Well, another year has turned. It’s 2007 now. Wonder how long it’ll take me to remember to write that, instead of 2006, on my checks/other dated material. Hopefully not so terribly long.

The new year passed without much excitement here. I spent it alone, except for Maddy.

She’s cute, but a holy terror on four legs at 8 weeks old. She spotted my christmas tree, found the beaded garland, grabbed it, and /ran/. The tree nearly toppled over on top of her before I could stop her. And then she did it /again/. And /again/. So I had to sort of try to block it off, but that’s easier said than done.

Nevertheless, she slept through the turning of the year, so I could run and throw open the door to let the new year inside - and toss a few coins through the doorway into the house for good luck - without any, uh, ‘helpers’. I burned up my yule tapers simply because I didn’t burn them at yule itself - no big deal. To me, yule is rather like New Year’s anyway - my personal spiritual new year. Some say pagans consider Samhain ‘it’, but I don’t. I think Yule is it - after all, Yule is when the sun is born again, and when the ‘death’ of the old year is really complete, and the new year arrives with the promise of lengthening days. If anything, Samhain is the beginning of the end. Besides, Yuletide is marked with all sorts of glorious things that symbolize renewal and hope and merrymaking and all that jazz, and that’s more like a new year festival to me than Samhain ever will be.

So yeah. I burned incense, too. Finally - at last! - got my charcol briquettes to light up, which was a miracle. Good smelling stuff, this diviniation incense from Spellbound Secrets! I looove the smell of it, and I’m actually not a big fan of incense. I should buy more. Before they like, go out of business or something as small businesses are wont to do. I used my cauldron. My altar looks witchy now that I’ve removed some of the secular Christmastime stuff - my santa advent calendar, etc. etc. - and replaced it with my chalice, filled with water (an offering) and my little offering clay pots (I really wish I had something better) filled with frankincense and rice and sugar and mistletoe) and my big cauldron with the incense, and my new tarot deck.

That’s the new tarot deck. Thank you, A! I love them. They’re currently ‘charging’. I’m going through a whole schebang consecration ritual thing to really make them happy. It involves the four elements and the next four moon cycles and by the end, it should be all happy and magicified. Or something. In any case, I intend to make use of them for daily readings, and use the others for… less daily readings, like sabbats and full/new moons, etc. Or, you know, whenever I bloody well want a change.

I did yoga tonight. It was awful. This new dvd I got… well, it looked good. And maybe some of the workouts /are/ good, but the one I did sucked ass in a royal sort of way. Oh well. I did work out. It’s not really a new year’s resolution, exactly, but I did plan to do yoga 3x a week. At least for 1 month. At the end of january, I can… evaluate.

And finally - at last! - here are the photos of my December secret pal package! Got them uploaded at last, despite many internet issues tonight. *growls at network*

I tell you, I’m in LOVE with that yarn. And oh, the nail polish is lovely, too! And the books, though I haven’t yet gotten around to reading them. :)

Thirteen Random Things About This Week

1. I have finally ordered my mother a Christmas gift! From eBay, no less.
2. Some of my gifts are wrapped, but not all. I like to do special wrap jobs - no “wrap it in paper and put a sticky bow on it” for me. Nope nope. I go all out. This year, the theme is red and white (like last year) - however, I’m doing white paper this year, with red trim, instead of last year, where I pretty well did the opposite.





3. I have decided that while my tree has enough decor, the rest of my house is not near decorated enough.



4. I am not in the mood to knit. I’m just /not/. Post-shawl rebellion, perhaps?
5. My lastest QPB review has a LOT of books in it that I’d like to read. Or at least skim through at a bookstore to check over.
6. I am waiting anxiously for DIYplanner’s 2007 calendar templates to come out, so I can redo my planner. This time, I swear, I’ll do better.



7. It’s that time of the month again and I’m mourning being female and eating pretty much nonstop.
8. So what better time to make cookies, anyway? Mom and A came over, and we baked. And baked. And baked some more. We have about 16 dozen cookies. Chocolate chip, chocolate chip without the chocolate chips (this sounds bizarre, I know, but it’s my dad’s favorite), cry babies, raisin puffs, (all three of these are my mom’s recipes - rather, my grandma’s), and then we tried a couple new recipes, too - cinnamon coins (not so hot), and kiflins (an almondy cookie that’s VERY good!)



9. I am not done baking yet. I intend to bake more - peanut butter cookies, and sugar cookies, and gingerbread cookies, maybe. Mmm.
10. In light of the fact that my Windows computer just doesn’t want to return to a state of happy life, I’ve ordered myself pieces for a new one. Will gut this baby out and pop in a new motherboard, a beautiful dual core AMD processor, sadly only a gig of ram (gugh, the DDR2 stuff is pricey!) and a new SATA hard disk. Hopefully, I’ll get no DOA parts, and all will be well!
11. My cross-stitch project is nearly done! Just working on all the backstitching, which is going pretty fast, and then I just have to put the buttons on! Of course, then I must make it into a pillow or something.
12. I love Maddy the puppy!



