Fluffy Friday

Dual meaning to the title, as fluffy stuff is going to fall from the sky today, not once, but twice. Someone please contact Mother Nature and remind her to turn her seasonal calendar to spring.

Not so fluffy: A young (not yet 30) friend has been diagnosed with an aggressive form of leukemia. Diagnosed in November, he went through all the preparatory chemo and other things leading up to a stem cell transplant from a near-perfect donor from Europe. The cells went in yesterday; now it's a waiting game.

(Side note: it is continually astonishing to me not only what medicine can do, but how global treatment can be.)

His name is Ian, if you are inclined to pray for him. If you have any interest in helping to defray his quickly mounting costs of treatment, please contact me (email in "about" section, or leave a comment) and I'll hook you up.

Good for a snow day: The spring edition of Dewey's 24 hour readathon is fast approaching.

The Readathon starts at the same time worldwide. For Milwaukee and anyone in the Central time zone, that would be 7 a.m. Saturday, running until 7 a.m. Sunday. I plan to go to church Sunday, so I can't possibly read late into (or over) night on Saturday to Sunday. As a result, I'm cheating a bit. Personally, I plan to start as soon as I get home from work on Friday, and read as much as possible before bedtime on Saturday night. I'll miss some of the fun stuff, but I do very much like my sleep.

Fun stuff? There are giveaways, cheerleaders, challenges and more - always helpful for those who don't have the concentration to simply read for long periods, or as decent breaks for those of us who do.

I'll take suggestions on things to read. I'm currently in a fantasy phase (think Jim C. Hines, Marissa Meyer, Larry Correia), though mystery is always my first love (currently Louise Penny, Cleo Coyle, Margery Allingham, Sara Paretsky - well, almost anything mystery related). The plan is to work a bit on the stack of nonfiction as well.

It's entirely possible that by the time the event rolls around in two weeks, our weather will be sunny and seventy. There is a warm up coming next week. Maybe I'll be able to sit on the patio to read.

A peek of sun: It's been crazy at work, and I've been tempted to come home, eat dinner and collapse in bed. Resisting that temptation, I've spent an hour a night in the studio once or twice during each of the last two weeks. I've several quilt to layer up this week, including a long overdue project for a friend. The layering takes time, but once done, an hour's work every couple of days will have them done in a jiffy.

Hopeful thinking: One of the local home and hardware places has their bedding plants on sale right now. I may brave the snow after work (kidding, sort of, on the snow - it's only supposed to be about half an inch, and shouldn't stick) and go take a look. Though having to brush a bit of snow off the plants to see what they are is a bit...off-putting. Then there is the question of whether or not I'd be able to keep them alive until a planting date that has a reasonable chance of falling after the last possible freeze date (around here, that would be Memorial Day).

We'll see. In the meantime, happy weekend!