miscellany

I have sparkling pinot noir and whiny kittens. We had sushi earlier and watched Baz Lurhmann’s Romeo & Juliet and now there is only a measly half an hour left of 2008.

2008 was a weird, tumultuous sort of year and I’m not entirely sure I liked it. It wasn’t that bad but it wasn’t all that fab, either. Ah well. Past is past.

And if the 2009 outlook tarot reading I just did is any indication, it is going to be a very, very interesting year.

Happy & New.

We have lots of snow! Later I am going to bake cookies and then tomorrow is Yule and there will be presents and candles and solstice. Well, solstice first, since I think technically that’s at 7am my time.

And then more cookies. And possibly martinis.

Merry merry. With snow and joy and peace and all that lovely stuff spread over top like icing.

I have been addicted to the Shiba Inu puppy cam since it was first posted on Cute Overload in October.

The puppies are going to be off to their respective new homes starting this weekend, and I shall miss them terribly.

I am tempted to do nothing but watch puppycam until then, but I have things to do. I will watch it as much as possible, though.

(And so should you.)

We went for a walk this morning because the weather is beautiful and the leaves are mostly fallen in piles of yellow and red and orange on the ground. It is bright and sunny but breezy, and we decided to walk longer than we usually do. Instead of stopping somewhere around Pickering Wharf we wandered further down Derby Street, past the House of Seven Gables and down near the Salem Ferry.

Why was I unaware that there is a house covered in magical statues and creatures and contraptions near the Salem Ferry?

It is marvelous. There are birds made from horseshoes and sea serpents fashioned from iron and rope. Creatures fashioned from driftwood and metal. I was very glad I had decided to bring my camera.

I love this city. There are more photos (and also photos of leaves and pumpkins) on my Flickr photostream.

I have been meaning to post here for days and keep getting distracted. The time gets away from me, I get distracted by a hundred things. I wonder where the day went, and then the week. Tricksy time, going ever onward without stopping. Apologies. Here is a picture of birdies to make up for it.

Salem Hallowe’en was something, as usual. We wandered around downtown in late afternoon and then came home before it got too too busy. I sort of immediately fell into NaNoWriMo and forgot about a lot of other things (I still have stuff to put on Etsy that needs to be photographed) but that’s ok. Am just under 15k right now. I’ve been considering going for 75k instead of 50k but that might be too much for one month. Maybe.

Spent the last 24 hours or so going from anxious to bouncy to elated and there was far too much candy and wine involved. Kind of tired today, but still happy. Need to get back to novelling and other stuff but history unfolding in front of one’s eyes is a teensy bit distracting. I am sad about some of the state-by-state decisions, particularly in California, but the good outweighs the bad.

I love that Cute Overload is taking suggestions on what kind of puppy Sasha and Malia should get. I vote Corgi, myself.

I am happy and hopeful. I am enjoying writing my NaNovel. I like that outside my window everything is falling leaves and nicely gray skies. Warm fuzzies and tea.