Hagrid is in the House!

This is my 40th Christmas, and like clockwork, every Christmas, I receive a card from my Aunt Virginia & Uncle Stan containing a crisp, new $20 bill. Every year since I was a little kid, I have been able to count on $20 in December from these wonderful folks. It's comforting to know that, no matter what the chaos in my life, there's this regular gift from Maryland every Christmas.

I received this year's card today, and like the previous 39 Christmases, I wasn't disappointed!

And I put it to good use: I did laundry. I've needed to do laundry since before Thanksgiving, and everything I own is starting to smell. I even washed my bedding.

And while the wash was going, I straightened up my room, and vacuumed.

Nothing like an infusion of familial love to get me up and going again! And nothing like the feel of clean sheets to inspire me to reduce the amount of entropy in my life.

Thanks, Virginia & Stan. I love you!

It's rare that I'm truly impressed with the quality of writing in Seattle's alternative weekly newspaper, The Stranger, but the cover feature this past week really hit home. Megan Seling wrote a powerful piece about baking cookies to deal with winter depression, titled, "The Long Winter". It's a very enlightening look at depression from the point of view of someone who has to deal with it, and the Seattle/Everett setting makes it all the more real. And the writing style kind of reminds me of my friend kadyg: wry and sardonic and very wise. (That's a compliment, Kady!)

But what's most interesting is... lately, I've been thinking about baking cookies.

Seriously. (For proof, see this comment I made in my friend kennapea's journal on Nov. 26th)

( Click for more about cookies! )