Today is, Blue Monday, said to be the most depressing day of the year in Britain. Depths of winter, weeks since anyone last got paid (most people got paid before Christmas), months until our next public holiday (Easter),dark mornings, dark nights, etc. Today was very foggy and damp, but I went for a walk at lunchtime and noticed that the waterfowl on the dock are staking out their nesting sites in readiness for spring.

And today I saw this picture and it made me feel all warm inside. I don't know the backstory, but I love the smile on the kid's face. And you can tell that at some point he said to himself "fuck those fake baby legs, I want robot legs."

≡ Click to see image ≡

I've been winter crazy for a bit already. It alternates between wanting to just cry all the time and eat very salty food (ramen, french onion soup, and canned raviolis) and some serious RAGE.

I got my hair cut off last weekend and spent a day with my extended family, so I'm sure that's part of the craziness right now.

I keep thinking I want to change things in my house, but then I remember that I don't have the money to do anything and I don't really have the space. And I suck at making decisions like that. (As evidenced when my brother tried to get me to pick out what pattern I wanted him to lay out the floor tiles in my utility room. I told him to go with whatever he liked and he got all pissy saying that all women do that.)

My homie is coming down in 2 weeks, which is good, but I think I need to start planning some sort of vacation or at least taking a day off or something that hopefully will not involve me spending money, because I don't have any.

hmm, haircut. thanks for the idea sperose - I could use a new cut and mebbe a touch of colour to liven things up a bit. Winter crazies indeed.

Thanks Jan, that's good stuff there. The prairie dogs out here are getting restless -- I've noticed an upswing in their suicidal games of tag on the bike paths, which is a good indication that breeding season is imminent.

I think the mister and I have struck a compromise, at least temporarily, on the repaint-the-whole-interior-of-the-house crazies. We got several gallons of a really, really nice base colour (it's a perfect neutral french vanilla that will go with pretty much anything, including being a good colourwash base), so we will prep walls and base coat everything with that for now.

Then at my/our leisure, we shall both work at colour washing, frescoing, stencilling, stripes, borders, whatever, as we see fit over the next few weeks.

I did manage to talk him down on the bathroom idea, because really, that whole damn room needs to be nuked from orbit. He plans to either do a significant kitchen/bath remodel, or else just move to a nicer place within 3 to 5 years anyway, so I'm just not seeing the benefit of polishing that turd, as it were.

But yea, I am in total agreement with him that the current, drunken-male-college-student paint job simply has got to go.

Wish me luck, bunnies, because the silly lads chose some really dark colours in the main living areas; i.e. navy blue, brick red, mustard yellow... all which of course have been liberally slopped over the trim, sigh.

"that whole damn room needs to be nuked from orbit" LOL
I'm going to go buy some Ralph Lauren royal blue-ish paint in the city tomorrow for the family room. We're in the middle of lots of re- and construction.

I tried the haircut deal to help feel better, but I paid a fortune and the stylist totally borked it. It's now part of my winter crazies rather than the solution.

Oh that sucks kch. It's just hair though--it grows back. (I thank my lucky stars that while I pay a shitton to get my hair done, I can just go to my stylist and tell her I want to cut it and she will come up with something that is absolutely perfect for me and my lazy 'I want to only have to run a brush through it in the morning' self.)

I am excited to hear about this fancy pants painting scheme. I have what my brother called 'rent me' white walls.

I just cleaned out 2.5 tons of paper from my office today. Office looks awesome. Not going to do anymore work, ever.