Category Archives: General

January: Along with losing the magical David Bowie and Alan Rickman, we also lost my husband’s grandfather, who was a man like no other. We also contended with Winter Storm Jonas, which dumped 2 feet of snow on us in less than 24 hours. Despite all the heartache, January 2016 ended with a bang when season 10 of The X-Files premiered. I had been waiting for that since the series ended in 2002.

February: Mike got me a cat tree for Valentine’s Day, which the cats love. We also started watching the Netflix original documentary Making a Murderer, which was so interesting and infuriating.

March: Mike and I took an overnight trip to Pittsburgh to celebrate his birthday. I also found a product to help with Nefarian’s chronic urinary tract infections.

April: Mike and I took a second trip to Pittsburgh to celebrate my 36th birthday but we decided to stay for two nights this time.

May: We made our last mortgage payment and, after 5 years, finally own our house outright! Raven finished her first year of college. Also, Juliet Landau started following me on Twitter.

June: June was just a normal month and I can’t remember anything that happened.

July: I ended up with a horrible sinus infection that would continue to plague me for most of 2016. The neighbors who live on the hill above us left their pregnant cat behind and she ended up having 3 babies, 1 of which passed away.

August: Raven started her second year in college. She also launched her first comic on Amazon.

September: We found homes for the two kittens (my Mom took one and my Mother-In-Law took the other) and Raven took it upon herself to “adopt” the mother, making sure to take care of her, feed her and give her attention every day. She named her Ripley, after Sigourney Weaver’s character in the Alien franchise.

October: Went to our friend’s annual Halloween party. I dressed as Wednesday Addams and Mike dressed as Yukon Cornelius.

November: The election happened and this was the first year Raven was old enough to vote. She was so excited.

December: This Christmas was a lot let stressful than past ones, mainly because I got 80-percent of the Christmas shopping down in November. We were able to relax a bit and do more Christmas-related festivities. We also had our first annual gingerbread house competition and I won!

While that isn’t everything that happened this year, I think it does give a good general rundown of my 2016. Sometime at the beginning of 2016, Mike and I decided that we wanted to leave West Virginia and move down to South Carolina. We’re not sure when that will happen, but it is a goal that we are working on.

My husband and I started watching Making a Murderer the other day. And we only have 1 episode left. With him working 10 hour days, 5 (sometimes 6) days a week, it can be a bit hard finding time to watch all the things we want to watch together.

Anyway…

I know the documentary is rather one sided and I already read about all the information that the doc left out. And when I heard what he did to that poor cat (dosed it in oil and threw it in fire), I’m not going to lie, I wanted him to die a slow and horrible death. But how the county acted just pisses me off like you wouldn’t believe. I was shouting at the TV. How could people who we are suppose to trust, who’s job is to uphold and follow the law act in such a disrespectful and unlawful manner. It just boggles my mind.

At the moment, I think Brandon is probably innocent and I’m not sure whether or not Steve Avery killed Teresa Halbach. But that doesn’t really matter since I am 100-percent sure that the police planted evidence and because of that, he deserves another trial with that evidenced thrown out. And that is a complete shame since that poor young women’s death is overshadowed by the complete lack of justice and pure assholeness (that’s a word, trust me) that the police department showed.

If he did murder Teresa Halbach but is allowed to walk free because of the planted evidence and then he murders again, then every single law enforcement officer (or anyone else that had a hand in planting the evidence) should be held accountable for that new death.

Steven Avery’s new lawyer has taken to Twitter to not only vocalize his innocence but to also hint that they know who the real murderer is and will be working on getting Steven out of jail. I thought that Steven Avery’s brother-in-law, Scott Tadych, may have had something to do with it. That guy just rubbed me the wrong way and seemed rather suspicious. But I also think that Teresa Halbach’s ex-boyfriend or her roommate could also have had something to do with it. Their actions just seemed odd to me.

Have you watched Making a Murderer? Do you think Steve Avery is guilty?

January wasn’t the best month with the passing of David Bowie, Alan Rickman and, the worst of it all, the death of my husband’s grandfather, Rev. Don Flanigan. Throw on the pile some cold days and the horrible winter storm Jonas and you have a recipe for a dreary and depressing month.

I’m hoping, however, that this new month brings a bit more happiness, calmness and just all around more positiveness than the previous month to my family as well as anyone else who has had a not-so-great January.

