January 12 of 12

There's a fun thing that a lot of folks do these days, and it's called "12 of 12". The idea is that on the 12th day of each month, you take 12 pictures throughout your day and then share them. So, this is my first attempt at a 12 of 12. Problem is, this was one really dull day for me. Next month, the 12th is a Monday, and that's usually a scout meeting night. There's always lots to see there!

So here we go!
6:00 a.m. and the cat has to be fed. There's a story on my blog from last year, I think November and December of 2005. This cat is "Lily" and she came to live with us after "Clancey", our 20-year-old calico died. Baby Monkey was really attached to Clancey. It's a good story.

This is all you're going to get to see of me at 7:30 a.m. I've been at work for an hour and a half, and usually I roll straight out of bed, go downstairs, feed the cat, and start typing away. I'm a medical transcriptionist, and I work at home. Since I work in a pantry next to my kitchen, surrounded by shelving with jars and jars of yummies that I put up myself, I call this the "Pantroffice". It doesn't roll off the tongue like "Cloffice", but it's the best I could do.

Back to the cat! She's my office-mate. What a life! She lays in that soft basket on top of the warm radiator cover all day.

The Princeling has awakened! Oldest Son has this one last Friday off before starting classes again at the local community collge. It was pretty early for him. Generally, he'll sleep until 11:00 a.m. on days he's off from school. I would have really teased him about his sleeping schedule this morning, but he made me breakfast and turned on an interview with Captain Noah on the Preston and Steve show. (You have to be from Philly and of a certain age to know Captain Noah.) That was quite possibly the funniest interview I've ever heard!


Lunch break. It's convenient to work next to the kitchen. That's a bowl of spaghetti squash with tomatoes and mushrooms and some ricotta salata and chick peas. I'm not a vegetarian, but I enjoy vegetarian food.


A Philly cheesesteak. It's a small one. The Princeling went out and got this one at Lee's Hoagie House. A good cheesesteak is probably my favorite sandwich in the world!


If you really want to aggravate your teenagers, you have to go right into their world. At around 2:30, I was done with work, so I decided to get some exercise and take a walk. I walked down to the high school to meet the kids coming home from school, just like I did when they were wee little things in elementary school. Here's the middle child wondering why I'm taking his picture.


And here comes Baby Monkey a few blocks behind. He's seen the camera and is trying to spin away from me. Actually, he's headed in my direction.


And there he goes! He's 6'3" and he's all leg. He covers a lot of ground when he takes a step. I turned around and followed him home, but I had to scurry and run at times to keep up. He knew it, too! Wouldn't slow down! I ended up beating him to the front door, though. Yay for me! What a workout!


A shiny new South Korean passport for the Middle One. He turned 17 and we had to get him a new passport stamped with his Korean military exemption. There's a Korean travel agency in our area that handles all the paperwork with the South Korean consulate in NYC. We'd been waiting for weeks for this to come back, and today we went to the agency to pick it up. In just a few months, though, he'll be applying for U.S. citizenship.

Sometimes this place feels like a frat house. Around 8:00 p.m. the boys were lounging around watching t.v. Notice that the Christmas tree is still not put away.

The Princeling is using the exercise ball in a less than aerobic manner.


My bonus shot is actually two. I didn't really start anything new for the year, but I did something that I always talk about doing. I cleaned the refrigerator, and here are the before and after shots. How thrilling is that?