Cats and Christmas

Helping me wrap (badly) Sam’s presents.

Our cats love Christmas.

Not because they get lots of Christmas presents, although my mother got them their own stocking for this year. They also got several more springs for them to play with, the only toy they seem to play with lately.

They like anything new, and our Christmas tree is new to them. Never mind that both of them were around for Christmas last year. It’s new, and screams interest to them. Just look where their interest lay in this picture.

The tree is way more interesting than we are.
(yes. Sam is pregnant.)

I think it is because year after year I insist on a real tree, even if it a small one.

This one is our first tree in many years that isn’t a potted tree, rather a small cut one that has a water reservoir instead of soil.

The water reservoir, more than the ornaments, the felt objects or bouncy branches, is what our cats love and visit several times a day.

Better than their water dish or water fountain in the basement.

They both take turns drinking out of the tree water. To the point that I have to refill the water often. Clue, or Little Bit, the cat drinking in the picture above, will drink and splash in the water reservoir.

It make me really want the tree to stay longer, although I know it should go out around this time. They by far want to drink that water over their water fountain in the basement or water dish upstairs.

I’m pretty sure when I take the tree out I’m going to ruin their lives more than our soon to be child will.

Brad nails are not meant for hands

I learned an important lesson over the weekend.

Don’t shoot brad nails into your hands.

We (Sam and myself) were painting what will become the baby room and had taken down the framing around the window in the room.  To hand it again we needed a staple/nail gun.

Since the framing material was fragile we needed smaller nails than just finishing nails.  I thought, lets buy the fancier staple gun with the forward facing handle, those are supposed to be easier to hold and shoot.

We put on the lower frame and were just about to start with the right side frame.  Sam was holding the frame on, I got it attached to the lower one and proceeded to place the nail gun on the frame.  I used my left to hold it, and my right hand to steady it from the bottom.  The frame, being a window frame, is slanted it was hard to get the nail gun flush on it with some pressure.

I shot a nail, and immediately said, “Oh,” and dropped the nail gun.  Sam looked down at me as I was pulling out the brad nail from the center of my palm.  Sam immediately went to get paper towels as blood started pooling in my hand.  She gave me paper towels and we moved into the bathroom.  For the next five minutes I walked in circles with paper towels pressed to hand and laughed at myself.  This apparently is my adrenaline defensive mechanism to me getting minor injuries.  I laugh a lot and don’t stop moving.

After it stopped bleeding we cleaned it and I thought it was fine, but Sam, being the wise person she is, decided we should get it looked at just incase.  The express care place down the street agreed that I needed at least a tetanus shot since I hadn’t had one in seven years – not since a kid bite me at work and broke the skin.  They were at first hesitant to see me without an x-ray, which they couldn’t do there, but found a way to send me for out patient x-rays. 

Apparently I’m pretty skilled at minorly injuring myself.  I missed all the bones in my hand, and it stopped bleeding quickly.  When someone at worked asked me how bad it was I said “well it didn’t come out the other side so that’s good.”

Sam has written on the staple / nail gun in the hopes of preventing this from ever happening again.

In the plus side I had a great story to tell everyone at work on Monday.  And show them the fantastic bruise on my hand.

Pictures below: Wrong way to hold it.  Right way to hold.  Sam’s fix.

 

It must be winter.

Must finally be winter in Cleveland, I got my first where the hell is your coat comment from a stranger.

Typically I thrown back a comment like I’m from Buffalo, or something like that. I didn’t even bother to try and explain it today.

It’s only 30 degrees outside and it’s not like I’m walking around outside for 20-30 minutes at a time. I really don’t see the need for a jacket when I walk from my car to a building it from a building back to my car.

I put that s*** on everything

I feel like people find a hot sauce they like and they put that on everything.

Me, I’m a Frank’s Hot Sauce kind of person.  I put it on eggs, pizza, tacos, pasta, chicken…. pretty much everything.

The other day I put Franks on something new.

I was making a giant wrap as I was super hungry after a long day at work.

I got to work cooking up some chicken on the stove and cutting it into pieces.  I decided to toss the chicken in Frank’s before adding it to my giant wrap on top of lettuce, tomatoes, onions and cheese.  I grabbed my giant bottle of Frank’s and unscrewed the cap to pour it into a bowl.  The cap slipped out of my hands and hit the ground.

Being the super responsive person I am I tracked it all teh way down with my eyes in time for the Franks to splash out of the cap and all the way up into my eyes. Both eyes.  And it stung.  A lot.

Thankfully Sam wasn’t home to hear me squeal.  Or run to the bathroom to wash out my eyes.

Story Moral.  Go ahead and put Franks on just about everything.  But not your eyes.

 

First Halloween in a new home

Sam and I celebrated our first Halloween and our new home last night.

We knew from the start that this was not going to be a great trick or treating neighborhood. Which was a little bit of a letdown because we’re apartment had been was a trick or treating neighborhood.

But we prepared anyways. Bought some candy, some pumpkins and cleaned up our garage a little bit where we’d have open for trick or treaters. We have a Hue bulb in our lamppost that we set to a bright orange color.

One person showed up. The little grandchild of our neighbors across the street came over with his mom dressed as a construction worker (or was it cowboy?). Either way it was fantastic.

Even without trick or treaters we had a good night of carving pumpkins, eating candy and settling in to watch a horror movie when it became apparent no one else was going to be stopping by.

It’d be easy to blame the massive amount of rain that was falling but but that’s just not the reason. It’s okay we’ll try again next year.