katakat.com bytes from a participant observer

I predict this will photo cause great mortification in about 15 years. Right now it's pretty cute, though. Thanks, Cindi.

Here's a photo of my twin nieces, now 6 months old, in their natural habitat. One can sit up by herself, the other can roll around. I'm sure they'll be crawling soon.

Seems with all the goings-on here I forgot to mention I'm a new aunt. I have twin nieces now, Clarice and Sonia. They were a bit under 6 lbs at birth, and are now over 10 lbs. They are not identical twins, btw.

I made it through the holidays, indeed. Mom's doing better in rehab. In fact, I think we all are doing better since she's been there, because we know she's getting good care and a lot of the socialization that staying at home in front of a TV tends to degrade. In other news, Dom's got a job interview this week. He's also finished four of his songs, now posted on MySpace. Check those out!

Once again I find myself at the end of the year without a single Christmas card sent out. I appreciate all who have already been on the ball enough to send their cards on time. I love to hear from everyone; it reminds me of all the good times. Lately it has not been so. Besides my crawling to the end of another quarter of classes (taking two is killer for me), my family has been plagued with anxiety: We had to put Mom in a rehab facility because she fell at home twice in the span of just a few days. Althought she didn't break anything, she also couldn't walk very well.

After a long illness, Miss Kitty (a.k.a. "Sandy") departed this world. Dom had to take her in to the vet to be put down early this morning. Miss Kitty came in to this life with a house that Dom rented in Point Loma about a decade ago; the previous tenants, who had already named her "Sandy," could not take her with them to their new apartment, so they left her for Dom.

One of my cousins died this morning (David's obituary as a .pdf). I think he was 46. I haven't seen him in about 10 years, but I'm sure his folks and siblings are taking it hard. Since that part of the family is on the East Coast, it will be an incredible odyssey getting my mother out there for the funeral.

As you may have read in the 2005 edition of my annual newsletter (only recently sent out, I might add!), my parents are moving here to San Diego. Mom had a one-way ticket out here in December, and Dad has already come and gone, as he has to work another month before finishing up the packing and loading up a U-Haul to head on out here. Yes, I said U-Haul, and yes, he is crazy. Evidently, he and my Uncle John will be driving out the biggest one they can get hold of, plus trailing the station wagon. I don't even want to visualize this extravaganza of potential disaster.

I just spent 10 days at my parents' house in Ohio sorting through boxes and boxes of paper, carefully wrapping fragile knick-knacks, and trying to figure out how they will ever fit 3,000 square feet of stuff into a 1200 square foot house in San Diego. They are moving to SD permanently in February. It was quite strange seeing the old house stripped down to bare furnishings-- knick-knack-less and paperless, as it were.