Tag: Christmas

• Triggered Traps and Monster Wreaths – Thoughts from December 13 and 17, 2025

  

  December 13, 2025 For those of you who were waiting on an update to the trap in our yard, I have the first happening since we put it out and filled it with apple cores. To catch up, our outside cat, Archie, was having his food eaten by one of the animals in our backyard.…

  Brian Kirwan

  June 9, 2026

  Uncategorized

  2025, animal trap, apple cores, Archie, atheism, backyard animals, bow on the door, cat in a stocking, cats, Christmas, Christmas decorations, Christmas town, Easter bunny, favorite movies, giant Hello Kitty, Jack Skellington, learning from your mistakes, monster wreath, neighborhood cat, opossum, outdoor decorations, outside cat, Patti, plastic coat hanger, raccoon, religious decorations, relocating a raccoon, Santa, smart animals, squeezed out like a hamster, Stitch in a Santa hat, taking religion out of American holidays, The Nightmare Before Christmas, thoughts, trapdoor closed, triggered the trap, zip ties

• Tofurkey, Cats, and a Kidney Stone – Thoughts from January 7, 2024

  

  January 7, 2024 We’re already seven days into 2024 and this is my first Thoughts paper of the year. I have many things to talk about, but I just haven’t done it. Christmas and New Year were interesting. Patti and I were going to have tofurkey on Christmas Day but we were too sick. We…

  Brian Kirwan

  November 5, 2024

  Uncategorized

  2023, 2024, Amazon, Beatrix, blotches of crap, cats, Christmas, drink more water, expensive cat food, gift card, grammar checker, kidney stone, lion’s mane for cats, litter box, Luna, new cat food, New Year, New Year’s Day, organizing office, organizing toys, Patti, plastic shelves, Scout, squirty poops, stackable cubes, the love cat, thoughts, Thoughts paper, tofurkey, toilet, vegan, vegetables, Willow

• Experiencing Things not Made for Me, Including Silence – Thoughts from December 3 and 6, 2023

  

  December 3, 2023 English is my first language. I don’t really have a second language, unless you count Nerd as a language. Sometimes, I wish I spoke another language well enough to have conversations, but not enough to put in the time to actually do it. I have delved deeply into English enough to keep…

  Brian Kirwan

  October 22, 2024

  Uncategorized

  2023, a good person, audio examples, audiobook, autobiography, Barbra Streisand, belief, bribing our kids, Christmas, Christmas myths, common ground, diverse people, English language, enjoy the fantasies, experiencing things not made for me, good at urination, good for goodness sake, history books, hypocrites, interesting conversations, interesting people, interests, kids watch what you do, libraries, lying to kids, movies, music, nerd language, people disturbed by silence, people’s stories, restroom, Santa, Santa Claus, second language, silence, silence is unnatural, silence makes me anxtious, silent library, silent restroom, silent room, songs, straight white man, telling kids about Santa, The Nightmare Before Christmas, thoughts, toilet, treating strangers badly, urinal

• Not Our Bunny or Our Holidays – Thoughts from October 21 and 22, 2023

  

  October 21, 2023 It’s time to talk about the bunny in our yard. I first saw him when I was mowing our lawn. I walked to our backyard, and I saw something hop away. Convinced that it was a hopping cat, I didn’t think too much of it. Patti asked me to look at something…

  Brian Kirwan

  September 17, 2024

  Uncategorized

  1800s, 2023, bunny, bunny news, Christmas, Easter, editing, exaggerated humor, feeling old, garbage in the streets, Halloween, holiday months, honest as crap, hopping, horrible people, horse-drawn buggy, humorously exaggerated, illogical and rude, junk from holidays, median age, not our pet, Patti, pet rabbit, petting, psychics, psychics are liars, rabbit, sarcasm, stupid sandwich, Summer, thoughts, Thoughts papers, time fliest when you’re having fun, too honest, traveled back in time, typewriters, typewriting lessons, typing, ugly car with souped-up engine, white cars, white tail, white vehicles are work vehicles

• Christmas Games – Thoughts from December 20 and 21, 2022

  

  December 20, 2022 Patti came to work with me today. On the way, we talked the whole time. Sometimes we put on a podcast and listen to that, but we were both Chatty Cathies and never really listened to anything but each other. It’s good to know that after 25 years of marriage we can…

  Brian Kirwan

  February 22, 2024

  Uncategorized

  2022, 25 years of marriage, accusing me of yelling, AI used in art, alliteration, artificial intelligence, banned, Charlie Manson, Christmas, Christmas Eave, Christmas games, competitive games, creativity, experimenting with swearing, family, five female felines, fuzzy pictures, games, get to know our neighbors, great listener, high school humor papers, hitting on girls, house boarded up, loud vehicles, memory for visual things, music band, my last day, Napster, new people, no memory, no recall, party, party games, Patti, pleasant trip, predictive messages, predictive text, presents, purse, sampling, sex in a bar, stories, stupid is the new normal, swearing, talking in the car, technology, The Papers, thoughts, weird wordplay, wife, yelling

• Brian Explains Toys – Thoughts from December 25, 2010

  

  Brian Explains: Toys This Christmas time, I thought I would talk about an important issue we must examine this time of year. It is an issue affecting us all when we reach a certain age. Are we children, teenagers, young adults, or the dreaded adult? We are walking around thinking fun-filled, happy toy thoughts and…

  Brian Kirwan

  July 25, 2023

  Uncategorized

  action figures, adulting, Barbie, Barbie car, Barbie house, bills, birthday, boring toys, boys, build furniture, changing, child, childhood, children, Christmas, computer, crabby, crabby teenagers, cranky adults, create badly, create fashions, creative, creative adult, creative child, creativity, dollhouses, Ewok vehicle, Ewok village, forgotten memory, games, girls, grow up, junior high, Ken, kids, last toys birthday, Lego, parents, soap opera, Star Wars, teenagers, thoughts, toy, toy boxes, toy store, toyless, toys, Toys-R-Us, wife

• Eye Twitching Holidays – Thoughts from November 17 to December 18, 2003

  

  November 17, 2003 My system had a minor crash again. I had worked on a song (a sad song), and it suddenly wouldn’t let me logon to Windows. After much ado, it’s back, but I’ve been saving all my songs in multiple locations – which I should have done before, but at least I’m doing…

  Brian Kirwan

  May 18, 2023

  Uncategorized

  2003, alcoholism, always driving, animation, assisted living, back up, bad eating, being driven, California Adventure, Cameron, cause of death, Christmas, computer, dad, death certificate, Disneyland, driving, eye twitching, Grand Californian, Grand Canyon, holidays, mom, my songs, nephews, nerd, Nightmare Before Christmas, Paradise Pier Hotel, Patti, shy, shyness, Sister, smoking, soundtrack, stress, stress free, stressing out, system crash, Thanksgiving, the boys, thoughts, twins, Twisted Land of Oz