21 posts tagged “holidays”

I absolutely adore the holidays. In the past, I've always sort of felt a bit bummed the day after Christmas. I mean, all that decorating, shopping, partying, wrapping, cooking, planning, feasting, giving ... and then, boom! Everything is over in the blink of an eye.

This year, my attitude is a little different, though. I am absolutely reveling in the low-key quiet of the day after Christmas. I am ready for a lot less "run, run, run" and a lot more "relax, relax, relax!"

On Christmas Eve, I worked until about 4:30. The boss let most of the staff go, and me, him and one other manager who was working stayed until the end and covered the counter and the phones. What an eye opening experience that was! I haven't worked the counter in a REALLY long time, and a lot of things have changed since I moved to The Project and started spending most of my workdays away from the office. Questions from callers that used to be things I could answer in my sleep are now things I had to put people on hold and ask the boss or the other gal about.

Funny, I've never been so immersed in my job before. But at the same time, being so far removed from the day to day while on this special assignment makes me feel very far away from it sometimes.

When I came home, I finished up the last minute wrapping then Lee and I went to my parent's place for a Christmas Eve dinner of ham and salads. We all sat around and had a few glasses of wine and lots of chit-chat. I'm used to our family Christmas Eves being a mad frenzy of trying to get my niece into bed so that all the last minute wrapping and assembling of gifts can be done. I'm not the only procrastinator in my family! The first year I brought Lee to my parent's house for Christmas, we were up with my sister until 2 a.m. putting together a computer desk she had gotten my niece.

This year, though, it seemed that I was the only one still wrapping on Christmas Eve. My family was all ahead of the game, so we just got to kick back and relax.

Christmas Eve really brought home to me just how much my niece is at that odd and awkward age between "little girl" and "teenager."

Her wish list was all clothes and things like a new IPOD, and she wanted to know how a bunch of elves in Santa's workshop could make things from stores like Aeropostle and Hollister. We're all pretty sure she doesn't really believe in Santa anymore, but she's afraid to admit it because somewhere along the way, she's gotten the idea that the piles of presents under the tree for her will dwindle to "grown-up sized piles" if she admits she questions The Guy In The Red Suit. She figures that as long as she continues to believe in Santa, we'll continue to do our parts in convincing her by piling up the prezzies!

She sat and chatted with the adults instead of running to the computer every five minutes to track Santa, as she has for the last few years. But yet, when it came close to her bedtime and my mom went to honor the tradition of giving her a package with new PJs for Christmas Eve, all hell broke loose for a minute. Mom brought the wrong wrapped package out, and Niece promptly burst into tears after opening it, declaring "oh no! These aren't my Christmas pajamas and we don't know where they are and I don't want to open all my presents!"

The storm subsided when Mom found the PJs, and I sat with niece and teased her into being calmer and thought to myself "damn, I'm soooo glad my hormonal adolescent years are long gone!"

Lee and I came home and spent some time with Vin and Sly, got some shut-eye, and headed back for the present frenzy and the family Christmas breakfast.

I was thrilled with my gifts, which included a wonderful new wine rack for Lee and I, a Palomalu jersey (woo-hoo!), perfume, my favorite lip glosses, PJs, earrings and lots of other cool stuff.

And the hit gift in terms of what I gave others? Believe it or not, it was elephant poop. 

My sister loves elephants, and collects anything elephant-related. So, even though I had already gotten her gifts, I was in the bookstore earlier this week buying a few books I knew Mom wanted to read, and happened to pass a stationary display. It was journals and address books and note cards all made from ... processed elephant poop.

I grabbed a journal for Sis, really as a gag gift more than anything else. And it turned out to be one of her favorite gifts of the year!

After Christmas breakfast and presents, Lee and I headed home and took a nice long nap, then got up and headed back to the Parental Abode for lasagna dinner and family game night. All in all, it was a wonderful, peaceful, relaxing day with loved ones. I couldn't ask for more than that!

Today, we started making up for the lack of workout time and the holiday munch-fest of the last week by spending some extra time in the gym, then went to the grocery store and stocked back up on healthy stuff. We're determined to get back on the wagon here. Of course, football festivities on Sunday and New Year's Eve will throw a few curveballs into the mix, but until then, we're being good!

I hope the day after Christmas is one of rest and continuing time with family and friends for all of you - no one should have to go back to work the day after such a holiday!

