NYR 1-29-14

I am thankful for this adorable little boy, my precious nephew, who turned 5 today.  He is full of mischief, he has a light in his eyes that shows he's one step ahead of you all the time, and he gives the best hugs ever.  And unless some weird freak-of-nature thing happens, he's my last niece or nephew so I wish he'd stay little and full of hugs for me forever.  Happy Birthday big boy.  We love you and are so thankful for you.

NYR 1-28-14

I am so thankful to live inside an apartment building, which after this winter now means to me no snow shoveling, no de-icing sidewalks and steps, no scraping car windows, no busted pipes, no car doors frozen shut, no warming cars ahead of driving in them, etc.

NYR 1-27-14

I'm sooooo excited for my friends in the South who are so excited to be getting snow in the next couple days.  God love you.

I am very thankful that it's coming to you (and not me) and that you get to experience this blissful state of white silence and snowmen and hot chocolate and frozen fingertips (and not me).  HAVE FUN!!

NYR 1-26-14

For a nice weekend with Jimmy back in town and Mac in a great mood all weekend long, I'm truly thankful!

NYR 1-25-14

Mac's attending a paintball birthday party today. It's his first time doing paintball (do you "do" paintball?  Or "play" paintball.  Or "go" paintballing?) However you call it, he's doing it and I hope he doesn't get hurt.

The best part of the party is that Jimmy and I have allllll day by ourselves without paying for babysitting!  We dropped him off at our friends' apartment at 10:30 before they started the pick-up of the other children.  The paintball place is an hour or so away so by the time they get there, play, drive back, and have pizza and cake, they're going to drop him off at our apartment no earlier than 6:45. 

Thus far, Jimmy and I have clothes and Container Store shopped and eaten sushi, activities that normally incite incessant whining when Mac's with us.  Jimmy's catching up on Klondike since he missed the final episode because of his work trip, and I'm going to walk down to Macy's to return some jeans. It's glorious.

For free babysitting in the form of birthday parties, I am truly thankful today.

NYR 1-24-14

Today I left the apartment at 11:30 to catch the Metro into DC to buy Stomp tickets at the National Theatre (because I'm too cheap to pay a convenience fee that equals nearly 20% of the ticket price just to buy over the internet). Because I only had a 1-minute wait for the Metro, I got to the right stop by 11:50 and took a few minutes to wander Macy's since the box office didn't open until noon.  I walked the short distance to the box office, got the tickets, headed back to the Metro, got sidetracked at the Banana Republic sale on the way (where I shamelessly spent the money I'd saved on those pesky convenience fees), waited 7 minutes for the Metro and was back inside my apartment by 12:55.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE living in a city with easy, fairly reliable and affordable public transportation.  No fighting for a parking spot, no getting lost, no worrying if the car will start in the cold...  I'm very thankful  for the Metro system today (and for living right on top of a Metro station). 

NYR 1-23-14

Today I actually left the house on several occasions. Mac had a 2-hour delay so I took him to school at 10:30, ran to the grocery store, came home to unload groceries, hopped on the Metro to meet a friend for lunch, walked home from lunch in the snow flurries, and went back to school to pick up Mac. We've just gotten home and it's a balmy 24 degrees out there right now.  But it's sunny so it feels like at least 24.7 degrees.  

Today's wardrobe for leaving the apartment (as opposed to yesterday's stay-inside-all-day wardrobe of pajamas):

Bottom:

Cold-weather running tights (bought 4 years ago when I had a poorly-conceived NYR to run again)

Jeans (as they're the only "going out of the house" pants I have which actually fit over the running tights)

Skiing socks 

Wool socks

Fake Ugg boots

Top:

Cold-weather running turtleneck (bought under same pretense as running tights above.  Thankfully neither has dry-rotted from lack of use) 

Long-sleeved t-shirt

Wool sweater

Wool scarf

Really tight hat that may be Jimmy's but it covers my whole large head and is super-warm and it doesn't give my hair static electricity when I take it off.

New Columbia jacket that on the inside looks like it'll microwave your torso

Lined winter jacket that I've had for 10 years that I broke the zipper on this morning (but I was scared the microwave jacket wouldn't be sufficent so I wore both jackets and velcroed the winter jacket on top.  The Columbia jacket is purple and the old winter jacket is red - I wanted that visual to be stuck in your head.

Today I am thankful that even though I looked like I shop at the place where the Goodwill rejects are sent, I was warm.