A Little Anti-Climactic

The journal is updated. It's not a year in review entry. I was fired up about writing that until late last night when I really started going through my journals for this year and found I just ... didn't feel like going back to that stuff.

Happy new year, everyone. Have a safe celebration if you're going out. Marty and I are staying in and some friends are coming over -- some welcome last minute plans. It should be a nice evening.

To all my regular Raspberry World readers -- those of you I know and the ones I don't -- thank you. I appreciate your interest in the site. Thanks especially to all of you who have written to introduce yourselves over the past twelve months -- it has been a pleasure getting to find out a little bit about my readers. My best to all of you. See you in 2002.

That's a Lot of Music

My year in review entry is done for the music page: CDs I Loved in 2001. It's always fun for me to look back and see what I was listening to throughout the year.

Now it's on to the journal year in review entry. I'm hoping I can get it done before the end of the year...

Saturday Morn

Today appears to be the opening ceremonies of the squirrel olympics in our back yard. Lots of activity this morning, playing and leaping with tails flying. There's also a large supporting cast of bluejays.

How I love the feeling of Saturday morning, with the weekend stretched out before me. There always seems to be so much potential there. No matter how I end up spending the time between Saturday morning and Sunday night, I think the anticipation of it is half of the pleasure. Of course, as always, this weekend I do have a list of things I'd like to accomplish. I am hoping to make a little time to work on Raspberry World -- I have some updates I'd like to finish before the end of the year. But we'll see.

We got a new washing machine this week, a front-loader. It's quite amazing -- much quieter than our old one, and apparently much more effective and efficient, too. We're doing lots and lots of laundry right now.

Last night we watched the movie "Men in Black," and we both thought it was cute, although 15 minutes after it was over I could remember hardly a thing about it. Well, it was about MIBs. Maybe they wiped my memory.

Now Ziggy is going by the title CIB.

A New Weblog

I would like to introduce a new weblog started by a friend of mine: Painted-Turtle.com. Amanda is a very creative person with wide-ranging interests and hobbies, so I know it will be a treat to watch her site grow. Check it out!

Oh Yes It's Friday Night, er, Morning...

This week has been so quiet at work that today hardly even feels like Friday. Nearly every day has felt like a Friday!

Last night was fun. We had a fire in the fireplace so around 10pm we got out the marshmallows, chocolate, and graham crackers and made s'mores. I absolutely love toasted marshmallows.

I ended up skipping writing any holiday cards this year. It's a shame I didn't manage to write them after all, but things got busy and it slowly became clear that it just wasn't going to happen without some serious angst and gnashing of teeth. And where's the fun in that? Anyway, I hope to get back on track next year.

My journal is updated.

I'm trying to do my year-in-review entry but I got distracted by something new and ended up wanting to write about it.

Extreme Close-Up on the Cat-Cam!



Ziggy says he likes Christmas. Lots of wrapping paper to play with, empty boxes to hide in, a tree in the house with stuff hanging off it -- it's the perfect holiday.

How We Spent Our Christmas

You may already have seen the picture of Marty's Lincoln Log fort. But here's how the story really turned out. It became a heavily fortified stronghold with army guys shooting in every direction. (Note the casualty in the background on the floor.)

After we finished with the war games, we went to see The Lord of the Rings. Oh my goodness. What a movie. I can't wait to read the book and see it again. The acting was great and everyone seemed so well-cast. The production values were extremely high. And the heroes... Frodo, Gandalf, Aragorn, Boromir, Legolas... it's simply impossible to pick a favorite. I wasn't one of those kids who grew up reading LOTR, but I read the entire trilogy -- once -- several years ago (in college). I have to admit, I couldn't remember that much about the story before we went to the movie yesterday. But that didn't matter at all. It makes plenty of sense on its own.

Still, I am looking forward to seeing it again.

Lest it seem that our Christmas was merely a day for celebrating violence in toys and movies, let me say that probably the best part of all was yesterday evening, after dinner, when we enjoyed a fire in the fireplace and worked on a puzzle together while listening to music. A nice way to end a nice day. And very peaceful.

P.S. Welcome back, Blogger!

Clumsy Morning

I have this habit (which I get directly from my mom) of trying to have a conversation when I'm actually asleep. Usually what happens is I'll wake up when Marty is getting in bed, and start trying to ask him questions or talk to him about something that seems, at that moment, to be very important. Usually, it's something that doesn't actually make any sense in the real world.

Last night when I went to bed, my alarm clock was set to wake me up for work, but somehow while I was sleeping I had gotten the idea that it wasn't going to go off. And of course, in my dream there were dire consequences for the alarm clock not going off. So when Marty came in around 1:00 (after all, he's on vacation this week) I started asking him questions about it. I remember telling him that I couldn't figure out how to fix the problem with my clock, and asking him to fix it for me.

I think he's catching on, though. Because he asked me, "Are you awake or asleep right now?"

At first I said, "I'm awake!" But then I thought about it some more, and realized I was probably asleep. So, even though I had a bad feeling that something awful might happen if I didn't fix the clock last night, I decided to leave it until the morning and see if it was really a problem then.

Of course, this morning there was no problem. The clock went off right on time, unfortunately.

I had a restless night and I woke up feeling very clumsy. A few minutes after I got up, I came back to the bedroom to shut the door so that I could use the printer in the study and the noise wouldn't wake Marty up. Wasn't that thoughtful of me? But the clumsy morning got the better of me. First there was a box in the way, so I had to move that so I could shut the door, and in the process of moving the box I bumped into the (folded up) ironing board (which we keep behind the bedroom door) and knocked it over onto the hardwood floor.

Have you ever heard an ironing board falling onto a hardwood floor? The clatter is quite impressive.

A groan from the bed. "What are you doing?"

"Uh, I was trying to close the door so I could use the printer."

"What?"

"You know, I didn't want to wake you up."

"!!!"

Then I almost drove my car off the road on the way to work. It is still a clumsy day, so I am going to be very, very careful and stay in my office.

A Charming Pair

My last new ornament: this little pear to go with my partridge. It is about the same size as the bird, and has similar glitter treatment. It's very lovely.

It's been a nice, relaxing day here. We finished up cleaning the house and then spent the afternoon working on a puzzle, in between phone calls from our faraway families. I was glad to hear that more of my boxes reached their destinations -- as far as I know, all of them made it by today. We watched White Christmas (one of my favorite movies) and I cooked a meatloaf (one of Marty's favorite dinners).

There are still things I haven't managed to accomplish -- like writing my holiday cards. I seem to fall farther behind on that every year. But I haven't given up completely. Maybe I'll work on them tomorrow and try to get them out in a day or so.

Tomorrow morning we will open presents in the dining room, and Ziggy will no doubt be overjoyed by the volume of wrapping paper and ribbon to oversee. I bought an Entenmann's cheese danish for a breakfast treat, so I'm taking a break on the grits casserole this year. (Maybe next weekend.) I'm trying not to overdo.

In the afternoon tomorrow, I expect we will go to a showing of Lord of the Rings. It should be a nice, relaxing day, which is just what we wanted.

I hope your day will be just what you wanted, too.

Weather Talk

Here's my new mushroom ornament. It's just about two inches tall and so cute!

Well, yesterday was a pretty relaxing day. We made a lot of headway in clearing up the clutter downstairs. I got the cookies made for our neighbors and we delivered those. Then we went out for a hamburger, and afterwards I had a nice long talk on the phone with Sonal.

It's finally turned cooler here, more like you expect December in New England to be. Marty has even built fires in the fireplace for the last few days. Up to now it certainly has been a much warmer fall and early winter than is normal for us here in Connecticut. Everyone's talking about global warming -- even the New York Times had a big article about it yesterday. But they say that once it gets cold, it will go back to normal weather for this time of year. I haven't exactly minded not needing my heavy coat yet this year, but it really has been strange.

When Marty and I moved to Pennsylvania in 1990, we had no idea what we were getting in for. Over the next seven years, until we finally left in 1997, Central Pennsylvania experienced (I think) four of its snowiest winters on record. I'm talking about winters when the total snowfall would be over 140 inches.

Maybe that's not so unusual if you live in Colorado or Michigan or someplace, but for Central PA it was a lot, and for two people from Georgia it was pretty overwhelming. By the end of it, of course, we were almost old hands at it. Even I could drive the 4-wheel-drive pickup truck in the snow, and my primary car was an all-wheel-drive Subaru. But moving to Connecticut was something of a relief in the weather department. As bad as last winter was (and I remember it as being extremely cold), we have never yet had a winter here to match the ones in Central PA. I'm not complaining. I am not a winter girl.

