Wait -- WHO'S cute?

Ugh… I ate way too much Christmas dinner… it’s 10 o’clock and I’m still full. Yeah, that “after holiday” diet is gonna have to start tomorrow… or the next day… maybe the day after that… or possibly some time after New Year’s Day, because I’m sure I’ll find plenty of things to eat between now and then. But regardless of the overeating, we had a good day. Spent a couple hours at my parents’ house in the early afternoon, and then we all headed over to Rick’s parents’ house for dinner. My parents gave us the coolest present – a big wall map of the world, with different colored pins to mark all the places we’ve visited and all the places we want to visit. I’ve already chosen a place for it, on the wall over my “world travels” shelf in the foyer.

That big map was wrapped with quite a bit of paper, which ended up on the floor of my parents’ living room. Along with several other random balls of paper and untied ribbons. Kiko and Ozzie couldn’t resist all those new playthings strewn across the floor, and wasted no time pouncing into the soon-to-be recycling and shredding it all to pieces. As we hung out in the living room, laughing at the cats and drinking coffee and sorting through our gifts, Faisal sent us a couple text messages to wish us a happy holiday. So for a few seconds, Faisal was a topic of conversation… and then we went back to laughing at the cats. I got up to reheat my coffee in the microwave, and as I left the room, I heard Rick say, “Faisal’s so cute…” which caused me to pause in mid-stride and look back toward the living room. “I mean OZZIE,” Rick said. “Ozzie’s so cute – that’s what a meant to say!” But of course the “Faisal” comment had the rest of us laughing hysterically for a few moments…

And as tends to happen with slip-ups like that, the joke kept delivering more punch-lines. As we opened the front door to leave later on, Ozzie decided to run out onto the porch. My dad immediately said, “Faisal! Get back in here!” And even better, when Rick and I got back home – long after the Faisal text messages and with nary an Ozzie in sight – Rick saw Allegro napping on the couch and said, “you know, your cat is so much smaller than Kiko and Faisal… I mean OZZIE! Darn it – I meant Ozzie!” I mean, it was one thing to mistake Ozzie for Faisal when we’d just been taking about him, but it was another to make the SAME error when Faisal was no longer a topic of discussion.

Of course, maybe Ozzie and Faisal have more in common than I think they do. Perhaps I should compare:

Here's Ozzie... (what Ozzie is thinking: I love sink water... yum yum yum... sink water...)















...and here's Faisal. Why is he so darn happy? I think this was at Ruth's Chris... must be because his steak is about to arrive... (what Faisal is thinking: I love Ruth's Chris steak... yum yum yum... Ruth's Chris steak...)




Now Ozzie, obviously, really IS quite adorable. He’s also got a great laid-back personality, gets along well with just about anyone, and likes to sleep on your lap when you’re at the computer. Faisal, on the other hand, is, well… a lawyer. You can make your own comparisons...

But I suppose it can be really easy to mistake one person/place/thing for another.






For instance, here's a picture of me looking pensive:

And here's a pair of sneakers looking equally pensive:

Pretty confusing, right? I just hope this Ozzie/Faisal thing sticks around for a while, because I'm looking foward to hearing someone say, "Faisal, get off the table! People are trying to eat..."