I could get used to not working Mondays. This is the 4th such occurrence in 5 weeks.

Choir gig yesterday was pretty wonderful. I like singing with $J, even though the church ceremonial was... relaxed, shall we say. And the sermon was about sexual morality (and oddly unoffensive as such things go). Despite his fears of having zero tenors, we ended up with 4, one the husband of the fill-in organist, two of us recruited off facebook, and oh, one of the regulars showed up despite having begged off. Needless to say, we learned the music well, and it was fun. Could have used more of those single degrees outdoors... $J pointed out that the qualification for singing tenor Sunday was an earned Doctorate, which, as it happens, we all had.

On the way over there Sunday morning, I was accepting advice from my GPS (recently acquired as a hand-me-down from toxicfur). It told me to turn left off of Beacon St. in Brookline, so I moved left into what looked like it might be a turn lane (oddly enough, there's parking on the median strip along there). I noticed the "no left turn" sign [think right if you're a Brit], and so waited for the only other car on the street to clear before going on down to the next intersection. Which car turned out to be a cop who was watching closely to see if I'd make a left turn so he could ticket me. I'm sure it was a great disappointment when I waved and went on my way, legally.

Football. Figures the Packers would be the first home team (out of eight!) to lose in the playoffs this year. My other two close-to-what-once-was-home teams, the Broncos and Patriots, were playing each other, and I'm convinced the better team won. Kneel, Tim Tebow, and pinch the bridge of your nose. It helps the ice cream headache to go away.

This afternoon, having nothing better to do, I went to the movies by myself, and saw Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. It's a hella complicated plot with too many characters to get straight in two hours, and I'm sure I missed some things. But the evocation of the Cold War was spot on. It's hard, now, to remember what things were like then. Especially the emotional and moral dimensions of the espionage business. I'm sure, post-9/11, that the craft is completely changed.

I also finished re-reading the Freakangels saga. It appeared as a web comic, but when it came out on paper, I bought it, because I had loved the weekly installment for over a year.

Some good conversation on life, the future, and everything, with toxicfur today. May we live in interesting times.

It's official, winter is here. Two mornings when it was 7 degrees F at 7 AM. That will do, kthxbai. No significant snow since October, though they're saying a couple inches of glop by morning.

And I have some ideas for rescuing the plot of my novel. As usual, it involves seeing things from the bad guy's point of view. And figuring out how to convey the shattered reality to the reader without making them go, um, huh?

The cat doesn't understand why my evening snack consists of a clementine (tangerine, more or less) and Ardbeg Scotch, neither of which he likes the smell of. A proper snack should involve vanilla ice cream. Or catfood, that'd work, too. He'll get a heaping teaspoon of that at bedtime.

And, um, January. Didn't they repeal that a couple years ago?

In case you missed the memo and you're in Bostonia, Lunch. Thursday. Empire Gardens. Noon. Be there.