All posts by jenipurr

Uncategorized

Tea tree day

1 Comment

Today was the tea group’s December meeting. Amusingly, it was at the same place I went with my sisters and my mom the day after Thanksgiving, so at least I was familiar with how to get there and what to do upon arrival – pick out a tea, pick out a teacup and saucer, pick out and put on a fancy hat.

I am still feeling my way into this group. The friend who introduced me to them was unable to come so I felt a little bit lost sometimes during the tea. But they are all very nice women and we chatted a little about little things like kids and pets and decorating our houses for Christmas. I may not have any stories about my own kids to share but I can always draw on the cute things the niece/nephews have done. And it was rather interesting to hear at least one or two of the other women talking about their decorations, which included things I would not be caught dead displaying in my own front yard (Inflatable snowmen! Moving lighted deer!). However, in circumstances like this I keep my mouth shut and remind myself that everyone is entitled to their own idea of what is festive, and I am sure that a majority of those women would probably have their own thoughts on the fact that we have a stone dragon perched on our roof all year round.

The tea place provided us with a huge amount of food – so much that I think most everyone ended up taking at least one of their scones home. I had peppermint tea this time because I am discovering that it is one of my favorite flavors of tea – like drinking candy out of a cup when I stir in a sugar cube. One of the sandwiches we were given was an English chocolate sandwich, which was a little odd because one does not normally associate sandwich bread and chocolate filling together. In the spirit of the season they gave us tiny little gingerbread muffins dipped in white chocolate, with bits of candied ginger in the middle, and scones shaped like Christmas trees and filled with bits of cranberry, lemon, and mint so tiny that even I (as a confirmed dried fruit hater) could actually enjoy it.

After we drank copious amounts of tea and nibbled great piles of tea sandwiches and tea cakes, and somehow found room to stuff in tiny slices of dense chocolate cake drizzled with chocolate, we exchanged tea-related holiday gifts and talked about Christmas cookies and made tentative plans for the next tea in February, and wished each other happy holidays, and it was time to go home.

Time for phase two of the day. I was home long enough to change and check my email and poke at the cats and then we climbed into the car and headed down to Richard’s parents house to help decorate their Christmas tree.

They had an old friend of his dad’s there, who seemed to fit right into the family like he’d been there all his life. They also have a very new (three months old) Border collie puppy who was oh so very excited and bouncy. It is very hard to remain serious when a very wiggly Border collie puppy is trying desperately to herd you as you walk. It usually did not work (the herding, that is), so he usually ended up just trying to eat our shoelaces. He also did a lot of jumping and bouncing, all with mouth open and eyes wide. He was just adorable to watch – and also a little exhausting – all that energy!

We chatted and gave Richard’s mom her birthday present (a copy of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, which I’d already read back when my boss got a copy and let me borrow his (because we are both grammar and punctuation nerds and he knew I would find it as amusing as he did). We ate dinner and then we decorated the tree. I took my customary spot behind the tree, in the corner, and people handed me random ornaments to hang (they have a LOT of ornaments) while the friend kept the puppy distracted with balls and toys and even his own hands to chew. And then we sat down to admire our work and eat creamy peppermint and chocolate chip experimental pie and I cheered on their cat as she poked carefully at a few branches (because she normally does not do cat-like things, like attack Christmas trees), and somehow, as things inevitably do, we ended up discussing computer stuff for a little while. Also there was some knitting talk because Richard’s youngest sister has also been bitten by the yarn bug and has concocted a scarf that is quite possibly 20 feet long and over a foot wide, along with a selection of very soft and fuzzy hats. And then we realized that it was getting late, and so Richard and I hugged our goodbyes and gave the wiggly puppy one last pet, and came home.

This has been a Holidailies entry.

Uncategorized

Little mentions

Last night there was choir practice. They’re borrowing a baby grand for the cantata and last night was the first time we’ve sung with it. It’s…different – for one thing, the way it’s pointed I’m sure the congregation will be able to hear the piano, but we choir people – the ones who *need* to hear it so we can get our notes – are basically out of luck. But there are a number of us who are reminding ourselves that it is only temporary and that perhaps we will figure out how to work with it by next Sunday, when we actually have to sing this thing, and with all the other instrumentalists who will be there with us, perhaps one of them will be a good enough piano substitute that us basses and tenors will be able to muddle around and find at least one or two of our notes here and there.

