4th place!

I'm rather proud of the Dancers Only Senior All Stars - 4th place at the Michigan State Spirit Showdown. They really held their own against some other really good, well-established high school teams. They were the only studio team there.

There were a couple glaring mistakes in the first kickline and one of the girls dropped a pom later but for their first time competing in this style? Pretty damn awesome, I think.

Miss Angela had actually been to this particular competition before. She went with her school JV team back when she was in 9th or 10th grade. A good thing about it was how quick they kept it moving. Of course there was the one school who insisted on practically every girl doing a solo, whether they were any good or not. Some were pretty painful to watch. But the time limit on solos / duets / trios were pretty short, so we survived. And I hate announcers who talk down to the audience, like they're idiots. I understand that a lot of spectators don't really know what is going on, but do they really need to spiel about how much courage it takes for these kids to get out there alone, blah blah blah. No shit, Sherlock! And did you really need to say that right after the girl who fell and forgot half her routine left the floor? Sheesh.

I made spaghetti for dinner Friday night, because it had been a tradition when I was a kid for Mom to make pasta the night before my brothers had big swim meets. So I do the same for Angel. Plus it's something she really likes and I'm sure the carbs help fuel her the next day. She needs all the help she can get since apparently its a dancer thing to get a nervous stomach and not want to eat in the morning. I did get her to eat half a donut before heading backstage (by force-feeding her!) and she had most of a medium mocha coolata thing from Dunkin Donuts, so she had something in her tummy. And I know Terina won't let the girls go without food, so I imagine there was something backstage for them to munch on.

It was a lovely hour drive Saturday morning to get to the school.  Their parking lot was confusing, with not having entrances where it seemed there should be.  I confess to 4-wheeling across part of the lawn and almost getting stuck in the mud!  Hopefully nobody was in the drivers training car sitting in the driveway!  But my Vue is SO festive, with garland and red bows on the luggage wrack and muddy tires and mud splatters all along the sides & even up on the windows!

What was funny, Saturday night was Angel's work Christmas party.  She works at a Thai restaurant and they had it after the restaurant closed for the night at 10!  Her & Sarah (who she dances with) joked around about going in full competition hair & makeup just to see what people would say.  But I noticed Angel did have her hair somewhat the same way, she braided it across the front, but was still in a high pony with the bow! And she wore black leggings and her studio jacket.  She toned down her makeup and took off the fake lashes, tho.

So my troops of nutcrackers have finally invaded my house! I was pretty motivated Friday night and brought the 3 big totes in and unpacked them. Granted a lot of them are all currently standing in the living room on the coffee table like a really lame party. I also hung a display shelf in the kitchen for our souvenir shot glasses, moved all my plants off the corner table in kitchen, dusted the whole corner, put the holiday cloth on that table, hung my stained glass trees in the window and plucked off some dead leaves before replacing all the plants and watering them.

Here's Rudy with all the ladies...... 

This is from one of the totes!

Maybe I'm starting to find some holiday spirit.  I have been happy looking at lights.  In fact Randy and I took the dog for a walk around the neighborhood tonight after dark so we could look at them.  I can't imagine being these boring people who don't put any lights up.  I told Randy I don't care if we lived in the middle of 100 acres and no one else could see us - I'd still put up lights because they make ME happy!  And people - timers are your friend!  They ensure your lights turn on, even if you're not home to do it!  I could see several houses that had them up, but not on. 

I'm hoping tomorrow goes smoothly with taking Miss Daisy in to get her sutures removed.  The burn on her belly doesn't look any different to me - better or worse. Hopefully the vet sees something positive. She's passed out on my lap right now, I don't know how she's even comfortable, but her little feets are twitching and I can play with them and her not move. 

We had record high temperatures for the past 2 days (and last night, too!)  It's bizarre to take the dog outside without bundling up, in fact standing out on the patio in just a t-shirt!  Not complaining in the slightest!  In fact, Lucy, the giant freakin' spider who lived between our backdoor and porch light all summer, is still around!  Yes, we named her and I'll spare you the picture.  Her body is easily the size of an M&M.  She's out there with a fresh web, but I can't imagine she's getting much to eat. I haven't seen any bugs. 

Time to go put the antiseptic on Daisy's belly and find some clothes to wear to work.  It's time to turn in!  

#TFTLS

And here we go!

We put the tree up last Wednesday and little Miss Daisy didn't seem to be too obnoxious around it. Friday, Angel & I put lights & garland on it and everything still seemed to be OK. I got around to putting a couple ball ornaments on it a couple nights ago and BINGO! The inevitable happened. 

She reached up past the silver & gold balls to get to the one shiny green ball and proceeded to knock it down several times. it's not even on the tree now. 