 

...and things have wound down enough here at work that I can take a bit of time to blog before Santa comes ho-ho'ing down the chimney. We're all dressed casual today, hanging out in our jeans and warm comfy clothes, having pizza for lunch and closing out the workyear.

A funny thing happened this week that I wanted to write about before I forget in the holiday frenzy.

Sometimes, Lee talks in his sleep. He'll be in the midst of a dream, good or bad, and just blurt out something. Usually, I only hear his sleep-talking if I happen to still be awake myself. But the other night, I was woken out of my sound snooze by words a squeamish gal like me just doesn't want to hear:

"Big spider!"

My eyes popped open. He was curled up sound asleep. But he said "big spider" again, clear as day. My logical mind knew he was talking in his sleep. But logic never wins the battle in the wee hours of night when you're woken up by the mention of bugs. "Where?" I asked, popping up out of my cozy cover of blankets like a wack-a-mole. Of course, he didn't answer me. He couldn't hear me from his big spidery dreamland. I threw off the covers and jumped out of bed, looking up at the ceiling and getting all creepy-crawly. I flicked on the light, continuing to say "where?" He continued to sleep, and I finally realized the only big spiders were in his dream, and that the dream itself seemed to have passed into something more pleasant.

But it took me a while to turn off the light and go back to sleep!

In the morning, I asked him if he'd dreamed about spiders, and told him what happened. Turned out he was dreaming about some creepy movie we'd seen in passing on TV earlier that day, and was trying to say that the movie horror critter LOOKED like a big spider in his sleep. We got a good laugh out of it, although I told him the next time he says something like "Big Spider" in his sleep he'd better wake up and reassure me that he didn't mean it was lurking under the bed!

So, other than big spiders, life this week has been all about wrapping up things at work, wrapping up last minute gifts, and looking ahead to Christmas and the relaxing week after. Oh, and being much dismayed by the sight of Barack Obama in a Cowboys hat on TV. Dude, what ARE you thinking?

Merriest of Christmases and Happiest of Holidays to all of you!

Sometimes it seems like pets have it made. They don't have to go to work. They get fed and snuggled. Heck, people even clean up their poop.

But sometimes, being a pet has a downside. Like those times when your humans decide that they simply MUST put stupid hats on your head and make you pose for pictures:

 

 

Doesn't Sly look like he's saying "get this stupid hat off of me?

This is about the most productive thing I did today. The pub Christmas party last night was a great time full of fun and friends, but went long into the night. Today was pretty much all about snoozing off a long and stressful workweek and too much party fun! But I'm finally feeling rested, just in time for the Ravens game tonight.

I'll play catch-up tomorrow on the last minute gift-buying, gift wrapping, and so on. And then, just 3 more workdays to knock out before holiday vacation!

... there were many things I wanted to blog about and didn't, because time ran away from me.

1. There was the act of kindness that made my day and saved me a lot of aggravation. Lee and I commute to work together when I go in really early, and have a ritual of stopping at the same convenience store every day for coffee on the way. Since it is so early, there's rarely many other people there, and the 2 morning shift clerks have come to recognize us and know our habits. The guy double-checks that we haven't just forgotten something if Lee doesn't grab a banana or I don't pick up a pack of gum. He always jokes with us after game days because he knows about our divided football fandom.

The other day, we were pulling out of the parking lot after being in the store and the clerk came running out after us, waving something in the air. It turned out that in my early-morning foggy-headed state, I had gotten money out of the ATM while going over a presentation I had to give later in the day in my head. I got so into thinking about the speech that I forgot to get my bank card from the machine.The clerk realized it and came running after us just before we pulled back out into the street.

I think I should get him a little Christmas gift for that. He saved me the hassle of having to call and cancel my card and get a new one, which was definitely a chore I didn't need added to my list!

2. Lee has a job interview today - actually, he went in to talk to the company informally yesterday and goes back this morning for something more formal. He's miserable at his job. This one would be more interesting work, and they seem to really be biting on his resume. Even better, his shift would be 4 ten-hour days and he'd get every Friday off in addition to the weekends. Keep your fingers crossed for him, please.

Heck, if I could afford the pay cut and was capable of doing the heavy lifting and mechanical type of work he does, I'd apply there too, just for the 4-day-workweek!

3. I am hosting a holiday party for our project team at my family's pub on Monday. So when I haven't been working this week, I've been planning party details. Having co-workers at the pub is always an adventure, because I never know what kind of characters they'll meet.

