Our cold spell continues, with this past weekend bringing rain, hail, and sub-freezing temperatures. The biggest benefit is a gorgeous snowline on the mountains to the north, and the dramatically beautiful skies that remind me of Scotland, especially the ones last night on the drive up to play volleyball.

Kelley's really taking on a personality. Yesterday we enjoyed watching her learn about glass. Shelley sat her in front of the patio door to watch me playing with the dogs outside. She seemed amazed by something hard and invisible, and I have some funny photos to post later of her pressing hands and face to the cold glass door.

Probably one of the very last tech-savvy people to own an iPod, I finally have one now. After selling the iBook with the Panoscan the other day, I ended up with some spare parts, including two iBook batteries. Useless to me, but not to Jenn who has the same machine, and an extra older 20GB iPod that doesn't work with her set-up. A quick swap, and we both end up with something useful that's otherwise destined for taking up valuable closet space. The iPod's great for music in the car, especially the old one with the bad radio.

After taking two stained glass courses to learn lead working, I've missed the next two because of illness and/or neighborly concerns. Our uphill neighbor wants to trim trees again, which we don't want him to do so. That is, not if it's going to make the trees look any uglier than last time. Initially he wanted to take another ten feet off them, which would make them much worse. We told him we did not want that done, and would not grant permission to use our property for access to the trees if that was to be the case.

Going uphill would, I believe, drive up the cost for him tremendously because the tree trimmers would have to haul the large pieces of wood and trimmings up a significant slope and through his yard (if that's even possible). Anyway, he called a second tree company and rethought it, so all they're going to do now is trim the new growth. We'll facilitate that, so that he doesn't get mad and just do away with the trees altogether, which it seems to me would be a better investment than having to trim them every couple of years.