Christmas Pictures

This post would be better called "The All-Daniel All the Time Hour" because pretty much every picture I took was either of Daniel, food, or a combination of both Daniel and food. It's obvious where my priorities lie.

Mr. Rogers in the 'hood! He was one of the first things we saw right after we got into Pittsburgh.










This was the gift to Ma and Pa before I put the color in. It looks kind of bedraggled here (and probably still does) but it should look nice once framed honest!









Christmas Eve service. They served Communion and it went far too long.







Oh, the tree looked very nice, as did the many presents underneath.











Our very own Bear Grylls got some nice socks!























What a tricky she-devil. Daniel never even saw her coming.








Dad had an Emeril audience watching as he prepared the oysters. Or mussels. Or clams. Something on a half shell.
















But Alaina, why didn't you have one? Two reasons. First, I was stuffed to the gills.







Here's the second reason. I can't get over it.








This is partly why I was stuffed to the gills.








Seems like we saw Daniel and the mini cheesecakes together quite often during our vacation home.










Lasagna is the best thing ever, no question, and the breakfast sausage made it even better. What's next - a layer of bacon in the middle?















You know, I don't even like shrimp yet I eat them by the boatful whenever I get a chance. It's a sickness.







Delicious church punch, as usual, and I especially enjoyed the new beverage dispenser.










Every time I think of it, I cajole Daniel by saying "JOWL for me, JOWL for me my pet!". He can't do it long since it gives him a headache but the resulting joy for me must be worth it.
























Duel jowling!








Two jowls are better than one!









And when that gets old, there's always FACES!












































Daniel got really drunk. Just kidding. It's a bad picture.











Happy holidays, from Daniel.








And me too!








We played this dice game called Left, Right, or Center. It only lasted one round after my family realized "hey... Alaina's not going to give back our money" (that's the POINT of playing with MONEY, is that you don't give it back!).

Hee! Mom looks like she has an Amy Winehouse beehive thanks to the background wreath.








Model pose!








So gaunt, so hot...








He looks like the Mad Money Hatter




















We ended up playing some not-quite-Cranium board game and Daniel had to be Grandma's pet. I graciously lent him out for a few minutes.















Arienne was so tipsy she almost fell out of her chair.


























For more wacky Arienne-and-Daniel holiday fun, check out their video.

Christmas Pictures...NOT YET

I have a ton of Christmasy fun pictures to put up but before that... some cat! Because I don't take enough pictures of him.

Levi loves the bathtub (and being in the bathroom in general) but really freaks out when anyone turns the shower on.














This is his crack blanket. We have no idea why he likes it so much but as soon as he sees it he jumps up all on you and immediately rolls all over it.




He hasn't gotten typhoid or anything from the street perch yet.











Feets!


























Ew. Maybe too much of a close-up.








He likes to decide sometimes that you shall not get work done.







Not a chance.

Devil Cat

Since I only whetted your appetite for cat yesterday, here are some additional pictures of Heather and Paul's cat Spike, in an embarrassing hat.





















It stayed on for like a microsecond. It was a cruel god indeed that made cats hate costumes.






Yay, Heather is a pregnant Miss Congeniality. Look at those cupcake umbrellas in the background. They were delicious.





Mark and I had a mystery bowling shop awhile ago and in the second game I almost beat him. True story.

Cat!

Well, I think my old camera has finally given up the ghost. There's this weird purple haze over the viewscreen and the battery monitor is wonky. But it lived a good life and got to travel, so RIP Canon olde timey Powershot.

I've been borrowing Daniel's sporadically and I took it over to Mark's last night to get quality pictures of the world's most lovable and least photogenic cat ever. Behold:

Those eyes! The devil's eyes!













































































But of course he could be cute and wonderful.








As are we, of course.

















He just won't let Fishie go!




















Heh, Levi is learning to read.




















Here it looks like he is beginning a terrifying slide into obesity.









I love his face in these two pictures.





























Hee!

Egg Tricks and Halloween

Omigod kitty pictures! Yay for cats!

So Daniel and I were walking to the Upper East Side when I spotted a kitty tree in the trash on the corner of 107 and Amsterdam. Just out in the trash! At first I was like, "it probably has rabies" but then I realized that those kitty trees are like a hundred fifty bucks and maybe I should inspect this a bit more closely. It looked okay, just a bit furry. We dragged it up to Mark's room and closed the door so the cat wouldn't catch anything and after Mark came home later he de-furred it.

What did the student cat ask for after he had FIV? A de-furral.

Anyways, Levi loves this tree. He spends all of his time there now in the top perchy bed and looks out the window for those pigeons.





I love it when his legs and tail hang down from the middle hole.







And man oh man, he still loves Fishie. He broke Fishie about a month ago so there's no plastic wand anymore, but he'll carry it up to the top level in his mouth and then let it dangle for awhile. Now it's even easier to run after so Fishie has earned a permanent spot in the toy rotation.


Hee!








And was I surprised the other day to walk past St. John's Cathedral and see a white peacock just strutting about. A peacock! On church grounds! Wow!




Tal and her boyfriend Alex came up from Philadelphia for a rainy Halloween, but that didn't stop us from risking life and limb to get to the top of my friend's apartment building and watching the soggy parade.

Tal was a cowgirl, Alex was Zorro, and Mark kept getting asked if he was a zombie investment banker. He wasn't. Just a zombie.



And I was the Hamburglar! You wouldn't believe how many people have not heard of it.







In front of McDonald's, of course.








I found this science experiment in a book and realized I haven't done enough vinegar-based tricks. So I put an egg in a cup of vinegar and waited a day.




Goodbye shell! This is what's left.








Eggy eclipse.

Charlotte NC Visit

So I'm here in the lovely town of Charlotte, which is startlingly clean and aseptic. The American Association of School Librarians is jam packed with ladies who look exactly like school librarians. I met this lady at the Days Inn this morning and she and I wandered around the conference center until we saw EBSCO doing a presentation that included a free lunch, in which we gleefully partook. Salad! Breadsticks! Vegetable lasagna! Green beans! Carrot cake! Tea! Water! Coffee! Wow!

I'm stuffed now, and waiting for the opening session at 3:30 featuring the infamous danah boyd (of Brooklyn, I believe). The exhibit hall opens right afterwards and my goodness, I had no idea that librarians were so bloodthirsty for all that cheap swag. People brought like three suitcases to cart it all home.

I had an embarrassment at work on Halloween. I was so nervous about it raining (which it did) that I kept checking to see whether or not the customers had umbrellas out. One man stepped up to my counter soaked right through his shirt. "Oh no!" I said, "Did it start raining outside?". "No..." he said. That's when I realized that he was just really, really sweaty. Ew!

Daniel and I were about to head out on a walk the other night when we saw a huge cat tree just discarded out on 107 and Amsterdam. Knowing full well how expensive those can be, we lugged it over to Mark's apartment and set it up in the bedroom so that Mark could de-fur it when he got home. He reports that Levi is both excited about having a perch and very interested in smelling the old cat.