Travel Luck and a Cat.

I think I may have used up all my good travel karma with easy, flawless flying at Thanksgiving and on Tuesday - I flew standby and arrived five hours early on a direct flight from Baltimore. Mom promptly picked me up, fed me my favorite Kansas Mr. Goodcents sub and took me home to southern Johnson County. There I was face-to-face with my two adversaries: an abundance of Christmas cookies and this guy...

Since I'm pretty much allergic to everything, Roary will make me sneeze. He also gets into a lot of trouble. I removed him from standing on the wrapping paper as I tried to finish my gifts exactly seven times.

But I have a new weapon that is keeping him an arms length away: my camera. The shutter makes him jump! I fully intend to keep the Canon Rebel close at hand. Especially when he throws himself against the door to my bedroom and cries in the morning. I'll snap a couple of photos of his crazy cat face, and he'll be scurrying way again.

It's just like the 8-year-old told me during lazer tag at Power Play, "You are no match for me!"