Sick

I had planned to get a lot of Christmas stuff done over the weekend, but on Friday I felt like I was getting sick, and it really hit me when I got home Friday night. Not flu or anything, just a bad cold that settled in my chest and caused a lot of coughing. Coughing like that is exhausting! So I really didn't want to do much. I ended up going out to my parents' house, though. My mother's birthday was on Saturday. I had talked to my dad and said that I didn't think I would come out, just because I didn't want to risk getting them sick, but he sounded so disappointed that I said I would come anyway.

I was trying to be really careful, but of course, while I was out there the phone rang -- it was my niece -- I picked it up and talked for a minute, then handed it to my mom. As soon as I did, I thought, damn it! My sister said, "Quick, get an antiseptic wipe!" She got one, and when Mom got off the phone, I wiped it off, then she said, "Quick, wipe off mom!" Which I didn't, of course, but it made me laugh.

Bob is off this weekend, so we're going to put up the tree at home and have our little traditional "feast" -- he asked for boiled spiced shrimp and cheese fondue, and I'll get French bread and roast beef and olives and maybe sparkling wine. We'll put on a Christmas movie, maybe White Christmas, and decorate the tree.

I think we'll use the artificial tree this year. We've gone back and forth; we always used to have a real tree, but it's always a worry because we keep them quite a while, and I worry about it drying out. We've been through a couple of artificial ones; the first one Dinah climbed, and sat in, and bent the branches. Unlike a real tree, artificial ones aren't meant to support a ten pound animal. The artificial tree we have now is kind of small, but it's not bad. It fits just fine in our small living room. And I'm just now remembering that last year Dinah peed on the pretty Christmas tree skirt for some reason, so I had to use a fleece blanket instead. So I suppose I'll do that again this year. I would hate to spend money on another one, and have her do it again. It was felt, so there was no saving it.

Further to Dinah's Attachment to Bob

Yesterday I wrote about Dinah wanting to be near Bob lately, and last night I looked over and she was lying on his pillow, right next to his head. I was sitting up in bed reading, so I grabbed the phone and took a picture. Having her want to be close to him is still unusual enough that it makes us marvel at it. It's a good thing he loves cats, and that he isn't allergic to them!

Pyewacket always slept under the covers with her head on Bob's pillow, which was the cutest thing ever, but this is new behavior for Dinah. Bob said the other day that maybe she's getting senile in her old age. But I think she knows what she's doing. She's just decided, after all this time, that he's okay after all.

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I think I'm getting sick. I woke up with a sore throat, which is always the precursor for me. I was going to go out and see my folks this weekend -- my mother's birthday is Saturday -- but I'm thinking I probably shouldn't. I wouldn't want to get them sick. I guess I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I should probably go to the drugstore on the way home and buy zinc or vitamin C or something . . .

I have never gotten a flu shot, but I was thinking this morning that maybe I should, now that I'm over 60!

Sleepy Dinah

For the longest time, Dinah wouldn't have anything to do with Bob. When Pyewacket was alive, of course, Pye was his cat, and Dinah was mine, and while Pye would cuddle with me as second best (except for that period of time when she was trying to kill me), Dinah didn't seem to like Bob at all.

That has slowly changed. Maybe for the last year or so, she's started sleeping in the middle of the bed, between Bob and me, rather than on the outside by me. And in the last month she's started sleeping on his side. And she wants to take naps with him. He said yesterday he was home in the afternoon, and she was walking around on the bed, hissing at him because he wasn't moving fast enough to lie down with her. The hissing thing used to bother him, but now it seems like that's her default "I'm not happy" response rather than something aggressive.

When I say, "Dinah really loves you now," he said, "just in bed," and that does seem to mostly be the case. She loves it when I come home from work and come upstairs to change my clothes. We have "cuddle time," and the three of us lie down on the bed. She can't decide where to lie, though. She'll start out lying on top of me, then go over and lie on Bob, then in the middle, touching both of us. She has also started going under the covers, like Pye used to.

She's mellowed a lot in her old age. As have we all, I suppose.

It's all worth it

This morning, Bob said to me, "I'm feeling Christmassy."

He always used to love Christmas, all the traditions and things that surround it, but the last few years, working retail, he didn't feel that way so much. It became something to get through rather than something to enjoy, and that made me sad. So I've been trying very hard to make the house Christmassy, and it is apparently working.

I asked him, "how come?" and he said, "you've been baking, and burning candles, and you bought candy, and decorated, it makes me happy." And that makes it all worthwhile.

The last nice day

Today was a beautiful day. I went out and sat on the bench outside the office for a few minutes after lunch and it felt like spring. Unfortunately, I understand it's going to be like -11 tomorrow and for the foreseeable future, but at least it was beautiful today!

In my effort to do something every day to move the Christmas plans along, I got out a box of craft stuff that I had started a couple of years ago, I think. I had bought some wonderful snowman paper at Archivers, and glued it to tags, but for whatever reason, had never done anything with them. So I made a few more, and started thinking about what I would need to do to make them be usable as gift tags. I haven't totally figured it out yet, and I need to get another glue runner and look for ribbon, but at least it felt like I did something.

I also downloaded what I think is a very cool iPhone app called Visionary I-Ching. It's free to download, and I think you can see half a dozen cards or something, and then if you like it, you pay $6.99 for full access. That's kind of a lot for an app, but it's beautiful, and I think it's definitely worth it.