The crowd was terrified, and left us alone

Let's see what order the photos show up in through magic of blogger imports. That's the order I'll write about, regardless of if it makes sense or not. I say BAH! to temporal boundaries.

This is from this morning. One of my blogger buddies was feeling grumpy, and wanted something to cheer her up. Sunrises often do that for me. My thinking is that if something as big and important as the sun keeps coming up, my problems can't be that serious. She liked the photo even if it wasn't the brilliant flame colors we sometimes get.

This is from earlier in the week. Celina occasionally likes to hop up and butt into wherever Curtis is sleeping. He sometimes looks a bit cranky about it.

Company Christmas party on Friday. The party was pretty good, my main criteria being the band not being too loud. I got to chat to a bunch of people I know, though there were a lot of empty places at the tables. Not that I'm expecting culinary excellence at dinner for several hundred, but I was disappointed by the food. Other meals we've had at this venue have been better.

Saturday I had fun going out and trying my new (exchanged) snowshoes. I went a couple of K in the big green space across the road. Only after did I realize that my left foot wasn't quite in the right place. It should have been strapped in about an inch further forward. There was a lot of snow. One drift was well over a foot deep, because that's how much I was sinking in. I really like the feeling of security I get walking on snowshoes. Mine have lots of pointy bits on the bottom edges. Probably not the best shoes for deep and fluffy snow, but there are add on tails if I want to do that.

After getting back in from snowshoeing, I changed and got on my bike for an hour of spin. I figured I might as well get good use out of the hot and sweaty.

While I'm on about it, my life has been bedeviled by small plastic tabs. A part broke off the BBQ earlier in the week. On my Sorel boots, there is a little plastic thingie that helps keep the laces in order, and half of it broke. I've only had these boots for 20 years or so, maybe more.

A few minutes after getting the earlier sunrise shot, I got these two. I thought the clouds were interesting.

This is where the crowds were terrified. The glass carafe on our French Press got broken, fortunately after making this morning's coffee. Replacement was urgent. We had some Sear's gift cards, so we braved the mall. First was the book store. I've got Cmdr Hadfield's book, and I'm quite looking forward to it. Then my bank, and then the mall. Linda burst out of the car and sprinted for the door, getting there just as they unlocked it. She is at the back of the crowd near the centre. They saw her coming and scattered for their lives just after the photo. We got up to the kitchen section unmolested. Unfortunately they didn't have the good ones. Just the cheap plastic ones that last about 3 servings. Lately we've had a string of irons that leak all over your hand as you use them, so we got another one, a different brand. They say it's made in Germany, and weighs like it. The ones that leaked were T-Fal, made in China. Never again.

A bit of web search discovered that Crate and Barrel had them (French Press, complete new ones AND replacement carafes! (Keep up.)).  The associate that helped us was really good, but I wasn't impressed by the entrance/anteroom to the store. Neither Sears or C&B had a waffle maker I liked. The Krupp one could be used as armor plating on tanks in the next world war, but we don't need that many waffles at once. We can do without a waffle maker for a while, though it still sort of works, but having a real coffee maker is a daily necessity. If you have waffle maker suggestions, feel free to leave them in comments.

We strolled around the mall a bit, entranced by this structure in centre court. Santa isn't in his chair, but showed up a few minutes later. You can't see the snaky line up thingie, full of strollers. My considered opinion is that the guy doing Santa is either really hard up for $, or has done something truly dreadful in a previous lifetime and is paying for it now. Probably the parents too.

Sears was full of geezers. I think I only saw two people younger than me, excepting the employees. Sears has changed a lot. Not that I shop there much, and today's experience isn't going to speed my next time.

Once home I limbered up and went out into the beautiful sunshine. I ran 6 k just over 42 minutes up towards the reservoir and back. Dog city. My legs felt pretty good, and I probably could have run further, but didn't want to push it. The lesson I've learned this year is that I'm good for a while, but fall over the edge fairly quickly to having unhappy legs. It was probably about 10 C, and I could have worn shorts. The spike in the graph was waiting for the lights to change. it took a long time for my legs to feel happy running, and I gradually sped up throughout the run.

I'm still gathering questions for the AMA, Ask Me Anything. Feel free to leave your question in a comment, email, or social media. Remember that I'm quite willing to invent questions and attribute to people. As a teaser to one of the questions, the numeric part of the answer is 37, 30, 5. The metaphysical aspects will be covered in the blog later.

I've got nearly another 1000 words written on the novel. Kelly is involved with some snippy verbal sparring with a stuffed shirt corporate type. It's gonna get sad.

Don't forget, AMA, and waffle maker comments.