LostWoods Blog

Sigh… Still working with Tech Support to get my website and all the others we host on our account fixed. Now they’ve told me that the FrontPage extensions are corrupted, so I have to delete them from ALL the sites and reinstall them. Of course, it can up to three hours to deactivate, plus another three hours to activate. Then I get to test it. At the moment, I’m waiting for everything to deactivate, with hopes of activating them again later this morning. Then by the time I got home from work I’ll be able to try logging in and getting everything back to normal.

I decided to run for Breeder Division Secretary for NFCFA (Norwegian Forest Cat Fanciers Association) after hearing from a several people that I should throw my hat in the ring. I suppose it’s the right thing to do, since I often have opinions about how things should be. I ought to be doing some work instead of just telling people what I think.

Speaking of NFCFA… you don’t have to be a breeder to be a member. We have a membership class just for people who have or just love NFCs. Dues are $10 per year and include access to our online newletter, The Skogkatt. Dues go mostly toward association expenses, but we’ve also had a few fundraisers in recent years that have enabled us to donate thousands of dollars to feline health research. We’re always looking to improve and as owners/fanciers of our beloved wegies your opinion is valued, too.  Check out the website at: www.forestcats.net. I did try to look at the membership application and see that the link is broken (notice a trend here… no, I’m sure it’s not related!) so I will send a note to our webmistress about it.

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you are all having a peaceful, joyous, and loving day. Here at LostWoods the day has been spent cooking, eating, and relaxing with Ken’s parents. Later this evening some of Ken’s cousins and their families are coming over for dessert, games, and conversation. Jeremy is here with us this year. He was supposed to be with his mom, but her plans changed so we’re thrilled to have him for the holiday again. My two kids and my adorable grandson are in Kansas City with their dad, but I talked to them this morning to wish them a merry Christmas. When I’m done writing here, I’m going to give my parents a call as well.

In between dinner preps, I found a few minutes to take 10 week pictures of Rand and Avi. They posed very nicely in front of the Christmas tree. They even consented to pose for a few pictures together. You can see their latest photos on their page on the website.

Basia was threatened several times today with being sent back to Texas, as she thought she should be in the middle of everything that was going on. Her Ken-dad finally sent her to jail (the cat room — with the door closed) because she was a little too much help. The other cats were pesky as well, but Basia takes the prize for getting into the most trouble.

Again, Happy Christmas!

As promised… some pictures of my Christmas village, plus some pictures of Polgara pillaging the village.

First of all, an explanation. My Christmas village is a collection of porcelain buildings, people, and various accessories with a Christmas theme. Mine was made by the Lefton company and is no longer produced, although I sometimes buy more pieces on EBay to add to it. There are a lot of them in the series that I don’t have! But then, I don’t have room right now to really add many anyway. Christmas villages have become a popular part of Christmas decor — I think more so in the last five years or so. You can buy village collections at Michaels, gift shops, and yes, even Wal-Mart. Some people display their villages year round. I don’t, so every year it’s almost new again when I unpack it and arrange it. Here’s what it looks like when it’s undisturbed by Catzilla.

The first photo is of the entire village as I have it displayed this year. The second and third pictures are closer shots each of half of the village.

Now for Polgara… First picture is of her strolling down the upper street of the village.

 Now a picture of her looking at the toppled villagers like, “Huh. Wonder how come they’re lying on the backs?”

Since I’m on a picture mission here tonight, here is a picture of Basia in the Christmas tree from the other morning.

Okay, enough with the pictures. I realized this morning that I’ve been forgetting to post my DCSoD the last few times I’ve written. So today’s is Tree’s On Fire by Cledus T Judd: http://www.stlyrics.com/songs/c/cledustjudd848/treesonfire40337.html 

Enjoy!

I’ll start today with the Dysfunctional Christmas Song of the Day: Santa by Robert Lund. Check it out at: http://www.spaff.com/lund/santa.html

Each day I’ve been sharing a song that was new to me and made me laugh with my kids and you might all enjoy it, too. So there you go!

Basia has a new game. She plays fetch! Last night I was playing with the cats using a teaser with a piece of mink and a bell on it. After awhile I threw the teaser from the living room into the kitchen. Basia went on a tear to the kitchen, grabbed it in her mouth and ran back to the living room with it. She put it on the floor in front of me, so I picked it up, played for another minute, then threw it again. And again she brought it back. One time Polgara swatted it out of Basia’s mouth as she ran by. Basia stopped, picked the teaser back up, and brought it back. What fun!

Basia isn’t the only one at our house that plays fetch, though. Dilan, aka Spaz, also plays fetch. He’s particular about what he’ll play fetch with, though. He started out with rattle mice (furry mice toys that rattle when you shake them) but they got boring. He then switched to the challenge of carrying teasers back. But only teasers with fur of some kind meet his exacting specifications — and preferably with a bell on them. The one Basia was playing with last night is one of his favorites.