Today was perhaps one of the longest mornings at work – something all of my coworkers agreed with. However, it was long not because we were all incredibly busy, but because at 1:30 we were all going out for our holiday lunch at a very, very nice place, and we were all anxiously watching the clock pretty much the entire time we were there. We’re all used to eating lunch at noon, so by the time 11:30 rolled around someone started making microwave popcorn and the rest of us swarmed to the kitchen to join him, so we managed to not gnaw the legs off our desks and made it to the appointed time still in one piece.

Lunch was wonderful. Oh, the food was incredibly delicious – like it always is at this place – and the service was spectacular, and the desserts were to die for. But what made it so very wonderful was that the six of us sat around the table and talked and laughed and it was as if we were all the best of friends meeting just to hang out, and not just coworkers. It’s something that I have really liked at our office – the fact that everyone seems to get along so well. I don’t see that at the other offices in our company – perhaps because they are just so much larger that it is harder to form those bonds between more than a few people at a time. But I am grateful to have it where I work.

It was a very, very long lunch. We started with salads and moved on to the main entrees, and then could not pass up on the dessert. By the time we left it, we had been there a little over two hours, and we stepped out into a gorgeous, if slightly chilly afternoon. If I’d had my car I might have just opted to stay in Old Sacramento a little longer, just to wander around and enjoy the sun. But instead I piled into my boss’s car with the rest of the crowd and we twiddled our thumbs in the parking garage as every other person in all of Old Sacramento decided to leave right at that very moment as well. By the time we made it back to the office it was just about 4pm, which was a little humorous because the deal had been that after our office holiday event they were going to just close up the office and we would all get to go home early, but really, 4pm is when most people start trickling away anyway.

I came home without having to deal with Friday afternoon traffic – which was a nice change from most weeks. Richard walked in a few minutes after I did. We settled on the couch – me with my knitting and he with his writing, and ate dinner and watched Maid in Manhattan, which was just as cheesy and predictable as I had expected. Outside, the fog is rolling back in and with it, the cold, and there are flannel sheets on the bed upstairs, just waiting to keep us nice and cozy and warm tonight. There are cats all around us, taking every available space on the couch between us. It is a very nice way to end a lovely day.

This has been a Holidailies entry.

Uncategorized

Anything but love

2 Comments

I finished downloading all the files from World Bank today – a task which has taken me three days to complete. There were close to 600 of them, now all residing as lovely Excel files on our server. I’m not sure exactly when we will ever need to access a 44 year history of number of televisions owned per 1000 persons, or how much a 3 minute telephone call costs, or a running total of how many cell phones per 1000 people each country has accumulated (oh, and just in case you were wondering, Luxemburg has, on average more than 1 cell phone per person. I admit to being extremely curious as to why) in our business, but some of the data was pretty interesting to look at. Also some of it was a little scary. These people track everything. And I do mean everything.

One of my coworkers just recently bought a truck, so he and I loaded all the food donations (and counted out all the cash and change into an envelope) and we took it all to the Sacramento Food Bank to drop it off. It took a few false starts before we figured out where to go to drop it all off, and our total donation seemed like a pretty small pile on the big cart they wheeled out for us, especially when compared to the long line of people we saw inside, waiting patiently for their names to be called so they could be given bags of food. But the guy at the donation spot thanked us profusely and wished us happy holidays and when I got back to the office I reminded myself that there are only 6 people in my tiny little office, and that every great thing has to start small, and that even 230 pounds is better than no food at all. And then I ate a piece of chocolate and felt better, because chocolate is always good for what ails you.

After work I zipped off to the allergy clinic for my weekly shots, and then Richard and I met at Ben & Jerry’s for dinner. I realize, especially after yesterday’s entry about how we were going to be good and virtuous and forgo the Christmas cookie baking, that having dinner at an ice cream shop may seem a little insane, but there was a really good reason. You see, they’ve got this really cool promotion going on right now where if you buy a sundae you can get one of four gorgeous ceramic glazed bowls for only a few dollars more, and the instant I saw one of the bowls in real life I knew that I must have the full collection. They are holiday themed, but they are lovely pastel colors with snowflakes in the bottom, and words along the side – Peace, Love, Harmony, and Joy. Last week when we went stopped by for a scoop I bought the Harmony bowl. However, when I got home, I managed to accidentally knock the box off the kitchen counter and broke our Harmony into tiny little pieces. Earlier this week we went in and they had just brought out Love, so we split a sundae and got that one. And I figured if we just each got a sundae today then we’d only need one more bowl and we’d be all set, and also we had vegetable stew and fruit for lunch, and very low-point pumpkin spice cake for breakfast so ice cream for dinner was actually not so out of the realm of healthy eating possibilities for the day.

