Since yesterday? Several flavors.

Yesterday morning was not so good, as you might have noticed. Frustration — mixed with annoyance clouded by apprehension complicated by restless feelings of inaction — dug in its claws, and no amount of espresso or positive self talk seemed to ameliorate things. It mades us unhappy. And we forgots the taste of bread, the sound of trees, the softness of the wind…

OK. Not quite that Smeagoliciously dramatic. But you get the idea. I was a big ol’ slab of negative, and I don’t like that. Fortunately, yesterday proved to be quite productive and relaxing: a combination I rarely score on the same day. And with my extra, unexpected snow day today, I plan to make the best of this particular 24 hours.

Remy is s-l-o-w-l-y warming up to the Thriller. I think that once I clear out and go back to school, the two of them will have some much-needed bonding time. Since we brought him home and the nasty weather started, I don’t think I’ve been out of the house once. Pup has all but abandoned running to hide underneath the living room coffee table; now we just need to get him to not run and hide underneath my desk. Again, I think not having me actually sitting at the desk will help.

The work on the WordPress theme is finally done, thanks to my buddy Sunny. Some minor changes in font, font size/readability and comments will hopefully make RtB more visitor-friendly. You can also now click on the header image to return to the homepage, and all comment counts are “clicky,” so you no longer have to click on a post title in order to see or post replies. These were all code issues that would have taken me hours and hours to search out and fix on my own, and if you are at all familiar with the WordPress support community, you know that a person could get lost for weeks in the forums. So yay, another reason to show some teeth this morning.

Mavis is scheduled for some surgery this afternoon, which is another reason I’m glad to have the day off. I can go visit afterwards, and hopefully take her home if they spring her same-day. Happy, um…whatever day it is.

Fink (like her Australian Shepherd, needing a job to do)

1. The pipes in my house survived last night (-14 F/-39 wind chill), with the exception of one place: my bathroom, of course.
2. Try to say/do something nice, and what do people do? I guess some folks are just trained by example (their mamas? who knows) to pick things apart and find a negative in absolutely everything, no matter how positive the initial action. Yes, that’s a vague statement and I hate those, but there you go. Do what you hate to see others do. Sheesh.
3. Remy is trying to adjust, and it’s getting better every day. He’s trying. But sometimes, the whole thing’s trying, especially since we’re housebound and can’t get out for a walk or anything. Poor puppy. His paws freeze as soon as he gets outside.
4. I need to get out this house. How people can stay home and work is beyond me. Too much monotony — or I have too  little self-discipline. Likely B. Sucky, regardless. Bring on the 55-hour work/rehearsal weeks, followed by choir tour, followed by concert season, followed by graduation. I’m ready.
5. Timing just bites in general, you know?
6. The next person who says, posts or tweets, “Welp, so much for global warming!”…I swear…
7. I’m up for a trip to anywhere. (If my car will start, that is.)

There we go. Much better. Need to have at it? That’s why God made the comment section. And speekina…you’ll notice that my theme has undergone *some* improvements with regard to how certain code is displayed. I’m working with a nice guy who’s a WordPress genius (he’s in Bangladesh, of all places, so communication is “off,” with him being 11 hours ahead), so progress is a bit slower than normal. Therefore, all is not fixed yet, but the Fink (and my friend Sunny from Bangladesh) is on the case.

More coffee might make me happier. I doubt it, but I’ll give it a go. Cripes!

…the dreaded, evil alarm clock has been set for tomorrow morning, and Christmas break is over. Wow. Know how much work I got done for school over the last two weeks? Next to none. But — part of my new year’s resolution from 2012 was to spend less time at school; to leave work at work. I think I’ve managed to continue that promise into 2014, so thumbs up.

Either that, or I’m just incredibly, unforgivably lazy. Ha.

Time was, I’d stress and worry so much over not getting enough done over a holiday break, it would effectively ruin the last few days of each vacation. How dumb is that? So, the work can wait. It can wait. Does it sound like I’m still trying to convince myself? I probably am, but hey, whatever gets you through the night, right? It’s all right. It’s all right.

