The AFC Championship game for a Pats fan like me turned into a total bummer. They just collapsed.  I avoided the news for part of the day until I watched Obama’s speech.  I thought it an improvement on last time.  Far less full of appeasement to the Right.  More liberal.  More militant. Seeds from the orders I placed the first week of January are arriving.  Two more to go.  I sort them into four categories: seeds that must be started inside from mid February through mid-April  [like tomatoes, peppers]; seeds for hardy plants that can go directly into the ground before the last frost [sugar snap peas, beets]; seeds that go directly into the ground after the last threat of frost has passed and the soil has warmed up [like winter squash, nasturtiums]; seeds that won’t be started till June or later for succession plantings [fall cabbage, fall lettuce]. It is the coldest it has been in some years.  Down to 11 last night. I have to leave the water dripping at night so the line from the well won’t freeze.  We got about four inches of snow Monday.  It’s beautiful – chiaroscuro --but the wind is up and the air is frigid.  it threatens to knock your nose right off your face so it would fall and shatter like an icicle. The birds are very hungry and swarming the feeders.  On one side of the dining room, one group of chickadees come, seven strong.  A different group feeds on the sunny side of the room. There are only five of them and they seem less aggressive.  A pair of tufted titmice feed with them and the goldfinches usually do, though they brave the more aggressive chickadees on the shady side if they must.  A couple of nuthatches also feed with the smaller group.  The cats, especially Xena and Mingus, the two youngest, watch the birds as do I, although our motives are different. I used to worry about the cats getting frustrated. Then I read that zoos put predators and prey in enclosures next to each other to stimulate the animals. Xena and Mingus are an odd couple, but definitely a couple.  She is three and a half times his size and two and a half years younger. She can surround him when they sleep together. They wash each other, play together.  Each has a particular call that summons the other.  None of the other cats pay attention to this call.  The other cats like Xena.  Puck will even share his treats with her but no one else.  However, they are clearly an item, the two of them.  She puts her arms around him and hugs him to her. In spite of reading so many poems for the WOMR contest, I wrote a short story or maybe it is more of an essay.  It’s about how neighborhoods I have lived in over the years in various cities have gone from being affordable and polyglot to high end and far less mixed.  I have been sending out some of the new stories and four of them have been taken so far.  Also wrote a new poem yesterday. Pasta with chicken sausage balls, red sauce Thursday night with a Caesar salad. I wonder why it has that name.  I know the Romans raised and ate Romaine lettuce and that’s where it’s name comes from.  Maybe that’s the association.  It’s way too cold to want to go outside when I don’t have to.  Friday night we ate at some friends house.  Tonight I am making supper for two gay couples, one very good and close friends and one couple we are just getting to know over the last year.  Pear pumpkin pie; herbal mustard lamb from a Julia Child recipe; potatoes lyonaise; big salad; gravlax and crackers for hors d’oeuvres.  One friend had an operation on his shoulder yesterday but he insists he is up for supper here. For some guests, we have to lock up the cats, but not for these.