This is Charmion, actually, ticking away on Edmund's new laptop --

I finally feel pretty good today, and not coughing up a lung for the first time in a fortnight. The cassoulet is in the oven and Edmund is out buying salad greens and renting movies suitable for New Year's Eve viewing -- The Titfield Thunderbolt, with Stanley Holloway, and Waterloo, with a Russian director and Rod Steiger as Napoleon.

I wish you all the best New Year ever. With any luck we'll be down Portland way some time in the spring, and I have almost convinced myself that the Mystic Seaport festival would be a good time even for people who aren't crazy about sea shanteys ...

Our fair city of Ottawa has promised fireworks at midnight, but it's rather a lot of degrees below zero Celsius and getting colder. You know you're terminally middle-aged when inclement weather can keep you away from fireworks.