Christmas Kitty!

Meli and I are really excited about Christmas this year (which is less than 5 days away now). We did a lot of wrapping this weekend and only have a few small things to finish up, then we'll have all of our presents wrapped and ready to deliver. The really big suprises we're going to let Santa deliver himself on Christmas Eve. Other than those select items we'll deliver them to under the trees in each of our homes some time this week.

Clea, my kitty, is getting excited too. Lately she gets these chills that make a shiver go down her spin. Then she claws into the carpet, getting ready for take off, and BLAM! She runs like a streak of lightning down the hallway. Other times she'll be real cute, (like she is in this photo) roll over and meow as if to say, "look, I'm being cute! Please pet me" And I do pet her, because she is soo cute! And she loves to be pet. She likes it so much that you really just have to hold your hand out and she'll pet herself. Don't you just love that? Anyways, I hope you have a great week leading up to Christmas, and I hope Santa leaves you many excellent presents under your tree.

(Edit: Meli was upset that I didn't mention it was her idea to put the hat on Clea and that she is the one who actually took the picture. So there you go, thanks to the creative genius of Meli you have this beautiful image of my kitty wearing a hat to fuel your Christmas Spirit).

Oh Christmas Tree

I find myself checking my own page to see if it's been updated. Silly me! I'm updating mostly because I'd really like to see my site updated again. I'll have to thank myself fot the update after this. Oh look! Shiny.

This is the tree that Meli and I purchased together. We were driving around about a week ago and decided it would be fun to have a tree. We bought it from some guy working out of a tiny little trailer. It was marked 29 dollars but they took 26 (that's all we had on us). We strung six strands of lights around the tree (which stands about four feet tall) and hung about eight boxes of colored glass ball ornaments from its branches. It looks so beautiful as it sits on a perfectly sized table in Meli's parents living room. We planned on putting it in Meli's bedroom, but it seemed like a better fit to put it in the living room where everyone could enjoy it (also we convinced her mom to reimburce us). Wait! Meli got all of that reimburcement money! There's a score to settle now. Anyways doesn't it look lovely decorated so extravagantly? We had some problems with the lights at first, but after seperating the strands so they aren't piggy-backing the current from eachother and replacing some fuses it's been great. Also I carefully threaded the lights through the points of the star so that it light up brilliantly at the top. Meli and I had so much fun decorating it, and we plan to have just as much fun piling the presents under it. We're having a really great holiday season. I hope you are too.

Mindless Update

Just thought I'd say, "the anniversary party went great!" More people than expected showed up, much to the delight of the celebrated couple. I took several group pictures of kids and spouses, grand kids and spouses, and great grand children who are too young to have spouses. I was actually able to touch up, crop, enhance, and print these photos before the party was even over. It was quite fun.

Now that that's over, the real reason I'm posting is to share this short quiz with you. I was at work when I came across this (while browsing homokaasu.org/doses) and got a kick out of it. I'm not one to forward chain emails, or any emails, and am actually annoyed when someone forwards some mindless thing to me that has twenty other peoples names in the adress line, but I really got a kick out of this, and think you might too. Have fun!

50th Wedding Anniversary

Meli's grandparents are having their 50th wedding anniversary celibration this weekend and I've been asked to video tape the whole thing. I'm pretty excited! We've been getting ready here at Grandma's Attic all week: hanging antique wedding quilts, moving tables, draping banners, and more! Pretty isn't strong enough. I'm very excited. Today I met Meli's great aunt and uncle. They drive a Toyota Prius. Meli and I love this car. I helped my brother buy one recently. He got the bare minimum in options. Meli's aunt and uncle though, they got the upgraded version with the smart key and navigation system. It's sooo cool. You don't even need to take the key out of your pocket, ever! (Unless you want to change pants etc.) It locks when you walk away, and unlocks when you return. If you are inside the car, you don't have to insert it into the dash, just push the power button to start! Check out the interior to see what I'm talking about (click and drag on the screen to change camera angles). It's so much fun. Meli says, "The Prius is the first car that I'm going to buy with my own money!" I would love to have one too. They're so dreamy. Oh yeah, it's a hybrid too. It's my favorite. Anyways I just had to get my excitement out in the open. Also I've had a personal request for more updates, so this'll help with that too!

More on Elves and Geekery

I've always been attracted to elves. I like to play elves in RPGs, and have always been a fan of elves in Magic the Gathering (a card game). In the spirit of geekery I do anticipate the PC game "Dungeons and Dragons" a MMORPG. I have played many of hours of text based online MMORPG type games called MUDs, or multi user domains. Especially when I was in middle school and early high school it was one of my favorite hobbies. Sadly few people whom I physically socialized with found this as exciting as me, so I did some Star Wars D&D style RPGs (you know with pencil and paper etc.), and CCGs. When that got old I picked up MTG which I played in elementary school using my older siblings cards. This time I bought my own cards. Recently I was reminded of these hobbies of my past when I stumbled onto this article) from The Wave Magazine. It seems I have had four of the top ten "dorkiest" hobbies: CCGs, RPGs, Star Wars, and MMORPGs. Okay they only mentioned Everquest, not all MMORPGs, so I guess it's only 3.

I have three of ten. Any one of these is considered hugely humiliating and damaging to one's social life. I haven't felt the impact. Geeks rule anyways. Lately I've seen much publicity for geeks so I feel it is safe to reveal myself. I am a geek.

Christmas Elves

This year for Christmas Meli and I are being elves. When I told a coworker about this she said "you mean you're buying everyone gifts or you're hand gifts out?" I said, "every night we go home to our little workshop and and hammer away at our little toys." She stared blankly at me a little, said, "okay . . ." and walked away without saying more. I was pleased at the state of confusion she left in. Satisfied with my mysterious aura I continued working.

Lately I've been shopping and working on gifts every night since December began. Mostly sewing projects. Its a recently aquired talent that I've found quite useful in creating delightful holiday gifts for family and friends. Blankets, pillows, and stuffed animals are on the list to complete. With over sixteen people on my list right now, and only seventeen days until Christmas, it'll be quite a feat to fill all the wishes I have of gifts to give. At one a day, I can succeed, and I have Meli cheering, inspiring, and supporting me every step of the way. As soon as I can I'm posting a profile style image of her on my sidebar but Hello has been cantankerous lately. Feels good to post here again, as it's been a while.