Michi Pora

My baby kitty turned one year old today.

It's hard to believe that my once tiny ball of fluff. . .

. . . is now a sprawling mass of blubber!

But she's still my pretty kitty!

Happy Birthday Chloe!!!

Holy Guacamole!!!

Look what happened to Gizmo in just two months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wild and Crazy Thanksgiving:

Blast-o de la Past-o

I often wonder what I would be doing now if I had stayed in Paraguay. I would still be there for another 5 months. I try to follow the adventures of my fellow volunteers who stayed, but there's only a few who have blogs. I did a random google search today and found a video on the peace corps website that includes an interview with Julie, one of the volunteers in my group:

(she's the second from left)

I hadn't heard anything about her since the day I left Paraguay, so it was fun to see her in her site. Even more fun was hearing the song that she sings in the video. I remember the day that she and I visited the little school in the campo outside Mallorquín and learned that song from Nick and Erica, the volunteers who lived there:

I remember that the barefoot (and slightly dirty) red-headed, freckled children at the school made me feel like I was in an episode of Christy.

Generation Gap

I am the youngest person where I work. My office mate is the oldest. There are nearly 40 years between us. Some days that gap feels like the grand canyon. Kathy has a two year old grandson who lives across the country and she often receives pictures of him by e-mail from her daughter. Every time she gets new ones I help her set one as her desktop background. Recently her grandson had a professional photo shoot done as he is going to be in a catalog. His parents sent Kathy several of those pictures and she's been telling everyone she knows, ever since. Yesterday she was trying to relay the story by e-mail to yet another person and couldn't think of the right word. I returned to my desk just in time to overhear Kathy asking another coworker: -What do you call that thing you can put pictures on and then stick in your computer? -A memory card? a memory stick? a USB drive? the coworker suggested. That wasn't right, so Kathy asked me - What was that thing my daughter got with all the pictures from the photo shoot on it? - a CD. - That's it!

Christmas Shopping

I've officially started my Christmas shopping. Kids are always the funnest to shop for, so I have started with them. For the newest babies in the family, 3 month old Elijah and 2 month old Lacey, I got footwear from Target. Elijah gets tiny elmo slippers, and Lacey gets super cute baby boots:

Their older siblings and cousin, 1 year old Moses and 3 year olds Luke and Kylee are getting the coolest pre-schooler books ever from the Pigeon series by Mo Willems:

. . . and . . .

Weird.

So I was at Bed Bath and Beyond today and happened to overhear an older lady talking to a some random guy. I walked by just as she said ". . .and then we joined the Peace Corps and that's how we ended up in Paraguay. . ." Random! Made me wonder just how many people there are who have served in the Peace Corps in Paraguay. Then I was at my favorite Mexican restaurant and had an interesting interchange with the cashier when I was trying to order my food:

Me: Could I get a quesadilla with guacamole instead of sour cream?

Him: You want to trade the sour cream for guacamole?

Me: Yes.

Him: We don't do that here.

Me: Fine. I would like a quesadilla with no sour cream, and a side of guacamole.

Him: What kind of of sour cream would you like?

Me: I don't want sour cream!!!

2nd employee who had been watching the whole thing: GUACAMOLE!!!!

Then, when I got home with my quesadilla and hard-earned guacamole, my cat would not leave me alone. She kept trying to get my food. Finally, I offered her a dollop of guacamole to show her that she wouldn't like my food anyway, so she would go away. Apparently though, I have the weirdest cat in the world, because she LOVED the guacamole! She couldn't lick it up fast enough! Avocado, tomato, onions, lime juice, spices-- how could a cat possibly like that???? Of course, she also likes eating popcorn, garbanzo beans, corn husks, and plastic. I'm not sure she's really a cat. . .

Trendy, Toasty Toes!

Winter has arrived here in the pacific northwest (for those of you who recently moved to the balmy southwest and now find "winter" to be a foreign concept, try to imagine taking a cold shower inside a freezer-- all the time). My office gets so cold during these long winter months, that I can't feel my toes. Many of my coworkers have personal heaters under their desks, which I thought was a brilliant idea so I borrowed one to try it out. My toes didn't even have a chance to thaw, before my computer went black and I heard groans from several coworkers nearby.

I had forgotten that my desk is on the bad circuit-- the one that trips regularly even without heaters. Grr!! So basically, I can't have a heater at my desk. Grrrrrr!!! But I am determined not to freeze all winter so I got myself some slippers. Big, fuzzy, purple slippers. I took them to work and I wear them all the time at the office now:

I've gotten some strange looks from clients, but my toes stay warm and toasty all day! My coworkers were so jealous that 3 of them went and got their own slippers (Rite-Aid, $3.99). Now we all have matching slippers in different colors. Purple, green, red and blue. I'm a trendsetter! :)