I prefer winter. I really do.

I was just thinking the other day how much I prefer winter to summer. I HATE hot weather. But I also really hate winter when it's brutally cold and there's no snow — everything looks so dirty and gray. Have you ever noticed how quiet cars are when there's snow on the street? It's bright as daylight, too, especially since the moon's almost full (Sunday).

So, tonight, Mother Nature decided to beautify my environment. This is from our front porch. The red lights in the background are the Crazy Decorator Neighbor's Valentine house.

I decided to take some random photos of weird, quirky things around our house, starting with my husband. Here he is coming home with the weekend's libations. This is actually the same view as the photo of our Christmas tree a month ago.

This is my favorite new appliance, the pressure cooker. Here it is happily cooking kidney beans for Sunday's minestrone marathon.



These are two of the quirkiest things we have: Raymond ("Calendar Cat") and Davey ("Scrawny Varmint").

This is our wedding invitation (October 1981), with a picture of our younger, sexier selves.

And this is Tom's what-not cabinet. How quirky is that? I was complaining the other day about the amount of dust that accumulates on all those tiny things, so he obliged me by making a plexi-glass door for it. Woo-hoo!

Our little girl, Hannah, will turn 24 tomorrow. This is some of her artwork from a few years ago. They hang in our kitchen. I really love these pictures.

Perhaps this provides some insight into us and our space. This was a difficult week — the first 5-day week I've had to work in quite some time. Feeling curmudgeonly in general, rather than anything specific.