OH NO

OH NO!

My cry after everything--my pictures I'd downloaded, the entire post I'd worked on during a precious hour when Martin took the girls--GONE. Just because my computer downstairs suddenly stopped wanting cookies. Who doesn't want cookies???

Well, my return to all of you was fresh, full of hope for the New Year, glorious, sparkling like the waters of the Puget Sound on an uncommonly clear day. Martin was gazing into the noonday sunshine; my father was holding Elspeth over the railing of a ferry, and the Cascades were snowcapped. I believe there were even dolphins flipping and seals shouting hello--and now you've just got me, kind of grumpy, jaded, attitude ruined by cookies.

So sorry to return to you like this.

I also described how full of gratitude I felt for such a wonderful vacation in Washington and Texas, how Martin and I went away overnight for the first time without children in seven years, our beautiful presents, and such good food that I went up an entire size. I was witty in the way I described my present detox (hardly any sugar/fat, only a few truffles as compared to a steady diet of truffles), and slightly sentimental when describing how much we loved being with family.

I opened the post with three funny anecdotes: one about Elspeth smearing bubblegum on her eyelids and in her hair today in the car; another about Merry trying to leave the house in two items of my clothing; and the third about Bea's potty training, the way she loves sitting in the bathroom and talking about "peww-oup" and singing the song, "Life is a highway! I'm gonna ride it all night laaa-onge. . ." It was rather funny and meant to bring you back to the warm, silly fold of Wazoo Farm after such a long hiatus.

But it's gone, all gone. Disappeared in a puff of internetty smoke.

Well, folks, I'm back. It's really nice to be home, cookies and all.