Benefits of Being a Cat-Owner

Yes, I grew up with dogs and am dying to get a dog (but will alas wait until we have a yard).  Yes, plenty of people are cat nay-sayers, given their intermittently aloof or at least difficult-to-discern attitudes.  And yes, my Dad nary enjoys a giggle much like those surrounding our current cat-craziness or the painful memory of him once selling the cat I had in high school on the internet (this was pre-craigslist or any precedent and without my knowledge or consent while I was away at volleyball camp that summer).  But here's what ya'll are missing:

Warm lap and eager napping buddies (even on road trips!)...

Bed kept warm and love-filled for you...

Auto-affection and phenomenal bargaining chips with your four & two year old nieces...

Pure joy. (Please move on without noticing this and the first one were both mid-road trip, and I was driving and playing photo-journalist...)

Merry Christmas & Gingerbread Glory

Merry Christmas!  While in Wisconsin, Kei and I had our sanity questioned more than a few times for more than a few reasons.  

(1) My dad still hasn't quite gotten past the third cat (who is cute as ever, and likely the subject of the next blog post).  

(2) Very few can comprehend what made us pack up said three cats into our car and drive for 36 hours from San Francisco to Manitowoc… and we were among them for a bit there… We were on the road for a whopping 15 minutes when suddenly a horrendous stench began to take over the meager air space inside a Prius. Turned out Cosette had a bout of car sickness, and it came out her back end... Really though, the real victim here was Heidegger, given that he was locked in the same cage as her at the time and held hostage with the foul contraband until Kei and I figured out what was going on and pulled over to clean up. In any case, we survived that one and Heidegger's brief foaming of the mouth (more car sickness) and made it to Manitowoc in tact!

(3) Kei was inspired to make a gingerbread house… and as I'm every day discovering: marriage means WE were going to be making a gingerbread house.  This may not have been sanity-shaking alone, but true to our SF nature, we insisted on doing everything by scratch and going above and beyond minimum expectations.  All the nay-saying and hours (okay, days) of effort eventually became worth it when the finished project emerged: behold the process and the product!

Kei was the chief dreamer, planner, architect, and builder... credit certainly must be due:

 My main contribution came in when we started dreaming up the decorations, beginning with the melted butterscotch candy windows.  Turns out this is more fun than I ought to admit.

The pine trees were my other great claim to fame (frosting and sugar cones - wa-laa!), and the two of us worked together for the rest of the decorations...

 Finished product!

TA-DAAA!!! The front & main show!

Merry Christmas from your favorite crazy Kondos!

So THAT'S How Kelley Does It...

I've long been teased for failing to keep up with my oldest sister, who can only be called a master blogger - usually posting multiple times every week... compared to my hardy "once in awhile when I think of it..."  But today, I realized (one of!) her secret weapons, and that weapon calls herself Juliette - who's natural tendency to ham it up renders her full of readily available blog post content!  Behold:

 The kickoff, her school's Christmas show, where she was a very excited and musical camel...

The hamming picked up some momentum when we grabbed an iPhone and started playing at GiGi's (my mom)'s house...

We then moved to some emoticons - an old favorite of mine since college...

The Classics:

"Angry" 

"Surprised" 

It was on "Suspicious" that I realized I couldn't compete with the acting skills of my 4 year old niece...

Kelley and GiGi got in on "Confused"

Not even sure what this is - but it simply rocks

"You love GiGi soooo much!"

"Magdalenne (her sister) just took your toy"

"What is the face you make when I say you should take a nap?"

"What is the face you make when I tell you to eat your vegetables?"

Sassy and She Knows It

And finally some bonus shots I just snapped while she was hanging with the girls...

Love this little lady!! xoxo