Rand and Aviendha story (short)… I’ve been carrying them downstairs each morning. This morning I took them as far as the stairs and set them down. I started down, calling them to come along. They darted past me — almost tumbling down in their eagerness — and beat me to the bottom where Rand pounced on Avi. Avi took off around the corner and then next thing I knew, they were already all the way to the cat room. They must be enjoying their trips downstairs.

Not! Forgive me a brief moment of whining before I tell you about Rand and Avi’s latest antics.

It’s snowing again today. That’s okay. Even good. I like snow. But the snow covers up the ice in the driveway, so when I walked out of the garage to help Jeremy push the garbage out to the street, I slipped on some ice I didn’t see and fell. I got up and we pushed/pulled the dumpster across the driveway. Jeremy ran over my foot with it, then — as I was tugging on the front to get it over the snow at the edge of the street — he shoved it into my head. Ow! Then I fell on the ice again as I was walking back to the garage to get into my car. I thought maybe this was a sign I should not leave the house today. But here I am — sitting at my desk listening to Special Christmas and writing in my blog.

I’d much rather be home with the cats. I’ve been taking Rand and Aviendha downstairs in the mornings. The first few days I put the baby gate up so they had to stay in the cat room, but they are being so good about using the litter box that I’ve been letting them have run of the house. They are having a blast exploring new territory and Talia is getting used to them being downstairs. Their favorite spots seem to be in the play cubes in the cat room and out in the living room. They climb everything in sight, although the big cat tree is still a bit too much of a challenge.

And when they get tired, they’ve found the big blue fluffy bed and, like many kittens before them, think it is a fine place for a nap. Auntie Brenda, all the kittens say, “Thank you for the fluffy bed! We love it!”

Last night Talia did talk them into going back upstairs with her — I suppose she thought they’d had enough adventures for one day. Both of them followed her all the way up the stairs. They did have to stop for sustenance once they made the top — I came across them nursing right at the top of the stairs. They eventually made their way into our bedroom where they played and slept and ran around. I woke up this morning to Basia snuggled up to my neck while Zeke, Rand, and Avi were sleeping by my legs. Rand and Avi had left at some point in the night because they were in a different place than when I fell asleep. It’s good that they are learning to sleep on the bed with us. I like bed cats — even when it sometimes seems like there’s no place for us humans!

For those who are wondering if I’m ever going to post the new ForestKatz Angels’ pictures on their site, I did that last night. Oh, there’s a new picture of Basia on the LostWoods Cats page, too.

I love Christmas. I do. In addition to celebrating the birth of my Lord and Savior, I like nearly everything about the holiday. I like decorating. I like driving around seeing the lights. About the only thing I don’t like is the crowds when I’m shopping, but I like to shop for just the right present for the people I love. I like having the traditional Christmas dinner with my loved ones all around me (even better when it’s at our house, even if I do have to cook and clean.) I like watching little kids with their eyes huge as they tear into their gifts. I like the music of the holidays. I like traditional carols. I like more modern songs. I like the Messiah.

But as much as I enjoy the season, sometimes my offbeat sense of humor takes over and I really, really want to listen to something other than songs about peace, joy, and love. Luckily for me, XM Satellite Radio has just the channel for me – Special Christmas 107. I was going to copy the description of the channel into here (because the even the description is funny), but the site is blocked here at work.  However, the bottom line is that it is dysfunctional holiday music. Grandma Got Runover By a Reindeer, I’m Gettin’ Nuttin’ For Christmas, I Found the Brains of Santa Claus, I Came Upon a Roadkill Deer… Ken and I swapped my Sirius radio for his XM so I can listen to it at work. What better way to make the day go by more quickly than laughing. And laugh, I do. Often. Out loud.

So now you know… I’m warped.

Speaking of warped… I need to talk a little “Smack”. I don’t think I posted the story of why McCoy’s registered name is Norlights C McCoy of LostWoods. McCoy is one of the Norlights “M” litter. (A lot of breeders use letters of the alphabet to name their litters.) Anyway, I don’t much like the name McCoy — I said it reminded me of a redneck because of the Hatfields and McCoys. (Very sorry if that offends anyone. I’m just talking about the stereotype seen in old movies.) Brenda does like it. I tried to convince her we should change his name. She tried to convince me that it could have other connotations. One day I made a joke about Corduroy McCoy, the Redneck Cowboy. She thought it was funny, but adding Corduroy to his name made it too long to register so we just put “C” there. I occasionally refer to him as C Mac — which runs together in my head as “Smack”. I told Brenda. Unfortunately for McCoy, she thinks it’s funny and now our poor boy gets referred to as Smack quite often. So if I talk about Smack here, you’ll now know who I’m talking about.

Brenda gets mad at me because the cats have perfectly good names, but over time they tend to get not so pretty nicknames. Partly it’s Ken’s fault. He always renames the cats. Sometimes I slip and call them by his names. Sometimes I don’t. But some names are just more appropriate than others. Case in point is our little Basia. I named Basia when she was only a day or so old and I fell in love with her. Her name means “daughter of God” and goes with my other females’ Hebrew names (Kali is the exception.) But Ken calls her Buzz because she’s always in motion. It fits. And so I find myself calling her “Baby Buzz”. I think she might be stuck with it. So someday, Smack and Buzz will have babies of their own… LOL! Sorry, Brenda!

