You Make Me Cold Just Looking At You

Today's title line comes from my daughter Sarah, and she told it to me this morning. It's something her principal Mrs. Lawson said to Sarah as she walked by in her tank top on baring her shoulders, in an area where going outside without some shirt sleeves is not a good idea (it's cold). And to be fair, her brother Jeffrey is no fan of long sleeves either; usually he's just wearing a T-shirt under his jacket!

But so far it's actually quite warm for the middle of January, above zero and you can actually see the sun outside. Not even especially windy ... unlike Friday, where when I was delivering the papers I stepped out of the van at one stop and the wind blew the scarf off of me and down the road. A second later POOF! it was gone and some minutes later I found it all the way down the next road! I prayed I would find it and not have to get another one, and I am so thankful for that.

I'm not a fan of Wolverine (don't tell him that, though; my big beef is that he's way overexposed in comics and other media) but on a run to Minot Public Library I couldn't resist picking up Wolverine: First Cuts (ISBN 9780785184270), a collection reprinting some origin and highlight stories of his -- and then in the second half of the book, reprinting a series I'd only read the start of, but one in which Wolverine doesn't appear at all.

I don't think I learned about Wolverine's actual mutant -- in Marvel context, the ability he's born with -- power was until reading the first volume of The Official Handbook of the Marvel Universe in the early 80s. It's not the claws he shoots from his wrists but the healing factor that makes cuts heal dang instantaneously and makes his getting drunk, stoned, or drugged -- even if he really wants to -- nigh impossible! That, and Wolverine is an awesome fighter, but he doesn't have to be a mutant for that.

Beef tips, Bush's bacon maple beans (dang, I almost spelled that Busch's), and macaroni and cheese all together sounds quite good -- so Martha and Sarah said. I went without the mac and cheese, and Jeffrey had just the mac and cheese when I got home last night. And Martha's starting to track the portions she's eating (if she's made at me saying this, tough, because I have wanted her to lose weight for years because it would help her SO MUCH) and doing some basic exercises in the morning.

And looks great doing it, David