This is to  advise you that President Bush signed an Executive Order on December 12, 2008,  providing Executive branch employees with a holiday on Friday, December 26,  2008. This applies to all employees except those who, in the judgment of  management, cannot be excused for reasons of national security, defense, or  other essential public business.  The Executive order provides that  December 26, 2008, is to be treated as a holiday for pay and leave purposes as  follows.....

How are those apples, bunny rabbit??!!  Did Rush have something to say about this too??

Today a coworker told me that Tweeter was going out of business. 

I said -- Oh no!  I have a couple friends (bunnicula38 and blue_eye) addicted to it. 

He sad -- Tweeter.  Not Twitter.

I'm not a picky eater, so there aren't too many foods I find disgusting.  Poorly prepared food is a different story.  One time a friend's mother made a dish with asparagus out of a can....ugh.  It took years before Mitchell could bring himself to eat it again.  That is, until I prepared it fresh.

One of our vacation days we drove a couple hours south to Asheville to hang out with our niece Rachel who we have nicknamed Wildflower.  She's working her way through college there working at an organic food store.  It was the first time we've had one on one time with her, and she's opening up more with us as she grows up and becomes her own person.

( Wildflower )
On our drive back to our cabin we spotted a bobcat on the road side around feeding time. I got out of the car and got a closer look at him, and he was a little larger than Spunky who's 20 lbs.  I thought this was a large orange tabby feral cat until I saw the spots and the short tail.  It was one of my favorite wildlife sightings yet -- although I would love to see an eagle and a moose in the wild.  This completed a great day!  Be sure to enlarge the photo so you can see him running away.( Wildcat )

We typically spent our mornings lounging around drinking coffee and reading and then mid-day headed out for a late breakfast at one of the "breakfast served all day" restaurants.  We would putz around until 4 when we would head back to the cabin to relax some more and have some wine then dinner.

This outdoor vacation was different from our others where we usually spend a few hours a day hiking and walking.  Our bodies were recovering from an injury (me) and a medical procedure (Mitchell), so the most we did was one day take a walk around a lake.  These photos showed how we spent most afternoons -- leisurely taking in the scenery.( Countryside )

We spent last week on vacation in a cabin in the mountains close to Boone and Valle Crucis, NC.  Just around the corner from us was Grandfather Moutain.  From our cabin, we could see the mountain but not the "face" that's pictured below.

( Vacation in the Mountains )

Here are a couple Christmas cards I created over the weekend and a gift card.  I used white ink on dark blue paper.( The cards )

The inside of the card and back side of the gift card...( The greeting )