La Nina

I was reading an analysis of the last month's weather in the newspaper the other day and one of the meteorologists said that La Nina is what's making our weather so wacky. Essentially the surface temps in part of the Pacific Ocean are just a few degrees cooler making things milder and wetter around here. Mild we got, wet not so much. But I can't complain since I've only had to get out my big red snowblower once this winter. Yesterday I updated the Bay Lakes Knitting Guild blog, let Porter out for a potty break, and did the laundry. It took a lot longer than I'd anticipated to redo the blog. I putz and consider, looking at pictures, trying to decide what to say and how to say it. Probably few people look at it, but I do it anyway because I said I would and I like doing it. I also took the second load of things out of the basement to Goodwill. Durwood's afraid I'm going to "give away all the good stuff" but I'm trying to keep the good stuff and let the rest of it go to good homes. I'm tired of giving house-room to things we haven't laid hands on in nearly 10 years and aren't going to use in the next 10. Durwood marinated some chicken legs in a new marinade he found in one of the WW cookbooks then we baked them, serving them with fresh broccoli and couscous. It was a delicious and good-looking supper. We've been enjoying the new WW cookbooks he got from the bargain room at Cook's Corner before Christmas. I'm glad we're not people who always make the same things on the same day. The only "day" we have is Tuesday's fish day, and that's because we put the garbage out on Tuesday night so any fish wrapper or stinky skin doesn't hang around too long. Pretty smart, eh? We, well, he made us breakfast yesterday with Henny & Penny eggs, one for each. They were markedly better tasting than regular old grocery eggs, and I got to collect them my own self. You wish you were here for that meal, trust me on that.

January 15--Egypt, Bronze Cat. Cat sat on the plinth in a shaft of sunlight. The light cut through the dusty air in Uncle Albert's library. Gemma and Bart teased that one day Cat would blink, stretch out, and then pounce down across Uncle Albert's desk to chase mice. "Most probably," Albert said, laughing at the rich imaginations of his great-niece and -nephew. Cat was offended that anyone, even those foolish children who always hung around, would think that he would stoop to pursuing such pedestrian prey as mice. A few times in his younger days he had been reduced to foraging for a mouse or a vole. They were adequately tasty little morsels but he preferred a dish of diced liver and chicken. He'd never developed a tolerance for fur.

I just had a couple in here who spent nearly $600 on snorkeling gear for a Tahitian cruise. *sigh* If they hadn't been so nice I might have had to be rude to them out of sheer envy. Plus she said they have to take dress clothes and that is so not my idea of a vacation. A clean shirt and nice pair of cotton khaki slacks with sandals, that's vacation dress up for me. Ta ta.

--Barbara