Oh Elinor.

Elinor was changeable, self-absorbed, and dangerously romantic. She was also so filled with glee when thinking about who to give her heart to this Valentine's Day.

I tell you, for one who really does not care for Valentine's Day and thinks it is just a holiday imagined by the head honchos in the greeting card industry, I sure am doing quite a bit of illustrations with Valentine's themes. Hmmm, I must look into that.

OK, two very funny things I have to talk about. One being today. After my dentist appointment, I went for my power walk and although the sky was looming a very dark and stormy cloud display, I went anyway. Hey, I live in southern California and how often do I get to walk in the rain? Well, about half way into my walk, going up a really steep hill, it started to pour. And I don't mean just a heavy rain, I mean a sideways pelting you with stinging drops kind of rain. There was absolutely nothing I could do about it except just keep on going. So I did. And my boot leg yoga pants were holding so much water that with each step, the pant leg would spray a pattern of drops out in front of my stride. My shirt began to sag like used up stretched out skin and my hat started to drip down inside the collar of my soaked vest. All through this though, I couldn't help but find my situation so very funny. I was so very cold and wet but I had a GREAT walk!

The other funny thing my sister brought up to me today. I forgot about this incident and when I start telling you, I am sure you'll be horrified but here goes anyway. This past summer, our walk in closet developed a really strange bad odor. It was pure hell to go into the closet so you had to catch your breath and run in, grab what you needed and run back out. I checked everything. My husband kept claiming the smell was from my running shoes but after holding them up to my nose, I surely tell you they were not the source. I certainly won't be holding my running shoes up to my nose again any time soon but they certainly were not the source of this bad, bad smell. I checked everywhere for an animal accident and even thought maybe a small critter had died in the walls. I just could not find the source. WELL, after looking and suffering for a month or so, I needed to use my black messenger bag and when I looked inside the outer pocket, what did I find? Oh, I am embarrassed to say but here goes. I found a scanky old fish taco from a visit to the ZOO a few months ago!! Gross! It was bad. Really bad. Boy did we get a laugh over that one. I am not allowed to put my bags away without inspection from here on out and I cannot cart around food anymore.

Monday's Gratitude:
This is an easy one today. I am so grateful for a sky full of rain, good food in my tummy and a dry warm house.