The handmade homemade christmas present extravaganza

Since the completion of my semester, I've been a-craftin' up a storm. I've made a hat and scarf for a cold friend in Michigan, started a new super-secret scarf project for an unnamed beneficiary, painted a box for Nathan, painted a box for my grandma, painted some holiday thingies for me and Nathan, and painted a Noah's arc thingy for my nephew. I've been working on these things for probably 5-8 hours a day, no joke.

Here's the hat and scarf I made. I wanted a picture of them before I mailed them off to the midwest. I'm still waiting to hear if they've been received and dutifully loved.


This is a Christmas thingy that I started painting years ago. The last time Nathan and I were in AZ, I found a tub full of my old craft supplies and decided to bring it back to Berkeley. I was digging through it a few days ago and found this half-painted thing and decided to finish it. Below it is the box I painted for my grandma, who I will be seeing in AZ in just a few days. Grandmas always love little knickknacks, right?


I just finished this present for my nephew Daniel last night. I think it turned out pretty cute. My brother has some weirdly strong urge to decorate the kid's room with Noah's ark stuff, so I guess this should fit in nicely.


I'm looking forward to giving out all these presents. Nathan and I are leaving for AZ on Thursday, but we're not having our replacement Christmas celebration until Saturday. So I've got a few more days to wait. In the mean time, I've got about a million things to do around this place before leaving, including coming up with some new way to thwart the invasion plans of the ants that live in our crawl space. (If it's not a raccoon it's another thing.) I'm really looking forward to our trip though. We're going to be staying with our friend Richard in his new house, and then Richard and us are going to Disneyland!!! Anyway, fun times ahead, I'll post about them when I'm back.

Conclusion of the raccoon saga

The raccoon has been captured!!!

We've had a raccoon living under our apartment off and on for over a year. Recently, he started chewing at the walls to get in to our warmth, and therefore, he had to go. We had some critter control people come out and set some humane traps to catch the little dude. At first, he proved elusive. Maybe he wasn't interested in the marshmallows with peanut butter or maybe he wasn't interested in being in a trap that smelled like purified skunk stink (true story, stupid critter people). Nevertheless, we did eventually hear little raccoon scuffles outside our bedroom window where the traps were located. Now begins our story.

The setting: A small cruddy apartment in Berkeley, CA, USA

The time: The deep cold of night, the witching hour, 12 midnight

The players: Nathan (brave giver of food), Allison (the photographer), raccoon (the antagonist)

Scene: (There is an eerie noise outside.)
Nathan: Do you hear that?
Allison: Yeah, it sounds like something got caught in one of our traps.
N: Let's go check it out.
(Nathan and Allison grab coats and a flashlight and head outside. They see an animal-shaped lump in a trap.)
A: Look, it's the raccoon!!!
N: Oh, he's looks so sad in there. Maybe we should give him some food. We've got carrots, right?
A: Yeah, but let's use the celery, it's longer.
They head back into the apartment to get the celery. Back outside, Allison takes a couple of pictures of the raccoon.
A: Go ahead and give him the celery.
(Nathan pushes an end of the celery through the slats of the cage. Unfortunately, he keeps on pushing, hoping to make the celery more accessible to the raccoon. The raccoon, however, interprets this act as a threat.)
Raccoon: {snarling and lungeing} Grrrr, I'm gonna get you!!!
N: Ahh! Don't get me raccoon!!!
(Nathan drops the celery and he and Allison run back into the apartment.)
A: That raccoon was angry!
N: I don't feel sorry for him anymore. I could have lost a finger. He bit right through that celery, stringy bits and all!
A: Phew! He's a rodent, not friend...even though he's not a rodent, but you know what I mean.

End Scene

Look at the evil red glint in his eye.

Ok, ok, he's still cute, but don't try to feed him.

Cute kitties yeah yeah!

Fred and George boggle my mind with the extent of their cute. I can't even take it sometimes. And, boy, do they love sleeping on their dad!

George loves his dad

George loves sleeping on his dad

George REALLY loves sleeping on his dad

Fred loves being a sleepy rag-doll-like lump on his dad