Why are we afraid of Friday the 13th?

Jason slashing the heck out of people at Camp Crystal Lake aside, why are people superstitious about Friday the 13th? Any Friday is a good Friday, right? So why is this date so dang scary? Funny thing is, no one can agree.

This fear may have come from The Last Supper, where there were twelve apostles, plus Jesus, at the table, a total of thirteen guests. The Last Supper was on Thursday, and the Crucifixion happened on the following day, Friday. Friday the 13th? A bit of a stretch, yeah?

Or French King Philip IV ordered the Knights Templar arrested on Friday, October 13, 1307, spawning the start of conspiracy theories everywhere and this superstition. A little thin, huh?

Tupac died on Friday, September 13, 1996, but that's a little too recent to explain this fear.

Maybe it's because the ancient Norse folk (oh, those Norse folk) had a myth about the twelve gods hanging out at Valhalla, when the thirteenth trickster god, Loki, crashed the party, fooled one god into shooting and killing another god, and caused the whole world to go dark and black with mourning. We've all been to parties like that, but this also seems like inventing an explanation after the fact.

The truth is, no one really knows where the fear of Friday the 13th comes from, but millions of people won't travel, invest or do anything important on the date for fear of disaster. In 2011, with our Twittery tweets and our scientific brains and our technology and antibiotics, I find this kind of strong and lingering unexplained superstition wonderful.

I hope your day was lovely. And tomorrow, we can go outside again.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope it's full of hugs.

Happy Valentine's Day! And happy birthday!

Team Bacon! had a Valentine card exchange, and I received the most beautiful handmade stuff. This embroidered patch and golden ACEO came from the lovely and talented moonstr.

I used sharp scissors AND a glue stick on mine, so my apologies to my valentine recipients. To say I'm not much of a card maker would be a huge understatement.
This sweet card full of hearts came from welchva.

This was such a great team activity, and it was wonderful getting little envelopes full of handmade loving in the mail.
This beautiful little masterpiece came from earthtogirl.

As if all of that wasn't enough to make this a magical day, it's also Franklin's birthday (more or less). The old boy is now a teenager, clocking in at thirteen years old.

How does a spoiled boy cat celebrate his birthday morning? Why, by sleeping in, all snuggled up in a pink fuzzy blanket with his tail wrapped around his nose!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Happy New Year's Eve, time to get all dressed up!

I'm torn between the rainbow granny square knitted dress and Cher.

Nah, it's Cher, always Cher.

Have a safe and happy new year's! And 2011 is going to be the best year ever.

Love and spandex, from MAB

On the bipolar nature of holiday advertising

Remember back to this time last week? When we were racing up on the fantastic, over the top explosion of cookies and presents that is Christmas? The television was telling us to spend money, and wrap up a Lexus in a big red bow! We needed huge TVs and battery-devouring toys and glittery lipgloss and possibly stuff we didn't even know about. We needed cakes and pies and cookies and hams and chip dips and a giant buffet of carbohydrates! It was time to spend and eat and make merry and spread the love, all wrapped up in foil paper! The commercials were screaming with capitalistic joy and refined sugar!

Yeah, well that's all over now. Those decadent commercials have been replaced with these not so joyful and merry ads: Debt consolidation. Jenny Craig. Gym memberships. Chantix. Is your New Year's resolution to lose a hundred pounds and stop those collection calls? Sigh.

I have whiplash over this sudden switcheroo. I haven't even gotten the ribbon off my Lexus yet. There are still Christmas cookies in the kitchen. I'm not ready for New Year's resolution reality. Can't we stay in the dessert line for a couple more days?

Merry Christmas, may your New Year's dreams come true

Thanks so much for reading, and I hope Santa is good to all of you.

Secret Santa gift plus a bonus star

We had a Team Bacon! Secret Santa exchange, and got to open our gifts Tuesday night. foxysquirrel made me this amazing arrangement of origami flowers on wire stems, beautiful in a vintage planter. Isn't this the coolest gift?
She also sent noms and nip for the kittens. This explains why they wanted to claw open the box when it arrived and I had to store it in my car. MAB and the boys say thanks!

Speaking of the boys, Gus was helping me take photos this morning. He wasn't very awake, though, and the flash hurts his eyes sometimes.

Yes, he looks a little surly here, but I assure you that he would be the perfect shining star for the top of your Christmas tree.

Christmas thank you

Dear inventor of the gift bag, oh person who first thought, "Wouldn't it be great to make tiny shopping bags for presents? No boxes, no tape. Just some tissue paper and cram that stuff in there." I heartily thank you! You make the season of giving so much easier.

Snakey Mice: A Christmas story with pictures

Gus says, "Look! We got new snakey mice for Christmas!"

"We love the snakey mice so much, and we can smell the nip nip through the package, so there's no way Mama could hide them away for another week."

"Love! Love! Fluffy love!"

"I love them so much, my head disappeared!"

Franklin realizes there are snakey mice. A fight ensues. I had to break up the fight, so we have no photos of the fight. It was a slappy, smacky, bad fight.

