Jan 6, 2020

Merdivorous Monday

merdivorous ~ dung-eating

Well, the holiday is finally, officially over. We had the last family get together on Saturday, and yesterday I took the tree down. The decorations have been put away; all that’s left are the cookies.

As far as 2020 goes, so far I’m not impressed. Not only did the holiday drag out far too long, but on Friday we had to say farewell to another one of our furbabies. Last year around this time it was our oldest cat, Taz, this year it was his son Romulus (Romi for short).

Romi was our basement cat. He liked to sleep in the basement and the last few years he only came up for meals and the occasional nap in the sun. He was large, but sweet natured and the least trouble of any cat we know.

He was the reason we have short bookcases along the upstairs railing. The railing in the upstairs hallway is open, looking down onto the stairs and landing. When the boys were kittens they used to like to play in the upstairs hallway and jump up on the railing to wrestle. One day, while wrestling with his brother, Romi fell off the railing onto the stairs, breaking his palate – I didn’t even know a cat could do that.

It wasn’t a serious injury (according to the vet we rushed him to) and it healed on its own, but that’s when I bought the bookcases. I couldn’t keep those darned kittens off the railing, but I could at least give them something a little more solid besides the railing to play on.

Romi was sweet, and quiet, and sixteen years old. His health had been declining steadily over the last year or so and when he started refusing food we knew something wasn’t right. Unfortunately, he had a lot more wrong with him than a lack of appetite and the kindest thing we could do was to let him go.

We’ll miss you Romi, especially your brother Date who’s been wandering around the house looking for you.

R.I.P. my old friend. Say hi to your mommy Panda, your daddy Taz, your brother Julius, and your sister Josie when you cross the rainbow bridge.


Jan 1, 2020

Happy New Year!



happy ~ delighted, pleased, or glad, as over a particular thing

Normally this is where I’d be sharing thoughts on the past year, or at the very least be figuring out the game plan for the year ahead, however I haven’t had time to think about either. This has been like the holiday that never ends.

First of all, I don’t know about you, but Christmas felt particularly un-Christmasy this year. The tree was up and decorated, the shopping was done, the cookies were baked, but there just seemed to be something missing. Could it have been . . . snow?

We had a teaser of snow the weekend before Christmas, but that Monday it warmed right up and by the end of the day it was gone. And it has stayed warm and overcast ever since – sometimes rainy, sometimes windy, but always grey and dismal. Great White North my Aunt Fanny!

And having the holidays fall in the middle of the week threw me right off too. My days got all muddled up. Plus between us leaving town for visits and people coming to town for visits Christmas has been spread out right through this coming weekend.

That being said, Christmas wasn’t all bad. There was lots of good food and lots of good company. And did I mention the cookies? I may have had a wider variety of cookies than the daughter, but she beats me hands down in the decorating department.

Two standout presents from the hubby were a Kitchen Aid stand mixer and tickets to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra (one of my all time favourites). I got the mixer before Christmas and I gotta tell you, I don’t know how I ever lived without one. It’s amazing! If you do a lot of baking (like I used to), don’t wait, go get one now!

Yesterday was another busy day, so we rang in the New Year with pizza and a marathon of Lost in Space (the new season is out on Netflix). Do we know how to party or what? LOL

Today was a little quieter, and I’m still playing catch-up. My office is almost to the point where I can use the vacuum in it, but I’m not quite there yet. The tree is still up, I don’t have a new calendar or a new journal, but I’m hoping by Monday things will be back to normal.

Maybe I’ll even have some goals for the year ahead.