Frosted Flakes: Cats and Christmas Trees Do Not Mix

Good Monday Morning Corn Nation! I hope this article finds you all well and planning some fun activities (or recovering from them) with family for Christmas celebrations.

Our Christmas tree and decorations are quite sparse this year. Ranchhand 3 wanted a housecat for Christmas last year. Teddy came into the house on December 22 and was recovering from neutering, so he didn’t bother the tree much last year.

This year however…

As soon as the tree was upstairs Teddy immediately tried to climb it. He also was determined to grab the shiny gold beads wrapped in the banches. We put one present under the tree to see how Teddy would react.

He immediately attacked and relished tearing at the paper until we took it away.

All of the presents are now stacked on the dining room table.

I can hardly wait until we unwrap gifts. Teddy is going to be in cat heaven with boxes, wrapping paper balls and bows everywhere.

But in the meantime, we have a sad, plain tree sitting in the living room with two strings of lights and some gold beads that are becoming more and more askew every day.

Frosted Flakes

If you haven’t been paying attention, the Husker women’s basketball team is 11-0 and ranked #5 in the NET rankings. They have been receiving votes in both polls and with every win are getting harder to keep out of the rankings. I think the low strength of schedule has most voters waiting to see if the Huskers are a mirage. Yesterday, Nebraska put a 20 point win up on Drake, although early in the fourth quarter the lead was only six. Drake is not a pushover team (#66 in NET).

The Huskers best win still remains the one they clawed out over Creighton (#37 NET). I am becoming more convinced that this team is going to surprise people in the Big Ten, but am not predicting a conference championship yet. There are four B1G teams that are likely sweet 16 contenders while the Huskers are looking to get invited to the dance and grab a tourney win (the first of Amy William’s tenure with Nebraska). I love the growing confidence, depth and grittiness I am seeing from the women’s team. Go Big Red!

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Sportin’ Stuff Outside the 402/308

NCAA to pay officials same in both basketball tournaments
The NCAA will pay basketball officials for the women’s tournament the same amount it pays the officials for the men’s competition.

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2021 FCS semifinals: Montana State and North Dakota State will play for FCS title
The championship game is January 8 in Frisco, TX

Tiger Woods, son Charlie finish second to Dalys at PNC Championship
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NBA, NBPA agree to allow teams short-handed by COVID-19 to sign replacement players, memo says
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Another Week – Another Poop Article

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New research sheds light on why a fecal transplant can benefit patients with recurrent C. difficile infections.

Why Is My Poop Brown? | IFLScience
An evergreen – or brown – question.

More Noise and Other Disturbances

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It is not a coincidence that this article is in Flakes on the same day I write about our cat’s Christmas tree obsession…

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It is interesting, and potentially terrifying that microbes could start eating plastic.

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Then There’s This

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