This is the view from my bedroom window. I still cannot quite comprehend the magnificence. Of course I'm also dealing with a doll's kitchen that doesn't have a functioning stove. But still: there's this.

Today, the temperature will be moderately tolerable--a high of 25--but tonight it will drop to low single digits. Up in Harmony it's forecast to fall below zero, and I am trying not to worry about the pipes. Please, dear fates, don't make me suffer through any more water emergencies.

I feel bad that my posts here have been so unpredictable, time-wise, but now that Tom doesn't have to leave for work until just before 8, we have been lingering over our coffee, looking at the map to figure out the names of the islands in the bay, watching a mob of seagulls argue over a bag of french fries, guessing which of our missing possessions are in which badly labeled box, and so on. And then I have to wash the breakfast dishes in the doll's sink, which takes a long time because there's no counter space and I have to climb up and down a ladder to put things away. Eventually I will fall into some sort of predictable pattern, but I haven't found one yet.

But I no longer have to climb over a giant photo printer in order to reach my desk. I now know where my socks are located. I might even have found a tiny bit of room for a tiny, tiny Christmas tree.

And yesterday, when I went for a walk, everyone smiled at me. Either they were all naturally friendly people or I had a particularly comic expression on my face. Anyway, I smiled back.