Inbetween holidays

The days between Christmas and New Years have always been a tough time.  Boxing day was a-seasonally warm so the Phactors took a decent walk that pushed us over the 10,000 steps threshold. Not sure why that's the arbitrary but round number goal, but it is? Also managed to clean up some leaves, and the net that had collected them and pick up all the newly downed limbs around the place. Then had the neighbors over for cocktails. Bulbs are already pushing up in places. TPP usually renews all his society memberships and makes some donations to worth while causes. This year supporting the Union of Concerned Scientists and ACLU seems like a good idea.  Both organizations may have a busy year. 
Worked in a dental checkup just because not much else is going on.  Have to do some grocery shopping later for a dinner party tomorrow evening, but first have to finish planning the dinner menu. Will waste New Year's Eve at a party with long-time friends, who have been doing this for more than 35 years. 
Not much else going on. Dumbly trying to figure out the smart part of new smart TV. So far it doesn't seem very bright really, but everyone says there are things you can do, if you ever do do those things. Don't even have to return any gifts.  Took a new painting/collage (mixed media) to have it framed well, and the nature of the piece makes it a bit tricky. High hopes it will look terrific and then begins the problem of hanging it in the right place and any resulting domino effect.  The other new piece of art is a blown glass vase so just have to find the right place, a not easy problem because of its size. A couple of weeks ago we attended a friends open house, and it is an art museum of major proportions. A large closet, several pieces of furniture, a basement store room, a couple of dozen sets of storage shelves in the basement housed the pieces not on display (a collection of glass and ceramics in the thousands, along with hundreds of prints, paintings, sculptures (some outside), and even art furniture. Terribly impressive as was his explanation that using eBay to downsize his collection had backfired into more acquisitions. Did get to meet the creator of our newest vase. Nice.
Hmm, killing some time with a not very inspired blog post; maybe some coffee would stimulate the little gray cells.

Christmas present for a cat

All cat people know that the only thing to get a cat for a present is a catnip toy. Here's another of those terribly clever animations of Simon's cat.  It perfectly captures the usual reaction of a cat to a new catnip toy. The animation is a present to us from the cartoonist. Enjoy.

Doh! Violated one of my own rules!

It was just a moment's lapse, a second or two of being less than vigilant, and it happened!  It must have been the Christmas cookie that distracted TPP.  Because without any warning, the eyes shifted, and too late, there was Bill O'Really's column, and it was so damned annoying!  Doh!  TPP had violated one of his own rules for enjoying the holidays, and yes, Bill, there's more than one, so some of us just say, "Happy holidays!" Bill thinks people who do this need to "get over it", but the king of arrogance is the one who gets bent out of shape about this every year, and calls his pet peeve the "war on Christmas".  Now if Bill, who likes to drag out facts, knew anything about Christianity at all, he'd know that December is the wrong season for Christmas, so Christians decided to put their celebration right in among all those other celebrations on purpose.  It certainly wasn't the fault of those other religions because they were older, but even though Christmas has become the 800 lb. gorilla of holidays, it doesn't mean the other holidays go away.  Apparently being in the majority and still not being able to dictate seasonal greetings is just so irritating and that's what makes Bill so angry.  Well, happy holidays Bill.  Now, get a life.

Merry Marathon

Christmas day and the quiet extends through the house, but yesterday was a merry marathon orchestrated to the quarter hour to squeeze in all the activities. Still it was fun, the dinner was good, the company outstanding, and only the kittygirls got upset because a couple of the youngest guests, who, although barely ambulatory, could utter high pitched squeals of delight a the sight of a cat. Mrs. Phactor is engrossed in her i-something and new slippers, thus engaging both hands and feet. The F1 declared both the funky opera gloves and knee socks, again engaging both hands and feet, winners. And good old Santa was reading my blog because the wished for book was delivered, although the owl remains elusive. This presents a challenge since there are still 25 to go in the 50 plants that changed the world, now a new 100 await. Unforeseen presents included page proofs that e-arrived yesterday with the publisher's simple straight forward demand that now that you have spent 5 years doing research, 6 months putting together a manuscript, jumped through so many hoops and reviews and editorial demands have taken months, you must now return the proofs in TWO days or else. The drop everything and do page proofs attitude remains a very annoying. Maybe my assistant can handle it? And this morning a revised manuscript arrives from a co-author whose culture and religion don't involve Christmas holidays. These things will be set aside for another day at least. Snowy owls have been reported only about 15 miles north of our estate, so perhaps the unseasonally warm weather will allow a bird walk and some exercise to work off the cookies and 12 yr old bourbon, a most excellent combination. Hoping all of you have as much fun and enjoyment.

Plant symbolism for the holidays

The Phactor was going to write a blog on plant symbolisms that are quite prevalent during the holidays (holly & ivy, wreaths, mistletoe, and or course, Christmas trees), but some nice heathen has already done it for me. Always amusing to see all the pagan origins of "Christian" traditions. Co-opting the holidays and traditions of older religions has long been a common religious practice. So "Deck us all with Boston Charlie, Walla Walla Wash., and Kalamazoo!"