A Toastmaster's Year

It has been quite a year for this Toastmaster. I earned my Competent Communicator award in the spring and have given three speeches from an advanced speaker manual. The title is "The Entertaining Speaker" and seems to be a good fit because my audience was clearly entertained. One of my speeches was such a success that I turned it into an essay. I hope to see it in print someday, just as one of my speeches from the CC manual ended up as a First Person essay in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette this summer.
I also became Vice President of Public Relations early this year. As if that weren't enough, I was even a judge at one of our club contests. That was quite a stretch, considering that I have a hard time making up my mind...
Toastmasters has been a launching pad for me as I began giving presentations about backyard habitats at local libraries, a nursery, and at Phipps Conservatory.
What will the new year bring? The sky - or lectern - is the limit.

The Beep

It is a truth universally acknowledged that appliances never die when it is convenient for their owners. Such was the case last night when our carbon monoxide monitor started beeping between 3 and 4 o'clock in the morning. Out came the instructions. We assured ourselves that the batteries were good and that the unit itself had reached the end of its life span. We headed back to bed but sleep eluded me. Luckily, I found a new unit at the local hardware store. I hope that I'll sleep better tonight, unless our appliances have it in for me.

House Broken

We adopted our new cat, Pocket, in late June. During the summer she spent all her nights on an old blanket in our basement. She never came on our laps, but I blamed it on the hot weather. Who wants a cat on her lap when it's 90 degrees out anyway?
As fall turned to winter, Pocket has finally warmed up to us enough to hop on our laps. Okay, the throw rug helps. And she still prefers to lie between my legs and the arm rest.
Her favorite time of day is play time. Every evening we have to play "Chase the light" with her. And she loves playing with paper balls. No expensive toys for her. Of course, we spend the money we save on her food bill. That cat has quite an appetite! However, we have learned from past experience - and an over 14-pound cat - that it's a bad idea to give a cat as much food as she desires. So, no matter how much she begs, she gets the same measured amount of food at every meal. A lean kitty is a happy kitty!