It seems that once you find what you like, you can't escape from it. Certain actors and actresses who amuse me seem to pop up randomly in other shows that I am watching. This is not a complaint. It is gratitude for good fortune.

Sometimes, you just have to remind yourself how incredibly lucky you are. Whether you are standing in a long line with the man you adore to hold your hand while you both secretly want to smack rude holiday shoppers or you're curled up on the couch watching the Penguins win, you can't help but wonder, "Wow. How lucky am I?" Or is that just me?

It has been a long time since I had the struggle of buying a present for someone I want to buy the world for. Rodney is always satisfied with just plunking down in my lap while I am trying to do something. Ziggy, in her time as my princess, found happiness responding to anything I said that ended with "e". You really can't beat cats for gift receiving when you are a crazy cat lady. Even the kitties in my new neighborhood seem to have noticed a new vibe to the house. My love and I were enjoying a peaceful breakfast when he observed a gray and white kitten peeking at us from the deck. He looked pretty convinced I was going to come cater to him. Lucky for me, I have developed an immunity to cute, except where my husband is concerned. Back to that...

I have already picked out a couple of things for him, but every time I see something sappy, I ponder whether or not to get it. Of course, I also struggle with the fact that I have great ideas for presents for him, but no one seems to make them. I guess I can't expect perfection from the people who produce so many wonderful things such as toes socks and tins of cookies that taste like cardboard, right?

Yesterday was spent in the process of doing what is becoming far too familiar. I packed some more stuff into my tiny car, including my tambourine for jingly fun, and began the long drive from home to home. As my cat had not let me get much sleep the night before or a nap when I came home early from work, I had to let my mind wander. This led to some interesting thoughts:

Mini-coopers are like baby cars. You just want to shake a rattle at their grill and coo to them.

Other people trying to pull into your lane (more specifically, into your car) should be punished by lightning strikes or speeding tickets.

People who think cars are sexy really shouldn't observe Mustangs, Firebirds, and Eclipses coming up on them in their rearview mirrors, but they are guaranteed to.

Very few things are as arriving home. One of the others is your sweetie joining you there.

Today has been a little less exciting but more productive. I made icing for a delicious butterscotch cake and iced it, of course. I finally got my caramels wrapped and stored and I made some more peanut butter balls which I will cover in chocolate for my sugar fans at some point. Right now I am relaxing with a cheesy Christmas movie. 'Tis the season to watch people behaving the way they should every day while singing some of our favorite Christmas carols. Later, I shall be attending the theater with the man I love. Ah, it really is the season...

It is no secret that I am a fan of puppets. From Yoda to Kermit, and even ones that are not green, I appreciate those creatures who move with the help of someone else. Of course, this help most frequently comes from a hand up the bottom and some wires hooked the the hands. What does this have to do with my life story?

Last night's theatre presentation featured puppets of a few fun varieties. Some of the puppets had huge life-like heads (because they were human heads) on tiny little bodies. Others were your standard puppets with proportionate bodies, heads, and limbs and somewhat invisible wires. The third had tiny little heads and freakishly large hands. The fourth was only a puppet in that he followed the directions given by the producers. All of these were amusing in and of themselves. The adaptation of Moliere's Scapin had me rolling in the aisles.

Confession? I actually wasn't rolling in the aisles. The rows were so close to each other that even I, with my little hobbit legs, felt my legs were about to develop claustraphobia. The people in the row in front of me had even less space which could explain why only four of them chose to sit there. One man found it disturbing that another chose to sit right next to despite this fact.

Other features of this production were interaction with the audience, scenery that had us guessing what purpose certain features served, and a few holiday surprises. I can't tell you more. You'll just have to hope you find your own showing of the play. I can recommend the Philly performance if you are not opposed to a big smelly city. It always amazes me how old and run down big cities always look to me. Small towns seem to have a little more devotion to making their towns look presentable. Maybe there is a little more pride when less people call a city home?

Today is Pearl Harbor Day, which I do not need to remind any one in the United States. What are we remembering exactly? That is hard to say because it is different for everyone. I try not to be too philosophical, so I will just let you know that it is yet another chance to remember how many people have made sacrifices for the freedoms we have, so we shouldn't take them for granted.

