Embarrassing moment in which I wanted to disappear

Brian's friend has a cousin who lives in our neighborhood. I have seen their name on several other blog lists. I have looked at his wife's blog and a few times shown Brian. "This is the cousin of so-and-so." She is a good photographer and her pictures are fun to look at.

Anyway, we were at the park this past summer. This other couple happened to be there with their kids. I pretended not to know who they were since we've never met and she has no idea who I am. I am sitting on a park bench near the other girl who is swinging her child. Brian recognizes the guy and goes over to talk to him. They talk about the person they know in common. Then I hear Brian saying, "Yeah, my wife reads your wife's blog all the time. "

Melt away into the wood chips

The guy says, "Who does?"

Brian: "My wife" and points at me with the finger of death. They both look at me.

Cease to exist

Here I am. Right near someone who doesn't know me and my husband outs me. OUTS ME! (Let's just clear it up right now that I don't read it "ALL THE TIME" either. "Occasionally" is the word.) I sound like an obsessed stalker. I just sit quietly and hope that the other girl didn't hear that too. But I'm pretty sure she hears it. She's not too far from me. I try and think of a way to talk to her and explain myself.

Finally I have my lines worked out and I look over and a neighbor of the girl has just arrived and they are now talking. I can't interrupt a friendly conversation with my crazy confession. After a while of waiting, it's time to leave. Time to slink away like the shadow I wish I was. We leave as fast as my short legs can carry me. Hopefully I will never see them again but, being in the same neighborhood, it's bound to happen. Maybe I can explain myself then.

On the way home I tell Brian, "Please never again tell someone that I read their blog "ALL THE TIME". He just doesn't know. He doesn't read any blogs. He doesn't even read my blog. He doesn't know the rules. "I can tell someone that I read their blog. But you cannot tell them when I am sitting there pretending that I have never seen them before in my life."

Christmas kitten

Meet Bumble - the Abominable Snow Monster. I guess actually he's more likeable than abominable. And he's more of a little angel than a monster. And he doesn't really like snow all that much. So I guess, meet Bumble - the likeable little angel that loves to be warm.
He's our new little Christmas kitten. He was given to me by my nicest-ever sister Sinika.

He's such a sweet little guy. If we leave the room he meows cause he's lonely.

And if we ever can't find him, he's usually taking one of his little cat-naps in the pantry or underneath something or sometimes right in plain sight but we just don't see him cause he looks like a little toy.

My vacuum sucks...

...and I can't believe it. We got it for our wedding 9 years ago and it still sucks things up. It's just a cheap little Eureka. A few years ago the hose didn't work and we tried everything to figure out why it didn't suck but we never could figure it out. ("Everything" meaning we stuck a straightened hanger all the way through the hose and where the hose goes into the main part and found nothing blocking the way.) So we just assumed that we couldn't use the hose anymore. But then one day the hose started working again. And it is still sucking away (along with the main sucking part). I never thought it would last this long. Maybe it doesn't pick up all the microscopic little things that the fancier vacuums do but it picks up every visible thing and leaves those nice little just-vacuumed lines on the carpet. We have been thinking about getting a new vacuum lately but how can you throw away a perfectly good vacuum that still sucks? I thought for sure it would die sooner than this so that we would just have to get a new one.

Christmas time is here

It's finally here. All this snow has finally made it feel like Christmas. I have my favorite Christmas music ready for you (or me) to listen. What? You didn't see my song list? It's right there in front of your eyeballs. It's a short list. (I apologize in advance if you're not a Sarah McLaughlin fan. There's a lot of her in there. I like pretty voices to sing my Christmas songs. Especially the pretty voice of Chris Martin.)
We've got our tree up.

Treats have been made.

Gingerbread house decorated.

And letters to Santa have been written. (Or at least started.) Elli's is just about the cutest thing ever. Uh, I think Santa can manage that request.

Don't let Ben's short list fool you. He just got tired of writing. This is only 3 items on his 50-item list. He still wants to add a D-Rex (which I thought was the same thing as a Wowee Rex but he has told me they are different and he wants them both) and a DSi and many other items that each cost over $100 each. Sorry buddy, I don't think you've been THAT good this past year. Hopefully after getting one memorable gift he'll forget most of the other things he is asking for. Ben doesn't really see the point of writing letters to Santa since last year he didn't and he told me, "I don't need to write letters to Santa cause he still knows everything that I want!"