This winter’s theme must be “hermitage,” because that’s what I’ve been noticing in most of my friends (as well as myself). My grandfather’s wake/memorial/whatever was… well, I guess the best word is “difficult.” The best thing I can say is that I was reminded how cool my stepmom is, how wonderful my favorite aunt is, and how grateful I was to my girls & Geoffrey & Dustin for being there for me.

I took the last 3 workdays of this week off, in the hopes of getting a few things accomplished at home, getting a couple of doctor visits taken care of, and hopefully also getting a bit of rest & rejuvenation. While the doctor appointments were accomplished, and I got a few minor tasks completed, I’m now on the downslide of my days off with nowhere near enough done around the house, and almost no rest & rejuvenation whatsoever. I’ll refrain from explaining that further, as it would only be bitchy and petulant.

And we have 3 new critters in the house…offspring of the hamster owned by the red-headed stepchild. Yes, that means we now have 10 animals in our home (3 cats, a bunny, a snake, a lizard, a gerbil, and 3 hamsters). Anxiety did not appreciate my name suggestions of “Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner” or “Snap, Crackle, and Pop” (in the sense of “Rice Crispy treats for the cats”). If my spot-check was wrong, and they’re not all females, I shall be quite wroth.

Anxiety will be going to her first formal dance tonight, and never mind how many stores we had to tromp through in order to find a dress for the occasion. (Okay, it was EIGHT.) But she really likes the dress, and I bet she’ll have a wonderful time, and that’s all that matters. (OMG, my baby looks like a damned supermodel in that dress! …well, a supermodel with bright blue hair, anyway. To match the dress. I’ll have to get piccies of it.)

I did learn something really interesting this week (besides how many stores it takes to find a suitable dress for a teenager’s first formal dance). I learned that raccoons are capable of producing very alarming sounds that put the horror movie industry to shame, at quite impressive volumes. I never would have guessed. Unfortunately I learned this by being awakened in the middle of the damned night, due to our local raccoon population apparently deciding that my side yard was a great spot for their celebrity death match. But hey, how often does one shuffle back to bed after an abrupt awakening, muttering, “Fucking raccoons”? I bet that’s not a terribly common experience!