A Christmas to Remember

Garrison Keeler mentioned on his Christmas program this year that there are only four Christmases that he can remember with distinction--the rest blend together in a haze of yuletide memories. I believe that the Christmas of 2004 will be remembered by my family in vivid clarity as the year of utter insanity. Let me start at the beginning...
My sisters decided it would be a cute idea to get my mom a kitten for Christmas. After taking them to the Humane Society of Pinellas County last Thursday to adopt an adorable little black and white ball of fluff, my car overheats on the way home. Nell's boyfriend is called to rescue three damels and one feline in distress. The cat is to remain a secret from my parents for a few days, so we hide him in my sister's room, where he crawls under a dresser and refuses to come out.
That night my grandma and her enormous, boisterous german shepherd arrive to stay with us for a few nights. Christmas Eve the whole family goes over to my sister's boyfriend's house for dinner. Our parents nearly come to blows over a political debate, but then everyone drinks a lot, so it's okay.
Christmas day is fantastic. Dad threatens to take back all our presents when he finds out about the kitten, but we know he doesn't mean it.
Monday morning our neighbor stops by at 6:30am because her car won't start, and she asks to borrow one of ours to get to work. My dad takes the second family car to work, which, oddly enough, breaks down a few blocks from the house. At this point we are out three cars.
That same day, my grandma's german shepherd has a fit of epilepsy and must be rushed to the emergency vet. (I will spare you the suspense--she's okay. Only one animal was actually harmed in the making of this Juergens-Brockman Christmas special, and I'll get to that later.) My hair stylist lends me her SUV for the week while I watch her pets. I drive it to T.G.I.Friday's, where I give my two weeks notice.
My hairstylist's 8 year old son has about 12 goldfish as pets. He wrote me this really cute little note before they left, which, loosely translated from little-kid scrawl, reads: "Please feed my fish. They like a pinch of food. Thank you Kate!"
Tuesday night I discover that one of the fish has died and managed to get stuck in the filter of the huge fish tank, which I have no clue how to clean. I promise myself I will take car of the fish corpse before I leave for our family Christmas celebration in Orlando the next day. That doesn't happen, however, because Wednesday morning my siblings and I get a phone call from our mom, saying that she, my dad, my grandma, and the german shepherd have been rear-ended by a van with no breaks on the interstate. The car is now decidedly more compact that it was designed to be, but no one seems too much the worse for wear. Especially not the dog, who thoroughly enjoyed being tossed from the back of the car to the front. Seriously, the dog was having a great time. Weirdo.
Anyway, so my brother and sisters and I decide to get on the road to Orlando, but first--we have to find the cat. Yes, the kitten who when first we brought him home was too nervous to venture from the safety of underneath the dresser has now ventured to escape from the house and hide himself in the shrubbery of our backyard. We spend about an hour climbing through the underbrush before we can catch him.
Cat found, we all pile in my newly-repaired-but-not-really car and begin the two-hour trek to grandmother's house. Three hours later we are still sitting in gridlock traffic with the heat on and antifreeze at the ready, praying that the car won't overheat again. (Oh yeah, and it was 75 degrees out. Good ol' Florida winters, stuck on the highway.) We arrive grumpy and disheveled to find my dad halfway through a bottle of scotch. We try to put ourselves in an equally celebratory mood, drink a lot, eat plenty of cookies, open some Christmas presents, and wake up this morning to make the hellish holiday drive from Orlando to Tampa again, this time in only 1 1/2 vehicles.
So here we sit, holding steadfast to Christmas traditions, determined not to let hell nor highwater, epileptic fits, dead fish, agoraphobic cats, car wrecks and rotten jobs ruin our holiday. Because when you think about it, there's nothing like the devastation caused by a massive tsunami halfway around the world to put a little car trouble in perspective.
Merry Christmas, everyone, and I wish you all an uneventful and peaceful New Year.

I will be moving to Sarasota on January 12. My new address will be:
2040 Alameda Ave. Sarasota, FL 34234.

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone!! I hope you all had a wonderfully relaxing Christmas day... I did :)

Anyway, Brian and I are having a New Years Eve party, and want to invite you all to attend (or at least those who are in the DC area :-P). It'll probably somewhat low-key. Sorry for the late notice, but when it was a busy month for me and I was doing other stuff (mostly for stupid work) when I should have been planning. So, if you can come, we'd love to have you. We'll start things probably around 8:30 or 9. I know two people who will be crashing in our living room already, so if you want to crash, let me know so I can plan. It would probably be easiest if you brought a sleeping bag if you want to crash, but I think we'll have enough room for people who want to stay. Also, if you want to bring a beverage of enjoyment, that would be great. We'll have stuff, but I'm not sure how many people are coming nor how much selection we'll have.

