A whole new year full of surprises

I was definitely in the mood for Bold Change. This design doesn’t provide for a header photo but it has other features I like. And some that are driving me crazy. We’ll see how it goes. Hand me that package of curtain rods, will you? And have a cookie.

Didja notice it was a frosted cookie? (Michigan tart cherry frosting of course. Full of anti-oxidants.)

Happy New Year Carsten. The whole avatar is a long story. Maybe another Sunday. Can you reach that little jar of paint remover for me? Thank you. Here, have a cookie.

I’ve changed things around half a dozen times this morning so who knows how it’s looked at any given moment. I’ve been so busy I didn’t notice Carsten filching all the cookies. Here, have one of these – I’ve been holding them in reserve. I think you’ll like the dried cherries in place of the raisins. No frosting, though – Karma got the last one of those.

I find that many remodeling projects benefit from a disinterested eye. Up on the left it goes.

Must’ve been the Cowboy. I thought he smelled better than usual.

See, I probably moved that curtain rod too far up on the left. Nuts.

It was the Cowboy. Must’ve been. I’ll bring you some cookies the next time I venture out to Northport, which will be sooner than you might expect, as I gave away my signed first edition of Jerry Dennis’s Windward Shore. (It went to a good home–Rob and Alicia’s.)

You can be in charge of telling me whether the new theme loads decently over a slow connection. It takes a village–or in my case, several villages.

I’m done fooling with it for tonight. The wind is howling and we are going to pile comforters and dogs high and wide and read a storybook. We’ll see what I think of it all tomorrow.

It occurs to me that I don’t remember the name of my previous theme. Guess I’ve burned that bridge. I was well and truly tired of it anyway.

The object in the side photo is frosted, but it’s not a biscuit, even virtually. It’s Midnight the Car decked out with cunning little ice crystals last February. This morning the poor car is cowering in the driveway, buffeted by cruel winds. No pretty crystals.

I believe some people must have brought cookies. Either that or we had a loaves-and-fishes thing going for us. I was too busy fighting curtain rods to notice, but the Cowboy was keeping close tabs.

I know I am living the life we envision when we’re sitting at a desk in the City–the life I envisioned, anyway–but only for moments at a time, Dawn. Only for moments at a time. The rest of it is pretty much curtain rods and dog-walking in the wind, just like anyplace else. Still . . . I believe it’s my responsibility to maintain the Dream. Somebody has to do it. Thus TLV.

Happy New Year, Robin. I’m glad you like it. I’m still pondering. I’m going to try this for a week. Then we’ll see.

Hi, Kathy. I’m still pondering which of several bold new looks are going to prevail, but I decided to give this one a full week tryout.

If the wind keeps up, there will be a whole bold new look at the Writing Studio and Bait Shop, too. Rakishly roofless, perhaps. Onward, rejoicing. Happy New Year.

Hi Scott – glad you like the redecorating job. That’s a good idea about running a longer list of posts. I’m just trying to make the page load as quickly as possible. An astonishing number of my readers are still on one or another version of pretty slow dialup. Part of the charm of Antrim County . . .

I think what I’m going to do–and this will be really, really time-consuming–is to make some new tabs with new pulldown lists for the businesses, the parks, etc. Just thinking about it makes me tired. I think I’ll go make myself a cookies and Nutella sandwich.