I would like to make the following announcements:

* It's cold in here.

* Frozen edamame is less easy to peel than fresh, but still tastes good.

* Wal-mart has honeysuckle scented candles! They smell wonderful. Also fantastic, in a Sweettarts kind of way is the Cranberry Mandarin. But they smell more when they are not lit than when they are.

* We had sleet this morning, and before that, a thin sheet of ice on everything. Both were washed away in the afternoon rain.

* For dessert tonight, we are having strawberry cupcakes (no icing). I think that pilsbury may have overdone the artificial flavoring, though. It's overpowering, and might taste like strawberry soda or candy, but not much like a strawberry.

* My house was actually decently clean (translation: I felt only minor shame looking at it, or having others see it) for over a week, but that week ended yesterday. Naturally, today the water guy had to come through the house - including the basement - to switch out our outdated meter.

* Today is my grandmother's birthday. She's going to be presented with her present tonight at dinner, I think. (She's still visiting California.)

* My dad might come and see me play taiko for the first time on Sunday!

* Pride and Prejudice and Zombies is not so much a zombie story inserted into an Austen novel, but a little Austen inserted into an original work of zombiefiction. I found it odd that most of the minor characters were kept the same, while the principle ones were altered, sometimes beyond recognition. Michelle listened to it with me on the way to and from practice, and found the story amusing, but not as much as me yelling at the CD player.

* The spell check on this document is not working properly/at all. Oh, dear.

* Many of my friends have seemed very....internalized these last two weeks. I had a list of people who I was going to check on to make sure they were okay, but then I noticed that it was something of an epidemic. Maybe it's the weather. Maybe we all just need a night out. (Or is that just me?)

* I need a night out.

* The mail truck passed our house without stopping today.

* So far, the sales at Borders are still a relatively small %, but the mobs are huge, so by the time the sales are really good, no books worth having will be left.

* Definitely cold in here.

I hope you are all well and happy.