Christmas 2008

It's been a memorable Christmas weekend. On Tuesday we learned that Laura's blood pressure was up so the doctor ordered bed rest and no travel. We had been planning to visit Mom and Dad, so this was disappointing news. Perhaps more distressing, not only had we eaten almost all the food in the house, but now Laura couldn't do any cooking!
I took matters in to my own hands and went grocery shopping. When I came out, I had a whole new appreciation for Laura's ability to stay on budget! How can ice cream, donuts and chocolate covered pretzels add that much to a grocery bill?
As part of this bed rest routine, the doctor also asked Laura to record her blood pressure 3 times a day. Fortunately, she's got her own stethoscope. I'm not sure where it came from, but she's also got one of those arm cuffs that'll just about squeeze your arm off. After a few days of helping her with that, my curiosity kicked in and I had her teach me how to do it. So, for the past few days I've been taking her blood pressure and the numbers look a lot better! Seriously, her blood pressure is back to normal now, so we're looking forward to tomorrow's appointment.
Perhaps the biggest beneficiary of our home confinement this weekend has been our cat Mischief. She's been spending a lot of time inside and enjoying every minute of it. Our other cat, Tee, is left outdoors and he'll sometimes hop on a window sill to keep an eye on us. Well, he did this the other day and Mischief, who was contently purring away on Laura's lap, took notice and instantly went on high alert! She froze in the crouched, 4 point, I'm-about-to-kill-the-next-thing-that-moves stance and stared Tee down through the window. Tee meanwhile was completely oblivious, as usual, and was taking a leisurely sun bath. Mischief, sensing the time was right, leapt from Laura's lap, hit the floor at full speed and then forgot there was a window pane between her and Tee. The ensuing explosion nearly shocked Tee out of his fur and caused the two of us to completely lose it. For a brief moment, Tee resembled the cartoon version of a cat fight - a blur of wildly gyrating fur and paws - on a perfect parabolic trajectory from the window sill out into the middle of the yard. By the time Mischief got herself untangled from the plantation blinds, recovered her senses and ran around to the glass door to further torment her prey, Tee was out of sight, running no where in particular, just full speed away from that window!

And now a photo of our little antagonist in her favorite holiday home: