i was just thinking

This is my highly organized work space.
I finally had enough of those blue screens with their ominous warnings: This program has committed the unpardonable sin and will be shut down. I bought a new computer. My monitor and printer are fairly new so I just bought the processor, keyboard, and mouse. I looked for one with Windows XP, but there were none to be found. So I now have Vista. So far so good. I've heard some negative feedback about the new system and I'm having trouble installing my printer and making it work, but I think I'll get that ironed out.

• Yesterday, Dorothy made some green chile potato soup and took it to work. Her green chile potato soup always warms the cockles of my heart* on a cold day. She brought back what wasn't eaten. Last night I made some Border Style Shrimp and we added the leftover shrimp to the soup and tonight we had a shrimp potato chowder. Yum!!
• I was reading an article about someone who had endured more than her share of tragedy in her life and it made me think that: Tragedy should come with heavy feet, like an approaching dinosaur. The ground should tremble at its approach so we can batten down the hatches; barricade the doors. Instead, it comes as a casual visitor. It doesn't even knock on the door. It steals what we love while we're looking out the window.
• The temperature hasn't climbed above freezing for the last few days. We got a dusting of snow today. 11 degrees are forecast for tonight. I left the water dripping in two bathroom faucets and in the kitchen. It might reach the 40's tomorrow afternoon. I hope winter is winding down. I plan to get the tiller ready next week and turn over some soil.

*cockles of the heart -- What are those? I don't remember seeing them in the pictures of any biology textbook I ever studied. I remember seeing aortas and ventricles but no cockles. During open heart surgery does the doctor have to clamp them to one side to make room? Just wondering.