Ring out the old . . . ring in the new . . .

Ring in the cold . . . with a big . . .


It's true -- I've been ringing in 2009 with a box of kleenex in one hand and three kinds of cold medicine in the other. Luckily, this juggling act has required me to temporarily put down my list of resolutions, thereby affording me the opportunity to finish the last of the Christmas cookies without guilt (you have to look on the bright side).

In a similar vein, if I've already survived "the big cold of '09" by the end of the first week of January, the rest of the year has nowhere to go but up. It's like I've always thought -- if I eat Grandma Dena's creamed spinach for breakfast (nasty, nasty gray stuff of my childhood -- sorry, no pictures exist)
surely nothing worse can happen to me all day.

It's a good philosophy.

Fortunately, while my body has been busy being ill, my mind has been working overtime as well:




Okay, sometimes it has just been busy feeling like this:




which has meant time to take more medicine, but mostly I'm referring to . . .


Ideas! The Great Idea Onslaught of '09!

Fever induced or not, I've still been taking copious notes. Because hopefully there will be some useful ideas on that yellow pad when the fog has cleared. If there are really good ones, I may try adding a cocktail of these cold medications to my diet on a more regular basis.

And while I've been confined, I've been able to get the house almost back in order.



Hannah goes back to Virginia tomorrow (although how she's going to fit the mess in her room into a suitcase, I can't imagine . . . come to think of it, how did that whole mess come out of a suitcase?!) I won't bore you with the details (I have, after all, already devoted an entire post to the mess the last time Hannah returned to Virginia) but let's just say that Cooper has been staying out of her room, which is normally his favorite, since she's been home. It's too messy for him. Too messy for Cooper. Draw your own conclusions.

Anyway, after Hannah has packed

and the cold is banished,



there will be a few finishing touches to put on the house and then I'll be ready to return to work
with vim and vigor,


although probably without the composure on this professional's face, because after all it's January and




















Baltimore is next month. Baltimore, for heaven's sake! Have you lost your mind?

Forget about the house! In fact, see if Hannah will take a semester off to help you! And take that kleenex box to the studio and get back to work!

Don't make me tell you again.