Merry Christmas

So this year Kyle and I had our first Christmas alone together. It was fun making the Christmas dinner and getting to open our presents together. We did miss our families though, but at least we were able to go home and see them for a few days before Christmas. I was supposed to work on Christmas Day so we came home Christmas Eve and had our Christmas dinner then.

This is a picture of our wonderful Christmas Eve dinner. It wasn't much, but it sure was tasty. Everything turned out wonderful, which was a relief since I had never cooked Christmas dinner by myself before.

Kyle was a huge help with Christmas dinner, even though I noticed that he didn't wait until desert to try our pumpkin pie.

Kyle carving the Christmas Ham.

This was our small Christmas tree. The cat's were pretty good about leaving it alone although they did knock it over once while we were in Walla Walla and they do like to eat our bird decorations. They just love the tail feathers.

So Christmas morning finally arrived, well actually we got up and opened presents at 5:00am when the hospital called and woke us up to say that I could be on-call and could spend Christmas at home. So we got up and opened our presents, and the cats opened theirs.

This toy is called a Cat Teaser and it works great for teasing them. We did end up having to take it away though because Kabob likes to carry it in his mouth and hide and growl to keep anyone from taking it away from him. Maybe we teased him too much and now he is afraid that we will take it away...which we did.

The cats really enjoyed all of the catnip in the toys too. This is Kabob after he has had a little too much catnip.

Here he is passed out after a lot too much catnip. Notice that he is passed out on a catnip toy pillow.

So then Kyle and I open all of our presents. Kyle liked his boat and really wanted to go play in the snow with it but I was a little too cold and a little too tired at 5am so he just played with it in the house.

Merry Christmas!

ceramics update

Here is a preview of my final capstone project for ceramics. I'm going to make a vase out of different colors of clay in a process called neriage. Here is a chili pepper I made from a mold using the two clays.

When throwing with this clay it leaves a cool pattern on the wheel when you cut it off of the wheel.

I had to make the vase in two parts because I suck and can't throw tall things. the bottom is in the close one and the top is in the background. It should be about 11.5 in. tall when its done.

here is the vase before it has been bisqued. the swirly design is some more neriage. its made by rolling strips of clay into a log to form the pattern you want and then cutting it really thin. So what you see is the cross-section of the log I made. When it has been bisqued I will put a clear glaze on it and then fire it for the final time.

Happy Halloween

When I went to the hospital's employee Halloween Party a couple of my coworkers and I went as the pink ladies. I was Sandy. I still can't believe how big I got my hair, I guess with a lot of hairspray anything is possible. I'm just glad I don't smoke or I may have combusted that night. I have to admit I totally rocked the tight black polyester pants and sexy shoes.

This is the back of my Pink Ladies jacket. I love puffy paints.

This is Shish in her Halloween costume. Since she is definitely the larger of the two kittens, it was only fitting that she got to be the piggy this year. As you can tell she still doesn't know if she likes Halloween.

Another picture of our happy pig.

Shish finally warmed up to the idea of Halloween when she learned what trick or treating is.

Cat + Water = ???

Well, most cats are afraid of water right? Not our cats. This first pic is of Shish, she is more timid that Kabob but is still fascinated by the water. She likes to sit on the edge of the tub and watch the water fill up the tub and watch the shower too. She occasionally will stick a paw in the water but that is as close as she willingly gets.

Kabob on the other hand has no fear, or just doesn't know better. He jumps right in the tub with you. Kabob not only likes the bathtub, he also likes the shower and the water in the sink when you brush your teeth.

One problem we have found with a cat that is not afraid of water...Once when Kyle was peeing in the toilet Kabob must have thought it resembled a shower because he decided to stick his paw in the stream of "water" and splash around. At least he also enjoyed the bath he earned afterwards.

New Friends

As you may or may not know, Kyle and I have to new roommates, Shish and Kabob. These are our new kittens who were orphaned at 2 weeks of age. Their mother was scared away by a dog who killed their other sibling they were rescued and taken to a shelter where they were raised until we recently adopted them. Now they are stuck with us. Shish is the larger of the two cats, weighing over 2 pounds more than Kabob when we got them. She is the cat in the front in this picture.

This is Kabob. He was trying to find the best bed in his new house. He tried out a few others before choosing the bathroom sink. His other favorites were an empty cardboard box, a kitchen towel, or Kyle's textbooks(only when he was using them of course).

This is Shish. She is no doubt a princess who thinks she deserves what ever she wants, including sleeping in the masters bed, and occasionally on their heads. An example of how she gets what she wants: On one of the first nights they were in the new house we closed the bedroom door when we went to bed. Shortly after we heard Shish scratching at the door. We thought nothing of it and assumed she would stop soon. She did stop scratching, but she started making a different sound, a sort of pounding sound. When I opened the bedroom door to see what she was doing, I found that she had decided that she would find her own way in and had torn the wood molding of our door frame off of the wall. Kyle's comment "You had to get a cat with opposable thumbs."

Well, of course we had to adopt kittens that are different than other peoples kittens. Our kittens have at least six toes on each paw. Can you see Shish's thumb? Their thumbs seem to come in handy for such tasks as stealing the food bowl from the other cat, grabbing toys and even occasionally breaking off a door frame.

one with the clay.....or something....

So I (Kyle) thought it would be fun to take a ceramics class. turns out I really suck. Anyway, here are some of my creations. I've never blogged before so hopefully all 30 something pictures are going to show up haha. If it works out like I think there will even be captions. Anyway, if you know any really ecsentric person that wants to buy these for like $50 a piece let me know.....otherwise there are going to be someones crappy Christmas presents. Sucks for you guys!!! So let me know what you think and maybe you'll end up with something to decorate the bottom of your trashcan....or don't say anything and you'll get nothing muahahahaha!!!

here is the famous headless bird

leaves or something....

looks like an egg with a plant on it....eggplant?

its like a little basket for tiny things!

these are all future mugs

another famous piece - the headless snowman. on of my favorites. what do you think of my nice painting?

I call it "cup a la bird crap"

Ha! its twisted, take that teacher!

my goblet of doom

this one is super sweet

super comfy and ergonoic....ergomomic...ergoooo...whatever its cool

these were made only with coils of clay. some i smoothed out afterwards.

vases that are supposed to be 8 inches tall...I thought 3 and six inches sounded better.

some tall 6 inch vases

more vases

check out the size of that handle

kiwano fruit turned into a bookstop...well it will be if they dont fall apart before they get fired. lol

headless bird got some color!

these things smell like an old firepit