Does anybody else remember that disco band, Boney M? I've had their song "Rivers of Babylon" stuck in my head all day long. This is really digging into the past here... Napster, here I come.

Sure, there are nice, tasteful things to be had on eBay. Lace curtains, vintage bookends, antique teapots. But then there's shit like this. (I love this site.)

My journal is updated.

Today I went back to the gym after, oh, I don't know, six months or so. Owwwwwwwwwww.

Cate's Garage Sale Finds is a wonderful site full of stuff about strange recipes, overzealous crafts, arcane etiquette guidelines, and stereotypical romance novels. I love this woman's sense of humor and fascination with the pop culture of the past. I spent thirty minutes or so giggling aloud at her site this afternoon. Hell, I wish I'd thought of it myself!

It's been a pretty good weekend, despite my feeling so out of sorts. Tonight I got a big kick out of the superbowl halftime show. I never in all my life thought to see Britney Spears and *NSync singing "Walk this Way" with Aerosmith. Steven Tyler and Joe Perry looked highly amused by the end of it all. Worlds collide!

No, I haven't disappeared. I just haven't had much to say for the last few days. I've been feeling restless and short-tempered and just not much like writing. This happens sometimes.

Anyway, if you're asking yourself, "Where the heck is she? Is she ever gonna update?" I feel your pain. I keep coming back myself and checking Raspberry World every day as if someone might have updated it for me. No luck so far.

Shinkansen is a great-looking journal. I like her writing and her photos. Very cool.

I updated my Who I Am page yesterday. I seem to get the urge to do that every January.

A week from tomorrow is Raspberry World's third anniversary. Hmmm. Maybe I should have a party.

It's a lemony-fresh morning. The air outside smells like Pledge furniture polish, which means they're making lemon Pez over at the Pez Plant today.

Ziggy seems to be enjoying having a kid around the house. That's good news, because we've often wondered how he'd fare with competition for our attention, and he certainly hasn't taken too kindly to other animals in the past. But with this 5-year-old he just seems curious, not alarmed or wigged out. Our guest enjoys shadowing Ziggy and copying what he does, flopping on the floor or climbing on the back of the sofa.

Another amazing journal entry, this time from Lynda's (parenthesis). Wow.

Busy times around here. We have a friend's 5-year-old son staying with us for a couple of days while his mom is on a business trip. Last night was the first night, and I think it went pretty good. Now it's almost time to get up and get ready for school. Did you know they have homework in kindergarten these days?

Yum: blueberry muffins for breakfast.

It is snowing here, and has been all night. Looks like we got 5 or 6 inches. It's very pretty outside -- the world is bright and sunny this morning. But very cold. So instead of going out with my camera, I took some pictures of my cat in the kitchen.

Oh man. I just visited Marel Trout's journal. She updates infrequently, but it's always, always worth the wait. And tonight was no exception. I think this entry, Snake Axe, may be one of the best I've ever read, in any journal.

How many weblogs does one girl need? The music page is updated.

I love the look of this magazine: Toast.

Speaking of toast, the journal is updated.

Ah, let us remember summer.

I took this picture last August on our trip to Georgia. We'd stopped at a highway rest stop and there were these banks of amazing black-eyed susans. That's my flower, for obvious reasons. So I took some pictures with my (then) new digital camera. Today I was looking at this picture and thinking, is it ever going to be summer again?

The journal is updated, and I sound like a new age princess. Don't worry, it'll pass . . .

The journal is updated, with an account of my trip to Waterbury. Not a great place to visit, unless you are in the market for bootleg CDs. Which, of course, I am.

Marty is out of town tonight on a business trip. I took the day off for MLK day and spent it with the friend formerly known as the Manchester Slasher. We drove lost around Waterbury for awhile and then went for a dinner featuring lots of garlic at Bertucci's. A perfect afternoon.

Tomorrow it's back to work for me. In the meantime I am putting the finishing touches on a CD cover and nursing an achy arm. That's all that's fit to print at the moment.

Raspberry World got a weird hit this week from this Swedish journal (aka dagbok). I don't think there was a link from the page, so it must have been some strangeness on the part of my tracker. But I really liked the design of this Swedish site. So I checked out some more of these dagböcker and I was impressed with the way they look: Sushi, Tiina, Anna, and Louise.