Do I Smell Cookies?



I did a mini-update of my recipe page today.

The cookies I made this year for Christmas were butterballs, chocolate crinkles, and ginger buttons (pictured above). The butterballs are my favorites. I have heard these cookies called a lot of different things, such as "Russian Tea Cakes," but all my life I have known them as butterballs, and that is what they are likely to remain...

Special Feature: Clippy Birds



Yesterday I found two clippy birds for my tree. I already had one, a gold one, and now I have the red one above and a white one which is very similar. I like them because they have real feathers in their tails, and very pointy beaks.

Today Marty and I need to spend some time cleaning the house and getting things back in shape around here. We've both been very busy at work and in the evenings lately, and the house is kind of a wreck after all the holiday preparations. I'd really like to get it all under control today so that tomorrow we can just relax and do puzzles or play games.

Here is a picture of the white clippy bird:

More and More

This carrot ornament was a gift from Maria last year. It goes with my Christmas tomato, which you may remember from last December. The carrot is very pretty -- orange and glittery, and the perfect size to go with the tomato.

It is difficult to do justice to the lovely ornament over at the right. First of all, it's hard to photograph, because part of it is clear! It is a hand-painted blown glass ornament, given to me this year by Laura. Can you see what is painted on there? Two little Christmas kitties in the snow, one of whom looks just like Ziggy! (Except, of course, that would make the gray cat very large, because Ziggy is 13.5 lbs.) They also resemble Sonal's cats, Carly and Gray.

Speaking of Sonal, you must check her page for a picture of one of the best desserts I've ever eaten. Coconut ice cream, served with bananas wrapped in phyllo dough and fried. We had it when I went to visit in August, and it was incredibly good. I actually crave it sometimes, although I've only had it once, but I have never found a Thai restaurant here in Connecticut that serves it. It's absolutely heavenly.

Tonight Marty and I enjoyed a Baz Luhrmann double feature -- Strictly Ballroom followed by Moulin Rouge. This was my first viewing of the Moulin Rouge DVD, which arrived on Thursday. I am quite astonished at the way that movie has jumped into my all-time top five list. I think I knew how it was going to be after the very first time I saw it (which was with Sonal in August). I could just see myself watching it again and again... and I did. I saw it four times in the theatre -- including twice in New York, since it wasn't playing in Connecticut any longer. And now I own it! It's definitely a somewhat different experience to watch it on the television at home rather than the large screen in a theatre, but I enjoyed it just as much tonight as I did any of the other times.

Wild Cat

Tonight during dinner, Ziggy came tearing into the dining room trailing a long red silk ribbon behind him. He'd dug it out of the wrapping paper in the living room (which I haven't managed to put away yet, despite mostly being finished with all my wrapping). He was very excited, and immediately started pouncing all over the ribbon and scrambling around on the floor with it. Note how he has his back feet propped against the leg of the dining room chair ("for extra leverage," he explains!):



Later this evening, I was trying to take some pictures of my new ornaments from Ursel's and he got very interested in what I was doing. I was lying on the floor beside the tree trying to get a good angle on some low-hanging decorations (the lengths I go to for Raspberry World!) and Ziggy crept around to the back of the tree to watch me through the branches. I could just see his eyes glowing in the dark. After a few minutes, he leapt out from under the tree, over the wrapped presents. This is why all the ornaments on the lower branches are unbreakable, although he normally doesn't get so excited (he's nine years old, after all).

I guess he can't wait for Santa Claws to come.

Here are two of the unbreakable ornaments, which hang right next to Ziggy's basket on the lowest branch of the tree. They're new this year. Darth Maul and the Devil Duck. They are a matched set. That is, they are both red and black and have horns (the duck's horns are a little difficult to see, because they are black, but they're there). And yes, that is a double light saber that Darth Maul is wielding.

Big McFalafel and a Side of Fries!

Ursel's Web in Middletown was a definite success. They have the most beautiful ornaments there, and the display is simply breathtaking. Wow. (Unfortunately, they do not appear to have a web site.)

Eli Cannon's wasn't open yet when we arrived in Middletown. I wasn't in the mood to try O'Rourke's Diner (right across the street from Eli's, but we've never been to it) so we drove down Main Street and I discovered a branch of Mamoun's Falafel. Maria and I went to the one in New Haven a couple of months ago, and it was great. So we ducked in there and had a falafel lunch. And a side of fries. Yum!