Franklin says, "Look! New snakey mice! I'm gonna rub my lips aaaaaaaaaaaaalllll over it!"

"I am upside down, and I have lost my mind. Look at my ferrety face!"

"I'm going to kick them with my back feet, and smoosh the entire blankie up around the snakey mice."

"Whew, I'm exhausted. God bless us every one."

You can get your kitteh fantastic snakey mice from catcalls on Etsy. Trust me, they will love them to the point of waging war on one another to get custody of the snakey mice.

Pick your favorite Franklin Christmas hat

Reindeer antlers plus Santa hat

Christmas pudding

Hottie glam

Reindeer beanie

Classic Santa

Classic Santa with full beard

Spotlight on Etsy's HOST team

The Etsy HOST team helps Etsy buyers and sellers who are going through difficult times. They match up people who can donate items with people who need items. They offer emotional support, promotional help, and anything else that makes the day a little easier for someone in a difficult situation. They're a great bunch of caring and good-hearted people, giving back. And isn't that what it's all about, especially during the Christmas season? So, check out their Etsy shop, and their current Holiday Season thread in the Etc. forums. See if you can help out, pick up something from the shop, donate something to someone who can use it. Or ask for help if you're in need.

Merry Christmas!

On inflatable Christmas lawn ornaments

I love to decorate for the holidays, and have been known to put up so much stuff that it looks like Santa's elves projectile vomited all over my home. However, I can't get behind these inflatable Christmas lawn ornaments. There are several reasons for my lack of love.
1. Many people who put them up seem to have the teeny tiniest front lawn in America. Then they whap a seventy five foot tall Tigger in a Santa hat right in the middle of it, and it looks like Tigger is going to Godzilla their house.
2. It seems like one of those things you can't just have one of. You start with the snowglobe with the penguin train. Then you add the Grinch coming up the chimney, and the crazed Santa, in with your Brutus Ohio State Buckeye guy, and Winnie the Pooh, and before you know it, you have a rioting crowd of blow up holiday themed dolls fighting their way to the street.
3. They deflate and die. If I were a kid, and I saw the deflated Santa skin slimed across the grass, I would probably scream in horror. Okay, I still scream in horror.
4. They get loose in the wind and attack cars. Trust me. It happens. I once got attacked by an airborn inflated polka dotted whale pool float in a blowing snow storm. Scared the dickens out of me.
Just string some lights. Put a wreath on your door. Leave the giant air filled critters to Macy's.

Martha Stewart's December calendar

Every December, I buy the holiday issue of Martha Stewart Living, just to torture myself with what a non-cooking underachiever I really am. In the front of every issue of this magazine, Martha prints her monthly calendar, I guess to remind her readers of important tasks that need to be accomplished during the upcoming month. I will now list Martha's tasks, along with my corresponding tasks for the same dates.

December 2, for Martha: Schedule a piano tuning

December 2, for MAB: Clean cat yak off the carpet

December 5, for Martha: Collect long-lasting berries, and use for decorating wreaths

December 5, for MAB: Chuckle one more time at the shiny tinsel snowman from The Dollar Tree hanging on my front door because he has hologram cheeks and looks demented

December 7, for Martha: Make a new tree skirt for this year's tree

December 7, for MAB: Tighten piece of twine bolting tree to hook in the wall so the kittens don't knock it over and play wargames in it while I'm sleeping

December 13, for Martha: Prepare batches of cookie dough, and freeze them

December 13, for MAB: Order tortes from Figi's

December 14, for Martha: Buy fresh fruit for holiday displays

December 14, for MAB: Dust plastic glitter fruit in displays

December 17, for Martha: Dormant-prune the pin oak allee

December 17, for MAB: Dexter rewatch marathon

December 20, for Martha: Sharpen kitchen knives

December 20, for MAB: Thin Man movie marathon

December 22, for Martha: Buy fresh mistletoe

December 22, for MAB: Take Christmas goodies to the nice people at the post office who help me all year long

December 24, for Martha: Make pate a choux puffs for tomorrow's croquembouche

December 24, for MAB: Christmas Eve dinner at Mom's, grilled cheese, yay!

December 25, for Martha: Assmble croquembouche

December 25, for MAB: Christmas with the family, presents, fun, happiness

December 26, for Martha: Launder linens, and write thank-you notes

December 26, for MAB: Try to figure out where the heck to put all this new stuff

December 28, for Martha: Pick spinach and lettuce from the greenhouse for salads

December 28, for MAB: Burn a perfectly good can of Progresso minestrone soup

December 30, for Martha: Order seeds for next year's cutting and vegetable gardens

December 30, for MAB: Order cosmetics from Sephora and probably more beads

December 31, for Martha: Make a list of resolutions

December 31, for MAB: The heck with resolutions! Let's live it up in 2011!

Happy day after Thanksgiving. . .

Yeah, it was that piece of chocolate cake that pushed me over the edge.

Hope yours was warm, happy and. . . filling!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you happiness, peace and pie.

Happy Halloweenie!

Yay, I can wear my cat ears in public!
Happy haunting!
Boo!