When we went in and ordered our sundaes he asked us which bowl we wanted and I told him we wanted anything but love, which was kind of amusing to say out loud, and I related the little story of our shattered harmony, and then for some obscure but much appreciated reason the guy behind the counter decided that the bowls should not be shattering into itty bitty pieces and so he gave us another Harmony for free. And then he gave us our sundaes and we ate our ice cream and he gave us the remaining two bowls, and now I have the whole set, plus I got to eat ice cream for dinner, and it all makes me very happy.

This has been a Holidailies entry.

Uncategorized

Taking a cookie pass

1 Comment

It occurred to me this morning, while sitting at work and slowly downloading several hundred files of all manner of fascinating data from World Bank (like the average number of cell phones per 1000 people in every country in the world, or the number of people per country who live on less than $1 per day), that I should be thinking about cookies by now. After all, by this time in December in years past I have already mapped out the days on which large quantities of baking will take place in our house, if the baking has not already, by this time, begun.

And then it occurred to me that this year, for some odd reason, I have had no desire to bake any cookies at all. Usually by now I am overwhelmed with the need to exercise my domestic talents. Putting up the Christmas decorations and the tree is usually all it takes to flip that switch inside my head and before you know it I am buying my yearly box of raisins for eyeballs for the gingerbread men, and dragging out the cookie press, and dithering over whether or not I will have enough walnuts to make yet another batch of powdered sugar-encrusted teacakes. But this year, that switch seems to have remained mysteriously off. I am full of holiday cheer – even wearing holiday socks or earrings occasionally to work – and the sight of the tiny lights sparkling in our tree fills me with joy. But I have absolutely no desire to get busy with the baking. And this is coming as sort of a shock.

I know that, in part, this has to do with the fact that this year we have been realizing that we need to take the healthy eating and exercise programs more seriously. Richard has high blood pressure, and his doctor is worried about his cholesterol, and I’ve got diabetes and heart disease on both sides of my family that I need to be actively guarding against. The tradition of baking huge quantities of cookies to snack on is not exactly conducive to keeping on the healthy track. Plus neither of us really has any outlet for foisting all those cookies on other people any more. Not only do we both work in extremely small offices, but more and more now, all our friends and coworkers (and even family members) are becoming just as concerned with their own health as we are with ours. So piles of freshly baked cookies, even just warm from the oven and possibly oozing melted chocolate everywhere, are not met with the same degree of enthusiasm as when we were all younger and blissfully ignorant of our levels of triglycerides and where what we were putting in our faces ranked on the glycemic index.

Ironically, while I am pretty much feeling no desire to bake cookies, I have been obsessed for the past month with the thought of trying to organize a cookie exchange. Only the fact that there is not enough time to get it together, nor enough of my friends who actually bake, has stopped me from doing any more than just idly mentioning out loud at random intervals whenever I am around them. It would be so easy. You show up bearing however many dozen cookies you want, divided into dozen batches, and you get a ticket for every dozen. Then you can exchange those tickets for cookies that someone else brought, thereby saving everyone the hassle of having to make more than one type of cookies for the holidays. It would work out so wonderfully, I am sure of it, assuming that I really had any desire to actually bring dozens of cookies back into the house for us to stare at longingly before they eventually went stale or we surreptitiously inhaled them, all the while pretending that large piles of holiday cookies should be a staple in any program geared toward healthy eating and possible weight loss and muscle gain.

