See you in 2010!
Zardoz Claus is checking his list. Twice.
I just dropped by to remind you that today (December 21) is GOFPD. Because I'd hate you to miss a perfectly pseudo-scientific reason to 'gasm.
Make love, not war.
The only good thing about the snow storm is I had no plans to leave the house today. But with my luck, it won't be sufficiently melted by Monday morning and I'll slip and slide to work . . .
Tim Minchin's Christmas song, White Wine In The Sun, is now available for single purchase on iTunes!
Give this a watch/listen, and then go buy it! The iTunes version has some very beautiful string accompaniment too.
My husband will get all huffy and say "not until the 21st!" but to me, once the temp dips 35F and below and snow/sleet/ice start blowing around, it's winter. My least favorite season (I'm not alone there, I know) because driving is stressful and just getting anything done or going anywhere is a big hassle. Not to mention it's fucking cold, and as I get older, cold hurts more. Why can't I convince my husband to give up this farming gig so we can go move someplace warm? I don't care if we're poor, we'll be warm!
Right, now I've got that whining out of the way - who's ready for Christmas? Another thing I'm grateful for as I get older - Christmas/Holidays is FAR less of a big deal than it used to be. I do enjoy buying gifts for people, but no longer am I all excited/concerned about what I'll be getting back. Some might say the loss of that excitement is a bad thing - to me it just means I'm more self-sufficient, and that's a good thing! (If I really want/need something, I just go buy it now. Anything extra is nice but nothing to get all worked up over!)
I also gave up (pretty much before I ever started) the stress of holiday cards, decorating, and all that extra jazz. I send cards to the people closest to me (and the in-laws because they'll get huffy if I don't!) but we don't bother with decorations or parties or anything like that anymore. YAY. True, I'm still forced to do the holiday parties at work, but even those are low key and require very little from me. I show up with food, and all is well.
Speaking of food - damn I do hate this section of the year because no matter how hard I try to keep it from happening, the pounds pile on. That's what New Year's is for though of course, and like billions of people I'll be making that resolution to "get back to a healthy weight". If only just so my pants fit comfortably again. I'm annoyed that my favorite trousers are currently all too tight!
Sooooo. There we go, that's my boring update. Hope your lives are all well.
Not enough time for a long post, but SkyWalker had to talk at morning program this morning at school. The video for those of you logged in and in my neighborhood:
Chewie had her first spoonful of cereal at Thanksgiving dinner and followed it with the whole bowl. You know how they say start out with 1 tablespoon and go slow? No such thing with my girls. She did not gag once, she did not refuse once, she ate and ate and ate and finished a full serving. The next day she did refuse it at dinner because she was tired so it's not like she doesn't know how to say no. She's been doing good with it, except she started getting a little constipated and was up at night again (to put that in perspective, she was up at 10 and then again at 4/5. So really, who am I to complain?). I started oatmeal yesterday morning to try to help in that area. Last night was the worst in that she was crying quite a bit and then this morning during breakfast she was crying A LOT. She had poop when she woke up this morning and I don't think she's stopped since. I decided to skip the cereal this morning and give her a rest. I gave her oatmeal at lunch and might just stick with that today instead of doing the rice for dinner. She is at least smiling now and she was NOT doing that this morning. I think she really needed to get her poop out and now that's it coming all at once her little heiney is getting sore. And this sounds SO FAMILIAR does it not? I'm going to start fruits soon and hopefully she will balance out and get regular again.
It takes me for-freakin-ever to read nonfiction. Not sure why I can fly through fiction but nonfiction takes me at least three times as long to read. Am I paying more attention or something?
Anyway, right now I'm making my way through Moab Is My Washpot, which is Stephen Fry's autobiography. The
wonderful thing is that he did write it himself and it's completely in his "voice" so it's rather like sitting across from him as he tells you the silly tales of his childhood and school years. I always wonder how people can remember their earlier years with such detail. I certainly remember "scenes" but if pressed I doubt I could put them into an actual factual timeline. It's just as well since I doubt anyone would want to read my life story anyway. Although I did have a damn fun childhood.
I'm also plowing (slowly, slowly) my way through Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. I say "plowing" only because I read so dreadfully slow, not because the content is laborious. If anything, Goldacre makes what might be snore-worthy and makes it fun and interesting.
This is a book that has been known in the Skeptical community as a must-read... along with Phil Plait's Bad Astronomy, and Simon Singh's Trick Or Treatment. It reveals what commonly-held beliefs are misplaced and generally teaches you to question what often sounds too good to be true.
What makes reading both of these books even more fun is both of the authors are also on Twitter so I'm "getting to know" them both through their writing and through their day-to-day twitterings as well.
