After a pretty cold night, I thought we were going to at least have a bright, sunshiny day, but now the sun had dulled and we're left with a temperature of about 5 above. Although things are supposed to improve during the day, it's a slow start and I've left the window quilts over the windows in the main part of the house, not wanting the cold blast of air behind them to escape. So far they've worked pretty well, but I wish I'd made the ones for the big living room windows a bit differently. I adapted existing drapes, and they aren't as heavy as I'd like. I think I can add another layer quite easily, and that should help, but I have to wait for the spirit to move to tackle the job.

With fewer windows available, our cat Woody is showing signs of cabin fever. He knows it's too cold to go outside, but he misses being able to sit in the window and watch other critters. He takes an occasional trip into the garage, but in three or four minutes, he's knocking to come back inside. So he follows us around, pokes at the curtains to try to open them up, races unexpectedly in front of us when we are walking through the house, and is generally a nuisance, poking his nose into anything and everything we do.

I can understand. This deep cold and the dark windows depress me, too. But here in my office, I have a plastic "inside storm window," so I don't usually use the window quilt unless it's way below zero during the daytime. I like to see the snow and weather outside, and remember all too well working in offices where I had no immediate access to windows - but then I was younger and probably too busy to mind that much.

The temperature got to -10.1 last night, with a wind chill of -25.4. It was COLD! We went to a basketball game in Waterford last night - it was early, 5 o'clock, but bitterly cold. We saw several people we knew, and someone asked if the pond was completely frozen over yet. I was able to assure them it was, and that Everett Drew reportedly has been out ice fishing since before Christmas. At that time he reported 7 inches of ice. I'm sure after the last couple of days and last night, it is much thicker now.

That's Jo-Ann, No. 3, in action in last night's game. They won over St. Johnsbury, 31-17. It was a good game, and Jo-Ann's baby sister, Tangeni, enjoyed it just as much as we did. In the picture below, that's her and her mom as they arrived at the game. Once out of her warm snowsuit, she contentedly chortled and cooed enjoying on all the action going on. After about half an hour, she needed a snack, so mom got out a cool gadget that's a squeeze bottle with a spoon attached so you can fill it with baby food and avoid having to carry separate dishes and spoons. Tangeni kept an eye on the game while mom worked the spoon so she didn't miss a thing.

Here is an announcement that came yesterday:

Tuesday, January 10th 6:30 to 7:30 pm at the Cabot Library Himalayan Adventure with Christina DeRuzza.
This past October, Christina DeRuzza, of Cabot, left for a company sponsored two week expedition in the Himalayas from Lukla to the unexplored Lunag Massif. Come relive the experience with Christina up the Everest trail, then west toward the Tibetan border of Nepal. There will be a slide show and video presentation.