I’ve been playing hermit while I’ve been sick, and it’s only this weekend that I began to get stir crazy, largely because while I did find a stack of unread books, most were mystery-thrillers, and I just wasn’t in the mood for murder and mayhem. I did find a Barbara Delinsky novel called Looking for Peyton Place that I read in fits and snatches in the bathroom to make it last all week (this worked for a change). It was an enjoyable novel, and when I revamp Zenitopia later this week, it’ll be one of my reviews.

Yesterday, because I had things to mail, and needed to pick up some bubble mailers for things I have yet to mail, we ventured out to the post office, where I had a lovely conversation with the woman who helped me, and was gracious enough to find the last sheet of DC superhero stamps for me, when I told her I use them to send mail to soldiers in Iraq. “Here,” she said, “Let me find you the baseball stamps, too. They’ll love those.” I have a meter, but I like to use pretty stamps whenever possible. I also bought an array of Valentine’s Day stamps, including some with chocolate kisses. If only they were scratch-n-sniff as well.

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Speaking of writing to soldiers. Whatever your stance is on the war, the fact is that there are men and women serving overseas (not just in Iraq) who either don’t have family to send mail, or have family that won’t or can’t support them. Imagine being that far from home, and not being able to connect with family and friends in any meaningful way. If you like to write letters, or send surprise packages, consider checking out Soldiers’ Angels – they’re a non-profit, non-partisan organization that allows you to adopt a soldier, not just for Christmas, but for their entire deployment. All you have to do is send a letter weekly, and a small package (and if you’re not the gifty type, there are cool websites with pre-made parcels) once a month. I spend more on COFFEE than I do on that.
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Back to my babbling. Today around six I started getting really stir-crazy. And I’d finished that book. So I yelled up the stairs to Fuzzy, and he said that despite the warnings about ice storms, the roads were pretty clear in our part of the metroplex, and sure, a trip to Barnes and Noble would be fine with him. So we ventured forth, and I spent $66 for $144 worth of stuff, thanks to my spiffy Reader’s Advantage card, and three gift certificates from Christmas. I came home with a spiffy new laptop lapdesk, so I don’t have to overheat my laptop by resting it on pillows when I blog from bed (like now), three books (2 hard cover), 3 magazines, and 3 boxes of stationery. Of course, we had to stop in the cafe on the way out, and I enjoyed a Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce Latte, which is available for the post-Christmas, pre-Easter season. It’s my favorite drink of theirs. Really. And I’m not just saying that because it was my first coffee in eleven days.

As we got into the car, I heard a strange clicking sound, and after looking around, I determined that it happened every time the wind blew. After more investigation, and conferring with Fuzzy, it was determined that the trees in the curb strip between the parking lot and the street had frozen while we’d been shopping, and were now shining like crystal, and clinking like so many marbles.

We drove home through a forest of trees made of glass, and were greeted by dogs all too happy to see us. We settled on the couch with popcorn and puppies, watched Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, which involved much mocking, (“Look, Fuzzy, it’s 80’s Metal Band!Klingons!”) but was a cozy couple of hours nonetheless, and now, now I’m breaking in my new laptop and watching From the Earth to the Moon on DVD, because it’s one of those series that qualifies as a “comfort film” for me, and Fuzzy’s upstairs blowing up aliens or something like that.

All in all, a good day.