A post-holiday ramble

In December, in an effort to spread the holiday joy, I bedecked my yew hedges and the stair railings to the tenants' entrance with some very old silver tinsel and red velvet bows.  This served to make the parking area cheerful and shiny without any need for electrical cords.

The day I took the tinsel and bows down, I had not yet gone back into the attic to pull down all the putting-away boxes, so I had an enormous pile of tinsel that was all dressed up with no place to go.  In my house, when you have an enormous pile of something you don't know what to do with, you throw it on the floor until a better idea comes to you.  It was either that or wear the tinsel around the house, and it clashes with my skin tone, so... the floor.

The tinsel ended up in a pile on the landing at the top of the stairs, where it was immediately claimed by our little princess.  She made a nest in it, and we actually held off putting it away for a few days longer than we would have otherwise, because she was so in love with it that she stayed there nonstop unless she had to eat or pee.

I became concerned because it's really old tinsel and bits were flaking off, and I didn't want her ingesting any of it while bathing herself, so we finally decided to take the plunge and un-decorate the house thoroughly.  Boxes were retrieved, filled with holiday ephemera, and returned to the attic for the five minutes that will transpire between now and the next time we say "Holy cats, it's Christmas again already!"

In other news, it snowed last night.  Lovely, fluffy, and just enough to make things look like they'd been in a bakery when the confectioner's sugar bin exploded.  That's how I like my snow - aesthetic, and less than two inches deep.  I crept out into the brittle dark to brush off the vehicle windows before the morning's melt-refreeze turned them into skating rinks, and it took me all of a minute to whisk the feathery stuff away with a light twitch of the wrist.  Didn't snow at all after that, so everything was hunky-dory when Bear got up for work this morning.

Sadly, Bear's back is "out" just now, which means existence is painful.  Sitting, standing, and transitioning between the two - not to mention getting in and out of bed - is a slow and agonizing process.  As a person who's had back injuries and recurring problems, I am completely sympathetic to his plight.  Poor Bear!  Here's hoping the magic combination of movements which realign the universe (and his spine) happen soon.  You can't really plan it, it just happens when you least expect it.

We've just finished watching "Spartacus: Blood and Sand" and "Spartacus: Gods of the Arena" and I find myself warmly appreciating the series all over again.

 Granted, certain areas are warmer than others...

Recently learned that there are two more seasons to the series that we have not yet seen!  Last year they released "Spartacus: Vengeance", and three days hence comes the debut of "Spartacus: War of the Damned".  So there will be many more hours of honor, glory, blood, sand, and naked gladiators to enjoy!  Life is good.

Since we like to switch it up a bit, we went from watching the "Star Wars" movies to the "Spartacus" series, and now we've started watching "The Sopranos" from the beginning.  It's amazing how much the actors (especially the kids) change from the beginning to the end of a long-running series like that one.  They literally grow up in front of your eyes.  Bizarre.

Today is my "Saturday", and I don't really have much planned other than giving my mom a call and maybe starting to really work on the "Wall-O-Withnail".  I tried to get it going the other morning when I was working an evening shift, but I find that my creative mind doesn't like to get into gear on a day when I know I have to go to work.  If I don't have the whole day free, I can't really focus on what I'm doing or enjoy the process.

I suppose I really should drag the vacuum cleaner around and scrub the bathroom.  But I'm off tomorrow, too.... isn't procrastination great?