… you know which little girl’s 3rd birthday was yesterday!

If you guessed Zooey Grace Arroyo, you’re … right!

Holla at this kitten!

Dear Mama,

If you are, indeed, as you threatened, purchasing a ::shudder:: artificial Christmas tree this year, I may well disown you.

If you think Zooey Grace will be unkind to the tree (biting and chewing and whatnot), please consider a spruce, as I just now saw on HGTV that spiky spruces tend to fend kittens off.

Throwing it out there, with much love,

lqa

Q: How many shades of insane will LQA turn when she spends 12 pm Tues.-7 am Wed.[!!!!!] driving from South Florida to NC, with no heat in her car, an un-chill kitten, a radiant desire to remain near the beach, a slight supply of dollars, a single [albeit awesome] Flight of the Conchords CD for her listening pleasure, and a double shift of work starting at 9 am the following — ha, excuse me — same morning?

…

Yea, see, I have so much stuff to do tonight before I head down to Florida for Thanksgiving, with screaming kitten in tow, but instead, I have focused not on packing or whatevs, but picking out a travel outfit.

And at what point do I realize that I am not an adult? Or remotely sane? It’s when:

• I offend my own aesthetic sensibilities by giving into (and purchasing) the Puffy Vest;
• decide on a hot pink ‘FIERCE’ t-shirt and mini-skirt;
• cannot decide between teal leggings or striped gray legwarmers;
• am knitting a scarf, packing some cat toys, and drinking the last of a bottle of Amazin zinfandel (which my brother-in-law very kindly taught my coordination-impaired self to open last night);
• watching Seinfeld;
• blogging;
• and deciding which books and crossword puzzles I need to bring for my trip (because I already decided on the coloring book that I’d like to complete with OpiuMom).

I especially love 5 particular, animals; it’s tough to call a ‘favorite.’

[Which, to take my typical tangent, is why I dislike the term "best friend," even if you know it's pretty much true.]

In no particular order [actually, it might be vaguely chronological], I present to you:

• Cat: I just have always loved them. That’s easy. I also have known 2 particuarly awesome ones: Alexander Wesley and  Zooey Grace. I wish they had had a chance to meet.
• Frog: This is my Daddy-O’s “favorite” animal. Actually, he always used to pretend to be super-afraid of them, and scream whenever I would tease him with little frogs dolls and such. I love and miss my papa.
• Owl: At the very least for as long as I have been alive, OpiuMom and Daddy-O have had a lovely owl painting hanging in our living room, which I have always admired. Not to be [even more than I already am] macabre, I have insisted from a young age that I shall have my name next to “owl painting” in their wills.
• Duck: We once got two ducks at the South Florida Fair; I named them after rides: Ferris [as in the wheel] and Phoenix [as in the ride, but also, more fittingly, as in 'the rising bird']. Ferris died as a swaddler under the incubator (a converted aquarium with hay); Phoenix lived (until he was brutally killed by my brother [CJA I]’s awful ::shudder:: dog … which brings me to Tangent the Third: So many of my beloved pets have been dog-slain, hence my slightly-more-than-mild cynophobia).
  Come to think of it, my first words, spoken at 7 months: Donald Duck.
• Giraffe: The day my nephew, Little Giraffe, was born, I had a very vivid dream about him being a year-or-so old. I was at Toys ‘r’ Us with him, and told him to pick out anything he liked. He just kept baby-saying: ‘A little giraffe; I just want a little giraffe.’

Hey,

Happy

Halloween.

It’s Z-O-O-E-Y:

My kitten has a 2nd name; it’s G-R-A-C-E.

(Maybe I am a 25-year-old Cat Lady. Not unlikely. At all.)

This is exactly how my kitten got that nickname:

Toilet Zooey, indeed.

We are no longer Lindsey Quinn and Zooey Grace; we are Geese Whalebone and Gravel Blood!

What’s your Palin name?