Flamethrowers and Umbrellas

Merry Christmas!

It was a good day. Woke up semi late, had tea, opened stockings, failed at making pancakes (how can you fail at pancakes?), opened presents, talked to family on the phone, went for a walk in the snow/rain, napped, made dinner - veggie stew, spinach salad, cranberry sauce, and rolls - and now waiting for the Dr. Who Christmas special to finish downloading. zOmg. One of the few times I wish I had television...

Presents were good and small. I got some clothes from Lady's mom, as well as a Tad Williams book from Lady and the Discworld Graphic Novel from Ana (THANK YOU - is excellent). Yay clothes! I was really needing a few more long sleeve shirts, considering before I didn't have enough for each day of work each week... Now I just need boots that don't leak so my feet aren't cold and wet after tromping through the slush.

Ugh - speaking of slush, it's warmed up past freezing, so all the snow is very slowly melting. While it snows on top of the melting snow. And it'll freeze overnight again, so getting to work tomorrow will be... fun. Yesterday it took me two and a half hours to get home because the bus was an hour and a half late. Apparently a tree fell on Aurora and blocked half of the street.

All in all a good day, though. The food was the best. It turned out much better than either of us had expected and we still have leftovers. It amazes me how we can make delicious stew and such-what but utterly fail at making pancakes. Shouldn't it be the other way around?

Time for editing. I've started on Guardians, having given it time to rest and already gone through one quick reading. It suffers from way too many things going on at once, since the story is so old that it's accrued a lot of subplots that really should be pruned. To help figure out which ones, I'm going chapter by chapter and detailing what's going on, what's working, and what obviously needs to be fixed. We'll see where that gets me.

Less than a week until the 'rents visit! I am much looking forward to a more substantial break from work - it's been nice getting off early so many days, due to the weather, but at the same time it's not been much fun doing three people's work.

Better today. Much better. Still have a headache, but it doesn't bother me as much. And today I had my first feeling of joy for winter. It's coming, and soon. This weekend it might even snow. And a week from then it'll be the darkest day, but then it will get brighter. Mmm, sun. I had a dream last night where the sun came out and I got a burn. Certainly not wishful thinking at all.

Mm, but yes, for Saturday:
"Low: 30 °F RealFeel®: 23 °F
Cold with snow at times, accumulating an inch or two"

Brr! I want it so badly - I want to go out and dance in the snow and take pictures and let it catch on my face and hands. Oh, I love snow as only a Floridian can.

Work is better. Now that the sadness has lifted a bit, I find I'm not listening into Bitchy and Bitchy 2's conversations as much and assuming everything horrible they're saying is about me. Because it's not. And frankly, I do much more in trying to make sure these docs are right than the person before me ever did or anyone really expects me to, so they can shut their traps. I don't care about them anymore. They're both horrible and negative and passive aggressive and I have better things to worry about. It still amuses me that I get along much better with the guys in the office than any of the girls, though. I used to have such a problem with even talking to guys... well, things certainly change.

It's Yule planning time! I haven't a clue what to do, now that it'll be just lady and I. My parents aren't coming until after Christmas. We have a tree and I want to make food - but what other traditions can we assimilate? A fire, certainly. And cider. And I'll be making cookies this weekend, partially to take into the office, partially for ourselves... hmm. And snow! Not that I can make it snow. If I could, it'd probably snow a little every morning. Just a light dusting, and a foot or two on the weekends.

But enough prattling. I have some much neglected Greek translating to get to. But yes - so much better. I just hope it lasts.