Bad Day 170--It's hard to type with gloves on.

There are people out there who believe the federal government is good for nothing and is just a big waste of money. These people would be the reason that my office is so cold I need to wear gloves. See, congress keeps cutting our budget and since congress also passed laws that make it really difficult to fire federal employees, we have to save money by doing things like cutting off the heat. I swear I could see my breath this morning, and if things continue in this vein, I am going to have to steal Child 3's fingerless gloves which she doesn't really need because she doesn't have a phone but thinks they make a nice fashion statement. They are quite pretty and I would be the only person in my office wearing pink and silver sequined gloves and I would totally not care because at least my hands would be warm enough to type. I wore both my coat and my pashmina shawl and it didn't help until around noon when the heater finally kicked in. Do you have any idea how hard it is to keep the world safe for democracy when your fingers are stiff with cold? Yes, I know that soldiers in WWII had to use typewriters in a tent in the snow, but seriously, they weren't expected to answer the over 600 e-mails that came to my in-box over a holiday when everyone was supposed to be on vacation. Seriously! 600!



Tonight, Child 2 is making teaching me how to play Settlers of Catan. I'm not sure I am capable of learning the rules of this game which seems really, really complicated, by which I mean really, really long. To supplement the longness of the game, we are making husband watch the BBC version of Sherlock Holmes while playing it which will guarantee that he falls asleep at which point I will steal all of his money or countries or whatever and end the game early. We'll see how that goes.

Anyone who is using Groupon to get a discount on Botox is having a worse day than me. For those of you who are unaware of what Botox can do to you, it makes you look like this:




And why you would want to live with a face so frozen that you can't raise your eyebrows, I will never know. Raised eyebrows is an essential part of the "Mom" stare. You know, that look that makes your children fess up whatever it is that they are hiding from you, and believe me, they are hiding something. So thank you, Joan Rivers and all other over-users of Botox, for reminding me to be grateful for good genetics which means I have very few wrinkles. And besides, I enjoy the ones I have. I earned them. Except for the ones Husband gave me when he left for Afghanistan. He can have those back any time.