4. I am learning that even in today's economy, some companies make it downright impossible to buy something! As an early holiday gift, my parents bought my grandparents one of those heaters that is designed to look like a fireplace. It was something my grandmom really wanted. The heater was delivered last week. We decided that I would order one of the hand-crafted hearth stands the company makes for the heaters to sit on as my gift to them, because Grandmom really wanted that too. I called them Monday to place the order. They told me I couldn't order it without a number that came on a letter that was sent to my family with the heater. I guess they don't sell the hearths to people who haven't bought one of the fireplace heaters or something, I dunno.

So I call my mom to get the number. Like me, my family is not the best at remembering where they store paperwork. We all just tend to throw it in a storage space somewhere and forget about it. So it took Mom a day or two to dig up the receipt, and she couldn't find the letter. She called me with what she THOUGHT was the number on the receipt, but when I called the company back they said that was an order number, but not the number they needed, and they couldn't help me.

Ummm ... if I have the name under which the original order was placed, AND the order number, why can't they just pull up the info in THEIR system and give ME the "special confirmation number?" Ugh. I mean, these heaters and hearths aren't cheap. You'd think in this economy they'd be bending over backwards to make a sale.

If it wasn't for the fact that my grandmother REALLY wants this thing, I'd give up and come up with another Christmas gift idea just on principle. As it stands, though, I'll be calling Mom and sending her back on the mad hunt through her paperwork chaos to try to find me this letter with the magic numbers on it.

5. My neck of the woods is all about the upcoming Ravens/Steelers game this weekend. My Ravens fan co-workers have been ribbing me all week, both in the office and on Facebook. Of course, I rib right back. And you can only imagine what it is like at home with Lee and I!

Yesterday I forgot to take my phone to work with me (I've been forgetful about A LOT of things this week - I guess I'm just overloaded!). When Lee got a call about coming in for the first step in that job interview, he decided to grab my phone and drop it off to me, since my work is on the way to where he had to go. He knew I would be working late and didn't want to wait to tell me about the interview. My consultant and I had gone to lunch, but my ex-boss-now-part-time-teammate was working in the office that he and I share when Lee came by. When I got back from lunch, he said "Hey, Lee brought your phone by, it's on your desk. And by the way, he was wrapped up in so much Ravens gear I couldn't even tell who it was at first!"

Too bad I wasn't there when he came by. I could have taken him around and introduced him to the other Ravens guys, and they all could have picked on me together!

6. I have that Blink 182 "I Won't Be Home For Christmas" song completely stuck in my head. Funny thing is, I didn't even hear it on the radio. My division at work had a holiday reception yesterday after work. One of the boy's choral clubs came to sing for us, and that was one of the songs they did.

There's something REALLY funny about a group of young men who look and sound like they should be singing religious Christmas carols in a church singing a song that includes lines about being sent to jail for freaking out on Christmas carolers and having "Bubba unwrap my package." Gotta love the holidays!  

Happy Friday ... I am sooooo ready for the weekend!  

  

 

What was supposed to be my only real day of relaxation this week (We have a fix being applied to the system at work tomorrow, which means I have to log in and check stuff out, and as anti-work as I feel right now, knowing that kind of blows up Sunday even though it should only take an hour or so ...just the thought of the place makes my muscles tighten right now!) didn't start off so well.

That's because we woke up to this:

 

 

While we were sleeping, some idiot driving down our street banged into our van and left us with this holiday joy. Now, I'm a fairly understanding person, but not in this case. That's because they didn't bother to knock on the door and tell us what happened, or leave a note, or anything. They just drove off. This makes them asshats who, as I so kindly stated in my Facebook status update, deserve a serious case of inflamed hemmorhoids. The kind Preparation H is no match for, at that.

Accidents happen. Being an inconsiderate jerk and not doing the right thing about it happens too, but it shouldn't. 

It happened sometime after 9 pm (when our neighbor on one side got home, parked right behind us, and said the van was still fine) and 7 am, when our other neighbor was taking his wife to work and noticed the damage. We're almost positive it was friends of the folks across the street. No one really comes up or down this road unless they live here or are visiting someone who does, because we're a dead end street with nothing on it but residences. And this family has two daughters in their early 20's living with them, and there are always different guys coming over to hang out with them, and half the time when we run into them they seem like stumbling drunken idiots. That's a lot coming from me, the girl with a family bar!

