The other picture was not taken by me...it is part of the school's portfolio. This one in this post was taken by me, but not here at school. I just like it a whole lot better than a lot of others I have wasted time with. Wild Bill, I saw your comment. I burn a lot of stuff onto cd's and get it off my hd that way...Daria, Gorgeous sites! Palm trees...only a dream here today.

We are having a snow event here. I am in Southeastern CT (maybe 20 miles from the Atlantic coast) and we get Nor'easters, meaning the snow whips backwards...today we have about 5 inches coming really fast. I drove 14 miles inland to get to work today and found very few staff here. (Roads were very bad.) My school is right on a lake. So I am watching a lovely snowfall on a lovely lake, sipping even lovelier fresh coffee. Hope everyone is safe on the roads today. (This picture is after another recent storm, but you get the idea how pretty it all is.)

It's about time I introduced my cat. I never meant to have this cat...but he was lost and crying on the rock wall out back, so in he came and has been here for two years. Who can resist a teensy kitten? He is named after a famous guy, Chauncey the gardener from the novel Being There, who I think is the perfect representation of the Fool from the Tarot deck. Whatever. He's a nice animal with a growing spirit. And he is always willing to pose when I practice my photography skills.

I have just gotten past an hour of searching google sites for hints on this game. It is a simple (!) three-swap puzzle game, with levels (of course), absolutely beautiful screen shots and a long backstory about this archaeologist who is digging up jewels. The story is kinda lame, but the game is cunning and addictive.

Somehow you just keep swapping. Hours pass. I have been cruising forums to find hints to speed this up and so far there seem to be none. The only trick I have is how to go into the log files on your hard drive and erase all previous play.

My brother told me that games have a built-in element to keep track of your play style, so they will always be just a bit harder than you want. This was so depressing that I even asked N. to verify it. Yup. I am beat unless I do the erase. Hmm, that's not fair.

Games like this are mind drugs, I know. Yeah, yeah, I am doing an electronic denial of reality. So what, folks? Addictive types have to have something to keep busy. There is no recovery from the repeat syndrome, and at least I am not drunk or spending money or dating dorks. I am safe here at my keyboard. Unfortunately, the real world is spinning without me...but then it has always left addicts behind.

Maybe I should find a new addiction, something neat like helping others or praying for world peace. Maybe I could go rescue frozen whales and get dripping wet in the icy far northern seas. Then I would get hooked on cold and sinus medicine.

N. came home for T'giving. It was a mixed delight since he reminds me of the past, yet I also feel great pride. I have to concentrate -- I am not him and his (amazing)level of development is solely his own. He carries of buzz of intelligence, a hum from the outside world. He was excited about a new program he's written and his class at Harvard, plus now he is going for a Phd., not just the master's. It's hard to remember that MIT genius folk have a need for a family. I get so caught up in his brain tricks that a hug and kiss seem small potatoes; but I guess those affectionate hugs are why he came home.

Sadly, I see missed stuff with him: a calm home, money, regular middle-class values. I was too distracted by my kids' needs to be the mom that I now wish I could have been. Better I should have gone on welfare and never let them out of my sight...instead I worked too hard and traded one compulsion after another, always busy busy busy. Maybe someday I can look at what IS instead of what WAS. And he IS amazing.

C. and I went to see Bon Jovi last night. What a waste of time. We agreed it was painful for us but maybe the fans were thrilled. The tickets would have cost $150 each for us, and we tried to be nice about it, but come on ... screaming at an ancient dwarf with a mullet?

We made it through three songs and went to Fidelia's, where I had a delicious buffalo burger. If you have to eat meat now and then, I recommend buffalo. It is less likely to have mad-cow and has lower fat than beef, and it is lip-smackin' good.

That mad-cow thing is scarey yet does not seem to stop folk from cramming beef down their throats. Not only is it bad for your heart, etc., but the disease factor...you cannot ask a cow to become a carnivore and expect all to be well in the animal world. What's next, lions drinking Kool-aid? They mix poultry into poultry feed now, too. And dead cats into cat-food. So a grain diet is all that's left for me. Even my beloved nuts come from the rain forest. I wish I could raise all my own food, but my yard was contaminated by an oil spill 15 years ago and I still think I have oil in my water. HAH. Maybe I could strain it off and heat the house with it.

Illness update: The last big one was in July, the horrifying diverticulosis. I seem to be about to be really sick with a solid cold. I now have a catalog of ills: rotator cuff on the left, bad knee on the right, wretched ingrown toenails on each big toe (that would be two total), an earache, a sore throat, and the continual concern with my digestive drama. It all adds up to a long tub soak.

Getting ready to bathe is a whole stupid process. You gotta dog the thermostat, seal off any suspected drafts, select an after-bath ensemble, and then find a book, glasses, smoking implements, and set up a telephone. Then I call Chaunce inside so he won't bug me while I am bathing. Which lets in the cold air and delays it another hour while the house heats up. Tragedy, all is sadness, everywhere I look.