1) Skipped going to a protest march I had said I was going to, because it was too cold for me this morning. I feel bad about it.

2) Made some homemade chicken noodle soup. Used too much garlic. (Yes, it's possible)

3) Feeling vaguely woozy.

1. Vacation in Orlando! We haven't done much- kids were sick yesterday, today we went to the mall briefly and now we are back at the condo on the porch. Sister arrives tonight with her new boyfriend. We know very little about him.
2. Part of yesterday's sickness was O's 3rd febrile seizure. Pediatrician suggested a visit to a neurologist; thankfully, I work at a neurology practice and they're finding me a spot with the best guy. Generally there's not much you do for febrile seizures so I'm curious to see what he'll say.
3. I am eating a thousand cookies this trip. Stynxno just got Girl Scout cookies at Publix! The Lemonades are so good (we don't have those up north).

1. My right arm is full of cat tooth sized punctures after giving a stinky feline a bath. Hoping that I don't end up at Med-Express to get antibiotics tomorrow. She looks like a drowned rat and hates me now.

2. Have reservations at a nice restaurant tonight but it's currently thundersnowing so I'm hoping that we'll manage to get there.

3. Sick of winter.

1. I have a new niece (sister's granddaughter). That's pretty cool.

2. Weekend plans keep getting messed up because of all this daggone snow.

3. Well yeah, sick of winter.

Un: Leg of lamb for dinner.

Deux: Debbie Gravitte and Broadway Love Songs show.

Trois: Winter? Yeah this is the time of year I really miss California.

Well, valentines days was yesterday here, but the last few days have been:
1. Visited my sister twice (5 hour return trip driving each time), who is in the 'end stages' of Emphysema. On Friday, she was in ICU and being told to 'get her affairs in order' and the family was spoken to by her doctor to explain what the next few days would look like (intubation then, when she was ready, sedation and cessation of any treatment to prolong life). Today, she's off even the CPAP machine and as bright as a button, although that's not going to last.
2. My eldest daughter's fiancée has his bucks night last night. Not really in the mood for such shenanigans, but went to dinner and left early.
3. Same daughter's wedding is in a month in Thailand, so I guess I better start making some travel arrangements!

1. Yesterday I set up a miniature computer together with my 85 yr old father. (A Raspberry Pi 2) Reminded me of how decades ago we'd be fiddling with the Commodore 64 on the dinner table. Or how there'd be a tube radio and soldering iron on the table with its internals exposed including the 220 V carrying frame. So nice to be able to do that with my old dad.
I'll be offering my brother to help his 15 yr old daughter with trying out Scratch and Mathematica on the Raspberry. I've no idea wether a teenage girl would like to fiddle with computers on that level. But I'll offer anyway.
2. Next month I'll be starting a new job. It's quite a relief that I found one. I'll be starting a week early since they just landed a new project with a big bank. So I'm studying new software development techniques in preparation.
3. There are early signs of spring here. The time when one goes to work in the dark and returns home in the dark is over. Birds are singing differently, trees are showing early buds. For us in NL the challenge of winter is not snow or extreme cold but mostly the lack of daylight. It's a bit pathetic actually how an inch of snow recently derailed our whole public transport system...


I'm sending moral strenght to those weary of snow. (I don't know what thundersnowing is. It sounds rather cool actually.) And to dg for his sisters health problems.
And hurrays to Janet for being a great aunt and to dg for daughters wedding in Thailand.

Hugs to all those who need them. Extra hugs for you, dg.
1. Since yesterday was Valentine's Day, I decided to make a ridiculous chocolate cake, just for the two of us, since we weren't venturing out into public. At the last minute, we got invited to a friends house to spend the evening, so I finished decorating this ridiculous cake with friend's three year old. She helped dot the whole thing with raspberries, then we sprinkled powdered sugar over the top before we ate it. It was delicious.

2. We are in the middle of a bathroom remodel, which started out moving along at a rather brisk pace, but we've hit some stumbling blocks, and now we are just the stereotypical behind-schedule remodeling project. It's not terrible, the delays are owing to the fact that we need certain specific craftsmen who can come and perform tasks correctly, so I am willing to wait. We still have two other bathrooms so I ain't sweating it.

3. We have been slammed with work, since sometime mid-October. We barely catch up before the next huge project is dropped in our lap. My husband talked to some other translators about it (he actually goes places and talks to other people, unlike me), and it turns out it's not just our language pairs, but translators who do Russian, German, Japanese, etc., are all getting slammed as well! No one seems to have a plausible reason to explain all of this work, which is coming from both public and private sector. It's tech, it's science, it's humanities, it's commerce/trade, it's law, it's entertainment, and so on and so forth. This problem is only a problem insomuch as I have less free time to waste on the internet, but it is really nice to make the $$$ and save them for a rainy day.

Oh yeah, and fuck cancer. Just fuck it.

1. Yesterday was like any other day. Kidlet & I did errands & brought a new desk chair & area rug in the morning and hid inside from the cold in the afternoon. Nothing says "I love you" like waffles for dinner so that's what we had.

2. They're calling for 8-12" of snow Mon night/Tues morning. Which is enough to shut the area down Tuesday. It'll be a pain but I'm kind of hoping it happens esp if it means we can make a snowman.

3. I have off tomorrow for President's Day and the daycare's open so I get a day to myself. Given how Macy doesn't sell my favorite jeans anymore, I think I'm going jean shopping. Oh joy.

I worked Saturday and Sunday. I was so cold after being outside at work bringing in shopping carts that I couldn't feel really warm until after I soaked in a hot bath; I had a little wine and cheese, then went to bed.

This morning I treated myself to making homemade biscuits and country ham. The biscuits are great but in the process I boiled over my hot chocolate (twice!) and set off the smoke alarm to boot. It's funny - one little person can make quite a mess doing one little thing like cook breakfast.

What day was Valentines day? Saturday? Right.

I went for a run in Central Park with a running group that I'm starting to hang out with. Broke away with one of the super fast runners who was treating this run as her easy run (insert hollow laugh from me) and she hustled me around the park loop (10km) at an 8:50 pace which is very fast for me. I died. It is quite possible that I am writing this from the afterlife.

In the evening we dropped the kiddo off at a drop in playtime thing at a Build-a-Bear type place and she had two hours of playing and pizza etc. while we went to a couple of new to us bars, incl a nice new gastropub where we had pickled eggs and oyster sliders. Noms.

We don't really do valentine's day.
I went to a prenatal exercise class where the instructor's eyes popped out when I told her I was only 25 weeks. She said "but you are so big, you still have so far to go" and I was like thanks, I hate you.

Had a friend over for dinner and made what is now my traditional vday pasta; picci or tagliatelle with egg yolk, nutmeg, pepper, and tons of parm and gruyere. It's like a veggie carbonara (sort of) with extra cheese.
She told us about her love woes and we watched a cute movie about a boy coming out (Edge of 17).

It was a really nice day. I have nothing but mushy things to say of my Bear who is truly my yearlong Valentine. He bought me a truly beautiful antique locket and chain (and seemed to like the hand-tooled wallet with the bear and outdoor scene on it I got him) and we had a romantic and scrumptious dinner at a cozy neighborhood place.