We hibernate when it gets that cold.
Neil is in bed with a ripping bad cold that has
managed to worsen overnight.
I just got back from the drugstore. The doctor sent a Z PAC.

I went by the house in town, haven't been there the past
couple of days due to a pulled muscle in my back. The
new roof looks wonderful and the new
gutters are great. The sheet rock is up in Katrina's
bathroom and the plumbing is finished. The tile will be
next. Steve is building a wall of closets in her bedroom.

Electrician is still working on the new wiring. I hope it
is all over soon. He has promised me that the new outside
lights will be up this weekend.

It got up to 57 here today & it was wonderful! We've been hibernating for the past few days with our frigid temperatures. However, the good thing about "winter" in the south is that is really doesn't last all that long. I noticed a big, fat bud on one of my early daffodils this morning.

A daffodil bud? Be still my heart.

I was awakened very early this morning by my dog and cats, literally circling me like Indians around a wagon train. It was way too early to get up, but I did anyway. It's already warmer today than it has been for a week and the sun isn't even really up.

I've kicked on the little fire in the kitchen as has become my morning ritual this winter, and sit before it with my big tom cat and sip my coffee and wake up gently.

I looked at my office calendar and noticed it is still turned to December. Belly laugh at that one, we are five days into a new month and year. I should maybe change it now?

Last evening I ventured into town for what my SIL calls retail therapy. I am not much of a consumer, but gift cards were burning a hole in my pocket and it was time to remedy that situation. I certainly didn't want to go anywhere near the mall until the Christmas "returns" issue was over.

I am a "cheap date" and my purchases were both functional and things I wanted, but could have survived, had I not bought them. A delightful set of stainless measuring spoons, a butter crock, a nice icing spatula, a stainless steel funnel. I've observed that a large number of my personal cooking and art tools disappear at my house to be found months/years later in my husband's wood shop. I don't mind him borrowing, but I do resent his choices. When he wants a rag he doesn't scarf up a ratty synthetic tea towel, he choses a nice linen one, nor does he get the cheap spare tableware, but heads for the matched set. After looking for a year for my good mechanical drafting pencil, I find out it is up in his workshop too. With another giftcard, I finally after a lifetime of seamstressing, splurged on a quality set of dressmaker's shears. I will break fingers if this gets taken from the sewing room.

I've started working on another quilt, hopefully to be done before the end of my short winter break. I had a clerk in a quilter's shop share with me she thought quilting was an "expensive" hobby. This remark really bothered me, as the artform of quiltmaking began as the ultimate expression of thriftiness. I've seen some beautiful quilts I know cost hundreds of dollars to produce, in addition to the time and work and being art, and that's OK. But, I really get a kick out of making mine totally from recycled materials, with no fancy equipment, tools or patterns. What materials aren't fit for a quilt, gets made into rugs.

I have four more weeks of winter break before I start kicking on g'houses and frankly, I'm getting itchy to get started.

Yes, Michael we are in Mexico. Will post a blog soon. The first dive was good but cold. Fortunately I bought myself a diveskin to go under my wet suit this year. It helped a lot. I saw zebra eel, and 2 other eels I don't know. Also lots of butterfly fish, angelfish, jacks, puffers including one of my favorites the spotted blue puffer fish, also lots of nudibrachs. Tonight I heard a mariachi band playing through my window, not for me of course but I listened anyway. Tomorrow I start my Spanish class. Keep warm up there.