So we managed to get thru the hectic holiday season in tact...but just barely. Between the NSG Christmas party, the Intersect company party, Christmas shopping, the Bucks' Christmas Eve family gathering, Christmas in Kalamazoo with the Surakomols, Christmas day with The Nance and cooking Christmas dinner Saturday for the Shorkeys and Greg & Andrea, it was great, but I need a vacation!! Not to mention we're in crunch mode at work to make our deadline.

Saw flights to Hawaii in January for $550. Don's also talking about the possibility of going to the Bahamas or maybe a Caribbean cruise! I'd love to go...hope we can swing it. Don's got credit card points to pay for it, but figuring out when to go will be the trick. My contract might end Jan. 15 so I may have lots of free time. Sucks though that when we come back, I'll be looking for a job. But whatever.

So I'm sitting, waiting for the nurse to call me in. 11:10 comes, she calls someone else. Ok, fine. 15 minutes goes by, they call another person. Ugh. Another 15 minutes (enter the theme from Jeopardy) and they call yet another person. Another 10 minutes (here comes the key change in the Jeopardy theme) and by now, I'm getting really antsy. I check with the receptionist to make sure they didn't lose my file or forget about me; she says the doctor was really backed up and I'm supposed to be next. Another 5 minutes and finally, I get called in. I go into the room and the doctor comes in and says, "Are you gonna kill me? What I wrote down in your chart last time was a mistake and I don't need to see you till April." WHAT?? Oh MAN!! Now, she's a great doctor, really friendly and I really like her. I don't blame her because she probably got called to the hospital before her appointments. It's just annoying that I had to waste 2 hours out of my day to do this (I got back to the office about 12:30).

It's one thing when you get someplace early and have to wait for your appointment time or you only have to wait about 10-15 minutes, but I hate waiting when you really shouldn't be waiting much if at all. Like when you make a reservation at a restaurant for a specific time, but when you get there, you still have to wait 20 minutes for them to seat you. Then you have to wait another 20 minutes or more just to get your food. Or you sit down at the reserved time, but you have to wait 20 minutes to get your drink order in and another 45 minutes for your food to arrive. When you're hungry and your blood sugar gets low like mine and you NEED to eat, it's extremely irritating.

I think the worst was when my last ex-boyfriend would tell me he was coming over, but he'd make me wait 2 extra hours because he was dawdling for no reason. He did that ALL the time and it drove me freaking bananas! It was very rude and inconsiderate.

It's why I've tried very hard for the last several years not to be late for anything. Things like meetings or classes, or telling people I'm going to be someplace at a certain time, I like to be there at the scheduled time. I hate waiting and I hate keeping people waiting.

We use a child gate to separate Maximus and Gabriel because Gabe hates him and I'd rather not deal with them fighting. Besides, he's so mischievous, you really have to keep an eye on him and the child gate keeps him from roaming the entire house and destroying things without our knowledge. Now, he LOVES Princess. She tolerates him, though she gets annoyed because he constantly pesters her. So she usually will just run away by bounding over the gate.

Well, up until yesterday, Maximus was too small to make it over the gate. But you could see him trying to figure out ways to get over it because he can't resist wanting to follow her. He's been trying to climb it the last couple days and the other night, he almost made it. Then last night, he managed to somehow jump to the top of the gate and get over it. Don and I were eating dinner and didn't realize until I suddenly realized it was too quiet. When we looked around, we couldn't find him. We speculated that maybe he snuck over and when I looked down in the basement, there he was, pestering Princess again. So now, I've added a sort of cardboard extension to the top of the gate so that he can't get over it. Unfortunately, Princess can't freely jump over it either.

Another example...when I put the Christmas tree up, Maximus started climbing the tree. Back then, he couldn't jump very high, but he could just make it to the bottom branches of the tree and from there, he could climb each level of branches. So I put a cardboard shelf on the bottom level. Well, that didn't work when he figured out how to get on top of it. So then I made a wall out of cut cardboard boxes around the tree. Not high enough. So then I made another wall out of cut cardboard boxes, but this time with the flaps still attached so it was higher. Last night, he managed to jump and grab the top of the flaps with his front paws, but fell because the flaps bent back so he had no support.

And now, he's taken to trying to climb the little tree by the piano. The other cats already destroyed the bottom half of it, and I just decided to give up trying to keep him out of it because he's so absolutely fearless and persistent that no matter what I do, he's not going to quit.

I have a feeling that very soon--likely before Christmas--he's going to figure out how to get over the cardboard wall and into the Christmas tree. When that time comes, I'm going to have to take it down. Pretty soon, he's going to figure out how to get up onto the counters and cause ALL kinds of trouble!! NOTHING will be safe! Darn that little IMP!!

