We're in Florida

The cats and I are safely ensconced in Florida and my husband should be in Paris by now. I don't envy him the gray skies there, that's for sure. Florida is glorious and sunshiny warm - very good for my soul.

Getting the cats here was stressful. I had to take Pokey out -- to put her carrier through the x-ray machine -- and carry her and she completely freaked out. She peed on my shirt, a bit of poo as well, and managed to give me a nasty gash across the fleshy bit of my palm. When my husband saw that I was about to lose her, he dashed through the security gate to help. Of course the alarms went off and we ended up having to re-do both the little carry-on cats. I completely had no problem with that - security comes first - but I learned a valuable lesson. It's a three person job to get the cats taken care of and don't rush the job.

I'd like to think I'd have held on to Pokey no matter what, but it terrifies me to think that we could have lost her. My husband later saw a little dog wearing a harness and leash that didn't set off the gate alarm, so I'm going to hunt those down for our next move.

Cats have settled in and are enjoying the bigger condo. No more slinking around, which is good to see. I'm hoping that moving becomes routine for them and not such a big deal.

I overdid it with Christmas. Bought a bigger tree than I intended to (smaller ones that I liked were sold out) so of course I had to buy more ornaments too. After seeing what was available in Target, I widened my colors from just lime green and pink, to include royal blue, teal, turquoise, magenta, purple and silver. It all looks fabulous next to the quilt Shells, which ended up finding a home here in Florida. It's on an angled wall from the tree, which is why this looks a bit screwy.

This pic has the purple beaded garland that I added to the tree yesterday. And there's Howler enjoying the sunshine. He's been a real pest at night trying to get behind the blinds.

My husband would totally hate this tree. He's a traditional red, white and green kind of guy. I love it tho, sparkly shiny and glorious colors. There are ornaments that look like disco balls. My sweet friend Siobhan mailed me some ornaments that work perfectly and I love the silver martini glass and shaker - very retro, but not very photogenic.

I bought the bottom of the line Bernette sewing machine, but haven't used it yet. I so wanted to upgrade to a Bernina, but I had to keep telling myself "second machine, second machine." I've now got everything I need to start doing some sewing, but it's been much easier to just sit in the recliner playing Sudoku and loving on kitties when I haven't been out fighting crowds.