A Quiet Three-Day Weekend

We get Martin Luther King day off, so we have a three-day weekend. I'm glad because I was really feeling tired by Friday. However, I'm largely staying at home because it's cold. (What's with the warm weeks and getting cold on the weekend?) Right now it's 10 degrees F, and the forecasters are predicting below-zero wind chill tonight into tomorrow morning. At least I don't have to go out tomorrow morning. I think that I've acclimated to winter somewhat in that it was 29 degrees on Saturday, and I thought that it was pretty warm, but 10 degrees still feels cold. I can't complain too much, though, because we hit the 40s during the week. (I miss California winters though!)

I did my usual volunteer work at the Humane Society. We're gaining more cats, which is the wrong direction. I went into one room, and all the cats were in different spots from their normal spots. I couldn't figure out why, until I saw the new cat. She's gorgeous: she's a rare orange cat who's female and has long fur. She was returned, but I don't know why. There's a new cat in Room 2 also. I earned a stink-eye from Joanie (not new) though. They keep litter in large rectangular tubs, and put a pillow on top for the cats to lie on. Joanie was lying on the pillow, so I lifted it up to get her off so that I could get some litter. After we had finished cleaning, I went over to Joanie to try to make amends, and boy, did she give me a look! I'm glad that cats have short memories.

Today, I'm doing stuff around here. I started posting pictures of the boxes in the living room on Facebook, saying that I was going to take a picture of my progress each week. Nothing like a little social shaming to provide motivation!

I have an appointment tomorrow afternoon to join a local gym, but I'm wondering if it will work for me. I need leg press and leg curl machines (for my bad knee). I don't think that they have those machines. I need to rearrange my schedule to go work out at the gym at the college, which does have a leg press machine. (The gym that I was going to join is open 24 hours, which would have been very helpful, but not if they don't have what I need.)

And so it goes. Harlee is doing very well. I've been giving her wet food "treats" occasionally, which she loves. I' m planning to order the trout and lobster food that she really loves from Amazon. if you think that I'm spoiling her rotten, you're right. Nothing's too good for my girl! I also found a Maltese-Yorkie mix dog on Petfinder who's just adorable, and a colleague friend is encouraging me to adopt her. It's tempting, but I don't know how well Zara would treat a dog who's the same size as her.

Work

I meant to say that I've been really enjoying work right now. I've been really busy doing lots of different things, which I enjoy. (I should think twice about ever getting a job at a large university because I'd be doing the same thing over and over. I like variety.) I'm getting along well with my new boss. We're planning to convert the library from the Dewey Decimal classification system to the Library of Congress classification system, and I was completely dismayed to discover that over 13,000 (yes, you read that right) catalog records don't have Library of Congress call numbers in them. I guess I can look at it as job security!

Dog

This is the dog whom I'm pondering adopting. She's a real cutie.



I like the idea that I could go places with a dog. I want to do more walking and hiking, although with a small dog, I'd need some sort of sling to carry the dog when she gets tired.

Boxes

I've been working on the boxes in my living room. I've found boxes containing magazines the easiest because I just dump them. (Mostly--I saved some from when Princess Diana died. That's how old some of this stuff is.) I found some SSSCAT cans, which emit a puff of air when they detect motion, and listed them on eBay. I found some other stuff that I want to get rid of, but aren't worth the time and effort to sell them on eBay, so maybe I'll list them for free on the local garage sale site. I've had bad luck with people from that site though. I'm determined, though, that this will be the year that I truly declutter. Having the boxes in my living room helps because I can't ignore them. I also found in one of my boxes the sci-fi book Stardance, by Spider Robinson and his wife, which I was going to get rid of, but then I started reading it. I think that I'm going to read it when I go to bed.

I forgot to mention that my mom subscribed me to Try the World, which is a subscription box that contains food from all over the world. I'm enjoying it immensely. I tried some puff pastry cookies from Morocco, a sort of muffin-type thing with raisins from Italy, some ginger snaps from Sweden, and some tea from the UK. The only down side is that if you like something, you can't necessarily find it to get more. I love the puff pastry cookies, which actually are a kind of French pastry (palmiers), so I'm trying to find out how to make them.

Added: I tried another Try the World win: pistachio cream spread from Italy. I put it on an English muffin, and it's like peanut butter, only more decadent. I think that you can buy it in Try the World's store, so I need to buy some. After all, nuts are good for you, right?