Anti-Cat Device, Tree, and Snow Lion

Yesterday, we received the Anti-Cat Device.


The Anti-Cat Device's real name is the ByeBye Standby remote-controlled outlet. The idea is that we can hook it up like so:


And then when we hear Luna batting at things she shouldn't be in the middle of the night, we can use the remote to turn it on. Mwahaha. Of course, it doesn't do much good just sitting there.


With the arrival of the Anti-Cat Device, we could finally put up the Christmas tree! We're like three weeks behind everyone else in the world, but last year she managed to take the entire thing down with a single leap. So we weren't taking any unnecessary risks. Sweetie took the decorations down from the attic...


...and Luna decided that wherever I was pointing the boxy thing with the red light was where the humans were focusing their attention. She did her best to get her piece.

We found corny carols on an internet radio station, and the tree went up.


Tinsel, ornaments...


...and lights!


We attempted to take family photos in front of the Christmas tree, but: (1) Portraits don't work very well in low light. (2) Portraits work even worse when one person has to take the shots with a hand extended, shameless tourist style. And (3) as happy as Luna is to encroach on non-Luna shots, she is not amenable to sitting still.


So here's just one of me:


Then today, we had a lunch date with sweetie's step-grandma. I forgot to bring the chocolate-covered fruits because there was a sudden change in meeting time. We intended to go to the Village Deli, but it was jam-packed with the university winter graduates. We walked 100 feet over to the empty Snow Lion instead.

I've visited this Tibetan restaurant a total of four times: once as a sophomore in high school visiting IU, once when my father and brother came to visit, once with my sweetie, and today. I ordered the Ping Sha, step-grandma chose a bowl of udon, and sweetie had shrimp fried rice. The portions were huge! There were literally two meals on that plate. Here's the second one (dinner):


It was a lot prettier at the restaurant, because the bean thread and vegetables were piled on top of the rice instead of mixed in willy nilly.

Now sweetie is advocating for a movie. I don't really know why, because he usually doesn't want to sit still for that long. I suspect ulterior motives for simultaneous mindless tasks on video games. But I comply.