Sitting Out the Snow

Oh my, there's a great deal of snow out there. It's been snowing since early yesterday morning and is supposed to continue until tomorrow morning, I think. It's not snowing heavily now, but it's still coming down.

Yesterday my school district cleverly called an early dismissal, but I woke up in so much pain that I decided I could only handle snow or pain, but not both, and I couldn't do anything about the snow. So I stayed home, lying down most of the day. It eased up a lot by the afternoon. I woke up this morning just feeling normally achy, but we had an actual snow day, so I was home again. I haven't been out of the house since Wednesday.

I was supposed to go to a workshop tomorrow at Ellis Island, but it's been canceled due to the weather, not surprisingly. Maybe if we can finally get out, we can get some errands done. And I've become somewhat adept at making iced latte here at home.

The odd news of the storm is that, mittendrinnen, in the middle of everything, my sister had to go have her appendix out last night! Very weird. I think she was gone for a total of 24 hours; she came home this morning and feels fine. I'm guessing they used the laparascope on her, since I had traditional surgery three years ago and was in the hospital for a few days.

K is making dinner tonight, so I'm just thinking about what to watch on TV. For some reason, on Wednesday, closed captioning disappeared off of about 40 channels on my cable box, including some that I watch a lot (like TNT), so my usual stuff isn't available. One of tomorrow's errands, if I can do it, is to go get my cable box replaced. Lucky for us there's a storefront service center right here in town.

Okay, I'm going to go bakc and c orrect my typos -- you wouldn't bnelieve what this looks like before I do that -- and post, and lay by aching back down flat somewher.e

Brain Cloud

I have a brain cloud, as it were: a fog. My brain has a fog. It feels like it does when I am just inches away from letting my eyes close and drifting off. Unfortunately for me, I'm at my desk at work.

The good news is that other than the brain cloud, I'm feeling much better than I have been for the last few days. This is perhaps because I took advil this morning, fuck the Crohn's. I needed to spend one day not hunched over under a burden of pain. And I'm walking upright today too, as humans are supposed to.

Still sleepy. *** yaaaaawwwwwnnnnnn***

And hungry. Got about an hour to go for that one.

Winter is kicking our ass here in New Jersey, as I guess it is all over this year. We've just had snow on top of snow on top of snow, although yesterday we had slush on top of snow. Tomorrow, according to my personal favorite weather person Chris Cimmino, we may be having a "nor'wester." Now that's a new one on me. It means cold and snow, I believe. Doesn't everything?

K has heard in a most unofficial way that she may be the front runner for the job she recently interviewed for. Too soon to celebrate, I guess, until someone calls and says "The job is yours!" Soon, I hope.

This is not waking me up at all. Now my eyes are watering, too, from all the yawning. I could use a nice cuppa cawffee.

I Live

It was a seriously painful day yesterday, and I'm over it.

Each time I see a commercial for the new Alice in Wonderland movie, I think, "Oh, I've got to write about that."  That looks like some scary shit, that movie does. Not that I find anything by Tim Burton relaxing, exactly. I'm willing to go so far as to say that he's an artist with a vision, just not one that appeals to me.

As to Alice in Wonderland, the Disney version is harmless enough, as is most Disney, and I do in fact use an image of the Cheshire Cat -- eyes and smile only -- as my desktop wallpaper at school. But have you ever seen the original version of the book? Illustrations by John Tenniel.

When I think back to my childhood, which you know I do at every conceivable opportunity, I think that there were no children's books in my house. This is not true, actually, although there were very, very few picture books, only a handful of Golden Books. But my mother had subscribed to some book club for children, and we had some classics. Nearly all of these scared the crap out of me, and it was because of the illustrations. I found Alice in Wonderland, with Tenniel's uber-creepy pictures, the most frightening. Pictures I've seen from the new movie look to me like Tenniel on crack: on beyond terrifying. Who, I ask, is going to see this movie? Children? Just so you know, there will be nightmares for years. Just the book did that to me.

The other really icky illustrations were from an edition of the stories of Hans Christian Andersen. (I couldn't find these images online, thankfully; perhaps I'll scan one in for you at home.) The people are all elongated and sad and strange. It looked like another world of which I wanted no part whatsoever. And I think it really set me up to find Andersen creepy and sad in general.

At least I got that off my chest! Now if only I could get the commercials off my TV. And ask Tim Burton to stop making movies, please. We get it.

