In which Maddy plays Jewelry Box.

It's cold here, so cold that it's all people can talk about, but I'm so tired of hearing about how cold it is! I don't want to talk about! It's just the weather, and it comes and goes and there's nothing we can do about it. However, I will just say this, and it hasn't got a lot to do with the weather outside, but it's cold down here in my office! I'm cold, and I've turned up the heat, but it wasn't helping, so I got an emergency wool shawl out of the drawer where I keep it, and I have that across my lap, and I'm feeling a bit warmer now. I love wool.

In other news, I just finished reading a book called The Mystery of Mercy Close, and it was great. It's by Marian Keyes, who is one of my favorite authors. It's another one of the books about the Walsh Family, but they aren't books about the whole family, each of them is a book about one of the sisters. This one is about Helen, who is a private detective.

One of the things I love about Keyes' books is how Irish they are. It's how they all speak, it's just casually there in the characters speech. Also, they are funny, and real, not the overdone slapsticky humor - I hate that.

So I just finished that one, and I'm going to start another one in a few minutes, called Sushi for Beginners, which is not about any of the Walsh sisters.

What I'm knitting today:

I'm still working on the black sweater for me. I work on it every night at work, and this weekend while I was off, I worked on it every day while I watched Freaks and Geeks on Netflix.

What I'm watching today:

Still watching Freaks and Geeks, but I've only got 3 episodes left. I'm enjoying it so much! When I'm done with it, I'll start watching Undeclared.

What I did today:

When I got up it was too cold to go out, although I needed a few things from the store, but then Laura texted me about going to yoga tonight, so I went with her and was glad I did.

When I got home, Rachel was having a breakdown, so we took Maddy and went out to get tacos. We ate the tacos back at my house, and then Maddy and I went upstairs to play Jewelry Box.

Jewelry Box goes like this; Maddy opens the Jewelry Box, which is a tackle box with necklaces and bracelets in it. She puts them on and pretends she is going to work, which is just going out to the hallway or into Kim's room or the bathroom, and then she comes back and takes the jewelry off, puts it back into the jewelry box, and gets in bed. She pulls up the ocvers, I turn off the lamp, and she pretends to sleep (for about 10 seconds) and then she says, "Wake up!" and I turn the lamp on and she gets up and gets dressed in the jewelry again so she can go to work. She does that over and over, and I just sit on the bed and watch, and turn the light on and off for her.

Tonight she had some amazing new 'jewels' including a shiny bead necklace with hot chili peppers hanging on it that Rich brought back from his business trip on the weekend. She loves it! It's so shiny!

It's the perfect game for us because she was busy and having fun, and I was just sitting on the warm bed, checking my email on my phone, and sneaking fun size Snickers bars out of a bag that Rich had left on the headboard of the bed when he unpacked from his trip. Maddy entertains me so much! I can just sit and watch her play all day.

Rachel was downstairs talking to Kim and Rich, so this time when Maddy went to work, she went downstairs to show them her jewelry. So she got a little extra exersize going up and down the stairs, which was good because it was another day of no school because of the weather and that kid needs to get out!

Also, when Maddy is playing Jewelry Box, she is just wearing her underpants. Because Maddy takes her clothes off when she comes to my house. She takes her clothes off as soon as she gets home, too, because Maddy doesn't want to wear clothes. It's a wonder that she stays dressed when she goes to school.