Of course I don't understand a word. But I still like to look.

Updated the journal today.

It's cold in Connecticut today. It's cold and there is a bunch of snow on the ground. I am listening to the Red Hot Chili Peppers to try and keep warm. Their latest CD, Californication, is really great.

Updated the journal tonight.

It is entirely too late for me to be awake on a so-called school night. Thankfully, the weekend starts tomorrow at 5:00. Joy!

Fix Your Wagon seems like a cool journal. I particularly enjoyed her latest entry, about her Forbidden Love for a member of *NSync.

Oh, man, I feel your pain. Anybody looked at Rat Sushi lately?

Looking for inspiration for your new year's diet? Check out this article about Fat in Chocolate on CNN.com.

Today I am working on taking down the xmas decorations, but I keep getting distracted by the newest edition to our high-tech household. For my birthday this week, I got digital cable. I am in MTV heaven. I have MTV, MTV 2, MTV X, Spanish MTV (aka the Ricky Martin channel). Maybe a couple more I'm forgetting. And that's not even counting all the VH1 channels. And all the digital music channels. Oh boy!

So as you can imagine, I'm not getting much work done. I keep flipping between all these channels saying, "Hey, there's U2! There's Donna Summer! There's Chayanne! Look it's AC/DC! Hey, it's a Spanish Christina Aguilera video! Look, it's Val Kilmer pretending to be Jim Morrison! Oh my god, it's Lenny Kravitz!" [That's when I swoon.]

Good morning! I finally got my music page updated with the CDs I Loved in 2000. Whoo-hoo!

Now I am busy listening to new stuff. Yesterday I got Californication by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and John Mellencamp's Greatest Hits. Also I have a couple of new home-cooked CDs which I got for my birthday! These are my favorite kind. Currently, Her Nonchalant . . . Susie's Songs is burning up the CD player!

All right! The music orgy of 2001 begins!

Twinkle, twinkle.

This Christmas I discovered that Laura loves her Christmas tree the way I love mine.

Laura and I became friends a few years ago when we both lived in Manchester, Connecticut. She has a wonderful sense of style and design, which you can see from her web pages, photos, and (if you're lucky) her homemade CDs.

Anyway, she's put up a lovely essay and some photos of her tree, so go and check it out: Laura's Christmas Tree.

As always, Tim is making me laugh:

I am quite spectacular (you knew that anyway, right?) in that I can look back at my younger self and laugh, when my younger self is only one day my junior. "Look at how I was yesterday!" I cry in peels of joy and laughter, "how young, innocent, silly! Today I am wiser. Today I am stronger. Today I am a New Woman."

Apart from the New Woman bit. I rarely refer to myself as being a New Woman. Mainly because I've got that whole penis thing going on. You know how it is.

Oh dear. I laughed my ass off about Shelley and M's feline Jedi Training (see pictures about two-thirds down the page). Griffin is such a beauty, and he seems like such a wonderful, tolerant cat. He reminds me of Ziggy, except for that really loud purring thing (Ziggy is a stealth purrer). Like Griffin, Ziggy will put up with a lot of "training," and then he tries to stick his entire head in your armpit.

Speaking of the Cat of Glory, here's Ziggy now:

Free FONTS!!! Ooo, happy birthday!

Somehow raspberry web pages and Hello Kitty just seem to go hand in hand: Raspberry Fizz. Hee hee. I even own some of that Fairy Kitty stationery, thanks to a certain Kitten of my acquaintance.

Happy new year
Happy new year
May we all have a vision now and then
Of a world where every neighbour is a friend . . .

Abba, Happy New Year

Every January 1, I wake up with this song in my head. I've grown accustomed to it over the last 20 years or so. I used to dig out my "Super Trouper" LP and play it, but it has been many years since I've had access to a turntable.

However, today I have Napster. I woke up this morning with the Song of Evil in my head, as usual. I stumbled to the computer and fired up Napster. Ten minutes later (thanks to a 56K modem) it was mine, all mine.

I don't know whether to be grateful or sorry. But anyway it's mine.