Merry Chriharranunzaastice?!?

I read an interesting article today about two different women who made their decisions to go back to a store based on what was said to them this time of year. One was going to flat out challenge employees to say 'Merry Christmas' after she made the initial move, the other would only return if she got a 'Happy Holidays'. I think both of them are a little insane.

First off, I certainly would by happy to get a friendly greeting of "Happy Holidays", though this year I am tempted to ask which holiday they are referring to. Seriously! There are tons. This year the Solstice is going to be on the 21st. Yule is celebrated at that time too. Hanukkah starts on the 22nd and runs through the 29th. Christmas, is of course, the 25th. Kwanzaa starts on the 26th and runs through the first day of the New Year. There is even Muharram on the 29th, the Islamic New Year. So for what I have counted, that's six different holidays, not counting New Years, in an eighteen day spread.

The Catholic church really bungled this one, using this as a band aid to cover all the pagan celebrations this time of year. Nonetheless, I still plan on celebrating it in the Christian context, with a nod to the Solstice (I think it's fun and enlightening to celebrate some of the non-'traditional' days everyone used to celebrate a few hundred years ago). So all the 'Happy Holiday' people will be getting a hearty 'Merry Christmas' as my reply. And if they choose to give me funny looks for daring to name what the majority of what everyone is actually celebrating anyways, I shall ask them to which holiday they were referring.

And that does make me wonder, all these people, these secular people bent on including everyone and not naming Christ and his day that we are all celebrating, do they truly not have a Christmas tree? Is it perhaps topped with an angel or a star (representative of the star over Bethlehem)? Do they have candy canes (recalling shepherds crooks and the story of the nativity)? Perhaps?

Well if their trees no longer represent Christmas and Christ, do they hearken back to their ancient roots? The evergreen tree represents rebirth and renewal as the pagans saw it. Santa Claus has Christian origins, generous to children. The Yule Log is most certainly pagan, burning on the Solstice from dusk till dawn (and longer), but now situated with Christmas tradition. Wreaths and garlands of evergreens, holly, and mistletoe adorn homes, back to when celebrating pagans would adorn their homes for their festivities. Do they do these things because they are honoring ancient practices?

Well, then, just what are they celebrating? Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Muharram? If they can't answer with anything specific (love, brotherhood, the season, etc. do not count), then they are simply posers, doing things because the Joneses are doing them and they look pretty. "I can do it if I want to!" certainly, but why are you doing it? If you aren't really celebrating anything, then why participate in Christian and Pagan rituals?

It's okay, you may borrow my huff to leave in.

And if anyone wants to wish me a Happy Hanukkah, or Solstice, or Yule, or Kwanzaa, or Muharram, I will not be offended. I will smile and say thank-you and wish a Merry Christmas (as I don't think it's proper to give greetings for a holiday you aren't celebrating) in return, since that is what I shall be celebrating.

Not Enough Tryptophan

And apparently not enough other sleepytime stuff either. I should be sleeping an hour ago, at least. Maybe it's all the Thanksgiving pie.

So now I am going to likely babble.

Whee.

After watching Jeff Dunham, I grow more respectful of this gentleman's ability to personify his various head voices and externalize them so perfectly. It is quite amusing to see how the line between the two different realities of 'individual characters' and simply another head voice blurs so well. And so amusingly. His comedy act is a riot.

If you don't know who Jefuh-fuh is, he's a stand-up ventriloquist comedian.

My favorite character of his is Peanut. Perhaps because, in a way, he reminds me of myself at times.

And that is a terribly frightening thought.

Onward to chaos, laughing hysterically the whole way.

It's probably a good thing that I have my husband. He keeps me grounded, which in turn keeps the men in the white coats with the funny looking jacket made just for me away. Though their drugs are pretty rockin'.

