*opens ul tag*

• In case you were thinking that my self-proclaimed status as a walking tropical heat wave needs some sort of verification, I have it for you: I recently spent three days in an Undisclosed Midwestern Location (and I know this won't be as impressive because I am not at liberty to disclose the exact location but bear with me here and trust me when I say that this is a mighty snowy place, usually) and not only did it not snow, but the temperatures were pretty much higher than they had been since early autumn last year, and then like the day I left plummeted again so that all the snow that'd melted away for my visit returned in force within a couple of days after I'd got back home.
  
  Do you really need further proof than that? Because dude.



• Then last weekend I went to visit my brother and his wife. The trip, originally planned as a nice leisurely two-day cross-country jaunt, turned into a vicious headache of a 1000-miles-in-13-hours forced march when my father decided at the last minute that he wanted to go along too (my father, you understand, being consitutionally incapable of making a nice leisurely sort of trip anywhere); and I spent the rest of the long weekend trying to catch up and recover my equilibrium and failing utterly. I admit I'd sort of forgotten what it's like to be in the middle of the chaos that comes as an accessory with a new baby, friends, but this went beyond that! My brother and his wife are constantly busy, constantly socializing, constantly going places, and the chaos just gets ramped up with each activity and person and toddler added to the mix. And I am not used to that! Not even a little bit!
  
  Not that my niece isn't the most adorable toddler of all time, because she certainly is. Not that she's likely, with the regimen of playgroups and in-and-out her parents are setting up for her, to turn into a recluse like her poor maladjusted aunt, which of course that's a good thing. But man, when you're sitting in the middle of the DFW airport thinking, oh, God, this is so relaxing, you know it's been a stressful weekend, is all.



• My computer box arrived DOA. It's been a couple of weeks now, but I have yet to recover from this blow. Also I have yet to send it back. Must get around to doing that.



• To distract myself from my handwringing computer-related frustration, I am thinking that I will sign up for another month of NaBloPoMo. There's a theme this month, and that theme is Lists, and Lists are things I can make in my sleep, but I'm thinking I'd like to take some requests: if you have any Top-Five lists you'd like to put in my hands, I'll work them up into a post. Because I want to work with you, and also, I am lazy.



• Hello. It's good to see you.