Lo, sifted through the winds that blow, Down comes the soft and silent snow, White petals from the flowers that grow In the cold atmosphere.

Prime is getting better the further I plow into it. It’s turning into more about G-Man who is a character I really like. So I suppose I’ll keep with it after all.

At the same time I am a third of the way thru The Penderwicks. Discussing this with Gina, I noted that it reads very much like the old-fashioned Elizabeth Enright/Melendy books, but then Penderwicks mentions something like the dad’s computer or the make of a car and you realize it is indeed a modern book. Which brings me to this question: what is the opposite of an anachronism? For example - if it were a typical modern-day book and the dad hauled his typewriter everywhere, then the typewriter would be an anachronism, yes? But the computer in the midst of the old-fashionedness – what is the computer?

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On the same train of thought - Gina and I were pleased to find that the meaning of “namesake” goes both ways. Terzo is named after his grandfather, so is his grandfather’s namesake. But turns out that Grandpap is also Terzo’s namesake. Thank God for Webster’s.

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I renewed my library card yesterday. Because we have the “DonorPlus” cards, I wrote a check and got to pick the new card – I stayed with my old fav, the frog. And I now have a keychain card – Segundo lost my keychain with the first one on it ages ago. The boys picked out their own cards, and we selected the old-time photo of Pittsburgh for the husband. And when I got home and found that somehow on my new account there was 24 bucks worth of fines and I called the library, my favorite librarian recognized my voice, fixed it all up, and was so incredibly nice. Is there anything more heartwarming than having your librarian recognize your voice? I am even more enamored of her now than I was before. And I was plenty enamored before, like a teenage girl; I want her to know that I am a librarian, too, see, I might be someone cool to hang out with, see, see? Did you see the cool books I checked out? Don’t you want to be my friend? Don’t you like me? Huh? See?

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Speaking of voices, is there anything more heartrending than a froggy baby? Terzo has lost his voice. He has the croup. (The croup. Why the article? I don’t rightly know.) It’s so pathetic to watch him cry with no sound coming out. And I thought listening to my baby cry was the most awful thing—turns out his NOT crying is oh so much worse.

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Primo asked me today if Bert and Ernie are brothers.

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It’s snowing here, fiercely at the moment.

Here’s the scene from my front porch (Dan has already swept the steps and walk, because that's what men do. I would have left it for aesthetic reasons.):



And here’s another simply because I am obsessed with taking photos of tree branches:

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I am thankful for my three beautiful, insane-making, and funny boys; my husband who, while completely exasperating much of the time, helped me produce said cute kids; my in-laws - always, if nothing else, utterly well-intentioned; my little brother, who is a star in my firmament, and his wife who might be the only woman on earth who deserves him; her parents, who are kind and loving to me and my husband and sons, wholly without any obligation to at all, just because they are wonderful, open-hearted people; even for my older brother who is nuts but I suppose I love him anyway; for Gina – words can’t even begin to describe how or why she puts up with me but boy, I am glad she does, since she makes my life more bearable AND more interesting; for my other friends – Leslie, Lauren, Christina, Sarah Louise, Lannie, among others – who all fill a little part of my heart that no one else can; and for my blogging buddies who are sometimes the only thing standing between me and my running out into the street screaming and tearing my hair out by its roots after a day alone with my children. Oh, and also, for the fact that it is Joke hosting fifty-plus people at his house for Thanksgiving dinner, and not me.

Happy Thanksgiving, all!