Hap-py New Year!

Geez it's cold out there, -5 with a windchill of -22.  Who lives in places like that?  Evidently I do.  The sky is crystal clear blue with bright sunlight sparkling on the pristine white snow.  It's blinding but beautiful and I always feel better on sunny days even when the temp's in the deep freeze.  Good thing there's a bit of soup left, although I plan to kidnap DD for a mom & daughter extremely belated birthday lunch at HuHot today.  Durwood's brining a turkey breast to roast for supper with a raft of fresh Brussels sprouts (I found 3 bags of them in the produce drawers yesterday... Brussels sprouts for everyone!)  Poor DS has to work today.  He tells me when you work in the restaurant business holidays don't count.  He brews beer.  Yes, it's a microbrewery in a brew pub but, seriously folks, it's New Year's Day.  Give the guy the day off.  If he had the day off we could be going for our family portrait today instead of immediately after he gets off work tomorrow because the silly studio closes at 5 and that's how late he works.  Grrr.  When I rule (more of the) world...  Last night after supper DD and I took down the Christmas tree with spotting help from DIL2.  I sit and stare at that tree, finding ornaments I especially like, thinking about where I bought some of them (Malaysia, Philippines, Bonaire) and then I can't find them when it's time to take them down.  See, there are compartmented boxes for a lot of them and they've got the little ID tags in the spaces so DD called out the ornament and I plucked it from the tree.  Very organized and sedate.  Except that I invariably went to the wrong side of the tree or picked a seal pup when I was supposed to pick an otter... I shake my head.  Did you go out and whoop it up last night?  Did you stay home and whoop?  We did neither.   OMG, I learned something on Jeopardy! last night that put me right under the table.  The category was "middle" and the answer was "considered to be the ages between 45 and 60."  The correct question was "what is middle age?"  Do you know what that means?  That means in the eyes of the Jeopardy! authorities (and we all know that they're the last word) I am beyond middle age.  BEYOND.  MIDDLE.  AGE.  Mother of god.  Excuse me while I slide to the floor in my ancient-ness.  Holy beejeebers.  I don't even have all gray hair and I'm still pretty zippy once I get moving.  This has thrown me for a loop.  Where's my challenge flag?  If you need me I'll be hiding in the basement with the other old, used up, household stuff.

January 1--Camille Pissarro, Washerwoman.  She looked like a plodding cow, bovine in her expression and just as thick of thought, but that was wrong.  Cecile was a washerwoman because that was what the women in her family had done for generations too far back to remember.  But she was quick of mind, reading the newspaper every day and she was the library's best customer.  Maitre Jeantome the lawyer took his own laundry to her instead of sending his servant.  He told his colleagues that spending an hour with Cecile kept his mind limber.

Enjoy the first day of 2013.  Do you do anything special to usher in a new year?  I don't really.  Oh, I make a few resolutions, sometimes silently so only I know when they crash and burn, but mostly I just pin up a new calendar and get on with it.
--Barbara