I suppose I should pack up most of the stuff I've gathered here at work. I don't want to have to lug it all home on Thursday or more importantly I don't want to have to lug it to the bar after my last day here is spent. Not a ton of stuff. A few books. Tea cup, coffee mug, soup bowl and spoon. Magic Eight Ball, Godzilla and a model of a silver New Beetle. A tin of British Breakfast tea (The Perfect Cuppa). Some photos tacked to my little cork board along with a Kukui Nut lei and Marti Gras beads.
They're keeping me on for contract work but I have no idea what it will amount to. Since I have nothing else lined up (still no call from the animal shelter) I figured I might as well make myself available if they need me especially since they'll pay me at my current rate. We're all going to lunch in Chinatown tomorrow in honor of mine and Dave's last day. I think Doug has until the end of February. I applied for a job yesterday at a dot-com in Maynard. My heart's not really in it. I'd rather work in the city. I also forwarded my resume along to some of my commuter rail buddies who asked for it in an effort to try and find a position for me. I'm sure it will all work out. Either way I expect to be at The Three Cheers no later than 4PM on Thursday in order to toast my new found kept woman status.

Some odd bits I meant to blog about this past weekend but hadn't quite gotten around to it; I baked more of the insanely delicious chocolate-toffee-pecan cookies on Sunday. My size tens are getting a bit snug I must say so I think that will be the end of my baking for a bit. I brought some with me to visit my mom yesterday and the rest into work today to share. I still think I've eaten the better half of the three dozen baked. Bad Diana. Bad bad Diana.

What else, ah yes, my cat thinks she is a lion. Saturday evening after the sun had gone down I curled up with a blanket and Lord of the Rings (yes, reading it again) by the picture window in the living room. The cat jumps up, stares intently through the glass and lets out a low growl! What the?! I sit up and peer outside but I can only see the dark shapes of the trees against the blue-hued snow. I stare unblinking as Jeff comes up behind me to have a look as well and then I see it. Well into the woods is a black shape moving through the trees. I can't make it out so Jeff runs for the binoculars. He gets back just in time to see it moving off out of sight. A lone deer. The cat is still staring and looking none too happy. I'm quite sure if she could have her way she'd have been out there chasing it. She's a good hunter so she is.

And last on my odd bit list, I saw a murder of crows. It was truly bizarre. I was sitting at a red light on Route 9 East when I notice a large flock of birds a ways ahead of me. I didn't give it much thought. We often see gatherings of these smallish (bigger than a sparrow, smaller than a pigeon) brown birds along the road. They'll line entire lengths of telephone wire and cover the front lawns of businesses before some unseen threat scatters them to the wind. This was big group ~ two hundred at least. I watched them fly in an undulating wave over the tree tops and urban sprawl and with a start realized they were not the little brown birds. They were crows. I'd never seen anything like it. A great black cloud of them heading for who knows where (Isengard?) and on what devilish mission. It was pretty fucking cool. I dig crows.