Many years ago, about fifteen, I had given up on cats. I was tired of losing the creatures that I love. Of course, my mother thought she knew better, so she brought me a little bundle of white fur with some dark spots on his head and a racoon tail. The first impression wasn't good. He took an instant dislike to all these crazy people, particularly the one who ended up with him in her little hands. So I dropped the little furball in my room. He hid behind some drywall in the corner. When I peeked in at him, he hissed at me. I hissed back, successfully watering his little face. We proceeded to ignore each other. I went to bed. I woke up later to him licking my chin and nose. Over the years, the little bugger has become quite attached to his mommy. I have been told he is miserable without me.

Unfortunately, the men who love me can never coexist. Sometimes this manifests itself in creepy ways such as underhanded insults about the man I do love or two men who are trying to assert their disinterest in me romantically by asking about the man who has won my heart while trying to hold in their own feelings. My latest round of love-oxing involves my baby cat who glares at my husband and my husband who tends to sneeze my baby off the couch due to allergies. This makes me sad.

But a woman has to do what a woman has to do. I just feel bad that my baby who has been with me for more than three quarters of his life won't be with me in his declining years. Of course, he doesn't act like he is declining. You'd still think he was a kitten. He even ferociously attacked my arm a couple of nights ago. The ensuing battle scars didn't look so great on the videos I took of my kitty playing hard to get when I wanted him to do his, "I love momma. I want mamma to pet me. NOW!" dance. Maybe someday, he'll forgive me.

It's all anyone can talk about. The snow globe is open for business again. My darling car has gone from dark green to white. My toes are cold and missing Rodney and my oven can tell that more baking is in its future. This is our first big snow of the season, so I got inundated with posts by all the people who thought it was a Kodak moment. Too bad I didn't join them, eh?

Back in the world of work, I have left a smaller pile of fiche to clamor for my attention. I should finish them before my final move away from the mountain state. This is contingent on other people not trying to dump their work on me since this will be the last chance they get. I've done pretty well with getting those extraneous projects out of the way.

The extraneous projects at home, however, keep growing. No one seems to accept that. Apparently, married life should change me in such a way that I have all the money in the world to spend complicating what was supposed to be a simple act of love and chatting about nothing since I obviously have nothing else to do. And no matter how many times I tell them it is none of their business and I already have a schedule in my head for all the things I need to do, people keep insisting that I must have a job already in a place I am not yet living among other things. I can only do so many things. I dare any of my foolish advisors to take it upon themselves to do all the things they think I must do and not blow their brains out. Foolish? I have to question the wisdom of people who keep berating me with the same questions simply because my answer doesn't satisfy them.

The holidays bring many things. We are reminded of the greatest act of love ever performed. We are reminded that it is better to give than to receive. We are also reminded that so much candy, cake, pie, turkey, ham, etc. can make our little belly look like it has a wee parasite growing inside. This, of course, will have to be resolved somehow: perhaps with the help of Wii fit. Of course, this brings me to what most people want to hear about: an accounting of what Santa brought me for Christmas

Sadly, no lump of coal
Ornaments to commemorate my first Christmas with my only love
Mother of pearl butterfly necklace
A pink pig who has been named Hamlet Humphrey Hughey
A "Bad Cat" calendar
A kitty necklace
A black crystal necklace with swirls of green and blue
Matching earrings
Kisses...delicious kisses
Candy
More candy
Gloves
Fruit...yummy fruit
White sweater
Brown peasantish top
Pink pajamas
Pink fuzzy slippers
Pink robe
Brown fuzzy blankie
Wii Fit
Rayman Wii game
Stylish hair combs (as seen on tv)
Wine (this was a thoughtful gift)
Aroma distributor
Cards...lots of cards
Mountain state jellies
Pictures of the cutest kids in the world
Cool penguin rock that lights up
Crystal fairy in a green dress (looks like Teffie)

So I have been taking a vacation. For me, this entails obsessively shifting clothing, boxes, and other sundries so that I can make room in my new home for all of my old stuff. The holidays don't always help with this. As detailed in my last entry, people love to give gifts. I don't mind the gifts, I mind needing to locate places to put them.

