Things to be grateful for:

1. Phil, who used to be a tech manager here and is now a salesguy. He's got a deep, resonant voice that sounds so much like my grandfather it sometimes makes my throat tight. I've been craving mochas the whole time I've had a cast on. Phil's been in Florida that whole time, getting trained to be a salesguy after being a tech guy. Today was Phil's first day back and the first thing he says to me is, "Hey, Kate, I'm going out. Ya want anything?" which sounded so much like my grandfather I almost asked for red vines and twinkies, which is the sneak snack he and I used to eat, but instead asked for a mocha, and he went not to the Starbucks, which is closer, but to the little indie place I really like and bought me *exactly* the mocha I wanted. For over a month now. I love Phil.

2. Enormous attachments in email. I still can't quite believe I got what I got in email today. I think if someone had sent me a box with Jeff Friesen in it and a gift tag that said "he's single, go for it," I might be slightly *less* happy, actually, than I was on receiving this email today. The enormity is still hitting me, which is why it's #2. That and I'm only halfway through the mocha.

3. Lili likes mashed potatoes. I was having rather fantastic shepherd's pie last night (Bec makes better shepherd's pie than I've had anywhere, and I mean *anywhere* including pubs in backwaters like Gairloch), and Lili was in her bouncy seat watching me intently. I would lift the fork, her little blue gaze would follow the fork. I would open my mouth and she would stare and stare, and then her lips would work and smoosh and her little hands lifted up as if to telekenetically beam that forkful of mashed potatoes straight to her little eager mouth.

I know, I know. No spice, no butter, no cow's milk no savory little crumbs of lamb and all the other things that go into the mashed potato part of shepherd's pie. But she was smacking her lips at me so... so... insistently.

So she got her first solid food. Only to find that the babysitter broke down to her big pleading eyes and fed her some banana last week, the little minx.


4. My cast is off. Completely. No more cast, no brace, no walking cast, nothing. The doc says because I'm in good shape and healthy I'm healing about a week ahead of schedule, and they're very happy with my progress. The bone in X-ray is very deformed and scary-looking, but he assures me it functions fine like that and--most importantly--will not affect my skating at all.

I can start putting weight on it now (and I can SHOWER!!!!!), and even more amazingly, he says I should be able to start skating again in a month. I can't believe it. I was expecting the worst.


5. This mocha's really, really good.


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- posted by Kate @ 12:42 PM