So, instead of shopping and going to the gym today like we were planning, we sat around waiting for the police to show up so that we could have a report for our insurance company. I really don't expect they'll ever figure out who did it.

On the bright side, since we were stuck at home we had to find something to get into. That something was this:

 

 No, that's not Santa heading down my chimney. That's Lee decorating the roof, so that Santa can find our chimney!

We spent the day (well, Lee mostly ... I divided my time between helping out, cleaning and doing laundry) putting up the outdoor Christmas decorations. Like this:

 

He's supposed to be a reindeer, but I think he looks more like a drunk moose. We just can't get his head to stay upright, so I'm tempted to just put a bottle of vodka and a six pack beside him to finish off the look. What do you think?

By nightfall, our efforts looked like this:

 

 

And yes, that IS snow on the ground. It started falling just as we were finishing up. That's the second time we've gotten a light snowfall just as we were finishing with the Christmas lights - it happened last year too. It really sets the holiday mood, even when you do have asshats busting out your tail lights because they can't drive!

So, the lights are up, and that keeps the day from being a bust, even though it started out badly.

Besides, how can you not laugh a little when you have a drunken moose in your yard?

Now, I'm debating whether I want to spend the evening at the pub with the family or curled up here at home with a movie, a book, the computer or all of the above. Lee is going to try to head to bed early tonight since he wants to get in some early fishing tomorrow (brrrrrr...no thanks!), so I'm on my own for entertainment after 8:30 or so. I'm torn between getting out and socializing and getting some me time in. I really need both. I wish the weekends were longer!

I'll leave you with two things. First, our Christmas wreath:

 

And second, a big "Go Steelers!" in case I don't make time to post tomorrow. Down with the Cowboys!!!!

What could turn a rainy Sunday from something dreary into a wonderful, cozy day?

Well, football of course. But on this particular Sunday, we didn't just curl up to The Ravens and Steelers games (actually, at this moment it looks like the Ravens are gonna leave the Bengals with some very bruised butts, and I'm anxiously awaiting the Steelers game). With the Ravens delivering this butt-whooping in the background, we put up our first Christmas tree together. We've done outside lights and some indoor decorations over these last two years, but this is Our First Tree:

 

 

 

 

I just love this time of year! Now, to go curl up and watch my tree twinkle as the Steelers hopefully add another win to their arsenal!

In just under two hours, I have managed to:

- Go to Victoria's Secret and buy PJs for my mom and sister

- Go to a popular kid's clothing store and stock up on clothes for my niece

- Go to a board games store and get a game for Niece, along with a grown-up game for Mom and Sis

- Go to Borders and load my dad up on crossword puzzle books ... he's a crosswordaholic

- Go to West Virginia University's bookstore and deck Grandad out in some Mountaineers gear

- Go to another store and buy something for Lee, which I won't describe in as much detail because of all the people I bought gifts for today, he's the only one who actually reads this (sorry, sweetie ... good try!).

While I did all this, I wore my PJs and drank coffee and lost a game of Facebook Scrabble. Such is the beauty of the internet. Sure, the shipping makes things a little more expensive. But I figure that gets counteracted by not using gas to run to all these different places, and the fact that I'm not fueling myself up on mall coffee and snacks.

Lee's having a relaxing Friday morning too. He got up and went fishing, and just called to see if I wanted him to bring home something for lunch. I told him to surprise me. Twelve hours ago I would have sworn I'd never want to eat again, I was so stuffed. But the mention of a lunch I don't have to throw together made my tummy growl a bit.

In other happy news, my sister got a new job! She's been unemployed for quite some time, so this is a really good thing. And it sounds perfect - a very decent salary for part-time hours. It is at a college (not the one where I work), so she'll also be able to take some classes for close to free. Another thing to be thankful for.

Not sure what else is on deck for us today other than the gym and some housework. And probably a snooze for Lee since he got up so early this morning. Tomorrow a friend is coming to town, and we're hopefully going to meet up with another friend that we haven't seen in forever, along with her boyfriend, for dinner or drinks or both. Sunday is football, football and ..  um ... football.

Monday? We won't think about Monday just yet!  

 

 

... is beginning to sink in just a bit.

I think I had a bit of a bug going on. Either that, or I was just flat-out exhausted beyond what I'd realized until I actually had a chance to sit and relax a bit. I napped most of yesterday afternoon, until Lee got home from work. I did drag my butt to the gym with him, but couldn't get through more than half my normal workout. Then I came home, drank two big cups of decaf tea, and snoozed some more.

