In Love

Every so often I get email updates from the most wonderful and beautiful place in the world---Anthropologie. I've decided that this is my heaven. I could spend hours in there mulling over each cardigan sweater and hand-painted teacup until closing time. Except in my fantasy, I have a limitless credit card and a bank account to back it up.

Their latest fashion campaign is a throw back to an era I love dearly: the 1950s. And they've also put a library spin on all the outfits. What is not to love about this? Who wouldn't want to look this great navigating the bookshelves and decoding the dewey decimal system of a magnificant library?

Adventures

Amsterdam, anyone? I'm putting this on my list of places to travel in the next year or two...

Snow and Ice

It's below zero outside right now and the wind chill takes the temperature into the negative teens. The lake is frozen, the falls are frozen, and our faces freeze when we go outdoors---but I do have to say that I'm enjoying the Ithaca winter.

Instead of the dreary drizzle of rain for several ongoing months in the Pacific Northwest, the snow is kind of a cheerful change. At work, where two of the four walls are floor-to-ceiling windows, I get the feeling of being in a snow globe. It forces me to wear all of those hats and scarves I've collected over the years; what were previously fashionable accessories have now become insulated necessities in the frigid weather.

The temperature also brings out the colorful language in everyone. Because when push comes to shove and your fingers feel like the frozen icicles you see on every house and your face is pink like a sunburn from the wind and the down coat you bought still doesn't keep out all of the cold....there isn't much else to do other than make a curt exclamation of an expletive under your foggy breath.

Pictured: a conversation on a frozen lake.