Happy Caturday!

If I were you, I would...

Eat some breakfast:

Watch a baseball game:

Take a nap:

Do a little shopping:

Maybe some laundry:

Take a nap:

A little yoga:

... And a couple more naps:

Better, bonus

I had a really rough day today. And it's hard to write a non-grumbly blog post when you've had one of those.

So I thought I'd share a picture of two things that have made today better:

1) This enormous sunny orange bloom of the near-dead Hibiscus I bought from the Lowe's clearance rack a couple years ago. It's probably my most successful plant rehabilitation ever and it's still blooming. In December!

If surprise huge orange blooms on tropical plants out of season don't make you at least a little bit happy, then you are Rosemary's Baby. That is a fact.

2) Knob Creek bourbon. My doctor told me that the best remedy for post-Thanksgiving/ pre-Christmas family craziness decompression is bourbon. True story. So it's like a prescription and a vacation souvenir all in one!

Drinks are cheaper in my home state of SC than they are here in AL. And when I say "cheaper" I mean "it costs what it should cost," rather than "what it should cost x 2 + 9-12% sales tax." Hooray for non-state owned liquor stores! And boo for the AL law that one can't transport booze across state lines. It stresses me out a little, cause I really don't ever wanna to have to say, "No, really, Mr. Officer, I totally bought this bottle in AL. Why would anyone want to have options and pay $35 when they can have a very limited selection and spend $72?!" (Maybe I should rehearse that line a little...)

While I'm doing that, check out the #3 Better Day Maker: one additional cheery orange thing...

Who doesn't love a bonus round? 

The question is...

Why wouldn't anyone want to eat my poems? 

Geeks and adorableness

We're big fans of the Semi-Automatic Kissing Machine here at la Casa K & G.

Why kittens & grits?

The short version:

I’m from the south, live in the south, and have two orange cats, Doug and George.

The funner version:

So when I was brainstorming blog names, I had some thoughts: 

a) It should not be a line from The Big Lebowski (this was a challenging obstacle for me).

b) It should not contain any combination of the words “asian” and “spicy.” (I want y’all to be able to safely search for me at work), and

3) Since I’ll probably mostly blog about stuff I like, maybe the name should indicate some stuff I like.

Hence, Kittens & Grits.*

Interesting...

I mean, I don’t need to tell you how awesome kittens are. They’re squirmy and mew-y and then they grow up to be 16 lb. furry things that warm their butts on your computer while you’re trying to type lesson plans and then they somehow manage to delete your very important work files with their enormous cat butts and then you have to spend all day recovering files while they put in a full afternoon of snoozing and looking cute and innocent. What’s not to love?

And grits—well, as a South Carolinian, I never met a grit I didn’t like. I mean, who doesn't love a grit?! They’re delicious! And I just love the way the word “grits” feels in the mouth the exact same creamy kernally way grits actually taste...

Ok, so, in general, I guess I like making things. Other than grits, here’s what else I make:

poems

knitted things

cookies

messes in the kitchen

puns of all skill levels (mostly low to intermediate)

my family smile

my students do the reading

mosquitoes not be alive anymore

vegetable plants do their vegetabling

margarita glasses become empty

fun of those girls who wear opaque leggings with nothing over or under them

fun of my cats

love, not war

Things you will probably won't read about me making include:

the bed

the matheletes team

dairy products (I’m sorry but I think you “homemade yogurt makers” foodie types are a little nuts)

So, if you’re really into those last few things, well, you still should keep coming to my blog, but, you know, just change your interests so they're better.

Finally, I’d like to add that the most important thing I learned when naming this blog today is that there are NO GOOGLE IMAGES OF KITTENS AND GRITS TOGETHER! I take the fact that I have stumbled upon the ONE THING the internet DOES NOT HAVE to be a sign of huge success. Huge. 

 *My cats don’t actually eat grits, and I don’t actually eat cat… although I do often day dream of delicious ways of making Doug’s life serve a greater purpose, especially when I’m trying to ignore those 5:30 am “WAKE UP I CAN SEE THE BOTTOM OF MY FOOD BOWL!!!” meows.