My brief outing yesteday did get me in the holiday mood a bit though. On the way home from the gym, it started snowing again - and for a few minute it was actually an engulfing little show shower that made everything white and windblown. It was that way when we pulled up to the house.

The neighbors across the street were outside putting up holiday decorations. They have a big snowman and a Santa in their yard, along with a few reindeer and the start of their Christmas lights. They have a pattern. They start out with these guys, and add to the menagerie over the next month. By Christmas Eve, their yard is lit up like a city street full of nightclubs. Honestly, sometimes it looks more like a Red Light District than a Christmas display.

But yesterday, I watched the kids draping lights on the railing of their front yard stairs, while the mom was working on getting Mr. Snowman to stand upright, and a wild flash of 5-minute snowstorm whirled all around them, landing in their hair and on their shirts and coating our yards in a thin layer of white that would only last for a while.

I wanted to grab the camera and take some pictures, but Lee left it at work.He promised to bring it home Monday. I must have the camera to play with while I'm off!

And this morning, I realized Lee and I had both left our wet bathing suits from the gym in the bag we carry them in. He went out to get them, and they were all stiff and frozen. We had to wash and dry two BathingSuitCicles.

Yep ... winter and the holidays seem to be here. And just in case I need a reminder, there's a big plastic snowman across the street who looks like he's staring in my window!

- Friday ended up being one of those "it rains-it stops- it rains- it stops" days. Lee and I were undecided about the fireworks, but decided to brave them anyway at the last minute, since we were already out. We had a nice time just sitting with the hatch popped open in the back of the van eating our munchies and people-watching. The fireworks themselves ended up being sort of secondary. Oh, and it poured.

 

- Speaking of the people-watching, I know we can't all be brain surgeons. But really, if you ever need reminding that people are strange, go check out a fireworks show. Lee and I realized pretty quickly while we were watching the antics going on around us that we seemed to be a lot more worried about kids with fire-workish toys catching themselves on fire than the parents of said kids. We were also amazed by the family who parked across from us. The man pretty much slept in the passenger seat the whole time. The woman was dressed like a hooker, with her boobs ready to topple out of her tube top and her pants so tight I swore we were gonna see ass by the end of the night. She was wearing heels from hell - to see fireworks in the rain. She yelled at her kids when they wanted to walk to the concession stand for drinks, because she couldn't wobble that far in her heels and the guy was pretty much comatose in his seat. Someone came around selling those glo-necklaces, and she bought one for herself but none for her kids. Then when the rain REALLY started falling, she made the kids get back in their truck with the snoring dude and she stood outside by herself watching the fireworks under a dainty little umbrella.

Yep, people are strange.

 

- On Friday before we went out, I took Vin's cage outside for a good hosing. I was also washing his bedding, so afterwards I had the cage sitting out in the kitchen (which is where the washer is - my house is VERY itty bitty and doesn't have anything even close to a laundry room). I realized I hadn't heard Sly running around being destructo-kitty for a while, and went in search of him. I found him in Vin's cage, sort of half hanging in the weasel hammock. It was one of those damn-it-where's-the-camera moments.

 

- Saturday was my friends' surprise party. It started pretty early in the day, and continued late into the afternoon. My friend is a twin, so it was a party for both her and her sister. She burst into tears when she walked in the door, and her sister practically bounced up and down with joy. That's how it was all day. My friend has a very bittersweet reaction to these kinds of events ever since losing her husband, which I can totally understand. I did end up meeting some members of her family who have a daughter who is transferring to the college where I work, and promised to try to help them out with the process.

 

- Saturday was rather swamp-ass, so when we'd get tired of sitting out on the deck being hot and sticky, we'd retreat into my friend's room and flop on her bed - a bunch of women sprawled out and worshipping her ceiling fan. Her dog, the most adorable little floppy furball ever and named Gizmo, joined us. Giz is the sweetest and most spoiled dog ever. Her niece told us that my friend gets up each morning and makes him scrambled eggs with cheese and pepper. One morning when the niece had spent the night, my friend slept in and the niece decided to make Giz his breakfast. Giz turned his nose up, because she made the eggs without the cheese and pepper. She also said he gets his water bowl propped up ON the bed at night, so he can sleep there and not have to jump down if he gets thirsty.

