My Christmas shopping is officially finished, with a whole day to spare. Go me! Wrapping presents last night was a whole new adventure with the cat intent on trying to steal my tape, borrow through gift bags, and tear up my tissue paper. If my wrapping this year seems more shoddy than usual, blame Iroh.

I'm extremely sad that I still don't have any new boots yet. They originally arrived last week but unfortunately in a size that was slightly too small -- and I had them for all of twelve glorious hours before I finally relented and returned them and asking to re-order a half size larger. Hopefully the 9's they're sending me will fit perfectly. This is why I don't ever buy clothes or shoes online, I hate purchasing stuff before I have a chance to try them on. :P Boot fail.

With an absence of any of our usual big trips this past year, I took advantage of all of my saved up vacation days and am looking forward to a nice, extended Christmas holiday this season. During this time in between all of much tasty turkey gorging and shameless post stomach-full-of-turkey lounging, I am determined to:

• See Avatar (who wants to go with me? SOMEONE GO WITH ME!)
• Finally go and get my H1N1 shot so as to avoid dying of dreaded piggy flu.
• Play more Guild Wars. My warrior needs some loving.
• Sit back and finally get a chance to do some drawing. ;_; I miss drawing so much, I can't believe I haven't managed to get anything new done in almost a year. I had all of these wonderful intentions to draw a bunch of art pieces as gifts this year for Christmas, but as it is now nearing the end of December that plan has obviously flown out the window. Art fail. :x

OOH OOH OOH and there is a very strong possibility that I may have in my possession a shiny new iPhone by the end of the holidays~ However, this is still sort of teetering on the knifes edge considering the rational and very frugal part of my brain is overcome by guilt about such a frivolous purchase and the thought of a $20+ increase in my monthly phone bill. Inner turmoil, INNER TURMOIL!

Another one of our infamous Alberta winters officially arrived this weekend and has royally kicked our ass. My usual 45 minute transit ride home on Friday evening took an hour and a half, and there were some particularly tense moments each time our bus tried to pull away from a stop with its tires spinning frantically in the curbside snow drifts. I have to admit that one thing I really miss from condo living is waking up after a big snowfall and POOF! the walkway and parking lot had already been cleared by some unseen entity. Shoveling snow sucks. The fact that our driveway is freakishly long compounds on the suckage factor. *Pout pout pout* Where are all the tiny children who are supposed to ring our doorbell and offer to shovel our driveway? What a bunch of slackers.

On the upside from the past week, I finally got my (temporary) engagement ring! I still have to wait a few weeks for my custom-sized one so the one they gave me for now is like two sizes too large, but it has a little sizing bar bit that snugs it up to my finger enough that it doesn't fall off. Either way, it's pretty and sparkly and is something to show to people that says "Look look! I really am engaged, it's not a giant sham!" *Loves her new ring*

I finally sucked it up and ordered a pair of actual winter boots, as my kiss ass little dress boots that I somehow managed to wear all through last winter provide neither traction nor warmth of any kind to speak of. While it was a $100 I wasn't really inclined to spend right now, they're very cute and I'm excited for them to arrive (and I know my toes for one will be eternally grateful.)

Sigh. I can't believe how fast this month is going. December is so busy. It's dawning on me much slower this year that I really need to get a move on a buy some Christmas gifts. :x (0/6 gifts purchased... EEP.) It's going to have to be a very small Christmas gift-wise, what with mounting monthly bills, credit cards with some big purchases on them, and now we're saving for weddings and cruises; all the while with Mason back to school in his final year of school starting in March. *Must save save save save* :x

Ther33e was something else I'm sure I wanted to include in this post, butzzsssssaaaaaaa kitttttttasaaAAAATY HAS chosen thisppppppp mom ent to insist on trying to find a comfortable spot to lay directly upon my keyboarrrrrr55rrffvvvv-- /....... WTF kitty. I am giving up on any more of this,6ti

I just finished watching an amazing documentary on Kevin Richardson, an animal behaviorist for a private reserve in South Africa, and nicknamed "the lion whisperer" by the media for the uncanny ability he has to bond with lions and other wild animals. So good~ It both blows my mind and makes me green with envy the way he's able to interact with these lions and hyenas to the point where he's been completely and fully accepted as one of them.


