And So On

Pebble thinks that the Christmas tree is the best cat toy ever. That would be why there are ornaments scattered all over the floor under it and in unlikely places, like the bottom of the stairs. Fortunately or unfortunately, I'm giving up on breakable ornaments: a decision that was mostly made for me anyway by the last two moves. Now Pebble is helping out. She's surprisingly adept at getting ornaments off the tree, I must say. Maybe she does have thumbs. There goes a tiny wooden Ukrainian egg, right now. Thump thump! It turns out that the gentle tinkle of a treasured glass ball breaking is almost the same sound as the gentle tinkle of approximately $30 worth of propane heating up the hot water in the walls and hitting the baseboard registers, too, so you don't actually know what's happening unless you're dumb enough to walk through the house barefoot. Ah seasonal joy.

But the tree is not alone in losing its glory. This house apparently has a big population of Borrowers or minor demons living in it. Stuff gets moved around and disappears at an uncanny rate. Part of this is the QOB, who has a tendency to wander around picking things up and putting them in places she finds more aesthetically pleasing or something. She also gets worried; she was concerned about the couple of stray pieces of real silver that had found their way into my eclectic collection of stainless forks and spoons harvested from the Goodwills of several states. "Silver disappears," she said darkly, "Even though you think it won't."
"Okay," I said, not worrying about it particularly because I sort of feel that if one of my visitors needs the approximate $1.27 that s/he'd get for a teaspoon that badly, well.
So she hid it for me. I know this because I discovered my spoons and an ornately ugly Victorian butter knife under a plant. Now if I could just find my good Sabatier knife, two pairs of scissors, the blue hammer and the ten or so glasses that have completely vanished, I'd be happy.

Django has his own opinions on decorating too and is bound and determined to create the perfect dog environment in the back yard. He's doing this by redistributing the recycling around in the dirt, burying dog toys, digging holes and creating muddy paths from one end of the yard to the other. It's quite beautiful out there to his way of thinking and I'm sure the neighbors love me even more now. Good thing they can't see the porch, which the dogs have lovingly decorated by shredding the old sleeping bag that was supposed to be keeping them warm and my environmentally conscious green bamboo rug, or the tar and feathers would be on their way.