Feeling Better Already

It's a beautiful sunny day, but it's cold. That's a great combination because it means we can have a fire in the fireplace! I am already feeling less stressed out than I've been in awhile. It's so nice to have the holiday weekend stretched out ahead of me and know that all I have to do is what I want to do. That is true freedom! I started off the morning in that vein with a nice long chat on the phone with Maria.

There are still a few holiday things I'd like to do -- write some christmas cards, maybe make some cookies for the next-door-neighbors. But the xmas boxes are all sent (and they've mostly arrived now, too) and I am feeling a great sense of relief over that. Now all that remains is to clean up the house some, which I think we'll do tomorrow.

Right now I am taking Marty along with me to check out an ornament shop in Middletown, one of Laura's discoveries from this fall. Yes, Laura, the ornament maven. While we are in Middletown, I would be very surprised if we didn't end up having lunch at Eli Cannon's, too.

Freedom!

Hold the Pickle!

It's here, it's here! The Moulin Rouge DVD is here! And it's huge -- it's got a ton of extra stuff on it. I had no idea it was going to have all these extras when I ordered it. I just knew I had to have it. I can't wait to watch it this weekend.

I have been busy, busy, busy. I hate feeling spread so thin. I hope this 4-day weekend will help me de-stress a little. Work has been surprisingly heavy this week, and there's also a lot to do around the house to get ready for the holiday. I haven't even had time to keep up with my journal and weblog reading lately. I've only been going to the ones in my "friends" folder. And even those I haven't been keeping up with as well as usual.

Tonight I was getting home late and Marty was out at a work function, so I picked up dinner from the drive-thru at McDonald's. Can you guess what I was thinking?

Why don’t you drive through my heart?
Can I take your order?
Look what you get for just one more quarter
Wanna supersize it?
Hold the pickle!
And do it up big...
When it comes to your love
I'll be a hungry pig!

Come on and supersize it!
Hold the pickle!
I'm down on my knees...
If you don't want all my love
Next window please!

Supersize it!

[download the MPEG]

Love/Hate

The Post Office is freaking me out this week. I've always had a love/hate relationship with the USPS, and my current experience is only reaffirming it.

Last Wednesday (a week ago today) Amazon sent me an e-mail saying my Moulin Rouge DVD had been shipped. Usually when I get a message like that on a Wednesday (since new DVDs come out on Tuesdays), I have the movie by the end of the week. If not Friday, then by Saturday.

But not this time. Today (Wednesday) I still haven't received the movie. I'm starting to get a little worried. Amazon's (usually) conservative estimate for when it would arrive was sometime between December 15 and 19. Today's the last day of that window. So I am wondering where it is.

On the other hand, early Monday morning I received a box that had been mailed from Detroit on Saturday at 3pm. Granted, it was mailed Priority, but still! Detroit to Connecticut in less than 48 hours (and over a Sunday, too)? That's pretty damn good. (Also there were purple sox in it, which was even better!)

And today, I received a package that had been mailed from California yesterday morning. Yesterday. Again, it was a Priority package, but it got here the very next day! I was simply floored! (And even more floored by the *NSYNC pop rocks candy that was in it! Vroom!) I only hope my packages (which I mailed on Monday, most of them Priority) get to their destinations as quickly as these two did.

But I'm still pining a little... where's my Moulin Rouge? Christian... oh, Christian...

It's Really Real

Well. Marty and I just booked our flights for London in March. I am so excited.

We've been talking about going to England for a vacation for a very long time. I lived there for six years when I was growing up, attending English school and speaking with an English accent. I also went back for a semester at Cambridge when I was in college. But that's all a very long time ago now. I'm not sure how this happened, but it's been over 13 years since I was there. It's kind of scary, how time slips by as you get older.

But now we are going, for real. So I just printed out a passport application form (it's been years since I've seen mine, and it probably expired over a decade ago anyway) and I'm going to get started researching where we want to stay, things we want to do, and all the rest of it. We'll definitely rent a car and spend a day or so out near where I used to live. I can't wait to see all my old houses again! They are located in Barnham, Gravely, Brampton and Wyton. And my schools! Especially Hinchingbrooke School, in Huntingdon.

