Pretty Piper

Piper sitting on the buffet like she belongs there.

And on my sweatshirt.

One of her favorite spots... on top of the dishwasher.

And then she moved to my dish towel. That's going in the laundry.

Christmas card

Cousin C's wedding provided the perfect opportunity to have the family together for a Christmas card picture.

Easy states puzzle

This was a super easy 1,000-piecw puzzle of the 50 states.

Purely by chance, Illinois was the first state I finished.

The back of the puzzle poster was interesting. It shows where every state is on the map (hate to think some people don't know that) and it gives a few facts about each state. For Illinois, it says "The Prairie State" is its nickname, it became a state on Dec. 3, 1818, deep-dish pizza (lol) and first state to abolish slavery. I thought it would mention corn, but Iowa got that.

Hot honey x 2

I found a recipe for BBQ pork sliders that I want to try. It calls for hot honey which I didn't even know existed. I found it at the grocery store but then wondered if I could find it for less. Sure enough, Amazon had a reasonably priced bottle so I ordered it. It was delivered Sunday but the package was empty - never even previously sealed as far as I could tell. No honey for me.

Amazon issued a refund and I started looking online for nearby stores and found out they have it at Target. So I took a drive to Target on Monday, found it and bought it.

Then I was bringing the mail in and noticed a package on my porch. I didn't think I had ordered anything. Wouldn't you know? It was the Amazon hot honey! Maybe it was found in the delivery truck at the end of the shift? A little odd that it wasn't in the typical Amazon envelope. Time to find more uses for hot honey.

Outdoor lights up … sort of

Sunday was a beautiful fall day so we ... put up the outdoor Christmas lights.

We won't turn them on until after Thanksiving (of course).

We even had a fire - I think it was first for the fall (maybe summer too?) season - so we didn't get all of the lights up.

It’s time

The local radio station switched over to 24-hour Christmas music last week. I know a lot of people don't like this Mariah Carey song, but I say, bring it on!

Friday night mahjong

Andy and I went over to our friends, M and R's, house last night for pizza and mahjong. They both came to the lesson Allison had at our house, went home and bought a set and have been playing with what they called "Polish rules" - knowing some of the rules but guessing at others. It was fun and I have to say, some of the Polish rules make sense.

We played three games. Two were wall games with no winner but I managed to win the last game. Mahjong!

Popular cat names

We named the cats in 2025 but I had no idea their names made the 2026 most popular cat names list.

Piper on the chair and Ruby on the back, as usual. It's rare to get a picture of them together.

Work stuff

Can you guess what this is? I was at work, bending down to look at some yearbooks and set my phone down. Somehow it took a very close-up picture of the Research Center's carpet.

The trees are starting to change. This one across the street from the museum is pretty.

Super cute cat puzzle

This Cobble Hill puzzle is called The Purrfect Bookshelf. My cat puzzles are usually 750 pieces, but they're a different brand (Buffalo). I do like the quality of Cobble Hill puzzles. Ruby likes the box.

Supposedly they're challenging because the puzzles are "random cut," meaning each piece has a different shape. I've done at least two Cobble Hill puzzles before - this candy one and this cookie one (both Halloween) - and never realized that. Maybe only some are random cut? I then noticed the box says "random cut."

While Ruby is in the puzzle box, Piper was sitting on the top of a nearby chair. That's usually Ruby's resting place. Weird cats.

Done and complete. That was a fun one!