Superbowl Sunday is becoming a big favorite for me. So easy to drive around! Stores to myself!

I could post about how good spicy food is for clearing the sinuses, but I won't.

Our visitors from Co. were not up to driving the passes in the snow, so they're not here visiting, which is a bummer. On the other hand, I spent less time on Christmas Day cleaning house than I would have if they were visiting, and that's a real silver lining. We sat around all day and just watched S. try to destroy the house with a new set of toys. A delightful family holiday.

I'm so glad too that I didn't sign up for a Yuletide fic -- our pre-Christmas was stressful enough. To give an idea: I only managed to send about half the Christmas cards. A. went to a conference after his classes ended in mid-December and by the time he got back it was past the priority-mail-by-Christmas deadline, so all my uber-organization in November (ordering gifts online etc) was for naught. Just to make things easier, the city sorting center lost one of my boxes (of things I'd ordered), and I myself lost all our Christmas cards. So we are plumbing new lows in organization apparently. Next year, it's green chile for everyone!

I have my voice back!

ETA:Literally, not metaphorically. As in, I speak, and sound comes out. Just to clarify.

( Introducing Jane Austen )

Sheesh.

Incidentally, if anyone is inclined to worry because I'm posting to LJ about something other than illness, let me hasten to assure you that we are in fact cycling through another cold and/or sinus infection this week, and I used up the last of my vacation time staying home with S. so A. could teach his class. Joy.

Also, (some of) you note correctly that the promised (to some) review of Becoming Jane is still absent. It took me three tries to post just this bit - not because of LJ but rather because of interruptions galore - and I think I'd better not try my luck with anything longer. The usual excuse, I know; next time I'll try to come up with something better, an ant invasion (no, that was last week) or maybe we'll acquire a visitor or skunks in the garden or similar. I do apologize for the lack of a decent excuse, at least. As someone has recently informed me (by email), my LJ entries indicate that I've become rather insipid - my helpful adviser (whom mr_perker alone of my f-list has met) points this out, concerned, I suppose, that it might have escaped my attention that I spend most of my "free" time doing laundry, washing dishes, and trying to convince the ants to move out. I was tempted to reply that "resignation is never so perfect as when the blessing denied begins to lose somewhat of its value in our estimation", but refrained. It seemed too open to misconstruction as it was - and yet sometimes greater clarity is not your friend either.

... ate my weekend. Again. I only mention this because I know I was meant to call/email certain persons on this flist -- and my mom -- and I didn't manage it. Sorry!!

I would say, what a dreadful weekend, but they always are. At least this weekend our allergies/cold/whatever have improved dramatically - I spent last Sunday lying on the couch, hoping fever and headache would go away.

Merely hoping for wellness, it turns out, is not a cure for the common cold.

At any rate, I should not complain - today was not at all miserable, only dull and frustrating. But after spending my entire last week unwell, dull and frustrating was relatively relaxing. Just another example of low standards being the true key to happiness.

( something silly )

I'm trying not to over-analyze *that* one.

So, anyone care to guess what my favorite line in the book is? (Of the funny ones, I mean.)

Finally finished reading DH a little while ago - A & I finally broke down and bought a second copy. We just don't have much readable time these days, and trading off was driving us nuts. He's about halfway through the book and is threatening not to sleep til it's finished... we'll see. Our house guest thinks we're nuts. Well, we've known said house guest for over a decade (ARRGH THE OLDNESS) so I imagine he had a fair idea already.

( CUT FOR SPOILERS )

Something A. said today really struck me: he said the atmosphere today - all the suspense and all the excitement over the book release - feels like the beginning of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, providing a strange sort of link between the muggle world and Harry's. He said he kept looking around today, expecting to see something really out of order - a cat reading a map, owls in broad daylight...

Well, I expect if he'd looked hard enough, he could have found oddly-dressed people. (Not hard to do in this city on a regular day.)

No cats reading maps. Though we did find swallowtail butterfly caterpillars in our garden this morning! So we found a little bit of magic in the muggle world after all...

Albuquerque has four seasons: too cold, too windy, too hot, and almost perfect. We are currently in the middle of "too hot". Hence the gratitude: A just managed to fix our cooler (not too shabby for a theorist!), and the indoors is once again livable. Today we had to spend the late afternoon at the mall (along with the entire rest of the city) and then eat out (along with the entire rest of the city) because it was too unbearably hot in the house. Sooo nice to be able to sit in any room in the house in complete comfort, let me just say...

Apart from the cooler being fixed, we didn't accomplish much this weekend. We have a hard time getting S. out of the house in the morning, it's too hot to do anything here in the middle of the day, and evenings we have to make dinner. That's pretty much our weekend schedule.

We did, however, manage to watch six episodes of Monarch of the Glen. At least we have our priorities in order...

It took me several tries to get a decent one:

Haiku2 for anamirza
it is not looking good for phoenix rising and almost succeeding
@ aboutmylife.netadvogato.orgblogger.comblogs.gnome.orgblogspot.comdeadjournal.comgreatestjournal.cominsanejournal.comlivejournal.commyspace.comspaces.msn.com
Created by Grahame

Still not as good as imaginarycircus's haiku, but I'm not unused to coming in second (or worse!)

