A Midwinter Night

Shrimp and couscous. Maple syrup and raw yogurt. And trashy television at Jen's tonight.

Madigan

Peter

"You may have them fooled," Peter told Bailey. "But, you can't fool me."

After lasagna and chocolate fondue Peter reclines on the carpet. Bailey tries to give Peter love, but Peter has no love to give back.

Frigid

Brooke and I took the dogs up on the hill yesterday. The temperatures were low, so we couldn't stay out too long with the poodles. This was late in the afternoon and we were still in single digits. The dogs didn't even fight me when it was time to head back home.

I should also mention I looked at my house-sitting checklist and saw that the thermostat shouldn't drop below 58 degrees. So, it looks like you were right. Fifty-two degrees might be too hard on this old house.

Thank you for looking out for me.

Babies

My mom sent me some old pictures of the fam tonight. Here's one of me holding an infant.

I have no idea who that baby is and where it came from. Hand to god.

My Old Man

Here's the man who made Sara and I grow up in the cold. Intolerable cold. And in turn, we've passed that misery on to the people important to us.

Brooke is coming this weekend and the poor girl is already politely negotiating for 60 degrees.

We'll see, darlin'. We'll see.

Footprint

I've got the thermostat at 52 degrees so I've been spending a lot of time in the living room where it's plenty toasty. I might even bring my blankets down and sleep in here tonight. The dogs will appreciate it.

My father must be a larger influence on me than I thought. Al Gore too, perhaps. I don't even pay the utility bills, but I'm obsessed with seeing how little energy I can use and still get by.

The Advantages of Solitude

My sister gets a visit from me and friends last week at her house. Sara quit her job at the end of last year to pursue writing and teaching.

This is a recent post on her blog: "One of the best things about being alone pretty much all day most days is that hanging out with other people feels especially vibrant. It becomes a true pleasure you actually remember to appreciate: laughing, talking, even the rare act of listening, something I'm not all that great at because I talk when I get excited."

Photo

Adam and Melissa make careful documentation of their trip to Boston this past weekend.

Notes

Kristen looks over notes before interviewing Harry Belafonte at the Hanover Inn tonight.

Bathroom

Melissa and Adam at Brooke's apartment yesterday.

Death

Adam contemplates the futility of life and the weight of death in a Boston cemetery today.

He and Melissa are visiting from New Jersey.

Peace: Part Deux

I followed Wally and Barbara down to the church where they protested the war this morning. The man second from the left plays Santa Claus at the post office during Christmas.

You can imagine my disappointment to find the timer on the peace wreath was off. I am curious to see last night's picture of the church with a human element. This morning we had a human element but no lit wreath.

I'll keep my eyes open for a merging of the two.

Peace

The congregation of the Unitarian Universalist churh down the street decided to leave up the Christmas peace wreath until peace is achieved.

Tomorrow morning they will stand outside the church to protest Bush's troop level increase in Iraq.

Concentrate

Pete must have taken this picture of Chris and I putting the final touches on my website a few weeks ago.

www.channingjohnson.com

T-Bird

Digging through my archives I found this picture of the T-Man munching on some French fries this past summer. T-Diddy now lives in Ohio.

Candle Light

Peter cooked something French and delicious last night at Jen's. And Jen served the bread she made that morning before crawling back into bed.

The reason for the gathering was to start the second season of Battlestar Galactica, which I have never seen (I rarely do Sci-Fi). But it turned out the DVDs were halfway through the season, not the beginning. We watched trashy television instead. I didn't mind so much. But I do want to see Battlestar G.

Yellow Man, Yellow House

Alex cooked beef liver and onions for lunch today. It was delicious. We had bacon and a spinach salad with it.

I feel energized with all the iron pumping through my blood. I've been a little sluggish lately.

Satellite Radio Who?

What if I told you I was about to increase the quality of your life by 20 percent? Would you believe me? What if I told you there was an Internet radio site that was based on Netflix recommendation technology?

The Music Genome Project has created a website called www.pandora.com that plays songs based on how you liked the previous song they recommended. You can then create radio stations for your different tastes and moods. The beauty is that algorithms help to introduce you to new artists instead of marketing tactics.

You can thank me later. Or, I guess thank Wally and Barbara who shared it with me.

I started with Blackalicious. But you can start where ever you want.

Here's a picture of Tim in the Monitor elevator. We got together last week to edit end-of-the-year portfolios.

La Seamstress

I got Brooke a broken sewing machine for Christmas.

I didn't know for sure it was broken, but I should have. The majority of an evening was spent scrubbing the filthy machine I had found in a classified ad. It was no doubt in a basement for the past 25 years. When I went to pick the sewing machine up, a teenage boy shyly greeted me at the door. Few words were exchanged. It was free.

I commissioned Barbara to help me figure out how to use it, but we only got so far. The free sewing machine is in my trunk now. Brooke has a shiny new one ready to mend the holes in my pants' pockets.

Apparently sewing is on the up and up among those in my generation. There's a trend among the hip and crafty.

New Year's Eve

Chris snuggles with Lulu on New Year's Eve eve . . .


. . . Chris was snuggling with Lulu because his fiance was snuggling with my girlfriend.


On New Year's Eve Colleen, center, and her sister Jen reprise N Sync's "Bye Bye Bye".


The girls get into their old prom dresses.


How do you do, 2007?