He likes his bed

Obligatory Remington Update: He’s fearing the Thriller a tiny bit less. A tiny. When he uses the clicker and the training treats, Remy will come to him quicker — still in a herding crouch (like this, except with his head closer to the floor), but he’ll do it. This morning, however, when he went to feed him breakfast, Pup cowered under my desk and wouldn’t come out, even for clicker treats. He lay there, petrified, licking his chops for the meal he obviously wanted, but couldn’t pull the trigger to go eat, as long as the Thriller was in the kitchen. So, a step forward and two back, but still…progress.

The level of sheer terror in this poor animal breaks our hearts.

However, he’s acclimated himself seemingly 100% to his physical surroundings, so tonight, he and I will move upstairs to the 3rd floor master bedroom. I’ve been staying in the guest room with him these past two nights because it’s a smaller space, and if I needed to get him outside quick, there are 13 fewer steps to navigate. It *appears* (knock wood) that we are going to have no housebreaking problems. We have not crated him, and he’s basically had the run of the second floor hallway. Treading lightly here, but no problems so far.

Today’s test will be guests. Seamus and the gang are stopping by to visit, so we’ll see how much time it takes him to come out from his safe space to greet more men and children. Haha. Remy, Remy…what a ding dong.

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Until a code issue is straightened out with my new theme (and I’m working on it — anytime now!), you will need to click on the title of any blog post to see or leave comments.

Fiends: I’M STILL WAITING TO SEE WHAT THE DEV SAYS ABOUT THE COMMENT COUNT ISSUE. UNTIL I GET IT SORTED, PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE OF EACH POST TO SEE IF THERE ARE ANY COMMENTS, OR TO ADD A REPLY YOURSELF. THANKS!

Honestly, that’s about all I did yesterday. I said I was going to do a whole lot of nothing, but it ended up being a great deal of Fabs — all the live-long day, and into the night.

I’ve mentioned before that I am working my way through a rather hefty treatise on the Beatles’ early years (Tune In). Clocking in at 1250 pages, I’ll be at it a while, seeing as how I’m only 200 into it. But I’m enjoying it completely, as I’m learning so much more about their pre-fame days (the book starts when their parents were born, and works slowly and meticulously forward).

Fortunately for me, I won’t be done with the Lads when I’m done with Tune In. For Christmas, Santa brought me these as well. I look forward to starting them around, oh, March, when I finally make it to the page in Lewisohn’s book where they stepped off the plane in New York, in February 1964. Man, I wish I’d been there.

I’m relatively knowledgeable regarding the Beatles’ public life, their effect on society and pop music in general, and the basic chronology of their adult lives and how and why the band finally broke up. All good fans should know that stuff. What I’m really enjoying now is the off-the-beaten-path information; the backstories and little-known facts about where and how they began. I mean, I knew about the fateful July 1957 Woolton church summer garden fete (where John met Paul, and Paul impressed him — which was near impossible to do — with his Little Richard and Elvis songs, and actually knowing how to play a real guitar), and about the Hamburg days and Pete Best and Stu Sutcliffe, etc. But their private studio experiences, as well as all the stories behind all their songs…well, that’s mighty delicious, and I’m keen to get started on it.

But first — we need to watch the Browns lose their final game of the season. I just wish it wasn’t going to be at the hands of the filthy St*****s. Blah.

Happy Sumday, fiends! Rest easy.

To my readers: Still waiting to see what the dev says about the comment count issue. Until I get it sorted, please click on the title of each post to see if there are any comments. Thanks!

This last week has flown by pretty fast. Too fast, like most vacations do. Already I’m planning my strategy for next week, as Christmas break ends and second semester kicks in. Lots on my reptilian brain at the moment.

I had a great Christmas with my family, and I hope you did with yours as well. We had our rescheduled family dinner and gift opening last night, and it was wonderful. Trouble is, while I’m over the nasty flu I had on Christmas Eve day, the exhaustion part has kicked in and I am pretty much wiped out. Yay for this weekend, when I have resolved to do absolutely nothing. Yay for having a good job that allows me weekends off, and some vacation time to re-energize. Yay for Christmas vacation. Yay.

The only downside of extended breaks like this is that the time off has me thinking and planning and worrying about an upcoming grueling rehearsal schedule. I hate that about me. Why worry? Stuff’s going to happen as stuff’s going to happen; no use in fretting about it. So I work on not fretting. It’s a process.

Anyhow, for today — nothing on my plate whatsoever, and I like that. I haven’t even made the coffee yet. But I should probably do that.

Here’s to a quiet day. I hope you can have one, too.

FO