Blah Winter, Early Spring

So the news says that in about two weeks, we'll start to have higher than average temperatures again. What?! We've only had about a month of actually cold winter! That's not enough for me. And to make matters worse, almost every single blog I read talks about being snowed in and freezing, while posting numerous pictures of the icy and snowy trees. Well, no snow here. I think we had one tiny day of flurries. This is no kind of winter. This is the only blog that makes me feel better about my winter. I mean, yes, it's been in the 20s and 30s all this month and some of January, but I needed more. I remember the good old days when I actually needed a winter coat and there were snow days and I actually needed covers at night (but that's probably because I wasn't pregnant). Anyway, I'm sitting here eating my Ben & Jerry's coffee ice cream and thinking maybe I should just embrace it. I saw about 10 minutes of the movie Aquamarine yesterday and those girls looked all cute and summery and I thought, Hey, warm weather's not so bad. But I do like it better when it's in the right season.

Catalog

Gratified: This is the forecast from my local news's website.

A modified arctic air mass will cover the region through Thursday, with highs in the 40s and lows in the 20s. Although certainly nothing unusual for January, the contrast from recent warmth is noticeable. Friday into the weekend will bring much warmer temperatures. Rain will also be possible at times this weekend, followed by more cold air arriving early next week.

It's very chilly and gray right now and I love it.
(Plus, I won't feel bad about not taking Toddler out to play after he wakes up because it might rain soon and then I can continue cleaning the clutter mess we have. The reason for the clutter mess is that we painted the new baby's room, are in the middle of painting the stairs and the upstairs hallway, and will soon paint the upstairs bathroom. So there's paint clutter but also we had to clean out new baby's closet and that is resulting in having to clean out everybody else's closet to make room for the random stuff that was in her closet, i.e., metal detector, ice cream machine, Christmas wrapping stuff, an Easy Bake Oven in the box, boxes of files with old bills and paystubs, piles of Cooking Lights and Martha Stewart Livings and Bon Appetits and Gourmets from my mom when she moved.)

Baffled: Upon returning from food shopping today, the only thing I can't find is my new box of Cream of Wheat. Where is it? I guess that's the one thing they forgot to bag. I really do love my Cream of Wheat.

Addicted: While at said food store, I made an impulse buy and grabbed a box of Keebler Danish Wedding Cookies from one of those displays in the middle of the aisle. The box reminds me of 70s or 80s packaging--it's just a plain pink box with the Keebler tree and a picture of a platter of the cookies. I wasn't going to open them, but I did. And they're not that amazing, but I could not stop eating them. I guess it's the subtle coconut and the fact that, when dipped in coffee, they take on the texture that homemade ones have, and are reminiscent of a macaroon and biscotti offspring. Plus the crack that Keebler probably puts in them. If so, they really should put a warning on the box for pregnant women.

Craving: White Chocolate, brownies, yellow butter cake with mocha icing, Keebler Danish Wedding cookies. I have not eaten any of the above except, of course, the cookies. Well, I have been eating white chocolate in the form of red-and-green-swirled Christmas white chocolate chips from the bag, but that hasn't been since yesterday.

Guilty: I think I just committed a federal offense and the internet is probably not the place to discuss it, BUT... I had these bills that I really wanted to get in the mail today. We bought stamps today (after bringing all the groceries to the car, changing a poop diaper in the tailgate, and then realizing we had to run back in for stamps) and then, after I put Toddler down for his nap, I was happily checking Bloglines when I saw the mail truck come down the street, put my mail in the box, and drive on. So I ran out to the car, got the bills, stamped them, ran across the street to the neighbor's mailbox, put my bills in, and put up their flag. I KNOW one is never to use another's mailbox. I'm sorry USPS. I have been known to stand out there and wait on their curb until the mailman comes back on their side of the street, but it was chilly out and my stomach is bigger than any Santa's I've seen this season. (I know, pregancy is an excuse for nothing. There is a whole blog that went into an in-depth diatribe about how pregnant women should not be given special parking places in parking lots. And while yes, I do agree that pregnancy is certainly natural and not a handicap, you sure are lugging a lot of weight in the front that pulls and tugs at ligaments and muscles you didn't even know you had and walking far distances is not always the most comfortable of activities.)

Industrious: I started my new job with the writer's group I mentioned awhile ago. I just did a tiny task for them so far but we're meeting next week and yay! I'm a little tiny bit of the work force again! With a paycheck!

The Year Winter Was Cancelled

I really should take pictures of my two-inch high daffodils and irises and even a baby crocus shoot coming up, but I just don't feel like it. I could be lazy or eight months pregnant or both. In any case, there have been maybe two or three days this winter in which we needed coats. One I remember was December 10 because that was one of the nights my parents had to put out their neighborhood luminarias. (Their neighborhood bands together and puts out luminaria for three nights of judging in addition to all their beautifully decorated Christmas and Holiday houses. Their street wins every year.) Anyway, everyone loves it and no one is acting like it's any big deal, this weather. But it's freaking me out. I hate it! It's mid-60s just about every day and feels and sounds like April. I keep watching the azaleas for buds. But I put my wooden snowman sign on the front door that says, "We Love Winter" as an act of defiance.

