I'm still fighting a cold -- but not giving in to it, yet! I got up around 8:30 a.m. (wow, sleeping in!) -- but it was pretty cold in the house, so I actually went back to bed after firing up the furnace. Later I woke up (after some odd nightmares -- brought on from being too warm) when Colin knocked a bunch of books out of the bookcase to the floor. He didn't need food or water (I'd made sure when I got up), but just wanted me, apparently! Hahaha.

I spent the day doing some things around the house and on the computer, both. It was garbage day (the real deal), so I gathered it all up and had most of it done before it got dark.

Also did dishes and took a bunch of 'goodies' out to the outdoor critters. We're thinking about getting dog food to feed the coyote. I was talking to neighbor friend Jim about it. As he says 'everything needs to eat.' That's so true! It's not the coyote's fault he's living in a suburban area, after all...

The main goal of everyone living around here is to keep him from snacking on pets! This woman who came by the house and talked to me today said she thought he was eating squirrels -- but we have TONS of them around here (all looking fat and sassy), so it's hard to believe he's living on them. And nobody has reported missing cats and dogs. So I think he's finding outdoor food to live on. Obviously he's been coming here, though we don't put out all that much meat, generally. (Poor guy!) It reminds me of our cat Danny that we had years back when we lived with Mom and Dad. He'd been left behind (!!!) when a family moved and lived on BREAD for ages before we realized he was alone and adopted him. Because of that he lost a bunch of teeth (bad nutrition!). And he never got over loving to eat bread now and then. We had to hide any loaf we brought in the house! (smile)

Cooked dinner (acorn squash, roast beef hash and kale). Yummy!

By the way, it has happily warmed up today -- if you can call 39° warming up, that is!

We've been watching "The Sing-Off" (partly because we have a Sing-Off as one of our festival events). It's been pretty entertaining...

Sister Sue felt well enough to go to cribbage last night. Thanks for the kind thoughts!

Have to go to the office tomorrow, no matter how I feel. (sigh) I'll manage.

Marilyn is working on Saturday (!!!) and is running the Holiday Half Marathon on Sunday (!!!). (As you can tell, we stay pretty busy all year long -- even in December.) I hope she doesn't get sick trying to run that race on Sunday. She told me she's going to finish it if it takes her six hours to do it... (sigh) I admire her for wanting to do it, but she hasn't had time to really train -- and it's damn cold here! (She won't let me go out to see her race and shout encouragement because she's worried about ME in the cold. Seriously???) Oh well...

Time for a nap. I'm tired... Oh! Almost forgot! Finished my book ("Frederica" by Georgette Heyer), which is sad as I enjoyed it so! Some books I wish could go on forever...

I'm currently reading "The Girl Who Played with Fire" (by Stieg Larsson). It's the second book in the Millennium series. So far I'm enjoying it a lot. I loved the first book, of course. I think Larsson is an excellent writer...

I'm reading on my Kindle paperwhite, by the way. I love it!!!

I made homemade Mizithra Spaghetti for dinner tonight -- it turned out great. It's really not all that hard, by the way. I first made it back in 2011 -- and I never did share photos or the recipe, apparently!!!

Marilyn enjoyed it, even though she doesn't deal very well with pasta. She hadn't had any pasta for more than a year until tonight!

Speaking of Marilyn, she finished her running for the week -- another 20 miles on the treadmill! She's now done that for SIX WEEKS straight! Wow. I'm so impressed!!! She did seven miles last night! Incredible...

We tried to go shopping at Walmart (which we need to do), but the traffic was awful heading across the bridge, so we turned around -- we went to Freddies to shop, instead. We picked up some thing we were out of and really needed, which will hold us until we can (finally) get to Freddies.

The other thing I did today? Work on my (poor) feet. My Psoriasis has been really bad recently. It's been showing on my eyelids, which used to happen all the time but hasn't for years. It's very sensitive there -- plus you can't put medicine there, it will absorb into the eye with such thin skin...

Anyway, the bottoms of both my feet have been messed up. I even 'catch' on the downstairs carpet when I walk barefoot there. Anyway, they're better now.

Interestingly, Mom told me years ago that Grandma Elsie always ate white rice and yellow cheese (mostly cheddar) to help with her psoriasis -- and I, too, have found that helps. But I've pretty much given up rice because of my diabetes. And we haven't eaten much cheddar cheese in some time.

