Hey, look! We got the candle up!

It's in our front yard, secured to one of the larger pine trees (you might be able to just make out the trees in the background). It's 25 feet tall, and people driving down the street tend to slow down. I didn't do that great a job arranging the lights in the flame this year. They're threaded through some 1/2" hardware cloth on a frame, and I think next year I'm going to set aside an entire afternoon to getting them the way I want them, then fasten down each and every little light, once and for all.

But it's done. And it's up. That, plus wreaths on two doors and a little 3' tree. We're decorated!

I am the queen of geography!

In the spirit of use it or lose it, I like to do different things to keep my mind challenged. Challenged, that is, in a way that's different from trying to remember why I came into this room, or just where it was I decided would be the perfect place to store the vacuum cleaner bags. That kind of challenge is exactly the reason why I keep at the other kind of challenge: I need to try and slow down the aging of my brain. That relentless decay. The inescapable slide into mental chaos and oblivion. And, as a result of those, having to go buy more vacuum cleaner bags every single time I need one. That would be good to avoid.

I've read many, many places that to keep the mind "young," you need to keep it creating new neural paths. That means learning new things. A new language is good, and that's on my To Do list. Doing familiar things in a new way is good. Math is very good. But the thing that really gets me going is geography. And by that I really just mean knowing where places are.

I know where places are. Almost all of them.*

I can name, off the top of my head, 185 countries. (It does take a few minutes, but still.) I can do all the Sporcle and Jetpunk geography quizzes that have to do with which countries are where, or what the name of those outlines on the map are. I can fill in the map tests at worldatlas.com. I've taken the time to learn it because it fascinates me.

I am fully aware that this particular body of knowledge doesn't really do much for me in real life, though I sure did know what directions the refugees were streaming when they were leaving Libya for Tunisia. And I knew the general area where the Kenyans were setting up camps to house Somalian refugees without checking a globe. And if my fantasies start coming true and someone suddenly asks me to identify all the countries in eastern Europe, I'm so ready.

In addition to the (I hope) brain benefits, I also have to think of this as kind of a hobby. I say have to because it takes up more time than you would think. The fact is, my brain and I aren't as young as we used to be, and if I don't keep reinforcing this information, it seems to somehow leak out or something. So I periodically go over all the maps, making sure I remember what's where and how to spell Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan and whether Oman and Yemen are in alphabetical order or reverse alphabetical order (just so you know, it's reverse).

I spent today "going over" it. Today. As in all day. As in I got up at a reasonable hour, made coffee, then sat my fat ass down at the computer and played geography trivia quizzes and filled in maps all. day. long.

So…I think I'll go take a shower now. Brush my teeth. I'm a little ambivalent about the whole makeup thing, seeing as it's five o'clock. PM. [sigh] Tomorrow will be more productive, I'm sure, now that my brain is all tuned up. Right.


*I kind of stink at Oceania and the Caribbean. I know everywhere else, though.**

**Yes, everywhere.

Good grief!

I didn't realize how long it had been since I posted anything. I look at my blog every single day, checking to see if the people I follow (look left) have made new entries, but somehow it doesn't really register just how long it's been since I've posted. I even kind of made a secret semi-resolution to update this blog more often. Huh. Starting today. Really.

We're going to the Dallas Stars game tonight. Nothing unusual about that, except it might possibly cross my mind that I could be at home, snuggled up with my dogs and cats (instead of Lydia cuddling on the couch with them, though they'd probably just as soon that it be her) rather than schlepping through the cold rain to AAC.

At least it might cross my mind except for the fact that tonight is our last Dallas Stars game for four weeks and two days! Between an extended road trip (them) and various holiday commitments (us), it just doesn't work out again until January. This is one of the more difficult aspects of being a sports fan. They don't play hockey in summer. They don't play baseball in winter. (Fortunately, though, if you're a hockey and baseball fan, you're set.) A drought like this in the middle of the season just doesn't seem right. Someone hand me the remote!

So after tonight it's all about getting ready for Christmas, which means knitting and cooking. The knitting goes on and on. I've been considering giving the Noro entrelac scarf I've been knitting to my mother-in-law, because she really admired it when she saw me working on it. I hesitate, though, because she's a little tiny woman (barely five feet tall) and it's kind of a gigantic scarf, 10" wide and 4' long so far, and I've still got most of the third skein left! I'm cooking for Christmas, too, trying a couple of unusual recipes to be gifts for my niece who asked for "crazy interesting foods or ingredients." We'll see how that goes. Between the scarf of enormous proportions and making recipes I've never tried before, I actually have a lot of potential for ending up at Walgreen's at 10pm Christmas Eve, looking for replacement gifts.

Speaking of cooking, and while I've got you, I'm thinking about adding a recipe/cooking section here. It would be handy to have my recipes online where I can get to them when I'm standing in the grocery store wondering if I'm actually remembering all the ingredients or not. What do you think? Would you care? Would you look at it? (It'll make a big difference in how much time I spend on making it look good if I'm the only one who'll see it.)

Well, anyway, there you go. That's an update. I'll try to make it more interesting next time, and see if I can also get in the habit of not waiting weeks in between.

Off to brave the cold and rain now. We've really got to have toilet paper before the freeze hits on Monday!