(More videos on http://www.lionwhisperer.co.za and YouTube; and the aforementioned documentary, "Dangerous Companions", is easily found on Google.)

He reminds me of Timothy Treadwell only way better and smarter, without the apparent crazy vibe and the fact that he, you know... hasn't gotten himself eaten. The interviews and YouTube clips of him are all extremely interesting, and I'd love to get my hands on a copy of his book.

He makes me strongly regret, not for the first time in my life, that I never followed through with my original longing to work with animals. :c I think sometimes that if I could go back to see myself in high school, I'd give myself a firm slap upside the head: "Buck up! Who cares if you're rubbish at science? You could hug a lion some day!" *Whappa whappa whappa!* Stupid fear of science. Stupid fear of giant African bugs. Sometimes I'm just the stupid one. The only possible chance I have now is if I ever get the chance to travel to Africa; or if the fates are extra cruel they'll give me cancer and I will then be in a position to grotesquely take advantage of the Make A Wish Foundation. ("You want what?") In the mean time I shall continue to hug my kitten, who however lacks in considerable size and majesticness *Iroh runs into smack into a wall* makes up for it in 100% pure adorableness.

Iroh fell in the toilet.

Actually, not so much fell as jumped. He has this compulsive habit of running full-throttle into the bathroom and hopping up on the toilet to jump to the counter. Well today he didn't anticipate that the toilet lid wouldn't be down as it always was and from the next room Mason hears *PLORP* *skitter skitter* and a half-breath later the kitten goes streaking back down the hallway leaving a little trail of puddles in his wake.

I have no shame to admit that, oh, how we LAUGHED. Hilarity! He looked like a poor little drowned rat. (Lucky for him the toilet had nothing in it besides toilet water.) I spent the next fifteen minutes trying to get him to hold still while I helped him towel dry off, though like any parent would I made sure to snap a couple of embarrassing photos first.

I'm thinking next time he'll look a little closer before he leaps.

Update: I still love my kitty! X3 Iroh is so adorable. And sweet. And cuddly. And playful. And hilarious. And did I mention that he purrs ALL THE TIME? Seriously, it's non-stop, we call him the little motorboat. The vet couldn't even listen to his heart because he was purring too much, lulz. For the last few days we've been allowing him supervised exploration upstairs on the main floor, and he goes crazy with excitement and starts sticking his nose in everything. Very curious kitty. He seems to have a thing for my vase of fake plants in the living room so I have to continuously spray them down with Bitter Apple, but at least he's mostly staying away from the live plants. Unfortunately we have found that Iroh is becoming increasingly immune to the spray bottle -- he hops up on the table and we give him a spritz and he just sits there. We practically had to soak him the other night before he finally retreated. =_=; Maybe it's time to try the double-sided tape trick.

This weekend Iroh and Toby also met face-to-face for the first time after only glimpsing one another from opposite sides of the fence. Overall, it went reasonably well, if you define "reasonably well" as our 3 pound kitten being totally pwned by our tiny 2 pound bunny. :B OMG Toby's got spunk! Go Toby, go!

I brought Iroh in to the bunny room, holding him in my hands initially, and as soon as he got close Toby let out a cranky little grunt and did a little bunny charge at the cat! Who knew my timid little Netherland Dwarf had it in him -- he was all like "HMPH" and Iroh was like "GAAAH!" and Mason and I just stood there going "LOL LOL LOL LOL". It's a very positive start, and by that I don't mean that I'm a malicious jerk, I mean that it's good that Toby established his dominance right off the bat. The kitten needs a good bunny bop on the nose so he knows that messing with Toby is not allowed, and it worked -- Iroh was instantly more wary of the rabbit, exploring the room but staying far back along the walls or hiding behind my legs. For the most part Toby was very calm and laid back -- he just sort of went on with his own thing as Iroh checked out his room and only got cranky when the kitty came too close. Neither of them were hurt at all except maybe Iroh's pride, but deservedly so. *Kitten mews embarrassingly in protest.* We'll try a couple weeks of daily supervised interaction between the two of them and see how things progress.

