Oh. I am so overwhelmed. One side effect of the furnace being busted is that we have been seizing upon any & every excuse, no matter how frivolous, to leave the freezing house for warmer locales. Since I usually do most of my work in the house, this means that I have put off a mountain (ok, I exaggerate... a small hill, really) of tasks that now threaten to fall upon my cold head. That's what I get for being such a heat ho.... so today I huddle by the little space heater, hoping it doesn't blow a fuse as I write things that must be written, pay bills that must be paid, vaccuum all these little knitting-generated yarn fluffs that are making me sneeze, & so forth. And you thought the life of an artist was glamorous & inspired all the time. Ha.

Here is some satisfaction, though: a self-described New York Jew wrote to say "how they did it in the shtetle i do not know, but we always use newspapers" for latkes.

Also very satisfying: garlic-encrusted roasted crab at my favorite Vietnamese restaurant (despite being tortured with a Christmas carol CD that got stuck on the same 30-second segment forever until we begged them to make it stop). I liked wearing crab bibs with Donna & Debra. It's a good bonding thing. Did you know that you can eat crab in any month that has an R in it?