One of my earliest childhood memories is of my grandmother's 12 foot, fully flocked tree. Every year, it was exactly the same, white flocked with three sizes of red glass balls in front of one of those 4 color gel wheels...make it very Kubrickesque.

This particular year, my father and I drove 2 hours with his cat Tuffy yowling in the back window of the car. We walked into grandmother's house and the cat ran straight up to the very top of the tree.

Timber! It went over in a sort of surreal slomo...flocking powder everywhere. Glass shards, red on one side, silver on the the other...every. damn. where. I think it took 4 or 5 hours to clean it up.

Not so merry xmas.

I had a cat knock down a Christmas tree while I was out. He then had a fine time with the ornaments, which we found under all the furniture when we moved. He also ate a lot of tinsel, and the litter box was very festive for a couple of days.

When I met my inlaws' cats, they were 18 and 19 years old and they slept roughly 98% of the time. Every once in a while, they would walk over to the tree and very slowly hit an ornament. Then they'd look embarassed.

ate a lot of tinsel

Ugh. Terrible memories of a piece of tinsel hanging out of the cat's mouth...to pull or not to pull? And then? Sparkle poop. Ugh. Ugh. Ugh.

I wouldn't even think about using tinsel now as a result.

I had a pull or not pull dilemma on the other end.

mac and I went to the Y tonight for our first family swim night. noodle has no body fat - 2 float worm thingies and a back float strapped around his rib cage and he still occasionally had to remember to pull his chin up the avoid his mouth going under. He has no fear of trying to swim though - just me getting too far away.

He also had his second ever dentist appt today and there were no tears or struggles like last time, also no cavities. The x-ray clearly showed 3 more teeth coming in. The second of the top front will be the next to go and the the bottom ones to the side of the front set. He is going to look so haggered mouthed.

I'm watching White Christmas, and just noticed something -- why on earth does the General blow out candles on a cake at the end? It's not his birthday! Bizarre.

Why does it even have candles?

Hivemind question for my manuscript...

What would be some of the physical manifestations of not drinking any liquid for nearly 24 hours? (I've done 24-hour fasts from food in my life, but never from water.) I have a character in that position, and I'm trying to describe his predicament in more detail than "he was as thirsty as he'd ever been in his life." Would his mouth be dry? Would he feel lightheaded?

Hmm, I've had to do 12 hour water fasts for certain medical tests. My tongue started to develop little dry spots that hurt as did the inside of my cheeks. My lips were dry and and cracked and painful as well until I thought of using chapstick. Don't know what happens the second 12 hours.

Not lightheaded at the point, but really low energy. Throat starts hurting too. As did my sinuses, but I have sinus problems anyway.

Fortunately I did not have to cough much, but any time I did have to cough that hurt too.

Only one of my parents' cats climbed the tree. The rest were content to attack the cat-proof ornaments we hung near the base (fabric and styro we wouldn't miss) or considered the tree an alien invader to be avoided.

Amarna loves to bat at the unbreakable ornaments at the bottom of the tree, but her favorite thing to do is to just sit under the tree and zone out looking at the lights. She also likes to use the branches to hide behind while stalking things and then leaping out from underneath catch them.