Just FYI, right now I am post Thanksgiving desert high combined with perscription pain and muscle relaxer meds because I seriously over-did it the past few days, especially today. However, the turkey was NOT dry, and the potatoes were good (though they could have stood another 5 or so minutes cooking, but it's just that I am so paranoid about having potato soup instead of mashing potatoes, I tend to take them off a smidgen too early, so I need to remind myself to give 'em five more minutes) and my altered stuffing from a box was awwwwwwwwesooooome! I added two extra table spoons of butter, sauteed mushrooms and a bit of onion, added a little garlic and more sage, then added the water to boil and the stuffing from the box.

No, I don't know how to get the little marky thing over the 'e' to indicate a dipthong or whatever that is called. It's French anyways. the word sauteed, not the dipthong or the 'e' marky thing. See, I remember stuff from crappy high school french, even though I learned better french in fourth grade in Canada.

Canada has their Thanksgiving closer to when it might actually have occurred, in the first part of October. Ooooh Canada, we time Thanksgiving riiiight. Think of that last sentence as singing. The national anthem. The Canadian one.

Okay, my mouth is as dry as if I have been sucking on cotton balls, and I am being too ADD even for my own tolerance, and the sleepy pills are working their magic, so I shall stumble off to bed to hopefully catch up on some much needed sleep.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I Have No Idea What You're Talking About...

... So here's a picture of a green bunny hiding in pumpkin vines.


I have no idea what happened with the flash. Maybe it went through one of the leaves I was pushing aside to get this shot. Either way, everything ended with a distinctively chlorophyll tinted hue.

This was out at my sister's garden. It's actually a community garden. This little guy and his family was wreaking havoc on the tomatoes. I chased him and a sibling to a neighboring plot and was actually able to catch him. He was about the size of a clementine orange. Just a little tiny thing. Probably one of his first few ventures out into the garden. I was able to pet him, and I let my baby water dragon pet him as I held the little guy. I didn't let her hold him because this little guy is wild after all.

He was adorable. I'm glad no one got fleas or rabies.

Good Night? Good Morning??

I'm not certain if this is a sunrise or sunset. I was thinking it was a sunset, but now that I look at it more, I think it is a sunrise. I am up that early on a fairly regualr basis.

I hate mornings.

Five Months Later, They Are All Still Best Buddies

Canyon: "Zzzzzzzzzzz."
Voodoo: "That's really annoying."
Gypsy: "Stupid human."
Copper: "Shhh, I's sleepin'."

Mittens Are Not For Wearing

If you recall, my husband nicknamed the new kittens in the house 'the Mittens'. He has a unique gift for the oddball things. It makes me laugh. He's fun.

"I r t3h skarri tygrr! Rrrrarrr!!1!!"

We had the mittens for almost two weeks at this point. We've had them for five months now. Boo loves having kittens in the house. It's nice that Canyon is such a cuddle monkey and doesn't mind being picked up and snuggled.


They grow up so fast! This was one month ago. They are almost six months old here. You can't see how full and fluffy their tails are, but oh my goodness, they are balls of fluff, both of them. I need to get rolling again on some pictures, get some good updated photos of the little ones. Gypsy is still so small and delicate, though her personality can be rather abrasive with the way she enjoys disdaining people. Canyon is a much more robust boy, and much bigger than she is, but a total purring lovebug. One of his common nicknames is Purrball.

I can hardly wait to have an actual house so we can see about fostering kittens from the local Humane Society, and also see about adopting those greyhounds I want.

I Taek Pikumchurs

You really do need to click on this for the full effect of the larger size. I really like watching water drip like this. It moves in such fascinating ways. It's a challenge to catch it on camera without setting it up. I guess I'm obsessed with water partially because I'm a Piscean.

Yay fishies!

This is one of the railing posts at my apartment complex during a rainshower.

All Hallow's E'en

Each picture should be clickable. It will take you to the flickr photo, and 'all sizes' can be clicked on to get a better look at the actual size I uploaded. Now on to the pickychures!!


