Obviously, given the circumstances, I feel horrible and I’m in a weird mood.

On top of this, Arrow was being a total pain in the ass this morning. She got into a space bag full of knitting and pulled out a bunch of stuff to chew on.

Then she unwound a yarn ball.

All in the two minutes I took to put on my mascara.

I cleaned up quickly, and was fuming at her, this little doggy who is just having fun, and I was almost ready to go, but I needed to get my shoes on, so I walked by her crate to get them.

And she went in.

I didn’t tell her to, I didn’t lure her with a goodie, and I didn’t do it to punish her.

She went in because that’s what we do next. Before I leave.

It made me late, but I stayed to pet her for a little while, because in spite of her being a huge pain in the ass this morning, she is a really good dog and she’s just trying to earn a goodie.

Today she got two.

Short Story Long:

Sometime last week, we started hearing strange noises in the house. Tom would get up at 3AM and wander around thinking, “HOME INVASION!” only to find our house completely secure.

Well, one morning, we heard pigeons cooing IN THE HOUSE.

Only, there were no pigeons in the house. It was coming from UP. INSIDE. THE. FIREPLACE.

“Oh, shit,” we thought, “we are homeowners and somehow we are going to have to get those pigeons off or out of our chimney!”

Given that we are not in any position right now to get pigeons out of anywhere (no ladder, and ladders = $$$$$), we figured that we’d wait until our friend Martin could bring over a ladder. No big whoop.

Well, on Saturday, there was a terrible metallic scratching and clanging coming from UP. INSIDE. THE. FIREPLACE. and I thought, “Those stupid fucking pigeons are roosting in my floo!” And resolved to shake my fist at them once we scared them out after we got the ladder.

Or to turn the fire on if I got really annoyed (not really, idle threat).

So, today I got home from work and was minding my own business when Tom yelled, “THERE IS A PIGEON IN THE FIREPLACE!” and started laughing.

As you can see from the above photo, the thing was covered in soot and totally mellow.

Earlier in the day, Tom had opened the floo in the hopes of confusing and/or convincing the pigeons that this was NOT A GOOD PLACE TO ROOST but had succeed in freeing a trapped pigeon instead (that’s our theory, anyway).

Tom put on some gloves, got a box, and prepared for injured pigeon work. Once he opened the glass doors, though, the pigeon was like “SWEET!” and totally flew out! Straight into our ugly maroon wall where it left a big sooty smudge! AN IMPROVEMENT!

We then scared it out the patio door and it flew off and joined the Pigeon’s Union Local to report on it’s week long job of alternately scaring, concerning, and annoying the owners of the Third Chimney on the Block.

As my good friend Annika says, OH MONDAY.

I find that this lull between Xmas and New Year’s is just about the worst time to make decisions and set goals.

There’s that mad rush to finish things before the new year starts, to set some sort of purpose for yourself, and to jump into hastily made plans with both feet, and then be surprised and disappointed when it turns out that the thing you were jumping into was actually only two inches deep and you’ve now broken both of your ankles…

I’m encouraging the people I know not to institute any changes or plans, vague or otherwise, until March*. Take the time between now and then to research what you’re getting yourself into or to just learn more about why you want to make that change. Then work on it. And by March you should be ready to declare a goal based on that change.

It will also align with your Q1 goals nicely, if you’re a corporate type.

*Moratorium does not apply to craft projects.

I don’t shop on Black Friday. Typically, if I do any shopping at all, it’s just to the grocery store for supplies to make it through the weekend and supplementing the Thanksgiving leftovers. Since we didn’t cook Thanksgiving this year, I had to go to the store and get food for dinner. A whole meal has to be cooked! Woe!

But we have pie. So that’s okay.

We still have a lot of stuff to get from the condo, and we’re not really moved in at all. I think we’ll do a big push tomorrow, so that we don’t have to do anything (hopefully!) on Sunday.

Then the evening will be spent arranging furniture and putting things away.

And decorating for Xmas. And making Xmas prezzies.

I really feel like the day after Thanksgiving is a big downer. More so than the day after Christmas or Hangover Day. I think that’s why it’s become such a popular shopping day – we’re all trying to fill the gaping hole inside with consumer goods. I prefer to sit around my house and eat too many sweets. At least I can work out tomorrow and feel better.

Well, we moved all of the big furniture over the weekend and now it’s just getting all the odds and ends and technology from the old place into the new place.

The kitchen was painted (mostly by Martin, Lisa, & Doug) as well.

I am exhausted. But I’m at work.

Annika wrote this post about “going home” for the holidays and that combined with moving reminded me of how my aunt Sue asked someone about some pictures of a house they were showing at a family gathering once – she asked, “Is that your home?”

I don’t think that I had ever heard anyone else ask that question that way – always heard it as “new house.”

“Home” sure means a lot more.