Gorgeous Sunrise

Wow, I'm bushed! Having been rooting for a losing team for the entire game can be tiring! After the Broncos debacle last night, Remy and Rosie and I retired and read ourselves to sleep with a history of "Il Moro", the Duke of Milan's family, during the time of his patronage of Leonardo da Vinci. The book is very interesting, and almost goes hand-in-glove with the Leonardo murder mystery I'm also reading. In any event, the Irish kids and I had a quiet night, other than a raccoon fight at 5 this morning.

Sunrise was stupendous - layers of clouds that were white, yellow, gold, and then orange and orangey-red - and in the west, the few single clouds above the mountains were stained pink and orange, too. It was beautiful. (And it was just above freezing, too!) I've already taken the kids for a quiet walk, and returned to my apartment; the patio door here is open, and the kits are running back and forth, leaving muddy prints over everything. Currently, Banichi is sitting on the top perch of the cat tree, looking out the open door, while Lovey is curled up under one of the squirrels' peanut chairs. Again, since the kits are in evidence, the little birds are staying away, but the squirrels sure aren't!

It turns out that brother-in-law Jim had a bot-fly larva in the "bite" on his forearm - he and Kathy pulled the little critter out of his arm this morning, and put it in a bottle to take it to the MD's... we are now assuming that that is what one of his "bites" on his left leg is, also. I knew bot-flies were nasty from their egg-laying on horses, cows, goats, etc. - having one eating you from the inside out is just gross!

It's pretty outside now, but we're expecting winds this afternoon - due to the placements of the pressure systems, we're expecting wind gusts of about 80 mph here in Boulder. I plan on being safely behind doors with the Irish kids before it really starts to blow! And, we'll spend New Year's Eve at home, inside, having home made spaghetti, and I'll start reading The Hobbit that evening.