Can you believe I woke up to snow this morning? It was beautiful, but didn't last long. It warmed up and turned to rain and melted the snow on the grass and roofs. It rained pretty much all day so we would have had quite a few inches of snow if it hadn't warmed up. It was the second time in a few days I have seen snow. Steve and I were in Lexington, KY from Monday through yesterday afternoon and it snowed big fluffy snowflakes and made the city look like a Norman Rockwell painting. I had to reach out and catch the dime size flakes on my black gloves. But, now I am happy - I have seen snow and that's enough for this winter! I guess our weather is going to be quite cold, but no snow. I have been using the fireplace since I got home - makes the livingroom more toasty. And thank goodness for heated mattress pads.

I had time to read during the flights and airport waits and finished Ysabeau S. Wilce's Flora Segunda: Being the Magickal Mishaps of a Girl of Spirit, Her Glass-Gazing Sidekick, Two Ominous Butlers (One Blue), a House with Eleven Thousand Rooms, and a Red Dog. First of all I have to say this is a very long fantasy romp - 431 pages of chaotic adventures to help the waning magical butler of the family home, Crackpot Hall, where if you aren't careful you can arrive someplace totally different than you expected. Flora Segunda is about to reach her 14th birthday - the age when she will start her military training. She doesn't want to become a soldier, but her mother is one of the commanding army leaders and isn't about to listen to her daughter's nonsense about wanting to be a ranger. Actually, she is not home long enough to listen to anyone's nonsense - her daughter's or that of her alcoholic and quite out of it husband who comes down from his tower room long enough to help the bevy of dogs trash the kitchen. Flora makes the mistake of sharing some of her anima (magickal essence) with the house butler who has been exiled by her mother and the story becomes even more convoluted. Off she and her best friend Udo go in search of a cure before she disappears completely. The story line is delightful but the overly expressive writing, filled with made up words, drags it down to an almost halt a number of times. The characters are delightful as well, but it is just to cutesy at times. But, then again I am not a Lemony Snickett fan and I do believe they would love this book. Will be popular in MS and JH collections

Time to call it a night.