She's so funny that she will copy what Chester does - the much older, supposed-to-be wiser cat.  When I tried to put the rest of the ornaments on light night, he sat on top of the tote that I wanted to open.  Once I shoo'd him down, she had to get on it.  Mostly she's been lying under it, because the tree skirt is fleece so it's fluffy & warm.

So listen to this craziness - I took Daisy in last Thursday to get spayed.  Over the weekend, she appeared to lick a spot raw on her belly, next to the incision.  There was some weird swelling and it looked like she'd pulled a suture out, so I called the vet Monday and took her in.  There are 2 vets in this office we go to, Dr. R appears to be the senior vet and does the surgeries, Dr. K is the backup.  I like them both, actually.  We saw Dr. K this time.  The good news is, the swelling was normal (wish they would have told me that at the beginning!!), they glued the spot that was unsewed and they gave me some solution to soak the scabby spot on her belly and then told me to put Neosporin on it.  She took a picture and texted it to Dr. R, who wanted me to bring her back in to see it personally.  We went today.  She told me that Daisy had been the second recently-spayed cat to come in about this same thing and a third owner had just called.  They did some investigating and found out that the new bulb they'd just installed on the operating table had heated up the clamps so badly that the kittens had gotten burned!!!  I thought this lady was going to cry when she told me, she felt so bad!  I was just relieved they found out what it was and that we were already taking steps to help her heal.  The poor baby!  She goes back Monday to have the sutures removed and hopefully she won't have to go back for a long time.  Poor booger doesn't like the cage or car rides. And the last 2 times we've been there, there has been barking dogs in the lobby and she didn't like them at all.  Today the biggest bulldog I'd ever seen (named Sarge appropriately) kept lunging toward us.  I set the carrier on a chair and stood in front of it in case he got loose! 

This weekend is the first dance competition of the year for Miss Angela!  There's a new All-Star team at the studio and they'll be competing against high school dance teams and such.  She's actually been to the Michigan State Spirit Showdown a couple years ago, with the Utica JV dance team.  However, as of right now....they don't even have costumes (uniforms? costumiforms!)!! We paid for them back in September, so I'm not sure what the holdup has been!!!  They're supposed to be in tomorrow - sure hope they don't need any alterations (like Angel and a couple other girls usually need) but they do need to be rhinestoned!  Damn, people.

Doesn't everyone have a skeleton wearing an ugly Christmas sweater?

This is Rudy.  

He crossed over to the jolly side because he heard there are cookies and hot chocolate. 

So I haven't even brought in my nutcrackers yet.  I have a huge collection - over 100!  I have some in the house, the ones I acquired since putting stuff away last winter and my 3 really big guys.  But there's 3 huge totes full out in the garage, yet!  I've been in that Bah-Humbug mood because my house is a mess and I don't know what to do with all this CRAP!!  Our house is really small with very little storage so I have a hard time getting anything actually put away, because there is no such place!  I make fairly regular donations to the Vietnam Veterans, but it doesn't seem to make a dent.  Sometimes I want to burn the house down and just start over (being dramatic - I wouldn't actually do that!)

Last Saturday was my work Christmas party.  It's a nice time.  Fancy Italian restaurant with a 'mentalist' as entertainment.  Good food and we always get a bottle of wine from the owner of the company.  He always does a speech about the state of the company and how much he appreciates all of us.  He acknowledged the 12 new people hired this year and the 4 of us non-family people who have been with him over 15 years, then told us about raises & bonuses - hooray!  After the party, he invited us all into the bar to watch the Michigan State game and drinks were on him.  Randy and I don't care for football (Me Like Hockey!) so we opted to head home.

Randy must have eaten something that gave him hallucinations.  He was drifting in and out of sleep while I read, waiting from Miss Angela to get home from a friend's going-away party and he rolled over and told me there was a piece of glitter on his face.  So I told him to close his eyes and he wouldn't see it.  He told me it was red glitter and was burning a hole in his cheek!  What a goofball!

Last Sunday we went to the Detroit Zoo to see their "Wild Lights".  It was pretty neat.  We took Mom in our car so we could use her handicap parking and even got invited to park on the grass right next to the gate to the zoo!  It was a nice night.  They had hot chocolate stations and fire pits all along the route so it was pretty nice.  Right as we left, the fog started rolling in.

This is the water tower, we could barely see it!

I can't believe Christmas is in 2 weeks!  Where has 2015 gone?

#TFTLS

Skywatch Friday 12/11

I.m going back a few weeks to the Friday after Thanksgiving to the tree lighting / fireworks at Huckleberry Railroad in Flint, MI. I took a video of the finale of the fireworks, but you could hear my mom really enjoying them.  While it's quite funny, she's pretty annoying, too. 

 

Linking up yet again over at Skywatch Fridays !
#TFTLS