Weird Alien Spores

And Happy New Year! Or whatever.

I don't get too excited about New Year's Eve and all that now that I'm too old and too tired to stay up until midnight. I also don't drink anymore so no midnight champagne for me. But, no New Year's Day hangovers for me either.

I had to pick Keith up from work about 10:30 last night and was surprised to see so few cars on the road at our end of town. They must have either all been smart and stayed home or were already at the bar. I have a really hard time seeing at night and usually don't drive anywhere after dark, but fortunately the route to the railyard is well lit and an easy drive down Coffee Road and onto the new cross town freeway then off at the end of the freeway and a few not so well lit blocks to his work. I let him drive home.

It was quite loud last night around midnight as I was laying in bed trying to sleep, lots of bangs of fireworks or gunshots or whatever people were shooting off. Again, whatever.

We had a hard freeze last night and it was all frosty outside this morning and very very cold. At least the sun is shining so while it's cold it's not gloomy. I went out back and for some reason looked down at the weed and leaf filled flower bed where our lavender plants and geraniums are braving the cold and saw the weirdest little fungi I've ever seen. Tiny tiny little whatever they are that are loving the damp ground from the recent rain.

They are only about a quarter inch across, those are pieces of ground cover bark and leaves next to them. I've never noticed anything quite this weird in the garden before.

I'm going to take Millie for her walk later, Keith is supposed to do it today but he is napping right now after having actually gotten up right after me this morning. I did a little reading up on how to train a dog to walk without barking at everybody and got a few ideas to try. Apparently if you let the dog walk ahead of you they are 'leading the pack' so to speak and must defend you against kids on skateboards and such. Hence the barking and growling. One solution to teach them to heel is to give them a little treat each time they cooperate, so I got a package of chicken hot dogs that I will cut up and carry along with me today. Short leash time today! We will see how it goes, she is such a fast little walker and it's hard to keep up with her.

Happy New Year And Sparkly Balls

Well, it's a new year and a fresh new start. Diets will be started and diets will be stopped. Exercise equipment will be bought and exercise equipment will not be used. Resolutions will be made and resolutions will be broken, making us all feel like failures. My New Year's resolutions for the past few years has been don't make any resolutions. That way you won't feel any crappier about your lack of willpower than you already do. Or make resolutions that you can keep, like relax more or pet the kitties more often. Or take naps like the kitties do all day.

Yesterday I had four of them on my bed, one in each corner. The only one that was missing was Pepper, who is so cranky all the time that it's rare to see her share space with any of the others. They all know to steer clear of her most of the time. The only time Pepper is happy is when she is in a pet me mood and I get down on the floor with her and pet pet pet until she decides she has had enough and snarls at me.

My New Year's Eve was quite dull, Keith went off to work for an 8pm train, and I put on my pajamas and watched a movie. I was in bed by about 10:30 so the New Year hit while I was sleeping. Our neighbors a few houses down must have had quite the party, their yard was full of streamers and confetti yesterday morning, but I didn't hear a thing.

I've been renting quite a few movies from the Red Box this past few weeks, the holiday season being absolute crap for TV, and I like my TV in the evenings. I watched some good ones and one stinker, White House Down being the stinker, and The Way Way Back, Two Guns, and surprisingly Jack Reacher being the enjoyable ones. Oh, also The Heat which I really enjoyed, enough to make Keith watch it the next day after he came home early in the morning from work.

Sparkly Balls. Hardly any of the cats play with toys anymore, being all old and lazy I guess, but Mimi still gets in a mood to play and she really likes the soft little balls with glittery sparkly strands that hang off of them. Like these.

She gets into the basket where we keep the cat toys and is very selective about which ball she wants to play with, picking up and discarding balls until she finds the correct one. She then MEOWS because she has caught a prize! I wake up in the morning and can tell if she's had a particularly festive night by how many strands of glitter stuff I find on the kitchen floor and the carpet. These balls shed quite badly, almost as badly as the cats do. Part of the reason I vacuum floors on an almost daily basis.

2011- Day Two

Is 2011 the official start of a new decade or was 2010 the start? I'm counting on my fingers from 2000 and 2010 is ten, so I'm guessing this is the new decade. Who knows and as fast as the years go by these days, it'll be 2021 here pretty soon.

And did we accomplish anything in the past decade? Um, not really.

Our New Year's Eve was typical for us. I was in bed before midnight and Keith fell asleep on the couch shortly after. Then yesterday he was supposed to be working on the kitchen, finally putting in the trim that goes under the cabinets so the gap between the floor and the cabinets will stop filling up with dirt and cat kibbles. He did go to Home Depot not once but twice and got a new specialty saw to cut the trim wood all fancy, and also got a piece of wood for the shelf above the sink that he's been planning to put in for a few years now. Keith going to Home Depot is like a kid in a candy store, the most fun ever and look at all the treats they have! He also went to Lowe's where he saw our congressman Kevin McCarthy shopping. First celebrity sighting in Bakersfield!

Anyway, after the home improvement shopping and the hauling in of the wood and saw he was apparently exhausted because he fell asleep on the couch.

So, our trim is still not cut. Or installed.

I did make him do one of the things we talked about to improve our lives, though, before dinner I told him to grab his jacket because we were going for a little walk around the block. It was sprinkling so we grabbed our umbrellas, too, and got a tiny bit of exercise, walking each evening being something we promised we would do.

Today we are going to go get cat litter and he is going to scrub out the cat boxes so the cats can start the year out all fresh. Too much excitement!!