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current book: Finished Dark Water. I think Gilead is up next. Ryan, are you up for some synchronized reading?
current music: “When U Love Somebody” by Fruit Bats
current socks: Snowflake SmartWools. It’s negative fucking miserable out there. I don’t know where early December got the idea to masquerade as late January.
I came home today and saw that the cats had been up to NO GOOD. I walked in the door to find three Da Bird attachments (one still in its bag) and one empty Da Bird bag in my entry way.
Exhibit A:
I then walked into my bedroom to find my sock drawer—which just happens to be where Da extra Birds live—wide open. Which is not the position I left it in this morning. (Yes, they are quite capable of opening heavy wood drawers).
Exhibit B:
It’s a good thing they’re so damn cute.
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current book: The latest Atlantic.
current music: Listened to some Calexico and Bloc Party at work today.
current socks: Knee-high SmartWools in blue stripeys. Yummy.
I wish I could get a picture of all three cats, but Monte has sequestered himself upstairs until very recently. Now that the house is dark and quiet, he feels brave enough to jump on kitchen cabinets, throw up on the basement stairs, and snuggle up in my lap as I type this. Probably tomorrow morning he will go back to being a great big baby.
Merry Christmas!
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current book: The Ice Storm by Rick Moody. I’m not quite halfway through, and I’m not sure how much I like it. It’s definitely an interesting study of the 70s, that’s for sure.
current music: An endless stream of Christmas carols being piped through every speaker in the house. Sometimes this is okay. Sometimes it is not, such as when the Sandy Patty CD falls into rotation, or the Mannheim Steamroller Christmas (they have all the versions), or the really dreadful “soulful” a cappella Christmas CD. Soul-sucking, more like.
current socks: Some really amazing ones that Tim got me at the Sock Shop in London a few years ago: knee-highs with bright red toes and heels, black and gray stripes, and fuzzy green Christmas trees on the sides. I think tomorrow I will wear my old favorites: green socks with a reindeer entangled in lights and holding a glass of eggnog. The caption reads, “Blitzen Christmas.” Makes me laugh every year.
I just caught Monte—the world’s most bulimic orange tabby—with his head in my queso. I fear that this night is not going to end well.
Almost. In the ongoing saga of Things Going Wrong, and in the spirit of using my blog to bitch unreservedly about my personal life, I add the following complaints:
One of these days I’ll get my regular camera charged up and cleaned out so I won’t have to keep subjecting you to tiny thumbnail pictures. But in the meantime… how cute are my cats? I took a nap yesterday and awoke to this:
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current book: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.
current music: Still stuck on The Shins, but looking for a mix a friend recently made me. I know I uploaded it to iTunes, but heaven only knows what it’s called.
current socks run: 8 miles yesterday. 12 miles next week, which marks the halfway point of training.
Trying to, anyway.
(his eyes are a little freaky because I was playing with the green-eye reducer)
…The Windy City.
There’s some debate as to the origin of this last epithet. Some say it was popularized by the long-winded and boastful speeches that were given in support of Chicago hosting the 1893 World’s Fair; others claim it had been used at least a decade earlier in reference to the “refreshing lake breezes.”
Decide for yourself. In both of these pictures, the umbrella is opened as far as it will go:
Refreshing lake breezes, my ass.
Incidentally, I had to leave the umbrella out, since it is apparently just perfect for playing Ambush.
I’m baby-sitting a friend’s two kittens, an experience which, although lots of fun, has overturned my fate as the crazy cat lady. Having four cats follow you into the bathroom is a bit much. Monte loves the kittens; Clarabelle… well, she’s coming ’round. And the kittens are, well, kittens: one of them has jumped into my bathroom trash can more times than I can count, and the other keeps jumping into the kitchen sink. They try to climb me like a tree and walk across my face at night. One of them nestles into the crook of my neck and sucks his paw. They are everywhere all at once; see exhibits a and b below.
TB chasing his tail in the shower:
[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=7238056773657316673&hl=en]
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current book: just started J.M. Coetzee’s The Life and Times of Michael K on the Metra this morning
current music: Calexico’s “Black Heart”
current socks: a black-and-white soccer/football pattern with the words “footie” all over it
