Riffday: I don't know if there'll be snow but have a cup of cheer

1. Remember I told you that I knew the puppy chewing stage would get worse?  It did.  It is.  Oh my lord we cannot find enough stuff for her to chew on.  If you have ideas, let me know.  Unfortunately, she doesn't like rawhide bones.  Padded envelopes are a favorite, which is convenient since due to online Christmas ordering, it seems that several come per week.  I've taken to giving her kindling off the woodpile just so she won't drive me crazy. 

2. I consider myself a Christian, albeit a thoroughly unorthodox one, and Christmas is easily my favorite of the church holidays.  But can I just say for the record that no, I do not mind if someone says Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas?  I have friends who are Jewish, Wiccan, atheist, and who-knows-what-else and I'm actually really glad there is a neutral way to wish them the joy of the season.  Celebrate it however you want-- light a candle on a menorah, believe in Santa, burn a yule log, head up to the ski slopes, go to church, fast and pray, sit with a Jameson next to the fire.  I hope everybody has the kind of holiday season they enjoy.  Happy Holidays.

3. I admit I listen to some strange stuff for a 51-year-old.  I actually like hip-hop. Well, some of it, anyway. I like to have something with a beat when I'm on the treadmill or doing my workout.  But you know how you always hear lyrics wrong?  Like back in junior high when we all thought the guy was from Georgia when he sang "my eyes adored ya"? (yeah, I know, showing my age there.)  The whole problem with hip hop lyrics is that when you think you're hearing the lyrics wrong, you're really not.  After weeks of thinking, that can't be what he's saying, I finally googled it today, and yup, he is saying that. I don't even want to think about what it means.  (Originally this included the lyrics I was trying to figure out, but I deleted them because this is a family-friendly blog. usually. sort of.) 

4. I have successfully conditioned the chickens to go out in the snow. *pats self on back* It took three days of hand-carrying them out to the usual spot where they get their scratch.  This morning when I went down to the coop, even though it was about 25 degrees, they were all out in their yard, waiting for me to let them out so they could roam, standing right out there on the snow.  :-) 

5. The only problem with this is that they want to roam someplace where it is warm, so if the garage door is up, they like to hang out in there, cheerfully sharing their chicken by-products with us.  The garage is also where Sadie goes when she is in trouble.  You can probably see this coming.  This afternoon I found her terrorizing a poor chicken who was huddled in a corner behind Dean's exercise bike, shivering.  Fortunately no harm was done.  I did check before I shut her in there, but apparently not carefully enough.

6. Thesis revisions are coming along.  It's taking longer than I anticipated, because I am so dang tired of working on it.  It's hard to force myself to do it.  But I'm pleased with what I've done, and I'm anticipating that it will be finished tonight and e-mailed back to my advisor tomorrow after a final read-through.  I checked in with the grad school and the deadline actually isn't until January 18th, so I have plenty of time.  I just don't want to be working on it in January.

7. Peace and healing to the families and the community in Newtown.  I'm just speechless with horror every time I think about it.  I originally had something longer here, but I think I'll just leave it at that.