Decorating. That’s pretty much all I’ve done this weekend. Jim and Donna (ForestKatz) did send me pictures of the Angels so tomorrow I’ll get their site updated with those. Sorry to be such a slacker, guys! My cold is lingering on making being focused and efficient a real challenge. All I really want to do is go back to bed. Hopefully tomorrow will be a better day. I have the day off from work, so I’m planning website work, shopping, and finishing up the decorating. A couple pictures of the two Christmas trees as they look now. I may post other pictures of things like the Christmas village once they are done if anyone is interested.

Happy Decorating Day! That’s what the day after Thanksgiving is for me rather than the ultimate shopping day of the year. Ugh! Just the thought of dealing with the crowds of frantic shoppers makes me tired and stressed. From now until Christmas I’ll do my best to avoid the mall and Walmart on the weekends, while trying to do all my shopping at lunch or weekday evenings.

Instead, I’m at work for a little bit to make sure nothing really needs my attention since we have a very small staff in today. Then I’m going home to cough on the cats some more — and get started on my Christmas decorating. Most years I take the day after T-Day off so I can decorate all day. I LOVE decorating for Christmas and do a lot — it takes me about three to four days to get everything mostly done and that doesn’t include the outdoor lights. I try to make Ken do that with Jeremy’s help, but somehow I always get sucked into it, too. This year we have two trees and I’m excited about getting to decorate even more. I’m hoping to buy a third tree on sale closer to Christmas (or after) this year. Then I’ll have one in the living room, the dining room, and the front hall. I have a small tree for my office at work. And I have an ornament tree for the hippo room (a spare bedroom that is home to my hundreds of hippo collectibles and stuff) that I use to display my hippo Christmas ornaments. Maybe I’ll post some pictures of things once everything is up this year.

Now for Basia’s snow pictures… since that is the title of this post.

My little Southern Belle was not exactly thrilled with the experience and was very happy to go back inside, curl up on a fleece blanket by Ken-dad and take a nap. I think she might have been muttering about going back to Texas where it was warm.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! I hope this day finds you blessed with many things for which to give thanks - family, friends, comfortable homes, good food and, of course, a cat or two or three…

We are spending the afternoon at some friends’ home. Harry is Ken’s ex-wife’s father; Donna is his wife. While it may seem odd that we are spending the holiday with Ken’s ex in-laws, Harry and Donna are good people and we are very happy to have them so close by so Jeremy can spend a lot of time with them. Ken’s parents are also going to dinner there with us. They stayed last night at our house and will be staying again tonight before heading back home on Friday. They are also fairly close by — about 90 miles is all. As for my family, I’ll have to content myself with making some phone calls.

Jeremy came down with a cold about a week ago and generously shared it with me a couple days back. I’m still getting worse — I figure I have another day or so before I begin to get better. My co-workers sent me home on Tuesday even though I wasn’t feeling all that bad. They didn’t want me coughing on them, so I came home, cleaned house, and coughed on the cats. It was kinda nice having an extra day off to get ready for visitors, but I sure could do without all the coughing and sniffling I have now. Sigh…

I did get some pictures of Basia getting her first taste of snow. Tomorrow — anticipating a very quiet day at work — I’ll post them here. If you are on the Wegies or the NFO-Photos lists you’ve already seen them. She wasn’t exactly thrilled with the cold. LOL!

I don’t want to be too unsocial, so I need to close for today. Again, happy Thanksgiving!

Sad news… Brenda’s mom lost her fight with lung cancer yesterday afternoon. She’d been on life support since Tuesday night and Brenda and her dad made the difficult decision to let her go yesterday. Brenda and her mom were extremely close — as much friends as mother-daughter. Brenda also lost her only sibling — her brother David — earlier this year and her dad was just diagnosed with lung cancer a couple weeks ago. It’s been a hard year, with more tough times on the horizon. Thank you for keeping her in your prayers.

The Meriwether Fire is now the nation’s top priority fire. It continues to grow and behave in unusual ways. Yes, fire has patterns of behavior, but this one seems intent on defying the usual expectations. Three other Montana fires, along with the Meriwether Fire make up the top four priority fires in the West right now. The Helena valley is so smoky we can hardly see the mountains around us and the health department has issued an air quality alert, saying the air was “unhealthy for all groups” yesterday afternoon. It smells like we’re around a campfire all the time. Our weather is slightly cooler after the hottest July on record in Helena, but rain and a real cool down are nothing we’re expecting any time soon. So our fires will be here for awhile, I’m afraid.

I’m trying to think of something funny or cheerful to write this morning, but I’m coming up short. Might be sleep deprivation. I got woken up four times last night — about every two hours — for problems at work. So I think I’ll close now before I think of any other gloomy things to write about.

Oh, Polgara’s eye is still improving, although still not completely better. But her third eye lid was down all the way earlier this morning. Progress.