I"ve got my bank statements and checkbook out to pay bills tonight. I've been poring over new listings at nurseries (and loading shopping carts to be pared down drastically before I submit). That's half the fun though...deciding. One decision is that my grocery bill will be cut these next 2 months...less fancy condiments at outrageous prices. Plain vinegar and oil. Fewer exotic cheeses. I've got to quit hanging around the foodies at the Cooking Forum... I do like my new cookware, though ~grin~. But it will be garden purchases now through March...I've seven large pots to fill and looking for cedar planting boxes. I've some that are 20 years old and still truckin'. josh

I did look at the older outfits. I haven't read all the accompanying comments, yet. Too busy envy-ing her talent. My most strident bit of feminism is to believe that anyone can have non-hormonal funks. And that the funks don't even have to have a physical cause. For me, handling a funk is very much like adjusting to a sorrow. One must make a great effort to accumulate new memories that will soften the broken edges and [I have learned from experience] eventually the new memories will form a lovely mosaic which encompasses sorrows and funks, putting each into their place. I make hot chocolate from scratch when at home... I haven't the vaguest idea where I found the first recipe, but I doubt the present directions have much resemblance. I always follow a recipe with careful precision the first time, but after that, I have a tendency to nudge it a bit here and there. When the nudges fulfill expectations, then I make a note on the original. Recipe margins are rarely wide enough; the time comes when I write it anew. I think my present version is probably the fourth incarnation. It's enough to make one give serious consideration to reincarnation, where advancing to a new book can be made only after numerous intervening improvements.

I am so happy for you. I know "that feeling". I am on number six, so far of homes getting a new lease on life after everyone else just sucked the juice out of them and left them to fade away. The last one my daughter and I did ourselves and it was home for them for over three years and is now getting the once over cleaning to go on the market, now that they have moved on to a house more suited to their present life-style. I've often said before that I think some houses have spirits. Others are just wood and nails. Some homes do reach out and beg to you, and you know you belong there. I feel that way about my home now. My husband and I could have purchased a new(er) home for what we have invested in this one, but it would not ever be the same. We are prolly the ninth or tenth generation to live here and each family along the way has contributed a piece of themselves to the whole. I wish more people would take a fine old house under their wings and bring it back to life. They don't make homes like they used to. Those made today, no matter how expensive, boil down to economy construction. My old house was built by hand. What beams were even finished were finished by hand. You can see the random straight saw marks. Even the nails were hand forged. Our community has so many old, old homes that were just literally given up on, and some people are just now coming to see that rejuvenating them can be a wonderful alternative to just having one built. Whole city blocks come back to life like that instead of being demolished and replaced by government grants. If you are meant to have this home, you'll get it despite the odds if you keep nibbling at it. Then we can listen as you journal the progress, and won't that be fun?

Jan, I immediately thought about you since it was south of us, thinking How far south? Glad to know you weren't affected. We even had a broken window on our 12th floor office at work; scaffolding smacked it hard. Suz, as my ultrabright boss says, It is what is. Life is coming at me hard, but I am actually equipped this time around, lots of good vibes from good friends/cyberfriends. Sheila, you saying you're proud of me means the world to me as I value your opinion greatly. After class last night, I moved the food from the old fridge and freezer into the new one. I felt a universe amount better, as though they'd been annointed. ;)