One of my favorite things to do is collect a bunch of pictures that have been sitting in my phone and post them here as a way of expressing the kinds of things that are going on in my life, sights I’ve seen, and stuff I find of interest. Haven’t done this in a long time, but now here’s another installment.
There’s a new baby in the family! Russ’s nephew Ryan is a new dad, and this is little Rhettin at Thanksgiving (notice the turkey on his shirt…). He was born early last summer, so I guess he’s about five or six months now, and gets cuter every time I see him. Before you know it, he’ll be walking and talking! Hey! When I first came to Alabama, the “babies” in the family were still in elementary school, and now they’re driving cars and planning for college. Time marches on, it’s time for a new generation to take over.
In August we went to the Beach for this big conference thingy that Russ’s work has every year. I love this trip! He has to WORK but I get to hang out in the luxury hotel and do basically…NOTHING! It’s fabulous! And then, when Russ is not working, we go eat in all the great seafood restaurants. I’m not much for actually going down to the beach, but I love this view from our hotel window. I think that’s a pirate ship passing by…
So I have this “Christmas Cactus” that I got several years ago, and it’s doing very well, growing a lot, but doesn’t really make any Christmas flowers. Last year it got ONE, and I was so overjoyed! This year, one bud came out, and I watched it every day for about two weeks until…it dropped off. Disappointing. But I’m trying not to be too disappointed, because as I mention, this plant is very healthy, growing like crazy. Maybe sometimes it’s okay not to flower, as long as you’re healthy. I feel like there must be a life lesson in here somewhere.
I found this cute little cat at the thrift store, and he’s been hanging around in my office with a thousand other little things on my desk (I exaggerate when I say “thousands,” it’s probably just a couple dozen or so), and I felt he was getting lost in all the hubbub, so I brought him to work, and now he has a prominent place on my desk, and a very important job to do: he’s the Keeper of the Clips! Previously, I had to open the drawer to get to my paper clips, but now I just give the little kitty a pet and ask if I might please have a clip, and he’s always very happy to oblige.
We’ve been working on remodeling our kitchen, and here’s one shot of the progress along the way, when the new backsplash was being installed. It’s all done now—the backslplash, I mean, not the kitchen! We’re still working on 
getting the entire project finished. Next week our new over-the-range microwave and dishwasher will be delivered and installed. After that, we have one “accent” wall to paint. THEN I think we’ll be done. Well, except for needing to buy a new kitchen table. And after that it sure would be nice to change the flooring! But I wouldn’t count on that happening any time soon. I’ll consider this project finished when the wall is painted, and I’ll be sure to post “before” and “after” pictures when we get there.
Christmas has come and gone, and while I don’t go in for all the decorating like I used to when the kids were little, I still insist on a bit of outdoor lights. The “web” of colors over the front bushes is a must! We don’t go for that stringing up strands and strands of twinkling icicles from the rooftop. Who wants to do all that going up and down ladders? I once worked with a lady who broke her leg falling off a ladder while stringing Christmas lights on the roof. Cautionary tale. Don’t go there!
When the kids were little, we used to drive around the neighborhoods at Christmas time to look at the lights, and every time we saw a nicely decorated house, we’d say, “Christmas Spirit!” And when we saw a house completely dark and unlit, we’d say, “Scrooge!” I like to put up just enough lights to keep from being a “Scrooge.”
You know I can’t get through a picture post without an image of Squee. In this shot, I just happened to catch him yawning while I looked right at the flash. I call this portrait “Scary Cat.” Horrifying, isn’t he?
No, not really. Squee is actually a sweetheart, and extremely well behaved. He’s matured quite nicely. He loves to lay about being a CAT. Here he is in one of his favorite places, a “bed” of cushions and blankets. Notice the “official” cat bed in the background? Won’t touch it. He’s really funny. He gets a certain idea in his head about what’s the BEST spot in the house for hanging out, and he’ll frequent that spot almost exclusively for months on end. Then suddenly, it’s no longer in vogue, and he switches to a new spot. Right now, his favorite spot is the upper basket of his “cat condo,” where he can be Top Cat. Wonder what it will be next month?
Walking about campus, one is likely to see all kinds of signs, and most are benign signs, but this one really jumped out at me. Just before Thanksgiving, this office was apparently going to have a party, so they posted a notice to let everyone know about it. I just have to say, though…11:00 at night until 1:00 pm the next afternoon?? That must have been some party~!
One of my co-workers always gets me a cat calendar every year at Christmas. I work with a bunch of “dog people,” but they respect my right to be a “cat person.” Towards the end of the 2015 calendar I ran into this adorable shot of a tabby checking out a snowman. But check out the snowman! Or should I say…snowcat? I showed this pic to Mary and she said that if it snows up in Seattle, she is most certainly planning to make her very own “snowcat.”
Well, speaking of cats…it seems there are a lot of cats in this post, doesn’t it? And here are some more! i’ve recently discovered this great pop artist from the 80’s and 90’s, Laurel Burch, and CATS are one of her favorite subjects. I fell in love with her art, and then found these wonderful socks. I’ve only worn them a couple of times so far, because really, if you’re going to wear such fantastic socks, you want the rest of your outfit to be extremely plain, so as not to compete with your “cats on my feet” theme. I really have to figure out the best way to wear these socks. In the meantime, I don’t mind looking at them draped over the back of the living room chair.
And now one more and I’ll call it a night. Christmas has come and gone, and I mentioned that I don’t dress up the house a whole lot, but I do love to bring out my little Christmas tree at work. (I spend more time at work than I do at home, anyway, so it sort of makes sense to have the Christmas tree there rather than at home…) Now, when I say I “bring out” my little Christmas tree, I do literally mean I bring it out. I have a cabinet, and I open the door, and I pull out the fully dressed little tree and put it on my desk. Voila! Instant Christmas. And when the season is over, I open the cabinet, and put the tree back in, to sit there and wait for next year.
It strikes me that one of the wonderful things about life is the cyclic nature of the calendar. I love Autumn, I love Winter, I love Christmas. It comes and it goes…and then it comes back again. Spring and Summer will have their own pleasures, and those too will repeat. There’s always something to look forward to.
