Monday, December 24, 2007

Happy Birthday Percival!

It is past midnight, officially Christmas Eve. I should have announced earlier that yesterday, December 23, was Christmas Adam. Be sure to celebrate it next year. Anyway, this is an exciting day for a few reasons: 1) Christmas is tomorrow! 2) We get to open stockings tonight! 3) It's Percival's birthday!!!

Let me explain. No, it's too much; let me sum up. (If you know where that's from, you are wonderful.) Percy is my beautiful little pomeranian, and she is a Christmas Eve dog. Today she is 13 years old. She had a rough couple of months this year, getting older and all that, but she is back in top form, barking for two meals a day plus treats. She was just groomed and has a Christmas bow in her hair. I have absolutely no idea how to put a picture of her on this blog, but I will try to get Gregory to do it soon. Now, if you meet Percy, you should walk into her kitchen and yell, "PERcival!!!" The only problem is that she can't hear very well anymore, but if she sees you through her cataracts looking excited, she is certain to get excited, too.

Percy is my first dog. Our family had dogs before her, but she is the family dog who is mine. I truly believe that she is the cutest thing in the world, from her delicately pointy face to the tiny quick steps she takes with her little paws. She was born the runt of the litter on December 24, 1994. She came to live with us in July of 1995, and she has been leader of the Acosta household ever since. She has had her favourites in the family, most notably my dad. He pretended not to care about her, but he was caught playing with her several times, and she had many a tummy ache because he fed her table scraps. To my dad, Percy was simply "Dog," or sometimes "Half-dog" (she topped out at a whopping 6 pounds in her youth, but now she is down to 4 1/2). Anyway, after my father died, she began following my mother around. When Greg and I got married, we decided to leave Percy with my mother because she was already getting older and we thought she would be more comfortable in her house. Don't worry--we live five minutes away, so we see her quite often.

And so we toast to Percival--May she live at least four more years! Cheers and salud!

Tuesday, December 11, 2007

Merry Christmas!

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Friday, December 07, 2007

Overheard at the Mall

"There's an ancient Chinese method for folding t-shirts."
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Pi is not something you eat!

I've just realized that neither of us has posted in a long, long time. So, what has happened in the past month or so? Here is a list, in no particular order:

1. I had a wonderful birthday on November 29 (how I love that date). I apparently am 32 years old. I haven't written my annual life evaluation yet, but I have some thoughts. A few of them came to me in that weird state of half sleep.
2. We had wonderful birthday dinners at two of our favourite restaurants, The Cheesecake Factory and the Old Spaghetti Factory. I don't know what it is about factories...
3. Gregory began his new job with Moneytree! He is a vault teller and he is learning quickly. The only time he doesn't enjoy the job is when he has irate customers.
4. I had the worst customer service at Mervyn's the other day. The sales associate practically refused to speak to me. Instead of calling me over to his line, he stared at me until I asked him if he was ready for me. I was the one who said hello, thank you, and have a good day. He didn't even grunt in response. I had some excellent comments for the manager, who apologized profusely. I believe I began with, "My customer service skills are better than his!" I can't stand such lack of service, in case you haven't realized. Even bad service is more acceptable to me (usually) than practically none at all. That said, please do not hold this against your local Mervyn's.
5. I finished teaching my business writing class at Cal State San Bernardino, and I have two weeks left of teaching my other two classes at Riverside Community College Norco (YES! Norco rocks.) and Mt. San Jacinto Community College. I am quite ready to get some Christmas shopping done.
6. Thanksgiving! How could I forget? It's only my second favourite holiday of the year. (Yes, Christmas is the first.) We had Thanksgiving lunch with Greg's family and then scurried off to Carlsbad for Thanksgiving dinner with my family. I believe this year has been the zenith of my love of pecan pie. For many years, I never tasted it. Then I tasted it and really liked it. But lately, this is just about the greatest stuff I can get my hands on. Well, besides Cheesecake Factory vanilla bean cheesecake and Marie Callender's banana cream pie. How I adore pie...That reminds me of the famous quote from our high school geometry teacher: "Pi is not something you eat!"

And the last thing I can think of before I must go to sleep:

7. Bertram (evil kitty) received a new collar from my sister in law. His old one was purple with black paw prints. His new one has pink, lavender, and tan diagonal stripes. It is very preppy and it brings out his pinkness even more. (But being a very dilute orange tabby, he is practically pink anyway.)