Some Days Are Like That

I woke up twenty minutes after the alarm rang, and I had only just fallen asleep twenty minutes before that, and I couldn't decide what to wear, and I had to go out and start the car with my hair still wet, and I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

I got to Dunkin Donuts later than usual, and while I was trying to keep the lid on my iced latte so it wouldn't spill all over the car, the barista -- dunkinista? -- followed me out to tell me that I had picked up someone else's sandwich and she took it back in but didn't bring me mine, so I had to go back in and get it. So then I was late going through the center of town and there was a long train at the crossing, and then the crossing lights kept blinking and the guards stayed down for another five minutes, even though no other train came.

I could tell it was going to be a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day, because when I got to the parking lot, every space in my row was empty on both sides except the one opposite my space, which meant that I couldn't pull through and I had to weave around and back in.

I started walking down the hall towards the elevator and suddenly remembered that uh-oh, I did not take the tylenol arthritis today and my hips are screaming out at me to Leave Them Alone!

I noticed that although my smaller jeans fit nice where it counts, they're too snug around my knee brace, so my right pants leg keeps riding up, making it look like my pants are six inches too short on one side only, which is not a sophisticated look.

I wanted to see if I could print out a new, waterproof insert for my medical alert bracelet, so I loaded the color laser printer up with a sheet of tyvek cut from a big envelope and then only half the sheet came out and where was the rest? But we found it later in the form of gooey strings that had adhered themselves to the printer guts. Who knew that tyvek would melt?

I had classes coming in today that I had not prepared for before the vacation.

I didn't have a book that someone asked me for first thing in the morning. I hate that.

I was too sore and achy to go down to the office to sign in, so Media Girl went for me, and signed me in and brought me back my mail. And there was an envelope for me from the people sponsoring that conference I'm going to next week and in it was a check for FIVE HUNDRED DOLLARS to use towards my traveling expenses. Huh.

Some days you get the bear and some days the bear gets you. Today, I got the bear. Some days are just like that.

Oh. My. God.

I am writing tonight thanks to the serious shortage in firearms in my house, which I suppose is a good thing.

K did her taxes today. I was the consultant on stand by. I only left the room once, which was to go ask the Hubs to Kill Me Now. He did not.

Now, she is a smart kid, and doing your taxes with software doesn't require any skill with numbers. It requires reading and understanding, and granted, some of it is not clear. But at one point, she read this question aloud and turned to me for a response:

"If deceased, enter date of death."

I did not say to her "You are not DEAD!!!" but I did raise my eyebrow -- I can raise one quite effectively, since one side of my face doesn't move, heh heh -- and say nothing. And that was really as good as it got.

Oy.

So I saw the doctor yesterday, and she gave me lidocaine pain patches. I don't know how well these are going to work, but I'm already thinking of having a sweater made out of them. They did help some, but I haven't used them today because I went for a massage this morning (i.e., everything really hurts now) and I wanted to see, I don't know, how much pain I could stand? Apparently, a good bit. I'll put some on tomorrow (I can use up to three at a time, not nearly enough for how I feel at the moment) and see how that goes.

I started reading The Satanic Verses before, p.s., I am not smart enough to read this book. I wish there was a Home Improvement marathon on tonight, y'know what I'm saying?

B-B-B-Boob Talkin'

It's been that kind of day. This may not be appropriate for more sensitive readers. Or something.

So it's official: I'm down a cup size from DDD to DD. Turns out this is excellent news, because in the dryer this afternoon, two of my old bras, which I was washing before putting them in the back of the drawer in case, god forbid, I ever needed them again, clipped themselves onto the grid at the back of the dryer and twisted everything else in the machine into a tightly coiled rope. It looked like a cat was frantically holding onto a wire fence, with about a dozen other cats twisted into one long cat. I had to stick my head in the dryer to work everything out. When I finally got the bras out, the underwires were so mangled that they could never be worn again. So yesterday's trip to Kohl's was well-timed.

K was at work today, and the Hubs was out with his parents, so I was ALL ALONE in the house for several hours, which I never am anymore, and if you're like me, this is the time you use to do things that are so ridiculous or embarrassing that you wouldn't be caught dead doing them when anyone else is home. What did I do? Something I've always wondered if I could do, and I'm still not sure. I weighed my boobs.

