Mockingbird Hill Cottage

Oh yes. I have a cool orange plastic spider ring, courtesy of my dentist.

Admit it. You want one, too.

Let’s see, what’s new?

• Don’s been talking to me on the phone about not getting enough sleep lately. I’ve decided we can no longer talk about that subject, because now I’m not getting enough sleep. Thursday night? About 2 hours. Last night? I woke up at 4:45 am and couldn’t get back to sleep. Enough already. I didn’t know sleeplessness was catching.

• I’ve had a heck of a hard time controlling our thermostat this winter. It always seems to be either too hot or too cold, never consistent. I finally called our oil company and they sent someone out yesterday who confirmed that I wasn’t going nuts, the thermostat was indeed off by 4 degrees. He replaced it (it was the rather old fashioned kind with a dial that had little degree marks and was unbelievably hard to read) with a digital version. No more squinting and shining a flashlight on the dial to figure out what the heck the temperature is! And it works! I had also been hearing weird knocking/thudding sounds when the oil burner came on, so he did some adjusting and all is well. I should have, of course, called them about a month ago but I kept thinking I could figure it out. Silly.

• I finished reading The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith (who is really J.K. Rowling.) What a great book! It’s a wonderful mystery with a lead character who is a private detective. I didn’t want it to end and I kept thinking to myself, ‘I hope she’s going to write another one! This would make a great series.’ Well, one thing about a Kindle that is extremely handy is this feature at the end of the book that lists other books you might be interested in. And there I learned that the next book in the series is coming out in June. Instant answer to my question. I preordered it. In that same listing I also discovered that Michael Connelly (one of my favorite authors) also has a new book coming out in a few months. I get excited by these things.

Anyway, I recommend this book highly. I never got into the whole Harry Potter thing. I tried to, but it just didn’t do anything for me, though I could clearly see what an amazing writer Rowling was. I really admire her for writing in another genre, for taking a risk when she obviously has more than enough money in the bank to never work another day in her life. Boy, she’s good!

Now I’m reading a book that I will review on Monday, so stay tuned.

• I managed to get some photos of squirmy Miss Scout. If she sees me pull out my camera, she immediately looks away, so timing is everything.

Oh, she’s a handful, but she makes my heart sing. Yesterday I saw her loping along in the dog corral. The furnace guy was here and she loves visitors and it was warmer and the snow has melted in her corral, so she was happy. And that makes me happy.

• Tomorrow is our Linky Party for the Christmas Critter Felt Along. But the post will go up this evening at 6 pm. So, even though it is posting this evening, it’s officially the Sunday post for the blog. Does that make sense?

Happy Saturday.