On the First Day of Chocolate

Welcome to December, and the start of advent calendar season! I am all about the countdown to Christmas, though of course I have December 17th, aka the day my mother arrives, marked as the next Big Day of my holidays. However, time and chocolate wait for no mom, and Harbor Sweets calls for December first, so away I go.

This year, in fact, Harbor Sweets had two advent calendars, with different artwork:



Mama made the kind of choice I can appreciate. The box that showed up on my door contained both. Mmm, twice the chocolates!

Today was sand dollars. Dark chocolate, caramel (and a pecan to eat around, if you're weird like me). Yum!



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I am a list addict, the sort of person who almost needs a list of all my lists. I have a perpetual to-do list with different columns for:

• things to do at home,
• on the computer, and
  
• out,
• as well as a shopping list for when I notice I'm getting low on something

I usually have a calendar of the next few weeks, to help me visualize what's coming along, and I often have a next-couple-of-days list of things I want to remember or plan for over the next few days. I'll also have grocery lists as needed, and probably others I'm forgetting.

This is not a new practice, and yet today I have one of the funniest things I ever remember writing on a list: wash kitty head. Which, you know, doesn't everyone? On the list between Trader Joe's and Christmas cards?

I mentioned that I've been treating Carlos with ointment for his ear infection. This means that for the last 10 days, since the vet's first treatment, he's had little oil slicks on the fur at the sides of his head. (True story: I woke up one morning last weekend to see Miri washing the side of his head, and felt the first untainted fondness for her since I got her, almost 2 years ago. What a good girl, without any Yeah, but...) The treatments are done: the tube is almost empty, his ears look much better (now that I know they're not supposed to be dark in there, ahem), and I just can't torment him any more.

He clearly needs some help with the aftereffects, though. So I'm off to wash my cat's head. A brief Google-search assures me that bathing a cat is a two-person job, but since I'm going for the head only, and not a full-body dunk, I think I can do it alone. Fortunately.


At least I don't have to use my tongue.