I'd like to take this pledge but I'm not sure I can do it. I'm apparently addicted to Palin news.

Dana Milbank of the Washington Post is boldly going where every journalist worth the name should go. He's swearing off writing about or talking about Sarah Palin for a month. I could not talk about her, and for sure I could not write about her, but could I stop myself from reading the latest bit of non-news about her?? Very, very doubtful. But I'll decide on February 1. It IS a short month after all.

I bought this very neat seltzer water maker (SodaStream) to help me with Resolution No. 5. It will pay for itself by April.

Status report on Resolutions:
1. Don't eat after midnight. (a tiny bit of success, but not really enough to count)
2. Walk each day. (got off to a great start....)
3. Eat only fruit or yogurt before dinner. (some success at this)
4. Read each New Yorker as it arrives and never skip an issue. (100% success so far!)
5. Don't bring soft drinks into the house. (90% success!)
6. Read only one novel at a time and one non-fiction book at a time. (some progress; I have high hopes about this one)
7. It's OK to start knitting a new pair of socks but it's not OK to start any new scarfs or quilts. (100% success so far)
8. Try to finish most of the 20+ scarfs I've started. (nothing to report yet, but hey it's only Jan 22)
9. Finish at least two of the 20+ quilts I've started. (see above--too soon to tell)
10. Be better about replying more promptly to emails and acknowledging birthdays and gifts. (tiny bit of success)
12. Post something every day on this blog. (total failure so far)

I think this is an immature great black-backed gull. (Try saying that real fast.) At the Delaware shoreline yesterday.

I'm never cold. Or rarely cold. But this winter is whupping my ass. I loved being at the ocean, I fantasized about being in the water and I thought ahead to our traditional week at the beach. But manohman the cold took my breath away yesterday.

Wisdom in the key of F.

Andrew Sullivan alerted the world to this very helpful observation from another blogger, Scott Adams.

Scott writes:
As I'm sure you've learned, it's impossible to speak to a spouse if he or she is near running water, or using power equipment, or concentrating on something else, or eating something crunchy, or wondering if the squeak in the distance is the cat dying, or there is a child within a hundred yards. Amazingly, that covers 90% of every conversation you might attempt at home.

Recently I discovered that spouses, like computers, must be booted up before they can hear what you say. Try walking into a room where your spouse is otherwise engaged and simply launch into your statement or question. Notice that your first sentence doesn't count. That might go like this.

You: I think the ice maker isn't working.

Spouse: What?

In that example, the spouse had not yet booted into listening mode. You can solve this problem with what I call the boot up tone. It is a sound that serves no function except to say, "Shift to listening mode." I highly recommend that you use your spouse's first name as your boot up tone. People are programmed to hear their own names even when they won't notice other background noise. And I recommend speaking in the key of F, even if that isn't your normal range, because it's a great tone for penetrating background noise. It's also a good idea to stretch out your spouse's name a bit. I turn Shelly into She-e-e-e-e-lly. Try it at home. It works. But use your own spouse's name.

[Monday, Jan 10, 9:45 PM, National Championship Football Game] I'm rooting for Oregon. Can't resist a team called The Ducks.

And those yellow day-glow socks are nice!

George, Anabelle, Norah, and their feet. (Plus Momma's feet.)

My beautiful niece's beautiful children. If there's a heaven, and if people in heaven can see what we're doing, my father is saying "take off those shoes and show me your feet!" He loved to make family members show their feet so he could say "look at how beautiful my feet are compared to yours." He would then in a brutal (I mean of course good-natured) way tell us who had ugly feet, toes, etc. I miss that.

A working list of resolutions. And I love my winter-blooming rosemary.

1. Don't eat after midnight. (hard but possible)
2. Each day walk around the pond next door or walk a mile on the treadmill. If I miss a day I can double-up the next. (easy and possible)
3. Get back to my years-long habit of eating only fruit or yogurt before dinner. Exception: I can have lunch with friends and eat a smallish lunch but I should always bring home leftovers. (possible)
4. Read each New Yorker as it arrives and never skip an issue. (hard but possible)
5. Don't bring soft drinks into the house. Instead, drink iced tea or water or those nasty Crystal Light drinks. (Goals = using less plastic, aluminum, and glass; drinking fewer chemicals; saving money.) Exceptions: I can drink a soft drink at someone's home or in a restaurant, and anything that someone else brings into the house I can drink. But I can't say "hey, while you're at the store could you pick up some soft drinks." (hard, maybe unrealistic)
6. Read only one novel at a time and one non-fiction book at a time. If I start the non-fiction but don't pick it back up for a week, put it back on the shelf and start another. (hard but possible)
7. It's OK to start knitting a new pair of socks but it's not OK to start any new scarfs or quilts. (very possible)
8. Try to finish most of the 20+ scarfs I've started. (hard, maybe unrealistic)
9. Finish at least two of the 20+ quilts I've started. (hard but possible)
10. Be better about replying more promptly to emails and acknowledging birthdays and gifts. (possible and should be easy)
11. Listen more, talk less. (possible but unlikely)
12. Post something every day on this blog. And either get over the feeling that having a blog means I'm either a narcissist or an exhibitionist (I don't think it about others, so why would it be true of me?) or quit blogging. (unlikely)

Thanks to Natalie F. for alerting me to this.

Could these be poison ivy berries?

"Hmmmm...flour. I haven't tried that yet. But I'm sure I'll love it. Let me just dive into that bowl and knock it to the floor. That's always fun!"

With temps over 40 and a bit of sun the bees have been taking cleansing flights. And they tossed all the bodies off the front porch. So tidy.

There's quite a bee cemetery below the hive entrance--bottom picture. I'm surprised something or someone hasn't eaten them. Lucy likes to eat dead bees, but then there's not much Lucy won't eat. Fruit, bread, vegetables, bees.

There are some pretty plants even on 1-1-11 (I love writing that date & have 3 more chances this year to see such symmetry).

Yucca on top and I-can't-remember-what in the middle and bottom pictures. It will come to me.

The park next door on Thursday or Friday.

The deer discovered the sedum I hoped would be safe on the front steps.