The Doggy Diaries... gone to the dogs!

Merry Christmas to All!

Hey folks. Just signing on to wish you all a very Merry Christmas. The hubby and I hope each and every one of you is staying warm and perhaps enjoying a nice meal with your loved ones, all the while generating memories to warm your heart for years to come!

Ours has been a very quiet Christmas. No family get-togethers for us today. Nope. ... In fact, this is the first Christmas that my darlin' little husband and I have spent as "just the two of us." I made a modest Christmas lunch/dinner today with a small ham, stuffing, and roasted sweet potatoes and onions. I could have gone bigger with the meal, but we only had two people to feed, and I didn't want to end up with a lot of leftovers. So I nixed the crescent rolls, dinner salad, cranberry conserve and mashed potatoes with gravy. Still, I did make two desserts -- a pumpkin pie and a refrigerated dish I know only as "Cherry Chiffon."

We imbibed a bottle of white wine given to us by a coworker. I swear, I must be allergic to alcohol because even though I waited until I had finished eating all the food on my plate before partaking of my wine, after just one small glass, I was fully loopy, buzzed, couldn't think straight, and had lost my equilibrium. I fell asleep for the next 1.5 hours, and when I awoke, I had the most awful taste in my mouth. I'm just now coming to my senses. It seems no matter how many different ways I try to enjoy a glass of wine (with dinner, after dinner, with dessert, etc.), the same thing always happens. Hence, I wonder if I am allergic because my reaction seems too fierce to be normal.

Did anyone get any nice gifts for Christmas this year? I'm curious to hear of any new techie gadgets y'all received. I had thought about purchasing a digital photo frame for my mom and stepdad, but considering that my folks aren't very impressed with techie gifts, I was concerned that we'd spend $150 on a gift that would wind up in a spare bedroom never to be loaded with photos. So, we opted for the old standby -- a favorite movie for each of them.

Between the two of us, we did not exchange gifts this year. Yes, yes, I know that sounds bad, but it was a mutual decision. We spent so much money on scuba diving classes this summer, and we're also now saving for a house of our own, so it was a decision that made sense to us. Besides, to me, Christmas is not about consumerism; it's about spending a special day with your loved ones, and if you're religious, it's about celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ.

With that, I'm off to enjoy my husband's company now that I'm returning to a normal, non-inebriated state of mind. I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

Thursday's Thirteen No. 6

Thirteen Famous Trees to See in California

Sorry folks, but I'm so busy at work that I don't have time to elaborate here. Wish I did, though, because I have a thing for large, majestic trees (as evidenced from my photo series this fall of the trees in my neighborhood).

Please accept this sparse list of famous trees (or tree groves or parks) in California. In exchange for not writing much about each tree, I list fourteen famous trees instead of thirteen. It's like a baker's dozen for Thursday's Thirteen!

1. Mariposa Grove
2. The Lone Cypress
3. General Sherman (Close to my hometown, this was one of the first "famous" trees I saw as a child.)
4. Wawona Tunnel Tree (fell in the winter of 1968-1969)
5. The Faithful Couple
6. Chief Sequoyah (named after the famous Chief Sequoyah who created an alphabet for the Cherokee language)
7. Joshua Trees
8. Methuselah (oldest tree in the world at 4838 years!)
9. General Grant (also known as the nation's Christmas tree, the General Grant tree is also located close to my hometown)
10. The Avenue of the Giants
11. Redwood National and State Parks in California
12. The Chandelier Tree
13. Robert E. Lee Tree
14. The Lone Bristlecone (I've always found the idea of a pine tree in the middle of a desert rather spooky. Makes me wonder what that desert looked like thousands of years ago when this tree was just a sapling.)

Tinseltown Theme for Firefox 2.0

Are you in the Christmas spirit yet? I'm getting there but realized that what would really make me smile would be to bring the added joy of Christmas to my computer whilst I labor. I found just what the doctor ordered in the new Tinseltown theme for Firefox 2.0.

Tinseltown is a Christmas theme with holiday imagery including Christmas lights, snow, reindeer, presents and more.

For more information about Tinseltown, you can visit the creator's website. You'll also want to make sure you're running Firefox 2.0 (as I soon discovered when trying to install this theme while still running Firefox 1.5.0.9).