On a positive note, The X-Files (one of my all time favorite shows) came back for a special 6 episode event and I am more than loving the fact the Mulder and Scully are back in my life. And Deadpool will be in theaters soon, as well as the return of the Walking Dead.

So, what are you most looking forward to in February?

I received a text from my husband this morning asking if I heard who had passed away. I was getting laundry started and hadn’t gotten on the computer yet so I had not a clue. When he texted me back the words “David Bowie”, I couldn’t believe it.

David Bowie couldn’t be dead. He was untouchable, magical.

But he was dead, he is dead.

To say I lost a piece of my childhood today would be an understatement. Not only was he a musical genus, he was an extremely talented actor. As a child of the 80s, I grew up watching David Bowie in Labyrinth (which is and always will be one of my favorite movies and soundtracks), squealed when I saw him in Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me and laughed hysterically when he was on an episode of Extras.

This world is now less magical. Rest easy Goblin King, you will be truly missed.

Yesterday was Raven’s high school graduation. She was in the top ten of her class. To say that we’re proud would be an understatement. She ended her high school career with a 4.225 GPA!

I honestly cannot believe that she is 18 years old, finished with high school and will be on her way to college this fall. I know it’s cliche, but it just seems like yesterday that she was graduating from preschool. She has spent the last 18 years of her life both frustrating me and making me prouder than I ever thought I could be.

So, I was sick a week before Christmas and now, a few days after Christmas, I’m sick again. Ugh. Anyway here is my obligatory 2014 in review posts using pictures from my Instagram account.

January

With all the snow we got, I was able to make many batches of birthday cake snow ice cream. So good!

February

My husband got me this Firefly ice cube/mold tray.

March

I made a Benedict Cumberbatch bookmark.

April

I turned 34 (and celebrated at the Twisted Kilt) and Raven turned 17.

May

Jedi and Nefarian enjoyed the warm spring weather by sitting/sleeping in the window sill.

June

Finally got to try Hobnobs (they are delicious) and Jedi wore the bow tie I made for him.

July

Made catnip tea for Jedi and Nefarian. Found a salamander in the basement and named him Smaug.

 August

Raven got her driver’s license.

September

Raven went to homecoming and I started my first pepakura build of Casey Jones mask and Shredder’s helmet and shoulder armor.

October

Went to a Halloween party with my Husband in our finished pepakura costumes (Sexy Shredder and Casey Jones).

November

Tried Kitty Piddle pop. Pretty good but I manly bought it for the bottle.

December

Got Guardians of the Galaxy on Blu-Ray and found Richard Castle books.

With a little over a week left until Christmas, my body decides to succumb to sickness. It’s not like I had anything to do. Oh no. *sarcasm*

So, I woke up this morning with a fever of 100.7. My throat is sore, one nostril is stuffy, the other nostril is running and my head is full of pressure. This is not want I needed a week before Christmas. I have tons of work to do, goodies to bake and presents to buy. I do not have time to be sick.

Despite all my best efforts, today was mostly spent trying to get work done. But little was accomplished. Even though I didn’t do much of anything I feel completely exhausted. I mean, I know my body is doing all this work trying to fight off whatever it is I have and it needs rest, but I have so much stuff to do.

I am so not ready for Christmas.

I want to thank everyone who commented on my last post. Knowing I’m not the only one experiencing these feelings does help a bit. I also want to thank Kat for all her tips, which I will surely use in the future. This coming Monday I will be stepping, hesitantly of course, back on the scale. To say I won’t be scared/nervous would be a lie. I am actually terrified of the prospect of checking my weight and possibly seeing the number higher then I expected.

Ugh.

Anyway, I have caught the Autumn/Halloween bug. Last year, despite my lifelong love with Halloween, I just couldn’t get in the mood. This year is so much different. I have pinned all things Halloween on Pinterest and want to start decorating and baking everything Autumn and Halloween! Which is a bit odd because I feel less happy this year than last year. Last year around the same time, I felt like my life was under control and everything was looking up. This year, not so much. Things have just spiraled a little out of control, and I’m not confident in the things that I was starting to feel secure in. And the scariest part is that I don’t know if I will be able to get a handle on things. Or even if I really want to. Some days, it just seems so much easier to just let go then to try to fight.