First of December's random thoughts....

..on what started out as a dreary (meaning dark) slightly sluggish Monday morning.
Sleeping between flannel sheets makes waking up in the dark on a Monday extra hard. J had to tell me the alarm went off the second time, and it was a good thing he did because I was already drifting back into a cozy snooze, enveloped in that warm, fuzzy flannel cocoon.


By the time I got out the door with the dog, the sun was coming out and it turned out to be a colorful day. (kind of like stepping into the Land of Oz...)


Driving in to town for work, I saw a little fluffy white dog on a leash, wearing a red and green tartan coat--very festive!

Further down the road, I noticed a young lady running from her door to her car, and she was wearing a bright yellow down vest, pink sweatpants, and a red Santa hat -- another festive sight!

And then, at the second light before the frame shop, I was stopped behind an electric blue little Honda with hot pink hubcaps (don't know if that is the correct word--what is on the outside of the car's tires) and a back license plate that read "MELVIN".(the name of the driver? Or the car?) Very cool and strange in a dorky smile-inducing way. :-)

The customers at work weren't so colorful, but that is probably a good thing. I don't need "colorful" characters on a Monday. The morning was busy but without too many interruptions, so I got everything taken care of by the time I had to leave (especially important knowing I won't be there tomorrow).

Even though it isn't very colorful (and the photo is not good at all--it was the best we could do with our digital camera with no telephoto lens), the photo below shows what R and I saw from our backyard at about 5:00 this evening. It's the moon (a lovely crescent shape), and Venus (at the "elbow" of the angle ) and the tiniest light(to the right--may have to increase the size of the pic to see it) is Jupiter. How do I know this? Well, Rachel was told by her teacher to look for this "right angle" line-up of the moon and two planets tonight. It wasn't possible to get a shot without a bare tree branch in the picture.

One more thing--all day I had Mele Kalikimaka stuck in my head! R was playing the song last night(the Bing Crosby/Andrews Sisters version, of course!), then was singing it at breakfast, so of course she passed it on to me.

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say

On a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day

That's the island greeting that we send to you

From the land where palm trees sway .....