Everything is Unfinished

I gave it a good try, but I didn’t quite post every day in November. But that will not discourage me from playing along with Holidailies! If I can shake this flu and stay awake for more than an hour at a time, that is.

After much waiting and whining (by Johnny and me), our brand spanking new Panda Express opened up yesterday. Aww. Yeah.

P.S. I know that’s KMart in the background. The restaurant was behind the picture-taker.

I am not, by any stretch of the meaning, a morning person. I like to sleep in late, and once I do get up I like to take my time easing into the day. Yet this morning I found myself behind the wheel of my car at 3:15am, driving toward the major retail area of the city. Was I going shopping on Black Friday? Oh no. I was heading to work. We opened at flipping 4:00 this morning, and there were people there waiting for us. I worked for 8 hours and the whole time customers regaled us with tales of long lines, rude people, sold-out specials, and general unpleasantness. Every so often, someone would tell us about the great deal they got, but the overall feeling of the day was that it wasn’t worth the time they spent. From the anecdotal evidence, Target, Kohl’s and Toys R Us were the worst places to be, with Circuit City and WalMart close behind. (Although really, any day at WalMart is far from a fun trip.)

I looked briefly at the ads in the paper yesterday, and couldn’t find a deal good enough to go out for. Not even the exceedingly cheap computers at Best Buy, which people were camped out waiting for since yesterday - and I do mean camped out, in tents. By no means am I anti-consumerism. Just because I’m a progressive liberal does not mean I’m a communist, or even really a socialist. I like things. I like shopping for things. I’ve even done the 4:00 am shopping trips on the day after Thanksgiving. But this craziness just doesn’t interest me any more. I suppose we’ll see how I feel in a few years, when Jack just has to have whatever new toy is coming out. I expect I’ll have to eat these words. For right now, however, I need a nap!

That is what Johnny’s brother said today during dinner. We all looked at him incredulously, then decided to forgive him since he’s only 14. But I have to say, all the work we did cooking really paid off, and dinner was wonderful. Jack liked the biscuits best. A boy after my own (and his Daddy’s) heart.

We have so much to be thankful for this year, not the least of which being the bounty that we’ve received since Johnny’s parents got here yesterday. Although to quote my mother-in-law, “you can’t just go out and buy a TV anymore.” Yeesh, you got that right - there were 3 or 4 phone calls last night from the store when buying the TV, a trip to Meijer today for cables, and another trip soon to return some incorrect equipment and buy or order the appropriate stuff.

But now, it’s time for pie.

Like Jen confessed in the comments from the other day, I too am addicted to lolcats. And now, you can smell like you’re addicted - check out this video.

He also promises more lolcat videos, so subscribe to his feed. And then caption more pictures so I can get my daily fill!

Well, I made it 18 days, and that’s pretty good. I did intend to post last night after dinner, but instead I fell asleep with Jack. I know, excuses excuses, right? I think I will still post every day for the rest of the month anyway, just to keep myself in the habit. And so all 6 of you reading will have something to see :)

1. Toasty :: Roasty
2. Allegations :: false
3. Herb :: Dean
4. Bacon :: meatier
5. Neck to neck :: Toe to toe
6. Simon :: says
7. Heels :: Toes
8. Fundamentals :: basics
9. Middle :: school
10. Seasonings :: herbs (not the same Herb as above)

Can’t sleep. Wrist hurts because I was acting childish at work earlier. Sitting up at 3am watching Animal House. That boy is a P-I-G pig! John Belushi was a genius.

My Dad is an avid bird watcher, and has been for as long as I can remember. While I wouldn’t call myself a birder, I am mildly interested in identifying birds and have a few bird feeders in the yard. When I first put them up, I got very few visitors, just a family of cardinals. Then every now and again a sparrow came by and once there was a downy woodpecker on the suet feeder. Now that it’s getting colder, the feeders are becoming more popular, and now I’m seeing a lot of juncos about. But last week I saw the coolest site, and not even on the feeders - on the pool. A Cooper’s hawk was just sitting there on the edge, looking around. Probably for mice. He’s welcome back anytime, as long as he keeps the mice away from my house!

Even those that look like Elmo.

We have two cats.

Chessie, aka “The Big One”

Scamper, aka “The Stupid One”

We’re not trying to be mean, calling Scamper stupid. We think she was taken away from her mama a bit too soon and missed some major developmental stages. For instance, when we first brought her home (after rescuing her from our redneck neighbors), she would suckle on our shirts. To this day, 5 1/2 years later, she still suckles, although only on our comforter. She also frequently jumps at things - bookshelves, tables, the back of the couch - and misses. And we actually witnessed her fall down the stairs. For serious.

Anyway, the cats had gotten used to a nice quiet life with lots of attention and then all of a sudden we went and had a baby. We were kind of worried about how the cats would act around Jack, but we need not have given it a though because they could not have cared less. They’d sniff at him for a second then turn tail and saunter off, as if to say well, he can’t pet me so what good is he? Then when Jack became mobile they got a little skittish, but soon figured out that if they just stayed out of his way, they were ok. But now…now Jack has figured out what they are, and that they’ll run if he chases them! Which he does! And I laugh! That’s right, cats, I will not save you! Muhahhahahahah!

Of course, if Jack was hurting the cats, I’d stop him. But as long as he’s just scaring the fur off them, I’m going to keep laughing.