I told my friend that in my next life, I want to come back as her dog.

 

- Saturday night another girlfriend, Zen, and I went up to my parents' pub for a while. We were treated to one of the newer regulars describing in great detail, complete with a one-man stage act without a stage, his battles with the day-after-drinking shits. It was really disgusting, but kind of sickly funny. I told him he needed to go into stand-up. Andrew Dice Clay has nothing on him. I also found myself getting really irritated with another of the regulars. She went into histrionics over the fact that some guy who isn't usually in the bar had guessed her age at 35. She IS 35. As I'm creeping up on my 38th and pretty much totally okay with that, I found this just butt-stupid.

 

- Sunday I went with Zen to the store where I bought all my new clothes last week. She hasn't had much success finding stuff she likes lately, so I was hoping she'd strike gold too. She didn't buy anything, but I walked out with another new shirt, an anklet and a pair of flip-flops. 

Must. Stop. Shopping. Now.

 

- Sunday afternoon my mom had my aunt and cousin over for a cookout, so Lee, Zen and I went to the Parental Abode too. It was warm outside, but the pool was ice-cold. We went for a swim anyway. My aunt and cousin commented on how brave I was for just getting in and going underwater right away. I explained that with Lee, I had two choices. Get in and get myself soaked and frozen, or have him PUT me in.

"He's an asshole like that," Mom agreed. "But a GOOD asshole."

In my family, that's a ringing term of endorsement, and I think it made him happy.

And now it is Monday, and the work-wheels spin again. How did that happen so fast??  

  

 

 

I am still in the throes of the cold I started getting the Sunday before Christmas. I'm stuffy-headed, sneezy, and drowsy.

Part of me is irked that this is how I'm spending my Christmas vacation. But the other part of me realizes that in a way I'm lucky. This isn't the kind of cold that is bad enough to be off work more than maybe a day without that ridiculous slacker-guilt setting in. So if this was a workweek, I'd be at work all stuffy and miserable instead of at home. At least here I can be in comfy flannel PJs and have a blankie and couch at the ready when I want to nap. When I'm more coherent, I can do fun stuff on the computer instead of writing work-related proposals or the ever-evil whitepapers or studying spreadsheets.

Oh, and instead of sitting in mind-numbing meetings trying not to sneeze on co-workers, I can hang out with the Sims Castaway crew. I spent several hours yesterday making friends with chimps, collecting fruit, spearing and cooking fish, cobbling together a hut and sailing to a nearby island on a raft I made all by myself. Pretty productive for someone down and out with the sickies, huh?

The knee is getting better too. I can walk at a normal pace without feeling like I need to limp. That's good news, because as soon as this cold chills out I want to get back into my exercise routine. Being out of commission for exercise during the season of holiday food and drink is a recipe for butt expansion.

So yeah, while being gimpy and cold-ish isn't the best way to spend time off work, it has been kind of nice to have an enforced stretch of time to just relax at home. I don't have to feel guilty about not wanting to do anything that requires putting on real clothes or makeup. It's funny what a treat it is when you work full-time and usually go out at least once if not more during the weekends to revel in NOT going anywhere.

I'm noticing things you don't notice about your world when you never get to be home. Like the fact that my neighbors pigeons love the tree in my backyard and perch there when he lets them out of the coop for their daily romp. Or that the mailman comes between noon and one. All I knew before was that the bills were waiting in the mailbox when I got home. The weasels nap a lot during the day. No wonder they have so much energy when we get home at night.

Oh, and the most horrible sound in the world - the sound that conjures up images of street-fights and pain and horror movies, is a horny cat yowling under your window. 

My neighbor started feeding two cats who were hanging out under her deck a year or so ago. She eventually captured them, took them to a vet and had them spayed and neutered (one each). They refuse to be indoor cats, so she's set up a home for them under her deck and they seem quite fat and happy. But I guess because she puts food out, we gets lots of other strays who show up. This one big white cat has been hanging out all week while I've been off, and I don't think he realizes that the other cats who live here are fixed. Either that, or he doesn't care. Because the neighbor's deck runs parallel to my bedroom windows, he hangs out by my house and yowls nonstop at the cats who make their home there. And all I can say is that feline mating calls are seriously un-sexy. It sounds like someone is getting mauled out there.

A lazy vacation is just what I needed. But I could do without the stuffy nose and the horny cat.