Where do you like to stay in London? And what do you like to do there? Let me know.

Three more of my favorite ornaments. The mushroom is one of my Dank's ornaments from years ago. The little partridge is the brother of the partridge on Laura's tree (I bought them at the same time). I love how his little wings look like burnished gold. And the gold clippy bird with the brush tail was a present from Mary a few years back. Both of the birds appear to be looking out the window.

I'm glad the weekend is here. Don't I always say that on Friday night? Well, it's always true.

This glass fish ornament is new on my tree this year. I fell in love with it and had to have it. The colors are so delicate and pretty, and it has glitter too. It does not photograph very well -- the colors keep getting all washed out. But it is a very beautiful fish.

When I got home today, there was a package with sea creatures drawn on the side waiting in my mailbox. Inside was a beautiful card and a gorgeous handmade glass ornament. I have not been able to photograph it successfully yet -- I will try again tomorrow and see if I can do it. (I normally wouldn't open a present before the 25th, but I could tell from the message in the card that it was an ornament. Then I couldn't wait!)

Thank you!

Tonight I finished wrapping almost all the presents. Marty helped. Still have not started the cookies. Also need to find boxes for mailing -- I can't remember a year when I've had fewer boxes of the right size and shape. I may actually have to go and buy some! Usually I use boxes from my attic or bring empty ones home from work.

Here's another picture of the fish. Maybe you can see the colors in this one a little better:

Little by Little

Over on the right, behold the Steinbach beekeeper ornament. He is so cute, with his little wooden bees (see on his hat and his left hand?) and his little bee veil and beehive. And that big pipe. Adorable!

Well, the xmas shopping is mostly done. Every night I'm wrapping up a few more presents and trying to get my boxes ready to mail out. I still have to make the cookies; I may work on that tonight. I'm hoping to get these packages out by Monday at the latest. That's already cutting it close, with the way the mail is running this year, but trying to do it any sooner would probably be too much.

As for the holiday cards... well... let's just say that last year I wrote them during the week after Christmas. I send them out every year, but they're not high priority for me.

Again this year Marty and I will be here in Connecticut for the holidays, just us and Ziggy. Two years ago his mom was here visiting from Georgia, and three years ago we went to North Carolina to his dad's. But this year we didn't have any vacation time left, and nobody could get away to come up here, so it'll just be us. I don't mind that. We always have a good time together. Still, it would be nice to live closer to home. Maybe someday.

In the meantime, it's good to enjoy the things that our area has to offer that you don't get to see everywhere. So here is a picture I took a week ago today, of the tree at Rockefeller Center in New York:

Here's a shot that shows my xmas tree skirt, the one I made for our first tree, years ago back when I was sewing on a regular basis. It's reversible, but Marty and I both prefer this side with the black background and green holly leaves. The other side is a lot brighter, one of those fancy Christmas calico prints with red and green and some gold thrown in.

You can also see a somewhat blurry shot of one of my favorite ornaments, a little wooden black cat climbing up a red ribbon. This is one of many from the late, lamented Danks Department Store in State College, PA. Some of my best ornaments came from there. They closed about five or six years ago, I guess.

I Saw Mommy Kissing Ghengis Khan

This one is my favorite. It's a little wooden Ghengis Khan, holding a whip in one hand (with three separate thongs) and a huge saber in the other. As you can see, he's quite intent on his business. Which apparently involves catching a little something for dinner.

I have to admit that when I bought him, I thought he was Attila the Hun (aka The Scourge of God). However, I discovered on this page that it is actually supposed to be Ghengis Khan. Just about 800 years difference there. If it had been Attila the Hun, I was going to link to this hilarious piece from the Smithsonian Magazine about Attila's home decor choices. Actually, I guess I just linked to it anyway.

Back to the Khan. Apparently the Mongol warrior Ghengis was declared Khan of Khans (or King of Kings) and king of ‘all people who live in felt tents’ in 1206. I like that. Luckily he didn't bring his horde to visit my Christmas tree.

Apparently these ornaments are some kind of Thing, although I've never seen them before. Tonight I discovered a page devoted to (selling) them: Steinbach Ornament Collection. (I should mention, though, that I paid quite a lot less for mine than they are selling for on this page.) The fourth one I got for my tree (besides Ghengis, Student Prince, and Lucky Guy) is the Beekeeper. He is just as adorable as the others. And he's smoking a big old pipe.

