AJ tugged on my sleeve as we headed down the hill next to his school�s playground heading for home. Around us, all his friends were racing for cars. �Mommy, can M. come over to play?� We asked M�s dad and he agreed, so M. joined us for our walk home, he and AJ gleefully pushing each other into snowbanks and occasionally dropping to the ground to make impromptu snow angels.

At home, after assisting the boys in peeling off their many outer layers, we made hot chocolate for everybody. With marshmallows. The boys compared notes on how they ate their marshmallows � M prefers to eat his first, after it�s gotten just a little melty. AJ prefers to drink around his and eat it after the chocolate is all gone. Once the plan was established, they alternately drank their chocolate and tried to outbelch each other and squealed with laughter every time I said, �Ew. Gross!�

And then they wanted to go outside again, so another fifteen minutes was spent reassembling all the outerwear: the socks and the snowpants and the jackets with zippers that won�t zip. Soon they were tearing around the house, throwing snowballs at squirrels, at trees, at each other, at the neighbors, who came out to join them. When I finally went out to call them in, they were skittering across the icy driveway, trying to see how far they could slide.

* * * * *

That fragment was written yesterday before I dozed off. Today I�m full up with grading, grading and a little more grading. And when I�m done with that, there�s grading. If I can squeeze in a yoga class and the annual neighborhood luminaria packing party, I will. We shall see. But instead of an actual entry, I will offer a list of unrelated items. Oh boy!

1. Someone needs to invent silent newspaper, suitable for reading in bed without waking up your partner with all that incessant rustling.
2. Some waterproof books for reading in the bath wouldn�t hurt either.
3. Someone has invented the best cookie ever: Trader Joe�s Candy Cane Joe-Joes. Think Oreos with crushed candy canes mushed into the filling. I�m going to be dreaming about these for months.
4. I found two more duplicate CDs in my collection that are up for grabs. One is Duke Ellington�s Suites, including the seasonally appropriate Nutcracker Suite, Ellington�s brilliant gloss of the Chaikovsky favorite. The other is a recording of Gustav Holst�s Planets. If you�re interested, let me know. The last CD is on its way to freshhell.
5. My yard is full of deer at the moment. Deer and snow.
6. One of my students, when asked to provide the the term for �The style of singing used in Schoenberg�s Pierrot Lunaire� said �bad.� Now, I have to agree that Sprechstimme (half spoken/half sung) is not everyone�s cup of tea. What I want to know is, can I give him a point for making me laugh hard? No? Too bad.

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