made it!

We/we made it to Atlanta. It's only about an 8 hour drive, but We/we hit traffic and that made it seem even longer. Both of the dogs are really great about going on trips. Maggie's getting a little older though and having difficulty hoping up into the 4Runner, and Katie has this undying need to pant. She pants the entire way. All 8 hours. Katie's side of the car is on the passenger side, so it's 8 hours of panting right in deidre's ear. Fortunatly Katies knows the dreaded "look" and if she's given it she'll stop for about 15 seconds, so deidre supposes that it could be worse.

deidre was going to wait to do this until after Christmas when she had pictures of everything, but she has no content so she'll just do it now. Before she left St Pete she took pics of the presents that she'd already received.


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This is the set of journals that NiteFlirt sent to deidre. They are the perfect size for her purse or organizer and will work for taking notes or writing grocery lists etc. The journals that they sent last year are still pretty much unused and sitting in a file cabinet in St. Pete. deidre never does private handwritten journal writing anymore. she's sure that eventually she'll find some use for them though.

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These are some of the recent gifts from sissy4ladyd There's the nice big dong that he sent, a mini clit vibrator (which was a 2 pack) a Leonard Cohen CD and a wonderful pendant which contains Moonstone, one of deidre's favorite stones.

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This is the Luck Elephant that slave_karirenee sent to deidre. Thank you kari!

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These little duckies came from K. The match the duckies from her birthday that have party hats and cakes, and the ones from halloween that are "dressed" as witches, kitties, vampires, frankenduckies and ghosts. deidre wants to order a few more reinduckies so that she can have Santaduck in his sleigh pulled by his jolly team. Of course she will have to paint one of their beaks read so that he can be ruducky with his beak so bright.

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This is the Coffee Maker from slavemasterd (Thank You, MasterD!) deidre's only had one morning without it so far but she already misses it. The one here in Atlanta must be a leftover prop from "Honey, I Shrunk the Coffee Pot" It's very cute but only makes 4 cups at a time, which is actually only about a cup and a half of the mug that deidre uses.

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We/we have a real tree again this year for the second year in a row! deidre can't help but feel that somehow having a fake tree is cheating. A fake tree may have perfect limbs and the exact proper number of lights attached, but it's not the same. Before deidre met Master she used to live a short drive from the El Dorado National Forest. Trees grew well there and there were several Christmas tree farms. we'd all pile up in the truck and go tromping through the forest to find the perfect tree. Then we'd cut it down and drag it up to the little booth, pay for our new little tree friend, have some cider and take it home. A. always got to have a little potted tree of her own so that she could have something to decorate for her room as well.

Tonight after K got home from work the 3 of Us/us decorated this year's tree with lights and ornaments. Thank god deidre is around. If it wasn't for her the tree would be full of Star Trek, The Simpsons and Scooby Doo ornaments. It was okay when it was 2 bachelors celebrating Christmas together, but honestly a Christmas tree really needs a bit of a feminine touch so that it can be pretty. Now there are still cheesy bachelor decorations but deidre's added ornaments from her childhood, homemade shell ornaments and a few that she has begged and pleaded with Master to buy to offset the Bird of Prey and Enterprise that just don't seem to fit the theme too well. You can't see too well in the photo, but Our/our little tree seems just perfect now!


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This is the first year that We/we've left the cats behind. The cats usually travel in the rig right along with the dogs. They're lose so that they can move about and have their own litter box so that there aren't any messes. In Master's opinion though having them along on trips is a pain in the ass. Xavia behaves very well. She finds a soft out of the way place, lies down and stays there unless she has to go potty. MoonShadow cries and cries for the first half hour. Then she calms down a little bit. She roams from the front of the rig to the back, rubbing up against the dogs, helping Master drive (He actually puts her paws up on the steering wheel) or curled up on deidre's lap sleeping. All of that is really nothing though. Master stops every 2 hours to let the dogs have a break. They stretch their legs, have some water and go to the bathroom if they need to. As soon as the vehicle starts to slow, MoonShadow gets excited. she wants out. The last time We/we traveled up here she got her wish. Master kind of forgot that MS was in the car, opened the door to let the dogs in and the cat shot right out. deidre was inside the gas station at the time, and knew when she came out from the look on Master's face that something really bad must've happened.

The gas station We/we were at was, luckily, one of those places that's kind of isolated. There weren't a bunch of other stores or parking lots around however behind the gas station was a mechanic's garage. There were about 25 cars parked out in a field of dead weeds. There were hundreds of places for MoonShadow to hide and run to. She took advantage of a lot of them. At first deidre couldn't even find her. Then finally she saw her kitty crouched under a car. deidre tried to grab her but she'd just run under another car, dashing from tire to tire. After about 10 minutes deidre was in tears. Part of her knew that Master wouldn't decide to just leave with out the cat, but there was still a part of her that thought that at some point He would just lose patience and decide that it wasn't worth it. The cars that MoonShadow was scurrying to were getting closer and closer to a high chain-link fence. On the other side of the fence was what looked like an endless wooded area that MoonShadow could slip into and never be found again. deidre, who is normally calm in any situation, was beginning to freak out even more. Finally deidre was able to get close enough to MS that she could dive for the cat, grab a leg, even if the fucker ended up breaking, and catch the little shit before she got away again. It worked. deidre hasn't felt such and incredible release of fear in a long time. she was laughing and crying at the same time, basically hysterical.

Since then deidre's only been away from home once for a trip where the cats couldn't be left alone. It was back in June when she went to California to visit her family though and Master stayed home. He was there to keep them company, to feed and water them and to change the litter box so that they could have a clean potty place. This time they have no company except each other. As much as MoonShadow would like to deny it, her sister, Xavia does not like being pounced on out of the blue, she does not want to play, or be chased. In fact, deidre thinks that if cats are capable of hate then that is exactly what Xavia feels toward MoonShadow. Intense eternal feline hate. So they aren't really the best company for each other. deidre doesn't have to worry about their food, water or litterbox because a neighbor will be checking on them every other day just to make sure everything ok.

deidre guesses that the biggest problem really is that deidre misses them. she keeps walking past the bench in the foyer that MS hangs out on expecting to see her, but she's not there. The bed seems so big without Xavia stretching out to take up half (deidre literally means 1/2) of the bed. Poor kitties. Poor deidre. At least it's only another 7 days until she gets to go home knowing that MS and Xavia are both there, not having to worry for another 8 hour doggie-pant filled drive that one of them might get out or pooping when We/we've just left a place where it can be thrown away. Yeah yeah yeah...deidre knows. If the worst thing that happens to her today is that she's worried about her cats, who are well taken care of even when she's not there, then she's probably having a damn good day.