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free ice cream!

whadya mean it’s snow?

there is no reason for you to care about this. loss comes with life and is the price we pay for the joys of loving another. loss surrounds us, a shadow haunting the darkest corners of our mind. there is no reason to care about loss that afflicts stranger. but, who ever said reason was a factor here?

the way to help a friend touched by grief is to take some on yourself. we share the load, so when we must bear the brunt, there are others, too, to share with us. it’s the only way to get through. so, read another’s tale, share the grief, the loss and the joy too, however brief it may have been. you have no reason to, and that’s the best reason there is.

alas, it seems that spirit is stuck in a ditch. another wheel gave out and operators gave up trying to move it; instead focusing on how to keep the rover alive and doing research.

it is worth remember that, at mission outset, NASA was hoping the rovers would last for 90 days. that was 6 years ago. really, this has to have been one of the most successful NASA missions ever. even stuck, if spirit can get a charge from its solar panels, it can keep studying the spot it is in. if you’re wonder what these bots have been up to, head here for the latest.

UPDATE: awwww…poor spirit. let’s go pick him up.

particularly your dumping of tons of snow in arizona (and yes, i know it’s northern arizona, mountainous and thus snowy, but still…arizona!) but hitting CT with near record warmth and a bunch of rain.  it should not be anywhere near 60° in january.  ever.

 UPDATE:

seems the weather gods were moderately pleased with my sacrifice.  alas, i am out of goats.

coffee is a beautiful thing.

in the abstract, i knew there was a “loquacious” switch located somewhere within the toddler brain.  still, the actual flicking of that switch to on is quite an experience.  in other words, macduff has undergone the change from stoic and (mostly) silent to a proper chatterbox.  quite entertaining actually and good that he’s finally able to speak his mind, feverishly racing though it be.

 all this is to say that i now know there is a dinosaur in the downstairs bathroom.  you can hear him when the heat kicks on.

 oh, christmas photos!  soon (er, eventually).  also, new washer and dryer!  hooray for appliances!

two weeks out of pocket:  blissful, but now, sadly ended.  in a just world, i’d be helping dinosaurs attack a train, instead of sitting in front of this damn screen.

i’m trying to clear the backlog in my moderation queue and behold!  actual comments, buried amongst the penis enlargement/mayan end time/indecipherable (to me) russian spam!  so, hi guys.  and sorry kat, i did seem to mark you as spam.  oops.

in actual fall cleaning news: saw people make our neighbor’s leaves magically disappear (well, for a day or two) so we called for a fall clean-up quote.  three hundred dollars?  three hundred fucking dollars?  i hate raking, but christ, i can buy my own leaf blower for that sort of money.  lunatics. 

on the good news front, we’ve finally settled on a price for the house and will hopefully close by turkey day.  magically transforming from renters to owners, all without moving (hooray!).  perse & wee macduff continue to do well (despite an attack of the sniffles).  life is good.

so much for another trip to the world series.  boston played like crap.  frankly, we deserved to have our asses handed to us.  2 outs in the 9th, up by 2 and at home, with papelbon pitching?  yeah, if we can’t pull that off, we don’t deserve to win.

anyway, here’s hoping the angels beat the piss out of the yankees.

here’s some new baby pics!  from the fair: