cold snap

i don't know about you, but i am fricken cold. i couldn't warm up last night and i am STILL cold tonight. we put the central heater on and even turned on the oven - still cold. i'm wearing woolly socks and sheepskin slippers and i could place a side of beef in my shoes and it would keep until next month!
i guess i shouldn't be complaining, we have been having unbearable heat all summer -( well, actually, what am i saying? - it was hot just a few days ago....) ....wacky weather --- the dog is even shivering. i suppose it is time to buy an electric blanket....but then i really hate to have to store the huge thing the rest of the year, which is most of the year. we poor southern californians have our own weather related problems too. like, what to do with the big king-sized electric blanket during most the year.

today, I attended the xmas party for the Women's Caucas for Art...a great national organization with a local chapter here...it has noted members such as Faith Ringwald.....
the party was great and took place at this cool little restaurant in la mesa called "ciao bella" - a restaurant that features tango lessons on its menu!!!!! thats right - i have lunched there while the tango lessons take place. there is a wooden dance floor smack in the middle of the restaurant.

when there are no tango lessons going on, the tables are placed back on the wooden dance floor. the food is outstanding because it is all fresh - i think Chef Ramsey would agree! nothing frozen and nothing microwaved. and for lunch it is cheaper than say jack-in-the -box - if you get a couple of large slices of pizza, salad and a drink.
the WCA is a wonderful warm - very welcoming group. i completely enjoyed myself.
tomorrow is another meeting and party -- with east county art association. man, everyone seems to have party fever - swing it, old artists! YEAH, baby! (austin powers)

that's all for tonight. i'm going to go see if i can get warm - maybe extra layers of sweats. a hot toddy tonight......ah, just kidding you old buzzards!
well, the truth is a don't have any toddies to have hot!!!!
i really only want hot toesies!
when i get nestled into bed tonight i will read a novel called "returning to earth" by jim harrison....i like it. i just finished "a long way down" by hornsby...i seem to be picking up novels with a downward falling theme that goes on in them.

and lou gehrig's disease (or ALS)...("returning to earth" is told in the voice of a guy dying of ALS and i just read "tuesdays with morrie" which is about dying from lou gehrig's disease also). i hope i'm not jinxing myself on that disease - uh-oh time to see dr. hot -( see previous posts regarding dr. hot). dr. hot always blushes when i call him dr. hot!!!! so cute.

In between, i read a book on how to write a children's book by joan aiken. that was one of the best books i read this year! not only was it very informative in a practical sense, but i learned a lot in general about life by just understanding what children love to read. i know it seems a strange connection - but, once i understood what children like to read, and what they can tolerate in storytelling - a light came on in my head. i was able to see back into my past and figure out a bit about the way i was wired - why i loved my first books - why did i cherished so much the story of the "boxcar children" and "scruffy, the tugboat"? i loved adventure...but why at age 4? i also liked the idea of running away - i don't know why, i had a pretty healthy uprbring. i'm mean compared to some.
i suggest anyone who likes to read self-help books (which i normally don't) read that book to learn about human nature ad maybe even clue you into your own.
by the way, i am no even contemplating writing a children's novel - i just wanted to know how it is done. OK nighty-night oxoxoxoxox