I emailed Richard, since I figured it was only fair to make sure he wasn’t going to be disappointed if pans of fudge and boxes of cookies did not magically appear on the kitchen counter. Luckily he shares my ambivalence with the need for holiday treats, so it’s official. Despite dreams of cookie swap parties dancing in my head, this year the cookie cutters will remain in their boxes, and the sprinkles will remain in the cupboard, and the remains from last year’s raisin box will have at least another year to turn into little raisin-shaped rocks before I eventually take pity on them and throw them away. It is going to feel a little odd to not have the occasional gingerbread man to look forward to, or fudge to nibble, but I think this is probably for the best. I may eventually break down and suffer an attack of baking frenzy later on this month, but instead of making cookies I shall instead channel all that energy for good, and instead of cookies will use the time to ‘whip up’ a batch of cinnamon apple chips (they take several hours of cooking at a very low temperature so it’s not exactly a quick adventure) for healthier holiday snacking. We’ll keep the larder well-stocked with sugar-free, fat-free pudding and fat-free whipped topping to ward off the need for something sinful and sweet. And maybe next year I’ll find a little bit of that enthusiasm for baking that I seem to have lost, and the holidays will once again be filled with the smell of gingerbread and mulled cider and cookies and all the millions of calories that make the holidays that much merrier.

This has been a Holidailies entry.

Uncategorized

Bring on the pounds

4 Comments

My office has done a few things together, for charitable work. This past summer we spent two (very long) Saturdays doing construction work for Habitat for Humanity – and best of all everyone still seems interested in doing it again. Plus my boss and at least a few of my coworkers seem really interested in being a little more socially and environmentally conscious. So when I started tossing around the idea of trying to challenge the other offices to see what they could do as well, my boss was nothing but encouraging. We bounced some ideas back and forth and ultimately decided that if we were going to try to get a company-wide charitable event, it was best to start small. After all, it needed to be something that everyone could participate in as much or as little as they were comfortable, yet benefit local communities, not require sending things off to one central location. So we decided on a food drive. There are food banks in every city where our company has an office, and food drives are one of the easiest things to organize because it requires nothing more than some cheerful encouragement, and maybe a poster or two.

There are five offices in our company, and I was able to pinpoint one contact person in most of the offices who thought the idea of a company-wide food drive was a great idea. All offices, that is, except one. I was actually a little surprised when I was passed from person to person, all of whom made it obvious that they were not the slightest bit interested, nor did they think they could get any excitement about it from the rest of their team.

It was rather discouraging. It’s kind of hard to do a company-wide event when one fifth of the company doesn’t want to take part, and for the rest of us to go ahead with it anyway would make things uncomfortable. I wasn’t sure quite how to proceed, until I finally managed to find one person who was willing to coordinate, even if not very enthusiastically.

The five of us put our heads together and set goals for our own offices, based on what we thought we could accomplish. I set the goal for my office a little high, but I had faith in my coworkers. We kicked off the food drive in mid-November, and in our little office, 50 pounds of food showed up on the very first day. But then, over the past three weeks, that’s been about it. Emails from the other coordinators showed similar lackluster donations. I started to worry that maybe this wasn’t going to work out as well as we had hoped.

Yesterday, however, the Monday of the fourth week, my office, at least, pulled through. Not everyone was in yesterday due to schedules or vacations, but those who did come in showed up with huge bags of rice and beans. Suddenly we were within pounds of our goal. This morning, the money donation jar has lots more change in it, and a few sacks of citrus fruit pushed us comfortably over our office goal, three whole days before the end of the drive!

I’m not sure how the other offices are doing, and if they’ll also see big final pushes for donations. I’m crossing my fingers though. It would be really nice if we managed to pull this off. I know that a food drive isn’t much, and there’s a lot more I wish that I could encourage the other offices to do. But if this food drive succeeds it will be the first time they’ve managed to get a company-wide event to work. I figure for food banks, every little bit helps. And I have to admit that I’m proud of our office for not only meeting, but exceeding our goal. I guess next year we’re just going to have to set our sights a little higher.

This has been a Holidailies entry.

Uncategorized

All the trimmings

2 Comments

Hooray for decongestants. While I am grateful that the allergy shots have kicked in enough that getting a cold no longer means I have to spend a few weeks being unable to breathe, apparently they have not yet progressed to the point where my sinuses don’t try to get me in some way or another. I wisely took decongestants at the first sign of sinus pressure this morning and the rest of the day was much happier than how yesterday started.

It was good that my cold has finally subsided (well, except for that pesky sinus pressure issue). Years ago I heard the John Denver and the Muppets Christmas CD for the first time (shut up – the Muppets are cool) and fell in love with one of the songs. This year I finally got the chance to sing it – today, in church. Considering my tendency to get winter colds at all the worst possible times I was half afraid that I’d end up too sick to sing. Again, hooray for decongestants. Yay! It actually went pretty well, and even though I was so nervous my hands were shaking, I got enough compliments afterwards that I guess no one else noticed.

