I had something completely different for today.  180.  But it was so...boring.  And forced.  And I spent all of these words introducing my dog and what presents she's brought into my house lately.  And why waste so many words when I can accomplish that quickly here:

and here:

and here:

(that's a toad, by the way.  not a frog, but a toad.  and yes, it was in my kitchen.  and yes, it was as ugly and awful as it looks.)

So I had just finished what I was going to share today and shut the light off to go to sleep.  Then I remembered that I hadn't put the empty milk bottles outside for the milkman to collect.  (and yes, I know, those jokes pop to my mind too.)  

But I was cozy, which was a pleasantly shocking discovery because 40-something-degree weather does not equate to keeping the heat on at night out here.  And I realized that the real meaning behind the British "stiff upper lip" is that it froze there.  So I decided to check to see just how cold it was out there, and on the way back I wandered over to my email.

And there was my friend.  I'd call her a cheerleader, but cheerleaders mostly encourage you to do good things.  And wave pom-poms.  And my friend encourages you to do fun things. And waves a "ooh this'll be a good story" smile.  She writes regularly here.  And now she is writing here.  In her handwriting. (it's a font now, did you know?)

And when I saw her new writing, I immediately wanted to put two big hands over my writing and mouth really slowly and in an exaggerated way "do not. stop. here." So instead I just started over.

Now, where were we?

Bottles? What bottles?  Are you trying to distract me?

All I know is that it's 7 degrees outside.  Celsius.

Have fun doing the math.