Friday Afternoon

Another not-so-warm day here, but at least the sun came out for a bit. For a while, at least, the temperature seemed to warm up. I wish it would just get back to normal so I can get a good night's sleep again. When it's too cold outside, I don't let Rusty and AngelBoy sleep on the screen-porch. Which means they spend the night in the laundry room... which means that either Rusty or AngelBoy will slap their paw on the laundry room door at 3:00 in the morning because they want to go out on the screen-porch.

Believe me, I've tried to ignore them. But the longer I let them slap their paws on that door, the more noise they make. At times, it sounds as if the door is going to come right off the hinges--- it's one of those bi-fold doors, which makes a racket when they're pounding against it. So out of bed I go, to let them out on the porch for a while. Doesn't take them long to realize how cold it is out there, so they use the litter boxes in the corner of the porch and then they're ready to come back inside.

Of course, there are two litter boxes in the laundry room for them. Rusty, however, will not use a litter box that's inside the house. It took me the longest time to convince him that it was okay to use the litter boxes on the screen-porch. He kept giving me a look that seemed to say: "You want me to do that inside the house???" (He is an outside-cat at heart.)

I ran up to see A this morning... she's getting ready for her Christmas Open House tomorrow night. I walked in her front door and saw that her house looks like my house did last week--- plates ready to be put out for guests, cakes and cookies baking in the oven, chairs set up in little groups around the living room. Party deja vu. My turn last week, her turn this week.

We're going downtown to see "The Nutcracker" tonight, so I haven't done much of anything today except get some things done around the house and touch up my nail polish. I've been meaning to get to the supermarket, but I keep putting that off and just using up whatever is in the pantry closet or the freezer. I will have to do a big grocery shopping by Monday at the latest, so I'll have everything I need for Christmas dinner.

My husband spent part of this morning wrapping up the Christmas gifts he bought yesterday. So now there's a pile of gifts in front of the Christmas tree... his for me, and mine for him. And there's even a small gift in my stocking. Which surprised me, because for all the years we've been married, my husband hasn't put gifts into the Christmas stockings. He did this year, though, so I took one of the smaller gifts I got for him and put it into his stocking.

My sister and I have been opening our Christmas gifts to each other since the beginning of the month. Our 'theme' this year was stocking-stuffer gifts, and we've had fun opening little gifts of scented soaps, notepaper, tree ornaments, herbal teas, flavored hot chocolate, candles and books. We've each got a couple more gifts to open, which we'll probably do over the weekend.

I tried to call F at the hospital today... they're keeping her busy with the breathing therapy sessions and she hasn't been in her room to answer the phone. I guess the more therapy she gets, the quicker she'll be getting out of there.

That's about the story for the afternoon. I am sitting here in a red sweat-suit outfit that has three cats embroidered on the front of it. If my sister saw me in these clothes, she'd be burying me and the outfit in the backyard. Not exactly a chic sort of thing to wear, and I don't go far in it. I'll walk the dog in this get-up, but only if I'm just going around the block. And I wore it up to A's house this morning when I brought her a large pot for the hot apple cider for her party. This is my hanging-around-the-house-on-a-cold-day outfit. Before too long, I'll be changing into something pretty and frilly for the trip downtown to the ballet.

Still so hard to believe that Christmas day is just eight days away now.