(yeah right.)

I can maybe see Tiffani(-Amber) Thiessen and Drew Barrymore, but Michael Phelps? Hmm.

Silliness courtesy of myheritage.com

About two weeks ago we had some unseasonably warm weather which allowed us to open the windows for a bit. Since Riesling is enamored with the the smells and sounds of “outside,” she was glued to the window for most of this time. I captured this video right after I opened the window. Basically, she’s interested in eating anything that contrasts from its background, including threads or bugs on the carpet, spots on the window, logos on my shirt, etc. In this case, she saw the knob that holds the screen in place and wanted to taste it. Badly.

*I actually took this video about two weeks ago, but I’ve been having trouble uploading it to YouTube. The first two or three seconds looks scratchy, but if you replay it, it’s fine.

Hope everyone is having a great Christmas! It’s warm here, and we got to open our presents at least 7 hours earlier than everyone in the Eastern Time Zone, so Christmas in Cape Town is pretty sweet :)

This most recent video installment features Riesling venting her frustration on a frisbee in the living room.

YouTube video link

The mini-schnauzer I had growing up, Mandy, used to do the exact same thing, though with more aggression! Beware a frustrated terrier…

Riesling is all ready for Christmas, as her garland necklace testifies:

High on her Christmas list this year is a stuffed squirrel (well, her true wish is a real squirrel, but it’d be rather messy, and quite frankly, I don’t think she would take care of it).

*update - it seems “Santa” is processing Riesling’s request…

Normally I try to wait till Thanksgiving (week) to start Christmas music, but since we need to have our shopping done in three weeks, I figured I’d start a little earlier. I usually start with Bing Crosby and Nat King Cole (linked to Amazon above), but with >106 hours of Christmas-related .mp3s, we don’t have to hear duplicates all that often!

*I do this all the time.

We’re not big collectors by nature but I will mention that I tend to buy pint glasses when I visit breweries, so the 30 or so glasses we have as a result might qualify as a collection, per se, but at least it’s practical. We will never run out of clean pint glasses. Ever.

The point of this post, however, is to highlight our growing Opus and Bill™ Christmas ornament collection. Eric had one (or two?) when we got together and we’ve bought the new ones every year since we’ve been married. We’ve also supplemented our collection by purchasing older (rarer) pieces on eBay. It’s too bad some of the really old ones are going for well over $100. That’s a tad much for a piece of plastic, IMO.

It’s just a little silliness that brings us joy. Our collection (so far!):

• Opus the Red-Nosed Penguin (1993)
• Merry Kissmas from Opus (1995)
• Frozen Fun (1997)
• Head over Heels (1998)
• Gag Gift (1999)
• Christmas Smooches (2000)
• Poppin’ Up for Christmas (2001)
• Joy Riding with Opus n Bill (2002)
• Opus’ Snow Doom (2003)
• Opus Shakes Up the Holdays (2004)
• Opus Goes Nuts (2005)
• Rocket Penguin (2006)

When we got to work this morning, the grey truck on the right and the red car on the left were already there. The red car is clearly taking up more than its fair share of parking space but spots are so few in this crowded lot that I knew someone would try to park next to him anyway.

Eeeehhhnn! Perfect!

And I was right.

The best part is that in order for the Eclipse driver to get out of the car, they would have to hit the passenger door of the red car. I say that person* deserves all the scrapes they get.

*Anyone who knows me IRL knows I typically use far more colorful language when idiots like this park RIGHTNEXT to my truck especially when they have PLENTY of room on the other side. Hurumph. And for the record, I always stay in between the lines when parking. :)

“Starlight” by Muse, first heard on BBC Radio 1 several months ago. You can hear the song on their MySpace page. “Supermassive Black Hole” is also recommended :)