429,392,425

Allegedly, that is the top score for Mah Jongg Dimensions (which I sometimes call Mah Jongg Dementia) on the AARP website. I suspect that that score was not garnered by somebody who belongs on AARP. I suspect it was somebody’s grandchild or great-grandchild, with faster reflexes or a symbiotic relationship with his/her computer. (Hello, Jane?)

My top score is in the 15,000’s. And I am neither blind nor slow of hand.

Management kept our office closed yesterday, saving me from having to decide whether to burn a day of vacation, because I really did not want to have to walk down my front steps to the car. I knew that once I got into Lorelai, I would be fine. I know how to drive on this stuff.

Mid-afternoon, I had had enough of sitting on the couch with my knitting, no matter how lovely the fire or the podcasts. I needed to get out, so out I went, all bundled up like the Abominable Snowmom. Only to find that Lorelai had no intention of starting. The last couple of times I made it out of the driveway, there was just the faintest hint of a suggestion that the battery might be thinking of dying. Yesterday I did not have enough juice to turn over the engine.

So I took myself back into the house and got back on the couch for more knitting and more podcasts, and I was in bed a little after 10:00, all knitted out, having arrived at that point I used to reach at 2:00a.m. when I would get cold and shaky and ready to weep from exhaustion.

I love my own company. We get along quite well, me, myself, and I. And I was not physically cold, thanks to my friend E. up in Oklahoma who reminded me, via Facebook, that the ceiling fan, reversed, would do a fine job of bringing the lovely hot air down from the ceiling, which it is. No, this was a case of my spirit and my body telling me enough.

I did wish, in that brief interval between lying down and falling asleep, that I were happily married and could snuggle with my spouse. I wonder how many sweet babies will show up in North Texas in late October and early November, who might not have were it not for this cold snap? (Pittsburgh and Green Bay may also experience a boomlet of their own. I read that we were expecting 150,000 of their citizens here for the Super Bowl. There may well be a few hundred more making the return trip.)

I mused last night that the ice storm has prevented what I was dreading: Super Bowl traffic on my daily commute. Again, our office is scheduled to open at 10:00a.m., but that is subject to revision. And I am scheduled to serve in the temple tonight, but when I called last night to tell them that there might be a problem getting in, there was a message saying that they were closed due to the inclement weather. [I will check back with them in a few hours.]

Which reminds me that my clementines, all but two of them, and a bunch of bananas are waiting for me at the office. At this rate, the yarn I ordered on Tuesday will get there before I do. I got an email saying that one order shipped out yesterday, Priority Mail. I haven’t heard back from the other vendor, but she lives just over the border in Ontario, and our storm was headed her way on Tuesday night, so she may be snowed in, too.

I am officially hungry, and there is a tad of leftover pizza in the fridge (I baked two mini Boboli last night, just the bread with generous shavings of Asiago, and it was heavenly.) And then I think I will make a nice pot of apple oatmeal and listen to the next installment of Sticks & Strings. I tried listening to the KnitPicks podcast last night, but I couldn’t get the volume quite loud enough.

I’m nearly done with the hat I was working on yesterday, and today I think I may take a break and knit a human-sized one for some knitterly instant gratification. It would give me a chance to try out a pattern I have in mind for a Chutzpah-sized hat.

The city says that the garbage trucks (which were due on Tuesday) will be going out today, but that they won’t come for the recycling until next week. So I will get a little exercise lugging those two bins back to the side of the house.

And I’m hoping my neighbor will be here to jump-start Lorelai if I really do have to go into work today. That trip would involve a quick detour to buy a new battery. But if I’m home again all day, there will be some serious baking.

Be good. Stay warm.