So very very happy to be home!

After getting home and spending an evening with some of the family (I love getting tackle hugs from Mack), on Thursday morning my dad and I went and bought the most beautiful Christmas tree - perfect shape, and perfect branch-density.

I decorated it all day. I had to start over three times, because I underestimated the amount of lights we needed, so I ended up having to string together four different kinds of lights. And I was trying to mix them up so that our tree didn't have four distinct sections of light.

This is probably our biggest tree ever. And for the first time ever, our tree is downstairs in the rec-room instead of upstairs in the living room. Happily, we need more room for present-opening and family gathering, because our family keeps growing! This tree is, like, 7 feet tall.

The only person that helped me decorate it was Mack, who helped me through encouragement ("You're doing a good job, Aunt Bess," from a 2.5 year-old lifts your spirits like you wouldn't believe), and by telling me which Christmas light colors were his favorite (green and red).

I took a break from the tree when Mack came up to me with one of our tree clippings. "I have my own tree, Aunt Bess." Well, we had to decorate his tree. Then we put it on the mantle with our other Christmas decorations. Beautiful!

Also, my mom (of the storied Boob Cookies) made another Christmas Cookie Memory, she accidentally put two mouse cookies too close together on the baking pan. This is the cookie, post-decorating:

I. Died. So funny.

Favorite things that I have done since being home:

1. Having jump contests with brother Nate, and Mack. Mack always wins.

2. Wrapping Christmas gifts (I love wrapping, and my mom hates it, so I wrap everyone's gifts except the ones for me).

3. Petting Toastie, my parent's cat, and listening to him purr.

4. Laughing at Toastie when he looks disgruntled.

5. Getting tackled by Mack.

6. Watching Mack help Uncle Rick move tree clippings in the yard. He even throws them on the pile just like Uncle Rick, while wearing his little red-checked lumberjack coat and his dad's stocking cap.

7. Shopping with Mom.

8. Practicing knitting, and seeing Paris enjoy my work (as tug-of-war toys).

9. Lighting a fire log in the fireplace.

10. Seeing my family and friends, who I have missed SO MUCH!

Ten hours. UGH.

I am FINALLY home in Seattle, but boy was it a trial getting here.

1. Four pieces of luggage, two dog carriers, two carry-ons, and public transportation. We did surprisingly well, but we were both sore the day after. Stupid heavy bags....

2. 10 hours on an airplane. Honestly, I am really impressed that the pups held it for 11 hours. We had them eat and drink a little that morning, but then didn't really give them stuff on the flight.

3. Eight screaming children on the plane. Is it legal to give kids Xanax? I wish.... and that I'd had some to give the kids. Except this one kid, who I would have liked to give a betch slap so she would stop screaming and throwing tantrums and throwing things into our laps.

Wow, it was a LOOOOONG flight.

How bad?

Well, it was worse than coming back from Puerta Vallarta with E-coli and a little kid SCREAMING in the seat in front of us the ENTIRE TIME.

Heck yes. I'll take E-coli over our most recent flight. At least that can be treated (legally).

Fish Sex

Today we almost flushed Chewyfish down the toilet.

He was chasing The Brain (now known as "Brazen Hussy" - you'll soon find out why) around the fish tank, biting her, pushing her into the plants...

Chewyfish is normally the boss of the tank, but this was extreme and I was afraid The Brain would stress-overload and die. Rick even reached in the tank and slapped Chewyfish and Pinky (who joined in the chase and pushing) a couple times! LOL.

Sidenote: Who SLAPS a fish???? Well, it's better than the fish that he had in college. It ate or bullied all of his other fish, so he took Jerk Fish out, killed and cleaned him, and fried him up and ate him.

Rick offered to do the flushing but I felt bad - maybe he had fish-rabies, or something like that that could be cured... So I consulted Google.

FISH SEX.

THAT's what they were up to.

Here I thought The Brain was this poor, innocent victim. I came to realize that she had been putting out her siren-call of pheromones for a while, getting the guys all horny and signaling their bodies to make fish man-juice.

So we didn't flush Chewyfish or Pinky, and that trollop swam around and popped out her little eggies, the boys following close behind. She knew exactly what she was doing, the hussy. I'm really glad we didn't flush her baby-daddies.

I removed the plants in our tank that had eggs on them (goldies lay sticky eggs) and put them in a big vase of water that I took directly from the aquarium, and now the hubs is at Petco getting baby fish food and a fry net-basket. I took out about half of the plant for not very many eggs, but here's hoping we get a few babies. I'll be a fish-grandma!

My black moor with telescopey eyes is obviously a female (now that I know what to look for), so maybe she'll get in the action soon. I'm going to try and get her to make babies with Pinky, my other mature male.

Black Moor, the Future Trollop

Black Moor's Baby Daddy? To be continued...

Chair Reno

New cushion and cover, leftovers from other projects.

Antique folding chair- $10.

Woo!

Now I Can Start Ignoring New England Sports Teams....

...because I am officially a New Englander.

Why? Because this is now my idea of a "cute" winter coat:

Fall weather here in New England is Seattle winter weather. Yikes. I am really going to appreciate this coat. Waterproof, down on the inside, and a super-warm hood to boot.

Amber Eyes

Okay, I just saw the most beautiful eyes on the subway today. This girl's eyes were the palest gold color. Rick thinks they were contacts, but I am convinced they were real - there weren't even dark edges on her irises! And I was only one person away from her.

Sigh. I wish I had something besides brown eyes. Boo!

Fish Stuff

Wow, it's been a while. Lots of in-town guests lately. Okay, only three, but that is a lot in a house with only one bathroom and in a city which not many of my friends or family have visited.

Well, we got three new fish and many new plants for my aquarium today! I present to you:

The all-white fish, who also looks pink-ish... Rosie?

Okay, I'm not sure what the new fish names are, except for....

Big-Head Keith.

He seems to have a large-ish head. He is a gold-coppery colored fancy.

This is Little Guy, currently. I might change it.

I know that the current names stink, except for Big-Head Keith. That is clearly The Most Awesome of Names. The tank is still in the midst of a snazzy-town renovation. Hopefully I will have the time and energy to get that finished very soon. But for now, here are the before-and-after plants pictures:

Note the lone plant.

Sad. I've been pestering my hubs to let me get more artificial plants. But after looking at the rest of the fake plants, I thought I'd take a chance on live ones.

Plants!!!!

These plants don't require me to water them (since they are immersed in water), so they might live longer than my average house plant. Supposedly, the fish will eat them. They probably will. I might have to start an aqua-nursery tank to let the plants grow a bit without being eaten.

I apologize for the horrible picture quality. I left my camera back in Seattle, and my parents forgot to bring it here to Boston this past week when they visited. Rats!

Alright, I know this is supposed to be about pretty things. Wait until you see my latest fashion finds. :-)