That sound is the chattering of my teeth.

My crowning achievement today was completing the Sunday NY Times crossword. It was hard. That more or less sums up my productivity. I also read quite a bit of an excellent book that the singer in my daughter�s band lent me, American G0ds by NeiI Gaiman.

It has been very cold, and the house has been very cold as well. I�ve been burning wood from the garage, last year�s wood, the stuff we�re supposed to save for chopping into kindling, because I just haven�t felt like going to the woodshed to get this year�s combustibles. Finally I donned my coat and boots and mitts and headed out the garage door, noticing that it actually felt warmer (right, it�s -10�C instead of -20�) and realized that there was no way I was going to get wood off the woodpile anyway, as it was stacked higher than I could reach. I managed to pull one piece off, then had to climb onto the pile itself to reach another, which I could barely maneuver off the stack and into my arms. Crazy. Those boys could at least have assured me a supply of wood for the stove before they left.

Speaking of my boys, Hubby called last night to say that they were sitting around in shorts and bare feet, having spent a very pleasant afternoon at the beach. Do I really want to hear about this? I suppose if I�d really wanted to I could have gone to Florida too. As it is, I�ll wait another two weeks for Cuba.

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