Update- yeah I know

I know I’ve been really lax in updating this thing in the past few months. I just haven’t had the time or energy. Mostly the energy. I’ve had a super case of insomnia. I’ve been falling asleep fine- I’m exhausted by the end of the day, but I can’t stay asleep. I’ve been waking up any time between 2:30 and 4:30 in the morning and not falling back asleep. And when I mean wake up, I mean I wake with a jump. It’s not good.
It’s gotten a bit better this past week but it’s still not there. At least I’m not feeling too zombie like. There were days when it was all I could do to make it home. Forget about cooking dinner or something. I didn’t trust myself near a stove those days. I shouldn’t even have been driving. (Case in point: one zombie morning, while backing the truck out of the driveway, my sideview mirror hit our brick mailbox. Thankfully the mirror is just cracked and I can order new glass but still. Not so good.)
Alex is a love. He and Punk are getting along. They’ll lie near each other and joyfully chase each other around the house. Alex actually starts a lot of it. He’ll attack Punk and then run away, forcing her to chase him. It’s really cute.
He is a super snuggler. He forces his way onto my lap or shoulder and then makes himself comfortable so he can snooze. He loves to rub his face under my chin and give kisses. It’s all cute until it’s 4am on a Saturday and he starts whacking me with his paw because I’m not making any effort for him. Yeah, that was fun. But he’s a doll and a really great addition.
Punk is dealing quite well with this newcomer. We’ve been letting her run on the weekends but not during the week as Alex is not outside material just yet. Plus we wanted to make sure that they got along and as she would have spent most of her time hiding outside, we felt the forced interaction was best.
She is also keeping her super hunting skills up to par as Friday night she caught a rat. A lovely, furry, largish, rat. I was just sitting on the couch with a sleeping Alex half in my lap, when in walks Pumpkin meowing like crazy. She dropped her present on the floor at the entrance to the living room and stood proudly, waiting for me to come inspect her catch. She got lots of praise and petting while I hurridly ran for the broom and the camera. Upon further inspection, the rodent was still alive. Yikes. I quickly swept it onto the dustpan and brought it outside where I hope it either escaped or died. Either way, Punk got locked inside for the rest of the night as she has a tendency to re-capture things. (She caught the same field mouse 3 times before playing it to death.)
Our Thanksgiving plans have just changed. We were going to drive out to Louisiana to spend time with the boy’s relatives but we’re most likely going to stay around here now. We were only going to be there for a day or so anyway. Staying home makes so much more sense with gas prices the way they are. So I have to go find a turkey today. Joy. At least I have most of the fixins I need to make dinner. I was already going to make the pies. I plan to brine the turkey but I don’t know if we’ll smoke, roast, or fry it. We’ll see. I’m making an herbed pecan stuffing to go with it. We have tons and tons of pecans from the trees around the La Vernia house. Either way, we won’t be lacking in food.

UPDATED: More kitty pics here