Our address is 2230 George C. Marshall Dr. #623. Falls Church, VA 22043.

Directions: From the Beltway, take exit 47B. Go through the first light and make a right onto George C. Marshall Dr., which is right after the high school (if you get to a shopping center, you've gone to far - its only like half a mile if that once you get off the beltway). Go to the end of George C. Marshall Dr. and enter the complex; you can park anywhere, no pass required. At this point you either try to sneak in, or call us and we'll come down to let you in. Our number: 703-698-8592. My cell: 703-434-2916.

Anyway, if you're coming, just let me know my posting a comment! Thanks guys and hopefully I'll see you this weekend!

Kitty hat

kittyhat6
Originally uploaded by princesadepoder.

Just finished my fuzzy blue hat with kitty ears, so I had to take a picture with my obliging cat, Gigi. The hat is a Christmas present for my friend, Mary. Hope she doesn't think it's too weird...
And yes, it IS cold enough in Florida to wear hats sometimes. Like right now--it's freezing!

It's too cold here

Hey guys! I'm still in Cambridge finishing up here. Silly Harvard. We have classes until tomorrow (Dec. 21st!) and exams after break. So I'll be home on the 22nd, but back here on Jan. 6th and not finished with this semester until January 14th when I have three final papers due. Man, don't you guys miss school?

It is entirely too cold here. With windchill it's below 0 (try -10 right now). Unacceptable. Too cold. I'm not going to make it until June. Seriously.

I'm happy to be coming back to tropical Northern Virginia soon. Anyone have fun New Year's plans?

Counting down the days...

First, Josh, I chuckle at the irony of the situation, but don't make fun. Some of us have learned to just enjoy the things we like and not worry what other people think (because the constant ridicule has made us insensitive :-P).

I went down to Williamsburg this past weekend to visit MB. Her last final was Friday, and since I got down there so late, we just hung out with a few of her law school friends that night. On Saturday we went to MacArthur Center to do some shopping - busy, but not as crowded as I would have thought. Both of us were more or less done, and just had some 'optional' shopping left, so not being in a rush made it nice. That night we went to the IMAX theater at the something(Hampton?) air and space museum to watch the Polar Express. It was actually in 3D, and I have to say I loved it. I never read the book when I was little, so I don't know how it compares to that, but the movie definitely reminded me of being little again. I could go on and on nostagically, but I'll spare you all the effort of having to scroll past it.

Anyway, Kate, this technologically-savvy comp-sci major is actually not familiar with knitting blogs. However, normal-people type of blogs I am familar with, although I have never done a group blog before. And seriously, a knitting blog?

I don't have many pictures, although I may post one or two later from Chicago, where my current project sometimes takes me. I haven't had to go in a couple of months, which, given the weather there, is okay with me. But I will hopefully be off of this project by mid-January and onto something else - I'll be sure to keep you all posted as to where I end up!

query

Does anyone know Riley's email address? Whoever sends it to me first wins a prize!
Susan and Josh have completely made my day. I was so exhausted when I got home from work (mostly because I stayed out late last night seeing "A Series of Unfortunate Events," drinking beers, and discussing the philosophical implications of the Cosby Show on the modern global society, but that's another story), but reading your notes took away my grumpiness.
Now I'm going to go take a nap because we're getting our Christmas tree tonight! :-)

Hi Kate :)

Good idea, Kate :-D I have a lot of work this weekend, but I'll try to put some homecoming pictures up here at some point :-)
I miss everyone too!!

I miss you!

Here is my Thursday night brain child...a blog where our extended group of friends can all post news, photos, and thoughts for us all to share! I discovered this technology because I have recently become addicted to knitting blogs (yes, I know, I'm a huge nerd.) I'm sure most of you technologically savvy comp-sci majors are already familiar with it, but humor me!
I was thinking our group should include basically those of use who used to attend the Leafe's infamous Happy Hour...kind of a WM class of 04 people-we-were-all-mutually-friends-with type thing. Let me know what you all think.
Please join! Please! It'll be fun, I promise. :-)
warm thoughts from Fla,
Kate