The rest of the day has been pretty busy. After church I dashed home to change and wrap the present for a baby shower. It was a nice party – plenty of veggies to munch on and three pregnant ladies to tease and talk to about babies. It’s kind of fun that three of our group is pregnant all at once, although the other two aren’t due until April. We did some of the usual baby shower games, ate cake, talked, and played baby bingo while she opened her presents (bingo cards are filled out with typical baby shower gifts – encourages everyone to pay attention when the presents are unwrapped). The minute I found out this particular friend was pregnant I knew I was going to knit her a baby blanket, and a few months ago I found some incredibly soft pastel blue yarn and made this. We’ve all been so excited for her about this baby because they were trying for so long.

I ended up leaving the baby shower a little early, but time was running out and we still needed to get our Christmas tree. So I called Richard and he met me at the tree farm, and we grabbed a saw and a map and marched down the road to the tiny little section where the incense cedars grow. And this year I think we may have found one of the best trees we’ve ever had. It’s straight and full and has marvelous shape, and there’s not a bare patch on it anywhere. We didn’t have to spend hours on the front porch hacking off knots that made the trunk too big to fit into the tree stand, or worry about which side to have facing forward. And best of all, somehow we managed to cut it to just the right height.

It’s decorated now, with all the tiny colored lights and the garlands of red beads, and all our ornaments. The house smells delightfully of pine. Richard arranged all the branches we had them cut off the bottom around the front porch to give the house a bit more festivity. And then we settled down on the couch, Richard with his writing and me with my knitting (because these hats and scarves will not knit themselves, after all), and watched a very special holiday edition of Design on a Dime, where they built what might very well be the world’s most hideous Christmas tree ever. And now it finally feels like Christmas.

Uncategorized

Slow start

I had today all mapped out. First we were going to wrap up the presents to be mailed, and then drop them at the post office on the way out of town. Off we’d go to do our bi-monthly trip to CostCo, to stock up on huge bags of rice for the various food drives we’re involved in, with a brief detour by Michael’s, because they had a great sale on yarn – yarn that would be perfect for those three blankets I must complete by April (for gifts). Then we were going to hit a few other places including possibly somewhere where we could each get some new shoes because my sneakers have holes in the sides, and then we’d go off to the tree farm and cut down our tree, come home, and spend the rest of the day decorating.

This was all, of course, before my sinuses decided to throw a wrench in the whole thing. The pressure started building just about the time we headed off to mail presents, and continued rather quickly as we headed down the freeway. By the time we reached Micheal’s I was feeling pretty horrible, so after I picked out yarn and staggered back to the car we gave up on all the rest of the plans and went back home.

A few hours later, once my stomach had calmed down enough to take some decongestants, I was feeling better. But by then there wasn’t enough time to get everything done we’d planned. So instead we went to Costco, picking up lots of things we probably didn’t need (because that is the magic of Costco) and on the way home we hit the fabric store because yarn was on sale there too, and then we came home and decided that if we couldn’t get our tree, at least we could get started with the rest of the decorating.

The goofy penguin windsock is now hanging outside by the front porch. Richard set up the lit garland on the mantel and arranged our various Christmas bears and snowmen and moose around the downstairs. I dragged out all the Christmas placemats and napkin rings and set them around the dining room table, and put my Edie Walker nativity scene on the piano, where I am hoping that the cats cannot get to it. The trio of nutcrackers were set up on our gorgeous new sofa table, along with the silly little clay goose my mom-in-law got me a year or so ago, which comes with holiday hats (in honor of the season it is wearing its santa hat). And once the decorations were out, we settled on the sofa with stacks of Christmas cards and a movie in the DVD player (Ella Enchanted, which was sweet and delightful and which I highly recommend to anyone, even though my boyfriend Cary Elwes plays a very bad man), and addressed the first round of holiday cards. Maybe it wasn’t everything I”d hoped to get accomplished today, but it was at least a very good start.

Uncategorized

Uncommon knitting accessory

2 Comments

Tonight was the monthly craft night, and I brought my little sister’s sweater with me, to get some feedback on how to finish it off. Because this was our December gathering we all brought goodies to share, and ornaments for a gift exchange. I’d found a peanut butter pie recipe on TUS that sounded interesting so I used this as an excuse to test it out. It smelled great, but maybe peanut butter, cream cheese, and Cool Whip isn’t the best combination. It was rich. Too rich. Ah well.

