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yesterday we brought home a new kitten. well, he’s a young cat/older kitten. we adopted him through feline rescue, a no-kill rescue shelter, and the same shelter where we got otto, our other cat. we had planned on getting a female, but the only female cat they had at the age we wanted (6-12 months - old enough to have had most of their shots, already altered, etc) was one named wendy who was VERY bonded to her brother and mom, who were all at the same foster home. even though i know they will probably be split up at some point, i couldn’t be the one to do it, especially since those two kittens were still nursing. the handsome kitty we brought home had a sister and mama at the same shelter, but was already more independent and outgoing. bill wasn’t sure about getting another cat, but when ‘drew’ (litter name) started licking his hand and purring, i knew it was all over. there was one other kitten who was very sweet, named loli, but he was a black cat, like frida, and i didn’t think i was ready to see another black cat in our house just yet.

anyway, here he is! if anyone has name ideas, feel free to post them. we’re thinking we’d like something that is a bit princely, since he has a regal quality to him. personally, i love the name rufus, which means ‘red-headed’ but he’s just NOT a rufus. maybe fergus, which was one of my favorite boy names when we were pregnant with ella (and this might be the only red-headed boy i get!). diego - after diego rivera, since our former cat was frida after frida khalo. ‘weasley’ and ‘percy’ are in the running (having just seen harry potter 4 yet again), as is ‘ludo’ (then we’d have otto and ludo (bagman)). searched the encyclopedia of arda (LoR), but most of the names are either too hobbity for him, or too hard to pronounce.

update: he’s now Louis (pron. looey), or more properly, Snow Louis Sun King. Now that he’s Louis, how could he have been anything else? - Bill

we spent our thanksgiving up in duluth. since we didn’t have family in duluth growing up, we would get together with other families in similar situations, rotating host families each year. it grew into quite a tradition. my parents only have thanksgiving at their house once in a blue moon. we missed the last time, so we were happy to have a thanksgiving at thier home this year. the girls had a great time playing with all the dress up clothes and toys, going for hikes in the snow, visiting grandma kathy’s friend with all the birds, and getting sweets from hepzibah’s sweete shoppe.

what a week! on tuesday, ella went to the dentist for the very first time! she was a perfect patient and had a very good experience. bill also had a check up the same day. both of them were sent home w/ a ‘no cavities’ report! hurrah.

on thursday, uncle john and uncle mike came over for dinner. i had yoga class and had missed two classes in the past two weeks (sinus infection, and then ella’s concert and frida’s death), so i REALLY couldn’t miss it. SO, i made a big batch of yummy cabbage soup, and popped two pies in the oven before i left for class. the connell boys and the two girls had dinner while i was gone (ella helped make butterfly biscuits), and i arrived just in time for dessert! we had a great visit with the uncles. ella and fi had such a good time, especially since they don’t see uncle john that often.

friday night - the girls both both got hair cuts. i was just going to trim fiona’s since it has been a mess of tangles no matter how often we brush. then ella wanted a hair cut too. bill was up next, but we ran out of time. he got to go to an actual barber on saturday. on saturday, we had karen’s baby shower over at their place. again, we had a good visit with the uncles, and the aunts. it was nice meeting some of karen and mike’s friends who we hadn’t met before, and seeing again those we had. the uncles took the girls to the park and the donut shop while we had the shower. by the end of the day we were all pretty tired out!

today we woke up early. i went for a run with my friend kelly at como. we were starting our first lap around the lake when we saw a HUGE crowd of people running on the other side of the lake. well, it was the turkey run 5k! if we had only gotten there a bit earlier we could have done a race! as it was, the paths ended up pretty crowded with racers, so we only did one lap ourselves. after i got home, we bundled up the girls for…

ICE SKATING!!!!

this was the first time on the ice for ella and fiona…and the first time in about 10+ years for both bill and me. we had a wonderful time. ella did not want to get off the ice. at one point i thought we were done and went in to change into boots and ella said ‘NO! i need to skate more! can we go again? now? please!?’ so, we headed back out for a few more laps. ella started to skate on her own a bit, and learned how to do grapevines. she spent a lot of time falling over, but was holding my hand and/or the boards the whole time, so there were no major wipe outs. fiona also had a good time and did really well for her first time. afterwards, there was a young figure skater there getting ready to go out on the ice. she had on a pretty skating costume, all purple and pink with sequins. ella was VERY interested in that. anyway, we will go again for sure. can’t wait for the rink down the road to open. btw, sandy, those are the hats you knit for ella. they still fit both girls!

I had a cyclocross race over the weekend, our last race for 2005! It was the State Cyclocross Championships at Basset Creek Park in Crystal, MN. No, i didn’t earn my way into the championships or anything, it’s just the last big race of the year.

First thing in the morning, it’s 40? and wet after a night of rain (snow was predicted). Feeling slow after being at the beginning of the month and a couple of weeks not really riding, but did reasonably well (results not online yet, didn’t stay for results).

Nice course, with a mudhole/stream crossing (the picture at right, soaked through my socks!), wooden stair runup, and a runup with 2 obstacles to the finish line. One crash on the first lap, on an off-camber wet grass turn, no real damage though. Could have used some knobbier tires for the wet stretches, but they worked fine if i kept my speed up. Worst problem was muddy cleats, really hard to clip back in, I kept having to bang the mud off on the cranks.

Great course setup though, good space for spectators, definitely a good one to do again. Too cold for the girls to hang out for the post-race party and awards, we’ll have to try to stay longer next year.

ella had her first school concert on thursday. each children’s house classroom performed two songs. ella’s classroom named themselves ’super drums’ and performed songs from cuba and brazil. their teacher was a local musician, mick labriola, who worked as an artist in residence at the school over the last month or so, via an arts grant.

we were very proud of ella. it was such a hard day, with frida passing, so it was very nice to be able to focus on a happy occation that evening. ella was very tired out and spent a little time crying before the concert started. she had practiced so hard for this concert, showing us her drumming every day after school and singing songs she had learned. it was hard to see her not be able to participate fully because of how hard the day had been for everyone. she didn’t drum very much, but was able to sing the song. after the concert was over, we gave her the drum we had been saving as a christmas present. she was able to show us her drumming at home, and then playing her new drum for frida’s burial.