Well… this year is turning out to be eventful so far. I spent the weekend taking down the lights and the tree, and none too soon, considering how far too generous my cat has been. She’s been leaving me lovely little presents under the tree since the holidays, and really, I would much prefer she leave them in the litter box.

Then the week got off to a bad start. It began at night with a dry pitter-patter on the rooftop, as well as on the windowpanes. Yes, Santa Ana winds came by, and by that I don’t mean any relative of Santa Claus farting up a storm, though storm seems such an appropriate word. No, I mean this kind of Santa Ana wind, the kind that knocks down power lines and a mile of telephone poles.

The next morning, it was warm, dry, sunny, and a little bit windy–a perfectly wonderful Southern California day, except that my car, flanked on three sides by nothing but wall, wall, wall, was half-buried in pine needles from last night’s generous wind. I began my normally 15-minute commute to work and was met with dead stoplights, bumper-to-bumper madness, and the sudden desire to own a bike. An hour and 15 minutes later, I finally arrived at work.

An hour and 15 minutes, yes… that’s how long it used to take me on good days when I lived 75 miles away and had to take the freeway. Here I now live, on the very same street where I work, just 5 miles away, and it took me an hour and 15 minutes. Is that insane or what?

Anyway, I’m sure you’ve noticed something different about me. [Yes, I’ve started using a different face lotion; funny, but as close as I live to the beach, the air is awfully dry around here.] So if my “face” looks a little funny to you, let me know. Since I haven’t upgraded in a long, long time, I have absolutely no idea what it looks like under certain circumstances. I working in the blind, so to speak.

Not that it matters. I might change it again in another month if I find something I like better. This one is just my first foray into the world of XHTML. To get away from using a table-based layout, I’ve also had to relearn CSS layers, which I’ve used once or twice before for my fireflies at Magic Hour.

Relearn? Heck… it’s like riding a bike on a bumpy surface; you don’t forget how to fall off and seriously hurt yourself.

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