BLAZE

Having been chided for not blogging...

So Happy 2004! I hope all is bright and beautiful for you. I am typing from my gorgeous new desktop, which is part of my big Xmas present from Bruce. I have lovely new office furniture — and have lost my excuse for piling messes of paper on the floor. However, my natural piling instinct asserted itself quickly and a perfectly good clutter is beginning to form. And I have plants in my office now! In charming pots! Life is pretty puddle-wonderful.

I also received many other wonderful presents, including clothing, books, sweets, and frilly knickers. Oh and for my birthday I received bath soap and perfume, hence the references to smell in the boys' earlier post.

We had my birthday dinner at The Unheardof, where I ate caribou! It was amazing. I have been a surprising carnivore lately: on New Year's Eve I ordered and ate a "baseball" sirloin, which is a very large piece of meat, roughly the size of a softball. And tuna steak for Christmas Eve dinner. And sushi anytime: if you want to be my friend, offer me raw fish and seaweed.

My teaching schedule this semester is kinda strange. I teach nine hours on Mondays, six hours on Fridays, three hours on Tuesdays and on Thursdays, and I have Wednesdays off. If you're counting, that makes seven courses, when the standard is five. Don't bother lecturing me; people have already told me volubly how bad and wrong the situation is. But watch this space for continuing news of my triumphs!

What else? We saw Return of the King last week and I was impressed. I got a Dead or Alive remix compilation and have been living all eighties all the time for the last few days. It's especially good in the car, driving to school. I read a stack of books over the break, including Bless the Beasts and Children, To Kill a Mockingbird, and Cold Mountain (but no, I haven't seen the movie and I can't think that I will, given my reading and the rating: I'm too queasy!). I dressed up like a pirate from Xmas dinner at my aunt's house and like a back-up singer for ABBA for Bruce's Xmas party. I found a store that I love love love: Bohemian fashion.

Passages of purple prose deleted. Past ten now, so must fly. I think I kept Kate out too late! Vanilla-bean hot chocolate is tasty but very very sweet. Good thing I skipped supper. Talk to you soon!

l