13. I am getting a mixer (Kitchen Aid Artisan!) for Christmas! Except, I’m getting it early. Like… as soon as Amazon ships it here! Thank you Mom! I’ve been wanting one for a while now. Saving up the money. Figures that as soon as I have enough to buy it and it goes on sale, Mom tells me she’ll buy it for me for Christmas! *laugh* But that works for me! Mine will be Empire Red. Perfect.

Links to other Thursday Thirteens!

The puppy is one week old. It’s been a long, long week, and I’ve had no energy to do anything remotely resembling knitting, sewing, or anything else I need to do, including vacuuming my cat-hair-covered carpet.

But here’s some pictures!

We have to bottle feed the puppy every 3 hours. Kilo, the mama, really has no milk, or not near enough. Today, the puppy weighed exactly 1lb! She’s gained 3 -4 ounces in the last two days! Wow.

(These pictures are actually from yesterday, on the puppy’s week-old anniversary. But they /are/ super cute.)

Finally! Got some pictures to post to you all! First up, a photo of what kept me up for 38 hours with only a couple small naps to keep me going:

So, long story short… the dog, Kilo, a boxer that belongs to my brother, was bred to a couple other boxers in hopes of getting a wad of puppies, because every freaking patron at our bar wanted one of Kilo’s puppies. Kilo a bit of a ‘rescue’, as her former owner was mistreating her terribly, and she ended up with my family. However, she’s suffered some anxiety issues from constantly being locked up, and thus, couldn’t be trusted to be left alone without massive damage being done to wherever she was at. So, since my parents own a bar, and that’s where they were most of the time, and since in the last year or so, my brother has also /worked/ at the bar, Kilo baby spends a lot of time up there. And the patrons LOVE her. I mean, she’s smart, and friendly, and lovey, and… well, she’s got personality. The customers will put a dollar in her collar, and she runs around to the till to buy herself a piece of jerky. Spoiled puppy. ;-)

Anyway, she’s about six years old, and my brother’s been wanting to breed her for some time. Yes, he’s an irresponsible back yard breeder, yadda yadda yadda about poor puppies dying in shelters, yadda yadda yadda… This isn’t my dog, I didn’t do it, and my brother’s irresponsible about lots of things. The dog’s only one of them. And this is the boonies - “backyard breeder” is not a term used here. Ever. We don’t even HAVE a shelter here, okay? So, while I’m against his “let’s breed the dog to get money and because everyone loves her!” attitude… well, I’m in the TINY minory here, and if he’s gonna breed the dog, I’m gonna be excited about the puppies, dammit.

Political discussion aside, Kilo, who’s been a mama once before, before we ever got her, had a litter of 11 that time. Well… this time, there were complications. It turns out she only had ONE puppy. One. And thus, the puppy “got all the groceries”, so to speak, and was a wee bit too big (twice as big as typical, says the vet) to deliver naturally. So after a 19 hour labor process that produced nothing but stress and distress, Mom and I hauled the dog to the vet - 60 MILES AWAY - at 4:30 in the morning for an emergency bloody c-section.

That’s a $551 dollar puppy there, not counting gas.

*shakes head* Anyway, the pup’s a girl, and after a bit of trouble learning to latch onto mama’s nipple, and after destressing Kilo, who’d gone all anxiety attack after being left alone at the vet for 9 hours, they’re both doing well. The pup doesn’t yet have a name, but I hear that the bar patrons are putting together a list. They don’t get puppies like they wanted, but it seems they will try to play a part in her life. ;-)

Package!

So I mentioned that SP9 package, right? *grin* Here’s a photo! I didn’t get one while it was in the box… too impatient to run to Mom’s to find the camera, so I just tore into things like a kid on Christmas morn.

That’s one lovely book off my Amazon wishlist, two gorgeous skeins of Rowanspun DK wool (color is somewhat lavender - not sure how the color will turn out on your monitor - but trust me, it’s yummy!) and some size 4 bamboo dpns! Muahaha! I envision super yummy socks to warm my toes this winter! Oh, and not shown was an Assam teabag from Two Leaves and a Bud, but I drank it already. Very yummy. Must order tea from there!

Thanks so much Secret! I loved it all, as I told you in my email. ;-)

Anyway, expect ongoing puppy updates in the next few weeks, because yes - I lurves puppies, and it’s really not often at all (try never) that I get to see pups from birth on!