So the last couple nights, I have been awoken by constant assaults by a furry little monster called Maximus. Wednesday night, he decided to use my head as a catnip toy, for he found it quite amusing to pounce on my face and chomp my ears and nose while I screamed helplessly in terror. Last night, he opted to not use my head as a chew toy, though the torment still continued. All night long, he kept kneading my neck like a lump of bread dough, paws, claws and all. I thought maybe he was restless just because he needed to eat, but I was wrong in that assessment since putting him in front of his food bowl only worked once during the two nights of kitten-style torture. Now I love the little bugger like crazy, but OY! I need sleep! (I can't imagine how hard it must be with a new baby. But I can imagine how awfully grumpy I'd be from lack of sleep!)

I think because Don and I were out for so long the last couple of days, not coming home till 9:30 or so, Maximus got overly anxious and lonely which he FULLY made up for with his nightly torture.

So I'm completely exhausted today. I think when I go home, I'll let him out to play while I nap on the couch. And maybe leave the toilet lid up and listen for a little splash...KIDDING!!! I would NEVER do that! *wink*

PJ doing his own form of karate.

The girls, Sara & Tessie.

I LOVE to see Dad like this--so jolly and happy. :-D

Look what I'm getting in my stocking this year! Haha!! Maximus doesn't look happy about it at all, does he? Hehehe!!

Here's the video my brother took of me getting my new kitty. There's some extraneous stuff before Don gets home, so you can forward to about 1:45 into the video.

I had absolutely NO idea he was going to do this. The thought of getting a kitten for my birthday never even crossed my mind. I knew Don had been wanting to get a kitten after Hideous died, but I thought we'd have to wait until spring or summer to get a kitten. As much as I know about cats, I didn't realize that they can have kittens all year round. I thought it was a seasonal thing.

Don and my brother somehow conspired together. We were supposed to meet my brother, my mom and my dad at the restaurant for a birthday dinner, but Oupie wanted to meet at the house. And Don was already coming home from the vet from taking Princess in for a few tests (she's been having problems breathing--we don't know yet what's wrong). So when he walked in the house with the cat carrier, no big surprise till I saw what was in it!! My brother took a video of my reaction--again, no big surprise since he's always taking pictures or video. I told him to post on Youtube. When I get the link, I'll post it here. In the meantime, here's Don's not-so-high-quality phone video of my reaction.

It occurred to me last night as I was trying to fall asleep (Maximus wanted to keep playing and I was too excited to sleep), that Maximus was born RIGHT around the time that Hideous died. And I'm quite certain that his fur is going to be soft and fuzzy like Hideous'. In fact, he looks exactly like Hideous did as a kitten (minus the white spot on his chest). Now, if you believe in reincarnation (which I do), what do you think the chances are of Hideous' soul reincarnating and coming back to us in the form of this new kitten? I think pretty darned good!! Especially since certain souls are destined to stay together--I think Hideous' soul is linked to Don's very tightly.

I can tell you now...I am having the BEST year ever! First I get a ton of new furniture, then I get the most awesome job I've ever had, and now a new kitten for my birthday! I thought life couldn't get ANY better than having the first two things. Guess I was wrong!!! I have THE BEST husband in the ENTIRE WORLD!!!!!!

By the way, here's how it happened from Don's perspective.

So then I went out and bought Jeff's new Christmas Special DVD. I wanted to watch it while Don was out playing poker with the boys. Of course, he brought back Achmed and you know what? I laughed EVEN HARDER than before. I still had tears streaming down my cheeks, my stomach hurt, I couldn't breathe, but this time I laughed twice as hard. WHOA! And I literally fell over on the couch. If you have a chance to buy it, rent it or maybe you can find it on Youtube, DO SO!!! I highly recommend it! To give you a hint, here's a bit with Achmed from last Christmas. Enjoy!!

When he did, here's how it went:
Recruiter: Ok, 9am tomorrow.
Me: You mean for the interview?
Recruiter: Nope, for work.
Me: WHAT?? Wow, holy crap!

They decided to skip right over the interview and hire me straight off! That's NEVER happened to me before. Apparently, the person they had before didn't work out and now they need someone. The guy hiring remembered me from our JWT days together, so looks like that someone is me! Yay for me! That's a record too, only having been out of work for 2 months. :-)

Moral of the story? Never burn your bridges! You never know WHEN your previous connections will come in handy.

We ended up with a whole new living room set for the upstairs including a sofa, love seat, lounge chair (makes a great reading chair), coffee table, end table, and entertainment center. I got everything I'd been drooling over that I'd seen online--EVEN the bookshelves I wanted too! Yay!! And now he's talking about maybe even getting some new speakers for the upstairs. When I get a new job, I think I'll buy a new bedroom set. :-P

Click on the thumbnails to see the pictures full size: