New year and reeking furniture

This is great! Our humans got us these great things to sharpen our claws on! They call it "cane", but we like the softer parts just as much- it really does help us keep the claws sharp for any time when we might need them- like climbing up those things they hung on the walls for us. Then they also got us a soft thing for the floor, but then that was taken away again and we haven't seen it since. Ziggy really liked that. He like to sit on the soft things rather than the hard things. He is a little annoyed. One thing that is odd is that the sharpening fixtures smell funny. However, we like smells! They can write some now.
Its has been a very busy week since Christmas. We'll have to add a couple entries to catch up. On Dec. 26th Jim took a vacation day and we did a few chores and then went to examine the sofa and chairs we had ordered about 4- 5 weeks ago. They arrived in good shape at the store, though they made a mistake on the fabric. Fortunately, Janet realized that she likes her earlier choices better than the final choices and they gave us the earlier fabric! The cushions are a bit firm and they tried to make them softer before delivering the furniture that same evening. It arrived in good condition and looks good in the apartment, though we have to figure out how to arrange it. One option is shown in the picture, but that will not be the final choice. Some rugs were brought over from a local store for us to check out recently as well. - the Z's loved that, but we didn't care for most of the choices or the prices.
On Sat. Dec. 27 we got up early because we made a driving trip to Mysore- more about that later. We noticed the strong smell of kerosene or diesel fuel in the apartment and realized that it was coming from the new furniture. The smell was quite strong when some windows were closed. That was disconcerting, but we left for a couple nights. The cleaning woman came each day to clean and feed the cats, but when we returned Monday night the 29th, the smell was still very strong. We were told by someone that the varnish is often "polished" with some sort of solvent and Janet heard that people had to put their furniture outside for 2 weeks to air out. On the 30th Jim put most of it outside on the balcony, and the smell inside is better. We'll hope it gets much better soon! We will write about Mysore soon.
On New Years Eve we went to a close restaurant for an early dinner- about 7PM to 8:30. We were told that the police close many roads coming into the city center, so we wondered if we'd get around alright (no problem). We had the impression that the place was mediocre, but it was actually quite good western- mainly American style- food. We got home before 9PM and felt tired enough to go to sleep around 10PM. The fireworks set off around midnight did wake us up though. The evenings have been chilly for the past few days- probably upper 50's F.
We mostly relaxed today (Jan. 1, 2009!). We had a delivery in the late afternoon and then walked to a fancy mall to have dinner and look for some sort of music system. Crossing roads is still hazardous here. Fortunately, the route we take has reasonably good sidewalks and traffic lights that most people obey at the bigger intersections. There are still a couple small streets to cross that can be tricky and we have to pay attention. It is hard to believe it is 2009 and we're in India!