Happy Day-Before Thanksgiving!!

One good thing about not hosting Thanksgiving this year - I will actually have the time to watch this with B tomorrow morning! I don't care how old you are, parades bring out the kid in you!

My adorable Paco

My handsome boy Paco was being especially playful and photogenic this morning after I sprinkled some cat nip on his scratching post. Here are a few pictures of the king of the house.

In case you were wondering, yes that is a spinning wheel behind him. My friends have told me I should volunteer as an interpreter at an 18th century village so I can sit there and demonstrate wool preparation and spinning techniques. I have to say, the thought has crossed my mind...

A boy and his caterpillar

So B was given his first "real" homework assignment last week. And by "real" I mean it was something that he had to do by himself. Not a mom-or-dad-will-do-it-for-you kind of thing like we've seen in the past. Regardless though - homework in Junior Kindergarten?!? Crazy I know. Let me just say, I was just as un-enthused about the idea as he was.

The assignment was to pick a favorite teddy bear or other stuffed animal and draw it on a piece of paper which will be combined with those of the other students to create a book for them to share with their families. I think finding the favorite stuffed animal was the hardest part. B has a bunch of favs and makes sure that 3 of them follow him to bed every night. But for this project he picked an animal that he hasn't even played with much...a caterpillar made up of rings with a different number on each ring. He reaffirmed to me that this was indeed his favorite, so ok, on to the next task - draw said stuffed animal. Thanks to a very convenient dry erase/chalkboard combo easel that my parents got him one year for Christmas, he had a bunch of opportunities to practice drawing his caterpillar before committing it to paper.

Here is snapshot of what I thought was the best one. And you can sort of see the actual stuffed animal in the foreground. He was quite proud of his accomplishment!

Propeller blade, anyone?

It's not something you find everyday. Unless of course you're KAT who's dad has left quite the armament of cannon in their front yard. But a propeller blade sitting in your living room? Yup. I guess we are now the proud new owners of a rather cool-looking blade. The rainbow graphics on it are quite amazing actually. And of course it's airplane-related, so for B it was love at first sight. I'm not quite sure what we'll do with it, but we'll have to thank J's father (who might be reading this from his new home base in Oz) since it was his company who designed and manufactured it.

We'll have to see if we can incorporate it into the new man-cave that J is hoping to turn our partially-finished basement into. Actually it will go quite well with the assortment of turbine airfoils I salvaged from one of my previous jobs at a large jet engine manufacturer. We were moving from one plant to another so I brought home a few "souvenirs." Hey, we never claimed to be normal...

My new friend...

I had a friend waiting for me in my car this morning.
I promised him we'd go for a ride, but I made sure not to tell him where we were going.
Didn't want to get him all scared or anything.
I couldn't help but notice his adorable eyes, his quiet nature.
He was a lot bigger than I pictured him.
I was really glad he showed up this morning.
I had been wanting to meet him for quite some time.
Must have been the cracker with peanut butter that I left for him last night.
I'm sure that was way better than the mint-flavored lip balm...

Yup - I caught a mouse in my car this morning. After discovering yesterday that something had chewed through a container of lip balm, I figured it must be a mouse. But I really don't want a mouse chewing through the wires or whatever else in my car, so we set a trap for him last night (one of the humane ones with doors that flip down to create a cage.) The cracker smothered in peanut butter worked like a charm. I was pleasantly surprised to see his big black eyes staring up at me this morning. That's when we went for a little ride. I dropped him off a few miles away at wooded spot near the reservoir on my way to work. We may have to set that trap again cause I have a feeling he's not the only one making a home out of our garage these days...

Happy Friday!

Ok - it's Friday and I'm beat, so I'm stealing sj's lazy post and using it for myself. And since I stole it from her, you can read this from the perspective of her asking me the questions.

1) What would you say your most fundamental flaw is?
i care way too much about how others perceive me.

2) What was your dream growing up?
i totally wanted to be an actress

3) What talent do you wish you had?
i wish i could play violin

4) If I bought you a drink what would it be?
pomegranate martini

5) Favourite vegetable?
water chestnuts - wait is that a veggie? anyway, no matter how much you stir-fry those babies they still stay nice and crunchy!

6) What was the last book you read?
Lord John and the Private Matter by Diana Gabaldon

7) What zodiac sign are you?
the mighty lion

8) Any Tattoos and/or Piercings? Explain where.
no tattoos, but i do have a naval piercing

9) Worst Habit?
biting my lower lip when i'm nervous or stressed. i don't recommend it - leads to horribly chapped lips!

10) If you saw me walking down the street would you offer me a ride?
Sure thing! For you, sj, anything!

11) What is your favourite sport?
umm...figure skating. that's about it.

12) Do you have a Negative or Optimistic attitude?
i try to be as optimistic as i can, but it really depends on the time of the month. LOL

13) What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me?
i'd dare you (sj) to pick up the emergency phone and talk all sexy to whoever picks up at the other end

15) Tell me one weird fact about you.
when i make homemade frosting for a cake, i like to save the extra and eat a spoonful at a time when no one is watching.

16) Do you have any pets?
yes - 2 black cats - duh! Paco and Hailie - they were the last 2 black cats from the same litter and I couldn't decide which one to take. so i took them both! and there will probably be a fish sometime in the near future...

17) What if I showed up at your house unexpectedly?
i'd be thrilled! but watch your step - our house is littered with toys 99% of the time.

18) What was your first impression of me?
umm..kind of tough to think that far back (we did meet in kindergarten you know!) i do remember your long braids though and thought they were pretty cool.

19) Do you think clowns are cute or scary?
very creepy. they were great until i read Stephen King's IT.

20) If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?
my height - another 3-4 inches would be great!

21) Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?
i'll be driving the getaway car!

22) What color eyes do you have?
blue, but they tend to look gray at times depending on the weather.

23) Ever been arrested?
nope

24) Bottle or can soda?
bottle, but i hardly ever drink soda.

25) If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?
probably buy some company stock while it's still in the crapper.

27) What's your favourite place to hang at?
i'll ditto sj on this one - my living room.

28) Do you believe in ghosts?
actually yes i do. i have had too many unexplainable things happen to me to not to.

29) Favourite thing to do in your spare time?
spare time, what the heck is that?? if i do have a moment to spare, i'm usually watching a movie or reading.

30) Do you swear a lot?
not as much as i used to, but B is always there to remind me when i let one slip.

31) Biggest pet peeve?
slow drivers

32) In one word, how would you describe yourself?
today? sleepy. any other day - cooky.

33) Do you believe/appreciate romance?
yes i do. it has happened to me, on more than one occassion. but i'm with sj, it does fade after a while.

35) Do you believe in God?
i do believe in a higher power, but i do not believe in any organized religion. i blame my scientific brain for that one.

36) What happened to question 14?
i have no idea, but apparently sj can't count!

Congrats Obama!!

Well as you can all see from my handy-dandy widget below - Barack Obama will be our next president! YAY!

And the race is on!

Here's a cool little widget to track the election.

{{Ok, I'm removing this widget cause the election is over and we all know who won!}}