Merry Christmas!

The Perfect Snowflake

I had the smallest and neatest experience Friday. It was snowing (for the third time this month!) and I stuck my head out the door to see if it was sticking (it wasn't). I noticed that there seemed to be a nice variation of snowflake sizes, and they were falling at a nice pace right outside the door. So, I decided to stick my hand out to see if I could catch a snowflake (I didn't have my jacket on). Well, just sticking my hand out didn't quite do it, so I stuck my whole arm out. And caught a couple of snowflakes in my hand right away! And they as quickly melted. But it was chilly, so I brought my arm back inside. And noticed a few snowflakes on my black sleeve. And did a double-take, because one of them seemed to have more substance than the others. I took a closer look and it looked like someone had tossed a cake decoration star at me. It was a perfect star with a perfect circle cut out of the middle. I really didn't believe that it was a snowflake. It looked fake. It had substance. It was too perfect. Snowflakes are just random flops of frozen fluff to the eye. It just had to be fake. But then what the heck was it? So, I carefully scooped it up with my fingernail and put it on my finger to take a closer look. It was almost 2 millimeters across. It was equally thick all the way through. It was compressed. It almost felt like ice, but it wasn't quite that dense. It was definitely snow. It looked like someone had taken a log of stars, cut off a slice and tossed it out the window at me. And then it melted.

I'd never seen an actual shaped snowflake before. It was just amazing. I stood there and gaped for a while after. It was just too cool. So to speak. I wish I could have taken a picture of it. I think I'm going to be looking at snow a little more closely from now on.

Signed truck

I'm just hoping it doesn't mean something Satanic or curseworthy or anything. I just thought it looked cool. And hey, we were in traffic.

It's on fire!

How ironic.

My Beloved Izzy

As many of you know, I lost Izzy a few months after I lost Howie. That sucked. Izzy missed Howie. He took to sleeping on the mat by the front door which had always been Howie's spot. It was as though he was waiting for Howie to come back through the door. Izzy passed away on June 1, 2007. He had lymphoma and fatty liver disease.

Izzy was fuzzy, furry, fat and friendly. He was a Maine Coon cat. He had the requisite fur collar around his neck. He had stripes on his massive, furry tail like a raccoon that you could only see in the right light. He had a bit of fur that stuck out from the tips of his ears. He was possesive. He thought he was a dog. He played fetch. He played tug-of-war. He liked sleeping at the foot of the bed on my feet, when he wasn't sleeping on my stomach. He was a gorgeous cat. He was 25 pounds of fluff and "big bones". His tummy was covered in curly, fluffy fuzz. He loved having his tummy rubbed. When he was in the mood, that is. He also loved having that spot right in front of his ears rubbed. He loved his treats. And he knew how to be snuggly and adorable when he wanted to be.

He had this lazy way of licking his paw as though he was about to start washing his face and then he'd just stop and go to sleep. As previously mentioned he was polydactl, meaning he had an extra claw on his front paws. He looked like he had opposable thumbs and when he held anything in his paws you would swear he did. He liked licking the top of Howie's head when Howie would let him. He liked to groom my hair. He had the loudest meow you could imagine. And an exceptional purr. And I miss him.

Blue Sky

Yesterday.

Wha?

Yep, we only train Sears truck drivers here. Not Target. Not Wal-Mart. Not KMart. Not Home Depot. Not Barnes & Noble. Not A&P. Not Macys. Not Toy R' Us. Not Babies R' Us. Not Kids R' Us.

*breath*

Not Piggley Wiggley. Not Big & Tall. Not Radio Shack. Not the Caddy Shack. Not CVS. Not UPS. Not USPS. Not Payless...

Swoop

Just a bit of Sunday swoopage.

Now in Technicolor!

No Photoshopping. Promise!

Tower room

Where's the dragon? Guarding the drawbridge I guess.

More pink poof

Pretty poofy pinkness pour your pleasure.

Onions

Not the stinky kind.

I swear

He was a groundhog just a minute ago.

Reflections

Trucks and trucks and trucks galore!

Foggy, foggy night

Well, okay so it wasn't at night. It was just really, really foggy.

Seeing seeing

Double double.

You'll have to pardon the raindrops on my windshield there.

Before and after

Before


During

After

You might notice a slight change between Before and After.

(insert Tarzan yell here)

And perhaps the sounds of some running antelope and panthers and such.

Seats

You're tilting your head again, aren't you?

The long and winding rail

Okay, so it's not winding so much as being bendy. Whatever.

SWNT*

* - Steeple With No Tree

Leetle towers

Oh Rapunz, Rapunz, let down your hair!

What, you don't think there's room for a whole Rapunzel in there do you?

Snakey ducts

Think they have rolls of colored duct tape standing by just in case?

Stepped up

Going up?

Sploosh

Alright, who dropped the bar of soap in the ocean again?

Rocky sky

Ultra font

That'sa nice.

Day First

Well, today was Day One at my new job.

I survived.

I think a little piece of me died when I realized that I couldn't check my Gmail. In fact, I have access to exactly two external websites. Both of them company websites.

Sigh.

And not even any Cute Overload to make up for it.

Well, it's a job. We will see how it goes.

One of these things...

Joe: Hey, Bob!

Bob: Yeah, Joe?

Joe: Who's the new guy?

Bob: Oh, he's Martha's cousin Goeffrey's best friend Ezekiel's former roommate, Jacques.

Joe. Oh. (brief pause) Okay.

Duuuhnuh duuuuuuuhnuh

That's a pretty big land shark. Third cousin to a loan shark I believe.

Find the birdy

Hint: He's not all there.

Neat pokey things

Burble

Ahhhh. Feels cool and refreshing.

No words

Fencing

I don't think that fence is doing much good at the moment.

Self portrait

From left to right, that's me, my mom and my dad. Wave hi!

Solid holes

Amazing how much solidness is still in these holey poles.

Soaring

I'm a leaf in the wind.

Doorways to nowhere

Well, you'll just have to trust me that they don't go anywhere. Or rather, they go to large slabs of more concrete. But it looked neat from this angle.

A single chair

Perhaps someone was trying to get away from the live band.

Roar, I say

Yes, this photo was taken in New Jersey.