359 Days Until Christmas

I saw that sign on the door of the UPS store in town. Kind of makes you want to leave the decorations up, seeing as how it's rolling around again that soon.

But too late--I spent the day putting all of the Christmas decorations away and (as Caroline says) "undecorating" the tree. Not the funnest of jobs, but I put Rosemary Clooney's double CD set "The Girl Singer" on the stereo and sang along as I worked.

Now the house looks bare, but in a restful sort of way. (Except for the pile of stuff still on the dining room table to be dealt with, but we'll pretend it's not there.)

I believe I mentioned yesterday that I've spent the last several days looking for a CD of documents from my legal boss, Bob. I'm supposed to read "Power Point for Litigators" and use the documents to fashion a brilliant and enlightening Power Point presentation for Bob to use when he argues a summary judgment motion in February. The disk kicked around on my desk for a week or two while I waited for Bob to send me the Power Point book... then, when I thought I'd start on the project Sunday, no disk.

Well, I hunted everywhere. Through my computer cd box, thinking I'd tucked it in there. Through 2 file drawers, thinking it'd slipped into a file. All over my sewing table, thinking I might of set it there and it was buried under fabric. (Ahem.) Yesterday, I decided I could only 'fess up and ask Tammie, Bob's secretary, to send another disk.

Late this afternoon, during the hour between getting Caroline home and having to leave to pick up my car from the tire place (where yesterday's flat tire was being repaired), I figured I'd actually do something relaxing and read the Barefoot Contessa Family Style Recipes cookbook that my neighbor Julie lent me (and from which I made the wonderful Jam Thumbprint Cookies discussed at the Dec. 23 entry). Hmmm, I thought, as I settled down and opened the book, what's that white thing sticking out of the middle of the book?

Of course. It's the document cd. Marking the cookie recipe place.

Somehow, in some bizarre way, this seems to illustrate my life at the moment.