It's the Little Things...

It is, in fact, the little things that are getting me through this winter. And I've decided that I'm going to use today's posting to name just a few of them:

1) Yesterday was a warm enough day that I could take my salt-encrusted car to the carwash. My poor car has been covered with sand and grit for at least a month or two. I actually "lost" it in a parking lot a week ago because I was looking for the wrong color of car. But, as of yesterday afternoon, it once again looks dark blue. That's exciting. Along those same lines...

2) When I went to weather.com, today, to check on the next few days, I noticed that the 10-day outlook included the 31st of January. Which means that, if I look tomorrow, we'll already be looking at February. Can spring be far behind? (Okay... spring doesn't come to Minneapolis until at least late March, but I'm taking what I can get!)

3) The tulips I bought, yesterday, and thought seemed a little long-stemmed and... well... "bendy" to survive long, all straightened up in water overnight. They will happily make it through tomorrow (Christopher's birthday), and--hopefully--well into next week. At the same time...

4) The orchid which was "in spike" (ie, was close to blooming) when I bought it last fall--and, since, has gone through a full bloom cycle and lost its last flower a couple weeks ago--has decided it might want to continue to bloom. It has 4 more buds on the same spike, and one is within days of popping. That's amazing! (If you don't know about orchids, there's a whole lot of "wait and see" with them. They usually bloom once every 6-12 months--if you're lucky.)

5) I made a really mediocre Caesar salad dressing (yes, from scratch) the other day. It was depressing. But the croutons were good (and--of course--really easy). So, last night, I used the same general method and made satisfyingly good garlic toast with oregano. (Like I said... This is all about the little things.)

6) Of all of the job-related correspondence I send off on a daily basis, I actually got a personalized response back from one of the pieces, yesterday. Sure, it was simply a "we got your resume, we're looking at them" email, but it was an actual real person contacting me. It was great. And speaking of real people...

7) I've gotten real responses, comments, and queries on some of my postings! I don't get a lot of them, but I've been getting more of them this month. That makes me very happy!

I hope there are some small things--or big things, even--that are helping you through the dark months, too!