour and hopefully it will look good once it’s all done.  I’m going to take some pictures and video of it once I get one full area done and see if it looks any different “on film”.  If nothing else, the colour will be even and I can dress it up with new paint on the woodwork.