Author: Average Jane

Average Jane’s Holiday Mood

Despite the fact that funds are low this year, I'm having a rather nice holiday season already. My extended family agreed well in advance that no one would be buying gifts for other adults, so I got the shopping for my niece and nephew done pretty quickly.

Now I just need to wrap everything and take it over to my sister's house early so my car won't be so overloaded on Christmas Day.

At my office, our 2011 "holiday card" is this website, that features amusing videos of one of our associate creative directors (who is also a comedian) doing "good." Every day this week, he has spent literally all day on camera, riffing on whatever people suggest using the Twitter hashtag #randomgood.

I haven't had a lot of time to watch, but the highlight of almost every day has been a jam with him on banjo, one of our techical directors on guitar and one of our finance department ladies singing classics like "Stand by Me." We have an open floorplan, so almost everyone in the office can hear it live if they're not watching the stream. There's applause throughout the building when they finish a song. I don't know how many people outside our office are watching, but I think it's been good for office morale if nothing else.

I'm planning a cookie exchange party this Sunday that will, as tradition dictates, include viewings of selected holiday DVDs such as "Christmas Vacation," "Elf" and "Bad(der) Santa" at the end. I suppose I should figure out what kinds of cookies I want to make. I hadn't really given that part much thought yet.

I'd be lying if I didn't admit to being rather excited that my office will be closed from December 24th through January 2nd. Of course, that doesn't mean I don't have to work if something comes up, but even if that happens I'll still be spending a nice, long week at home.

So what I'm saying is that I'm looking forward to the holidays. This year promises a perfect balance of friends, family, food and entertainment.

What do you have planned?

December 16, 2011
Average Jane Decorates

I finally put up the tree and a portion of the other decorations I have. Christmas decorations seem to multiply on their own when left in their bags and tubs from December to December.

Here's a look at some of the pretties:

The tree, tucked into a corner for safety and traffic flow reasons.

Dr. Jones, explaining in a single image why I put the "security garland" of bells around the bottom of the tree.

Xena looks a bit put out by all of the activity.

The silk poinsettia goes behind the fireplace screen both for decoration and to remove feline temptation.

Even the everyday decor gets into the act.

Holly garland, mistletoe and the Christmas cards I've received so far. All of this stuff will fall down repeatedly throughout the month, if history is any guide.

I'm sorry, WHAT is all this stuff for again?

I initially put my Celine Dion angel on top of the tree, then remembered that I replaced her with a star last year. Sorry, Celine. (Disclaimer: Angel has no actual relation to Celine Dion beyond her rad '90s hairdo.)

Who wants some milk and cookies?

December 12, 2011
It’s Average Jane’s Anniversary

It's been 17 years since these two stood in a Las Vegas wedding chapel and said "I do."

It feels like it's been a very short time, yet it's weighted with all of the many experiences that have taken place in that time.

This year's celebration will be pretty low-key (a nice dinner at a French restaurant), but there is certainly much to celebrate.

Happy anniversary, Alex!

December 9, 2011
Average Jane’s Unwanted Preoccupation

Let me start by saying that I love Toby. He's adorable, sweet, cuddly, fun and delightful in numerous ways. However, the one thing about having a dog that is far more troublesome than I had envisioned is the almost obsessive interest I am forced to take in his elimination habits.

Early on we realized that he was a sneaky pee'er. He had one main spot: behind the chair in the TV room. I would walk in, smell the telltale odor, and then have to drag out the paper towels and the special spray from the pet store, over and over. He would also occasionally go in the kitchen and sometimes in the living room.

I didn't really know what to do, so I tried a lot of things. Obviously we started taking him outside more often. I also bought one of those fake grass pad things, thinking it would be perfect for when it was raining and he absolutely refused to go out (which is apparently a universal Italian Greyhound trait).

I'm kind of embarrassed to admit how excited I was when I noticed that it had been used! Unfortunately, it didn't take long before I realized that our cat, Trillian, was the one using it. I caught her scratching the turf several times and eventually walked in on her when she was actually peeing on it. Weirdo.

Last weekend I thought we had finally cracked the code. We had his outdoor schedule pretty consistent but when it rained he balked, as usual. I got out a wire kennel and started confining him for about an hour every time I took him out and he refused to do his business. Then I'd take him outside immediately after he was released. And it worked! At least until this week when it got really cold.

Yesterday and today he started refusing to even walk when we took him out. He went an entire day without pooping, which is pretty bad considering that he'd had four meals in that time.

