12 of 12 - January

It's 12 of 12 time again! For the new year, I thought I'd try to mix it up and not start each day with pictures my coffee and end with my cat in bed. But I kind of miss it, so I can't promise they won't crop up again.

6:36 am, kitchen
Up early to get The Boy off to school.

6:40 am, kitchen
Making a ham sammich for The Boy's lunch.

11:00 am, bedroom
Kitty has a doctor's appointment. She is not happy about it.

11:14 am, my car
Waiting for the light to change, to make a left turn to the vet's office.

11:22 am, vet's office
Waiting for the doctor. Sorry this is blurry, I had to make sure kitty didn't jump off the table and couldn't give proper attention to the shot.

11:23 am, vet's office
"Can't we go home yet? I don't want to be here!"

11:54 am, my car
When I first moved to this neighborhood, there was a red dot sticker on the deer crossing sign. The sign down the street in the other direction had one, too. I was sad when they replaced both signs with new ones that of course did not have the stickers on them. But within a week, the stickers were back! I love it. :D

12:10 pm, kitchen
This is my crack.

12:15 pm, bedroom
"I'm not speaking to you!"

2:03 pm, living room
I just unpacked and assembled my new Dyson! Isn't it pretty?

2:10 pm, living room
But what's up with the instructions? It's mostly just pictures, hardly any WORDS! When did companies start assuming we couldn't read?

11:50 pm, living room
Time to shut down the laptop and go to bed.

BONUS:
Recreating a shot of my winter-wonderland. Now, with less snow! I was not able to take this at the same time as last year's shot. This one was taken at sunset, and the original was in the morning.
January 12, 2009:

12 of 12 - December

Wow, this time I made it through the full year of 12 of 12. :D Yay, me! Chad, I do hope you continue on with this; I enjoy it very much.

7:30 am, kitchen
Coffee, of course. This is my second cup. :D

9:10 am, backyard
My landlord. With a gas can and chainsaw. I don't know why.

9:12 am, my car
Frost on the windshield. Pretty!

9:45 am, my doctor's offices
I am FINALLY getting my swine-flu shot. (I have asthma, so the flu really messes me up.)

11:10 am, local nursery
Christmas tree hunting!

11:35 am, my car, parking lot of my building
We bagged one!

12:10 pm, living room
I had to remove the plastic netting right away, because the cat has pica and of course the first thing she tried to do was eat the netting. For 18+ years this cat has been trying to kill herself in one way or another. It's been a challenge to keep her alive!

1:25 pm, living room
My shiny new shirt!

1:30 pm, living room
One of my Christmas traditions is to listen to this CD while decorating the tree. :D

3:15 pm, living room
Our stockings are hung on the shelf, with care. We have no fireplace.

4:50 pm, living room
The finished tree.

10:55 pm, my bed
"Come to bed mommy. Now!"

Firefly Fever!!!!

The Boy and I (and Starshine and one of her spawn) got to go to Creation's Salute to Serenity and Firefly this past weekend in LA. :D Here are my pics. Sorry they're so craptastic, my camera is not suited for low-light indoor zoom shots. :(

We had a fantastical time! We had purchased the Gold Ticket package, which entitled us to reserved, excellent seats at all panels (third row!); the exclusive Dessert Party with Morena Baccarin, Adam Baldwin and Yan and Rafael Feldman; and the exclusive Sunday Brunch with Alan Tudyk, Jewel Staite and Mark Sheppard. At both of these events, the celebrities visited each table and chatted with us for a bit. And Alan totally sat between Cindy and me.

During the autograph sessions, I gave each celeb a mini knitted Jayne hat pin that I made. Morena was especially delighted with hers and put it on immediately. Then, later at the Dessert Party, she announced to everyone that she had received a mini Jayne hat and loved it! Totally made my day. And during Sunday's autograph session, I had one of the mini Jayne hats in my hand, waiting to give it to Alan. His handler saw it and asked me, "Oh, where can I get one of those! I saw them and said, 'I HAVE TO find that girl!' " So I whipped another out of my bag and gave it to her. She was very excited.

At the brunch, they held a charity auction to benefit Kids Need to Read. I won an auction for a Serenity ballcap donated by Alan. It was to include it being signed by Alan. Someone else at our table (Marc) won Alan's fleece Serenity jacket, also to be signed, and Marc's friend Monica talked to management and they agreed to let her take a picture of Alan signing it, as Marc had been the highest bidder at the auction. So then it ended up that Marc and I were waiting to have Alan sign our items, and they decided that since Monica would be taking that picture, it needed to be done in a private room. And somehow I got included, too. So I was whisked away to a private room, and Alan signed our items and posed for pictures with us and I even got to keep the Sharpie. I don't have these pictures yet but Monica promised to email them to me. I gave her a mini Jayne hat pin and everything, so I really hope she does.

ALL of the panels were excellent. They are all so funny and so nice. The twins were very charming (and boy, do they know how to drink!) and Alan is a funny, funny man. We even got a panel with Jane Espenson and Tim Minear! I got them both to sign my Dollhouse DVD, and I got to tell Tim how freaking awesome he is.

Nathan Fillion had been scheduled to be there, but had to cancel because they needed him to do some reshoots for Castle. But during Alan's panel, Alan told the audience how sorry Nathan was that he couldn't be there, and then Alan brought out some seven-layer bean dip (of the Gods) that Nathan had made, and put it into the empty chair next to him, in Nathan's place. Alan and the dip answered questions for a while, and then Nathan called Alan on the phone. Alan put him on speaker for us, and we found out that Nathan did not exactly give Alan the bean dip. Alan stole it. Oops! Then Alan auctioned the bean dip (along with some signed photos and t-shirts) for charity, and it went for $375! This included a bag of tortilla chips; Alan signed the bag and also one of the actual chips. Later, the winner of the auction was kind enough to put it out in the hotel lobby and offered it to anyone who wanted to try some. It was actually very good.

This was a really excellent trip. I think I need to go to all of these.

12 of 12 - November

It's time for 12 of 12 again!

6:30 am, my bedroom
My poor, old kitty has diabetes now. In order to keep track of how much she eats, I have to weigh her bowl of food before and after she eats.

7:00 am, kitchen
COFFEE!!

8:29 am, living room
I have been waiting for weeks for my boy's doctor's office to have the swine flu shot available. I check the web site every morning. Today, I finally got to make an appointment for him!

9:00 am, kitchen
Time for kitty's thyroid medicine and antibiotic

9:03 am, hall
And after her meds, she comes out to eat.

9:32 am, kitchen
Now it's time for her insulin.

9:38 am, kitchen
This is a BIG, honking sharps container. It just doesn't really go with my decor.

10:30 am, living room
Here are two paper-whites bulbs that I'm trying to force. So far, the roots have grown a bit. So I think it's working.

2:45 pm, kitchen
After-school snack for The Boy

3:30 pm, kitchen
Had to run out to the vet's office to pick up this blood glucose meter. Tomorrow we are doing a BG Curve on kitty, which means I will be pricking her tiny little foot and testing her blood sugar every two hours, for 24 hours. I don't think she's going to like me very much by the end of it.

9:20 pm, my bedroom
The Boy and I are watching Supernatural.
11:00 pm, my bedroom
Come to bed...don't come to bed...whatever. I'm going to sleep without you.

BONUS PIC:

Forcing

One of my biggest regrets of having to live in an apartment is that I can't have a garden. I ADORE most flowering bulbs, and if I owned land, I can assure you it would be positively COVERED with a large variety of blooms.

A few weeks ago, The Boy's Boy Scout troop had a fundraiser to benefit an upcoming trip to the White House. The fundraiser was the sale of bulbs from a catalog. It is actually a thrill for me to look through catalogs like these. I gasp and everything. Seeing the catalog reminded me that I have always intended to try forcing some bulbs indoors. And what better time than the present?

I ordered hyacinths, crocuses, bluebells, striped squill, and paperwhites. (I would have loved to have gotten some tulips and daffodils too, but I read that they don't force as well.) The bulbs arrived yesterday. SQUEEE!

I have an elaborate plan of forcing a few of each type at a time, in a wide, shallow vase filled with glass pebbles and water. But most of the bulbs need to be chilled for a couple of months first, so we'll have to get to that later.

The paperwhites do NOT have to be chilled before forcing. I just set up two of them in little forcing vases. I can't wait until they bloom. If they bloom. Wish me luck!

12 of 12 - October

Welcome to my 12 of 12! I'm afraid it is possibly the most boring day, ever. 12 of 12 was created by Chad Darnell. Don't fall for imitations.

7:30 am, my kitchen
COFFEE!

10:00 am, kitchen
Last week, poor kitty came down with a bladder infection, so she now currently has TWO meds to take, instead of one.

11:45 am, kitchen
My butter dish. I ADORE carnival glass.

12:00 pm, kitchen
Brunch.

12:35 pm, dining room
My new sewing machine. Isn't it SHINY??

1:40 pm, The Boy's room
Just finished making the bed after washing the sheets. His bed cover is a denim rag quilt that I made.

1:55 pm, my room
And I FINALLY finished my latest quilt!

1:56 pm, my room
Kitty's stairs. She can still jump up and down, but she's so tiny I didn't want her jarring her tiny little bones if she doesn't have to.
2:20 pm, my room
Kitty is watching TV. She loves Animal Planet.
But I'm not clear why she needs the captioning on.

6:30 pm, living room
My latest knitting, which I have frogged twice already because it was coming out too small.

6:35 pm, living room
Tandem laptops!!
The second one is my niece's. It's been very boggy, so I am running spyware scans and defragging, etc, to try to clean it up for her.

11:03 pm, my bedroom
"Come to bed, Mommy. And get this Boy off of me!!"