heath ma~~ going out.

yay Daniel - that sounds like a relief

Health~ma to your mom, erika!

Yay, Daniel!

Health~ma for your mom, erika.

Health ~ma coming Momoferika's way.

Excellent news, Daniel. What a lovely relief to start the year.

Today has not gone to plan, but it has been thoroughly satisfying.

There are three grotesque rose bushes in my front yard. I mean 'grotesque' in the classical sense. They are old...rumored to be 150 years old, with trunks roughly 2 feet in diameter...incredibly gnarled, twisted and with more thorns per square inch than you could possibly imagine.

In other words, a not at all fun nightmare.

I've lived here, as of yesterday, 15 years. I've been waiting that long for them to die, or for my landlord to take even minimal care of them.

Today, I snapped. I've been cut, poked and hurt by them for the last time...and both Bartleby and Cagney have been hurt as well.

So, I grabbed gloves and clippers and went to town. I couldn't cut them to the nub because the original branches are more than an inch thick at the thinnest, but I made a 3 foot high pile of snippings.

Unbelievably satisfying, if painful and blood-letting.

Then, I came in to make Hoppin' John with fresh black-eyed peas, roasted a turkey, made gravy, collard greens and fresh cranberry sauce with apple & orange. Now, there is a Crock pot making bone broth.

I'm feeling very abundant and productive.

Since losing 13 lbs last month, I'm quite committed to the new food regimen and home cooking is the only way.

I meant to launch the web show tomorrow, but I've decided to wait until next Tuesday. Too many people traveling, etc.

Yesterday was rubbish, several bad things crammed into one day as the last gasp of a dodgy-unlikable year.

Today has me singing Jason Mraz's Remedy.

I hope 2014 is wonderful for every Buffista!

May the rose bushes now produce blooms that are beautiful and fragrant, and the thorns be beaten back to where you can pass them by safely.

From your lips to the bush's will, Andi. Thanks.

The blooms are small and white/pink but are so frail that each only lasts for about 20 minutes and then becomes confetti. Messy and unsatisfying.

Every now and then, some enterprising tourist or passerby sneaks into the yard and tries to pluck blossoms off the bushes. Blood flows every. time. You'd have to be an international arm-wrestling champion, in chain-mail gloves, to wrest anything off those accursed branches.

I've soaked my unhappy shoulders and punctured hands in a lovely tub and watched Sherlock. A lovely end to a good day.

Sweet dreams everyone!

bonny, perchance was there a princess asleep in the midst of those bushes? They sound malevolently enchanted.

I think bonny is the princess but with agency.

Where are you guys getting Sherlock?

Anywhere they can.