I will not desert the family and spend all day watching Monarch of the Glen.

Allergies are no fun, I have to say. And I am trying not to be bitter about all those annoying people who just had to have non-native plants, since those seem to be what I'm allergic to (the plants, not the people). My only consolation is that it has taken thirty-some-odd years for me to develop allergies. Also, that the over-the-counter allergy medicine seems so far to be working.

I'm also trying not to be bitter about missing Phoenix Rising - and almost succeeding. It would surely have been a haul, and a pricey one, with all three of us going (it's not like I could go to my home state without the guys - and expect them not to be really ticked anyway.) Still - to be missing all the excitement, to be instead focused on choosing the proper low-flow toilet and pricing the windows that need replacing - there is indeed some bitterness to overcome. But my mom is coming out here at that time, and then my brother, so at least in exchange I'll have a couple weeks of free babysitting extended family time. I think my brother thinks I'm kidding about the babysitting. Haha. As the older sibling, I watched his misbehaved self many a time when he was small and obnoxious, and I'm really keen to pay *that* forward.

On a more grateful note, I realize that I never mentioned the super-surprise gift I got from anam_cara_ right around her birthday (which birthday I didn't recognize on LJ, being offline then, but which I always remember, as it is the same as my mother's). I meant to post a picture of the gift so you could all admire it, but that will have to wait for a later time. Suffice to say, the little bees are much appreciated and very nicely done - I've always admired freehand embroidery, despite (or perhaps because) finding it tons harder than the counted-stitch stuff I do. (Well, used to do.) Anyway, bees being such a big part of my past, and the kitchen destined to be yellow-and-cream in the very near future, it was a perfect choice in a number of ways...many thanks!

Well, here ends my LJ contribution - who knows when the next will be? Now I'm off to work on turning our storage room back into a guest room. My mother wouldn't care, but my brother is bringing out his girlfriend, and I gather I'm expected to act all civilized. (Oh, the opportunities here... no, no, I mustn't.)

No apologies, you will notice, for not having posted in over a month. I simply have not been online much at all.

This has not exactly been a week of accomplishment, but I did finally finish the Draco Trilogy.

Man what a crappy day.

Wow, March is already waning... seems time flies whether or not you are having fun. Posting to LJ (obviously) hasn't made the to-do list in a few weeks. In part, this is due to an onslaught of spring cleaning, though this last week, it's mostly been our struggle with the time change. S. has not made the transition well - he's still on the old time, which is unfortunate, as work and the rest of the world is not. S. cares not; he is not up until the sun is. Such a pity, as right before the time change our schedule was getting a little more livable. I'm anticipating a long summer of fighting over going to sleep - and as amusing as it sounds, fighting over bedtime gets old FAST when it happens on a daily basis.

Speaking of, must go and end his nap now, or we'll be up til midnight.

Hmm, I *was* going to post about something else originally. (The joys of a good coffeeshop and also of daffodils.) Nevermind.

Seriously, is there anything but random in this journal any more?

I guess that's what comes of getting the leftover 10 minute pieces of a day to yourself, after you've doled out all the rest to work, housework, and family. Maybe I'm getting slower with age, but 10 minutes doesn't get me very far any more...

Of course, right now I've got a good long while - at least two hours until the guys are up - but I was thinking perhaps of having another go at sleep. Meanwhile, here's my random:

1. The little guy has now started drawing cartouches around his words. No idea where this comes from. He "writes" something, explaining "This says 'Mommy'" (sounding it out) and then draws a circle around it. I've saved one, though unfortunately it's on leftover supernova printouts. Ah well, at least that thesis is being used for something.

2. Since I'm so sporadic on LJ lately, let me go ahead and wish _starcrossed_ a very Happy Birthday! Starting out the celebrations (early no less) with a cruise is a good plan - hope the rest of the year is equally entertaining.

3. It is not looking good for Phoenix Rising, which is really rather sad.

And I'm sad to note that the 15 minute ficlets community is going away. Not that I've really done any lately - I tend to get lots of (pretty much daily) chances to make up 15-minute sorts of stories, albeit the requests lately usually have to do with tractors. (For a while there I could get away with kitty stories and that was fun while it lasted.) It's the one-to-two-hour time scale of writing that I'm really missing these days... Still, it's hard to see the community go (or freeze or whatever) and just as hard to realize it's been there four years. I mean, four years. I always thought I'd accomplish more in those four years, to be honest. Funny how time slips away, when you're focused on the shorter time scales - getting dinner ready, getting out the door in the morning, cleaning things before the weekend's up, etc. In seconds and minutes and hours it just slips away.

1. I meant to change my LJ to something more seasonal this winter and didn't. But now we're so close to spring again that it hardly seems worth the effort.

2. We must be very close to spring because my allergies are going off. Yes, allergies. My eyes are watering, and my nose is runny.

3. My son thinks he can write. He scribbles some angular lines and says, "This says 'Frank'." He is unswayed by my assertion that everyone uses the same letters to make words. He has his own letters, and he's happy with them; he doesn't mind telling us what he wrote. Suddenly some of the difficulties early readers face become obvious...