The Burrow

I sat in the client's seat today.  I'm usually the one who solves problems.  I'm the one who sits in the seat of authority and dispenses wisdom.  People come to me.  I don't go to people. But today I had some questions and Amster was the go-to-girl for answers.  I've seen her in gym shorts more often than I've seen her in lawyerly garb.  But today she was coiffed and dressed to the nines when I dropped by for conversation and a question or two.  Her office is a mom's office, with kid pictures and photos tastefully and obviously displayed.  She has fancy furnishings and a couple of big windows and the receptionist happily dispenses quarters for the meters outside.  The secretaries and paralegals greet me as I walk past their desks and Amster and I share a great big hug every time we greet one another so I've got a smile on my face and love in my heart before I sit in the visitor's chair.  I've occupied that seat before, of course, becau...

There's nothing like it.  You're down. You're out.  You can't say it aloud for fear of losing hold of your tenuous grasp on the here and now.  You wander around the house, inside, outside, pacing, not sitting, not typing, not reading, not at the gym or reading a book because you are sad. Deep down, reaching into the depths sad.  Sad that can't be fixed but might be amenable to palliative care.  Sad that is out of your control because you are only responsible for yourself and you can't bend and twist another to your desires.  The kind of sad that you know has the potential to ruin a perfectly wonderful holiday season.  Gardening doesn't help... at least not here in the desert.  I need the warm dark brown earth grunging up under my fingernails and the warm sun caressing my back as I bend and weed and dig and stomp and scream and rant and rave.  But the desert doesn't offer that kind of release.  It's a more physical, dangerous, tool-driv...

My intensedebate widget is forcing me to moderate all comments.  I'm trying to fix it, but, for now, I'm sorry that you'll have to experience the delay of gratification of seeing your words immediately posted. Thanks for trying.... I'll get it back on track soon.... I hope. a/b

The world was trying to rain on my parade today.  It failed. There were no #4 Priority Mail boxes in the post office this morning when I stopped by to drop off the results of last night's elfing.  A small disappointment, but mitigated by the fact that they've installed another drop box for packages in the lobby.  I shlepped my big plastic bag over to the big silver handle and had a grand time dropping things down into the depths.  I love depositing the mail before the postal workers start their day.  I don't know why it makes me happy to think that they will be greeted by my boxes of love when they arrive at work, but it does. Little Cuter was beset by fools at work today.  Her holiday cheer has been sucked out ..... worse than if I were a Twilight character.  Normally, I'd be worried that her perfect life had a little dent and I'd be obsessing over the best way to cheer her up.  But not today (to quote Kurt Russel/Herb Brooks in Miracle )....

( Thanks, Roomie, for the link)

The doorbell rings and the FedEx guy is disappointed because I'm not home to accept the gifts.  If a doorbell rings and no one is there to answer it has it really rung at all?  I wonder about these things at this time of year.  I have no time to worry about politics or the economy or the sorry state of health care or any of the things that occupy  my brain when it's 117 in the shade.  No, December is a marathon and I must stay focused. As FAMB remarked in her delightful card, yes Hanukkah is the earliest day ever this year.  I like it when my December celebrations don't bleed into one another, but this has certainly robbed me of any wiggle room when it comes to baking and mailing my brownies. The ingredients stay out in one corner of my limited counter space and suddenly the 10 pound bag of sugar at Albertsons doesn't look that big at all.  Having been the recipient of and falling in love with a big version of Perfect Brownie Pan Set last year (tha...

It's probably a good thing that there aren't more Hanukkah items in the stores.  I know I'd own them all.  IntrepidCat referred me to Modern Tribe and the Cuters were the beneficiaries of their catalog last night, on the first of the eight nights of lighting candles and reciting prayers and eating latkes (and donuts, as Roomie reminded me) and opening gifts.  Denizens, let me be the first person outside your family to wish you a Happy Hanukkah! Please do not conflate the importance of Christmas to Christians with the importance of Hanukkah to Jews.  Hanukkah is not a biblical holiday.  That is to say, the story and rituals do not appear in the Pentateuch (the 5 Books of Moses) nor in what is called The Hebrew Bible by Wikipedia - a long list of texts which are common to both the Christian and "Old" Testament.  None of these texts deal with the zealots in the hills who thought that they could defeat the invading and defiling Greeks (the ones living in Syr...