Staring out my window here at work, the lovely snowflakes have turned into the crappier sleet now. Sigh. I am busy busy busy right now. How can you be so busy in January, the slowest retail month of the year, you say? Well, try being out for a week and also preparing for the Harvard kids return in a few weeks. That’s what is making my eyes water currently. Or maybe it’s blood from staring at the computer for 8 hours a day straight. Anyway, I am reading some good stuff right now (including The Recognitions, which is taking a great deal of time. I had to put it down to go do some work on my biceps so I can hold the book up) and I hope to post about it soon.

Actually, that is not entirely true. I did some fun stuff in Charlottesville, VA, as well as catch a cold. I went to Monticello, the gorgeous home of Jefferson. I imagine that it is even prettier in the spring when the flowers start blooming. Jefferson was an avid botanist and brought lots and lots of plants from overseas back home. The house itself Jefferson designed. It includes lots of windows, several mechanical inventions, and some beautiful artwork.
Charlottesville is also home to many many great used bookstores. I visited 5 of them and came home with a few new books. Heartwood Books, right next to the University of Virginia, has an amazing fiction section. Mr. Bookdwarf took one look at the pile of books in my arms and said, “You can’t buy all of those.” So I limited myself to 4 books. We also stopped by Blue Whale Books, Read it Again Sam, Daedalus, and ,a href=”http://www.charlottesvilletourism.org/php-bin/resource.php?id=440″>The Avocado Pit. None of them seem to have their own websites, but if you are ever in the area, you should check them out. I was impressed with their selections and with the sheer number of bookstores.
Now I am trying to recover from this cold. We will see if I make it into work tomorrow.