We put our tree up undecorated for a few days and that seems to help. The cats get their yayas out without breaking anything, and then they are uninterested. With a toddler in the house, we also do not hang breakable ornaments. Fortunately we have a friggin' TON of Christmas ornaments, so it's very easy to have a fully decorated tree of unbreakables. We put plush ornaments near the bottom so he can play with them, re-decorate the tree, etc. It will be nice to see all of the ornaments on the tree again...someday.

A Portal Christmas Tree would really keep him entertained.

I gave the Etsy buyer a choice of another fabric and I'll send it to her on Monday. Problem solved and I'm $30 richer!

I don't think it was a suicide by cop thing at all.

His article didn't give me any idea how he intended to die, but it's pretty firm about the dead part.

If you watch Graham Norton, you know how he invites audience members to try and tell a story, and if they bore or irritate him, he flips the chair over. Most often they get flipped, or even get through to the end, but Graham expresses some dissatisfaction.

In the episode I just saw, a guy told a story of spotting Bono at a restaurant during his (guest) anniversary dinner. Bono left his table, and since they were big fans, they crept over to his friend and asked if he thought it would be okay for them to get a pic...big fans, special night...anyway--the friend says Bono's private, so they should go back to their table, and if he waves them over after Bono returns, it's all good.

Bono comes back, they get beckoned, and they run over and squee and get their photo taken and an autograph, all very perfect. They go back to their meal, and at the end when it's time to pay, the waiter says "No need--it's been taken care of."

"What?? Did Bono pay for our dinner?"

"No. Mr. Springsteen did."

And that's how you tell Graham Norton a story he totally likes.

We put our tree up undecorated for a few days and that seems to help. The cats get their yayas out without breaking anything, and then they are uninterested

This is pretty much what I decided to do. I put the snowman under the tree, so they have something to attack if they feel the need, and I will decorate next weekend.

And that's how you tell Graham Norton a story he totally likes.

That's also how you get me to maybe stick around for the audience participation parts. Usually I delete before the end. I get the Motts pretty bad sometimes so I usually skip. That story sounds awesome though.

Because of the chair gimmick I don't get Mottsed that often since Graham's tipping them over usually while I still want to hear what they're saying.

I did used to zone out or FF past the musical section, but I did realise that I listen to so little commercial music that one complete song a week isn't going to ruin my life, and lord knows I might even like something. And it has sent me to iTunes more than once.

Speaking of music I don't listen to, sis sent me Indian Gangnam style: [link] which has choreography I'm willing to chalk up to CGI for the tight synchronisation. Uncanny Valley aside, they are rocking it.

The ornament Bubba destroyed was a Styrofoam snowman, which now has a hole in its forehead where the hanging thread part used to be.

You could go with a Calvin snowman theme.

You could go with a Calvin snowman theme.

THIS.

You could go with a Calvin snowman theme.

LOVE