It turns out (as far as I can tell) that his fit of stubbornness was because he didn't like having his sweater on under his jacket. Apparently that threw him off his game completely. After a day of increasingly difficult behavior from him, I finally took off his sweater and he immediately asked to go outside, whereupon he trotted joyfully up the street and immediately took care of all of his biological necessities.

So this is obviously going to remain a battle, probably indefinitely. I can't believe that at this stage of my life I'm having entire phone conversations with my husband about the number of times the dog has peed and pooped during the day. But there it is.

Oh, for the simpler days when all I had to do was scoop a litterbox from time to time! Then again, the cats have never played chase with me back and forth through the house or stared lovingly into my face for long periods of time. It's all a tradeoff.

Photo credit: B Mully

December 7, 2011
Average Jane Is So Glad November Is Over

As you might be able to guess from the last couple of posts, I was really running out of steam on NaBloPoMo. As much as I like the idea of posting daily, I simply do not have enough to talk about to justify that much verbiage.

So this is it for November 2011 and I’m sure I’ll do the 30 days in a row again in 2012, but for the time being I’m going to back off until I have something of reasonable substance to say.

Thanks for your patience!

Photo credit: Alban Gonzalez

November 30, 2011
Bromance at Average Jane’s House

Despite the fact that Dr. Jones was the most hostile of our cats when Toby arrived, the two of them have become good buddies. I've seen them snuggled together sleeping and they even run around and play together sometimes.

Yesterday Toby jumped up on the bed with Jones and was trying to get him to play. Jones cuffed him on the head several times, which either meant that he was playing along or he wasn't in the mood to play just then. I think Toby took it as play.

I'm glad that Toby has found a special pal among the cats.

November 29, 2011
Average Jane Is Cold

There was frost on the grass this morning. I was not happy about that. Toby was even less happy about it.

I spent my whole day sitting at my desk wrapped in a thick blanket.

Have I mentioned I'm not a fan of winter?

November 28, 2011
Lazy Sunday at Average Jane’s House

It's cold and gloomy outside, so my plan is to remain in my pajamas and robe as late as possible today and hang out with the critters. I have Thanksgiving leftovers to sustain me, plenty to read, and I'll almost certainly take a nap later on because I stayed up until 2:00 a.m. after going out to see a Bon Jovi tribute band play last night.

I had thought about putting up the Christmas tree and other decorations but I've decided there's no hurry. I have another four-day weekend coming up the week after next, and it makes more sense to do it then.

Enjoy your Sunday!

November 27, 2011
NoMoNaBloPoMo for Average Jane

For the first time in all the years I've been doing NaBloPoMo, I missed writing a post. Yesterday was just that kind of day.

The good news is that it was a very enjoyable day otherwise. I slept in, made soup, worked for my dad a bit, bought a few groceries, made dinner and a pumpkin pie, watched a movie and basically just enjoyed the heck out of the time I was awake.

Of course, this was probably the year when I was finally going to win something for my perfect NaBloPoMo participation. Nah, probably not.

Despite that little hiccup, I'm going to continue posting daily as much as I can in the foreseeable future. I like my blog better when it's this active and I feel that I managed to write two above-average posts this month already. (I'll let you figure out which ones I think those are.)

Anyone else still in the game?

November 26, 2011
Average Jane’s Thanksgiving

I paced my day just perfectly so that I had time to go for a walk, clean up the house, cook everything that needed to be cooked and have dinner on the table by 4:00 p.m.

By 6:30 p.m. I was exhausted and it felt like midnight to me.

There were eight of us for dinner and I still have plenty of leftovers. Turkey pot pie is on tomorrow night's menu for sure.

I've since digested some of the excess food and rallied a bit so I wanted to stop by and write today's post while I have my second wind. I still have a few pots and pans to wash as well, so this will be brief.

One of the highlights of my day was receiving this from my sister:

You may recall the time I camped out in my back yard with my nephew. That was in 2009 when he was four. He'll turn seven in February and he apparently still remembers it so well that he decided to retell the story for a school assignment. How cute is that?

If you can't read it, it says "My Aunt Slest camps awt side. Ian." (Translation: My Aunt Celeste camps outside.")

We don't have to tell him that I haven't done any camping since then. However, it's a good sign that we're due for a canoe trip next year.

My sister and her family spend Thanksgiving in Oklahoma, so I hosted a collection of other relatives and friends. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves.

I'm looking forward to having three more days free. I don't have much planned, but I'd like to spend at least one of those days lying around the house a lot.

How was your day?

November 24, 2011