01/01/11 was a few days ago, and we are rapidly approaching 11/01/11 (or we are if we are Canadian; I think Americans are heading for 01/11/11.) Before I know it, it will be 11/11/11 in all of North America and I will be even farther behind than I am now. Why is it that I struggle with date order, Roman numerals and the Greek alphabet. It seems as if, mostly, my mind echoes with ear worms, snatches of poetry, bits of whatever I am reading and the grocery list, and no thinking is getting done at all. this is not good, and it is making my list of posts look pretty anaemic. I will try to do better in 2011. Now, is that 'twenty-eleven'? Do we all agree? And is there a name for this decade?

I just finished mopping down the hardwood floors after the Festive Season incursions had covered them with shrimp juice, bits of icing and drippings from the YD's dog's chin. There were a few miniature foot prints as well. It would not have surprised me to find reindeer tracks. I have the downstairs room where I do laundry and crafts restored to an unusual cleansiness since it was the Christmas present wrapping station for two weeks and the floor there was a morass of bits of tape, ribbon and plastic. I have all the Christmas gift bags sorted by size and stored (yeah, I'm a bit strange.) JG's Christmas gifts are all still stacked on the bedroom bureau top, but I have a plan for that, too.

You would think that a glow of virtue would be illuminating my leisurely post-cleaning rest. Ha. I still have to tackle the office (where the boxes from some of my gifts are still stacked, blush). And all of the secretary and board stuff that I have been either bookmarking or printing and stacking since mid December. There is one review due tomorrow. There is a big pile of loose minutes, some of which are signed final copies, to get into the minute book. Meanwhile I am losing at Scrabble, as is my usual fate. Does anyone know a word that has 'toy' in the middle and with either two more letters following or three preceding? I need that triple very badly. And Spell-Checker does not like 'cleansiness'. Too bad, you boring, anal retentive program, it's staying.

Oh, yea, the procrastination queen is at her best this afternoon. It's been a nice day for a change with the sun popping out of the clouds and the wind whooshing the loose snow off all the tree branches and making our wind chime sing. (The sun does show up the mess on the floors!) I may get around to making the odd New Year's resolution in February. (Hmm, not to let the minutes pile up again? Wash the damn windows before the winter sun shows every bug spot and smear? Do things on time? I've broken that one lots of times.) How about - stop using so many parentheses. Can I actually keep that one?

Speaking of putting it off, I'm about two months behind on the 365 project. I have a ream of stuff to put up on Flicker, but there it sits in a nasty, sneering folder on my desktop. What I have to post here are two from 'memory' - if I recall the prompt correctly - and one from the new camera. Extreme telephoto on this one and I overcompensated on the white dial, a bit. But I love it, and what is more, so does the YD. That's her new coat, chosen to make her visible when she walks the dog. I think that last week's prompt was 'resolution', and that is what the new camera and I are discussing at the moment.

107/365 - someone's baby shoe, bronzed.  Might be mine, might be one of my girls'.

108/365 - the YD with the colour balance uncorrected.

109/365.  My mother's cherished pickle dish.

I hate manuals. Maybe I will book myself into a digital camera course. It can't be worse.