Where It is Always Winter and Never Christmas...Yet

Being that this is my first residence in a cold and snowy climate, I tend to wobble back and forth between thinking this weather is punishment from god and feeling that it is mildly and charmingly exotic.

Our heat went out over the night, and we woke this morning to a house of cold we couldn't do anything about. Dominic brought some wood home for a fire during his lunch break, and now I'm cozy in front of the fireplace with a cat, a cup of green tea, Isak Dinesen, and C.S. Lewis. We are, all of us, waiting patiently for the heating guy to come and magically restore our house with warmth. But for now--to this Alabama girl, at least--the fire seems a bit magical, and I haven't grown tired of waiting just yet.

Incidentally, green tea isn't the disgusting, potent, bitter brew I seemed to have been expecting it to be. Instead, it is a milder, more mellow version of the black stuff. Hmmm.

Here's a funny quote from Out of Africa: "A medal is an inconvenient thing to give to a naked man, because he has got no place to fix it on to..."