Tuesday... Glorious Sun

Absolutely gorgeous day today.... blue sky, pretty clouds, lots of sun, nice and warm. Now this is what "winter" weather should be like in southeast Texas. And this is how it usually is for the Dickens on The Strand celebration in Galveston. However, last weekend the island city of Galveston received the wrong weather from The Powers That Be.

I've been going through my party to-do list.... getting as much done as possible before tomorrow and Thursday. I plan to go grocery shopping tomorrow, then do more baking on Thursday and Friday. My husband has searched (not too hard) for the chocolate chip pecan cookies that I've already baked. He went so far as to tell me: "B called while you were out... he and P won't be coming to the party after all so he said I could have his share of the chocolate chip pecan cookies." At first, I believed him... then I saw the look on his face and knew he was telling a story. The cookies are safe and sound. I haven't touched a one since I put them all away for the party.

I spent about an hour yesterday trying on party outfits. Three parties coming up-- ours, my husband's job party, our friend A's party. Plus Christmas Day. Four outfits. I've got everything set up in my closet... clothes and shoes... all depends on the weather. A long-sleeved velvet top and a long velvet skirt isn't going to work if it gets up to 88 degrees here. So I've got a couple of back-up outfits... knee-length black dress without sleeves, long black sleeveless dress.

The carpet cleaner was here yesterday. AngelBoy surprised me with a trip into one of his favorite corners, in lieu of a trip to his litter box. I caught him just as he left that corner. I picked him up and looked right into his kitty-blue eyes: "The week of our party and you have to do that?!" He looked right back at me and gave me the softest of meows. Then he blinked at me three times. And what does that mean? I just can't figure this cat out. So much for being a nice person and letting him stay in the house when I'm too busy to keep an eye on him. Into the screen-porch he goes now when he comes in the house.

I'm waiting for the bug-spray guy this afternoon. Living in this part of Texas (and probably every part of Texas) you have to have the grounds around the house sprayed for bugs. Big bugs, little bugs, creepy-crawly bugs... they're all here in this state. And in order to keep them outside and not inside, you need to have everything sprayed every few months. We're overdue for this, but I couldn't let them spray a couple of months ago because we had too many bird nests in the trees. I didn't want to take a chance of having baby birds sprayed with those chemicals.

And I think we have a mouse up in the attic. Every once in a while, we hear teeny tiny scratching up there. Too tiny a sound for a raccoon or a possum, plus all the vents are screened in now, so how would one of those get in? Must be a mouse.... so I asked the pest-control guy to bring us some sort of trap for the attic. Three cats in this house and I have a mouse in the attic. There is no justice in this world.

There was a show on the home decorating channel last night.... all about the holiday window displays in the large stores like Macy's, Harrod's, Neiman Marcus. Such beautiful scenes, and they're working on them all year long. By the time they finish up the windows for this year, someone is already at work thinking up a design for next year's windows. The theme for the New York Macy's windows this year is "The Polar Express." They showed close-ups of the displays... absolutely beautiful work. And the figures looked exactly like the artwork in the book, so the train conductor didn't look like Tom Hanks. Amazing artwork... the man who thought of that idea got all choked up as he watched everyone looking at the Macy's windows.

Anyway... that's the day so far. I hope this weather holds for the rest of the week.