This week has been much like being nibbled to death by ducks; a slow, moderately painful process involving a great deal of irritation. It began, inauspiciously enough, on Monday morning when I realized that I had lost my right glove. It was just cold enough that morning to make this annoying. But even more irksome was the fact that this was not the ( Read more... )

Well, we're only a week into the new year, so I'm being almost timely in making my annual book post! (Usually this happens at the end of January...)

I am interested to note that my numbers have been in a steady decline since I started keeping track: this year, I managed to complete (only) 70 books**, down from 74, 85 and 102 in previous years. ( Read more... )

Cookie baking is a major part of my annual Christmas to-do list: I'm typically responsible for making 5-6 different things for the family Boxing Day party. I decided to block out today (well, yesterday technically) for the task and, aside from waking up in a delicate state after a fun holiday party and Christmas Ale aftermath, things went well! I ( Read more... )

(Two days with no post. Whoops!)

Since I last wrote, Christmas has visited the household with a vengeance. We managed to get about half of our outdoor lights up last Sunday before the combination of darkness and dead strands forced darlox off the ladder, but the rest of the house remained bare of decoration until yesterday. In the last 24 hours or so, ( Read more... )

This past weekend my life changed a little, hopefully for the better: I got my very first smart phone.

As an arriviste to this ever-less-exclusive group, I spend about half of my time being baffled by the things that result from my actions: multiple apps open, I accidentally send texts while only halfway through, I failed to figure out how to ( Read more... )

Woo! I'm at work today - unavoidable, with two meetings to run and a presentation to give this afternoon - and I have a MAN VOICE.

I've been home sick this afternoon, and feeling sorry for myself. I've caught that cold that's making the rounds, and it has reduced my brain to mush. (It sucks. I have already popped my floating rib with the coughing, giving me days of fun to look forward to.)

[Oh, hey, ayb2 just called me! I hacked up a lung at her so, um, sorry about that, ayb2! I'll ( Read more... )

Just made this recipe for hot milk punch (with an extra teaspoon of sugar, to suit my own tastes.) The Wondrich take is not wrong.

*passes out*

Let us all celebrate scientific rigor, intellectual honesty, personal quirkiness and simple decency by honoring the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin today.

(Also, we must not forget the Chainsaw of Natural Selection!!)

Better late than never and all that... but it's well past time for me to make my annual book post. Compared to the last few years, I was a little lax this year about keeping track of what I read and when (particularly when), but I did manage for the most part. As usual, my numerical goal was 100 books, and as usual, I missed.

This year I made it ( Read more... )