(Adorably sweet video of cat-rabbit bonding because I'm an absolute sucker for cute videos like this. One can dream!)

We went out on the weekend and I found my costume for our Halloween Murder Mystery. I like it, except the skirt is *coughcough* a little shorter *coughcough* than was most likely appropriate for the year 1900, but for a steal at only $40 I'm not going to be picky. (I swear the skirt does not seem as short on me as it does in that picture! :x Depending on my comfort level I may or may not need to get some leggings...) But ooh, it's pretty and pink! I bought some gaudy gold necklaces to accessorize it with and will have to find something to do with my hair.

Edit: Okay so it turns out that I fucked up and the above costume is not so much 1900 as it is 1700ish. The girl at the store either lied to me or was as clueless as I was when I asked for something Victorian-esque -- though I guess this serves me right for not doing my own fashion era research beforehand so now I'm going to look stupid. *Sweatdrop*

OHMYGOD I HAVE A KITTY! Meet Iroh~! *Gush gush gush* And like all adorable new animals I have ever ended up bringing into my home, I've been far too busy cuddling him to make a proper blog post until now.

He's adorable, seriously I just love him to bits. He's a 2-month old domestic short hair (no idea what exact mix of breeds he is, but he's ginger so that can only mean he's MADE OF AWESOME.) I went down on Friday, accompanied by marvelous sister, to browse through the adoptable kittens at the shelter. Coincidentally, Iroh was actually the first kitten I brought out to play with simply because he was first line in the first kennel room -- and after three more rooms filled with adorable kitten fluff (SO MANY CUTE KITTIES!), I knew this first little guy I held was the one for me~

Iroh settled in to our house really quick -- he wasn't timid at all when I brought him home and wanted to play and eat, and right away he was using his litterbox which was a huge relief. We started off with him in a kitty "safe area" penned off in our basement -- but after the first night found out he could easily climb out of it so we ended up just letting him wander freely around the basement. ^^; Every day or so we're going to let him explore a new part of the house (the computer room is next once I finish cat-proofing it.)

He's so sweet -- both very playful and other times extremely cuddly. He's not especially talkative except I found when he wants to complain about something (the kitty WAS NOT impressed with the car ride home, his poor pathetic little mews from his box in the backseat were like "LET ME OOOOOOUT~") He'll play with practically anything (including your hands if you're not careful, tsk) and then once he wears himself out is content to snuggle up on your chest and fall asleep. The biggest issue we're having so far is trying to keep him off things like the table; we tried laying tin foil out across the surface but he's apparently not a cat that cares about foil at all. We've resorted to the spray bottle for the time being and it's working a bit -- he definitely seems more hesitant to wander on the table top because each time he does his backside mysteriously gets wet. Hee hee hee.

We're so much more cat people than dog people. Even Mason, who was not really impressed at the idea of a cat in the house, is really warming to little Iroh. Last night when were watching Transformers 2 the kitten nestled himself on Mason's legs and had a long nap~ He also likes it when Iroh rides around on his shoulder like a parrot. It's hard not to be suckered in by this adorable little ball of kitten-shaped fur. :3

My biggest stress right now is trying to get Iroh in for a vaccine he needs on Tuesday. According the SPCA, he has to get the shot on the 13th, and I've been completely buggered in trying to get a hold of any vet clinic in North Edmonton or St. Albert that is open/has room to take him on Tuesday. D: Everyone is bloody closed for the long weekend and the only chance I have is to make some phone calls around right on Tuesday morning to try to find a place that can fit him in short notice. I don't know why the Humane Society can't just give him the vaccine like they would have had to do anyway, I'd pay for it and everything. Someone please see my kitty on Tuesday! :x *Fret fret fret*

I love him so much~ *More cuddles*