We had a wonderful time sitting around the room chatting and knitting – well, most of us. I *did* get some knitting done, but not as much as I might have. The ‘problem’ is that the hostess occasionally fosters kittens for a local SPCA, and one of them decided that I looked like the perfect (or would that be purr-fect?) spot to curl up on.

She started off on my shoulder, which wasn’t so bad because I could just sit a little awkardly and keep on knitting.

But as the evening progressed (and she proceeded to curl, uncurl, stretch, and otherwise rearrange herself) I ended up having to keep scrunching further and further down on the couch so this little scrap of fuzz would be comfortable (what can I say – I am such a sucker for teeny little kittens).

She rewarded me by purring every single second she was awake, and leaving my yarn alone. I may not have gotten much knitting done, but somehow I really didn’t mind.

Uncategorized

Not enough

1 Comment

This morning at breakfast Richard said, quietly, and in passing, “I still miss Rebecca.”. He noted that he had gone to get some new rechargeable batteries, and the drawer where we keep batteries is the same drawer we kept her food bowl, back when we’d been trying the special kidney diet. The bowl is still there – still full of food. Just one more little reminder we forgot existed, until it jumps up to smack us in the face.

I am still having a hard time saying that I only have six cats. I have had seven cats for so many years that six sounds just wrong. It’s not that either of us has any need to go out and get a new kitten just to bring the number back to seven either. It’s that the ‘six’ sounds wrong because she’s not a part of it any more.

Six is a good number. It’s an even number. When I put down wet food on two plates, three cats fit perfectly around each one. Six cats don’t take up as much room on the bed as seven. Six cats are easier to list when signing Christmas cards for the yearly card exchange with other members of the Cyberkat email group. But six is not the number that is supposed to be.

The other cats have, over the past two months, slowly been taking over some of Rebecca’s places. Allegra curls into my elbow at night, and sometimes stomps on my head, and will jump up on the counter and yell at me if I’m not getting the food out fast enough, just like Rebecca used to do. Rosemary sometimes jumps into the shelf where I keep my pants and burrows into them, just like Rebecca used to do. Zucchini has taken on the role of hairball hacker extraordinaire with what seems to be almost pride. But it just isn’t the same.

I know that eventually I won’t keep finding all the little reminders because eventually we will clear them all away. And I know that eventually I will look out at the flower bed in the backyard and think of something else besides a tiny little box buried deep inside, with a tiny little cat inside.

But I still miss her. I miss the number seven. And I wish we didn’t have to get used to anything else.

Uncategorized

Not quite picture perfect

1 Comment

I woke up this morning with a painful sore throat, and a nose that is starting to run. Oh joy. My very first cold of the season. Since we decided we’d exchange presents with my little sister’s family so they could take theirs back to Seattle with them, I stayed up rather late last night frantically working on her Christmas present – a purple cardigan I’d been knitting but didn’t finish. This morning I got up early to try to get it finished, so the impending cold was not a welcome sign. Sigh.

We did family pictures today at a little photo studio downtown. The studio was so tiny only a few of us could fit at one time so the rest of us stood outside around the corner (to escape the wind – it was cold!). The photographer did a wonderful job though, even during the full family shot when all eleven of us squeezed into her tiny studio. Somehow she managed to get shots where all the kids were not only facing the camera, but also actually smiling at the same time. I figure anyone who can manage that with three kids under the age of 7 has got a special talent.

This afternoon I spent mostly knitting in a frantic attempt to get the sweater done and managed, somehow, to have everything but the buttons on by the time we had to pile into the car to head up to Napa for dinner at my older sister’s house. I sewed the buttons on in the car by the light of the interior lamp – probably not the best idea when sitting in the back seat of the car. The combination of hunching over a sweater with a tiny needle, sitting in the back seat in stop and go traffic meant that I was feeling a bit queasy by the time we hit Napa. Luckily the buttons were on, the sweater was done, and all in time for dinner.

We finally got to meet my older sister’s new kitty – an absolutely gorgeous Russian Blue cat with the softest fur. We did the gift exchange and my sister loved her sweater (although it still needs some adjustment), and it was fun, but it was good to get home. This cold is just getting worse.