Quietude
The blogosphere is very quiet today. I hope you are all safely getting to wherever you are going or already safely there. May the cookies be delicious and the food on the table be all the better because you didn’t have to cook it! If you did have to cook it...well, I hope it’s still delicious.
It’s a quiet day here, too. With a little Diana Krall in the background singing Christmas tunes. There are many candles flickering and there is a happy dog sprawled just a few feet from me, gnawing on her pre-Christmas bone. There is a storm going on outside, but it’s not the snowy variety. I think we’re out of luck for a White Christmas. In fact...I noticed earlier this afternoon that there are itty bitty weeds beginning to sprout between the bricks in the front walkway. As green and healthy looking as can be. How festive!
The Christmas tree is almost up. I made the executive decision to go with fake. It’s pretty, but isn’t quite the same as a real one. I had to make up for the lack of scent by going out to scoop up a big pile of greens at the local farm stand. They were practically giving it away this afternoon. The house is now redolent with evergreen.
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A couple of days ago, I had in mind to throw up a Winter Solstice page, but somehow didn’t get around to it. I’m so happy that the days are growing longer again. But it’s still deep winter (in some places, anyway) and I wanted a pretty, but simple, desktop image to enjoy for the next couple of months. I found a royalty-free one on istockphoto.com. It’s an oak tree in the middle of a snowy field. I centered the image on my desktop with a white background.
And I burned up my vacuum cleaner...the rubber band thingy that turns the carpet sweeper. The house reeks of burned rubber. Nuts.
Having a houseful of people and a dishwasher load of dirty dishes and a broken dishwasher....there’s panic for ya. But what a great deal. Not only did you find someone open, you found someone prompt and inexpensive. There *are* still miracles! I’m glad you got it fixed before the next round of dirty dishes.
Posted by Kate on 12/23/06 at 07:21 PM
What a beautiful tree photo. It’s so nice to know another tree lover. 
I’ve been pretty quiet over here lately, but I’ve been reading faithfully. The CFS has been a bit of a bear in recent months, so I tend to just read quietly, rather than trying to pull an intelligent comment out of my foggy brain. Oh woe. ;)
The very merriest of Christmas wishes to you and the lad! It sounds like he’s rather happy to be home for the holidays! I’m still trying to figure out if the feeling is mutual, though. You haven’t made it the slightest bit obvious yet. No, not at all. ;)
Posted by 
Have a wonderful Christmas. We’re having a quiet day here in preparation for seeing the whole family tomorrow. I’m looking forward to it.
We don’t have a storm yet, but one is promised for tomorrow. Also not the snow type.
Eleanor, I’m not too obvious am I?
I hope 2007 is a better year for you and the CFS retreats. What a time you’ve had with it. I hope you’ve had a wonderful holiday season. Sounds as if you have.
Merry Christmas to you, too, Cassie and Deb.
We’re expecting that storm tonight, but it’ll be all rain for us. Northern New England might get some snow out of it, the rest of us get rain. Oh well.
Posted by Kate on 12/25/06 at 06:24 PM
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Here’s an emergency for you. Last night, with four days worth of dishes in the dishwasher, I added soap, ran the disposal, and pressed the “Start” button. Nuthin’. Great. We have turkey today and prime rib on Monday, and I need a working dishwasher.
So, quick like a bunny I got up this morning and called somebody from the phone book. To my shock, they said they could be here between 12:00-1:00pm today. To my even greater shock, they actually arrived at 11:00am, took the front panel off, opened up the keypad section, cleaned it all out, and turned it on. Hey Presto!
And then they presented the bill. $35 service charge and $40 labor and tax. That’s at least $75-$100 cheaper than anyone else we’ve tried, and they said if the control board died again they’d replace it and apply the current charges toward that service call.