Yes, I did. I put a postal scale on a table, and ... okay, you can imagine the rest, or better yet, don't. It's very difficult to weigh anything that's still attached to something else, i.e., my chest, but it seemed to come out to between 3.5 and 4 pounds each. Why did I want to know that? Why do I want to know anything? I just did, and do. So now I know and so do you.

In other, less perverse news, the ILs have put a deposit down on the new place they're going to move to, so GLORY GLORY HALLELUJAH! Aside from it being much, much closer to us and nowhere near the freaking Garden State Parkway, it's incredibly nice and has everything they could possibly want and a lot of people they already know even live there. The Hubs said his father got out of the car and onto his scooter (or Jazzy or whatever those things are) and then got around everywhere just fine on his own. So, that's getting a life back for him, and for the MIL too, I think. I expect they will be in there within six months.

And my eldest is, as we speak, flying somewhere over Texas on another business trip. Last time she went to a flat state; this time she's going to a hot state. I'm following her progress on the little map on the airlines website.

We did have a lovely ladies' day yesterday, and tonight I'm going to the monthly retirees dinner. Tomorrow morning I get to go see the doctor that I'm less than thrilled with, so I'll see how that works out. Fortunately, she's not really responsible for anything important, just the stuff that any doctor can do, like the blood pressure meds. And not to worry, I have a followup with the cardiologist next month anyway.

Ladies' Day

Looks to be a lovely day today. Aside from the fact that it is, magically, not snowing, and is sunny and bright (although cold) out there. Today is the day we celebrate the Colleague's retirement, which took place in December.

You never saw anyone as reluctant to be the center of attention as she is. There are lots of people at school who don't actually know she's retired, because there was no announcement, nothing; they just assume that she's not at her desk at the moment they happen to pass through the office.

But today, Media Girl and I are taking her out for lunch at a charming place in Montclair, that loveliest of little cities, and then for a tour at K's museum, which I know the two of them will love. I've spoken to the Colleague often since she retired, but this is the first time I will have seen her, along with what I hope are new pictures of her adorable grandchildren. (She won't show pictures unless she's practically begged to, that center-of-attention thing again.)

Anyway, for me, well, I am officially down 13 pounds today, but the incredible news, which may be TMI for some, is that I am wearing a 38DD today! On the middle set of hooks! Down from a DDD; I am so excited! Still wearing the same jeans, which are not tight anymore, but not loose at the waist either, but really -- down a cup size? What more could I ask for?

I'm off shortly to get the day going, starting with a manicure and a couple of little errands before meeting the ladies for lunch.

First Day of Vacay

Let's see, what did I do on my first day of winter break?

Despite my best intentions, I did not get to the bank or the post office because no one cares that I had a day off and things to do, that pesky President's Day means that all that was closed. I did get blood drawn for Friday's doctor's appointment, and K and I did get the food shopping done. (She worked all weekend.)

I cleaned. Yes, I did so. Not extensively, because that ship has sailed (if ever it was afloat at all), but the MIL says she is dropping by on Thursday, and I choose not to die of extreme mortification if in fact she does. I only hope that when I retire I have enough money to hire someone to come in and clean.

I prepared, such as I do, for tomorrow's visit to the accountant. Preparation for me consists of gathering together what I can and hoping that the Feds see that we are too small potatoes ever to audit. It always makes me very nervous to get the taxes done, and I'm happy when it's over. Maybe when I retire we won't need to itemize any more and we can do it ourselves. Note that I did not say "myself." We'd probably go to prison for life.

Otherwise, I think I took a nap -- not sure, I was probably asleep -- and did not much else. Fine by me. I had a really good workout yesterday, about an hour, but didn't get to it today. Even so, I seem to continue to lose weight at the pace I want to lose at, so it's all good. Do I feel better, twelve pounds down? I'd have to say that I feel no different at all. My clothes still fit the same way, maybe a bit more comfortably, but I haven't gone down a size in anything. What hurts still hurts, no different. I do think I look better, so that's something. It's an interesting process to be going through.

Okay, I'll let you know tomorrow if I survived the accountant or if I'm packing for an extended stay in debtor's prison.

Triple Play

It's one of those wonderful triple play days that come up so rarely: it's Friday, it's pay day, and it's the last day of school before a break. (Winter Break; I have next week off.)

Ahhhhhh.

It's also Senior Pajama Day at Bizarro Town High School, which is sometimes amusing and sometimes I just want to yell "Pull up your pants!" The girls all look very cute. I'm seeing a lot of one piece footie pajamas with the monkey on them or Hello Kitty, a lot of adorable fuzzy slippers, teddy bears, and so on. The boys are mostly wearing sweatpants or plaid pajama pants with t-shirts, nothing cute. It's always pajama day the day before Winter Break.

My head is more clear than it was on Wednesday, when I spent the entire snow day lying down, deaf and heavy-headed. My teeth still hurt a lot, so I guess I have sinus pressure on that side. Also, the pounding tinnitus in my right ear is loud, even during the day at work, which is not so common. But in general, I feel okay. Hungry at the moment, but lunch starts in about fifteen minutes, so I guess I'll live.

Know what I did on the snow day, the one actual thing I did? I MADE PIE. Because I Love Pie. Not a big deal pie, just a jello/cool-whip/lime pie in a graham cracker crust, so it took ten minutes, tops, to make, but when I eat it I am eating pie, and that's all I care about. Speaking of eating, tonight, K and I have potential plans to splurge insanely and get the Blue Bacon Burger at Wendy's. She's out today on a day-long interview for a teaching job in September, so I guess she deserves to eat whatever the hell she wants tonight after a most stressful day. She was going to teach a sample lesson first thing this morning, but of course I haven't heard from her, and won't til we both get home later.

I have lost 12 pounds and I think she has lost closer to 15 or 16. I'm thinking that a burger with bacon and blue cheese dressing should confuse our metabolisms into picking up the pace, as in "Hey, they're not out on the savannah starving! I'd better get moving and digest all this crap!" or something. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I have books to read and many appointments next week, and I want to rest some and get back to the Wii Fit more. I'll be letting you know how it works out.

SNOW DAY!!!

Other than the two hours it took me to go through my Reader feeds, I have been lying down snuggled under the covers all the delicious day long. In a moment I will get up and enjoy some lovely leftover chicken and squash for lunch.

Turns out I would have been doing the same today with or without snow because I have some massive sinus/ ear thing going on and I am deaf as a stump today. Not painful, but there's a constant loud hum in my head and I'm more off balance than usual. Not a good day for communicating with people. I can hardly hear the TV; I know people are talking and I catch the intonation, but am most grateful to the gods of closed captioning today. I'm texting people and have not even tried the telephone.

That sounds crappy, but I'm really having a very nice day. I tried to get you all a picture of the snow, but not getting up off the couch limits my photo ops. Aw, you all know what snow looks like. We're in for a foot and a half by tommorrow morning, I believe.


-- Post From My iPhone

Here's Where We Stand

Okay, this is what we've got:

a wedding date
a location
a photographer

and of course, a groom. (We supply the bride.)

Here's what we don't got:

a wedding gown
a dress for the maid of honor
a dress for the MOTB (mother of the bride -- me!)
invitations and other printed stuff
a DJ
a wedding officiant
favors
hotel reservations
hairdresser/make-up people

Hmm. I'm thinking some of that is going to be important.

Okay, okay, we really don't need all of that stuff now, or yet. I'm not looking for a dress until I lose more weight, and neither is K, I think. The DJ and officiant are up to R and the SnL.  The hairdresser is the same guy who's been doing our hair for the last 18 years, and he has the date, we just don't have a formal arrangement yet. *sigh*

I guess it's the wedding gown that we need to get moving on. Those things take forever to come in once they're ordered. Even the cheap ones.

So, can you tell I've been up to my aching teeth in wedding stuff this morning? It's the firm booking of the photographer, whose services cost approximately what I paid for my last car. But his work is really beautiful, and the albums (hand-made in Italy, no less) are gorgeous. I do think it's interesting that for my own wedding, I was satisfied with a cheap album with slots to slip the pictures into the pre-matted pages. But I want to see my own kid's wedding preserved in hand-bound Italian craftsmanship.

I have a toothache that is splitting my head open. I'm guessing a cracked root, which I had once before. If that's the case, I'll have this sucker pulled right out, and since it's not on the bad sinus side, the dentist can put an implant in there if he wants to (unlike the other side.) What I will not do is root canal. I'm not afraid of root canal or of the pain, but I don't have confidence in it as a treatment that works for me. I had two root canals on the last tooth that it turned out  had a cracked root and got pulled. I'd rather cut to the chase.

I'm making some kind of drumsticks for dinner tonight, and spaghetti squash. (After the dentist, that is.) Until then, I'll just be sitting here, deleting horrible old YA fiction from the library collection.

