More Maggie all the time...

sunny, cold, temps minus 10

Beautiful day after the storms of the past 2 days. Linda Lyall, who manages and has designed my website and lives in Scotland wrote to say Quebec made the BBC newscasts because of the terrible storms. We, however, loved them.

A maggie update - she's doing brilliantly. Michael and I are exhausted. Like with all stress we didn't appreciate the weight until it was gone. We all had a bit of a stressful night. Maggie's adjusted amazingly to life without that leg...though she was groggy and kinda drunk and we had to lift her up[ the stairs of course. But she actually ate her dinner.

We got up every few hours last night, making sure she was OK. It would be horrible for her to survive the operation but be killed by our incompetence. Odd, but looking at the wound and the spot where a leg used to be doesn't bother or upset us at all. Nor does it seem to upset her. As many of you wrote in, your own pets had the same experience. Don't I wish I could be as accepting and adaptable.

Maggie spent the day in the kitchen, so we did too for the most part. Or in the dining room wrapping the last of the gifts. I'm the world's worst wrapper. No patience. I just slap the paper on, tape it, fold, tape. Done. No finesse. Not even an attempt at aesthetics.

the good thing about Maggie in the kitchen is I got almost all the Christmas cooking done. Hard suace. Cranberry sauce. Sweet potato casserole, regular mashed potatoes. Tomorrow Jim and Sharon are coming for Christmas Eve dinner of tortiere and mashed potatoes, and chocolate fondue with fresh fruit.

Did another 80 pages of editing...am at page 430 of a 520 page manuscript. Might even finish this edit of THE BRUTAL TELLING before Christmas. Wouldn't that be great?

Snow, freezing rain and rain expected tomorrow. Safe travels. Oh, speaking of travels I had the most hilarious email from two guys who've become email friends. Donald and Ray, who live in Kansas City and are known as The Gay Travelers. They write columns for gay publications about all their travels. They wrote a lovely note of sympathy about Maggie and some very funny travel experience about a woman whose son Buddy spent 2 days trying to get home this past weekend. It was really only funny because I realized he'd made it just fine.

But if you're traveling, please be careful. Be prudent. Be sober. Be alive to celebrate this wonderful season. Will talk tomorrow.