But hey, before you get to thinking that my tree is nothing but drinking, smoking, and barbarians with swords, check out last December's weblog archive for pictures of some of the other ornaments.

Just remember, nothing says "Christmas" like a barbarian warlord lurking in the branches of your Fraser fir.

This jaunty little fellow appears to be a beer-drinking German or Austrian in the tradition of the student prince (if you are familiar with that old musical). He has a beer bottle in his right hand and a sword strapped to his left hip, and of course that fabulous red feather in his hat. Very festive!

Speaking of things German... on Saturday night I had a slice of German chocolate cake that was just heavenly. We stopped in for dessert at Cafe Mozart (70th and Broadway) after the play. The desserts there are always incredibly good, and the cake I had was no exception.

In other food news, I eat an awful lot of tuna salad sandwiches for someone who does not like fish. I wonder why.

Dinner at Tandoor last night: appetizer mix platter, chicken biryani, murg vindaloo, chicken tikka marsala, naan. Yum.

Good Luck

I found the most cunning Christmas tree ornaments this weekend. They are little German wood ornaments showing different characters. I got a few for my tree and I find them highly amusing. This one is a little "good luck" guy, who is carrying a bunch of symbols for luck -- ladybug, four-leaf clover, and horseshoe. Very cute.

It was a great weekend. I had a guest from out of town and we were busy every minute, just about. We went to New York twice -- for the whole day on Friday and then again on Saturday night for a play. On Friday I took her to see Moulin Rouge in NY (is anyone surprised?). The play we saw Saturday was Proof, with Jennifer Jason Leigh. It was very good, I thought. Even if it was about math. I kept thinking about the story the next day, which I think is a good sign.

They simply must make Moulin Rouge into a Broadway show. It just has to happen.

Say Ho!

Well, after a service interruption of several hours this weekend, our internet connection came back and has been functioning within normal parameters. Last night we had a voice mail from the president of Comcast, saying that everything should be working fine from now on. (He must have been very busy yesterday, calling all those Comcast internet subscribers...)

Last night I was in Stop & Shop down on Dixwell Avenue (not the one up by TGI Friday's, the other one, for all you New Haven area dwellers) and was amazed to find a bunch of British goods in their international foods aisle. Ten feet of shelf space tucked in between Puerto Rican and Thai, featuring nothing but British foods. Everything from Marmite to Lucozade. They had true British Heinz baked beans (which are different from the American ones), British peas, "salad cream" (salad dressing), Cadbury's Flakes, British Smarties (completely unrelated to American Smarties), Aero bars, Jacob's biscuits, and quite a nice selection of digestives and homewheats. And much more stuff I'm forgetting just now. The prices were fairly decent, considering that you can't find these items everywhere around here. I got a pack of McVitie's homewheats (yum!) and two small tubes of Smarties. I don't know if this British food section is a regular feature of Stop & Shop -- or if it's the same at the other S&S (the one I usually go to) -- but I was happy to find it.

The homewheats are great. Kind of like a whole-wheat graham cracker coated with milk chocolate on one side. Delicious!

Now if they'll just start stocking Jaffa Cakes and Iced Gems...

Addicted to Mail

Yes, I am one of the unlucky many who receive their cable internet service through Excite at Home. The company recently declared bankruptcy and, as this article explains, may be pulling the plug on four million internet users this weekend. My connection went down this morning for several hours, so I thought that was it, but now it's back up again...

Sure, this is inconvenient for me, but what does this mean for you, the reader? Well, if you're planning to write me, use susannahx@hotmail.com rather than any other e-mail address you may normally use for me. And if you aren't planning to write me, then I guess it doesn't affect you much at all. :-)

I was out running errands for most of the day. It was a gorgeous day, but very warm -- totally not the right kind of weather for the first of December. I'm about to go and change into shorts so I can cook dinner without getting too uncomfortably hot.

Oh and my Lillian Vernon order arrived today. So I guess the new shopping interface works pretty well, although I never received a final message saying what my total with shipping was. It's not very confidence-inspiring, but the goods arrived quickly, so I'm not really complaining. I got some pretty plates on clearance, and some zippy packs for my china.

I also got my hair cut today for the first time in over two months... what a relief. It was waaaaaay overdue.