Yay!

Yay! I am all done with moving and weeding books in fiction! All I have left is to fix the signs to reflect what's where, but I can do that from the comfort of my computer, no bending or schlepping involved.

Yay! R is back from Nebraska safe and sound, and every plane she was on landed earlier than it was scheduled to. How often does that happen?

Yay! K made it past the first stage of interviews for a teaching job for next September and is going in to teach a sample lesson on Friday!

Yay! They say there's another storm coming in on Wednesday and this just might be a Snow-Day storm, the best kind!

Yay! Between the Law and Order marathon and the Home Improvement marathon, I had no reason to look at football or football commercials last night for even a nano-second!

And that's all I have to say about that.

The Details of My Day

Books. More books. More books than that.

I'm in fiction again, since I finally got a day when I was managably achy and had no classes to teach. I'm shifting, I'm weeding, I'm picking out things to read, I'm making a list of things I don't have and need. I can't even say how far I've gotten because even though N through Z is done, A though M is weeded and shifted and some places and not in others, so I've got at least another day's work in there somewhere. I'm shooting for next Wednesday, the next day I have no classes to teach.

All day long, a little pop up has been telling me that we're under a Severe Weather Alert, although everything else is telling me this is not true. Apparently, there is a storm a'comin', but to our south. The ILs may be getting between a foot and two feet of snow, but we're in for two to six inches, depending on which weather source you look at. It's starting tonight. I do wish K didn't have to go to work tomorrow, but if there's a lot of snow, they'll close the museum.

R is, as we speak, in the great American heartland, waiting to fly out of Chicago to a weekend business presentation in one of the flat, so to speak, states. Looks like we have a photographer, but have once again changed our minds on the dress situation, which is to say, of course, that she has changed her mind. Her new idea looks lovely, and I hope comes out as she wants it to. It's a dress that is custom made and ordered via the Internet, but is not horribly expensive, or even expensive at all, as wedding dresses go. Pictures when I have them.

My plans for this weekend include not leaving the house tomorrow for anything, and food shopping on Sunday. That's it. I want to spend all day tomorrow in my jammies (which for me is yoga pants, a tee shirt, and crocs, although I don't actually sleep in the crocs) and stay warm, maybe watch some of the movies I have recorded. Perhaps someone will bring me pie, although I have my doubts. Is there such a thing as low-calorie pie? I must investigate, and perhaps, bake.

It's Mole Day. (No, it's not.)

Ah, Mole Day. A made-up holiday celebrated by chemists the world over on October 23 at 6:02, or, alternatively, on June 2. It has something to do with numbers, or chemistry, or something. But here at the aptly named Bizarro Town High School, it is celebrated on February 3, because chem students don't learn about moles until after October, and by June, they're into finals. So, years ago, one of our more eccentric/charismatic/insane chemistry teachers declared that Henceforth, Mole Day would be held on February 3, the day after the appearance of another small rodent, even though chemistry moles have nothing to do with groundhogs or rodents. Got that?

Anyway, all current and former chemistry students and their teachers are wearing tie-dye today, because it's created by a chemical reaction. (Of course it is. We all knew that.) So the school is a brighter place today, anyway. It looks nice, kind of like spending the day in a time machine.

Oh, before I forget, it's just past two o'clock Eastern time, so let's all send nice thought waves out to K-Lo.

I am in much, much less pain today than I was yesterday; I have no idea what that was all about. Good thing, too, because I have errands after school, then a doctor's appointment, then a photographer's appointment with R and her sweetie, and I probably won't be home until 9:30 or 10:00. No idea when dinner fits in there; if I'm lucky, I'll pass a Taco Bell and grab a fresco taco, or whatever that is. Or not.

Here's my amazing good news of the day: Did I mention a month or so ago that I applied to go to a conference in New York City in March? I got accepted! I got the email yesterday and I am so excited! Here's the deal: I go to a three day educational conference, the first day being just for school librarians from all over the country. The conference is held at the New York City Hilton Hotel near Times Square, and I will stay there for three nights. And all of it is paid for, even my transportation to and from the city, which means I will hire a car (like a limo, but not a real limo.) Free! All I need to pay for, I suppose, will be my meals, although lunch the first day is probably covered. And maybe some cab rides. Is this cool or what? So I'm thinking maybe a show one of the nights I' there, if I can find one cheap enough, or maybe dinner with my OldFriend, who lives down in the village, or maybe I can drop in at MOMA (Museum of Modern Art), where, I am embarrassed to say, I have never been, and which is a half block from the hotel. And my darling elder child will be there working as well, so maybe I can hang with her a bit in the evenings. It's an adventure! I'm going to have an adventure! Oh, be still my heart; I can hardly believe it.

