New Toy

Gifted

On Christmas morning it was starting to snow.

Presents were stacked up under the tree. Guess which ones are from the Bloomingtonauts!

We all sat around the tree.

Ready to open our stockings.

David and I got some amazing presents.

Lucky slept on the presents.

And at the end of the day, everyone was happy and tired and surrounded by piles of boxes.

Christmas Refractions

The tree in Hillsville is sparkling with ornaments and lights.

David's family hangs prisms all over the tree to catch the sunlight.

In the morning, light bounces all around the room.

And there are brilliant rainbows everywhere.

Including my nose.

Southern Lights

This is what Christmas looks like in Tallahassee. We don't have snow, but we do have spanish moss, which is nature's tinsel.

This is in Ponce de Leon Park, where I walked around tonight admiring all of the live oaks lit up with Christmas lights.

It's especially spectacular when you look up.

Deck the Walls with Pods of Narwhals

This is what I did with all of the narwhals I cut out of card stock: brushed them with glue and covered them in glitter.

And more glitter.

I made silver, blue, and dark gray glittery narwhals.

Then I hung them around the living room.

I might add lights later to bring out the sparkle, which the camera doesn't capture very well.

But now we have lots of narwhals frolicking around our living room, and it's starting to look very festive and nautical.

Card Catalog

If you -- or your blog -- had an entry in a library card catalog, what would it look like? Make your own here.

Winter Inspiration

So maybe it's because I've been eating these cough drops, or because David and I are reading this book out loud.

Or because I've been wearing this awesome necklace that Jennifer and John gave me for Christmas.

But this season I am feeling very inspired by icy winter seas.

And narwhals. Narwhals seem very Christmasy to me, maybe because of this one in the movie Elf.

I'm dreaming of a kayak trip like this one, except that obviously I would be helping to conserve the endangered narwhal instead of harpooning it. Meanwhile, I want to decorate our place so that it looks like a glacial sea festooned with pods and pods of narwhals.

We're going to need more narwhals.

Poppy's Finals Week

This week some papers have been taking my place on the lap.

I will bite them until they go away.

My Facebook Year

Facebook has this really cool app that makes a little collage out of your status updates from the past year. It's interesting to see what sorts of things I choose to post about -- all the things that create the Facebook version of myself. According to Facebook, my year has mainly consisted of grading, drinking tea, looking at bugs, and being confused. Hmm ... that sounds about right.

The View From Finals Week

Lots of grading is going on. It's made more bearable by the companionship of my fellow graders.

Important Grading Tip

Keep your cup of tea a safe distance away from the papers you are grading.

Mushroom People

I love these little animate mushrooms, which I found here among other images from a Russian children's book.

They remind me of the mushrooms that Temporary Librarian and I found at the grocery store last week. This one just needs a moustache and some boots.

See?

Squid Lemon

In Bloomington, I found this bizarre citrus fruit called a Hand of Buddha, although it looks more like a cross between a lemon and a squid. (David thinks "Squid Lemon" would be a good band or song name.) Now that I'm back in Florida, I'm looking for another one of these things. I read that they make a delicious and fragrant tea. Shouldn't Florida have all the weird citrus fruits?

Reflecting on NaBloPoMo

November is over, if you can believe it, and I managed to post something on this blog every day. In fact, I went over my goal and did 34 posts! NaBloPoMo was fun, which was its main purpose, but also, it turns out that when you try to think of something funny or interesting or beautiful to post about every day, you become more aware of how funny, interesting, and beautiful your life is. So thanks, NaBloPoMo. I think I'll probably post more often from now on, but maybe not every day. Finals week is coming up, after all.