Damp

Gainesville

Rain, always more rain. Drizzle during the day, thunderstorms by night, for two days in a row. Today it was so muggy that the freshly scrubbed bathroom floors (both bathrooms) refused to dry after nearly an hour. I finally had to put on the AC just to get them dry enough to use.

Turned Scooba loose today in the master bathroom, and he did a very fine job in there. He started right in, and only needed one slight nudge to finish the job. This is very encouraging.

I'm keeping the FL faith with my timer, making slow steady progress with the post-Christmas chaos. Yesterday I reclaimed the entrance area which had been choked with cardboard boxes: flattened them all and got them outside ready for recycling on Monday. Continue slogging away at the cards: adventures with glue sticks! I felt like a little kid, and finally had to put on a smock (well, a denim vest) to help with the glue-mess. It took four 15-minute stints to get it done, with much cursing, to get the evil little hand-cut, hand-gilded slips pasted in about 40 cards. They aren't pretty, but they're done. Now comes the envelope-stuffing and the brief (very brief) personalizations. Mom, yours was the first. I enclosed a sample of what my original idea was. You will wonder WHAT the big deal was... nothing at all, really, just that it was an expansion of Murphy's Law: everything that COULD go wrong, DID go wrong. Ah well, at least I have a few ready to mail.

Have a rough plan for the week, just need to finalize the shopping list and get back before 4:00 tomorrow.

Everyone here is all charged up about the Gators going for it all in the BCS Monday. Every bar and/or grill in town is calculating how many bodies they can cram in and how it will affect their reservation and pricing policies. Every big-screen TV on campus (including the O-Dome) will be showing the game. Of course, the real faithful, kids and Bull Gators alike, won't be around at all-- they'll all be out in Arizona, either at the game, or in some drinking establishment close enough to be able to hear the cheers live. One bar will strive to recreate a local hangout, The Swamp, right down to the same menu! The cops have asked the Library to close at 6:00 Monday for "security reasons" -- and we are only too glad to comply.

We're far more charged up about the most wonderful two weekends of the year: Wild Card and Divisional Playoffs -- yeah, baby, football for grown-ups. Two days, four games each. Bring out the popcorn, crank up the set, and give out with a hip hurray! The Post Season has arrived!!

Good luck with the party tomorrow. (Three Kings Day? The 12th Day of Christmas? I'm not quite sure what the official date is...) I can't believe you still have that silly egg cooker, and yes, I remember it well. I do my HB eggs in the steamer, which is, of course, roughly the same thing. Please give us a full report on the event... as it unfolds.

Many yawns-- Sandman calls me. Hope he'll crank down the dreams a bit so I can get some rest. I mean:

• Sitting in an auditorium audience with Neil's foot in my lap? (He's sitting next to me on the top of his chair.)
• Befriending Stephen King at a party, then watch him fall in love with someone else, then having him give me an elaborate gift of extraterrestrial plants in an ancient Mayan pot...

ENOUGH already, Morpheus!