The blessed bell ending the day is about to ring, and then it's just a mere half hour until my second work day begins, or at least that's what it feels like today. I'm hungry. Where's my pie?

Day is Done ... Almost

It's eighth period, which is just forty minutes away from the end of eighth period, which itself is just a half hour away from liberation. Close enough.

 

I am so physically weary today that every movement seems to find a new ache somewhere. I don't think that the med I went off of was doing anything, but I do think that the change in going off it is an adjustment. I probably should have weaned off, despite what the doctor said and what I read, but I wanted it out of me as soon as possible. I guess I'm paying the price, which is an okay price to pay. It's only pain.

 

And hungry! I could really go for some pie, as always, but I'll have to settle for the twice-baked potatoes with feta cheese I'm making later. That should be comfort-food-y enough. And swordfish steak, which I've never made, or I think, eaten, before. Oh yes, I am quite the adventurer lately.

 

Speaking of which, all I really want is to stay awake and alert for all of Lost tonight. This is my goal for the day.

 

Okay, I'm going to put my brain on standby for now.

Back in the Saddle Again

I only took Friday off, but it was wonderful. I feel like I'm back at work today after a summer off.

 

I've only been out a few times this year, but a pattern of disaster striking seems to be forming. Last time I was out, there was a lunchtime fight in the library; hadn't been a library fight for over 30 years. And on Friday, the substitute left at the end of the day and apparently left the library doors wide open. At some point they were closed, but there were still kids inside. So kids, unsupervised, were sitting here for more than two hours. Cheez. It's not on me, of course, since I actually did leave substitute plans and they end with "Close and lock the doors," but the whole point of having/being a substitute is not to leave kids unsupervised. The sub in question is a bozo, and the secretary who assigns the subs said she knew that, but thought he could do the least damage in the library. So there.

 

We had a most disappointing shopping trip to a David's Bridal store yesterday, where the help was rude and not at all helpful, and we walked out without a dress. R has a very heavy work schedule in February and March, and I don't know when we'll get to shop again, but she'll work something out. She may end up with a dress from the Internet somewhere; my only concern, of courses, is that it fits and she likes it, and isn't looking madly for a dress at the last minute and we end up with something super-expensive. Been there, done that, thanks to the number of proms my girls got to go to.

 

I finally finished that book, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norell! I liked it, but boy was it long. A very interesting book. Someone described it to me (after I'd started it) as kind of Harry Potter for grownups, which it isn't, but it is about the rebirth of magic in England, so well documented that you'd think it was a history instead of a novel, but duh, it's about the rebirth of magic in England, which would have been in all the papers if it had been real, no? Cleverly written and a good story, but loooong. I'm looking for my next read. I have three books on my desk here at school and several waiting at home, but I haven't decided which way to go yet.

 

I am making dinner TWICE this week; are you proud of me? Some pasta thing tonight and fish tomorrow. Expect the end of time any minute now.

 

Despite my weekend, I am very, very tired now. I've gone off that med that I think I mentioned last week and said I was going off of, and though it had no positive effect on me that I could ever see, I suppose making the change could have something to do with the tired. I'm also very achy, but not really more than I was on the med sometimes. I think it's the fibromyalgia acting up. I haven't worked out since Friday and don't expect to today; it's hard to exercise when just walking and sitting hurts, but maybe I'll fit in a little later, even it's just one thing. (I like to do a half hour made up of several activities.) And I have to go to the supermarket from school (see dinner twice, above), so that's another vote against the workout. I wish the human body would just tune itself up, like .... like .... well, I can't think of anything else that does that, although the human body probably did in earlier times when people were all hunter-gatherer-wanderers.

 

It's a balmy 32 degrees out, just freezing, which means we're having a heat wave (a tropical ...) compared to the last few days. Snow later in the week, I think. But I have started to notice the lengthening of the days, a most welcome development. I left for work a little later today and it was not pitch-black dark, and it's not getting dark in the afternoon until nearly 5:30. Isn't that lovely?