In other news, we went to visit a potential preschool for Toddler today that he probably won't attend in the fall. The reason he probably won't attend is that he is 116 on a waiting list of 116 for the three-year-old room. They take 12 kids for that room. So. We'll probably be trying elsewhere. I have another church in mind, a United Methodist one (the one we checked out today was Baptist), and maybe we'll check out the Jewish Community Center?

All Christmas decorations are down and put away! But instead of shoving everything back into the attic, we did a swap and pulled down. . .an infant bathtub, an infant carseat/carrier and two bases, and Toddler's baby clothes. Most of the baby clothes are to be relocated to my parents' hugeass attic, but some of the infant ones are quite girly so I pulled out half a bin's worth to wash up for Newborn. We didn't know what Toddler's gender would be so he ended up with a lot of yellow duckies, aqua, and light green. Also, we're relocating my wedding dress which is in a big, scary, coffin-like box with a window in it. I had no idea that's what the dry cleaners were going to do when I went to have it cleaned (five years after my wedding). Now it's a scary Beetlejuice thing.

Guess I'll go put on my bathing suit and lay out or something.

Happy Christmas Weekend Everyone

OK, I'm sorry but my husband is just sweet. He made this train cake today with Toddler to take to Christmas Eve tomorrow. It's vegan so Toddler and Nephew can eat it since they're allergic to dairy and eggs. It was done in a Williams-Sonoma train pan that I got yesterday in the mail from my best friend in Boston. Yesterday we got a big wrapped box from her and today we got a box of wrapped presents from my sister that she had mailed before she left. She'll be in England for the whole holiday through New Year's. (I think she should have come here for half the time to be home for Christmas but whatever.)

I now have cookies spread around every surface of my kitchen on long sheets of wax paper defrosting to put together my final cookie platters. I already sent a big tin to CA and gave a platter to friends last night. I think I have enough for three or four more. At least this will give me a better gauge on how many platters I can make with 10 batches of cookies.

Christmas Eve tomorrow!! I was pretending I was in the southern hemisphere today, though, as I made sugar cookies in capri pants and flip flops. Sixty-seven degrees! I'm moving to Vermont.

Too Warm for Christmas

I'm sitting home all day waiting for our new laptop. UPS said they would deliver it today between 8 am and 7 pm. I was so appreciative of the specificity they were able to give me. (I know the drivers are swamped this time of year. I'm not really complaining because I'm getting a laptop!)

Anyway, it is warm. So warm! It's in the mid-60s and supposed to reach low to mid 70s by Tuesday. (I just raked the leaves from around the bottom of the mailbox post and found tiny daffodil sprouts starting to come up!!) Finally, after midweek next week, the temperatures will start to creep back down toward something a tad more seasonable. This time of year in central Virginia it's typically in the mid 40s. But this fascinating weather map shows the likelihood of a white Christmas in different parts of the country. Suggested reasons for the decrease in snow in December for most of the country are global warming plus our emergence from the Little Ice Age the Earth has been in for about 300 years. The caption for the map (for those who didn't look at it) says that Dickens' A Christmas Carol took place in very snowy conditions, whereas today it is very unlikely to have a white Christmas in England.

I really need to look more into this Little Ice Age thing. It's mentioned in The Short History of Nearly Everything that I recently read, but with so much else in that book, Bryson couldn't really go into it. But as I recall, traditionally throughout the long history of the world, Antarctica and the northern Arctic region were not known to be solid ice caps as we're used to today. So with this natural emergence from an ice age coupled with unnatural global warming, what the heck is going to happen to our weather?

No Fall Down!

I must expound upon the virtues of October. I just love it so much. One year my husband sent me flowers at work on October 1 with a card that said, "Happy October." That's how much I love it. My birthday and anniversary are in October. I met my husband in October. Basically most major things happen to me in October. And this year we are having lovely lovely seasonal October weather--nice and chilly. High 50s during the day, 30s-40s at night. But every time the wind blows and my 2-year-old says, "It's cold!" and I say, "Yes, it's fall." He looks at me with a very alarmed expression and says, "No fall down!"

Call Me Camille

It is my favorite month. I think I am delirious from the fumes of the self-cleaning oven. The weather is perfect for October. I bought two books today. Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms by Stephen Jay Gould and Galileo's Daughter by Dava Sobel. They were from the used bookstore. Both were writers I had been wanting to read. Wow, I'm so out of the swing of blog posting but you have to start somewhere.