Of sunshine, warm weather, and happy endings...

Or should that be beginnings?

There's a winter storm warning in effect here today. Winds of 55 mph, with 2-5 inches of snow coming.

February being February.

But...

On Wednesday of this week, it was sunny and beautiful. It was 42 degrees here. I can honestly say I don't remember it being that warm in February before. It was a breath of fresh air and will help us get through today and the rest of the winter.

As for the happy endings...

My niece has had a tough year after losing her beloved golden boy. The new horse is doing well, keeping her busy, but he doesn't have her heart the way Sonny did.

But, happy endings came last weekend:

Her young man, the man she's been dating for over two years, proposed. He did it on the ice while they were ice fishing. There wasn't anything terribly romantic about it, but it was them. Perfectly so.

So, for her, a sad year has come to an end. The future holds amazing things...

And I couldn't be happier.

Chipmunks

When I was a kid, spending summers at a cabin on Lake Superior, one of my favorite things to do was feed the Chipmunks and watch as they packed their cheeks beyond full. I was always amazed by how much they could get in their. We'd feed them unpopped popcorn or dog food and by the end of the summer we could get them to eat out of our hands. I loved it.

They would play games with the dogs, sitting on top of the wood pile to chitter at them, especially when the dogs were in the cabin. After enough teasing, one of the dogs would burst out the screen door to chase them... but they never, ever caught them. The second the door started to open, the Chipmunk disappeared into the wood pile and safety.

Those were good days.

Time for a pet story...

That's Maddie or, as she's also known, Little Miss Houdini.

She likes to play with plastic shopping bags so I will occasionally leave one on the floor for her. Today, she crawled into one... through the handle. It got stuck, of course, around her shoulders. I always know when it happens because she hunkers down and tries to sneak away, which is funny in itself.

But, today, I rescued her, freed her from the dreaded plastic bag and again left it on the floor. Maddie was quickly back, sneaking up to smell it, cautiously.

Then, she pounced on it and stood there with both front feet planted firmly on the bag and that "I'm ruler of the world" look on her face...

Little Miss Houdini, conqueror of the plastic bag.

January Wrap Up

So...

In sticking with my unresolution to stay current with my reading updates, it's time to sum up last month.

In January I managed to read nine books and had one DNF:

10. Agents of Light and Darkness by Simon R. Green
9. Bayou Moon by Ilona Andrews
8. On The Edge by Ilona Andrews
7. Carved in Bone by Jefferson Bass
6. Naked Heat by Richard Castle
5. Painted Ladies by Robert B. Parker
4. Let The Great World Spin by Colum McCann (DNF)
3. The Last Olympian by Rick Riordan
2. The Battle of the Labyrinth by Rick Riordan
1. The Real George Washington by Parry and Allison

Total number of pages: 3464, which works out to 112 pages a day, if I did the math correctly. Since math and I have never been on good terms, I always feel the need to tack on the disclaimer.

Included in that total was one non-fiction, five fantasy, urban or other-wise, three who-dunits, and one literary fiction, which was my DNF.

I enjoyed all of them, even the one I didn't finish, strangely enough. McCann's writing is beautiful but it simply overwhelmed me and left me feeling buried by too many words.

I thought I'd found another author to add to my favorite author's list but the second book by Jefferson Bass is proving to be something of a let down. We'll see how I feel when I finish it.

And, my post about what I thought was Robert B. Parker's last Spenser story brought some bittersweet news - there's one more title to come. It was a story Parker was working on when he died, so obviously someone else finished it. It'll be interesting to see how it stacks up.

So, that's my month in a nutshell. I hope y'all had an excellent January.