The gift that keeps on giving right now is the Wii Fit. It insults me, doesn't account for my Partonesque shape (you know what I am talking about), and gives rise to hysterical giggling. I have also discovered that in the snowball game, Frosty is my Kahn. Luckily, my sweetie found me screaming, "Kaaaaahhhhnnnn!" amusing despite the frequency with which I was saying it. I have to remember to not jump up and down on the balance board though. I think that might confuse the poor thing.

I have also decided it might be time to print out some of my lovely wedding pictures. We need to decorate with pictures of me and the handsomest man in the world. Of course, we need to find the walls. They seem to be hiding behind boxes and other random piles of stuff. We're working on it.

For someone who is used to being booked, double-booked, and triple-booked, a lot of time alone in the house doesn't always bode well. I have become overwhelmed by all that I want to do, should do, and could do. So what do I do with my time? I have been obsessively washing and folding laundry. My darling husband is eventually going to have to ask me where I decided to put some of his clothes since I am just making educated guesses.

I have also been playing the wii fit. Nothing in the world compares to being insulted by an animated balance board every day. I am on day three, and all I have to show for myself is that the game thinks I am good at yoga. I tend to disagree. Anyone who knows me will vouch for my stiffness and lack of grace, but I'll keep letting the wii think I have awesome balance (for yoga). I am lucky I haven't fallen on my bottom playing the balance games. Kahn Frosty and I continue to battle it out from time to time, but I have noticed my Wii Mii Sweetie trying to peg me with snowballs as well, so I iced his face. He'll forgive me, right?

My other goals seem to be being neglected. My nanowrimo from the past two years still needs more love. I have only added one chapter in all my extra time. My word count is looking good though I am a little past 40,000, so I am about 10,000 words from my goal. Wish me luck? I also am in the middle of four books. Yes, I am reading them simultaneously. Yes, this does work for me better than you would think. I just need to finish one. Maybe, I will stop babbling at my nonexistent readers and go work on that. More later? Who knows...

I perused my journal entries of this year and realized that no one can possibly be reading this. If they were, they would have lodged complaints about some glaring code errors. Instead, I had to find it myself as I searched for a clue to what has been going on this year. I didn't talk nearly enough about the incredible man that I married, but he hears about it fairly regularly, so he can be my own private and personal journal. Okay. Okay. I knoa that is enough of that.

So I have decided to get a jump start on my annual new year's resolutions. I shall begin with my review of last year. This is the easy part, where I copy and paste and add commentary in italics. Everyone likes it when I use italics, don't they.

1. Have less possessions by the end of the year (if I ever move again, I don't want to move forty boxes of fabric).
So, I have almost completely moved. I am not sure I have less stuff, but if I count all of the stuff we got from the wedding as community property, then I may have come out on top.
2. If people are lying to themselves, I resolve to walk away until the truth hits them.
This was a total fail, but this was also a big win. I didn't walk away from Rich when he was confused. I will not regret failing this resolution.
3. Not let people have so much of my time.
I succeeded at this. Some people may have seen the fallout of those greedy for more than they have any right to expect. I've been getting some flack for it, but it is worth it.
4. Finish one of those novels that is waiting for an ending or a middle or a beginning.
I am about 10,000 words from completing one. I guess I need to get cracking on that.
5. Devote a little more time to the important things in life.
Well, I found the most important person to devote my time to, so. I get a big win on this one.
6. Not worry so much about hurting the feelings of people who want their feelings to be hurt.
This was a success. Oddly, it is related to number three.
7. Stop allowing my so-called friends to take advantage of my kindness.
Ditto.
8. Devote a little more time to being the overzealous religious zealot I am already accused of being.
I still need to work on this one.
9. Not neglect my adoring fans so much.
I am working on it.
10. Make my house more me-friendly..
I am doing this. Of course, I am about to move into a new house which will need some me-friendliness.

1. I have to carry over the desire to finish a novel.
2. ...and make an honest attempt to publish.
3. Discard my baggage.
4. Be the best wife I can to the one man who is perfect for me: my husband.
5. Revamp this website even if it means I have to learn a little more than basic html.
6. Help disappear some fabric.
7. ...and sell some of my products on etsy.
8. Explore my new surroundings and make them my own.
9. Figure out why I like so many diverse and odd television shows.
10. Pray more, ponder more, and read more scriptures.

We'll see how I do with that. I need to go work on New Years treats and projects, so I shall leave this page for now.