Favorite Christmas Carols...

(This will be a rotating list.)
Baby It's Cold Outside
O Holy Night!
Blue Christmas
Please Come Home for Christmas
Carol of the Bells
Coventry Carol
Christmas in Kilarney
Mele Kalikimaka
I'll Be Home for Christmas

Reading

I just finished reading Adam Langer's Crossing California . If you grew up in Chicago in the seventies or eighties I think you will really enjoy this book. It was sort of a love song to Chicago the way that Middlesex was to Detroit. Anyway it was quite funny and I can't wait to read the follow up, The Washington Story . (Hint to whichever of my sisters has my name in the grab bag...love you.)

I also read A Million Little Pieces. I have mixed feelings about it. It paints a very vivid picture of one man's experience in rehab. It id a unique experience though. I wonder if there is a backlash from people in AA because the novel doesn't always portray this group in the most positive light.

Anyway, now that Joel and I have returned from the always restful Grand Rapids, I am sure I won't have as much time for reading so that might be it for a while. Sigh. Back to painting.

Wrong Side of the Bed...

Did you ever have a day where you woke up cranky for no particular reason? This is me today. It is nothing hormonal so please don't even suggest it; I am just grumpy. Everything Joel said or did all morning made me cranky. Traffic made me cranky. The two workers in Panera talking to each other and moving at a snail's pace while having the most inane discussion about absolutely nothing... made me cranky. And as all of this was going on there was still the part of me in the bubble floating above my head saying, "Wow! You are so cranky this morning!"

I know that I have a million reasons to count my blessings, and most days I am pretty good at that. Today, though, I wish I could just put on my sweatpants and an old flannel shirt of Joel's, curl up in a ball, and bitch about the state of the world.
NKB

Home Improvements

Who knew Joel was such a handyman? (Certainly not me!)

Our literal money pit...

Hi!
Hurray! We are finally in the house. The work we are doing is progressing nicely; the place already looks so much different. Fun!

Now for the bad news...our $2,500 sewer repair became an $8,000 sewer repair in a matter of a few hours. I woke up Saturday morning to a back hoe (Spell?) digging a giant trench in the flower box and yard in the front of our house. I guess we are officially home owners. (Though my first reaction was certainly to call my mother and cry.) The good news... you can flush the toilet without repurcussions next time you come for a visit.

Anyone know anything about landscaping?

-NKB