Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire?

No, but my new heat pump and ac/heating system's being installed today. And I just have to think that the feelings of warmth and coolness will keep me purring all year long.

This has certainly been the year of the joys of home ownership for me...New roof, new flooring (thanks to the cat induced flood) and now, new hvac system. It had been giving me trouble for a couple of years, blowing fuses which is always a symptom of something worse it seems. But after spending $$ on replacing fuses, waking up to no heat on numerous occasions and worrying that it would go out when I was away and the sparsely coated kitties I reside with would suffer...I just wanted to not worry about it anymore. So, if I believe the "Your utility bills will be cut in half" sales pitch, that in itself will be worth it.

I had a nice Christmas Day spent with friends, out near Harpers Ferry, West Virginia. The day was perfect, sunny, 49 degrees and fun playing on the Wii and drinking Christmas Cheer. My friend, Dayle, is from Australia and her birthday is Christmas Day, and back home it's summertime! We didn't have a White Christmas here, but it was fun watching their son with his toys and having a nice meal with friends is always something special.

I have New Years plans this year, first date since Mike's passing, so that's some kind of milestone and hopefully an auspicious way to welcome in the New Year, with a friend that I am friends with first...just like Mike was. If not, well at least I'll have a nice dinner and fun dancing and hopefully be able to see him again at the cat shows without turning crimson with embarrassment about how we welcomed in 2009.



May this week before
the new year begins
be full of hope and
promise for all of you,
and in the new year,
may you see the
life in things you
have missed before.

Meowy Catmas

Cat Fancy Cornish Rex Issue

In March 2009, Cat Fancy magazine will have an issue highlighting the Cornish Rex. Here's the ad that will tell the world about us!

I'm not sure why it looks so blue in this copy, but it's a proof, so maybe that's why?

I already had one friend ask who is that big brown tabby cat, it's not a Cornish Rex but a Bengal cat that Ruby the Rex lives with.

Christmas Party...

Well, last night was The Cat Hospital's Christmas Party and we filled up a huge table (our staff, husbands, fiancès, girlfriends and significant others is quite a crowd when all assembled) at Maggiano's in Tyson's Corner. It certainly was family style, like one big Italian family and we had to manuver our way past strollers and presents and tables way too close together, to get to our seats. But once seated, the wonderful meal that just kept coming, made us forget about the obstacles. We had spinach salad, caesar salad; we had veal piccata and 4 cheese ravioli, scampi and pasta; and the most creamy, fluffy cheesecake on earth, I think. We will be eating off the leftovers for at least a couple of days at the hospital!

Today, I slept in again, or more precisely woke up and got up, did a couple of things and then sauntered back to bed. That is luxurious to me and gives me some more snuggling time with the cats, which they are quite happy about, too. I had three things on my list to get done this weekend and am almost done with them. They might sound like small stuff, but sometimes I procrastinate or stay on the computer too long, or just don't complete anything, so 1) emptying and filling the dishwasher--you should not even imagine what my kitchen sink looked like--Mike used to do the dishes and there's another thing I miss about him. 2) Ironing--yes, I still have things that need ironing and Mike used to do the ironing, too (do you see a pattern here?) and 3) Putting up some curtain tiebacks for the new curtains I bought about two months ago. So anything above and beyond that which I accomplish, will be less that I have to tackle next weekend.

I have a friend coming to visit the second weekend in January (and she is adopting Billy Idol, one of my two Sphynx cats) so I have to get in gear and stop avoiding getting my house back together, and get out of the guest room and back into the master bedroom, so she can have a place to sleep! I keep thinking how much free time I would have if I didn't have the cat family to take care of and didn't work full time too...but we make our bed, right. Sometimes the things that give one pleasure can also give one cause to grouse.

Maybe I'll get some decorations up, since I pulled some boxes of stuff out of the attic, as I've decorated the Cat Hospital every year since I've worked there and well, if I didn't I would feel really scrooge-like. I did get a fragrant rosemary tree, but it's still sitting out on my deck til I get the dining room table cleared off so I can put the rosemary tree in the center of the and put a few unbreakable ornaments on it. I do have an artificial tree that looks nice in the bay window, so that's on the list of to-do's for the week.

In keeping with the holiday spirit (yes, I do have some, it's just getting to it that's slow), here's a couple of photos to show that...

Bettie Page, Rest in Peace, 1923-2008

I awoke to the news this morning that Bettie Page had died. One hopes that when one passes, that they might have had some small influence on making the world a better place. In her own way, Bettie Page did. While Mike was in Memphis on a business trip one time, he got us both Bettie Page T-Shirts and whenever we wore them, of course, we always got double takes and comments, but most people knew who she was. Those shirts just took on more meaning with her passing. In her honor, here is a photo of me in that shirt...


And here is a link from the LA Times, notifying the world of her passing: http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/california/la-me-page12-2008dec12,0,6058175.story