"Cats and Christmas trees don't mix well.. baubles are a constant fascination, designed, of course, for cats. The pine needles are perfect for scratching cat's backs as well (again by design, naturally) and the lower branches will thus be bare within a few hours ;-)"
—Gareth

…southern home of urban sprawl, long commutes, and much Christmas shopping. The drive out here was a bit shorter than I thought it would be, which was a pleasant surprise. I'd have come out here more often in the past if I'd have known that it wasn't so terrible of a drive.

Today's thoughts: I may be boring, but at least I can write semi-coherently. Can I claim to be the most interesting writer out on the planet? No, not hardly—but at least I've mastered the art of grammar, punctuation, and (when I double-check it) spelling.

Looks like Christmas will be coming a little early for me this year.

Jeff told me a little while age that he finally found an ebay action for a laptop that would suit my needs. It's going to be my Christmas present. All he's asking that I do is start writing again.

Domesticat was my first attempt to get myself back in the habit of recording my thoughts. I wasn't looking to garner a "readership," nor was I looking to change the world. I was just trying to retrain my mind, to get it back into the habit of filing interesting thoughts under "something to write about"—and then actually doing so.I've always joked that the one thing I've always wanted to do in my life was to come up with the Great American Novel. I really don't have a job or a career that I've always wanted to work in; I've never had any lofty ambitions. I've just wanted to create something worth reading.

I've always wanted to walk into a bookstore and find something that I created.

I've been holding off on posting something until I had something interesting to post. I had something in mind, actually—at last, the drawing of what I'm wanting to do with the flowerbeds in my front yard. This is going to require a lot of work to make this happen, but I think this is an arrangement that I'm going to be happy with.

I've greatly enjoyed having fresh herbs growing out on the porch. As I've gone through the year I've found that some things grow well in the heat of Alabama and some just can't take the high temperatures. So I'm incorporating what I've learned into version 2.0 of the front yard.A lot of prep work has to take place before this can happen. First, we've got to rip out everything that's there now. Granted, this isn't a whole lot (thanks to the Laniers, who didn't feel like spending money on the flowerbeds). But there are a few large holly bushes that have got to be taken out, and this isn't going to be pleasant.

I was greatly amused by the proposed campaign stickers created [Modern Humorist. Good for those of you who have the "takes offense" toggle set to Off.