The young man (I wanted to type boy, he's just so young!) wearing the dress shirt and trousers is a missionary for my church. His partner is featured here in just a moment. They were a blast to have in our area. They both really connected with Brandon, especially when it came to video games. Buncha nerds! (jokes! I'm a total gamer too)

Here we had taken them to the local pumpkin patch. We like having the misisonaries over for dinner from time to time, and this time we decided on a picnic dinner amidst the pumpkins. I think Elder Johnson and Brandon are discussing the variety of chips sitting in the trunk at the moment.


Here is our little picnic spread. My sister is with us, even though she was a smidgen late to the party. The other missionary boy is out exploring amongst the pumpkins at this point.

We all probably got a bit of dust and dirt in our sandwiches, but everyone needs a peck of dirt every now and then!

Boo looking for the perfect Boo Pumpkin. She may have narrowed her sights on one!

Note the look of dismay and disgust on Elder Harrill's face. Note the piece of pumpkin stem in his right hand. Also note the freshly overturned pumpkin in the lower left of the picture, right in front of him.

I'd be irritated too.

Jazz hands!! With more feeling Elder Johnson!!


The pumpking patch we go to each year is more of a pumpking farm than a little patch. It's awesome.

"Hey! I found one that looks like my head!"

I kid you not he said that.

Fastfoward a little to the Trunk-or-Treat. This was a highlight for me. Pin-the-nose-on-the-pumpkin game. Boo had just finished her turn. If you look under the girl's right wrist, you will see where she landed the nose.

I laughed.

This is my sister's husband. No, not that sister, the other one. He and my sister put this together. It looks AWESOME! My sister made the vest for him. Just took an old sheet and marked a pattern out right on his body. Then they cut the pattern out and cut the material, then just used the leather to stitch it together. She also coffee dyed the shirt. They bought the legs, mask, and gloves. He had a blast scaring the childrens. In fact, he scared the beejeebies out of our little niece.

The little girl is two and a half. My mother took her and her four year old brother over to their (sister and husband's) house too. I do it every year more or less because boo likes to show off for her aunties. So when my mother brought the little ones up to the door, my bro-in-law answers in his costume. Immediately our neice says "I'm tired. I wanna go home." and tries to leave.

Of couse she won't say she's scared. She just is suddenly tired. It was hilarious.

So, this is my little faerie. The only thing I made was the headband and I replaced the flowers on the wings. My accident prevented me from laboring over a sewing machine. But I think we were able to conjure up a fairly cute fae. Some of it we borrowed, some bought, some of it we already had. The choker I made a while back was the perfect final touch. :)

And now off into the night to revel with the other spirits and spooks, begging treats in place of mischevious tricks.

I Mean It This Time

Okay, so maybe I don't, but seriously, I do want to blog. I just haven't been. And I don't have any good excuses. But don't tell my ego that.

So, since it has been quite a while, I suppose to should at least write a little about what has been going on. That in and of itself is a small paradox, because both a lot and nothing has really happened.

To be specific, it feels like nothing much has happened the past couple months. Before I think too much on it, it seems I have just lazily sailed through the days, poking at cats, cleaning, and internet. However, when I do start going back over what has gone on, a surprising amount has happened to me.

It all sort of starts with the Kia. Of course I had written a little about the issues we had. Well, it turned out, it just needed some transmission fluid. My hubby is not a car guy, so when he had taken it to Grease Monkey, and was told ALL fluids, including transmission, were filled, he took their word for it. So when things started to go downhill, he never thought to crawl through the hood. Neither did I, and I should have.

We discovered this when I took the Kia into a local, trustworthy mechanic.

I could have spit nails. Metal ones. Really long pointy metal ones.

They filled it up, charged me for the fluid, and sent me on my merry way.

Yay! So we had a second vehicle on good condition. Life was good. I had my own wheels now. I could take Boo to school in the morning, now that it's too cold for her to walk (her asthma acts up in the cold air), and have a vehicle to run about in for whatever I needed.

