Mad Zoo House

I woke up to find Portland had been snowed on! wheeeee! This is, of course, only exciting because I didn't have to leave the house at 8am like my dear husband. It's very pretty out there but I'm glad it's not worse out because I have a ton of errands to run today, and as anyone who has lived in Portland or a similar part of the country knows, we are not equipped to handle inclement weather. We rarely get snow, so when we do, the city almost shuts down. Also driving is scary, mainly because the majority of the roads do not get plowed, and people native to this area have no idea how to drive in snow. Fun times! Luckily, we live within walking distance of a grocery store and can get away without driving if we ever need to. The cats are almost out of food, but hey, they could stand to lose a few ounces (or pounds). :P

Growing up, my mom was on a strict holiday decoration schedule. The day after Thanksgiving, the tree went up. Sometime over Thanksgiving weekend, we would have the annual tree decorating arguments, including, but not limited to: Mom reminding Dad that the lights go on first and Dad reminding Mom that he KNEW that, and my sister reminding me that small ornaments go near the top and larger ones at the bottom.

I decorate on a smaller scale in our house, but I do decorate as I love this time of year. On Saturday I woke up feeling ambitious and did the following:

• organized/decluttered/tidied up the desk/office area to make room for xmas present storage
• decorated the plain bags I bought so that they are now holiday/winter bags suitable for gift-giving
• put up the tree with ribbon, lights, and ornaments
• wrapped the presents I've gotten for El Fyd
  
• put up the wreath and stockings

Yay! As a related sidebar, each pet has their own stocking. This is a cute notion when you have a couple of pets. When you have 7 pets like we do, it's just kind of embarrassing and overkill.

Also. It only took 24 hours but the new kitten in the house has already tried to take over the tree. So far nothing has been destroyed, but there has been evidence (dissheveled ornaments) of Sir Claudius's discovery of the new big shiny thing in the living room. Cats!

Thanksgiving! A day full of eats! And over-eating! And napping! Oh joyous day of eating. Our plans to leave town changed a few weeks back, so it was just the two of us for the big eat-fest. El Fyd is not a fan of the turkey, so I made lamb. That's no baaaaaah-loney.

I also did a heckuva lot of baking: almond biscotti dipped in chocolate, lemon bundt cake with lemon cream cheese frosting sprinkled with raspberries, and two pumpkin pies. Luckily our neighbors came over for dessert and wine after dinner. There was still a plethora of sweets left over. But, at least the presentation was pretty. And sometimes I like to take pictures of my food!


After the neighbors left I set out to do the loathesome task of loading the dishwasher and discovered a pool of standing greasy water at the bottom of the dishwasher and a clogged garbage disposal. *insert crying face* We didn't want to deal with it at 10pm, so we left it (and the pile of dirty dishes in the sink) for the next day. By the next day, the entire kitchen reaked of grease. *gag* Luckily my husband is wicked smaht and fixed it all up. Yay! Thanksgiving drama averted!

Now bring on the Christmas carols!

I like to fancy myself a good organizer, but in reality, I just love a good list. There is something so pleasing about writing every "to do" out. Then prioritizing everything on the list. Then re-writing The List so that the most pressing items are at the top. Then color-coding The List, or figuring out which days will be spent doing which tasks. Perhaps making an excel spreadsheet for The List.

And let's not forget putting the most obvious tasks on The List - things I do every day that are as much habit as putting on my glasses. These things are imperative to The List, because at least this way I for sure get to cross something off. And crossing things off The List is 90% the fun of making The List. Of course, even for the items that don't get done on the day they should, I can put a fun little arrow on The List, indicating that I plan to get it done tomorrow.

This is why I can't get behind the electronic gadgets meant to help you get organized - I need a physical planner. I need to write it all down myself rather than typing it. I need to be able to flip to the back to look at the calendar. I need the weight of the pen in my hand so I can tap the (hopefully capped) end to my lips as I consider my next "to do." I need to grasp the corners of the pages in my fingers and have the ability to go back in time to check on the last time I [insert particular task here].

Ultimately, I am a good organizer. Good at organizing The List, anyway. Usually by the time I'm happy with The List, enough time has passed that I'm now too lazy to actually get anything done. :P

Word on the street is my blog isn't being updated often enough for some people! Maryn, this is for you. :P

Things I have been up to:
* Made biscotti for the first time. This may have been a mistake. Biscotti = YUM.

* Purchased 25 lbs of flour at Costco in preparation for holiday baking. This may have been optimistic.

* Been busy planning for my DIY holiday gifts. This morning I attempted a paper snowflake. FYI, I suck at those.

* I bathed both dogs today. That's approximately 180 lbs of dog. I wonder how many calories that burned.

Last weekend I mistakenly left the bathroom door open whilst The Mister was showering, the steam from which triggers the heat sensor connected to the alarm company. Of course! The alarm goes off. Brilliant. I thought I turned it off in enough time and of course went back upstairs. Where I can't hear anyone knocking on the door. It wasn't until the dogs' barking notified me that someone was at the door. I wasn't going to answer until I noticed the flashing lights from the street in front of the house. Yeah, it was a fire truck. I opened the door and immediately four fire fighters popped up from random places around my house, all with their walkie-talkies or whatever the technical term is. That's not embarrassing at all. :|

However, I discovered later that our neighbors gave them their set of keys to our house in case we weren't home and they thoroughly enjoyed Hot Fire Fighter Saturday. At least my embarrassment is worthwhile to someone.

I think Vinnie will run over to a window and bark at something on the street that isn't really there, only because he knows that Boris will immediately run over to the window and bark as well, thus giving Vinnie the opportunity to run over and sit in whatever spot Boris just left.