Crash and Burn

Which is exactly what I did for most of the day yesterday.  I barely made it until lunchtime, then suddenly felt...weird.  I had a token lunch, then had to lay down on the couch; seriously, I had to.  I didn't fall asleep so much as conk out.  Late in the afternoon I woke up and made a cake.  Go figure.

I think what happened was all the fraughtness of the past three weeks finally caught up with me.  I've had to race from one crisis to another, deal with the frustration of not writing as planned, the agony of Ozzy's illness, no sleep, and once everything was over....bah dah boom:  watch her drop like a stone people...!!

When I emerged from the coma, I had an irresistible urge to make Paula Dean's Gooey Butter Cake Bars, but didn't have all the ingredients, then thought I would make some cupcakes, but had the same problem, so ended up making a cake from scratch out of my new cookbook.  It took forever, but turned out yummy.

Thank goodness I had the chili cooking throughout the day in the crock pot.  All I had to do was make the corn bread, which worked out really well since I was exhausted from making the scratch cake..!!  How in the world did women ever get out of the kitchen in the good ol' days..??

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When I first came back to life, it was near the gloaming outside, and as it had continued to lightly snow all day, the oak trees in the clearing next to the house looked really cool.

The photo isn't the best because it was getting dark.  Still, I like it.  It looks like a black and white picture, except for the hint of reddish pink from the Beech in the foreground that still has some leaves.  (We think it's a Beech, but we're not totally certain.)

I couldn't resist this shot.  I love these gnarly oaks that are everywhere up here on the mountain.  This one in particular is a favorite.  So twisted and cool.  The Beech (whatever) stands out more in this photo, too.

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Ozzy is making a rapid recovery.  We had a second undisturbed night, and today we went for a short walk up the road, with him prancing right along.  When we got back inside, he raced for his toy box and played for several minutes.  It's really, really good to see him improving day by day.

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I've pretty much thrown in the towel on NaNo.  I've lost so much time, there's virtually no way I can write 17K+ words in 6 days.  I'm still going to try, but I'm also being realistic.  I would have to write 3K per day, and with Thanksgiving tomorrow...well, you get the picture.  I guess all that's left to do now is pick which color...sigh.

Lovely photo from Linens 'n Things