So I personally detail the car (mostly) with a little assistance provided by Boo. We at least get it cleaned, wiped down, and looking passable for a clean-ish car. We get all the trash out of the cab and the trunk, and vaccuum till there's nothing left to vaccuum. It shines inside and out. My plan is to drive Boo to school in the mornings, and walk to school to pick her up. Exercise for me, exercise for her. We both get stronger, and her lungs get stronger.

Then I get sick.

No walkies for me.

Okay, no big deal. I take a week of illness, then go back to the plan. The massive coffee table in the livingroom gets moved so the hubby and I can at least think about properly exercising, and I start formulating a plan. I get better, and am ready to enact my plan when screech crash bang.

Some lady headed the opposite direction as me decides to make a left hand turn right in front of me three weeks ago.

My poor little car. My plans. My walkies. My exercising. My sewing projects (Boos Halloween costume specifically, along with one for me, a fuzzy pillow, and pink and black fairy skirts). All either wrecked or placed on hold.

The whole situation was quite upsetting. I had already purchased the material for the Halloween costume. My Virgo-ness (my rising sign) was very irate that my plans had been scrambled. I was devastated and sickened about the car (fortunately it's not in bad condition and still drivable) and all the time I had just put into it, and all the plans I was making for it.

However, all in all, I was quite blessed that it had not been worse. I normally travel that stretch of road a lot faster. I also could have easily been distracted for a split second and not been able to hit the brakes as quickly. I could have chosen to ignore my seatbelt, as I do from time to time. Someone could have been driving right behind me.

Scary, but I was able to walk away from that situation. Now I get to busy myself with attournies (we got a lawyer to deal with her insurance company), chiropractic visits, and mountains of papers. Not fun, but it could have been so much worse.

On the lighter side, the new car, a shiny (would be shiny but needs a bath) wine coloured 2006 Ford Taurus SES, has something truly awesome, aside from all the features hanging out in the cab and under the hood. It's in the trunk.

This made me laugh. It still does. It's not enough to simply direct whomever may be trapped in the trunk to pull down to open trunk. They need to be certain to hop out and run away. Truly morbid in it's own way. I love it.

Up next time, Halloweeny pictures, pumpkiny pictures, and pictures in general.

And Somewhere Under The Dust

I know I haven't written here in well over a month. Actually, close to a month and a half. Bad little monkey! I can explain a little at least.

See, back at the end of July, the husband and I had noticed some issues starting up with our current car, a '97 Kia Sephia. So after some investigation, we came to the conclusion that it was transmission comitting very slow seppuku. Figuring that out wasn't too hard. I called around to sort out how much it was going to be to fix it. That's when we got some highly unsavory news. Labor and parts were going to be more than the current value of the car.

That was a highly unpleasant discovery.

So, we decided to treat ourselves to another vehicle.

That in and of itself is a whole other posting, and I shall get to it eventually. Suffice to say, it was not a pleasant experience.

So after that, we looked about for different vehicle insurance, as we still had the Kia running, and did not see why we had to pay over double insurance to add our new vehicle, an '06 Taurus, with some of the trimmings taken off of the Kia. I spent the following week making many many phone calles, getting rate quotes, and raking in information.

We settled on Geico. Lizards and cavemen. Joy. But the rates are awesome and their consumer reports aren't bad either.

So, shortly after all of this, I fell ill. It took me nearly two weeks to kick it, and then right after, my daughter fell ill. She needed nursing and constant reminder to stay in bed. School also started, and I just haven't felt quite the same after recovering from being sick.

All of these excuses are simply to surmise why I haven't been typing as much (or at all). Several of my duties and projects have been derelect, and that is something I plan on rectifying. The house needs thurough cleaning (the husband seems to be broken when it comes to knowing what needs to be done when), and I have many piles of laundry screeching for attention.

Oh dear, I might just need to lie down for a moment. Too many scary things needing attention.