Anyway, we had some sliced apple with pieces of cheese tonight. Very good! We'll see if that helps me or not...

I love this time of year. The fact that we're always on vacation during this week doesn't hurt one bit, by the way... (grin)

More tennis from the U.S. Open to watch today -- and there have certainly been some good matches!

Marilyn and I stayed up all night last night, by the way. Playing Zuma and watching TV and just enjoying staying up (something we often like to do during vaca). So, yes, I slept in late again today. (grin)

I had a message from June that I didn't get until the middle of the night (nearly morning, really). She had a computer issue, so I headed over there in the afternoon today to see what I could do. Long story, but in the process of trying to download iTunes, they ended up at a 'fake' site that downloaded a bunch of malware on to Jim's computer. I managed to clean it up and they're good to go again, thankfully. I'm grateful for software like Malwarebytes (which is FREE), I have to say. I did some of the extraction manually, but that amazing software was a huge help -- no doubt about it!

Weird thing? I could NOT get Mozilla Firefox to install on his computer, running Windows 7. By the way, it's apparently a known issue -- I found it all over the place when I did a search on the problem. I finally gave up and put Google Chrome on, just to have an option that wasn't IE... It's interesting to me that I've gotten less disgusted by Win7 over time. I'm still not a huge fan, but at least I can stand working with it now. I used to just HATE it so much.

I (finally!!!) got my hair colored today. (woo hoo) I really needed to do that and I feel a ton better now that it's done!

Marilyn ran FIVE MILES (!!!) today -- she really continues to amaze! Her poor feet are a mess, though. She needs new shoes really bad. All those blisters are no joke.

And to end our day??? June, sister Sue, Marilyn and I went to the show to see "The Butler," which stars Forest Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey (and a huge and wonderful cast). Yes, Forest and Oprah deserve the Oscar buzz, there's no doubt about it. I have to say, the Civil Rights movement -- which I feel blessed to have lived through -- is near and dear to my heart. So I was very moved by the focus of this film.

(Today was Dorothy's birthday (June's mother). I still miss her so much...)

That's it for today!

Like everyone, I have a lot of QUESTIONS about what happened at the 2013 Boston Marathon. But these questions do not include pointing accusing fingers at the local or national authorities and their response to this event, just to make myself clear. (I've seen some of that today, and frankly it makes me sick! Let's get angry and upset with the correct individuals or groups -- and those wouldn't be the people who are dealing with this mess, it would be those who caused it!)

Yes -- like all of you, I want to know WHO did this. I can't understand why that's not apparent. Even the most horrible terrorist groups are generally pretty quick to take credit for their actions. And this certainly is an act of terror -- what else could it be?

Why would anyone attack a group of runners and their supporters? Damn good question. I can't even imagine an answer, even an insane one -- aside from pure terror. I can't say this strikes at the American way of life, because RUNNING is universal -- and tons of the participants in the Boston Marathon come from around the world.

Here are some images borrowed from online (I didn't see sources listed, sorry, or I'd share.)


Someone caught one of the blasts on film


Here's a map that shows where the explosions took place


Helping the injured


Emergency workers

The media was quick to report things -- but not quick to remain calm and professional, nor to check their facts before reporting them. Yes, I understand that news reporters think they must compete with Social Media -- but you know what? I expect Twitter and Facebook to be about an emotional response (that's not necessarily accurate). I expect news programs -- and news reporters -- to be about giving us the NEWS. I'd like that to be as unemotional and accurate as is possible. I remember a time when those responsible for sharing the news really seemed to strive for integrity -- for providing a reliable source. If something wasn't confirmed, they didn't just say/write it anyway.

Finally, Marilyn and I are involved in special events -- it's what we do. The festival has a race that takes place in May. (Marilyn was home having lunch when Jeff called to discuss what should be said to reporters during interviews -- she is in charge of Communications, after all.) Jeff has already appeared on several local channels discussing this (from the point of view of a major special event AS well as from the point of view of a race producer). Marilyn and Jeff will especially be impacted (and my friend Rich) -- but it's going to impact the entire festival this year.

We were there for 9-11 -- so it's NOT new for us. Marilyn used to be talking to the FBI and local authorities and committees and so on over and over and over again -- and it hasn't stopped in the years since.

But this was a sports events -- and entertainment event! Why???

It should make 2013 an even more interesting year for us, anyway...

Praying for all the victims -- and for our entire nation.